Having recently jumped into DragonQuest, I am testing its edges and expanding the game where it expects and encourages. With no practical experience of the game, I’m running on instinct and the GMing Rank 4 ability: Table Sense. To be clear, this isn’t about changing the rules, they will played as written, but looking at the periphary and the gaps that the game itself acknowledges.
With much of the game now found in freely available PDFs, but hard to find in print, I have stumbled upon the definitive trove of lore at the DragonQuest Players Association. Tucked away is the unofficial fifth book of DragonQuest, Worldly Endeavour. They are Stephen Clark’s house rules, and well done, largely expanding the few skills in the core game. His website has gone, but the rules live on.
Linked with this is an expansion of professions, including a small number in bold that might appeal to adventurers. Today, they all do, but this is old school focus, so the others, though available to all, are designed to flesh out everyone else in the game world. Hello Aristocrat, Innkeeper and oh so many more, all fleshed out with tiered abilities.
There’s more with Devotional & Deities, to bring the holiness in amongst the colleges of magic, with ‘White Magic’ introduced here.
An extended list of livestock and retainers, with barely a distance between them, and more about birthrights and thoughts on starting character skills. There’s even a half-elf in here.
Perhaps most hilariously is the concluding 6.5, Sex in DQ, a series of “ideas for adding sex to a DQ adventure or campaign for heterosexual interaction between consenting adults.” You have an optional Libido characteristic, Seducer and Lover skills and the Barmaid profession. Oh dear, oh dear. 💋
Despite this, the main expansion of skills and professions look to be very useful, with many of the ideas finding their way into my own game.
I’m daft really.