So far I've not actually been either, but by preference would be a player (assuming a compatible narrator).
>
> What are you looking for when you play a Gloranthan game of
> Heroquest?
The first point is very hard to build into a scenario, because almost by definition this sort of thing is multi-episode, and character and campaign dependant. Although you can give potential 'bricks' which can by flexibly used to build many things (relationships, a hint of lost knowledge, a dangerous item/animal/plant that might be useful for a specific sort of situation, etc.
The second tends to be inherent in many scenarios, as it is the source of many heroic moments.
The third is absent from many scenarios. It is OK that some run pretty straightforward, as always having a twist is predictability in another guise. But a fair number should have complications that cannot be predicted ahead of time.
My favorite example (and apologies for those who have heard this story) comes from far too long ago when I was a player in Jeff Kyer's RQ3 campaign set in Duck Point and that little swamp next door. Jeff's story arc (stolen from a War Hammer supplement apparently) was all about a time anomaly in the swamp, where things seemed to be coming back together in one area, being ever more restored each time we ventured in, and he did eventually get to his climax where we got to meet the folk behind it all and stop this abomination (they were of the "better living through necromancy" school of belief, amongst other attitude problems).
In the first adventure, we were sent to some ruins to fetch "Moonwart" a fungus we had to gather during the dark of the moon and store in special bags, because it had chaotic properties under the red moon. My character managed to hold onto an extra bag, for future use. We also saw mandrake in the ruins, which when we asked we found out was useful in certain types of summoning.
Some adventures later, another player retired his initial character, and brought into play an arrogant sorcerer's apprentice. The player either had incredible luck or loaded dice, and practically expected critical rolls at critical moments. About the same time, Jeff gave us the option of making up a "next of kin" character to ease the transition should anyone's character die. My back story made only my main character's sister available, but she was intriguingly disturbed, so I played her instead of him a few times.
This whole time, the lunar occupiers were building a temple and arena complex. My characters were good storm folk. Something clearly had to be done (beyond winning the inaugural chariot races).
The sister character then had a series of small adventures and some other activities determined by "blue booking" (a note book each player passed back and forth with Jeff exploring between adventure and back ground stuff. Things we'd do by email these days). She managed to gather moonwart spores (good thing she was able to get that magic bag off of her brother), she got the confidence of the sorcerer apprentice by suggesting a powerful spell combination and helping him get the mandrake to boost his search for more powerful spirits, she got to know a local trickster and seduced the chief architect of the temple complex. Jeff did a LOT of saying yes here, which he didn't have to, to let me make things happen.
Finally just before the holy day where they would consecrate the temple she had the trickster magically disguise himself as the architect, and with a wink at the guards they went into the temple complex "for a tour," but of course secretly spreading moonwart spores over the high altar. Hmmm, there may have been more sabotage that I can't recall now too. Then she had the apprentice set up in a shack on the edge of the construction site, use the mandrake, and attempt to summon a power spirit to bind, suggesting he might get a boost from the power of the nearby ceremony. I was hoping to give the priest a chaotic feature to show the true corruption of lunar worship, and either blow up the heathen sorcerer, or have him that much more powerful and indebted to me.
Naturally, the sorcerer's player rolled a critical, which in RQ3 meant your summons caught something bigger than you intended.
Jeff brought it all to a spectacular outcome (destroying the temple a fair part of the local lunar forces in the process), and had various lovely consequences, including my `sister' character finding out she'd left her old gods for Eurmal, and all of us being sentenced to many and painful executions......unless we eliminated this problem in the swamp once and for all, so we were motivated to do so or die trying (as it turned out those weren't actually mutually exclusive).
It was completely satisfying for me as a player. I got to use bits and pieces from various adventures to make a plan. Then I got to implement the plan. My characters got to go take crazy risks with uncertain results in a desperate bid to strike back at their oppressors, and to have their life, sanity, and very souls on the line, Then I got to see the plan blow up spectacularly and have all sorts of glorious results that I'd never foreseen.
Sorry the answer was so long!
--Bryan
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