Failed experiments in tinkering with the rules
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 
May 4th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
I think D100# and SimpleQuest would all be worthy projects, but they aren’t OpenQuest and would be very different games.
The most promising line of thought is OpenQuest 2. There’s nothing in what you suggested that would require a break in backwards compatibility as long as the system still has the same core stats such as Hit Points, Magic Points, etc. A new magic system that builds on these same core components is just an additional option. Or did your plans for OQ2 include fundamental changes to these elements of the game?
August 18th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
I have run both OQ and MRQII this year and I have to say that Characteristics are redundant. Talislanta replaced them with a modifer, as has True20, but I’d say in a d100 game one could simply remove them. Derive skills from culture and experience, then derive HPs from Resilience and MP from Persistence, some kind of Initiative/SR comes from your combat skill.
I liked the combat manoeuvres in MRQII, but I can’t really with Combat Actions cycling, so I’d port the concept, but not reimport CAs.. I found I liked rolling for initiative.
The only stat that I might miss is SIZ actually.
A new “build your own spell” magic system or a “weave it from the runes on the fly” would be good, and it could be written in such a way as to be backward compatible with other d100 games.
However, none of this adds anything to what is a good simple iteration of d100, and I’d say a book of alternative magic systems could be written under the OQ banner as a new sourcebook, it doesn’t require a new core rulebook.