Review - Castle Xyntillan by Gabor "Melan" Lux (Part 1)

Castle Xyntillan by Gabor Lux
(E.M.D.T. release #60) - Cover art by Peter Mullen

Castle Xyntillan by Gabor "Melan" Lux - Part 1

Castle Xyntillan is Gabor Lux's tenth English-language publication since he launched Echoes from Fomalhaut in March 2018, and is also the sixtieth---yes 60th!---title released from E.M.D.T., the First Hungarian d20 Society since 2003 (and 18 of the pre-2018 E.M.D.T. titles are available in English, too).  Unlike the many gems that appear in Gabor's regular zine, Castle Xyntillan is a self-contained adventure that falls into several simultaneous categories of interest:

• Castle Xyntillan is a large campaign dungeon in scope, although not a traditional mega-dungeon in design or presentation
• Castle Xyntillan is an homage to the classic Judges Guild haunted mansion adventure, Tegel Manor
• Castle Xyntillan is also an homage to Clark Ashton Smith's Averoigne pulp fictions, and perhaps by way of inspirational osmosis, Tom Moldvay's X2 Castle Amber

None of these individual influences speak to Castle Xyntillan's perhaps-primary intent, in that it also serves as the first English-language release and publication for the upcoming Helvéczia RPG.  From the penultimate page:

[The Helvéczia RPG is a] lightweight, light-hearted historical fantasy game for playing scoundrels and low-lives in an alternate-reality magical Switzerland (and beyond) ca. 1698, [that] gives you everything you need for fast-paced picaresque adventures featuring stagecoaches, robbers, daring escapes and dark deviltry.  Using a greatly streamlined, six-level ("E6") version of the renowned d20 System, Helvéczia has been thoroughly reworked and customized to capture the spirit of swashbuckling movies, adventure novels, penny dreadfuls and colourful historical legends.  Match your wits against the lackeys of robber barons and faerie realms; waste your winnings in merchant towns ruled by avarice and eccentric custom; and choose between virtue and sin in a world where Heaven and Hell contend for the souls of mortal men. 

Gabor concludes this preview with:  "A love letter to dodgy pamphlets, stamp-sized mini-states, and the oddball side of European history, Helvéczia is (hopefully) coming 2020 in a hardcover edition (including plentiful support material and GM advice), along with maps, a regional hex-crawl supplement describing four mountain cantons, and a selection of adventure scenarios" (page 131).
That's a lot of ground to cover, so let's get to it! 

Castle Xyntillan - The Specs and Details

Castle Xyntillan is a 132 page hardcover book and separate map packet you can buy from Gabor's store for $40 USD plus shipping from Hungary; it contains:

• Introductory matter including two pages of playtesting notes for the PCs still alive, and a far longer list of those slain within its confines =)
• 18 lettered sections that detail 298 encounters spanning the castle ruins, grounds, and dungeon environs
• three two-page spreads of maps:  the main castle level and its immediate grounds, the upper stories of four sections of the castle, and the dungeon level and indoor wilderness; the main maps are also reproduced in smaller sections within the encounter keys for quick reference, and as posters in the map packet (more below)
• six tables of setting content and new rules:  The Rumour Mill with 36 entries, Morale and Men rules, 100 Companion Quirks, 100 Random Curios, and the Table of Terror with its 12 amusingly random panic/flight survival outcomes

You can read more about Castle Xyntillan in Gabor's two publishing announcements (two different links there), as well as more about its publishing history (with further information if you're curious to read more about its origins in his campaign).

Castle Xyntillan - The Artwork and Maps

Gabor worked with three OSR artists to illustrate Castle Xyntillan:  Peter Mullen (color cover and B&W interiors), Stefan Poag (B&W interiors), and Denis McCarthy (B&W interiors), who recently showcased his pieces at https://gwythaintny.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/castle-xintillan/.  The work of all three artists complements the look and feel of the adventure, and breathe life into its varied NPCs and environs (with some help from the dead Victorians, too!). 

Castle Xyntillan's maps were rendered by Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic Games.  His mapping style is clean and the map packet's four 12" x 16.5" poster maps are an indispensable addition to the book; they are printed on the same cream-colored, heavy paper stock that Gabor has used for his Echoes from Fomalhaut map inserts.  The four maps are:

• A single-sided DM map of Castle Xyntillan's ground floor and environs
• A double-sided DM map of the upper stories for Castle Xyntillan, as well as the dungeon level and wilderness side-level on the reverse side
• A singled-sided player map of Castle Xyntillan's ground floor and environs
• A double-sided player map of the upper floors and dungeon/wilderness side-level

Replacement player maps are also freely downloadable, along with two other files via the first announcement link above. 



To be concluded in part two!

Allan.

Merry Needfest, Happy Christmas, Joyous Yule, and Happy 2020!

Merry 2020

For those who celebrate holidays at this time of year, I hope you've all had a relaxing break from work filled with good times with friends and family, creative recharging, and fun shenanigans in general, and that 2020 brings your dreams to fruition! :D

We gave my 8-month-old niece some large dice for Christmas, which she took to right away!:

My niece, The Notorious RKG

 Whither grodog?

It's been a busy month+ since Thanksgiving, filled with travel and travail, fun family time and busy holiday gatherings, as well as getting over a cold one of our sons gave me (which lasted for a few weeks).  Work was exacerbated by bad planning (by other groups within Ruckus) and the bad timing of some security vulnerabilities being announced that kept me busy up through and including Christmas Eve, with some follow-up the two days following too, but things have thankfully slowed down since then.  

We've all also remained healthy between the holidays, and the boys have enjoyed a fun break thus far.  We took all of our local extended family to see The Rise of Skywalker on Saturday as our Christmas gifts (we switched over to "experiences" vs. gifts several years ago, usually doing fun Broadway shows like Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Finding Neverland, etc.). 

So, other than whining, what have I been up to?:

• I wrote a 3000 word article on creating and defining factions for campaign play in Greyhawk, for the new Oerth Journal #31, which should debut later today---a fine Needfest issue that wraps up the Folks, Feuds, and Factions themes for 2019:
  

  

  OJ#31 Preview

• Played several games of Dominion with my father-in-law, which is always fun---he played it online for quite a year or two, so he's a very-skilled opponent!
• I've been reading, quite a bit of late:
• Castle Xyntillan by Gabor Lux; I've written a two-part review:  part 1, part 2
• A Private War by Tim Eccles---a campaign/gazetteer for Warhammer Fantasy RPG 1st edition
• Berlin - The Wicked City for Call of Cthulhu
• _How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative_ by Allen Raymond
• Jeff Noon's _Automated Alice_
•  Emily St. John Mandel's _Station Eleven_
• I also received several new books as Christmas gift books, too (details below)
• Watched several shows and movies too:
• Atomic Blonde; new to me, and very enjoyable!
• The new Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker.  This prompted Henry (our youngest son) to want to rewatch the rest of the films in order, so he and I watched The Phantom Menace soon thereafter, and we've all started watching The Mandalorian together over dinner (we're four episodes in thus far), which is interesting:  I knew almost nothing about the culture/background of the Mandalorians in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars before seeing the show, so it's cool learning about them as the show progresses
• I shared Highlander for the first time with our son Henry a couple of nights ago---he loved it! :D    We may start in on the TV series sometime, but the rest of the films are off the table---with the announced reboot (two links there!) perhaps excepted if/when it's released, IF it's not terrible like all of the others
• Henry and I also rewatched Ready Player One, which precipitated an interesting discussion about books vs. movies and books-from-movies and movies-from-books, and which were better---generally, but not always, whichever was created first, with some like Ready Player One being equally good but very different takes on the same story

Christmas Loot

Heather, the boys, and the extended family gave me a few gaming-related books, but mostly fiction this year:

• _Hot Lead: How to Paint a Better Miniature_ - a 3 DVD set that's been on my wishlist for several years; I'm planning some painting time over the holidays too, so it's well-timed =)
• The recent _King in Yellow_ edition published by Arc Dream/Pagan Publishing, with gorgeous artwork throughout and annotations by Ken Hite
• _The Dracula Dossier_ for the Night's Black Agents RPG, also written by Ken Hite
• _The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny_ by Daisy Dunn
• _Daughter of Apostacy_ by Damian Murphy, from my sister Alison
• _The Shaping of Middle Earth_ (History of Middle Earth volume 4) by JRRT and CT; this was one of two holes in my HoME series
• _The Definitive Frazetta Reference_ from my brother Brian

Rounded out with some new tunes too: _Heartbeat City_ by The Cars (now playing), and Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix's _Live at the Terminal Cafe_. 

Allan.

From the Vaults - World of Greyhawk Rarities for Your Games

In this "From the Vaults" series of articles, I'm going to present and summarize information about obscure, rare, and less-well-known World of Greyhawk content.  

There are many Greyhawk rarities well-worth digging into.  Some add significant lore to the setting, while others are simply solid Greyhawk adventures that are fun to run and play.  Some are old, rare, obscure, and very difficult to find, while others are hot-off-the-presses and being actively published by fans today!

What Greyhawk Rarities? 

The first question* to ask about this topic may be, "How does Allan (or anyone else) know what constitutes a rare item in the world of Greyhawk publishing?"  

Well, Ant "Echohawk" Brooks maintains a Greyhawk Collector's Guide on ENWorld, and it's amazingly comprehensive.  I link to it on my Greyhawk Links page, and while there are still bits and pieces of info that trickle in with new discoveries, new versions or editions of books, additional Living Greyhawk tourney scenarios catalogued, and new titles written by and for Greyhawk fans being published each year, Echohawk's work is my go-to guide whenever I want to dig into the history of Greyhawk publishing over the decades.

I've written about some of these curios here and there in my web site, and in some previous blog articles, and some of these items are somewhat better-known or are already well-documented, but I may still touch on some of them, either in passing, or directly:

• "The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth" is Gygax's 1976 tourney from Wintercon V and the precursor to TSR's 1982 S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth:
  

  

  Gary Gyga's 1976 WinterCon V tournament,
  The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth

  
  
  I've written extensively about both versions---see http://greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_s4.html and http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_s4_encounters.html in particular and have some new research to reveal about its development soon, too!
• "Quest for the Golden Orb" - an Origins 1984 Greyhawk tournament written by Elaine Walquist:
  

  

  "Quest for the Golden Orb"---
  1984 Origins tourney

  
  
• Empire of the Ghouls - 2008 Open Design campaign module by Wolfgang Baur, and sequel to his "Kingdom of the Ghouls" from Dungeon #70:

  

  Wolfgang Baur's 2008 Open Design project,
  Empire of the Ghouls

• The 1975 Origins I version of "Tomb of Horrors"---which was reprinted as part of the deluxe edition of Art & Arcana (the Gygax tourney, not the Alan Lucien original---although I am familiar with that as well):
  
  
  

  

  1975 Origins I "Tomb of Horrors" booklet,
  Art & Arcana special edition




• Rob Kuntz's various projects from Creations Unlimited and Pied Piper Publishing up through his current books and projects with Three Lien Studios:
  
  

  

  Rob Kuntz's prodigious publishing!

  
  
•  RPGA Adventurer's Guild scenarios from the TSR Silver Anniversary and "Greyhawk 98" revivals
• "Finger of the Wind" GenCon 2000's D&D Open tourney by Robert Weise

 

What's in the Vaults? 

So, to kick this particular series off, I'm going to focus (sometime next week) on Carl D. Perkins' "In Quest for the Hand of Vecna"---a non-TSR adventure self-published in 1984.   

I'd already begun drafting this article when Mike Bridges announced an upcoming Vecna movie (!), so the timing seems quite good.

In Quest of the Hand of Vecna!,
by Carl D. Perkins

Here are some other Greyhawk titles that I will probably dig into in the series:

• Return to the Tomb of Horrors flyer "The Catacombs of the Necromancers" and other TSR Gold late-2e promotional retail items
• The graphic novel, Vecna: Hand of the Revenant by Modi Thorsson (Iron Hammer Graphics, 2002):
  

  

  Vecna: Hand of the Revenant,
  by Modi Thorrson

• The Fist of Emirikol and Olidamarra Dice from Wizards of the Coast
• True Dungeon's various early (2003-2007) World of Greyhawk-based scenarios
• The various RPGA DM Rewards and D&D Encounters scenarios published by Wizards of the Coast during the 4e era:  Tomb of Horrors, Village of Hommlet, Beyond the Crystal Cave, etc.

So, take a look at the stuff I've mentioned in here, and in Echohawk's Guide, and what you already know about that I don't, and chime in via the comments to let me know which titles most-catch your eye:  I'll prioritize the wriring accordingly if I own the books already and/or have detailed information on them, of course (and if they sound very interesting, they'll go into my "to hunt for" list =) )!

Allan.

* beyond the obviously cynical, "Does Allan really need to start yet-another blog series?" ;)

grodog's Castle Greyhawk - Levels Inventory and Updates

I've been working on the design and redesign of my version of the Castle Greyhawk mega-dungeon for nearly as along as I've been playing D&D:  I began construction of it in the early 1980s, when I designed the schema below for my vision of the castle dungeons' depth and breadth of levels---it's "footprint" in the Oerth of the Cairn Hills. 

grodog's Castle Greyhawk - levels 1-10 elevation

and

grodog's Castle Greyhawk - levels 10-17 elevation

I conceived the plan for my castle to fit within this elevation footprint of the levels, which would allow me sufficient depth and distance between the levels that I could flexibly add to overall structure with new levels, sub-levels, side levels, and such, easily as needed.  Or so I thought at the time....

The redesign work began again around 2006-2008, in response to the many discussions over at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse and Dragonsfoot on mega-dungeon design, and I eventually began to codify my new vision for both the castle and the levels beneath it:

grodog's Castle Greyhawk - new sketch map
for ruins and wilderness environs

The environs map above replaced my original castle ruins level, which was much more prosaic, was designed with little regard for actual castle construction techniques, and was drawn before I'd even visited a real castle, all of which informed the newer design.

The image below is my first pass at a comprehensive inventory of my Castle Greyhawk dungeon levels:

A partial inventory of the dungeon levels in
my version of Castle Greyhawk

I've gone through my Castle folders and binders to compile the levels that weren't already listed in my web site, on my blog, online in FB, or in discussions at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse or Dragonsfoot, and think I've got them all in the mix now (or at least the ones that I've mapped and/or mapped and keyed---I've got other ideas for levels that aren't more than just concepts yet, of course). 

In the lower-right quadrant of the inventory, I also listed notes on levels designed by Gygax, Kuntz, Eric Shook, and other folks that I've considered incorporating into my overall schema for the dungeon environs. I've always planned to cherry-pick favorite levels and/or maps to insert alongside my own designs, but hadn't quite gotten around to making those selections, inter-connections, and "to-design" decisions---for example, for some of Gygax's levels that I only have a map for, without a key, so I'd need to do that design work myself in order to play that level map.  

In addition to the level maps, I need to inventory the keys too; these are somewhat centralized in my keys binder, but many associated notes are also scattered in my gaming design journals, too, which complicates pulling them together:

grodog's gaming journals and notes

The open journal is my older one, and spans from 4 February 2001 (it was a Y2K Christmas gift from my sister) to 31 January 2007.  The larger, closed book (another Christmas gift) runs from 24 February 2007 to the present, but it's almost out of pages.  You can also see a small clipped together pile of scrap notes, many of which are also inserted into the pages of the journals willy-nilly, just to keep things interesting (ha!). 

All of this info is linked to from my Castle Grehawk web page, but it isn't readily apparently and accessible---that page needs some serious updating, which will follow-on from this work, too.  Until that's done, here are some quick links to give you a sense of the ruins level for my version of Castle Greyhawk and its top-most dungeon levels:

• Original Ruins level map @ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_ruins.jpg with three detail maps @ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_ruins-detail-se-corner.jpg and http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_ruins-detail-sw-corner.jpg and http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_ruins-detail-tavern.jpg
• Level 1 dungeon maps @ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_01-left.jpg and http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_01-right.jpg
• Original Level 2 dungeon maps @ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_02-left.jpg and http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_02-center.jpg and http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_02-right.jpg
• My ledger-style keys are at http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog-keys-ruins_level_levels-1-2.pdf with some additional commentary at https://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?p=96799#p96799 if you're curious

Dig in, and if you have Qs, let me know! =)

Allan.

grodog's Mega-Dungeon Maps - The Heretical Temple of Wee Jas

So, today's my first new Mega-Dungeon Mondays post, and I thought I'd share a bit about my mapping design process. 

"The Heretical Temple of Wee Jas" level was the map that I began to design immediately after The (First) Landings Level, and its original name was The Second Landings Level (original, eh? ;) ).  Like "The Landings Level", I playtested this dungeon at GaryCon, the North Texas RPG Con, and KantCon, among other events. 

I completed the first iteration of the map over several nights, noodling through a few different options on how best to design the lower half of the map, particularly the large temple in the SW corner:

Draft 1:

grodog's Heretical Temple of Wee Jas---
draft 1 dungeon level map

When I'm unsure how I want to work out a particular section, or when I'm working on keying for a level with a completed map draft (I almost always draw my maps first then work on keying), I'll make photocopies of the level to play with variations until I'm happy with how the design turns out.

I did that several times with the temple in the SW corner, as you can see in the various second drafts:

Draft 2a:

grodog's Heretical Temple of Wee Jas---
draft 2a dungeon level map

Draft 2b:

grodog's Heretical Temple of Wee Jas---
draft 2b dungeon level map

In the end, the completed first draft 3 of the level looked like this, but you'll note that I still hadn't decided on how to trick out the temple area:

grodog's Heretical Temple of Wee Jas---
completed draft 3 dungeon level map

I was also still drawing non-narrowing stairs as stairs up at this point in my design process, but I eventually switched to use tapering stairs with the tapering side indicating the up/down direction, depending on how the tapering side was placed. 

I initially playtested the level using the draft 3 map, but even after my various iterationings on the temple settled out, I was never terribly pleased with the caverns section in the SE corner.  I also added some areas immediately above the main level of the map---"upstairs" zones for murder holes, some apartments for a lich, etc.  Those got taped onto the level as additions, that look like this:

grodog's Heretical Temple of Wee Jas
completed draft 4 and updated dungeon level map

So this level will eventually be redrawn as The (First) Landings Level was along with "Diamonds on the Rough"---and will likely be bumped up to a 6 spi map treatment in the process, too, in order to give me some more wiggle room for the cavernous section and other areas on the periphery of the sheet of paper.

The other articles in my Mega-Dungeon Maps series include:

• The Behind Bars Level
• The Landings Level
• grodog's Mega-Dungeon Maps - Introduction and V1 Vanquish the Evil

and the Mega-Dungeon Mondays posts are linked for your easy reference too.  

Thanks!

Allan.

grodog talking 1e Undead and Greyhawk on Twitch tonight @ 8pm EDT

Just a quick announcement:   I'll return to talk Greyhawk and undead on Twitch again tonight, with Jay Scott, Anna Meyer, and Mike Bridges on Wednesday, 13 November 2019 at 8pm EST, livestreaming at https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba
Here's Jay's full announcement:

Legends & Lore - Season 4 Premiere on Twitch

Wednesday Evening on the Lord Gosumba Channel
 
Hello Friends and Greyhawkers! Legends & Lore has moved to the Lord Gosumba Channel starting this Wednesday, Nov 13, 8pm EST. To Kickoff their 4th season, the discussion will be about Undead of the Flanaess; this will include the various types of the non-living, and specific names of renown that put a shiver down the heartiest of adventurers! Join Anna Meyer, Mike Bridges, and me, as we welcome, Allan T. Grohe Jr., "The Grodog", to this weeks discussion!

Thank you all for the wonderful support and stream participation! See you Live Stream! www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba

It feels like I've been doing quite a few more of these live/streaming discussions lately, and I guess I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it!  

I've also done some others in the more-distant past too, and I should put together a compilation of all of them, I suppose---my son Henry at least is interested in going back to watch (or listen) to some of them ;)  

See you later tonight! :D

Allan.

Mega-Dungeon Mondays - a new blog series from grodog

I'm trying to get back on track with writing more in general, and decided that a more-regular series of posts on mega-dungeons would be a good way to do that.  I also figure that if can get a regular posting schedule on Mondays, that I should also be able to do a bit more during the week between Mondays too. 

So, starting next week, and on Mondays henceforth ever after, I'll post something new and hopefully interestingly useful on the blog concerning mega-dungeon design stuff.

This week as the kickoff, I present a TSR blue rendering of my First Landings Level from my version of Castle Greyhawk:

The Landings Level Map - grodog's Castle Greyhawk
Charley Phipp's TSR Blue version

It's somewhat fitting that this level kicks off the new series, since it also began the most-recent phase of my design work on the Castle (back in 2008).  This particular version of that map was created by Charley "Druvas" Phipps in 2010, and I just refound it on my PC while digging through files this weekend.  He graciously gave permission to share it here, and I've also added it to my original post linked above, too.  

Until next week---or sooner! ;)

Allan.