DRAGONQUEST Newsletter 2003 V8/No3

=========================================================== || || DRAGONQUEST Newsletter 2003 || || Volume 8 / Number 3 =========================================================== The DQ Newsletter is for discussions of the DragonQuest role- playing game. The key addresses you need to know are: Rodger Thorm (Editor, Article Submissions, Etc.) dqn@earthlink.net 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- C O N T E N T S [v8/n03] ================================================================= Editorial -- New Content Dragon Magazine Articles, Intro -- Rodger Thorm The warrior alternative -- Craig Barrett Learn magic by the month -- Craig Barrett ----------------------------------------------------------------- EDITORIAL: The Dragon Articles ================================================================= This volume of the DragonQuest Newsletter is going to contain the text versions of all of the remaining Dragon magazine articles for DragonQuest. After this series, the DQN is going to adjust to a new focus. We will roll out the new changes in 2004 with the first issue of Volume IX. Rodger Thorm DQN Editor ----------------------------------------------------------------- DRAGON MAGAZINE ARTICLES, INTRO -- Rodger Thorm ================================================================= In the early- to mid-1980s, when DragonQuest was still present and viable, there was enough interest in it that Dragon magazine ran several articles on the game. These articles addressed different aspects of DQ and suggested some additional rules that were though to be missing from the original rulebook. Some of these included rules for swimming (two different articles), hunting, and learning magic. The authors were not part of the SPI team (although they may have been playtesters), and their articles all seem somewhat at odds with SPI's style. Nonetheless, some good material is present, even if it needs further modification to be used in a DQ campaign. An anonymous contributor recently made .PDF files of all nine Dragon magazine articles available. These files are now posted as individual articles in the Files section of the DQN-list group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dqn-list/files/ as well as in a single .ZIP file containing all nine .PDFs which is in the Files section of the DQ-rules group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dq-rules/files/documents/DQDragonArchive.zip The nine articles are: Travel & threads for DragonQuest The versatile Magician The thrill of the hunt Enhancing the enchanter The warrior alternative Learn magic by the month Going up and getting wet Getting in over your head For a fuller background These articles are also being converted into plain text files by a few other dedicated members of the DQ community. These articles will be included as a regular part of the DragonQuest Newsletter for the next nine issues (starting with this one) to make the files accessible to as many people as possible. As soon as we have the entire set of text files ready, those will be made available as well. Thanks to the following individuals for their help in collecting and preparing these articles for the Newsletter: the anonymous contributor for supplying the .PDF articles; John Rauchert, John Kahane, and Steven Wiles for text conversion and proofreading. ----------------------------------------------------------------- THE WARRIOR ALTERNATIVE -- Craig Barrett ================================================================= (Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine, June 1984, pp.24-25) The warrior alternative Generating non-magical characters for the DQ game by Craig Barrett Of all role-playing game topics, my favorite is fantasy. I enjoy working with simulations of magic, provided that the magic is treated as something special and is used in moderation. This statement seems contradictory in light of the fact that the fantasy RPG I have worked with most frequently is the DRAGONQUEST adventure game. Contradictory, because the DQ game system not only encourages every player to make his character a practitioner of magic but actually penalizes a player who doesn't. Those who've played the DQ game know what I mean. Reading the Character Generation rules leads the player face to face with Rule 8.7: "The player may want to . . . choose a college of magic for his character (see 34). . . ." But what if the player doesn't want to choose a College for his character? Tough. No alternative is offered; no compensation for not making a character an Adept is provided. The rules trot blithely on, and the player is left wondering why such an empty opportunity exists. It's not that the DRAGONQUEST game doesn't allow for non-magical characters, because non-Adepts abound. For example, non-magical characters are described in the game rules (see 31.0 and 31.4), in game supplements (from "Camp of Alla-Akabar" to "Blade of Allectus"), and even in Gerry Klug's article "DragonNotes" (ARES-- Magazine, issue #11), which deals with the issue of randomizing NPCs. So, nothing in the rules prohibits a player's character from being a non-Adept, but nothing encourages it, either. The offer of a magical College for one's character is a gift; forgo the gift, and nothing is offered in its place. This situation doesn't seem fair, because the courage required to engage in a DQ campaign without the recourse of personal magic deserves some reward. Hence, the "warrior alternative" offered in this article. This option provides immediate martial privileges for players who are willing to sacrifice intermediate-range magical advantages for them. Players who wish to start with some Ranked skills besides languages may find this option intriguing. If a player examines the game rules (up to Rule 8.7) for resources available to his character, he realizes that his character must pay something in order to be initiated into a magical College. The most valuable clue to this something is found outside the regular DQ game materials, in Chaosium's Thieves' World. When Eric Goldberg, one of the original DQ game designers, adapted the game to fit the universe of Robert Asprin's fine Thieves' World anthology series, Goldberg directly contravened Rule 34.5, which prohibits Adepts from learning the magic of a College other than his own. The revised procedure goes like this: In exchange for a six-month term of study and 5,000 Experience Points (EPs), the initial magic of a College of the same alignment as a character (see 34.1) can be learned; for a twelve-month term of study and 7,500 EPs, the initial magic of a College of a different alignment can be learned. In this setup, it's easier to learn the magic of a different but similarly aligned College than it was for the Adept to learn the magic of his original College, because, at this point, the character is building on a familiar foundation. A non-aligned College is more difficult since the character is hampered by the training gained from his first College. By splitting the difference between the two costs -- say, a nine-month term of study and 6,500 EPs -- we arrive at the initiation cost for a character's first magical College. Let's suppose that, while a character's classmates are busy with their spells and potions, he decides to go a different route. The character knows that he can always be initiated into a magical College later (for nine months of study and 6,500 EPs); however, he currently wants an education that offers more tangible survival benefits. Instead of entering a school for magic, he enters a different kind of school. Unless the Gamemaster has created a highly detailed DRAGONQUEST world, a player does not have to worry about identifying this other school that his character attended, any more than he would if all characters attended a magic-teaching school. Instead, this player should follow the standard Character Generation rules until he reaches Rule 8.5; at this point, he stops. The player now has nine months and 6,500 EPs to spend on his character for the development of skills other than magic. These EPs can't be spent indiscriminately. Because players don't want to mess up the play balance, some restrictions are in order (see 87.7). First, every character who chooses the warrior alternative expends 2,500 EPs on characteristic points: either for one Fatigue Point, which raises the character's total no higher than 23 and has no effect on Endurance (see 5.3), or for 3 Perception Points, which are added to his initial 8 PC points. Second, a character selects one skill from Chapter VII that he majored in and expends sufficient EPs to raise that skill to Rank 2. Then, he selects a skill he minored in and expends enough EPs so that the skill is at Rank 1. Players should be able to defend skill choices if the Gamemaster challenges the relationship of these selections to the character being role-played. A school for Assassins, for example, might provide a supplementary course in Spying or Courtesy (the character has to get close to his target if he's to kill him), but not one in Alchemy or Navigation. A school for Thieves could also train Merchants (this way, a character could double as a fence for stolen goods), but not Military Scientists (though soldiers are also foragers and, therefore, might minor as Thieves). Since the warrior alternative is the point of discussion here, choices for a major skill should be limited to Assassin, Beast Master, Military Scientist, Navigator, Ranger, Spy, and Thief. Neither the major nor the minor skill should be a language. Once the character has selected his major and minor skills, he selects three weapons consistent with these skills and expends sufficient EPs to earn Rank 2 with one of them and Rank 1 with each of the other two. Thus, an Assassin must select either the sap or the garotte as a tool of his trade, and he probably wouldn't choose a broadsword or shield, while a Military Scientist (particularly one from a family of the Greater Nobility) probably would. These weapon choices shouldn't be unduly restricted, but should remain reasonable. When weapons have been selected, all of the character's 6,500 EPs may have been used. Of any EPs remaining, only up to 500 can be held in reserve to be added to the EP bank once the procedures in Rule 8.7 are completed. Any EPs in excess of this amount are permanently lost. Remaining EPs can now be spent for more Fatigue or Perception points, for Stealth to Rank 1, for Horsemanship to Rank 1, for Hunting to Rank 1 (see Paul Crabaugh's article in DRAGON Magazine, issue #78, p. 84), or for any affordable combination of these. When remaining EPs have been spent, the player proceeds with Rules 8.5, 8.6, and 8.7. EPs acquired under Rule 8.5 can be spent in any manner desired during this process. (I recommend immediately using the bargain price of 100 EPs for one skill -- Rule 8.6 -- for a language skill. Under Rule 49.6, this means a character begins play with Rank 8 in that language. He already has 7 to 10 Rankings in other skills, so why pass up this chance if 8.5 has given him the EPs to spend?) If the character is human (this variant is mainly designed for humans), he is credited with being able to read, write, and speak Common at Rank 8 (see Rule 49.0, paragraph 3, and Rule 49.6). When the character generation process is completed, a player adds to the EP bank those EPs he's been holding in reserve from his character's "education fund" of 6,500 EPs. Finally, the player assigns his character a name (see 8.8), and his work is done. Gamemasters should deal with the newly created non-Adept in a liberal fashion and should be patient as the non-Adept works out the duties of having sudden Rank. An Assassin of Rank 2, for example, must pay 700 Silver Pennies per year as "hush money" and such (see 51.9). Since the character won't be able to afford that sum of money right away, the Gamemaster should give the new Assassin plenty of time to gather the needed funds during his first year of operation. The Gamemaster must treat all skills with similar generosity. One final note: These Ranks should be seen as fair just compensation for an audacious character who is willing to brave the dangers of a DRAGONQUEST world without the benefit of personal magical powers. By the character's abstinence, he's contributing to the value of the magic being used by others; therefore, he should be given a little bit of an edge in other areas. ----------------------------------------------------------------- LEARN MAGIC BY THE MONTH -- Craig Barrett ================================================================= (Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine, September 1984, pp. 42-43) Learn magic by the month DRAGONQUEST rules for studying spells by Craig Barrett Most player characters (PCs) begin a DRAGONQUEST game campaign already adept in a magical college. That's the way the rules work, and since the rules also restrict PCs to membership in a single college at a time, there seems little point in knowing how a PC can enter a college after the campaign has begun. However, things don't always run as smoothly as they first start out, even in roleplaying games. Some players will elect to start their PCs as non-adepts (see "The warrior alternative," DRAGON Magazine #86). Others will see their PCs stripped of magical power, either voluntarily or involuntarily, during the course of the campaign (see rules 34.5, 44.0, 46.0, etc.). Some GMs will draw from Eric Goldberg's article in Chaosium's THIEVES' WORLD game, which suggests allowing adepts to belong to more than one college at a time. In all of these cases, a PC will enter a college after the campaign is already under way, and that brings up a major problem: In order to learn magic, a PC will have to spend six to twelve months of game time out of action, studying. This means an extended period of real time during which you, the player, have a choice of fascinating activities. You can twiddle your thumbs, count raindrops on a pane of glass, or watch your fellow players happily pursuing their own PCs' careers -- you can do anything except play, which is what you came to do. The purpose of this article is to provide a viable solution to that problem. Although a PC's education in magic may have to proceed in uninterrupted monthly increments (rule 34.5), nothing says those increments have to be consecutive. If a given study month can be separated from the study months before and after it, both you and your PC can be set free to enjoy yourselves. While your PC's colleagues are improving their skills or practicing their abilities, your PC can be studying his magic. When they're off adventuring, your character can adventure right along with them -- and you can be in on the action, too. But in order to make this procedure work, you have to have some knowledge of where a PC can go to study magic and how much magic he can learn during a given month of study. Monastic schools I favor the suggestions provided in the DRAGONQUEST rules to determine the placement of monasteries, though each GM is free to organize the magical societies of his world as he sees fit. The best way to deal with monasteries is to establish them per branch (rule 34.0) rather than per college. Having only three kinds of monasteries rather than twelve means that your world isn't going to be hamstrung by an overabundance of religious institutions. Of course, some care will have to be taken in deciding which masters and novices are inhabiting a monastery at any given time -- but this has more to do with inter- college conflicts than with inter-branch differences. After all, fire mages and water mages may be incompatible in terms of the magic they practice, but they ought to be able to study side by side without too many problems. However, the same may not be true of pacifistic earth mages and druidic earth mages. (The answer to this is to keep pacifistic earth mages out of monasteries altogether. As individualists, they keep to themselves.) Tuition fees are the same for all monasteries: 200 silver pennies per month actually spent in the monastery, plus 100 SPs per month that your basic magical education extends, from the first day of the first month to the last day of the last month. Payment is due at the start of each increment of monthly study, and should include arrears if you've been away from the monastery (in which case part of a month counts as a full month). This is little enough to pay for the priceless magical education your PC is getting, and the real profit to the monastery comes in less tangible areas: the chance to spread the knowledge that the monastery exists to preserve; the services of willing novices, for assistants are always needed as each master works to further his own personal studies; the addition of new names to the list of those already loyal to the monastery. In the uncertainties of a DRAGONQUEST game world, loyal friends are priceless, and even after your "graduation," your master or your monastery's abbot may call upon you periodically for some service. During the time of his education, your PC will be required to give strict devotion to his studies. Each monthly increment should be uninterrupted, and an interrupted month is a lost month, with both SPs and EPs forfeited. (GMs should be reluctant to allow uncontrollable outside factors to interfere with the studies of a dedicated novice. Anyone who is honestly trying to abide by the rules should be allowed to do so. Also, short missions for your PC's master or abbot are considered part of the discipline, and shouldn't count against study time.) The period of time your PC can spend away from the monastery between increments, whether on a mission or not, is limited to a maximum of 90 days, since successful study requires a measure of continuity. For each day by which a PC fails to meet this deadline, one week of additional study or 150 additional experience points (GM's choice) are added to his next increment's requirements. Obviously, a severely or habitually delinquent student will soon reach the point where he might as well abandon his present studies and start over. During his time away from the monastery, however, your PC will be gathering fresh experience points. Whether he can begin his studies with insufficient EPs to complete them, as rule 87.1 allows, is up to your PC's master. But if your PC uses a magical ability during an adventure, the resulting EPs can be applied toward ranking that ability. No magical ability of the college currently being studied can be ranked higher than 3 until all basic study for that college is completed. Curriculum When your PC enters a thaumaturgical, elemental, or entital monastery, part of the first month's general study involves letting his teachers determine which particular college he's best suited for. (You know ahead of time, but he doesn't.) How much of the college's magic your PC can learn during any given one-month increment will depend not only on which college he's studying, but also on whether or not it's his first college. (Note: Time and experience-point costs given below are taken directly or by extrapolation from Eric Goldberg's article in Chaosium's THIEVES' WORLD game.) If your PC is learning the general knowledge of his first magical college, it will cost him nine months and 6,500 experience points -- 1,300 EPs for the first month of study, and 650 EPs for each succeeding month of study, "payable" at the start of each month. The entire course must be completed within a given three-year period, beginning on the first day of the first month. In the first month, your PC learns rituals 32.1 and 32.2, as well as the fundamentals of the college. In the second month, he learns the two counterspells of the college and further fundamentals. Each succeeding month he'll learn a group of the college's talents, spells, and rituals, with the specific abilities learned being determined by the GM as follows: Divide the college's talents, spells, and rituals as evenly as possible into seven equal groups, so that all talents will be acquired before all spells, and all spells before all rituals; and so that talents, spells, and rituals are acquired in the order given in the rule book. Some flexibility should be allowed. For example, an enchanter may request to learn one ritual in each of the last four months of study, along with one of the last four spells, rather than having all four rituals grouped in the last two months of study. Any groups of abilities smaller than the others should be among the early months of study; any groups larger than the others should be among the later months. In some colleges, perhaps no abilities will be learned in the third or fourth month of study because of the small number of basic abilities in the college. There's no help for that. If your PC is already an adept and is learning the general knowledge of an aligned college (see 34.0 and 34.1), it costs him six months and 5,000 EPs -- 1,500 EPs for the first month and 700 EPs for each succeeding month of study. The entire course must be completed within a given two-year period. Your PC already knows rituals 32.1 and 32.2, so he learns the college's two counterspells in the first month of study. The curriculum of succeeding months should be determined as for his first college, If your PC is learning the general knowledge of a non-aligned college (which can above, using a five-month base. happen only twice, once for each nonaligned branch), it costs him 12 months and 7,500 EPs -- 900 EPs for the first month and 600 EPs for each succeeding month of study. The entire course must be completed within a given four-year period. Your PC already knows rituals 32.1 and 32.2, so he learns the college's two counterspells in the first month of study. The curriculum of succeeding months should be determined as for his first college, above, using an eleven month base. If your PC fails to meet the deadline for completing the entire course of study for a college, he is immediately reduced by one rank in any ability of that college that he's succeeded in raising above rank 0, and he can never advance past rank 2 with any magical ability of that college. For this reason, the GM should give the dedicated student every possible chance to complete his studies -- acting as the abbot of the monastery, he may even give a PC some form of magical dispensation if the deadline has passed because of circumstances beyond his control. But extensions of the deadline should always be linked to a quest assigned by the abbot, to be performed immediately upon completion of the PC's studies. The only other solution to a missed deadline is to start studying all over again, sacrificing all time, EPs, and SPs already spent. There may be many reasons why a PC (and that character's player) would prefer longer periods of study in place of the one month increments. With a sufficient stockpile of SPs and EPs, a character may feel that the long winter months of a Scandinavian- like environment would be an excellent time to study magic; no one's doing much of anything anyway... Or perhaps your GM has things arranged so that players lend him a helping hand periodically. If you're busy doing something besides running your PC but still involved in the game, that's a wonderful time for your PC to be usefully occupied (if everyone agrees to allow this sort of "double duty"). But if your PC is unable to complete his magical education in a single continuous time span, whether for lack of time or EPs or SPs, the system of monthly increments is a useful one to adopt. Just don't forget the 90-day maximum break between increments; this pertains to all cases. One final point: Rules 34.6 and 34.7 apply at the beginning of magical study. Your PC may be allowed to accumulate the experience points he needs during the hiatus between increments, but not the magical aptitude required. However, the ritual of spell preparation (32.1) should never be counted against the magical aptitude, since it cannot be ranked. ########################################################### ### End of DragonQuest Newsletter v8/n03 -- 2003 ###########################################################