Helping your hero succeed (was Trusting the dice)

From: Mike Dawson <mdawson_at_...>
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 13:52:22 -0000

> >From: bethexton_at_y...
> >
> >My point is that no
> >result of the
> > > HQ system is an "unfun" result.
> >
> >Welll.....for a lot of people, if you constantly fail at what you try
> >to do, it is is unfun. For some that is just an interesting story,
> >but for many it is very frustrating....especially when largely due to
> >chance. Depends on individual playing style.
>
> Yes, this is absolutely a playing style thing. That said, Hero Quest is very
> bad at supporting that sort of gameplay - where the player feels that his
> character's successes and failures are his own - because of the fact that
> there's really very little that the player can do to increase his chances of
> success. It's not at all a tactical system. As such, any player who seeks to
> find personal fulfilment wielding a character as a tool in the game to
> practice his tactical prowess is, IMO, going to be sorely dissapointed. He's
> completely at the whim of the dice.
>
> I think if this is what the player really wants that they'd be much better
> off playing another game. Or, rather, I'd point out how much fun the system
> is if they just decide to look at the system slightly differently and play
> to what it's really good for.

This is a fascinating point that I would never have considered. That's probably because of the way I run my game. See, I think the players have a tremendous amount of potential to affect their Heroes' success. It's just not from rules-based tactical figuring.

There's an old saw in FRP that there are two ways to control a game as GM: You can control the power, or you can control the information.

In the former, every advance, every gain, every magic weapon, every new relationship is balanced by a risk that's equal to the reward. You want the Blue Spear of Heler? You have to kill the brown drought lizard who guards it.

In the latter, the question facing the players is not "can we survive?" but "what should we do?" Have they even heard of the Blue Spear? Do they know where it is? Do they know how to get it? If they can answer yes to all three of those, there might well be a way that they can come in the "back door" and avoid the drought lizard entirely.

I much prefer the latter to the former. For example, in the Ice Fist vs. the Lunars melee, one character figured out that the silver chain around Ice Fist's bicep was important to the Lunars, and he shot it off. That quite literally turned the whole event around.

Heroes who plan and prepare for a variety of futures, and who take the initiative rather than reacting to what the world tries to do to them are the ones who have the most success. And that planning and prep is how players can affect the success of their heroes.

Mike Dawson