I purchased a copy of Castle Zagyg at Gencon ($40). While I have not yet read it in detail, a few points that may be of interest jump out:
1 - It is a setting more than a specific adventure and thus has a very high reuse level;
2 - While it is written for the Castles & Crusades d20 derivative system, because it is more nearly a setting book than an adventure, it is virtually system-less or edition-less. Anyone using any system could make use of Castle Zagyg;
3 - The town of Yggsburg occupies about a third of the book, while the remainder describes the lands surrounding the town;
4 - Many of the locales in the areas surrounding Yggsburg appear to use a format that looks like a modified version of the GH Folio entries for nations, much of the work does not not follow this format, however;
5 - The vast majority of the names are not up to Gygaxian GH standards; they appear much more common, Old or Middle English; and
6 - Darlene does the poster map which is two sided - the Yggsburg setting and a map of the town itself. The setting map is gorgeous but the names are too often unispired. The city map is nothing special.
Overall, at first glance, Castle Zagyg does not scream "Greyhawk." It remains to be seen what a closer reading will discover.
Certainly, at $40 and a HUGE page count plus double sided poster map, you get a lot for your money. Whether it turns out to be "Grey" in its details or not, it is not a ripoff. _________________ GVD
There is indeed a "Nemo" river, a "Big Fish Lake" and several other less than imaginative names. However, the list of true horribles is limited at about a half-dozen and, as such, can be overlooked, I think.
The larger problem with Castle Zagyg is that the descriptions are very pedestrian. Yggsburg and the Eastmark are simply not very exciting places. The claimed 1000 adventure hooks may be literally true but most are so mundane as to bore most people, I'd think. As a setting, Yggsburg and the Eastmark is no World or Greyhawk, not even close, not even to be spoken of in the same breath.
The editing is also atrocious. Many pieces of descriptive text are repeated - twice in different places, sometimes up to three times. Other places on the map have no descriptive text at all.
Perhaps, Yggsburg can be forgiven these failings if it is supposed it is nothing more than a backdrop to Castle Zagyg where PCs can rest, recover and restock. By that measure, it works but so would a village of Hommlet sized settlement.
Despite all this, however, I still find Castle Zagyg - Yggsburg worth buying. I got the Darlene map laminated and up it went on the wall. The result when viewed by the gaming group was an immediate and highly probing discussion of what the map "meant" that ran well past two hours. Darlene's cartography, after all these years, still has a power to inspire the imagination moreso than any other cartographer's work with which I am familiar. I will use the Yggsburg and the Eastmark map but will likely jetison all but maybe a quarter of Gary's text, if that. $40 for a Darlene map? SOLD! Hold the Gygax. _________________ GVD
Gary made some comments on ENWorld about fitting Yggsburgh into GH:
Gygax on ENWorld wrote:
You might take a look at the area around theconfluence of the Neen and Ery Rivers...
Gary
and
Gygax on ENWorld wrote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jupp
According to CZ1 Yggsburg lies north-east of Dunfalcon (hint?) along the River Nemo (Selintan River?)
Either that or you could just replace the free city of Greyhawk with the free city of Yggsburg
Yggsburgh is a town, not meant to be anything like the Free City of Greyhawk. It is smaller and not near any huge lake
Cheers,
Gary
Thanks, Allan.
The geography of Yggsburg and the Eastmarck clearly distinguish both from the City of Greyhawk and its immediate surroundings. At the same time, Castle Zagyg is Castle Greyhawk, which is near by the city.
To resolve this conundrum, I posit Castle Zagyg as a "nexus" point between Oerth parallel worlds. Castle Zagyg/Castle Greyhawk can then be in multiple places at once. These kinds of multi-planar/dimensional intersections are what I am attempting to catalog and "map."
In the alternative, Yggsburg and the Eastmarck could be placed in GH proper and then explained by saying that Castle Greyhawk, as developed in Greyhawk Ruins, is not the same as Castle Zagyg/Greyhawk.
On the third hand, Zagyg may have undertaken multiple building projects and later scribes may have gotten them confused. Certainly, the Castle Greyhawk of Greyhawk Ruins appears much more as chiefly a fortification than a castle in the grandest sense, consisting as it does of but three towers.
Resolving this issue will take GH fandom awhile, I'll venture. Once the next two volumes of the CZ series from Troll Lords are released, a lot more should come into focus as the extent of CZ will be revealed in general outline and comparisons will have something to go on. _________________ GVD
To resolve this conundrum, I posit Castle Zagyg as a "nexus" point between Oerth parallel worlds. Castle Zagyg/Castle Greyhawk can then be in multiple places at once. These kinds of multi-planar/dimensional intersections are what I am attempting to catalog and "map."
Ahhh, a DM after my own heart: in a few different GH sources we have maps in modules in which PCs find strange markings over cities, etc.; I've always presumed these to be maps of gates, nexii (sp?), teleporting pools in caverns, sites where the Vanishing Tower stops in for a visit, etc.
Quote:
On the third hand, Zagyg may have undertaken multiple building projects and later scribes may have gotten them confused. Certainly, the Castle Greyhawk of Greyhawk Ruins appears much more as chiefly a fortification than a castle in the grandest sense, consisting as it does of but three towers.
I like this idea, in part because I like the idea of the Castle being very mysterious and dynamic, so that you never know if you'll be wandering the halls of CG, GR, CZ, etc.
Quote:
Resolving this issue will take GH fandom awhile, I'll venture. Once the next two volumes of the CZ series from Troll Lords are released, a lot more should come into focus as the extent of CZ will be revealed in general outline and comparisons will have something to go on.
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