Sorry to continue to neglect this thread. My problem is two fold. First, the one HQ game I am in is currently sputtering and so I have no new pragmatic experience to enlighten my reading of the rules, second, my reading of the rest of HQ did little other than to confirm the mechanics that I thought I already understood. I guess I have yet to grasp the implications of these and therefore bring little new to the conversation (even in the form of questions) about introducing a new character. I do believe I understand the worthiness of a policy of brevity in the initial description of a character. It also makes sense to me not to provide too much back story as this can lead to diminishing the possibilities of the character as the game develops. So, in short, I am back where I started when I left off to read before commenting more. I fear that until I have played the game a bit more I can proffer no further opinions. I think all I can do is attempt to conform to the advice I have received here.
If anyone comes across this thread who is interested in GMing a game centering around the possibility of an up coming singularity you have an avid player here.
>
> David,
>
> I'm working several projects at once so I have only read a portion of what I need to before I respond. I did read the portion about Glorantha and magic yesterday. As my experience with RPGs is pretty much only in this arena I thought it might help me assimilate the other chapters.
>
> One point I would like to make: The game I had originally suggested was supposed to be prior to any kind of singularity. After the singularity would be interesting too, but honestly that would be pretty much anything goes. I think it would be very interesting to attempt a contemporary game that deals with the problems, motivations, delusions, etc. leading up to such a potentially huge change. Therefore, I feel the skill set I gave my character is apropos.
>
> In a couple more days I should have a meaningful rewrite and be in a position to repond to the other posts.
>
> Once again, it would be great if we ran into someone here who feels themselves qualified to run such a game. I suppose to some extent such a game could also be collaborative. Is that what convention goers refer to as free form?
>
> --- In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, David Dunham <david@> wrote:
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > >I have honestly never run into back story being a huge problem in
> > >games of Runequest
> >
> > I don't think I said it's a problem -- in HQ it doesn't help with the
> > character sheet.
> >
> > >I have to say that I don't understand the exact purpose of the
> > >categories, Flaws, Relationships, Personality, etc.
> >
> > Then don't use them. HQ shows a few different ways to organize a
> > character sheet, but the idea is, use whatever works for you. (We've
> > also tried to keep the HQ2 character shorter than the HQ1 character,
> > so sheet organization is less important.)
> >
> > I suppose a backstory-focused way to do this could be to group things
> > into something like Childhood, Captivity, Escape. As long as you can
> > quickly find where you wrote down that ability, it doesn't matter.
> > It's not like RQ where you get a bonus to all Agility skills.
> >
> > >I can imagine but from the little of HQ2 that I have read, mostly
> > >just character creation, I am not certain about the way these
> > >element interact as a whole. I have a vague appreciation that they
> > >are used to resolve situations that arise and are expanded on over
> > >time all in a narrative fashion. Its time for me to read a little
> > >more.
> >
> > Yes!
> >
> > The idea is that everything on your sheet can be used to further (or
> > in the case of flaws, hinder) a story goal.
> >
> > She lands on the Alaskan shore. Night is falling. Does she use her
> > social abilities to try to stay in the small town, or try to camp in
> > the snow?
> >
> > A Russian finds her camp. Does her hatred take over (and complicate
> > the story), or does she cham him? Ko's backstory may help decide
> > which choice she takes, but in game terms you use the abilities on
> > the character sheet to resolve what happens.
> >
> > As for the specifics of what the abilities are: you're the player,
> > you get to pick! If you think it's important to have a lot of
> > survival-related abilities, go for it. As GM I would caution you that
> > this was supposed to be a post-singularity game, and my vision of the
> > singularity won't give you a lot of opportunities to use those
> > abilities in the story. But, players are resourceful, so I'd never
> > veto this.
> >
> > >I get the impression that continues iteration of this character
> > >would not be appreciated here in this rules forum. So I think I
> > >will send you my next attempt directly to your e-mail.
> >
> > Please don't. You've gotten interesting answers from others. And I
> > think everything has related to the HQ rules and how you describe a
> > character with them.
> > --
> >
> > David Dunham
> > Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html
> >
>