D&D General SYFY article on Castle Greyhawk

[grodog]

Fans of Castle Greyhawk will find Matt Bassil's latest article of interest: Castle Greyhawk, the lost dungeon that kicked off Dungeons & Dragons, still inspires players today

I was interviewed for the piece

Allan.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

That is a great article! It doesn't really cover new ground, but it's a fun read.

 

[Helldritch]

Interesting article. It's always fun to hear more about the history of our hobby. Even if it only brings another POV, I like that.

 

[Nikosandros]

Peculiar that WotC declined to comment

 

[the Jester]

Wait, is Allan Grohe @grodog ?

 

[Retreater]

Fascinating. As someone who came into D&D a few years after Gygax's ouster, it's been necessary for me to piece together a lot of the lore around the early days of the game.

Is Castle Greyhawk similar to Kuntz's "Maure Castle" (which I read in a 3.5 era Dungeon Magazine)? I know there are certain connections (such as the terrible iron golem). I know that the "official" version of the Greyhawk dungeon published by TSR was a parody, so I'm not going to be using that. Also the 3.5 Expedition to Castle Greyhawk was pretty terrible, IIRC.

 

[Shiroiken]

Is Castle Greyhawk similar to Kuntz's "Maure Castle" (which I read in a 3.5 era Dungeon Magazine)? I know there are certain connections (such as the terrible iron golem). I know that the "official" version of the Greyhawk dungeon published by TSR was a parody, so I'm not going to be using that. Also the 3.5 Expedition to Castle Greyhawk was pretty terrible, IIRC.

Originally Kuntz was a co-DM, and was given some leeway to add to Castle Greyhawk in order to allow Gary to play. Eventually Kuntz designed his own dungeon, which he named Maure Castle. As I understand it, the version printed by TSR was a shortened version in order to fit within the space allowed.

There are two TSR Castle Greyhawks: the abomination they call a parody written only to mock Gary, and Greyhawk Ruins which actually wasn't too bad (even if it conflicted with Gary's style). The Expedition was bad, mostly because it was an incomplete product, expecting the DM to do most of the legwork.

 

[grodog]

Wait, is Allan Grohe @grodog ?

Ummmm, guilty as charged =)

Is Castle Greyhawk similar to Kuntz's "Maure Castle" (which I read in a 3.5 era Dungeon Magazine)? I know there are certain connections (such as the terrible iron golem). I know that the "official" version of the Greyhawk dungeon published by TSR was a parody, so I'm not going to be using that. Also the 3.5 Expedition to Castle Greyhawk was pretty terrible, IIRC.

There have been several versions of Castle Greyhawk published, in whole or in part, over the decades. I summarize a lot of the publishing history in my essay/review of Castle Zagyg at grodog's Greyhawk Castle Archive

Rob's El Raja Key as always separate from Castle Greyhawk, since Rob saw what giving up your IP to any company could do. MC was written specifically for Paizo, building from the original WG5 levels, but isn't the same as ERK or CG either. Some good info on the wiki entry at Maure Castle - Wikipedia as well as in the old Paizo forums at paizo.com - Forums: Maure Castle

There are two TSR Castle Greyhawks: the abomination they call a parody written only to mock Gary, and Greyhawk Ruins which actually wasn't too bad (even if it conflicted with Gary's style). The Expedition was bad, mostly because it was an incomplete product, expecting the DM to do most of the legwork.

All of the CG versions really require you to wrestle with them, to rebuild them, to make them your own---even if you plan to incorporate content from Gary or Rob's works alongside your own. That's part of the fun, of course

Allan.

 

[Voadam]

There have been other takes at personal recreations as well such as Joseph Bloch's Castle of the Mad Archmage.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I think the "mockery" version of the Castle Greyhawk still can be canon as a demiplane created as a copy of the original building. The origin may be accidental by fault of a secondary effect of a multiverse crisis, and later somebody discovered it and "redecorated a little" to have fun. This castle would appear in different worlds temporarily, even "our real world" and the visitors would suffer some "pranks", sometimes harmless but other times potentially dangerous and even mortal. It could be a kid-friendly story of haunted house, or an young adult horror(+black comedy) movie where only the final girl survives.