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
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
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
Looking to improve your workflows, streamline your life, and de-stress your life in the new year? Check out “The Ultimate Guide To Productivity Methods“, Pocket’s round-up of productivity methods including “Eat The Frogs First Thing in The Morning” and “Productivity 101: How to Use Personal Kanban to Visualize Your Work”. Vegetarian Eggs Benedict with Spinach … Read more
Why smart people believe coronavirus myths talks about a phenomenon I’ve seen too many times to count: Otherwise intelligent people retweeting or re-posting questionable content without thinking it through. Case in point: people stating as fact that individuals are getting reinfected with COVID-19. There are certainly cases where people who have had the disease test … Read more
Artists Creates Floating Worlds In Test Tubes – Rosa de Jong creates tiny models of buildings, trees, and geographic features that float on sculpted, rocky islands in a test tube. Think Avatar’s floating islands meets the traditional ship-in-a-bottle models. Greyhawk CY 576 by Anna B. Myers – Thanks to funding from her Patreon, cartographer Anna B. Myers released a refreshed … Read more
The Mandalorian Is the Only Smart Soldier in the Star Wars Galaxy – The Angry Staff Officer at Wired.com explains how everyone’s new favorite bounty hunter and his ally, the former Rebel Alliance drop trooper Cara Dune are the first on-screen soldiers in the Star Wars universe to use reasonable, intelligent strategies and tactics. Here’s why writing things … Read more
Skill challenges were one of the few things that everyone in my gaming group liked about Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. Thought it had its issues in its initial iteration, Star Wars: Saga Edition further refined the idea, and we used it to great effect. It’s a subsystem I was sad to see missing from 5th Edition, but … Read more
As a group we’ve become more tolerant of non-standard character concepts, especially when it comes to the World of Greyhawk. When our Dungeons & Dragons campaign started 20 years ago, we were diehard devotees of Greyhawk canon (there is a reason, after all, why the biggest Greyhawk fan website is called Canonfire). We had holy wars over whether you … Read more
Damocles Everton, the upstart master of the Blackrazor Guild and agent of the Dark Circle tops my list. Hated by the player characters after he stole control of their guild from them, the appearance of Damocles kicked off an epic story arc that culminated with the Fall of Obsidian Bay, the hero’s home city. Everton … Read more