FLASHBACK: Last Casual E-Mail With Rob Kuntz

[geneweigel]

I was looking for maybe Scott's reference to Gary mentioning multiclassing was in my old emails and I found probably the reason Rob stopped dealing with me. This was in 2006 before all the backs and forths of the Planar Project which was already rolling and he showed me the entire interaction of him and Gary "breaking up the band" which in retrospect looks like a plea for help and I was so busy that didn't write him back right away until the middle off the night.

Well, I was in the midst of bathing children since we got in late.

Seriously, I don't want to make things worse as I haven't spoken with Gary even on a forum for about two years! (Speaking of which, whats with that bible quote? Whats he with Al-Qaeda now? ) I think he's burnt out and just wants to coast through the rest of his existence while you on the other hand want respect and appreciation that he already had/has in truckloads. Lets face it. Gary took 5 years to make HALL OF MANY PANES and look at it! Its a dog. Sure you can reflect on certain elements and find some usefulness or cleverness but its a big, fat diet drink with not one iota of love in it. Frankly, I was feeling reluctant about actually seeing the rest of Castle Greyhawk in print after reading "PANES" then "YGGSBURGH". Honestly? Thats why I shied off running out to get DARK CHATEAU after YGGSBURGH turned out to be a big yawn. So you'll have to factor that in as well.

I SNIPPED OUT SOME NASTY REMARKS ABOUT INDUSTRY PEOPLE THAT I MADE BUT YOU CAN GUESS THE USUAL SUSPECTS.

I wish Rob would forgive me for not being there for him but it was bad time. If Gary had made it a few years more I would have tried to give some energy to patching them back up but at that point I think this e-mail was what prompted me to go to Lake Geneva in 2007 and start talking to Gary again.

[GRWelsh]

I don't understand. Did Rob stop replying to your emails at some point? If so, I wasn't aware of that. What do you think you said that made him stop dealing with you? "... shied off running out to get DARK CHATEAU"?

I don't see how you could be responsible for Rob and EGG choosing not to continue working together on CASTLE ZAGYG. That was between them. From what I remember they had philosophical differences about how the material should be presented and published... EGG wanted it to be updated and made current for modern play with lots of new additions, and Rob wanted to present it historically as it was originally written (a la BOTTLE CITY).

[geneweigel]

Rob was keeping, what I thought was business-like relationship, with the Planar Project then he says he is no longer working with Gary then shows the interaction of the break up in the e-mail and that was my response. I was already off the whole "GREYHAWK CAN BE RESTORED" factor because of how difficult my road was. I wanted to continue doing things with them but it was almost impossible. So here he was showing me the hows and whys (Which he said never share) to get me involved like I worked it out between them in 2002 but I had zero energy and free time four years later. I wasn't involved in "Zagyg" (Or its raging crew of developers as some of you might have seen, over in the K&K forum last year, for how the insanity over that effort continues to this day.) but he was asking in a roundabout way for help and I was just being self-absorbed.

So this is why Rob has never replied to any of my 2007 emails because he showed me the interaction of the break and I did not help him like I smoothed things out as a go between in the past. So I'm guessing that he has a slight grudge against me for that. Well at least enough of a grudge to not even want to talk to me ever again. Every time that I looked back at these emails I overlooked that but that has got to be it. Nothing ever made sense otherwise.

[GRWelsh]

This reminds me of Rob's suggestions for how to take Greyhawk forward in the late 90's. That was a time of optimism, because when WotC first bought TSR it was like a honeymoon with everybody playing nice and lots of good feelings all around. A settlement was made for Dave Arneson. They reached out to EGG, and it even seemed possible he would be involved in the new edition of D&D and/or the new incarnation of Greyhawk. Rob drafted up a multi-point plan to restore Greyhawk and sent a letter to WotC but as I recall they rejected it or ignored it. EGG was commissioned to write a few introductions and say nice things about 3e, but that was about it... He wasn't "restored to the throne" and put back in charge of D&D and Greyhawk as many of us (quixotically) had hoped. And when a few years later, we had the hope of getting the original Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk published by Troll Lords from original co-DMs EGG and Rob, that fell apart as well because of their own disagreements. But I can't really see how Rob would blame you for any of that, Gene... You should reach out to him and ask him about your Eli Tomorast theory!