Here are some initial notes for the campaign I'd like to run.

It would be a Malory-style Arthurian setting (armored knights,
tournaments, magic, and all that), as opposed to a historical
5th/6th century setting. However, we would include characters
from all levels of society, not just knights and their ladies.
Player characters could come from almost any part of society.

The typical male/female roles from the Malory stories would be
present, but player characters can do what they want. A female
knight, for example, would be considered anything from perfectly
normal to mildly surprising to offensive, depending on who 
you're talking to, but for the most part it's not going to be 
a problem to run such a character.

All the usual DragonQuest character races are available, with
one small exception -- I'd use a lion shape changer instead of
a tiger shape changer, just because you find lions but not tigers
in the Arthur stories.

To get things started, you guys could pick whatever races you 
want, but for additional players I'd roll three times on a table
(below), then I'd give the player a choice of the races I rolled 
up. Being human would always be an option even if I didn't roll 
it up. The table (d100):
01 cloud giant, 02-13 dwarf, 14-28 elf, 29 fire giant, 30 frost
giant, 31-37 halfling, 38-87 human, 88-97 orc, 98-99 shape
changer (type determined by homeland), 100 stone giant

Here's what I'm thinking for characteristics. You get 100 points 
to use for PS, MD, AG, EN, MA, and WP, but the higher scores 
cost more. This seems easier and more flexible than the regular
method. Let me know what you think.
 Score  Cost
  5-17  cost=score
   18   19
   19   21
   20   23
   21   25
   22   27
   23   29
   24   31
   25   33
Racial modifiers are applied after you go through this process.
For female characters, you can apply the DQ modifiers (rule 6.1)
or not, but it's all or nothing.

Characters come from various kingdoms, counties, and duchies 
in Britain, Ireland, or France. Humans would be Britons, Saxons, 
Irish, Picts, French, Occitanians, or Romans (French = Franks from 
northern France, Occitanian = Gauls from southern France, Roman 
= remnants of the Roman Empire still thriving in Britain). Each 
of these human "races" has its own characteristic modifiers. A 
player can choose to have a randomly assigned homeland. If you
want to come from a particular place that's okay too, except
that for campaign reasons, certain locations won't be for player
characters.

All player characters would be able to speak British in addition 
to their native language, just for playability.

Most of the campaign will take place in Britain, which is divided 
up among Arthur's kingdom, his allies, and his enemies. Britain
is full of unsettled areas containing monsters and non-human races.
Adventures might occur among settled human areas or in the wilds.

Human characters would have religions, either Christian, Wotanic,
or pagan. In the DQ rules, Christianity would be like the Powers
of Light (+50 magic resistance on consecrated ground, etc.). For
the Wotanic religion (Wotan, Thor, and those guys), their "priests" 
would just be members of the College of Rune Magics. Pagan "druids"
would be members of one of the elemental colleges of magic
(different colleges in different homelands).

For initial skills, I'd continue our previous method, namely,
you would pick the "profession" you were raised to become:
knight, druid, peasant, thief, etc. This would give you an
initial set of skills and equipment, and you'd have the chance 
to round it out with some additional skills. Different backgrounds
are available in different areas.

There's one overriding exception for the character creation
process. Any new character can choose to be related to an
existing player character (whether the player wants you or not!), 
in which case you have the same race, homeland, religion, and 
background. Family ties will be relatively important in this 
campaign.

For the rules, I'd use DQ 3rd Edition, pretty much by the book. 
Some exceptions include:
- The character creation process would be as described above.
- For experience, instead of multiplying experience costs by
the experience multiplier, I'd divide the experience award by
the multiplier. It's easier that way.
- Instead of awarding experience for days off (rule 90.4), I'd 
use automatic winter skill increases (according to your profession)
like we used to do. We wouldn't worry about things like practicing
certain skills at least one day a month or whatever.
- There is no Adventurer's Guild unless you start one during
play.
- We can use aspects or not, but let's pick one way or the other
now.
- We can use herbal lore (rule 51) or not -- also your call.

Jim