Castle Zagyg by Gary Gygax

[JoeGKushner]

As for the "World" series, yes Gary didn't write much or any of them, but it is my understanding that he did "edit" them, which to me means even though he didn't write them, it is what he would have said if he had written it. Especially since he puts his name on it.

Sorry, I don't buy that for a second. "It's what he would have said if he had written it" is a ton different than approving it. Myself? I think it's a bit of a cash in on his name. and hey, if Troll Lords can do it, more power to them. It's like an approval seal as opposed to him writing it. Some of the books have a vastly different writing style than his.

 

[Breakdaddy]

I really like Yggsburgh from what I've read of it. It has a ton of nice plot hooks and bits o' adventure in it. I have yet to run it (but I plan on it when I can), so I don't have any actual playtest opinions but it gave my imagination a real workout, which is always welcome for this time-deficient DM.

 

[Turjan]

I bought the "Yggsburgh" book a the $10 sale. It's okay. There are a few editing gaffes, but nothing too outrageous. I knew about the stat thing beforehand, so it's nothing to complain about.

I'm not sure whether Gary's style is really still the same as during the days of the AD&D1 DMG. In the core, yes. If anything, the eccentricities are heightened. The style is somewhere between puntastic and a headmaster's morning instruction. You either like it or not.

The city and the surroundings are quite nice. The situation of the city is closely following historical examples, which is quite rare with fantasy cities. If you don't want to use it as is, you will probably find something to plunder. For $10, I won't complain .

 

[Treebore]

Sorry, I don't buy that for a second. "It's what he would have said if he had written it" is a ton different than approving it. Myself? I think it's a bit of a cash in on his name. and hey, if Troll Lords can do it, more power to them. It's like an approval seal as opposed to him writing it. Some of the books have a vastly different writing style than his.

I agree that you are probably right, and the writing style definitely is not Gary's, but he has said in his thread he basically stands by every books material and quality of said material.

I own only World Builder, it is a good book. Darn good for what it is designed for. I do plan on getting Essential Places when it comes out. If I like that one too I'll reconsider buying all the other books. Especially if the Trolls ever have a $10/book sale again!

 

[T. Foster]

FWIW it's only the later books in the Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds series that aren't written by Gary -- The Canting Crew and Living Fantasy were both written by Gary (except for the d20 stats), and World Builder was co-written by Gary and Dan Cross.

 

[Faraer]

There seems to be two growing factions on ENWorld about what they want in a product. One feels they can do the "crunch" but buys things for the "fluff.' The other is the opposite, they feel they can do the "fluff" best, but want to buy a product for the "crunch."

You do get posters claiming they can write creative material as well as professional authors, but in almost every case it's simply a delusion. If not, I want to see their stuff published.

As for the "World" series, yes Gary didn't write much or any of them, but it is my understanding that he did "edit" them, which to me means even though he didn't write them, it is what he would have said if he had written it. Especially since he puts his name on it.

World Builder is evenly cowritten by Gary with Dan Cross, while The Canting Crew and Living Fantasy are all Gary. The latter is a must read for anyone interested in Gary's vision of D&Dlike worlds (and to me, a much better book for D&D purposes than A Magical Medieval Society, which has got more attention on this forum).

 

[Glyfair]

You do get posters claiming they can write creative material as well as professional authors, but in almost every case it's simply a delusion.

I see that very rarely, and most of the time it's clearly rhetorical.

Honestly, I don't have to have creative material at the level of professional authors because it won't come out as professional in my game. I find that much of the "professional creative material" that gets published doesn't get used in full because the author spent too much time on polish and not enough time considering "how will this be used in the game" (that's not intended as a blanket statement, BTW).

I saw a lot of this in the 2E period of roleplaying (and not just in D&D). The authors wanted to create a story and didn't consider that the elements they spent time on would never be encountered by players.

 

[Crothian]

You do get posters claiming they can write creative material as well as professional authors, but in almost every case it's simply a delusion. If not, I want to see their stuff published.

That's funny. Have you seen what people in the idustry get paid? For most people it just is not worth the effort of trying to get published. Plus I have PDFs that are filled with great details already. So, I can easily use those with the crunch provided in other Gaming Books. And to top it all of, the creative material of all these professional writers is not always that good. And there are people around here that can do better.

 

[BluSponge]

As for the "World" series, yes Gary didn't write much or any of them, but it is my understanding that he did "edit" them, which to me means even though he didn't write them, it is what he would have said if he had written it. Especially since he puts his name on it.

Hmm...well he did write Canting Crew and Living Fantasy, and co-wrote World Builder. That means he's written half of the books in the line. So I wouldn't call it a gimmick. Far less of a gimmick than this website being called "ENWorld".

Tom

 

[mcrow]

And there are people around here that can do better.

This is very true. There are many smaller PDF publishers and a couple primarily print publishers that I'm pretty sure I can do better than. That's not say I'm good enough to write games as a pro, just that there are pro publishers/writers who shouldn't be.