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New to forum but am excited to get OQ


the_red_king

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Hi all, let me start off by saying, I LOVE the PC series of games known as "Gothic" (sans 3 and "4") and the "Risen" series (I have not had a chance to play the 2nd one and was only a quarter of the way through the 1st before my hd died).

Now having said that, I have searched far and wide for a system to simulate the feel (if not the mechanics) of Gothic, I posted a few threads on the rpg.net forums with only a few suggestions. Pathfinder being one of them, (to this day not I still cannot wrap my head around all the modifiers and crunchy bits), and Savage Worlds being the other, my own suggestions were WFRP and BRP (I had never really looked into BRP before and mind you this was 2 or 3 years ago).

It is now 2013 and I have tried running WFRP with the plot of Gothic and sadly, it hasn't gone over too well, my players are waaay too weak and damage is crippling (they have had a lot of fun with the crit table though!), and I must say I enjoy the lethality of wfrp immensely! However it is just a little too lethal for what I want to do, and wfrp is obviously later medieval early renn. inspired in setting and tone (nothing wrong with that), and I found it refreshing to see guns and other firearms incorporated (so did they). Whereas Gothic from the get-go has a very down to earth medieval feel to it which I love! When I did suggest BRP as a basis for Gothic, I was informed that HP doesn't scale like in Gothic and that was that, I quickly decided to move on, however here I am on a BRP forum and looking more deeply than I ever have into BRP!

What I have found is a deeply modular simple d100 system! However up until late lastnite I was under the impression that I would have to forge my own setting and toggle and widget the systems found in the BRP book to my liking till I got something that *fit* the feel of Gothic, that was until I read a post on here, unsure where or whom, that made mention of RQ in comparison to BRP as a standalone Fantasy setting (yeah I know about Classic Fantasy but that isn't exactly what I'm going for either).

Now I did do research on RQ and OQ several years ago (around the same time I posted on the rpg.net forums) but in retrospect I hadn't even scratched the tip of the iceberg! I had read that RQ was.... cumbersome and tried (and failed according to one blog I had read) to simulate realistic medieval combats, or really the blog didn't say fail outright just RQ was too simulationist in its mechanics that it drowned out all the other aspects of an RPG.

I have looked over the character sheet of RQ AND Legend and, IMO, compared to WFRP it really isn't all that complex (than again; this is only a preliminary glance and I have not read the rules at all), I have read reviews though and I am intrigued by the action points concept (I can compare similar to Fallout 1 and 2 another one of my favorite PC series!) and the individual hp for body parts I can compare right off the bat to Vagrant Story! (You guessed it another one of my favorite games, the creator is a big PnP nut too!)

Now with ALL that said and done, this brings me to OQ, yes I did do a glance at OQ along with RQ at the same time but passed it on. As you can tell I am back at it and more indepthly now, I must say I believe I have found my holy grail of systems for Gothic, a long long post short, am I correct in my assumptions?

P.S. I DO have the CoC 6e rulebook but I hardly ever really read through, (fault on my part really), RPGs don't intimidate me, I have tons! (V20 included!) yet there was always something intimidating about CoC's width (I know weird) that I just never really read into it, until I read (again yesterday) that most of the book's size comes from a biography on Lovecraft and the actual CoC short story along with a few other things, that when taken out would greatly reduce the size of the book, which in a weird way revitialized my interest in BRP! I was also about to order the BRP hardback yesterday but at the last minute decided not to and boy am I glad I DID! Now I know about OQ and RQ! (But i am not opposed to picking it up sometime down the line).

Edited by the_red_king
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Welcome aboard.

OpenQuest is a nice D100 variant, very fast and very simple. It isn't always to my tastes (No Hit Locations is the biggy for me) but I have played it and it works.

All D100 systems tend to be gruesome on the combat side. Ways to improve this include:

  • Increased hit points for PCs (doubled is a good start)
  • Readily available healing magic/potions
  • Delay in dying after serious wounds to vital locations
  • No General Hit Points

HPs don't scale in any D100 game - the rationale is that if you take a person and then take the same person 10 years and a lot of experience down the road, they will have roughly the same physical capabilities, so why should they be able to absorb more damage? However, in D100 games, the ability to avoid getting damaged by having better skills, better magic and so on mitigates that by a fair amount.

CoC has, at its heart, a cut-down D100 system, with basic skills and basic combat. OpenQuest does skills and combat a lot better, in my opinion. What CoC does is model the inevitable slide towards madness and the grind of slowly losing your marbles as you are exposed to more and more occult/eldritch knowledge. Whether that would work in a Gothic setting, I do not know, not being familiar with the Gothic games. However, if you want your PCs to slowly go mad then, by all means, use a variant of the Sanity rules from CoC.

D100 games in general (including RQ variants, OpenQuest, BRP and Legend) seem complex, but that's because a lot of them have different rules for different types of magic. The core system is incredibly simple (Roll D100, try and roll beneath your skill or try and roll beneath a proportion of your skill for extra effects) and is used across all areas of the game. Combat can be more complex, and Legend/RQ6 both have very detailed ways of enhancing combat. Magic systems can be complex, with multiple skills and many spells, but that adds to the flavour of the games. For me, they are simple, but that's because I have played them for a long, long time.

Edited by soltakss

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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Well Gothic, (and Risen for that matter) are your basic level and experience type of PC RPGs, (which I know BRP is not buit around nor am I trying to emulate that), the thing that to me makes Gothic so fun is that it makes you work to claim yourself as "Badass" you start at level 0 and work your way up from there, the whole time though you are free to wander the world, (and very likely get yourself killed), by all the much stronger beasties and baddies littering the world, Gothic has no real insanity mechanic at work, in fact the "Nameless Hero" approaches most situations with an air of sarcasm and amusement, although the first game's last boss was an other dimensional eldritch abomination, you did not do battle with it toe-to-toe but had to stab its five out of body hearts, and then the game ended lol but regardless it was a fun game. The second one was even better! It incorporated dragons into the main plot.

Anyway at the moment I have the option of buying either Legend (although I am leary on how extensive the combat is) or, if I can convince my wife, OpenQuest, I am leaning toward OpenQuest for simplicity's sake and it sounds more fun to grasp than Legend/RQ.

How are hit locations generated in RQ/Legend? In WFRP you roll to hit and if you do, you reverse the roll for your hit location, is it similar in RQ?

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Anyway at the moment I have the option of buying either Legend (although I am leary on how extensive the combat is) or, if I can convince my wife, OpenQuest, I am leaning toward OpenQuest for simplicity's sake and it sounds more fun to grasp than Legend/RQ.

OpenQuest is as good a D100 system as any, so it should be fine for what you want.

How are hit locations generated in RQ/Legend? In WFRP you roll to hit and if you do, you reverse the roll for your hit location, is it similar in RQ?

You roll a D20 and compare to a hit location table. The exact results depend on which variety of D100 game you play. Hit points per location generally depend on SIZ+CON, again differing by nversion. It's quick and simple and better, in my opnion, than having no hit locations.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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I've found that running combats with RQ6(i.e. Legend) is generally both fast and intense, in many cases faster and more intense than core BRP.

It is also significantly more crunchy and fiddly, and may not be for everyone.

But if you're getting into OpenQuest(which is quite excellent), spending an extra dollar on the Legend PDF might not be the worst thing you can do.

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But if you're getting into OpenQuest(which is quite excellent), spending an extra dollar on the Legend PDF might not be the worst thing you can do.
Totally agree, you can get the pdf of LEGEND for $1 from Drivethru RPG, and if you like it then the actual printed rulebook will only set you back about $15. Its a good version of the BRP system that is tweaked for Fantasy. If you like it then you can always get RuneQuest 6th ed down the track, as it is by the same authors and covers alot more ground.

LEGEND is a good entry to the BRP family of games, and its pretty compatible with RQ6 so theres no problems going between supplements. You'ld be unwise not to check it out, especially given its price ;t)

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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AN UPDATE: Yesterday afternoon I went down to my local library and had the entire SRD for OpenQuest printed out and will soon be binding it, I haven't had a chance to really look to indepthly at it, but am hoping to soon, with that said, a lot of what I'm hearing over RQ/Legend is STILL intriguing me! I have decided to order RQ 6 (I've done some more research on comparisons between the 2), everyone says that despite it's $60 price, that RQ6 is more than worth it.

Quick question about the SRD, does this have all the updates to it as the current printing of OQ?

Edited by the_red_king
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Quick question about the SRD, does this have all the updates to it as the current printing of OQ?

The current version of Open Quest will be replaced by Open Quest 2 in the very

near future, and I doubt that the upcoming (and probably minor) changes have

already been integrated into the SRD of the older version.

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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OpenQuest is a pretty good set of rules, its a clean version of BRP yet has some old school flavour. I have a copy and would give it a go if I had more time, and I really like to support D101 Games as an indie rpg publisher. In any case you can pretty much buy the OQ resources and tweak them for any BRP game. Actually my next purchase is likely to be The Company, which uses the OQ engine, I'm quite looking forward to getting that book.

Ordering RuneQuest 6th ed is a great choice, as the version of combat is particularly flavoursome for melee battles and the rules are great for doing ancient age or fantasy settings.

On a side note, and probaby not of immediate interest to you as you are doing your own world building, but you can get the entire pdfs of the Gloranthan resources from Drivethru for about $10, it about 11 titles covering the 2nd Age of Glorantha, the world setting for earlier editions of RuneQuest. It may have some value in terms of seeing how the authors covered religions, and there are probably some scenarios in there that you easily be used in other fantasy settings. Anyway, I just thought I'ld give you a heads up, as its a pretty good deal.

Another tip with RQ6. Its a big tome, which can be intimidating to some.

The rules are quite simple however, and most of the book is taken up with lots of additional information which is good for a fantasy game.

However if your players feel they would prefer a more rules-lite game, then buy LEGEND. Its practically the same system, no less complex in game play, but as it is a little digest sized book, it appears to be more simple and good for those players who come from the Savage Worlds rpg mind set. Just a neat trick.

Its also possibly less intimidating to GMs new to the system as well, but as a GM ultimately you would progress to RQ6 anyway for the additional information and rule amendments.

Anyway, welcome to the BRP rpg family, you'ld be glad you've chosen this system, its quite hard to leave

Edited by Mankcam

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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Well I have bound the SRD in a binder and have read only a few pages but already I am LOVING what I am reading! Kudos to Newt! It feels so different reading this when compared to the BRP quickstart rules or CoC, it feels very fresh, on a sidenote, I have $25 gift card for amazon, the Legend core book both new and used offers are selling for below that, RQ6 is selling for around $45 on amazon, from what I have read in comparison of the games, RQ6 is said to fix a few little quirks from Legend/MRQII, and I am leaning toward just getting RQ6, BUT seeing how I could just get Legend for free thanks to my gift card I may get that and look over the rules and its digest size isn't a bad perk either!

Any suggestions, I am quite happy with OQ now, but am still very intrigued by RQ6, and maybe in the distant future Pendragon as well.

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Another Update: I have ordered the Legend rulebook after reading the sample from Mongoose.
That's a smart move, considering the cheap price and great utility. I feel LEGEND is a far less intimidating core rulebook than RQ6, purely based on its size, but also on its font and the general presentation of the internal layout. LEGEND feels nice and simple, and is user-friendly enough to jump straight in and start rolling up player-characters. It looks like quite a handy reference to have at the gaming table, due to the book's digest size. It's an illusion of course, as RQ6 is really just a more expanded/updated LEGEND, but its a handy illusion none the less.

My advice is to start with LEGEND, and take your time reading RQ6 down the track. I would probably only read the Magic sections of RQ6 before you start a LEGEND campaign, as I think this is where the most obvious changes are, everything else in RQ6 can be soaked up slowly once you have your LEGEND campaign already up and running. RQ6 is a much more comprehensive resource to have, and most serious LEGEND GMs will probably transfer their game to RQ6 at some stage, especially considering it is written by the same authors who wrote MRQ2 and LEGEND.

I for one cannot wait to see if RQ6 will ever come out in a printed hardcover edition, that would be just superb for my bookcase...

From a player's perspective, only the astute players will know or care if you transfer your LEGEND GMing to RQ6 GMing, as the systems are so similar in game play. The added bonus is that you can jump between the published resources/scenario settings from both systems with ease, as they are about 95% (or more) compatible, so buying into the LEGEND/RuneQuest 6 variant of BRP is a pretty good idea for a fantasy GM. There is also a high degree of backward compatibility and cross-compatibility with previous RQ editions and other BRP resources, enough so that it doesn't take all that much as a GM to tweak the stats from scenarios from other BRP products, which expands your resources considerably (I'ld probably just stick with LEGEND/RQ6 initially though, until you get more comfortable with these rules).

Additionally the OpenQuest setting resources will port over reasonably well (basically just use the LEGEND/RQ6 Hit Locations instead of Total Hit Points, and use whatever Magic correlates), so titles like 'The Savage North' and 'Life and Death' could be easily played by a LEGEND/RQ6 troupe.

Looks like some great upcoming titles for both LEGEND and RQ6 this year, LEGEND's "The Spider Gods Bride' springs to mind, as does RQ6's 'Book Of Quests' and 'Monster Island', so there are plenty of sword n sorcery scenarios coming out which you can sink your teeth into.

Have fun with it all

Edited by Mankcam

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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Well thankfully my players haven't gotten into combat yet, they love the ease use of percentile skills (not their first time playing a percentile based game), we played a few sessions of warhammer that sadly we all agreed to veto; it just wasn't going anywhere and the combat was just too lethal, (but oh how we loved the crit charts!), one thing we did notice is that the base percentile skills are WAY higher than in WFRP, which is quite nice! Although I did stress to them that their base percentile chances were their skills under stressful situations and thus not that they were lowly skilled in general.

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Just an echo that I think your plan is sound. I am a long-time Coc and Stormbringer player that for some strange reason never played RQ before the last couple years. My RQ start was with OQ online and IMO it's a very good version for that due to it's relative simplicity in the combat rules. I have since been playing Legend/Glorantha but slowly digesting the RQ6 rules (gorgeous book btw). I only have Legend in pdf, however, because I have MRQII in print so did not feel the need to get Legend in print too. This approach has worked really well for me, so I have KSed the OQ2 books, and in the meantime have OQ in two different print versions (most recent and the "Con-quest" version) along with my MRQII print library and my sexy RQ6 print version. I look forward to bringing others into the OQ/RQ/Legend fold using the OQ/MRQII/RQ6 progression :D

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I'm hoping to get a hardcopy of the new OQ rules when they go to general release. I've been looking forward to a simplified version of my favorite, RQ2, in an in-print version that players can purchase.

And it may save me the trouble of working out simplifications here and there... ;)

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