> Hero Quest is, in fact, all about
> the differences between your homeland and mine, about how we each spend our
> days making our living, and what it is that we each believe in. Not about
> how strong your character is.
>
#1
This is not what my Heroquest is about. It is about how one man became a god,
or a hero, or a legend. If the character is a hero because of his immense
strength, then so be it. If operating a forge is his forte, something he is
famous for, a forging prodigy, a "use the forge, Luke" kinda guy then Operate Forge
13 just doesn't cut the mustard.
He is the forging-est person in the world, not someone who would be out-forged by some mook Slarge bastard with "forge" in his keyword.
"if Jon has "Play Fox and Geese 13" then he's a fair bit better than most of the clan, most of the time."
But if someone bothers to mention playing fox and geese in their narrative it is not because they are slightly good at it. It it because it is so important to the character concept that they mention it. Otherwise our fox and geese playing amateur gets beat by any improvised -5, Cunning 5w he comes across.
Hero Wars gave you homeland culture keyword at 13, occupation and religion at 17, and narrative words at 13. Then you chose one ability from these to be 5W, and two to be 1W. Powergame wise, it makes sense to have the 5W/1Ws, on something that would otherwise be 13. It also, IMO, makes for more fun characters because they are more likely to be Unique. Impressive Beard 5W really is impressive and worth having. Impressive Beard 13 is just dull.
#2
I don't really like whole keyword concept either. To me they should be just
normal abilities, from which one can improvise the activities listed under
them. I know that some people like having huge lists of auto augments from
hundreds of abilities to add up but to me they seem like too much complication.
#3
D10 is easier to use than D20, allowing us to use arabic numerals as they is
normally writ.
#4
Get to the dice roll quickly, and avoid the augment-a-thon
#5
Heroquest might allow one to get closer to Glorantha than Runequest, but it
is not the same thing.
#6
Anyone who thinks an RPG can or should accurately model some sort of
skill/ability/whatever aquisition is beyond bonkers. HP are a meta-game contrivance to
reward players and make the game fun. If I've learnt anything from experience
it is that people do not get better and better at everything. This explains
why the England football team is not made up of sixty year olds, why brilliant
mathemeticians have their best ideas when they're not too old, why most
organisations seem to prefer youth over experience, why soldiers are normally young
men rather than old men, why Raquek Welch no longer has Look Good in a Fur
Bikini 10W4, why Paul McCartney wrote better songs when he was in the beatles
than last week.
Just getting that out of my system.
Keith
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