D&D 30th Anniversary

[Sam]

What I'd really like to see is a "Where are they now" feature letting us know the career paths that some of the originals ended up taking. For example, tell us about the then and now for folks like Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, David "Zeb" Cook, slade, Frank Mentzer, Len Lekofka, etc. Maybe come up with 5 basic questions to ask these folks and post 'em for all to see (if they respond).

Also, for those on the EN World "staff" such as the message board moderators, it would be nice to hear their experiences over the years, especially relating to times they have met and/or gamed with the folks mentioned above, where applicable.

Finally, I think it would be really neat to have the EN World staff reviewers list their all-time TOP TEN D&D-related products from *all* editions collectively. (They should not only list them but do a review on each.)

Yeah, what he said!

I think all three of these ideas are great.

 

[grodog]

Thanks Grodog, that looks pretty cool. I'd never heard of WG5 till recently. can you give me a quick rundown? Feel free to use spoiler tags if some might not want to read it.

Sure Olive, I'd be happy to do so: WG5 is probably my favorite adventure that Rob Kuntz has published (with The Eight Kings and Dark Druids pulling second and third, I think).

Generally, WG5 is a level that Rob originally ran in his El Raja Key dungeons, set in his World of Kalibruhn (third RPG universe created for D&D, after Arneson's Blackmoor and Gygax's GreyhawK, which Rob later also co-DMed [which resulted in much Kalibruhn material being merged into GH, of course]). Gary has described WG5 as one of the toughest adventures that his PC Mordenkainen ever undertook, so you know it's tough EGG’s PCs Mordy, Bibgy, Riggby (a cleric of Boccob and Zagyg), and Yrag (a fighter who also worships Zagyg) are provided as pre-gen PCs.

In Greyhawk-parlance, WG5 is set near Maure Castle, although the WG5 dungeon levels may not be tied directly to that place. The El Raja Key dungeon is somehow tied to the Maure Castle/WG5 environs: I surmise that Maure Castle and its dungeons were somehow a gateway to El Raja Key and Kalibruhn, or that they were in fact synonymous locales.

OK, spoilers follow, so players beware

Spoiler

Gary’s account of the history of his PCs’ exploits in WG5 quite fun to read: when first entering these fell levels, Mordenkainen and Bigby went it alone, and Mordy was petrified, so Bibgy split post-haste to bring reinforcements! A fuller account of this appears in the module; if you want more details, I can provide too.

WG5 has three inter-related levels:

• The first level is very difficult to enter: there are “unopenable doors” which the module bypasses via the pre-gen Mordy’s minor artifact that allows egress; in the real campaign, I think that Rob probably forced Gary to expend a wish to enter…. The level itself is filled with strange monsters, puzzles, and traps unique to this adventure---such are the hallmarks of RJK’s design philosophies: challenge the players as well as the characters and you’ll all have more fun The “boss” encounter on the level is the with a variant iron golem, and is what petrified Mordy in Gary’s first run-through.
• The entrance to the second and third levels, which are more-directly interlinked than the first level (which is more of a welcome mat, so to speak), is difficult to find. The main force of Eli Tomorast, a demonologist, resides within those two levels; that force is also a cult of worshippers that he has fostered and gathered to placate the demon Kerzit. erzit guards the Tome of the Black Heart, a dark work similar to the Necronomicon in flavor. Tomorast sacrifices to Kerzit in order to be able to read passages from the Tome; these in turn grant him the knowledge and power to create many of the challenging creatures, traps, spells, etc., scattered throughout all three dungeon levels (which are, essentially, his experimental laboratory).

The last item that’s cool about WG5 is the fact that it hints at broader, stranger adventures beyond it’s immediate environs. Kuntz placed a few references to The Lost City of the Elders within the module, and it’s hinted that one of the bad guys is seeking to find this place. The Lost City of the Elders is sort of the mythological equivalent of R’lyeh or Atlantis for the Greyhawk/Kalibruhn setting, but it was never officially published. Rob’s module The Garden of the Plantmaster (first pub’d by Rob in 1987 for his Creations Unlimited company, recently republished by Kenzer & Co. in the summer of 2003) also offers some tantalizing hints about the LCotE, and may in fact be set within that strange place. For more details about the LCotE, read Rob’s annotated bibliography on Canonfire! at http://www.canonfire.com/htmlnew/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=125

That’s all pretty general, but I think it gives you a quick idea about the module. If you’d like to discuss in more detail, drop by Rob’s PPP boards at http://pub175.ezboard.com/bpiedpiperpublishing sometime and he and others will happily discuss the module to your heart’s content

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

That’s all pretty general, but I think it gives you a quick idea about the module. If you’d like to discuss in more detail, drop by Rob’s PPP boards at http://pub175.ezboard.com/bpiedpiperpublishing sometime and he and others will happily discuss the module to your heart’s content

thanks for the update
ken

 

[Derulbaskul]

Arghhh... the curse of the "wow, let's quote 30 lines of a previous message and then do a one line reply" has struck. Couldn't you just snip 90% of it out?

I remember when I first read WG5 and was absolutely intrigued by the concept of the Lost City of the Elders and the idea of finding the various parts of the key that allowed access. It's a shame that that whole series never saw print.

For the 30th anniversary, I would really like to see some updated classics as happened for the 25th anniversary... but this time, let them be done well... please.

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Arghhh... the curse of the "wow, let's quote 30 lines of a previous message and then do a one line reply" has struck. Couldn't you just snip 90% of it out?

Well actually I thought i was replying with out the quote
Ken

 

[Henry]

Actually, I would love a thread about posting your first character, perhaps over on rogue's Gallery! Great idea, Thornir!

I also like the ideas about interviews, though WotC is doing a publication in similar feel. We'd want to find a way to set it apart, somehow.

 

[Mark]

Gary posted a thread on one of the old incarnations of the boards asking for folks who had 26+ years (if I recall the number correctly) experience playing D&D, which at the time was basically Gary and Rob Kuntz, among those on the ENWorld boards...

...and a couple of others, like myself, who have been RPGing since `74.

 

[grodog]

...and a couple of others, like myself, who have been RPGing since `74.

That's cool Mark! Give us a story from the old days

 

[qstor]

I agree with DaveMage, I'd like to see "where are they now features" for a meta board thing, maybe as a lead in to GenCon, I'd like to see a 30th Anniversary thing on the front of the board.

Oh and tell WOTC to do T-shirts at GenCon.

Mike

 

[grodog]

Oh and tell WOTC to do T-shirts at GenCon.

Great idea MIke: 30 years of D&D, 30 years of Greyhawk!