Author Archives: Newt

Notes from the Abyss, the appendices of Crypts & Things

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This train of thought started with me thinking about the infamous Appendix N (the section of the 1st Ed Dungeon Masters Guide which listed all the books that had influenced the development of D&D).  Of course everyone knows that Appendix N stands for Appendix Newt, but they are just too scared to admit it 😛 But seriously folks there will be an Appendix N in Crypts & Things, since I think its important (and fun) to show the game’s influences. Initially I thought that I’d put it in the Crypt Keeper’s chapter (notes from the Abyss), then I thought that it would be more fun (and Old Skool) to actually have an Appendix N, in a series of Appendixes at the back. Then the more I thought about it the more it made sense. Both AD&D 1st ed and my beloved RuneQuest 2 have copious  Appendix sections, where a number of misclanous topics are address as well as giving very brief and to the point GM guideance notes.

So this is the road I’ll be going down with Crypts and Things. As well as my version of Appendix N, there will be appendixes that detail Crypt Creation, the Weirdlands, a City Events table,  a random stuff table (which includes tricks and traps) as well as some other topics, see the list below.

Crypts and Things Appendixes
A. The lifecycle of a character
B.  Blasphemous Locations
C.  Crypt Design
D. Random objects
E. Who is thine Enemy?
F. City Events
G. Araskia’s alternative experience system
H. Horror
I.  Into the Weird Lands
J.  Descriptive phrases
K. Killing Time
L. Love and Loss
N. Bibliography

River of Heaven playtesters needed

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Ok not the usual Fantasy Swords and Sorcery fare we dish up here, but OpenQuest related in that is OQ Sci-fi

John Ossoway is nearing completion of River of Heaven, and we need playtesters to give it a good run though.

It is the dawn of the 28th Century.
The Third Renaissance, or Bright Age as future historians will call it, is at its zenith.
After the catastrophic first contact with extra-terrestrial life that led to the horrific Solar System war, humanity clawed its way back from the brink and finally reached the stars. For millions of people, Earth’s sun is no more than another star in the night sky, a mote of light, a spiritual birthplace that they will never visit in their lifetimes.

It has been over a century since the Machine Civilisation gifted humanity technological marvels such as the Visser Cube, allowing wormhole travel across the vast chasms of interstellar space. Now interstellar distances grow ever shorter. How the myriad of splintered cultures view this gift varies. Some see it as a blessing, a way to draw humanity into a united whole. Others see it as a curse, robbing them of their individuality. And then there are those who would use it as a means to subjugate humanity and impose their own will upon all…

Across the river of heaven, humanity clings to a scattering of islands in a sea of stars. Players can take on a multitude of roles in this future: a crew member on an interstellar trader, a member of the mysterious Engineers’ Guild, a body-hopping Intercessionist agent – out to manipulate human cultures to its own secret ends, a Renouncer Zealot – intent on destroying Artificial Intelligence in all its forms, or perhaps one of the Reclaimers – planetary engineers dedicated to terraforming any viable planet they happen upon…

River of Heaven uses D101 games’ OpenQuest rules engine; a sleek and streamlined D100 rule set that enables you to maintain the tempo of your stories whilst keeping the rules simple and in the background.

If you want to be on the playtest email me at newt@d101games.com asap 🙂

Crypts and Things has gone to playtest!

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This morning I sent out the current draft of Crypts and Things to those people who answered the initial call for playtesters.

There should now ensue a a month or so of playtesting, during which time I’ll sort out finalising the text and layout in parallel.   Hoping for an August release 🙂

A good couple of days

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Things have been ticking over nicely here under the Mountain. Highlights from the bank holiday weekend.

OpenQuest is still Open and Legal, despite some what a troll on various forums with the lack of brain running around saying that now Mongoose has lost the RQ licence the MRQ SRD (which OQ is based on ) is invalid. I have it straight from the folk who matter that OQ is still cool with them 🙂

Crypts & Things reached two milestones this weekend. Internal play testing was completed and much fun was had by all 🙂 In short it survived contact with my players, much grisly fun was had and some useful ‘tweaks’ to the rules were discovered and no show stoppers. Milestone 2 was the completion of 90% of the Crypt Keepers section. All that’s left now is the CK’s advice section, which to be honest I’m going to mull over and take my time. External play testing starts tomorrow, so if you’ve already signed up expect a mail from me.

I’ve gone through my old RQ notes from the early 90s and found an absolute gold mine of material. I was thinking the other day it would be nice to have an OpenQuest scenario book of quick easy adventures, that are reasonably straightforward but still ooze D100 style. I was looking at writing this from scratch, then my old notes provided a good 5 scenarios worth 🙂 Obviously I’m going to have to put the time in expanding them from note form, but the basic ideas are there and that’s half the battle.

Finally the notes also offered up a good deal of potential OpenQuest goodness in the form of stats, which gives me a head start on my Karia book – which is a write up of my old Gloranthan campaign. Initially this book was going to be for HeroQuest only, but after a quick chat with the good folk at Issaries Inc they are happy for me to have OQ stats in the book 🙂 Karia was the RQ3 campaign where allot of the ideas emerged from so its nice to see the circle completed. To say that I’m a bit over giddy about his an understatement.

So the long-weekend was good for both OQ & C&T 🙂

So no more Mongoose RuneQuest

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As a long time RuneQuest fan,I wasn’t surprised by today’s announcement that Issaries INC (Licensor) and Mongoose (Licensee) were ending their agreement to publish RuneQuest.

Back in 2004 I was wildly excited by the announcement that Mongoose were bringing RuneQuest back into publication. That wild excitement died off somewhat during the playtesting phase, which was badly broken and lacking focus and direction, and the rather hit and miss nature of the new rules of first edition. It was reborn somewhat with the literal deluge of new stuff, especially the 2nd Age Gloranthan stuff (which for the record I quite actually like), which meant there was something new each month, and once again depressed by the whole fiasco of Mongoose setting up their own in house Print on Demand system – which saw books that fell apart and had warped covers!

If ever there was a game that thrived because of the intense effort put in by its Authors it was the second edition of MRQ, which rather craftily branded MRQ2 to tap into all us 30+ grognards happy memories of RQ2 (a surprising move since when MRQ1 was released Matt Sprange in response to some pretty valid criticism responded “This game isn’t for the old guard”). Lawrence Whitaker (Loz) and Pete Nash did a stirling job, not only fixing the broken bits of MRQ1 but also managed to add to the legacy of the game.  Pete’s rules for Combat Maneuvers immediately spring to mind. I’m fed up of people asking me to add them to OpenQuest! 🙂  But alas Mongoose to these eyes managed to cock it up again. Despite shiney leather covers, a cheap gimmick in my book (what’s wrong with getting a decent cover artist?), the books were badly let down by poor almost irrelevant art.

Alot of the blame for the loss of the RQ license is being placed  that Glorantha sold badly. I personally feel this unfair and that Mongoose dug its own grave here. That the presentation of the books let them down so badly, that many Gloranthafans, myself included just gave up on the line. Without engaging art to break up the dense blocks of text, no amount of system genius and well crafted gaming prose is going to sell the setting to players. There was a charge that Glorantha is inaccessible to new players, which to me is a weak charge when your core book is one of the most accessible versions of the setting guide ever produced. Where was the simple but catchy intro adventures? The short but punchy campaigns. RQ 2 & RQ3 excelled at the art of the combined source/adventure book which kept the line going for years. Instead Mongoose churned out splat book after splat book.

As for Wayfarer, which is the MRQ2 without the RuneQuest brand, forget it I’ve already invested in the same system twice already. I’ve had enough of Mongoose’s rapid fire publishing model, where quantity rules over quality (as evidenced for the piss poor editing and layout of some of the books I’ve picked up from them over the years).

Its not all bad though. Mongoose’s seven year tenure of the RuneQuest license did have some high points.

  • Some damn fine books in Dara Happa Stirs, Land of the Samarai, both by that fine fellow Loz, and Glorantha the Second Age by Robin Laws.
  • An exploration of the 2nd Age of Glorantha, which although patchy and contradictory in places -was brave and accessible.  The Glorantha Second Age guide is still in my book the most accessible all in one guide to Glorantha ever produced.
  • A ressurection of a game that was dead in the water prior to them publishing it. People are talking about and playing RQ, both plus points in my book.
  • Giving Lawrence Whitaker & Pete Nash full time writing gigs, which will stand them in good stead now they are writing for Moon Designs (see announcements here & here).
  • And of course most importantly to me, an Open Gaming License System Resource Document for the 1st Edition which may not have led to the hordes of 3rd party adventures/supplements Mongoose were hoping for, but allowed me to write my own tribute to the RuneQuest games of my yoof; OpenQuest 🙂

I eagerly await the announcement of what ever company has picked up the rights to RuneQuest, and await to see what they do  for my gaming holy grail.

Meanwhile while I wait, I’ve got OpenQuest and its upcoming Modern, The Company, & Sci-Fi , River of Heaven, variants to play with 🙂

 

Behold thine doom….

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This is the only picture for the setting chapter of Crypts and Things, except for the map, and I knew that it had to nail the sheer bleak brutality of the setting with it.

John Ossoway has delivered in spades on this one. Its a scene on the slopes of the active volcano Mount Terror, the heart of all evil in the world of Zarth. In the foreground  a sacifice to the alien Locust Star, a  gateway to demonic otherworlds that hovers in the sky above, is being dragged to his fiery doom by the Evil priests who live in the fortified temple in the background.