Gremag

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Gremag = arm {of} EGG? "Evil and even more chaotic" than his partner Rannos Davl = Dave L Arneson "chaotic evil and highly suspicious."

Commentary on their broken relationship and partnership hawking suspect wares in the consumer market?

Rannos Davl "slow, fat, clumsy, and placid" the passive 'dead weight' partner? Dexterity of 18 and yet slow, fat, and clumsy?

Gremag "tall and thin individual, with sharp features and protruding eyes" the aggressive visionary leader partner? Wisdom of 7 make it happen uncontrollable mover and shaker partner "tends to dither and fuss at Rannos Davl and customers alike?"

Together they are the passive-aggressive chaotic evil partnership opposing arrogantly narcissistic PC parties...

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

I wouldn't be surprised if Rannos Davl back-stabbed Gremag, and Gremag responded by slaying him with an on the spot poisoning while the PCs are shopping at the trading post?!😜

[foster1941]

Not to get too far into the speculative weeds, but could the "Arm of EGG" possibly be a "tribute" to Rob Kuntz, who had had a falling out with Gary and, along with Arneson, left TSR under somewhat acrimonious circumstances right around the time T1 was being prepared for publication (c. 1978)?

[GRWelsh]

Gremag meaning "Arm {of} EGG" seems like a real stretch, without some additional evidence -- such as if we knew someone actually was referred to as the "arm of EGG" at one time. I don't doubt that Gremag is likely an anagram, or reference to a person, in the way Rannos Davl is obviously supposed to be Dave Arneson (and remember he also appeared in G1 as Nosnra, a "grossly fat and thoroughly despicable creature, sly and vicious, loving ambush and back-stabbing"). But Gremag doesn't look like a reference to Rob Kuntz to me, and least not one as obvious as Tzunk, Bilarro, etc. I wasn't aware there was bad blood between EGG and Rob around that time... When EGG mentions Rob in the "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" article THE DRAGON #37 (May 1980), it seems to be with fondness and no animosity but just slight teasing:

Rob Kuntz joined me as co-Dm of the Greyhawk Campaign, and he took over doing new levels after I'd done about two dozen. Greyhawk then had about 50 various levels. As my involvement with TSR grew more demanding of my time, Rob assumed the major role as DM, and naturally the campaign altered in thrust and shape. Soon he was actually the sole DM, as I had the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign going. Eventually, Rob decided that he couldn't shape the "World" beyond the City of Greyhawk area and turned the whole back to me... The Temple campaign was far more detailed in all respects, for it dealt with not only a dungeon, but had the village nearby, several towns and states involved in the scheme of events. Likewise, its inhabitants were drawn from AD&D. It was not too difficult to put the Village of Hommlet into shape for publication. The Temple of Elemental Evil is a slightly different case, however, for I used some random dungeon generation methods as a test of the systems when I put the design together. I am, therefore, doing a major rework on it, and so you now know why the Temple is so late in coming... In light of that, consider what will have to be done to Greyhawk Castle to put it inot shape for general publication. Both Rob and I liked to "wing it" as much as possible, so as to have flexibility and to tie in past events. Think of over four dozen maps with partial matrices, skimpy notes, cryptic symbols and areas erased or penciled over due to destructive actions! The whole 50 levels or thereabouts form a cohesive dungeon, of course, so that means to undertake the project, I must sit down and handle it all together, with as few breaks as possible, in order to reflect the general oneness. This will eventually be done, yes indeed! But I don't dare begin at this time... Before the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk are dusted off and construction begins anew, the rough manuscript for T2, Temple of Elemental Evil, must be finalized. With the very good words I've heard about the Village of Hommlet offering, I'm under considerable pressure to get T2 out -- but in a form comparable to T1, so there will be much agonizing and rewriting. Then, Rob Kuntz has the re-worked Lost Caverns module which must be finalized also. It was used for a MDG tournament a few years ago at WinterCon, and the scenario is very good. We want to get this into print as soon as possible. As with the Temple, we have the general demands for more modules of superior quality... Because there are so many demands on my time, much of this depends on the co-operation of fellows such as Skip Williams, Steve Marsh, and maybe even Rob Kuntz and Ernie Gygax (neither of whom are known for their rapid work, shall we say?).

Did Dave have a tall and thin business partner or crony circa 1978 that Gremag could refer to? The first thought that came to my mind was "Greg" with a leftover A and M. I thought of Greg Svenson but I'm not sure if that fits. Maybe it was some other Greg at the time that EGG had a falling out with?

[geneweigel]

You got it: Dave Megarry

[foster1941]

I was thinking of this incident which is apparently described in detail in Rob Kuntz's book on "Dave Arneson's True Genius" (which I haven't read):

The narrative becomes rather personal at this point, when Kuntz describes a stockholder’s meeting that turns rather contentious. Arneson felt that he was being overlooked and underused in his time at the company, so he and others thought that an additional member on the board would help to alleviate that. I will leave the details to your own reading in the essay but spoiler alert: the discussion turned ugly pretty quickly, and the fallout was fast and furious. Kuntz himself and Dave Megarry (one of Arneson’s friends) resigned from TSR within a handful of days afterward. Kuntz’s brother Terry and Arneson himself were pushed out shortly thereafter. This was perhaps the first of several seismic changes the company would eventually see.

(from the review of that book here: multiverse.world/blog/2017/07/31/guest-review-dave-arneson-true-genius/)
The timing may not line up, and of course Rob and Gary later made up (only to fall out again, then make up again, then fall out again, etc.), but it seemed like a possibility if Gary was mad at Rob and felt he'd taken Arneson's side. And calling his then-former protege and assistant DM "the arm of EGG" seems like something Gary might do if he was feeling petty (sort of like how, in one of his late-period interviews, shortly after Rob had dropped out of the Castle Zagyg project, he described how the earliest D&D players were his children Ernie and Elise, who were soon joined by his friend Don Kaye and "a kid from the neighborhood" - completely dismissing his role, and not even bothering to mention his name).

[foster1941]

Nov 22, 2017 14:35:10 GMT -5 geneweigel said:

You got it: Dave Megarry

Agreed - a much better fit which still fits squarely with the quote I posted above.