In lesser news, but by no means less unimportant to me or the Greyhawk community is the passing of Carl Sargent. For those who don't know who he is, let's just say he developed the World of Greyhawk during 2nd edition in ways no one else could. As fast as Carl appeared on the D&D scene and ushered Greyhawk through devastating wars and its aftermath, he was GONE. Carl left the RPG industry and as far as I know, never returned or felt he needed to during the RPG resurgence started by Wizards of the Coast.
Now not everyone likes "Sargent-hawk" but it is in my opinion second only to Gygax in importance. Sargent merely took the frame work of wars that Gygax had already assembled and pursued them to their most logical conclusion. What Carl brought extra was this "grimdark" tone to Greyhawk that was surely an import from his days working on Warhammer. Another thing, it's a travesty that to this day there is no official print version of Ivid the Undying, a masterpiece of world-building, involving the Great Kingdom. People who struggled to differentiate between Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance fantasy need only read Ivid or any other book with Carl Sargent's name on it. Thank you Carl, for your prolific work!
To be frank, I am often irked by the blatant disrespect much of the Greyhawk community offers Carl Sargent and his work. His in-depth look at the Flanaess in The Marklands, Ivid the Undying, and Iuz the Evil were excellent and added a great deal of remarkable source material to the setting. We should celebrate his life and work -- not deride either.
ReplyDeleteI just discovered in the past month or so that Carl Sargent did work in the RPG industry after 1995,(for Earthdawn, ShadowRun---and more importantly here---Living Greyhawk! See his his RPG bibliography @ https://rpggeek.com/rpgdesigner/752/carl-sargent and sort it by publication date for the details.
ReplyDeleteAllan.
Sad to hear both of their deaths. I agree that Carl Sargent was very important in keeping Greyhawk going in the minds and catalogues of TSR after Gygax departed. I think he had the additional problem that whereas Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms was always going to be added to and expanded by other authors and game designers, Greyhawk has been seen as Gygax's baby, and anyone altering Greyhawk without Gary's permission was viewed dimly by his acolytes.
ReplyDeleteTo me, Greyhawk congealed into a fully realized setting w/ Carl Sargent's admirable additions in 2nd edition. I am sorry to hear of his passing. I had no idea the "grimdark" themes came from his prior work on Warhammer, so thanks for that tidbit.
ReplyDeletecarlos: Yes! I'd like to think if I were in Sargent's shoes back then I would've done the same thing.
ReplyDeletegrodog: Good link. I had no idea!
John: I know what you mean. Though in my young adult life I was never more excited at all the new Greyhawk releases as during the Sargent era. Back then I didn't care about company drama and politics.
BenS: Yeah when I discovered he worked on Warhammer years after the fact, it was like a light bulb went off and I loved his work ever since. It made me think, I don't need GW games, I have Greyhawk!
Valkaun: Amen and Excelsior!
The Living Greyhawk material is not by Carl Sargent himself but rather, expansions based on his Greyhawk work by fans. He did not work on Living Greyhawk.
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