Q&A with Roger Moore

Infrequently Asked Questions

By Roger E. Moore

[Editor’s Introduction:  Roger E. Moore was instrumental in creating the ’98 line of World of Greyhawk books and wrote The Adventure Begins and Return of the Eight.  He was also the Editor for the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and D&D Gazetteer.  Beloved by fans, he’s known for contributing to the TSR AOL boards and for being one of the TSR creators who talked with fans extensively.  There were numerous things he posted on the AOL boards which are still cherished by fans, such as: Gates in the World of Greyhawk (Part 1), Half-Dragons, and Chronomancy and the Multiverse.  He also contributed to the Oerth Journal from ’96 to ’98.  He wrote prolifically for Dragon  Magazine in the 80s and 90s, and was the Editor-in-Chief of Dragon and Dungeon magazines.

With that, let’s see what Roger will have to say!]

Welcome to what might be a semi-continuing column of Greyhawk campaign answers and ideas, all unofficial but (it is hoped) educated. Thanks for the existence of this column go to my wife, who talked me into attending Gary Con XIV, to Kristoph Nolen, who was moderating the Greyhawk seminar and talked me into doing this column, and to my wife again for saying, “You need a new hobby” and pushing me to do this.

It’s been only, um, 24 years since Return of the Eight was published, the last official Greyhawk product I ever worked on. Much has transpired in Greyhawk publications and fandom since then, topics on which I am quite rusty, apologies to all. However, I promise to give this my best and to research whatever I do. Feedback from the readership is of course appreciated (see below).

Mr. Nolen was kind enough to supply me with questions from the fandom. More are welcome, so please send them to Mr. Nolen at OJ@GreyhawkOnline.com. Let us set off.

1. Which Greyhawk work makes Roger most proud?

The work I was proudest of and happiest about was The Adventure Begins, in part because it won the 1998 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement. Also, it was exciting to research. Also, it was such a pleasure to work with the TSR AOL Forum’s Greyhawk gamers to ensure the final product was both authentic and consistent with the most vital parts of the World of Greyhawk setting. It was difficult to write, and it was turned in late because of troubles on my part, but it made it to the end and beyond.

2. Is there any Greyhawk project Roger planned or hoped to do that he regrets never made it to print or online?

This is a toughie. I had finished all the official material for which I had volunteered, but earlier I had other ideas for unofficial works that I was unable to complete. These exist now only in memory. The one thing I most wanted to write was Part 2 of “Gates in the World of Greyhawk,” which I am trying to assemble now for future publication in the Oerth Journal. Wish me luck.

3. When Roger was crafting the 2E revival of Greyhawk of the mid-90s, how helpful was community involvement/input on the old AOL forums? He seems to have had fun putting a number of community Easter Eggs into The Adventure Begins, but it also seems like he listened to members of the Council of Greyhawk fan group.

Had it not been for the feedback and input offered by Greyhawk fans in the TSR AOL forum, The Adventure Begins would never have begun. As editor of Dragon Magazine, I had a habit of making everyone on staff (except the art director) review and edit everything I wrote, whether editorials or articles, so that I would never look like a fool in print. Greyhawk fans on AOL did much the same thing for me, shooting down bad ideas that I floated and correcting my errors of fact. They were great folks who were fun and intelligent and articulate and fierce in debate. There was no way I was going to deliberately create a product that could provoke the ire of many thousands of Greyhawk gamers. The Council of Greyhawk saved me from a dreadful fate and helped give birth to a great gaming book. Thank you, every single one of you. Thank you.

[Editor’s Note: the credits in The Adventure Begins echoes Roger’s sentiment here.
It reads, “For their help with this project, I am greatly indebted to many of the gamers who frequent the online discussions of the Greyhawk campaign in America Online’s Greyhawk folders and in the GreyTalk discussion group on the internet. I must cite the following worthies: Erik “Iquander” Mona and Steve “Tamarlain” Wilson. Thanks also to Bill Volkart for the St. Cuthbert’s Day holiday from Dragonmagazine issue #137 and Carl Sargent, whose unpublished manuscript, “Ivid the Undying” was a great help.   Wilson and Mona were the original Editor and Managing Editor of the Oerth Journal.

The Council of Greyhawk was the group of fans originally organized on AOL in ’95 and published the first Oerth Journals.]

4. Mr. Moore’s contributions to the RPG world [are extensive]. Truth is, I’m not familiar enough with his works, not being an avid collector…. I’d like to know if he has a piece that he remembers working on that was notably fun for him, and what was it and why?

Oh yes, there were RPG products I greatly enjoyed creating. (We will exclude fictional works here.) Jeff Grubb and I co-created the infamous Giant Space Hamster of the Spelljammer campaign, my #1 achievement. Among actual products, I was tickled with Demihumans of the Realms (1999), which would have been nice with a companion volume of demihuman class kits for the Greyhawk setting (alas). Favorite articles: “The House on Summoner Court” (Oerth Journal #7), “The Dancing Hut” (Dragon issue #83), “Legacies of the Suel Imperium” (Dragon issue #241), and “Elmshire” (Dragon issue #262). A few years ago, I met someone who was roleplaying a skulk character in a homebrew Pathfinder campaign, unaware that I had designed the character race originally for the AD&D 2E game. That was nice. The demihuman and humanoid gods that were reprinted in Unearthed Arcana, I liked them too. Dragon orbs, the Astral Plane, Hepmonaland—all great fun.

[Editor’s Note: a list of Moore’s work can be found on RPGgeek|Roger E. Moore.]

5. Do you have a favorite NPC?

In the Greyhawk campaign? It would have to be Murlynd, the hero-deity. Love that guy.

6. Is there anywhere in the Flanaess which you particularly enjoyed writing about, or that you’d have liked to?

Writing about the revived Circle of Eight was satisfying. At this point, though, writing about the regular Greyhawk setting would be very difficult as so much has already been done. The mountains of material created for the Greyhawk campaign since the year 2000 is intimidating, and it is not for me to tell you who is behind the throne of Nyrond these days. Still, it might not hurt to generate a few pages about wildspace worlds, alternate planes and planets, and other settings that are very closely connected to the Greyhawk campaign. Some of this I hope to develop in the “Gates of the World of Greyhawk” (Part 2) article mentioned earlier. There is little written about the alternate Oerth called Yarth, for instance, but a lot of things can be surmised about it even from the scraps of material we have. A bit about Luna was added to Return of the Eight, and it could be expanded. An article detailing new player character races integral to the Greyhawk campaign, something along the lines of “Legacies of the Suel Imperium,” would be fun to try if it could be fitted in somewhere.

7. Since you were so strongly a part of the TSR AOL boards, what do you think of the Greyhawk fan community that you’ve seen now, and what would you like to see for it in the future?

I was extremely pleased to see everyone at the Greyhawk discussion at Gary Con XIV; luck willing, I will be back for Gary Con XV to attend the next such seminar and meet more people. The gargantuan supply of Oerth Journals and other Greyhawk websites have barely been explored by me, but I love it all. Thank you! I was very relieved to see the fandom in such good shape. The future of the fandom will take care of itself.

That’s it so far. Hope to see more questions for future answering.

Yours, Roger.

[The Editor would like to vehemently thank Roger for choosing to attend the Celebrating Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance seminar at GaryCon XIV!  We look forward to seeing Roger again at XV!  The sheer magnitude of having Roger interact with the Greyhawk community again is a positive delight!  
All the fans can look forward to seeing Gates in the World of Greeyhawk, pt2 in issue #37 of the Oerth Journal, which should be out in June 2022!]