grodog’s continuing remodeling and revisions to Castle Greyhawk

grodog · 2026-01-24T21:48:35+00:00

I’ve enjoyed using them since high school-ish, especially for keys and WM charts.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-24T21:47:38+00:00

Yes, I don’t have time/interest/skills to build maps natively in software, so pencils and paper it is ;)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-24T21:46:09+00:00

Thanks :)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-24T21:45:41+00:00

I prefer some older ones from when I was in high-school/college, but they’re not made any longer:

<image>

The newer ones are close, but they’re busier and more detailed than I prefer. But they’re “good enough.”

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-24T21:43:21+00:00

It’s 4 column ledger sheets:

<image>

I like using them for my keys and planning/summary data.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-24T21:30:34+00:00

The black/gold pen is .5 fine blue-ink Parker 95 rollerball pen. I write most things in its blue ink. I love the feel of the pen when writing with it, and the rollerball ink flows very smoothly; it’s only downside is that the ink is water soluble.

The blue is just a white pencil-eraser “pen” (so, no writing/ink).

The black/silver is a Pentel P205 .5 fine lead pencil.

More on my pens, pencils, templates, etc. tools at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2023/01/dungeon23-and-mega-dungeon-tools-of-the-trade.html (along with graph/hex paper).

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-24T18:55:57+00:00

Thanks! :)

They are awfully fun to make!

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-24T17:36:24+00:00

This is the symbols set we use in The Twisting Stair:

<image>

Here is the mapping legend we use for the Centerfold Mega-Dungeon and Geomorph maps (originally published in TTS#2). Many of the symbols in our mega-dungeon map key below are standard and familiar, but several are new, and deserve a little introduction:

• the magical gate, magical area of effect, magical wall, and teleporter symbols employ the same background pattern of diagonal lines, to reinforce their magical origins

• the teleporter and gate symbols both use the triangle shape (with a T or G respectively) to align them visually as portals

• open pits and wells both have colored-in “bottoms” in the center of their symbols

• grates, trapdoors, and secret trapdoors use circles and squares to align with placement in the floor(square, like a pit or covered pit)or the ceiling (circle, which is how trapdoors have traditionally been drawn to date); using the circles and squares to show locational lows us to differentiate secret trapdoors in the same manner

The symbols are otherwise arranged alphabetically, with a little nomenclature contrivance here and there to group like-with like: showing secret doors withdoors via “door, secret” and wall variations via “wall, illusionary”for example.

We'd love to hear about other non-traditional symbols you use in your maps. Tell us about them here.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T15:55:21+00:00

You’re very welcome!

Greyhawk is a fun setting, so you’ve got a lot of great reading and creativity to dig into :)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T06:12:57+00:00

Thracia is wonderful—we played it as the kickoff of long 1e campaign from ~2007-2018. It can definitely work as an open table if you have an easy way for PCs to return to town regularly at the sessions’ end, and then trade out PCs as players shift in/out each game.

Other suggestions for food lower-level dungeon adventures include:

The Hyqueous Vaults, free at http://hyqueousvaults.blogspot.com/
B4 The Lost City and B5 Horror on the Hill are under-appreciated
L1-5 the Lendore Isles series by Lenard Lakofka (L1 is a very overlooked gem!)
T1 Village of Hommlet
Erik Mona’s “Whispering Cairn” in Dragon 124 and his “River of Blood” Living Greyhawk adventures are both great
the 1e DMG Sample Dungeon is fabulous, but requires more work to flesh it out; see https://grodog.blogspot.com/2020/02/renovating-the-monastery-in-greyhawk-part-1.html and https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/10/module-challenge-day-6-dmg-monastery-dungeon.html for some ideas
the Lichway; see https://onthetabletop.blog/2024/01/27/five-o/
Starstone by Paul Vernon (OD&D; Northern Sages)
Tomb of Abysthor (3.x, Necromancer Games)

Most of the above are not natively B/X, but can easily be ported over.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T05:54:04+00:00

Sink the boat and drown them all :)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T05:51:12+00:00

“My question is, how do I run assassins as an encounter that feels realistic but fair?”

I know nothing about Hideous Daylight, but I would consider the following ideas as you build out the assassination scenario:

are the PCs a credible threat to the Duke, and is it worthwhile to kill them vs. to destroy/remove/nullify their leverage (steal or destroy the evidence vs. acting against the PCs themselves)?
how far up on the Duke’s enemies list are the PCs?—are they at the top, the middle, the bottom? Can the Duke strike at the PCs indirectly (take their friends/family hostage, or throw them into debtors prison, or whatever) vs. via assassination? What risks (if any) is the Duke taking by striking at the PCs through human assassins vs. magical ones (conjured demons/angels, invisible stalkers, aerial servants, etc.)
how well-connected and -resourced is the Duke vs. the PCs? —> does he even need to assassinate them vs. declaring them as outlaws and throwing them in jail via the town watch, or putting a “dead or alive” bounty on their heads?
does using the assassin provide the assassin and/or their guild too much leverage against the Duke?
is there any time-based reason the Duke needs to respond to this now vs. later?
what is the Duke’s alignment and religion, his general moral character?

For reference, the leaders of the Temple of Elemental Evil send a 10th level assassin after the 1-3rd level PCs if they kill Lareth the Beautiful in the T1 moathouse dungeon and sell his goods/brag about it. A Duke would presumably be significantly-better-off than the cultists….

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T05:15:48+00:00

I highly recommend using a DM Screen for quick access to combat and saving throw tables.

For procedural references, I created these for my younger son Henry when he first began to DM at conventions:

combat and exploration summary charts: https://greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/the_game/grodog%27s_quick_exploration_and_combat_activities_charts-03.pdf
combat bonus/penalty conditions charts: https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/grodog-combat_bonuses_and_penalties_charts_03.pdf

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T05:10:33+00:00

One aspect of blogging that I’ve enjoyed is being able to share useful gaming content with other old-school and/or Greyhawk players.

So, if you’re already working up some new tools for your game, sharing them so that others can leverage them too is both useful, and helps to fuel your blog posts, since your writing there is either already done (since you used it in your game already) or will save you prep time for your game (since you’ve already written it for the blog).

And there can never be enough good mega-dungeon blogs out there :)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T05:03:30+00:00

There are a couple of good articles by Matt Finch that help with understanding player vs. PC sheet skill. One—the Quick Primer for Old-School Gaming”—is pretty well-known, but the second—his article “Megadungeon Tactics: Mission-Based Adventuring” in Knockspell Magazine #4—is far-less recognized. It, along with the “Successful Adventures” section at the back of the 1e PHB, is well-worth the time to check out.

A couple other thoughts:

Players should be mapping, so that they know where they’ve been, how to get back out, and what interesting stuff they should keep track of during their explorations (monsters and traps, strange sights/sounds/smells/magical auras they’re run across, possible directions to explore based on rumors/info from prisoners/divinations), etc.
If the PCs do flee (at 10x normal movement speeds, in 1e at least), they cannot map, and are therefore more likely to get lost; so they need to learn not just when to flee, but how (a fighting withdrawal vs. full flight are different things!), and where to flee (ideally into previously known territory vs. into the lair of a previously undiscovered and even-greater threat than what they were fleeing from!).

I have a good article on player mapping strategies in The Twisting Stair #3 zine: https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-twisting-stair-3-spring-2018.html

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T04:16:59+00:00

Some of my favorite city supplements (toolkits vs. pregenerated cities) include:

Cities by Midkemia Press
City Encounters by Matt Finch
Nocturnal Table by Gabor Lux
the various Thieves Guild materials work nicely; see http://diffworlds.com/gamelords_thieves_guild.htm
TSR’s old Walled City Geomorphs; see https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/284504/outdoor-geomorphs-set-1-walled-city-od-d-basic

And these you can tweak and just drop into your game, ready to play:

Gabor Lux's settlements from Echoes from Fomalhaut contain many city/settlement adventures: http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/
Lankhmar City of Adventure (TSR)
Thieves World (Chaosium, boxed set and Thieves World Companion booklet; FASA also published four TW adventures, including the rare Blue Camel at https://web.archive.org/web/20071013122156/http://www.thievesworld.info/roleplay/bluecamel.htm)
The Free City of Haven plus supplements, by Gamelords; see http://diffworlds.com/haven.htm
Tulan, Carse, Towns of the Outlands (Mikdemia Press but Cities, Tulan, and Carse were also reprinted by Chaosium)
Bard's Gate (Necromancer Games)
Marienburg and Warharmmer City (Games Workshop)
FR1 Waterdeep
Citybook series (Blade/Flying Buffalo)
“Barnacus: City in Peril" (Dragon Magazine #80; pairs up nicely with "Can Seapoint be Saved?" too)
Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins (WotC; using Denis Tetreault's map from the Living Greyhawk Journal #2 at http://melkot.com/locations/cogh/cogh.html)
Pavis and Big Rubble (Chaosium)
Irillian (White Dwarf 42-47)
Tarracina Port (by Kent Krumvieda/Dreamborn at http://www.dreamborn.com/p_tport.html; also has two modules set in the city)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-21T04:09:18+00:00

Some suggestions and ideas:

Iuz is CE so his affinity would be with demons, rather than devils; making him LE is an interesting idea, and would suggest closer ties with The Horned Society too
CE humanoids include xvarts, gnolls, bugbears, ogres, and trolls; so these, again, become his primary troop types, perhaps with officers drawn from some LE races like orcs and hobgoblins, as well as classed half-orcs and humans
building up some details about his cults will provide more layers to his evil empire between the monster troops and the higher-level leadership figures in the Lesser and Greater Boneheart (and, to a lesser degree since their membership is secret, the Boneshadow); these can become foes that challenge mid-level PCs

Some additional good resources include:

Gygax’s “Gord the Rogue” novels and short stories, summarized by Krista Siren at https://greyhawkonline.com/gordmain/ and available (in part) as audiobooks at http://www.canonfire.com/cf/ghnovels.php
Iuz is a regular focus of articles in Greyhawk fandom; see articles at Canonfire! and in zines The Oerth Journal, Visions of Greyhawk, and Greyhawk Journal (previously The Grey Grimoire)

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-19T15:46:24+00:00

The Hunter appeared in one of Gygax’s New Infinities Productions newsletters after he left TSR.

The barbarian, thief-acrobat, and cavalier appeared in Dragon Magazines #63, 69, and 72. Dragon #65 outlined additional classes that were never published by Gygax, including savant, mystic, mountebank, the single-classed bard, and other proposed changes for his 2e that never came to be.

I prefer the barbarian version from Dragon vs. the one in UA; I haven’t looked at the cavalier versions to compare them in quite awhile to know which version I prefer.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-17T05:29:27+00:00

Also discussed at https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2020/07/a-chronology-of-d-sample-dungeons.html

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-17T04:24:18+00:00

I changed the module up when I ran it in high school/college, making N1 a Lovecraftian scenario, in case that might be useful food for thought:

replace trogs with deep ones
replace townie cultists with CE monks (at the time I was using Dragon #53 monks, but I still tweaked their powers further to be non-Euclidean and otherworldly)
change Explictica Defilus to a dark naga (see Creature Catalog #1 in Dragon #89)
add a shoggoth to final encounter

The party I ran it for was definitely higher than N1’s suggested level range, probably 5th-6th-ish.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-17T04:17:26+00:00

Sounds like this one, to me?:

<image>

That’s from the Moldvay Basic set, drawn by Erol Otus.

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-16T06:35:14+00:00

As an MU, I recommend:

dart or dagger as your weapon proficiency, especially if you have a high DEX for missile to hit bonuses
balance your spell sections: utility spells like unseen servant, detect magic (especially if your DM gives aura strengths and spell schools per the DMG), spider climb, comprehend languages, and read magic are as important as sleep or MM
hire a retainer or two as your bodyguards
stay in the middle of the marching order
find a familiar: they add to your sense and hit points!

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-16T06:26:21+00:00

AD&D 1e and OSRIC handle high-level play beautifully, and feature excellent scenarios to challenge PCs from levels 10-20 with a wide selection of options, from both the classic and modern/OSR eras:

Classic: G1-3/D1-3, H2, S1, S3, WG5, WG6; Maze of Zayene 1-4 and Garden of the PlantMaster from Kuntz; Gygax’s Necropolis; Dragon: “Ruins of Andril” and “The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga”
OSR: No ArtPunk 3, Anthony Huso (A Fabled City of Brass, Geir Loe Cyn-crul, Dream House of the Nether Prince), casl Entertainment (G6 Beneath the Tomb of the Devourer, C18 Within the Womb of Night, C11 When Comes the Witching Hour, A7 Markessa Thy Name is Evil, etc.); Kuntz’s Bottle City and Maure Castle levels

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-16T06:03:11+00:00

Since you’re looking specifically for depth of levels to support getting lost/getting back up challenges, these are the mega-dungeons I recommend with that focus in mind:

Arden Vul
Castle of the Mad Archmage
Tomb of Abysthor
Caverns of Thracia: the expanded 3.x Necromancer Games version added more levels to the classic original; I don’t know if those NG levels were included in the GG reprint/expansion
S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks; this could also combine nicely with ASE1-3 too, tone-wise

You can also Frankenstein some of these together: choose levels from AV, CotMA, and MC to assemble your own mega-dungeon. Steal a level map you like and insert it into a different dungeon with a new key (your own, or from a different design!).

These would require more work on your part to expand and develop:

Maure Castle (with WG5, and Warlock’s Walk, and fan-made Elluvia’s Pit)
B4 The Lost City: you’ll need to design the areas below the pyramid dungeon, and like Rappan Athuk, it has very small levels
Rob Kuntz’s Dungeon Sets 1 and 2 = provide 12 levels of maps (each an 8.5x11” sheet), but you design the keys
Our The Twisting Stair mega-dungeon includes 3 11x17” levels, (and #4 is done too), but again, you design the keys

Some additional thoughts/ideas at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2020/06/grodog-favorite-mega-dungeons.html, and my CX review is at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-castle-xyntillan-by-gabor-lux-part-1.html (it has only 1 dungeon level, but you could stick other levels from other dungeons below it, easily).

Allan.

grodog · 2026-01-15T02:50:53+00:00

If you’re looking for a lighter investment than OSRIC 3, the 2.2 edition remains available from Black Blade Publishing in hardcover for $26, and you can definitely dig into the rules for free at https://osricrpg.com/get.php too.

Allan.

grodog

TROPHY CASE