Newt

I'll see what I can rustle up today. If memory serves the sticking block with this is that John never provided the Indesign files for the character sheet, but a hi-res image file. ...but hey this needs fixing

Good stuff

The cover From Darkness into Light was previously used for the out of print HQ Glorantha release The Book of Glorious Joy. Its been touched up by Jon. It seemed a shame to leave it gathering dust on my HD I'm currently working on the River of Heaven Companion, which I'll post more details about later today, which has a mini-campaign by John Ossoway included.

I’ve learnt a lot since OpenQuest 2’s release five years ago. I realised that I wanted to make the changes to the main rule book to make it more appealing to new players and to satisfy my own needs. The refresh of the main rule book has had the knock-on effect of refreshing me on OpenQuest has encouraging me to get on and produce more material for the game. OpenQuest cover by Jon Hodgson If you’ve got OpenQuest 2 Deluxe there is absolutely no reason to buy the refreshed version, the rules are pretty much the same, bar a tweak here and there, as listed in the changes below. The Main Rulebook The main Rulebook, formally known as OpenQuest Deluxe is now simply known as “OpenQuest”, has had a visual refresh, new art, a tighter layout and a few text/rules tweaks here and there. Main changes Reorganised Combat chapter. Clarified rules for Shield use and Unarmed Combat. Complete new art throughout, a new cover by Jon Hodgson and colour internals by James Shields (aka jesheilds). Shamanism, Spirit Combat and Spirits has been revised and simplified. Although Gatan is referred to in the examples the setting chapter “Empire of Gatan” + adventure “The Road Less Travelled” have been taken out of the main rule book and will be re-released in “From Darkness into the Light” a Gatan setting/adventure book (more details see below). Layout has been redone, and with the removal of the Setting + Adventures chapter, the book now comes to a slimmer182 pages. OpenQuest Basics will stay available in pdf and print via DriveThruRpg.com. It will have the updated combat chapter. OpenQuest SRD will be updated to include the reorganised Combat Chapter. The book is currently going through final check and should be ready in pdf by the end of May with print following shortly after. Refresh going forward…. Going forward, OpenQuest Releases later in 2017 Green Hell This is a short setting/adventure for OpenQuest that I'm working on for future release.... "If you go down to the Swamps today… Sir Rurik the Reckless, the Emperor of Gatan’s Champion, has gone missing on a perilous mission on the Far Frontier of the Empire. As his Squires the Emperor has personally tasked you with finding out what has happened to him, in the marsh beyond the Empire’s borders known as The Green Hell.” Green Hell cover by Jeshields From Darkness into the Light I'm separating out the setting and starter adventure from the main rulebook. Part of the reason is to get the rulebook below the 200-page mark, but also because I want to build on the barebones presentation that the setting is, and write up all the little bits of adventures I started set in Gatan. This would require a book all its own.Currently this book stands at about 80 pages of setting material + the following four adventures: The Road Less Travelled (previously the introductory adventure in the main rule book) The Road to Hell Deep in the Hole (These two adventures where in OpenQuest Adventures which was recently discontinued) The Last Retreat – a new adventure I’m looking at revising all the adventures that have previously been published. There will be new art by Peter Town and new maps. Content wise I’m looking at doing “What my Elder Told Me” sections for all the cultures in the book and a more in-depth Gazetteer with adventure ideas (if you’ve got Crypts & Things it will be like the “Secrets of The Continent of Terror” chapter in that book). It should be a book around the 100 -150 page range. From Darkness into Light cover by Jon Hodgson The Year of the Four Emperors This is going to be a self-contained book written by long time OpenQuest/D101 collaborator Paul Mitchener. It is going to be an expanded version of the setting/adventure he wrote for OpenQuest Adventures, set in the turmoil of the Roman world after the death of Nero. With the last of the Julio-Claudian Emperors dead and no clear successor, powerful generals make a grab for the throne. Call for Submissions – coming soon I’m looking to the future (either later this year or next year) where I want a regular release schedule of OpenQuest books, that are fun and different to what we’ve released before. After the release of the main rulebook, I’ll be putting up a call for submissions which will let interested folk know what I’m looking for.

Please note as of Monday May 1st 2017, I will no longer be publishing OpenQuest Adventures and OpenQuest 2 Deluxe. OpenQuest 2 Deluxe, the main rule book, will be shortly replaced by a new refreshed version, with minor rules changes and completely new art which will simply be called "OpenQuest". However the new rule book will not have the Gatan setting chapter + Adventure - these will be re-released in a new expanded Gatan setting/adventure book later in the year. OpenQuest Adventures is a collection of four adventures + an article about Gloranthan Magic for OpenQuest. The two of the adventures Deep in the Hole and The Road to Hell will be republished in the new Gatan book, and the Roman adventure by Paul Mitchener will be republished in an OpenQuest self contained game later in the year. All the Gloranthan content, an adventure + magic article, will not be republished. So if want to get these books before they go out of print Please visit DriveThruRpg.com's OpenQuest page.

Psionics are definitely in! As well as light weight vehicle rules. I'm a big fan of 2000 AD, especially Strontium Dog and Judge Dredd, so the idea of some form of Star Cops/Bounty Hunter game comes to mind, esp since one of my best RPG experiences ever was with the old Games Workshop game from the 80s which was very much D100 based and crunch lite (being a sort of Warhammer lite game).

Oooooooooooo now I'm on the same page as you are there After RoH Companion (which as Clarence pointed out is a different flavour of Sci-Fi) and OQ Refresh (which it kinds depends on) I'll be seeing what I can work up on this front I have ideas, and strangely by accident I have a ton of art available.

Well if anything comes as it and its still even vaguely OpenQuest by the time you've finished let me know and I'll add you to the list of third party products

After being lost in the website the OpenQuest Developers System Resource Document (SRD) is now once more available from its web page at OpenQuest Developers SRD at d101games.com

Feel free to house rule these changes into your House Ruled version of OQ, JuxQuest?

Hmmn when ever I think about MRQ and MRQ Glorantha (which I consider its own pocket universe) the phrase "polishing a turd" comes to mind for most of the first edition and "flogging a dead horse" comes to my mind when it drifts onto 2nd edition. MRQ was a mess from the playtest on a yahoo group of thousands of uninvited members, where Matt Sprange at one point suggested the main rules mechanic should become D20 roll over Target Number, to its ungainly death were Matt blamed the lack of sales of MRQ due to the complexity of writing Gloranthan material. I've happily never bought a Mongoose product since and my FLG which is normally willing to buy any game book I throw at them for their second hand section laughs in my face when I ever mention selling my MRQ1 pile to them.

When I'm ready to share OQ Refreshed with people here I will. OpenQuest was originally done as Open Design, with me posting whole chunks of the rules and the beta document here for comments. But I'm not ready yet

I've played games set in Kralorela, for which the I've published Mark Galeotti's take in Hearts In Glorantha issue 1 (now in Hearts in Glorantha 1-5 Collected), and Mythic China, seeing as I publish a game set there, and the two are different in ways that come out during play. Problem is until you get stuck in and run it, those devils in the detail that come out during play don't emerge, and the setting won't develop through play. Kralorai could almost do with a 'playing group' that takes the cannon information found in the Guide, goes away and 'plays' it and records their findings

I'm returning to my old stomping grounds of Karia in the Eastern Wilds of Ralios immanently I've voted for big and large Heroes and Demi Gods level of play for a new published book - for years we've been tantalised by tales of the setting's big heroes and heroines and I know from experience that HeroQuest really shines at this level of play. I ran a game in Black Horse Country were within 14 sessions the players had gone from being teenagers all the way to rivals for the position of Count. The game ended in a Gloranthan version of the Battle of Grunwald/Tannenburg with a full on clash of heroes and their armies.

I'm not going to go any further with this discussion, because I'm not actually working on its not something I've thoroughly playtested yet. It may be all that needs to fix Opposed rolls is a through look at the Opposed Roll Table. It maybe that the OQ refresh leaves the text 99% untouched and the remaining 1% being existing areas of confusion clarified, its main outcome is just new art and layout.

No, merely a replacement for Opposed Rolls.

Errr please don't FIX my post to make your own point

This system was inherited from Mongoose RQ, and I will almost certainly be dumping it in refreshed version of OQ. If nothing else I never use it my games I'm erring towards a system where only the player rolls, and their roll is modified if the opponent is especially competent.

Part of the refresh will be new and improved art One of the reasons why I'm taking my time with it.

I'm currently sorting out what I'm doing with OpenQuest. In short its probably heading towards a 'refresh' later this year, so until I've sorted re-publishing OQ Basic's in print is very low on my to-do list

The Mandate of Heaven is an epic adventure for Monkey, which details three of the mythic locations featured in the Journey to the West, The Western Heaven, Chang 'an the capital city of the Tang Empire, and the Ten Courts of Hell and their inhabitants. Even if you don't use the adventure as a whole its sourcebook of places and people, with events that you can use for your own adventures. If you didn't back Monkey in Jan/Feb you can back Mandate and pick up Monkey + its Stretch Goals. If you backed Monkey, you can pay the discounted rate of £5/$6 and get Mandate in pdf + the option to pick up the POD printed version. The Mandate of Heaven on Kickstarter 13th-19th March.

Nope its a case of Protection offers 1d8, that's it. If you want more than 1d8 you learn different spell say "Bob's Amazing Shield" which gives you an increased amount of protection that overrides the Protection spell.

Stock Clearance Sale Update I've now cleared the vast bulk of stock I wanted to, and have freed up a ton of space. So after the weekend on Sunday Evening I will be calling time on the clearance sale. I'm down to 2 copies of each of the following : The Last Witness, OpenQuest Adventures, Life and Death and Reunion. Even the Savage North which I had tons of stock at the start of the sale (about 25 copies) is now down to 9 copies. While I've still got a fair chunk of River of Heaven softcovers, due to my printer sending me an extra box, after Sunday evening they will be going back up to their normal £15 price (currently they are on sale for £7.5). So Sunday is your last chance to get these titles directly from me at a bargin price.

I have a version of OpenQuest Magic which is One Spell List for all magicians. Basically it starts with Battle Magic as a base list and I added spells which were unique from the Sorcery and Divine lists. I then stripped out magic point costs, because I realised in my games that I no longer could be bothered enforcing the bean counting that comes along with tracking magic point spends, Variable spells got a dice type added to their descriptions to determine their effects, where the point cost of the spell used to. So for example Protection gives 1d8 points of Armour. You can't stack spells, you have to cast more powerful spells if you want to increase the effect. To manage the availablity of spells, I broke them into three categories. Common - Spells that you can learn easily from friends, family, the old wise woman who sells charms for a few silvers etc. Low powered stuff that is common knowledge, that the players pick up at character generation and without much explaination. At the moment this has about 28 spells. Taught- Spells that you need a tutor from an established tradtion (magic school, cult, shaman etc) or you learn from finding it in a lost respositry of magical knowledge, ie. from a scroll in a treasure trove. This is the list of more powerfull spells that dedicated magician characters will want to learn. There's 58 spells on this list, but players can't just pick directly from the list, they need to find a teacher who knows the spell and be in good standing with them. This is where if you are using RQ style cults they come into play. Secret - This list has 24 high powered spells, such as Skybolt (lighting bolt), Summoning spells and Resurrect. These spells are only taught to high level disciples who are have the complete confiedence of their tradition or found at the climax of a long and hard quest. Every spell requires a successful Casting Skill test. Casting starts at POW x3 and starting characters get three spells from the common spell lists. At moment this is a quick dirty hack and probably needs refining thorugh playtesting.

Good stuff. The whole sheilds section was a mess when I started working with MRQ 1 as my base. My intial attempt was simply to say that on a successful parry they added their AP (in the early days of OpenQuest development Shields and weapons had AP like old RQ) to the character's overall Armour. Then we dropped AP for parrying weapons and well you can see things got muddled from there. The whole Shields section could do with rewriting (as you've twigged) with it being spilt into subheadings, Using Shields in Close Combat, Using Shields in Ranged Combat, and probably Using Shields in Unarmed Combat.