GaryCon XI is here!
It’s that time of year, again! And there’s a great event coming up! At GaryCon2019, GHO will be participating in a panel seminar. It is going to be video recorded by GaryCon, and streamed later! [Edit: Streaming video is now available below!!]“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!”
– from the GaryCon2019 event description
Update March 18th, 2019:
Streaming Video of GaryCon XI Seminar!!
With many thanks to Luke Gygax for having our seminar recorded, we’re finally able to offer the full length video of the seminar to all our readers! The entire presentation, from beginning to end!
Take a look, and see all of the same things the GaryCon attendees!!
Enjoy!! And be sure to pass the link around in social media so that all the
(The audio podcast version below outlines the same order of speakers and topics, although the times are a little bit off, since it was recorded from a different source. )
Update March 18th, 2019:
Audio (podcast?) of the Seminar!
Luke Gygax did a really great thing for us, that is a marvelous example of “Creating and Sharing for the World of Greyhawk”. He had the videographers for GaryConXI record the seminar, so that others who couldn’t attend can later listen and watch the seminar.
The videographers are still in the process of editing the footage, but, we have the raw audio available, so it comes out somewhat like a podcast.
So, here, we present the seminar for your listening enjoyment!
Also, one of the panelists, Allan Grohe, wrote a summary of the topics and content with timestamps to help guide you through the two-hour seminar.
So, sit back, listen a while, and find out what went on!
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 (starting at 15:00 to 27:55) shared some of [his]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 [his] “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 licensing
- Carlos Lising (starting at 54:20 to 1:10:22) discussed how to publish and share your Greyhawk home content, with an emphasis on the challenges around self-publishing for Greyhawk based lessons learned via his casl Entertainment publishing company and Patreon
- Bryan Blumklotz (starting at 1:11:06 to 1:30:45) spoke about the dynamics of building, growing, maintaining, and managing fan communities, how to help encourage Greyhawk fans to tap into the wealth of resources that are available today; Bryan co-administers the Canonfire! Facebook group, and also creates fabulous Greyhawk Heraldry (which we didn’t discuss much during the seminar, but which is featured throughout Anna’s maps as well as OJ28 and its handouts!)
- Kristoph Nolen (starting at 1:31:45 to 1:49) wrapped up our presentations with his vision for GreyhawkOnline‘s role in the Greyhawk fan community, including the Greyhawk Wiki, fan space on GHO (both current and legacy fan sites), and the Oerth Journal, among other topics
- Q&A conclude the session, starting at 1:49.
Allan has said that he plans to create a transcript for the session that we’ll also make available!
But, for now, take a listen to the audio file of the Seminar! It comes out as kind of a podcast, but, for those of you who missed it, you can definitely hear all of the stuff that we discussed, and listen to the panelists individually, finding them by Allan’s timestamps!
Update March 17th, 2019:
More and more content!!
Here’s another glut of stuff that was submitted for inclusion in the GaryConXI material, that we just couldn’t find enough room for in the Oerth Journal!!
Joseph “Greyhawk Grognard” Bloch runs a fantastic blog that deals with the World of Greyhawk, and he writes a rather prolifically. These are all about his take on Baklunish Gods and the Baklunish lands, expanding the pantheons, and giving a great new look at all of it!
After you take a look at how great his articles are, visit his site, and read up on all the stuff he’s creating and sharing these days!
Update March 16th, 2019:
More and more content!!!
So, there was so much content submitted for GaryConXI we couldn’t fit it all into the seminar! While that is kind of a bummer for those folks that were attending in the seminar audience, it’s a great thing for those visiting the website!
Len Lakofka, renown writer for the World of Greyhawk in the early days, and the creator of the Lendore Isles, contributed his revision of the 1st Edition Archer class from Dragon Magazine, which he wrote in January of 1981. It’s actually the basis of the original rules for weapon specialization!
It’s a rather in-depth look at rules, and it’s very clearly codified with what’s in the original article, and the revisions he made afterward.
Take a look, and download, enjoy the class!
Fire a fusillade of arrows at those vile orcs!
Update March 12th, 2019:
We’re back!!
GaryCon XI has come to a conclusion, and we had a marvelously great time! In the next couple of days we’re going to be posting some of our photos and stuff. But, right now, we want to share all of the content from the seminar, itself!
There’s a 32-page PDF of the handout booklet, which is the special print edition of the Oerth Journal #28! In it, there’s special inserts like a map of Ull, a page on Heraldry of GH, a Flanaess/Domain of GH map, and *so* much more in it!!
A PDF of the seminar booklet
special print edition ofis now available a free download!
For the “reference handouts”, we’ve already put together a stunning amount of resources for all of the fans of the World of Greyhawk! There’s already 32 pages of fan created content! There will soon be new original art to see, downloadable resources for you to enjoy and keep, links to all manner of sites, streams, online groups, social networks, digital content, and more!
Some of the free content already in the handout:
- Flanaess Maps – by Anna B. Meyer (a separate insert)
- Greyhawk Heraldry – by Brian Blumklotz (a separate insert)
- Gazetteer of Ull – by Mike Bridges (a separate insert)
- Erastoriul Ka’arndrik; A new drow sage in Erelhei-Cinlu – by Allan T. Grohe, jr. (“grodog”) (a separate insert)
- Knights of Ulek – by Jay “Lord Gosumba” Scott
- State of the Bandit Kingdoms – by William Dvorak
- The Great Flanaess River Adventure – by the Oliver Brothers, with an introduction by our favorite Rhennee narrator Meritaelin Vindreşkaya, by W. Kristoph Nolen
- The Cerulean Cyst – by Carlos Lising
- The Wall – by Denis “Maldin” Tetreault
- Greyhawk Reborn Introduction – by Dave Guerreri
[Previous] Update February 27th, 2019:
We’re readying all of the speeches and material for GaryCon XI! It’s busy, busy, busy, as all six panelists work to get prepared for the seminar! But, now, we’ve finished the Seminar Handout Booklet! And as mentioned below, it came in a 32 pages (cover to cover)!! It’s got so much stuff in it that it made a whole magazine by itself … so, we decided to make it one!!
And for the past 24 years, the preeminent magazine for fan-created content has always been the Oerth Journal!! So, GHO is proud to announce we’re publishing the next issue of the Oerth Journal !! Issue 28!!
And the most exciting part of it is that the OJ has never been in print before! So, Issue #28 is a commemorative edition, put together specifically for GaryCon XI.
Now that we’ve all come home from GaryConXI, a PDF version is also now available as a download!
It’s very, very exciting for us to be publishing the Oerth Journal because it represents all of the things that we can do as fans. When we work together, we can create and share amazing things!
And Oerth Journal #29 is already in the works!
Hopefully we’ll have it out in May, so it may be precisely an Anniversary issue, since the OJ was originally published on May 12th, 1995. Look forward to seeing updates and teasers on the Oerth Journal page for new articles!
® not for commercial or public use.
For now, here’s a little teaser, a piece of art by long-time Greyhawk fan and fantasy artist, W. Kristoph Nolen.
Take a look at some of his other artwork at his online gallery!
A few examples of some members of the common races of the World of Greyhawk, Oerth, all in a line-up! They’re being brought in for questioning regarding the occurrences of the evening of March 7th, 2019!!
There’s more content to come from such luminaries as Anna B. Meyer (of GHMaps.net), Carlos Lising, Mike Bridges (@GreyhawkMike of “Legends and Lore” and “Castle Greyhawk” comics), DM Shane (of the Twitch stream “The Greyhawk Channel”), Bryan “Saracenus” Blumkotz (the GH Herald, and his heraldry site here on GHO), and Lenard Lakofka!
Keep coming back for more and more content to be added in the days to come!
‘Til the Starbreak!
