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

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

Honestly, I'd rather all those people did their own takes on a Castle Greyhawk-style complex. I think we'd lose a lot of what makes those folks special if they were forced to sing cover songs.

 

[Nikosandros]

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.

Harn is truly a great setting, IMO. Very immersive and well done.

 

[Nikosandros]

Honestly, I'd rather all those people did their own takes on a Castle Greyhawk-style complex. I think we'd lose a lot of what makes those folks' special if they were forced to sing cover songs.

Yes, for example, Castle of the Mad Archmage, by BRW Games is one very interesting CG-like endeavor.

 

[Retreater]

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.

I don't know Harn, but the Empire setting in Warhammer Fantasy is something that I can compare to Yggsburgh. While there's a traditional Euro-Centric/Late Medieval feel, there are some differences: the rise of Chaos (creeping into the power structure of the Empire), the hidden Skaven menace under their feet, ancient ruins of the forgotten Fimir in the swamps, wars with the Orcs and Goblins, vampiric warlords - and that's all in addition to bandits, pirates, wolves and other rampant beasts.
Yggsburgh is just sort of ... not exciting when compared to Warhammer's Old World. Or RuneQuest. Or Forbidden Lands. Or even Greyhawk.
I think of this like when formative science fiction/comics properties are introduced to new audiences who have grown up with properties that had been inspired by those older worlds. For example, Disney's John Carpenter of Mars was considered derivative of works such as Star Wars and Dune, when the original books predated Star Wars and Dune.

 

[LordBP]

Sounds like the Hermit adventure and Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds series will be later this year or early next year.

 

[darjr]

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.

Their booth at GenCon was cool. I so wanted to buy every thing.

 

[Alzrius]

Their booth at GenCon was cool. I so wanted to buy every thing.

I was a bit miffed they'd made the switch to perfect-bound books after so long. I got into Harn a few years ago, and got a bunch of the three-ring binders and supplements. Having it all be actual books now upsets my inner grognard very much.

 

[darjr]

I was a bit miffed they'd made the switch to perfect-bound books after so long. I got into Harn a few years ago, and got a bunch of the three-ring binders and supplements. Having it all be actual books now upsets my inner grognard very much.

Oh I get that. They went through a thin spot for a while didn’t they? Even split the company up somehow?

 

[LordBP]

Still kinda up in the air a bit but it's what Luke wants to do, as far as I can tell. Yea.

They said if the first few things do well, then there may be 3-4 more boxed sets for Castle Zagyg.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

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.

The OSR community has changed a lot since then, definitely. And if I recall correctly, mechanically a lot of the TLG stuff was translated by others from the Lejendary Adventures rules by others anyway.