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What do the "B"s and "M"s stand for in the gods' alignment? I can't tell if they're supposed to represent Good or Evil, and there are too many of them to be typos.

What, no love for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream? Or, if you want to take a darker twist on it, how about [i]Macbeth[i]?

Thank you all for your insights.

I seem to have kicked over a bit of a beehive. Sorry if this is the case.

Perhaps I should have focused on the Vecna book and the inclusion of Greyhawk therein ...

Of course, who else would I add to this thread but the Company of the Silver Wolf?

Here's a copy-and-paste job of the 'bible' I used for creating the companions, including their stats, backgrounds ...

If we're allowing original characters, do they have to be statted out?

I'd be interested in bringing over some of my original villains like Lady Babylon and Kalrek Burunne, but I doubt I'd be much ...

Both of the World Wars had smaller conflicts that happened right before the larger conflicts and arguably helped shape them. World War I had the likes of the Balkan Wars and the Italo-Turkish War, whi ...

I always have the Jarl equip himself with all the magical arms and armor listed as treasure in his lair. It seems silly that he wouldn't.
SirXaris

He didn't get to be Jarl, defeating all challe ...

I didn't remember that - and I can't recall whether the two parties I took through G2 back in the day encountered them or not (one 1e, one Becmi). I know that at least one of them fought the Remo ...

Arrgghh, I hate puddings!

Looking them up in the classic AD&D Monster Manual II, I saw that white puddings don't affect metal like their black counterparts do. Does that apply in 5E too?

The takeover of the Lendore Isles is, in my Greyhawk, part of a larger story arc for the elves as a whole. A lot of it is based off what the LGG writes about both the Lendore Isles and the Valley of t ...

The first suggestion in the module is "Have the party meet at Saltmarsh as a result of vague rumours that there is worthy work for adventurers in the neighborhood." Isn't that good enough and just ha ...

Wow, that was the most epic fight our intrepid band of heroes have gone through to date! Your players have really come into their own.

I'm a bit surprised that Willa is the party's best damage dea ...

I have a lot of questions about this idea, besides what Vulcan originally posted:

How exactly did the Thieves' Guild even pull this off, especially by getting the Watch to confiscate their weapons ...

If Kirt were playing AD&D, then sure, but this is 5E. We don't know exactly what kind of stats they had, unless Kirt decides to show them to us.

Boy, Thokk's Army wasn't much help, was it? Is he going to go back to the Steading to get some new recruits?

If you won't play out what happened to the orcs back at the Steading, what would you ev ...

I'm sure the CF admins are sick of hearing this, but could they add something to the epilogue of "Behind The Mask" when it's uploaded? Namely, it's the dedication...

Dedicated to Joseph “Greyhawk G ...

You are welcome! I actually hadn't originally planned anything for Garuuumk beyond, "I need someone to lead the assault on Headwater even if the players kill Nosnra" so he began as a very one-dimen ...

That is the first descriptive of the Vaukt in GDQ1-7. I’ve always read this as exaggeration for effect. I could imagine in a later module Gygax adding after it, “or so you thought!” After all, Gygax ...

Congratulations! Twenty years is a strange feeling, isn't it?

My anniversary was last year, back when I was a young pup of only 20. I was of the generation that would normally have started with 3E ...

Aww, now I feel bad for Thokk for missing out on the fight. I want to see his glorious army in action!

It's a good thing you rolled so badly for the ogre guards...

You talk about the "Oerth Tem ...

One thing I forgot to ask in my previous post-how did the orcs' defending of the Steading against the returning giants turn out? Will we see that in a future post?

It would really depend on which state you're dealing with. Given the orientation in the 1983 boxed set towards male rulership and primarily male military forces (only two of the heads of state are fem ...

Given that elves and orcs explicitly have creator gods (although canon doesn't seem to say which god created humans-my Greyhawk has different peoples attributing it to Beory, Istus, etc.) it can proba ...

In-character, the other PC's impressed upon Thokk the difficulty of the logistics of such a large army. OOC, Thokk's player is our secondary DM when I'm not and he readily recognized that having do ...

Our heroes have returned just in time to join in the defense of the city...assuming they're not too gassed to do so.

How did you play out the siege of Headwater? Did you use some sort of 5E mass b ...

Doesn't From The Ashes render the GDQ series completely redundant anyway, since Geoff and Sterich end up being conquered anyway?

In my own Greyhawk, the heroes' successfully taking out the giants' ...

Oh no...they're headed into the weird abandoned temple.

Is this where the TPK starts?

How much of the 'orc lore' did Thokk's player know before joining your campaign? Is this something you exp ...

Responding to various posts.

I hear you and appreciate the history you're evoking regarding the Germanic peoples / tribes. Still, the essay is worth reading. A choice point I recall from the Mendez ...

I can't remember off hand where the original concept came from (Scarlet Brotherhood sourcebook?) but I was under the impression that the current Olman pantheon were originally deities from Earth. For ...

Something interesting in my Hold of the Sea Princes campaign has been how to account for the tropical climate, particularly heat and humidity. IMC, most people who wear armor in the Hold prefer leat ...

Love it. I never read that novel as a child or youth but only in the past decade-or-so, so it's relatively fresh in memory, and your Dantès-inspired Olman warrior Ma'non'go sounds intriguing.

Tha ...

After all that fighting and slaughter, Thokk is probably the happiest murderhobo barbarian this side of Grog Strongjaw!

Absolutely loved your descriptions of this fight, and how much you keep trac ...

In what follows, I will critique much, and reject some, of Sean K. Reynold's The Scarlet Brotherhood, which many of us have criticized over the years for failing to "do justice" to the Olman peopl ...

Hey guys,

My two cents. The Oerth Journal continues to exist and we should be proud of of it as one of the longest running zines in fandom. But this is more about Canonfire and its new direction ...

Another thought-governments would make adventurers pay 'treasure taxes' in many cases, such as when the Marquis of Bissel charges the players in Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. In lieu of directly paying a ...

As a few other posters have alluded to, it will vary depending on which country is employing the soldiers or mercenaries in question. The 1st Edition DMG also alludes to the crews of sailing ships bei ...

That was probably the most intense battle our heroes have fought in a really long time. It must have been hell keeping track of all that as a DM!

Question-do you factor in alignment when Thokk's w ...

-The City of the Gods in Blackmoor

-The Gate of Glass on Lendore Isle

-Castle Greyhawk

-The Timeless Tree of the Vesve Forest

-Queen Yolande's palace in Celene, which as I imagine it is de ...

Another thing about the lower population densities is how, if the green flat prairies that make up most state territories are all settled and civilized, then how much territory is there left for aspir ...

Complaints about the allegedly "low" populations of the Flanaess have always bothered me somewhat because they don't account for the fact that all the many, many other races and monsters (guesstimatin ...

Done.

Thank you so much for this, and for continuing to host my writings here at CF. It means a lot to me! Happy

One of the problems with being your own editor is, yet again, forgetting to include certain important texts of a chapter when you submit them to sites kind enough to host your work. If it's not too mu ...

Besides the Sea Princes and the Scarlet Brotherhood being some of the Slave Lords' main clients, I'd also list the other humanoid lords of the Pomarj (the Slave Lords being far from the only major pow ...

1) I don't recall any mention of slavery being legal in the Wild Coast cities specifically, but I do know that The Adventure Begins states that Greyhawk abolished slavery some time either during or ju ...

In both following this thread and in watching Critical Role, I'm reminded of the old military adage that "no battlefield plan ever survives first contact with the enemy."

Players can take perfectl ...

Wow, you rolled pretty bad for the giants here.

So did Nosnra never realize that our heroes cleaned out his treasury before he set out for Headwater?

It didn’t take long for the companions to find the duke’s chamber. While it was as wrecked as the rest of the castle, the companions could see how well-decorated and lavish it was before the Glimmerin ...

I've been looking through the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer again, and I find it strange how a seemingly good-aligned group dedicated to a seemingly good-aligned goddess (Sehanine Moonbow) and Seldarine a ...

I haven't thought too much about this one beyond the City of Greyhawk, but I can say that the Greyhawk Thieves' Guild is the most prominent one in my version of the setting. Amyalla Reorsa is a member ...

So what happened to Turin Deathstalker after such a flagrant act of treason? I can picture two scenarios, and either or both of them could happen:

1) Turin is immediately stripped of all his offic ...

Heads are literally going to roll when Nosnra finds that someone cleaned out his treasure room and got ahold of the orders and magic items the drow gave him.

One thing I never got about G1 was why ...

I disagree. A criminal organization like the Thieves' Guild is not about smash n' grab work. That sort of unskilled theft is more along the lines of what the Beggars' Union would practice (beware ...

The PCs in my Greyhawk campaign retrieved a prophecy from an Astral repository for the priesthood of Celestian: https://grodog.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-prophecy-of-the-six-and-the-twelve.html

I lov ...

Woo-hoo, we're finally at the fun part!

Are you using the version of the G series from Tales of the Yawning Portal? Also, did you write up the parts of the party's journey through Sterich to the St ...

Way back during my early days at Canonfire, I wrote a "Living Greyhawk Gazetteer Addendum" that described every state in the Flanaess along with my takes on their political structures, militaries, rul ...

Guilds probably frown on members taking on related side work, so the bounty is likely through the guild. Bounty hunting seems more along the lines of a Thieves' Guild type of job though - assassins do ...

-Who said that they told her they were from the Scarlet Brotherhood? They could have claimed to have been anyone. As a matter of fact, I'd almost guarantee it. But who?

They might not have done i ...

I imagine the rest of the Fellowship will be sorely missed with this particular mission. And if Thokk's been bored for a while, he won't be for much longer...

I've been meaning to ask you, have you ...

Well, for me, the Nyrond/SB plot came from Gary himself, so it is what it is. If I needed to rationalize it, I’d consider a few points. First, the Brotherhood literally just revealed itself to the w ...

I think what’s interesting here (and recently played out in my 573 CY campaign) is that the Scarlet Brotherhood revealed itself by sending emissaries to places like Rel Mord in the same year that Thro ...

My assumption is that cure disease spells can cure illnesses caused by viruses, bacteria, etc. and aberrations within the body itself like cancer or heart disease, but they can't cure genetic conditio ...

If I were a party member, the first thing I'd probably do is wring Pappy Dickens' neck for getting us into this mess!

Regarding your question, I think that yes, the Guild would probably send anoth ...

I used to wonder why the evil gods didn't just crush the demon lords and arch-devils and rule the lower planes themselves too, but I came up with a non-canon explanation for it.

When the Dark Lord ...

NOTE: I hope this is alright to post here. I would have posted it directly to Facebook, but for some reason its spam filters considered this spam. Please delete if this doesn't fit here.

"You sure ...

I just remembered that the head of the Assassins Guild (Vesper) hates dwarves and probably wouldn't take the job. . . .

What year is your campaign currently in? If Turin Deathstalker is still in ch ...

I don't know how you necessarily have Fionor's personality in your Greyhawk, but my first concern would be about whether wantonly kidnapping someone could cause serious problems for Greysmere's trade ...

Thank you!

Like an idiot, I submitted Chapter Four of Behind The Mask without actually finishing the chapter. If I re-submit it with the full text of the finished chapter, could the site admins please just uploa ...

The recent thread about Keoish noble titles made me curious. Has there ever been a full list of the twelve tribes that Slerotin led out of what's now the Sea of Dust? If so, where was it listed?

Not being familiar with most of those sources, I mentioned in my alternate take on the Greyhawk Wars (see OJ#33) that Iggwilv was in the Abyss. I realized I never actually described her status.

I' ...

My thoughts on the possible consequences based on what you described your d6 roll to be:

-If the nycadaemon travels to the Rakers, no alignment changes or consequences. I don't see any way the nyc ...

Good knowledge, and thank you. I had read most of what you posted as background for the interloper Jason. Although, the “Scepter of Shadows” is news. I find no DnD references to this, only Eve ...

Your player should live with the consequences of his stupidity, both in trying to control a nycadaemon and in not being specific about which "Cyril" it was supposed to hunt down.

The nycadaemon wi ...

Oerth has two moons but there seems to be no specific reference to human worship related to them. Is there a human-centric god or goddess of the moons Luna and/or Celene? Am I missing the obvious?
...

The fellowship is fracturing... Cry

Will this become like the Lord Of The Rings, where the narrative cuts between the different groups of heroes?

Interesting information. I was aware of the details of the sundering, as well as the kings departure. Hadn’t gotten that incorporated into my lore version as yet. Wasn’t sure exactly how to fles ...

My take on the Vale of the Mage relies heavily on its history in the LGG. The valley had some sort of malign presence, the drow believe the valley elves were made slaves to some sort of lie, and the l ...

My two large remaining questions are these:

a) Especially with regard to Greyhawk City watchmen, what do you all think should be minimum amounts for an effective bribe? How little is insulting ...

My two large remaining questions are these:

a) Especially with regard to Greyhawk City watchmen, what do you all think should be minimum amounts for an effective bribe? How little is insulting ...

The guard dog probably won't attract much more attention than it would in real life. Even the wolf likely wouldn't, since the 1983 guide says that free cities often grant entry to humanoids, and they' ...

There's a lot of intrigue surrounding our favorite silver-hearted and self-centered wizard. That knight and his group are still after the party presumably for Aurora's delving too deeply into secrets ...

Here's my obviously very non-canon version of Larrangin. Keep in mind that the version of Bissel he rules over now is the last bit of a nation that was already rotting from the inside long before the ...

Shefak's alive and well, the whole party is together again, the rampaging monsters and robots are permanently sealed, the goodly creatures have been freed, and they're off to the next adventure!

A ...

Another possible "Robin Hood" type campaign might also be in the Vesve if you're striking against Iuz or the Horned Society. This would be an ideal role for a small adventuring band to play, striking ...

Since 1E didn't allow demihumans to swap between classes the way humans could, I would say that the G3 levels are correct. It's more feasible that Eclavdra could have advanced in both her classes simu ...

...Wow.

This became a tragedy really fast, and one that really puts the "grey" in Greyhawk.

The mind flayers might have been doing awful things from their colony (or so I'm assuming, given the ...

All of these would be fine choices. Here are a couple I'd add:

Rel Astra: This is where it all began, the original capital of the Great Kingdom before the Malachite Throne was moved to Rauxes. It' ...

What a creature of habit am I. I tried to make my normal Tuesday post on the 14th and couldn't log on. Over and over I tried - and it wasn't until today that I realized they changed the anti-spambot ...

That ought to show these abominations not to mess with...

...say, does your party actually have a group name?

The Society of Magi is a politically active body of wizards, required to be full-time residents of the Free City and members of the Wizards' Guild in good standing.

It's a political group, not a ...

Yes, the master of the Wizards' Guild has a seat on the Directing Oligarchy. So does the head of the "Society of Magi", whatever that's supposed to be. And while the wizards are more powerful on paper ...

Ah, the whims of the dice...

They can turn the Fellowship of the Ring into the Three Stooges.

Yeah, that's fair enough. And good point about 'ethnically authentic-sounding names." I sometimes forget that it's been more than 1,000 years since the Great Migrations, and that there's been a lo ...

And I think of "Flan" as a catchall category imposed by the invaders of yore to distinguish indigenous inhabitants from Suloise and Oeridian settlers. I don't think all Flannae would necessarily r ...

We can probably discern a lot of the cuisine of different human cultures by examining their real-life counterparts:

-The Flan would make good use of pemmican and bannock as traveling foods, much a ...

Hopes and prayers for Shefak. Cry

And don't feel too bad about tipping your players off on the will o' the wisp. They were probably already on edge given that almost everything on the ship has ...

The worst part is that they're immune to critical hits. Confused

Alright, they killed the intellect devourer!

I love watching how your players and their characters have grown, the interplay between them, and their effectiveness in combat.

I've probably said ...

It is hard to believe that this thread has been buried so deep and for so long in the past threads of the forum. Personally my Rovers are Kozak's not Amerinds but that bit of confusion goes back to th ...

Awesome!

Don't get too comfortable, though-there's more where that came from!