The Three Icons of the OpenQuest Covers
The sharp-eyed among you will have seen the three reoccurring characters on the covers of the main OpenQuest rulebook, the recently released OpenQuest Companion and the upcoming OpenQuest Dungeons.
This was intentional I asked Jon Hodgson to do this, but I wasn’t prepared for all the good-natured comments on the trio, especially theories of what the Duck looks so cross, that I got every time I previewed the cover. So when I sat down to write the Early Bird backers’ adventure for the Kickstarter, Catching the Wyrm, I made sure that I wrote them into the adventure. So here’s a bit more detail from the upcoming Catching the Wyrm scenario, In that adventure are more details about the characters including full game profiles.
Dragon Helpers
These three characters are part of a larger informal organisation, dedicated to helping Dragons survive in the wild. While others recoil in fear, the Dragon Helpers point out that Dragons helped end the Age of Blood, when they rebelled against their Blood God Masters. They are not entirely sure what they are doing but feel strongly enough to put everything at risk. In the Empire of Gatan, being a Dragon Helper is a heresy punishable by a very public and gruesome death.
The Great Dragon Greenbach and the Dragon Helpers from left to right: Tres the Transformed, Shalla Dragonsaved and Ogg the Wise
This small group were sent to the Shambles by the leader of their Scale. Scales are the small cellular units that the Helpers organise themselves into, for protection and effectiveness. The leader or Dragon Friend in Ossoway is a librarian is, had found mention of the Great Green Dragon in some documents that have ended up in her Libraries’ archives. As novice Seekers, who have just been initiated into the secrets of this Magical Society, they are fresh with the joy and hope that they will finally get to meet a dragon and have meaningful discussions.
Tres the Transformed – Shapeshifting Sorcerer
Tres is a Sorcerous Adept, who was kicked out of the Imperial University of Wizardry, after being caught in the forbidden library reading prohibited books on Dragon Lore. They would have got this knowledge ripped from their brain by the Imperial Inquisition, before some form of hideous punishment suited to the crime, but they were rescued by the other members of their Scale, Ogg and Shalla, who just happened to be in the imperial capital after their Scale Leader had an intuition that an important person to the group who shared their passion for Dragons would need saving. This is how Tres joined the group, and while they like being around people who like dragons, and value their knowledge, they are still not one hundred percent sure that being out in the field on dangerous missions is exactly what they want out of life.
Shalla Dragonsaved – Warrior Woman
Her home village burnt down to the ground during the invasion of Gatan by the Burning Heart Horde. During the attack, a Dragon saved her and the other survivors. “They are not the only ones who wields fire”, she regularly says when telling the tale of her escape.
She joined the Dragon Helpers after a stint in Imperial Legions, where she learnt about the group from officers while hunting down a dragon that was terrorising the borders. Years later the trail led to the Scale that she is currently part of.
Ogg the Wise – Duck Wise
Secretly Ogg isn’t fully on board with the Dragon Helper’s mission. His thinking is that Dragons love gold, so there is gold wherever there is one. His Scale Leader is well aware of this, he’s betrayed himself during many long drunken conversations they have shared over fine wines but thinks that the spiritually devoid Ogg has potential for great enlightenment when he actually meets a dragon. His colleagues are completely unaware of Ogg’s lust for Dragon Gold. Ogg on the other hand is aware that his colleagues are dedicated to the study and preservation of Dragons, something he thinks is beyond stupid, and this often makes him ill-tempered and impatient with them.
OpenQuest for Dungeons
Today I continue work on OpenQuest Dungeons. I’m working on a section that has the working title of OpenQuest for D&Ders (the final piece will have something less copyright-infringing – Probably “Rules for Dungeoneering”). The idea is to quickly cover the ground that new Referees and players have to cover to grasp the fundamental differences between OQ and D&D.
So far my document has the following headings
- What’s Similar
- What’s Different
- Getting Started. A more hand-holding version of character gen, with pick a Race (or culture), then pick one of four ready made concepts that correspond to the four classic D&D classes etc
- Specific Rulings: Opening Doors, Dealing with Traps (detecting, disarming), Spotting Hidden Concealed/Secret Doors, Backstabbing etc
- A selection of Traps, I have some wonderful Jeshields art for this, explained in OQ terms.
I’ve opened this for discussion in the D101 Games Discord OpenQuest Channel, so if your think there’s anything that should be in this article, especially if you are a DM who is thinking about getting your D&D group into OQ, drop in and suggest anything that would help.
OpenQuest Dungeons © Jon Hodgson
OpenQuest SRD updated to version 1.1
Thanks to user feedback on the D101 Games Discord Server, it was pointed out that I had left out the Skill Bases from the SRD.
I’ve now updated both the text SRD and the Online SRD, so that Skill bases are listed in a table in the character generation section of the Characters document/page and next to the skill name in the skills description page.
There’s also a new changelog page, which will record changes (mainly corrections) to the OQ SRD.
Saran and the Three Bad Piggies
Time for a break from rules related OQ matters. Here’s another tale from Gatan’s folklore.
Once upon a time Saran and his family came down from their cave homes in the hills and came to live on the great plain of Sur. Sarran who was head of his household decided to build a home for his family.
So he gathered up straw and mud and made a wattle and daub house. Then an awful Piggie (1), that walked on two legs came and wielded a big tree trunk as a club destroyed his new home, causing Sarran and his family to run to the hills.
When the pig was gone from the plains, Sarran and his family returned from their wanderings in the hills. Sarran built a new house made of strong sturdy timber. Or so he thought. Another Bad Piggie, that wielded a vicious two-handed iron great ax, came down from the mountains and chopped Saran’s wooden house into bits and made a fire out of it, on which cooked and Saran’s first son, who had not been quick enough to run away back to the hills (2)
Next, when Saran came down from the hills, this time on his own because his family still mourned the deceased son (and were quite frankly not seeing the joy in leaving their safe caves), he made a hall and a tomb for his son, made out of rocks. He piled the stones one atop another and made a sturdy thatched roof, but it still didn’t stop a third bad piggie from coming along and trashing the place! Sarran who only got out in the nick of time, ran off to the mountains this time.
There he resolved to become a holy hermit, forsaking his family and material life. He climbed the highest mountain and looked skywards to some deity to answer why he was such a failure at life.
And lo the Grand Builder, who dwells in the Sky, answered his wailing. He told him to pull himself together get his family and return to the blessed plain of Sur. So putting his trust in this new god, Sarran did just that.
Once there, the Grand Builder taught Sarran how to build gleaming buildings of white stone. Made out of massive blocks of stone, without mortar or gaps. And roads, aqueducts and other such wonders that allowed Sarran’s family to finally prosper.
When the Bad Piggies came again to blow Saran’s house down, not only could they not do this, but Sarran and his family drove them from their homeland, using the steel axes that the Grand Builder had taught them to make in their new forges.
So the Bad Piggies, went whee, whee, whee, all the way up the mountains where they stayed and became the Dwarves problem instead.
Notes (for grown-ups)
Overall this is sort of an origin story for Saran the Builder (see OpenQuest page 214). Its commonly taught to all children ages two and up in the Empire of Gatan, since its tells of the foundation of human civilisation.
- The Pigs of this nursery tale are commonly held to be pig-faced Orcs (or Orc Tribes, led by a Warlord) who came out of the mountains and fought wars against Sarran’s Kingdom.
- some versions have Sarran’s first son – Derak – as a doomed but heroic warrior who sacrificed himself holding off the Bad Pig.
Note: The entirety of this text is product identity, and will be part of a future OpenQuest book.
OpenQuest Systems Resource Document now live
A text version with a pdf for prospective 3rd Party publishers on how to use the SRD is available at no cost via the D101 Games web store.
Also, it’s available online via openquestrpg.com
I’ve had fun throwing this together, especially the website, so I’m looking forward to seeing how people use it.
All the best
;O) Newt
OpenQuest SRD and changes to this site
So I’ve just finished the document version of the OpenQuest SRD. This is primarily aimed at people who want to publish stuff using OpenQuest, and contains a four-page guide on how to use it.
Now I’m setting up this site to be the home of the online version of the OQ SRD. So if you see changes, the first of which has been changing the theme of the site, that’s why.
In other related news, I’ve settled upon Foundry VTT as the virtual table top I’m going to support.
Lastly, lest I forget my manners
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
OpenQuest Companion is out!
Finally, the OpenQuest Companion is out in pdf now and on pre-order for the printed version which should be available sometime in Jan (but you get the pdf as an immediate download).
The OpenQuest Companion, cover by Jon Hodgson
OpenQuest Companion in layout
Seeing as the OpenQuest Companion has gone through its proofread, and I have all the art I need, I’m currently throwing it into layout, for a release in pdf at least this side of Christmas. It will go out to Kickstarter Backers and OpenQuet pre-orders first, but a pre-order will open via my web store on D101games.com shortly.
Here are some preview pages.
Things I Learnt about How to Present a Historical Fantasy RPG using OpenQuest Recently
A couple of months ago, I re-edited and brought up to date Paul Mitchener’s Ancient Roman OpenQuest adventure Non Semper Erit Aestas (or “It will not always be Summer”). It’s set in the immediate aftermath of Emperor Nero’s death, the Roman Rhineland, here’s Paul’s quick pitch for it.
In the year 68AD, the Roman Empire is torn apart from civil war, and the Empire’s defences are drastically weakened, in particular those on the Rhine frontier. The player characters are Vigilis Nocturni — special agents of the Empire who investigate hidden threats, both mundane and supernatural. Both types of threats threaten the local capital of Colonia Agrippina, and the player characters are the only ones who can prevent it from falling to barbarians and foul sorcery.
Editing it was quite an enlightening process and I learnt the following things about Paul’s approach to Historical RPGs from it.
- Not everyone goes around armed to the teeth or laden with equipment and treasure.
- Weapons and armour are more of a status symbol.
- Magic is not as prevalent as standard OQ. In Paul’s adventure, only Priests and dedicated cult members get magic, even Personal Magic.
- Deities can be in the physical world and encountered as creatures.
- That historical fact can form the backdrop for events in the adventure, but the future is not certain, and the player character’s actions do lead to meaningful changes to the timeline.
I have no plans to make this available in print because Paul will be using it as the basis of a standalone game, set in the Ancient Roman period known as the Age of the Four Emporers, powered by OpenQuest in the new year. More about that here, as it progresses.
OpenQuest Goes to the Conventions Part 2 Grogmeet
Grogmeet is a one day face to face con that is being run at Fanboy 3 in Manchester next Saturday. Signups are being handled by Warhorn, the online convention management website, and this is how Grogmeet’s selection of OpenQuest games looks like, it looks like VICTORY!!!
OpenQuest declares victory at Grogmeet 2021
To put this in context. That’s three games, and I’m running only one of them, and they are all full! Normally it’s just me running one game, which depending on the convention, can fail to gain any players or only partially fill up. Admittedly Grogmeet is OQ sympathetic, being made up of people who like older games or are returning to rpging after a long break, but even so, I’m blown away by the success of this.
I’ve put The Great Goblin Hunt’s details up in a previous post, but here are the details of the other games.
The Broadsword and The Beast, GMed by Steve Ray
“‘I see a dark sail on the horizon, set under a black cloud that hides the sun’ (from ‘Broadsword’ by Jethro Tull)
Cries of woe rend the air as the kingdom is terrorized by a foul creature known only as The Beast. Join together as your band of heroes struggle to free the land from ‘the lonely fear of dying, for some of living too’. A game inspired, if you haven’t guessed, by Tull’s seminal album ‘The Broadsword and the Beast’”
Non Semper Erit Aestas, GMed by Paul Mitchener
In the year 68AD, the Roman Empire is torn apart from civil war, and the Empire’s defences are drastically weakened, in particular those on the Rhine frontier. The player characters are Vigilis Nocturni — special agents of the Empire who investigate hidden threats, both mundane and supernatural. Both types of threats threaten the local capital of Colonia Agrippina, and the player characters are the only ones who can prevent it from falling to barbarians and foul sorcery.
Note Non Semper Erit Aestas was quietly released in Pdf format recently and is up for sale on D101 Games web store.
All this OpenQuest activity makes me wonder whether it would be worthwhile doing an OpenQuest Online Convention over one or two days in early December. So I’ll be asking the GMs of these games whether they would be willing to participate in such an event. I’ll update you early next week if they come back positive. Also, if you are a referee who would be interested in taking part in such an event, drop me a line at newt@d101games.com.
OpenQuest 3rd Edition
The OpenQuest Quickstart
OpenQuest Quickstart Cover © Jonny Gray
OpenQuest Companion