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  Since this review was begun (in the two weeks following GenCon 2008), several recent 
  events and announcements have unfolded that have impacted the publishing of future 
  Castle Zagyg installments.  This review does not deal with those issues, and focuses 
  instead on the boxed set itself, and the product-specific issues and improvements which 
  could be leveraged in any future Castle Zagyg product (if any), regardless of the 
  publisher.   
   
  The semi-final section to the essay covers many of the production problems with the CZ 
  boxed set (as I see them), but rather than belabor points that are now meaningless (in 
  terms of Troll Lord Games being able to address them in the future), for the sake of 
  finally completing this review, I’ve truncated the details in my analysis for that section.   
   
  === 
   
  Title: Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works  
  Authors:  Gary Gygax with Jeffrey P. Talanian 
  Publisher: Troll Lord Games 
  Format: Boxed set including six booklets and three 11”x17” maps (one color, two  
  black and white); the box and five adventure booklet covers are full-color cardstock, 
  while the maps/illustrations booklet has a paper cover 
  Editing:  Cory M. Caserta 
  Art:  Peter Bradley (covers, interior illustrations and sketches), Jason Walton (interior 
  illustrations) 
  Cartography:  Peter Bradley 
  ISBN/Product Code:  978-1-929474-93-6/TLG8501 
  Year Published: 2008 (first release at GenCon, 14-17 August 2008) 
  Price:  $44.95 
   
  In this review of Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works, I am going to examine this product on 
  two levels:  against my long-held hopes and expectations for this seminal Greyhawk 
  release, and for the simple reality of what the product is.  I think that’s the only way to 
  be fair to CZ:UW and its authors, but still to remain fair to the history of its lineage as 
  well.  Therefore, I will be delving into how well CZ:UW represents its Greyhawk heritage, 
  and how well it stands alone as a dungeon adventure product sans Greyhawk.  I will 
  also assess the boxed set’s production and design (editing, layout, organization, art, and 
  cartography), and then I’ll conclude by grading the product in each category above on a 
  10-point scale (where 0 is horrible and 10 is perfect).   
   
  The Components 
   
  The CZ:UW boxed set consists of approximately 250,000 words and around 500 
  encounters, crammed into a 1¼”-deep box.  The box includes the following components 
  (and please note that my encounter counts are likely to be off here and there): 
   
  • 
  Five adventure booklets that in 200 pages detail The Mouths of Madness (the 
  nearby wilderness and the caves that lie within the tor upon which Castle Zagyg 
  rests; 44 pages and ~63 encounters), the Ruins of the Castle Precincts (the 
  castle’s upper works and environs; 48 pages and ~161 encounters), the East 
  Wall Towers (20 pages and ~49 encounters), the Castle Fortress (the main 
  “castle” of Castle Zagyg; 44 pages and ~161 encounters), and The Store Rooms 
  (the first dungeon level below the pile; 44 pages and ~73 encounters in the first 
  27 pages, with the remaining 17 devoted to 1 new spell, 24 new magic items, 18 
  new or modified monsters, 5 monstrous flora adapted from Lejendary 
  Adventures, 4 rival NPC parties [well, 3 and 1 scout for the fourth party], and a 
  glossary of terms used throughout the booklets) 
  
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  • 
  One Maps & Illustrations booklet containing the map symbols key, 15 pages of 
  maps, and 33 illustrations over 14 pages (34 pages total) 
  • 
  Three 11”x17” maps:  one double-sided wilderness map for players and DMs 
  respectively, and two single-sided DM-only maps that depict the ruined upper 
  works level and the adjoining Mouths of Madness/The Store Rooms dungeon 
  levels 
   
  The adventure is written for a party of 5-6 PCs from levels 1-4.  Spoilers abound 
  throughout the remainder of the review, but in most cases I don’t think that they would 
  materially impact game play, although they will certainly inform future players about 
  many details of the CZ:UW encounters, including various monsters likely to be met 
  while exploring.  In the area where I describe my favorite encounters, however, more 
  revealing spoilers abound:  you have been warned! 
    
  Greyhawk and Castle Zagyg:  Legend and History  
   
  Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works is the first (and now, only) boxed set from Troll Lord 
  Games to detail the legendary Castle Greyhawk dungeons from the original Lake 
  Geneva Dungeons & Dragons campaign.  First promised to the gaming public by Gary 
  Gygax in the March 1980 (perhaps earlier), the publication of Castle Greyhawk has 
  been fraught with disasters (Gygax’s ouster from TSR, the folding of New Infinities), 
  repeated delays spanning each of its round-robin of publishers, and changes in product 
  format and co-authors throughout the projects.  And at last, it has arrived, after 28+ 
  years of waiting.   
   
  Over those years, various hints about the dungeons have been mentioned in The 
  Dragon and in other sources, starting with August 1976’s famous passage from Joe 
  Fischer’s “Hints for D&D Judges, Part 3:  The Dungeons” (The Dragon #2, also reprinted 
  in Best of The Dragon, Volume I): 
   
  When judges of D&D, new and old alike, think of an entrance to the dungeons, 
  the greater percentage think of an old ruined castle somewhere outside their 
  town. And many of this same group have the mistaken impression that there is 
  only one entrance to every dungeon. Both these ideas are wrong. True, the 
  famous game of Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz is built around and under 
  Greyhawk Castle, but this is far from being the only entrance. Besides the 
  castle, I have discovered an entrance through an old dry cistern and another 
  entrance that is under a pool of quicksand, and even an entrance in a simple 
  hole in the ground. 
   
  Gygax provided similar glimpses into the Castle in articles from Dragon Magazine and 
  in fictionalized accounts of early D&D game sessions, as in this excerpt from “The 
  Magician’s Ring” (Wargamer’s Digest Vol. 2., No. 8, June 1975), which details one of 
  Mike “Old Geezer/Gronan of Simmerya” Mornard’s excursions into the Castle via a 
  “simple hole in the ground”: 
   
  Those who have explored the countryside between the bustling city of Greyhawk 
  and the castle ruins of the same name which lie on the hill not a league to the 
  east of the city will testify to the fact that there are a number of strange tunnels 
  and wells about. Wise folks avoid them, for they know that these are but 
  entrances to the fiendish maze of dungeons, pits, labyrinths, crypts, catacombs, 
  and caverns which honeycomb the hill and the rock far beneath it. There are 
  those, however, who eagerly seek these ways, for it is likewise well-known that 
  incalculable treasure also rests within these twisting mazes. 
  
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  Lessnard chose one of the outside entrances to the lower levels of the dungeons, 
  knowing it would save both time and the risk of unwished for encounters with 
  wandering monsters…. 
   
  Throughout that long interregnum, small portions of Castle Greyhawk have been 
  published, including three demi-planar sub-level adventures excerpted from the Castle 
  by Gygax---EX1 Dungeonland (1983), EX2 Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (1983), and 
  WG6 Isle of the Ape (1985)---and three by Gygax’s co-DM, Rob Kuntz---Garden of the 
  PlantMaster (1987, 2003), “The Living Room” (2007) and Bottle City (2008).  Excluding 
  such excerpts, however, until now the original dungeon levels have never seen print.   
   
  Begin Sidebar 
   
  A Quick Summary of the Publishing History of Castle Greyhawk 
   
  Not including Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works or the various sub-levels extracted from 
  the Castle, three other products have detailed the castle proper of Greyhawk Castle over 
  the years.  They are, in order of publication: 
   
  • 
  WG7 Castle Greyhawk (TSR, 1988):  the infamous “joke” version of Castle 
  Greyhawk; this version is nearly-universally repudiated among Greyhawk- and 
  Gygax fans, for the hatchet-job that it is; in premise, WG7 posits the worst 
  qualities of a random dungeon, by creating a “funhouse” environment (literally, 
  in the case of some encounters) that utterly fails to capture the spirit of the 
  original dungeons; scores 2 on a possible 10 point scale 
  • 
  WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins (TSR, 1990):  the “serious” version of Castle Greyhawk, 
  based in part on the recollections of Jim Ward, Skip Williams,  and others at 
  TSR; while largely not based on the original Castle or campaign save in name, 
  WGR1 still largely sets the standard against which most published campaign 
  dungeons are judged today (along with TSR’s 1991 The Ruins of Undermountain 
  boxed set), even though I find its individual levels to be too small; 4/10 points as 
  a Greyhawk product, 5/10 points as a mega-dungeon product 
  • 
  Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (Wizards of the Coast, 2007):  As much a 
  sourcebook that updates Greyhawk City to the 3.5 D&D rules set as a dungeon 
  adventure, the Castle Greyhawk levels within EttRoG are built upon the 
  foundation established in WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins; Expedition to the Ruins of 
  Greyhawk modifies and expands upon those levels, and cannot stand-alone as a 
  Castle Greyhawk without WGR1 (or another castle, such as CZ:UW); 6/10 stars 
  as a Greyhawk product, 3/10 points as a stand-alone mega-dungeon, 5/10 
  points as levels to insert into an existing mega-dungeon 
   
  End Sidebar 
   
  Unfortunately, despite the fact that Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works boxed set is quite 
  large, that fact remains true today that its fabled dungeons have not yet appeared, 
  since the boxed set only details the first dungeon level, promising to reveal deeper levels 
  in subsequent boxed sets (at least two or three, it seems).   
   
  The introductions to the various adventure booklets speak specifically to the fact that 
  this product is not the long-awaited Castle Greyhawk with the serial numbers filed off, 
  but is instead a “distillation” of the three previous versions of the Castle, and “superior 
  to its predecessors” because “it contains all the best features of the former levels and is 
  updated to include ideas that have developed during the decades since its origination” 
  (Mouths of Madness, page 2). Similarly, the introduction to The Store Rooms, states on 
  page 2 that 
  
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  This should not be considered a replica of the original dungeon level as invented 
  for game play during autumn of 1972, because this dungeon---and this entire 
  mega-dungeon adventure---has gone through many permutations over its three 
  plus decades of play and development. 
   
  The dungeon level presented here, and those that will follow, is inspired by and 
  draws from the original work; the original maps, hand-written notes, and special 
  encounter areas have been perused at length, and some of the original players 
  have been interviewed extensively while crafting this newest, latest incarnation 
  of the Mad Arch-Mage’s infamous dungeon. 
   
  The tone and spirit of those original dungeon adventures is rife within in [sic] 
  these pages. 
   
  Given that preamble, I expected to read more newly-revealed Greyhawk lore in the 
  CZ:UW boxed set.  While there are a lot of names (same or changed) that get dropped as 
  well as nods toward Greyhawk content throughout the boxed set---including obvious 
  references to Scarlet Brotherhood cultists, Boccob, and sub-levels for The Black 
  Reservoir and Burroughs’s Mars, as well as more-veiled allusions to the Bandit 
  Kingdoms, the mysterious Jeweled Man, and Eneever Zig’s challenges from the Gord 
  short story “The Heart of Darkness” in Night Arrant---the hints and teasers remain (for 
  the most part) at that level only, promising more to come, later, and offering few if any 
  revelations on their own.  For example, the Black Reservoir is alluded to several times, 
  and while we don’t learn any more about it than its name in CZ:UW; long-time 
  Greyhawk fans will be familiar with this level already, after its rediscovery in 2003 on 
  the Greytalk list but it’s otherwise undescribed.  (One such major revelation about 
  Celestian features in one of my favorite encounters in the set, and stands out clearly 
  from the rest; more on this later).  At the very least, I expected the most-accessible 
  content---such as the example from Joe Fischer’s article that I quoted above---to be 
  reflected in the adventure.  It is not.  Perhaps such details were part-and-parcel of the 
  expanded Gygax and Kuntz Castle and were unusable without Kuntz’s permission, or 
  perhaps they were intentionally dropped during the distillation process.  Hopefully they 
  weren’t simply forgotten, as the Black Reservoir had been, until relatively recently.  In 
  any event, these Greyhawk references seem to congregate most in the Mouths of 
  Madness, Castle Fortress, and The Store Rooms booklets, though they do appear 
  throughout the set.   
   
  To be clear, I recognize and appreciate the presence of the Greyhawk nods and 
  allusions, but for the most part they don’t scratch deeper than the surface.  I can’t quite 
  compare this treatment of Greyhawk to how WotC handled Greyhawk as the “Core 
  World” in D&D Third Edition, because the encounters and name-droppings are truer 
  and more-contextually apt than WotC managed.  That said, I can’t shake the 
  comparison because “name-dropping” remains a mostly-accurate description of how 
  Greyhawk appears in CZ:UW---the names are dropped in CZ: UW more eloquently (so to 
  speak) than in WotC’s contextlessly-clueless 3.x efforts, but in kind the two usages of 
  Greyhawk are closer than I would prefer them to be.   
   
  Because this boxed set is the first volume to detail the Castle, I also expected an 
  overview to summarize the scope and grandeur, breadth and depth of the ruins and 
  dungeon levels as a whole.  Without revealing specific details about the lower levels in 
  future products, something that spoke to how the CZ:UW levels and denizens relate to 
  the other levels would have been very useful, to provide the context for The Upper 
  Works and The Store Rooms in their relation to the whole.  Ideally such a summary 
  would include an elevation or plan map to depict the ruins and dungeon levels relative 
  
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  to one another, calling out stairs, elevators, deep pits, underground lakes and rivers, 
  and such (if the map scale could accommodate such a level of detail).  Perhaps 
  something like that is already planned for inclusion within Castle Zagyg:  The Dungeons 
  (the next boxed set), or can be added to it or a subsequent release.  The lack of an 
  overview highlights another of my concerns about Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works, 
  however:  it doesn’t quite feel big enough.  I say that not because there aren’t a huge 
  number of encounters in the set (there are around 500 by my count!), but because we 
  don’t see the big picture in CZ:UW.  While connections exist to the second and third 
  levels (The Deep Cellars and The Dungeons, respectively), and to other side-adventures 
  and sub-levels (The Black Reservoir, Eneever Zig’s Way, Mars, Level 3A The Arena of 
  Death), these hints toward the broader environment simply highlight how little about 
  the rest of the dungeon is revealed in CZ:UW.  The allusions to sub-levels and side-
  quests are a good appetizer for things to come, but they are not the main course, nor do 
  they address questions like whether or not the Old Guard Kobolds or other dungeon 
  dwellers can be reinforced by brethren present on dungeon levels 2 and 3, for example.  
  Perhaps this lack is an inevitable artifact of Castle Zagyg’s piecemeal publishing 
  process; none-the-less, this introductory set could have provided a better foundation for 
  the entire series.   
   
  In three places, Gygax takes the more scholarly and/or obsessive Greyhawk fans (such 
  as myself! :D ) to task, warning that we should not lose sight of the “fun” in D&D played 
  as a game.  The introduction to Ruins of the Castle Precincts (on page 2) advises that 
   
   
  This adventure features the ruins of a castle stronghold that at one point  
  would have repelled even the most potent besiegement.  How it fell to  
  ruin---the when, the why, and the how---is mostly left to speculation.  Suffice it 
  to say that Castle Zagyg is now exactly how the Mad Archmage prefers it to be.  
  His motive?  Don’t bother.  How can one ascribe motive to one such as Zagyg?  
  To associate this or any other component of Castle Zagyg with motive, plots 
  within plots, convoluted histories, world-saving quests, or A to Z “expeditions” is 
  antithetical to the spirit of the original adventures. 
   
  and similarly, an encounter in the East Wall Towers (page 12) narrates that  
   
  Legend speaks of such a deity having once been imprisoned by the Mad 
  Archmage.  Pseudo-scholars have attempted to assign motive, plot, and reason 
  to Zagyg’s behavior in this regard.  How absurd.   
   
  while an in-character account in Castle Fortress states that  
   
  Scholars posit that Zagyg has a proclivity for tricking and trapping all manner of 
  otherworldly being:  from demon to demi-god, devil to deva, the Mad Archmage 
  is reputed to spare none from his potent sorceries.  Impudent fools lacking 
  substantive evidence, however, venture to explain the Mad Archmage’s 
  reasoning for this, ascribing it to convoluted plot, motive, and objective.  For 
  sooth, these pseudo-scholars merely perpetuate myths, lies and utter 
  balderdash so as to advance their own petty, self-serving agendas.  Pish!  Truly, 
  who are we to fathom the mind of one such as Zagyg? (Castle Fortress, page 43) 
   
  Taken in the spirit that they’re offered, I think Gygax was clearly asserting his primacy 
  as the shaper and source for Greyhawk, and that we shouldn’t accept third- and fourth-
  generation copies of the original (like TSR’s WGR1 or WotC’s Expedition to the Ruins of 
  Greyhawk, which he seems explicitly to call out).  I also believe that Gygax was warning 
  the diehard fans not to take D&D too seriously (including this boxed set), and that he 
  was reminding us to insure that fun guides our play.  In that spirit of fun, and in the 
  
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  clear recognition that I wasn’t a part of the design team and therefore my expectations 
  may-well be ill-founded, I’m hopeful that more lore will be forthcoming in Castle Zagyg:  
  The Dungeons to sate the hunger of Greyhawk fans.  So, history now set aside, let’s dig 
  into the meat of CZ:UW.   
   
  Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works – The Adventure and Encounters Designs 
   
  The encounters throughout the environs of Castle Zagyg offer a peek into Gygax’s 
  contemporary dungeon design sensibilities:  a wide range of monsters and challenges 
  await the loving attentions of a party of intrepid adventurers.  Many of the monsters are 
  “balanced” out with support systems (sources of water, vermin to feed upon, etc.), while 
  others are more-whimsically placed.  Gygax speaks to dungeon ecology in the 
  introduction to Mouths of Madness, on page 2: 
   
  …the whole [castle and dungeons] is the work of a very, very potent wizard who 
  enjoys the zany.  However it bows at least a bit to those who demand more 
  verisimilitude in their dungeons in that a sort of ecology is provided for.  Thus 
  the explorers will frequently discover such things as strange fungi… and pools of 
  water in which vegetation and fish flourish thanks to chemosynthesis of a sort 
  connected to magical radiation and light emission from some vegetable growths 
  of like nature.  These food sources are augmented by scavengers such as giant 
  rats and the subterranean array of reptiles and giant insects.   
   
  Thus CZ:UW attempts to balance between the wild and woolly days of the original 
  dungeon campaign, and the more-refined tastes of contemporary gamers, and it largely 
  succeeds, I think.  Most of the encounters are believably “realistic” in tenor and hue, 
  while others glow in the dark with Zagyg-inspired colors---clear evidence of the hand of 
  the mad wizard at work.  The Zagygian encounters are certainly the exception to the 
  ecologically-sound design principles, but their charm, originality, and whimsicality are 
  exemplars of the spirit (and sense of pure-fun) that created D&D in the first place.  
  Many of these encounters number among my favorites in the boxed set. 
   
  Like the Village of Hommlet’s Moathouse, in general the encounters in Castle Zagyg are 
  designed to challenge experienced D&D players who will know not to bite off more than 
  they can chew---or to run away if they do so.  The Upper Works is not likely to be a 
  forgiving proving ground for players new to the game.  That said, several of the 
  encounters appear to have been staged to be more forgiving than I expected.  In 
  particular, there’s a teleporter in the adventure that is scripted so that the party 
  almost-certainly cannot be separated by it:  it whisks away all of the PCs, regardless of 
  their proximity to the actual teleporter itself.  I found similar issues with several higher-
  level monsters that will not pursue PCs out of their immediate lair/environs (several 
  wights, a hill giant, a wraith, a high-level MU who can geas PCs!) and/or that don’t 
  seem to dominate the surrounding creatures like they seemingly should.  Other, less 
  fearsome monsters appear to have been softened up, or are reduced in efficacy---giant 
  centipede poison doesn’t slay on failed saving throws, imps lack poison tail stingers 
  completely, cobra poison is fatal in 1-2 days (!), while an ogre with captured human 
  children never eats them, and a giant wolverine is laden with stern TPK warnings.  Like 
  the teleporter, these details can easily be changed by the Dungeon Master, but they fact 
  that they need to be changed in the first place is a bit worrisome.  Many of these appear 
  to be staged as learning-the-ropes encounters, but if so, I’m not sure that the lessons 
  that they’re teaching are the “right” ones:  PCs should flee from overwhelming foes 
  versus buddying-up to them (in the case of the hill giant), and being coddled by 
  teleporters isn’t going to help a party survive if they later get separated across multiple 
  levels.  All that said, The Upper Works represents the entry levels for the Castle and 
  Dungeons, and not everyone playing through them will have fifteen to thirty years of 
  
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  D&D experience under their belts, so I’m willing to let these concerns slide until the 
  next boxed set in published, before deciding whether this softness is a flaw endemic to 
  the design approach, or if it instead reflects a “learner’s permit” for new delvers.   
   
  The encounters in CZ:UW are both more populous and treasure-rich than I would have 
  expected.  In addition, there’s a decent chunk of unguarded treasure lurking about.  
  The higher monster population may be the result of Gygax modifying his original 
  designs to provide a more ecological approach as discussed earlier, but even with that 
  in mind, I found many encounters with vermin (and wandering monsters) that offer 
  victors solid rewards.  I’m not against treasure, and nor was Gygax in his earlier works 
  (the Giants and Drow modules are rife with loot waiting to be found), but there does 
  seem to be an abundance of coins, gems, and jewelry in particular in The Upper Works.  
  Magic items seem about par for the course, while various traps, tricks, and other 
  special encounters seem about on-target, save in the Castle Fortress, which is more 
  trap-laden than usual.  While there are no unkeyed rooms on the maps of CZ:UW, there 
  are number of empty rooms (and among them I count various supplies/food stores 
  closets that otherwise lack adventuring equipment, although food can be very useful to 
  discover after being lost for awhile). 
   
  By my rough reckonings, the encounter proportions in Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works 
  break down as follows: 
   
   
  • 
  Empty/Non-monster/Non-treasure/Stores without adventuring 
  equipment/etc.:  40%  (~200/500 encounters) 
  • 
  Monsters only:  12% (~60/500 encounters) 
  • 
  Monsters with Treasure:  26% (~130/500 encounters) 
  • 
  Treasure only:  10% (~50/500 encounters) 
  • 
  Trap:  8% (~40/500) 
  • 
  Trick/Special/Other:  4% (~20/500 encounters) 
   
  As with my counts on the number of encounters per booklet, these figures are 
  approximations, in particular the traps encounters, since many times monsters and 
  traps were intermixed, or were placed nearby (as with guards not otherwise in a 
  numbered encounter), and I undoubtedly counted some encounters twice in that 
  regard.  The dungeon design guidelines published by Gygax align around empty rooms 
  at 60%, monsters 25% (of those only 60% have treasure), special/trap/trick 10%, 
  treasure 5% (these figures are based on Appendix A of the Dungeon Masters Guide 
  which is in turn based on Gygax’s article in Strategic Review #1 (Spring 1975).  Based 
  on those criteria, there would be more encounters with monsters only and fewer 
  monsters with treasure encounters (roughly 76 and 114 respectively).  The encounters 
  mix is otherwise on-target based on those sources.   
   
  The encounters themselves are presented with a title template that is not used 
  consistently, unfortunately, throughout the booklets.  The template variability is 
  frustrating because I do like the idea behind the format:  Encounter Key #.  
  Encounter Title, Room Dimensions (sometimes in parentheses, sometimes not, 
  sometimes with height too).  I like it because it gives you a quick sense of the room right 
  at the onset, and it strikes me as pretty unique to CZ:UW.  Unfortunately, only about 
  half of the rooms in the Castle Fortress booklet, as well as a few in each of the other 
  booklets follow this structure.  I can see why it was potentially abandoned, because in 
  some cases it the room dimensions are hard to describe, or the title grows wordy, like 
  “108. Serjeants of the Old Guard, 10’W x 50’L (U-Shaped)”.  And I shudder to think 
  what would have to be written to accurately summarize the dimensions for the elven 
  caverns at The Store Rooms #136, for example!  (This could be as much a layout issue 
  
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  as a design one, but I discuss it here because it feels more like a design problem that’s 
  not executed consistently across the encounters, to me).   
   
  This level of detail present in the title template manifests in the room descriptions and 
  contents, which offer specific measures for room dimensions and ceiling height, and 
  sometime room area (each disconcertingly often appears in the read-aloud text, a detail 
  which strikes me as too much for an initial, and likely cursory scan).  Various 
  humanoid larders are stocked and detailed, seemingly with an eye toward dungeon 
  ecology that pushes a bit too far in the direction of encyclopedic for my taste, but which 
  is consistent with the level of detail in the Castle Zagyg:  Yggsburgh campaign 
  supplement.  (Unfortunately the NPC nomenclature throughout the encounters are 
  similarly consistent, as CZ:UW is populated with Louis, Vivian, Ian, Morgan, Denis, 
  Robert, and many another mundane name; easily changed, yes, but it does distract 
  from the fantastic mood).  Ruins of the Castle Precincts encounter #15 also stands out:  
  rather out of the blue, a single blank line is provided for the DM to fill in the various 
  worker cottages; why not simply provide this information, as at similar instances 
  elsewhere in CZ:UW?  Similarly, Mouths of Madness #37A3 mentions an otherwise 
  unexplained “Joss Effect” (which IIRC is a Legendary Adventures rule/effect like luck 
  points).  Two of the humanoid tribes (at The Store Rooms #s 110 and 148) placed signs 
  to lure unwary adventurers into traps, both using backwards-written Rs as part of their 
  Common-language signage; one backwards-written R can be played for laughs, but two 
  strikes me as repetitive.  There is also a certain amount of repetitiveness to the 
  humanoid encounters as a whole in the Mouths of Madness, as well as with the goblins 
  and kobolds in the Castle Precincts and The Store Rooms.  The encounters have been 
  individuated with leader-type challenges---chiefs, sub-chiefs, elite guards, shamans, 
  and witchdoctors help to provide variety within a tribal group, but across the humanoid 
  encounters when taken as a whole, they tend to grow  too similar.  Perhaps some 
  additional use of helper animals, more differentiated trap types, a few stronger alliances 
  among the enclaves, or adding additional non-humanoid encounters (either as 
  prisoners perhaps, or within one or more of the lairs) would have provided additional 
  variety.  If these gripes sound like I’m reaching to find problems, I’m happy to report 
  that I am:  the encounters work, and work well:  they’re clear, well-written, and offer a 
  variety of challenges, and my nits and picks above should definitely be recognized as 
  such.   
   
  Among my favorite encounters in Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works are: 
   
  • 
  the Ogre’s cottage (Mouths of Madness #WD4) 
  • 
  the statue of Zagyg (Castle Precincts #10) 
  • 
  the cobbler goblin (Castle Precincts #22D) 
  • 
  the Moon Well/Fane to Celestian (East Wall Towers #T1-H. Roof) 
  • 
  the Great Hall (Castle Fortress #7) 
  • 
  the spriggans on the first floor of the Castle Fortress 
  • 
  the Chess Room (Castle Fortress #53) 
  • 
  the minstrel (Castle Fortress #56) 
  • 
  the dungeon-entrance guardian Dwarves (The Store Rooms #123) and Elves 
  (The Store Rooms #136) 
  • 
  “The Seven Geases” (The Store Rooms #137) 
   
  These number as favorites for a variety of reasons. I like the physical design of the 
  Ogre’s cottage and specifically its relationship to the larger dungeon environment:  more 
  “extended entrances” of this kind would have brought alive the spirit of the original 
  honeycombed hill of the Castle.  The original Castle dungeons features elves and 
  dwarves who controlled access into the dungeon levels, so they certainly played nicely 
  
  grodog_castle_zagyg_review_final.doc 
   
  Page 9 of 15 
  to my Greyhawk interests.  The cobbler goblin is a wonderful tribute to Gary Gygax, on 
  a number of levels.  The Fane to Celestian/Moon Well strikes me as one of the most 
  original encounters in Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works, and reveals that that deity 
  accepts human sacrifices (or at least did in the past!).  The spriggans, Great Hall, its 
  minstrel in the gallery (a nice Jethro Tull allusion), and the statue of Zagyg are simply 
  full of whimsy and fun, while offering real challenges (and rewards to insightful players).  
  The Chess Room and The Seven Geases stand out as unique and interesting encounters 
  across the vast number of published modules I’ve read, run, and played.   
   
  In addition to these, many well-done, smaller design flourishes appear throughout the 
  adventure, including various inventive traps, a secret door at the bottom of a pit, 
  several secret doors/lairs/traps that are unknown to nearby inhabitants, a number of 
  expulsion traps which forcibly eject PCs from the castle, and the use of several 
  teleporters---more than I expected in the upper levels truthfully (and sometimes 
  accompanies by quips and puns from Zagyg himself!).   
   
  In the Castle Precincts introduction in particular, and throughout the CZ:UW 
  encounters, Gygax and Talanian offer concrete suggestions to transform the ruins and 
  initial dungeon level into a dynamic environment that will withstand repeated player 
  expeditions.  Some future events are pre-staged for the DM:  alliances and betrayals 
  amongst the inhabitants, bugbears with designs of conquest scouting for a larger force 
  due to arrive soon, hobgoblins digging from their Mouths of Madness caves deeper 
  toward the dungeons.  These seeds will evolve differently in each DM’s campaign, but 
  offer a glimpse into how the campaign dungeon should “come together” as its many 
  pieces are placed into motion during play.  This advice is useful, but also highlights 
  again the lack of a comprehensive vision to help make this dungeon ecology as a whole 
  come alive.   
   
  There is also little to no advice that addresses scaling CZ:UW to accommodate large 
  numbers of players, or multiple simultaneous groups of players:  six player characters 
  with six men-at-arms could make short work of many of the tougher encounters, if 
  played well.  I don’t consider these structural flaws, since few D&D groups today are as 
  large as when the Castle was first created, but such insights would have been welcome, 
  both from a historical perspective, as well as with the idea that the fearsome reputation 
  of the Castle will (hopefully) encourage some players to seek additional reinforcements 
  prior to commencing their explorations.   
   
  While portions of the writing in The Upper Works are reminiscent of Gary Gygax’s style 
  and tone---particularly in the various introductions; the Zagygian encounters peppered 
  with quips, puns, and humorous magic item command words; and in the smattering of 
  epicurean and flavorful domestic magic items such as the never-ending cigars---Jeffrey 
  Talanian’s voice is the one I hear most throughout the boxed set.  Talanian’s writing 
  style is clear, flows well, and has a bit of sardonic and sometimes biting wit to it that I 
  find engaging.  His descriptions actively engage all five senses, and brim with the 
  baroque vocabulary that sometimes sounds Gygaxian but more so recalls H. P. 
  Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Gardner Fox.  I don’t believe that it would be a 
  worthwhile exercise to try to deconstruct the words in CZ:UW to suss out which 
  Talanian wrote, and which Gygax wrote:  per many discussions online, it is clear that 
  while Gygax guided the arm and the hand, Talanian’s creativity was the animating force 
  behind the pen that carved the words of Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works from the ether, 
  and that built them into the fine product that it is.  He deserves heart-felt thanks for 
  helping to fulfill thirty-year-old promises, and for evoking Gygax’s vision with such 
  authenticity.   
   
  
  grodog_castle_zagyg_review_final.doc 
   
  Page 10 of 15 
  The design of the maps in Castle Zagyg is good, overall, and they are fairly well-detailed.  
  The large map for the Ruins of the Castle Precincts stands out as the best in the boxed 
  set in my estimation:  it retains an old-school untidiness that sets the stage for the 
  whole ruins and dungeons environment, and is reminiscent of the T1 Moathouse map 
  in execution.  The remaining maps are good, but don’t evoke the same grittiness, with 
  their cleaner, less-cluttered lines.  The Mouths of Madness map structure is 
  reminiscent conceptually of the Caves of Chaos from B2 Keep on the Borderlands, while 
  the connecting map for The Store Rooms dungeon level is built around the same micro-
  lairs concept, with semi-autonomous sub-sections (though clearly they are less 
  independent than the outer caves, since they do connect via the corridor paths).  
  Several “pinch points” of limited access segment the Mouths of Madness/The Store 
  Rooms map, while providing for a variety of alternate paths to access each micro-lair.  
  Even with the addition of the Mouths of Madness map connections, The Store Rooms 
  map is relatively straightforward, and I don’t believe that they would present mapping 
  difficulties for experienced players.  The maps are neither as complex as those originals 
  from Castle Greyhawk that I have examined, nor are they as complex as sections from 
  the Dungeon Geomorphs sets.  They are closest to Dungeon Geomorphs Set Three: 
  Lower Dungeons in their lack of busyness, but they offer more-regular and simpler 
  room/corridor configurations as seen in Set One: Basic Dungeons.  A number of ways 
  to delve deeper into the dungeons exist, but they provide access only as deep as level 
  three thus far (except perhaps the access to Eneever Zig’s Way, which will proceed down 
  several hundred feet if it follows the Gord story; exactly where it leads is not mentioned 
  in CZ:UW).  Thus, there is no easy access to the deeper levels, which the original Castle 
  certainly featured.  Like the encounters, I’m hopeful that this first joint dungeon level is 
  intended to offer more orientation and to help set expectations properly for novice 
  players, and that future releases in the line will mimic the original maps more-closely in 
  their design complexity.   
   
  The currently-known/currently-written entrances and exits into The Store Rooms and 
  lower dungeon levels are summarized in the first pages of book 5.  The summary details 
  the interconnections between the levels, although no lower-level specifics are provided, 
  as I alluded to earlier:  “Specific encounter numbers for the Deep Cellars (L2) and The 
  Dungeons (L3) are not necessary at this time.  Look for more specific information in 
  future releases” (The Store Rooms, page 3).  The list provided is not exhaustive---some 
  entrances were missed the chutes from the Castle Precincts to The Store Rooms #135, 
  and Castle Fortress are not mentioned; the Watery Caverns from Kuntz’s Dark Chateau 
  are alluded to in connection with a few encounters (WD#3, Y, Z) but no specifics about 
  how they connect are not detailed either.   
   
  The encounters and maps are well-written and well-designed, respectively.  Castle 
  Zagyg:  The Upper Works may be the first large-scale adventure module published since 
  the advent of the various “mega-dungeon” or “campaign dungeon” design threads on 
  Dragonsfoot, Knights & Knaves, and other old school sites and blogs.  It’s clear that Jeff 
  “ghul” Talanian has not only soaked up many design techniques from Gary Gygax 
  directly, but that these threads helped to shape the design principles of CZ:UW.  I 
  sincerely hope that these principles continue to play out in the lower-level dungeons 
  when and if they are published.   
   
  Castle Zagyg the Product:  the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly  
   
  The production values for CZ:UW are among the best I have seen from Troll Lord 
  Games:  they clearly put their best foot forward in the construction of this boxed set.  
  The adventure booklets have cardstock covers, and each features a cover painting 
  germane to its contents, although I miss the Jeffrey Jones covers first proposed for the 
  series.  The text appears in a fairly small font---it looks like about 9 or 10 point to me, 
  
  grodog_castle_zagyg_review_final.doc 
   
  Page 11 of 15 
  but I could be off---and is interspersed throughout with sporadic black-and-white 
  interior illustrations, read-aloud boxed text, the occasional grey-fill sidebar, bulleted 
  lists, and the judicious use of bold, italics, all-caps fonts, and such, to create an easy-
  on-the-eyes reading experience.   
   
  In the past, many TLG products have had obvious editing problems that intruded upon 
  and/or muddled and confused the reader.  That is not the case in CZ:UW.  While 
  various minor editing mistakes occur throughout the set, they remain unobtrusive, 
  infrequent, and don’t affect play at all (except in one instance where a trap’s damage is 
  missing, at The Store Rooms #114).  Cory Caserta deserves ringing praise for his 
  editorial management, since Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works is the best-edited and 
  best-proofed Troll Lord Games product I have ever had the pleasure to read!  I sincerely 
  hope that new products in the series arrive with this same physical quality and editing 
  acumen.   
   
  The same cannot be said for the boxed set’s layout, on a several fronts:  while the boxed 
  set is well-organized all-in-all, several cartography errors and graphic design decisions 
  impact the utility of the maps, a significant number of encounter stat blocks and text 
  segments are repeated throughout the booklets, and the production/print run seems to 
  have been rushed.  I’ll tackle each of these issues in turn. 
   
  • 
  CZ:UW does not include an index, and in a boxed set this large, it would 
  have been very useful; hopefully TLG will include one across all of the box 
  sets when the product is completed; they could do far worse than to leverage 
  the redoubtable Jason Zavoda for this effort! 
  • 
  no stats book or appendix (like Rappan Athuk, T1-4, etc.):  all-in-all, I think 
  that embedding the stats with the encounters is a good idea.  I already own 
  the Monster Manual, so a reduced or simplified stat block would have been 
  nicer.  Removing the stat blocks entirely would mean that the DM would 
  always need to use two books, which is a little less user-friendly, so this is a 
  good layout decision, even though it means that some stat blocks get 
  repeated over and over and over…. 
  • 
  CZ:UW’s multiple booklets---especially the map booklet---are an excellent 
  usage of the best advantages boxed set format, to make it unnecessary for 
  the DM to lug around the whole thing for each game session.  Several 
  encounter-specific maps or map-detail sections are embedded at the 
  encounter keys’ text (for example, the Ogre Cottage at Mouths of Madness 
  #WD4); unfortunately, the actual box is a bit of a problem, since the box art 
  and text are pasted on, rather than printed on the box surface---the box has 
  held up OK so far, but I can already hear the paper on the inner side of the 
  lid crackling, and expect that it will loosen further, bubble, and likely come 
  off entirely over time. 
   
  Cartography Issues 
   
  The maps bear the brunt of my production grumbles, and unfortunately the problems I 
  see appear most-frequently in the dungeon levels maps: 
   
  • 
  map icons are not consistently-used throughout:  at least three different 
  standard door icons appear on the maps (compare MoM #35 to SR #138 to 
  CF #CT-3D); some stairs-up show arrows and some don't (compare MoM/SR 
  map key to MoM caves O and K to SR#101 to CP #36-A to CF#CT-4D [or the 
  other corner towers on the Third Floor] to CP #37 A-1 or to the landings to 
  
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  Page 12 of 15 
  the right of #A4-a or CP #29, etc., etc.); spiral stairs differ (compare SR #101 
  to CF #CC-1 to CF #CT-3D again).   
  • 
  some key numbers and map icons seem to be missing (SR #118A doesn’t 
  appear on the map, SR #115 is missing arches, secret door from SR #132-A 
  to #132-B is missing, SR #145 spear trip missing) or are drawn incorrectly 
  (the three northern alcoves in SR #123 are very shallow compared to the 
  module text) 
  • 
  the placement of elevation figures on the East Mark Gazetteer folio map and 
  the Ruins of the Castle Precincts map is not consistent, such that the 
  elevations for the edge of the plateau and the elevations for the cave mouths 
  are easy to confuse when using the maps side-by-side (which is necessary in 
  order to view the truncated map areas if you don’t have the corrected maps) 
  • 
  I'm pretty surprised that they didn't print the Castle Fortress map on larger 
  paper, or at least over two pages in the map booklet; the Second and Third 
  floors are missing direction compasses; the walls of iron in #85 are not on 
  the map (and the caster level to try to dispel them is also missing); the 
  corner tower walls are drawn too thickly (the text specifies that the walls are 
  four feet thick, with the rooms twelve feet in diameter); CC#4 isn’t drawn on 
  the maps at all, nor included in the module as an encounter-specific map 
  • 
  the layout of The East Wall Towers maps could have improved by staggering 
  larger-sized maps instead of stacking the smaller-sized maps atop one 
  another while leaving at least four inches of space in the center column of 
  the map booklet page 
  • 
  the thickness of the walls on the maps contradicts the text in the adventure 
   
  Outside of the layout problems I detailed above, the cartography is, for the most part, 
  fine:  it’s functional, though not inspiring, and relatively undetailed.  Using color in the 
  maps for The Mouths of Madness and The Store Rooms would have helped to make the 
  maps more user-friendly for the DM, I think, by calling out teleporters, traps, poison 
  gasses, secret doors, and other dungeon features via different colors.  Another possible 
  improvement for a later reprint, perhaps.   
   
  Repeated Text 
   
  CZ:UW includes a LOT of repeated text, both in terms of the usual d20/OGL very wordy 
  stat blocks, wandering monster entries and stat blocks that reappear regularly, as well 
  as recap text for new monsters that are already flagged via asterisk as fully explained in 
  an appendix.  These are standard issues for any old school gamer dealing with 
  d20/OGL materials, but they’re not the only offending repetitions.  Sections of text are 
  repeated throughout, including long larder/store room contents lists (bulleted out), the 
  details on how loopholes improve AC notes, and the capacities of kegs and hogsheads.  I 
  was very surprised by some of these, since some could certainly have appeared once in 
  the glossary instead of repeating several times throughout the boxed set booklets.  
  Other offenders include map symbol/trap explanations (G = Guard, T = Trap, etc.), and 
  Open Door roll and Secret Door Detection roll variants.  Perhaps these, wandering 
  monsters, the glossary, and generic and repeating baseline monster stat blocks should 
  have been assembled into some sort of quick reference guide of some sort. 
   
  Production Seems Rushed 
   
  The production for the box seems rushed: there was no cover for the maps booklet (I’m 
  not sure whether it's supposed to have one or not, but it doesn't, unlike the other five 
  books), and its pages were also cut the wrong way (the interior pages stick out from the 
  center further than the edge pages).  In addition, the map booklet pages were laid out 
  
  grodog_castle_zagyg_review_final.doc 
   
  Page 13 of 15 
  with inconsistent map orientation (sometimes the pages read left to right on both facing 
  pages, sometimes the left page is left to right but the right page is right to left...), and 
  the map for the Mouths of Madness and The Store Rooms dungeon level doesn't have a 
  full bleed to print to the edge of the page and/or it wasn't sized properly since about a 
  3/8" is truncated all around the edges of the map, which does materially impact using 
  the map, unfortunately (as well as slicing into the key, the map's title, Gygax's name, 
  etc.).  The large scale wilderness map is basically wasted---it lists some encounters and 
  a pointer to the Dark Chateau---and I see little reason to have included that map at all, 
  especially since that same sheet could have provided a much-larger map for the Castle 
  Fortress, which is squeezed into three sheets in the map booklet, and is much-reduced 
  in size (or perhaps a castle environs map, to provide detailed context for the placement 
  of the Castle and its more-immediate surroundings).   
   
  The two-column text format is not always adhered to, and reverts to one column in a 
  few places.  Some pages end rather abruptly then continue in the next page (CF page 
  34; perhaps a picture is missing here?).  Many bulleted lists could be distributed in two 
  columns within a single text column to conserve space, while still allowing quick 
  scanning.   
   
  Artwork 
   
  Some of the illustrations from the illustration booklet and the box’s back-cover art are 
  reused in the adventure booklets, which is disappointing, but it does highlight the need 
  for more art in CZ:UW.  Many of the encounters would benefit strongly from additional 
  spot art, or from player handouts.   
   
  Jason Walton’s art fits the Castle Zagyg material well, in particular his 
  characterizations of the inhabitants as more-ribald and less-serious, as well as being 
  somewhat gritty.  Other than a few Egyptian-themed images reprinted in the Ruins of 
  the Castle Precincts booklet, his work only appears in the Maps & Illustrations booklet.  
  Walton’s image of the Outer Gatehouse (#9) is reminiscent of a piece from the 1983 
  World of Greyhawk boxed set.  Many of his character images are little too posed looking, 
  but he does capture the gritty sense of the setting well. 
   
  Peter Bradley’s interior art in CZ:UW falls into two main groups, for me:  illustrations 
  and sketches.  The illustrations that appear finished are fine for the most-part.  
  Bradley’s versions of elves or goblins don’t necessarily align to my own images of them, 
  but beauty is always in the eyes of the beholder, so I’m not going down that path.  My 
  favorite “finished” piece by Peter is the elf Fighter/Magic-User on page 2 of The Store 
  Rooms.  Many other pieces, however, appear more sketch-like and “unfinished.”  In 
  some cases that works fine (the monks on East Wall Towers pages 18 and 20, the EGG-
  tribute goblin on page 28 of Ruins of the Castle Precincts), but in many others I find 
  that style less effective:  the rest of just-mentioned goblin image, and the clerical 
  turning (??) and Wolverine battle on pages 32 and 37 of the Castle Precincts; the two 
  wererat illustrations in East Wall Towers (pages 4 and 7), etc. 
   
  I prefer Bradley’s cover art to most of the interior art, and like the covers to The East 
  Wall Towers and the Mouths of Madness booklets the best.  The former evokes Zagyg’s 
  accursed fog, billowing away, and features a gray hawk, which is a nice touch; the latter 
  is the most menacing of the covers, and I like the suggestion of the three avenues for 
  exploration, while the skeleton represents the dangers inherent in adventuring (whether 
  as a fallen PC, or as an undead about to animate and attack).  
   
  Summarizing Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works 
   
  
  grodog_castle_zagyg_review_final.doc 
   
  Page 14 of 15 
  I think that CZ:UW is an a excellent beginning for the core of the Castle Zagyg product 
  line, and am hopeful that the problems that do exist within it can be corrected 
  successfully in future releases---which I am definitely looking forward to reading and 
  DMing! 
   
  • 
  Greyhawk Heritage:  7.5 
  • 
  As a Non-Greyhawk Mega-Dungeon:  8.0 
  • 
  Adventure Design and Writing:  8.5 
  • 
  Editing and Proofreading:  9.0 
  • 
  Layout:  7.5 
  • 
  Art:  7.5 
  • 
  Cartography:  6.5 
   
  And the summary scores: 
   
  • 
  Greyhawk Overall:  7.75 (all scores minus non-GH) 
  • 
  Non-Greyhawk Mega-Dungeon Overall:  7.83 (all scores minus GH) 
  • 
  Production Values Overall:  7.63 (drops GH, non-GH, Adventure Design) 
   
   
  Begin Sidebar 
   
  Contextualizing grodog’s Ratings for Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works 
   
  Here are my thoughts on similar campaign dungeon products, to help give you a sense 
  of where CZ:UW ranks among its peers.  In each of these micro-reviews, I ignore the 
  original setting for the product (and of them, only Ruins of Undermountain really 
  belongs to a setting per se), treating them as stand-alone campaign mega-dungeon 
  products.   
   
  Caverns of Thracia (The Judges Guild, 1978; written/designed by Paul Jaquays)* 
  • 
  As a Mega-Dungeon:  10 
  • 
  Adventure Design and Writing:  10 
  • 
  Editing and Proofreading:  8.0 
  • 
  Layout:  6.0 
  • 
  Art:  8.5 
  • 
  Cartography:  9.0 
   
  Caverns of Thracia is the great campaign dungeon masterpiece:  it features a brilliant 
  three-dimensional design for the levels which is very challenging to explore and to map; 
  the module is Ancient Greece/Egypt themed, but not so strongly that the background 
  and trappings cannot be swapped out for other cultures or settings; it offers a good, 
  lightly-designed dungeon ecology; it is populated with a variety of encounters that play 
  to the cultural theme and are independent of it; and lastly, it features a ruined city in a 
  jungle wilderness in addition to the many dungeon levels below. 
   
  * Necromancer Games published a Third Edition/d20 version of Caverns of Thracia in 
  2004, largely written/designed by James Collura, and based on Paul Jaquays’ original 
  module.  I only recently acquired a copy, however, so I haven’t read it yet or included it 
  in my ratings above. 
   
  The Ruins of Undermountain (TSR, 1991; written/designed by Ed Greenwood)* 
  • 
  As a Mega-Dungeon:  9.0 
  • 
  Adventure Design and Writing:  8.5 
  
  grodog_castle_zagyg_review_final.doc 
   
  Page 15 of 15 
  • 
  Editing and Proofreading:  9.0 
  • 
  Layout:  10.0 
  • 
  Art:  8.0 
  • 
  Cartography:  9.5 
   
  The Ruins of Undermountain (TRoU) boxed set details Ed Greenwood’s premiere mega-
  dungeon from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.  TRoU summarizes the history of 
  the whole of Undermountain and it’s surrounding environs, and establishes the 
  touchpoints with the FR setting.  It is also the most-apt product comparison for Castle 
  Zagyg:  The Upper Works, given that it details only the upper-most levels of Halaster’s 
  dungeons.  The Ruins of Undermountain is an excellent product, and provides a 
  number of useful resources, including poster maps for all three dungeon levels (with 
  level three occupying two posters), cardstock DM reference cards (with various traps, 
  tricks, treasures, and dungeon dressing elements), and new monsters sheets.  The 
  inclusion of these fully-leverages the potential for the boxed set format.   
   
  Ruins of Undermountain felt more structurally what I always envisioned Castle 
  Greyhawk to be like (the Gygax and Kuntz version of the Castle, that is): large, sweeping 
  levels, lots of wide-open areas to get PCs lost in, and plenty of room for the DM to 
  customize it to his own campaign's preferences.  TRoU features many good and 
  interesting ideas for encounters, and various dungeon dressing elements to insert into 
  your campaign dungeon (traps, magical doors, etc.), and it lets the DM expand and 
  customize via the use of large unkeyed areas on the maps.  
   
  * I am ignoring the sequel boxed set Ruins of Undermountain II:  The Deep Levels 
  (1994), since it was a horrible product, especially in comparison to the first boxed set.  
  I’m also not taking into account Steve Schend’s three Undermountain expansion 
  modules published in 1996, since I'm not very familiar with them. 
   
  Rappan Athuk (Necromancer Games, 2001-2002, 2006; written/designed largely by Bill 
  Webb and Clark Petersen) 
  • 
  As a Mega-Dungeon:  6.5 
  • 
  Adventure Design and Writing:  8.5 
  • 
  Editing and Proofreading:  7.5 
  • 
  Layout:  7.0 
  • 
  Art:  8.0 
  • 
  Cartography:  8.5 (based on Chris Boll’s excellent maps, which are far superior 
  to those in the original books @ 4.5 or Rappan Athuk: Reloaded’s bland ones @ 
  6.0) 
   
  Rappan Athuk was published in three books, with corrected maps and extensive 
  wilderness encounters published online, and then revised and expanded into a boxed 
  set.  It’s a strongly-themed adventure (a lot of undead, and many ties to Orcus), which 
  is one of its key strengths and weaknesses:  if you’re not into undead then Rappan 
  Athuk is not the campaign dungeon for you.  Rappan Athuk is a great source to extract 
  encounters and levels for insertion into your campaign dungeon levels, but all-in-all I 
  find the dungeon levels to be too small in size (much like WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins). 
   
  End Sidebar 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/EXTRAS/Greyhawk/Castle Zagyg - Troll Lord Games/Third Party/Greyhawk Grodog - Castle Zagyg review - final.pdf