I ask this because it sounds like Greg believes the characters we play in the game are actually the people we are in real life. I'll be the first to admit that one or two of the characters I've played in RQ are a lot like me (at least personality-wise anyway), but I've played a ton more that I don't believe are anything like me.
To me, it seems like John Hughes and Greg Stafford are advocating blurring the lines of distinction between the real world and fantasy. Role-playing a character that is nothing like us will be replaced with playing ourselves in the fantasy/real world.
I don't know about you guys but I don't believe in the real world existence of the Heroplane nor do I believe it possible to reach Heaven (the godplane if you will) without actually dying. No matter how much I'd like it to be possible for us to be able to acomplish a real world heroquest, that fact is... it's not.
Therefore, I have to wonder at the seriousness of the aformentioned article. HeroQuest as described there will fail simply because we cannot do it.
I think the way to go for HeroQuest would be to combine it with a type of Super RuneQuest and a more fluid type of storytelling game structure. To actually suggest that we as players actually go on a heroquest while playing seems silly and, yes, a little dangerous. There are enough people in the world who cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. Why perpetuate this?
I hope I haven't brought too many people down with this post but I'm just a little worried, that's all. However, I could be completely wrong in my interpretation of Mr. Hughes' article and I could be completely wrong about Greg's intent for HeroQuest. If so, would someone please explain it to me and restore my faith because I really like Greg and his creation very much.
John Brown
Arkat_at_aol.com
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