I agree with AB? about the problem with super RQ mechanics is the whole system rapidly disintergrates into Onslaughtian biting contests much above 100%. As mentioned earlier I use a very simple mechanic for my Gloranthan roleplaying which is based around a double open-endded d10 roll. This is (I think) similar to the Vampire mechanics (advocated by AB) and stops the total dominance by people over 100%.
Interestingly, the style of play is not much affected by this mechanic and games still have a very RQ feel (although things can get suddenly very bloody). In fact the thing that affects the style most is that I (after talking with Greg "Healing is 90% less common in G than RQ") have halved the effectiveness of healing *and* I allow only 1 healing spell per wound per day (and thats generous!). In my experience the simplified mechanics (opposed open-endded d10 rolls) produces a faster game without losing much of the RQ feel. The open-endded mechanic stops really gross characters from feeling too secure.
In fact, last weekend (Kevin you may want to stop reading here) I ran a scenario where most of the characters were advanced level initiates 70 to 80% with a few 90+ Yelmalio gifts and maybe one magic xtal each (although they were good xtals as they had recently paid a visit to Dyskund caverns). The final character was anything but normal, he was a disgraced ex-sword of Humakt with very high main guache and sling, 10 points of strengthening enchantment, about 6 pts of armouring enchantment on most locations and most of the *good* spirit magic in the book! Well, the other characters were able to spot that he was not the archivist he claimed to be (The incident with the bronze dagger melting and dripping down his leg after one of the party DIed to Humakt is still puzzling them, I ruled that his basket hilted main gauche was too disimilar to a death rune to affect!). However, while the scenario was pretty dangerous for the other caracters (2 died) he was not un-worried and got quite concerned at one point (Oh, did I mention that he also had a variety of sorcery spells running at intensities 10+!!!). So dispite having 33 HPs to most of the parties 13 and more APs when naked than they had in their armour the system did manage to cope, although I admit he did unbalance things a bit...
Well thats my bit on HQ mechanics, keep them open-endded (risky) and simple (do you find lond combats boring?) and then concentrate on the story. BTW I also agree that some variant on the Mythos style mechanics might be one way to produce a HQ game.
Cheers
Lewis
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