Quag Keep « Thread Started on Nov 30, 2007, 12:34am »
Has anybody read Quag Keep or it's more recent follow up Return to Quag Keep? What did you think of it? How would you say that it stacks up with other mid-70's fantasy novels and how did it influence your notions of the game (if at all)?
One thing that I was always impressed with was that the author, the late great Andre Norton, was introduced to the hobby by EGG and immediately loved it. Which is to say, a hobby that at the time seemed the sole province of young males was taught to and enjoyed by a highly intelligent woman of at least 60!
Joined: Jul 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 2,503 Karma: 57
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #1 on Nov 30, 2007, 12:50am »
I liked it. I have never played in Greyhawk at all, so it was kind of fun to get an inside look at it, so to speak.
I think the device used to get the 'characters' into the 'game' was a good one at the time, but it quickly got overdone (I've read a few books like that now.)
I very much enjoyed seeing the three alignments at work, but I didn't agree with the way you could smell 'chaos' on somebody. It worked for the book, though.
I only just read it a few months ago (spurred on, no doubt, by finding this forum).
Dieter the Deathless, anger-fueled fighting machine.
crimhthanthegreat Guest
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #2 on Nov 30, 2007, 7:56am »
Andre Norton was a favorite author long before that, so I was thrilled when she wrote Quag Keep, loved the book. I thought it was excellent, and I will be reading the sequel soon. I can't point to a specific thing I added to my game, but it likely did in bits and pieces here and there. Smelling chaos, to me is more something that a paladin does, being able to recognize chaos is part of the paladin thing.
Joined: Nov 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 724 Location: London, Canada Karma: 28
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #3 on Nov 30, 2007, 8:48am »
I was in the minority who could not appreciate Andre Norton. After being weaned on Zelazny and Moorcock, she seemed so tame in comparison. What I did take from Quag Keep, though, was how the D&D mechanics were reflected in her writing aned made D&D seem in consequence so much more alive
HIT POINTS Kelmult 15/22, William 12/20, Patronus 11/16, Jariel 14/14, Flandil 15/15, Asta 5/6, Einarr 5/5, Zaleeg 4/4
HIRED HELP Highdly 7/7, Sean 2/8, Jorman 7/7, Garfund 10/10, Kris 1/4, Petr 4/4
calithena Moderator Official "Fight On!" Scribe member is offline
Will Withstand Adversity
Joined: Jul 2007 Posts: 2,699 Karma: 91
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #4 on Nov 30, 2007, 9:33am »
Well, I don't want to be a wet blanket, but I guess my thought is that Quag Keep was OK. There were some very well-drawn characters and some aspects of the fantasy world were neat, but the setup took too long and the story resolved itself too quickly just when it was starting to get interesting.
The only Andre Norton book I've ever really enjoyed is the very first book in the Witch World series - but I felt that the second one was formulaic, completely lost the magic of the first, and I never tried any of the books after that. I guess Quag Keep might come in second, but it's a distant second.
I read Quag Keep and enjoyed it but I have never seen the sequel, I may have to go online and look for it there. I thought it was a hoot and I liked the way she did it, even though it doesn\'t really resemble any of my games it was still fun.
Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 432 Location: Hollywood, California, USA Karma: 40
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #8 on Dec 1, 2007, 1:07pm »
I had a friend who read Quag Keep back in jr. high and told me it sucked so I've never bothered with it. I have, fairly recently, read the first 3 Witch World novels, and found all of them pleasant and enjoyable enough, so perhaps I'll go back and pick this up some day. Probably not anytime soon, though. The Quag Keep sequel was co-written with (posthumously completed by?) Jean Rabe (possibly familiar to D&D fans as head of the RPGA in the late 80s and author of a lot of really terrible modules and game-based fiction), which is a huge black mark against it in my book, so I doubt I'll ever read it even if I do read and enjoy the first one.
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #10 on Dec 1, 2007, 4:25pm »
While I would be amongst the first to admit that QK was not great literature, I think that the significance behind the book was that it brought D&D from out of the cellers into the public mainstream, seeing that it was a novel from a well-known fantasy writer. It added a touch of legitimacy to the hobby by having Andre Norton saying "I like the game so much that I'm gonna write a book," back in the days when such a pat on the back was needed.
Plus, it had the kookiest elf name of all time, which was an added bonus
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 4,673 Location: Near Chicago Karma: 178
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #11 on Dec 5, 2007, 11:23pm »
I think that the fact that QK was done before most people really knew about RPGs is kind of neat and sort of makes it "cutting edge" for the day. Of course, lots of authors have taken that same "real people fall into a D&D world" plotline and run with it so often that it has become too cliche, but remember that it was innovative when it was written.
Having said that, it's an okay but not amazing story. I bought the sequel a year or so ago when it first came out and haven't gotten around to reading it.
If you're thinking about buying QK, I think that the Science Fiction Book Club has an omnibus edition which combines the two books into one volume....
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 696 Location: Wichita, Kansas, USA Karma: 27
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #12 on Dec 8, 2007, 8:51pm »
I wasn't impressed with QK either, and have no plans to read the sequel. Even the possibility of mining QK for original GH campaign details has kept me from re-reading it when I've had anything else I could do instead
Joined: Nov 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 245 Location: Behind the Orange Curtain Karma: 10
Re: Quag Keep « Reply #13 on Dec 10, 2007, 10:23am »
Just found a copy of QK at a used bookstore, so I'll be able to take a look myself in my 'copious free time' (thank you Tom Lehrer).... given the number of projects I have at the moment, that will be sometime before the next geological epoch.
![[Home]](http://images.proboards.com/menu/home.gif "[Home]")
![[New Topics]](http://images.proboards.com/menu/topics.png "[New Topics]")
![[Help]](http://images.proboards.com/menu/help.gif "[Help]")
![[Search]](http://images.proboards.com/menu/search.gif "[Search]")
![[Login]](http://images.proboards.com/menu/login.gif "[Login]")
![[Register]](http://images.proboards.com/menu/register.gif "[Register]")
![[Search This Thread]](http://images.proboards.com/search2.gif "[Search This Thread]")
![[Share Topic]](http://images.proboards.com/new/buttons/share.png "[Share Topic]")
![[Print]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif "[Print]")
Author
![[avatar]](http://images.proboards.com/avatars/devil.gif "[avatar]")
Logged![[avatar]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4qI6i7wKX1c/SdZoRveimpI/AAAAAAAAADI/N5Grto0YRg4/S220/Mage.JPG "[avatar]")
![[homepage]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/www_sm.gif "[homepage]")
![[avatar]](http://sailorsun.gemini6ice.com/surveys/minijupiter.jpg "[avatar]")
![[avatar]](http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d164/Calithena/FightOn1Cover.jpg "[avatar]")
![[avatar]](http://images.community.wizards.com/community.wizards.com/user/finarvyn/avatar.jpg "[avatar]"){kind=avatar}
