OpenQuest 'Final Edition' Now Available

The 'Final Edition' of OpenQuest is now available at d101 Games and Lulu. OpenQuest is a very nice 'light' version of RuneQuest/BRP/d100.

Essentially, OQ combines a version of the combat system from Chaosium's (now out of print) Elric!/Stormbringer RPG with a version of the magic system found in Avalon Hill's (also out of print) RuneQuest 3e. However, OQ is considerably more streamlined ("rules lite") than either of those systems, or Mongoose's recently released (and also excellent) RuneQuest II. (Indeed, OQ bears a strong family resemblance to MRQII, as OQ draws on the SRD for MRQI.)

I highly recommend OQ to anyone who digs BRP/d100 fantasy, but (a) does not want to fiddle around with 'hit locations' (as found in all versions of RQ, including MRQII), (b) wants a simpler system overall (fewer skills, less fiddly magic, etc.), and (c) wants a set of fantasy BRP/d100 rules not tied to any particular setting (in contrast to Elric!/Stormbringer).

The main changes between this edition of OQ and the previous ones are summarized by OQ's main author Newt Newport as follows:

New to this version:
Create Familiar sorcery spell by Simon Bray
Homonuclus and Golem by Simon Bray
Blood Wyrm demon by Tom Zunder
Ducks - text by me, cracking pic by Simon Bray
Nymphs (Dryads, Oenids, Hags) by Paul Mitchener.

Changes
Characters - added Ready Made Concepts to the end of this chapter.
Combat - Reorganised order of sections, to one that hopefully makes more sense (see what you think), added quick guidelines for Fumbles in combat, moved Ganging up in Combat to this chapter. Also made a montage of Simon's art work (Sorcereor, Orc, Barbarian and Troll pieces) to form a fight scene.
The Quest and Afterwards - Moved Plot Edits, Ship rules and Major Mental Damage to this chapter under spot rules.
Creatures - added the demons from Horror & Terror into this chapter.

Deletions
Appendix A : Optional rules and Appendix B: Horror & Terror - since content now moved into main text.

Also numerous layout tweaks throughout and a few bits of errata that got missed out from the Con-Quest edition..

Check it out! (In an earlier blog post I provided a general comparison of OQ versus MRQII.)