> >(1) Hero Questers don't ever know exactly what they will meet.
>
> >(2) The myths usually do not tell of surprise and failures.
>
> >(3) Enemies can get into your quest and really muck it up.
>
> Take the HQs in KoDP. These avoid the problem of linear
> predictability. They're all just cut scenes anyway, and no-one expects
> any different! Even with Urox appearing in O&A, it's still linear &
> inflexible if you want to succeed. That's how I feel about my attempts
> to design HQ so far, a linear sequence of events with no links other
> than a quick "OK, you succeed. Next you meet...".
Actually, some of the KoDP quests do have different success branches. Robin Laws put the Uroxi in the Orlanth & Aroka heroquest as a surprise (i.e. he's not mentioned in any of the myths you know), but various constraints made it impossible to put as many surprises in the computer game as a decent Narrator would come up with. I'm reminded here of Jeff Richard's advice that one of the best tools for running a heroquest is a thesaurus...
But yes, heroquests should be linear, in that you know that there is a sequence of stations, but unpredictable, in that just what you meet at each station can't be predicted with certainty.
David Dunham A Sharp david_at_... Voice/Fax: 206 783 7404 http://a-sharp.comEfficiency is intelligent laziness.
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