Hero Wars

From: Julian Lord <julian.lord_at_hol.fr>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 11:54:33 +0200


I was one of the other HW demo conscriptees at Convulsion, and I generally agree with Nikk's assessment of the bare-bones HW we used there. The basic system is fine, and it really *feels* like HeroQuest, without the large piles of paper or complicated game mechanics. I'm glad that this certain HQ *feeling* will at last be generally available to the (non-Digest) Gloranthan community (without the PhD in RuneQuestRulology that you previously needed to run HQ stuff).

It will, I think, be *very* easy to adapt the HW stuff into your local home-brew of rules.

It looks to me that HW is also eminently suitable for beginning female players, who in my experience want the kind of freedom that the older RPGs generally discourage, but is present in HW.

Nikk Effingham :

> The linear playtest adventure worked well to teach the basics of the
> system. The downside being it was very linear, and breaking away from the
> plot was not advised, not the sort of adventure I like to run, but it was
> neccessary to quickly teach the system and how it works.

The adventure isn't really completely linear IMO, but had to be done more or less that way because there was so little time to prepare and play it.

One of the more excellent features of the "betting" system is very tight GM control over the flow of events. Boring or useless actions can be done in a couple of seconds, but the fun and exciting stuff can be emphasised by a different GM betting strategy. Cool !

All in all, bravo! Robin.

"Big Success"; "Big Failure"
C'mon guys ... you KNOW everyone is gonna call these two "Critical" and "Fumble".
I would personally prefer "Heroic Success" to the term "Critical", but what, pray tell, is wrong with the word "Fumble"?


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