What is this Qerth you speak of?

Qerth (rhymes with “worth”) is the Hex Games world of hack ‘n’ slash fantasy adventure, a world of surly dwarves, pompous elves, and kindly cheese makers.  You can learn all about it in Qerth: Apprentice Level Rules, available in print and in PDF.

Are Qerth and QAGS two different game systems?

Qerth: Apprentice Level Rules uses a (heavily) modified version of the QAGS Second Edition rules.  You need the QAGS rules in order to play Qerth, but if you don’t have a copy of QAGS Second Edition, the free Qik Start rules work fine (the Qerth: ALR PDF includes the QAGS Qik Start rules.)  Basically Qerth adds in rules that recreate the experience of an overly-complicated fantasy role-playing game from the late 70's or early 80's, while still retaining that QAGS flair.  

Isn't Qerth just a rip-off of Hackmaster?

Nope.  Steve Johnson and Leighton Connor first had the idea for Qerth back in 1998 or so.  They started work on it, got about a quarter of the way through writing the rules, and then put it aside.  They thought there probably wasn’t a market for a satirical take on sword-and-sorcery games.  This is the kind of intuitive grasp of the RPG market that has made Hex Games such a giant in the RPG industry.  Anyway, Steve and Leighton worked on Qerth on and off over the next decade, and by the time they finished it, Hackmaster had been around for years.  Which means that people can’t help but compare the two, which is unfair to both games.  If you actually read the games, they’re very different.  While Hackmaster is a loving tribute to old-fashioned gaming, Qerth is a vicious satire.  The two games have different goals, appeal to different audiences, and offer significantly different gaming experiences.  Plus, Qerth has the Disco Cat.    

Are you really planning to do any of those supplements you talked about in Qerth?

We’ve already released the Dungeon of Moderate Annoyance (Not Nearly as Bad as the Dungeon of Infinite Pain), so that’s one down.  How many more of those supplements we release depends on how much demand there is.  The more people buy, the more we’ll write.  Right now we are working on finishing up the Journeyman Level Rules, which we will release in the near future.  After that, we are committed to releasing the Master Level Rules and God Level Rules.  In short, we’ll release some of the supplements on that list, hopefully many of them, but definitely not all of them.