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Post by oakesspalding on Oct 3, 2014 14:21:52 GMT -6
I just made a blog post discussing the 1980 and 1982 covers of DragonQuest that I also posted publicly and to the OSR Google+ group. It was about the covers and not the game (I own it but have never played it) but it looks like some people might be interested in talking about the game. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2014 0:49:29 GMT -6
Yeah, DQ was one of the very best alternative System to AD&D - not just back in the day, but in General. While I know the system too little to tell how it works in sandbox Environments,
all the official adventures for the line, including that later AD&D/DQ hybrid, whose name I seem to have forgotten right now, were amazingly well done.
"The Enchanted Wood", probably my single favorite published adventure, together with 2e's "House of Strahd".
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Koren n'Rhys
Level 6 Magician
Got your mirrorshades?
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Post by Koren n'Rhys on Oct 7, 2014 7:54:06 GMT -6
I had a copy of the second, white cover version at one point. No idea where I even got it. I do vaguely recall reading through it but never played. Long lost to teh snads of time now...
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Post by makofan on Oct 7, 2014 11:19:36 GMT -6
I owned all three, but 3rd edition TSR was an abomination so I sold it. I still prefer 1st edition with its Action Points over the 2nd edition Tactical Movement Rate, but I seem to be in the minority
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Post by kenmeister on Oct 7, 2014 14:08:28 GMT -6
I *think* I have a 1st edition, but I'm not sure. I only bought it so that I could read Enchanted Wood one day and actually understand it. But then I went ahead and got other DQ adventures since they look cool art-wise.
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Post by jmccann on Oct 7, 2014 23:14:28 GMT -6
I owned all three, but 3rd edition TSR was an abomination so I sold it. TSR made a mess of every single SPI title they reissued. |
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Post by makofan on Oct 8, 2014 7:19:50 GMT -6
Yes, after TSR loaned SPI money and then foreclosed on them 2 weeks later, I have never bought another TSR product
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Post by oakesspalding on Oct 8, 2014 9:46:10 GMT -6
Hey makofan, can you direct me to a source for that (book, article or similar)? |
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Post by makofan on Oct 8, 2014 9:53:25 GMT -6
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Post by Merctime on Oct 8, 2014 10:23:54 GMT -6
I owned all three, but 3rd edition TSR was an abomination so I sold it. I still prefer 1st edition with its Action Points over the 2nd edition Tactical Movement Rate, but I seem to be in the minority , or anyone of course, can you chat a bit about this game? What do you like about it? I know nothing of it. If one were to look into this game with no knowledge, what would you recommend as a start? Are the adventures for this game valuable for say, OD&D usage? |
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Post by makofan on Oct 8, 2014 10:53:20 GMT -6
As a reference, my three favourite games in the 80's were Pendragon, Dragonquest, and AD&D. I am a board wargamer, not a typical role-player, so what I like in a game is not usually what my players seem to like. I see adventures or dungeon expeditions as logistical puzzles to be solved, not much different than planning and executing Napoleon's 1805 campaign against Austria and Russia. Character development to me is about power increase, not personality definition.
I liked Dragonquest as it was skill based, so it was a change from level-based. It was difficult (avoid combat in Dragonquest at all costs unless you are longbow from ambush) and it was completely open-ended. You could have 4 ranks in Spy, 2 ranks in Military Tactics, 6 ranks in rapier, and 2 ranks in Spell of Harming Entity, for example. It was gritty, money was always an issue, magic was unreliable. I never used the modules, I just made up my own adventures.
I hope to have a pBp Dragonquest game set up on my pBp board next year, set in the Judges Guild Wilderlands, based out of Tarantis. As I get closer to it, I will definitely invite you to take a look.
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Post by Merctime on Oct 8, 2014 11:01:05 GMT -6
Thank you very much for your input here! I'll gladly have a look at your game when you get it set up!
As a player, myself, I'm always keenly interested in getting to name level so I can build a stronghold and move into territory and army management! Alas, as most of the people I played with way back when were more into 'mechwarrior' type wargaming as opposed to fantasy, I never really got into it. I'd love to try some to this day. I only mention this considering your comments on character development; For me, it could easily go either way and most typically is a mix of both ideas. I do enjoy personality definition as well... but power increase is of course of interest to me.
I think I'll poke around the internet and see what I can find out about DragonQuest. Looks like it is an interesting game!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2014 12:38:31 GMT -6
I owned all three, but 3rd edition TSR was an abomination so I sold it. TSR made a mess of every single SPI title they reissued. Was this still Gary TSR, or Williams TSR? |
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Post by oakesspalding on Oct 8, 2014 12:49:10 GMT -6
Thanks makofan. That was an interesting (and sad) article. I'm still not sure why (or how) TSR was able to do what they did--'Within about two weeks of making the loan to SPI, TSR called the note and in essence, foreclosed on SPI.' Did SPI violate one or more conditions, or was it part of the deal that they could pull it at any time? (I assume that would be an odd loan.) I thought this quote was quite interesting: 'SPI did NOT die because of sf or RPG games. Most of the titles we did in that area were quite successful and lucrative.' An it sort of corrects me on a small point I made in the original blog post. |
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Post by jmccann on Oct 8, 2014 17:03:57 GMT -6
TSR made a mess of every single SPI title they reissued. Was this still Gary TSR, or Williams TSR? The TSR buyout happened in 83, and Gary lost control of TSR in 85. So it cannot be pinned on Lorraine. |
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Post by jmccann on Oct 8, 2014 17:11:10 GMT -6
I hope this is not too much of a derail but it is not completely off topic... maybe? Anyway here is an interesting take by a long-time SPI designer. I disagree with a number of his points but there is a great deal of interesting history in the article. www.wargaming.co/wargamearticles/farewellhexes.htm |
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Post by makofan on Oct 9, 2014 7:23:34 GMT -6
Yes, I like Greg as a designer, but Mr Simonsen is a bit more trustworthy. Still a good read
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Post by brumbar on Oct 9, 2014 19:54:46 GMT -6
Was a great game to play. Could be whatever you wanted to be so long as you were willin to pay the price. Like Mako i was more interested in making the strongest character i could. Could take or leave the fortress or base building
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Post by Starbeard on Oct 10, 2014 10:17:53 GMT -6
I owned all three, but 3rd edition TSR was an abomination so I sold it. TSR made a mess of every single SPI title they reissued. Alas, they didn't even give Universe the dignity of being reissued as a mess. |
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Post by makofan on Oct 10, 2014 11:54:52 GMT -6
I still have my original boxed copy of Universe. I'll have to start up a Universe campaign one of these days
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Post by Starbeard on Oct 11, 2014 5:02:57 GMT -6
I still have my original boxed copy of Universe. I'll have to start up a Universe campaign one of these days Me too, I love that game. I had a short-lived campaign going once. I remember starting them off with the sample adventure from the box set. They had been exploring the planet in their big rover ATV for a couple of days, and had even successfully captured a weird creature or two, and that night they came across a giant field of watermelon-looking creeper plants, which actually turned out to be a colony of hive-mind bat things, and the watermelons were eggs. Unbeknownst to the marine who went outside to clear the mess, the bats latch were parasites, latching onto the spinal column of another creature and taking over their minds. He didn't see one fly through open airlock to the depressurisation chamber of the ATV, and when he went back in to depressurise it got him. He walks into the ATV with his military grade weapon and starts going amok—eventually the pilot and scientist were able to get ahold of some guns and take him out, but by then he had already killed the scout (immediately) and the engineer and doctor (both of whom died after a couple of hours agony), AND destroyed the oxygen processing unit in the ATV. The pilot also had a heavy wound in his leg. The surviving pilot and scientist were able to calculate that if they were really careful, they could last something like 12 days and a few hours before running out of oxygen, and their pickup ship wasn't due back in the system until 14 days from then. They spent the remaining days sending distress calls into space and trying to fix the oxygen unit, which of course they couldn't do because neither of them had any training in that sort of thing. It was such a bleak end to things, but I think everyone was really impressed at how 'hard sci-fi' the whole thing felt. Back to DQ, though: never had a chance to play it, or even do more than glance through the rules, but if plays anything like Universe, I'm sure it's awesome. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2014 1:40:48 GMT -6
FWIW, I am looking to run "The Enchanted Wood" some time next year, albeit with a few tweaks, and set in that homebrew world of mine.  Thoughts, opinions, whatever, much appreciated, because it's really one of those oldschool behemoths of an adventure: Ages to prepare, if you catch it bad. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Oct 15, 2014 16:58:29 GMT -6
DQ is one of those games I really would like to,play but I never have. I bought the TSR version and wasn't impressed but then I found the 2nd edition and it seems pretty cool. I believe there's plenty of good info at The SeaGate Adventurers Guild site.
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