Zudrak's page

Congratulations to the Dungeon and Paizo teams. Dungeon consistently produces wonderful material every month. Even though I am switching our campaign over to Castles & Crusades, I intend to use Dungeon at my gaming table, whether it be the adventures, the articles, or just ideas mined from the magazines. Good job, Lisa, Erik, and co.!

More info, please!

Where did the characters start out (region, city/state, etc.)? What races are represented by the party and/or nationalities?

What was the story behind the first adventure? How did Erik hook the party into taking on the mission/quest?

I love Greyhawk. No matter where the adventures take place, there's just a great classic swords and sorcery feel to it. Since I only own 3 of the Gord novels, I like reading about other Greyhawk campaigns to help influence my own Greyhawk campaign -- to give it a "shared" Greyhawk feeling where I know others have been as well.

James Jacobs,

It has been some time since I ran the Headless adventure, but I wanted to tell you that our group really enjoyed it. My group games in 577 CY Greyhawk, but it was very easy to insert that adventure into the campaign. I have used it as a springboard into G-1 (which we are 80% complete now), believe it or not, and it was a great way to bring the characters west to Dunmoor.

I thank you for the fantastic adventure. I made my own small changes in it (to bring it up to 3.25e, my "own" edition of combined 3 and 3.5 rules), but it ran seamlessly. The climactic faceoff at the end was memorable as the wizard used her wand of flying on the party to attack Eldrua and the nightmares in the air. Fun!

Thanks,
Michael Gross / Zudrak

Patrick Jacobs wrote:

I was planning on converting these to 3.5E and putting it into Eberron. I was going to put at least G1-2-3 on XEN'DRIK. Would you mind emailing me your conversion notes (save me some time and effort)?

http://www.enworld.org/forums/local_links.php?action=links&catid=16

EDIT: I just found another link.

http://66.34.111.89/Eric/3econversionsdocs.htm

I hope that helps you. If I ever get around to putting my scratch-notes into Notepad or MS Word format, I'll email them to you.

I think that drow are like nija, dinosaurs, and mecha--people will never get tired of them.

I just got my copy last night, but I only got to read the cover and table of contents. I can't wait to get home from work and dive into it tonight. Great cover art, too. The displacer beast and drow are very well done.

I was thinking, while looking at the cover, that some people may be sick of the drow by now (after they've been Faeruined to death), but I cannot wait to read the Istivin conclusion. I'm running my players through my 3.5E conversion of G1-2-3/D1-2-3/Q1 at the moment. I'd love to eventually get them to run a different group of characters through the Istivin arc so we can game in the same region of Greyhawk some 20 years later.

I'll be 32 on the 28th.

1 day late, but y'know... I'm 32 also and I forgot. :P Welcome to the club!

Holy Cr@P! I just read the latest Wil Save. A whole page to say "I made a D&D Reference while playing poker with my millionaire buddy in Vegas". Wil's article just keeps getting worse. Stick it on the web page and replace it with a tactical map in the magazine. I guess he is trying to say that he is such a gamer that D&D permeates every level of his "going to Vegas with millionaire buddy" life. Gee, Now there is something I can relate to. I wonder, when Wil shops, does he buy +3 Green beans of Healing...

A few things:

1) You voiced your opinion on Wil Save. Do you now want the column supplanted with your own? I cannot comprehend the sardonic comment I quoted above. Just turn the page, dude. Besides, earlier you said "I just don't care." That's a lot of vitriol there coming from apathy. I'm just wondering and trying to figure you out. Maybe you're not as geeky as other gamers, like you said. Maybe you need to assimilate?

Truth be told, Wil Wheaton can come across as pompous, IMO. I have seen him on Unscrewed, The Weakest Link, the aforementioned show regarding "Geeks", etc. He is a geek like me (over 30, married, a father figure), but a bit too haughty for my tastes. I still like his column, though.

2) ASEO:
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=ASEO&Find=Fi nd

I'm picking "Army Systems Engineering Office".

3) As for your military service, thank you. My brother served in the USMC for 8+ years. Having him off the coast of Somalia, Yemen, etc. was more than nerve-wracking but he chose to serve. At least, now (I assume, in your case) you are both home and can enjoy D&D like us civilians. :)

...A friend of mine recently put in perspective. It's fluff vs crunch. My biggest complaint about Dragon and Dungeon is the over abundance of crunch. There's only so many new Prestige Classes I can use. There's only so many new Feats and Skills that I can use. I don't play the game just to see how big I can get the numbers. I play for social interaction and creativity. Fluff. Gygax's article was the first thing I turned to in Dragon before it was axed. I like the fluff and regret there is so little of it.

Mechanics define the game. Crunch (like sex) sells. Fluff completes the game.

I had a letter published in issue #227. I still remember feeling really jazzed about it at the time, even though it was a minor little thing. I think it was the first time something I wrote appeared in the magazine. It's signed "Iquander," because that was my AOL screen name (still is, actually), and Dave Gross pulled the letter from the Dragon message board.

Maybe I should steal that trick. . .

--Erik

Michael Gross

David Jones wrote:

PS: Great shipping time, hope it continues :)

Really? I still haven't gotten mine! And this isn't the first time I've seen it at my comic book store before it's made it to my mailbox.

*drum roll*

Man, I am ready to hunt down Professor Frink, jump in a time machine, and fast forward three months. That way, I'll have a complete set of GH Maps! I'll also be able to tell what gifts at Christmas to return to buy a big frame for the map when it's completed. ;)

This quarter-map is sweet. Thanks, Dungeon.

Michael Gross / Zudrak

P.S. Keep the 'Hawk stuff flowing. It rocks.

I was pretty surprised to see my letter about swimsuit issues months after I wrote it. I had forgotten about even writing it.

:)

My copy of Dragon has my eyes in it now as they popped out last night. I did not expect to see my letter printed, as I felt it was just one more comment on the changes in the magazine rather than an important essay on the future of Dragon.

Maybe I'll start submitting articles to Dragon and Dungeon now so my eyes can really pop out!

Congratulations to Erik Mona on his appointment to Editor-in-Chief. I've been a lurker of sorts on various online gaming sites over the years (AOL's Greytalk, etc.) and having seen his past work, I look forward to the immediate future in both Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
Michael Gross

Gary had a serious stroke earlier in the year and I heard on Dragonsfoot.com that he's cut back his work load to focus on Castle Zagig with Troll Lord games.

Mike

I, for one, cannot wait until Castle Zagyg is in my possession.

Zudrak