For the past 18 years or so I have played and GMed DragonQuest with a large group in Auckland, New Zealand. This group, usually known as The Seagate Adventurers Guild, has run a multi-GM campaign since 1981. The group currently has about a dozen GMs and fifty or more players.

Over the years we have customised, modified, and just plain re-written big chunks of the DQ II rules, and while we can't publish the whole rule set -- too much of it is still the original rules and covered by copyright -- I can offer the rules and expansions that I have written. These are original works, or based on the original DQ skills but changed to meet our needs.

Some of our players have retained the same characters for many years -- I have played my own favourite character for over 17 years -- and discovered the limits of the DQ system, and "Top out syndrome". Many of the new skills and rules changes that we have made have been attempts to raise these limits but still stay true to the original flavour of the game.

Some of the original DQ skills were inclusive in nature; the character got all of the skill at Rank 0 and then just got better at it -- Thief, for example. Other skills were exclusive, or nearly so; every Rank the character picked up part of the skill, and could often continue to acquire more of the skill even after Rank 10 -- Healer and Troubadour were skills of this sort.

As a general rule our new and revised skills have followed the exclusive model as this seemed to be the most flexible and allowed for the greatest diversity in characters. Two Rank 5 Thieves have essentially the same skill, just with different Base Chances; two Rank 5 Troubadours may have little in common, and this seems to allow the best party interaction.

So, feel free to have a look through the Vault. If you find something you like, you are welcome to make use of it. I will add new material as I write it, and I will ask around the group and see who else would like some of their material posted. If there is something you would like to know more about, or would just like to make a comment, please drop me a line.

The DragonQuest Vault site design is copyright (for what it is worth), but the DQ materials in the vault are offered to you under a Creative Commons License.

Martin Dickson