Howdo folks, Ive moved this blog and the entire d101games domain from its old .co.uk domain to a shiney .com domain. Redirects are in place, but you might want to update your blog rolls with the new address.
Otherwise you miss out on all the Crypts and Things + OpenQuest 2 news I’ve got coming up 🙂
At time of writing we are $320 off last stretch goal (The Adventures Book).
I’ve added a new Upgrade perk for any of you who want to Upgrade to a higher level.
Remember miss this and you’ll miss a lot of free stuff, and the game doesn’t go on general release until least Feb 2013.
OPENQUEST 2 is GO! GO!
Just under two weeks of the IndieGoGo.com preorder left.
Pick up has been outstanding and we’ve reached four out of five stretch goals.
This means
A new version of OpenQuest 2 expanded to be the IMPERIAL EDITION.
Highlights of this….
Because we’ve reached the stretch goals for them all preorderers will get.
The final stretch goal , a book of OpenQuest Adventures, is in sight, and all preorders will get a pdf copy (with the option of a printed version) way in advance of general release.
Remember its the final two weeks. If you don’t preorder now you are going to have to wait until the game goes on general release in Feb to grab a copy and will miss out on the free shipping and extras (so no free printed version of Basics if you don’t preorder the printed version, and no free year subscription to OpenQuestRPG.com ).
Thank you for your time.
Regards
;O) Newt
Two weeks until OpenQuest 2 preorder closes. One stretch goal to go. Major update imminent 🙂
Time is running short on this one, 8 hours to go at the time of writing, and if you liked the rules lite approach to D&D of Crypts and Things, I can not recommend Swords & Wizardry , which C&T was built on, highly enough. Its my D&D retroclone of choice, because of its ease of play and the fact that its built with love 🙂
Seeing as we are now within spiting distance of Stretch goal 3 (OpenQuest Basics), I’ve added two new stretch goals, to spur things on. Here they are with the reasoning behind them:
Dedicated community website for OpenQuest with its own forums, blogs and the OpenQuest Dev kit as a set of reference webpages,in much the same way as the online Pathfinder PRD. All pre-orders will have a free one year subscription to the ‘Supporters’ only areas of the website, which will have exclusive preview content (demo scenarios, playtest drafts etc).
I wanted to do this for some time, since it appears that I have a dedicated community of gamers who pick up on OQ. This will allow such people to ask support questions, get early access to playtest drafts, help with shape the game’s future with feedback. This is where if you come in as a pdf only pledge you win big off me, as well as the higher levels.
A book of five adventures each showcasing one of the various fantasy genres that OpenQuest supports. Currently thrashing out the details, but looking at Swords and Sorcery, Contemporary Fantasy, Steampunk, Dungeon crawl and Dark Fantasy. All pre-orders will get a pdf copy. All pre-orders will get early access to drafts via the new OpenQuest website.
It was suggested that I do an adventure book as a stretch goal, and I thought that wasn’t half bad. Rather than being an a short campaign (you’ll be getting that in OQ2 core rules 😉 ), each adventure will complement the genre guides I’m writing in the core rulebook. Simon Bray and John Ossoway are also involved in writing adventures for this book.
Just been updating my the links list on the right hand side of the blog, and it is with great pleasure that I’ve added Tim Knight’s HeroPress.net, which has been added to the UK based blogs, and Eric Fabiaschi’s Sword and Stitchery. Both are suitably gonzo, with a big support for Crypts and Things in the form of new monsters, spells, rules and actual play reports.
It is with great pleasure I formally declare the pre-order for OpenQuest 2 open!
The pre-order will run until October 26th, with the rule book going to print shortly afterwards. At the bare minimum OQ2 will be available as a tided up version of the current rules, with new art to replace the clip art in the current version and in pdf/soft-cover and HARD-COVER.
What’s more if the goal amount of the pre-order is exceeded then things start to get interesting, as I will then start adding new and expanded content to the book. Also up for grabs is a new cover by Jon Hodgson, which the campaign banner/logo below previews part of.
So if you are an OQ fan and want to see a new expanded edition, that is 99% backwards compatible, with the first edition, please visit the pre-order page. Even if you just want to get the new content by downloading the new OQ2 Dev Kit, its worth donating as the more the Goal is exceeded the more content will be made available.
Later today the OpenQuest2 IndieGoGo.com pre-order will go live. This post goes into why I’m doing it this way.
OpenQuest has gone through five mini-editions since it was released back in 2009. With each incremental update we’ve trapped more errors, clarified the rules, and added more content (monsters, spells, adventures and additional optional rules). One thing that people have always asked me for is a hardcover version, but I’ve always resisted since it would have meant reformatting the book from A4 to US Trade, something that takes time. In the first couple of years after OQ’s release time was in short supply as I worked on other games to establish D101 Games.
For various reasons time is now available to do a hardback and I thought it be a good time to address some of the art and layout issues that still exist in the book. John Holmes who has a razor sharp eye for typos and game logic mistakes has gone through the entire text. Meanwhile OQ’s artist Simon Bray has touched up his existing art where necessary and replaced all the clip-art with new pieces. Now that we have a tidied up or ‘Remastered’ version, thoughts have turned to doing a proper second edition of the game. Now don’t get me wrong this will not be a radical re-write of the rules, merely a tidy up and expansion. For example take Magic. I plan to keep the three magic approach, revise some of the problematic spells and add a supplementary magical approach for evil magicians (Blood magic), rather than collect all the spells into one unified magic system that does away with magic points. So you could conceivably keep your old copy of OQ1 and get the new OQ2 content via the OQ2 Dev Kit (although note the setting Empire of Gatan + some of the examples is not going to be part it this time round). So that brought me into a state of dilemma. I could conceivably work on OQ2 implementing people’s requests and either write too much or too little. OpenQuest had a strong tradition of open development involving the game’s community. So as answer I thought that doing an IndieGoGo.com campaign would determine how much the community wants to see certain features.
Please note this is a PRE-ORDER. No matter what happens if you put your money down you’ll get the tidied up OpenQuest Remastered in print or pdf dependent on the pre-order you buy. This book is already in layout. If we raise more money than the initial goal, I take it from there 😉
Its spring bank holiday this weekend here in the UK, and the long weekend affords me time to sit in my Ivory Tower of Doom and finally nail what I’m including in OpenQuest 2.
Over the last week or so I’ve been working on Battle Magic. I’ve already got 50 or so new spells + another batch from Nathan Baron ( author of the upcoming Empires Rising ) + spells from the Legend SRD which aren’t already in OQ. That’s before I even start looking at ‘classic’ RQ sources for inspiration. My overall objective with the magic system is to make it less ‘whiffy’ and more fun. My players have picked up on the fact that there’s spells in there like Fanaticism that don’t do a great deal, and are in fact superseded by their Divine/Sorcery counterparts (Berserk in this example). This isn’t new to OQ, in the previous example the players said “magic has always been a bit crap in RQ”. In OQ1 I did a partial job of ‘fixing’ the magic system, but I was sensitive that I wanted backwards compatibility. This time round I’m less concerned. Sorcery and Divine are getting similar overhauls and extra spells.
As well as finally making my mind up on the contents/scope of OQ2, which I’ll post here when I’m done, I’ll also be considering whether or not I do a IndieGoGo preorder. Would that be something folks would be into?
Sorcerer Under Mountain 