Tag Archives: OpenQuest

I like ‘Bean’ counting

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One of the big criticisms of Old School Style games, is the tendency for them to become a matter of resource management. Hit Points being a prime example. A party enters a Dungeon, gets into fights, carefully keeps a track of lost hit points managing the rate they are lost and regained (through healing spells/potions) and then returns to the surface when the Hit Point loss/refresh rate is working against them.

I’m especially conscious of this when I’m playing OpenQuest which has two sets of beans to count: Hit Points and Magic Points (especially if the party are exclusively using Battle Magic).   I’ve worried in the past that this goes against OQ’s story telling leanings, and occasionally come up with Magic Pointless spell casting rules (all of which have been unsatisfactory). But you know what, I’ve kinda come to love them and being strict about how quickly Beans can regenerate, as opposed to hand waving their recovery, can drive the story in interesting directions too.

….yes I’ve been working on OpenQuest 2 Battle Magic (40 + new spells) this lunch, can’t you tell 😉

OQ2, under two weeks of pre-order left

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OPENQUEST 2 is GO! GO!
Just under two weeks of the IndieGoGo.com preorder left.

http://indiegogo.com/oq2

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….

  •     US Letter Size
  •     Available in hardcover
  •     Tidied up and reorganised rules, to remove any remaining ambiguities.
  •     All internal Clip art replaced, existing art improved and new art added by artist Simon Bray.
  •     Purely random character generation.
  •     New Spells, (at least 50 Battle Magic )
  •     Sorcery Enhanced.
  •     Generic Deities + spells.
  •     Blood Magic for evil magicians.
  •     Straight forward rules for Relationships by Simon Bray.
  •     At least ten New Monsters.
  •     Genre Guides. How to use OpenQuest for specific Genres such as Swords and Sorcery, Low Magic settings, High Fantasy etc
  •     Plus other small highlight boxes, containing explanation of current rules for the first time D100 player or Games Master.
  •     New wrap round cover by Jon Hodgeson
  •     Mass combat + Domain rules
  •     Otherworlds of magic explained.
  •     More setting info for the Empire of Gatan.
  •     More plunder items.

Because we’ve reached the stretch goals for them all preorderers will get.

  • OpenQuest Basics – a quick start lo art version of the game, in 6in x 9in format. If you order a printed version of OQ2 you automatically get a printed version of OQBasics 🙂
  • OpenQuestRpg.com – a hub for all OpenQuest activity, including the extended family of OpenQuest games (currently The Company and the upcoming River of Heaven), with forum, online SRD for reference, as well as a members only area with exclusive preview material and playtest material.  All pre-orders no mater the level get members access for a year.

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

OpenQuest 2 pre-order, two new stretch goals

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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:

Stretch 4 $4000 OpenQuest website – New!

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.

Stretch 5 $6000 OpenQuest Adventures book – New!

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.

OpenQuest 2 pre-order now open!

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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.

OpenQuest 2 IndieGoGo campaign, why?

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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 😉

From the crypts of DOOMMMM!!!!

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Update from the Old School arm of D101.

OpenQuest 2 is about to go into IndieGoGo preorder mode by the end of this month. You the gaming public will decide if I release OpenQuest 2 proper, and what form it takes, or if I simply do OpenQuest Deluxe( tidy up of the last mistooks, replace the clip art with new pieces by Simon Bray, available in Soft and HARD COVER). If we surpass the goal there’s a hole load of stretch goals to see how content filled OQ 2, along with promises of an OQ 2 online SRD, a low art compact version of the rules called OQ Basic which will be available free as a pdf. Either way a new version of OQ will be with us by my birthday on October 26th of this year 🙂

Here Be Dragons – Simon Bray’s & Paul Mitchener’s OpenQuest adventure/setting. Think Ray Harryhausen meets Clark Ashton Smith on an island where the main city is ruled by a great Golden Dragon. Going for Nov/Dec 2012.

Moar OQ. I seriously want to ramp up the amount of OQ out there, so as well as upping my own output, I’ll be opening the hallowed doors of d101 submissions. Watch this space (or email me at newt@d101games.com if you can’t contain yourself ).

Crypts and Things
Starting tomorrow every Friday is “Fiendish Friday”. New magic items, new spells, creatures and other mini-articles for Crypts and Things. Submissions welcome (newt@d101games.com).

Blood of the Dragon goes into layout tonight and should be available in a couple of weeks 🙂

The next module “Fort Boneguard” goes into play test next week at Continuum as part of Our line up of games,more about that soon. All in all I reckon I’ve got three or so modules on the go, which should be out before the end of the year 🙂

Like OQ I’ll be throwing open the doors for sumissions soon ( again contact me at newt@d101games.com if you can’t contain yourself 😉 )

Finally the I’ve got a new C&T book in mind that should blow minds in the pipeline. I’m going to keep it under wraps for the time being but just I’d tease you with that 🙂