scifi@ukc.UUCP (I.P.Gordon) (05/27/85)
Well since I started all this I had bettar put my two penneth in just
for the hell of it.
My piece is on the game DRAGOQUEST (which I think blows THAT GAME out
the window).As many of you will know TSR destroyed SPI so that there
wasn't any competition for THAT GAME,because anyone who has played it
will instantly see what a far superior game it is and never play THAT
GAME again.This gives us,the players,a problem, in that we can't get
any material on DRAGONQUEST except what came out originally and the
odd bit in a magazine.Which finally brings me to the point of my item.
I was lucky to find in Dragon #86 an article on DRAGONQUEST entitled
The Warriors Alternative.It basically boiled down to this:Question. What does
a non-adept do when the adepts are learning their magic?Answer:They go
to an adventuring school.Here they spend the EP's (calculated at 6,500)
and the time (six months)that their friends are spending at the magic
college.There are limitations which are enforced(so as not to unbalence
the game)so the warrior comes out whith roughly this:
1)Either 1 FT or 3 PC
2)A skill at rank 2 (a warrior short of skill ie.Ranger
Military Scientist,Thief,Spy etc. but not Healer ,Courtesan etc.
3)A follow up skill at Rank 1 (ie Thief major and Spy minor)
4)A wepon skill at Rank 2 (consistent with skills)
5)Two subsidery weapons at Rank 1
Finally up to 500 EP's can be spent on PC/FT ,stealth ,horsemanship or
Hunting (a skill in a previous Dragon)
The player can also add his starting EP's to this 500 ,any now left over
from this original 6,500 is lost.
That is basically it (if you want mote detail you'll have to buy the
magazine yourself) giving you a charachter with more skills than his adept
counterpart.This the article says balances up the the adept and non-adept.
Or does it?
Now it seems to me that an adept has already been penalised in the system
for having magic in that 1) he doesn't get the +20% on his Magic resistence
and 2) he can't use any pure iron -including armour (although he can use it
silvered at -10% on his spells ,with the corresponding price increase X10)
and finally 3) he can backfire (personnally I think that is the best part
of the game) with terrible results for himself or the party.These rules
do put the adept at a disadvantage (as any adept will tell you) but then
again he does have the use of magic.What he loses on the swings he gains on
the roundabouts.
So basically it comes to this:Does the Warrior Alternative unbalance the
game?
Personnaly I think it does ,but not having it in also leaves the non-adept
at a disadvantage.But that is just my opinion ,Iwould be grateful to hear
yours on the matter.
Yours in waiting,
THE REAPER
Beware the fruitbats their music is getting weirder!!!!!!!!