In the wake of the announcement that Jeff Talanian was no longer associated with the Castle Zagyg project, today Mongoose Publishing announced that they were re-launching the Lejendary Adventure game line under license from Gygax Games. I'd not be the slightest bit surprised to hear that Mongoose had also acquired the license to continue Castle Zagyg, but such has not been announced as yet.
I'll refrain from making any commentary about this move for the moment. Needless to say, I have some thoughts on the subject. I want to take some time to hunt down some details before saying anything further.
The chances of CZ actually been completed are approaching zero at an alarming rate, but I hope the project stays with TLG. They know and love gaming, and C&C is a great format for gamers of all editions to use.
ReplyDeleteMy fear at this point is that Gygax Games is drawing back all of its IP with an eye towards consolidation, to include releasing Castle Zagyg under the LJ system. Gary explicitly rejected that approach, as he saw a level-based game as necessary to capture the essence of the original castle (i.e., character levels are roughly equivalent to how many levels deep in the dungeon they should be).
ReplyDeleteWow, this is crazy news. Poor Gary's probably rolling in his grave. After reading the TLG's forums it seems as if Gygax Games is pulling all it's ip into one bucket...and then shopping it out to the highest bidder?
ReplyDeletePure speculation to be sure. But when you think about the sheer brand identity that is associated with Gary Gygax, and what that might command... You begin to see that certain stake holders might want to leverage that while they still can.
Hrmph. I agree with James, in that business and hobby often just don't coexist well at all.
I don't have a negative outlook about all of this. I have this funny feeling that interesting things are afoot...
ReplyDeleteIndeed. "Interesting" in the Chinese meaning of the term, perhaps.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a negative outlook about all of this. I have this funny feeling that interesting things are afoot...
ReplyDelete"Interesting" in the Chinese curse sense, absolutely. My gut tells me, though, that I probably won't be happy with the end result of these moves by Gygax Games. I could care less about Lejendary Adventure, but Castle Zagyg is different and deserves to be treated differently than it likely will be.
I'm with Jamie Mal on this one. I'm not getting a good vibe from all this. While I breathe, I hope, but that's about it.
ReplyDeleteCZ is something I have a lot of interest in--I really hope folks (like TLG) who will do right by it will get a shot at completing it.
Gary explicitly rejected that approach, as he saw a level-based game as necessary to capture the essence of the original castle (i.e., character levels are roughly equivalent to how many levels deep in the dungeon they should be).
ReplyDeleteNote however that among Gary's last creative work (Nov 07-Jan 08) was a system for level-based play in the Lejendary Adventure system. See this interesting (and long, and contentious) thread at the TLG LA boards:
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3672&mforum=trolllordgames
Thanks for that link. I never really thought much of LA myself and found its design quite contrary to Gary's earlier work, but this is very intriguing.
ReplyDelete