Something Wicked this Way comes for Halloween
This believe it or not is my favourite time of year at the moment. The cool down after summer, the wind magically striping the orange and gold leaves off the trees, my birthday in late October, and of course Halloween, an opportunity to tell ghost and horror stories.
The Old Faith art by Paul “Spookshow71” Tomes
Coming to Kickstarter soon to coincide with Halloween, The Old Faith is a short adventure set in a dark ancient wood. Its a darker tale than usual OpenQuest fare, and certainly contains NO DUCKS. Cover art is by rising star Paul “Spookshow71” Tomes, a detail of the back cover is shown in the teaser above, and the internals are by the amazing Jonny Gray.
Here’s the pitch
Before Maximus, the Divine Emperor, brought the light of the Imperial Revelation, humanity lived like savages under the Old Faith. A dark and bloody religion based upon sacrifices to cruel nature spirits.
The Dark Wood is one of the last holdouts of the Old Faith. Within its confines, who knows what heathen practices go on? Sharan the Curious, a sorcerer of the Imperial Inquisition, has entered the wood, on a quest to root out evil. He’s gone missing, and the Elders of the nearby Woodend village are worried that he has been captured or killed.
Fortunately, the adventurers, Imperial Questors for the Emperor, happen to be passing through Woodend and are contacted by the Elders to find the sorcerer.The Old Faith is an adventure about exploring an isolated ancient wood and discovering the culture there. I shall be using OpenQuest, a straightforward D100 system. No knowledge of either the system of setting is required.
Although it’s set in the Empire of Gatan setting presented in the main OpenQuest rulebook, it’s fairly self-contained so Referees can drop it in the setting of their choice. One thing though I’m deliberately showing off how Wises, highly proficient casters of Personal Magic, work at their highest level.
So watch out for the sign-up page, either later this week or early next week. Oh yes and there will be Stretch Ghouls not Stretch Goals, this is Halloween after all 😀
UPDATE: I missed the time frame for doing this at Halloween. So the plan now, since it is zine sized (A5) is to take it to Kickstarter’s ZineQuest 2023 in February.
OpenQuest goes to the Conventions!
It’s my autumn convention season here in the UK, here’s what I’m up to.
OpenQuest Quantum: Viva Weird Vegas!
Playing at Furnace 8th October
OpenQuest Quantum is my multi-genre version of OpenQuest that I’m going to be steadily working on over the coming year. This will be its second public outing (the first was a Christmas-themed adventure, Don’t Let the Krampus grind you down that I ran back in Jan).
The Bureau of Time Information Management focuses on Las Vegas of Alternative 23. Most versions of Las Vegas are important to energy flow into their reality. Alternative 23 is especially so and seems to be a hub for the other versions. So the Bureau has an office there, and Agent, that’s your first assignment. Please make the most of it, rookie. Vegas 23 is a great training ground for when you start alternative hopping full-time.
Currently, Alternative 23 is experiencing its hottest summer on record. Lake Mead, 24 kilometres east of the city, is giving up its secrets as the water level drops. The Bureau must resolve some strange secrets for the sake of reality-integrity.
OpenQuest Quantum is a multi-genre D100 game where anything is possible.
OpenQuest: The Old Faith
Playing at Grogmeet, Manchester, 12 November.
This is my Halloween adventure this year. There’s a good chance that it will be up on Kickstarter around the end of October, as long as I get other stuff out the door first. I’ll post more about this in the coming weeks.
Before Maximus the Divine Emperor, brought the light of the Imperial Revelation, humanity lived like savages under the Old Faith. A dark and bloody religion based upon sacrifices to cruel nature spirits.
The Dark Wood is one of the last holdouts of the Old Faith. Within its confines, who knows what heathen practices go on? Sharan the Curious, a sorcerer of the Imperial Inquisition, has entered the wood, on some quest to root out evil. He’s gone missing, and the Elders of the nearby Woodend village are worried that he has been captured or killed.
Fortunately, the adventurers, Imperial Questors for the Emperor, happen to be passing through Woodend and are contacted by the Elders to find the sorcerer.
The Old Faith is an adventure about exploring an isolated ancient wood and discovering the culture there. I shall be using OpenQuest, a straightforward D100 system. No knowledge of either the system of setting is required.
And announcing OpenQuest Online 2022 part 2, Saturday 10th to Sunday 11th December.
Formal details to be announced later this week. Already have two other GMs apart from myself. If you want to ref, drop me a line at newt@d101games.com
First glimpse of the Ducks
A pair of Lake Ducks by Dan Barker
OpenQuest Next, the Winner is…
Back in July during OpenQuest Online with my co-host Paul Mitchener I did a presentation about what would be the next big project after all the Kickstarter stretch goals were delivered. After which high tier backers of the OpenQuest Kickstarter where given the opportunity to vote for which of the five they would like to see.
Here’s the presentation again if you missed it.
The votes are now in, and the winner, by a small nat’s whisker is….
The OpenQuest Monster book
And here’s the voting break down.
I’ve already started the book. Its got a good portion of the art already done, which I’m using as inspiration and I’m slowly doing entries. Its progress is an exercise in slow and consistant, which I think more than any other type of RPG book for a creatures book is a good thing. I write quick rough drafts now, a couple a day when I’m free from other projects, and then come back to them in a couple of months time and reconsider/revise. The only other thing is that this a book of Generic monsters, not tied to Gatan the example setting, but there will be enough flavour to inspire you to use them in your own games.
As for the close runners up? Both Dark Corners of the Empire and OpenQuest Quantum are in active development. Dark Corners of the Empire already has a fair bit written, since its my OpenQuest campaign which I’ve been running since April last year. OpenQuest Quantum is a work in progress, with a firm outline of what it is, and bits of writing here and there. Its already been played, I wrote a Christmas themed scenario called “Don’t Let the Krampus Grind you Down” which I ran successfully over last holiday period, and I’m running another adventure called “Viva Weird Vegas” in October at Furnace and posisbly again at Grogmeet in November. Again its writing will be slow and consistant. Giving a definite date and commiting to go heads down to finish it, is what the winner of the poll got.
Levels of detail for Religions in OpenQuest
I’m currently working on OpenQuest Dungeons, which has a quick section on Underworld religions. This got me thinking that OpenQuest has three potential levels of detail when describing Religions for Divine Magic.
Short Write-up. Very brief and to the point. Give enough game information in the form of skills and spells to run at the table – see the Deities List in the OpenQuest Companion (page 38). Referees can then fill in some blanks and modify game information to adapt it to their game. Or they can use it as is, allowing the players to add game fiction and details through play.
Medium Write-up. A bit more in the description, perhaps setting specific, and adding detail about Ranks, which may vary from the usual Lay/Initiate/Priest form. See Heretics of the Imperial Way in the main OQ rulebook (p214)
Long Write-up. This level of detail is where the write-up ties the religion more into the setting. As the previous level of detail but may also include short supporting myths and background. Pantheon write-ups will almost always be of this level of detail because it’s necessary to talk about the relationships between the member deities. See the Imperial Way in OpenQuest
One thing I’m not a fan of, both as a writer and referee, is the third level of detail, which I will never use in OpenQuest. The Extensive Detailed Write-up. This level of detail is where you get a meandering mix of game fiction and rules. It’s confusing and doesn’t let the players have the same level of creativity at the table.
OpenQuest and Mythras?
Over at the RPGPub forum, in their epic BRP Edition Wars thread, The Butcher asked in response to me posting about my poll to determine which Mythras book I’m going to review next over at Sorcerer Under the Mountain blog.
…seeing as you’re the author of Openquest
What makes you choose either Mythras or Openquest as the system for a game? What would you say are the comparative strengths and weaknesses of each?
After a small amount of navel-gazing, and attempting to be straightforward, I gave this answer.
Without going into critical analysis which would be unfair to both games,
Basically, Mythras for me is the spiritual successor to RQ3, a game I loved dearly back in the late 80s and up to the late 90s, that clearly needed a logical tidying up. Mythras is that tidied-up game, and a little bit more 🙂 I tend to use it for games where I want to be a bit more considered and adult.
While OQ is taking BRP Fantasy mainly from Stormbringer which I adored but found a bit broken in places and early Call of Cthulhu (Games Worksop did a lovely edition in the 80s), mixing it up with RQ3’s three magic systems and taking it in all sorts of directions that my own house ruling takes it in. So OQ fits my own looser GMing style, without completely sacrificing rules and numbers.
OpenQuest Next Video
As part of OpenQuest Online this weekend, I hosted a presentation about OpenQuest Next, which is the next big project for OpenQuest after the Kickstarter stretch goals are done. I’ve now posted the video on D101 Game’s YouTube channel
OpenQuest Online this Weekend
I almost can’t believe it, that we are having a whole weekend of online games that are purely OpenQuest. Four GMs, six games and one talk (OpenQuest Next on Saturday evening 8 pm – 9 pm BST)
Still spaces in games, so if you have been sitting on the fence or want to sign up for more games, now is the time to do it.
And here is that sceduele in all its glory.
Single Page OpenQuest Character Sheet
The blogger known as Ravenheart87 on BRP Central has created and posted on his blog – Vorpal Mace – a single-page OpenQuest character sheet.
Here is an excerpt about why he created it.
While re-reading OpenQuest 3e recently I felt an urge to fuck around a bit again with Affinity Publisher, and I ended up retooling one of my character sheets for the game. Newt gave his blessing, so here you are, download and have fun! C&C welcome. Stay tuned for more, as form-fillable versions are coming soon.
OpenQuest 2022 Online registration open
OpenQuest 3rd edition is almost one, and to celebrate its release I’m holding an online convention on the weekend of Saturday 9th to Sunday 10th July.
I’ve got a handful of referees signed up to run games, and plans for at least one online talk about the game.
To register your attendance on the following page, and if you are interested in running see the link that leads to the game submission page.
OpenQuest 3rd Edition
The OpenQuest Quickstart
OpenQuest Quickstart Cover © Jonny Gray
OpenQuest Companion
