Shane Plays Geek Talk Episode #264 – 11/30/2022

RPG developer and publisher Allan T. Grohe Jr. (aka “grodog”) joins to talk AD&D retroclone OSRIC, the OSR, Black Blade Publishing, John Eric Holmes, and RPG goodness in general. Allan LOVES him some Greyhawk. The skills he learned tracking down early information on Greyhawk helped lead to his main non-RPG career. How active is the current AD&D 1E and/or OSRIC scene? What is Allan’s definition of OSR, and does he feel it’s important? The legal importance of OSRIC to the OSR community. ‘zines are often lauded, but at one time Dragon magazine was a sort of “D&D website” in its day as well. Watching an RPG project happen behind the scenes. Shane offers a mild defense of rules lawyers. “Vanilla” fantasy is not a derogatory term. Cthulhu and Delta Green. Look, just hit Cthulhu with a boat. Shane has figured out Lovecraft’s indescribable color. Thunderdome match: Strongheart versus Warduke.

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Listen Here via Embed:

SHOW NOTES

OSRIC: First Edition Fantasy Roleplaying Game
https://osricrpg.com/

Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

THE 1001 TREASURES OF BLACK BLADE PUBLISHING AND GOODMAN GAMES: GARY CON 2018 REPORT, PART II
https://www.blackgate.com/2018/03/13/the-1001-treasures-of-black-blade-publishing-and-goodman-games-gary-con-2018-report-part-ii/

From Kuroth’s Quill – grodog’s AD&D blog
https://grodog.blogspot.com/

Allan at Greyhawk Online
https://greyhawkonline.com/greyhawkwiki/Allan_Grohe

D&D Retroclones List
http://taxidermicowlbear.weebly.com/dd-retroclones.html

Single Volume Edition of OD&D by Greyharp
https://friendorfoe.com/d/ODD%20Single%20Volume.pdf

Fight On! Magazine
https://fightonmagazine.com/

Knockspell Magazine
https://grodog.blogspot.com/2017/05/knockspell-magazine-master-index.html

Allan gave me permission to share this biographical information he sent me before we recorded:

Allan T. Grohe Jr. aka “grodog”
Bio & Career Highlights

Quick gaming bio:

Allan T. Grohe Jr. has been playing AD&D and other RPGs since 1977. Allan’s first professional gaming publication (“More for the Shadow Master”) appeared in White Wolf Magazine #11 in 1988; he has also contributed to The Unspeakable Oath, Pyramid, Polyhedron, and Dragon Magazine, among others. Allan has worked extensively with Biohazard Games (Blue Planet, Upwind), Pagan Publishing (Delta Green), Different Worlds Publications (Tadashi Ehara), and Pied Piper Publishing (Robert J. Kuntz). Allan co-founded Black Blade Publishing with Jon Hershberger in 2009 to publish top-quality old-school gaming products, including OSRIC, Monsters of Myth, and Kuntz’ The Original Bottle City. Allan’s most-recent projects are Tales of Peril: The Complete Boinger and Zereth Stories of John Eric Holmes; The Twisting Stair, a gaming newsletter focused on dungeon design that Allan publishes with Tony Rosten; and Saving Throw, an OSRIC zine to support the family of Usherwood Publishing’s Jim Kramer (now sadly lost to brain cancer).

Allan’s editorial, design, and development work has contributed to winning one Origins Award and securing four Origins Award nominations, winning one ENnie Award and two ENnie Award nominations.

Allan is known online as grodog, where he publishes a website featuring World of Greyhawk content, as well as his non-gaming writing (poetry, personal essays, and literary scholarship), and the usual fan ephemera at http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/. He lives in Wichita, Kansas, with his lovely wife Heather, their two wonderful sons Ethan and Henry, and their two cats Muffin and Felix.

Gaming/Life Highlights

• 1969: born 😀

• 1977: first play D&D via Holmes Basic set @ 7 years old

• 1980: attend first game convention @ Origins 1980 @ Widener University; first time I met Gary, playtesting Gangbusters (although this could have been at GenCon East II in 1982, as well)

• 1984: played Treasure of the Dragon Queen at Northeaster #2, perhaps the single best D&D tournament I’ve ever played; graduated from Merchantville Elementary School

• 1987: graduated from Bishop Eustace high school, started Penn State thinking I would go into Architecture; attended DragonCon #1 to meet Michael Moorcock and also met Rob Kuntz!; member of the winning team for the RPGA “(To) The City of Brass” tourney, written by Rob; played lots of AD&D at PSU, also introduced to Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, etc.; Gary signs my DMG at Origins in Baltimore

• 1988: first professional D&D publication in White Wolf Magazine #11, “More for the Shadow Master” (based on an article published in WW#8 the year before)

• 1991: graduated Penn State with BA in English, Minor in Myth & Folklore; moved to KS for grad school @ KU; began playtesting for CoC for Pagan Publishing and writing reviews in The Unspeakable Oath, and later Pyramid, Polyhedron, and Dragon

• 1993: began playtesting, designing, and freelancing with Biohazard Games

• 1996: co-founded Event Horizon Publishing; graduated from KU with MA in English (creative writing); began working for Sprint in KC; Pagan’s Delta Green book nominated for and wins Origins Award for Best RPG Supplement; first page published to my web site, the Dreaming City

• 1997: EHP publishes The Triad Sourcebook, my only writing contribution to the Hong Kong Action Theatre! RPG line; Biohazard publishes Blue Planet at GenCon, nominated for an Origins award the following year; I win the Langston Hughes Award for Excellence in Prose for my creative essay “Betwixt & Between” and am a Poetry Award Finalist in the same year

• 1998: I think this is when I first joined Greytalk, since it was definitely while I was still working at Sprint

• 1999: met Heather Schunk Grohe, fell in love, the rest is history! 😀 EHP publishes the Heaven & Earth RPG book, to which I contributed writing, design, editing, and poetry; turned down job at Wizards of the Coast

• 2000: moved to CA to work for Juniper Networks in San Jose

• 2001: married Heather; first web page published for grodog’s Greyhawk; co-found the Canonfire! fan site for the World of Greyhawk; start working with Rob Kuntz on Pied Piper publishing projects

• 2002: two Greyhawk articles on artifacts published in Dragon, co-written with Erik Mona; I conduct a long interview with Rob Kuntz published in Oerth Journal #14 too

• 2003: start working with Tadashi Ehara of Chaosium/Different Worlds on publishing projects

• 2004: Ethan born in CA; Tadashi publishes two books by Ryan Smalley and one by Rob Kuntz for GenCon

• 2005: move back to KS to be closer to Heather’s family, continue working for Juniper remotely from home

• 2006: I begin to redesign and expand upon my Castle Greyhawk dungeon levels, which currently total somewhere around 60 or so

• 2007: complete work on editing and developing OSRIC v1.0 with the rest of the core design team; Pied Piper publishes The Original Bottle City level of Castle Greyhawk, which I co-DM with Rob at GenCon (the last year I attend; also meet Dave Arneson there)

• 2008: attended Lake Geneva Gaming Convention #3, the last time I meet Gary in person; attended GaryCon #0 (am I am en-route back from the funeral when Henry is born), and all subsequent ones (other than #1 in 2009, since Henry was just 1 year old); editor for Swords & Wizardry 1st edition (uncredited), Tomb of the Iron God

• 2009: co-founded Black Blade Publishing with Jon Hershberger; my “From Kuroth’s Quill” column begins in Knockspell magazine #1; BBP publishes an AD&D conversion of Goodman Games’ DCC#9 Secret of the Smuggler’s Cove module at the first North Texas RPG Convention

• 2010: BBP becomes publisher for Matt Finch’s Swords & Wizardry OD&D clone

• 2012: BBP publishes the deluxe, expanded 2nd printing of OSRIC AD&D clone

• 2013: BBP reprints RJK1 Cairn of the Skeleton King and RJK2 Tower of Blood; organize seminar panel on Castle Greyhawk with Paul Stormberg and Jeffrey P. Talanian at GaryCon V; “The Iounic Loop – Reimagining the Ring of Gaxx” published in AFS#4 (which will reappear in my “Iounic Caverns” level of Castle Greyhawk when that’s published), along with my “The Nooks & Crannies Level” mega-dungeon level map

• 2014: BBP publishes the expanded edition of RJK’s Bottle City; “Naladamar– also known as the Black Sword, Nightbringer, the Dead Sword, and the Vampire Blade” published in AFS #5, my tribute to Moorcock’s Stormbringer

• 2016: RJK’s El Raja Key Archive published by Paul Stormberg’s TLB Games (I helped with files, scanning)

• 2017: BBPpublishes Tales of Peril: the Complete Boinger & Zereth Stories of John Eric Holmes (edited by me); I launch my From Kuroth’s Quill blog

• 2018: co-found The Twisting Stair, a mega-dungeon design zine, with Tony Rosten, where I continue my FKQ column from KS; complete work on The Hyqueous Vaults, a free module celebrating the 10th anniversary of OSRIC (it was a year late 😉 )

• 2019: led seminar panel on “Celebrating Greyhawk: a Fandom Renaissance” at GaryCon XI, and contributed 4800 words and editing to Oerth Journal #28, the first printed edition of the zine; edit and assist with development of Guy Fullerton’s F4 The Withered Crag adventure; designed new spell, two NPC parties, treasure map, and co-designed adventure with Guy Fullerton for Saving Throw, a new OSRIC zine to support Usherwood Publishing’s Jim Kramer (and his family, Jim is now gone)

Down in the weeds:

Here are a few links about me, my work, etc.:

– grodog’s Song of Seven – The Mythic Worlds Builders, at Multiverse
http://multiverse.world/blog/2017/04/26/grodogs-7-best/

– grodog’s start in gaming – 1977: Cedar Avenue, Star Wars, and Holmes
Basic
https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/05/grodogs-start-in-gaming-1977.html

– grodog’s OSR questionnaire responses:
https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/10/osr-questionnaire.html

– grodog’s favorite gaming publications:
https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/05/these-are-few-of-my-favorite-things.html

– grodog’s Ring of 5 Greyhawk mini-interview with Mike Bridges
http://greyhawkery.blogspot.com/2011/11/ring-of-five-questions-allan-grohe.html

You can also check out my RPGgeek entry
https://rpggeek.com/rpgdesigner/20607/allan-t-grohe-jr

—

Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games 2nd Edition
Shane’s book! Co-authored with Matt Barton of Matt Chat
Order on Amazon now:
https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Desktops-History-Computer-Role-Playing/dp/1138574643/

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