HW, Story Telling and Good Ol' Bad Ol' RQ

From: Dom Twist <thazar_at_globalnet.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 20:07:19 +0100


><< Can Hero Wars simulate people being crap - like they are in the real
>world?>>

A very big question

> Well, I'm sure it can, in the sense that you could just give PCs low
>skill levels (e.g. 16/4, if I understand the jargon) rather than what
you're
>supposed to give them. The question I'm rather more concerned about is
>whether or not it *will*. As a for instance, the early drafts apparently
>didn't allow for the possibility of starting play as an initiate; all the
>keywords referred to rune-level types

This does REALLY not bode well at all. IMG after many sessions of play 1 (of 6) Characters has finally acheived INITIATE level. The idea of game that only really supports characters who are so far above the norm as to be superpowerfull is truely horrible. It's the whole reason I and many others found AD&D so objectionable and started playing Gloranthan RQ in the first place! We might as well go and play Bloodsuckers or Walking Wolves or whatever. Even the dreaded AD&D tried to introduce 0 Level characters to give a little depth. Good pre-generated/Story told backgrounds are well and good, but it's better to actualy play them out! Players tend to play quirky and 'intresting' characters when they have self/gm generated backgrounds. But someone who started out from scratch plays his characters passions and hates far more strongly because they arnt just distant events...he was there!

    Seriously how do you expect new Greggites to imerge from a game system where the majority of players dont imerse themselves in the genre...because they dont NEED to understand how the culture works to survive? A Rune Level character DEFINES how that culture works. Not a good entry point to view a culture from IMO. A Sartar Farmboy not yet fully initiated into Manhood makes a better intro to Orlanthi Culture than a Wind Lord of Orlanth.

In my experiance (and I play in a very good Vampire Dark Ages Campaign) powerfull characters in a story telling game are no more likely to Role-Play well than a decent RQ game. There are a awfull lot on Munchkins out there who drool about playing "Werebears with 17 Inch claws". That is a actual quote from a Werewolf game played at a local club of mine. (The only use of a D30 is to throw at players like that...).

I will still buy HW. I have had doubts about using it for sometime now, but Glorantha is the most detailed and wonderfull (ie full of wonder) Game World out there.

I think what it comes down to is Role Playing. The character/clan background stuff which the 'What My father Says' started and 'PenDragon Pass' continued is a truely GOOD THING. But it wont stop the munchkins any more than anything else ever has.
As ever I'll be using a wierd hybrid of my own devising...and hardly ever reaching for dice.....

DT


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