>Which raises the question: why aren't HQ games
>about the sorts of characters who appear as
>protagonists in Greg's fiction?
In part because RPGs have to deal with multiple main characters. If I were running a Harmast game, it would be very different than when I have to balance the needs of more than one player, who have different player types (Robin's Laws goes into these BTW).
>I am reminded of the Star Wars MMORPG, where instead of getting to
>play characters like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, you got to be a
>cantina musician or pod car repairman. A few people dug that. Most
>played long enough to realize that the game felt nothing like Star
>Wars, and moved on.
An extreme case, and interesting because you can compare it to the Star Wars RPG (I'm familiar with the West End Games version, with d6s). There you were at least playing characters much like Luke and Han. (You couldn't easily do the Skywalker redemption arc because you had too many players, but at least you don't have as many as an MMORPG, where sheer numbers drown out the heroism.)
Roderick
>I fail to see how playing a "lower-level" character is in any way more
>complicated than playing a capital-H Hero (somehow, to my limited way of
>thinking, it should be *simpler*, but maybe I'm not seeing something that
>makes it more complicated).
One answer could be: character improvement rules. People like their low-level characters to improve. If they're already playing a powerful character, there's really not that much need to change them. For example, James Bond doesn't get more skilled in a movie, or even between them. So a James Bond game doesn't need to have any rules on increasing skill. Or on developing long-term relationships.
Chris gives a number of reasons why long-played characters find it easier to get more like fictional protagonists. I will synthesize all into one: everything we as players do is improvisational first draft. Fiction authors don't have to do it in real time, and they don't have to get it right the first time. Playing a character for a while is a way to build up a character in the way an author might by doing lots of thinking. And it allows trying out various things, analogous to dfferent drafts. (How many players write one goal on the character sheet, and then discover the character has an entirely different goal?)
--
David Dunham
Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html
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