D&D General Luke Gygax and Troll Lord Games news Wednesday Aug 23rd 2023

[Ralif Redhammer]

Kickstart the Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds maybe in January.

I'd be all-in on this. I only have one of them, and am still kicking myself for not picking up more when they were still reasonably priced.

As for Castle Zagyg, I look forward to future releases. I have the first couple, but didn't manage to grab The Upper Works while it was available.

 

[Retreater]

It's odd looking at an early OSR product written by one of the founders of the hobby, which was created before the "strange OSR" zeitgeist.
Scanning through my PDF, it seems like: "This is a historically accurate European Medieval town with details down to the types of hairpins that women of fashion wear. But also we're not including more than realistically grounded encounters with bandits or wolves." It doesn't feel especially fantastical at all.

While I'm glad this is getting re-released for completion's sake (and I'm happy to support the Gygaxes in this financial endeavor), I can't imagine this holding the interest of anyone who's entered the TTRPG hobby in the past 25 years.

I hope the Castle itself is interesting, magical, and fantastic, because Yggsburgh lacks variety and a sense of wonder.

 

[Voadam]

Looking forward to these making it onto drivethru.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

While I'm glad this is getting re-released for completion's sake (and I'm happy to support the Gygaxes in this financial endeavor), I can't imagine this holding the interest of anyone who's entered the TTRPG hobby in the past 25 years.

This one of the big shames of the withdrawal of all Gary Gygax licenses after his death. Plenty of older gamers will pick this up, but otherwise these IPs have only gathered dust in the interim, diminishing his legacy.

 

[darjr]

Posted times for todays streams and links from the TLG discord.

@everyone

To help others that missed out and to spread the word!

LIVE STREAMED NEWS BROADCASTS! From TLG , Stephen Chenault & Luke Gygax

TODAY @ 2:15pm CST - Troll Lord Games Twitter X Page - <https://twitter.com/trolllordgames>

TODAY @ 3:00Pm CST - Troll Lord Games facebook page - <Troll Lord Games>

Please share out our posts on all social media if you can, and stop by today or tonight for our reg weekly stream on twitch! <:heart1:573907413841870890>[/calout]

 

[Retreater]

This one of the big shames of the withdrawal of all Gary Gygax licenses after his death. Plenty of older gamers will pick this up, but otherwise these IPs have only gathered dust in the interim, diminishing his legacy.

What I would LOVE to see is if the Troll Lords and Luke Gygax can pull some strings and get some big names in the OSR sphere to contribute levels to the unfinished Castle Levels: Gavin Norman, Joseph Goodman, Kelsey Dionne, Ben Milton, Jeffrey Talanian (who was involved in the original development), et al.

Don't get me wrong: Castle Zygag is a piece of gaming history worth preserving, but we shouldn't consider it a museum piece.

 

[timbannock]

It's odd looking at an early OSR product written by one of the founders of the hobby, which was created before the "strange OSR" zeitgeist.
Scanning through my PDF, it seems like: "This is a historically accurate European Medieval town with details down to the types of hairpins that women of fashion wear. But also we're not including more than realistically grounded encounters with bandits or wolves." It doesn't feel especially fantastical at all.

While I'm glad this is getting re-released for completion's sake (and I'm happy to support the Gygaxes in this financial endeavor), I can't imagine this holding the interest of anyone who's entered the TTRPG hobby in the past 25 years.

I hope the Castle itself is interesting, magical, and fantastic, because Yggsburgh lacks variety and a sense of wonder.

Castle Zagyg: Upper Works is very much in the same vein. I quite like it and have no problem with that, as the upper works and first dungeon level (the Storerooms) IMHO should be quintessential D&D as Gygax originally envisioned and ran it, and to that end it is a success. There is a ton of monsters, there are two main bandit groups...but it's all the usual suspects, and they are given pretty barebones "world-building" info while still having good depth of agendas and strategies mapped out depending on if they are attacked or bargained with, etc. But you'll find that the bandits are all named things like Red Bill Farmer, Iggy the Mad half-orc, Cap'n Cooper, etc. None of the environments are particularly mind-blowing, but there are -- in true Gygaxian fashion -- tons of silly little interconnections.

 

[Voadam]

but there are -- in true Gygaxian fashion -- tons of silly little interconnections.

Can you give an example of this?

 

[timbannock]

Can you give an example of this?

Here are some:

Different wandering encounter tables are influenced by which lairs are nearby. There's a sense of "real" ecology throughout.

Several factions have prisoners from other factions, which supports all sorts of potential hijinks between them when the players get involved.

There are river pirates that trade with some of the bandits holding the castle fortress, and the implications for infiltrating these groups are big.

There are a bunch of invisible fey in the castle carrying out (sometimes dangerous) pranks. There are also several cats that carry out much more minor pranks. Additionally, there's a single, large haunted room. All three of these things are unconnected, but likely will be seen by players as a major haunting. Finally, there's a drunken minstrel who interacts with the ghosts and has several hideouts, so it might be assumed he's a ghost, or is part of all these hauntings/pranks.

There's lots of little connections to Yggsburgh city as well as some of the wilderness encounters in that campaign book, such as the elven settlements. It really makes it seem like a living world, but notably the connections are written so as to be easily reskinned for your setting of choice.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's odd looking at an early OSR product written by one of the founders of the hobby, which was created before the "strange OSR" zeitgeist.
Scanning through my PDF, it seems like: "This is a historically accurate European Medieval town with details down to the types of hairpins that women of fashion wear. But also we're not including more than realistically grounded encounters with bandits or wolves." It doesn't feel especially fantastical at all.

While I'm glad this is getting re-released for completion's sake (and I'm happy to support the Gygaxes in this financial endeavor), I can't imagine this holding the interest of anyone who's entered the TTRPG hobby in the past 25 years.

I hope the Castle itself is interesting, magical, and fantastic, because Yggsburgh lacks variety and a sense of wonder.

Have you seen Harn? Whole companies are built on semi-mundane backgrounds that a DM can then introduce the crazy elements to stand in contrast to.