Castle Greyhawk

Castle Greyhawk is one of the central dungeon settings in the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The Castle was originally developed by Gary Gygax for his own campaign and later detailed for publication. Castle Greyhawk is also the name of a 1988 Dungeons & Dragons adventure module that offered a tongue-in-cheek treatment of the Castle. In 2005, Gary Gygax announced the release of "Castle Zagyg," his new treatment of the dungeon.

Location

Castle Greyhawk lies north and slightly west of the Free City of Greyhawk, across the Selintan River. The Free City of Greyhawk is located centrally in the Flanaess, the eastern portion of the continent of Oerik, the greatest of Oerth's four continents.

History of the Castle

The Castle was constructed CY c.320 by the wizard Zagig Yragerne. Known as "The Mad Archmage," Zagig ruled over the Free City of Greyhawk from the Castle for approximately the next 100 years, after which he abandoned the Castle and mysteriously disappeared.

Castle Greyhawk (module)

Castle Greyhawk is a comedic adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. The module bears the code WG7 and was published by TSR, Inc. in 1988 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules.

Plot summary

Castle Greyhawk is a large multipart scenario consisting of eleven dungeon levels below Greyhawk Castle, including "Where the Random Monsters Roam" and "The Temple of Really Bad Dead Things".

Publication history

WG7 Castle Greyhawk was edited by Mike Breault with Jon Pickens, with a cover by Keith Parkinson and interior illustrations by Jeff Easley and Jim Holloway, and was published by TSR in 1988 as a 128-page book.

The designers of this twelve level dungeon were each given a single level to develop.

Theme

In Castle Greyhawk, TSR parodied its own scenario style, as a send-up of the illogical gilded hole labyrinth dungeons. The product contains many references to contemporary popular culture, along with a bitingly satirical treatment of TSR's approach to earlier Greyhawk publications. The module's back cover states "The common theme of this dungeon is that no joke is so old, no pun is so bad, and no schtick is so obvious that it can’t be used to confuse and trip up PCs!"