Published in 1977, The Quest of Thane Tostig (QTT) is a piece of British wargaming history whichs gives insight into the hobby as it existed during the late 70's. I can recall the days of miniature gaming when our group freely mixed fantasy and historic elements and identified with individual miniature warriors in a manner we would later call role-playing. We called it "our personal figure" and it was an avatar of sorts as well as a playing piece in the game. I am assuming something similar occurred around other game tables both here in the midwest and elsewhere. Accounts I have read of the early games that lead up to the publishing of the white box sound similar in many ways. The QTT seems to represent that fantasy based war game that rather straddles the two sides of the hobby, traditional wargames with miniatures and fantasy roleplaying.
QTT is written according to the authors to compliment the Thane Tostig line of miniatures produced by Barry Minot (who cast figures for all the QTT characters and monsters). Emphasis is on a fast moving game and one that can be easily modified to suit the tastes of the players. The Quest is set in an historic England of the year 447, which would be around the time of the first Saxon invasions as described in the opening paragraphs of QTT. In the manner of many of the old adventure stories, the setting document is described as an ancient manuscript which has come to light and which describes the quest of one Thane Tostig and his boon companions as they strive to recover the sword Blooddrinker from the wood and fen sprites. Thane is a Saxon title similar to the "Sir" of a later era and Tostig a common Saxon name as are the names of the other characters, Edith, a wise woman (spell caster), Beowulf, a warrior, Cedric, a smith, Gurth, a spearman, Sigurd the archer, and Infang, Tostig's dog.
The opposition takes the form of the wood and fen sprites, who live in the dank woods and swamps and "delight" in capturing and torturing any humans they encounter. They are in possession of the "all powerful sword, Blooddrinker" which is the object of Tostig's quest. The sprites are assisted by a terrible wood witch and her retinue. Several other quests are alluded to involving the man-eaters Grendel and Grendelham, savage goblins called Scuccas, a two headed giant, winged elf-folk called Scinnas, Myrrdin the wizard, and King Medraut who commands the skeletal ghosts of some Roman legionaries. Tostig's last adventure is against Waerferth, a dragon guarding a hoard. The rules in this booklet only cover the quest against the wood and fen sprites. Presumably other scenarios were planned to cover the remaining adventures.
The rules cover the usual wargame topics defining troop type, movement, combat and morale. Because it is a "fantasy" game there are magic rules for Edith and the wood witch. Keyed maps are included similar to those found in early adventure/roleplaying games and include both wilderness and underground areas. Encounter areas are described much like the usual roleplaying adventure or dungeon.
Combat is simple involving a roll of a d10, a score of 0-5 is a melee hit. If the to-hit roll succeeds roll a d6 and the score indicates how much and to which part of the body damage is taken. Armour (British game!) reduces damage to areas covered. Heroes get two attacks per turn, monsters one. Each miniature/character has a number of hit points (Energy) that vary from 1 for weak sprites to 50 for Thane Tostig. Spells expend energy from the caster and generally heal, paralyze or cause loss of an ability such as armour's damage reduction. Some spell effects are automatic, other require a die score to succeed. A morale failure may cause figures to withdraw from combat.
The QTT and similar games (including Chainmail) were most likely many wargamer's introduction to fantasy gaming. Many players probably moved on to roleplaying games like white box because it's popularity certainly grew rapidly during the '70s. Some in the hobby would continue to seek wargames like QTT with a fantasy setting as evidenced by the popularity of the Warhammer (Fantasy) game released in 1983. At this point, I doubt I would ever want to play a game of QTT, but I find the insight it offers into the early days of the hobby fascinating.
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