I overheard a few snatches of, and later heard a few feelings about, the "thanes" game Greg ran at Gloranthacon in Toronto. When I read those examples I could just hear his voice in them. (It is interesting that Roderick says they toned them down!). I grew up role-playing with a group that was quite Darwinian in nature. This had a lot of negative impacts on the selection of viable characters in my youth, but it did make the examples seem quite believable to me. Although I admit, at the end of the heroquest I spent a minute flipping pages trying to figure out where things got "fixed." In the end I realized that they didn't, and I still get rather moved at the mental image of a confused and sorrowful Goonda cradling a surf board and honking morosely....until the locals finally decide to sell it to a lunar zoo for lack of any better ideas.
I have to admit the hero quest example did seem to say:
- don't be frivolous with your hero, or you won't survive to enjoy it
(look at who dies and who lives).
- heroquests are more deadly than cool. Avoid them if at all
possible.
While the results may have been realistic, I was a little disapointed with the messaging there. It just seemed to run counter to the spirit of much of the rest of the book. I guess it is the inate clash between "play this game as a swashbuckling adventure series!" and "These are the hero wars, where even gods will die."
> Still, I have a copy of HeroQuest now, and I only had to
> wait about 21 years. <joy>
Heh, I've only had to wait 18 years 'cause I was a late comer! Of cousre, that means it has now been 17 years since I got to game with you...if only I could figure out Issaries' trick of crossing the big water using only a spade......
--Bryan
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