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.

 

[Parmandur]

I thought you were talking about "OSR 5E" rules.

Sure. Folks would buy Castle Greyhawk.

Nope, don't expect all thst much from thst, except vibes.

1E and Basic material has just been running in 5E for 12 years now.

 

[Reynard]

1E and Basic material has just been running in 5E for 12 years now.

That doesn't mean 5E plays or even feels anything like TSR D&D. (Actually, I personally think it feels like the height of 2E, but that's a different thing.)

 

[Parmandur]

That doesn't mean 5E plays or even feels anything like TSR D&D. (Actually, I personally think it feels like the height of 2E, but that's a different thing.)

Sure, vibes.

The material, however, works pretty well interchangeably.

 

[mamba]

Why would you think that? It's pretty obvious to the point where I'm honestly perplexed about why some folks are perplexed about it.

the fact that folks wonder about what it could be is pretty good evidence that we do not know what it is, otherwise there would not be any confusion / guessing. You can be convinced that it is the one you are thinking of, but clearly that conviction is not shared all that widely

 

[PyroArrow]

Cool picture but where is the blood? Not on monster, not on Melf, not on sword, not on either's clothing, not on ground or in the water? So does Melf have some sort of Clean Blood Residue spell?!?!

 

[bedir than]

Cool picture but where is the blood? Not on monster, not on Melf, not on sword, not on either's clothing, not on ground or in the water? So does Melf have some sort of Clean Blood Residue spell?!?!

same place the blood was in the 80s when Easley also did art

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Cool picture but where is the blood? Not on monster, not on Melf, not on sword, not on either's clothing, not on ground or in the water? So does Melf have some sort of Clean Blood Residue spell?!?!

I don’t know that I can think of any Easley painting that shows blood now that you mention it. Wonder if that some issue for Jeff.

 

[TheHand]

I see Melf has ditched his old glow-in-the-dark short sword that his 80’s action-figure used to carry

It’s nice to Easley return, but like many have said, it’s not his best work and it doesn’t scream Greyhawk to me. I was expecting this book’s cover art to depict the eponymous city of the infamous castle ruins. The elf’s face reminds me of some of the Easley depictions of Drizzt back in the day (Sojourn? Was that one of the books?).

 

[PyroArrow]

I see Melf has ditched his old glow-in-the-dark short sword that his 80’s action-figure used to carry

It’s nice to Easley return, but like many have said, it’s not his best work and it doesn’t scream Greyhawk to me. I was expecting this book’s cover art to depict the eponymous city of the infamous castle ruins. The elf’s face reminds me of some of the Easley depictions of Drizzt back in the day (Sojourn? Was that one of the books?).

Melf's face does look like Luke though. Looks like a Grey Elf with pale grey skin. hair with a silver hue, and eyes like amber.