OpenQuest and why I'm using it...

My first gaming years were spent under the magic and poor game mechanics of AD&D.  This led to the rest of the TSR line; Gamma World, Top Secret, Boot Hill, and GangBusters. While the different genres afforded great flights of fancy for my regular teen game group, there was always the nagging disappointment that I was unable to create a player character to my exact tastes.

This led first to Space Opera, Flashing Blades, and Pirates & Plunder. Then GURPS and Champions. The only thing which increased was complexity while game opportunities shrank and shrank. I eventually found my way to Chaosium and Elric! which introduced me to the D100 system for the first time. But by then it was too late. Gaming was now just an interesting shelf on my bookcase. Or instant death to dating if left out!

So this OSR is flaring up everywhere and my discriminating taste has landed on OpenQuest, from D101 Games.

This is the game which gets fantasy role playing right. It has won me over. It has resisted every attempt to tinker with the mechanics. When I mean resisted I mean after some reflection I would abandon the proposed fix which would pop into my opinionated GM head. Studying the rule set (as there is no one yet to play with) I could not help but feel I was being well cared for as a player. Hopefully this means the Game Master load should be very manageable, because I am positive I will have to shoulder this burden as I attempt to uncover RPG players in the rural Rockies.

It is an excellent introduction to role playing games for newcomers as well as the long dormant player. This is because of the simple entrance point provided by the insightful author by "Starting Character Generation with a Character concept. A character concept is a one sentence summing up of what the character is all about."

Anyone can do this!

The only issue I have yet to resolve is Literacy. A required eighty percent or higher is required to be literate in the specific language skill. This means many illiterate magicians with a maximum of 75% in any starting skill.

Otherwise I'm going with no House Rules!