Castle Zagyg by Gary Gygax

[BluSponge]

The Castle Zagyg stuff does look good. I finally got a copy during the big TLG sale a few weeks back. I should also add that if you haven't checked them out, the Lejendary Earth books are pretty snazzy too. No game details, so you can use them with any system, and a huge global campaign. Great stuff. I've been using it as the basis for my fantasy campaign for a few years now.

Tom

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I was impressed with CZ1:Yggsburgh, too. I kicked off my C&C campaign, there. (Really, CZ1 is more of a mini-setting that you can drop into a larger setting like Greyhawk, Mystara, Scarred Lands, et cetera.)

 

[mcrow]

great book, can't wait for the rest of them to come out.

ok

I may be waiting a long time and may actually see retirement first, but I'll still be waiting.

 

[Ourph]

That's the downside.

Only 2 books of the 8 have been released.

They probably won't be finished for several years.

Actually, only 1 of the 8 books have been released. Rob Kuntz's Dark Chateau is part of a separate (parallel) series. I'm waiting to start buying the series until the actual castle dungeons start being released. I'm sure Yggsburgh is an interesting product, but I'm not interested in another town supplement - I WANT THE CASTLE!!!

 

[seskis281]

As a recent convertee to Castles & Crusades I'm also glad to see this material - just got the order confirmation from Amazon on Yggsburgh this morning. As I understand from posts on Gary G.'s thread, both he and Rob Kuntz are working on the differing parts of the castle modules, and naturally it just takes a lot of time and work on their part - but the end results should be a wonderfully complex and deep castle and dungeon. I look at it as each installment will be something to really look forward to.

As for the discussion of crunch - my interest in rules lite probably indicates I'm firmly in the "less is better" class. I like being able to custom NPC's, creatures and encounters to the particular game. I find it easy to do with a lot of crunch and stats (just change it) or even better if the descriptions given are just starting points - that's what I'm doing with the material and setting I'm developing. Looking at my original set of Greyhawk, it didn't even give classes for important personages in the Flanaess. With my stuff, the most I'm giving is class, level suggested and suggested alignment (although even here I often reiterate individual GM's should tweak - if an NPC needs to do something specific in an adventure that might differ from even these most general labels). While the adventures and modules I plan to write will have more crunch to them, I still plan on keeping it to the essentials (Class, Level, Alignment) and let descriptions like "while very strong and tough, Gork the Dwarven fighter isn't very smart or handsome." If I looked at that I could easily and quickly attach stats of Str 18, Con 17, Int 7, Cha 6... and fill in other info as needed.

That's not to put down those who want crunch and detailed stat blocks for every single thing - for many it's just a matter of time they have to put into it, others taste... and there certainly is much available to all of us gamers to match whatever tastes we like.

Cheers!

John Maddog Wright

 

[ColonelHardisson]

The CZ:Yggsburgh book is quite nice for a city with a very Greyhawkian feel, actually you could say it is a smaller version of Greyhawk city, since the institutions and feel is very close.

Surprisingly, Yggsburgh =/= Greyhawk. This is from Gygax himself. If you see a place called "Dun"-something on the map, that's the Greyhawk analog. Off the top of my head, I forget which city Yggsburgh equates with.

 

[Numion]

So is this thing Gygax's Magnum Opus? (Greatest work)

If it is, it's a good year in that regard, with Monte doing big things too..

 

[mcrow]

So is this thing Gygax's Magnum Opus? (Greatest work)

excluding inventing D&D, I would say that this is indeed his Magnum Opus. Though some may like his world building books better.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

So is this thing Gygax's Magnum Opus? (Greatest work)

If it is, it's a good year in that regard, with Monte doing big things too..

I suppose you could look at it that way. Castle Greyhawk was Gygax's main dungeon, the one in which most of the formative years of D&D/AD&D were spent. Seeing it in print, finally, even if renamed, is an event many have waited for since the very early days of D&D.

 

[Numion]

excluding inventing D&D, I would say that this is indeed his Magnum Opus.

At least D&D is his seminal work .. I apologize my use of terms, but I just checked them on wiki