I think the desire to do Castle Greyhawk came from 2 big insights Gary had in the early part of this decade. First, he discovered via the Internet that there was a good core fan base of the 1st Edition D&D game system that still existed. Secondly, I think he was convinced that now with the OGL--ironically a concept he thought was "dumb" from the publishers standpoint and something he'd never do himself--he could legally publish his work without having to go through TSR/Wizards.
That sounds reasonable to me.
Gary was a pretty prolific writer. I think the big problem was a lot of the stuff was sketchy notes and most of it was in "his head".
While that's true, that didn't stop the full production of EX1, EX2, and WG6, from those same sketch notes: clearly they were sufficient to produce modules from. Now, those 3 modules were produced 20 years ago, so they were two decades fresher in Gary's memory as well, and I think that's another key factor in the delays of the publication of the Castle: Gary repeatedly cited needing either (Rob) or (Luke and Ernie) in order to recreate the Castle, since he needed someone else who had run the Castle (Rob) or played extensively throughout it (Luke and Ernie, as well as Rob) to help flesh out the details---to expand the snippets notes with actual play experiences. From reading the various projects statuses mentioned in "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" and elsewhere (like Gary's comments about working on the Castle while at New Infinities), the Castle's development was only ever really a "go" project while Rob was actively involved: Gary clearly relied heavily on Rob's near-eidetic memory as both a DM and a publishing partner and co-author.
Two key things hurt the project--first, his own illness forced him into part-time status--before he used to work 60 hours a week on writing and writing research.
Indeed. That said, the Castle has been in various states of production for nearly 30 years, so the fact that Gary wasn't able to work 60 hours a week in the past few years clearly impacted Castle Zagyg's timeliness, but the Castle as a whole has been well-overdue for decades. The shift in Gary's ability to work during that brief span is relatively moot against that backdrop.
Let me clear here, too: I'd love to see the Castle Dungeons published now, and would likely relish it just as much now as if the levels were published in 1980 or 1990 or 2000. I certainly don't blame Gary or Rob for the failure of the Castle to be published, either: I just wish that the expectations of the fans had been set more clearly, and accurately, throughout that history. C'est la vie.
Secondly, Rob Kuntz was supposed to help, but disagreements and Rob's own reliability issues forced him out of the project.
While I think that Rob's involvement in the Castle over the years has been a linchpin in its movement from back-burner- to front-burner project, I think you're reading current issues back into Rob's history with respect to the Castle. Rob produced initial maps for it and wrote Dark Chateau as well (which took over a year to see print after it was completed, presumably to wait to release closer to the first Castle and Dungeons materials), and was very excited to finally be developing the Castle---until he realized that he wouldn't be able to survive on just the income that the Castle would generate, during the 2+ years of dedicated effort the publication would require from him. He proposed some changes in the marketing plan to Gary, which Gary rejected, and they parted ways.
And to be clear here, too: I'm not saying that Rob hasn't had reliability issues prior to the CZ project or later with other PPP projects, but I think his tenure within the CZ project marks one of his most-reliable and creative periods as a D&D author.
In short, like I said before, CZ to me will be looked about by fans as the "Giant Rat of Sumatra", something who's dreamed ideal will probably be better than the reality.
That's a great analogy John, and one that aligns nicely with Trent's post, I think, too.
I actually hope Gail and the others stay focused on getting Gary's pure work published and table CZ. I can guarantee you LA will be handled well, one of Gary's trusted authors for LA, Jon Creffield is working on that stuff, and there are some good manuscripts coming that haven't seen publication in a decade.
Well, I hope they start communicating sooner vs. later: the silence is deafening. I'm personally much more interested in seeing the pure and original materials from the Castle rather than the LA stuff, but I also haven't ever played LA, so I'm naturally biased toward the familiar. I'd certainly consider looking at any LA scenarios to adapt them.
