The lands of Oerth have endured generations of turmoil – still reeling from the Chaos War, still watching Iuz gather strength in the shadows. Magic falters where once it flowed freely, trade routes fracture, and even the once-stable Free City of Greyhawk teeters under the weight of corruption and conflict. Yet, amid the lingering darkness, Overking Stefan Boarke’s efforts to reunite the Great Kingdom have begun to shift the tide. Fractured alliances, long-soured bloodlines, and the ghosts of heroes past all circle a rare moment of potential unity: a long-anticipated celebration where whispers hint at something far greater than mere ceremony. This month, we’re thrilled to feature A Manifestation of Chaos: Extinction Event!, a richly layered Greyhawk saga helmed by GM Leonidas300, whose worldbuilding and attention to continuity breathe new life into an ever-evolving continent.
First off, feel free to tell us about the person behind the GM screen. Where are you from? What do you do aside from gaming? Alter Egos? Life partners? Family? Where can we interact with you on the internet?
I was born in California, grew up in Iowa but moved to St. Louis when I was 25. Aside from gaming, I do more gaming lol, pretty much the whole of my hobby time is gaming related or adjacent. Insofar as career, I’m an Accountant, I’m married, with step-kids. I am mostly on FB, in most any D&D related room. I’ve got a FB page called Metzgers Dungeons but I am terrible at updating it.
Tell us about “A Manifestation of Chaos: Extinction Event!” in a nutshell. How did you design the campaign? What was your inspiration?
This either requires a book of an answer or what I’ll try to do here… The design for this one was in response to my players’ feedback on the 1st Manifestation of Chaos campaign. They asked that this one have more intrigue and politics and to a man; I believe they would say that I have delivered on that. They bought an old school whiteboard to track campaign threads
How regularly do you play, and where do you play? Tell us about your current group of players.
We play 2-3 times a month in The Legendary Lair.
I have run some excellent groups over the decades, but this group is hands down the best. My current group, much as myself, are at the 50-55 mark, are comfortable with who we are and realize the precious free time we have should be spent with friends having fun. Most have been in the group for between 6-15 years.
Every one of them has helped with the portal. whoppermd does the images and banners for the adventure logs, Jurgen1 has written the majority of the logs since session 40, but every player has written a log or two as well. Our player rblaine15 has won the Titan award which is normally reserved for the end of campaigns.
What made you choose the Pathfinder? How does that system complement your campaign?
My guys and I like crunch; we like the limitless options/customization that Pathfinder 1e allows. The fact that PF 1e, is essentially an extension of D&D 3.5 means that the wealth of material to draw from is immense. I do a lot of custom monsters (campaign related) but having that material to draw on is great.
This campaign is part of a trilogy of campaigns. Please explain how a trilogy of campaigns work? What is the connection between the campaigns?
The events of the campaigns build upon what happened in the prior campaign, but the characters are different Towards the end of this campaign some of the old characters who are still around may get a chance to show up, depending on certain future in-game decisions ). I run my games from 1 to between 22-24th level, in truth after that level, most players are looking for fresh changes and challenges.
For example, in the original MOC, there were a great deal of things regarding ithilids, subspecies of ithilids and chaos creatures that went unexplored/addressed. That is going to have a major role in things, for this campaign.
The bones of these first two campaigns are stiped in the deep lore of D&D (Greyhawk specifically) but other D&D lore as well, including nearly 35 years of home brewed campaigns. If they are successful in this campaign, The next and last MOC campaign will deal with the aftermath of the events of this one… It will be a Mythic Pathfinder 1e game.
If they fail, there will not be a 3rd MOC campaign as envisioned; I will instead take that opportunity to switch over to a conglomeration of OSR systems I am working on (Old School Essentials and Shadowdark as the bones, with elements of Dungeon Crawl Classics, Hackmaster and Hyperborea. It will use the Age of Hyboria as the setting.
You completely redesigned the Obsidian Portal interface, including the mouse cursor. What is the inspiration for that design and how long did it take to program?
Our member Glyph3x did the lions share, he is super talented in coding, it took him about a week to do the core design, the cursor, is the Atlantean sword from Conan; there is nothing more quintessentially adventure gaming than Conan. I did some of the coding and the vast majority of the wiki pages, (like all of them-lol). My players do adventure logs and work on the Latin spell pages when they want PRP’s.
How much time is usually spent preparing your game sessions? Describe a typical session.
In general, I spend between 4-8 hours preparing a session, upwards of 20+ hours if it is a dungeon or combat heavy session. I use a great deal of 3-d terrain and am known for massive dwarven forge set ups.
You split your character page into several sections (other than PC and NPC). Please explain the different sections.
This was a feature I was so glad the portal added. There are an enormous number of factions, characters, NPC’s, people of import that are in this campaign, this feature allows much easier access to them.
In your wiki section, you put a lot of emphasis on the game mechanics, like XP and gold division, but what I find most interesting is the Graveyard section. Can you please explain what the graveyard is and why it is needed in addition to the “Dead” section in the characters page?
The graveyard is reserved for actual PC deaths. A resting ground for those who gave all… The dead section on the character page is for NPC allies and “respected foes”.
You make a lot of “real-life” connections – you have the “Lair” section, as well as a wiki page designated to your players. What made you make this connection?
Our page comes off a bit heavy on the meta and even though it really does not play that way, we felt that having something to reflect that we are people with a good sense of humor and relatable to other gamers is important.
In your site, you say you moved from Obsidian Portal but decided to give it another chance. What made you stay?
… prior to the reforge, I was a very active member on the portal community pages but in the aftermath of the reforge trust and respect was broken, and I left in disgust. After OP was acquired by Thaen; Kallak, I heard some positive things and reached out to Twiggyleaf and GamingMegaverse and I found that they told it true that the portal was much improved and headed in a good direction.
If you had to pick just one thing, what would you say Obsidian Portal helps you with the most?
Transparency. I run a large group, having a centralized place where they can access everything campaign related is fantastic. They can access the rules, XP, PRP’s, Treasure and so on.
What would you say is the biggest highlight of your game so far (please also provide images and links if possible)?
Normally, I would have had my players answer this one, however I am going to be selfish and take it. The biggest highlight of the game so far for me (and I believe most of the others would agree) were sessions 38–39.
Backstory: My older brother jurgen1 taught me and my younger brother, Charles, to play D&D in 1981 and until he left for college in 86, we played every Sunday. I took over as the DM after that and started DM’ing other groups too. Charles dropped out of TTRPGing in high school (1990) and had very sporadic forays in gaming after that, Jurgen1 stopped TTRPGing altogether in 86. I, sans covid have run the entire way with a consistent game/group.
Anyway, Charles was due to visit us in St. louis and (not for the first time) I tried to get them both to agree to play. And for whatever reason they agreed, for the first time in almost 40 years, we played together again. I had come up with a scenario that I was able to fold into the current campaign and hubris aside, it was spectacular, everyone was on point, especially jurgen1 and Charles. Charles ran a clinic on how to run a thief. Jurgen1 immediately established a dungeon discipline that the others took to. Earnestly had the campaign not already had an over-reaching arch, the events of those sessions would have provided it easily.
For jurgen1, even though months had become years and years had become decades, the fire of the adventurer was still in his blood! He joined our group as a permanent member after that.
Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights can you offer the community this month?
Sadly, this “pearl of wisdom” has been the most grievously learned. Our dear friend and longtime member RenegadeRed very unexpectantly passed away a few months ago. Ren’s enthusiasm for the game was infectious and he was always willing to help, big Dwarven Forge set-ups, he was there. Helping me work out some deep lore for the campaign, he was there. Coming up with completely outside the box stuff in game, he was there. Doing some unwise actions that sometimes drove the other guys crazy, he damn sure was there.
The “pearl” is to make sure you take the time to appreciate your group and the adventures you have in the moment because you never know when they won’t be there.
Steel your nerves and ready your spells—this land holds no peace for the unprepared. We’ve lingered long enough in the shadow of crumbling thrones and rising powers. Our thanks to the ever-watchful Leonidas300 and his steadfast companions, whose tales echo like legends across the Flanaess. If you know of another campaign that deserves a place in the halls of greatness, don’t stay silent—nominate it in the community forums for a shot at the coveted Campaign of the Year!
