Last week, I picked up Castle Zagyg: the Upper Works by Gary Gygax, a boxed adventure module detailing the upper levels of his original Castle Greyhawk dungeon, something for which I've been waiting a very long time indeed. The publication is by Troll Lord Games and should be arriving in game shops in the near future. This series of posts will form a serialised review of the product, as doing so will make it a much easier task to review it!
Feel free to comment on the review or to ask questions.
The adventure is designed for the Castles & Crusades game, and is very compatible with earlier iterations of D&D (oD&D, 1st & 2nd edition in particular). Part of the adventure was previously released, and my current 4e Greyhawk campaign uses it as the basis for the action therein. Some conversion work is necessary for 4e DMs, but I have considered it well worth the time and effort.
Overall, the boxed set consists of the following:
The biggest problem I have with the entire package I'll put up front: Gary Gygax, in his later years, decided to go with a most unhistorical valuation of gold to silver, namely 50:1. (Historically, for most of the period D&D is derived from, it wandered between 10:1 and possibly 20:1, staying more near the former). Castle Zagyg also adopts a "silver standard".
The net result of these decisions is to throw the economy of the base D&D and C&C books completely off. It was not helped by the Yggsburgh book using misprinted costs, and then having most weapons being worth under 1 gp, whilst swords cost over 100 gp apiece!
Anyone using this adventure will need to adjust treasure values to fit the baseline of his or her campaign; it is a serious flaw in the adventure, and a grave misjudgement by the adventure's editors.
However, this may be redeemed by some entertaining encounters and descriptions: the real meat of the adventure. Does Castle Zagyg deliver? Read on and find out!
Cheers!
Feel free to comment on the review or to ask questions.
The adventure is designed for the Castles & Crusades game, and is very compatible with earlier iterations of D&D (oD&D, 1st & 2nd edition in particular). Part of the adventure was previously released, and my current 4e Greyhawk campaign uses it as the basis for the action therein. Some conversion work is necessary for 4e DMs, but I have considered it well worth the time and effort.
Overall, the boxed set consists of the following:
- Book 1: The Mouths of Madness - 44 pages, revised from the earlier release in the East Mark Gazetteer, detailing the caves around the base of the "moat" around the castle.
- Book 2: Ruins of the Castle Precincts - 48 pages, detailing the walls, towers, gatehouses and other buildings that stand on the surface over the dungeon.
- Book 3: East Wall Towers - 20 pages, detailing the two massive towers that flank the ruined castle.
- Book 4: Castle Fortress - 44 pages, detailing the actual fortress level itself.
- Book 5: Store Rooms - 44 pages, detailing the first real dungeon level of the Castle, along with new monsters, magic and NPCs.
- Maps & Illustration booklet - 36 pages, B&W illustrations and maps. About half the booklet is maps, the rest illustrations of encounters
- B&W Poster Map (28 cm x 42 cm) of the Mouths of Madness/Store Rooms
- B&W Poster Map (28 cm x 42 cm) of the Castle Precincts/Towers/Fortress
- Colour Poster Map (28 cm x 42 cm) of the wilderness around the castle.
The biggest problem I have with the entire package I'll put up front: Gary Gygax, in his later years, decided to go with a most unhistorical valuation of gold to silver, namely 50:1. (Historically, for most of the period D&D is derived from, it wandered between 10:1 and possibly 20:1, staying more near the former). Castle Zagyg also adopts a "silver standard".
The net result of these decisions is to throw the economy of the base D&D and C&C books completely off. It was not helped by the Yggsburgh book using misprinted costs, and then having most weapons being worth under 1 gp, whilst swords cost over 100 gp apiece!
Anyone using this adventure will need to adjust treasure values to fit the baseline of his or her campaign; it is a serious flaw in the adventure, and a grave misjudgement by the adventure's editors.
However, this may be redeemed by some entertaining encounters and descriptions: the real meat of the adventure. Does Castle Zagyg deliver? Read on and find out!
Cheers!