"Hendry, Philip" wrote:
...
> I thought I'd
> say Hi.
...
> During the 80s and most of the
> 90s we played a lot of MERP/Rolemaster, and dabbled in other games, including
> Runequest (2), which had us hooked for a while. Then, a few years ago we
> discovered Columbia Games' "Harn", and have played almost nothing else since
...
> I was (and am)
> thinking hard about game design, and how to improve/change the games we play
> (as one does- I've never managed to play any RPG without customising it to a
> greater or lesser extent). 'Heavy' is certainly the word. All our gaming has
> been down a fairly 'simulationist' route, so the premise on which HW seems to
> be based is very confusing for me.
...
> I think I could create a character, but I have no idea how to force enough
> information into my players
...
> I'm also completely lost as to where to start, adventuring-wise, what sort of
> thing to run and how to run it- face it folks, I'm a dinosaur of the
> simulationist breed, and HW is rather different to what I'm used to. :-)
...
Hello Philip. You've already had several replies, and I won't repeat the
good advice you've already received. Here is some of my experience.
- I guess you will be tempted to alter the HeroWars (HW) rules, to make
them more 'realistic'. I strongly advise against introducing ANY house
rules until you have played the published rules for some time. As you
say, the 'new way' of doing things takes some getting used to, but you
should try and get used to it before giving up.
- Surprisingly many of those who are very keen on the 'new way' were
'simulationists' in the past, myself included. Making the transition
could be easier than you think. The game has changed from the 80s... but
so have we.
- It is, actually, possible to run HW as a 'simulationist' game.
Simulation has at least two styles:
- The 'mechanical' style: create the rules stats for the inhabitants,
etc. of a region and set the player characters loose in it, determining
the consequences purely using the game mechanics.
- The 'exploration' style: trying to answer questions such as 'What is
it like to be an Orlanthi barbarian?', 'What moral conflicts might a 7
Mothers missionary face?'.
The mechanical style is impossible with HW, the 'exploration' style
works very well. In fact, our HW campaign has some 'exploration' aspects
to it. In particular, this was the thread connecting our first series of
episodes, which I Narrated. I did this precisely because the two players
I started with knew NOTHING about Glorantha. I used the 'exploration'
style to introduce them to more and more aspects of Heortling life. You
might want to try something similar.
Someone else suggested 'start small'. For example, pick one Heortling
tribe, invent the name of one clan, decide the name of the Chief, and
decide one thing that makes that clan different from the Heortling norm.
Hang adventures on that difference. For my epsiodes, I choose the Fire
Bull clan of the Sambari tribe (actually, I didn't have to invent that
clan name). I decided that they were atypical because they lived in the
barren mountains, rather than the more productive hills and lowlands.
That small start created a surprising quantity of ideas.