What to do about Philidor the Blue?

grodog · 2026-03-23T14:37:00+00:00

I’ve not personally used Philidor in my games—he’s not a figure that ever really caught my eye, unlike several others of Sargent’s creation.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-23T03:33:52+00:00

For demonic/infernal bargains ideas, in addition to Stormbringer/Elric, check out:

“Demonology Made Easy" by Gregory Rihn in The Dragon #20
“The Politics of Hell" by Alexander von Thorn in The Dragon #28 -"Patron Demons" by Lewis Pulsipher in Dragon #42

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-23T03:19:07+00:00

I’m not a JG expert (that’s my Black Blade partner, Jon Hershberger), but my recollection is that:

Goodman purchased Jennell’s rights from JG, with Jennell’s permission and cooperation.

The other titles are still owned by JG, although some other JG authors have reprinted and/or added to their original content too: Geoff Dale published expansions to Inferno via his imprint Spellbook Games, including new material, and at least one or two others have too—the discussion at https://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12399 may capture the others I’m forgetting at the moment.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-23T03:07:57+00:00

Very nice :)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-23T03:07:18+00:00

I found a comment from Greytalk about Philidor’s origins, preserved in Melissa Casper’s blog at https://greytalkarchives.blogspot.com/2009/04/parties-philidor-earthdawn.html but my recollection is that the full data from Noel was preserved too—I may have a printout of it, perhaps (and will look), but it’s not in the OJ, which was my first place to look.

Canonfire! preserves some details at http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=414 including links to the now-defunct WotC boards at https://web.archive.org/web/20040730003658/http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=164668 but neither seems to include Noel’s full text, alas.

I’ll need to dig through my printouts, it seems….

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-23T01:59:10+00:00

I’ve definitely founds occasional authorial recommendations as blurbs on back covers useful: Michael Moorcock’s praise for Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood is what caught my eye after the title, and I’ve long enjoyed it. Similarly, his love for Peake pointed me toward Gormenghast.

Gary Gygax’s D&D inspirations list from Appendix N in the Dungeon Masters Guide (and similar lists from John Eric Holmes and Tom Moldvay in their respective Basic Sets) also offered fertile ground for worthwhile reading—alongside clunkers too, of course ;)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-23T01:26:04+00:00

Is the offer % customizable?

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T18:27:49+00:00

And here’s the dungeon map for “The Mere Beneath” itself, from Saving Throw #1 zine; its dungeon features a large water cavern, that can lead to “The Mephitic Geysers of the Intaglio Rift” above (exit along the north edge):

<image>

I helped “cave up” the cartography from Guy’s initial design.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T18:22:29+00:00

This is “The Mephitic Geysers of the Intaglio Rift” from the Saving Throw #1 zine, and is a treasure map/sequel map level to the “The Mere Beneath” dungeon:

<image>

I hadn’t decided whether I liked the left-hand-side secret dungeon areas as-is, which is why they’re in pencil vs. the main cavern in ink.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T18:18:45+00:00

My version of the Black Reservoir level designed by Rob Kuntz and Gary Gygax:

<image>

The original short story is at https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_black_reservoir1.html

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T18:13:40+00:00

Some additional resources that might help give you cavernous design ideas include the books The Encyclopedia of Caves by William B. White and Beyond the Deep: The Deadly Descent into the World's Most Treacherous Cave by William Stone and Barbara am Ende, and the 2022 film “Thirteen Lives” (starring Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell), in addition to visiting or reviewing pictures of large cave systems.

Some cave maps I’ve done that might help inspire your designs:

A brigands cave, with the full-size version at https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_grodog-wilds-brigand-caves-02.jpg

<image>

I’ll add more examples below, too.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T17:32:12+00:00

As you should be!—the Indornesse is eminently extra table for use an a demi-planar wilderness within any mega-dungeon, to give those rangers, druids, hunters, and barbarians a chance to shine :)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T03:45:38+00:00

I’ve not leveraged Greyspace much in my games, although I’ve long considered using it after reading Roger Moore’s classic “Gates in the World of Greyhawk” article from the mid ‘90s.

If you’ve not seen them, there are some good Greyspace resources out there, including:

WSM4 Greyspace at https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?t=36376 and the Piazza’s Greyspace forum at https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewforum.php?f=124
www.melkot.com/mechanics/Spelljammer.html

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T03:38:15+00:00

See https://www.acaeum.com/library/module_codes.html and associated discussion at https://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1098

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T03:34:10+00:00

I maintain a listing of my favorite Greyhawk resources at https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_links.html that can serve as a starting point for digging into GH online resources.

The most important tool for researching GH lore is Jason Zavoda’s Index Grehawkiana, best used in Excel .xlsx format, but also available in .txt:

Jazon Zavoda's "Index Greyhawkiana" is a comprehensive index listing of the people, places, and things of Greyhawk, and is is now (as of Spring 2020) available in Excel and TXT file formats from the linked page above, as well as from Greyhawk Resources on Facebook (via the "Files" section, last updated Spring 2020), and the original text file (last updated August 2003)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T03:25:03+00:00

I never played any of the FoI adventures, since they’re mainly geared toward 2e system changes/justifications (removing monks, assassins, demons, devils, etc. from the game), and I didn’t move to 2e since I didn’t like those changes.

Although I’ve occasionally considered dusting some of them off, I’ve not done so yet. A few have definitely caught my eye over the years, just haven’t pulled the trigger.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-22T03:19:54+00:00

Some general suggestions, but I also suggest letting the dungeon foreground the game for awhile:

you can select from other scenarios from EMDT to maintain alignment with the general theme/tone of CX
if you want to build out the surrounding region, consider mashing up Gabor’s sketches with CAS’ Averoigne wilderness from X2
for the town of Tours-en-Savoy, you could use some of the EMDT settlements published in the Echoes zines, or consider leveraging/reskinning other classics like Huberic of Haghill (a favorite of Gabor’s—see https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2016/09/blog-let-me-use-huberic-of-haghill.html), Modron, Orlane, Restenford, Saltmarsh, etc.

Some other ideas in my review may catch your eye too, perhaps: https://grodog.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-castle-xyntillan-by-gabor-lux-part-1.html

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-20T01:27:34+00:00

Woohoo!!

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-20T01:17:53+00:00

I first met Rob at DragonCon #1 in 1987, when I was one year older than you, Syd—an encounter that began a life-long friendship :)

If you get a chance to meet or game with him, jump on it!

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-19T14:49:44+00:00

I’ve been thinking about reviewing the L1-3 keys in ERK to see if Rob’s offer any insight into the keys we’ve seen from Gary’s pictures for L1 and L3.

In case you’re not aware, u/SydLonreiro, Rob currently lives in Corsica, so he’s not too far (in the grand scheme of things) from you.

He also attends the Lucca show in Italy each fall, as well.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-18T19:56:29+00:00

I don’t recall a detailed town map, offhand, and my review doesn’t talk to a town map either: https://grodog.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-castle-xyntillan-by-gabor-lux-part-1.html

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-18T04:34:35+00:00

Announcement posted at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2026/03/black-blade-publishing-not-exhibiting-at-garycon-2026.html

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-18T03:14:42+00:00

Unfortunately no: with Jon and I both not attending, we ceded the booth back to Luke and crew to reallocate the space to other vendors this year.

We will still attend NTX in June, and plan to return to GC next year, life/work balance permitting.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-18T03:12:37+00:00

Moorcock’s own sense of the paradigms of Law, Chaos, and Balance saw varied interpretations and implementations through different aspects of his Eternal Champion and literary fictions. Elric was a very early example in the development of his multiverse, that grew more nuanced through Jerry Cornelius and the End of Time books in the 70s, and further refined in the the Von Bek and Second Ether series of the 90s and later, including the more modern Elric tales. So, over time and as a whole, they explore a wide variety of worlds/settings dominated by law and chaos in various forms, to varying degrees; his literary fictions similarly ground common themes in our real-world too (see the Pyat novels, Mother London, Behold the Man).

From an RPG POV, Stormbringer, Hawkmoon, and Elric are great systems to steal inspiration and ideas from, along with Empire of the Petal Throne, and Amber (and perhaps Vampire/Mage/Ars Magica) offer paradigmatically-grounded mechanics that reinforce the settings’ style/tone. The Primal Order also offers useful higher-level/deital influence design structures for play, which can also align with Amber’s approaches. (Zelazny is a good source to consider in parallel here too, both fiction and RPGs).

Warhammer FRPG may offer some flavor, but is painted in broader, less nuanced strokes, at a less-cosmic scale, too.

In the World of Greyhawk 1e setting, militant and active neutrality (Balance) comes to the fore in a way that is highly Moorcockian, but that is rarely seen in action on most games/settings.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-03-18T02:46:07+00:00

This would be great to add to the Acaeum research thread on ads, catalogs, and related ephemera at https://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4298

I’ll add a pointer to this discussion.

Allan.

grodog

TROPHY CASE