New Darlene Map

[Scott]

In case you haven't seen it already, here the outdoor map:
www.trolllord.com/zagyg2.htm
Scott

[foster1941]

Ooh, purty. Love the Classic Greyhawky goodness (and all the wonderful place-names, but I assume at least most of those are EGG's doing, not Darlene's). Too bad she misspelled Zagyg, though... ;D

[GT]

Heh!! She simply used the original spelling (Gygax backwards!) All-in-all, a great map. I note similarities to the Gord book cartography!

[Falconer]

Wow. Excitement level rising...

[foster1941]

An observation or two -- since the book description says the map covers 'approximately 1500 square miles' and this map has 50x34 hexes (= 1700 total) my guess is that each hex is approx. 1 mile. At that scale Castle Zagyg appears to be about 30 miles from Yggsburgh by road, 25 miles by river (upstream), and 20 miles as the crow flies. So, until characters get high enough level that they can fly there, it looks like expeditions to Castle Zagyg are also going to involve some overnight camping in the wilds...

[GRWelsh]

Wow! Just think we've all been waiting for this, for something like 25 years... Some people longer than that. This is like a wish come true. Seeing the Darlene map gives us something solid to look at, a real sense of progress. It's really gonna happen!

Don't let that Mad Archmage of Geneva stop writing until this thing gets finished now!

[Scott]

foster1941 said:

An observation or two -- since the book description says the map covers 'approximately 1500 square miles' and this map has 50x34 hexes (= 1700 total) my guess is that each hex is approx. 1 mile. At that scale Castle Zagyg appears to be about 30 miles from Yggsburgh by road, 25 miles by river (upstream), and 20 miles as the crow flies. So, until characters get high enough level that they can fly there, it looks like expeditions to Castle Zagyg are also going to involve some overnight camping in the wilds...

I've noticed a few details that Gary have mentioned are missing from the map, so it's possible it is not the complete map. It's also possible there is a larger scale area map, or all of the 1,500 square miles detailed is not actually on the map, and just described. For example, Gary has already described the location of Dunfalcon city in relation to Yggsburg (300 miles by road, 250 by river to the west).

[Scott]

Another thing I just noticed. EGG originally described the castle's location as on top of the highest of the Four Tors, which would place the castle 3 or so miles away from Yggsburgh, which is where I assumed it would be loacted. Perhaps there was a mistake on the map, and Castle Xagyg was misnamed, or is something completely different.
Scott

[Scott]

Here's a copy of an old post Gary made on DF:
Ciao!

Please remember that this in not a World of Greyhawk product. That name is the trade mark of WotC, and all the material relating to it is copyrighted by them.

Zagyg's Castle is unrelated to their IP. It will be introduced by means of a very extensive campaign-base module, probably presented in a slipcase of a box, likely as ZAGYG'S CASTLE, YGGSBURGH, Part One. So far I have completed the map--some 45 miles by 32 miles in size. The main point on the map is the Free Town of Yggsburgh, a walled community of some 25K total population. immediately outside the town is a suburban area known as "The Outs". Around these places are various terrain featuresm roads, etc. Along with a hamlet on a large lake some considerable distance from the town, all the features are well detailed and many have encounters included, all have adventure springboards. I have yet to complete five dungeon-like encounter areas to be included in the work, as I am awaiting a complete list of creatures for the C&C rules.

What else can I tell you about the base work? The Table of Contents is too extensive to include here...

It has considerable socio-economic details, an exposition of the monetary system employed (substantially that drawn from the LA game as it is the easiest system to use IMO), information on the politics of the region, the leading characters of the town, the salient places for visiting/adventuring therein, and the armorial bearings for town, college, and leading aristocrats are given. Of course information of forces that can be fielded in toime of war is plentiful. There are notes on architecture, technology, and costume for use by the GM, as well as an extensive appendix detailing nuts & bolts information on Yggsburgh. Random encounter information is expanded and will likely be contained in a separate booklet.

Armed with ZC, Y, PO, the G< will be able to fit it into his own campaign world--the town lies some 300 road miles east of a large community on a vast lake, that being Dunfalcon City. Following the River Nemo west, Dunfalcon City is about 250 miles away. Otherwise, the GM can expand the small-scale map to include the area around it as described in the text.

I am in contact with Darlene, and she and TLG are now discussing her doing the main map for the project.

Rob is outlining ZAGYG'S CASTLE, THE DARK CHATEAU, Part Two, now. When that is completed we hope to begin on a developong a small, out of the way portion of the area map, some old castle ruins with dungeons beneath them, a place shunned by all but the rash and foolhearty:)

Cheers,
Gary

[Scott]

And this from the TLG web site description:
"Overlooking the small town of Yggsburgh, on the heights of the Four Tors, Castle Zagyg became a place of power where the Mage worked his arcane sorceries. He wove spells of great wonder and explored the ethereal dimensions where even gods and men fear to tread"
Full text here:
www.trolllord.com/zagyg.htm

Scott

[dcas]

Scott said:

I've noticed a few details that Gary have mentioned are missing from the map, so it's possible it is not the complete map. It's also possible there is a larger scale area map, or all of the 1,500 square miles detailed is not actually on the map, and just described. For example, Gary has already described the location of Dunfalcon city in relation to Yggsburg (300 miles by road, 250 by river to the west).

Well, if Dunfalcon is that far, it's definitely off the map! Remember that the map is only 1,500 sq. mi., or about 30 mi. by 50 mi.

[dcas]

Scott said:

And this from the TLG web site description:
"Overlooking the small town of Yggsburgh, on the heights of the Four Tors, Castle Zagyg became a place of power where the Mage worked his arcane sorceries. He wove spells of great wonder and explored the ethereal dimensions where even gods and men fear to tread"

Interesting. However, I remember a conversation with Rob in which he noted that the Dark Chateau is to Castle Zagyg what the Moathouse was to the Temple of Elemental Evil. So perhaps CZ is further away and the closer structure is the Dark Chateau.

[geneweigel]

From what I see, it seems like a nice map.

[GT]

This from Gary when I complimented Darlene's map and asked if Yggsburg was of Greyhawk size:

Greetings Greg,

Thanks. Darlene does good work indeed, and the map shown is almost the final draft;)

Yggsburg is a town that is nowhere near the size of the City of Greyhawk--about 25K including the criminal underclass and about 1K non-human residents.

Map scale is 1/4 inch = 1 mile.

Regards,
Gary

[dcas]

GT said:

Yggsburg is a town that is nowhere near the size of the City of Greyhawk--about 25K including the criminal underclass and about 1K non-human residents.

I thought I remembered that Greyhawk proper has a population of 30K (or, as Rob would say, 30m). Am I mistaken?

[geneweigel]

From what Gary has said Yggsburgh is essentially the original "town & dungeon campaign of Greyhawk" in feel and Dunfacon will be more in the style of the intended AD&D city seen somewhat in the novels.

He's told me again and again that it isn't Greyhawk anyway so...

Its a locale by the original team who were supposed to do Greyhawk.

Which is probably even better than using the mired down negativity of the Greyhawk medium.

[GT]

Greyhawk had a population of 58,000 (75,000 including the surrounding area) and, within its walls, the city was roughly 9 miles N-to-S and 6 miles E-to-W. I don't know the hex size on the full-scale new map, but on the original World of Greyhawk map they were 3/8 inch. I'm inclined to think that these hexes may be 1/4 inch, simply because of Gary's missive--but I could be wrong! Dunfalcon, rather than Yggsburg, will be the Greyhawk derivative... ^__^

[dcas]

GT said:

within its walls, the city was roughly 9 miles N-to-S and 6 miles E-to-W

That's really massive for a walled city -- much larger than, say, London proper. Of course the City of London's population is only 7,000.