Castle Greyhawk Four New Dungeon Level Maps Revealed

 CZ Act 1 "Alpha Preview" Map

TLG published a Castle Zagyg "Alpha Preview" to CZ1 backers on 2 April 2026, showing one-quarter of The Cellars, level 2 of Castle Zagyg:

Castle Zagyg Preview Map of
Level 2, The Cellars

Included along with the map were 12 pages of keyed encounters, all again labelled as an "Alpha Preview" so that we're ready for any and all typos and other errors in the text and map.  I may review the encounter keys later sometime---the map is all that caught my eye in the content thus far.  

Zach Howard of Zenopus Archives fame began a thread on 12 April 2026 to discuss the map and key details in Dragonsfoot's Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk forum:   Castle Greyhawk Dungeon Level 2 [possible spoilers].  Trent Smith (of Mystical Trash Heap fame, and his Storm Fetish Productions rules and adventure designs are brilliantly Gygaxian) and other DF members have begun delving into the analysis, including me.

CZ Act 2 Backerkit Launch Map

The new Backerkit Castle Zagyg campaign preview launched on 7 April 2026 and revealed the complete map for the second level of Castle Zagyg, its full title revealed as Level 2 The Deep Cellars:

Castle Zagyg Level 2 Map,  
The Deep Cellars

The lower-left portion of the map is same one from the CZ preview sent out to backers from the first campaign, but with further changes made.  

The other three maps are all new to me, and I don't recognize them from my Castle Greyhawk or El Raja Key research thus far.  I'll be doing some additional digging to see what (if anything) I find in my archives, but for the moment each of the other quadrants appear to be newly-revealed-to-the-public level maps, which is of course a wonderful thing!

CZ Act 2 Lower-Left Map

Here's a zoomed in version:

Zoomed-In Map Version of
Castle Zagyg Level 2 The Deep Cellars

Many differences exist between this map and the Alpha Preview version from earlier in the month, which I plan to review in depth alongside all three versions of the map.

Three versions, you ask?

TSR Version by Eric Shook

A much earlier version of same the lower-left corner of the CZ2 preview map was rendered by Eric Shook for the early 1980s Greyhawk revival at TSR, and was later sold at auction in the mid-2000s by Paul Stormberg of Legends of Role-Playing and The Collector's Trove fame:

Eric Shook's Castle Greyhawk rendering
from TSR c. 1982

This map was one of six different levels auctioned at that time, four others from Castle Greyhawk's dungeon levels.  The auction also included one of my favorite level designs of all time, which Shook designed for Steve Marsh's Starstrands planar project that was, alas, never published by TSR.  That map was quite radical for its time!:

Eric Shook's unpublished Starstrands map c. 1982,
original photo by Paul Stormberg

Side-by-Side Analysis - Added 16 April 2026

I've completed my initial comparison of the three maps, and here's an image of them together, with changes highlighted in yellow and green:

All 3 maps compared
by grodog

Changes Logged Across the Three Versions

At a high level, the changes made are most prominent working from the 1980s Shook version of the map (on the left side in the above picture) compared to the initial preview released on 2 April 2026, in the middle in the above picture.  The changes from the Alpha Preview version (middle) to the Backerkit launch image (right side) are more-minimal, and mostly involve changing doors back to secret doors, which in fact help to correct and realign the movement and flow of the map to be closer to the original 1980s map than the Alpha Preview version.

It is also worthwhile to note that the Shook Map wasn't completed:  some areas on it are drawn without any access points, and there are no secret doors shown on the map at all.  (Presumably those would have been added in the next step of revisions and updates to it).  So, some of the changes introduced in the later revisions to the map may have been present on the original, and simply not completed at the time of Shook's draftings.  

1980s Shook Map Changes

The changes from this map to the Alpha Preview version are significant and run across the entire level.  They include: 

• Changes to fit the level into its new configuration as part of a larger, combined level spanning four separate original levels of one sheet each
• modifying the corridors along the north and east edges of the sheet to be 20' wide---which is a change I like, since I'm a fan of large corridors in general!
• adding entry points due north of 295 on the top edge of the map, and in the NE corner of the 20' wide corridor, along with another door on the eastern wall just north of 284
• simplifying several corridors by straightening them out, in particular in the SE quadrant of the level, but also in the NW quadrant's corridor north of 2-100
• Moving some corridor intersections and/or chamber walls:
• the huge NE chamber accessed by the long, winding corridors is 10' narrower (288 in the later versions)
• the chamber immediately south is also narrower by 10' (287 in the later maps)
• Removing most of the stairwells and pits, and the ramps/slides:
• stairs gone in the later versions include those that flank 2-108, east of 293 in the top-center, west of 285, 
• ramps and/or slides at 2-101 and 289 are changed to stairwells; when first seeing this level, my speculation was that one of these was the slide to China at the bottom of Gary's original Castle Greyhawk
• Altering the flow of the loops Gary built that connect sub-sections of the level to each other, and simplifying access to previously-less-accessible areas:
• 285 now has 2 doors that enter it vs. just one 
• the 2nd B to the right of 294 has two doors entering, instead of just one on the N wall, and either a false door on the S wall or a one-way door (this is the only door drawn as such on the level, so it's hard to know which the symbol might represent; it's possible the western-wall door leading into the 2-101 slide in Shook's map may also be another partially-drawn one-way door, which may edge the symbol closer to that function vs. false door)
• the archway into 284 is opened up, which creates a second entry point into that room 
• the corridor west of 284 no longer intersects as a four-way east of 286, which squeezes out one of the rooms in the stacked room maze due south of 286; the "S" corridor leading to the removed pillar west of 285 also provided another route into 284 and 285, but in the later versions only one path leads to those keys now
• Simplifying corridor and room flourishes:
• removing the rounded niche in the N wall of 296
• squaring off the rounded edges of 2-105 and 2-106
• removing the pillar west of 285
• removing most of the "end cap" square pillars on long hallways like east of 2-105, west of 2-103, east of 2-101 (south of the added doors/secret doors)

Some new features were added in the Alpha Preview map too:

• A covered pit appears in the eastern corridor leading into 2-105
• A well is added at 2-102
• Pillars are added to 288 and 296
• A door is added to the 290 stairwell, which is also moved deeper into the corridor vs. Shook's original placement
  
  

Changes from Alpha Preview to BK Launch Map

The revisions to the later version of the map largely focus on secret doors, more-specifically changing standard doors into secret doors:

• The standard doors entering these key #s all became secret doors:  O by 295, 2-103, 2-105, 2-108, 285, the offset series of secret doors that lead into 288 from the east, 291
• The dead-end corridor/corner south of 292 was added, which provides another entry point into the SE sub-section of the level
• The inaccessible dead-end east of 2-108 is opened up on its eastern wall in the BK Launch map, with what looks like might be an archway

In general, these changes restore some of the difficulty in finding and accessing areas that had been made more open in the Alpha Preview map, by making the chambers harder to find, or less-accessible in terms of obviously-open paths leading to them (while still adding the secret doors as further possible entry points).  For example, in the Shook Map, 2-103 was only accessible from stairs down from its flanking chambers, which led to a seeming dead-end corridor, that seemed to have a trapdoor leading up into the center room.  

Continuing Review

I updated this post on 16 April 2026 with all of the text between this section and the Side-by-Side Analysis section above, along with the Starstrands map and comments.

More to come! :D

Allan.

grodog's Approach to Designing Mega-Dungeons - Part 2: the Function of Size

 ...or, a Meditation and Reflection on What grodog Likes Best about Playing in AD&D Mega-Dungeons

Sean Bean on the futility of finishing
Castle Greyhawk

If you've not read it, you may want to visit part one in this series first:  grodog's Approach to Designing Mega-Dungeons - Part 1: the Maps.   If you already read it, I revised it a bit while writing this article, since I'd left a sentence fragment dangling in the middle of discussing the "Best Presentation in Print" and "Pulls It All Together" criterial for my favorite mega-dungeons.

Drafting this follow-up post has taken me two weeks rather than one since life's remained pretty busy of late.  That will probably continue through the remainder of March, so follow-up posts may also appear a bit more slowly than I'd originally thought (surprise, surprise ;) ).  

Size Matters

In Part 1: The Maps, I wrote a bit about designing maps for mega-dungeons, with the explicit assertion that mega-dungeons and their levels should be large, and by large I mean a few different things:

1. Size as Coolness
2. Size as Options
3. Size as Really Freaking Huge

Let's tackle them one at a time.

Size as Coolness

The classic mega-dungeons have immense gravitas, so here size helps to deliver on the potential, the rumor, and the legend of Castle Greyhawk---Undermountain, or Caverns of Thracia, or Maure Castle, or [insert your favorite mega-dungeon name instead].  Bringing that legend to life at the table may be challenging, but the rest of the attributes I call out below help to support that mythic sense of awe---hopefully!

Implicit is my assertion that a mega-dungeon is cooler when it's bigger, which definitely (and coincidentally ;) ) aligns with my aesthetic preferences, but here are some thoughts on how larger levels actually make for cooler game play, using one of my designs as an example.

grodog's Recessive Gallery Level

grodog's Recessive Gallery Level

Recently reprinted in Fight On! Magazine #15 (Spring 2024), I'd forgotten that I'd previously shared this map on my grodog's Castle Greyhawk page, too---I had thought it was a "newly revealed" level when I offered it to Iggy to include in the zine.  So much for exclusivity, and my memory....  The full-sized version is at https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_grodog_level_07-filled.jpg if you're curious.  

The map is unfinished, and incomplete:  many encounter areas drawn don't currently allow ingress, save by digging, passwall, or etherealness; there's not much added for intra-level stairways yet; ramps, trapdoors, and stairs up/down to adjacent levels aren't much present yet either (although placeholder spaces for these are present); pits are mostly unmarked (although the central double-T trap at the corner of the 30' wide cooridor where it turns N from E is a pit that opens into a holding/monster chamber below); etc.  That's pretty normal for how I work my maps up---some areas that are currently shown as inaccessible rooms may be filled in during the final version, or may have standard or secret doors added.  Or may remain inaccessible, and require digging or magic to enter---although I tend not to do that a whole lot, overall.  

This level is drawn on an 8.5x11" sheet of graph paper, gridded at 8 spi, making it pretty big:  64 squares N-S (~640') x 88 squares E-W (~840').  In this level, I placed several large chambers, intended in part as lairs for competing dragons.  When I redraw this to finish it, I'll likely use two of our Black Blade 11x17" sheets, for 17x22" dimensions drawn on the 6 spi side, so that'll allow 102 squares x 132 squares, which will let me fill out the rest of the level's edges that currently run off the sheet---I did this with the "Iounic Caverns" level maps, as well as my original Level 1 map too (if you click on the images in that blog post, they'll still load, but they don't display in the blog post due to Cloudflare).  The level will likely enlarge a bit further, similar to my process on Level 1, with some additional sub-level areas being added (or perhaps being relocated.  I may also connect the large southern chamber to one on my "Diamonds in the Rough" level, which has a very similar vibe with draconic presences; to do that, however, just might require a third sheet....).   

The larger encounter areas include, starting at top-right and moving clockwise:

• overlapping encounter areas at different elevations along the 3- to 5-o'clock arcs
• temple chamber in the southern 6-o'clock area, via the skull/lightbulb shaped room and the multi-level complex to it's immediate NE
• large off-edge chamber at the south 7-o'clock, possibly a dragon lair; this is accessed via a Gygaxian room maze of octagons joined by squares that likely has teleports protecting the lair
• upside-down coffin-shaped hexagonal chamber at the confluence of several large and/or long corridors, at the 10- to 11-o'clock positions in the NW corner; I think this is the primary dragon on the level
• top N at 12-o'clock is another room maze of regular hexagons
• central N at 12-o'clock to 12:30-o'clock is where the titular Recessed Gallery resides

The use of different sized sheets and grid-sizes for the levels in a mega-dungeon help to hide the edges of each level, so that the players won't automatically be able to find an edge and then circumnavigate the level's periphery:  it makes exploration less predictable, and each level more distinctly unique, and keeps the players guessing "just how large is this level?" which is definitely a good thing!  Both room mazes and the long corridors along the left/W similarly blur that edge, breaking it in the case of the room mazes and the 7-o'clock S large chamber.  The ragged right-hand E edge similarly leaves gaps, which should suggest searching for some of the secreat areas too.

The large size of the level helps to support these kinds of larger, cyclopean (to HPL for a moment) corridors and chambers, which increase that sense of awe and immensity that I want players to experience have when they're exploring Castle Greyhawk.  Large spaces and long corridors that extend well-beyond the range of visible light sources, including continual light at 6"radius and bullseye lanterns at 8" range, increase player paranoid and build that sense of scope, or vastness, in particular when that extends above (and sometimes below!) your current walking surface---PCs are moving through an ocean of darkness, in their tiny island bubble of illumination.  Peter Fitzpatrick's cover art for Knockspell #4 amply illustrates this concept nicely:

Knockspell #4 cover art
by Peter Fitzpatrick

The scenes of Thorin's company marching through Erebor while Smaug is "not at home" also convey this sense of cyclopean immensity too:

The dwarves exploring Erebor, The Lonely Mountain,
from "The Battle of Five Armies" (2014)

Very large levels also provide additional options during game play, as I detail next.

Size as Options

In many ways, the mega-dungeon offers the most concentrated essentials available for playing AD&D---AD&D in its most "pure" form, if you will.  Within its boundary walls, the mega-dungeon encapsulates the essence of AD&D play, and challenges the players in all aspects of the game:  all classes, monsters, spells, magic items, encounters, and treasures are on the table.  All PC classes have equal opportunity to rise in glory, or to die trying in the agony of defeat.  All DM encounters may be mowed down in the player pursuit of XP, or may mature into recurring villains like Obmi or Eclavdra.  

Showcasing the breadth of possibility for the whole of AD&D does not mean that simple and  "anything goes" funhouse environs are the required format for mega-dungeons---whether built by Zagig Yragerne, Halaster Blackcloak, or the scions of Uncle from Maure Castle---but that in gaming there, all tools are available to the players and the DM.  All PC classes should have equal opportunity to shine, including druids, assassins, barbarians, and bards, among all the remaining PC and NPC classes (well, maybe not cavaliers.... ;) ).  All PC races should be able to flex their detection muscles too---dwarves finding stonework traps and elevators, gnomes determining sloping passages and direction of travel, elves and half-elves finding secret doors, and half-orcs acting as intermediaries with humanoids, and gnomes and hobbits entering small spaces.  

A related aspect that larger mega-dungeon levels support is expandable capacity:  the mega-dungeon keeps inspiration and creativity flowing by offering plenty of room for sub-levels, side levels, split levels, demi-planes, and other pet projects.  This keeps the players and the DM creatively intrigued and engaged, since formerly-explored areas can be enriched with new encounter areas, perhaps even via variable features, and allows the creation of distinctly unique challenges and areas to support less-common and non-standard classes, monsters, and encounter types.  

I group these two together under their own heading since I see them both as closely-related but different approaches to supporting options.  The breadth of possibility focuses on the wide expanse of core rules and their supplemental additions and expansions, while expandable capacity focuses on the actual dungeon level, its architecture, and environs, rather than the rules that govern what encounters occur within the level.  

Size as Really Freaking Huge

These attributes drill down into the above two, but still stand-out in my mind as important criteria that merit their own focus and discussion.

Verticality as Large and Open Spaces:  Large monsters like dragons and rocs, elementals and purple worms need wide and spacious areas to operate within, so dungeon level designs need to provide room for such creatures , and to accommodate the tactical selection of encounter terrain being brought to bear in combat and flight by both mega-dungeon inhabitants and invaders.  

This is where the the 20' to 50' wide corridors from the DMG's Appendix A come into play, along with the chambers and rooms of unusual shape and size (CaRoUSSs, perhaps ;) ).  However, long or wide corridors that connect to central plazas, squares, or parade grounds can serve similar functions, too, as can numbers of 10' wide corridors converging into hubs, with their long lines of sight.

Verticality as Depth Within and Between Levels:  Verticality is highly-valued in the mega-dungeon design ethos, and is generally credited to Jennell Jaquays' Caverns of Thracia and Dark Tower, which feature movement up and down within levels, across and between levels, and vertical features spanning multiple levels like chasms and wells, balconies and overlooks, and interconnected cavern systems.

Verticality within a level is, in my mind, nearly as important as verticality between levels, but both are essential to good mega-dungeon play.  The levels need room to breathe, to provide the space required for those large encounter areas, and that means that they probably need 50 to 100 feet of depth per level (those pits that don't fall through into a new level below need to fit within the level's depth, along with the headroom for those 30 to 50' ceilings.  

To give room for those spaces, the depth between levels should likely be 50 or more feet.  That also allows room for smaller clusters of rooms at landings, or off of stairs.  It also helps to keep players guessing about the depth that they're going down between levels---if each level is only 10 feet down from the previous one, they'll have an easier time guessing where their PCs are, and the challenges that their PCs will face.  

Multi-Level Dungeon Features
from Roger Musson's "The Dungeon Architect, Part 2"
Artwork by Iain McCaig

Verticality as Total Depth:  As the space within and between levels increases, the mega-dungeon grows downward, deeper into the depths.  First DM'd at GaryCon II and North Texas RPGCon #2, my "Escape from Level 14" scenario thrust the PCs from the level 10 dungeon challenge they were expecting and dumped them lost into level 14.  They needed to find their way up and out, if possible.  

For that scenario, built using my old Castle Greyhawk elevations, they were ~4200 feet below the surface, which is about 8/10th of a mile.  Earth's deepest mines are ~2 1/2 miles down, so as I build my new elevation maps, I'll allocate the necessary room for each level's footprint (as a placeholder I only used 50 feet per level, for the most part, in the original versions), which will increase the depths for the lower dungeon levels even further.  That should also enable connections to the drowic underworld for some of the deepest levels, perhaps.

Big and complex enough that players and their PCs can get lost:  For reasons to get the PCs lost in the first place, see Roger Musson's "Dungeon Architect" articles, referenced in the first article of this series.    

Getting lost is a design function of the mega-dungeon's size, interconnectedness within and across levels, and its external connections to other environments ("extraconnectedness" perhaps?).  Teleporters---with or without similarly-designed areas of levels---are not the main reasons that PCs get lost in mega-dungeons.  Flight from encounters is why PCs get lost.  Players can't map while fleeing at , and if they end up going up/down a level, fall into a pit or a chute to another level, wander down a sloping passage, etc., then they're well and truly lost, and the entire tenor of the evening changes to finding a path back to familiar ground.  

When PCs are lost, strange actions may be taken, like:  

• players desperately consulting the mappers, trying to guesstimate distances and turn counts travelled 
• gnome, dwarf, and stout halfling PCs being consulted for GPS coordinates
• characters asking for directions, or bribing (or charming) dungeon denizens for the same
• divination spells suddenly being memorized

...to say nothing about the possibility of the party running into other encounters as they flee blindly hither and yon ;)

Sufficiently vast in scope that the players and their characters will never completely explore the largest levels, much less the entirety of the mega-dungeon itself.  Always will some monsters  remain undiscovered and undefeated, traps unsprung, enigmas unsolved, and treasures unlooted.

Sean Bean on the futility of finishing
Castle Greyhawk

As Boromir asserts, one does not beat Castle Greyhawk by exploring its every nook and cranny, and then move onto the next checkbox in the AD&D gaming experience ;)

Next Up?

For part three, I will examine how I key mega-dungeon levels, including the types of paper/sheets I use, and some volume-based keying strategies, unless I tangentialize on other topics first---such as traps, a dungeon encounter type that I hold great love for.   We'll see! 

Thanks for reading and your comments!

Allan.

The Rime of Descending Ascent - Why to Plumb the Depths of Castle Greyhawk's Dungeon Levels

In the original version of the Castle Greyhawk dungeons designed by Gary Gygax, he placed a set of runes that provided hidden guidance for the PCs in why they should delve deeper--- the raison d'etre in the call to adventure.  Tenser decrypted the runic clue using read magic---perhaps the first spell cast in play in OD&D.

I've been, alas, unable to refind the quotation I thought I had read many moons ago, and found merely summary phrases expressing the essence and meaning of those magic words, rather than their exact phrase: 

• Gary's Castle Greyhawk essays and stories---where I was sure that this quotation originated!---don't even mention the entrance runes in passing in "Founding Greyhawk" (in Dragon Annual #2: 1997), "To Forge a Fantasy World: Greyhawk's Creation" (in Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Jolly Roger Games, 2000), or "Penny for Your Thoughts" (in his "Up on a Soapbox" column in Dragon Magazine #302: December 2002), much less their actual text....
  
  
• Scott Casper's and Mike Bridges' brilliant Castle Greyhawk web comic does not allude to the runes, although it paints a wonderful picture of the opening entry into the castle dungeons!:
  
  
  

  

  Castle Greyhawk web comic Chapter 1 Page 21, 
  by Scott Casper and Mike Bridges

  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Castle Zagyg boxed set states that at the beginning of the stairway down to The Storerooms level, "The archway is graven with the words:  The Path to Adventure Begins Here, Seekers" (Castle Zagyg 2: The Upper Works, booklet 4 Castle Fortress, page 42).  Unfortunately, there is no mention of the runes requiring read magic to be read, nor of descending deeper to find richer rewards, as I recalled....
  
  
• Querying some other Greyhawk stalwarts yielded confirmation, but no specifics beyond Scott Gregg's memories from his long-ago discussions with Ernie Gygax:  "I will have to see if I can find the exact quote. It was a warning about the danger increasing the deeper you went, but the treasures get better.  It may have been deleted when I deleted my original boards."
  
  That was more-profitably followed-up later with a quote from Ernie: "Tenser was the first magic user ever in Greyhawk. No books or previous experience existed. The first spell I took was a Read Magic and I used it to read the glyphs above a stairway leading down (level 1 to 2). It told us (Rob, Terry and I) that as you descend into the depths of the Dungeon the encounters will be more difficult but the rewards far grander."
  
  Scott's original interviews with Ernie Gygax are almost definitely what I had been remembering and seeking, which was wonderful corroboration, but still left me without Gary's words.  

So, unable to find the original text, I've created my own version of that phrase, as a crazy poem penned by Zagig himself.  

Enjoy! :D

The Rime of Descending Ascent 

Explore!  Delve deeper, discover grander treasures:
     jewels and riches abound in droves,
     dweomers and artifacts---each allures!

Beware!:  As you descend, fiercer monsters guard lairs. 
     Traps confound and wound, maim and slay.
     Subtle tricks delude.  Enigmas befuddle!

Tempt fate!  Test your mettle!  Ill-gotten gains yield gold,
     Infinite apotheosis---
     or it all ends in an early demise....

                    --- presumably wrought by Zagig Yragerne and/or Zagyg the Mad Archmage

My text helps to highlight some of the focus of my dungeon level designs---traps and tricks, monsters and mysteries---and also ties back to the current campaign's lore about Zagyg and his testings.  

It also lays foundational hints and groundwork for exploration of some of the setting lore lurking behind Zagig's rise to demigodhood, which has always intrigued me.  These ideas crept into several abandoned level designs I themed around tests of the nine alignments, which I'm dusting some off to see what may be salvaged.  Perhaps some may find play at the table and/or in wend their way into the planar correspondences of alignments too.  We'll see....

Allan.

grodog's Founders & Legends and GaryCon XVI Convention Reports - 14-25 March 2024 - Part 1

Part 1 – Arrival through Founders & Legends and Interregnum Tuesday

The blog has been quiet of late, in part because I'm still job hunting, and in part because I've simply been busy, both writing/designing and planning for the two conventions, as well as attending and recovering from them, of course!  

On the writing/designing front, I’ve been building the “Abyssal Rift” scenario since the advent of the No Artpunk 3 contest, and while I didn’t submit it for that, I’ve continued work on it via playtesting at GaryCon (to be described in the forthcoming sequel to this post), and will continue playtesting later in the year at both North Texas RPG Con in June and at Virtual Greyhawk Con later in the fall (dates still to-be-announced, I think).  Here's the event description:

I also designed and submitted a scenario for “Return to Perinthos” for the Jennell Jaquays Memorial Jam, which should appear in truncated form in May-ish (I wrote 4600 words for a  750 word limit...), and which Jon and I are working toward publishing in full for NTX in June, too.  

So, without too much further ado....

The Trip Northward – Thursday and Friday

Jon Hershberger, my Black Blade Publishing business partner, and I loaded up my family minivan with books destined for gamer hands on 11 and 12 March, and I hit the road after lunch on Thursday, 14 March.  When driving to Lake Geneva, we usually overnight in Davenport, Iowa, to make the trip more manageable, and I did so again this year.   (On the drive, I got to catch up with my brother Brian, which is always fun; we chatted quite a bit about the recent Neil Gaiman original artworks charity auction).  

Arriving in Lake Geneva around noon on Friday, I met up with Robert Brandon (an active member in the Greyhawk fan community) at 328 Center Street (the house immediately beside Gary’s old home at 330 Center), where Robert graciously hosted me throughout Founders & Legends.  We got settled in, grabbed some lunch, and ran around a bit downtown to visit Gary’s memorial stone by the library:

grodog at Gary's Memorial Stone
(photo by Robert Brandon)

Gary's Memorial Stone

That evening, Robert and I dined at Tuscan with Tony Rosten, my friend and publishing partner in The Twisting Stair (our mega-dungeon design zine).  (As it turns out, I think Jon and I dined there one year on a Sunday night, and perhaps once also with Rob Kuntz too).  We chatted about gaming, designing and publishing, conventions, our home groups and campaigns, and had a wonderful time.  The three of us returned to 328 Center Street to visit further, and Tony and I also did some planning for TTS #4, which we’ll begin work on after his schedule lightens up in May.  

Here’s a sneak-peek at the TTS#4 map from way back on 7 July 2018:

Return of The Twisting Stair begins 15 March 2024!: 
"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons, even death may die."

The Ides of March had already proven to a propitious omen for the trip! :D  

Founders & Legends

One of my primary interests in attending Founders & Legends was to spend time playing games, rather than only DMing them (as has generally been how my time goes at GaryCon for lo these many years).  When I was a young lad attending conventions in the greater Philadelphia-NYC-Baltimore corridor, I sampled many games at conventions to kick the tires---sometimes just that once, but occasionally leading to much-longer stints (as with Paranoia and Vampire, for sure).  

This year I wanted to return to wargames and boardgames, so I registered for three long (6+ hour) sessions for Divine Right, the Tom-Wham-a-Thon, and Titan, in addition to running three sessions in my version of Castle Greyhawk.

My other primary motivation to attend F&L and GaryCon was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D&D's publication in 1974.  This year our Legio V crew created anniversary dice to distribute to players in our games...:

Legio V 50th Anniversary Dice
(photo by Mark Clover)

...and, as always, to celebrate the memory and creations of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Jim Ward, and the other founding fathers of our fabulous hobby:

Legio V - Top 10 Reasons To Go To Gary Con

"What is Legio V?"

I'm glad you asked.  From our events descriptions:

The Lake Geneva Legio V began as a handful of gamers who have attended Gary Con since its inception. We have grown over the past few years to include like-minded individuals united by a respect of Gary Gygax and his legacy. We are the dedicated attendees who love Gary Con for the camaraderie it establishes, the Game Masters who run games from across the decades, and the committed gamers who spend these four days in a fervor of dice rolling and old-school good times. 

Although events run as LEGIO V Presents will use a variety of rule systems, our focus is on games authored by Gary and his contemporaries as well as those systems whose designers pay homage to these pioneers.

Saturday

Divine Right map (TSR, 1979)

I played Divine Right for the first time, at long last!  (On BoardGameGeek at https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23/divine-right).  I’ve known of the game since the days of TSR’s old Gateway to Adventure catalogs, and from Glenn Rahman’s “Minarian Legends” columns in the early days of The Dragon and Dragon Magazine.  

Matthew Archibald ran the game today (and a second session at GaryCon, which I think Robert played in?), and he will be running it again at the second annual Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo (PAGE2) in January 2025, where I hope to return to play Divine Right again.

If you’re interested in learning more about Divine Right, in addition to the BGG link above, a new edition is Kickstarting soon, with current discussion at https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3181902/reprint-coming.  You can also follow Worthington Publishing’s KS profile at https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1456271622 to be notified when the KS launches; they also plan to reprint Rahman’s DR and Scarlett Empire novels, in addition to the two games.  Edit 2 April 2024:  the DR Kickstarter is at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2141043266/divine-right-2024.

Squeezed between, I managed to sit in on about 40 minutes of Ben Riggs' seminar, "The Creative Legacy of E. Gary Gygax" and was glad I'd made the time to do so.  (I hated leaving a little early while he was still speaking, but I needed to setup for my 7pm game).  

Ben shared a slideshow with many pictures of fun sites where Gary grew up, pictures of the family when the children were all small, pictures of Don Kaye, etc.  He engaged the audience actively in the presentation, querying for who knew what vs. what was new, and soliciting Q&A throughout as attendees raised Qs and clarifications.  I hope it was recorded, as I'd like to catch the end of it, if possible.  

Saturday evening at 7pm, I DM’d the first of my three Castle Greyhawk events, and the players chose to play in my version of the “Black Reservoir” level, which I designed based on Gary’s 1975 short story from El Conquisator, hosted on my Greyhawk site (with Gary’s permission) at http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_castle_black_reservoir1.html.  I brought several levels with me, since I knew that some registered folks had played various levels during previous years:

• Gygax levels
• “The Chessboard” level that I ran at GaryCon and NTX last year
• “The Black Reservoir” level, which I count here in Gary’s rather than Rob’s levels since I built it from Gary’s short story account rather than Rob’s map from the El Raja Key Archive
• Kuntz levels
• The Original Bottle City level
• grodog levels
• “Diamonds in the Rough”
• “Escape from Level 14” (a.k.a., “Drawing Under the Influence of Gygax and Kuntz”)
• “Halls of the Irons Golems”
• “The Four Corners Level”
• “The Heretical Temple of Wee Jas” (with two variant heresy options)
• “The Hidden Aerie of Pazzuzu”

I left my “Iounic Caverns” and “Enchanted Orchards of the Arimoi” levels at home, along with my expanded version of S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth because they were too large to fit into my divided file folders.  (I think I'm forgetting another level or two among the options, but c'est la vie!).  

After exploring around the southern end of the level, the players used a wish spell from a luck blade to pass through to the northern portion, where they encountered the infamous pteranadons from Gary's story.  They prevailed in their battle, and survived their explorations!

Sunday

I slept in an hour later, and spent most of the day playing Tom Wham games during the day-long Tom-Wham-a-Thon!  Tom’s games are always quick to learn, fun to play, and offer a variety of ways to win so they have great replay value.  

The three we played were:  Battling Space Ships (BGG at https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19372/dragon-lairds), Felithian Finance (BGG at https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19435/felithian-finance), and DragonLairds (we also played using the expansion set; BGG at https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19372/dragon-lairds, and expansion at https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/45999/ebony-lavender-dragon-lairds).  My hope had been to play Feudality (BGG at https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/99312/feudality) too, which I understand is one of Tom’s favorites, but time ran short after the other games, so perhaps next year!  

Dave Conant (in yellow) and Tom Wham (hatted),
teaching us games at the Wham-a-Thon! 
(photo by Mark Clover)

I enjoyed all three, and had not played any of them previously (although we do own copies of Dragon Lairds and Battling Space Ships, among many other Wham-designed games---he’s a favorite in the Grohe household! :D ).  Of the three, I think Dragon Lairds will appeal to our 16 year-old son Henry most (along with Divine Right, and perhaps Titan), while Felithian Finance may catch my wife Heather’s eye.  

Speaking of Heather, the players at the table also offered a number of suggestions for 2 player games, that are relatively quick to play (which is an attributes she particularly appreciates in a game these days!):

• Alhambra (the card game)
• Cloud Nine
• Great Dalmuti (I think we may have this)
• Lost Cities
• Love Letter
• Roll Through the Ages

My contributions to the discussion were Starship Catan, Milles Bourne, Sushi Go, and Incan Gold.  (I forgot to mention Cat in the Box at the time, which I played at TsunamiCon for the first time last fall, and is quite enjoyable!).  

Saturday night I DM’d again, and the players selected my “Heretical Temple of Wee Jas” level, but the session ended a bit early with a near-TPK as the PCs wandered into three ghosts.  Since I’ve first ran that encounter back at GaryCon III in 2011, I updated ghosts to use relative aging, so the dwarf and half-elf PCs got hit for XX and XX respectively while the human PCs, well, let’s say they needed dust pans and brushes to scoop their remains up….  (Other than the paladin, who failed the save vs. fear and sprinted off back the way they had entered from, and was eventually rescued by the dwarf fighter/thief and half-elven bard).  

Monday

Monday was devoted to Titan referred by Brett King, and which I played together with Wade from Saturday’s Tom Wham games, and with Dwight and Keith from Friday’s Divine Right game (I also spotted Dwight in the audience at the Greyhawk seminar during GaryCon too), and John from one of my D&D games!   I hadn’t played Titan (BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103/titan) since I was a kid at one of the east coast conventions from my teenage years, and I had no recollection of how to play, starting fresh.  As with Divine Right, the players and the referee were very helpful, and Keith and Dwight had played it quite a bit, and Keith mentioned an online resource for solo play too (which I’ll have to share later after repinging him, since I couldn’t find it in my notes so far).

The game play was quite fun and engaging, although mastering the stacks of counters and the flow of the game board movement was a bit challenging.  I wasn’t able to recruit for several turns in a row due to bad luck on die rolls, which slowed my development considerably.  We did run a few Battle Lands engagements by the end of the session, with Keith edging out John for the win on points.  A fun time, for sure!

My final session of Castle Greyhawk at Founders & Legends brought a second run into the “Black Reservoir,” where the players explored along the “shore” and caves in the cavernous south wall, meeting a variety of interesting WM encounters (each seemed to segue into another, as their mandatory 1 turn rest resulted in another 1 on the WM die roll ;) ).  They ended the session with their discovery of "The Blight House" on a small rocky island (only the second team ever to find it during the 15+ years I’ve been running this level).  The Blight House is a site sacred to Incabulos, Greyhawk’s god of evil sendings---nightmares, plague, drought, and the like:

"Incabulos" by Jeff Easley
(Dragon Magazine #71, March 1983)

Interregnum Tuesday

Over the course of F&L, Luke allocated some new on-grid games to the schedule for Tuesday (which was originally a day of rest between the conventions), in order to provide some additional gaming options for folks who were in town attending both conventions, or who had arrived early for GaryCon.  

Gaming in the Geneva Lake Museum
(photo by Toni Kerschner Smith)

As a result, I was able to play in Rob Kuntz’s “Boreal Level” of Castle Greyhawk, which I had previously played part of once back in 2019 at the North Texas RPG Con with my son Henry.  We went a different route within the level this time, and encountered some different dungeon features (including the same trap for a second time), along with plenty of frost giants!  I didn’t initially recognize the level as one I’d definitely played before until I got back to our room (although parts of the intro and setup did feel familiar).  Then I checked my Castle Greyhawk history binder, where I found my 2019 player map and notes, and naturally began to compare our exploration across both sessions!  

Interregnum Tuesday closed out Founders & Legends for me, with much gaming and fun had by me, and its many other attendees!

To be continued in Part 2 – GaryCon!

Allan.