New: Greyhawk Adventurer's Atlas Part 1

Fresh off the heels of map-maker Anna Meyer's Ring of Five interview, I have the pleasure of introducing the start of a new map series, available for download at Canonfire, that will prove to be monstrously phenomenal in the annals of the Greyhawk cartographic community. The Greyhawk Adventurer's Atlas is the magnus opus of Braggi a long time contributor to fansites such as Canonfire and formerly Harvester's Heroes. Braggi was also recently behind the old school adaptation and expansion of my own Ull series with the Wonders of Ull Old Skool Edition.

Braggi has gone to great lengths to research, map out and catalogue what he calls "one possible version of the Grand Unified Theory of the World of Greyhawk". Braggi's atlas breaks down the setting into many thematic regions each with their associated canon and fanon sources. Braggi strives to make the best setting atlas possible from all the best sources available. For this reason you will see in part one of the Atlas, dealing with the Baklunish West, that he has liberally referenced my Ull campaign articles and maps from Canonfire as a credible work alongside the base gazetteers and modules found throughout all editions.

There is alot to see just in this first part, more than I can comment on in one post. You will have to download them all as they are released to see the amazing detail Braggi has put into his vision of the Flanaess. Coupled with this first download is another feature of Braggi's, the Greyhawk Adventurer's Atlas: Appendices. This amazing pdf compilation shows the depth of Braggi's Grey-madness. He has ordered lists of published Greyhawk adventures by level and location. Plus he has also included a dizzying array of links to Greyhawk related sources. Trust me, you'll want to download these (see below). Stay tuned for more parts of the Atlas from Braggi in the coming months ahead...

DOWNLOAD THE ATLAS PART 1

DOWNLOAD THE APPENDICES

Ring of Five Questions: Anna Meyer

Welcome back faithful Greyhawk readers! Last time out I interviewed a pro in Chris Pramas, this time however I'm switching things up. My next victim, ahem, guest is one of hardest working fans in the Greyhawk community. Besides actively gaming in the setting, this talented artist specializes in well researched, richly rendered Greyhawk maps. She has lent her cartographic skill to the Oerth Journal before, but her main goal is to map the entire setting and she has her own website devoted to this ambitious project - the Atlas of the Flanaess. Over the years an online following for her stunning maps has developed into a full blown social group, the Flanaess Geographical Society. We've all seen or heard about her maps, now it's time to question her about the World of Greyhawk itself. Hailing from California via Sweden, welcome to the Ring: Anna B. Meyer.

Q1: You've spent countless hours staring at the Flanaess so this should be difficult. What is your favorite part of the World of Greyhawk?

Anna: During my years of mapping and all the research that has come with it I've been surprised over and over again by the number of interesting, fascinating and at times spectacular places all over the Flanaess.
Despite all the adventurous and famous places I have spent so much effort mapping my favorite realm is one of the least known on the continent. It has a central location and is often mentioned in many of the old modules, still it's a realm that has largely been left out of the stories of Greyhawk. My favorite part of Greyhawk is the Faerie Kingdom Celene, the elven place next to some of the most iconic paces like The Village of Hommlet and the Temple of Elemental Evil. It has majestic forests, mountains and rivers full of creatures both celestial and foul, from the smallest annoying pixie to maybe even dragons. This is where I would settle and have my own tree house if could.

Q2: You've been called a mapping goddess, but if you could actually be one Greyhawk deity which one would fit you best?

Anna: As a woman and an elven fan it is tempting to go for an elven deity or Mayaheine. But the one that would fit me best is probably the Oeridian goddess Johydee.

Q3: I hear you have a home campaign set in the Rel Deven area. What era of the Great Kingdom do you prefer?

Anna: My first campaigns were my versions of Hommlet, the Temple, the Wild Coast and the Pomarj. We played through the wars in Furyondy and Shield Lands with excursions into the Horned Lands. As a new GM I often fell into the trap of "saving the world" adventures, and the Greyhawk wars gave me a perfect chance to play that type of a campaign. The reason I chose to locate my latest campaign in Rel Deven was that I was researching the area for my mapping and I could get more out of my work by making a campaign set there in CY 598 just after the end of the Living Greyhawk campaign. For me it has turned out a lot more fun than I imagined, lots of local intrigue between good and evil and tons of references to old Greyhawk lore.
I really like the mess that the implosion of the Great Kingdom cased, an area with lots of "grey" in it (pun intended). Both as a place that has a lot of Greyhawk tone to it, but also as a place with more than the usual good vs. evil struggle. Here are noble houses and historic connections, a vital part in creating more of a gray environment with even more dimensions.

Q4: Anyone who has ran D&D should have a favorite villain. Who is yours, someone from canon or a creation of your own?

Anna: My favorite canon villain is Lord Vuron, Grazzt's Steward. He is smart, special and intriguing, I loved to play him in some of my early campaigns. But he died at the final battle in the Gord books so I had to come up with a new favorite. This time I played it safe and invented my own, a drow cambion and Iuz half sister - Zezztra. She is the daughter of Grazzt and Eclavdra. When she grew up she was left in the care of Vuron who was very fond of her, so she grew up with kind of two fathers and later found out she had kind two mothers Eclavdra and Leda.  She likes Leda despite the fact she killed Vuron. Zezztra grew to know what real affection means, a rare thing among demonkind. She hates most of her kind and that had led her to take up the profession of assassin, specializing in fiends. She work from time to time as Grazzt's elite hitman. Her alignment is neutral with some faint good tendencies, which is handy when you need to go unnoticed. She has the strength of her father, the intellect of her mentor and the charisma of her mother, in all making her a survivor even among the fittest. Her profession has taken her across the Flanaess and many other realms and she has become one of the top assassins in the known multi-verse. She wants the world to be a better place and strive to make it better, fully knowing that she will always be tainted by her heritage. She enjoys as much to see the fear in her victims eyes as the joy of the people she indirectly helps. She would like to kill Lolth, since it would be way to gain the approval of her dad, and a way to overcome her past all in one. But she needs to build her skills a bit more to be sure she can make that happen. There are lots of others to practice on in the mean time.

Q5: For fun: You've been given creative control over a new edition of Greyhawk, What (if anything) would you do to the Flanaess physically or politically to shake it up?

Anna: The Crook of Rao's influence had its supremacy and it's being countered and overcome, opening up for the next round of events shaking the Flanaess. I would make the next upheaval the "Return of the Overking" in the form of Duke Szeffrin rallying the Death Knights to his banner to reconquer the Great Kingdom under Rauxes again. This time in his skewed form of "pure Aerdy rule" without the Baalzy overcoat. Maybe he can rally Grenell behind his banner. What about the house Naelax and its diabolical dealings, are they defeated or will the Hells crave their lawful right? That is one area I would look into, and what I'm doing in my campaign right now.
My next area of interest would be to try and work out what Iuz is up to, his ambitions can't be satisfied by any means. He wants to become a true god and increase his influence, meaning getting more to either worship or fear him. I would make him start to consolidating him power by converting parts of his realm into a demi-plane to give him more power and to be able to tweak even the physical to his needs. There will be lots of work for brave adventurers to try and stop him from literally destroying the good lands.
I miss the Horned Society and its Hierarchs and their backers in the netherworld would not take defeat from an abyssal upstart like Iuz without a fight, so they might come back with a vengeance. It will give the good guys some much needed competition among the Evils.
The Seldarine court will not sit on the sidelines this time and urges Celene and the elves to join the fight. Knights of Luna will start a covert battle against its foes. The same goes for the Circle of Eight, I will have them takes sides in a cold war like scramble for position and the upper hand in the power struggle. They are all in great need of brave and skilled adventurers to help them out.

A Few Greyhawk Items

It's the middle of the week and time for me to catch up on a few Greyhawk related items on the net. First up is some more fiction from prolific Canonfire writer Mystic Scholar. Last time up, Mystic debuted a new story titled The Making of a Paladin. Now his main protagonist, Sir Ivon is back in a new installment called No Rest for the Wicked. If you haven't already checked out his story now's your chance to get in while it's still brewing. Enjoy!

READ THE STORY HERE

Next up is a new old school adventure from Canonfire's own baronzemo titled Lost Treasures. Baronzemo writes:

Years have passed since the crown jewels of the gnome King Warren ap'Hiller was stolen. Rumors are abundant of who did the job and why. The thieves were never caught. As fate would have it, a clue to the jewels whereabouts has landed in your hands!

This 1st edition mini adventure set in the Flinty Hills is for character levels 5-7.

DOWNLOAD LOST TREASURES HERE

My last piece of news is an article, this time from the old school fansite Dragonsfoot. The Stout Point of View by D.A. Howard develops this subrace of halflings in new and interesting ways. For Greyhawkian dungeonmasters and players who love hobniz, I highly recommend the cultural information and random tables presented in Mr. Howard's article. Download it and good gaming!

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Darlene Map Techniques

As reported by Havard's Blackmoor Blog, the old D&D setting forum The Piazza has recently been treated to the start of a Q&A thread with World of Greyhawk map creator and classic D&D illustrator, Darlene. As an artist myself, sometimes it's not enough to look at a piece of art; I also want to know how they made it. Darlene's most recent anecdote tells of how the Greyhawk maps were assembled on her drawing table, and I must say it really puts a perspective on how relatively easy and forgiving today's computer aided art can be. Her layering technique involving acetate and Pantone color sheets is some really old school printerly stuff. I'm not even sure Pantone makes adhesive color sheets anymore. While Darlene's method of producing full color maps may have been more common back then, it still bears alot in common with today's layered computer art except as she mentions there was no room for error. Gotta love it.

Legendary Egg of Gygax?

I get some weird alerts on my email sometimes concerning Greyhawk or Gygax. Check this one out it's hilarious. It's for a game site of some sort called Roblox.com where there is selling and trading of virtual avatar stuff. These pages seem to be a couple years old, but it's all new to me. The item I found initially offered is the Legendary Egg of Gygax. (Buy now for only R$25000)
A clever homage I suppose but whatever this site is about they've taken the homage and ran with it, high stepped over the goal line, did a dance in the end zone and then spiked the ball. They've also got the Legendary Egg of Gygax Shirt, the Plasma Armor of Gygax, the Legendary Teapot of Gygax and more. Wacky stuff. I almost feel like stealing some of these ideas for Greyhawk magic items. Almost.

Update 05/07/2021: I removed the links to this post. No one needs this stuff haha!

Castle Greyhawk: On Edge

In search of adventure - it's time for page nineteen of our Castle Greyhawk graphic novel adaptation. If you're just now discovering this amazing piece of fiction be sure to go back to the beginning and catch author Scott Casper's additional material over at the dedicated blog for Castle Greyhawk.

You can also view the latest episode HERE courtesy of Maldin's Greyhawk. Enjoy!

Artist's commentary: Our intrepid adventurers are nearly inside the legendary castle and I'm enjoying every step. There is alot to like in drawing this scene, from the murder holes of the gatehouse to the shadowy depths of the dry moat to the thick iron chains of the drawbridge which lays open inviting trespassers to their doom. I'm not sure where the hawk/falcon came from, but how they jump nervously is a great tension breaker. Yrag is well defended, but as I drew it Tenser is clearly flat footed and doesn't know what to do and Ehlissa lowering her head is more liable to stab Yrag than any flying creature overhead. Too fun. It will be fun to see how they react to a real threat inside the castle...

Ring of Five Questions: Chris Pramas

Normally the weekend is a good time to rest, but instead I'm here to bring my fellow Greyhawkers another fine episode of the Ring of Five Questions! Last time out I completed an interview of Living Greyhawk's Eric Menge. Following up on Eric, I now turn the spotlight on another big name in the gaming industry. This developer worked a short but productive stint with Wizards of the Coast including work on D&D 3rd Edition and the Greyhawk setting's Slavers (with Sean K Reynolds). Then in 2000 he set out and forged his own company in Seattle, the award winning Green Ronin, known today for great products like Freeport, Mutants & Masterminds (my favorite) and also Dragon Age RPG and A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. Despite running Green Ronin he still managed to publish several articles in Dragon Magazine for Wizards' short lived Chainmail minis skirmish game, developing the setting for much of Western Oerik. Beyond Wizards and Green Ronin he has also branched out to do work for Games Workshop on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition as well as write for an MMO, Vigil Games' Dark Millennium Online. Not a bad decade! Please welcome into the Ring, Chris Pramas!

Q1. I'm sure you're familiar with the Darlene map. What area of the World of Greyhawk is your favorite?

Chris: I’m fond of the Sheldomar Valley. I’ve more had campaigns in that region than anywhere else in Greyhawk, and in fact it’s where the game I’m running for my family right now is located. I started them in Keoland with the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh.
I like it because it’s a good central location. Plenty to do in the valley itself, and you can have characters travel down to the Amedio Jungle, or into the mountains and the Sea of Dust beyond, or up to the Baklunish Basin for some Arabian flavored adventures. Of course, we’ve been playing for months and my PCs are still in Saltmarsh!

Q2. Greyhawk has dozens of deities to choose from, but if you could actually be one of them which one would it be?

Chris: Tempting as it is to say Heironeous, as I do enjoy some righteous ass kicking, I’d get tired of fighting all the time. Really, Delleb is more my speed. Reading, researching, and uncovering forgotten knowledge would be a lot more fun for me in the long term.

Q3. The lands of Western Oerik, featured in your Dragon articles about the Chainmail minis setting, have recently gained new interest in the fan community. What inspirations did you draw from in designing the cultures of the Sundered Empire?

Chris: It was a bit tricky because I was trying to design an interesting new setting, but it also had to have all the core elements you expect from D&D. In particular, the minis had to double as generic D&D minis. I had argued that we should keep the separate line of RPG minis we had started in 1999, but my boss did not agree so ours had to serve two purposes.
The most out there thing I was able to do was the People’s State of Mordengard and the influence for this was my own lefty politics. One day I was thinking about how most fantasy settings have traditional kingdoms and empires, but why not something else? Then it occurred to me that dwarves would make great communists and that was the idea that led to Mordengard. The shame of the minis was that I wanted their look to be based on old Soviet propaganda posters. For the reasons outlined above, we had to give them a more generic dwarf style.
For other factions, my choices went no deeper than favorite monsters of mine. I can’t really explain my fondness for gnolls and hobgoblins, but it goes back to my earliest days of playing D&D. So it was only naturally they should figure prominently in the factions. Also, it just made sense to me that the hobgoblins would be the ones to organize the savage humanoids into an effective fighting force.

Q4. You took part in developing the excellent sourcebook Slavers before starting your own company. Did any classic Greyhawk publications influence your work at Green Ronin?

Chris: Oh, sure. In fact, I just finished an essay for Wolfgang Baur that talks about the influence of the Greyhawk folio on me in some depth. When I was designing the World of Freeport for the Pirate’s Guide to Freeport, the folio was my inspiration. To that point, Freeport had always been a city meant to be dropped into the fantasy setting of the GM’s choice. However, many fans wanted to see what an expanded world would look like, so I wrote an optional chapter in that book doing just that. Since I had limited space, I used an updated version of the folio format.

Q5. Pretend for a minute that Green Ronin got the license to reboot Greyhawk. What major change would you make to breathe new life into the setting?

Chris: I would roll the timeline back to 576 and leave it there. I think the setting was not only more interesting then, but it was easier for newbies to get into. All the products that came after the Greyhawk Wars had the unenviable task of trying to summarize a lot of complicated history. That’s a barrier to entry that just doesn’t need to exist. And frankly, if there are going to be world shaking events in Greyhawk, they should be things individual GMs decide to do in their campaigns.
I had this issue when I was designing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition for Games Workshop.  When we were putting the game together, GW was in the midst of this big event called the Storm of Chaos and they wanted the RPG to reflect what had just happened to the Empire. I’d rather have let GMs choose when to set their campaigns. We easily could have done a Storm of Chaos book that showed you how to play through it if you wanted, rather than make it the default setting, but it wasn’t my call to make.