HQ philosophy

From: Toksickburn_at_...
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 00:38:39 EST

Hi!
There is someone quite annoyed out there.... And unfortunately i can understand him quite well. I bought my german edition of HW in 2001, i think, i ve been all time in this group, reading posts and participating in discussions. I know i can be very slow sometimes when it comes to understand things but i must say that there are quite some inner secrets about HQ that the rulesbook doesnt transport very well (and this is not a language problem). After all this time i still have my difficulties with the system. The mechanical side of HQ seems so easy and simple but the whole philosophy and how to narrate it, is hard to grip sometimes. (Because it differs so much from every rpg i played or read in my past)

Like what narrating means and how to interpret degrees of success. What realism means.
What the numbers mean and what not and how they relate to realism.

This is something that i really critisize about HQ. Most players wont have any time or interest to be in this group. Sometimes i wonder how they can play this game...
When the whole mundane vs. magical resistance discussion blew up, i had a few emails with mike and after 3 years of me being into this game, he managed to teach me what this game is really all about und now i understand most of my misconceptions.
I think the game needs more explanation:

How traditional games differ from the HQ system, for instance. I admit there are some notes in the gamemastersection of the book but this is a bit too abstract.

The whole ability thing, what is the key to understanding this game, like usefulness, why augments seem so puny sometimes. Some extra explaining material might be really helpful i think.

thank you

Christian