Canonfire!
First Post
THIS WEEK IN GREYHAWK FANDOM
12 September, 2002
This issue of This Week in Greyhawk Fandom is dedicated to all those who gave, those who are still giving, and those who are gone. God bless America.
Greetings Greyhawk fans! It's been a while since the last issue of this newsletter, but it's back and better than ever. Remember, each week's issue is available on the Canonfire! website on wednesday morning, and distributed via email, usenet and various message board forums thursday morning. If you have a scoop you think would be of interest to the Greyhawk community, or if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to contact me directly at richadmin@canonfire.com. Thanks for your support!
News from the Wizards of the Coast Website:
There's not a lot of new Greyhawk related material on the site right now, but I'd like to highlight a couple of regular features the Greyhawk fan might find of interest.
Fold-Up Paper Miniature Scenery
Miniature figures have always been a fun aspect of the D&D game, and the combat system of 3rd edition makes them almost mandatory for making sense out of melee. For the gamer who want's a little more detail and 'wow' in the miniature aspect of their game, but can't all the expensive molded scenery pieces, WotC offers a series of printable scenery pieces in pdf format for free download. Also available is a detailed pdf instruction booklet containing tips and tricks for making the most of your cardstock environment. You can learn more, and download the files, at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=minis/ch20020827pmx
Map-a-Week
For those DM's with a bit of artistic talent, making the map for the next game session is probably one of the more enjoyable parts of planning the game, for the rest of us, there's Map-a-Week. Each week for the last few years, WotC has offered free downloadable high quality maps, ready to be stocked with traps, monsters and treasures and sprung on an unsuspecting party of adventures. The current maps are the portions of a huge 15 piece poster map, and the Map-a-Week archive has dozens of other maps, so you're sure to find something useful for your game. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mw/mw20020905a
FREE Original Adventures
About once a month, WotC offers a new free mini-adventure module for download on the site. As you might expect, these are all designed using the 3rd edition D&D rules, but would be simple to convert to an earlier edition, or to another system altogether. The current offering pits the party against the plots of a villainous Rakshasa, and the archive features a wide variety of adventures to suit any DM looking for a break from the rigors of fully designing every episode of their campaign. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article1.asp?x=dnd/oa/adventure,3
That's all from WotC's site this week, but stayed tuned, in coming weeks we'll look at some of their other regular offerings, as well as keeping you informed of any new offerings on their site that relate to the Greyhawk setting.
Dragon Magazine report:
Dragon celebrates its 300th issue this month, and features a trip down memory lane with former editors Kim Mohan, Dale Donovan, and Dave Gross, revisiting the magazine's history and accomplishments. Also in this month's issue:
Secrets of the Skinscribes, by James Jacobs, details an ancient Suloise (which, I must point out, is mispelled suEloise on WotC's site
) sect of necromancers whose magic was so vile they dared only record their findings by tattooing their 'spellbooks' on their own skin.(Note: This article is one half of a special 'sealed' section of the magazine this month marked for mature audiences only due to it's 'vile' nature. YMMV)
Up on a Soapbox, E. Gary Gygax's monthly column, reflects this time on Wastri, the Hopping Prophet.
Living Greyhawk Journal: Playing Pieces: Denizens of Darkness by Living Greyhawk Gazetteer co-author and long time GreyTalker Fred Weining, details 8 NPCs to supplement his Vault of the Drow revisited article from Dragon #298.
Of additional interest is a FAQ detailing the Paizo Publishing takeover of the magazines.
GenCon 2003 report:
Preliminary information on Gencon 2003, in Indianapolis, Indiana is now available at Gen Con LLC's website, http://www.gencon.com. Currently, the details are limited to a draft of the floorplan/event layout (in pdf format for download) and some general contact information, but it is worth mentioning to all the Greyhawk fans out on the west coast that the company is currently taking feedback regarding a proposed 'Gen Con So Cal' to be held in the future in addition to the big event in Indy.
ENWorld 3rd edition and D20 site roundup:
D&D and Greyhawk creator E. Gary Gygax has taken some time recently to participate in a general Q&A session on the ENWorld message boards. The thread is somewhat lighthearted and 'noisy', but Gary manages to shed some light on current projects and reflect on past ones, you can read it at http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22566. ENWorld has also posted a transcript of a recent chat with Col. Gygax in their chat room, available at http://www.d20reviews.com/chat.htm, where you can also learn more about the ENWorld chats, read transcripts of other past chats with industry luminaries, and keep track of upcoming events.
Also of interest on the ENWorld boards this week are threads about the recent wave of layoffs at WotC, rethinking the role of the 'cannon fodder' humanoids in the D&D game, life after phase one of WotC's big setting search contest, and much more. Visit ENWorld's boards at http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/.
Mortality.Net D&D site roundup:
Mortality.Net is quickly making a name for itself as the other big D&D fansite, and for at least one good reason: fans of all editions of the game are welcome! Mortality hosts a message board forum that features a dedicated Greyhawk folder frequented by a fairly small but loyal bunch of Greyhawkers, their recent topics include ancient history of the Flanaess and using Iuz in a campaign. You can visit Mortality.Net's boards at http://mortality.net/board/, the Greyhawk folder is in the official published settings category, about half way down the index page.
Mortality.Net is also the home of Mortality Radio, a bi-weekly internet radio talkshow and chat dedicated to D&D in all its editions (though to be honest the talk usually focuses on 3rd edition). The next show is this Friday, September 13th at 8pm EST. Visit http://mortality.net/shoutcast.php to learn more and find out how to join in. This week's guest interview is yet to be announced, but the shows are always a lot of fun and worth checking out.
Mortality.Net also hosts an extensive archive of old netbooks and gaming documents from around the web, so if you've misplaced an old gem and can't find it again, there's a good chance they have it. You can access Mortality.Net's archives via the radio show link above.
Realms of Evil Games roundup:
Realms of Evil Games is another up and coming D&D fansite worth checking out for their dedicated Greyhawk discussion forum. Current topics include adventuring in the Pomarj, the Justicar character from the recent Greyhawk novels, and the relationship between Heironeous and Hextor. Visit Realms of Evil Games' forums at http://www.dreadgazebo.com/cgi-bin/forums/YaBB.cgi.
GreyTalk mailing list roundup:
The Greytalk discussion list is the oldest and biggest Greyhawk forum on the web, and boasts quite a few of the setting's published authors and prolific fans. Current topics include bardic traditions in the Flanaess, defining the Touv, taxation in the countries of the Flanaess, and the technological levels of castles in the campaign.
For information on joining the list, visit the Canonfire! site FAQ at http://www.canonfire.com/html/modules.php?name=FAQ
To browse the GreyTalk list archives, visit http://www.greycitadel.com/greycitadel/greytalk.nsf
Don't like email lists? You can now participate in the GreyTalk discussions via Canonfire's fully integrated message board interface, which allows fully reading and posting priveleges to the list, in the message board format many of you prefer. Visit http://www.canonfire.com/forum to check it out.
Greyhawk-L mailing list roundup:
The official GH-L list has been a bit slow lately, but discussion about The Artifact of Evil and the RPGA Shorecon event has managed to continue through the slow time.
You can join the list at http://oracle.wizards.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=greyhawk-l&A=1.
To browse the GH-L archive, visit http://oracle.wizards.com/archives/greyhawk-l.html.
Living Greyhawk discussion list roundup:
The Living Greyhawk list is busy as usual with discussion of APL rules, spell mechanics, table sizes, and ... um ... Pokemon cards?
To join the list, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Living_Greyhawk/. Topics usually tend to be heavy in Living Greyhawk and RPGA rules, with little to no discussion of general Greyhawk material, but if you are a player, or interested in becoming one, in the Living Greyhawk campaign, the list is an invaluable resource.
ATTENTION LIVING GREYHAWK TRIADS!
Would you like a TWIGF roundup of your list added to each week's newsletter? If so, it's easy to make happen. Just send a summary of your recent topics, as well as the URL of your list's Yahoo Groups homepage to richadmin@canonfire.com with 'TWIGF scoop' in the subject of your mail. It's that easy!
Canonfire! Author Spotlight:
This week's featured author is chatdemon (yeah, that's me, but hey, I'm just going down the list of contributors, no conspiracy here!). My articles include glimpses of life in the Amedio Jungle, plot hooks to drop into a Sheldomar Valley centered campaign, and my signature 'Forgotten Gods of the Suloise' series, which introduces or revisits the gods of that pantheon. You can check out these, and all my other articles at my Canonfire! member page, http://www.canonfire.com/html/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&uname=chatdemon.
Google-hawk!
This week in our totally random look at Greyhawk fansites powered by the Google search engine, we visit Maldin's Greyhawk. Maldin is a long time Greyhawker, with credit for the Living Greyhawk Journal poster map of the City of Greyhawk, maintaining the Greyhawk Adventures webring and fact checking for the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer team under his belt. His website showcases an electronic version of that map, a supplementary map of the undercity and sewers, details on the Codex of Infinite Planes, and other materials from his 22 year old Greyhawk campaigns. Truly a must visit site for those new to online Greyhawk circles. Maldin's site can be found at http://www.timebomb.on.ca/denist/greyhawk/.
That wraps up this week's edition of This Week in Greyhawk Fandom. Check back next week for more up to the minute information on the setting and its fans. Happy 'Hawking!
Legal Notice
This Week in Greyhawk Fandom is a presentation of the Canonfire.com (http://www.canonfire.com/html/copyright.php) website, and is the copyrighted property of Rich 'chatdemon' Trickey and the Canonfire! staff. Permission is granted to redistribute the text of this document in whole and unaltered form only including this legal statement. Tranmission of altered forms of this document by unauthorized parties will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of all applicable laws. Please direct any comments, complaints or suggestions to the author, Rich Trickey, via email at richadmin@canonfire.com.
(editted to correct formatting issues)
12 September, 2002
This issue of This Week in Greyhawk Fandom is dedicated to all those who gave, those who are still giving, and those who are gone. God bless America.
Greetings Greyhawk fans! It's been a while since the last issue of this newsletter, but it's back and better than ever. Remember, each week's issue is available on the Canonfire! website on wednesday morning, and distributed via email, usenet and various message board forums thursday morning. If you have a scoop you think would be of interest to the Greyhawk community, or if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to contact me directly at richadmin@canonfire.com. Thanks for your support!
News from the Wizards of the Coast Website:
There's not a lot of new Greyhawk related material on the site right now, but I'd like to highlight a couple of regular features the Greyhawk fan might find of interest.
Fold-Up Paper Miniature Scenery
Miniature figures have always been a fun aspect of the D&D game, and the combat system of 3rd edition makes them almost mandatory for making sense out of melee. For the gamer who want's a little more detail and 'wow' in the miniature aspect of their game, but can't all the expensive molded scenery pieces, WotC offers a series of printable scenery pieces in pdf format for free download. Also available is a detailed pdf instruction booklet containing tips and tricks for making the most of your cardstock environment. You can learn more, and download the files, at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=minis/ch20020827pmx
Map-a-Week
For those DM's with a bit of artistic talent, making the map for the next game session is probably one of the more enjoyable parts of planning the game, for the rest of us, there's Map-a-Week. Each week for the last few years, WotC has offered free downloadable high quality maps, ready to be stocked with traps, monsters and treasures and sprung on an unsuspecting party of adventures. The current maps are the portions of a huge 15 piece poster map, and the Map-a-Week archive has dozens of other maps, so you're sure to find something useful for your game. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mw/mw20020905a
FREE Original Adventures
About once a month, WotC offers a new free mini-adventure module for download on the site. As you might expect, these are all designed using the 3rd edition D&D rules, but would be simple to convert to an earlier edition, or to another system altogether. The current offering pits the party against the plots of a villainous Rakshasa, and the archive features a wide variety of adventures to suit any DM looking for a break from the rigors of fully designing every episode of their campaign. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article1.asp?x=dnd/oa/adventure,3
That's all from WotC's site this week, but stayed tuned, in coming weeks we'll look at some of their other regular offerings, as well as keeping you informed of any new offerings on their site that relate to the Greyhawk setting.
Dragon Magazine report:
Dragon celebrates its 300th issue this month, and features a trip down memory lane with former editors Kim Mohan, Dale Donovan, and Dave Gross, revisiting the magazine's history and accomplishments. Also in this month's issue:
Secrets of the Skinscribes, by James Jacobs, details an ancient Suloise (which, I must point out, is mispelled suEloise on WotC's site
) sect of necromancers whose magic was so vile they dared only record their findings by tattooing their 'spellbooks' on their own skin.(Note: This article is one half of a special 'sealed' section of the magazine this month marked for mature audiences only due to it's 'vile' nature. YMMV)Up on a Soapbox, E. Gary Gygax's monthly column, reflects this time on Wastri, the Hopping Prophet.
Living Greyhawk Journal: Playing Pieces: Denizens of Darkness by Living Greyhawk Gazetteer co-author and long time GreyTalker Fred Weining, details 8 NPCs to supplement his Vault of the Drow revisited article from Dragon #298.
Of additional interest is a FAQ detailing the Paizo Publishing takeover of the magazines.
GenCon 2003 report:
Preliminary information on Gencon 2003, in Indianapolis, Indiana is now available at Gen Con LLC's website, http://www.gencon.com. Currently, the details are limited to a draft of the floorplan/event layout (in pdf format for download) and some general contact information, but it is worth mentioning to all the Greyhawk fans out on the west coast that the company is currently taking feedback regarding a proposed 'Gen Con So Cal' to be held in the future in addition to the big event in Indy.
ENWorld 3rd edition and D20 site roundup:
D&D and Greyhawk creator E. Gary Gygax has taken some time recently to participate in a general Q&A session on the ENWorld message boards. The thread is somewhat lighthearted and 'noisy', but Gary manages to shed some light on current projects and reflect on past ones, you can read it at http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22566. ENWorld has also posted a transcript of a recent chat with Col. Gygax in their chat room, available at http://www.d20reviews.com/chat.htm, where you can also learn more about the ENWorld chats, read transcripts of other past chats with industry luminaries, and keep track of upcoming events.
Also of interest on the ENWorld boards this week are threads about the recent wave of layoffs at WotC, rethinking the role of the 'cannon fodder' humanoids in the D&D game, life after phase one of WotC's big setting search contest, and much more. Visit ENWorld's boards at http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/.
Mortality.Net D&D site roundup:
Mortality.Net is quickly making a name for itself as the other big D&D fansite, and for at least one good reason: fans of all editions of the game are welcome! Mortality hosts a message board forum that features a dedicated Greyhawk folder frequented by a fairly small but loyal bunch of Greyhawkers, their recent topics include ancient history of the Flanaess and using Iuz in a campaign. You can visit Mortality.Net's boards at http://mortality.net/board/, the Greyhawk folder is in the official published settings category, about half way down the index page.
Mortality.Net is also the home of Mortality Radio, a bi-weekly internet radio talkshow and chat dedicated to D&D in all its editions (though to be honest the talk usually focuses on 3rd edition). The next show is this Friday, September 13th at 8pm EST. Visit http://mortality.net/shoutcast.php to learn more and find out how to join in. This week's guest interview is yet to be announced, but the shows are always a lot of fun and worth checking out.
Mortality.Net also hosts an extensive archive of old netbooks and gaming documents from around the web, so if you've misplaced an old gem and can't find it again, there's a good chance they have it. You can access Mortality.Net's archives via the radio show link above.
Realms of Evil Games roundup:
Realms of Evil Games is another up and coming D&D fansite worth checking out for their dedicated Greyhawk discussion forum. Current topics include adventuring in the Pomarj, the Justicar character from the recent Greyhawk novels, and the relationship between Heironeous and Hextor. Visit Realms of Evil Games' forums at http://www.dreadgazebo.com/cgi-bin/forums/YaBB.cgi.
GreyTalk mailing list roundup:
The Greytalk discussion list is the oldest and biggest Greyhawk forum on the web, and boasts quite a few of the setting's published authors and prolific fans. Current topics include bardic traditions in the Flanaess, defining the Touv, taxation in the countries of the Flanaess, and the technological levels of castles in the campaign.
For information on joining the list, visit the Canonfire! site FAQ at http://www.canonfire.com/html/modules.php?name=FAQ
To browse the GreyTalk list archives, visit http://www.greycitadel.com/greycitadel/greytalk.nsf
Don't like email lists? You can now participate in the GreyTalk discussions via Canonfire's fully integrated message board interface, which allows fully reading and posting priveleges to the list, in the message board format many of you prefer. Visit http://www.canonfire.com/forum to check it out.
Greyhawk-L mailing list roundup:
The official GH-L list has been a bit slow lately, but discussion about The Artifact of Evil and the RPGA Shorecon event has managed to continue through the slow time.
You can join the list at http://oracle.wizards.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=greyhawk-l&A=1.
To browse the GH-L archive, visit http://oracle.wizards.com/archives/greyhawk-l.html.
Living Greyhawk discussion list roundup:
The Living Greyhawk list is busy as usual with discussion of APL rules, spell mechanics, table sizes, and ... um ... Pokemon cards?
To join the list, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Living_Greyhawk/. Topics usually tend to be heavy in Living Greyhawk and RPGA rules, with little to no discussion of general Greyhawk material, but if you are a player, or interested in becoming one, in the Living Greyhawk campaign, the list is an invaluable resource.
ATTENTION LIVING GREYHAWK TRIADS!
Would you like a TWIGF roundup of your list added to each week's newsletter? If so, it's easy to make happen. Just send a summary of your recent topics, as well as the URL of your list's Yahoo Groups homepage to richadmin@canonfire.com with 'TWIGF scoop' in the subject of your mail. It's that easy!
Canonfire! Author Spotlight:
This week's featured author is chatdemon (yeah, that's me, but hey, I'm just going down the list of contributors, no conspiracy here!). My articles include glimpses of life in the Amedio Jungle, plot hooks to drop into a Sheldomar Valley centered campaign, and my signature 'Forgotten Gods of the Suloise' series, which introduces or revisits the gods of that pantheon. You can check out these, and all my other articles at my Canonfire! member page, http://www.canonfire.com/html/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&uname=chatdemon.
Google-hawk!
This week in our totally random look at Greyhawk fansites powered by the Google search engine, we visit Maldin's Greyhawk. Maldin is a long time Greyhawker, with credit for the Living Greyhawk Journal poster map of the City of Greyhawk, maintaining the Greyhawk Adventures webring and fact checking for the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer team under his belt. His website showcases an electronic version of that map, a supplementary map of the undercity and sewers, details on the Codex of Infinite Planes, and other materials from his 22 year old Greyhawk campaigns. Truly a must visit site for those new to online Greyhawk circles. Maldin's site can be found at http://www.timebomb.on.ca/denist/greyhawk/.
That wraps up this week's edition of This Week in Greyhawk Fandom. Check back next week for more up to the minute information on the setting and its fans. Happy 'Hawking!
Legal Notice
This Week in Greyhawk Fandom is a presentation of the Canonfire.com (http://www.canonfire.com/html/copyright.php) website, and is the copyrighted property of Rich 'chatdemon' Trickey and the Canonfire! staff. Permission is granted to redistribute the text of this document in whole and unaltered form only including this legal statement. Tranmission of altered forms of this document by unauthorized parties will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of all applicable laws. Please direct any comments, complaints or suggestions to the author, Rich Trickey, via email at richadmin@canonfire.com.
(editted to correct formatting issues)
Last edited:
