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 based on the game of D&D.
Martin, a player in a game of D&D, touches a figurine of a warrior, and is unwillingly transported into the body of Milo Jagon, a warrior in the city of Greyhawk. Milo/Martin gradually meets others likewise transported to this world. Bound together by forces they do not understand, the players struggle to trust each other. Under the compulsion of a geas, everyone is forced to go on a quest. They eventually confront the one controlling them, the Gamemaster, and battle with him to regain control of their lives. Although they win, they find that they cannot return to "reality", and must remain in Greyhawk. Rather than splitting up, they realize they make a good team and decide to continue their adventures together. [1]
Gary Gygax co-invented the game of Dungeons & Dragons , and formed the company TSR in 1974 to publish the new game. Two years later, Gygax invited the popular science fiction/fantasy author Andre Norton to play a session of D&D set within his own home campaign world of Greyhawk. (It would be another two years until Gygax published details of this campaign world in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting .)
Norton subsequently wrote a novel titled Quag Keep that used concepts from the role-playing game. The 222-page hardcover book was published by Athenaeum Press in 1978. Just prior to the book's release, it was excerpted in Issue 12 of Dragon (February 1978). [2] It was the first novel based on a role-playing game, [3] the first to use the Greyhawk setting and the first to be based on D&D. [4]
In the early 2000s, Norton and Jean Rabe began to collaborate on a sequel to Quag Keep, but Norton died before the book was completed. Rabe subsequently finished Return to Quag Keep , which was published by Tor Books in 2006. [5]
Quag Keep was one of Norton's less successful novels. [6] Joyce Scrivner, writing for Graustark, found that "the concepts are much too strong for the book. The story is of course a quest. But there is not enough time spent on the characters' interactions or the story of the travel." Scrivner thought that much more could have been done with the plot, saying, "There is not enough of a story here. The book is entirely too short for the story/plot/characters." She concluded, "Interesting, but minor, this book could be a good first draft for a novel three times as long." [7] Chuck Schacht, writing for the School Library Journal, agreed that the book was not Norton's finest work, finding that the main characters "are insufficiently developed and in general too cold and competent to invite empathy." Scacht also found the ending of the book lacked a finale, saying, "Norton, with the deft touch of a master, puts them through their paces in exciting action scenes set in vividly evoked alien atmospheres — until she gets them to where they've been headed all along; but then she has a hard time explaining satisfactorily what it's all been about." [8]
Due to its cast of young people, Quag Keep received attention from educators as a good book for teenage readers.
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson.
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 Arneson's Blackmoor campaign predated it by about a year—the world of Greyhawk closely identified with early development of the game beginning in 1972, and after being published it remained associated with Dungeons & Dragons publications until 2008. The world itself started as a simple dungeon under a castle designed by Gary Gygax for the amusement of his children and friends, but it was rapidly expanded to include not only a complex multi-layered dungeon environment, but also the nearby city of Greyhawk, and eventually an entire world. In addition to the campaign world, which was published in several editions over twenty years, Greyhawk was also used as the setting for many adventures published in support of the game, as well as for RPGA's massively shared Living Greyhawk campaign from 2000–2008.
Andre Alice Norton was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
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 role-playing game. After he left TSR, Gygax continued to write Gord the Rogue novels for several years. In all of these works, the plot revolves around the adventures of a young man named Gord who rises from humble origins in the slums of a large city on the planet Oerth to become a powerful force trying to stave off the takeover of Oerth by demons.
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a 1980 adventure module for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game written by Gary Gygax. While Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is typically a fantasy game, the adventure includes elements of science fiction, and thus belongs to the science fantasy genre. It takes place on a downed spaceship; the ship's crew has died of an unspecified disease, but functioning robots and strange creatures still inhabit the ship. The player characters fight monsters and robots, and gather the futuristic weapons and colored access cards that are necessary for advancing the story.
The Keep on the Borderlands is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure module by Gary Gygax, first printed in December 1979. In it, player characters are based at a keep and investigate a nearby series of caves that are filled with a variety of monsters. It was designed to be used with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, and was included in the 1979–1982 editions of the Basic Set. It was designed for people new to Dungeons & Dragons.
An owlbear is a fictional creature originally created for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. An owlbear is depicted as a cross between a bear and an owl, which "hugs" like a bear and attacks with its beak. Inspired by a plastic toy made in Hong Kong, Gary Gygax created the owlbear and introduced the creature to the game in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement; the creature has since appeared in every subsequent edition of the game. Owlbears, or similar beasts, also appear in several other fantasy role-playing games, video games and other media.
John Eric Holmes was an American professor of neurology and writer of non-fiction, fantasy and science fiction. His writings appeared under his full name and under variants such as Eric Holmes and J. Eric Holmes and the pen name Sidney Leland.
Jean Rabe is an American journalist, editor, gamer and writer of fantasy and mystery. After a career as a newspaper reporter, she was employed by TSR, Inc. for several years as head of the Role Playing Game Association and editor of the Polyhedron magazine. Rabe began a career as a novelist for TSR and Wizards of the Coast, and over the last 30 years has produced over three dozen books and scores of short stories, at first in the genres of game-related fantasy and science fiction and later as an author of mystery novels.
The lich is an undead creature found in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Liches are spellcasters who seek to defy death by magical means.
James Michael Ward is an American game designer and fantasy author who worked for TSR, Inc. for more than 20 years.
Robert J. Kuntz is a game designer and author of role-playing game publications. He is best known for his contributions to various Dungeons & Dragons-related materials.
These works were written or edited by the American fiction writer Andre Norton. Before 1960 she used the pen name Andrew North several times and, jointly with Grace Allen Hogarth, Allen Weston once.
The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting and the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting are two closely related publications from TSR, Inc. that detail the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. Both publications were authored by Gary Gygax, and they were the first stand-alone offerings to provide detailed, comprehensive information regarding a D&D campaign setting.
Return to Quag Keep, a 2006 fantasy novel by Andre Norton and Jean Rabe, is a sequel to the fantasy novel Quag Keep written by Norton in 1978. Although Norton and Rabe began their collaboration in the early 2000s, Norton's death in 2005 meant that Rabe had to complete the novel on her own. Many critics were not impressed with the finished work.
Dungeons & Dragons novels are works of fantasy fiction that are based upon campaign settings released for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
The Dungeons & Dragons Gazetteer is a supplement to the 3rd edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
Saga of Old City is a 1985 fantasy novel by Gary Gygax, set in the world of Greyhawk, which is based on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
New Infinities Productions was an American game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements.
This is a bibliography of American game designer and author Gary Gygax.