Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Stackpole on DragonQuest

 In Issue #11 of Different Worlds, there's a lengthy review of SPI's fantasy roleplaying game, DragonQuest by game designer Michael Stackpole. Overall, the review is negative, though Stackpole concedes that the game was "designed with good intentions"  and contains "several good and innovative ideas … obscured by the clumsy methods used in implementing them." He concludes his review with the following:

Ouch!

11 comments:

  1. I am a "fan" of DQ, but I would agree with him.

    DQ has/had some wonderful fictional flavor and a handful of great ideas related to it (the "skill system", colleges of magick, some others) Unfortunately you it's surrounded by a typical overly complicated SPI wargame mentality and layout/production. Also had a couple excellent "campaign setting" booklets- Frontiers of Alusia, and The Enchanted Wood.

    You want to play it, sit down to do so, and for the most part it's just not worth the effort.

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    1. Has anyone attempted to reproduce a retro-clone/re-imagining of DQ, taking its best qualities and then re-presenting them for the 21st century?

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    2. Not to my knowledge James. There was a page by a "Snafaru" during the 90s and early 2Ks who kind of kept in on life support by offering up the never published 4th book and (IIRC) a computer game or utilities based on DQ , but I think any updates have been very scarce over the past 10 years or so.

      I'd love to see it polished up as well.

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    3. Seems like that site is still working, and says it recently re-uploaded the 4th book (which I guess was available since 2019?) this January.

      http://www.dragonquest.org/

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  2. Oh, that project. Yes, it has been talked about on some DQ mailing lists, but I think the core crowd these days have played it for so long they no longer see the cumbersome parts, as they are so used to it. That way there's too little incentive to move along with a fairly large project.

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    1. That's a shame, but understandable, for the reasons you cite. Still, there's a lot in DQ I do like, such as aspects of its magic system and it's a pity they're not more well known.

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  3. I played the boardgame based off the DQ combat system (Arena of Death IIRC) and found it clunky enough that I never bought the full RPG, which I played once in the 90s when a friend was trying to run every RPG he owned at least once.

    A clueless relative bought me Enchanted Wood though, and I really liked the setting and NPCs in it, to the point where I stole ideas from it for D&D and RQ games. Jingleshod (the Tin Woodsman with a name change) has shown up in other games as well. Found this fascinating post from the author from about seven years back:

    https://www.facebook.com/Jennell.Jaquays.Artist/photos/the-enchanted-wood-written-using-the-name-paul-was-the-last-game-adventure-that-/1508873496047424/

    Lot of history about the book there that I hadn't known before.

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  4. Read today's posts out of order or I'd have also asked - what did DQ's designer have to say in his "rebuttal of sorts" that followed the review?

    Also kind of curious what the more obscure reviews covered. I must have read them, but they're lost to memory at this point.

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    1. I might do a post on the rebuttal, since it's actually interesting.

      The more obscure reviews were for: Odysseus (FGU), The Tombs of Valla, High Fantasy, Fortress Ellendar, Moorguard, and Skull & Crossbones (FGU).

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    2. I have High Fantasy and Adventures in High Fantasy (which contains Fortress Ellendar and Moorguard, along with Terra Ash (another adventure) and a set of miniatures rules). High Fantasy is not a great RPG, but it does have a really good solo adventure in the back called Escape from Quez'Tecl. You might find the adventure interesting, as it seems to be mildly influenced by EPT.

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    3. Ah, that's coming back to me now. I remember Moorguard and the FGU titles at least, although I never saw them in person. Kind of interesting that FGU doesn't offer those in pdf - so much of the rest of their catalog is still available, the occasional "lost product" kind of stands out.

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