Re: Can Heroquest do Gamism?

From: cornponk <cornponk_at_...>
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 04:09:09 -0000

Well I'm not familiar with the Runequest system but by the reviews I've read it doesn't sound as inspiring as HQ. It sounds a little `old school' and this is why I like HQ so much; I like the masteries and bumps mechanic, I like the simple description for an ability, I like the simple modifiers for magic. I don't like wading through bloated descriptions of the effects of different spells with their umpteen modifiers/duration/range etc. when the HQ modifiers to magic chart will do just fine.

I guess boiling it down it is really about simplicity. Gamism doesn't necessarily have to be complex (take the game of heads or tails for instance). And at its core HQ is very straightforward.

There is also the gambling element of AP bids which I find can be very gamist. The nature of the infinite ability increase also has a gamist appeal (the carrot in front of the donkey thing, or `levelling up').

Does anyone here go full gamist? Do you think it perverted to play HQ in a very gamist way, opposing the author's intentions?

P.S. The quote is from a post by Robin at Masters of Luck and Death:

http://molad.org/forum/index.php/topic,108.0.html