================================================================ || || || DRAGONQUEST Newsletter June 1994 || || || || Volume 1 / Number 5 || ================================================================ The DQ Newsletter is for discussions of the DragonQuest role playing game. The key addresses you need to know are: Philip Proefrock (Editor, Article Submissions, Etc.) psproefr@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu David Nadler (Distribution Coordinator, Archivist) dnadler@wtcpost.daytonoh.ncr.com Drake Stanton (FTP site coordinator) drache@netcom.com 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 Editorial -- Phil Proefrock Letters -- Drake Stanton -- John Kahane -- John Kahane Gambling Skill -- Kelly Grant Announcing the DragonQuest FTP Archive -- Drake Stanton ---------------------------------------------------------------- EDITORIAL: Phil Proefrock I am still trying to work out the details of the format for this newsletter. I am more used to desktop publishing than this form of mere data concatenation, and it is hard to get things as clear and workable as I would like to be able to. We will be experimenting with the format of the newsletter over the next few months. Your comments on the format of the newsletter (as well as all other submissions of material) are requested. You will notice that we have a third personality added to the masthead. Drake Stanton has helped get a DragonQuest FTP site setup, and will be serving as the FTP administrator. See the enclosed article about this for more information. ------------------------_L_E_T_T_E_R_S_------------------------- From: Drake Stanton (drache@netcom.com) Subject: "DQ Archive, DQ republish, and Future Submission" First, I am glad to see this project get off the ground! I was a little worried when only one newsletter showed up and no more came. But, it looks like there are enough DQ fans out there to keep this going. Good work guys! I was wondering if there is an archive available for past issues of this newsletter (as well as other DQ stuff, like Arcane Wisdom!). If not, I may be able to provide such an archive at my site. Also, I recently saw a Usenet posting saying that someone had bought the copyrights for several SPI boardgames (I don't remember who, or what company). Have you heard anything about whether or not this will effect SPI's role-playing systems? Or any more about the effort to republish DragonQuest? Finally, I am working on a submission to the Newsletter that should be finished "real soon now". It is a suggestion for handling Priests in the DragonQuest system (the biggest hole in an otherwise elegant game). Should I do anything special to submit this (besides mailing it to you, of course) like special heading, formatting, etc.? Once again, kudos to you for this idea! Bye! Drake [Note to all: Drake's letter prompted some discussion between Drake and Dave and I. The end result is that, with Drake's help, we now have an FTP site for back issues, large articles, and so forth. See the enclosed article for more details. -- Ed.] ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Kahane (John.Kahane@p5.f198.n163.z1.fidonet.org) Subject: "RE: Martial Arts Skills and Craftsman Rules Variants [v1n4]" Hullo, Phil! I've been a player and GM of DRAGONQUEST for well over 13 years now, having been running this game since it first came out in 1980. (Long time, huh? ) I was delighted to hear of the DRAGONQUEST Newsletter that you've got going and am pleased to tell you that I've read all four issues of the Newsletter that have come out. To this point, I've been rather pleased with the material that I've read in the newsletter, but there has been nothing really earth-shaking about it. One of the things that you should bear in mind is to present material that enhances the game in various ways. I was disappointed to see the article on the Martial Arts in Issue #4, since it was nothing more than a rip-off of material from TSR's product. While the author of said piece acknowledged this, I feel that this kind of piece doesn't fit all that well into the world of DRAGONQUEST for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons that the guys at SPI didn't bring martial arts into the roleplaying game was because they wanted to avoid some of the stuff that other game companies were doing at the time. Personally, I feel that martial arts as a skill doesn't really belong in DQ, since the game is more traditional in its fantasy approach. The article that dealt with Craftsman skill was one that I was interested in; I've been working for a long time on something for that particular skill, given that my DQ campaign is one that's been going on for quite some time, but I came up with a slightly different approach. I am considering sending you that one for submission to the Newsletter, but don't know whether I can get it to you through the Fidonet-Internet gateway. Any thoughts on this? [HELLO!! Call me nervous, but let's make sure this doesn't develop into a 'flame-war'. An opinion was expressed here about an idea, not a person, so no one should take offense. Please do respond, but keep the discussion focused on the idea. - Dave"Ad"] That said, I think you're doing a super job on the Newsletter, and both you and David should be congratulated on your efforts. Keep up the good work, guys! John ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Kahane (John.Kahane@p5.f198.n163.z1.fidonet.org) Subject: "DQ articles in Dragon Magazine" Once again, I thought that I would drop you a line to let you know what a wonderful job you've been doing on the DRAGONQUEST Newsletter. But I do have a couple of queries that I'd like to present to the folks out there. Back before TSR decided to drop the game system like a hot potato after they bought it from the collapsing SPI, they published several articles on the game in Dragon Magazine. This is the one thing that I need to complete my collection of DQ material, and some of this stuff is vital for me to obtain, since it would aid in my campaign right now. Does anyone out there have these articles, and if so would they be willing to make photocopies for me of each and every one of them? I would be willing to pay for these copies, and the mailing costs of course. John ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kelly Grant (grantk@insted.unimelb.edu.au) Subject: "Gambling Skill" Here is a short article that you might use, detailing a new adventure skill. GAMBLING Gambling is a skill which may be used by players to while away an evening between adventures or which may be pursued as a semi professional skill as a means of turning a profit. Gambling includes games of chance and skill, such as cards and dice, but can be extended to any situation where a calculated bet can be made, based on knowledge of the odds. 1.0 A players skill is equal to (Rank x 5 + Perception). 1.1 In cases where a gamble is made more on chance than skill, the G.M. may be required to make a judgement as to whether a player character has sufficient knowledge to make a calculated judgement and may modify their success chance as a result. 1.2 Using the gambling skill, a player receives the following bonus/penalty on games of skill, such as cards: If they are a healer with ranged empathy +10% If they are a courtesan with feign emotion +10% If they have a dexterity of 15 or more +1% per point above 14 If they have a dexterity of 10 or less -5% 1.3 A player with the gambling skill is proficient in games of cards and dice. Cards The player knows the rules and rules variants for all common card games. In addition, from Rank 3 on they can shuffle expertly and deal a loaded deck. The chance that they will sucessfully deal a loaded deck is equal to (Rank x 5 + Manual Dex + Perception)%. The chance that they will perceive being dealt a loaded deck is equal to (Rank x 5 + Perception)%. Their game partners have the same chance to notice that the deck has been stacked. Dice The player knows the rules and rules variants for all common dice games. In additon, from Rank 3 and on they can manufacture and detect loaded dice. The chance that a player can make a set of loaded dice which are not immediately noticable is equal to (Rank x 5 + Manual Dex + Perception)%. The character's chance to recognize that a set of dice is loaded is (Rank x 5 + Perception)%. In both cases, dice or cards, the presence and detection of either loaded dice or a rigged deck of cards is sure to lead to violence. 1.4 Players may find themselves bitten by the gambling bug. The more often players indulge in gambling, the likelier they will become addicted to the thrill of risk and chance. As a rule of thumb only, players who settle into an evening of gaming and fail a Willpower x 5 should be told that they feel an urge to test their luck or recover their losses. If they play on and fail another willpower roll, they begin to gamble more and more obsessively. The worse the failure on their willpower check, the more likely they are to take bigger and bigger risks. Players may pull out of this spiral by making a big win (add +10% to their next Willpower roll). By the end of an evening they could either be fabulously wealthy, with drawn daggers all around or, if the gaming has been disasterous, have incured serous debts. This could provide the opportunity for an interesting adventure. 1.6 Alcohol and gaming don't mix very well. For that reason, many gaming houses provide free drinks! Players who are knocking back the beer or spirits will become more and more careless when gaming, and may be read more easily by other gamblers. Drunk players loose their bonuses, if any, and their Rank with gambling is halved (round up). 1.7 The profit, if there is one, from a nights gambling, is for the G.M. to determine. It will depend largely, however, on what the player is willing to risk and what those they are playing with have to loose. In a low dive pub, a few coppers might be a good nights profit. In a fancy salon, a gambler might walk away with the title deeds to a house. 1.8 The gambling skill may be bought at a cost of 150 exp per rank. Kelly Grant ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: Drake Stanton (drache@netcom.com) Subject: Announcing the DragonQuest FTP Archive I have enabled access for the ftp archive. After some deliberation, I have decided to keep the Arcane Wisdom material in. However, I have put a copyright disclaimer in the README file. The following are the instructions for use of the archive: To access the archive, ftp to ftp.netcom.com. Type "anonymous" for a login, and your complete e-mail address for a password (if using ncftp, this is not necessary). From there, cd to pub/drache. The README file will tell you what is in the archive and other important information. The best way to tell people about this is probably to put an announcement in the next issue of the newsletter. Be sure to include the above paragraph in that announcement. Please note that the archive is currently READ ONLY! That can change if necessary, but for security reasons I would prefer to leave it as it is. Any submissions directly to the archive can be e-mailed to me. Also, if anyone has information about how I can make this accesable via gopher/archie/WWW, I would be interested in knowing. Of course, any questions/problems with the archive should be directed to me. Happy DQing! Drake - - - - - - - - - README from the ftp site: This ftp directory contains the following: **aw.XX -- The playtest version of SPI's Arcane Wisdom supplement for their DragonQuest fantasy role-playing game, rules section XX. NOTE: This was produced, but never published, by the folks at SPI. Some of this material appeared in a modified form in the Third Edition of DragonQuest, Copyright 1989 by TSR, Inc. Its appearance here should in no way be considered a challenge to that copyright. **news.announce -- The initial announcement for the DragonQuest Newsletter, an electronic forum for fans of the DragonQuest fantasy role-playing game. **news.vXnY -- Volume X, issue number Y of the DragonQuest Newsletter. All of these files are ASCII, compressed using the unix "compress" command. [Call for FTP submissions: With the ftp site, we can now distribute larger submissions (things that wouldn't fit into the newsletter comfortably). This is a distribution opportunity for those of you who have an adventure in electronic form, an entire new college of magic, or other large submissions for the DragonQuest audience. When you send submissions to the ftp site, you should also send a synposis of your submission to the newsletter. That way, everyone reading the newsletter will know about the new arrivals in the ftp archive. -- Ed.] ########################################################### ### End of DragonQuest Newsletter -- June 1994 ### ###########################################################