emperor norton's page

If used to reveal unknown information, how much would this spell grant to the caster?

Pretty sure you can still walk after casting fly, hence the spell is worded "The subject can fly"

Not must.
Can seems like the key word.

Cool. Thanks.

Can a character walk normally at any time while under the effects of a fly spell, or is that character flying everywhere she goes?

That's certainly one of the more popular theories.

--Erik

What a frickin' tease. A pox on you, Mr. Mona.

I smell Giants.

oji040870 wrote:

Is it any good as far as layout and production(Good maps!)

I'd have to vote no. The maps range from okay to bad to boring; there's no grid, and while the color coding is nice to keep track of elevation, there's a LOT of symbols and notations on the maps that aren't explained in the text, or mentions of notations in the text that aren't on the maps.

The adventrue itself packs 24 levels (each with about 30 to 40 enounters) into, I believe, about 64 pages. Which equates to a low estimate of 720 encounters. Using my time-honored estimate for Dungeon that, in 3rd edition, that tells me the adventure should be at least 360,000 pages; if we printed that in Dungeon (which averages about 850 words a page), we'd have a 424 page issue.

Now, back in the days of Greyhawk Ruins, encounters and adventures didn't need nearly as much wordage. But still, the adventure's pushing 1,000 encounters. Add in those 24 maps of dungeon levels, about a dozen pages of new monsters, and some opening info, and pow, you don't have much room for the adventrue's meat. As a result, the text is VERY dense and packed in tight, and the encounters read almost like an adventure outline rather than an adventure. And there's a lot of nonsensical stuff in there too, like a room that goes out of its way to describe how valuable the furniture is (one table's worth 10,000 gp!) but then when it mentions a ruby-encrusted spellbook, not only are no spells listed, but no price is listed! Further complicating issues is the fact that a lot of iconic Castle Greyhawk dungeon locations (like Fraz-Urb'luu's prison) are just missing. The only real classic element is the room where Zagig trapped the nine demigods, but in this adventure, that room gets about a paragraph of description and turns it into a fight with some umber hulks. And the further you get in the product the more obvious it becomes that by the time they got near the end, they realized that they were running out of time (the maps get REALLY dull...

Whether intended or not, this is the best indication of what we will and won't be seeing in Erik's version of Castle Greyhawk. Thanks James. I am truly psyched.

No offense, Rob, but I've read that you recently dropped out of the Castle Zagyg project and have left Gary to work on it withe people at Troll Lords. My question is: if you're done with the project (for whatever reasons), why spend so much time on a thread where the main topic continues to be Castle Greyhawk?

Seems odd.

Gavgoyle wrote:

Aberzombie wrote:

As far as Greyhawk minis, I know they did Mordenkainen. Not sure who else.

I think that the totallity of Greyhawk specific minis can be counted on one hand...

Mordenkainen, Scarlet Brotherhood monk, King Snurre, and Warduke (although he's a bit shoe-horned in). I can't think of any others off the top of my head.

Lareth the Beautiful

Aspect of Kord
Aspect of Nerull

--Erik

Yeah.

And that's about as much as we'll get out of him.

Inquiring wallets want to know.

No soup for you!!

FR gets enough love as it is.

'Erik Mona' is Gygax's new non-de-plume.

The royal eyes were pleased to see interest for Greyhawk returning in the form of a new work scheduled for release next year. What surprises await us? Will it be a sourcebook? Will it be Castle Greyhawk? Norton believes that question has already been answered.

When asked whether the castle was among a list of adventures scheduled for release, Wizard employees revealed that it was indeed being considered as a possibility for the Expedition series.

So to sum up, gentle readers: Admission + Cover Art + Wizard's perennial refusal to do a sourcebook = Castle Greyhawk. There can be little doubt at this point. Zagyg's nuthouse is right around the corner.

Will it be a great product? Undoubtedly. Erik Mona is writing it, for heaven's sake! Will it honor every last story regarding this legendary locale? Without question. We have only to look at Mona's previous work to reassure ourselves. Can we expect as many Greyhawk NPCs as possible? You bet! We've all read the tales and would expect no less of such an extended encounter. Is it irritating to answer your own rhetorical questions in a speculative review of a product that does not yet exist? Absolutely!

But what of Gygax? What of the man who has taken nearly thirty years to release his own version of this fabled castle? Word has the great one is finally putting pen to paper, managing a herculean 15-30 minutes of productivity per day between bouts of epic-level napping. Sources also report Gygax is suffering from curious memory lapses as the castle looks nothing like its original self. Many around the gaming genius have attributed this to Gygax's own unique talent to silmultaneously utilize revisionism and authenticity, a technique said to be possessed by only truly great gaming legends. Release of the castle and its environs is imminent, so set aside your Ben Franklins, gamers. This one won't be cheap!