The DestinyQuest Companion
The web of destiny is a complex weave and sometimes its myriad paths can be unfathomable to predict or second guess. Such is the way of the world of Dormus, where the DestinyQuest books are set. Fated heroes may rise and fall, but the weave will always continue to spin regardless, creating new stories and adventures.
The last few months, working on the DestinyQuest Roleplaying game has certainly felt like an exciting adventure out of a DestinyQuest novel. We had grand and lofty ambitions to create a truly unique roleplaying game. Trying to convert the complex game system from the books into a multiplayer experience was always going to be a challenge – but one we felt ready to take on. Sadly, it’s proved harder than we thought to marry the intricate ability system and game mechanics to a multiplayer combat system that felt balanced and satisfying. Through early playtesting, it became clear that a lot of work was still left to do to get the game back on track – and the release would be delayed.
It became crunch time to make a decision about the future of the project. It was at the stage where serious money and time would need to be invested to take this to the next level. As we took stock of the situation and reviewed the current state of the game, the team didn’t feel that things were coming together sufficiently to give us confidence that we could achieve our goals.
It was a tough decision, but the whole team was in agreement that it was time to end the process and move onto other projects. It was a completely amicable group decision borne out of many factors. I was disappointed, as I dearly would have loved to share a roleplaying system based on my world – and perhaps that might still happen in the future. But for now, it was time to let the project go, so the team could free up their time for other commitments.
On a more positive note, during the development process I had written hundreds of pages of campaign material, including timelines, lore, short stories, biographies and so on. Rather than having all that juicy content sitting unread on my hard drive I have decided to publish it all as ‘The World Companion’. I’m currently in talks with my publisher to bring this to fruition and I am delighted to announce that David Wyatt (who did the career artwork for the DQ website – and the original cover for Legion of Shadow) is on board to provide interior illustration. So, it should be a stunning looking and immersive book, with a lot of cool info that readers of the gamebooks are going to love.
There is also enough depth provided in The World Companion, that it could be used as a source book/campaign setting for any RPG system, such as D&D and Pathfinder – so it's still possible for gamers to delve into the world of Dormus, using an existing system and marrying it with the detailed lore provided in the book to create a cool homebrew campaign set in DestinyQuest.
So, as I said, sad news but at least there is something positive coming out of the situation for fans and readers. I am really excited for The World Companion and will share more info as it progresses – with a possible Kickstarter to help launch the project and provide some stretch goals.
I do have to thank the amazing DQ:RPG crew, headed by Josh Bixler, for such an amazing experience – we’ve had a lot of fun working on the RPG, and we look forward to seeing each other’s future projects come to fruition.
The weave of destiny continues to spin its threads. We can never guess the future, but we can be sure it will never be dull!
Happy adventuring!
MJW