D&D General Melf’s Guide to Greyhawk is called ‘The Shield Lands’ as actor Vince Vaughn gifts cover artwork to Luke Gygax

Luke Gygax said on social media earlier today that the full title of the upcoming Greyhawk book from WotC is Melf's Guide to Greyhawk: The Shield Lands:

"This beautiful rendering of Melf by Jeff Easley arrived at my home safely. This is the only painting of Melf that reflects my vision of him as played by me in my father's Greyhawk campaign. This will be the cover to Melf's Guide to Greyhawk: The Shield Lands. I am so thankful to Vince Vaughn for bidding on this at the Gary Con Charity Auction and gifted it to me. He is incredibly generous and a thoughtful friend. I am taking this to get framed and then it will go on the wall near my other 2 Easley originals."

The art, by Jeff Easley, was purchased by a fan at Gary Con, winning an auction with a bid of $5,000, and it appears that the fan in question—the actor Vince Vaughn—gifted the piece to Luke. The auction was a charity auction, benefiting the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

 

[Morrus]

Please feel free to check out my Twitch channel for a ton of information on Greyhawk (and my YouTube mirror).

How? Who are you? Where is your Twitch channel?

I wasn’t asking for more information about Greyhawk. I was asking for more information about you. The bit you’re missing is that you haven’t told us who you are. You just rocked up with an anonymous account and said Luke was incorrect.

 

[Lord_Gosumba]

How? Who are you? Where is your Twitch channel?

I wasn’t asking for more information about Greyhawk. I was asking for more information about you. The bit you’re missing is that you haven’t told us who you are. You just rocked up with an anonymous account and said Luke was incorrect.

I came on to clarify as I believe Luke was mistaken when he was excitedly talking about the project and the Easley artwork of Melf. My real name is Jay Scott: I was directly mentioned in the press conference with Luke and Dan Ayoub. I have one of the oldest Greyhawk D&D Campaigns in existence, 46 years, going back to 1980. I live stream my content on Twitch (been a Partner for almost 5 years, in Top 20 in D&D category for weekly viewer hours watched) that includes multiple games with terrain and miniatures using 1e/2e ruleset, and host two weekly talk shows (Gabbin and Legends & Lore.) In the past Community members attempted to nominate me for an Ennie for best discussion show but was nixed because I do live stream content and not "podcasts". I have not posted on here since then until now.

I have writing credits for Troll Lord Games (Tarvine Belt), and CASL Entertaininment. (JS1 Horror in the Huuls)

This project (Melf) has been going on behind the scenes for over a year. As Luke stated, he and I, along with Anna Meyer initially got together the day DMs Guild opened up for Greyhawk to begin work on this project. It has since that time, morphed to where we are today. The team of writers is small, but includes such talented writers as Stephen Radney-Macfarland, and a Greyhawk Community deep lore person, Les "Oblivion Seeker" Reno.

Here are some very recent specific Live Streams that pertain to the project: Legends & Lore #335 - Current Melf Lore in Greyhawk (most of the team makes appearances) Great info by Andrew Scott Perry roughly at 27 minutes.
Gabbin #400 - 400th show celebration, plus Gary Con recap (Luke makes an appearance mid-show) Roughly 1 hr 8 mins.
Twitch Channel: YouTube Mirror (for vid storage only, as Twitch only keeps for 90 days) Lord Gosumba

We have a project meeting with Luke and the entire team this evening, and the project is on point to make all date goals. I will specifically ask Luke about his comments on the title. To my knowledge, Book 1 is still titled: Melf's Guide to Greyhawk: The Borderlands of Iuz. If a change has been made, I would be happy to let you know here.

As far as specific interviews regarding the project, Luke has stated to me and the team we want to hold off for now until a future date (probably when we have a release date set for Book 1). I would be happy to answer questions that I am able to as we are all excited to bring Greyhawk back to its roots and "gritty" days with this series. Thank you for your time.

 

[GarrettKP]

I came on to clarify as I believe Luke was mistaken when he was excitedly talking about the project and the Easley artwork of Melf. My real name is Jay Scott: I was directly mentioned in the press conference with Luke and Dan Ayoub. I have one of the oldest Greyhawk D&D Campaigns in existence, 46 years, going back to 1980. I live stream my content on Twitch (been a Partner for almost 5 years, in Top 20 in D&D category for weekly viewer hours watched) that includes multiple games with terrain and miniatures using 1e/2e ruleset, and host two weekly talk shows (Gabbin and Legends & Lore.) In the past Community members attempted to nominate me for an Ennie for best discussion show but was nixed because I do live stream content and not "podcasts". I have not posted on here since then until now.

I have writing credits for Troll Lord Games (Tarvine Belt), and CASL Entertaininment. (JS1 Horror in the Huuls)

This project (Melf) has been going on behind the scenes for over a year. As Luke stated, he and I, along with Anna Meyer initially got together the day DMs Guild opened up for Greyhawk to begin work on this project. It has since that time, morphed to where we are today. The team of writers is small, but includes such talented writers as Stephen Radney-Macfarland, and a Greyhawk Community deep lore person, Les "Oblivion Seeker" Reno.

Here are some very recent specific Live Streams that pertain to the project: Legends & Lore #335 - Current Melf Lore in Greyhawk (most of the team makes appearances) Great info by Andrew Scott Perry roughly at 27 minutes.
Gabbin #400 - 400th show celebration, plus Gary Con recap (Luke makes an appearance mid-show)
Twitch Channel: YouTube Mirror (for vid storage only, as Twitch only keeps for 90 days) Lord Gosumba

We have a project meeting with Luke and the entire team this evening, and the project is on point to make all date goals. I will specifically ask Luke about his comments on the title. To my knowledge, Book 1 is still titled: Melf's Guide to Greyhawk: The Borderlands of Iuz. If a change has been made, I would be happy to let you know here.

As far as specific interviews regarding the project, Luke has stated to me and the team we want to hold off for now until a future date (probably when we have a release date set for Book 1). I would be happy to answer questions that I am able to as we are all excited to bring Greyhawk back to its roots and "gritty" days with this series. Thank you for your time.

So based on this, sounds like the project is a 3rd party project with WotCs blessing more than a direct WotC product? More akin to Ed Greenwoods Dalelands books he’s making than the Ravenloft and Arcana books WotC is making.

Not saying that to put any of the projects down. Just clarifying what these are in relation to WotCs own release slate and the books that have or have not been announced there.

 

[bedir than]

So based on this, sounds like the project is a 3rd party project with WotCs blessing more than a direct WotC product? More akin to Ed Greenwoods Dalelands books he’s making than the Ravenloft and Arcana books WotC is making.

Not saying that to put any of the projects down. Just clarifying what these are in relation to WotCs own release slate and the books that have or have not been announced there.

Ayoub said it is a co-produced product with physical production.

 

[Lord_Gosumba]

So based on this, sounds like the project is a 3rd party project with WotCs blessing more than a direct WotC product? More akin to Ed Greenwoods Dalelands books he’s making than the Ravenloft and Arcana books WotC is making.

Not saying that to put any of the projects down. Just clarifying what these are in relation to WotCs own release slate and the books that have or have not been announced there.

Yes, it is being done with outside of WoTC personnel, but this is Official Greyhawk D&D WoTC content. Hope that clarifies.

 

[Morrus]

I came on to clarify as I believe Luke was mistaken when he was excitedly talking about the project and the Easley artwork of Melf. My real name is Jay Scott: I was directly mentioned in the press conference with Luke and Dan Ayoub.

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[GarrettKP]

Ayoub said it is a co-produced product with physical production.

The Exandria books were also co-produced, but WotC has them labeled as 3rd-party (or partnered) products on D&D Beyond. Again, this is not a dig at the product. Plenty of great 3rd-party or partnered content out there, and if WotC had no plans for an internal Greyhawk product then there is no better way to fill that space than partnered content from the Gygax family.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Vince Vaughn, the Big Show, Tom Morello and D. B. Weiss actually came over to the Kobold Press table at GaryCon in 2023 and asked if they could get in one of our games!

They were all sold out so COO Alexander ran a private game for them

You don't want Tom Morello raging against the Kobold machine.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

the current title is “Melf’s Guide to Greyhawk: The Borderlands of Iuz”.

Still a great region to start off with, although if I were a new adventurer, I'd be going across the border from the Shield Lands to poke at the Bandit Kingdoms before starting anything with Team Iuz.

 

[Marc Radle]

Is that Amanda Harmon as well, in the pic?

Good eye!
It is indeed, she was Editorial Director for us before she moved over to WotC