Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Q is for Quest of the Ancients

Q is for Quest of the Ancients, an RPG I discovered back in the days when I was getting "out of" D&D and looking for something else.

Quest of the Ancients can be described as a D&D clone, a D&D add on or as a collection of someone's house rules.  The author, Vince Garcia, had some publications before QotA came out including some material for AD&D2 and White Wolf magazine.  So he was not a noob to this.


QotA fills that same slot of near-D&D that you will sometimes find other games living in. Similar to the Atlantean series from Bard Games.  Lejendary Adventures is one that comes to mind as well.

Why did I pick it up?  Simple, it was advertised as having the most complete Witch class ever made.  I forget where I read that, but I knew I had to pick up a copy.  So I did. I was a bit underwhelmed, but there were some good bits.

While the game certainly has it's impressive moments, it never struck me as bringing anything new to my table.  I liked the Gypsy class, the Witch class was interesting, but everything else seemed like a poor-man's copy of AD&D.  There were a ton of classes in this book, something like 15 or more, and a bunch of spells.

I want to talk about the witch class for a bit.  Now in general I liked the witch.  Garcia was obviously pulling from some of the same books I was when he wrote up his witch.  Also (and you can tell by looking at the cover) this was a thinly-veiled attempt to have a "Stevie Nicks" character class.  I can't say I disapprove of that.  There was also a gypsy class which was divided into Male and Female gypsy.  I kinda made sense, kinda didn't.  I see what the author was trying to do, but I don't think it worked out as well as he liked.

I have always wanted to pick up the second edition.  I don't know if much has changed in it, but the cover art is much better (featuring the same characters).


I like this cover to be honest.  The Witch looks more like Stevie Nicks than ever and the wizard looks like he has gained a few levels.

I have wanted to get this, but can't actually bring myself to buy it until I see what some of the differences are between the editions.  I am hoping that there is something here above and beyond the first edition, but I am fairly sure there is not.    In the beginning of the 90's this might have been a cool game to play, but today it looks a little a dated.  A+ for effort though.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_of_the_Ancients
http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=8756

Buy
Noble Knight Games (best place to get it really)

ETA: And check out Jeff Grubb, also doing QotA for his Q post.  http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2011/04/q-is-for.html

6 comments:

Wymarc said...

I almost went with that for the Q item but could not remember enough about it to warrant putting it up there.

I had not seen the newer version and do like that cover better. I personally think the Witch as put forth in Dragons #43 and #114 were some of the best repersentations and of those I liiked the one in #43 best.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

The differences between #43 and #114 are mostly minor editing and bringing her more in line with the current rules.

The OotA witch is a bit over powered and from what I recall seems to draw from the Dragon #43 witch a bit.

JB said...

If only there WAS a Stevie Nicks class...

; )

Martin R. Thomas said...

Can you tell us a little bit about the gypsy class? You mentioned you liked it. What's it like?

Pulp Herb said...

Thanks for doing this as my copy isn't here yet.

BTW, thanks to you I have obtained a Stevie Nicks discography to play while reading this and creating a game.

Yes, I plan on playing it thanks to you.

Also, thanks for the pointer to Jeff Grubb's post on it, although I'm torn on how to read the last line. I do think his point that these games are built from the same spirit we're bringing to the table is true.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

The male gypsy was kinda like a bard/rogue character and the female one was kinda like a seer.

I'll have go over the book again and maybe do a proper deep-dive into it.