On Saturday, August 30, 2003, at 09:49 AM, Mark Galeotti wrote:
> 1. What do people think of the Homelands approach? Is there enough
> of a basis there to start you off?
>
I think there is enough to get going. It tells a player what they need and they can make the rest up if they want. You don't want to scare people off by requiring them to read a book or two about their culture before playing.
> 2. Do the changes in animism and wizardry make these characters more
> interesting and playable? Are they clear and comprehensible?
>
They do. As Wulf mentioned in his review on RPG.net, I am also somewhat confused with what you start with at character creation, but the rest is clear. I would say that both of these are more playable than in HW, but I'm still not sure I'd do wizardry, the lack of improvisation of spells makes them less attractive to me.
> 3. The original sample adventures in HW came in for a degree of
> criticism -- what do you think of the ones in HQ?
>
I like them. The group of 4 really shows a range of activities, which is good for beginners. It's not all killing creatures and taking their treasure. I particularly like the heroquest.
> 4. Treat the current book size as a constant: who else would you
> have wanted to have seen included, and what would ou have sacrificed
> to make way for it? The answer 'nothing, it's great as is' is an
> acceptable one, BTW!
>
I would really like to have seen Kolat in the sample traditions in the Animism chapter. It's still not possible to playing a kolating. Are we going to see a Kolat write-up at some point?
I also liked the examples of play. The players are refreshingly realistic in their concerns.
I don't think I would have added anything else or taken anything anyway.
I'm quite impressed. I only counted 4 typos in the entire book, and I love the index. It's a subtle improvement that removes the warts on HW and explains it so much better. It deserves to do quite well.
I think the deal with Steve Jackson Games has helped too. My local game store sold out of their ordered 5 copies on day one and has ordered more. They had only ordered a couple of copies of each of the supplements as they came out.
Great job. It's really re-energized me to start running HQ again, after a hiatus of about 9 months. We made characters on Saturday and are ready to go in some weeks.
Michael
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