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by Newt Newport with Graham Spearing and Tim Banecroft
OpenQuest is a game with a lot of history. It's rules are an adaptation of BRP (for Basic Roleplaying System) a ruleset that has been in existence for about 30 years in dozens of different forms. This is a capsule review of OpenQuest, based on my first reading of the rules. OpenQuest is available as a print book at £10, as a PDF at £5, or as a set of text files for free. This review is based on the PDF (which has a black and white cover different then shown here).
OpenQuest is directly based on the Mongoose Runequest SRD (a source I have not read), as such, the rules will have a lot in common with that game. However, Newt Newport has altered the rules somewhat to represent the way he plays in his home campaign. Most of these rule changes are intended to simplify the way the game works, and at this OpenQuest succeeds admirably. You can pick up the game and after reading 33 pages you can create your PC and play. The rules are logical, simple and easy to remember. Another 37 pages are devoted to three different systems of magic. Since Battle Magic is available to all PC's the players should browse the 10 pages covering that. The rest of the 150 pages are for the GM and most of that is reference. This is a very easy game to pick up and understand. It's also complete. The book includes a nice, basic equipment list, a list of creatures, even a sample adventure and a campaign setting. The rules are intended for fantasy campaigns.
Character Creation
Character creation starts in a way any gamer will recognise: PC's start with Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Power and Charisma, which are generated by rolling 3d6 for a range from 3 to 18, and Size and Intellegence, which are generated by rolling 2d6+6 for a range from 8 to 18. Power is a measure of force of will and magical talent. Size is a measure of body mass, and affects hit points. Hit points, magic points (to power spells) and a damage modifier (added to melee weapon damage) are all calculated from the starting Characteristics, and do not change (much) with experience. Instead, PC's learn to better protect their hit points, augment their magic points and apply their damage modifier more often.
Next players choose skills, divided into Resistance skills, Combat skills, Knowledge skills, Practical skills and Magic Skills. There are three Resistance skills; Dodge, Persistence and Resilience. Each applies to protect the PC from a different kind of harm. If the PC wants to cause harm, there are three skills for that too; Close Combat, Ranged Combat, and Unarmed Combat. The twenty Knowledge and Practical skills cover the sorts of things that PC's need to know that don't (necessarily) involve harm; things like Cultures, Languages, Sailing and Trade. There are three kinds of magic: Battle magic, Sorcery, and Divine magic. The first two require a skill roll, Divine magic does not.
Players start with some natural ability in all these skills, depending on their Characteristics. They also receive 225 points to add to these skills - which have to be spread out, rather then all lumped into the 'good' skills. Starting PC's do not normally get any skill in Sorcery or Divine magic, having to earn it as the campaign progresses. On the other hand, everybody, including the farmers that the PC's will pass as they head off on adventures, gets a few Battle magic spells.
PC's will start with skills between about 20 and 50, in the Novice to Apprentice range. Mastery requires a skill above 100, so they've go a way to go.
And that's it for character creation. Oh, buy him some equipment – the equipment list is basic, but adequate – give him a name, and you're done.
Game System
The heart of the game system is in the skill checks: Roll 2d10 and read it as a percentage. If you've rolled under your skill level, you've succeeded. If you roll under a tenth of your skill level, you've succeeded critically. Roll over and you fail. Roll double zeros? That's read as 100, and you fumble. Simple. So, you've got a Riding skill of 57, you're chasing some bandits, and you need your steed to jump a fence? A roll of 57 or less gets you over the fence safely. A roll of 5 or less gets you over the fence and the GM may decide you gain a round of movement on the bandits. 58 to 99 means the horse balks and won't jump, and 100 means the horse fails to clear the fence, falling . . . probably on top of you.
Opposed rolls, where one character is rolling against another, are a little more complicated. Here the objective is still to roll below your skill, but you want a higher roll then your opponent. If on the other hand, both of you fail your rolls, the lower roll of the two failures is considered the winner. It's a little odd, but not hard once you've done it a few times.
Circumstances may make a roll harder or easier, but part of OpenQuest's philosophy is not to bother with fiddly little roll modifiers. Only major circumstances affect the roll. So a GM may levy a penalty or bonus of 25% or 50% or say a roll is unnecessary or simply impossible. Lesser modifiers don't apply. Some spells violate this rule, and modify rolls in 10% increments.
Combat
OpenQuest uses standard rounds of combat, lasting five seconds. Characters act in order of their Dexterity. The attacker tries to roll under his Close Combat, Ranged Combat or Unarmed Combat skill, depending on the weapon he's using. If he hits, the defender has one chance to use his Dodge or Parry skill. A Dodge avoids the attack. A Parry blocks the attack, but the defender needs to be wielding a weapon big enough to deflect incoming damage. If the attack isn't dodged or parried, the attacker rolls damage. Armour absorbs part of this, and the rest is deducted from the defenders hit points. There are rules covering different combat maneuvers, mounted combat, wrestling, cover, etc. Normally, each character gets a move, one attack, and one defensive action. However if your attack or defensive skill is above 100 you can split it into two (or more) actions in whatever ratio you want. So a knight with a Close Combat of 120 could make one sword attack at 120% (at the maximum 99% chance to hit, with a 12% chance of a critical), one attack at 70% and another at 50% or six attacks at 20% each.
Again the rules here are fairly clear, and combat looks like it would move smoothly. Hit points start at about 20 to 30 points, and don't improve much from experience. A typical swordblow will cause about 6 hit points of damage, and a critical can double that and bypass armour, so combat can go south quickly. Zero hit points mean dead, so don't go there. Fortunately, there are hero points! Each PC starts with two hero points and more can be awarded for roleplay, making the GM snort soda out his nose, etc. Hero points can be used to take a mulligan on failed rolls, or to reduce major wounds, including changing dead to not quite dead. This rule allows the GM to adjust the lethality of his campaign by altering the flow of Hero Points.
Then, of course, there's experience, in the form of Improvement points. Two or three Improvement points are suggested per game session. These can be traded to improve skills (at one Improvement point for +5% in one skill), For characteristics (3 Improvement points to improve one Characteristic by one point), or to learn the secrets of battle magic, divine magic or sorcery. This is one problem I have with OpenQuest. At two Improvement points per session, a PC can move his favourite skills up very quickly. If a fighter puts just one third of his Improvement points into Close Combat, and plays once a week for a year, he can improve his skill from 50% to 200%. This means two almost guaranteed attacks each round (Close combat also controls parrying, so he'll also get two almost guaranteed blocks. Or three blocks at 66% each, or four at 50% each, etc). That's not as bad as it sounds, since multiple attacks are a staple of high-powered fantasy roleplay. However it only takes 18 advances to improve Strength from, say, 15 (a typical level for a strong starting fighter) to 21 (the maximum level for a human). Again, this doesn't break the rules much, but it feels wrong to me that it only takes a few months of play to improve any characteristic (Except Size, which can't be changed) to the human maximum.
Magic
There are not one, but three magic systems in OpenQuest. The first and simplest is battle magic. All PC's have a couple of these spells - as do everyone else, from farmers to nobles - which is a bit odd, but adds an interesting flavour to an OpenQuest campaign setting. Still, I would have liked one extra paragraph to the effect of: “If a character chooses not to learn Battle Magic, they may take X extra skill points to use elsewhere.” Most Battle Magic spells give a bonus of some sort in combat. A few have simple non-combat application, such as starting fires, or understanding people you have no common language with. A couple though, involve summoning or combating spirits. Spirits, and travel in the spirit world, comes up quite a lot in OpenQuest. Not much detail is given regarding the spiritworld, but it's another bit of flavour that sets OpenQuest apart from most game systems. There are also rules for becoming a shaman. Shamans really get involved with the spiritworld, so the GM better come up with some idea how it works before the campaign starts. Fortunately, there are stats for a few spirits in the Creatures section.
One spell listed here give me some concern. Create Magic Store allows a spell caster to save Magic Points for use later. There doesn't seem to be much of a limit on this, and Magic Points are the basic fuel of spell casting. A spellcaster carrying around a bunch of Magic Stores can cast a lot of spells and some powerful spells which might be a real threat to game balance.
Divine magic is powerful, and can be cast without a skill roll, but it's spells can only be cast once. Then the caster has to go to a temple or wait for the gods next holy day to pray to get the spell back. I'm not sure how that would work out in play. This section gives one example deity, and lists what kind of spells each kind of deity will grant. There are also rules in this section for becoming priests or holy warriors, both of whom get some permanent goodies in exchange for the service they do their deity. Oddly, their access to spells does not improve over that of the initiate.
Sorcery spells work a lot like Battle Magic, and Sorcerers will probably use both forms, but Sorcery spells are more flexible then Battle Magic spells. A Sorcerer (of sufficient skill) can increase range, duration and effect of spells by spending extra magic points. This is were those extra magic points stored in Magic Stores might be a problem, since with enough skill and magic points, a Sorcerer can create a spell that lasts 10 years. Still, one strong Dispel Magic spell will bring such a spell crashing down, so it shouldn't be a problem. There are also examples of a Magic school and a Hedge Wizard who might teach spells to a fledgling Sorcerer.
Only a couple dozen spells are given for each type of magic,. However many of these spells are quite general, and others have dozens (or hundreds) of variants. For example Detect X could be Detect Gold, Detect Orc, or Detect Magic. New spells could easily be added. Rules are also given for creating simple magic items.
Creatures
A list is given of about 70 creatures, covering standard fantasy beings and 'normal' animals. The descriptions give minimal background, but stat out the creatures for combat. There are also brief rules here for plunder, and a few suggestions for creating non-human characters.
The Empire of Gatan and The Road Less Travelled
The Empire of Gatan describes a standard fantasy setting. Nothing distinguishes it from any other setting, and this chapter doesn't add anything to the book. The Road Less Travelled is an introductory adventure. It's a simple 'escort the package' scenario, and nothing here will surprise the GM or the players (Except the ogre's tactics – I had to go back to the Creatures chapter and read the description of ogres – these are not standard D&D ogres). However, it does a decent job of showing how the rules work in actual use.
General Impression
OpenQuest is quick to learn, and it would be quick to play and to prepare for. It favours a more cinematic style of play then older BRP games I've seen.
I do have a few problems with the rules: Battle magic for everyone feels a little odd – it'll give real flavour to some settings but wouldn't work with others. I mentioned the potential skill and characteristic inflation earlier. There are no rules for non-human PC's in the book, although there are some suggestions in the Creatures chapter for turning creatures into characters. There are a couple of skills that duplicate effects so, for example, if someone has put a lot of experience into Persistence and then becomes a Shaman, his skill in Persistence becomes useless as the Shamanism skill duplicates everything Persistence does and more. But none of these problems are game breakers. And OpenQuest would be easy to tinker with. Rules could be added or changed with ease. And since the whole game is covered under the Open Game License and text files of the rules are available for free at D101 Games you could even edit that and print up your own variant version of OpenQuest.
OpenQuest is a very professional package. The layout is very clear, organized and easy to follow, with few typos. It has a good table of contents and an index. The art is sparse and simple, but well matched to the rules, conveying a feeling of Bronze or Iron age adventure. The implied setting of OpenQuest is a little different then the standard fantasy setting: Everyone can cast spells, magical spirits abound and a spirit world is just around the corner. The right campaign setting could really make these rules come to life.
In consulting DriveThruRPG we've come up with a number of products which we think might be related, but some might be inaccurate because the name, OpenQuest, is so short. Nonetheless, take a look, as purchasing through the RPGnet Store helps to support RPGnet.
