It's interesting to note the several discussions about Living Greyhawk (LGH) in online fora not dedicated to the LGH campaign.
On GreyTalk listserv and the Canonfire! messageboards, we've recently discussed the state of the retired and retiring LGH modules and the possibility of reusing them for home campaigns.
Out of this discussion I drafted a letter and began corresponding with about 23 GH fans who expressed interest in corresponding with the RPGA campaign coordinators and pertinent Wizards of the Coast employees to learn what may be done to reuse some of the retired LGH modules, i.e., those modules and module series that are gems of LGH campaign.
One of the French GH fans, Pierre Couture, who learned of this "project" from Taerre--the French GH listserv, has programmed an online petition to collect people's electronic signatures to the letter, which we originally directed to the RPGA Living Greyhawk Circle. It is available at http://alternat.celeonet.fr/lg/.
If you are interested in learning how GH fans may help reuse retired LGH modules for home play, please "sign" the document and note your specific affiliation with the LGH campaign.
We started to promote the online petition at various GH online fora yesterday and have already received over 30 signatures. We plan to close the petition in two weeks--on Sunday 11 December 2005, when we will contact the LGH Circle and RPGA campaign coordinators to present the signed petition and hopefully move to a different phase in this endeavor.
I signed it at 736am PST and I was the 45th person. Just an update.
Be Well.
And, no I'm not back.
By that, I mean that each triad should make available on their website a summary of what happened during the past year in their region of choice. It would help people gaming in other regions to understand better the "big picture" and would certainly make it easier for new players to catch on local news. I am not asking for any carefully kept secret, nor for the stats of the local villains, just for a honest-to-god summary.
Some websites offer this through "newflash". Others through vague hints. And the rest nothing at all. If it weren't for some people coming on this board from time to time with news from their area, we would be left almost clueless.
I think the Geoff Triad did an updated local history listing, similar to the ones in the old GH boxed sets. These can provide dates, minimal spoiler information, and teasers for imaginative DMs, while keeping all of us appraised of the 'official' outcomes of the most significant 'historical' events e.g. the failure of a siege on Gorna, death of a major npc (Duke Owen (now resurrected?), King Kimbertos (now resurrected?), Countess Belissica (?) - it's been a bad 5 years for heads of state), re-taking of cities from enemy forces (Onnwal & Shield Lands), or annihilation (Tenh) etc.
The Triads must be keeping track of this sort of thing and an agreed format might make the updates easier for them to post and very useful for reference.
I think the Geoff Triad did an updated local history listing, similar to the ones in the old GH boxed sets.
If anyone knows of a link to this, I would be very grateful!
Theo Judd <><
BK Triad - Plots
I can understand it's more easy to manage the latter than the former but all it serves is to confuse newcomers to your region or people from other areas coming for a look. If a region has a website, it should be up to date and offer ALL the downloads available.
Not to mention that you must register to access the various yahoo sites and most of these state that you have to be a REGIONAL member to be granted access. Thus, visitors from other areas will seldom get it.
The internet is your friend.
If you want the modules, they're out there.
The internet is your friend.
I think some of us would prefer to get them legally...
Any other means you may acquire them is not sanctioned by the RPGA (I think "illegal" is a bit of a misnomer, but functionally appropriate in this situation i suppose).
Now, some of the newer mods were done under a new contract, so it may be possible to get hold of them (appropriately 'genericized' as per Wizards), but I don't think that is what they were referring to.
That said, i've looked over the online petition, and I'm really not seeing what the point of it is. The newer modules are (as I understand it) being written under the new contract, in which the rights revert back to the author when their life in the RPGA rotates out. Assuming they remove the copyrighted IP and thus 'genericize' it first, they can do whatever they want with the mods, including making them available to others.
If you're asking the RPGA to be a central clearinghouse for the storage and distribution of these redone mods, heh, good luck. The RPGA has specifically made changes over the last couple of years to minimize their need to have to handle this sort of stuff; I see it ridiculously unlikely that they would start taking up more responsibilities and expense to provide such a service.
That said, i've looked over the online petition, and I'm really not seeing what the point of it is. The newer modules are (as I understand it) being written under the new contract, in which the rights revert back to the author when their life in the RPGA rotates out. Assuming they remove the copyrighted IP and thus 'genericize' it first, they can do whatever they want with the mods, including making them available to others.
That is actually correct and now i'm thinking why I actually signed it. That said, I could put up my regional modules up after they retire. Y5 modules that is, because I don't think anything I did on Y4 (aka, the learning years) needs to be put up again.
But then again, even if I strip all GH references from Y5 modules, what would it accomplish? Sure, you would have a nice adventure to use with few ready made NPCs and all that jazz. But would it be Greyhawk and would it be any use to you?
Regional modules don't visit old locations such as Slaver hideouts in Pomarj or Bright Desert (like core modules do). Most of them would just be nice, generic adventure modules. Sure, you could see obvious references to Scarlet Brotherhood and other things which you could easily enough turn back into proper Greyhawk module.
But main thing that people want (so I believe), detailing area, giving it history and showcasing important NPCs has already been done and is freely available to all, no matter if you play LG or run a home campaign. It's called regional gazetteer*, so go and get it :D
S.H, the guy from Naerie, author of several LG modules.
*And like anything in Greyhawk, feel free to modify it for your own needs.
Thanks for bringing this up. Actually, that's another problem I've discovered with several LG regional websites. They're out of date because anything new is posted exclusively to the corresponding yahoo website.
I can understand it's more easy to manage the latter than the former but all it serves is to confuse newcomers to your region or people from other areas coming for a look. If a region has a website, it should be up to date and offer ALL the downloads available.
Not to mention that you must register to access the various yahoo sites and most of these state that you have to be a REGIONAL member to be granted access. Thus, visitors from other areas will seldom get it.
In our case it has nothing to do with inability, inactivity, or the fact that a Yahoo! site is easier to manage. It's simply the fact that our webmaster won't give us access (it's a long story) and consequently we haven't been able to update in almost a year.
I'm not aware that living in a region is a requirement for joining a Yahoo! group. And even if it were, who's going to bother to check? Just say you are when you sign up and you'd be approved. I'm a member of several regional lists (mainly the ones adjacent geographically to the BK) simply because I asked to be added so I could keep up with what was going on in their regions. It's really not as prohibitive as it may seem. Perhaps you are daunted by Yahoo! groups in general, in which case, I certainly understand. I never even used them until year 2 for that very reason. Once you get past the small learning curve they are quite simple.
Anyway, I can assure you once our website is up and running again, we WILL have our regional information updated regularly and our BK Gazetteer (when it is finished) will be available on that site.
Steve M
Good news though, we finally got our access. Hopefully there will be an update by the end of the year. I don't know whether we'll be making any "sweeping" changes but I should hope at the very least we'll have files like the Meta-Campaign Guidebook, scenario blurbs, and conventions hosting LG in 2006 posted.
Regional modules don't visit old locations such as Slaver hideouts in Pomarj or Bright Desert (like core modules do). Most of them would just be nice, generic adventure modules. Sure, you could see obvious references to Scarlet Brotherhood and other things which you could easily enough turn back into proper Greyhawk module.
But main thing that people want (so I believe), detailing area, giving it history and showcasing important NPCs has already been done and is freely available to all, no matter if you play LG or run a home campaign. It's called regional gazetteer*, so go and get it :D
It's true, it is nice to have updates on the actions and fates of major npcs but I'm also interested in padding out other locations too. So the names of merchants, innkeepers, small local villages etc is of use to me as well.
The gazeteers are really cool sources of information and, as you say, easily customisable. The Nearie gazeteer is very good as I recall (I can't read enough French or German to make enough out of the Ekbir or Adri gazeteers yet though!). I think the main problem that us fans have is the lack of updates of recent historical events. It is true to say that core modules would be the Holy Grail of Living modules but I'd be happy with brief summaries that I can adapt as I see fit. A Living campaign is such a cool idea with such potential and I suppose that we're frustrated to see bureaucracy stifling some of that potential.