Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.93
EAN num: 9780786943586
ISBN number: 0786943580
Label: Wizards of the Coast
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 224
Printing Date: August 14, 2007
Publishing house: Wizards of the Coast
Release Date: August 14, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 209433
Studio: Wizards of the Coast
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk is a Dungeons & Dragons super-adventure, designed for characters of level 8-13, that revisits Castle Greyhawk and the classic dungeon beneath.
This adventure is usable as a mini-campaign on its own, a story arc in a Dungeon Master's regular campaign, or as a series of small side adventures with a big payoff.
Like other adventures in the 'Expedition' series, this product takes a classic Dungeons & Dragons location, updates it for D&D v.3.5, and incorporates many new twists and surprises. This adventure also includes useful source material for players and a combat encounter format designed to make the DM's job easier.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I have purchased several of the new modules produced by Wizards of the Coast,including Expedition to Undermountain,Expedition to the Demonweb Pits,and Expedition to castle Ravenloft.This module is the best among all of those.The encounters are believable,the story plot is plausable and intriguing,and the recommended character level suggested seems to actually match the encounters unlike the previous mentions.
There is a wealth of information inside and plenty of story hooks to run side adventures without deviating to far from the original story goals.
I highly recommend this module,it should provide several months of play if used for a 4-6 hour session per week.
Rated by buyers -
This is a great book, full of very good material and not only for old Greyhawkers like me.
"Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk" is an adventure, basically, but it's also an unvaluable Gazetteer of the city of Greyhawk, bringing back to life the city with its places (from the "Green Dragon Inn" to Castle Greyhawk) its characters (from Zagig to Robilar) and its glorious history.
Even if you don't want to delve into the dungeons of the castle and into the plot you can find plenty of ideas and cues suitable for your home-made adventures.
Focusing on the adventure, the plot is not flawless, in my opinion: there are some strained situations where the motivations for the PCs are weak, but the overall impression is not bad. I appreciated the innovative managing of the encounters through sort of index-cards including maps and stats: a very good concept.
Finally, the edition is high quality: paper, art, maps are excellent.
Rated by buyers 
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As an old D&Der, I had played in this module many years ago and always loved it. Now with this new update to the old dungeon, and in the 3.5 format, I can once again return to a favorite "Dungeon Crawl" adventure.
Pro's: Well written and well thought out. Easy to use, Encounters referenced by page and section, Specific encounters published at the end of each chapter.
Cons: Having the old original module I was dissappointed that more of the dungeon wasn't mapped out (Spoiled by the old TSR adventure) for a DM to use. Some grammatical and spelling errors, but not many. As I said before, I was spoiled. But that's it for the Cons so far.
If you want a pre-written adventure, then this will last a DM a long time and provide great ideas for side treks.
Rated by buyers -
I am always willing to pan a bad product. This aint it!
After reading through the module I find it is well written, contains a cogent adventure path, new and recurring characters, and a myriad of side quests to interest players and intrigue DMs.
I think this super module redeems the name of 'Castle Greyhawk' and will prove to be one of the 20 best D&D modules if not amongst the top 10. It moves the level of game play up a notch by having riveting above AND below ground play potential. I'd say this module does for 3rd edition what the 'Temple of Elemental Evil' did for 2nd edition.
Rated by buyers -
Long before the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, heck before most of us even knew what a role-playing game was, there was Greyhawk. Created by Dungeons & Dragons godfather Gary Gygax, Greyhawk would morph from a castle to an entire world. This was the world developed by Gygax and other early D&D pioneers Dave Arneson and Len Lakofka. Over thirty years later Greyhawk maintains a mythical air. It's characters such as Mordenkainen, Bigby, Vecna, Tenser, and Lolth, whose names are scattered all about the D&D world in relation to spell names and magical items. Over the years, both TSR and Wizards of the Coast have put out supplements based in Greyhawk and the latest major edition is the Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, a truly massive campaign designed for characters of 8 - 13th level (Think higher rather than lower). And while it may be set on Greyhawks world of Oerth, it can easily be dropped into an existing campaign. One would have to think that Gygaz would have loved to have been able to produce a 200 plus page "module" but that was unheard of back then.
The lore of Greyhawk is some of the richest ever developed and frankly puts The Forgotten Realms to shame. The characters developed are some of the most interesting and vibrant characters ever created. The very first chapter of the book details many of these major NPCs such as Zagyg (Gygax spelled backwards) who built Castle Greyhawk; Iuz the Demi-God, Archmages Iggwilv and Mordenkainen, and Lord Robilar.
The developers could have just thrown a massive dungeon crawl at players and most would have probably been happy to run gleefully off to play in Greyhawks many levels. But you really do get a complete campaign of not only the castle itself, but its surroundings that is loaded with side quests brimming with intrigue and action. Many of these side quests are ongoing throughout the book and can be revisited numerous times over the course of the entire campaign. The Welcome to Greyhawk chapter details the town itself, popular stopping points like the Green Dragon Inn and Temple of St. Cuthbert; major NPC's, town culture and much more. Mini-maps of the towns various regions are included.
All that remains of the castle are the ruins of three towers: The Tower of magic, The Tower of Zagyg, and the Tower of War. The real action lies underneath these interconnected towers in miles and miles of dungeon levels. Each tower and its dungeons are full detailed with maps and encounter areas as well as random encounter tables. Even getting inside the ruins are no easy task as the players will find out in a series of daunting quests. The sheer scope of the entire adventure could be daunting and its really best suited to a very experienced DM as this much more than a usual hack-n-slash adventure. I mean, it's fun just to sit down and read through the levels. I'm still not real crazy about the major encounters being written up at the end of each chapter instead of just being there as you go along.
There are surprisingly few new monsters and magic items which is fine by me as there are MORE than enough to go around already. Literally this is an adventure which, depending on how often you play, should take players many weeks if not months to complete. It's big...it's deep...and its waiting...I really like this book although I'm partial to the whole Greyhawk mystique. I think the writers have tried to be faithful to Gygax's creation while adding their own unique handprints.
REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON
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