Re: Carrying subjecivity WAY too far and Heroquests etc.

From: danhalberd <dan_at_...>
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 08:57:55 -0000

In my game when we do heroquests they are like any other scenario except set on the hero plane. All the characters see the same thing though I suppose they may interpret it differently. This is after all just like the everything world where two people can see the same thing and interpret it differently according to thier cultural views or stereotypes. I don't really do the 'stations' of the heroquest in any formal way. There are just events and encounters like their would be in the everything world which the players interact with. The main differences I have with heroquests from normal scenarios are:
1. They are based on stories from myths. Not from the here and now or everyday life.
2. They take place in unusual locations which can't be visited in everyday life like the underworld.
3. The way of getting there is unusual in that it involves a magical ceremony and usually going through some sort of special place like a holy place or a place associated with some sort of mythical event (a mystical cave, an old burial mound, a ruin, a temple, a sacred grove etc.).

Also heroquests are always significant events where the players can't easily escape defeat just by using hero points. Mind you some events in the everything world are classed the same way usually if their opponents are powerful or significant.

As to what they see where different myths disagree it doesn't really come into it because the story is based on a particular myth. So when we did a heroquest which was part of bringing Ironhoof back they went to the beastmen's underworld. It didn't matter that that wasn't the same as their culture's idea of the underworld because they knew they were in the 'beastmen's' underworld. Another heroquest we did was to try to bring back pharoah after he wasn't reborn so this happened in the Holy Country part of the hero plane. This was kind of like being in the history of the foundation of the Holy Country. Again this may not be quite what heroes who aren't from the Holy Country would expect but then things are different to what they expect in the everything world Holy Country too.

I don't usually make any big distinction between the players who are theists, animists, common magic or essence users. As they are all together in one party they need to be able to act together and experience the same scenarios or it would get boring. So even though there was only one character from the Holy Country when we did the Masters of Luck and Death we still made sure everyone could take part if they passed the necessary challenges and if they didn't (or got killed or otherwise defeated) then they took over an NPC who could take part otherwise they would just stand and watch which isn't very interesting. Also in general I'm not keen on stories (at least in Heroquest) where the players are just playing bit parts and watching more important NPCs perform in the significant actions. I like the players to be, if not the most powerful people in the story, at least to be up the with the contenders so that the actions they choose change the outcome of the story.