Publication for Greyhawk, one of the earliest settings in roleplaying (alongside Blackmoor and Kalibruhn), came to an end in 1993 with the release of WGR6: The City of Skulls (1993) and then WGM1: Border Watch (1993). It would never again be seen at TSR, the original publisher of D&D, with the exception of an unformatted online release of a mostly complete book, Ivid the Undying (1995). But as has been the case for many of roleplaying's most well-loved games and settings, fans took up the slack.

By the early '90s, roleplaying support was proliferating on the internet. For Greyhawk that included a classic set of files available at greyhawk.stanford.edu and a Greyhawk Net-book that was in process. Unfortunately, much of that early fandom got caught up in TSR's aggressive assault upon their internet fandom in 1994, where they sent cease & desist letters to anyone running internet repositories for their games or settings, making the dubious claim that all of the material violated their copyright. The Greyhawk Net-book stalled out, while the Stanford Greyhawk archives were moved to TSR's officially sanctioned MPGN site, though some contributors angrily called for the removal of their material thereafter. (TSR's attack on their fandom was poorly received and ultimately short-lived.)

Fandom was undeterred. They continued to ask questions like "Who were the Nine demigods captured by Zagyg?" and "How did Iuz participate in the construction of the Temple of Elemental Evil at a time when he was still imprisoned?" They conversed, they argued, and they wrote treatises, such as an early piece by Gary Holian on Zagig, an article that attracted a young college fan named Erik Mona, who we'll meet shortly.

In 1995, two major new fannish endeavors appeared. The first was Gary Holian's Greytalk, a mailing list originally run out of MIT that also spun off into live chats. The second was the Council of Greyhawk, run out of AOL. An early Council announcement might have stated the goal of these fannish organizations best, saying it was to "detail the various areas of Oerth not covered in previous publications".

Soon, the Council would be doing precisely that in a new electronic periodical.

The Oerth Journal, Volume 1: 1995-2000

In March 1995, shortly after the Council of Greyhawk's foundation, they announced that they would be publishing a free e-magazine called the Oerth Journal to the TSR section of AOL. The Oerth Journal #1 (May 1995) followed a short time later, the first of eleven zines produced by the Council, concluding with The Oerth Journal #11 (May 2000), all focused on the Greyhawk Wars period of Oerth history using the AD&D 2e (1989) rules.

The Oerth Journal had three editors over that period: Steve Wilson (#1-#2), Erik Mona (#1-#7), and Nathan Irving (#8-11). They were overseen by the larger Council of Greyhawk, which numbered about a dozen members at its inception, including two TSR-related names of note: Lenard Lakofka and Frank Mentzer. As the Council grew more organized it also began to vote for positions of leadership, with first Gary Holian and then Tom Harrison taking on the role of chairperson.

The fact that The Oerth Journal had the support of a full organization behind it meant that the fanzine didn't fall to the common problem of one person having to write everything. A small cadre of members would write for various issues. However, The Oerth Journal also attracted the attention of past and present TSR writers. Over its first five years, Gary Gygax, Len Lakofka, Roger E. Moore, Rob Kuntz, and Eric L. Boyd all offered substantive content.

One of editor Erik Mona's goals for The Oerth Journal was to bring Greyhawk back as a published campaign setting. That was exactly what happened in 1998 following Wizards of the Coast's takeover of D&D. Under WotC's new Greyhawk brand-manager Lisa Stevens, Roger E. Moore would pen Return of the Eight (1998), with a research assistant of none other than ... Erik Mona. That would be the start of a very successful professional career for Mona at both Wizards of the Coast and Paizo (and was likely why he stepped back as Oerth Journal editor afterward, though he continued to support the Council of Greyhawk).

As late as 1999, the Council of Greyhawk was continuing to grow, with the organization providing their first support of Gen Con that year. Not only did they host an in-person Council gathering, but they also ran their first Gen Con adventures: a series called "The Masters of the Azure", containing "Shadows of Safeton", "Crimson Sails of the Gearnat", and "The Sacrificial Coast". But that would be the organization's apogee, and it would be a short-lived one. The Council of Greyhawk web site stopped being updated right around the 1999 Gen Con Game Fair. Then that 11th issue of Oerth Journal, which had been scheduled for October 1999, didn't appear until May 2000. There was talk of a 12th issue being in progress up through the end of the year, but it would never appear from the Counil.

The reason was some even bigger changes coming out of Wizards of the Coast: AD&D was being rebooted as D&D 3e (2000) and Greyhawk was being adopted as both the default setting for the new game and the heart of the Living Greyhawk organized play program (2000-2008), which gave players the opportunity to play in a constant stream of Greyhawk tournament adventures. The Council of Greyhawk would dissolve shortly afterward. It was ultimately due to the "changes common with any such organization" being "complicated" by the release of the new rules and setting information. Though the Council of Greyhawk web pages stayed available through at least 2001, by that time there was surprisingly a new group of creators at the helm of a revamped Oerth Journal.

The Oerth Journal, Volume 2: 2001-2011

Nathan Irving, the third editor of the Oerth Journal had planned to end his run with #10 (July 1999) because he was burned out. Due to peer pressure, he stayed on to finish that final issue produced by the Council of Greyhawk, after which he "collapsed". As the Council was simultaneously collapsing, it could easily have been the end of The Oerth Journal.

Enter Jason Zavoda, best known for his Greyhawk Index of proper names, a project that he'd begun in 1998 and would continue in its first iteration through 2003. Around 2000, he started what's been described as a "minor flamewar" over how the Oerth Journal was continuing to lag since issue #10 and suggested that Irving and his editorial assistants either needed to produce the magazine or give it to someone else. So Irving gave it to Zavoda.

There was some controversy over this decision, and also over the direction that Zavoda took the 'zine. He abandoned the regular columns created by Mona and Irving as well as some of the magazine's crunch. (In Irving's opinion, he was trying to give it more of a "literary" feel.) The 'zine's logo went as well. Perhaps most notably, Zavoda's issues were produced as RTFs without illustrations, rather than in the PDF format that was gaining momentum. Even editing was light compared to the previous run of the magazine.

Zavoda's reign as The Oerth Journal editor lasted just two issues, #12 (Spring 2001) and #13 (Spring 2001), also labeled as v2 #1 and v2 #2. They were rereleased twice that same year, first as unillustrated PDFs, and then as illustrated PDFs. In the meantime, Zavoda quit, possibly due to an argument related to Living Greyhawk and the changes it was bringing to the world. It wasn't the only time Zavoda quit fandom, often resulting in the deletion of material from forums. In this case, he asked for the removal of all the material he'd personally written for The Oerth Journal.

Fortunately, there was a new volunteer to take over as editor-in-chief: Marc Tizoc Gonzalez. He rereleased #12 and #13 one more time, without Zavoda's material, which is how they continue to exist to this day. He'd then produce two new issues of his own over the next two years. However, he felt that very high standards had to be applied to The Oerth Journal, in his own editing and the overall production, and simultaneously he was growing dishearted by flamewars in the Greyhawk fandom. As a result he too burned out. Oerth Journal #16 (June 2005) was thus produced by one of his contributors, Andy Seale, with support from former editor Irving.

Though the period from 2001 through 2005 was a chaotic one for The Oerth Journal, the 'zine was able to survive in part thanks to the other digital resources continuing to mature for Greyhawk. That still included the Greytalk mailing list, but also a new resource created by Gary Holian and other members of the mailing list: the Canonfire! website (2001-Present). It was initially a location to more permanently store Greytalk resources but in time it would become one of the core Greyhawk resources on the internet. Irving, Gonzalaz, and Holian agreed that the Oerth Journal was complementary with the website, so it was quickly welcomed into the fold. Canonfire held the Oerth Journal writer's guidelines and FAQ from early on and even had its own forum by 2003, while the magazine itself became available on the website around the same time.

But the magazine and its online home were still changing. In 2005, Seale's run of The Oerth Journal turned out to be just a single-issue long. Irving thus picked yet another new editor for Oerth Journal #17 (October 2005) based on him having the "best vision" for the 'zine. That editor was Rick Miller. Around the same time, The Oerth Journal got its own website at oerthjournal.com (though it'd still receive support from Canonfire!).

This was at last a recipe of success for v2 of The Oerth Journal. Miller would be the editor to offer a long-lived vision for Oerth Journal, with a reign running for six years, through Oerth Journal #26. Under Miller's leadership, Oerth Journal developed into a modern digital fanzine, with full-color art and professional layout. His issues generally returned to the early design of crunchy material such as adventures, NPCs, and gods, married to gazetteers of Greyhawk lands. Most issues had a half-dozen or less long pieces.

In 2007, Miller started thinking about a theme that would expand the scope of the magazine: "Beyond the Flanaess". It probably would have run in the 25th issue, except in Oerth Journal #24 (September 2008), Miller annouced that the 25th issue would instead be a tribute to Gary Gygax, who had died earlier in the year. The 26th issue would then be that long awaited issue on Greyhawk's more distant realms.

But by the time Oerth Journal #25 (December 2009) appeared, Miller had to admit that the previous year had been "difficult". This was doubtless in part due to the death of not just Gary Gygax, but Dave Arneson as well. But it was also because both the game and world that the producers of The Oerth Journal had loved had been "irrevocably changed". D&D 4e (2008) had been released, the Living Greyhawk program had been dropped, and none of this was well-received by the fandom of Oerth Journal. When Miller's Oerth Journal #26 (October 2011) finally released, it was almost two years later. It was likely published because Miller had committed to the topic way back in 2007, but it would be his last issue of the magazine (though he'd support the next issue of the Journal and also maintain his Greyhawk website for several years more).

The Canonfire! Chronicles Crossover: 2013, 2016

From 2011-2016 was a dark age for Greyhawk and The Oerth Journal. In fact, the first half of that period was a dark age for D&D generally, as D&D 4e fractured the fandom. Meanwhile, The Oerth Journal was almost entirely absent from the period and its website even disappeared following a hacking incident.

Fortunately Canonfire! remained available both as an archival location and a forum throughout the years. It would also be the center of one last, brief revival of The Oerth Journal v2. That began around 2009 with the idea of creating a companion magazine to The Oerth Journal: the classic magazine would focus on the setting, with longer articles, while the new magazine, called Canonfire! Chronicles would focus on adventures as well as reprinted material from the Canonfire! website.

Canonfire! Chronicles #1 (July 2013) appeared a year and a half after Miller's final Oerth Journal from editors Dennis Lovatt and Skip Twitchell. Three different adventures graced its pages, all still using the D&D 3.5e rules, demonstrating fandom's continuing issue with the 4e ruleset. Lovatt and Twitchell then set forth to produce the next issue of The Oerth Journal, but it would take almost three years for The Oerth Journal #27 (April 2016) to appear, which was nearly five years past the previous issue of the Journal. By that point, Lovatt was flying solo, and he too would soon be gone. That would be the full extent of the Canonfire-focused rebirth of The Oerth Journal following the end of Miller's long run.

Theme Issues

• #5: Northwestern Flanaess (January 1997)
• #10: Discovery & Exploration (July 1999)
• #23: Maure Castle (March 2008)
• #25: 25th Anniversary Gary Gygax Tribute Issue (December 2009)
• #26: Beyond the Flanaess (October 2011)
• #27: Races of Oerth (April 2016)

Obtaining the Magazines

All issues of The Oerth Journal can be downloaded from Greyhawk Online. Unsurprisingly Canonfire! Chronicles #1 is available from Canonfire!.

About the Categories

Regular features of The Oerth Journal include:

• Denizens of the Flanaess. critters to meet.
• Dyvers, City of Adventure. Entities & locations in the city.
• Gazetteer of the Flanaess. Locations within the Flanaess.
• Gateway to Adventure. Adventures.
• The Good Oerth. Beyond the Flanaess.
• Of Oerth and Altar. Deities and demigods.
• Rogues Gallery. NPCs.
• With Boccob's Blessing. Magic items & artifacts.

About the Contents

Issues #12 and #13 index the final "recompiled" PDFs released in 2002, not the earlier versions. (They're the only versions that remain available on the internet).

The single issue of Canonfire! Chronicles has also been indexed, due to its close connections to The Oerth Journal #27. It appears as issue "CC1". All other numbers refer to Oerth JournalThis index currently covers the first volume of The Oerth Journal, issues #1-27. It should be expanded to include volume 3 at some point in the future.

This index is © Copyright 2023 by Shannon Appelcline. It is released under a cc-by-4.0 license, allowing reuse with attribution. Background image by Darlene, digitized by Zach Henderson & Robert Conley, used under Wizard of the Coast's Fan Content Policy and (for digitized additions) under cc-by-nc-sa 4.0.