The big Wizards of the Coast push of course was to promote The Sundering novels line to tie into the retooled Forgotten Realms setting for D&DNext. While all that hype went on in the background, I took part in a D&DNext playtest (mostly for the free dice) which seemed pretty promising to bring back a looser style of play that I think Greyhawk fans will appreciate. Hopefully this will bridge the gap between new and old players and lead to some more development on the setting we enjoy next time around.
What was also there was some limited edition Greyhawk themed minis mentioned on the forums. I personally got the Lolth mini set before they sold out. There was also a mini for the ogre-mage Qesnef from White Plume Mountain. That was a curiously obscure character to sculpt, but very well done. Not for sale this time unfortunately, was the awesome looking Slave Lords set The Scourge of Suderham. It's a shame those weren't put out first since the A-series reprint happened this same summer. One other set they had on display was for The Tomb of Horrors. There was a floating demi-lich Acererak there and more, I can't wait to see what they do next. What Greyhawk set would you like to see done?
Speaking of minis, at the OSR Publications booth there was some bad ass demon lord minis of Demogorgon and Orcus. Oh and there was also several printed titles by our very own Greyhawk Grognard, Joseph Bloch. Don't forget to check out his RPG line, Adventures Dark and Deep. Gygax Magazine #2 was on sale there for the first time as well. The second issue's article list harkens back to good stuff from old school Dragon Magazine. One particular article from "The Kobold's Cavern" is Super-science in fantasy games by Eric Hindley. Written for Pathfinder rules, this article brings high tech gear to D&D; a classic genre mash-up topic familiar to any long time Greyhawk collector. This bit coincidentally leads to the Paizo seminar I attended.
Last but not least, the Canonfire meetup went down Friday of the con. Sorry to any who planned on finding us at the Ram Brewery, it was a packed house as always. We talked about D&D editions, the Canonfire Chronicles, Oerth Journal, Anna Meyer's Greyhawk maps and how to expand the meetup, possibly including a scheduled game night. Only 361 days till next Gencon. Plenty of time to prepare.
Mortellan out.
