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|| DRAGONQUEST Newsletter February 1994 ||
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|| Issue 1 / Number 1 ||
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Produced: Mon Feb 14 1994
The DQ Newsletter is for discussions of the DragonQuest role playing game.
The key addresses you need to know are:
psproefr@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu (Article Submissions, Editor, etc. )
dnadler@wtcpost.daytonoh.ncr.com ( Mailing List Maintenance, Back
Issues )
All articles are copyrighted property of their respective authors.
Reproducing or republishing an article, in whole or in part, in any other
forum requires permission of the author or the moderator.
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
"Welcome to the first issue" --- Phil Proefrock
"Weapons rule variant" --- Phil Proefrock
"Is a DragonQuest Revival Possible?" --- Joe Gregg
"New Skill: FENCING" --- Larry Barry
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Welcome to the first issue of the DragonQuest Newsletter. Right now we're
just getting things worked out, and formatted, and things like that. We'll
see how the contents are received, what sorts of things you want to see,
what sorts of things you want to send in for us to include. Feedback,
feedback, feedback! Let us know what you want to see in this newsletter,
and how you want to see it presented. [Hi, this is Dave here. As the
mailing coordinator, I'll be occasionally adding a comment here or there.
If I've got something to say other than an article submission, I'll put my
comment inside square brackets and close with my initials "DMN" as I've done
here. I've got two specific questions for you: 1) Do authors mind if your
name is listed with an article? 2) Are you having formatting problems when
you receive this message, i.e. carriage returns in the middle of a line?
DMN] And to encourage everyone to send in some comments, we have:
The DRAGONQUEST Newsletter contest!!
How about a name for this thing? Can someone come up with a better name
for the newsletter than the DRAGONQUEST Newsletter? Send in your
suggestions, and if there's a good idea we'll use it and rename (name it to
begin with, more like...) the newsletter.
To give you an idea of how many people may still be playing DragonQuest
out there, we have almost 30 subscribers to the newsletter! And that's just
based on one posting to rec.games.frp.misc announcing that we were going to
try to start up a newsletter for DragonQuest. And of the current subscriber
base, more than 2/3 of that number are people who are the only
representatives of their gaming group on the 'Net. If you assume each of
those people plays DragonQuest with 3 other gamers, that's 120 DQ players
we're reaching. Remember, though, that that is just the people who still
play DragonQuest who have access to the 'Net. There may be hundreds more
out there who aren't connected to the 'Net, or who didn't see the
announcement about the Newsletter, yet.
Another intersting DragonQuest item came from the letter Joe Gregg sent me
along with asking to be signed on to the Newsletter. He has some contacts
who are looking into buying the rights to DragonQuest from TSR and
republishing it under a new name (subtitled "Formerly known as DragonQuest")
in what would be a fourth edition for the game. I've edited the relevant
parts of Joe's letter and included it in this newsletter, so rather than
trying to further describe what he wrote, I'll let you read it for yourself
further on in the newsletter.
Lastly, we need your input for this newsletter. Send articles for the
newsletter to: psproefr@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu
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Weapons Rule Variant
The following is a small way to add a little more flavor to your
campaign. It doesn't do much, but I found that in my campaign it
was something the players really responded to. It can get out of
hand, but a good GM should be able to keep this all in check.
PSP
WEAPON HANDLING
(Optional Rule) Depending on their construction, wear, and use, some
weapons of a given type may feel more comfortable to a character than
others. Each weapon has its own character, and the GM may elect to
introduce this feature into play by allowing each weapon a modifier for
its Handling for each individual.
[WH.1] Each individual who handles a weapon may determine its feel for
his particular use of that weapon.
To determine a weapon's Handling for a particular individual, roll 2D5
and consult the following chart:
Roll Modifier
2 -3
3 -2
4 -1
5 0
6 0
7 0
8 +1
9 +2
10 +3
While it may not be at all unusual for a character examining daggers
at the bazaar to handle several to compare their heft, the GM should
discourage players from swapping weapons around among themselves to
see whose hand it best fits. After all, if someone finds a weapon
they like, they're going to keep it for themselves, even if it fits
someone else's hand better.
[WH.2] Only certain types of weapons will reasonably have noticeable
Handling characteristics.
Only swords, hafted weapons and pole arms should have a modifier for
Handling. The GM need not apply this rule in all cases and should use
his discretion to keep this rule from turning the purchase of each and
every weapon into the search for the absolutely best fitting sword hilt.
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Is a DragonQuest Revival Possible?
--- Joe Gregg
We have an active playing group of DQ fans here in Seattle.
Our playing groups range in size from 4 to 11, counting the GM.
Boeing has a recreation club, the Boeing Employees Wargame Club,
which provides most of the participants as well as a forum for
them. There are three different groups meetings each month.
We have played long enough to have begun our own rewrite of
some of the game parts. We have bought & come to consensus about
incorporating each of the changes in editions 1, 2, & 3, along
with the TSR module that introduced shaping and summoning magic.
One of us is director of research at Wizards of the Coast (WotC).
That has led to an interesting possibility.
It's pretty clear that TSR does not intend to revive DQ as
a game system. After all, they've named a line of AD&D products
"Dragon Quest". We were encouraged to submit a proposal to WotC
to produce a 4th edition. They would look into acquiring the
rights from TSR and the right to subtitle any books as "formerly
known as DragonQuest". We aren't being subsidized - all the
work is unpaid, for the love of it.
We have started the project, barely. We are open to comments
and suggestions. Our intentions are to tweak the combat
system, add a fourth branch of magic and four colleges within it,
and improve character generation and rank achievement. If you
want us to expound upon this so readers of your newsletter can
intelligently react, let us know.
Joe Gregg
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New Skill: FENCING
--- Larry Barry
The decreasing use of armor toward the end of the 16th century led to the
increasing use of the sword for defense as well as attack. A fencer is a
swordsman who has been trained to effectively use his sword as a defensive
as well as an offensive weapon.
A fencer must have a modified Agility of a least 15, and a Manual Dexterity
of at least 20, to practive his skill. He must be armed with a broadsword,
rapier, sabre, or cutlass. If his fencing skill exceeds his rank in his
prepared weapon, he receives his fencing bonuses as if he were the lower
of the two ranks.
1) A fencer may perform a strike and evade action in a single pulse. When
using this option, his strike chance is normal, and his defense is :
[ Modified Agility + (3 x Fencing Rank) + Shield Bonus (if any) ]
If an opponent performs a Strike Check against a fencer using this option
and misses his Modified Strike Chance by 30 or more, the fencer may
attempt a parry-riposte as per 17.4 in the rulebook (2nd edition).
2) When performing a normal melee attack action (not a Strike + Evade), a
fencer receive a bonus of [ 1 x Fencing Rank ] to his Strike Chance.
3) When performing a normal Evade Action (not a Strike + Evade), a fencer
receives a defensive bonus of [ 1 x Fencing Rank ].
4) The experience point cost for the fencing skill is the same as for
Mechanician.
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That will do it for this first issue of the DragonQuest Newsletter. Next
time we'll try to have a little more content for you. A note of thanks to
the contributors for their submissions. We need your
notes/variants/rules/monsters/magic/etc. in order for this to be useful and
interesting, so send us something! We would also like to see some
discussion begin about DragonQuest, so send your questions (as well as
feedback about this issue) to:
psproefr@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu
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### End of DragonQuest Newsletter -- February 1994
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