James M. Ward (1)Besprekingen

I have a 1st edition of this, and the cover is different.

Even for a Forgotten Realms/TSR book, this is incredibly bad. It might be good as a youngsters first fantasy novel (although that should be The Hobbit) but I can't recommend it for anyone else. The cartoonishly evil villains who manage to mess up each others plans over and over really bury this book. The heroes aren't much better, with the only interesting one being the Undead Paladin of Tyr.½

"Treasure Quests" by James M. Ward.

Printed and Distributed by Fast Forward Entertainment.

ISBN-10: 0-971-3234-7-X -- 160 Pages.

Treasure Chests is one of my favorite books by Fast Forward Entertainment!

First of all - the spiral-bound lay-flat binding is a stroke of genius! This tome can be opened to any page and will not lose that page!

The fantastic Table of Contents in the front of the book also serves as an Index. Generally, I prefer books with both a Table of Contents and an Index, but this Table of Contents works for this book.

The short Preface, Introduction, and a two-page section about "How to Use this Book", make up the front matter.

There are thirteen chapters, starting with an adventure for beginning characters called "Village of Stret", and ending with an adventure called "Tomb of the Ancient Lords" that I would only recommend for level 13 PCs or higher. This means that if you decide to use all of this book, it would make a great campaign world all by itself!

Each of the chapters also has a black and white map of the area the players are in. The Table of Contents has a bold-faced name for each level, so you can find where you left off easily, and you can find an area that matches up with the average group's level quickly.

The thing I like the most about "Treasure Quests", is that the sections can also be used as individual adventures that a GM can insert into his campaign world. Stuck for an adventure for this week's game? Get out this book, find the chapter that matches up with the party's average level, and have a blast!

These Fast Forward Entertainment books rarely disappoint, and this one has one of my highest recommendations!

relatively likable character shows some personal growth. OK world building, ok consequence model, nothing spectacular but a fun read

1st Edition, famous for having the Cthulhu Mythos in the text...which TSR did NOT have the rights for! A revised edition hastily removed the offending text.

Astonishingly awful fantasy. It's so badly written that I thought the first chapter was a parody or a play within the book--here's a sample line from the first page. "'Hook, me old friend, you've been complaining about storms for as long as I've known you. Here, take this to warm your salty bones,' said the friend while handing Hook a tankard of hot rum." The friend's name is Pegleg. Pegleg and Hook, I kid you not. They exchange a few lines of dialog about how they're hearty sea dogs, and then they meet (and are incredibly impressed by) Halycon Blithe, the newest midshipwizard in the Arcanian fleet. Here's what his dialog sounds like: "'I know I'll have to serve a few years to earn the respect of such men,' Halycon said to himself. 'But earn it I will, because I'm an officer with prospects, no doubt about it.'"

Ye gods! Published by Tor, horribly enough.

The original; a role-playing game set on a STL generation ship, where bizarre mutations and multiple breakdowns have created several generations of sentient being who have no clue they're on a starship.½

I preferred this book way above Legends and Lord because it contained characters from Call of Cthulu and from Faffrd and the Grey Mouser as well as numerous deities from various regions around the world. When they discarded this book for Legends and Lore, pretty much only the deities from world religions (mostly dead, so no, you don't get stats for Buddha) were all that it contained and in a way I was simply not interested in that. What I wanted was a fantasy world, and bringing real world (even dead) gods into the mix simply destroyed that (though that is what they ended up doing with the Forgotten Realms).
I must say that I do agree with another commentator on this book about the fact that it is useless. They contain the stats for the gods but, in all honesty, how are you supposed to kill them, and what is the point of having stats for gods – they are gods. Well, if you look at it in another light, the stats (as outlined in later volumes) are actually meant to be for the avatars, and if an avatar is killed, then the avatar is unable to return to the physical world for a very long time. On the other hand, if we consider that gods are simply human beings that have reached a certain power and status and are then elevated to godhood, then that is another aspect that means that they can have stats.
This is something that has been suggested by and explored through the various editions of Dungeons and Dragons. This idea of godhood came about in 2nd Edition where we had some Forgotten Realms gods killed to be replaced by mortals. Even then this was explored in the earlier editions, namely the editions which went from basic to immortal. In that edition (known as Dungeons and Dragons as opposed to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) once you passed 20th level you would become an immortal, and they had an entire boxset that allowed you to play an immortal. In a way it is simply a more political version of the game, but on a much higher level.
Mind you my theory (which is supported, especially when you consider that some of the Taoist gods came about from human beings) is that these ancient gods were at one stage humans that were elevated to the level of godhood. In a sense it is an advanced form of ancestor worship, where previously the ancestor was simply worshipped as a dead person, but over time, mostly centuries, the ancestor would cease to be human, and slowly become a god. Therefore, once again, having stats for a god may not be a bad thing, except that any hero worth his salt is not going to go out and attempt to kill a major god (though there are some modules floating around, such as Queen of the Spiders, were you do go and kill a god, but they tended to be minor gods or demon lords).

D&D game reference material great for adding excitement to the worlds and dungeons you can build. Sure gods don't actually die but you can defeat them and send them temporarily back.

I remember playing the original gold box computer game, which is better and the rewrite for NWN. So I had to read this book even if it was a drag. In the end I really liked it. What I found I liked the most was the pace, simplicity and immersion into the actual DND game setting. It is like the original Diablo game, simple and enjoyable.

Don't expect a ton of drama or a tightly woven who done it. It is a hack and slash book which tells a story probably written for younger readers. It is probably most enjoyed by DND players of the pencil and paper game or the computer games.

A decent book that reads like an actual Dungeons and Dragons adventure.

Decent example of how a Dungeons and Dragons adventure should run and an interesting read as well but considering the author skips over 60-70% of the computer game, it doesn't match up well with the original.

Do you know, if you leave a bored child in the same room long enough with this book, and Gods, Demigods and Demons, she may develop a somewhat sketchy education in the classics. Maybe not as good as reading Homer, but it will stand her in good stead until she does (about ten years later), and thanks to the broad swath of cultural mythologies included, she'll never come up short in an ancient history museum. Most of the names will be at least a little familiar. Oh, and I hear you can roleplay with it too.

Opening Sentence: ‘…It started snowing about midday, brief flurries that soon thickened and swirled into great heavy flakes, burying the outside in white…’

This book caught my eye on a sale table at my local newsagents and was a very quick read – 3 short stories all based on dragons and all set in and around Christmas:

The Knight, Before Christmas by Jeff Grubb
A family celebrates their midwinter holiday with the poetic telling of the tale a bold knight who confronts a dreaded dragon on Christmas Eve – cleverly based on the poem ‘It was the night before Christmas’ this was my favourite.

The Christmas Dragon by James M. Ward
The increasingly loud Christmas bell chiming of a small town really annoys a nearby sleeping dragon who stops the noise by stealing all the gold bells to add to his horde, soon he discovers the true meaning of the holiday season when his horde is coveted by an even meaner and nastier dragon.

Wrathclaw’s Wyrmtide, Or, The Secret of Treasure-Unlooked-For by Ed Greenwood
A heartless and greedy dragon, Wrathclaw, is forced to wake up to himself and look at his behaviour. In the past he drives off his beloved wife when he eats the eggs of their latest batch of hatchlings to avoid sharing gold. He kills his only son for begging gold to warm his mother’s winter bed – he says scornfully that no dragon gives treasure away! However, when the mystical ‘AllDragon’ gives a Christmas gem to Wrathclaw, its reflection shows more than he cares to see.

Nothing outstanding – but a great ’stocking stuffer’ for a dragon fan.

This is the best of the AD&D deity books. It contains heroes, monsters and gods from mythology, including Greek, Norse, Aztec, Oriental and Egyptian and others. The monsters, heroes and magical items are valuable for any campaign. It also contains a few pantheons from fantasy books, depending on which edition you have. It is definitely modified to suit a fantasy game, so don't expect lengthy or totally accurate descriptions, but it is very useful as a resource for a game master.

Halcyon Blithe is the fantasy equal to Horatio Hornblower, to Ramage and Bolitho.

A good deal of fun in a nicely constructed world. We need to see more of these by Ward and to learn more about the war that is taking place. Our hero grows with each book and adventure. The seventh son of a seventh son, a great and quick read.

I played this game book to death when I was in middle school. The Doctor Doom missions were my favorite, and often led to an unfair advantage over the FF player, but I never ran out of friends who were willing to play!

We Three Dragons is a collection of Christmas fantasies featuring fierce and unpredictable dragon protagonists.

In “The Knight, Before Christmas” parents read their children a traditional poem of a brave knight who challenged a dragon and the unusual deal that was struck to avoid bloodshed. The real hero is revealed only after the children are tucked in bed.

In “Christmas Dragon”, Lava the Dragon does not take kindly to being woken from a centuries long sleep by stupid manthings ringing bells of gold. Gold — the precious metal that nests his bed and feeds his power! It is time to remind these irritants of the universal law that the weak serve the powerful (if only they didn’t taste so stringy). The silly townsfolk of Ding struggle to save their hides, but none is more surprised than Lava when he responds to a small girl’s plea for help.

In “Wrathclaw’s Wyrmtide”, readers meet the dragon incarnation of the Dickens’ character, Ebenezer Scrooge, a most wicked beast even among dragons. He drives off his beloved wife when he eats the eggs of their hatchings to avoid sharing gold. He kills his only son for begging gold to warm his mother’s winter bed. No dragon gives treasure away! When the mystical AllDragon gives a Christmas gem to Wrathclaw, its reflection shows more than he cares to see.

http://johnmiedema.ca/2007/12/18/we-three-dragons-by-greenwood-ward-grubb-book-r...

In a world where ships of the line are carved from the body of living dragons and where officers wield magic comes Midshipwizard Halcyon Blythe. He came into his magic late in life and now has to try and catch up. This does cause him problems with his peers and he also has issues with understand his power and some of the implications.

I enjoyed the read, it did have room for improvement but I did find it an interesting read with characters I cared for.

This is a great first book it combines classic high seas adventure story with fantasy elements. The stories are fast fun and different. It is an interesting re-imagining of the the British navy at the hight of its power . . . if they had ships carved into the backs of dragons. Any one who loves the Hornblower novels , some of my favorite books, needs to read this series as well.

I love these books. The combine the classic high seas adventure story with fantasy elements. The stories are fast fun and different. It is an interesting re-imagining of the the British navy at the hight of its power . . . if they had ships carved into the backs of dragons. Any one who loves the Hornblower novels , some of my favorite books, needs to read this series as well.

The novel shows Ward’s in-depth knowledge of seamanship, fencing, and fantasy. While the majority of the book is spent in world-building and character development, the reader won’t feel that it is oppressive or in any way slows the book’s pacing. The story is vibrant and exciting. It would make an excellent young adult novel as well as being appealing to adults.

Conceptually, there are no books like it out there. It has a smattering of Patrick O’Brien, a dollop of Forester’s Hornblower, and a good helping of fantasy elements to make a delightful read.

Full Review at Grasping for the Wind

I read this book back in my D&D days. It's pretty interesting, giving a run-down on dieties from many world cultures. Much of it is based on genuine myth, with a bunch of stuff thrown in for role-playing.