The community is really showing up! We blew through 300k so fast and now past 350k! This unlocks the Garham Village Map, with The talented Svetlana K, creating an illustrated version of it. Our next goal in sight is Double Maps!
Up Ahead:
Personalized Leather Covers
Svetlana K. Garham Village Map
Double Maps for Each Boxed Set
Castle Zagyg Custom Castle Keeper Screen
Thanks to you all we continue to head Onward & Upward!
This is the first of two crowdfunding campaigns. With your help, we hope to return to shelves worldwide Gary Gygax's Castle Zagyg. It is a monstrous project; one with with an incredible legacy! We hope to see all the material in Castle Zagyg released in 5 full color, hardcover volumes, each in its own box with relevant game maps. Written and designed to be played with Castles & Crusades.
The five Box Sets are as follows. The first three are covered in this campaign:
This campaign (tentative ship date: 1st quarter 2026)
Castle Zagyg Vol. 1 The Citadel (the town of Yggsburgh)
Castle Zagyg Vol. 2 The Ruins (the castle, East Mark, Mouths of Madness, and dungeon level 1)
Castle Zagyg Vol. 3 The Cellars (dungeon levels 2, 3, 3a, 4, 4a, 5 and 5a)
Follow up campaign (expected campaign launch, 1st quarter, March, 2026)
Castle Zagyg Vol. 4 The Dungeons (dungeon levels 6-9 and sub-levels)
Castle Zagyg Vol. 5 The Caverns (dungeon levels 10-17 and sub-levels)
The Maps
There will be a number of maps in each box: 2, 4, and 8, respectively. These maps will be a combination of illustrated and technical. The talented Svetlana K has come aboard to render the illustrated maps of the East Mark, the Environs of Castle Zagyg, and the city of Yggsburgh itself. You may recognize her work from our recently released Engineering Villages! But in case you have not, here are a few samples from her X feed:
Castle Zagyg. Those words carry two meanings. In one instance, they refer to the massive setting and adventure sandbox created by Gary Gygax. This sandbox includes the Free Town of Yggsburgh, the environs around Yggsburgh called East Mark, the castle of the mad Arch Mage Zagyg, and the dungeons beneath the castle – all 27 levels. In its second meaning it refers to the castle itself, which has long since crumbled into ruins and now houses villains of the most dangerous sort.
To learn more about these ruins, refer to "The Books" below and go to Volume 2 The Ruins. There you will find out about all that remains of Castle Zagyg.
For now, let's return our focus from the ruins back to the sandbox.
Gary Gygax, one the founders of TTRPGs, created the dungeons of Castle Zagyg in the 1970s to playtest the then-infantile game of Dungeons & Dragons. He continued to play in these dungeons through the 70s and into the 80s and beyond. This was his personal campaign setting. In time it grew monstrous: 27 dungeon levels and growing, a castle, the area around the castle, towers, caverns beneath, and lastly the city of Yggsburgh.
He worked on this off and on for 50+ years. It was never published because he didn't really intend to publish it until much later. Gamers of all stripes began to call for it; time and again, they attempted to summon his pen to paper and the legendary dungeons that started it all to life.
He began work on publishing Castle Zagyg in earnest in 2003 with Troll Lord Games. He brought many writers to his side, most notably Jeffrey Talanian, but others like Michael Stewart also helped dive into this colossal undertaking. The first of the books was released in 2005, and more came after. We actually managed to publish all the way up to the 1st level of the dungeons. But after Gary Crossed the Bar, work on the project stopped.
It languished until Luke Gygax and others resurrected it, and very generously brought in TLG to help bring it back to life. We have jumped in with a gusto.
Who is Writing It? Volume 1, The Citadel is written by Gary Gygax. This is the content some of you have in Yggsburgh, previously published by Troll Lord Games in 2004; it will contain updated art on the cover and interior, plus new maps.
Volume 2, The Castle is written by Jeffrey Talanian. This originally appeared in Upper Works, published by Troll Lord Games in 2008. It will also feature an updated cover and new interior art, as well as new maps for more seamless play.
Volume 3, The Cellars includes one level written by Jeffrey Talanian (the 1st). The rest is being written by Michael Stewart. Mike has written and published a number of adventures through Troll Lord Games, and his writing style fits Castle Zagyg perfectly. Couple that with his work on Yggsburgh alongside Gary Gygax, and he is the perfect candidate for the task. He is back on board to pore over Gary's original notes and maps and to create the dungeon that many of us have longed for, and many more never knew they wanted.
The Citadel offers the perfect launch point for adventures toward the dungeons of Castle Zagyg, as well as in Yggsburgh itself. This setting guide is replete with descriptions of the town’s history, governance, culture, the people who live there, and their preferred methods and customs in business and trade, to name a few. Yggburgh’s lively sprawl of neighborhoods are fully detailed and ready for exploration: from the Outs, where people live just beyond the law, to the Temple District, where priests pay homage to gods of many stripes.
Its hardy walls and cobbled ways provide ample refuge to those bold and worthy adventurers who come to the East Mark to plunder the dungeon deeps of the Mad Mage. Beyond the protective covering of the town’s walls and the deep waters of the Urt and Nemo Rivers, there lies a vast rolling countryside that yawns from the Glittering Knobs to the Lonely Valley.
The Citadel is a complete setting guide for the town of Yggsburgh and the Outs neighborhood. It contains hundreds of hours of adventuring content and can be easily ported to any other fantasy campaign setting.
What to Expect!
A full setting guide for Yggsburgh and the Outs neighborhood
A Map of the Town of Yggsburgh
Nine Interior Maps of Points of Interest
600+ Non-Player Characters
30+ Random Encounter and Event Tables
50+ Random Encounters, offering hundreds of potential adventure venues
Orders of Battle for everything from Goblins to Knights
Crime and Punishment in Yggsburgh
New Monsters, Magic Items & Spells for the Castles & Crusades® Role Playing Game
Over 1000 Adventures and Adventure ideas!
Volume Two
Passing through the eves of Little Hillwood, one comes upon the Old Castle Track. This overgrown lane wends its way through the cacophony of trees, bramble, bush, and briar until it ends quite abruptly at a jutting berm, which houses the long stone walls of a clearly abandoned castle. The castle itself encompasses several acres of land, boasting high walls, looming bastions, two towers, and a manse; the latter overlooks the jumbled cliffs that slide down into the sluggish waters of the False Urt River. Vines cling to stonework as they climb the fortress. The battlements have long since been darkened by nature’s abuse. The conical roofs of the towers spot gaps in the shingles. All stands in a state of disrepair; lifeless, still and quiet. The berm itself is riddled with gapping fissures, caves that plunge into stygian darkness, and apertures that emit nothing but dread.
A pall, pregnant with absence, hangs over The Ruins, as if the whole edifice clings to the earth’s surface, fighting some monumental weight pulling it into the deeps. There is a magic here, an unnatural magic; one that lingers, expectant and frenzied and deranged. The whole scene is a preternatural manifestation of some power beyond the pale.
These are the ruined castle walls of the infamous Arch Mage, Zagyg the Mad.
From atop the ruins, the rolling hills and nestled villages of the East Mark region come into view. The East Mark is a land rife with adventure; 60 different geographic locales, each with their own quest hooks and escapades, await you. Danger may lurk around every tree and bole, but at least you might meet your death under the open sky.
The East Mark offers a veritable mountain of adventuring content, with varied plots, themes, and adventures for players of all backgrounds and experience levels.
Castle Zagyg, Vol. II The Ruins consists of the Mouths of Madness, the ruins of the castle precincts, the wall towers, the castle fortress, the first level of the dungeon, and the surrounding East Mark region!
What to Expect!
A detailed setting guide for East Mark, including 60 geographic locales and the town of Garham
A complete setting guide for the ruins of Castle Zagyg, including the Upper Works, Castle Fortress, Tower Walls, Manse, and Mouths of Madness
A Map of the East Mark region and its surrounding Environs; over 1,500 square miles of adventuring terrain!
A Map of the Castle Zagyg and its structures
A Map of the Mouths of Madness and dungeon level 1: The Storerooms
100+ Encounter Areas in the Castle
120+ Encounter Areas in Caverns and Storerooms
Volume Three
Beneath the castle ruins lies a labyrinth of dungeons. Delved by the machinations of the Mad Mage, these dungeons claw their way into the bedrock. Here lie the many storied layers of nightmare and madness. The halls within lead to galleries, chambers, stairs to hidden grottos, and doors to rooms of jumbled chaos. All the mania of the Arch Mage— his cruelty, his artifice, and his dissimulation— lie in these darkened cells. For years without count he dwelt here, building a menagerie to hold the absurd.
These are first of the legendary Dungeons of Castle Zagyg. In The Cellars, the third volume of Castle Zagyg madness, you will hear the haunted beckoning of Dungeon levels 2-5, as well as their respective sub-levels: this totals 7 levels for your party to explore. The Cellars contains everything you need to delve into the Deep Cellars, the Dungeons and its sub-level The Arena of Death, the Arcane Workshop and its sub-level the Black Reservoir, the Eternity Galleries, and at last, the Catacombs.
These are the upper stories of a truly massive dungeon; it’s where Zagyg himself kept the bulk of his resources, where his servants dwelt, where his menagerie lay, and where all the creatures who caught his eye were bound. It is, in short, the storehouse of a madman.
Plunge into Castle Zagyg Vol. III The Cellars, and explore the upper works of this mighty world beneath out own.
Early Bird!: Pledge within the first 48 hours; this will enter your name into a raffle to win 1 of 5 copies of the East Mark Folio, which were signed by Gary Gygax back in 2004.
Early Bird Part Deux! You'll also reap new Boon Cards!! These will provide extra protection against the madness that is Castle Zagyg. Players can play these cards against their CKs or vice versa! These specialized handouts are designed to help keep you alive in the dungeon deeps of Gary's magi's madness!
$25,000 || Volumes 1-3 fund!! We go to press with all three books, and create their respective PDFs. Boxes are included!
$100,000 || A Cutaway of the Complete Dungeon! Gary Gygax left us a schematic for the dungeon itself; it detailed how the levels were connected, and contained notes on the depths of each level. We'll produce a nice cutaway view so you can easily visualize the whole deep dungeon from Level 1 to Level 17. The pdf of the Cutaway comes with the $80 and $180 pledge levels. The print and pdf of the Cutaway comes with the $230 and $450 pledge levels.
This is a sample of what the Cut Out will look like, taken from Ernie Gygax's and Benoist Poire's Marmoreal Tomb. This is the style we intend to render the Cut Out in.
$150,000 || End Sheets! Much like you saw in our recently published Gary Gygax's Hermit, we will reprint some of the key maps as End Sheets on the insides of each of the three volumes. These End Sheets come with all pledge levels who receive a physical book.
$200,000 || Ribbons! On adventures like this, it is critical to remember where your players are, or where they've been. We'll include a nice gold ribbon marker in each of the three volumes to help track your campaign progress! The ribbons come with all pledge levels who receive a physical book.
$250,000 || A Portrait of the Mad Mage himself! What would the the castle and dungeons be like if it didn't give you a clear image of who built them?! We are going to task Wesley Gardner, the primary artist from The Hermit, to paint a portrait of the Arch Mage Zagyg and include it with your pledge. The pdf of the Portrait comes with the $80 and $180 pledge levels. The print and pdf of the Portrait comes with the $230 and $450 pledge levels.
$300,000 // Personalized Leathers! Each of the leather books will come with YOUR name stenciled on the front cover. This reward is available for anyone who purchases a leather book.
$350,000 // Garham by Svetlana! Though Bill Edmunds will render a version of the village of Garham in the book, we’ll ask the talented Svetlana K to create an illustrated version of the village. Garham is a major village in East Mark, filled with NPCs and adventure hooks. This reward comes as print & PDF for the $230 & $450 levels and as a PDF for the $80 level.
$400,000 // Extra Maps! We’ll include an EXTRA set of maps in all three books, allowing you to keep one set pristine. This reward comes as print & PDF for the $230 & $450 levels.
$450,000 // Screens! We’ll create a set of Castle Keepers screens, specifically designed for Castle Zagyg, complete with encounter charts and other necessary information. This reward comes as print & PDF for the $230 & $450 levels. PDF for the $80 reward.
SHIPPING RATES outside the United States: We have partnered with a GMS distributing in the United Kingdom to bring shipping rates for pledges made outside the United States the lowest possible shipping rates. If you are located in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, Australia or New Zealand you will not have to pay the high shipping rates normally changed from the U. S. Post Office.
This amazing project deserves great art. With that in mind, we have brought on several new artists to help with upgrading the art, including new character class and monster illustrations. It is important to note that any art displayed on this project page or anywhere else is currently just conceptual art and not final.
We would like to give our heartfelt thanks to you for taking the time to support us and this project, be it as a backer or just even reading through and commenting. We are extremely privileged and honored to have the opportunity to pick back where we left off, bringing the works of Gary Gygax to all of you!
We know its a struggle sometimes to back all these amazing crowdfunding projects out there and still be able to meet everyday needs as well. We are happy to now be able to offer the ability to split payments for backers! You can opt in to this at checkout. Given the current parameters of this BackerKit feature, this will only be available for purchases of at least $150 USD. Please see our FAQs if you have any questions about payment processing.
Please note:
Your pledge will be split into 4 monthly payments beginning in April.
We will not ship any rewards until you have paid in full.
If you do not complete all your payments, we will not provide refunds on partial payments.
Due to logistics on the backend, you cannot access your survey in the pledge manager until after you have paid in full.
Shipping and sales tax (if applicable) will be a 5th payment after you fill out your survey.
