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|| DRAGONQUEST Newsletter December 1994 ||
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|| Volume 1 / Number 10 ||
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The DQ Newsletter is for discussions of the DragonQuest role playing game.
The key addresses you need to know are:
Philip Proefrock (Editor, Article Submissions, Etc.)
psproefr@miamiu.muohio.edu
David Nadler (Distribution Coordinator)
nadled@uh2297p01.daytonoh.ncr.com
Drake Stanton (FTP Site Coordinator)
drache@netcom.com
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. The DragonQuest
Newsletter also maintains an ftp archive site:
[ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/dr/drache]
which includes back issues of the newsletter and other articles of interest
to DragonQuest players and GMs.
**************************
Important Announcement!
The site that the Archive is on (Netcom) has reorganized its public ftp
directory structure. As a result, the archive has been moved. It is still
on the ftp.netcom.com machine, but it is now in the directory:
ftp/pub/dr/drache.
^^^
Note the part that has changed
I am sorry if this causes any problems. As always, email me with any
problems or questions. Sorry for the short notice, but they gave us just as
short notice when they changed it.
Drake Stanton
Archive Coordinator, DQ Archive
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C O N T E N T S
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Editorial -- Philip Proefrock
Letters -- John Kahane
-- Dave Selinger
-- Jonathan O'Donnell
Column: The BEASTIARY
Minor Magic Modifications -- Charles Summerhill
Complex Cantrips -- Philip Proefrock
Column: DQ ARCHIVE
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EDITORIAL:
=================================================================
One of the other mailing lists which I subscribe to recently had a fairly
heated debate over the issue of hardcopy distribution of the digest.
Someone was going to print out copies of the digest, make photocopies, and
distribute them to people who didn't have Internet access, but who were
interested in the topic.
The problem arose because this individual was getting money for the
distribution. Granted, he is only getting paid to recoup the cost of copies
and mailing, but some people were outraged about it.
I bring this up because I know that the gaming community is large, and
while there are a lot of DQ players on the 'Net, there are others who don't
have access. We've thought about making a hardcopy version of the
Newsletter available, for which we would have to recoup photocopy and
mailing costs. But, if there are objections to this, we will have to
reconsider.
What do you think of the idea? At this point, the issue is only
hypothetical. We don't have a list of people asking about getting the
Newsletter by mail. We had a request to make hardcopies of the Newsletter
to be distributed (without charge) at a convention, which we agreed to. But
there is a fine line here, and I think we need a group consensus and
understanding about this.
I would like to add a disclaimer to the Newsletter that would allow us to
print out hardcopies of it (or to give permission to allow others to print
out and distribute copies of specific Newsletters) in order to broaden
awareness of DragonQuest and to give more people access to the information.
------------------------_L_E_T_T_E_R_S_--------------------------
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{Note: This letter was received before the last newsletter, but due to our
size limit, we weren't able to include it in the last issue. Our apologies
to John. -- ED}
Hullo, Phil!
Just thought I'd drop you a note to let you know that I recently received
the DragonQuest Netletter v1n8, and was quite pleased by it. I see that you
folks are making constant improvements to the Netletter, and hope that this
continues. You're doing a really fine job with this, and I like to think
that the DQ Netletter will continue to be a regular thing.
{We hope so, too. -- ED}
Just one question, though...I've noticed that with the exception of me,
most of the folks who "subscribe" to the Netletter are doing so through
Internet, whereas I do so through Fidonet. I've been waiting for the
Internet feed that I'm supposed to get for a while now, and there's been a
delay on this. In the meantime, how am I (and other Fidonet subscribers (if
any) supposed to access the DQ ftp archives for materials and the like?
-- John Kahane (John.Kahane@p5.f198.n163.z1.fidonet.org)
{Editors' Reply:
{I have been struggling with the issue of how to get Archive material to
those without ftp. I am working on trying to set up an automated
mail-system, which will automatically e-mail files from the Archive to
users. I can't tell you when (or even if) this is going to be implemented.
In the meantime, if any user wishes something from the Archive, and cannot
get it via ftp, they may mail me and I will mail the material to them.
There is obviously a limit on how many users I can do this for, so please
do this only if you CANNOT get it via ftp. Thank you, and apologies for any
problems.
Drake (drache@netcom.com) --Archive Coordinator}
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Phil,
I meant to write this several weeks ago in response to the letter
expressing interest in a DQ character generation program. I wrote one a
while ago in Turbo Pascal. It allows the generation of a character by
either randomly generating the vital statistics or by choosing them. It
then allows the user to modify these points and to choose weapons, armor,
shields and a magic college. It will calculate the percentage chances for
spells and weapons given rank and the primary characteristic for that
ability. I have used it to create NPC's, particularly mages.
I also have another program which will produce and keep track of the
stats for up to ten NPC guard types. At first we used this quite a bit to
speed up combats. However, we found that our nights became monotonous. Its
biggest attribute is that it will randomly generate a series of similar
characters within a range specified by the user. I am willing to deposit
the source codes for both programs in the FTP site.
{Dave has sent these to the Archive already. See this issue's Archive
section for more information about these programs. -- ED}
If anyone is interested but does not have Turbo Pascal I would be willing
to send them a disk copy of the object code for a few dollars to cover the
cost of the disk and mailing. It will run on any IBM PC compatible
including the original 8088 machine all the way up to 486 machines.
-- Dave Selinger (DSELINGER@MOLBIO.uoregon.edu)
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To: Editors
Thank you for an excellent magazine.
I would really enjoy seeing the collated discussions included in the
Newsletter (either as articles or as supplements). I do not read news
anymore because it was too hard trying to maintain a kill file, a .newsrc
file, keep up with new groups and read the relevant old groups. I just
didn't have the time.
However, if other people do have the time, I would be quite willing to go
with the majority vote.
Here's a thought. Would there be enough interest to maintain two lists?
That way, Group A could receive the newsletter and Group B could receive
the newsgroups supplements, with a large amount of overlap between the two
Groups. Both the newsletter and the supplements end up in the archive.
I don't know anything about the workload involved, so when I say "...enough
interest...", I mean from the editors, not the readers.
-- Jonathan O'Donnell (jono@oak.bf.rmit.edu.au)
{We got several other responses on the topic of including DQ-related
material from the rec.games.frp.misc newsgroup. The responses we got
indicate strong support for continuing to collect DragonQuest-related
discussions and to include them in the Newsletter. Since the discussion of
DQ in r.g.f.m is only occasional, I do not think it will start overwhelming
the Newsletter, but if it does, we will have to reexamine things at that
time.
{All of us have problematic 'Net servers, so some things may slip past us
inadvertently. If you are involved in a discussion about DragonQuest, and
can keep copies of the discussion thread and forward them to us, we would
appreciate it. -- ED}
-------------------_The_ _B_E_A_S_T_I_A_R_Y_---------------------
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MOREDHEL
-- by John Kahane (John.Kahane@p5.f198.n163.z1.fidonet.org)
Natural Habitat: Hills, Mountains, Woods
Frequency: Uncommon Number: 10-40 (20)
Description:
The moredhel or dark elf (also called the Brotherhood of the Dark Path) is
a lithe humanoid, slightly smaller than man-sized, but like their elven
kindred, can also reach heights in excess of humans. Elves and moredhel
appear almost identical to the untrained eye. The moredhel have a tendency
to dark hair and eyes than their elven cousins.
Talents, Skills, and Magic:
See DragonQuest, Section 6.5. The moredhel are capable of running for
periods of up to six (6) hours without suffering the loss of more than 2
Fatigue per hour as per the normal Encumbrance rules. In addition, the
moredhel excel at the use of bows and are automatically treated as if they
are Rank 4 with a bow of their choice for the purposes of additional bonuses
to Strike Chance, damage, and range with these weapons. If a moredhel takes
the Hunter or Ranger skills, he expends one-half the Experience Points
necessary to progress Ranks. Those moredhel who are Mages and Adepts will
belong to the Colleges of Black Magics, Earth Magics, Witchcraft, and the
like. They will not be Star Mages or belong to the College of White Magics.
Unlike the elves (also called eledhel), the moredhel only live around
10,000 years or so, not the typical 30,000 years that elves live.
Movement Rates: Running: 275
PS: 10-22 MD: 5-23 AG: 6-24 MA: 4-22
EN: 6-28 FT: 8-32 WP: 6-24 PC: 6-24
PB: 8-26 TMR: 6 NA: None
Weapons:
The moredhel, like their elven cousins, have a preference for bow weapons,
and will have Ranks 4-6 with them. They also tend to use spears, slings,
knives, and shortswords, and are fond of using nets to trap unwary prey.
They are usually Rank 3-6 with these weapons.
Comments:
The moredhel are the long-lost, banished cousins of the eledhel, who chose
to follow the path of the Valheru in ages past. For this reason, they are
called the Brotherhood of the Dark Path by humans. Elves and moredhel do
not get along, and the moredhel and the dwarves have a great antipathy
towards one another as well. They are generally thought to be without mercy
and, if no escape is possible, they will fight to the death rather than
surrender.
There is much more that one could say about the moredhel here, but this is
detailed much more in Raymond Feist's novel, _Magician_.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
The Moredhel are based upon the "nice little guys" that are found
in Raymond Feist's Midkemia novels and material, and as such are rather
interesting when compared to standard elves and the like.
You'll also note references to a couple of new Colleges and one new Skill
in their description, as well. White Magics was one of the Colleges that
was supposed to be part of the original "Arcane Wisdom" supplement for DQ,
but got cut when the number of Colleges in the supplement were reduced down
to three. The College of Witchcraft is all my own, and is quite an
interesting little one.
Hunter Skill is one that I've added based on a number of my players who
wanted it in the game, and is different than the variant that appeared in
one of the issues of the Dragon. {In his letter accompanying this
submission, John indicated that he will send these in for the Newsletter in
the near future, too. -- ED}
-- John Kahane (John.Kahane@p5.f198.n163.z1.fidonet.org)
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MINOR MAGIC MODIFICATIONS
-- Charles Summerhill (charles.summerhill@grapevine.lrk.ar.us)
=================================================================
[This slight modification to Minor Magic makes a reference to Minor Skills,
something else I am proposing for a major change to DragonQuest. In essence
the skills presented in DQ at the moment are really packages of skills --
Minor Skills are single individual skills that characters can purchase,
somewhat like what is found in GURPS and Champions as well as the NWP in
ADD. They have not replace the DQ skills packages, just enhanced them.]
XX.XX Increasing chance to perform Minor Magic.
A character, for reasons of his own, may attempt to study Minor Magic, and
become more proficient at using it. Each of the three type of Minor Magic,
Glamour, Cantrip and Trance is treated as a separate Minor Skill [see Minor
Skill rules, XX.XX] and can be increased through practice and the
expenditure of Experience Points. Each Minor Skill has a Experience Multiple
of 150 and each rank (not including Rank 0) gives the character a +3% chance
to successfully use that Minor Magic type. The maximum rank in any case is
10 for each one.
-- Charles Summerhill (charles.summerhill@grapevine.lrk.ar.us)
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COMPLEX CANTRIPS
-- Philip Proefrock (psproefr@miamiu.muohio.edu)
=================================================================
Introduction and Note to GMs:
This allows for an expanded system of minor magic, and for magic to take
on a greater presence in the "flavor" of a campaign. My campaign world is
fairly magic-rich, and it only made sense to me that mages would have worked
out how to do simple tasks with minor magic.
If this method of adding more complex minor magic seems too out of line
with 'regular' DragonQuest for your campaign, you can instead use this as an
idea list of some further things Adepts might do with minor magic.
This section is adapted from a larger collection of my DragonQuest
material, and is Copyright (c) 1987, 1990 by Philip S. Proefrock.
Permission is given for distribution through the DragonQuest Newsletter.
108. COMPLEX CANTRIPS
Complex cantrips are a form of minor magic more difficult than regular
minor magic talents, but less difficult than spell magic. While general
minor magic is a spontaneous use of magical talent, complex cantrips are
more difficult feats of minor magic which require a rehearsed trigger. For
this reason they are sometimes also called TKey Magics,U because they use a
mnemonic key in order to be triggered. These are some of the
Tnickel-and-dimeU stunts that surround an AdeptUs life.
[108.1] Because of their more complex nature, an Adept must spend
Experience Points, time and perhaps money to learn a complex cantrip.
Complex cantrips require 1 day of instruction from another Adept who knows
the cantrip or one week of study if learning from books only. The cost of
instruction is equal to (Experience Point Cost + 30) Silver Pennies.
[108.2] The Base Chance to cast a complex cantrip is 4 x CasterUs Magical
Aptitude.
Modifiers for the casterUs particular college of magic do not apply to the
casting of complex cantrips. As with other minor magic, the GM may add
modifiers or vary the Base Chance at his discretion.
Casting a complex cantrip costs one Fatigue Point, whether the spell is
successful or not. Complex cantrips operate in essentially the same
fashion as does minor magic (see DragonQuest 4.2 for more information).
[108.3] An Adept may learn an unlimited number of complex cantrips.
All complex cantrips the adept knows count collectively as one spell for
purposes of having sufficient Magical Aptitude to learn them (see 34.6 and
34.7)
Complex Cantrips are not Ranked like spells. Once a character has
learned the TkeyU to the cantrip, there is nothing else to master.
[108.4] (Optional Rule) A character who is not an Adept may learn complex
cantrips.
Normal minor magic may be performed by any character (see DragonQuest
4.1). However, depending on the character of the campaign, the GM may wish
to limit the access to complex cantrips to Adepts, or the GM may allow all
characters to learn complex cantrips.
A character who is not an Adept must spend one week of instruction, or two
months of study if learning from a book, in order to learn a complex
cantrip. The Experience Point Cost for a non-Adept will be [100 + (2 x
listed Experience Point Cost)], and the monetary cost will usually be higher
for non-Adepts as well.
[108.5] Complex Cantrips List
Each complex cantrip is followed by its Experience Point cost in
parentheses. The descriptions of these cantrips are left rather broad, and
they will require interpretation by the GM depending on the situation in
question.
BUG - summons a few insects to a point within (2 x Magical Aptitude) feet
from the adept. (15)
CALL - summons a horse, dog or other non-magical familiar animal from up to
(Magical Aptitude V 3) miles. (40)
CHILL - cools a bottle, cup or other small quantity of material by (Magical
Aptitude x 2) degrees. (45)
CHIMNEY - protects a bare candle or other small flame from gusts. (30)
CLEAN - lifts dirt, dust, liquids, etc. from a small area. (55)
COLOR - temporarily shades or colors a surface. (80)
CURE - heals one point of Fatigue and serves as a PhysikerUs Kit or Rank 1
healer skill to staunch bleeding, etc. Can only be used once on a wounded
individual. (150)
DAMPEN - covers an area with dew or dampness. (30)
DRY - removes dew or dampness from an area. (30)
DUST - stirs up a small dustcloud. (25)
GATHER - collects like objects or material from a localized area. (85)
IGNITE - causes a flammable object (such as a candle, dry kindling, lamp
wick, parchment corner, etc.) to ignite. (50)
KNOT - magically tangles a knot making it more difficult to untie or loosen.
Takes (2 x Magical Aptitude) minutes to untie by hand. (70)
LUCK - allows the player to make one die roll (no more than once every game
day) which may be substituted for any other die roll at any time. The
player does not see what number he has rolled, and it may sometimes be worse
than what he had rolled initially. (70)
POLISH - shines objects and removes tarnish. (35)
PRESERVE - slows or stops decay or rotting. (90)
PROD - causes a shocking jolt. (50)
RAVEL - unsews a seam or unravels a piece of cloth from a broken thread.
(60)
SPILL - tips small containers and otherwise encourages spills. (30)
STITCH - causes a thread or string to sew itself into a seam, attach a
button, etc. (60)
TANGLE - snarls thread, hair, string, vines, etc. (20)
TEMPERATURE - protects the Adept from extremes of temperature. {Wizards
donUt sweat} (150)
TIE - ties two threads, two cords, etc. together. (50)
UNTIE - undoes a knot or removes a snarl. Can be used to reverse the
effects of oneUs own TKnotU cantrip instantly, or will untie another AdeptUs
TKnotU in ([30 - Magical Aptitude] x 5) seconds. (50)
WARM - heats a small object. (45)
This list is not exhaustive. Other cantrips may be introduced by the GM
or may be researched and developed by player-characters. However, the GM
should be careful to limit the effects of Complex Cantrips to stay within
the guidelines of the DragonQuest rules for Minor Magic (see DQ 4.2). More
powerful effects should be developed as spells, rather than as cantrips.
-- Philip Proefrock (psproefr@miamiu.muohio.edu)
---------------------_D_Q_ _A_R_C_H_I_V_E_-----------------------
=================================================================
[Archive ftp site is at: ftp.netcom.com in the pub/dr/drache directory.
[ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/dr/drache]
Archivist and ftp Guru: Drake Stanton (drache@netcom.com)]
Dragon Quest Character Generation Program and Point Tallying Program
ARCHIVE NAMES: dq.pas
dq_tally.pas
***Dragon Quest Character Generation Program (dq.pas)
The Program is relatively straight forward. It is menu driven and
relatively crash-proof (although I won't guarantee that). Basically it can
generate character stats in two ways. The first is to randomly assign
points into the six stats. The second option is to enter the stats
manually. In either case they may be modified up or down later. After
selecting race, armor and a shield (the last two may be modified later) the
user is shown the main screen along with a menu. The user may now choose up
to 5 weapons and a magic college. The character may then be printed out and
saved to a character file, from which it may be recovered and further
modified. The one notable omission of this program is Skills, which I
deemed too difficult to deal with.
A possible problem with this program is printing. Turbo Pascal version
3.0 had relatively crude output procedures (or at least what I could figure
out was pretty crude) so it may be difficult to print on deskjet or laser
printers. It does work fine on dot-matrix printers.
***Point Tallying Program (dq_tally.pas)
The second program is much simpler in scope than the first. It was
designed to simplify large combats with troops or wandering monsters as
combatants. Its two redeeming features are the ability to generate
opponents with a range of stat values above a user selected minimum and the
ability to keep track of fatigue and endurance values during a combat. In
addition it will keep track of the NPC's status and subtract the armor value
from any damage entered. It also shows values for defense and COS which is
an abbreviation for "come-out-of-stun."
The program was meant to overcome the clonal problem of wandering
monsters and guard type combats in which the GM, for simplicity's sake
assigns the same EN and FT as well as SC and DM to all NPCs. Its one
drawback is that it can speed up combat so much that DD type adventures can
result, with waves of guard types being dispatched by characters, and one
final combat with a worthy opponent.
**Notes on both programs:
I have provided the source and object code for both programs. They may
be freely modified and used. I simply ask that my contribution be mentioned
in any future revised versions if they are distributed. Since I don't
foresee any great monetary value attached to these programs now or in the
future, I'm not going to worry about copyrights and such. Have fun with
them and don't get too angry with me when the programs don't work right.
You may e-mail me at "dselinger@molbio.uoregon.edu" with any questions or
problems.
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### End of DragonQuest Newsletter v1/n10 -- December 1994
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