GaryCon

GaryCon XIV Seminar

2025-10-16T19:03:38-04:00March 4th, 2022|

Hurrah!! It's that time of year!! GaryCon is here once again!! ... and GreyhawkOnline is gonna be there! Our very own Editor-in-Chief of the Oerth Journal, Kristoph Nolen, is going to be there, in addition to some of the authors and editors of the magazine! He'll be giving a seminar Thursday morning at 11am, helping to kick off the convention! If you're interested in more information, there's a whole page for the GaryCon Seminar There's even a virtual ticket if you can't make it in person! Get yours now! Be sure to watch all the events! It's just a little later this month (24-27 March 2022) , and we're looking forward to seeing all the special guests this year! Some of those wer're looking forward to seeing: Peter Adkison Jeff Butler Darlene Jeff Dee Jeff Easley Larry Elmore Alyssa Faden Matt Forbeck The Gygax family—Luke, Ernie, Heidi, and Alex Allan Hammack Tim Kask Diesel LaForce Matt Lillard Joe Manganiello Mike Mearls Erol Otus Jeff Perren Satine Phoenix Stefan Pokorny Ed Stark Jim Ward Margret Weis Tom Wham Skip Williams Come and see us at the Con!

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Happy Needfest and Merry New Year!

2025-10-16T19:03:43-04:00January 3rd, 2022|

While life has continued to wear me out (in particular my day job*), with the new year's turn, there's always a fresh bout of hope that seeps into my fingers and toes, so I'm dusting off the ol' blog once again.This post will summarize some news and updates, and help to kickstart the rest of the month's writing! News and UpdatesJason Zavoda - Greyhawk Fan and Friend - 1965-2021I have sad news to share that Jason Zavoda died on 22 December 2021. Jason was a long-time Greyhawk fan and member of its online communities dating back to AOL's late-2e heyday. Jason published his Hall of the Mountain King blog, wrote Greyhawk fan fiction, contributed articles to the Oerth Journal (and edited some issues during its Turmoil Between Editors phase), and, perhaps most importantly to Greyhawk fans, spearheaded his wondrous index of Greyhawk references in all published products. The index is an indispensable research tool, and began as a humble .TXT file that grew over the years, and was recently updated by Eric Johnson in the Greyhawk Resources Files on Facebook as a Microsoft Excel format to allow more filtering and sorting.Carlos Lising of casl Entertainment wrote a very nice Greyhawk-themed tribute to Jason in the Facebook Sages of Greyhawk group (you'll need to be a member of the group to access his story).Paul Stormberg (of The Collectors Trove and Legends of RolePlaying) and I have discussed putting together a compilation of Jason's many contributions to the Greyhawk fan community, to help ensure that they're preserved and available to the fans for years to come, and I've reached out to the GreyhawkOnline admin team on that front too. ... read more!

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grodog’s post-GaryCon-XIII Repose – Part 2

2025-10-16T19:04:02-04:00May 31st, 2021|

Being as I'm about to head out to the North Texas RPG Con in a couple of days, I'd better get my GaryCon Report Part 2 concluded! ;) Continuing from my now-too-long-in-the-tooth Part 1 summary, after running my games on Thursday and Friday of GaryCon XIII, I spent most of the rest of the connvention playing in games (Sunday afternoon excepted).Saturday, 27 March 1-6pm: I played in Les "OblivionSeeker" Reno's "Death Master's Gambit: Dead Men Tell No Tales" AD&D 1e adventure---although they do blackmail with some regularity, it seems. Our PCs will seek to eliminate the blackmail at the source, somewhere in the Wild Coast....Les crafted a supremely-cool scenario in which our PCs were pulled into a rather Machiavellian plot:Your recent adventures began in Safeton. Slanarus Zaal, a prosperous merchant, gathered you together. He felt he could trust you. You’d done work for him in the past, and each of you had proven yourselves to be honorable, in your own fashion, and discreet. Almost a year ago, letters began to arrive at the man’s office under mysterious circumstances. They seemed to *materialize* on the desk or between a ledger’s pages when the man turned his back for a moment or left and locked the room. To the casual reader, the contents would seem banal—details of a journey, as recorded by a business associate; a jesting but flirtatious inquiry from one of the widower’s former lovers; requests for forbearance from some debtor or other. At first, Zaal was irritated by the intrusion and gave little thought to the texts. Then he realized that the letters were all written in the same hand. He studied them and ... read more!

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grodog’s post-GaryCon-XIII Repose – Part 1

2025-10-16T19:04:06-04:00April 2nd, 2021|

Yet-again, I had a wonderful time at GaryCon this year. Here's the first part of my post-convention recap, working off of my schedule for GaryCon XIII! Wednesday, 24 MarchIn our usual fashion, members of the Legio V gathered on Wedsnesday night for our pre-con get-together, which was a fun time as always. We didn't game this year, just hung out and caught up on life, the universe, and everything.If you're not familiar with the Legio V, here's some info: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.Thursday and Friday mornings - grodog's Castle Greyhawk: Escape from Level 14Over Thursday and Friday I ran two sets of players through levels from my version of Castle Greyhawk. Both opted to attempt to get away from Level 14, which I first ran at the North Texas RPG Con #1 in 2009, and subsequently at GaryCons #2 (2010), with reprises at NTX and GaryCon #10 in 2018. The scenario premise is: Escape From Castle Greyhawk – Player ... read more!

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grodog’s GaryCon XIII Schedule – 25-28 March 2021

2025-10-16T19:04:11-04:00March 25th, 2021|

I'll be scarce the next several days as I'm running and playing games at GaryCon Gaming Convention XIII. It's going to be a great convention again!---good times to be discovered, dice to be rolled, monsters to be put to the sword, and treasures to be looted! =) My schedule is full of fun this year!:Thursday, 25 MarchNoon-5pm: DM for grodog's Castle Greyhawk: I'm running either my "Four Way Hub Level" or "Escape from Level 14" level, based on the players' selection. My 13 year-old son Henry will be playing in this session, which is always fun =)7pm-Midnight: Player in Rich Frank's "Lost Temple of Set" dungeon, where we seek to recover the fabled Eye of Horus:The party has traveled through a jungle to locate an ancient and forgotten Temple of the God, Set. Set has not been worshipped in any notable or public way in centuries, most of the old temples having been thrown down and replaced with temples to other Gods. However, Set, being a major God, has been able to maintain a cult of worshippers despite being forced out of the consciousness of most of the population in this world.The motivation for the characters is to find the fabled Eye of Horus, a large piece of jade in the shape of a pointed oval, with the symbol of the Eye of Horus carved into it, and inlaid with gold. Among the purported properties of the Eye is the ability to roll back time and view what happened in the area the Eye is currently placed. (More on this in the description of the Eye of Horus at the end of this document.) Indeed, the ... read more!

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grodog’s virtual GaryCon XIII events – March 2021

2025-10-16T19:04:13-04:00February 28th, 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: grodog's Castle Greyhawk - Thursday, 25 March from Noon to 5pmgrodog's Castle Greyhawk - Friday, 26 March from 9am to 2pm 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, ... 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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grodog talking Iggwilv in Greyhawk on caslTawk @ Monday night 8pm EDT

2022-12-26T15:57:49-05:00September 29th, 2019|

I think that this Twitch.TV/live-streaming thing may be starting to click for me, but you'll have another opportunity to judge for yourself, since carlos "casl Entertainment" lising has invited me to join him and his Patreon sponsors in their October discussion tomorrow night:caslTawk announcement,with classic Greyhawk styling!Tune into our Twitch channel for a chat between carlos "The Rook" lising and Greyhawk scholar Allan T. Grohe Jr., who will be discussing the casl Entertainment Patreon topic for the month of October: Demons and the Witch-Queen, Iggwilv!Monday, September 30, 2019 at 8 PM – 9 PM EDT on www.twitch.tv/caslentertainmentI don't know exactly what Carlos and his crew of patrons will dig into for the agenda, but I'm sure it will be a fun discussion---what could possibly go wrong, when you start to mix up Iggwilv, demons, and the World of Greyhawk? ;)Edit: the replay can be watched on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuZ3eOSrabE&feature=youtu.be:Allan.

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“Celebrating Greyhawk – A Fandom Renaissance” GaryCon XI – seminar video recording now available

2022-12-26T15:57:53-05:00August 22nd, 2019|

Luke Gygax just posted the video from our "Celebrating Greyhawk - A Fandom Renaissance" seminar at GaryCon XI to his YouTube channel:Thank you Luke, for arranging to record the seminars and for keeping GaryCon a great place for Greyhawk gaming, year-in-and-year-out! 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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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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New titles at Black Blade Publishing booth at GaryCon X

2022-12-26T15:58:19-05:00March 3rd, 2018|

Black Blade Publishing will have a pile of new books and games available at our GaryCon X booth at this year, with new titles from Black Blade as well as from our many friends and fellow-publishers. Black Blade Publishing Black Blade's newest title, Tales of Peril - The Complete Boinger & Zereth Stories of John Eric Holmes makes its debut appearance at GaryCon X:Tales of Peril by John Eric HolmesJon and I will have the remaining copies of the signed and numbered limited hardcover edition available. Tales of Peril features front and back cover art from Ian Baggley: Amazons Attack the Temple of Dagon Characters Engage the Dagonite EHP ...and interior art from Jim Roslof and Chris Holmes. For further information about the book, you can read these preview blog posts:Tales of Peril - the Fifth Preview: Front Cover Art!Tales of Peril - the Fourth Preview: Back Cover Art! Tales of Peril - the Third Preview: Illustrations and ArtworkTales of Peril - the Second Preview: Table of ContentsTales of Peril - the First Preview: Signature Page ...and also follow-along with Zach "Zenopus Archives" Howard's Tales of Peril Book Club reading group!Robert J. KuntzBlack Blade will also stock copies of Robert J. Kuntz's publications, including RJK-1 Cairn of the Skeleton King, RJK-2 Tower of Blood, and LGCC-1 The Original Bottle City, as well as Rob's Dark Druids adventure from Guy Fullerton's Chaotic Henchmen Productions, and Dave Arneson's True Genius, El Raja Key Archive (in USB and DVD formats), K1 Sunken City from Three Line Studio and TLB Games. Lastly, Black Blade's stock of graph and hex paper has been replenished in time for the convention, and is available ... read more!

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grodog’s events for GaryCon X (March 2018)

2022-12-26T15:58:23-05:00October 31st, 2017|

No, I'm not dead. Just busy. Which is why I've only now submitted my events for Gary Con X in March 2018:Explore grodog's Castle Greyhawk levels. Choose from among: Escape from Level 14 (6th-9th PCs)The strange and surreal Egg Chambers level (8th-12th PCs)Assault The Hidden Aerie of Pazzuzeus (10-14th PCs)Seek the Jacinth of Inestimable Beauty in Diamonds in the Rough (10th-14th PCs). Bring your graph paper, dice, and a healthy dose of paranoid courage! Pregen PCs provided.I've submitted to run the events at these times:Thursday 6pm-midnightFriday 6pm-midnightSaturday Noon-6pmI'm going to try to play something on Saturday night, in addition to playing in Van Chane's Wednesday night Foolsgrave (if Jon Hershberger and I are done setting up the Black Blade Publishing booth in time!). I plan to play or DM in our traditional Sunday night games free-for-all as well.I haven't decided on off-grid DMing, but am currently leaning toward:- Call of Cthulhu "Grace Under Pressure"- AD&D "Treasures of the Dragon Queen"- ASSH grodog's still-untitled Underborea adventureI could end up running an off-grid game for Wednesday or Saturday nights if other options fall through, or as another option on Sunday night. We'll see.... Allan.

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grodog’s GaryCon IX Convention Report

2022-12-26T15:58:44-05:00April 19th, 2017|

GaryCon IX has come and gone, and if I had to choose just a few words to summarize the show, they would be “bigger, better, funner!” (even if that’s not quite grammatically correct). Jon Hershberger and I had an excellent time at the convention, and were well-treated by Luke Gygax’s GaryCon crew, led by the inestimable exhibitor-ninja-in-chief, Mike Noe of IronWind Metals (who also graciously filled some gaps in my range of Tom Meier troglodytes, and replaced some lost pieces to my Dennis Beauvais Bridge of Sorrows boxed set). Many thanks to our Goodman Games colleagues who helped to manage the booth at GaryCon this year, especially Michael Curtis, who also helped to set up the booth on Wednesday evening, and Joseph Goodman. Our nearby neighbors included Jeffrey P. Talanian, of Astontishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea fame (who introduced us to Del Tiegler—it’s always great to meet someone in person you’ve worked with in the past!), and the Frog God Games crew—Zach Glazer, Skeeter Green, and Bill Webb—who supplemented by the two-fisted North Texas RPGCon’s own Michael Badolato, and Erik Tenkar (of Tavern infamy). We were also able to catch up with Harley Stroh, Bill and Ben Barsh of Pacesetter Games, Shawn and Devon Hibbs of DieCast Games (thanks again for that copy of Rob Kuntz’s Garden of the Plantmaster), Paolo Greco, Tony Rosten, Jon Peterson, Jim Kitchen, and numerous other friends, artists, designers, and fans while at and away from the booth.pre-Con PackingJon and I loaded up my minivan to the level of the ceiling with all of the books, boxed sets, rack shelves, t-shirts, tote bags, banners, and associated OSR bric-a-brak for ... read more!

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