Frédéric sez :
... another good option would be Mythic Russia which uses HQ1 but with some interesting add-ons.
/// Which ones ? I'm eager to know about anything that'd make these rules a little "firmer". Can you develop ?
- I am personally not too fond of HQ2 "NPC have no stats because difficulty is set by the story" philosophy because as the GM I am the one leading the story ... without a meta rule interfering.
/// Of course. It seems like many people do not use the pass/fail cycle and rising difficulties with number of games already played. I don't. I use the "standards" set in HQ 1 : a militiaman fights at 13, a professional soldier at 5M, a clan champion at 10M2 etc. Likewise, creatures have specific size ratings, as do fire intensities, heights etc. The world exists around the characters and some parts of it are simply unbeatable !