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Thanks for your support, guys! I'm looking forward to writing a straight-up dungeon level, even if I don't yet know which of the five ideas I'll be writing! :)

--Erik

The funny thing about that Dungeon #105 cover is that art director Sean Glenn and I came up with the idea of putting it on the cover, but the then-editor-in-chief didn't have any emotional connection ...

I am probably going to be too tied up with meetings and the ENnies and stuff during the evenings to drop in, but I will be anchored at the Paizo booth throughout the convention. Please stop by and say ...

Folks,

I'll be the special guest at Dragonmeet in London on November 28. I've decided to put a bunch of D&D collectibles on eBay to generate some walking around money for my trip.

There are ...

I absolutely agree that the canon on this is vague, and intentionally so. The idea was to leave it open for DMs to do with as they please, so in that sense whether or not she was "supposed" to be Rhen ...

My plan for her was always that she came from Zahind.

That is absolute revisionist nonsense. Shall I go dig out my greytalk chat archives of discussions held before that material appeared in the ...

So, assuming the credits are accurate, the Zahind rumor was strictly the work of Vaughan, and the apparently-contradictory Olman attribution was included in the section co-authored by Mona. While I ...

I realize this topic has been wandering a bit, but I thought I'd come in and set the record straight regarding Mordenkainen's hair.

The culprit was not Sam Wood, but Todd Lockwood. I happened to be ...

I try to hit the boards once a week or so. It's been a while since I contributed an actual article to Canonfire (I've mostly been focusing on paying freelance or Paizo stuff), but I've got a few files ...

Well, since you asked so nicely...

Did I not informally ask you about submitting an article query regarding sterich/istivin for LGJ in year one of 3e and LG?

I seem to remember that you did.
...

This strikes me as a fair and well-considered review. I was curious to hear GVD's final analysis of the product, and I appreciate the in-depth treatment.

As you imagine, we would have liked more pa ...

I have a lot of buddies I've never met, apparently.

--Erik

>>>
A great hand-out for such a meeting would be a list of Greyhawk resources on the web, and a list of all Greyhawk related products(past and present).
>>>

That's an excellent ...

I totally agree.

All it really takes is for someone to register the event at the appropriate time, which seems to be about 4-6 months before the convention. Gen Con isn't shy about spreading the wo ...

I think it's a great idea to get the Greyhawk meetup in the program book. I would have really liked to have attended this year's, but by the time I found out about it I already had other plans. The so ...

It's set in 597 CY, following the same dating conventions used in Living Greyhawk and Dungeon magazine since the launch of 3e.

--Erik

I was aware that some people wouldn't care for what I did with Robilar, and I'm ok with that. Honestly, I was and am more concerned about what Rob Kuntz thought about the character than what Anthony P ...

I've asked repeatedly and recently. WotC is not currently interested in licensing out Greyhawk or any other setting to another company.

They _do_ seem to be interested in supporting online Wiki-li ...

I don't think so. I think someone over there is just covering all the bases.

Way too much angst has been spilled over this already. There are thousands of other paragraphs to discuss. :)

--Erik

I suspect that they want the opportunity to keep Castle Greyhawk, the first-ever mega-dungeon, in the mix for potential products down the road without being forced to also publish the entire campaign ...

I think that's clearly the intention (Eberron is mentioned explicitly, as is Mystara). I don't object to this option being made available, btw. There is obvious value in including a Castle Greyhawk di ...

I agree with James. What a lame edit at the end there. That's disappointing.

By my read, though, you only have to ignore a couple sentences on the second-to-last page, so it could have been a lot w ...

All this said, I think there is an overlay to everything we have seen from Erik's workship. This overlay is his maturation as a gaming professional. I feel comfortable saying I think that when Erik ...

The third edition design team, and Jonathan Tweet in particular, wanted Heirnoeous to be the "typical" paladin archetype. The "typical" paladin uses a sword, so they tossed out the axe.

Conforming ...

I think the whole "houses of pursuit" and some of the names (Ad-Zol in particular) come from the Oerth Journal 1 timeline. Steve Wilson or Len Lakofka might have originated the idea.

--Erik

I threw that line in the LGG to specifically riff on "Treasures of Greyhawk" and its Prince Jeon background. Nice to see some of the more obscure bits in that book coming to light. Lord knows there ar ...

I think that I express the fear of many fans, that the wiseheads over at Hasbro have come to bury Greyhawk not praise it. True, they may get some more Greyhawkers into the fold but equally many game ...

It is not that I have a problem with Erik doing the job that makes me old school. I have a problem if the hacks over at Hasbro don't know what they are doing and re-edit Erik's work to make it more ki ...

IIRC Gygax did get a credit in Dungeon 112, not sure if he helped out on that or not. But I do remember Erik making posts to the effect that he was trying to colaborate with Gary and Rob on some th ...

Savage Tide is nominally a Greyhawk adventure, whereas this is explicitly a Greyhawk adventure.

Funny, I don't see a Greyhawk logo on the cover. Will this be the same style of explicit greyhawk fou ...

Savage Tide is nominally a Greyhawk adventure, whereas this is explicitly a Greyhawk adventure. Savage Tide is set on the periphery of the Flanaess map and largely takes place in the ocean south of th ...

Well, of course, we wouldn't want to expect that a product with the word Greyhawk in the title actually have any greyhawk content...

The book is full of "Greyhawk content." I am confident that it ...

I don't think I'm in danger of violating my NDA to say that there is a good deal more of the Castle than the City in the book (perhaps 2/3 vs. 1/3). It was originally going to be called "Expedition to ...

I think arguments of "anachronism" have limited merit when discussing a fantasy setting that draws inspiration from a variety of historical periods and fiction that is likewise unrooted to a specific ...

I added bloodsport back to the Free City Arena for the simple reason that it opened up a bunch of new story options for City of Greyhawk campaigns that did not previously exist when all you could do t ...

I always thought the Ring of Five was lame. You can change the names around (and really, to salvage the concept you have to), but still.

--Erik

Wow. I never noticed that before.

Funny.

--Erik

It's an archived bio from a show about a decade ago, the only Dragon Con I ever attended. I remember Randy running his ancient Suel "Age of Glory" super-adventure for a few tables throughout the weeke ...

The Fright at Tristor was a tournament module I rescued from the oblivion of the RPGA's adventure file. I updated the adventure a great deal, but the reference to the Watcher was in the original adven ...

A few comments.

Predictably, Dungeon #103 is not one I have at home, so I can't take a look at "Glacial Inferno." The adventure was a contest winner and one I inherited in my first issue of Dungeo ...

Though I'm sure that the Shackled City didn't mention it, it seems beyond the bounds of credibility that the SB doesn't have a significant, if not controlling, presence in both Cauldron and Sasserin ...

So in Oerth's southern Seas:

(1) Which nations or states are shipping cargoes to and from in sufficient quantity that the pirates are preying upon those ships?

(2) What exactly are these car ...

Besides the postermap, what I am most looking forward to is the background article on Sasserine, which will appear in the October issue.

Along with the Wild Coast, the Hold of the Sea Princes was o ...

There's also an island north of the Thillonrian on the LGG and Dungeon maps that might be worth considering. If first appeared in the glossography "expanded" map that shows off more of Oerik, but it's ...

Dungeon uses the same "year progression" that Living Greyhawk does. Adventures published in 2004 are thus "set" in 594 CY. The last numeral is always the same.

--Erik

Well, Vecna ruled Duchy Urnst according to Gary Holian and Erik Mona's map. I guess that doesn't make it quite official, so I qualified it with "thought that it was."

I can't speak to whatever di ...

A classic tournament would easily work in place of the Champion's Games (you wouldn't even need to change the name), and could still be held in the Free City Arena (preserving the understructure maps) ...

I have not attempted to reconcile (or even compare) the "Greyhawk Grimoires" article and Iggwilv's backstory as outlined in "Return of the Eight." Sounds like it might be a worthwhile project.

--Er ...

As mentioned above, the Shackled City introduced another son of Graz'zt, a twelve-fingered demon called Athux. As GVD suggests, "For Duty and Deity" stresses Graz'zt's fecundity, so it can be assumed ...

Ouch! That last link hit a little too close to home.

--Erik

For a while I too thought the Van Richten cover was our guy, but other folks at Wizards at the time that I came aboard as Polyhedron editor confirmed that it was in fact the Blood Enemies cover that w ...

My greatest regret with the LGG (and there are several) is that we were forced to stick with the 591 CY timeframe introduced in "The Adventure Begins" and "The Player's Guide to Greyhawk." Roger did w ...

In my campaign, Galap-Driedel belongs to one of the races that make up the mysterious "Cairn Builder" culture. Specifically, he is a vaati (Wind Duke of Aaqa) refugee from the Battle of Pesh, where th ...

Boy, I wish I noticed this thread earlier than tonight. I've been working so hard on the Age of Worms launch issue that I've not had time to visit Canonfire lately.

As for Greyhawk in Dungeon, we a ...

I know from discussions at the time that Chris Pramas, who was leading the Chainmail "world" development, used the Annual Map as the basis for what western Oerik was meant to look like. GVD is correct ...

>>>
The Baron of Kalinstren. His daughter took over. That bastard Iquander killed him off and never told no-one!
>>>

It's more like "Iquander's explanation was cut from the LGG."

Sorry!

I w ...

It's funny to see a thread on ancient cultures, as I just spent a great deal of time going through my resources on the topic.

I agree with GVDammerung in that the "everything pre-migrations was Fla ...

Carl Sargent can tell you, on page 64 of Iuz the Evil, where it is called the "Tomb of Tzunk's Hands."

--Erik

I don't think the answer is a massive timeline shift, unless it also comes with a complete attempt at establishing a Greyhawk "line." That's too much work for a magazine article, imho.

--Erik

The whole thing is so complex that it basically comes down to "use what you like."

Most Greyhawk fans accept the primacy of the 83 boxed set as the pure baseline for the campaign. Beyond that, it g ...

>>>
Even if Mr. Mona thinks my Greyhawk is too dark (remember those debates Iq?)
>>>

Not really. Why is it too dark?

--Erik

I'm putting an issue of Dungeon to bed right now, so I don't have as long as I'd like to formulate a response to GVD's post. Grab me at this week's chat for a longer version.

Basically, canon is us ...

I agree with GVD. I really dislike what was done with the Wild Coast in "Greyhawk Wars" and "From the Ashes." Because the LGG was set in 591 and had to follow continuity established by the "Players Gu ...

As much as marking major roads helps with utility, it can also tend to make the map an eyesore. I've seen the Flanaess covered with road lines, and ladies and gentlemen, it's an eyesore.

Whenever w ...

If the unthinkable occured and I was somehow robbed of my cherished Greyhawk collection, I would immediately begin by replacing the volumes that contain the highest amount of "canonical" information, ...

Somewhere in the bowels of Canonfire you can find the "backgrounder" I helped to compile for Bruce Cordell, which attempted to put White Plume Mountain and Keraptis into a Greyhawk context. It won't h ...

I'm on day six of my Thanksgiving vacation, with nary an '83 boxed set in sight. I'm starting to go through the DTs.

In any event, I think there is something of a misreading going into GVD's origin ...

>>>
It might instead mean that "Our little staff doesn't have enough time currently to do justice to a project of the kind at the moment.”
>>>

That is precisely so.

--Erik

There are (sigh) invisible beholders protecting the library of the Guild of Wizardry in Greyhawk city.

--Erik

These maps are phenomenal. Do you plan to "finish" them, or are they already complete, in your eyes?

Without question I will use this map as the definitive Rel Astra for my own campaigns, should th ...

The crashed spaceship appears as "The Unoerthly Cave."

I used to play "Cosmic Wimp-Out" at lunch in high school.

--Erik

Other "ancient astronaut" resources to consider:

"The Sirius Mystery," by Robert KG Temple
"The God Kings and the Titans," by James Bailey

Both are fascinating reads.

The version of "Erypt" ...

Sam has been, as he points out above, relatively critical of my work of late, especially in the Thursday chat. Perhaps, more to the point, he has grown to expect less of my efforts than I would hope. ...

One of the first big changes you'll notice is that the word "Mordenkainen" won't appear on the cover unless we mean it.

At least not during my tenure.

--Erik

A few things.

The map will have hexes, faded back somewhat so that they don't interfere (much) with the overall map. Unfortunately, due to the way it's built, you won't really be able to work up sp ...

>>>
Fifteen years of "no" <sheesh> since the Adventure Begins. Can he get the clue? <grin>
>>>

In my campaign it's not so much his problem as hers.

Karl's eldest ...

The LGG was written before the D&D Gazetter. The latter was "edited down" from the LGG without the input of any of the LGG's authors. Just wanted to make sure that everyone understood the timeline.
...

In my campaign, and in a Living Greyhawk "Return to the Ghost Tower of Inverness" that I played a hand in writing, Galap-Driedel belonged to the race known as the Cairn Builders, the beyond-ancient pe ...