Re: HQ newbie questions

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 13:35:22 -0800

> Our bunch are trying out some of the beginner
> scenarios in HQ. Our pre-rolled PC's have various
> magical possessions, e.g. thunderstones and in
> Aileena's case, a sword. We have found no
> descriptions of the powers of these objects in the HQ
> book. We are feeling very uncomfortable about this,
> as it leads to much confusion when trying to use them.
> I know that thunderstones certainly existed in RQ3,
> but their power would presumably differ somewhat in
> HQ. The sword's features are a complete unknown.
>
> Is the narrator expected to look at these and define
> them ahead of time with the players? In that case,
> including that info for the beginner narrator would
> really help!

You can discuss them with the players, or just let it ride until the player gets a brainstorm about what the thingy does. Kathy does both of these in the example on page 22. The item might be the source of an additional ability or abilities, or an augment-only item; a mere possesion, or a retainer, or a sidekick; a hideously powerful item that's hard to control, or a bog-simple item that the village idiot can use with pefect ease. You are well within your rights to veto or moderate an item if it seems too powerful, or just start the character's use of it at 13 - "Sure, it's StormBringer, but you haven't mastered it yet...".

There was a a lot of discussion of what a thunderstone could do in one of the lists (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeroQuest-rules/message/6738 is the start of at least one of the discussions).

As far as starting characters, I'd rank them at ~50-60% in RQ in their Ability 17 skills. I never really liked the "Okay! You have 25% in your best skill, now let's go out and clobber them!" theory of gameplay fostered by D&D and RQ (frankly, most of all the systems out there...).

RR
It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has done what he has done.
- Richelieu