D&D 5E Revising Castle Grayhawk for 5e

[Shades of Eternity]

Retrospective: Castle Greyhawk

Worst. Module. Ever. I try very hard not to be hyperbolic on this blog; I know I often don't succeed. But I am hard pressed to think of any ...

grognardia.blogspot.com

This infamous dungeon is known for some good, a lot of bad and a lot of "great gravy what were you thinking."

So throwing this up for the good folk on enworld in how would you revise it for 5e.

What worked?

What didn't?

What should be simply tossed aside?

What should you lean into?

 

[ninjayeti]

No. Just No.

The problem isn't that this is a joke dungeon - the problem is it's a joke dungeon that's about as funny as Tomb of Horrors.

IIRC (and I trashed my copy decades ago so I am reaching way back) much of the humor was pop culture figures translated into D&D - e.g. a hafling with a floppy hat and long scarf named "Dr. What." There was another part where chefs were cooking up Black Puddings (get it - 'cause the're puddings! ROTFLOL!) These are literally the BEST jokes I remember from the module. As a 13 year old I found the humor too stupid to be funny, and at that age I though fart jokes were refined satire.

The article you link calls it a "a puerile, unfunny collection of shlock." That's pretty generous IMHO.

 

[Nebulous]

I LOVE the cover though. Keith Parkinson! I might have owned this eons ago but I don't remember it. I certainly never used any of it if I did. But damn that cover is cool. I wish I had some miniatures that look like these guys.

 

[Wiseblood]

The article was written on April 1st. I wonder...?

 

[uzirath]

So throwing this up for the good folk on enworld in how would you revise it for 5e.

Start over. Entirely. This thing was such a monstrous insult. I don't really know the Gygax lore around this, but even if notes to his original ideas exist, I don't think they would make a good 5e adventure. If someone were to seriously tackle this—as a way, perhaps, of bringing Greyhawk into 5e—I would recommend honoring the legacy of EGG by creating a truly marvelous, fresh adventure. It should have plenty of Greyhawk lore and pay respects to things Gygaxian, but it shouldn't just appeal to the OSR crowd. It's a tall order.

 

[Shiroiken]

So throwing this up for the good folk on enworld in how would you revise it for 5e.

To quote Johnny the Fire Elemental from said adventure FLAME ON! Seriously, just toss it into a bonfire and forget about it. It was never meant to be a good adventure, but to be an insult to Gary Gygax. I didn't even like the 2E version, but at least that one treated it with some respect.

This is just a pile of gags thrown together with no rhyme or reason. There's nothing that resembles a plot, and is instead meant to mock the standard dungeon crawl. The only potential use would be as a surprise April Fools adventure to piss off your players.

 

[David Howery]

While most of it was execrable, I did like the Island of Unused Monsters, where loads of critters (mostly from the FF) that DMs never used in adventures all lived together, and ate flumphs to get by....

 

[Coroc]

No. Just No.

The problem isn't that this is a joke dungeon - the problem is it's a joke dungeon that's about as funny as Tomb of Horrors.

IIRC (and I trashed my copy decades ago so I am reaching way back) much of the humor was pop culture figures translated into D&D - e.g. a hafling with a floppy hat and long scarf named "Dr. What." There was another part where chefs were cooking up Black Puddings (get it - 'cause the're puddings! ROTFLOL!) These are literally the BEST jokes I remember from the module. As a 13 year old I found the humor too stupid to be funny, and at that age I though fart jokes were refined satire.

The article you link calls it a "a puerile, unfunny collection of shlock." That's pretty generous IMHO.

This ^^, while I greatly love the classical greyhawk stuff and many of it is easily converted to 5e, castle greyhawk, although I own the book, is one of the things which I will not bother with.

On the humor (Spoiler) one thing is really funny, the stone faces which all boost an attribute by one point , which was a big boon back then, but one of them, looking very odd, only gave the character face the ugly look of the face and reduced his charisma by two or so.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

This ^^, while I greatly love the classical greyhawk stuff and many of it is easily converted to 5e, castle greyhawk, although I own the book, is one of the things which I will not bother with.

On the humor (Spoiler) one thing is really funny, the stone faces which all boost an attribute by one point , which was a big boon back then, but one of them, looking very odd, only gave the character face the ugly look of the face and reduced his charisma by two or so.

If you want an official product that, go and convert Greyhawk Ruins (2E) or Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (3E). If you want an unofficial product that is probably as close to a complete Castle Greyhawk as you will get, pick up Castle of the Mad Archmage.

Stay far away from the module called "Castle Greyhawk" unless you want to run it as a weird dream or portal within a better version of the Castle.

(Hilariously though, Wizards seems insistent on using the apprentices that this module gave Mordenkainen - see, most recently Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. I believe there is some commentary from Xort).

 

[Fanaelialae]

(Hilariously though, Wizards seems insistent on using the apprentices that this module gave Mordenkainen - see, most recently Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. I believe there is some commentary from Xort).

Actually, Mordenkainen was originally a PC.
Mordenkainen - Wikipedia

That's the case for most (if not all) of the wizards whose names are on official spells. IIRC Melf was named so because he was a male elf.