Special Guest Interview with Rob Kuntz livestream on LordGosumba's Gabbin' #236

Jay Scott---with Anna Meyer and me also participating---interviewed Rob Kuntz on Jay's Gabbin' at Lord Peak's Haven #236 livestream show yesterday morning.  The show came together very quickly, so I didn't have time to announce it ahead of time.  If you missed it live, you can watch the recordings on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1748868999 and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmGKXKPS6kA (video below links to YouTube):

 

 

Discussion References

Our widely-ranging discussion delved into various aspects of OD&D and Greyhawk's playtesting and early publishing history, including (among other topics):

1. The original, now alas lost, Greyhawk campaign map drawn by Gary (lost by Chris Schleicher, who printed the Domesday Book newsletters for the Castles & Crusades Society): 

Domesday Book Great Kingdom map
by Dave Megarry

Domesday Book Great Kingdom map
by Dave Arneson (and colored by grodog)

 

The lost map was 8.5"x11" in portrait orientation (not landscape) featured more text and graphical/artistic detail than the two above, and was in Gary's handwriting. 

That map would have chronologically been developed somewhere between the above two Domesday Great Kingdom maps and the art order sketch maps that Darlene used for the Folio poster maps (and which survive in photocopy form from Lenard Lakofka's archives):

 

Darlene's published
1980 Greyhawk Folio maps

 

For some excellent analysis and discussion about the original Castle & Crusade Society Great Kingdom maps, see these additional resources:

• Dan "Aldarron" Boggs' blog at http://boggswood.blogspot.com/search/label/Greyhawk (and Dan's blog is a wonderful resource for all things Blackmoor-related as well!) 
• Zach "Zenopus Archives" Howard's blog at https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-land-of-great-kingdom-and-environs.html and https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/megarrys-copy-of-great-kingdom-map.html 
• The Secrets of Blackmoor documentary at https://www.secretsofblackmoor.com/  
  

2. You can read the full text of Gary Gygax's letter in Alarums & Excursions #15 (15 October 1976) at Jason Zavoda's blog "Gygax's Letter in Alarums and Excursions #15" and Jason had transcribed additional Gygax letters at https://jasonzavoda-hallofthemountainking.blogspot.com/search?q=alarums&max-results=20&by-date=true.

 

3. Arnold Hendrick's full 1974 review of OD&D from The Courier Volume 6 #6 (1974) appears below:

 

Gary's rebuttal to the review appears in The Strategic Review #3 (Fall 1975).

For some additional discussion and commentary, see ENWorld at https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-typewritten-d-d-review-from-1974-by-arnold-hendrick.661641/ and Paul's Blog of Holding at https://www.blogofholding.com/?p=5769.

 

4. "The Gnome Cache" is Gary's incomplete novella published serially (as "Garrison Ernst") in The Dragon #1, #2, #3, #5, #6, and #7 from June 1976 through June 1977:

5. The rules for the "Siege of Bodenburg" were first published by Henry H. Bodenstedt in Strategy & Tactics Volume 1 #6 (July 1967) and were subsequently freely distributed from his Adelphia, New Jersey games and hobby store to help sell the Elastolin Miniatures that he imported. 

The rules used to be freely downloadable at http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/bodebok1.html but that site is now gone, and is not available via the Internet Archive, so I've uploaded the rules to my site at [TBD].

For some additional information about Bodenburg's relationship to Castle Greyhawk, see Zenopus Archives at https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2015/03/visualizing-castle-greyhawk.html and for some historical context about the Siege of Bodenburg game, seehttps://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2650436. 

I'll try to find the pictures of me playing "Siege of Bodenburg" from my GaryCon photo albums, and add here too.

 

Online Stores for Rob Kuntz Books

We discussed several of the gaming books that Rob authored and designed over the years, and many are still in-print and available:

• Rob's most-recent works are spread out across a few different publishing imprints, but are all accessible from:
• Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws, Pryce's Price, and free newsletter at  https://www.threelinestudio.com/
• LR1 Beyond the Living Room (from Castle Greyhawk) at https://www.legendsofroleplaying.com/
• El Raja Key Archive, Dave Arneson's True Genius, The Game That Changed Everything, Merlynd the Magician, K1 The Sunken City, and poster maps at https://www.tlbgames.com/ 
• LGCC-1 The Original Bottle City (from Castle Greyhawk), RJK-1 Cairn of the Skeleton King, and RJK-2 Tower of Blood are available from us at Black Blade Publishing, both via mail order or direct from our booths at GaryCon and North Texas RPG Con each year. 
  
  We also stock all of Rob's in-print titles from Paul at GaryCon and North Texas RPG Con.
  

Additional References

Rob's most-current biography is on his TLS site at https://www.threelinestudio.com/bio/.

"A Partial, Annotated Bibliography of the Works of Robert J. Kuntz" appears on Canonfire! at  http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=125 (and is mirrored on my Greyhawk site, but I think my copy is not as current as the Canonfire! one).  Both are likely in need of updating, and also provide some good insight into the contents of Rob's El Raja Key Archive.

Canonfire! also hosts "Rob Kuntz's The Three Artifacts of the Demon Senders," which was first published in Wargaming #2 in 1977. 

 

 

Enjoy! :D

Allan.

Greyhawk News to Warm Your Readying Hearts

Fun in the World of Greyhawk at Canonfire!

Lots of hustle and bustle in the Flanaess of late, so we'll jump right into the latest Greyhawk News you can use:

• In the Canonfire! site's discussion forums, Marc-Tizoc Gonzalez (mtg as we know him) began an excellent thread "Names Derived from Deities," in which he puts some much-needed thought into how common names in the Flanaess would be influenced by the names of the various gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines of the land. 
  
  
• Marc riffed on many of the existing names of the gods to create variations that could be the equivalent of modern-day names like Mary, Joseph, Mark, Luke, Michael, et al., and his work inspired several others (including me) to add to the growing list.  Check it out, and add your own ideas!
  
  
• David Prata's "The Amazons of Hardby" attempts to reconcile the warrior-women of Hardby (as championed by Deirdre in Gygax's Artifact of Evil novel---she appears on the cover which I included in my recent Why Greyhawk? post) with the Amazons entry dropped from the 1983 Monster Manual 2 and published in the Polyhedron #22 (January 1985).  The discussion aligns quite nicely with my own campaign's focus in the vicinity Hardby via my Random Encounter Table for Hardby---although I treat Amazons a bit differently than EGG's versions---with some related discussion on Facebook.
  

Charity Events Abound

Jay Scott's 5th Annual Greyhawk Megastream Fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital began on Thursday this week:  

 

LordGosumba's 5th Annual charity fundraiser
for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital

Donations can be made at https://tiltify.com/+greyhawk-community-streamers/5th-annual-greyhawk-megastream-fundraiser-event-legends and see https://www.facebook.com/groups/40230212669/posts/10159706400557670/ for additional details.

 

In addition, Carlos Lising's caslEntertainment will soon be announcing a new charity adventure module, which will provide donations to the ASPCA.  

I've participated in two of Carlos's charity streaming adventures in the past, and fully endorse his giving back to the community.  The Tears that Forever Stain supports the Cheetah Conservation Fund, while Lost Dog supports Red Rover.  (Both links take you to his adventure books, which support the charities themselves through purchases of the modules). 

And last, but not least, GaryCon's charity auction is helmed by the indomitable Jim Kitchen, and Jim is seeking donations for the GaryCon 2023 charity auction:

Please think about donating things for the auction. Gary Con attendees have always been generous beyond measure with their donations and the proceeds from auctioning them has made a difference in lives far beyond Lake Geneva.

The Charity auction at Gary Con is bigger than any single one of us. It's the people who make it happen, who donate and who bid that are the three equal parts of what is one of the best parts of the show. 

Jim Kitchen, auctioneering for charity
at GaryCon 2022

 

This year's auction will support Extra Life and Children's Wisconsin (formerly Milwaukee Children's Hospital), and you can read a summary about the 2022 Charity Auction too.

Rob Kuntz - Two New Releases Celebrate D&D's 50th!

On 1 February 2023, Rob Kuntz announced the publication of two new titles from his Three Line Studios company, as well as a 30 page free fan update newsletter!  

 

Rob Kuntz's newest adventure,
Pryce's Price

 

The two new books---one an adventure, the other a collection of magic items and essays---celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation and playtesting of the game, which began in 1973.  (D&D wasn't published until January 1974 or thereabouts). 

• Pryce's Price:  a new 57 page AD&D 1e adventure for PCs of levels 9-11 in which they delve a wizard's haunted basement to recover various and sundry items lost within its depths.  The module is also a tribute to the 1963 Roger Corman film "The Raven" starring Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Loree---an obviously inspired by Poe's poem of the same name.  $12 from the TLS web site.

• Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws:  a new 36 page collection of AD&D 1e magic items and essays that pay tribute to Gary Gygax.  (For reference, a gewgaw---which I'm more familiar with as a geegaw, but they are several variants for the term---is "a flashy, useless ornament; a bauble" according to my Funk & Wagnalls dictionary).  In this collection of 17 new magic items (including one new spell), none are trinkets and 5 are artifacts!  Rob concludes Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws with the essay "Some Influences Related to E.G.G. in Creating (and Play-Testing) D&D"---an eight-page discussion about the inspirational origins for various elements of Original Dungeons & Dragons and the Greyhawk and Kalibruhn campaigns.  $8 from the TLS web site.
  

Notably, both books can be ordered in a bundle at 25% off---quite the bargain!

The three new releases (counting the substantive newsletter) are in addition to Rob's most-recent adventure, Beyond the Living Room, published in 2020 via Paul Stormberg's Legends of Roleplaying imprint, and TLB Games, which published Dave Arenson's True Genius and the El Raja Key Archive (among other titles). 

Rob mentions that he will release additional books throughout 2023 to continue his celebration for D&D.  You can keep up on additional Three Line Studio releases by signing up for the TLS mailing list:  email mailinglist@threelinestudio.com with "Subscribe" in the subject line.

grodog on "L&L" Discussing Greyhawk's Planes

I recently appeared on Lord Gosumba's "Legends & Lore" episode about "Extra-Planar Influences" (in Greyhawk, of course).  Jay Scott, Anna Meyer, and Mike Bridges, steered the conversationa and I joined in after a late dinner an hour-in or so.  

We had a fun and widely-ranging discussion about the planes in general, planar architecture, planar incursions/invasions, gods and the source for divine powers, among many inter-related topics.

 

Extra-Planar Influences in Greyhawk,
with Jay, Anna, Mike, and Allan

 

You can watch the replays on YouTube at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Z_5c5QDTU or on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1732534574.

GaryCon Events Registration Open!

GaryCon events registration is open this weekend on Saturday, 18 February 2023 for Gold badge holders, and the following weekend on Saturday, 25 February 2023 for Silver badge holders.  Additional timeline details for other badge types are at https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xv.  

My two personal events have registrants in them already, but more than half of the seats are still open.  Here are the entries if you'd like to register:

• LEGIO V—Gary Gygax's Castle Greyhawk Level Keyed by grodog - Thursday @ 7pm
• LEGIO V—Gary Gygax's Castle Greyhawk Level Keyed by grodog - Saturday @ 7pm

On Friday night I'm helping Paul Stormberg by DMing a table of the Legends of Roleplaying tourney, along with Allen Hammack, Steve Winter, Harold Johnson, Victor Raymond, Doug Behringer, and several other volunteer DMs.  

If you'd like to register, Legends of Roleplaying Tournament: Ruins of Elder Evil runs on Friday night at 6pm.

Allan.

grodog's virtual GaryCon XIII events - March 2021

 

I submitted two five-hour delves into my version of Castle Greyhawk to Virtual GaryCon XIII  this evening.

 

 

The events will hopefully be scheduled at these times I submitted: 

1. grodog's Castle Greyhawk - Thursday, 25 March from Noon to 5pm
2. grodog's Castle Greyhawk - Friday, 26 March from 9am to 2pm 
3. Legends of Roleplaying Tournament: Into the City of Brass - Sunday, 28 March from 1pm to 5pm
   

 

The two event descriptions are identical:

 

Explore grodog's Castle Greyhawk levels. Choose from: 1) seek to Escape from Level 14, or 2) battle the dreaded Holaki in the Four-Way Hub Level. Bring your graph paper, dice, and a healthy dose of paranoid courage! 6th-10th level pregen PCs will be provided. Virtual session will be run in Webex, details to be provided after registration.

---

The Lake Geneva Legio V began as a handful of gamers who have attended Gary Con since its inception. We have grown over the past few years to include like-minded individuals united by a respect of Gary Gygax and his legacy. We are the dedicated attendees who love Gary Con for the camaraderie it establishes, the Game Masters who run games from across the decades, and the committed gamers who spend these four days in a fervor of dice rolling and old school good times.

Although events run as LEGIO V Presents will use a variety of rule systems, our focus is on games authored by Gary and his contemporaries as well as those systems whose designers pay homage to these pioneers.

 

I'll be helping Paul Stormberg to DM his Legends of Roleplaying tourney again this year, and plan to register to play in various Greyhawk- and old-school themed events, too. 

 

I'll also help close out the Greyhawk track with Jay Scott's 7pm Greyhawk Experts Panel on Sunday night. 

 

Jay Scott has also organized a huge Greyhawk presence for the convention, spanning several editions---proving the validity of Canonfire!'s motto:   "Editions Change.  Greyhawk Endures."---so I've captured a bunch of highlights below (there are over 30 additional events included in the track not shown below!):

 

 

I'll update my schedule details above as the events are approved.  

 

See you there! =)

 

Allan.

Virtual Greyhawk Con: 2-4 October 2020

In case folks haven't heard about this virtual convention for Greyhawk fans yet, here's some info/details:

    I hope everyone is staying safe during these times! It is good to see things starting to open up once again!

    To continue with the online gaming momentum, I am organizing a brand new convention: Virtual Greyhawk Con 2020! This is a "Fan Content", not for profit convention, that will take place the first weekend of October, 2nd-4th.

    I have commitments from NINE of my Twitch Community Live Streamers, over two continents, to provide World of Greyhawk content for those wishing to experience some of the best ever made Campaign Setting for D&D. Also we will have fantastic seminars from the likes of the great Anna Meyer, and main Sponsorship from Troll Lord Games.

    For continuing information, please go to the following: https://tabletop.events/conventions/virtual-greyhawk-con-2020

    Our Virtual Greyhawk Con 2020 Discord Server is setup at: https://discord.gg/yHyG75

    More information during Twitch Live Streams: https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba

Events that are already registered can be searched at https://tabletop.events/conventions/virtual-greyhawk-con-2020/schedule#?query=

VGHC Key Dates

Registration and Event Submission............July 1st, 2020
Event Registration............August 1st, 2020
Last Day Event Submission............September 28th, 2020
Virtual Greyhawk Con............October 2nd to the 4th, 2020

I submitted events this evening, and will playtest a previously-unexplored section of my Iounic Caverns level in my version of Castle Greyhawk (on Friday and Sunday afternoons), and will submit another TBD iconic Greyhawk event for Saturday.  I'll also participate in the wrap up seminar on Sunday night.

Here are details on my events, for those curious:

• grodog's Castle Greyhawk - The Iounic Vaults - Friday afternoon 2-7pm EDT
• Bottle City - Castle Greyhawk with grodog - Saturday morning 10am-2pm EDT
• grodog's Castle Greyhawk - The Iounic Vaults - Sunday afternoon 2-7pm EDT

• VGHC 2020 Ask the Experts & Wrap-up Show! - Sunday night 7-9pm EDT

   

I also will be playing in Carlos Lising's Reflections from a Smoking Mirror on Friday night.
 
More convention information is available at https://tabletop.events/conventions/virtual-greyhawk-con-2020

Allan.

grodog talking 1e Undead and Greyhawk on Twitch tonight @ 8pm EDT

Just a quick announcement:   I'll return to talk Greyhawk and undead on Twitch again tonight, with Jay Scott, Anna Meyer, and Mike Bridges on Wednesday, 13 November 2019 at 8pm EST, livestreaming at https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba
Here's Jay's full announcement:

Legends & Lore - Season 4 Premiere on Twitch

Wednesday Evening on the Lord Gosumba Channel
 
Hello Friends and Greyhawkers! Legends & Lore has moved to the Lord Gosumba Channel starting this Wednesday, Nov 13, 8pm EST. To Kickoff their 4th season, the discussion will be about Undead of the Flanaess; this will include the various types of the non-living, and specific names of renown that put a shiver down the heartiest of adventurers! Join Anna Meyer, Mike Bridges, and me, as we welcome, Allan T. Grohe Jr., "The Grodog", to this weeks discussion!

Thank you all for the wonderful support and stream participation! See you Live Stream! www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba

It feels like I've been doing quite a few more of these live/streaming discussions lately, and I guess I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it!  

I've also done some others in the more-distant past too, and I should put together a compilation of all of them, I suppose---my son Henry at least is interested in going back to watch (or listen) to some of them ;)  

See you later tonight! :D

Allan.

grodog talking 1e Dragons and Greyhawk on Twitch Sunday night @ 7:30pm EDT

Just a quick announcement:   I'll return to talk Greyhawk and dragons on Twitch again this weekend, with Jay Scott and Anna Meyer, on Sunday, Oct 27, 7:30PM EDT, livestreaming at https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba

Here's Jay's full announcement:

Sunday evening, we continue our discussion on everyone's favorite D&D monster, Dragons, with Gabbin' at Lord Peak's Haven #68 - Dragons of the Flanaess, Part 2. We will discuss specific Dragons from Greyhawk Canon and Lore, and from the participant's Campaigns. My guest hosts this week will be Anna Meyer and Allan T. Grohe Jr.! This should be a fantastic finish to our two week chat on this topic! We begin Sun, Oct 27, 7:30PM EDT. Thank you so very much for the wonderful support, and I hope to see you Live Stream! www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba

 
 Talk to you then! :D

Allan.

LordGosumba Twitch.TV DM Roundtable Replay from 22 September 2019

I should have been more proactive about posting the DM Rountable I was invited to last night on Jay "Lord Gosumba" Scott's Twitch.TV live stream, but with everything else going on I forgot to blog about it beforehand:

LordGosumba DMs Roundtable -
22 September 2019

In case you're curious, on Sunday, 22 September 2019 I'll be live on Jay Scott's LordGosumba TwitchTV channel, in a DMs Roundtable discussion focusing on Greyhawk and AD&D 1st edition:

==

Hello Friends and Greyhawkers! On this weeks Gabbin at Lord Peak's Haven #63 - DMs Roundtable Discussion, we will have some well known names in the Greyhawk and Streaming Communities taking part!

Scheduled to participate in our 4th Roundtable Discussion, are Allan T. Grohe Jr., Carlos Lising, Anna Meyer, William Henry Dvorak, James Duffie, and Ann (Sydwe) from Knightheartgaming. We will hope to bring some experience and insight into questions you may wish to ask, and we welcome viewer input and comments!

We begin this very intriguing conversation this Sunday, Sept. 22nd, 7:30PM EDT. See you in the Live Stream https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba

The replay can be watched at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/485181123 and we covered some fun and interesting (and in a few cases, somewhat unexpected!) topics, including:

• Our favorite DMs?
• Our favorite adventures?
• Our favorite recurring in-game enemies?
• Our saddest in-game moments?
• How has DMing helped our jobs/lives?
• Our thoughts on consent in gaming groups/sessions?
• Who would we most want as a player at our tables and/or to play with---both historical and living?
• How do we manage improvisation?
• What's our favorite game other than D&D to run?
• What do we think about Critical Role?
• What are our plans/hopes for the future?

Jay also interviewed me on his show last month, and you can watch the replay for that at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/469154701 if you're interested:

grodog interview -
17 August 2019

I'm sure I'll get more used to the streaming process and format, at some point, and I welcome any feedback and suggestions on how to better leverage the medium/format.

Allan.