Confessions of an HW heretic

From: Dick Kingman <rtkingman_at_...>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 00:39:06 -0400


This is by way of an introduction and so that I do not misrepresent myself as a Hero Wars fan. The short version is I think I would be classed as a "simulationist" by many on this list, and Hero Wars was not designed for my players and me. I am afraid I far exceeded my 100 words. But wait, this is background, not description, so I am not limited to 100 words. Anyway, you
can skip over this by finding this +++++++++++++++++++++ below.


I do not think I can play/GM Hero Wars. Unfortunately for me and the groups I game with, it was not designed with us and our style of gaming in mind.
(At least, most of us.) Even still, I plan to try running a scenario (err,
episode or scene or whatever) or two after we return from Historicon. I think at least one of the guys might like the system. Maybe he will GM
(err, narrate) a campaign (err, series?).

RQ and Pendragon are more our style, so I guess that makes us "simulationists" in the parlance of this list. I always thought we were telling stories with those games, but I see now there is another style of story-telling RPG. In ours, the description of the action is more often done after the results of the die rolls are known, though statements of intent are important in building our mental images of the action. This is much the same as I have read here, that the HW extended contests seem to let most of the contributors to this list do the same. Maybe with a little bit more flash because they don't need a specific rule about how to swing from a chandelier.

Last year I got interested in Pendragon Pass and eventually David Dunham directed me to Wizard's Attic. I bought Enclosure #1 (and #2 and Tentacles 1&2 and Tales of the Reaching Moon 10+ and other things Gloranthan while I was at it. Like a kid in a candy shop, I was.) for the PDP stuff with the intent of starting a campaign in the late winter. Then I discovered Hero Wars and that it was going to be out in January and decided to wait for it.
(Silly me!) I was really hoping HW was going to be an official version of
PDP, that is, the Pendragon rules system in the Gloranthan settings, maybe with new magic systems. I was very disappointed.

I probably don't need to go into detail about what I didn't like, if you remember that I said I would probably be considered a "simulationist" according to this list. Suffice it to say I didn't like the method(s) of combat resolution and the lack of descriptions for the magical effects.
(feats, spells and spirit powers) Those are the main things that killed the
game for me. The cinematic effects do not appeal to me. I don't want my combats looking like Hercules & Xena gymnastic fight scenes.

But probably the worst thing was that the rules don't feel complete to someone like me. The type of game I usually run is very unstructured. I basically turn the players loose in the world and let them go where they want and do what they want. I provide the world around them and the world applies the constraints on their activities. I do occasionally use scenarios and the characters sometimes get caught up in the events of the world around them. But often I let the players explore the world as they see fit. This means I am often winging it as the players take off in a totally different direction than I had planned and prepped for. I don't want to have to "wing" the rules too.

Having said all that, I do think Hero Wars has a lot of cool ideas. It is probably a very good game for those of you who are not like me. I am currently tinkering with seeing if I can merge some things from HW into Pendragon/PDP. I don't know if it will work out and I don't know whether I will end up with Pendragon plus some HW or HW with some Pendragon. Things I am looking at now are using the masteries concept and the HW magic systems in PD . I have a lot of work ahead on the magic, because I need to define the magical effects before I can use them. I am shooting for starting the PDP or PDP-HW game this fall. It seems kind of strange that while many people on this list are trying to convert their old game to the new system, I am trying to convert the new game to the old system.

Lastly, I sincerely hope that there is a large enough audience out there for the style of game that Hero Wars is. All of the future official (and probably most fan produced) Gloranthan materials are going to be coming out for HW or not at all, so I hope for its success. I will most likely be buying all of the HW materials published, even if just as reading material.
(Without indexes, they won't be very good reference books. Jab, jab.) Who
knows, I might even run a demo game or two at our local game store (Rider's Hobby, Lansing, MI) being as no one else has, that I know of. Last I knew they had sold two copies, one to me and one to another former RQ player/GM.

+++++++++++++++++++++

As I mentioned, I think HW has a lot of cool concepts and I will be trying to make as much use of it as possible in my existing games. That is why I have been following the hw-rules and HeroWars digests. I want to understand the rules, how they fit together, and how other people are using them (or not, as the case maybe). The following are some thoughts I have had after reading some of the various discussions the last few weeks. And as a standard disclaimer: Your Gloranthan May Vary (mine certainly does based on some of the examples I have seen). [I will post them separately to make responses easier and shorter.]

One question: Where can I find the list of the abbreviations people use in these lists? I know I have seen it somewhere on the web, but I could not find it the last time I looked.

Thanks for all the educational and entertaining discussions.

Dick Kingman
20yr veteran of RQ
(though I have played fast and loose with the rules over the years, and I
have only played as GM)

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