Quag Keep

Rating:
Summary: Indifferent
Review: As a fan of fantasy roleplaying games (FRPGs) dating back to 1976, I bought this book back in 1978 when it first came out, on the recommendation of a friend at the time. As Mr. Folatelli (another reviewer) has already explained it, the story follows the journey of a group of FRPG players through the very game they were playing - that is to say, TSR's Greyhawk game setting. Interesting concept, but Mr. Norton made Greyhawk seem far drearier than it was when I played it with my friends (which I did for many many years, only stopping a couple of years ago).

The World Of Greyhawk setting itself is for the most part excellent - I **still** have the original materials dating back to c. 1980, as well as the newer "From The Ashes" edition put out in the mid 1990s - but this particular book was a disappointment to me. There were a few interesting little quirks to it (like how "Geoff", a country in the world of Greyhawk, is spelled "Geopf" in the book for some reason, and the term "war game" being used more than "roleplaying game", and of course visiting places in the book that I also visited in the game itself), but all in all it was not terribly interesting to me.

Maybe for me actually playing the game is more interesting than reading a story like this based in it. Your mileage may vary of course.... and if you know of a really good book based on the world of Greyhawk, feel free to tell me about it. But I would recommend the Dragonlance series by M. Weiss and T. Hickman to the reader if they were looking for a good FRPG oriented novel to read.

As they say, "'til the stars break...."

Rating:
Summary: Quag Keep
Review: I found Quag Keep to be a very interesting book. While it defiantly is different from the Role Playing Games we are used to and the Dragon Lance books about these games it is better for its differences. While at times the book is a little slow the storyline and characters are interesting. I don't think the book was meant to be exactly like the RPG, thus it can appeal to people who don't play RPGs. But if a person is simply looking for a book based solely on RPGs, Dragon Lance is certainly the series to read. Ms. Norton did an excellent job in the book Quag Keep.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting book for any long-time Greyhawk fan!
Review: This book was first published in '78, that's before the 1st edition AD&D books were published. The book has both Greyhawk heroes and a group of players and the DM who play a 'war game' (it seems the term role-playing game was not used yet) with tabletop miniatures. The Greyhawk adventurers are a mixed group of heroes united by bracelets containing shifting dice of an alien origin. They go off in a quest to understand what it is that joins them, starting out in the fabled Greyhjawk City and visiting various places in Oerth all the way to the Sea of Dust. Also interesting to note is the way the alignments Law, Neutrality and Chaos are developed in a simple way, just like in the original D&D.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting book for any long-time Greyhawk fan!
Review: This book was first published in '78, that's before the 1st edition AD&D books were published. The book has both Greyhawk heroes and a group of players and the DM who play a 'war game' (it seems the term role-playing game was not used yet) with tabletop miniatures. The Greyhawk adventurers are a mixed group of heroes united by bracelets containing shifting dice of an alien origin. They go off in a quest to understand what it is that joins them, starting out in the fabled Greyhjawk City and visiting various places in Oerth all the way to the Sea of Dust. Also interesting to note is the way the alignments Law, Neutrality and Chaos are developed in a simple way, just like in the original D&D.