CZ Act 1 "Alpha Preview" Map
TLG published a Castle Zagyg "Alpha Preview" to CZ1 backers on 2 April 2026, showing one-quarter of The Cellars, level 2 of Castle Zagyg:
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| Castle Zagyg Preview Map of Level 2, The Cellars |
Included along with the map were 12 pages of keyed encounters, all again labelled as an "Alpha Preview" so that we're ready for any and all typos and other errors in the text and map. I may review the encounter keys later sometime---the map is all that caught my eye in the content thus far.
Zach Howard of Zenopus Archives fame began a thread on 12 April 2026 to discuss the map and key details in Dragonsfoot's Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk forum: Castle Greyhawk Dungeon Level 2 [possible spoilers]. Trent Smith (of Mystical Trash Heap fame, and his Storm Fetish Productions rules and adventure designs are brilliantly Gygaxian) and other DF members have begun delving into the analysis, including me.
CZ Act 2 Backerkit Launch Map
The new Backerkit Castle Zagyg campaign preview launched on 7 April 2026 and revealed the complete map for the second level of Castle Zagyg, its full title revealed as Level 2 The Deep Cellars:
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| Castle Zagyg Level 2 Map, The Deep Cellars |
The lower-left portion of the map is same one from the CZ preview sent out to backers from the first campaign, but with further changes made.
The other three maps are all new to me, and I don't recognize them from my Castle Greyhawk or El Raja Key research thus far. I'll be doing some additional digging to see what (if anything) I find in my archives, but for the moment each of the other quadrants appear to be newly-revealed-to-the-public level maps, which is of course a wonderful thing!
CZ Act 2 Lower-Left Map
Here's a zoomed in version:
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| Zoomed-In Map Version of Castle Zagyg Level 2 The Deep Cellars |
Many differences exist between this map and the Alpha Preview version from earlier in the month, which I plan to review in depth alongside all three versions of the map.
Three versions, you ask?
TSR Version by Eric Shook
A much earlier version of same the lower-left corner of the CZ2 preview map was rendered by Eric Shook for the early 1980s Greyhawk revival at TSR, and was later sold at auction in the mid-2000s by Paul Stormberg of Legends of Role-Playing and The Collector's Trove fame:
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| Eric Shook's Castle Greyhawk rendering from TSR c. 1982 |
This map was one of six different levels auctioned at that time, four others from Castle Greyhawk's dungeon levels. The auction also included one of my favorite level designs of all time, which Shook designed for Steve Marsh's Starstrands planar project that was, alas, never published by TSR. That map was quite radical for its time!:
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| Eric Shook's unpublished Starstrands map c. 1982, original photo by Paul Stormberg |
Side-by-Side Analysis - Added 16 April 2026
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| All 3 maps compared by grodog |
Changes Logged Across the Three Versions
1980s Shook Map Changes
- Changes to fit the level into its new configuration as part of a larger, combined level spanning four separate original levels of one sheet each
- modifying the corridors along the north and east edges of the sheet to be 20' wide---which is a change I like, since I'm a fan of large corridors in general!
- adding entry points due north of 295 on the top edge of the map, and in the NE corner of the 20' wide corridor, along with another door on the eastern wall just north of 284
- simplifying several corridors by straightening them out, in particular in the SE quadrant of the level, but also in the NW quadrant's corridor north of 2-100
- Moving some corridor intersections and/or chamber walls:
- the huge NE chamber accessed by the long, winding corridors is 10' narrower (288 in the later versions)
- the chamber immediately south is also narrower by 10' (287 in the later maps)
- Removing most of the stairwells and pits, and the ramps/slides:
- stairs gone in the later versions include those that flank 2-108, east of 293 in the top-center, west of 285,
- ramps and/or slides at 2-101 and 289 are changed to stairwells; when first seeing this level, my speculation was that one of these was the slide to China at the bottom of Gary's original Castle Greyhawk
- Altering the flow of the loops Gary built that connect sub-sections of the level to each other, and simplifying access to previously-less-accessible areas:
- 285 now has 2 doors that enter it vs. just one
- the 2nd B to the right of 294 has two doors entering, instead of just one on the N wall, and either a false door on the S wall or a one-way door (this is the only door drawn as such on the level, so it's hard to know which the symbol might represent; it's possible the western-wall door leading into the 2-101 slide in Shook's map may also be another partially-drawn one-way door, which may edge the symbol closer to that function vs. false door)
- the archway into 284 is opened up, which creates a second entry point into that room
- the corridor west of 284 no longer intersects as a four-way east of 286, which squeezes out one of the rooms in the stacked room maze due south of 286; the "S" corridor leading to the removed pillar west of 285 also provided another route into 284 and 285, but in the later versions only one path leads to those keys now
- Simplifying corridor and room flourishes:
- removing the rounded niche in the N wall of 296
- squaring off the rounded edges of 2-105 and 2-106
- removing the pillar west of 285
- removing most of the "end cap" square pillars on long hallways like east of 2-105, west of 2-103, east of 2-101 (south of the added doors/secret doors)
- A covered pit appears in the eastern corridor leading into 2-105
- A well is added at 2-102
- Pillars are added to 288 and 296
- A door is added to the 290 stairwell, which is also moved deeper into the corridor vs. Shook's original placement
Changes from Alpha Preview to BK Launch Map
- The standard doors entering these key #s all became secret doors: O by 295, 2-103, 2-105, 2-108, 285, the offset series of secret doors that lead into 288 from the east, 291
- The dead-end corridor/corner south of 292 was added, which provides another entry point into the SE sub-section of the level
- The inaccessible dead-end east of 2-108 is opened up on its eastern wall in the BK Launch map, with what looks like might be an archway
In general, these changes restore some of the difficulty in finding and accessing areas that had been made more open in the Alpha Preview map, by making the chambers harder to find, or less-accessible in terms of obviously-open paths leading to them (while still adding the secret doors as further possible entry points). For example, in the Shook Map, 2-103 was only accessible from stairs down from its flanking chambers, which led to a seeming dead-end corridor, that seemed to have a trapdoor leading up into the center room.
Continuing Review
More to come! :D
Allan.
