> Two things on this one: First, I get that the issue I keep missing is
> simulating a good book/movie/show not a real event. Roger that!
That's not quite what I was trying to say (and my apologies if that is what came over). HeroQuest is a set of rules that allows us to tell/experience/whatever a fun group story in whatever genre we all decide we're going to play. It's not really about simulating a book (although obviously we draw on our experiences with other stories, be they books, movies, series, etc, when we tell stories), any more than a set of rules that creates drama through randomized attritional resource loss is really about simulating real combat (especially since very few RPGers, and probably fewer game designers, have any combat experiences to draw on - only other people's stories about combat).
That's not to say randomized attritional resource loss games aren't fun - they can certainly be a blast! But they are no more "simulating a real event" than HeroQuest is (and I say that as someone who owns plenty of little lead miniatures and a shelf full of strategic war games).
> And
> second, and this one is a big one, why don't these really interesting
> keywords end up on the list or a web page somewhere? I realize you came
> up with these on-the-fly, but damn that would be useful to have list to
> look over and get a feel for the concepts others have used! LOL
If someone wants to put together a list of these sorts of keywords, I'd be happy to post it to the main HeroQuest webpage. FWIW, when I have players make characters for HeroQuest, I tell them to give me a short "Hollywood Pitch" about what their character is. "Give me the bare basics - what is this character in seven words or less?" And that becomes their occupational keyword.
So we end up with lots of keywords like:
Rubble Bandit
Farmer turned Mercenary
Best Woodsman in Talastar
Rich Bastard Dilettante
Murderous First Mate
Seductive Snake-Dancing Priestess
Remarkably Learned Scribe
And so on. As long as it gives the player and the GM enough to work with, it is all golden. My players tend to start with little more than their keywords and runes (if we are playing Glorantha) and develop from there.
Jeff
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