Little to report, but scheming continues apace...

I'm still here. I'm basically waiting until things begin to take some more shape, and all of my spare energy is going into prepping for the Greyhawk campaign I really want. Not owning any of Gary's C&C publications, I'm reading up on what others have said, particularly regarding Castle Zagyg: Upper Works.   Joe Bloch, Grodog, MerricB at enworld, the dragonsfoot and knights & knaves forums, have proved indispensible- thanks guys. Time is brief, but I will offer this summary of my intended plans for the Upper Works:

1) I for one love the idea of  the Mouths of Madness- Keep on the Borderlands is a favourite of mine, and I think a more sedate set of dungeon forays might stabilise the PCs as an adventuring party. Dealing with squabbling humanoids piecemeal is great for setting a tone of determined, intelligent play, and will help to build confidence in the group. I briefly considered simply redrawing the maps for the Caves of Chaos to fit the bluffs around Castle Greyhawk, but I think I'll enjoy the challenge of "working to order", so to speak, with my own take on the Kobolds, Gnolls, Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Ogres and exotic monstrous fauna included in that now prohibitively expensive tome,. I like it. I think things will be hard enough for the PCs downstairs, and I want a sandbox, as opposed to a 'the dungeon's over here' type of campaign.

2) I've definately settled on Castell Coch as my model for the ruined Castle Greyhawk. It is smallish, but I feel it has just the right atmosphere for the Mad Archmage's above ground demesne. At one time austere, self-contained and lavish, I imagine this as the Castle wherein a powerful but not yet irredeemably mad wizard might conduct the research that sends him, as Gary put it, "zany". The unfathomable depths of the labyrinth he subsequently constructed beneath gives the measure of Zagyg's insanity- I like the idea of the dungeon being a representation in three dimensions of the twisted, contradictory mental byways pursued by a peerless wizard pursueing knowledge best left alone. Castle Coch feels right to me. I want some Castle action in my game, but not enough to distract from the awesome catacombs that lurk below.

3) I've been working on a map of the surrounds. Here is what I've done so far:

There'll be a lot more trees/bracken/brambles. The Mouths of Madness will occupy both the castle-bluff and the gateway hill.  I think the shattered first bridge might prompt exposure to the caves at the feet of these crags for the PCs. The pagoda gatehouse will be on the gateway hill, the pylon gate on the other side, by the castle. I'm also considering placing an overgrown meditative garden on the gateway hill, rustling with menacing carniverous plants and perhaps a bored faun...

More soon.

The purpose of this...

Well, I've had a bunch of ideas for serious OSR projects I'd like to get into, some of which are pretty cool. Rather than making an abortive strike at a huge personal publishing effort of my own, prior to properly re-acclimatizing myself to 1st edition rules*, I intend, and hereby solemly commit to:

1- Putting my money where my mouth is, and getting an oldschool game running via the local gaming society, at least once per fortnight.
2- Getting my avid, long-time, and, by this point, rather flabby and arthritic, love of Greyhawk into fighting-shape with some serious research, as per Grodog, Grendelwulf or the Greyhawk Grognard. My first campaigns in AD&D were there**, it resonates perfectly with E.G.G's books, and is, well, bloody great. :)
3- Running a proper open ended hex/dungeon crawl, where the plans and actions of the PCs, noble or ignoble, cunning or foolhardy, direct pretty much everything. 
4- Using a megadungeon designed by one of my online role-models, a much more experienced and disciplined practitioner of the DMing artform than I am, as the centrepiece. This is for the purpose of (with any luck) learning how to go about designing a truly awe-inspiring megadungeon of my own.
5- Inserting smaller lairs/dungeons/ruins, plundered from elsewhere or designed by myself, around the Free City, for changes of pace. Rumours will abound at the Green Dragon...
6- Fleshing out a detailed numbered hex-map for overland crawling.

Point 4, at the heart of everything, gives my blog its name, and of course refers to Joseph Bloch's awesome ode to Gary and Rob's big dungeon: Castle of the Mad Archmage (found on Joe's page). I cannot begin to express my love for this wonderful project. The devotion that has gone into it, its scale, its sense of fun is a gift to the OSR. Thanks Joe. Consider this blog of mine a fanpage of yours. It will map out my journey on this awesome learning curve, and hopefully record the development of a new oldschool gaming scene in my area. No one seems to play these games around here now. Hopefully I can mess with that...

I don't have Castle Zagyg: Upper Works. Not many people do, sadly. I've been going through everything I can find, and at this point plan to use Richard Grave's The Mad Demigod's Castle (found here) for the Storage Rooms. I love that very much too. Thanks Richard.

As for the Castle Ruins, well, I want to work on those myself. I'm looking at real world ruined castles, like Heidelberg (on a slightly smaller scale), or the once-ruined Castell Coch. Heidelberg has an appropriate sad grandeur ( I particularly love the painting The Ruined Tower of Heidelberg Castle, which I modified for my blog-header), but Coch is concise, has three towers and plans of its ruined state available, and in many ways better serves my modest purposes.

For point 6 I'll be using Judges Guild products like Village Book I and Ready Ref Sheets. Also, Kellri's Old School Encounters Reference Book will also prove indispensible. Other awesome bits and pieces will be used and recorded here along the way.

The core of my game will be Labyrinth Lord using the AEC, but I have all the 1st edition books, including a spare Player's Handbook, so that stuff will be prevalent. There will also be a big fat d30 sitting on the table.   :)

I'm planning to make regular postings here, but will intentionally keep things concise. My goal is really to get an awesome game of D&D up and running, and that is where the bulk of my endeavours shall be expended.

Well, I guess I'm blogging again. A big thanks to all those in the OSR who have inspired me to do this! You'll find yourselves in my blogroll. Cheers!

Organized chaos at the DM's desk...

* I ran AD&D last year for a few sessions last year with some friends. It was great, but the long commute for yours truly (two hours each way) killed that campaign dead. I have run all sorts of stuff in recent years, but my actual playing experience with 1st edition has been on hiatus since about 1988...

** In the Theocracy of the Pale, of all places. My PCs were somewhat frowned upon as ne'er do-wells by all of the local religious conservatives, despite their various heroic deeds! Late in the campaign my PCs were in the Crystalmists getting thumped by giants. Can't quite recall how I fudged that Flanaess-wide relocation...