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|| DRAGONQUEST Newsletter January 1996 ||
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|| Volume 3 / Number 1 ||
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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.ATTGIS.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.
C O N T E N T S
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Administrivia
Editorial
Letters -- Brent Jackson
-- J. Verkuilen
Advertisements
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ADMINISTRIVIA - Dave Nadler
=================================================================
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. This is the January issue
that you are receiving at the end of February. I got it from Phil
three weeks ago, but due to my own personal reasons (a new baby
in my family and a large backlog of work) haven't gotten around
to getting this out. In a way, that was fortunate since I've
received about six more subscription requests in the past three
weeks.
One thing that is becoming a problem with nearly 100 subscribers
is the number of messages that are returning to me as a bad
address. Some of you have given me new addresses, which is most
appreciated. If you want OFF the list or if you are losing e-mail
connections for a while, please let me know. If you can't get
the back issues from the ftp site, I'll gladly send you any issues
you may have missed during your absence from this list.
And, finally, my own address will be changing again. I'll be
going back to the @ncr.com address sometime this year. So stay
tuned and be patient in sending me messages. If your message to
me bounces, please try sending it to Phil and he'll forward it
to me.
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EDITORIAL: The Survey
=================================================================
We had 24 responses to the DQN survey. Given that there are
less than 100 subscribers, that's a pretty good response rate.
Based on that sample, this is what we found (although not all of
the respondents were subscribers). A fuller breakdown of the
responses will be made available in the Archive as soon as I can
get it completely cleaned up and organized. Look for it in
January, or so.
The feedback and suggestions we recieved were extensive and
useful. We have a number of new topics which were submitted and
which may become special issues eventually. I will publish all of
these suggestions to get discussion going about them. If there is
a topic you would like to see covered in a special issue, let us
know. (Even better, send us what you have on the topic. We are
more likely to get a special issue when we have submissions from
several sources.)
Most respondents have full 'Net access, but only a few are
connected to commercial services. To get further participation
and growth for the Newsletter, this may be the next area to
explore. Anyone who has access to any of the commercial services
could help us out greatly by posting a notice in an appropriate
location within your service to let people know how to get the
Newsletter. I have a DQN FAQ that I have been working on to
advertise the Newsletter which you could use, too. Contact me to
discuss this further.
##### Online access: ############################################
(e-mail /DQ Newsletter/) -- 22; (internet newsgroups) -- 20;
(commercial service discussion groups) -- 4 {CompuServe-1,
Other/Unidentified-3};
(ftp /DQ Archive/) -- 19; (gopher) -- 18; (www /DQ HomePage/) --
19
##### Geographic Locale: ########################################
Australia [3] Melbourne -- 2; Sydney -- 1
Candada [3] Ontario -- 2; Alberta -- 1
New Zealand [4] Auckland -- 4
Sweden [1] Karlstad -- 1
UK [1] Cambridge -- 1
USA [12] California -- 3; Colorado -- 1; Hawaii -- 1; Illinois --
1;
Michigan -- 2; New Jersey -- 1; Ohio -- 2; Oregon -- 1
##### DQ status: ################################################
[note: Many people responded as both player & GM. I have
classified
[these based on their first choice. There are probably
several more
[people who GM (or have GMed) DragonQuest than this might
indicate.
(DQ Player)--14; (DQ GM)--4; (Used to play DQ)--6; (Just
browsing)--0
##### How often do you play DQ? #################################
[note: Many of the responses to this question were along the
lines
[of: "A lot less than I used to..."
Weekly -- 7; Twice a month -- 3; Once a month or every other
month -- 4; About 4-6 times/year; Not on a regular basis -- 7;
Effectively never -- 2
##### How long have you been a DQ player? #######################
1 to 5 years --4; 6 to 10 years -- 6; 11+ years -- 12
##### Number of people in DQ campaign? ##########################
The New Zealand group all reported 60-70 in their campaign,
which somewhat skews the result. However, among the rest, groups
of 3 to 10 were reported. Five to six was the average group size.
##### Number of non-subscriber readers: #########################
Almost half the respondents share the DragonQuest Newsletter
with at least a couple of other people (presumably the others in
their campaign, although we didn't ask) so the Newsletter does
have some additional reach. I have also given a couple of people
permission on different occasions to make copies of a Newsletter
to distribute at a convention.
Among the suggestions for special issues topics was a request
for information about pirates/ships/etc. for DragonQuest. I saw a
trailer for a pirate movie coming out this Christmas called
'Cutthroat Island' which looks like a good swashbuckling action
flick. (I have now seen this ad several more times, so I expect
that this is not news to a lot of you, and I expect that there
will be an upturn in interest about things piratical in general.
This is one area that DQ briefly addresses, but then does not
follow up with. I would dearly love to gather an extensive
Special Issue devoted to sea/sailing/pirates/etc. so maybe now is
the time to start thinking about that? Please send your
submissions to me, and we will see if we can get a special issue
along these lines pulled together for the spring.
------------------------_L_E_T_T_E_R_S_--------------------------
=================================================================
-- Reviving DQ -- The comments of Anthony T. Stanford regarding
DQ was quite interesting. There are people currently negotiating
with TSR for the rights of DQ. Also, I have it on good authority
that TSR sold the rights for all SPI products except DQ for
US$10,000. This would seem in direct contrast to what Anthony was
saying. However, we approached TSR in 1986 regarding DQ and got a
firm "No" so maybe things have changed.
-- Namers Counterspells -- We too have the problem that Andrew
South talked of regarding Namers having to learn two new
counterspells for each new college that is introduced. It is as
yet unaddressed, but his suggestion is a good one. An alternative
would be to have six counterspells, General and Special for each
Branch (although I must admit I recently failed in an attempt to
throw away branches in our campaign because they only add
complexity). With the number of counterspells reduced to a
manageable level, Namers special MA requirement rule could be
dropped, thus requiring them to have 7 MA (or 3 for Andrews
suggestion). Note that our campaign is magic rich.
-- Mages and Iron Projectiles -- Anthony T. Stanford's comments
on this subject were good. Our campaign also plays that an
Endurance hit or Grievous is required for an A-class projectile to
stick into a target.
-- Brent Jackson (brent@hypercom.co.nz)
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Subject: composite/compound bows
Here are a few further notes on composite/compound bows in
response to Anthony Stanford's article in the last issue:
Given precision technology that a really good Mechanician might
be able to use, a compound bow wouldn't be _that_ tough. The
physics is not particularly tough as far as I know. However,
little game advantage should result except for an aimed shot
bonus, since compound bows don't allow the archer to pull a
heavier draw, they allow the archer to hold the draw back longer
and fire the arrow with more even pressure, i.e., they're useful
for modern-day hunters but of little use as a combat weapon.
They're a lot more like a sniper's rifle than a battle weapon.
Hunters in a fantasy world who could afford one might use a
compound bow, but are more likely to use a crossbow. Crossbows
are actually more effective than compound bows, so much so that
they are largely banned for hunting purposes in the US.
> "It really should have been purged with all the other exotic
weapons."
Maybe. There's nothing particularly odd about this technology,
and elves, being short, might desire to use composite bows rather
than longbows. The Arabs and Byzantines used composite
technology--it was a way to get more power in a bow when good wood
like yew or ash was scarce or nonexistent. Composite bows are
certainly not as odd as, say, boomerangs and most bow-using
cultures requiring powerful bows lacking wood would arrive at this
innovation.
> "It too was a Mongol device, made of a composite of horn and
wood (thus
> it's name)."
Not just Mongols. It was common all throughout Asia and
predates the
Mongols, I believe.
> "It looked just like a normal bow except that it was shorter (it
was
> made for use from horseback), usually recurved, and it wasn't
made
> entirely of wood."
Longer staves were also made for the Byzantine infantry bow.
These, and
the derivative Jannissary infantry bow were extremely powerful,
similar
to the English longbow.
-- J. Verkuilen (jayv@uiuc.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)]
{There has been no activity in the DragonQuest archive for a
while. I don't know if Drake is still maintaining it or not,
although the files are still accessible. This list is the most
current inventory of what is contained in the Archive. -- ED}
The Archive Index
folder: AW folder: Adventures
aw89.Z README
aw90.Z crypt.zip
aw91.Z
aw92.Z folder: Misc
aw93.Z README
aw94.Z dqindex.Z
aw95.Z rgfmnote.Z
aw96.Z
aw97.Z folder: Races
README README
oaerth.pcs.Z
folder: News
README folder: Software
dqnvol1.Z README
news.ann.Z armor.dta
newsv2n1.Z charstat.xls
newsv2n2.Z dq.com
newsv2n3.Z dq.pas.Z
newsv2n4.Z dq_tally.com
newsv2n5.Z dq_tally.pas.Z
newsv2n6.Z dqreadme.txt.Z
newsv2n7.Z expchart.xls
magic.dta
folder: Magic npctypes.dta
README shields.dta
monk.Z weapons.dta
timemage.Z
whitemag.Z
folder: Zip
README
archive.zip
------------------------ADVERTISEMENTS---------------------------
=================================================================
Your ad can appear here for only a few Silver Pennies.
Adventurers seeking employment, patrons seeking new contacts,
merchants with fine wares to offer are all welcome to place their
advertisements in these pages. Contact 'Poor Brendan'--Publisher,
Antherwyck
---------------------------
NEW AND slightly IMPROVED DQ WEB SITE!
URL
---
http://www.st.nepean.uws.edu.au/~dallbutt/dq/index.html
The web page is looking a little better now for those
of you who use Netscape.
The Page's offerings include:
* Past and Current Newsletters.
* New Colleges and Skills.
* Canonical DragonQuest Index.
* Art.
* DragonQuest FAQ - nothing much there yet.
Waiting for submissions (hint hint :)
---------------------------
Able-Bodied Sailors Wanted: Apply with full credentials and
descriptions of prior experience to Captain Adler of the ship
'THANNEMEER' presently at the docks in town through the end of
this week.
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### End of DragonQuest Newsletter v3/n1 -- January 1996
###########################################################