Rate WG7 - Castle Greyhawk

[Quasqueton]

Castle Greyhawk, as an entity, has taken on mythological aspects within the gaming community. We all have this idea of it being this uber-dungeon, the best of the best. Yet when we see it, will it meet our expectations? Or has too much time gone on now for it to be received well? Perhaps Castle Greyhawk "as it was meant to be" should remain a "shining castle on the hill".

Yes, exactly.

Quasqueton

 

[Mad Mac]

I don't care what you guys think, I had fun with it. I'm sure it helped that I didn't care about greyhawk in the least, so no horror on my end. But seriously, I had fun. I'm afraid I only have vague memories of "Name of the Game" but the image of Indiana Gnome sticks with me to this day. I thought the early food based level was one of the most clever, honestly, while the 1st level was dull. (It was a very detailed parody of a fantasy zoo, but not actually interesting to play through.)

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Very well. Very well. Since you asked so nicely.

I, John Terra, being of unsound mind and extremely good health, do so now officially beg forgiveness for my role in creating the abomination known as Castle Greyhawk. Specification: Willfully and with paycheck aforethought did create the entry known as "The Name of the Game."

With the benefit of hindsight, we see now how Castle Greyhawk, aside from being just a poorly conceived idea, was also responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer, the creation of Al-Quaeeda, the rise of Neo-Nazism, and the main contributing factor in Paris Hilton acquiring any degree of fame. And, even as we speak, experts are hard at work creating a connection between Castle Greyhawk and the outrageous price of gas.

I beg the forgiveness of the gaming community, the relatives of the gaming community, the household pets of the gaming community, and random peasants in Eastern Europe who as of yet have not heard of Castle Greyhawk, but inevitably will. I was young and needed the money. I was drunk. They made me do it. They had photos. They promised me candy. They promised me bigger projects. They promised me my own novel. They threatened to beat me up and take my lunch money. Actually, it wasn't me; it was my evil twin. No. Wait. It was a doppleganger. I was wearing a Helm of Opposite Alignment. The sun was in my eyes. I am not a crook. We don't do tests!!

I had no idea that the foul putrescence of this module would extend unto the next generation. And I, for one, hang my head in shame for my dishonor. If I was a player of Oriental D&D, I'd be picking out a nice seppuku knife right about now.

If anyone needs to contact me, I'll be busy working on that strand of rosary beads made of my old polyhedrons from the late 70's. As a further sign of my penitence I'll utter 45 "Hail Garys" and force myself to watch 8 consecutive showings of the "Dungeons and Dragons" movie, while my wife, dressed as Loviatar, will administer 40 lashes with a rolled up issue of Polyhedron. I am also going to acquire one of Nitro Ferguson's Hubcaps of Shame and wear it round my neck.

You are forgiven for your part in this. With such honest contrition there should be no further hostility directed...in your general direction.

Go forth now and feel shame no more!

 

[Eternalknight]

If, in fact, you guys feel that the authors should apoligize, I assume Ray Winniger is automatically forgiven for later writing the Dungeoncraft articles?

If anyone should be apoligizing, its the people the commissioned Castle Greyhawk, not the authors, who were only doing what they were told.

Still, that is if there is anything to apoligize about. In my opinion, I liked it, so no apology needed for me.

 

[StupidSmurf]

You are forgiven for your part in this. With such honest contrition there should be no further hostility directed...in your general direction.

Go forth now and feel shame no more!

Huzzah!

And I shall endeavor to avoid participating in organized suckage in the future!

 

[StupidSmurf]

If, in fact, you guys feel that the authors should apoligize, I assume Ray Winniger is automatically forgiven for later writing the Dungeoncraft articles?

If anyone should be apoligizing, its the people the commissioned Castle Greyhawk, not the authors, who were only doing what they were told.

Still, that is if there is anything to apoligize about. In my opinion, I liked it, so no apology needed for me.

Excellent!
Well, thing is, it was not good business for freelancers to refuse work. You could run the risk of being painted as someone who wasn't really interested in doing freelancing very much. And if you were busy trying to build up your credits and increase your visibility, you grabbed whatever was offered. But you are correct...we were told "Do this. Make it funny. Here's a check." So...we did!

 

[Eternalknight]

Thanks for participating in this thread also, John. One of the funniest moments we had when playing Castle Greyhawk was in your level. All of the players were avid Trek fans, so you can imagine what it was like when they found the three Trek-ish NPCs... They all have fond memories of that moment.

 

[StupidSmurf]

Thanks for participating in this thread also, John. One of the funniest moments we had when playing Castle Greyhawk was in your level. All of the players were avid Trek fans, so you can imagine what it was like when they found the three Trek-ish NPCs... They all have fond memories of that moment.

You're very welcome! I'm a big fan of ST:TOS, and in fact, our group had a ST:RPG campaign (the game FASA came out with) at the time. Ah, the USS Valiant, NCC-1718 (at least according to FASA's "Ships of the Federation"). She was a fine ship.

Oh, once I saw the topic title, I knew I HAD to jump in!

There have been other projects I've done that I've since looked back on and wrung my hands, saying "Argh, I could've done this one better!", or "I wish D&D 3/3.5 had been around when I got this assignment!" (the Moonsea is my latest self-tirade in that regard...damn, I wish 3.5 had been around at the time). WG7 was just such a silly blast of flatulence that I never wasted a moment wondering how I could've done it better! Of course, now I want to dig up my copy out of the attic and thumb through it!

 

[Jonas Grumby]

I am dissapointed I couldn't give it a 0

My thoughts exactly.

 

[MulhorandSage]

Greyhawk issues aside, WG7 is a tribute to gamer humor. If you like cheezy gamer humor, then you'll probably get a fair bit of enjoyment out of it. If a little gamer humor goes a long way, then you'll find it tiresome or irritating.

For me (and I'm one of the rascals who contributed to it), I think if you don't take it too seriously and view Castle Zagyg and/or Greyhawk Ruins as the *real* thing (or justify the WG7 stuff as a bizarre hallucinatory series of side levels that's easily ignored or attributable to bad wine or those strange herbs that the party's idiot druid picked on the Wild Coast), you shouldn't get too offended by it. I certainly understand the disappointment of Greyhawk fandom. Heck, I felt a bit of it myself when I saw the proposal, and tried to make sure my section had a little Greyhawk content (if you're gonna have a parody module that's called Castle Greyhawk, the least you can do is include some Greyhawk in the actual parody. Parody, when it's done right, can be an honorable and even affectionate form. As I've said before, I'd love to see a good one done for the Realms.)

However, for what it's worth, I pretty strongly suspect WG7 was meant as a swipe at Gary by at least some people. There was a lot of bad blood at TSR between Gary and some of the people who worked there at the time, and the desire to do it was probably ascerbated by the fact that (the much-demanded) Castle Greyhawk had been promised for years and never delivered. I can see someone at the company saying "You want a Castle Greyhawk, fine, have a Castle Greyhawk, now stop bothering us."