You are modest about Castle of the Mad Arch-Mage. While you correctly emphasize that it is an homage and not based on any ‘inside access’ to Gary’s or Rob’s original materials, I will point out in its defense that you did incorporate some version of most everything that Gygax ever said in print describing the contents of the dungeon, such as the basic character of the levels, the manners of ingress and egress between levels, the famous rooms and gates, and the accounts from Gary’s later Gord fiction (most imposingly, the terrifically puissant evil priest/archmage Gravestone). When I first read it, I kept nodding my head and saying “this guy gets it; he has done the research; he has kept the feel.” So that is why I am happy to say: until Gary’s Nachlass is someday shared with its dwindling number of fans, your Castle is the best approximation we can expect.
The Joke Module was interesting, because I think most of its levels could have been authentic sections of Castle Greyhawk. Zagig Yragerne, archmage and mayor of the City of Greyhawk, was known to be very, very eccentric, and indeed he ascended to divinity as Zagyg, the god of humor and eccentricity. I could easily imagine him creating weird-ass levels and sections inside the dungeons below Castle Greyhawk just to baffle and bewilder explorers.
In addition to being a superb megadungeon (I ran several adventures in it myself), it was one of the very first adventures published for 2nd Edition D&D.
How am I just finding out about this channel??? I have been a fan of the Greyhawk since the late 70s - yes, I am old. I DMed all iterations of Castle Greyhawk that were available (Greyhawk Ruins being my fave, despite how impossible it was to run!) and had endless fun doing so! Greyhawk and Blackmoor have always been the dearest parts of roleplaying games to me. Thank you for the trip down the memory corridor (10' x 10', stone construction)!
A number of years back I got to speak with a friend of a friend that worked a bit with Gary at TSR and then again on the Castle Zagyg material. I have always wondered what of the discuss but unused content lurks in his basement.
What a stellar video, I am younger, but I am keen to jump into the OSR and explore these games and worlds. What great stuff! Thank you for making all of this great content.
My favorite dungeon. I've adapted all iterations in various campaigns and consider myself very lucky to have purchased all the Zagyg stuff when it first came out. My current crew is playing 5th edition (sigh) so I've hijacked a few levels of the new Mad Mage book and transported them to Castle Greyhawk. It's what the ORIGINAL mad mage would have wanted 😉 I plan on stealing a few levels from YOUR Mad Arch-Mage dungeon as well, so thanks in advance. 🙂
Great video. Ya gotta wonder why Castle Zagyg got pulled? I suppose we may never know. But on a positive note: Yours will potentially become "a" definitive version of that lost work. Why not, after all? It's not like any version other than the original should be the definitive version, and Gary's is lost to us. WG7 was never a serious contender. Greyhawk Ruins, and the Return to the Ruins of Greyhawk are later visions, or revisions if you will; and the Troll Lord Games version is unresolved. That makes your as relevant as any other. Kudos, sir. You da man!
As far as I know, CZ was pulled because Gygax's widow thinks someone is going to hand her millions of dollars to make a video game or movie featuring Gary's original castle. Every year the IP remains in obscurity lessens the chances of that happening, IMO. But thanks so much for the kind words about Castle of the Mad Archmage! It really was (and is) a labor of love for me.
Excellent and informative as always. Funny thing though (and I can’t be the only one that’s noticed it), the endings of your videos always end so abruptly, often mid-sentence. I can appreciate not everyone is proficient at video editing, but the frequency of this seems almost like a trademark signature, possibly intentional? At any rate, don’t change a thing; I think it’s comical (in a good way) and unique amongst the overly-polished output from others.
I'm not actively working on it right now, but it's never far off. If I get an inspiration for a new level, it will come. And someone recently reminded me that the 10th anniversary of the published version is approaching, so I might just want to do something big for that.
How do we buy those products (aside from second hand of course)? Please include the titles (and preferably links) in the video description. Also, what’s happening with future publishing of Castle Zagyg? I mean surely Gail Gygax wants $$$, so what’s the news on that?
Castle Zagyg is under Gary's widow's control, and I have no idea why she withdrew the license from the Trolls. If she's waiting for someone to drive up to her house with a dump truck full of cash, she's going to be disappointed. Every month she keeps Gary's works locked down their value lessens. But I am not among those to whom she listens.
I sprang for it because I'm a completist and a super-fan. It's mostly maps from the original campaign with a couple of paragraphs of explanation, rather than the actual original keys (there are a few here and there, though). It's certainly a fascinating glimpse into the original campaign, but without a full set of keys/notes, it's not a must-have.
I don't know, to be honest. The only thing I remember the old guard talking about with the moon was one guy hired a sage to get him there. After several months and many thousands of g.p., the character ended up with a ginormous catapult. :-)
I really hate yt for not realizing I wanted to see this content even though I'm subbed to you
You are modest about Castle of the Mad Arch-Mage. While you correctly emphasize that it is an homage and not based on any ‘inside access’ to Gary’s or Rob’s original materials, I will point out in its defense that you did incorporate some version of most everything that Gygax ever said in print describing the contents of the dungeon, such as the basic character of the levels, the manners of ingress and egress between levels, the famous rooms and gates, and the accounts from Gary’s later Gord fiction (most imposingly, the terrifically puissant evil priest/archmage Gravestone). When I first read it, I kept nodding my head and saying “this guy gets it; he has done the research; he has kept the feel.” So that is why I am happy to say: until Gary’s Nachlass is someday shared with its dwindling number of fans, your Castle is the best approximation we can expect.
Sad we will never get Castle Greyhawk.
I'm sure a new one will be published, even if it's not till (the in development) 6th edition
Gary's widow probably needs to pass away before that happens. Of course, she can do a lot of damage (and has done) before then.
The Joke Module was interesting, because I think most of its levels could have been authentic sections of Castle Greyhawk. Zagig Yragerne, archmage and mayor of the City of Greyhawk, was known to be very, very eccentric, and indeed he ascended to divinity as Zagyg, the god of humor and eccentricity. I could easily imagine him creating weird-ass levels and sections inside the dungeons below Castle Greyhawk just to baffle and bewilder explorers.
I love the joke module... I understand the context is no fun, but my players have had SO much fun there.
I lover you bumper music by the way. Whenever I hear that music start playing I drop what I'm doing and head towards the computer. lol
In addition to being a superb megadungeon (I ran several adventures in it myself), it was one of the very first adventures published for 2nd Edition D&D.
Zagyg is back!
How am I just finding out about this channel???
I have been a fan of the Greyhawk since the late 70s - yes, I am old. I DMed all iterations of Castle Greyhawk that were available (Greyhawk Ruins being my fave, despite how impossible it was to run!) and had endless fun doing so!
Greyhawk and Blackmoor have always been the dearest parts of roleplaying games to me.
Thank you for the trip down the memory corridor (10' x 10', stone construction)!
Thanks for the kind words, and welcome aboard!
A number of years back I got to speak with a friend of a friend that worked a bit with Gary at TSR and then again on the Castle Zagyg material. I have always wondered what of the discuss but unused content lurks in his basement.
What a stellar video, I am younger, but I am keen to jump into the OSR and explore these games and worlds. What great stuff! Thank you for making all of this great content.
GG you should do an in box review of Castle Zagyag.
My favorite dungeon.
I've adapted all iterations in various campaigns and consider myself very lucky to have purchased all the Zagyg stuff when it first came out.
My current crew is playing 5th edition (sigh) so I've hijacked a few levels of the new Mad Mage book and transported them to Castle Greyhawk. It's what the ORIGINAL mad mage would have wanted 😉
I plan on stealing a few levels from YOUR Mad Arch-Mage dungeon as well, so thanks in advance. 🙂
Every time I watch one of your videos, I get an urge to play Ogre.
I really should do a couple of Ogre videos for Wargame Wednesday. I've loved that game since the pocket version.
Great video.
Ya gotta wonder why Castle Zagyg got pulled? I suppose we may never know.
But on a positive note: Yours will potentially become "a" definitive version of that lost work. Why not, after all? It's not like any version other than the original should be the definitive version, and Gary's is lost to us. WG7 was never a serious contender. Greyhawk Ruins, and the Return to the Ruins of Greyhawk are later visions, or revisions if you will; and the Troll Lord Games version is unresolved. That makes your as relevant as any other.
Kudos, sir. You da man!
As far as I know, CZ was pulled because Gygax's widow thinks someone is going to hand her millions of dollars to make a video game or movie featuring Gary's original castle. Every year the IP remains in obscurity lessens the chances of that happening, IMO.
But thanks so much for the kind words about Castle of the Mad Archmage! It really was (and is) a labor of love for me.
Excellent and informative as always. Funny thing though (and I can’t be the only one that’s noticed it), the endings of your videos always end so abruptly, often mid-sentence. I can appreciate not everyone is proficient at video editing, but the frequency of this seems almost like a trademark signature, possibly intentional? At any rate, don’t change a thing; I think it’s comical (in a good way) and unique amongst the overly-polished output from others.
So you are still working on your Castle of the Archmage? It wasn't really clear. Do you have a rough ETA if so?
I'm not actively working on it right now, but it's never far off. If I get an inspiration for a new level, it will come. And someone recently reminded me that the 10th anniversary of the published version is approaching, so I might just want to do something big for that.
By sheerest coincidence.
How do we buy those products (aside from second hand of course)? Please include the titles (and preferably links) in the video description.
Also, what’s happening with future publishing of Castle Zagyg? I mean surely Gail Gygax wants $$$, so what’s the news on that?
Castle Zagyg is under Gary's widow's control, and I have no idea why she withdrew the license from the Trolls. If she's waiting for someone to drive up to her house with a dump truck full of cash, she's going to be disappointed. Every month she keeps Gary's works locked down their value lessens. But I am not among those to whom she listens.
Last year I thought about buying the El Raja Key DVD, but it's like $100. Do you give it the thumbs-up?
I sprang for it because I'm a completist and a super-fan. It's mostly maps from the original campaign with a couple of paragraphs of explanation, rather than the actual original keys (there are a few here and there, though). It's certainly a fascinating glimpse into the original campaign, but without a full set of keys/notes, it's not a must-have.
What about the 3rd edition book?
That's an expansion of the 2E era book. (And really good, too!)
@@GreyhawkGrognard Been awhile since I read it but it seemed to have been accurate and nostalgic but does not detail a lot of it.
@@BrianScottGameNight It was more of an addition/quest, but Erik Mona (who did it) is certainly a lover of the setting.
Didn't Castle Maure have a portal to the moon?
I don't know, to be honest. The only thing I remember the old guard talking about with the moon was one guy hired a sage to get him there. After several months and many thousands of g.p., the character ended up with a ginormous catapult. :-)