Big Damn Archmage
Jeff Rients’s Big Damn Dungeons, about making maps of dungeons when they don’t fit on a single paper and don’t fit in two dimensions, reminded me that I’ve been wanting to link to the Greyhawk Grognard’s Castle of the Mad Archmage.
I’m doing so literally on the day that the Grognard has decided to move on from Greyhawk, so I don’t know what’s up for levels seven through thirteen. That still leaves us with five levels of mega-dungeon madness, so if you’re looking for something uniquely old-school to drop on your game, check it out. The Old-School Revolution has made some wonderful things available for Gods & Monsters players, and this is one of the best.
Don’t forget to grab the rest of the maps, too (and level 2). They’re included in the main PDF, but it’s nice to have standalones. Especially these beautiful non-repro retro blues. Note that level 1 doesn’t have a map, because level one is your adventure that the Castle is a dungeon for.
- Castle of the Mad Archmage: Joseph Bloch at Greyhawk Grognard
- “The module clocks in at around 180 pages, and a bit under 4 MB. My erstwhile cartographer, Joe Bardales, made new versions of all the maps (which helped a bit with the file size) and my indispensable proofreader, Steve Rubin, made the thing a million times more professional than my typo-laden manuscript would have otherwise been.”
- Castle of the Mad Archmage May Bonus Release Now Available!
- The latest version of the Castle, as well as the latest blue maps for levels 3, 5, and 6.
- Yes, We Have Maps
- Maps for the Castle of the Mad Archmage: blue level 4 and colors level 2, 3, and 4.
- Castle of the Mad Archmage Poster Maps: Joseph Bloch at Greyhawk Grognard
- The non-repro blue maps for all of the levels of the Castle of the Mad Archmage.
- Big Damn Dungeons
- “How big can we make a dungeon and get away with it? I think the answer is a lot bigger than we usually work with. Upping the scale of the dungeon map obviously costs in the ability to graph fine detail, so just deciding that one square equals 30' isn't going to get the job done.”
- Returning to First Principles
- “I think the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting, although it has been a favorite of mine for years, has finally passed me by. I deal myself a hand where I choose between revisiting the oldest material published, studiously ignoring the new, and go on to create my own campaign material based on those earliest products. So why not just go back to what I’ve done before, and create a world of my own, out of whole cloth? I’ve plumbed the depths of Greyhawk as far as I’m inclined to do. I’m moving on to something new.”
- Castle of the Mad Archmage Update
- “I confess I did not expect the outpouring of support and love for my humble attempt at creating a mega-dungeon that followed my announcement last Tuesday that the Castle of the Mad Archmage project would be suspended.”
More adventures
- The Adventure Guide’s Handbook
- Weave fantasy stories around characters that you and your friends create. As a Gods & Monsters Adventure Guide you will present a fantastic world to your players’ characters: all of its great cities, lost ruins, deep forests, and horrendous creatures.
- Use Gods & Monsters adventures in old-school clones
- Most adventures for D&D and D&D clones can easily be used in Gods & Monsters. And Gods & Monsters adventures should easily be used in the clones.
- Lamentations of the Flame Princess indie publisher
- James Raggi is producing some great stuff, easily usable with Gods & Monsters.
- Fight On! old-school gaming zine
- An amazing new resource for old school games—and that includes Gods & Monsters.
- Helter Skelter
- “There are things known and things unknown. In between are the doors.”
- Six more pages with the topic adventures, and other related pages
More old school renaissance
- Old School Cool
- Since I first made Gods & Monsters public over ten years ago, there’s been a groundswell of support for “old-school” D&D games. Since Gods & Monsters is compatible with adventures for original D&D and AD&D, it’s also compatible with adventures for most of these new games.
- Fight On! 7 is out (and I’m in)
- Fight On! issue 7 is out; look for a Gods and Monsters adventure inside.
- Lamentations of the Flame Princess indie publisher
- James Raggi is producing some great stuff, easily usable with Gods & Monsters.
- Fight On! old-school gaming zine
- An amazing new resource for old school games—and that includes Gods & Monsters.
- Dragonsfoot Adventure Modules
- The “home of First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” has a bunch of old-school adventures in old-style format.
September 3 2009: the Grognard himself wrote in with “Just a quick note; Castle of the Mad Archmage is back on the front burner. Expect Level 7 sometime soon.” See more at Castle of the Mad Archmage Update.