Twenty years ago, the Temple of Elemental Evil rose, Oerth fell, and the Elemental Apocalypse began. Vortexes of power – unleashed by factions loyal to the four elemental princes – devastated the world with concurrent apocalypses; city-shattering earthquakes, nation-drowning tidal waves, forest-consuming infernos, and punishing hurricanes. Gods died, slain by the ascendent Elemental Princes who … Read more
I began playing Dungeons & Dragons in grade school, and I used Apple computers almost as long. I started writing up adventures on my Apple II and printing them on an dot matrix printer, took a brief sojourn into the world of Windows PCs during and after college, and then returned to the Mac with the release of Mac OS X.
For years, we made fun of the Forgotten Realms‘ overpowered completeness. We bled grey, and the World of Greyhawk is where our heroes lived, died, and lived again. Flash forward to our own Middle Ages, and we’re actually adventuring in the Realms … and enjoying it. Our current Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaign is set in the … Read more
Back in the 1990s, when the Greyhawk resurgence was under way, the great mystery of the campaign setting was … who is Philidor the Blue Wizard? Introduced by Carl Sargent in the From the Ashes boxed set, Phildor is a super-powerful wizard (25th level?) in a campaign setting where ultra powerful NPCs are not the norm. Sure, there’s … Read more
My main gaming group, the Blackrazor Guild, are serial campaigners. We almost can’t help ourselves; if a campaign gets past the first few sessions, it’s very likely to run for for a year or two. Our biggest, most memorable campaigns were all multi-year affairs: Our namesake Blackrazor Guild campaign The Redshirts (aka Return to the Temple … Read more
For this post, I’m going to substitute “game” for “campaign”. My all-time favorite campaign is also my longest-running: The Blackrazor Guild Campaign for various editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Set in the World of Greyhawk, the initial campaign kicked off in 1996 and started in the Common Year 586 … which at the time was Greyhawk’s … Read more
Sigil, City of Doors, because from there, you can use its myriad magical portals to go anywhere in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. I thought of Sigl because my first answer was the City of Brass, the famed effreti city on the Elemental Plane of Fire that was featured so prominently on the back of the original Dungeon Master’s … Read more
I don’t know. I have vague recollections of running (or trying to run) B2 Keep on the Borderlands in 5th or 6th grade (so … 1983? 1984?). I ran games sporadically throughout middle school and high school, but most of what I did was world-building that never turned into an actual game. It wasn’t until I … Read more
The Malachite Throne of the Great Kingdom is one of the legendary artifacts of Greyhawk. The seat of power of the corrupt and collapsing kingdom of Aerdy (aka The Great Kingdom), the Fiend-Seeing Throne sets the tone for the entire region. It’s also a campaign I’ve long wanted to run. Back in the day, TSR … Read more
My World of Greyhawk campaign started over 30 years ago, with the seeds being planted in my college campaign at Lock Haven University. It’s continued, on and off, ever since. During that time, it’s featured a number of unique weapons, a few of which I detailed below. Blackrazor: The legendary, soul-sucking sword inspired the name of my … Read more