RealAlHazred
Frumious Flumph (Your Grace/Your Eminence)
I did a review of that one here when I was reading all of Scott Bennie's stuff after he passed away.
Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?
- Thread starter Snarf Zagyg
- Start date
I distilled like this-
Imagine being in the low-information 1980s. All you had were the rumblings from conventions and the updates in Dragon Magazine. For the longest time, the Holy Grail of D&D was the legendary Castle Greyhawk and its dungeons.
That's right. Everyone knew about it. We all dreamed of it. The ur-dungeon. We knew of the hints, the rumors, we had read Gygax's posts in Dragon. There was nothing we wanted more. It's like being a Game of Thrones fan and waiting for GRRM to finish his new book. WHERE ARE THE PAGES???!!!???!!
And then ... Gygax was ousted. I can't explain to you how shocking that was at the time. Still, the game went on.
But suddenly, in the store, we saw it! What is this? WG7, CASTLE GREYHAWK???!!!!???? Can it be? Finally?
So you buy it, take it home, and eagerly begin devouring it (because again, it's not like there was any advance warning or internet to tell us what we are about to see ....).
And slowly, the realization that not only was this not Castle Greyhawk, it was a parody. And a mean-spirited one at that.
To continue the analogy above, it would be like bringing home the new Game of Thrones book, and realizing that it was a joke book, and that the entire purpose of it was to make fun of people reading it.
I get angry just thinking back on it.
RealAlHazred
Frumious Flumph (Your Grace/Your Eminence)
I didn't even know he was ousted when i bought the module -- most of my friends and I were playing Champions at the time, and nobody had a Dragon subscription. So you can imagine my shock and dismay.
Ryujin
Legend
overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
We had very different experiences playing D&D in the 80s. I think my brother mentioned Castle Greyhawk once. That's about it. No one in the group cared. One guy worked at a game store and read Dragon occasionally at best. I doubt we knew Gygax was ousted until years later. I don't know that any of us cared. So what? We still have the books. We can still play. I think our reaction to learning WotC bought TSR was something akin to "Huh?"
It's probably more accurate to narrow down that "everyone" to "really dedicated Greyhawk fans who also kept current with the rumors, trials, and tribulations of TSR."
Thomas Shey
Legend
Thanks for bringing my attention to this; I was (I like to think) a good friend of Scott's (I was one of the players in the Hollywood Knights campaign) and when I get a moment I want to read your evaluations of his work.
trappedslider
Legend
If the gang you're in can't snap/dance/sing in rhythm/harmony...you should find a better gang.Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Ryujin
Legend
DrunkonDuty
he/him
My memory of that time jives a bit more with Snarf’s. There was always this myth amongst a lot of gamers at the store and in my regular game group that if it was written by Gygax - “man…that was the GOOD stuff. He was so brutal…did you ever PLAY Tomb of Horrors? Your character can die in like the first room, it’s so cool! But that Castle Greyhawk adventure? That’s a joke. So stupid. Gary would never have written that.”
Of course these were then the same DMs who’d turn into the most antagonistic DMs imaginable because that’s what Gary would have done, etc, etc.
And WotC buying TSR was pretty huge too. Everyone in our group was burnt out on 2e by that point and that gave the game a bit more life as news of 3e started to eventually circulate.
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