Thankful For Greyhawk

Greetings fellow Greyhawkers! In the United States we celebrate Thanksgiving by saying what we are grateful to have. When it comes to the World of Greyhawk community we should all be thankful for the growth of our fandom. Indeed, the Greyhawk Channel's own DM Shane is among those leading the resurgence:

"My dear new friends...

Crazy to say that, but it’s the truth. Most of our community is made up of new friends - new to me and new to one another. But reality is that just one year ago, we’d only aired one show. And only a few of you were there to watch it live. There was no Greyhawk Channel - just a small group of friends taking the risk to share their regular Sunday night game.

One year later… we’ve had more than 100 people play on the channel, nearly 20 different DMs, and have streamed more than 700 hours in the process. And @everyone thats super cool.

But waaaaay more cool is that there’s now a community of people who hang out together - supporting each other, foodporning together, sharing snacks and alcohol and crude humor together. Its a big group of good friends. And this is something none of us had a year ago. Its something we all built together.

I’m a blessed man. But this year one of my greatest blessings is something I didn’t expect, didn’t plan, didn’t see coming. Its you. All of you. This year, I’m thankful as hell for every one of you who help me look forward to every morning. You have made The Greyhawk Channel home. A home I deeply love.

This was year one. I promise you all another year of adventure, laughter, and friendship. Who’s with me?"

Who is with him? The Greyhawk community is still active and alive and can be found all over the map. In addition to the many fine DMs and players at the Greyhawk Channel I'm thankful to have:

Anna Meyer for the unparalleled Atlas of the Flanaess.

Dave Guerreri and staff running 5E Greyhawk Reborn.

Joseph Bloch for his foresight and the long-running Greyhawk Grognard.

Scott Casper for co-producing the Castle Greyhawk Comic with me as artist.

The Greyhawk faithful on the forums for Canonfire, Dragonsfoot and the Piazza.

Denis Tetreault for maps, lore and hosting my old comics at Melkot.

My friends Carlos Lising and Allan Grohe for running and producing wonderful professionally made Greyhawk games at conventions like Garycon.

Of course, my game own group for the Gamerstable podcast and putting up with my Greyhawk obsession.

The amazing Facebook groups, Sages of Greyhawk, Flanaess Geographical Society and also Canonfire a Greyhawk Resource for re-releasing my old comics to a new audience.

Lord Gosumba for keeping the old school alive on new media.

Return to the Bandit Kingdoms for being there with the streaming Greyhawk fandom.

Bards of Greyhawk for doing what no one else is doing in D&D fandom. Original music.

And to so many other creators of Greyhawk content and online entertainment that I can't recall you all, Happy Thanksgiving all and let's have a great CY 2019.

GenCon 50 and Gamerstable Returns

Ahoy Greyfolk! Sadly this week is Gen Con 50 week and while I've known for a while I wasn't going (sold out of 4-day badges!) and I further don't feel I'll miss anything epic, it still kind of makes me feel glum to not be among the gamer crowds like I've done for the last decade.

On the bright side next year I'm sure I'll be back given that my friends at Gamerstable have a Kickstarter going to bring our gaming podcast back from hiatus. So far we are funded with more stretch goals in sight. Help us out if you can! See you in Indy in 2018!

Update 6/20/2021: I'm pretty sure I have not been back to Gen Con since before this year. Also, removed Kickstarter link. I'm sure that's long expired.

Castle Greyhawk And Conventions

Last weekend I had the pleasure to attend the Schaumburg Township District Library Comic Con with my co-conspirator from the Castle Greyhawk webcomic, Scott Casper. After more than a few years working together, and living in the same state, this was our first ever live meeting and I must say after attending many GenCons, being on the business end of a small convention was a pleasure! Scott was a gracious host and went the extra mile (or twenty) for me. The STDL is an amazing place with so many events and visitors. My tiny hometown library could learn a thing or two from them.

Pitching our webcomic to people who don't know Greyhawk or even D&D was an interesting exercise and actually has been an important learning experience. I also learned to not leave people empty handed. Not everyone is going to want your work unless you're super-famous, so the next best thing is to give people something free to remember you by, even if its just a business card with your email or website URL. Postcards, buttons or other knick-knacks might suffice as well.

I also see the need to promote my personal art more. Even if the comic's content is IP owned by WotC, I think I have enough striking images, pages or even individual frames from the comic that could appease even a casual "sword and sorcery" fan looking for a print to put on their wall. Now if I only knew something about making prints, pricing and stuff like that.... On the other hand, I can see myself being open to commission work. I have published some pieces for BRW Games and some ezines, but beyond that I've always been leery of art-for-pay projects. Too modest I guess. I will give it more thought and perhaps get into that once I have an online portfolio to show off.

The best part of the event however was sitting in on an authors/artists panel in front of a crowd. I never saw myself doing this, maybe a private interview like I'm used to on the podcast GamersTable, but not this! It was fun answering questions and interacting with the audience. I wish I had been this relaxed at public speaking 25 years ago.

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun. Looking forward to another event, possibly an in-state con or to Wisconsin for GaryCon next year. Who knows?

New Years Resolutions?

I don't do resolutions in real life, but over at our gaming podcast, Gamerstable we do an annual resolutions and challenges episode. Check it out! Maybe you'll get some ideas to spice up your own gaming lifestyle.

As for Greyhawkery, I try to keep my goals here separate, if not realistic in what I can accomplish. At any rate here is a few things I would like to do in 2016:

1. Continue with my Five Reasons to Visit series. I'm having fun with this informative series. Should be an easy project to carry on since it's already started.

2. Try to do a few more Ring of Five Questions interviews. I have a very short list of some good candidates. I just need to get back in the groove.

3. Compile Castle Greyhawk webcomic chapters 1-3 into PDFs. Should be easy, but do I have the software to make it look nice?

4. Create another regular Greyhawkery feature. Since Greyhawk news and events is few and far between, creating content is always a struggle. I am open to suggestions for new blog content. What sort of things subjects should I cover or start focusing on?

5. Social media increase? I know the Thursday night Greychats have pretty much faded into undeath, so I'd have to assume I can reach more Greyhawk fans if I start to focus more on Facebook (ugh) or maybe create a Greyhawk-centric Twitter account? I already have a Twitter for my podcast group @GreyhawkMike so maybe all I need to do is start tagging Greyhawk posts? 

That's all for now. Hopefully more comics and Greyhawk visiting next time!

Update 06/10/2021: Amazingly, six years later and social media for Greyhawk is bigger than its ever been. What I couldn't foresee was interaction on Youtube, Twitch and Discord. Facebook indeed did lead the charge though. Good times!

Reactions: Chris Perkins Panel

Man am I kicking myself for not going to Gamehole Con this year! Over at ENWorld, Morrus has posted some quotes from a panel that WotC's Chris Perkins took part in and it has once again got me and a lot of people buzzing on Greyhawk. Here's my thought and reactions to selected parts of this panel, also you can listen to the rest of the panel for yourself HERE.


"Gone are the days, in 3rd and 4th Edition, when we were bound by the model of having to release a book a month or two books a month, or three books a month. We have no commitment or desire to do that going forward.
And part of that is just driven by business realities, part of it is driven by our knowledge of certain facts that we've obtained through surveys, through talking to people at shows, that there is kind of a certain amount of material that people can actually absorb before the stuff that we're releasing no longer has any value and is no longer serving anybody. A lot of 3rd Edition products, I'm sure, and 4th Edition products, I'm sure, that maybe you've bought or your players have bought are sitting on shelves having never been used, or used precious little. We don't sell products so that 5% of our audience can use 5% of it. We're now trying to sell products that 100% of our audience might use, and they'll use all of it."

I appreciate this honesty because we all know splat books get ridiculous and it's even more ridiculous trying to keep up with buying them. This is a big reason I only play Pathfinder core rules. I got off the book a month club early. It would be different to me if that was a Greyhawk source book every month but a dozen bestiaries or an ultimate-ultimate character building guide is too much. I'm glad Wizards is sticking to just story related material, though that does hedge out extra setting support which us diehards clamor for.

"...one of the things we are going to be doing in the future is looking out at some of our other worlds. That doesn't mean we won't come back to the Realms, or have adventures that visit multiple different locations, start in one place and end in another... one of the goals with our stories is to go beyond Forgotten Realms, safe to say.
The other thing that we're driving to with our stories is to, whenever possible, draw upon the past, key elements from the history of the game that have not seen a lot of attention lately."

This is a tricky proposition. What elements haven't got any attention? What old D&D themes have not been done already by WotC (or Paizo) in recent memory? I've got a few ideas HERE. Place your bets!

"The story that follows Rage of Demons is not going to be anywhere near the Underdark, and it will have its own feel, its own flavour, its own atmosphere, its own thing. The story that follows that is going to be very different. It allows us to do things like ... Princes of the Apocalypse and the Elemental Evil story was very dungeon driven; it was a dungeon-based story... in the future we want to maybe do intrigue. What story would we have to tell in D&D that is fundamentally an intrigue story. Would it be like city based? Would it be planar based, where you're basically on some sort of planar hunt for something? And then maybe the story after that is ... [audience member suggests "horror"] ... horror, or something more light-hearted and flaky, or a little off-track, or like Eberron, a little more steampunkish, or Victorian pulpy... making sure every story has a different feel, flavour, making sure we get to visit some of our other worlds.."

This line of thought implies good chances for settings like Ravenloft or Planescape to be explored, which would feel quite different than their Realms stories. For Greyhawk to stand out, avoiding diungeons or underdark will be difficult but not impossible.

"So, yeah, vampire, classic monster, yeah, we'll do a story with vampires... [more classic monster suggestions].. yeah, we'll do a story with giants."

So Ravenloft naturally, and Against the Giants will be touched upon sooner or later. Check. Whether Greyhawk's giants are more compelling a story than those already seeded in the Realms stories we shall see. As for horror, I'd still love to see Vecna used. He is arguably Greyhawk's greatest villain and is also a planar threat to boot.

"A great bulk of those who play D&D run homebrew settings. But of those home-brew campaigns, over half of those homebrewers do pillage from other settings ... 15% or 50% of the world they've created has hawked stuff from other worlds. They're comfortable pillaging our products for ideas. That homebrew number, I can't remember the exact percentage, but I think it's like 55% homebrew. And then it's like 35% Forgotten Realms, and then everything else ... Very few people right now, turns out, running Dark Sun campaigns. A sliver of a sliver. Very few people running Hollow World campaigns. Very few people are running Mystara campaigns. It pretty much goes Homebrew, Forgotten Realms, I think Greyhawk's at 5% ands then everybody else is at 2% or 1%."

Meh. A few years ago I'd rail against this figure, but realistically ever since 4E they've been burying interest in Greyhawk beyond nostalgic reasons. Most Living Greyhawk players probably migrated to Pathfinder's Golarion long ago, then two editions of Nentir Vale and Realms have led to people either doing their own homebrew or going with what's published. So Greyhawk at 5%? I'll take that! With no RPG support, video games, or novels for years? What other brand can still keep that big a slice of the pie?

"But we are looking at bringing in consultants beyond the range, beyond the pale... people that obviously love D&D may not actually have ever worked on a D&D product. Or maybe they have! Who knows? If I could resurrect Gary Gygax I would bring him in as a consultant, certainly. But we have to stick to the living."

This is something I've been harping on for a long time and now that WotC wholeheartedly embraces their "consulting" model it seems Greyhawk does stand a chance if the right people are there at the right time. Sure Gygax is gone, but the best people on the inside right now are Perkins and Mike Mearls themselves! Outside of those two, I know more than a few people still in the industry or without it who would jump on a Greyhawk consulting gig if given the chance.

"So the question is "What is the next Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide?" Who knows? I don't know. ... But let's say we did a Greyhawk adventure, Greyhawk has been out of circulation now for how many years? Although you can still ... there's nothing stopping you from running a Greyhawk campaign because everything out there is still there and its still timely. And it remains, as far as I'm concerned it's an open question whether we would even change the timeline. Greyhawk's current timeline is perfectly cromulent. So is its original timeline. So the question then becomes "Is it a better user experience to put all the information you need to know about Greyhawk in the adventure product because it's really for the DN's information, or is it better, and it's going to be better received, if that information is parcelled, divorced from the adventure as a separate thing that you have to buy? That you have to spend money on now."

Greyhawk or more appropriately the City of Greyhawk region would fit the SCAG template perfectly. Taking all Greyhawk's existing guides, timelines and story elements you can draw a line through them all that will make a single coherent sourcebook full of useful material for DMs and players alike.

"What makes Greyhawk, Greyhawk? Is it Gary? What else about Greyhawk makes Greyhawk, Greyhawk? Is it low magic? Because you have Mordenkainen - he is not low magic. So it's that magic is more exclusive in Greyhawk? Unless you goto the Valley of the Magi, where it's not. It's got barbarians, a whole lot ... look at the Greyhawk map, there's a whole lot of barbarian territory up there. We don't know a whole lot about them except that they're tigers and... we've got Scarlet Brotherhood which are aryan monastic wanna control the world type organisation, somebody at work, I can't remember it was Mike Mearls or somebody else, described Greyhawk as almost Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser-esque, Fritz Leiber, Lankhmar-esque. That would certainly make sense based on things I heard about what Greyhawk was like when Gary was running it, sort of maybe he felt that way."

"If we were to do a Greyhawk story, one of the things I'd be sorely tempted to do is focus on Iuz. I'm not going to give you a full campaign setting. I'm going to tell you a story about Iuz and all of the **** that he's doing right now and all of the repercussions that are happening because of that... Iuz is going to be the glue that holds this story together."

Totally agree. It's a lot of things to different people. There is no way you can pigeon-hole it. Thus, given the limited time WotC devotes to promoting a story or setting I will never expect an adventure set in the Sea Princes or Ull for instance, but do I expect Greyhawk City or Iuz? Hell yes it's almost unavoidable.

Update 06/15/2021: Six years later, still no Greyhawk (unless one counts Ghosts of Saltmarsh). WotC is presently teasing two new "classic" setting books. I'm still not holding my breathe.  

GamersTable Podcast

I don't promote Gamerstable, the podcast I am part of, quite near enough to do it justice. So today I am here to point out the incredible things you'll hear if you listen to our weekly show:

228 Episodes and Counting: We of course talk about a variety of gamer topics, mostly in the table top arena. Given our backgrounds we are heavy on D&D but we tend to try just about any game system or genre out there. Go back through the archives and there's bound to be a topic of interest to you.

Actual Play/Role Play Dramas: This is our strongest feature. A lot of podcasts do actual play recorded sessions of their games, but @GamerstableEric and @Gamerstable_Dan take it up a notch with our game group. These dramas will astound you with their post-production, narration, sound effects and guest voice acting. We change to different games for each one, our last was Call of Cthulhu, and the next is Shadowrun. Check it out, you will find nothing like them anywhere else!

Patrons and Fan Interaction: Gamerstable is very loyal to its listeners, providing extra perks and content to those who become patrons through the show or just following us daily on social media such as Twitter. (I am @GamersTableMike) We have even met many of our listeners at GenCon each year and the gaming community grows more close because of it.

That is not all! Browsing the site you'll find links to comics, short stories and links to our other projects such as the new podcast Titansgrave Diggers which follows Wil Wheaton's Titansgrave online show. Join in on Gamerstable, drop us some comments or even recommend some topics if you feel inclined. Heck, I may even talk some Greyhawk who knows?

500th Blog Post!

I can never pass up a good milestone, so I thought I'd reflect on all the good times I've had and things I've learned in producing posts for this labor of love called Greyhawkery. Ever since I dove head first into the Greyhawk community ten years ago, I've entertained people with comics about deities and wrote articles on places in Greyhawk where no one else ventured. In hindsight I'm surprised that it was only five years ago that I decided to shift a lot of my energy and content to a blog format. I really wish I had done so sooner. Five hundred posts later Greyhawkery has been well worth the effort and has brought me closer to many other fans in the gaming community that I acknowledge today:

Who could not lead off without their own gaming group? I've been blessed to play Greyhawk and innumerable other games with not just one but often 2-3 entirely different table-top groups. The oldest and best of these groups is comprised of the cast of Gamerstable our very own RPG podcast. If you haven't listened to the show before you should, because Gamerstable really is in a class of its own. All the gaming related things we have done as a group from conventions to actual-play dramas and more are there for your amusement. Though separate, Greyhawkery has been running alongside our game groups and podcast all this time, serving as my outlet for in-game content like the Sea Princes Campaign or the Mines of Hokar.

Of course what first got me into building a reputation in the gaming community was the fansite Canonfire! and freelance author Gary Holian. In those years I've made countless friends in the community through the CF forums or the weekly Greytalk chats and more recently at gatherings during GenCon. Though Canonfire is where I hang my hat, most of the community contacts I've made and maintained through blogging can be found around the net on other fantastic groups and sites like ENWorld, Paizo Publishing, Greyhawk Reborn, Flanaess Cartographic Society, Dragonsfoot, The Piazza and of course Anna Meyer's cartography site. Blogging is an outlet for my creativity, but the social media side keeps evolving from chat rooms and forums to things like G+ and Twitter. (@GreyhawkMike)

The creative projects that I display weekly on Greyhawkery are also thanks to many other fans of Greyhawk who supported and collaborated with me over the years. Foremost is Denis Tetreault and his fan site, Maldin's Greyhawk which has been a champion of my blog and comic work for a long time. There's an impossibly huge list of friends and colleagues who I've worked with on projects like the fanzine Oerth Journal or featured their solo writing and art on Greyhawkery. The Greyhawk community is an inspired bunch that never runs out of ideas.

RPG blogging itself is a community and there is a ton of them to keep track of (luckily good old Charles Akins at Dyvers does the hard work) but the ones that inspired me the most to get into blogging is (for obvious reasons) Joe Bloch's Greyhawk Grognard. Though our theme is much the same our content has always been complimentary rather than competitive. I encourage anyone who has dreamt of blogging about their campaign or favorite setting to follow our example and stick with it. You won't always have new content to upload or a hot topic to discuss, but even a small post (or one referring from another blog) to let people know you're still active goes a long way to holding an audiences' attention.

Speaking of which, ongoing content has always been a main feature of Greyhawkery. My old Greyhawk Comic and home campaign serials were heavily featured in my early years and now the last couple years I have been collaborating on the webcomic Castle Greyhawk with published author Scott Casper. If you ever have a chance to work on a special project or a blog with another person I highly recommend it because sharing the workload can only benefit your blog's longevity.

To close out I'd like to say working on Greyhawkery has given me ample opportunities to meet gaming industry professionals in person at conventions or through interviews done online. My #1 goal for next GenCon is to run into Chris Perkins with Wizards of the Coast. I got some questions for him concerning the future of Greyhawk ;)

More next time!

Update 06/07/2021: Wow, it's fun to see where I was half way to 1000. I had to fix alot of links, people moving URLs and stuff. I also updated my Twitter handle. Lastly, Google+ no longer exists. Ah well.

All Rogues Campaign

The Gamerstable gang is always throwing around ideas for new games or campaigns. A few of us recently play tested one of these ideas with 5E rules. It was a homebrew "all rogues" game and for all purposes it went extremely well. That one shot game then reminded me of a Greyhawk campaign I once started on but never got off the ground (this would've been around 2nd Edition era); an all rogue Free City of Rel Astra urban campaign. It was to be a game of politics, con jobs and turf wars. Just my fortune I never throw away notes, and today I found the binder! Let's see what inspired material I had cooked up:

Power Groups & NPCs of note

Blackhands: The PC's starting gang. Lenient and low key with politics
Shadow Rogues: Assassins, Information
Red Rogues: punks, bullies, muggers, fighting over city blocks
Astra Boys: youth gang, broke off of the Red Rogues
The Establishment: organized thieves guild with strong political power
The Clan: lycanthropic freelancers
Secret Police: incognito, spies (I assume they work for Lord Mayor Drax?)
Islers: neutral families with ties to the city of Roland
Blue Banner: a consortium of merchants at war with the thieves guild
Spider: independent dark elf thief
Passing Shadow: independent/shadow rogue (has Johydee's Mask)
Ditch: independent assassin from Rauxes

Before you think Rel Astra is a lawless free-for-all, here's a break down of Rel Astran City Watch:

Streetwatch (blue tabard with Rel Astran ship and sea shell heraldry, electrum pin)
Contraband Division (white tabard as above, gold pin)
Homicide Division (plain clothes, platinum pin)
Harborwatch (dark green tabard with symbol as above, silver pin)
Vicewatch (plain clothes, platinum pin)
Prisonwatch (black tabard as above, silver pin)

"I can tell From the Ashes,
it's the Fault of the Drow!"

Gen Con is Upon Us!

Well it's Tuesday so that means me and the Gamerstable gang are soon leaving for GenCon 2014! Normally I don't try to plan a lot of activities but it seems I will be busy after all. Here is some of the things I will be up to this year in no particular order:

Gamerstable Appreciation Awards: You can never have enough gamer awards right? Our own podcast's awards were given out last year at St. Elmo's Steakhouse (I highly recommend it) to novelist Larry Correia and game designer Steven Long. This year we're dining and lauding the talents of artist John Kovalic (Dork Tower, Munchkin) and game designer Shane Hensley (Deadlands, Savage Worlds). Should be fun meeting these long time industry pros.

Flanaess Geographic Society/Canonfire Get-together. A must for Greyhawk fans. I already posted about this one. Here is your second notice just in case.

RAM Brewery: Speaking of get-togethers, Wednesday evening, the Gamerstable crew and friends always congregate at the RAM (patio if possible). If you want to stop by for a drink, meet us, and discuss gaming, we'll be more than happy to oblige!

Chamber Band Concert. Thursday night at 11 pm, friends of the podcast and all around gamer friendly Chamber Band will be at Gen Con this year. I expect to check this out. Never been to a live concert at the con before.

Exhibit Hall: There's always a lot to see and buy here. I go multiple times if possible because there's too much to take in at one trip. I always hit Artist's Row, Paizo, Green Ronin, Fantasy Flight Games, WotC (5e of course) and many other indie game companies. I can't wait!

The State of Superheroes at Green Ronin: This seminar/panel on Friday 10am, will discuss the company's future with my second favorite game, Mutants & Masterminds. I can't wait!

Paizo 2014 and Beyond: I always stop in at one of Paizo's seminars (Sat 3pm), I'm a big fan of their work and especially their writing staff even though I don't run with Golarion. Last year they previewed the concept for this year's Iron Gods Adventure Path release. So if you're into Pathfinder, stop in and have an advance peek at their future developments.

I'm sure I'll be gaming in there somewhere as well. So much to do, so little time!

Gamerstable Podcast: Rangers and New Comic

Over at the gaming podcast Gamerstable the gang and I recently covered the broadly interesting topic of Rangers. Have a listen and see what my friends think of this popular character archetype.

Speaking of rangers, this episode also includes a sneak peak of a new webcomic I've been developing on the side with fellow cast member Shannon, titled The Adventures of Ivy. Ivy is comical parody of our recent Mines of Hokar D&D campaign. I'm hoping it'll be a nice addition alongside my artistic duties in Castle Greyhawk. Enjoy!

Actual Play Podcast: Tower of the Ape

Tonight, I'm promoting the gaming podcast Gamerstable, which I'm a minor part of, and two of our most recent episodes. None of this is Greyhawk by any stretch but I'm confident you'll enjoy the subject matter. We played a vibrant story called Tower of the Ape, set in the Hyborian Age of Conan using the Savage Worlds game system. The Gamerstable guys went all out on the special effects and background music for this fully licensed actual play, the likes of which you won't find anywhere else!

Here is the first two episodes of the Tower of the Ape:


Episode 1: Shadows of Sultanapur

Episode 2: Kozaks and The Kah'mar

Be sure to let my friends know what you think of the campaign in the comments section.

A Few Cool Items

Summer is winding down at last, but panning for nuggets of Greyhawk news is still yielding results. This week I have a few items of various interest to the community.

Over at our gaming podcast, Gamerstable we discuss creating characters and NPCs as a group. The episode is sponsored by Chamber Band a music group that has released a new D&D themed album called Deities. There are songs such as Yeenoghu and Lawful Neutral that should pique your interest. Be sure to check out their work!

My good friend and all around creative guy, Argon from Canonfire! is already trying to get me geared up for next GenCon with this Canonfire shirt and Canonfire Chronicles tote bag. I certainly have my work cut out for me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, is a tidbit I noticed in the upcoming article notes for Wizard's next issue of Dragon:

 

 

Channel Divinity: Nerull

by Jon Green

 

"Compared to most dead gods, Nerull still has a surprisingly large following, though those followers are still rarely encountered. Worship of the dead god typically involves leading a double life, as public adulation of Nerull would likely lead to death or exile."

 

I can't wait to see where Mr. Green goes with this article. Nerull hasn't been mentioned in a D&D publication in some time I wager. The closer to D&DNext we come, the more Greyhawk starts to leak back into the public eye. Hang on for more on Nerull.

GamersTable 100th Episode

Here at Greyhawkery, I don't promote the gaming podcast Gamerstable near enough (unless it has been about Greyhawk of course). In case you're new to this podcast, my Wednesday game group branched out into podcasting a few years ago and it's been a wild ride ever since, now up to our 100th episode. We've given out swag, we've had contests, we've rubbed elbows with other podcasters, we've gone to conventions, we've done actual-play records of our games and we have even expanded the cast with the fairly recent addition of Shannon.

So check out the episode above and learn a little about me and the gang. If you got any comments or topic ideas for the show, I'm sure we'd like to hear them and maybe even discuss them on mic!

Update 05/13/2021: While I have not been an active part of this podcast in years, I am still close friends with all the cast, and many fans. Head over to the site, GT is still doing a variety of gaming shows, even if none are Greyhawk with out me. ;)

300th Post: Greyhawk Resolutions 2013

How about that? A milestone post for Greyhawkery right at the start of a new year! Last year I compared my 2012 resolutions with 2011 to see how I fared, let's see how this next year will pan out...

2012: Maintain 2-3 posts a week on Greyhawkery and once a week on the Canonfire! Crier.
2013: Keep up the same pace, find other contributors/s for the Crier.
Greyhawkery is still humming along nicely. Finding content is sometimes hard but I manage to find something noteworthy every so often. My plans to expand the roster of Ring of Five Questions interviews at Gencon stumbled a bit. I got a few people to respond, but my emails were totally snubbed for the second straight year, by all the Paizo folks who I talked to. Either the staff at Paizo is really too busy being successful with Pathfinder to reply or there is an internal memo to stay away from Greyhawk now. I hope I'm just being paranoid. Either way, I may have to branch more into the fan community for authors to interview. More at a later date. The Crier is a tough one to maintain. As I already cover everything at Greyhawkery, the Crier ends up redundant to me. If I could get one or two fresh minds to post on that blog for Canonfire, I'd be happy.

2012: Write more articles.
2013: Write more articles.
I keep saying this every year. I had of course wanted to publish my finished Ulakand article and start on a Kester follow up. Both projects are still in limbo, but no more than the undead-zine that is Oerth Journal. I did manage to run a successful Postfest at Canonfire involving taverns and inns. Mine was the Last Respite, set on the Olman Isles. A decent victory there. My last article pipe dream however is to start on my Battles of Greyhawk series. I have the research and ground work done, it's just format and actual writing that I can't get motivated to do right now. Eh.

2012: Promote Greyhawk.
2013: Promote Greyhawk.
Easy one there. Last year my friends started the Gamerstable podcast and so far I've defended the honor of Greyhawk on numerous occasions and I've even ran a few actual play podcasts of my Sea Princes campaign. So far so good. Beyond that, I've been encouraging anyone who starts a Greyhawk blog, fiction, maps, anything. The community is strong as ever.

2012: Redesign the Greyhawk Comic page.
2013: Continue making Castle Greyhawk graphic novel.
I have indeed not made a new comic strip for the old Greyhawk Comic in a year, that mine is played out. It does live on at Melkot.com though. Thanks as always Denis! Recently however I found my muse in Scott Casper and his Castle Greyhawk fiction. We put our noggins together and have now crafted an amazing comic adaptation of Castle Greyhawk that has turned out to be some of my best art ever. Now over twenty-four pages in, I look forward to whatever direction Scott leads us.

2012: Greyhawk Maps.
2013: More Maps Possibly?
Last year saw some amazing Greyhawk maps and none of them by me. I have a feeling however, once Anna Meyer gets to finishing Ull and the Hold of the Sea Princes for her Greyhawk Atlas, I may have to branch out and see what else I can contribute, especially if it is something I can do in conjunction with the Ull series or my continuing Sea Princes campaign. Sea exploration is good motivation for map-making.

New for 2013: Get more Greyhawk fans to come to Gencon. Last year was a hoot. I did manage to meet more than a few people from the Canonfire community at Indianapolis. Help me make sure this year is even more memorable.

New Fiction: Black Gus

For a while now the guys in my gaming group, the cast of the podcast Gamerstable, have held an open call for short story fiction based on our actual play podcast sessions. This submitted story much to my delight is about a villain from our live recording of a short 3.5e Hold of the Sea Princes game I ran for our newest player Shannon (The Road to Port Calm). With that said, I am pleased to present for your perusal, the motivational story of Black Gus by Brent Phillips. Kudos Brent!

Some Good Greyhawk Stuff

Welcome back readers, after a lull in posting my latest Ring of Five Questions (more to come) I see I need to catch up on a few Greyhawk articles and items.

First up is the continuation of Mystic Scholar's Greyhawk epic fiction series, That Infamous Key. Follow the link to his previous installments. Part nine finds Mystic, Eileen and company going up against a villain worthy of Iuz or Ivid; the half-orc Guildmaster of Gravediggers, Selczek Gobayuik! Yes, in an urban setting even the bureaucrats can be as challenging as a dragon. Who better to consult with on matters of Greyhawk City bureaucracy then, but my namesake, Mortellan of the Guild of Lawyers and Scribes! Enjoy!

READ PART NINE HERE

Next up is a clever article idea by Chevalier titled The Legend of Pyremius and Ranet. For those not indoctrinated in Greyhawk deity lore, Pyremius is the Suel god of murder who slew the fire goddess Ranet and stole her godly profile. And here I thought that kind of stuff only happened in Faerun! Chevalier's article gives a good account on how this all may have transpired. It's well thought out and not a long read, so give it a look!

READ THE LEGEND HERE

In other Greyhawkery, after many years of passively looking, I finally acquired a free paperback copy of the nascent Greyhawk novel Quag Keep by Andre Norton. After I finish my slog of the original Dragonlance series, I plan on picking up this book and giving it my own critical eye toward use in the World of Greyhawk setting. It has to be more useful than anything by Rose Estes.

Lastly, I recently finished up a two part game session set in the Hold of the Sea Princes for our gaming podcast Gamerstable. What's significant about this is it was the intro adventure for our newest member to the table (and Greyhawk neophyte) Shannon. Hi, Shannon! Check out part one and part two. Thanks go out to Eric and Dan for their hard work on actual play episodes.

Another Gencon Survived

Well folks, Gencon is over. It's back to the daily grind. I can't say I have much to report from the World of Greyhawk at the event, what with the news of Wizards resurrecting the long neglected Forgotten Realms setting (snark). It wasn't all bad, my time was productive if not memorable.

Canonfire at the RAM Brewery: According to my friends I spent half the convention here. Maybe so. I did Thursday and Saturday night meet-ups here with Greyhawk contributors Baronzemo, Robbastard, Sir Xaris and the TPK Games crew and of course my cohort Valkaun Dain. Food was ate, beer was drank and Greyhawk was discussed. I even managed to talk to a few total strangers who were in town for a different convention and teach them about Gencon. Good times.

Soliciting Interviews: I got a good influx of authors to agree to answering my email interview for the Ring of Five Questions. I had been looking forward to this all year. Stay tuned for these in the hopefully near future.

My Haul: I snagged a copy of Mark Morrison's (aka baronzemo) new module, Stonepick Crossing from the OSR booth. Here I met Tim Kask and narrowly missed seeing Frank Mentzer. Going through various WotC locations I got 4/6 special drow themed dice available. My friends were troopers and got them all. I of course spent an inordinate amount of time around the GamesWorkshop/ Forgeworld booth because basically they are never at Gencon. I improved my weak Skaven army and upgraded my Warhammer 40k army with a badass Biker Boss. Watch out! I also visited the fine folks at Paizo and bought a copy of their new Pathfinder comic book, and a couple supplements from their Skull & Shackles AP for use in my own Greyhawk high seas campaign. It was great catching up with old chat friends Liz Courts and Adam Daigle who both went from lowly Paizo fans to full time henchmen. Lastly I bought the first novel in a new series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman titled Bones of the Dragon. I'm hoping it's as good as their previous work, which coincidentally I had the Dragonlance trilogy on me so I had Weis sign that too.

D&DNext: I played in a quick playtest with two of my friends. I played a rogue thug with 5 h.p. and by all means was a screw up. We didn't play long enough to get a true feel of the system, but on the bright side it was not dependent on a grid to judge the action which is a good sign. Character creation felt like a hybrid of 3.5 and 4e. The jury is still out on this edition since there is 2 more years of playtesting to come. Sheesh!

Podcasting: Last but not least our gaming podcast, Gamerstable was out in force this year (well the guys were moreso than me). They were doing podcast recordings, mingling with industry folk, handing out cards and also Gamerstable shirts like this one...

Yeah, next year is going to be hard to top!

Hobbits, Gencon and Rings of Five

Lazy weekend, but I do have a few topics to cover.

First, here lately I've been discussing movie news that is of interest to the D&D community and none should be more important than the Hobbit. At first I was mildly outraged when it was announced the Tolkien work would be made into two movies, but I saw ample room for a cliffhanger or two in there. Now the recent announcement that the Hobbit will be a trilogy has my head hurting. My sentiments echo many of those online. Naturally I want to see any and all movies set in Middle Earth, but my skepticism is high for their motivation and ability to do this. As we've been assured there is a wealth of extra material to use for these additional movies yet looking at the real page count of these works it boggles my mind. It's pure b.s. Even given all the appendices and scraps of references, I believe the Hobbit trilogy will still end up being contrived beyond belief. And I'm not talking about walk on cameos by Legolas or whoever. After all the Hobbit itself contains no female speaking roles. If the cumbersome books of the Lord of the Rings trilogy had been stretched out in the same manner (it wasn't fashionable to segment book movies back then) then we would've suffered through 9 movies! Yet each was kept intact as one (albeit long) movie. Now we're supposed to accept that the simplest, shortest and most iconic of Tolkien's works can cover three movies by itself? I shudder to think about the extended director's cut DVD.

Anyhow, I can't wait to see how they pull it off. Maybe that's part of my gripe. Having to wait so long to see all three finally released. It's a tease as much as a cash grab. I want to see Smaug now not one to two years from now. Nerd rage aside, I know I'll love all three movies too. Oh well. One more thing, my hope is that they someday make a movie adaptation of Tolkien's The Children of Hurin. For anyone who hasn't read this, it's a dark and epic tale from before the Ring saga. Check it out.

Next up is GenCon Indy on August 15th. And it's about time, I need a vacation. Just another reminder to those in the Greyhawk community, we at Canonfire have got a couple meet-ups planned. If you want to stop by and say hi and share a drink at the convention check out this forum thread or drop me a message here.

Lastly, this is a mental note to myself mainly. I'm planning on reviving my Ring of Five Questions interview series at Gencon. I'll try hitting up several authors and artists for interviews in the future, and perhaps I'll extend the offer to hardcore Greyhawk fans as well. Along those lines, I'll also be taking part my local group's Gamerstable podcast activities (no set time table). Who knows, if you're interested maybe you could take part in a recording at the con? More next time!

Podcast Discussion of Sea Princes Game

As you may or may not remember, I am part of the gaming podcast Gamerstable (physically I'm there at at any rate). Going strong through our second year of recording, we recently did a show that looked back on our successful Sea Princes campaign (DMed by me naturally) featured heavily here on Greyhawkery. It's been a true blessing for me that the guys still get so jazzed about a Greyhawk campaign that we can talk in length about it after the game is put on hiatus. Listen in and find out how we put it all together. You can download the episode HERE.

Look for me and the Gamerstable crew at Gencon in August as well. We will be out there in force this year.

Podcast Topic: Maps

As many of you know I'm involved in a gaming podcast with my friends called Gamerstable. Last week we discussed a good topic on maps (This one is for you Anna). It's a broad subject: there's the utility and art of game maps, cartography programs, sites and materials and more. Oh yeah, and we even managed to drop a few names from the Greyhawk community. Enjoy!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST