Melf's Guide to Greyhawk Cover by Jeff Easley Revealed at Gary Con

Luke Gygax revealed the cover to his upcoming collaboration with Wizards of the Coast at Gary Con over the weekend. During an annual auction at the convention, Gygax revealed a painting by Jeff Easley featuring his famed character Melf. According to GamingTrend, which posted the news on Saturday, the painting will be used as a cover for the upcoming Greyhawk compendium being developed by Gygax and Wizards of the Coast, which was unofficially called Melf's Guide to Greyhawk. The painting was won by actor Vince Vaughn, who paid $5,000. You can check out an image of the cover below, courtesy of GamingTrend. More photos of the artwork can be found on that site.

Gygax and D&D Head of Franchise Dan Ayoub announced their collaboration earlier at Gary Con, with Ayoub emphasizing a desire to "mend the rift" between the Gygax family and Dungeons & Dragons. No specifics have been revealed for what the book will entail, other than that it will be set within Greyhawk. Greyhawk is also featured in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, although at the time Wizards had no plans to further flesh out the setting beyond that book.

Wizards of the Coast also announced at Gary Gon that Gen Con would serve as an announcement hub for upcoming books starting this year, and that modules would be returning in some format tied to the new Seasons approach to promoting material.

 

[Artamo]

My opinion on this piece - I don’t know if this is what they wanted for the vibe, but I look at it, and my takeaway is that it was more important for them to have something by Jeff Easley because it’s Jeff Easley than the art being evocative of anything having to do with Greyhawk. It’s less interesting to me than another well known Easley piece - that being the front cover for the 2e PHB, and I didn’t like that one either.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I don't trust 'em.

 

[sevenbastard]

Personally, I would rather see Larry or Keith on a cover. This cover reminds me why Jeff went from top of the pack to bottom of the pack for me.

RIP Keith. His stuff was great.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Unless melf is a blade singer, under 5.5e rules, I don't think he would have rapier or longbow proficiency; so maybe there's a way to give elves there historical weapon proficiencies back in this book

 

[bedir than]

Unless melf is a blade singer, under 5.5e rules, I don't think he would have rapier or longbow proficiency; so maybe there's a way to give elves there historical weapon proficiencies back in this book

Why wouldn't a Fighter-Magic User have a longbow or rapier?

 

[mamba]

I don't trust 'em.

trust whom with what? Luke & Co? WotC?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, that was my reaction. Like, not knocking the quality of the piece, but the subject doesn’t really scream “Greyhawk source book” to me

It’s a male elf though, which fits the title.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

trust whom with what? Luke & Co? WotC?

Wizards of the Coast. They're trying to mend rifts of their on making. I still play Dungeons and Dragons, I just don't buy the products anymore.

 

[Reynard]

I will say it: the piece is bad. Regardless of whether the subject makes sense as a Greyhawk book. The detail and composition are just not up to par. The quality is well below Easley's heyday -- which is understandable, as he is in his 70s. But still.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Wizards of the Coast. They're trying to mend rifts of their on making.

That sounds like a throughly good thing to me. Lots of people make rifts, it takes courage to try and fix them.