[dq-rules] Re: DQ Open Source... here's a start...

["John Rauchert" <john.rauchert@sait.ab.ca>]

"snafaru" <eri-@iosphere.net> wrote: 
original article:http://www.egroups.com/group/dq-rules/?start=17
> ... I just saw Poor Brendan's Almanac that I've got in my left hand
and
> Arcane Wisdom in my right and then all the archives of DQ stuff I
> scrounged on the net for the past 2 years and if I think of other
stuff
> I know people have on their sites then imagine all this put together
> and guess what! We have at least 80%-90% of DQOS almost ready to go!!!
> 
The following does not bear on the great work eric has done compiling
the resources at his fingertips.

What I hope this project is about is a bit more than throwing some
rules together and saying here you go we're done.  The feeling that I
get out there is that people want something that they can feel is
"official" and "up-to-date". These are vague feelings that extend
beyond more skills and colleges.

We are uneasy about accepting any work done beyond AW as somehow
"official".  I am here to say we draw a line in the sand.  We (the DQ
community at large) should be the final arbiters of what is official. 
The large corporations don't care about this game, the designers may
care but are now busy with other aspects of their lives, it is only the
DQ community that truly cares what the future of this game will be.

How do we move DQ into the 21st Century and beyond? We grasp at a
grassroots concept that has worked in the past, Open Source. But open
source merely says you can add to a system how is quality ensured (with
software it is easy it runs or it doesn't)?

First, we have to start from a stable platform were define a solid
stable core that is virtually unchanging (practically it can change but
would require great effort to do so). Some of the things would include:
Character Generation, Combat and skill resolution, rest/recovery,
Basically Book One with parts of Book Three.

Allowable variants in the core rules could be additional races (and the
rules should allow for their easy inclusion), alternate characteristic
genration systems, alternate social background generation (for
non-western european based games), alternate weapons and armor lists
(again for non-western european based games).

Just some thoughts John