Allan Grohe

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Greyhawk Creator
Allan T. Grohe Jr.
Allan "grodog" Grohe at work in his office on 17 April 2012. Photo by Ethan Grohe (then 4 years old).]]
Nationality:American
Home:Witchita, Kansas
Born:November 8, 1969, New Jersey
First Greyhawk work:"Artifacts of Oerth" in Dragon #294 (April 2002)
Spouse:Heather
Children:Ethan and Henry
Alias:grodog

Allan T. Grohe, Jr. is an award-winning game designer and editor, and a poet.

Early life and education

Grohe (born 8 November 1969, in New Jersy, USA) has been playing AD&D and other RPGs since 1977. Grohe attended his first gaming convention at Origins in 1980, and his first professional gaming publication (“More for the Shadow Master”) appeared in White Wolf Magazine #11 in 1988 (reprinted and expanded in Knockspell #6 in September 2011).

Career

Contributing author

He contributed to The Unspeakable Oath, Pyramid, Polyhedron, and Dragon magazine, among others. Grohe co-founded Event Horizon Productions in 1996. Grohe worked extensively with Biohazard Games (Blue Planet, Upwind), Pagan Publishing (Delta Green, The Unspeakable Oath), Different Worlds Publications (Tadashi Ehara), and Pied Piper Publishing (Robert J. Kuntz). Grohe was an original developer and editor for OSRIC, the first AD&D 1e retro-clone, and contributed to the OSR magazines Fight On! and Knockspell. Grohe also participated in the free OSRIC 10th anniversary celebratory adventure The Hyqueous Vaults (2017), as well as the first issue of Saving Throw: a Fundraiser Fanzine to Help James D. Kramer (2019).

Editorial and development

Grohe has also provided editorial and development guidance to some of Anthony Huso’s recent AD&D adventures and sourcebooks, including Zjelwyin Fall and Dream House of the Nether Prince; the trilogy of modules The Beginning of the Story, A Bullies’ Threat!, and A Forlorn Venue for VI·VIII·X KUP RPG (Knight of the Lake Games, 2024); and for Victor Raymond's introductory Tekumel refereeing guide, Egg of the World (forthcoming 2025).  In January 2024, Grohe designed and submitted the "Roundabout Level" to support Return to Perinthos, the Jennell Jaquays Memorial Jam, to help defray the costs of her medical treatment and funeral expenses, published in June 2025 (contributor copies delivered, public purchase copies coming soon). 

Black Blade Publishing

Grohe 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’s LGCC-1 The Original Bottle City, RJK-1 Cairn of the Skeleton King, and RJK-2 Tower of Blood.

Recent projects

Grohe’s recent projects include Tales of Peril: The Complete Boinger and Zereth Stories of John Eric Holmes (Black Blade 2017, reprinting in 2025); The Twisting Stair, a print-only zine focused on mega-dungeon design that Grohe publishes with Tony Rosten (issue #4 will publish later in 2025 after a hiatus since 2018); and Grohe's continuing development work to publish his Greyhawk adventures (including his Castle Greyhawk dungeon levels), the newest of which are expansions to the drowic underworld of the classic D1-3 adventures series, and a high-level aquatic scenario featuring the ixitxachitl, both playtested over the past few years at GaryCon, North Texas RPG Con, and Virtual GreyhawkCon.

Greyhawk projects

On the Greyhawk front, Grohe’s “Book of Eyes” artifact will appear in Oerth Journal #37, while “The Dark Markets: New Equipment, Magic Items, and Spells for the Drowic Underworld” will appear in Visions of Greyhawk #4 and offers the first published preview of Grohe’s new drowic designs.  Fight On! Magazine #15 (dedicated to John Eric Holmes, and released on 29 July 2024---the first issue in 13 years!) features one of Grohe’s previously-unpublished Castle Greyhawk dungeon maps (“The Recessed Gallery Level”), and his D&D origin story as part of a Holmes Basic interview with Aron Clark about his new OSR clone, Holmes & Clark.  Fight On! Magazine #16 (dedicated to David A. Trampier, released 21 February 2025) presents Grohe’s “Giants in the Earth” article detailing Wormy, Irving, Ace, Gremorly, Solomoriah, and the rest of the Trampier’s beloved characters in AD&D format.

Awards

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

Personal life

Grohe 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 on Grodog's Greyhawk at GreyhawkOnline, and his blog "From Kuroth's Quill". He lives in Wichita, Kansas, with his lovely wife Heather, their two wonderful sons Ethan and Henry, and their two cats, Felix and Muffin.

Greyhawk Works

Author or Co-Author, Game Designer or Co-Game-Designer

  • Grohe Jr., Allan T.. "The Iounic Loop - Reimagining the Ring of Gaxx" in AFS#4. Halls of Tizun Thane: December 2013.
  • Grohe Jr., Allan T., and Erik Mona. "All Oerth's Artifacts." Dragon #299. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2002.
———. "Artifacts of Oerth." Dragon #294. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2002.

Editor or Developer

———. RJK-1 The Original Bottle City. Pied Piper Publishing, 2007.
———. LGCC-1 The Original Bottle City. Black Blade Publishing, 2014.
———. The Original Living Room. Pied Piper Publishing, 2007.
———. The Stalk. Pied Piper Publishing, 2009.
———. "Warlock's Walk." Unpublished GenCon tournament version. Pied Piper Publishing, 2007.
  • Kuntz, Robert J., and Erik N. Shook. El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury. Pied Piper Publishing, 2007.

Semi-Greyhawk and Non-Greyhawk Works

Author or Co-Author, Game Designer or Co-Game-Designer

Editor or Developer

———. CAS1 Cairn of the Skeleton King. Pied Piper Publishing, 2006.
———. CAS2 Tower of Blood. Black Blade Publishing, 2006.
———. The Original Living Room. Pied Piper Publishing, 2007.
———. The Original Living Room. Pied Piper Publishing, 2007.
———. RJK-1 Cairn of the Skeleton King. Pied Piper Publishing, 2015.
———. RJK-2 Tower of Blood. Black Blade Publishing, 2015.


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