DragonQuest is a fantasy role-playing game originally published by Simulations Publications (SPI) in 1980. Where first generation fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) restricted players to particular character classes, DragonQuest was one of the first games to utilize a system that emphasized skills, allowing more individual customization and a wider range of options.
System
Character generation
Character generation is much more involved than D&D, with the player using 10 sided dice to determine everything from the character's race to handedness to the number of points they have to distribute amongst the primary characteristics (Strength, Agility, Manual Dexterity, Magical Aptitude, Endurance, and Willpower) which determine the character's strengths and weaknesses. Being able to control the value of these attributes allows for greater flexibility in character generation. For example, players seeking a powerful magic user can divert points to Magical Aptitude and possibly Willpower. Those seeking pure fighters can invest their points in Strength, Agility and Manual Dexterity. By carefully balancing these numbers, fighter/mages, thief/assassins, and other combinations can be devised.
Magic
The magic system in DragonQuest features distinct Magical Colleges, each with its own group of spells and rituals. Player characters who enter magical study are assumed to have apprenticed with a mage of their particular Magic College, and have learned all the basic spells and a ritual or two from their former Master. Player characters cannot change Magic Colleges in the context of game play, and so are all essentially specialists in a college of magic. Some of the Magic Colleges include: Earth Magic, Air Magic, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Illusions, Ensorcelments, Greater & Lesser Summoning, and Necromantic Conjurations. The revised second edition and third edition (released by TSR) added some colleges and removed others.
Players expend fatigue points to cast spells, and must roll percentile dice to succeed. Many of the more powerful spells have a very low chance of success, and may backfire with random results (many quite unpleasant). By expending experience points, a mage may improve their ability to cast specific spells by gaining rank in them. There are also advanced spells which can be obtained from more powerful mages in one's Magic College. This advanced knowledge may require a substantial cash payment or some kind of quest to obtain, however. Certain spells require expensive or rare elements to work properly, while the majority are merely spoken.
Specific rules exist for player Adepts to invest objects to create magic items (such as rings, amulets, weapons, etc.) for later use by themselves or other party members. Such items are also found on occasion during an expedition or exploration.
Skills
Any player character may choose to learn various skills in DragonQuest. Vocations such as Ranger, Thief, Assassin, Merchant, Courtesan, Navigator, Healer, Military Scientist, Mechanician, Beastmaster, Troubador may be acquired by expending the necessary experience points. Certain other skills, such as Stealth, Horseback Riding, reading and/or writing a Language can also be practiced and improved. Characters are not limited to any particular set of skills, and a Halfling Assassin who speaks perfect Elvish is technically possible.
Weapons are learned in much the same manner as Vocations. The limitation is that weapons have various maximum ranks (levels) which can be achieved, while other skills usually top out at rank 10. Magic spells gain improved chances of success and better strength when rank is gained in them also, and this is done on a spell-by-spell basis (e.g. character is a fire mage and has improved his skill to rank 6 in Fireball, but rank 0 in many other spells of his magic college which he considers less important).
Characters are required to spend many weeks training after an experience-generating adventure in order to increase skill levels. Weapons training typically requires the aid of a person of greater skill than the player, and hiring a weapon-master can be expensive as well. Often, a group will return to town laden with gold, only to realize that between the several months spent training (room & board) and the cost of experts to assist them with training, most of the money is already spent! It is also possible that a character may actually be the expert in his/her local area, and thus might have to travel some distance to receive instruction from a person of greater ability.