Campaign Chronicles
Valentine & Co (1984)
Leah & Co (1986-88)
The Wolfsheads Band (1989-96)
The Silver Blades (1984)
Saltmarsh (1999)
Northlands (2001)
Miscellaneous stuff
Background
My first Greyhawk campaign began harmlessly enough with a group of adventurers wandering north from the Tors in southern Yeomanry. At one point they decided that the Valley of the Mage looked like a great place to set up shop- until the followers of the Mage almost killed them that is, and one retired character (and player too for that matter) to this day holds a grudge against the ruler of that land because of it. A few months later it was once again my turn to DM so the new party decided to search for the fabled Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, unfortunately managing to start a border war between Perrenland and Ket in the process (and if my memory serves me Bissel got involved too). The party then fled as far as Nyrond before taking a ship to the Wild Coast and then like so many of our early adventurers dying somewhere in Pomarj while tracking down the infamous Slavelords. Back in those days we ranked our parties on how far through the Slavers series they progressed! Several parties almost made it but the DM never let the party escape Sudenhiem without taking on the remaining Slavelords- and invariably perishing.
Next came the longest running, and perhaps most memorable, of our Greyhawk Campaigns. It centred around the adventures of Dawn Darkwater (my brother Jason) and Leah Ravenlock (Ian), who spent about 2-3 years (of real time, playing at least once a week!) battling giants, Slavelords and whatever else I could throw at them. Of course nothing ever went to plan and at one stage we seriously contemplated throwing away the campaign as they'd messed up so badly in Against the Giants.
With Greyhawk in disarray at the end of that (all told) three year campaign it was time for something new. Dawn was a 13th level Paladin and Leah an 18th level Bard while several other characters ranged between 8th-12th levels. At this time I introduced a new group of players to AD&D and our gaming group swelled from its low of 3 core members to about 9 and it was back to 1st level! These newbies adventures began in Greyhawk with the investigation of the Cult of the Reptile God in the Rsuhmoors, before heading south and eventually trying to tackle another (beefed up I might add) of my favourite modules- Dwellers of the Forbidden City, and dying therein.
At this point of time (late 1988 or early 1989) we turned away from Greyhawk and gamed for a few years in the Forgotten Realms, in another enjoyable game began by one of the new generation of players but who eventually tired of DMing so I took over (although Ian occasionally shared the DMing responsibilities). This campaign ran from 1989-96 with the odd break in between for other gaming systems, genres and campaigns, but we would eventually return to the Adventures of the Wolfsheads Band. Even during this, our Forgotten Realms days, I was drawn back to Greyhawk and I managed to start a couple of short lived campaigns in the Flanaess, neither of which worked out. By the end of 1995 I'd grown completely tired of the Realms, as every time I developed an area a new source book came along and ruined it, so armed with my trusty '83 Guide to Greyhawk, I dug out my old notes and set about starting to develop a new campaign, deciding to base it in the Shield Lands. I started to develop a couple of countries then the real world finally caught up with me. I finished my degree, got married and landed a job teaching English in Japan so after 12 years my gaming group finally wound down.
For the next three years I was pretty much without a regular game of AD&D, I tried to get a gaming group going in Japan with a couple of other former role-players but we got side tracked when they introudced me to Warhammer Fantasy Battles, so it wasn't until late 1999 when I got settled back in New Zealand that I finally rounded up my old group (who by now were also bitten by the Warhammer bug) and finally got my new Greyhawk Campaign under way, based loosely on another "classic series" U1-3 and the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh . Unfortunately the real world again intervened and after just a few weeks of gaming I moved to a much smaller town where I have yet to meet up with any role-players.
September 2001
I've met up with a new group of gamers and have begun a campign in the World of Erehwon, a campaign world that I've been developing off and on over the past few years. The first campign is set in a region called the Northlands.