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So far grodog has created 115 blog entries.

Cairn Hills Lairs – The 1st and 2nd Fluted Cairns

2022-12-26T15:57:55-05:00April 6th, 2019|

I've been noodling on more regional Greyhawk adventure locations, and the Cairn Hills continue to call to me---there's LOTS of room in them thar hills for various vicious and grand adventuring sites, as well as gold and explorational hijinks!The Cairn Hills - map by Darlenefrom the 1980 World of Greyhawk FolioI've dubbed these small dungeons Cairn Hills Lairs, and drew two new ones last night and this morning. Both are part of an inter-related system of cairn dungeons called "The Fluted Cairns"---so called because of their titular flutes are, in fact, the entrances into the cairns:  I imagine them as the end-points for large pipe-organ-like tubes that stick up out of the ground all over the hill that the cairn is sited on. You enter by climbing in and sliding down, arriving in one of the various fluted corridors drawn along the edges of each map:The Fluted CairnThe Fluted Cairn - by grodogThe Second Fluted CairnThe Second Fluted Cairn - by grodog More to come later in terms of the actual key information about the Fluted Cairns, as well as updated maps with intra-level stairs and other dungeon features.Allan.

Celebrating Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance – GaryCon XI Seminar

2022-12-26T15:57:55-05:00March 17th, 2019|

On Friday afternoon last week, I co-hosted a seminar panel discussion at GaryCon XI entitled, "Celebrating Greyhawk—A Fandom Renaissance."  Our panel had a great time discussing past, current, and future fan works, projects, and plans centered on The World of Greyhawk, across all editions, eras, and versions.  Seminar Topics The seminar brought together six long-time Greyhawk fans, each discussing different aspects of fan engagement with the Greyhawk setting:Kristoph Nolen kicked off the seminar, starting at 4:00. Mike Bridges (starting at 9:00 to 14:20) spoke to his writings, art, and cartography as seen via his Greyhawkery blog, his creative work on Ull, his W.o.G. comic (showcased weekly-ish on Facebook by Bryan), and Castle Greyhawk comic (written by Scott Casper with Mike's artwork), and his recent work with Anna Meyer on their Legends & Lore show on the Greyhawk channel (live on Twitch, reruns on YouTube)Allan Grohe (me, starting at 15:00 to 27:55) shared some of my favorite Greyhawk researchers and their "deep dives" into the setting's lore, in particular the work of bloggers like Timrod's T1 Moathouse-DMG Sample Dungeon-B2 analysis, Scott “scottsz” Szczypiorski for his Cold Text Files work on WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, and Scott Casper and Mike Bridges' Castle Greyhawk web comic, among other topics.  You can also download my "Greyhawk Fandom - The Deep Cuts" presentation in PDF format.Anna Meyer (starting at 28:40 to 53:20) spoke about her long-term love for and engagement with the cartography of the Greyhawk setting, including the Flanaess Geographical Society and her Patreon---Anna is the only panelist who's full-time day-job focuses on games-related work; Anna also spoke about Creative Commons licensingCarlos Lising (starting at 54:20 to 1:10:22) ... read more!

Paul Stormberg reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on Gygax Manuscripts Archive

2022-12-26T15:57:57-05:00January 9th, 2019|

This afternoon today, Paul Stormberg of The Collector's Trove held a Q&A session over on reddit about the contents of Gary Gygax's unpublished manuscripts:Adventurers wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success! This is an AMA, wherein I allow adventurers to ask me anything about the trove of treasures left behind by Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, and what traps and guardians await them.Gail Gygax's agent, Gina Ramirez, also participated in the AMA, covering questions around licensing as well as future publishing plans for computer games, RPGs, etc.In the Q&A discussion, Paul offered several interesting revelations about the contents of the Gygax collection, including details relevant to the original Greyhawk campaign!I'm quoting Paul throughout the text below, and also quote a few of the asked questions for context, as well.  And here's a quick mini-TOC in case you want to jump among the topics later:The Gygax Collection as a WholeCastle Greyhawk Data PointsT2:  The Temple of Elemental Evil  grodog's Questions Gygax Games Website Update --- including Muesuem of the Gods level map!The Gygax Collection as a WholeJustOneAmongMany's Q:  "Presuming that you've looked at (or, hopefully, catalogued) the entirety of the material, can you break it down into percentages by category? e.g. 10% Greyhawk, 25% Lejendary Adventures, 15% novels, etc.?"Paul's A:  "I'd say it breaks down to 30% product (comp copies and author's copies of product), 15% correspondence, 15% personal materials (play copies of games, dice, desk knick knacks, awards, etc.) , 40% game design materials (manuscripts, maps, notes, etc.)."Of the design materials: novels and short stories 20%, ... read more!

grodog’s Mega-Dungeon Maps – the Behind Bars level

2022-12-26T15:57:58-05:00January 4th, 2019|

I drew most of this level last night, and noodled on it more today over breakfast and lunch.  It's about 80% done or so---I need to work on the detailing more, to make some decisions on areas that aren't connected to the rest of the level yet, insert intra-level elevations, etc., as usual.I wanted to focus on some specific design goals for the flow:visible areas that are on/off inaccessible via portcullises, also with several one-way doors in the mix (including some off of the entry chamber; I need to add some more portcullises too)some larger, more-open spaces, including a dragon lair perhaps (or one for a clutch of sibling sub-adults!)several mini-hubs that corridors/rooms radiate outward froma more middle-of-the-road level of complexity vs. my usual more-elaborately-tormenting designs ;)Beyond what I noted above (and some miscellaneous very light notes on the map), I don't have a specific ideas in mind for the key, but I do envision this as a more upper-level, perhaps even an alternate primary entry route into the dungeons.I got the idea to start another new level when browsing through OSRIC for an unrelated product, and I rediscovered Sean "Stonegiant" Stone's starting area VI on page 159 (in the PDF).  (My entry point is the 30' wide stair leading down into the level, center-ish in the lower-left quadrant):grodog's "Behind Bars" level - first draft mapThe full-size version is available @ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level-behind-bars-01.jpgThe other articles in my Mega-Dungeon Maps series include:The Landings Level grodog's Mega-Dungeon Maps - Introduction and V1 Vanquish the EvilAllan.

grodog’s Mega-Dungeon Maps – The Landings Level

2022-12-26T15:57:59-05:00November 23rd, 2018|

I began this mega-dungeons maps "series" (more consistency in posting would help with that label, I'm sure!) earlier in the year with one of my oldest surviving maps, but that map (and its associated key content) does not reflect the quality of designs that I create today.  "The Landings Level" map and key more-accurately reflect my current design sensibilities.I created "The Landings Level" map (the first in a group of similar types of maps), over a few days in early December ten years ago, and it marked the beginning of a new phase in my (ongoing) redesign work for my version of Castle Greyhawk.  Over the past decade, I've focused primarily on the creation of new levels and keys, rather than an overall structural schema or holistic design guided by a top-down vision for all of the inter-connections between the levels.  That approach has its own disadvantages (making the levels fit together into a rationalized, coherent whole is somewhat more difficult this way), however, its primary advantage rests in that during the several years that followed this first map, I've created a pile of new, well-designed levels, many of which I've playtested at GaryCon, the North Texas RPG Con, KantCon, and various smaller gatherings. So, volume of inspiration and creation vs. perfection in overall design won-out, in the short term anyway!  The Landings Level was the work that kicked off this phase of creation, and was itself inspired by my research into various unpublished Castle Greyhawk levels, discussions with Rob Kuntz about the Castles Greyhawk and El Raja Key, and my overall engagement with the old-school AD&D online communities at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse, ... read more!

Kellri’s 18 Module Challenge – Epitaph

2022-12-26T15:57:59-05:00October 25th, 2018|

Kellri's 18 Module Challenge - Epitaph After losing my blog posts for Day 15 and Day 17, I stopped the modules challenge blogging for the moment until I work out a better writing process than losing posts an hour+ into them on the blogger interface. Here are my final selections:Day 15 - A Module I Like Based on a Book or Film: Court of Ardor by Terry K. AmthorDay 16 - My Favorite Gary Gygax Module: G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King by Gary GygaxDay 17 - A Module I'm Saving for the Right Time: D3 Vault of the Drow by Gary GygaxDay 18 - A Module from the Year I Began to Play: there are no modules I've played from 1977 (and few published---Tegel Manor is the only one that readily came to mind), so I went with Outdoor Geomorphs Set One: Walled City by Gary Gygax I planned several follow-on posts that tied back to my various Runners Up selections, and a few additional categories that came to mind as variations on some of Scot's themes, which I will return to My thanks to Kellri for putting the challenge together!Allan. P.S. - And here are my responses to the full module challenge:Day 18 - A Module from the Year I Began to Play: there are no modules I've played from 1977 (and few published---Tegel Manor is the only one that readily comes to mind), so I went with Outdoor Geomorphs Set One: Walled City by Gary Gygax Day 17 - A Module I'm Saving for the Right Time: D3 Vault of the Drow by Gary Gygax Day 16 - My Favorite Gary Gygax Module: ... read more!

Kellri’s 18 Module Challenge – Day 16: G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King by Gary Gygax

2022-12-26T15:58:00-05:00October 17th, 2018|

Day 16 - My Favorite Gary Gygax Module: G3 Hall of the Fire Giant KingWhither Day 15?---Blogger ate my post on The Court of Ardor for MERP, and I've not recreated it yet.  Trying to stay as on-track as possible....  G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (TSR, 1978) is Gary Gygax's final adventure in the initial trilogy of GDQ modules that made him a household name among every generation of D&D players.  "The Battle for Snurre's Hall," a play account from all three rounds at Origins 1978 was published in The Dragon #19 (October 1978), and it speaks well to the trials and tribulations faced by the players in this scenario.Why I Love G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King! It's a meat-grinder, it's a small moon, it's a TPK trivializer!    G3 is a wonderful capstone to the G1-3 Giants series of modules, while at the same time it acts as the introductory bridge into the even-more-brutal threats to be faced in its sequels, the D1-3 drowic underworld trilogy.  (Perhaps Gary intended the final series of Q adventures to be a Q1-3 trilogy as well?; hmmm....).  G3 pounces upon the PCs who've progressed through G1 and G2, ratchets up the level of challenge, and spits them back out by introducing many new and horrific ways for the players to bemoan the beat-down it delivers:King Snurre Ironbelly (who fights as a storm giant!), his delightful, decapitating wife Queen Frupy, their pet hell hounds, pyrohydra (!!), and huge ancient red dragon (!!!), and other courtly attendantsA series of interesting prisoners who may, or may not, aid the PCs in their pursuit of vengeance against the giants, ... read more!

Kellri’s 18 Module Challenge – Day 14: Starstone by Paul Vernon Lydiate

2022-12-26T15:58:01-05:00October 15th, 2018|

Day 14 - A Module I Would Run for First-Time Players:  Starstone by Paul Vernon LydiateMy first-impressions/gut-reactions in response to today's topic are that I would prefer to run "Castle Greyhawk" or the DMG Monastery dungeon for first-timer players, but since I've already covered the latter, and ruled out the former, I've dug around for some high-quality alternates, and Starstone landed on top.Paul Vernon's Starstone was published by Northern Sages out of the UK in 1982.  If you're not already familiar with Starstone, Matthew Pook's retrospective review can get you up-to-speed.  Vernon also wrote several good articles in both White Dwarf---"Designing a Quasi-Medieval Society" (2 parts) and "Town Planner" (3 parts)---and Dragon Magazine---"First, Spread the Faith" and "Travel Works Both Ways"---that are worth looking up.    Disclaimer:  I haven't played or run Starstone, so read my thoughts with a healthy critical eye.  Using Starstone, I'd like to build a small, local-focus campaign where Starstone's NPCs can shine, and where the players and their PCs know the names of the random citizen they're salvation for, and why they're worth saving.  Why I Like StarstoneStarstone is a well-designed sandbox campaign setting that Vernon brings alive through:The County of Starstone's Northern Region, a small and localized wilderness environment spanning 10 miles N-S by 11 miles E-W (in 1/2 mile hexes), containing a fair number of homesteads, monster lairs, and other features of noteNine small settlements; for the larger ones, Vernon employs a series of tables similar to those in Midkemia Press' Cities supplement, but without as much detail Branstead, a deserted hamlet Cragley, a hamlet (37) Dolgold Village and Castle, with nearby dwarven minesGanby, village (128)Longbottom Down, village Sardkirk, ... read more!

OSR Guide for the Now-Less-Perplexed (or So We Hope…)

2022-12-26T15:58:02-05:00October 14th, 2018|

OSR Guide for the Now-Less-Perplexed (or So We Hope...) OSR logo by Stuart RobertsonI tweaked Zak's original questions a bit (see below if you want to reuse my wording):One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:   This one's a toss-up for me, since I love both 1) timrod's excellent and inter-related series of blog posts on the maps and environs for B2 Keep on the Borderlands, T1 Village of Hommlet, and the Sample Dungeon from the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, as well as 2) Zach "Zenopus Archives" Howard's page-by-page analysis of John Eric Holmes' original manuscript for the Holmes Basic set - Both of these exemplify close reading of texts in conjunction with creative approaches to leveraging that information in game play at the table!My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice:  "Megadungeon Tactics: Mission-Based Adventuring" by Matt Finch, published in Knockspell #4 (Spring 2010) - This is an excellent resource for old-school dungeon-exploring players in general, and helps players to effectively deploy in play the concepts outlined in Matt's Old School Primer.  Best OSR module/supplement:  Scot "Kellri" Hoover's Classic Dungeon Designer's Netbook #4 - Old School Encounters Reference.pdf - Perhaps the best free OSR resource ever published!:  an essential guide to adventure/encounter design, and while written with 1e AD&D/OSRIC in mind, it's very useful for anyone running any fantasy campaign, regardless of RPG and/or D&D edition.My favorite house rule (by someone else):  I have no recollection who came up with this concept anymore (and if you remember, please let me know!), but I love the idea that when PCs sell gems, jewelry, magic items, and other loot, that their ... read more!

Kellri’s 18 Module Challenge – Day 13: “The Ruins of Andril” by Ian Melluish

2022-12-26T15:58:02-05:00October 14th, 2018|

Day 13 - A Module I Like from the 1980s:  "The Ruins of Andril" by Ian Melluish I'm picking up Kellri's 18-Day Module Challenge again today, a few days after my last entry (Day 12 - A Module From My Youth:  "Treasure of the Dragon Queen" by Rutgers University Gamers).  I got busy with work, and my need for sleep time outweighed my need to write ;)"The Ruins of Andril" was written and designed by Ian Melluish, and published in Dragon Magazine #81 (January 1984) as the winner of the Dungeon Design Content (category A-3, a dungeon adventure for 4-8 AD&D PCs of levels 8-11 ) announced in Dragon #65 (September 1982).  The Egyptian-themed desert adventure is set in the ruined (and cursed!) desert city of Ruatha within the "Sea of Dust" (not Greyhawk's, though), followed by four small dungeon levels with 42 total encounter areas.  The curse was laid upon the city and its peoples by Thoth, Egyptian god of knowledge, and nerfs divination spells cast within the ruins.Why I Love "The Ruins of Andril"Despite the nerfing of divinations (a school of magic I'm quite fond of as a player and DM), "The Ruins of Andril" is probably tied with "The Garden of Nefaron" in Dragon #53 (September 1981) and "The Dancing Hut" in Dragon #83 (March 1984) as my favorite adventure published in Dragon during it's heyday.  I enjoyed running it a few times back-in-the-day, and these aspects still stand out to me as cool today:"The Ruins of Andril" is written for higher-level PCs (8th-11th), and could easily be expanded to include the desert wilderness surrounding the ruined city, as well as the ruins themselves (and ... read more!

Kellri’s 18 Module Challenge – Day 12: “Treasure of the Dragon Queen” by Rutgers University Gamers

2022-12-26T15:58:03-05:00October 10th, 2018|

Day 12 - A Module From My Youth:  "Treasure of the Dragon Queen" by Rutgers University GamersI'm kind of cheating again in today's entry, since "Treasure of the Dragon Queen" isn't a commonly-known or published module, but it's still near and dear to my heart, so I'm writing about it anyway!:Origins IX 1985 convention program event listing for TotDQ The actual event we played featured a slightly different description in the 1984 Northeaster 2 convention booklet:Event - 19.  RUG Treasure of the Dragon Queen A fortnight of silence is all that is left of your predecessors who set off across the river to find and secure the fabled treasure. Now you must complete the quest before the forces of darkness subjugating the region stumble across it. For God only knows what horrors would be unleashed on the world in their hands in this FRP event. Why I Love "Treasure of the Dragon Queen""Treasure of the Dragon Queen" is my white whale:  my monomaniacal quest to find and recreate the perfect adventure from my youth!  The original pre-registration event description appears at the top of the page, and the original background sheet (preserved with my brother Phil's pregen PC attached!) appears below:If that adventure description doesn't get your blood roiling for adventure, then nothing will!  I have a lot more detail about "Treasures of the Dragon Queen" on my site, where I describe what I recall about the maps, the factions in the adventure, the environs where we adventured, etc.The pregens PCs were higher-level characters, and were quite well-equipped!  I believe it was after attending this event that our players at home began to demand to purchase ... read more!

Kellri’s 18 Module Challenge – Day 11: S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax

2022-12-26T15:58:04-05:00October 9th, 2018|

Day 11 - A Module You Never Tire Of:  S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary GygaxThe S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth adventures began life as one of the bottom-most levels of Rob Kuntz's Castle El Raja Key dungeons, before Gary imported the level into the 1976 MDG Wintercon tournament adventure, Lost Caverns of Tsojconth (where it became the Greater Caverns):That tourney was later expanded and published in the more-commonly-known 1982 edition:Why I Love S4 Lost Caverns of TsojcanthMy love for and abiding interest in the Lesser, Greater Caverns, and Other Named and Unnamed Caverns of Tsojcanth is well-documented, so I won't dwell too much on that here (although my page does need some updating in light of Kuntz's manuscript sales over the years since I first published the page, and in particular the El Raja Key Archive contents). I love S4 on so many fronts:Its design practically forces me to explore it closely as a DM, and to expand it further to detail the various levels named and/or mentioned in passing and/or implied and/or hinted at obliquely:I love the Greyhawk lore introduced in both versions of the adventure, in particular about Iggwilv, the various new demons, lords, and princes introduced in the module, (as well as, of course, how to summon and bind them!---my entire Demonomicon series on Canonfire! only exists due to S4!), and, lastly, Drelnza herself, too:I love the gates-focused nature of the Lost Caverns, and the implications that Iggwilv's lair is itself separated across many hundreds leagues and only stitched together via gates---a World of Tiers-meets-Moorcock's multiverse-meets-The-Lion-GameI love that the old campaign map of the Great Kingdom from Domesday Book #9 allows ... read more!

Kellri’s 18 Module Challenge – Day 10: Return of the Eight by Roger E. Moore

2022-12-26T15:58:06-05:00October 8th, 2018|

Day 10 - A Module I Have Big Problems With:  Return of the Eight by Roger E. Moore Return of the Eight by Roger E. Moore (TSR, 1998)Today's topic was another difficult one to wrestle with, since there are so many problems with so many published RPG scenarios!   However, I decided to focus on flawed scenarios that I like despite their failures, and then added three more scenarios that have worse flaws (in my mind, anyway) but can be salvaged, and three stinkers that are total garbage, too! What I Love and Loathe about Return of the EightRoger Moore's Return of the Eight launched TSR's re-focus to the World of Greyhawk campaign in 1998, and inaugurated the "Greyhawk 98" era of products, several of which were quite good.  Perhaps even more importantly, Greyhawk 98's successes led directly to Greyhawk becoming the "core setting" for D&D Third Edition, and the founding of the Living Greyhawk campaign---the most-successful program run by the RPGA.  I also like several elements within Return of the Eight (this link goes to Adrian Newman's newer site that includes the back cover page scan too), in particular:Tenser's Fortress of Unknown Depths---an inspired site that's placed into the broader context of key locations in Oerik where artifacts can be created; as Tenser's fortress, it is also a bastion for the forces of good; Moore also alluded to concepts from Gygax's TD#37 article "Greyhawk: the Shape of the World" (May 1980), WG6 Isle of the Ape, and the Gord novels in how Tenser was portrayed, which was a nice touchThe concept of Oerthblood, a magical substance created by Moore as a key ingredient in the manufacture of certain ... read more!

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