Creating and Sharing for the World of Greyhawk

From Kuroth’s Quill

grodog in Greyhawk—a Summer Raining Multitudes!

2022-12-26T15:57:51-05:00September 10th, 2019|

It's been a busier summer than usual this year, in part because I've got lots of Greyhawk going on, which is a wonderful "problem" to have =)Here's what's been cooking: I'm continuing to play in Bill "TheDungeonDelver" Silvey's ongoing Greyhawk AD&D campaign, which is heavily-focused at present on the exploration of his version of Castle Greyhawk!  Let me tell you that it's a treat to explore Bill's Greyhawk and its Castle, not knowing a thing about it =)Here's where we are, after spending most of this year clearing out the upper ruins of Bill's version of Castle Greyhawk:  Bill Silvey's Castle Greyhawk - Ruins LevelPlayer map by Allan GroheBill Silvey's Castle Greyhawk - Ruins LevelPlayer map by Allan GroheWe just began to explore down the central well last week, and will likely pick that up again this week.I began playing in Bill's game since July last year, and have enjoyed it immensely!  Thus far we've remained in the vicinity of Greyhawk City and the Gnarley Forest---not counting a demi-planar/extra-planar holiday adventure at Christmastide.  My high elf, Svert, is now a 5/5 Fighter/Magic-User, about to level up to 6th MU (but I've hit my level limit in Fighter unless I'm able to permanently gain two or more points of Strength, alas...).My 11-year-old son Henry has been running an on-and-off again AD&D campaign for some school friends, his older brother Ethan, my wife Heather, and me (although both Ethan and Heather have largely stopped playing D&D in general save for special occasions here and there).  Set in his Underground Mansion dungeon, situated on an island in the Nyr Dyv.  While Henry's game is nominally set in Greyhawk, ... read more!

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Darlene Greyhawk Gothic Font

2022-12-26T15:57:51-05:00August 26th, 2019|

Darlene Artist's wonderful Greyhawk font, showing-off some of the dungeon level titles from my version of Castle Greyhawk! You download the free-for-non-commercial-use font from https://www.facebook.com/groups/1471065309863986/permalink/2082384232065421/In the text file of the download, Darlene includes details on how to purchase a commercial license as well.   Some additional context/details from Anna Meyer, who sponsored Darlene's development of the font: I helped Darlene create a font featuring the famous script of the Greyhawk logo. It took awhile but here it is, version 1 of the Greyhawk Gothic font. It is released as Creative Commons -BY -NC -SA 4.0 so you can use it for all your gaming needs as long as they are not for commercial purposes.  You can grab it here: http://bit.ly/GreyhawkGothic-Font After I downloaded the font, I played around with it using some of my Castle Greyhawk dungeon level titles:Allan.

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Panel Seminar Video from GaryConXI

2022-12-26T15:57:52-05:00August 23rd, 2019|

A few months ago, back in March 2019, a team of longtime Greyhawk fans got a wild plan together and held a seminar at GaryConXI, called "Celebrating Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance". Luke Gygax, the organizer of GaryCon was interested in our topic, and had the entire thing videoed. After the producers and video-editors had the time to put some production value into the raw footage from a couple of cameras and such, they shared it with us! And now, we're finally able to share it with you, other fans of Greyhawk!It feels like a pretty big deal to us here at GreyhawkOnline, because our key focus, as we mention numerous times in the video, is "Creating and Sharing for the World of Greyhawk". There's a lot of things that have disappeared from the Greyhawk community over the years, from sites going down, from loss of data and crashes, and even from simply being things like campaigns or conventions that not everyone could be present for. So, now, through the "miracle of the internet", we can share the seminar we participated in with all of our viewers and readers who didn't get to be there. There's also the our GaryConXI Page with lots of updates in it, including downloads, exclusive content, PDF of the seminar handout, and art! Be sure to visit that page, and get all of the things, to make it almost like you were there with us in the room! Once again, we'd like to thank Luke for helping us in "Creating and Sharing for the World of Greyhawk"! Topics and times are listed below the video. (Times are approximate) [evp_embed_video url="https://greyhawkonline.com/docs/GCXI_Panel_CelebratingGreyhawk-AFandomRennaissance.mp4" width="750" ... read more!

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grodog interview on Twitch TV, Sunday 18 August @ 7:30pm EDT

2022-12-26T15:57:54-05:00August 16th, 2019|

Jay Scott, one of the gamers I know in South Jersey, runs a Twitch TV channel dedicated to his 30+ year 1e campaign set in the World of Greyhawk.  While visiting with him on my last trip back home, he asked about having me on his show, which will be live-streamed on Sunday this weekend.  Here's his announcement:Sunday Evening on the Lord Gosumba ChannelHello Friends and Greyhawkers! Finishing up a wonderful vacation week with family at the shore! On this Sunday's Gabbin at Lord Peak's Haven #58, my special guest will be Allan T. Grohe Jr., the grodog!We will discuss Allan's multitude of accomplishments to the D&D and gaming community, his love of the World of Greyhawk, and share what Allan and his company, Black Blade Publishing, are working on currently.Also, we will discuss some intriguing Greyhawk topics, including, Castle Greyhawk and Castle El Raja Key, Greyhawk Artifacts, rules variants for homebrew Campaigning, and using third party D&D Adventures in the World of Greyhawk setting. I cannot wait to delve into this discussion!As always, we will welcome questions and participation from the audience! See you Live Stream, Sunday, 8/18, 7:30 PM EDT! https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumbahttps://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumbaPerhaps I'll see a few of you on Sunday night in the audience :DAllan.

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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.

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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!

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GaryCon XI

2022-12-26T15:57:56-05:00February 28th, 2019|

Soon, soon, soon! We're about to be on the road, travelling to the Convention next week! Well, in the air, at any rate! It's fantastic and exciting that we're going to be there with Luke and Ernie Gygax and the rest of the family for gaming, seminars, dice, roleplaying, swag, tshirts, new dice, friends, get-togethers, a few more dice, and early morning Mimosa breakfasts! Oh yeah, did I mention new dice? There's so much to do and see, but, for at least part of the convention on Friday afternoon just after lunch, we're taking part in a panel seminar called "Celebrating Greyhawk: a Fandom Renaissance". The panelists are Bryan Blumklotz, Mike Bridges, Allan Grohe, Carlos Lising, Anna Meyer, and Kristoph Nolen and there's going to be lots and lots of great information, stories, a video from DMShane of the Greyhawk Channel, handouts, freebies, community information, and so much more. Visit our GaryCon XI page, to find all of the latest information and free downloads as the con approaches, and even more once the seminar kicks off! And if you're attending, Tweet at us @GreyhawkOnline, and we'll arrange to meet with you and give you a free copy of the commemorative edition of the Oerth Journal #28 and maybe some of the freebies from the seminar if there's some left!Looking forward to seeing y'all there, and be sure to follow us on Twitter, so that you can see the live-tweets of everything going on! 'til the Starbreak!

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UPDATE 2 – Charting The Flanaess: a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart

2022-12-26T15:57:56-05:00February 24th, 2019|

In May 2018 I began work on building a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart for the Flanaess, but the project has lain fairly fallow until last month.Since before the start of the year, our team of Greyhawk fan contributors have been working on material for the Greyhawk Seminar (details in last month's update), and I've been doing my part in that effort too.As part of some of that work, I've realigned my mileage distances chart data to include only those settlements that appear on Anna B. Meyer's Flanaess map excerpt for the handouts.  In doing so, I removed a few cities from my original swag list, and added a few more, which meant that last Sunday I performed the rest of the Darlene map measurements to drive my distance calculations formulas.  Here's where things stand at present:grodog at work -fitting the Flanaess into spreadsheet cellsWith the change from some of the original settlements that are now out-of-scope for the map area in the new handouts, and adding in the new ones, I've now completed distances for 17 of the 130 locations, which is 13.1% of the overall effort.  A little progress goes a long way---although not so far in this case, since all of these settlements are in the Central Flanaess and are pretty close to one another! ;) Allan.

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UPDATE 1 – Charting The Flanaess: a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart

2022-12-26T15:57:57-05:00January 19th, 2019|

In May last year I began work on building a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart for the Flanaess, but the project has lain fairly fallow until recently.Greyhawk Seminar at GaryCon 2019A crew of six of us will host a Greyhawk seminar at GaryCon XI in March 2019, focused on the state of the state of Greyhawk fandom.  The seminar is titled "Celebraing Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance" and the event description is: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. Reference handouts will be provided, and perhaps prizes if we get our act together! Bryan “Saracenus” Blumklotz – Bryan is the lead administrator for the CanonFire! A Greyhawk Resource! Facebook group and is creator of the World of Greyhawk Heraldry site. Mike "mortellan" Bridges – Mike publishes the Greyhawk blog Greyhawkery and co-hosts the weekly Legends & Lore show on the Greyhawk channel. Allan "grodog" Grohe – Allan publishes his grodog's Greyhawk fan site and is co-founder of Black Blade Publishing (OSRIC, Rob Kuntz’s The Original Bottle City, etc.) and The Twisting Stair mega-dungeon design zine.Carlos "caslEntertainment" Lising – Carlos writes and publishes OSRIC adventures set in Oerth and in Avremier via casl Entertainment and Patreon.Anna "GH Maps" Meyer – Anna publishes her Flanaess maps and founded the Flanaess Geographical Society Facebook group.  She also co-hosts the Legends & Lore Greyhawk show with Mike Bridges.Kristoph "Icarus" Nolen – Krisoph is leading the redesign of Greyhawk Online and showcases ... read more!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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