Subject: The Tarsh Tattler, Volume 3, Number 3
First distribution: March 25, 1989
This Issue:
Semi-completed Heroquest: Heroquest rules (Steve Maurer)
Ed's note: This is the first of about five or six issues in the pipeline:
partially due to getting this huge file from Steve, and partially due to
the backlog from the recently discovered articles. I will try to get all
of Steve's stuff out tonight; the rest will have to wait a couple of days.
Sorry folks, I've been busy...
This is the same material Steve posted to rec.games.frp run through a spelling
checker. It has been broken into parts to avoid the risk of choking our
mailer and/or bringing our system to its knees...
There are currently three parts to Steve's system:
Heroquest Rules
The Hero Plane
Hero/God Plane Magic
Incidentally, I went through my mailing script compared to my list of
people, and found a few folk were missing. If you've missed a back issue
or two, mail me and complain and I'll ship it out as soon as possible.
---
From: steve@vicom.com (Steve Maurer)
Subject: Semi-completed Heroquest
HEROQUEST rules for Variant RQ....
Author: Steve Maurer
Copyright(C) 1989 Steve Maurer (permission to copy for personal
non-profit use is hereby granted, as long as this copyright
notice is included in the text. All other rights reserved.)
NOTE: THIS IS NOT A CERTIFIED VERSION OF GLORANTHA. I HAVE NO
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CHAOSIUM, OR ANY OF ITS STAFF.
Foreword
Having suffered through 4 convention games of "Heroquest playtest",
I came to the conclusion that the official Heroquest was still as far
off from completion now, as it was back in 1976. The Chaosium remains
one of the best "gameworld material" producing companies around, but
their ability to design working rules systems has deteriorated dramatically
since their heyday in the late 70's. In addition, since Heroquest is
a uniquely Gloranthan game, it can never be completed until Greg Stafford
decides to put in the effort to fill in his world more completely.
In short, I decided that if Heroquest was ever going to come out,
someone else would have to do it. Thus, this rules set. In the
convention games I ran, I was amazed at how positive their reception
was ( unanimously compared favorably to every 'official' Heroquest!).
So much so that I decided to put in the effort to write them down.
Even so, this rough draft cannot provide all the necessary background
for Heroquesting. This you must do yourself. For me, I used the various
legends from the "old-Glorantha" found in Wyrms Footnotes, and used hints
and hooks from other Gloranthan sources, and used them as a basis of the
games. It seemed to work reasonably well.
As a final note. Heroquest, in whatever form, is not for everyone.
There are limited number of RQ players, only a subset of those have
adventures in Glorantha, and even fewer have PCs at a high enough
level to really have a chance on the Hero Plane. Finally, since they
are usually rather dangerous, even powerful PCs will tend to go on such
quests rarely. Perhaps it is for marketing reasons that the Chaosium
has never pursued Heroquest.
Steve Maurer
- - - - - - - -
The Heroquest System is simply a way to deal with high powered
RuneQuest characters. "Heroquesting" is the uniquely Gloranthan
ritual of passing through the veils of the goddess Time, to enter
God-time so that you may fundamentally alter the nature of the
(Gloranthan) universe (usually for the base purpose of accumulating
personal power, but sometimes for other things). These rules cover
both aspects of Heroquesting.
This article is written with the assumption that you are not only
an intelligent and experienced RPG player, but that you are already
very familiar with the RQ system. These are essentially short "game
designer" notes. They are terse, but do explain the entire system.
HEROQUEST SYSTEM RULES
The Heroquest system is a Variant of RuneQuest. Some RuneQuest
rules are altered under Heroquest. The following is a list of the
RQ rules which are modified under Heroquest. Where possible the
changes are marks with a star (*).
Success Levels
Success Level Chart (as basis of character's skill "<%>" )
Type Level from.... to.... unless its......
Fumble (-1) 95 + <%>/20 any
Miss 0 above <%> 94 + <%>/20 above 94 + <%>/20
Hit 1 above <%>/5 <%> above 94 + <%>/100 *
Special 2 above <%>/20 <%>/5 above 94 + <%>/400 *
Critical 3 above <%>/100 <%>/20 above 94 + <%>/1000 *
* Supercrit 4 above <%>/400 <%>/100 etc.... *
* Hypercrit 5 above <%>/1000 <%>/400
etc....
All fractions are rounded down, except in the "unless its" column
which are all rounded up.
A "00" automatically decrements the Success Level by 1.
Text explanation:
RQ has the concept of a "level of success". Roll less than your
skill percentage and you succeed, roll less than 1/5th your percentage
and you "Special". Heroquest expands on this, defining extra levels
of success, beyond "mere" criticals.
Heroquest also redefines the "automatic miss". When you roll a
95-00, you used to automatically miss. In Heroquest this "missing"
percentage is decreased just like fumbles are when you are below 100%.
Any roll that beats: 95 + <%>/100 to hit will (at least) hit, even if
the actual die roll is from 95-00. Thus, a 200% fighter will miss
only on a 98-00.
Example:
A hero with a 210% skill level achieves a success level by
rolling the following numbers:
Roll Level Type
00 (-1) Fumble (a "Miss" -1 level)
98-99 0 Miss
43-97 1 Hit
11-42 2 Special
02-10 3 Critical
01 4 Supercrit
when he reaches 500%, he will have
Roll Level Type
00 0 Miss (a "Hit" -1 level)
96-99 1 Hit
26-95 2 Special
05-25 3 Critical
02-05 4 Supercrit
01 5 Hypercrit
On the Hero Plane, a level 1 success (a "hit") is such a common
everyday occurence, that it really isn't anything special. The
dangers are so enormous, the opponents so powerful, that just making
your roll doesn't usually work. To really succeed, you must "Special"
your skill roll. Because the Hero Plane is so tough, "Hits" are,
for all intents and purposes, effectively misses. When you "miss"
against a danger from the hero plane, you've REALLY blown it -- much
like a Fumble.
Thus in Heroquest, percentages are referred to by their chance to
Special, not their chance to Hit. If you encounter the vast flowing
rapids of one of the primal rivers, a simple Swim roll will not get
you past it. In fact, you may very well drown unless you Special.
A Runelord beginner on the Hero plane with only a 120% chance to
hit, has a 24% chance to Special. He is a starting character --
likely to be killed if he opposes all but the weakest opponents.
Success Level Results
Heroquest redefines the method of applying skills above 100% vs
each other. You may NOT subtract your skill percentage above 100%
from your opponents skill. Instead, if you Special and your opponent
merely makes his roll, then the result is exactly as if you made your
roll and he missed.
This is codified by the Success Level Result (or "SLR"). To
obtain this value, perform the following calculation:
Attacker Success Level(+) - Defender's Success Level(+)
(+) in combat, a Fumble is just a SL of 0 with other problems.
The SLR can be positive or negative, depending on who did better.
Weapon Success Level Results
In RQ, depending on the weapons used, various results happen from
relative success levels (examples are: Ignoring Armor, "Impaling"
rules, weapon damage, etc). Heroquest extends these results, and
and modifies them slightly. The following is a condensed table.
Note the change in slashing/crushing.
Attacker's Weapon type
SLR Cutting Thrusting Crushing Natural Pole Arm
+5 OVRCRT OVRCRT OVRCRT OVRCRT (as type)
+4 2CRIT 2CRIT+IMP 2SMASH+CRIT DSRM+2CRIT "
+3 CRIT CRIT+IMP 2SMASH DSRM+CRIT "
+2 SMASH* IMP SMASH* NWD+DSRM* "
+1 NWD NWD NWD NWD "
0 WDVP NE WDVP NE NE
SLR Defender's Weapon type ('dodge')
-1 PWD NE/(PND)(+) PWD NE NE
-2 CRIT+PWD PWD/(IMP) PND NE NE
-3 CRIT+PND PND/(CRIT+IMP) 2PND DSRM PWD
-4 DSRM CRIT+PND/(2CRIT) 2PND+CRIT DSRM+DMG PND
-5 OVRCRT DSRM/(OVRCRT) OVRCRT OVRCRT CRIT+PND
(+) Parenthesized Impale results are used when parrying natural
weapons.
Pole Arms are treated as Pole Arms, unless it says "(as type)",
in which case they revert to the "head" of the weapon.
Key:
CRIT - Bypass normal armor (defensively this removes weapon armor)
2CRIT - Bypass critical resistant armor
IMP - RQ Impale rules (weapon damage + max + damage bonus)
NWD - Normal Weapon Damage (roll damage vs opponent's armor)
WDVP - Weapon Damage vs Parrying (vs opponent's weapon or shield)
PWD - Parry Weapon Damage; weapon damage (w/o damage bonus)
vs opponent's weapon or natural weapon hit location.
PND - Parry Normal Damage, weapon + damage bonus.
2PND - 2x Parry Normal Damage
SMASH - Double Weapon Damage or Damage Bonus (your choice)
2SMASH - Double Weapon Damage + Double Damage Bonus
DSRM - Parrying or Attacking weapon/shield rendered ineffective
DMG - Defender does rolled damage to an attackers hit location
OVRCRT - Over Critical: whatever you want to happen, does.
There can be further modifiers to the combat SLR:
+1 SLR if attacker is taking victim completely by surprise
if attacker can see and defender can't
if defender is held immobile or unconscious
.... these are non-cumulative bonuses
-1 SLR to choose hit location after you roll. Example: A +2
("Crit" result vs a missed parry) may be turned into a +1
"Special" vs a hit location of the attacker's choice.
Certain weapons have special results on the SLR table. For instance
a "Sword Biter" does a "DSRM" (disarm) on a -2 and -3 SLR. In all
other respects it acts like a Cutting weapon.
Other Combat Mechanics
There are a number of other Heroquest combat mechanics which
deserve mention.
Strike Ranks -- are a measure of how effectively you can get
in an effective blow. The higher your attack percentage, the more
quickly you may do this. For every 100% in your weapon, your SR
drops by one. This value may never go below your Weapon SR, but
keep track of the extra "SRs" at the lowest SR you can reach. The
combatant with the highest number of extra unused SRs is the one to
move first on that Segment (barring exotic magic).
Multiple Attacks -- You may split ANY attack vs an opponent, or
several opponents. The opponent does, however get full parry and
defense vs all attacks you make.
Dodge -- For RQ3 fans, "Dodge" is redefined. "Dodge" is simply a
"natural weapon parry". You may attempt a "dodge" whether you have a
weapon or not, but under most situations doing so is worse than a weapon
or shield parry. On full defensive, you may "Dodge" and "Parry", just
like you may parry with weapon and shield.
Weapon Difficulty Modifiers -- Though it makes little difference at
the level Heroquest is usually played at, Weapon Attack difficulty is
changed. (Weapon Base Percentage - 20%) is the weapon's attack/exp
difficulty modifier. A Greatsword, for instance, has a -15 difficulty
modifier. This means that every attack is made with such a weapon as
if it was -15%. Because of conversion problems, we assume that weapon
skill levels of existing characters are actually at a level which offsets
these negatives (i.e. a PC with a Greatsword % of 130%, is actually
145% - 15% difficulty). Rolls for experience are made at the true
skill level.
Example Combat:
Grunnik, a Rune Lord of Zorak Zoran, is running about the Hero Plane
Berzerk, reveling in the power and glory of true release. Normally he
only has a 30% chance to special, but while Berzerk he has a 45% (60%
vs Chaos). For this, he always "misses" his parry (he doesn't
even try).
Grunnik comes upon a lesser demon -- about the level of a standard
Cacodemon summoning). The demon has a 30% chance to special with 2
claws, coated with venom. Grunnik luckily has the chance to go first,
since he has the reach on the demon.
First round: Grunnik rolls a 87%. Bad Luck. Only a hit. The
demon makes it's parry, but this doesn't matter
as a -1 SLR on "natural weapons" doesn't do anything.
However it is now the demon's turn.
The demon rolls a 38%, and a 14%. Things look
bad for Grunnik. He took not just a hit, but
a special - a +1 and +2 SLR result for the demon.
The demon's natural weapons (Claws), would disarm
Grunnik if he had been parrying, but since he wasn't,
he doesn't loose his Maul. The demon does 21 and
19 pts of damage to Grunnik against his armor,
which merely staggers him in his berzerk state.
Second round: Grunnik rolls a 13%. A Critical. Good blow.
Even better, the demon rolled a 97, barely missing
it's parry. (it parries on a 96-). This is a
combined SLR of +3 for Grunnik. A Maul is a Pole
Arm, but in this case, it refers to Crushing damage.
Grunnik does a 2SMASH vs the demon. For Grunnik,
this becomes 4d8 + 4d6 (+ 4d6 for his Crush spell)
against the demon's armor. Grunnik rolls just
slightly below average: 45 pts, which is still enough
to remove the rolled hit location -- a 4 (one of the
demon's 5 legs).
The combat continues.....
---
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