From Kuroth’s Quill

For the Love of Greyhawk – Reprise

2025-10-16T19:04:56-04:00August 25th, 2020|

World of Greyhawk Gazetteer, 1980Over on ENWorld, the user Snarf Zagyg started an interesting conversation in response to some discussion about Greyhawk that arose as fans learned about the release of the new 5e book, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.Snarf Zagyg entitled the thread "For the Love of Greyhawk: Why People Still Fight to Preserve Greyhawk" and it offers some good food for thought for Greyhawk fans, and for D&D players in general. This reproduces my reply in that thread:==A very interesting conversation, thanks for starting it up, @Snarf Zagyg !While I am a long-time Greyhawk fan, I too would be interested to see what interesting and new material could be published for Greyhawk. Unless and until WotC releases older editions for publishing via DM's Guild, that means new official Greyhawk material will be written for 5e and 6e, ad not for 1e/OSRIC or the other clones. So, if WotC publishes a Greyhawk book that I like, I'll pick it up. Adapting new material Greyhawk is a natural process that every Greyhawk DM has to do who's not playing with the current rules set; it's not a big deal, and it works forward as well as backward (all of those 1e adventures are also easy to bring forward into 5e too). I do the exact same thing with material from FR, Necromancer Games, Call of Cthulhu, and whatever else feels right to use in my Greyhawk campaigns.One of the core strengths of Greyhawk (in addition to its resilient and enthusiastic fanbase, who provide support for the setting through many ways, including the Oerth Journal---a freely downloadable professional quality zine---to name just one example among multitudes*) is ... read more!

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grodog’s Greyhawk Campaigns Updates

2022-12-26T15:57:33-05:00August 11th, 2020|

Life in the real world has been full of strife, chaos, madness, and the bat plague of late (to quote Gabor Lux!), so our escapism has been into the World of Greyhawk. Castle Greyhawk - The Boys over 4th of July WeekendFathers Day AD&D gaming coupons redeemed from the boys meant a return to the dreaded halls of grodog's Castle Greyhawk! =)Unfortunately for the dungeon's inhabitants, the PCs plowed through most of them, then retreated back to the City of Greyhawk for healing.The boys discovered a new entrance to lower levels via a trapdoor, but upon banging around on nearby barred doors, the PCs stir up more orcs, who sounded the alarm gongs, and began pursuit!Spooked, the PCs bugged out via a secret door (seemingly unknown to the orcs), only to encounter a pair of shriekers in the main entry/exit hall, who in turn attracted a swarm of 20 kobolds. That engagement delayed their departure sufficiently long for the orcs to catch up, which is where we left things off for lunch.... The dragon mini (one of my favorite sculpts!) is a stand-in since I don’t have a black dragon that currently has attached wings, but you can never go wrong with Tom Meier’s work 🙂The boys met this same dragon IRL several years ago, and fled from it quickly (they were particularly awed by it yelling at them, and the ranks of lizard men in front of it and charging in the PCs' direction!). This time they were prospecting the dungeon level with a wand of metal and mineral detection looking for more loot, when they happened upon it by chance 😉 Henry's Underground Mansion ... read more!

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Virtual Greyhawk Con: 2-4 October 2020

2022-12-26T15:57:33-05:00July 26th, 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/lordgosumbaEvents that are already registered can be searched at https://tabletop.events/conventions/virtual-greyhawk-con-2020/schedule#?query=VGHC Key DatesRegistration and Event Submission............July 1st, 2020Event Registration............August 1st, 2020Last Day Event Submission............September 28th, 2020Virtual Greyhawk Con............October 2nd to the 4th, 2020I 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 EDTBottle City - Castle Greyhawk with grodog - Saturday morning 10am-2pm EDTgrodog's Castle Greyhawk - The Iounic Vaults - Sunday afternoon 2-7pm ... read more!

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grodog’s Favorite Mega-Dungeons

2022-12-26T15:57:34-05:00June 15th, 2020|

Some info about my favorite mega-dungeons, from the classics to the newest, hot-off-the-presses OSR titles (well, "new" as of today, 15 June 2020 anyway....). This post was inspired by some discussions over on the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea forum, as well as a similar thread over on TheRPGSite. The questions raised in those boards were:Which mega-dungeons do you like, and why? Which mega-dungeons have you used in play?The Quilt Map - Map by Tony "Wheggi" Rostengrodog's Thoughts on Well-Designed Mega-Dungeons -- The Stuff that Matters at the Table I think that for me what I like about a mega-dungeon really varies, based on who I've been playing with (or sometimes, working with). I've really enjoyed nearly all of the mega-dungeons that I've played in or run, but I've also generally had the wonderful pleasure of excellent DMs and players, which makes all the difference in the world in terms of the game experience at the table.Thinking through the mega-dungeons I'm familiar with, the stand out qualities that I love to play through, and the mega-dungeons that bring that to the table are:Best Environments to Explore and Map: Castle El Raja Key, Maure Castle, Caverns of Thracia, FoolsgraveMost-Fun Encounters: Castle Greyhawk, Foolsgrave, Rich Franks' mega-dungeonMost-Fun Puzzles, Enigmas, and Centerpiece Encounters: Castle Greyhawk, Maure Castle, WG5, ASE1/2-3, UndermountainCoolest Maps: Arden Vul, Castle of the Mad Archmage, Foolsgrave, The Quilt Map, Undermountain, Vladikavkaz Best Presentation in Print: None* Pulls It All Together: Caverns of Thracia, Foolsgrave, Maure Castle, Tomb of Abysthor * In terms of best-published format/presentation for a mega-dungeon, I don't think that we've seen any stand-out products deliver on the goods on that yet. Necromancer Games ... read more!

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Planar Architecture for grodog’s Current Greyhawk Campaigns

2022-12-26T15:57:35-05:00May 28th, 2020|

Part of what I'm working toward, by defining and incorporating the forgotten Folio forest into my current Greyhawk campaigns, is to play a more gates-oriented game. This is one of several campaign concepts on my DMing bucket list, and in this case they appear excerpted here as a cluster of related ideas:Games/campaigns I'd most like to run, in rough order of my desire:gates-driven AD&D campaign starting out at fresh at low level (1st-3rd-ish), where gates are sufficiently common that they drive the entire campaign: economy, weather, culture, travel, etc. (think The Primal Order meets Stargate meets World of Tiers meets Moorcock's multiverse meets Greyhawk)AD&D "Treasure of the Dragon Queen"; I'll have to write it first, of course: http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_tourneys_dragon_queen.html AD&D Greyhawk drowic adaptation of MERP 1e Courts of Ardor campaign (could be played as an evil campaign by drowic PCs or traditional good-ish PCs; could merge with previous gates-driven entry)AD&D Abyssal campaign (PCs are a new generation of demons, vying for power amidst the chaos; could combine with gates or drowic ones above); I've slowly been building the framework for an AD&D game where the PCs run demons and explore the mythic geography of the multiverseIn order to play a gates-oriented game, I need to design elements that specifically introduce gates and related magics into the game. Some of that is easier, some harder. We'll see how it goes as the games continue, but here's the framework that I've been working up for Oerth's immediate multiversal neighborhood. I wrote the bulk of this post in response to some discussion in the Greyhawk sub-reddit, in which the user u/P4TR10T_96 asked A Question About the Planes:Are [the planes] ... read more!

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grodog’s Mega-Dungeon Maps – Revising and Expanding the First Two Dungeon Levels of My Castle Greyhawk

2022-12-26T15:57:35-05:00May 25th, 2020|

In one of my two concurrent Greyhawk campaigns, the players are exploring the dungeons beneath Castle Greyhawk, which has been pushing me to revise and expand the first two levels of that infamous death trap. The inventory work for all of my newly-designed levels from the past 15 years began a few years ago now, and continues as play evolves the environs.*** Saturday and Sunday campaign spoilers *** ********* *** Saturday and Sunday campaign spoilers *** ************ Saturday and Sunday campaign spoilers *** ************ Saturday and Sunday campaign spoilers *** ************ Saturday and Sunday campaign spoilers *** Level 1My first and second levels were originally drawn in the early- to mid-1980s. I was never deeply satisfied with the second level, so I began to redesign it significantly in 2017 as my sons began to explore beyond the first level. grodog Castle Greyhawk map - level 1 left grodog Castle Greyhawk map - level 1 rightI still rather like the design of the first level, but decided that I needed a bit more "breathing room" while running the current crew of players in it, and began to expand it earlier this month. The original map was designed on 4 spi graph paper, and I began to worry that the players would soon exhaust its exploration potential, and that they may need a bit more breadth to pick-and-choose their level of challenge across the encounters among its inhabitants. Unlike my revisions to the second level, I preserved most of the first level as-is, and simply extended its expanse, primarily to the south and a little to the west too. The original design for the first level spans ~660 ... read more!

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Foodling: DungeonMorph Dice Geomorphs –> Castle Greyhawk Sub-Level

2022-12-26T15:57:36-05:00April 29th, 2020|

Last night, I created a new sub-level for my version of Castle Greyhawk, using the DungeonMorph dice from Inkwell Ideas. I was a backer of their original Kickstarter in 2011, and remain quite fond of their geos dice, and of dungeon geomorphs in general!Here's the original geomorphs dice used for inspiration:DungeonMorph Dice - level arrangement by grodogAnd here's the level as I rendered it:Convection Sub-Level in Castle Greyhawk- draft map by grodog You'll note that I largely ignored the caverns in the eastern half of the dice image, save for general sizing and some shape inspiration.If you're curious, full-sized versions of the images are at:http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level-foodling_with_dungeonmorphs-dice-01.jpghttp://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level-foodling_with_dungeonmorphs-01.jpgEnjoy, and stay safe amidst the covid-chaos!Allan.

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The Strange Case of the Forgotten Folio Forest

2022-12-26T15:57:37-05:00April 25th, 2020|

Life's been very busy and distracted of late with changes in our daily homelife and work routines caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in the 'States. Thankfully our family has remained untouched by the virus to date, but it has slowed down my sharing via the blog. I've managed to keep designing and writing (and editing, and drawing, and...), and hope to return to a more-regular pace soon. In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this bit of Greyhawk research trivia.== At the topographical level, the Flanaess is filled with many strange and wondrous features, some inherently magical or the result of the expenditure of vast magical energies in aeons past---the Land of Black Ice, the sunken Isles of Woe, and the Bright Desert may, perhaps, all owe their infamy to such magics.There are, however, additional and perhaps greater powers at play in the World of Greyhawk. Powers that shape the course of all of The Flanaess, of Oerik, Oerth, and the multiverse itself---and beyond! I am, of course, referring to the powers and perils of editing within the game design process! ;) In particular, today I'm referring to a forest that is largely lost in Greyhawk's publishing history---a forest that straddles the Crystal River in central Furyondy. "Wait!" you say, "there is no such timberland in Greyhawk!" And in most instances of the maps of the Flanaess, you would be correct: The Crystal River, in central Fuyrondy - Greyhawk Folio 1980All subsequent versions of officially-published Greyhawk maps also omit this feature: the 1983 Boxed Set, From the Ashes in 1992, The Marklands in 1993, Greyhawk: the Adventure Begins in 1998, the 2000 D&D Gazetteer and 2001's Living ... read more!

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Virtual GaryCon “Celebrating Greyhawk” Seminar — tonight 8-10pm CDT

2022-12-26T15:57:38-05:00March 27th, 2020|

Tonight I'm going to participate in our second annual "Celebrating Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance" seminar at GaryCon. You can review last year's seminar info---including a summary and recording details. Here's the 2020 event description:Seminar will Dual Live Stream on www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba and twitch.tv/garycon2. A personal Twitch ID is helpful, but not absolutely necessary. Also, there will be Prize Drawings at Seminar Completion for Giveaway Items related to Greyhawk & Old-School Gaming---for example, free copies of the print version of the Oerth Journal. Greyhawk fans have been creating and sharing content online for 25+ years, across many platforms. Join Bryan Blumklotz, Mike Bridges, Allan Grohe, Carlos Lising, Anna Meyer, and Kristoph Nolen as we celebrate and showcase Greyhawk resources created by the fans who champion one of D&D's oldest settings.Bryan “Saracenus” Blumklotz – Bryan is the lead administrator for the Greyhawk Resources Facebook group and is creator of the World of Greyhawk Heraldry site at WoG HeraldryMike "mortellan" Bridges – Mike publishes the Greyhawk blog Greyhawkery and co-hosts the weekly Legends & Lore show on the Lord Gosumba channel at TwitchAllan "grodog" Grohe – Allan publishes his Greyhawk fan site at Greyhawk, grodog Style and is co-founder of Black Blade Publishing (OSRIC, Rob Kuntz’s The Original Bottle City, etc.)Carlos "caslEntertainment" Lising – Carlos writes and publishes OSRIC adventures set in Oerth and in Avremier via the casl Entertainment PatreonAnna "GH Maps" Meyer – Anna publishes her Flanaess maps at www.ghmaps.net and founded the Flanaess Geographical Society and Patreon. She also co-hosts the Legends & Lore show with Mike Bridges on the Lord Gosumba Twitch channel Kristoph "Icarus" Nolen – Krisoph adminsiters Greyhawk Online, edits and publishes the Oerth ... read more!

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Virtual GaryCon XII

2022-12-26T15:57:39-05:00March 23rd, 2020|

The "Celebrating Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance" seminar We are all excited to be attending Virtual GaryCon XII in just a few days! It's taking place on the exact same days it was originally schedules for. We're taking part in the seminar we'd made plans for, even though we can't be there in person. We'll be live streaming on the GaryCon Twitch channel Friday night at 8:00pm CDT, and simulcast via dual-stream on the Lord Gosumba Channel. Of course, we're all well aware of the crisis that's swept the nation. But, Luke Gygax and all the organizers and volunteers running it have done an amazing job of adapting to the circumstances, and shifting to an event that keeps "social distancing" in mind! There's an incredible amount of VTT games still being played and seminars being held! Be sure to go to VTT.GaryCon.com to sign up for events!! It's entirely FREE!! It's being livestreamed ... but, afterward, it'll be hosted here, and readers will be able to watch the recorded livestream event right from the GaryCon XII Seminar Page. The seminar, similar to the one last year, will include Allan "grodog" Grohe, jr of Kuroth's Quill and member of GHO at Grodog's Greyhawk, Anna B. Meyer of GHMaps.net, Bryan Blumklotz the admin of the Greyhawk Resources Facebook group and known for his heraldry, Michael "GreyhawkMike" Bridges known for his Ull articles and online WoG comics, Kristoph Nolen of owner and lead admin of Greyhawk Online, and Jay "Lord Gosumba" Scott - the host of the popular Lord Gosumba Channel old-school tabletop livestream! There will be LIVE GIVEAWAYS of copies of Oerth Journal #32 (the print edition) free ... read more!

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Renovating the Monastery – Recasting the Classic DMG Dungeon in Greyhawk – Part 1

2022-12-26T15:57:39-05:00February 16th, 2020|

Wichita Greyhawk CampaigningI ran the unnamed sample monastery dungeon from the Dungeon Masters Guide for my eldest son's after-school AD&D group a few years ago, and I've repurposed it as one of the starting points for the new Wichita Greyhawk campaign that kicked off last month. I've compiled the bits and pieces about it that I've discussed over at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse forum and Scott Gregg's Doomsday Games forum:BackgroundMaps - Wilderness Environs Maps - Dungeon LevelsKeysI'm detailing #1 and #2 in this post, with more info to follow on the updated, revised, and expanded dungeon maps and keys later. Below I dig into plenty of spoilers for the sample dungeon, so if you are currently playing through it, you should stop reading now. *** SPOILERS ****** *** *** SPOILERS ****** *** *** SPOILERS ****** *** *** SPOILERS *** *** *** *** SPOILERS *** *** *** *** SPOILERS *** *** *** *** SPOILERS *** *** *** *** SPOILERS *** Background I've decided to leverage my continued interest in the sects and cults of Wee Jas for my background to the DMG Monastery dungeon in the Wicihta campaign. This necessitates some changes to the original sketchy background from the DMG:The slain abbot becomes an abbess The fire opal becomes a holy relic of Wee Jas, perhaps in part reflecting her vanityThe lower level needs a new rationale from how I'd originally conceived it, and I'm thinking it may be tied to the Plane of Shadow now, but am still noodling on that: perhaps the shadow influences are what, in part, lead to the near-total destruction of the monastery, and if so, it seems likely that the destruction was meted out ... read more!

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Mega-Dungeon Mondays – Hitting the Monsters Hard and Book-Keeping in the Dada Dungeon

2022-12-26T15:57:40-05:00February 3rd, 2020|

Henry and I played in his "Dada Dungeon" again on Saturday. We explored less, and hit two big targets after our previous mapping rereconnoiters: a young white dragon (blissfully asleep on its treasures) and two ogres. The dragon we had discovered in the previous session, but we found the ogres only after exploring further in the vicinity of the dragon's lair. The updated map; our play focused in the NE and E zones of the level:Henry's Dada-Dungeon - Level 2 Player Map by Allan Grohe Based on our previous session activities, we had befriended the (normal-sized) badger family in the dungeon (they're located in the top-center in the oddly shaped room with the sloping northern wall), and the druid PC was a bit concerned that the dragon might decide that they'd make a good meal one day, given their relative proximity. So after some prep and consulting among the characters (which didn't take too long, since Henry and I are playing this game just the two of us ;) ), and warning the badgers about our plans (in case we TPK'd...), we attacked the sleeping white dragon and killed it in the first first round of surprise attacks. Even level 1 PCs attacking with the benefits of bless, faerie fire, and a charge bonus against a sleeping dragon is no guarantee for victory, since two of the four attacking PCs missed (one with a natural "1" which didn't result in losing his weapon). The dragon's hoard included:1200 cp684 gp5 potions: animal control (reptiles, fish, and amphibeans), extra healing (2 doses), fire resistance (2 doses), polymorph self (2 doses), and speedand a ring of invisibility that we ... read more!

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Greyhawk – Setting the Wichita Campaign in Motion

2022-12-26T15:57:41-05:00February 2nd, 2020|

Last Sunday, 26 January 2020, we created characters (some both of two, some just one of two since they had create PCs at TsunamiCon in October) and began to adventure in our local Wichita Greyhawk campaign. The players created the following first-level characters---two each, since I wanted them to have backups in case PCs are turned to stone, killed, or otherwise out-of-action for awhile:Brad - one new PC: Verdure, a female half-elf druid; 2nd PC TBDBrian - one new PC: Varis, a half-elf mercenary for hire (assassin), who is being played in preference to Melisor, a human magic-user (who delved my Castle Greyhawk at TsunamiCon)Henry - one PC: Vilador, male human magic-user, who also delved Castle Greyhawk at TsunamiCon; 2nd PC TBD after I figure out if we're doing children in the game or not (I'm leaning toward yes)Jeff - one new PC: Hagrid, male dwarf fighter/thief; 2nd PC is Oberon Canorbe, human cleric of St. Cuthbert; Hagrid and Verdure split the costs for Fang, a wardogJon - two new PCs: Danger Ranger II, male human ranger; 2nd PC is Slim Bandicoot, human thiefVince - one new PC: Lugh, male human ranger; 2nd PC is Seriat, human cleric of Obah-HaiSeveral other players participated in the TsunamiCon events, but weren't able to attend on Sunday's kickoff, so I'm still waiting to see where the mix of regular and semi-players settles out. After creating PCs, the players opted to explore through the ruined monastery dungeons from the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, which I've set on the southern verge of the western side of the Gnarley Forest:Darlene's Greyhawk mapfrom the 1980 Greyhawk FolioThe PCs began in Ellorn, a small ... read more!

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The Dada Dungeon and Wichita Greyhawk

2022-12-26T15:57:41-05:00January 20th, 2020|

Henry has been DMing me through his "Dada Dungeon" since mid-August 2019, and we picked up our game again yesterday afternoon over the long weekend. (Well, a long weekend for Henry and his older brother, anyway ;) ). Since August I've spent a lot campaign time dealing with machinations, assassins, and attacks on the town of Scortop (located in South Province hex #N2-87 on the Darlene Greyhawk map, which is 3 1/2 hexes up from the D in Rieuwood), which were only "resolved" recently. I still don't know the identity of the mysterious and seemingly-ancient Octarius---of the long-lost Archbarony of Ilgelgoron, east of Blackmoor (mentioned in a letter dated 319 CY, over 257 years ago!)---or of his possible agent Frengier and his long-distance-writing magical quills (they seem to act like longhand telegraphs). That has allowed a return to the abandoned dwarven gem mine dungeon, which we hadn't revisited since the start of the school year:Henry's Dada Mega-Dungeon - Level 1Player Map by Allan GroheHenry completely improvised the upper caves level, as well as most of the resulting escapades in town. I had previously only discovered a well (visible in the upper left of the above map in the "dog with pointy ears" cave") as a possible lower entrance. I think that the surface plottings had grown a bit beyond what Henry originally intended, and he was happy to return to the dungeon itself today.We played for about 4-5 hours, from before and through lunch, until about 4pm. The PCs spent time exploring the level rather than engaging everything encountered---we didn't open any doors, and were really just trying to get the lay of the land. ... read more!

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New local Greyhawk Campaign in Wichita – 26 Jan 2020 Kickoff!

2022-12-26T15:57:42-05:00January 13th, 2020|

New in-person Greyhawk campaign to begin on Sunday, 26 January 2020 at Hero Complex in Wichita, Kansas, at 1pm CST! Estimated stop time 5-6pm. In honor of the upcoming 46th anniversary of the first publication of Dungeons & Dragons, I'm kicking off a new AD&D 1st edition campaign set in my version of the World of Greyhawk. Previously discussed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/111904705646730/permalink/958413074329218/ and with some introductory steps taken at TsunamiCon in October 2019, this session will mark the campaign's official start. No previous experience with AD&D 1st edition or the World of Greyhawk required: newcomers welcome! :DAllan.

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