1. Initiation and early development. A new rule or a rule revision is proposed to the group. It may be an untested draft, an outline idea, or something more fully worked out. Rough draft versions may be proposed for discussion, or completed drafts can be circulated for playtesting. When the author(s)/developer(s) feel that a rule is ready for evaluation, a draft version should be posted to the dq-rules group for consideration.
Any interested DQ player may submit a proposed rule revision.
2. Comment period. A proposed rule is circulated to the dq-rules community for official review and comment. At this point, the rule is considered to be proposed for use in the self-styled canonical DragonQuest rules. (I know that the term canonical is controversial, but we haven't come up with a different term; hence I refer to it as self-styled, since to some it is not considered canon.) The comment period is set for a specific period of time, during which active DQ players and GMs are encouraged to test the new rule. All feedback and comments should be carried out in the dq-rules forum in order to share the ideas and suggest improvements. The comment period should be 30 days.
An active member of the dq-rules community other than the author/developer of the rule must sponsor the rule for comment. Moderators should ensure that there are not too many rules open for consideration at any one time, in order to allow fair and thorough evaluation.
During the comment period, if there is a change recommended to the proposed rule, the comment period should be extended to allow for the revised version to be evaluated. However, this should be used only if the base rule is deemed to be working, and the revision is only a revision of the original. New rules, in particular, should be worked through in the development phase before being proposed for comment in order to work out the difficulties beforehand.
Typographic fixes, spelling corrections, and other adjustments may be made without needing to extend the comment period.
3. Endorsement. At the end of the comment period, if there are no problems or strong objections to the proposed rule, it is officially adopted and made a part of the self-styled canon. If there are problems noted, the rule may be returned for further development work or it may be kept as an Optional Rule or as a House Rule.
There should be minimal objection to the adoption of the rule from the community in order for it to be endorsed. At this time there are no standards set for percentage of votes required, but consensus is the goal.
The criteria for evaluating a rule should be whether the rule works (whether it models the behavior it purports to model in a manner consistent with the game), whether it is in the spirit of the original game, and whether it is a useful addition to the game. Rules which do not fully meet all criteria may instead be endorsed as Optional Rules.
Of course, comments on this proposal are welcome as well. Although there is some disagreement over the issue of whether or not this process is "canon," all active participants in this list can offer helpful comments, criticism and suggestions. Whether or not this becomes the official canon of DragonQuest rules or just a collaboratively compiled set of house rules is mostly irrelevant. The more participation we have, the better this process will be for all.