OpenQuest Fantasy Adventure #1

This initial fantasy adventure will be in tone suitable for young teens. Goblins, trolls, dragons, and magic will all be present. Blades will be drawn, and PC’s can deal and receive mortal wounds, though good and evil will be clearly defined.

The starting PC’s are encouraged to choose from the characters provided by the Quest Master. These characters have been designed with abilities which work well as a team. Successfully discovering ways in which the party can cooperate to increase their overall chances of victory should be half the fun of the adventure! 

The initial character choices are;

Jongo the thieving gnome, Puck the wood elf,and Kvorgast the dwarf wizard. 

If there happens to be one or two more players anxious to join in there is Leuna the forest sprite, and Drango the satyr. These characters should only be added after the initial three character roles have been filled. 

Chapter 1 The Gnome’s Workshop

Jongo the thieving gnome has called on his cousin Kvorgast to help with an intriguing find. It appears to be a large clock with missing hands. The mechanisms inside the brass body of the circular artifact appear simple enough but seem to require a central pin in which to wind the machine proper. Presumably this central shaft is to be found with the missing hands as well.

The inscriptions, the numbers on the face of the clock are foreign to the clever gnome as well. Whether they are a numbering system or something else entirely has so far escaped Jongo’s understanding. Jongo is not even sure who or what race was responsible for its manufacture. His cousin dwarf, the mighty Kvorgast, possesses great powers of perception and may be able to unlock the forgotten time piece’s secrets!

Kvorgast will be able to tell the story of the lost hands of time and propose they go and find the remains of this ancient relic. 

Some love crazed human made a Faustian bargain with some black demon to save the soul of the desired lover. As usual, things did not work out as the couple wanted and destroyed the talisman in an attempt to undo the powers unleashed. This particular item is known as the Brazed Face of Plotush. Said to give the user the ability to manipulate time. To travel forward and back through time in which events can be changed for ones advantage. It was lasted used by the human girl called the Silver Princess. Her palace has past from memory and only ruins remain in the Loorlock Mts. It is but a week’s journey from here.

The clock parts will be found under the ruins of an old palace. A palace now occupied by loathsome beasts of terror who worship the death bat of Cazalot! They look to call her forth and give rise to the age of monsters once again.

To get to the ruins will take many days of travel through the forest, across the empty marsh, and then into the Loorlock Mountains. Along the way the two adventuring heroes will encounter Puck the woodland elf, and Jack the barbarian boy. These two characters will add the combat strength the party will need to overcome certain dangers ahead.

The first deadly encounter will be with the bog witch. A hideous creature with long claws, it desires the fresh meat of young human babes best. Fixating on Jack, the PC’s will have to use their abilities to take down this wild swamp fury!

Once into the mountains the PC’s will encounter worshipers of Cazalot and the pitfalls of the ruins. I will need to find a suitable dungeon for the crawl.

X1 The Isle of Dread, a thing of beauty!

TSR's The Isle of Dread is probably the single adventure module I have played the most on a repeat basis as a kid. Getting the Expert Box Set for Dungeons & Dragons was an exciting moment, as the Basic Box was now a flattened mess and dice were missing. The novelty of the rule book was great for me as DM for it gave me ample opportunity to wax imaginative in search of great adventure ideas worthy of my players.

But what made the expert set from D&D truly exciting was the adventure module included; Dungeon Module X1 The Isle of Dread. Offered as an introduction to wilderness adventuring and a wider game world, it was the stabbing female warrior on the back cover which fueled more masturbatory  heroic wet dreams, for me, than any other piece of fantasy art I can remember.

I don't think I ever gave this red haired piece of dungeon meat a name. Just another adventurer soon to end up broken, bloodied, and dead. I yearned to save her from the perils of the island, the certain death that awaits. But the god of D&D demands blood and souls and X1 is no exception. Especially for the poorly equipped party.

I routinely penetrated the dense jungle after school with my friend Glenn with poorly equipped parties only to have them be devoured by the insatiable maw which is the Isle of Dread.

This is another old D&D module I would love to give the OpenQuest treatment. With multiple party failures using the original TSR system the Isle of Dread highlights the inherent problems with those old mechanics. The complex adventure problems presented in a dense jungle setting really call for out of the box thinking more diverse character concepts encourage.

Dr. Who Prequal

Starting to create a Dr. Who side theme here on the Vanishing Tower... If you just can't wait for the new series of Doctor Who fear not! Next week we'll be bringing you a mini-series called Pond Life, giving you a glimpse at what the Ponds have been up to since we last saw them. Part one launches on Monday and here's an intro to from Karen and Arthur.

Classic Fantasy vs OpenQuest

The short answer;

"Class" vs "Open"

The Long Answer (explained);

As Newt Newport mentions in his introduction to OpenQuest's rule set, the "Open" in OpenQuest refers to the ability to create fantasy settings and characters in a completely unrestricted manner. This is in distinct difference to Mr. Leary's approach to the genre with "Classic Fantasy", a Chaosium monogram. Classic Fantasy attempts to model Dungeons & Dragons directly to the Basic Role Playing D100 system.

Both authors accomplish their goals well and demonstrate how well Basic Role Playing (BRP) responds to "Homebrew" creation and game play.

Leary hews closely to the Dungeons & Dragons canon by first identifying the types of characters players are able to play. A characters "Class" is all enveloping in the world of Gygax, its game function mainly concerned with resolving the characters combat interactions and whether or not the character survives encounters. Each class has the requisite limitations which define these capabilities as compared to those of other classes. A players choice of race also carries the same net of limitations which further narrow the scope of capabilities, and therefore define the player character.

Newport's fantasy mash up, on the other hand, begins character creation with a brainstorming session, requesting each player to come up with a character concept. As the author explains; "A character concept is a one sentence summing up of what the character is all about." The rule set continues on as a guideline in how to translate the character concept into your fleshed out character sheet.

I love this type of game experience myself where the initial player character, while not all that powerful yet, is still a product of my imagination. This is the element I felt was always missing from D&D; the inability to play a character concept completely of ones own imaginings.

I was quickly able to come up with intriguing character concepts off the one sentence rule. It started to become a game of interest and brevity; Disturbed Wizard, Searching Sailor, Cashiered Ranger, Disgraced Warrior, Hunted Magician, Retired Gladiator, Etc... If you are manic about gaming all the best aspects of fantasy found in literature, or being open to new inspiration you can do this well with OpenQuest

But if you are looking to go Gygaxian, you should go with Classic Fantasy because, well, Leary has already gone through the trouble of converting the standard classes, races, and spells. A lot of hard work, I assure you. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons retro-clones, launching a D&D campaign with BRP's Classic Fantasy does allow much more in personal customization of your character class, mostly do to the use of a skills list, and the players characters are more robust overall. Running some friends through TSR's B10 Night's Dark Terror proved Classic Fantasy characters can chop through goblins and minor undead well. Proper tactics assure swift death to surprised opponents. True to BRP form, once these tables are turned on players, swift death can ensue. All in all, Classic Fantasy will give you a great D&D game without the garbage mechanics of Old School, retro or otherwise. Those who do not like a d100 system should not even bother.

And that is why I use OpenQuest. If you are looking for a great system for your own fantasy creations, classic or otherwise, OpenQuest gives you the tools to go right at it! It does put more weight on the Game Master. The GM will have to be invested in the brainstorming session during character creation with the players. Or the GM can offer pregenerated characters. Either way, it means more hands on time by the GM.

For me, this takes the form of ripping off literary sources, as well as available game aids to create classic "styled" fantasy adventures based off of what the players come up with characters. In case the players come up with character concepts which suggest other genres it is good to have several flavors of opening adventures to plug them into. Like I said, OpenQuest will demand a great GM if the group is role playing complete homebrew campaigns. Otherwise you will be practicing the time worn tradition of converting published adventures to your game :)

Doctor Who’s Day Roundup: Season 7 Premiere Screening In London. Tonight.

Yes I am playing around with the features on the blog. Nothing wrong with pimping the Doctor!

Reaper Miniatures on Kickstarter

Looks like the folks over at Reaper Miniatures are getting a lot of love on their latest product launch. Their kickstarter campaign for these plastic miniatures has raised over $688,000!!! And why not? Seems like you get great sets for decent money.

 

Why are we doing this?

Since the launch of Bones in March, a full third of the figures we ship are Bones Gaming Miniatures.  We have 8 pages of Bones suggestions going in our forum.  It's clear that you, our fans, want more of these Bones figures.  And why not?  They're awesome sculpts at a terrific price!  What's not to love?

International Journal of Role-Playing

This seems like a relatively new web site with some intriguing aims. Just follow this link and review. Feel free to post any thoughts on the merits of the site here. As this blog will mainly focus on one man's attempts for face to face play, I will add my formal review later...