jokamachi said:
Hiya, Gary,
Hope you're doing well. Forgive me if this is the umpteenth time it has been asked (I looked over some of the other questiions but had not found it), but I'm curious to know how the work on Zagyg is coming along. Last I heard, both you and Rob had finished parts one and two, but it's a long road and I imagine there's still a ways to go. Have you hit the halfway mark or is it already behind you?
Howdy!
I long ago finished the Yggsburgh setting, spent a good deal of time polishing the town map and adding some details this summer, and Rob has completed his adventure module
The Dark Chateau that fits in on the campaign base map. that said, nothing has been done in regards the castle and dungeons. My health is not up to long-hour work days of continuous sort, such being necessary for me to create the material in question. Meanwhile rob has been busy, was married, and has yet to supply me with his amusing D&D game tales so as to flesh out the ones I have done for
Dragon magazine and make the lot into a book.
To the point, I am hoping to regain energy and be able to begin the creative work of capturing the best parts of our old dungeon levels in a new and usable-by-other-GMs format by late autumn. If I am still not up to working long hours, I plan to turn the whole over to Rob, with my further input as to what goes where on the levels, and what sort of "ecology" there should be, then do developmental editing of his material. That I can do with less immersion, so as to be able to work for shorter periods of time, not the usual 10 to 12 hour stints, seven days per week I need when writing an adventure from scratch, so to speak.
My real interest lies with the inner castle and how much of it is tied to Yggsburgh. Did you incorporate elements of the city into the module, or have you tried to keep the castle independent (some might say 'pure') of the city setting? As an old-timer with great interest in the mother of all supermodules, I'm eager to see it in all its original splendor, but I wonder if it is a harder task than it sounds.
The town of Yggsburgh is a setting unto itself, even as it is also an integral part of the surrounding march. The same is basically true of all the other locales in the area of the campign, and such additions as each GM might choose to create for his campaign. Thus the castle and dungeons are separate and "pure", will not be missed when using the campaign setting or require the campaign setting to be used, all the while forming a natural part of the entire
Castle Zagyg work.
It is, as you suppose, a very major undertaking, the restatement of some 50 or so upper castle and dungeon levels into a module usable by other GMs, with clear and easily read links between levels, fully detailed encounters, instructions as to how some of the "mysteries" of the material can be managed according to the desires of the individual GM. rob and I both DMed on the fly, made only short and often cryptic notes, and thought very much alike, so handing the "castle" back and forth as co-DMs was never a problem. The old material would be basically unusable my most others, of course, encounter notes consisting of only one line from which we created reams of information out of whole cloth on the spot; so we need to do a lot of re-working and explanatory material even as we reduce the sprawling levels into a more managable and publishable form. As we do that we will most assuredly retrain all of the best material--map ideas, encounters, oddities, and so forth within the revised level plans.
I have outlined the whole of the castle and dungeon levels, and the total is still most substantial, as the Trolls have nboted in their descriptions of the coming additional parts for the work.
As for the rules themselves, I am one one paycheck (or Christmas) away from picking up the collector's box for C&C and seriously thinking about running Zagyg in its 'original hybrid' form. I have heard that you thought to include additional rules for the C&C system in the back of the Yssbvurgh release, so that has me thinking as well. Let me ask: does reinventing a rules lite system based on OD&D take you back to those days when you were creating the first supplements for the white box? What have you learned about game design since then that has made your task easier (or harder)? I read the alternate rules for armor damage and I thought they were awesome, but I wonder if creating a rules lite system is too much of a temptation for creative minds to 'add infinitum.'
My current preference in rules is best expressed by pointing to the
Lejendary Adventure game system. That said, the LA game, being skill-bundle based and without classes and levels, does not suit a dungeon setting with prigressively more difficult and dangerous levels as one explores deeper into the complex. So I added some skill-bundles to the C&C system to make the classes available less stereotypical, add depth to PCs and NPCs alike, and likewise brought in a few of the LA game concepts I enjoy to liven up the whole.
What is difficult for me to to be somewhat confiend by the class-based system in regards to creating all manner of things that I am now used to doing with relative freedom and ease through the rules-light LA system, so I hybridized C&C for the setting and eventual castle-dungeon development
Anyway, good luck with the remainder of Zagyg. I know it must be exciting to finally be putting it out after all these years, not to mention nostalgic for you to revisit the scene of so much good fun. Anyway, here's hoping the home stretch is enjoyable and speedbump free.
Best wishes,
jokamachi
Thanks!
Actually, I have been using the old dungeon levels in both OD&D and OAD&D p-lay at many conventions over the past years--even ran my group through several of the oldest upper levels just this spring. thus I am well in tough with the material and the "feel" needed to re-do the whole in depth. The only problem is my lack of energy for extended creative effort as mentioned above.
It does concern me considerably, certainly, as I know so many of my fellows are eagerly awaiting the dungeon levels. The Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, the lot will be done as soon as possible.
Cheerio,
Gary
