[edit for embarrassing typo made before coffee kicked in)
| Author | Comment | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Geleg |
the curse on Castle Greyhawk continues ... |
Lead | |
|
Don't know if everyone has heard the news that Jeff Talanian, who co-authored Castle Zagyg: the Upper Works with
Gary Gygax, has been dropped from the project by Gygax Games (successors to Trigee Games). You can read about it on this thread: TLG
thread. Given the wild speculation that such announcements can provoke, I will be circumspect and, therefore, won't say much more than the following.
Jeff Talanian seems like a really good guy, and his work on Castle Zagyg (nee Greyhawk) was superior. It's sad that he won't be a part of the rest of
the project. The news also has caused many to wonder about the publication schedule for Castle Zagyg: the Dungeons.
There's not much info to go on (and the Trolls are keeping mum, although they promise an announcement when the time is right), and some dangers in
over-speculating, but I share the fears of many that this will push the publication schedule further back.
[edit for embarrassing typo made before coffee kicked in)
Last Edited By: Geleg 10/08/08 09:43:45.
Edited 1 time.
|
|||
TheRavyn |
|||
|
I dunno - My fears that the Greyhawk dungeons would never see the light of day, slightly assuaged by the "Upper Works" release (so close!), are
yet again reinforced.
Dungeons and Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature
Figures (from cover of 1974 boxed set)
Join the O.A.F - Old School 4E Needs You! |
|||
Sen the Collector |
Mongoose | ||
|
Haven't seen this scoop posted yet:
http://www.enworld.org/fo...-mongoose-publishing.html It looks like Mongoose will be getting it. I really am sickened by this development. Since they're getting rid of the person who worked directly with Gary on the project, it all feels like a cheap move to cash in on Gygax's name. |
|||
gideon thorne |
|||
Sen the Collector wrote:That 'scoop' is about the Lejendary Adventure game actually. ^_~`
Peter B
Castles & Crusades/ Castle Zagyg/Wilderlands of High Adventure Artist |
|||
Geleg |
|||
|
nice scoop, Sen!
I am cautious about interpreting too much into the Mongoose announcement. It only states that Mongoose has the Lejendary Adventures license, not the Castle Zagyg license. Until I hear from the Trolls that they've lost the license, I'll hold out some hope that Zagyg will continue to appear with C&C/TLG. Still, the news about Jeff Talanian isn't good, I admit. More information is needed! edit: scooped by PB! |
|||
JoeGKushner |
|||
Sen the Collector wrote: I've thought the whole thing was a cash in on Gygax's name. |
|||
gideon thorne |
|||
JoeGKushner wrote:As far as TLG goes, that thought would be wrong.
Peter B
Castles & Crusades/ Castle Zagyg/Wilderlands of High Adventure Artist |
|||
Sen the Collector |
|||
|
Back 2 years ago at Gencon when Gary was at the Troll Lord's booth doing signings, I thought the company seemed genuinely excited to be there with him. I
don't think that they were using Gary at all.
As for why the Zagyg release schedule's been the way it's been, I would suspect that was due to Gary's choice. I'm sure he realized that after the dungeons proper had been released there would be little interest in the other material that he wanted to put out, so I suspect it was his decision to do the supplementary stuff first. This is all my conjecture, of course. It's a hell of a shame he never got to see it all released himself. And no, I'm not a big Troll Lords fan or anything. (I don't have, and have no interest in, Castles and Crusades.)
|
|||
TheRavyn |
|||
|
I doubt we'll ever get the whole story as to why things went the way they did at TLG with CZ. While I'm sure there was no intentional exploitation of
EGG by the Trolls, I suspect Sen's observation may be close to the mark (or is that close to the Eastmark?
Gamers have been burned so many times with "Castle Greyhawk" products that are "recreated" or loosely inspired by the original, its a real shame TLG and EGG didn't knuckle down back in '05 or whenever and focus on getting this out as opposed to all the ancillary product that chewed up so much time and production cost. I fortell the "real" CG will forever remain a mystery...
Dungeons and Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature
Figures (from cover of 1974 boxed set)
Join the O.A.F - Old School 4E Needs You! |
|||
Geleg |
|||
|
for those interested, there was a (now-closed and sometimes testy) thread on Dragonsfoot that discussed some of the process by which RJK split from CZ and by
which the Trolls ended up with the maps. Jeff Talanian comes off as a super decent guy in the thread, btw. As I said, it gets a little weird and testy, but
some interesting information about Gary Gygax's operating methods and the sequence of events in 2005-2006 comes to light.
link |
|||
gideon thorne |
|||
Geleg wrote:I wouldn't count on any accuracy beyond my posts and Jeff's in that thread. Load of uninformed grandstanding in the rest of it.
Peter B
Castles & Crusades/ Castle Zagyg/Wilderlands of High Adventure Artist |
|||
Geleg |
|||
|
I agree totally, Peter. It's the comments of you and Jeff that I found most interesting. A lot of strong opinions in that thread.
Last Edited By: Geleg
10/10/08 16:13:38.
Edited 1 times.
|
|||
gideon thorne |
|||
Geleg wrote:*smiles* I should clarify though. I was sent copies of Rob's maps referred too in that thread. When Rob removed himself from the project, I discarded them. What use are copies to me? Jeff never saw these. I then offered some input to Jeff as he worked over the designs from a rough sketch Gary provided, and some very detailed notes also provided by Gary to Jeff. One thing though. The pictures on that thread are clearly hand drawn, and not copies, but also, one significant thing, certain details have been added after the fact to the maps shown on the DF site to make them appear more like the final designs in the CZ upper works. Like I said, grandstanding by someone wanting their 15 minutes. ^_~`
Peter B
Castles & Crusades/ Castle Zagyg/Wilderlands of High Adventure Artist |
|||
TheRavyn |
|||
gideon thorne wrote:I don't know about that - the guy seems genuine and was never attacking anyone - it was subsequent posters who started raking muck. Besides, he would have to be one of RR's alter-egos to go that far and he's been around DF for a long time (cool stuff he has on Megadungeon thread, btw) so that's def not the case. From what he posted I just don't think he's got an agenda beyond simple curiousity.
Dungeons and Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature
Figures (from cover of 1974 boxed set)
Join the O.A.F - Old School 4E Needs You! |
|||
DaveMage |
|||
|
Is the Upper Works currently available from anywhere besides the Troll Lords website? I haven't seen it available yet in any online RPG store.
|
|||
gideon thorne |
|||
TheRavyn wrote:Well. I do know about that. The alterations have, definitely, been done.
Peter B
Castles & Crusades/ Castle Zagyg/Wilderlands of High Adventure Artist |
|||
gideon thorne |
|||
DaveMage wrote: Not yet, but you'll get it a lot faster if you just order direct.
Peter B
Castles & Crusades/ Castle Zagyg/Wilderlands of High Adventure Artist |
|||
Treebore |
|||
|
Dave,
Noble Knight just got Star SIEGE in stock, so hopefully they will have CZ:UW soon. At least I think its NK, I'll check and if I am wrong I'll post a correction. |
|||
Treebore |
|||
|
Raven,
Take into consideration Gideon isn't claiming to know who made any changes/additions, just that they were done. By someone. Since Gideon saw the originals via those copies he mentioned, he would know. As to who made those additions, only that person would know, everyone else can only guess/speculate. My money would be on RJK, but thats pure guess based on who I think would be most likely to have added to his original drawings and saw CZ:UW (maybe) in a time frame that would have given time to add those things before selling them at auction. |
|||
Treebore |
|||
|
Better yet Davemage, here is what Steve said:
"These are staggered. The Gencon releases were really pumped through to get them to the show. Here is the release schedule as Distributors have it listed: StarSiege solicited it for June, it shipped in September (hey that's pretty damn good for us!!!!) Upper Works solicited for September (should be shipping next week, DAMN good for us) Towers of Adventure solicited for December (that should make it just fine) Steve" StarSIEGE didn't actually show as available at NK until a couple of days ago, so even though he says it ships next week I wouldn't expect to see it listing until the end of the month or early in November. |
|||
gideon thorne |
|||
Treebore wrote:Anything is possible I suppose. I never send any of my scribblings to Rob though, and I'm quite sure Jeff didn't either.
Peter B
Castles & Crusades/ Castle Zagyg/Wilderlands of High Adventure Artist |
|||