Virtual GaryCon "Celebrating Greyhawk" Seminar -- tonight 8-10pm CDT

Tonight I'm going to participate in our second annual "Celebrating Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance" seminar at GaryCon.  You can review last year's seminar info---including a summary and recording details.  

Here's the 2020 event description:

Seminar will Dual Live Stream on www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba and twitch.tv/garycon2. A personal Twitch ID is helpful, but not absolutely necessary. Also, there will be Prize Drawings at Seminar Completion for Giveaway Items related to Greyhawk & Old-School Gaming---for example, free copies of the print version of the Oerth Journal.

Greyhawk fans have been creating and sharing content online for 25+ years, across many platforms. Join Bryan Blumklotz, Mike Bridges, Allan Grohe, Carlos Lising, Anna Meyer, and Kristoph Nolen as we celebrate and showcase Greyhawk resources created by the fans who champion one of D&D's oldest settings.

• Bryan “Saracenus” Blumklotz – Bryan is the lead administrator for the Greyhawk Resources Facebook group and is creator of the World of Greyhawk Heraldry site at WoG Heraldry
• Mike "mortellan" Bridges – Mike publishes the Greyhawk blog Greyhawkery and co-hosts the weekly Legends & Lore show on the Lord Gosumba channel at Twitch
• Allan "grodog" Grohe – Allan publishes his Greyhawk fan site at Greyhawk, grodog Style and is co-founder of Black Blade Publishing (OSRIC, Rob Kuntz’s The Original Bottle City, etc.)
• Carlos "caslEntertainment" Lising – Carlos writes and publishes OSRIC adventures set in Oerth and in Avremier via the casl Entertainment Patreon
• Anna "GH Maps" Meyer – Anna publishes her Flanaess maps at www.ghmaps.net and founded the Flanaess Geographical Society and Patreon. She also co-hosts the Legends & Lore show with Mike Bridges on the Lord Gosumba Twitch channel
• Kristoph "Icarus" Nolen – Krisoph adminsiters Greyhawk Online, edits and publishes the Oerth Journal (which just launched a new Patreon!), and showcases his artwork at http://wkristophnolen.daportfolio.com/
• Jay L. Scott, Lord Gosumba Twitch channel: Jay's World of Greyhawk, Order of Ulek AD&D campaign is in its 40th+ year of gameplay; it is believed to be the oldest, continuous Greyhawk Campaign in existence. He has been streaming for two years, and his groups play D&D with a 1E/2E rules, Miniatures/Tabletop, in person, playstyle.

Additional information about the seminar will appear on the seminar page at Greyhawk Online.

This year there are, of course, a few changes of note:

1. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, GaryCon has been cancelled and Virtual GaryCon has taken its place; more info/details in the GaryCon Facebook group and on the Virtual GaryCon page in TableTop Events
2. Also due to the cancellation of GaryCon, Carlos Lising of caslEntertainment will not be joining the virtual seminar panel
3. The structure of the panel is new this year---we'll dig into topics submitted by Greyhawk fans online, and take live topics from the audience, and have expanded audience Q&A to 30 minutes at the end of the program
4. The topics of discussion are somewhat fluid due to the nature of the interaction between panelists and the audience, and while we can't promise that these will all fit into the flow of the live discussion, here's what we have in mind:
1. Introductions 
2. Where Greyhawk Discussion is Hot in Social Media 
3. Greyhawk Beyond the Flanaess 
4. Greyhawk products - favorites, modules, obscure/under-appreciated products, etc.   "
5. Core" Greyhawk lore Fan Projects
6. Conclusions
5. This year we have several sets of prizes being offered to seminar partipants, including Greyhawk fiction by Gary Gygax, adventure modules from contemporary OSR publishers and Greyhawk classics from TSR, print copies of the Oerth Journal, and more!

See you tonight 8-10pm CDT!:

Seminar will Dual Live Stream on www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba and twitch.tv/garycon2. A personal Twitch ID is helpful, but not absolutely necessary. Also, there will be Prize Drawings at Seminar Completion for Giveaway Items related to Greyhawk & Old-School Gaming---for example, free copies of the print version of the Oerth Journal.

Allan.

"Celebrating Greyhawk - A Fandom Renaissance" GaryCon XI - seminar video recording now available

Luke Gygax just posted the video from our "Celebrating Greyhawk - A Fandom Renaissance" seminar at GaryCon XI to his YouTube channel:

Thank you Luke, for arranging to record the seminars and for keeping GaryCon a great place for Greyhawk gaming, year-in-and-year-out!

Allan.

Celebrating Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance - GaryCon XI Seminar

On Friday afternoon last week, I co-hosted a seminar panel discussion at GaryCon XI entitled, "Celebrating Greyhawk—A Fandom Renaissance."  Our panel had a great time discussing past, current, and future fan works, projects, and plans centered on The World of Greyhawk, across all editions, eras, and versions. 

Seminar Topics

The seminar brought together six long-time Greyhawk fans, each discussing different aspects of fan engagement with the Greyhawk setting:

• Kristoph Nolen kicked off the seminar, starting at 4:00.
• Mike Bridges (starting at 9:00 to 14:20) spoke to his writings, art, and cartography as seen via his Greyhawkery blog, his creative work on Ull, his W.o.G. comic (showcased weekly-ish on Facebook by Bryan), and Castle Greyhawk comic (written by Scott Casper with Mike's artwork), and his recent work with Anna Meyer on their Legends & Lore show on the Greyhawk channel (live on Twitch, reruns on YouTube)
• Allan Grohe (me, starting at 15:00 to 27:55) shared some of my favorite Greyhawk researchers and their "deep dives" into the setting's lore, in particular the work of bloggers like Timrod's T1 Moathouse-DMG Sample Dungeon-B2 analysis, Scott “scottsz” Szczypiorski for his Cold Text Files work on WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, and Scott Casper and Mike Bridges' Castle Greyhawk web comic, among other topics.  You can also download my "Greyhawk Fandom - The Deep Cuts" presentation in PDF format.
• Anna Meyer (starting at 28:40 to 53:20) spoke about her long-term love for and engagement with the cartography of the Greyhawk setting, including the Flanaess Geographical Society and her Patreon---Anna is the only panelist who's full-time day-job focuses on games-related work; Anna also spoke about Creative Commons licensing
• Carlos Lising (starting at 54:20 to 1:10:22) discussed how to publish and share your Greyhawk home content, with an emphasis on the challenges around self-publishing for Greyhawk based lessons learned via his casl Entertainment publishing company and Patreon
• Bryan Blumklotz (starting at 1:11:06 to 1:30:45) spoke about the dynamics of building, growing, maintaining, and managing fan communities, how to help encourage Greyhawk fans to tap into the wealth of resources that are available today; Bryan co-administers the Canonfire!  Facebook group, and also creates fabulous Greyhawk Heraldry (which we didn't discuss much during the seminar, but which is featured throughout Anna's maps as well as OJ28 and its handouts!)
• Kristoph Nolen (starting at 1:31:45 to 1:49) wrapped up our presentations with his vision for GreyhawkOnline's role in the Greyhawk fan community, including the Greyhawk Wiki, fan space on GHO (both current and legacy fan sites), and the Oerth Journal, among other topics
• Q&A conclude the session, starting at 1:49.

I recorded the audio for the seminar and posted it to my site at http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk-seminar-garycon-2019-03-08.mp3.  A transcript for the session will also available once I get that generated.  If I get ambitious, I'll carve up each segment so that you can drop back into the seminar wherever you'd like to do so, but until that time, I've placed time-markers in our section notes above.

GaryCon also recorded audio/video for the session, and it is available on YouTube on Luke Gygax's YouTube channel @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCfI_zFaVZE:

 

The GaryCon event description for the seminar is at
https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xi/schedule/355 and if you're curious I wrote a little more about the seminar's background in my January update to my Charting the Flanaesss: a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart project, too.

 

Seminar Video Content

Jay "Lord Gosumba" Scott and DMShane of the Greyhawk Channel also provided videos for the seminar.  Unfortunately we ran out of time and weren't able to share them live, but through the magic of the internet you can view them both:

• Jay built a 1:48 trailer for the 16-hour streaming charity event on 23 March 2019 from 08:00 to 23:59.  His crew will be running through an epic Greyhawk-based Stories of the Orb of Dragonkind campaign, in four parts:
  • Part 0 - The Prelude discussion for the event appears on Jay's Gabbin Show on Sunday, 17 March at 7:30 PM EDT at https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba
  • Part 1 - 8am-Noon EDT (on 23 March):  begins with @Giantstomp DMing in the Bandit Kingdoms at https://www.twitch.tv/wickedstudiosllc
  • Part 2 - Noon-4pm EDT: continues with @DM Marco DMing in the Shield Lands at https://www.twitch.tv/events/qJMDAokrRZCDOd5tBEb3RQ
  • Part 3 - 4pm-8pm EDT: continues with @NPCBree DMing at https://www.twitch.tv/greyhawkchannel
  • Part 4 - 8pm-Midnight EDT: concludes with Jay DMing in Greyhawk City and the Cairn Hills at https://www.twitch.tv/events/86YMUYR1TXKz7eSLRlgBtw
  
  There are two ways to Donate:  through Bits (Cheers) or using the Donate button on each Twitch Channel. All monies raised throughout the event will benefit the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.



• DMShane hosts the Greyhawk Channel, and he built a 5:23 trailer to provide a quick introduction and overview for the many shows on Twitch, (and you can watch the non-live broadcasts on the Greyhawk Channel on YouTube as well)

 

Oerth Journal 28!

At the seminar, we also debuted the newest issue of the Oerth Journal #28, and distributed 100 copies in print for free to the attendees of the seminar and other folks at the show.  This is the first time that the OJ has been published as a print project!  

Oerth Journal #28 cover -
cartography by Anna Meyer,
artwork by W. Kristoph Nolen,
heraldry by Bryan Blumklotz

The seminar participants each contributed expanded material inserted to the OJ print edition, with some new/overflow content appearing online only (not in the print booklet/handouts):

• Flanaess Maps – by Anna B. Meyer
• Greyhawk Heraldry – by Brian Blumklotz
• Map and Adventure Hooks for Ull – by Mike Bridges
• Erastoriûl Ka’arndrik: a 1e drowic sage of Erelhei-Cinlu – by Allan T. Grohe Jr.

In addition, OJ28 also includes these articles:

• Order of Ulek: Founding and Synposis – by Jay Scott
• State of the Bandit Kingdoms – by William Dvorak
• Order of Ulek: The Shield Lands – by Jay Scott
• Trading Card Style Artwork – by Jeffrey B. Garrison
• Rhennee Rumors from Up and Down the River – by W. Kristoph Nolen with the Oliver Brothers
• The Great Flanaess River Adventure – by the Oliver Brothers with W. Kristoph Nolen
• Cultists of Tharizdun – comic by Mike Bridges
• The Cerulean Cyst – by Carlos Lising, an AD&D 1e adventure set in the Cairn Hills
• The Wall – by Denis “Maldin” Tetreault, an AD&D encounter area
• Greyhawk Reborn Introduction – by Dave Guerreri
• The Greyhawk Channel – by W. Kristoph Nolen
•  Flanaess Distance Chart – by Allan T. Grohe Jr.

Lastly, the submitted materials included a lot of "overflow" content that could not possibly fit into the print issue.  

For full details, see https://greyhawkonline.com/seminar/ (and note the upcoming 24th anniversary of the OJ in May 2019, too!). 

Thank You!

We'd like to thank all of the fans who attended the seminar, who expressed interest in the recordings and the Oerth Journal content afterward, and who have helped make Greyhawk into one of the most-fun worlds to game in over the years!

Bryan, Mike, Allan, Carlos, Anna, and Kristoph.

UPDATE 2 - Charting The Flanaess: a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart

In May 2018 I began work on building a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart for the Flanaess, but the project has lain fairly fallow until last month.

Since before the start of the year, our team of Greyhawk fan contributors have been working on material for the Greyhawk Seminar (details in last month's update), and I've been doing my part in that effort too.

As part of some of that work, I've realigned my mileage distances chart data to include only those settlements that appear on Anna B. Meyer's Flanaess map excerpt for the handouts.  In doing so, I removed a few cities from my original swag list, and added a few more, which meant that last Sunday I performed the rest of the Darlene map measurements to drive my distance calculations formulas.  

Here's where things stand at present:

grodog at work -
fitting the Flanaess into spreadsheet cells

With the change from some of the original settlements that are now out-of-scope for the map area in the new handouts, and adding in the new ones, I've now completed distances for 17 of the 130 locations, which is 13.1% of the overall effort.  A little progress goes a long way---although not so far in this case, since all of these settlements are in the Central Flanaess and are pretty close to one another! ;)

Allan.

UPDATE 1 - Charting The Flanaess: a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart

In May last year I began work on building a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart for the Flanaess, but the project has lain fairly fallow until recently.

Greyhawk Seminar at GaryCon 2019

A crew of six of us will host a Greyhawk seminar at GaryCon XI in March 2019, focused on the state of the state of Greyhawk fandom.  The seminar is titled "Celebraing Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance" and the event description is:

Greyhawk fans have been creating and sharing content online for 25+ years, across many platforms. Join Bryan Blumklotz, Mike Bridges, Allan Grohe, Carlos Lising, Anna Meyer, and Kristoph Nolen as we celebrate and showcase Greyhawk resources created by the fans who champion one of D&D's oldest settings. Reference handouts will be provided, and perhaps prizes if we get our act together!

• Bryan “Saracenus” Blumklotz – Bryan is the lead administrator for the CanonFire! A Greyhawk Resource! Facebook group and is creator of the World of Greyhawk Heraldry site.
• Mike "mortellan" Bridges – Mike publishes the Greyhawk blog Greyhawkery and co-hosts the weekly Legends & Lore show on the Greyhawk channel.
• Allan "grodog" Grohe – Allan publishes his grodog's Greyhawk fan site and is co-founder of Black Blade Publishing (OSRIC, Rob Kuntz’s The Original Bottle City, etc.) and The Twisting Stair mega-dungeon design zine.
• Carlos "caslEntertainment" Lising – Carlos writes and publishes OSRIC adventures set in Oerth and in Avremier via casl Entertainment and Patreon.
• Anna "GH Maps" Meyer – Anna publishes her Flanaess maps and founded the Flanaess Geographical Society Facebook group.  She also co-hosts the Legends & Lore Greyhawk show with Mike Bridges.
• Kristoph "Icarus" Nolen – Krisoph is leading the redesign of Greyhawk Online and showcases his artwork at http://wkristophnolen.daportfolio.com/.

Additional informationabout the seminar  (including a recording of the session and any distributed handouts) will appear on Greyhawk Online at https://www.greyhawkonline.com/seminar.

Charting the Flanaess Update

One of the seminar handouts I'm planing is a working prototype for the mileage chart,  limited in scope to the Central Flanaess in and around the City of Greyhawk, so I’ve been working on that recently by measuring out the distances from city to city on the Darlene map, in millimeters:

grodog at work -
measuring the Flanaess in millimeters

Once the measurements are complete, I enter the raw data into Excel in the first/upper set of cities listings.  The green, red, and yellow highlighted rows are my fact-checking:  I want to insure that the figures true-up across each row and column, and then in total as well:
 

grodog at work -
fitting the Flanaess into spreadsheet cells

The second/lower set of cities listings is where I convert the measured distances in mm into scale miles (I’ll eventually do kilometers as well), based on this data and formula logic:

1. One Folio Darlene hex = 55 mm across = 10 scale leagues/30 scale miles
2. Convert the raw distance between each city into a ratio relative to the hex sizes on the Darlene Folio maps:  (X mm/55mm). 
3. Multiple the ratio by 30 miles to derive the final distance figure

Like in the first/ upper set of cities, I also fact-check the figures to insure that they match properly. 
 
I think I’ve also found a good methodology for how to manually count out of the Darlene map mileage distances:  I’ll simply print a copy of the “Index to the Cities & Features of the Flanaess” page from the Glassography and measure out the distances for each listed city, one city to a sheet.
 

 
Interesting aside #1:  of the 130 settlements that appear in the Glassography index, about 50 appear in the general region of the Central Flanaess.  That’s 38% of the cities squeezed into an area only that occupies only 25% of the Darlene mapspace. 
 
Interesting aside #2:  looking at each page of the original maps to calculate the settlement density will also be an interesting exercise to go through, I think. 
 

Minor Complications

One of the major issues I’ll want to call out in the data is a possible discrepancy in measurement when the distances span both of the Darlene maps:  maps can shift around, the hexes could be misaligned, etc., so measuring across both maps will be more challenging and more prone to error than when measuring within either map alone. 
 
In my prototype data set, only Luekish, Radigast City, and Riftcraft appear on the right-hand map, so I calculated all of the left-hand map’s distances first, then measured the right-hand ones back to the left, and wrapped up with the right-hand-only mileage. 
 

Next Steps

Once I have a better understanding of the scope included in the map handouts that we’ll distribute at the seminar (and we will post all of the handouts to Greyhawk Online, and at minimum an audio recording of the seminar as well), I will update the list of cities to feature any other major ones that aren’t already included in the chart, which will finalize the initial prototype data set. 
 
Sometime after GaryCon, the rest of the long-haul work will begin, likely to occur in three phases: 

1. Count out all of the distances in the left-hand map.
2. Count out all of the distances in the right-hand map.
3. Count out all of the distances that span both maps.

I’ll continue to post updates here as I make further progress!
 
Allan.