Review: The Ruins of Castle Gygar
Credits
Publisher: Tidal Wave Games
Rules system: Generic OSR
Author(s): Onslaught Six, Roz Leahy
Artist(s): Brandon YU
Size: A5 zine, 64 pages
Review
The zine is an ambitious attempt to compress a megadungeon into a single zine. The setting is fairly standard fantasy, but the lower levels include plenty of surprises. Overall, I think that the zine is successful in its mission, thanks in part to the editing and layout tricks they use to efficiently communicate information without excess text. For example, switching between black and white text boxes to indicate light levels in each room is genius and would be incredibly useful at the table. The one thing that pulls Castle Gygar back from being a perfect 6/6 is the lack of faction information. I know it's a tall order for an already super-compressed format, but I think even a single spread that lists the major factions, the areas they control, and their goals is greatly needed. As it is now, I feel I would have to read an entire level first and then work backwards to find motivations. That could be a bit daunting given the interconnectiveness of the dungeon, but Leahy's terse and impactful prose blunts most of my concerns.
This is an awesome product and well worth the $10.00 price point.
Score
⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️/⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️
5 out of 6 pips.