Some of my fellow countrymen still harbour ill-will to our French , but I’ve always had a soft-spot to our neighbours across the channel. And it turns out that the French have a soft-spot for OpenQuest too, with not one but two games based off the OQ SRD

If you want a copy of the OpenQuest core rules in French, a team from the Le Scriptorum have made your wish come true!

• OpenQuest in French

My thanks go out to the following people involved:
Translation : Arasmo, Mugen, Kurgan
Layout : Etory

There’s also Alamander, which is a complete game with gorgeous art and layout based of OQ with bits of GORE and MRQ1 added.

• Alamander

A short minor-magical items list for OpenQuest over at Iain Murray’s The Rune Under Water blog

• Found items

Since putting out OpenQuest Final nearly a year ago I’ve done alot of thinking about where I want to take the rules next.

Out of interest heres some notes about the drafts (which where pretty much in Alpha/outline stage) along with the code names I gave each:

D100# (or D100 Sharp) – Take away Characteristics and add social combat, and a system where each character has personality traits, which add to skill rolls. Reduce skill rolls to pretty much a one roll determines success and result. For example in combat the sucess of the combat roll helps determine damage more than the equipment damage dice.  Developement stopped when I realised that I was effectively creating the HeroQuest/RuneQuest hybrid I never want to see.

OpenQuest 2 -  Build on OQ , with some of the systems rationalised and streamlined. The big change being the magic system, which would be folded up into one rules system with the existing three magic model being modelled with rules for ‘approach’. For example magicians using the Sorcery Approach can manipulate range, duration etc while those using the Divine Approach never spend any magic points as long as they are casting magic in accordance with their Deity’s creed. Problem with OQ2 is that there is a line where it would break backwards compatibility with old BRP/RQ and OQ1 itself. So this one was put to one side.

SimpleQuest – this is my latest tinkering with the OQ ruleset, reclaiming the name that OQ was originally written under. The idea here is to re-imagine RQ from the ground up to make a streamlined easy to play version of the game that newcomers can approach. It won’t be based off the MRQ OGL SRD or use any familiar RQ terms for licensing reasons (so no Bladesharp for example) and it breaks with tradition in that it uses a D20 for skill resolution rather than D100.  While I’m still fiddling about with this one, I feel that’s it a failed experiment because its very much a vanity project. OQ’s power is that it ties in directly to D100′s heritage and opens it up to non-brp fans (allot of the OSR crowd have said that its the first version of D100 that they feel they can approach). So I feel at this point  in a market already crowded with fantasy systems its fairly pointless to proceed to the publication stage.

If there’s any conclusions to be drawn from all this, is that I’m fairly content with OQ as it is, and that its best to throw my energy and love for Fantasy D100 behind that particular horse

Ever need a quick four page reference sheet for to remind you of the rules while playing?

Well here it is

• OpenQuest Reference Sheet -Pdf (140KB)

Written especially for GMs who are familiar with RQ/BRP so they understand the subtle differences.

By Clint Staples

These are largely untested rules that I developed the core of for the Robot Wasteland 3-shot game that I am working into a campaign to run in the near future. I cannot swear for balance or feasability, but I would appreciate constructive feedback from those who use these Psionics for OpenQuest.

Psionics Robot Wasteland-Pdf, 284KB

Editor’s note: As well as the Psionic’s rules Clint explains the house rules that he uses for the game.

Further information.

A quick write up of the 3-shot game which spawned the game can be found here.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

If you have any feedback or questions about the rules you can email Clint about it.

• Contact Clint

Ready made Concepts give quick ideas for players who are struggling to decide which skills and magic to choose. They are not strict character templates where you must write down every skill and spell. In fact most Concepts have more spells listed than it is possible to select at character creation. Instead they are suggestions of skills and spells available to someone who has previously practised that occupation, before cutting loose to become an adventurer. Also the player is under no obligation to spend all his points on either the skills or the spells given for the packages.

Follow the Character generation process spending points on skills and magic from the suggestions in the package. Roll for money as normal, but write down all the suggested equipment on the character sheet instead of the normal default starting equipment given above.

Each Concept has the following components;

• A one sentence summary of the Concept.
• Skills
• Battle Magic
• Equipment

So here we go, ten ready made Concepts for players who are stuck for ideas.
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August 2007: How I started

The creation of OpenQuest was a happy accident. My original plan was to write a scenario under the MRQ RQ Logo license and then release it via RPGnow.com.  Hence Life and Death was written and originally planned as a MRQ scenario. However to make sure I complied with the terms of the RQ Logo license, which allow you to release products with the RQ logo on them as long as you only use stuff in the MRQ System Resource Document (SRD) I downloaded it and started reading through it.  More I looked at it more it dawned on me that with a bit of tweaking here and there I could recreate the game the way I like to play RQ these days.

So in my lunch hour at work back in Aug 07 work began on the very first version of the game, SimpleQuest v1.

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By Nathan Baron

There are many occasions in a role playing adventure that the adventurers will find themselves entering into a battle. This is a quick and simple way to determine mass battle situations without resulting to hours of needless and boring dice rolls. Only one dice roll is needed, and with the quick reference chart you can have the result of any mass battle within minutes. The generals on both sides roll against their Lore (Military Tactics) skill, add or subtract any modifiers, then compare their result against their opponents and consult the chart below. In the case of Non-player generals the Games Master rolls on their behalf.

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By Paul Mitchener

Mass combat involves the commanders’ skills of the two opposing sides, modified by the armies involved.  The command skills involved are Lore (Military Tactics), and either Influence or Performance.

The actual battle is resolved by opposed Lore (Military Tactics) checks made by the leaders.  A successful check means a force inflicts casualties equal half its size on the opposition.  Half of these casualties are deaths; the other half are injuries.  These numbers are doubled on a critical success.

Further, the commander of a losing side in a battle must make an Influence or Performance check to prevent a rout.  Routing troops either flee in panic, or surrender when they cannot flee.  A further 10% of an army’s numbers are lost in a rout.  Further a critical success on the Influence or Performance check is needed for a force to continue fighting rather than retreating in a more orderly manner.  If a force has nowhere to retreat to, it can continue to fight.

The Lore (Military Tactics) check is modified by various situational factors.

• Better equipped than enemy :+25% bonus
• Better trained than enemy: +25% bonus.
• Has special forces (eg: artillery, cavalry, combat mages) that the enemy lacks: +25% bonus for each.
• Outnumber enemy by two to one or more: +25%
• Enemy in defensive position: -25% penalty
• Enemy fortifications: -50% penalty.
• Player character heroics (eg: taking out significant enemy, capturing strategic position): +25% bonus.

Larger forces might split into several armies, each with their own commander.  The rules are still as above, but each army must pick another force to attack.

Editor’s Note

This is the first variant of Mass Combat rules that has been sent to me.

It needs more extensive playtesting.

This blog is intended for additonal material to complement the main core rules found in the OpenQuest book.

I’ll be adding more material as the weeks go by, all free under the Open Gaming License.

As well as my own material the OQ Companion is open to contributions. Please contact me via newt@d101games.co.uk

Enjoy!

;O)Newt