''Saga of Old City'' is a 1985 fantasy novel by

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

, set in the world of

Greyhawk Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''— Dave Arneso ...

, which is based on the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

role-playing game.

Plot summary

''Saga of Old City'' was the first novel to feature

Gord the Rogue Gord the Rogue is the protagonist in a series of fantasy novels and short stories written by Gary Gygax. Gygax originally wrote the novels and short stories to promote his ''World of Greyhawk'' campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' ro ...

. ''Saga of Old City'' starts in Gord's childhood, and ends with his triumphant return to

Greyhawk City The Free City of Greyhawk, also known as Greyhawk City and the "Gem of the Flanaess," is a fictional city-state in the ''World of Greyhawk'' campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Since the setting was original ...

as a young man and master thief. He learns his trade in the 'beggars' guild', and gets involved in the gang war touched off by the beggars encroaching on the official thieves' guild's territory. He travels and has a variety of swashbuckling adventures, ranging from participating in a war, to liberating a young noblewoman held hostage, to defeating a demon with a druid, Curley Greenleaf, and a barbarian, Chert.

Publication history

wrote a short story, "At Moonset Blackcat Comes", that appeared in the special 100th issue of ''Dragon'' in August 1985. This introduced Gord the Rogue to gamers just before ''Saga of Old City'' was scheduled to be released. ''Saga of the Old City'' was published in 1985; this and its sequel '' Artifact of Evil'' were the only two novels published under TSR's ''Greyhawk Adventures'' written by Gygax. This was Gygax's first novel, and it was edited by

Kim Mohan Kim Rudolph Mohan (May 4, 1949 – December 12, 2022) was an American author, editor and game designer best known for works related to the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Early life and education Kim Mohan was born in Chicago, Illinoi ...

. It was the first

novel released by TSR. It was not the first published novel to take place in this world; the first novel to feature Greyhawk was ''

Quag Keep ''Quag Keep'' is a fantasy novel by Andre Norton published in 1978. Written after Norton had participated in a session of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' with Gary Gygax, it was the first novel to be set in Gygax's World of Greyhawk, and the first to be b ...

'', published in 1978 by Andre Norton. In 2008

Troll Lord Games Troll Lord Games is an American publisher of role-playing games (based on fantasy and swords & sorcery themes), ''The Crusader'' magazine and other board/dice/card games. They are best known for the ''Castles & Crusades'' role-playing game. Th ...

released a new hard cover reprinting of ''Saga of Old City''.

Reception

In the ''

Io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

'' series revisiting older ''Dungeons & Dragons'' novels, Rob Bricken commented that "I feel very weird about hating a novel written by the father of ''Dungeons & Dragons'', but there's nothing fantastic about the fantasy in ''Saga of Old City''. It's just deeply, deeply unpleasant. So while I might give the technical writing a 4 on a 1d20—he's more competent at scene and actions descriptions than R.A. Salvatore in ''The Crystal Shard'', at least Salvatore's characters were distinct and memorable—but a penalty of -2, along with a -3 for its outright misogyny. In the end, that leaves ''Saga of Old City'' with -1—technically not a critical miss, but still an utter failure."

References

1985 American novels American fantasy novels Books by Gary Gygax Greyhawk books Novels based on Dungeons & Dragons {{1980s-novel-stub