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Castle Zagyg - The Upper Works (review)
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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 4489576" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p><strong>Book 1: The Mouths of Madness</strong></p><p>For many older D&D gamers, their first experiences with the D&D game was through a module included in the Basic D&D set entitled <em>The Keep on the Borderlands</em>. This adventure mainly took place in the "Caves of Chaos", a canyon dotted with caves wherein lived many humanoid monsters. A basic wilderness adventure was also provided for the region of the caves.</p><p></p><p>Gygax returned to that adventure to gain inspiration for this part of the adventure. Instead of a canyon, you have the ruins of the castle standing on a bluff studded with caves. Each cave section contains a different tribe of humanoids, often possessing a rivalry against the other tribes, with some caves having access to the castle dungeons proper.</p><p></p><p>This part of the adventure was previously published in a preview product, "The Eastmark Gazetteer", and I've been using it in my 4e campaign for the past few months. There are nineteen different cave systems detailed, with the total number of encounter areas being 61. Kobolds, Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, Bugbears - pretty much every humanoid monster from the original D&D can be found in these caves, living in discreet tribes. You also have a few unusual monsters turning up as well, just if you thought everything would be predictable.</p><p></p><p>The primary impression I gain from this section of the adventure is one of mundanity. It's not that such is bad; it's just that it isn't full of extravagant, fantastical encounters. The rivalries between the tribes are petty and utterly believable, and the descriptive passages of what each lair contains evoke misery and cruelness. There's a sense of reality to the encounters that isn't always achieved in D&D adventures.</p><p></p><p>Gygax included plenty of notes for characterising the tribes. The goblins have prisoners, the bugbears are forward scouts for the rest of their tribe, the hobgoblins are losing a war with the gnolls... A DM who wishes to include more than just one battle after another has plenty of material to work with.</p><p></p><p>I don't always appreciate the old-school form of Gygax's encounters: requiring the party to search for 30 minutes to find the treasure in some encounters rewards an overly slow and picky style of adventuring. However, with encounters like "Charlie the Ogre", who can be a really fun roleplaying experience for the party - he invites them in for tea and jam, but is lacking the jam (and the less said about the tea the better!) - there's the potential for some great adventures.</p><p></p><p>It's nice to see the various random encounter tables for the wilderness and caves environs, and the set-piece wilderness encounters draw a lot from old fairy-tale and mythical lore: the ogre who has kidnapped many children and forces them to work as slaves is a case in point. However, all of this is a distraction from the main part of the work: the dungeons.</p><p></p><p>Gygax notes in his preface to the work that this isn't the "original" Castle Greyhawk, but rather a distillation of all the versions he'd used in the past. He has described it as the "best" version of the work, being also in a form that your regular DM could use it (rather than the original, brief, handscribbled notes which were often used as the basis for improvising encounters).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 4489576, member: 3586"] [b]Book 1: The Mouths of Madness[/b] For many older D&D gamers, their first experiences with the D&D game was through a module included in the Basic D&D set entitled [i]The Keep on the Borderlands[/i]. This adventure mainly took place in the "Caves of Chaos", a canyon dotted with caves wherein lived many humanoid monsters. A basic wilderness adventure was also provided for the region of the caves. Gygax returned to that adventure to gain inspiration for this part of the adventure. Instead of a canyon, you have the ruins of the castle standing on a bluff studded with caves. Each cave section contains a different tribe of humanoids, often possessing a rivalry against the other tribes, with some caves having access to the castle dungeons proper. This part of the adventure was previously published in a preview product, "The Eastmark Gazetteer", and I've been using it in my 4e campaign for the past few months. There are nineteen different cave systems detailed, with the total number of encounter areas being 61. Kobolds, Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, Bugbears - pretty much every humanoid monster from the original D&D can be found in these caves, living in discreet tribes. You also have a few unusual monsters turning up as well, just if you thought everything would be predictable. The primary impression I gain from this section of the adventure is one of mundanity. It's not that such is bad; it's just that it isn't full of extravagant, fantastical encounters. The rivalries between the tribes are petty and utterly believable, and the descriptive passages of what each lair contains evoke misery and cruelness. There's a sense of reality to the encounters that isn't always achieved in D&D adventures. Gygax included plenty of notes for characterising the tribes. The goblins have prisoners, the bugbears are forward scouts for the rest of their tribe, the hobgoblins are losing a war with the gnolls... A DM who wishes to include more than just one battle after another has plenty of material to work with. I don't always appreciate the old-school form of Gygax's encounters: requiring the party to search for 30 minutes to find the treasure in some encounters rewards an overly slow and picky style of adventuring. However, with encounters like "Charlie the Ogre", who can be a really fun roleplaying experience for the party - he invites them in for tea and jam, but is lacking the jam (and the less said about the tea the better!) - there's the potential for some great adventures. It's nice to see the various random encounter tables for the wilderness and caves environs, and the set-piece wilderness encounters draw a lot from old fairy-tale and mythical lore: the ogre who has kidnapped many children and forces them to work as slaves is a case in point. However, all of this is a distraction from the main part of the work: the dungeons. Gygax notes in his preface to the work that this isn't the "original" Castle Greyhawk, but rather a distillation of all the versions he'd used in the past. He has described it as the "best" version of the work, being also in a form that your regular DM could use it (rather than the original, brief, handscribbled notes which were often used as the basis for improvising encounters). [/QUOTE]
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