Picture if you will, a grassy hill overlooking a quiet town. Under the shade of a lone oak tree atop the hill, a young boy and a young girl sit in quiet. The girl has her eyes closed, her head tossed back as she enjoys the light fragrance of cherry blossoms being carried by the delicate breeze past them. The boy, however, is intently staring at his feet, trying to build up the courage to reveal to her that he has had a crush on her since the day he moved into town, seven years before. Just as he swallows his pride and turns to blurt out his true feelings, she smiles, opens her eyes, and asks him what he thinks of a certain athletic male classmate in their homeroom class, who she has just realized she has fallen for.
If the thought of roleplaying out this scene with your regular gaming group makes your stomach turn, then HeartQuest is probably not the game for you.
Overview:
HeartQuest is a roleplaying game by Seraphim Guard, covering the loosely-defined genre of shoujo manga and anime. The game is based on Steffan O'Sullivan's FUDGE system, modified to focus on the types of conflict important to the genre at hand.
(This review doesn't really focus too heavily on the mechanics of FUDGE itself. For a more detailed view, please see Andy Kitkowski's excellent review of FUDGE.)
This review is of the PDF version, currently available for sale through RPG Now! The link to purchase the game from Seraphim Guard directly is currently non-functional, but I've been told that it will go active once GenCon has passed. The game has recently been printed in hardcopy and will be available for sale at this year's GenCon, and at FLGSes shortly thereafter.
Note:
Before we get to the review, though, we have the obligatory definition of Japanese terms, which may or may not be up to your factual standards. The word shoujo is Japanese for "girl." Likewise, the word shounen is Japanese for "boy." Shoujo and shounen represent the primary division between styles of anime, at least from a Western standpoint. The general definition of shounen works includes an emphasis on action, while shoujo is characterized as being about romance. Think "kung fu movie" versus "chick flick," and you've got it basically down.
In truth, though, 'shoujo' and 'shounen' are really just marketing labels, referring to the target audience of the product, be it anime or manga. There are many series which are categorized as shoujo which feature enough fighting and blood to make a Thraddash grow queasy, just as there are plenty of shounen series which focus on relationships. Nonetheless, the term shoujo has come to include certain tropes and cliches which do deal more with the emotional side of characters.
The term manga refers to comics and anime refers to animation. Often, popular manga series will spawn a related anime series. More rarely, it occurs in the opposite fashion. The book occasionally uses the two terms interchangeably, which, while not 100% correct, doesn't make a large impact, since the two are so closely related.
Appearance:
The PDF weighs in at about 2.5 megs worth of disk space, covering 128 pages of material, plus the covers. This gives it enough space to get in the material with ample space for illustrations, but is not so big that it becomes a chore for those of us who would be downloading the file using a dial-up network connection.
The layout of the game is clean and the book as a whole is well-organized. There is no index, but the table of contents is detailed enough to suffice. The game itself is arranged in the standard two-column format, which is great for printing (and saves effort for producing a hardcopy edition), but makes it difficult for reading off a computer screen. Thankfully, the nature of the game system isn't one that you need to constantly refer to the book, so it isn't that great an inconvenience if you opt not to print out the game. There are two color pages, the front and back covers, so printing it out shouldn't be a drain on your printer's toner cartridge. One problem, however, is that the PDF was formatted to a full-sized page, leaving no space for margins. Printing the game at default settings will cut off the decorative borders.
HeartQuest is well-appointed with a good selection of art, done in various shoujo manga styles, ranging from small thumbnails to full-page spreads. For the most part, the artwork is quite good, with one notable exception &emdash; the full-page image on page 46 of a figure in shadow just looks plain bad. On the other hand, it's more than made up for by the picture on page 70, of a pensive schoolgirl hanging over the side of her bed.
The art is done by four different artists. To their credit, the illustrations maintain their individual styles, but still blend well together in the book. However, the art did not all survive the transition to electronic format equally. The book prints just fine, but when viewed on-screen, several of the pictures appear with jagged edges and minor pixellation. Also, while some of the art was done completely done on computer, many of the pieces were done by hand and scanned in. A good number of those pieces were done in pencil; without being inked, they appear very faint and hard too see, which is a shame, given how good a number of them are.
The writing style is fluid, maintaining a friendly, conversational tone throughout the book. It balances the line toward accommodating new gamers, while acknowledging the fact that the audience most likely to buy HeartQuest are already familiar with gaming. There are a number of brief examples throughout the book to demonstrate rules points, but the game rarely talks down to the reader.
The book does, however, show the lack of a strong editorial hand. In reading the game, it becomes apparent that the game is a multi-author work and that there was a rushed production schedule. There are a number of small typos and spelling errors throughout the book, a few resulting from a lack of communication between the authors, such as a couple of instance of "see page ###." None of them are particularly crippling and most are easily understood given either the context or the accompanying examples, but it does detract from the experience. Another quibble, though a minor one, is that no attempt was made to use a common romanization scheme (a method of rendering Japanese words into English) between the authors. Again, a minor point, but one that I noticed.
Content:
The book is organized in a very straightforward manner. After a brief introduction to roleplaying and the genre of shoujo manga/anime, there is a brief overview of the system used by the game, touching on character definitions and task resolution. Nothing too heavy in explanation, but enough to put the core concepts in the mind of the reader as he goes through the next few chapters. The transition between the introductory materials and the system explanation is a bit disjointed, however.
From the introduction, the book proceeds on to character generation. The game is based on FUDGE, so the attributes and skills are based on a seven-tiered descriptive scale from Terrible to Superb. They are not tied to a specific scale, meaning there is no definitive answer as to what a Great value of Strength would accomplish. The values are all relative to the specific environment of the setting in question, which is appropriate to the genre. This does mean that you cannot directly import characters from one game to another, but there are methods to factor in matters of scale.
HeartQuest uses five attributes: Physique, Mind, Willpower, Cool, and Appearance. Physique is a catch-all for physical ability, including strength, speed, agility, and endurance. Mind covers the purely intellectual: wits, intelligence, and memory. Willpower is determination and focus, while Cool is composure and grace. Appearance covers looks, but not necessarily charisma. The selection of attributes helps emphasize the nature of the game, in that a lot of detail is not spent of the physical prowess of the characters, but is instead reserved to model their mental and emotional capacities. Many of the conflicts in shoujo are internal, and not necessarily contests between two people. So while there will probably be fistfights between characters, more often you'll have a single character struggling to remain composed in the face of a rival spewing slanderous tales about them, or trying to build up the courage to pass on a love letter.
All attributes start at a level of Fair, except for Appearance, which starts at Good. This is shoujo, after all, and even the losers look cute. To this, each character gets three free levels to use to increase their attributes. They can gain additional levels by lowering other attributes.
Skills represent the learned abilities of the characters, and are rated on the same tiered system as attributes. Characters start with thirty levels worth of skills, to distribute among whichever abilities they choose. Most skills start at Poor, though more difficult or rare skills may start lower. There is no definitive skill list, though a detailed list showing some of the more frequently occurring skills is included. The list includes common skills such as Brawling and Research to stranger (but genre-appropriate) choices such as Guilt-Trip and Flower Arrangement. If a skill is not represented in the list, the GM has full freedom to create them as necessary.
Next in character creation come Gifts and Faults. Again, a non-exhaustive list of each is given, including such Gifts as Luck or Wealth, or Faults like Glutton or Shyness. Characters start with two free Gifts. They are not required to take Faults, but recommended to take at least two. Each Fault will give the player 1 Gift, 2 attribute levels, or 6 skill levels. Similarly, all traits can be converted at corresponding rates: 1 attribute level for 3 skill levels, 1 gift for 2 attributes, and so on. If appropriate to the game at hand, each character may also get two free Supernatural Powers. Additional supernatural powers can be bought at the same rate as attributes.
Supernatural powers are given their own chapter, which walks through the process of developing powers. Keeping in line with the rules-light nature of the system, there is no set mechanic for calculating the game effects and costs of each power. Instead, the GM and player determine what would be appropriate for the game, based on general game utility. For example, a 'Banish Undead' ability would not be very useful in a high school sports drama, but would probably be useful in an epic involving armies of vampires. If a supernatural ability seems too powerful, it can be limited by making it more difficult to use, or limiting the conditions it can be applied to. Supernatural powers are generally tied to a related skill, and do not grant any automatic levels in that skill. As with the other traits, a brief sample list of supernatural powers is provided, with guidelines for creating your own.
Included under supernatural powers is the special case of magic usage. Due to the flexible nature of this ability, spellcasting costs as much as two other powers (either two free Powers, or two Faults). Additional Faults can be taken to boost the power of the magic. Magic usage requires Spellcasting, a Very Hard rated skill. Individual spell difficulties are determined by the GM, and kept secret from the player.
If so desired, players can flesh out their characters's backgrounds, giving detail to their family lives, appearance, possessions, goals, et cetera. If the GM allows it, they can also choose Quirks, minor personality traits that have a minor or very rare effect in-game. After this, the GM can discuss the important relationships between the characters, both player and non-player, with the group, and add whatever finishing touches are needed.
The next chapter covers player advice. It's only three pages, and really covers the basics. There's nothing particularly revolutionary or ground-shaking here. Given the nature of the genre, this section probably should attempt to emphasize emotional conflict as a motive force behind the drama of the game. It's implied, but not stated outright. Another welcome addition would be a segment on how to interpret the results of task resolution. Again, it's implied, but not stated. It might also been useful to include a section on how to use a character's skill and personality traits to develop an appropriate persona. Yes, any roleplayer worth their salt knows this already, but this particular game has a potential audience outside traditional RPG markets, and should keep that in mind.
Following that chapter comes the inevitable chapter on combat. The placement of this chapter seems a bit strange at first, but it makes does make sense, as it is of interest to both players and GMs, and so comes between the two. It's a longer, crunchier section than the others. Unfortunately (and possibly for that very reason), it's the most poorly-written chapter of the book. Some of it comes from unclear explanation of rules, while others stem from inconsistent editing. Thankfully, there are examples of many of the facets of combat which help explain what is intended by the rules.
HeartQuest uses the Alternating Combat system from FUDGE, likely because it is the most traditional form of dealing with physical conflict in roleplaying games: Determine initiative, declare actions, and resolve actions in turn. Lather, rinse, dry, repeat.
Initiative is determined by flat comparison of the combat skill being used. Optional systems are given to use 4dF to randomize the results somewhat, giving a less skilled opponent a slim chance of getting the jump on the master. Players declare actions, then resolve them in order of initiative. Attack skills are rolled against defensive skills, with successful rolls leading to the target being hurt. Damage is determined through stat comparison, so an optional system is offered to use 4dF to vary the amount of damage done in each attack. There are, of course, a number of variables which effect combat, including armor, weapon type, and range.
Characters have a Wound Threshold equal to their Physique and Willpower attributes added (or subtracted) from 10. This is a fact that probably should have been explained in the character generation chapter, but was not. It was mentioned in the very first chapter, under the capsule overview of the system, which is also an inconvenient spot for it. The Wound Threshold determines how many hits a character can take before moving down to the next level of injury, by multiplying it by the appropriate factor. So, a character is Hurt when they reach 1 x WT damage, Very Hurt at 2 x WT, Incapacitated at 3 x WT, and Dead when they reach 5 times WT. Damage is cumulative, and recovery depends on the character's physique.
Oddly, I feel that the more quirky of FUDGE's combat systems, Story Elements, would be more appropriate to a game of this style. However, it does not even get a mention in HeartQuest. Basically, Story Elements consists of a single die roll from all combatants in determining the eventual outcome of the fight. The specific results and implications of the rolled values is determined by the GM and the players, who then roleplay to that destination. In a sense, this is a more appropriate manner of dealing with conflict in shoujo manga, where usually the outcome is already known and what matters is how it gets to that point.
From combat, the book moves on to the section on GM advice. Again, nothing spectacular is presented, but you get a utilitarian set of guidelines for running a game of HeartQuest. This includes handling NPCs, running descriptive combat, and dealing with experience. Again, more detail on interpreting dice rolls would be welcome for inexperienced GMs.
The next half of the book focuses on source material for campaign and game design, covering three main sub-genres of shoujo manga: Teen romance, magical girls, and otherworldly adventure. Background information is given for each, including the themes, cliches, conventions associated with them. After a brief stop at each point, the next three chapters detail three sample campaigns, one for each sub-genre. Wrapping up the book is a collection of sample characters, a bibliography, and a few additional resources. It is in the latter half of the book where you find the real meat of HeartQuest.
Resources:
The first sub-genre of shoujo manga covered in detail is that of teen romance, such as Hana Yori Dango or Marmalade Boy. Here, a solid foundation is provided for describing the most common of shoujo settings, a Japanese high school. Dress codes, school policies, sports, clubs, and other topics are covered in moderate detail; there is enough to get a feel for the setting, without getting bogged down in minutiae.
An in-depth look is given at the nature of romance in a high-school setting, and several of the key shoujo cliches are covered, from unrequited love to shoujo-ai relationships. The material in this chapter is generally useful for all shoujo campaigns where the characters are students. However, I can't help but think a generalized calendar would have been helpful, as the Japanese school year does not correspond to what one is familiar with in the West. Also, though a few holiday traditions are described, detail should have been given for some of the holidays that are not as well known in the West, yet appear in shoujo manga/anime. Likewise, though festivals play a large part in these sorts of settings, no mention is made of them.
The next chapter covers the conventions of magical girl anime, including such favorites as Sailor Moon, Pretty Sammy, and Akazukin Cha-Cha. Advice is given in detail on designing campaigns for this sub-genre, including differing versions of the theme (rival magical girls, magical girl groups, solo magical girls, et cetera). Attention is paid to explaining the roles of villains (who are often just misunderstood) and the roles of guys (who are often just clueless).
The next chapter covers otherworldly adventure, in the forms of historical drama (such as Rose of Versailles) or actual displacement into another dimension (such as Fushigi Yuugi). In the case of historical drama, seeds are given to suggest how to adapt historical settings to a shoujo drama. For "out of this world" adventures, the advice given is a little sparse, but what is there emphasizes the necessity of maintaining the proper mood.
From this point, the next three chapters are sample campaigns. The first of these is a game in the vein of high school romance, titled Sendai Academy. I originally misread the title of this chapter as "Sentai" Academy. That would have been quite a different game (though still one that could be run using these rules). If you've read the flavor text from the HeartQuest homepage, the characters from that story are the ones in this setting. Sendai Academy is a high school which, in a "Miami University in Ohio" manner, is located in Tokyo. The setting is fairly typical, with a hard-working underclass student getting admission to a prestigious school for the upper class. Add in an eclectic mix of characters, a love triangle here or there, and you've an instant shoujo series, waiting to happen. The pregenerated cast covers most of the appropriate cliches, while not coming across as wholly derivative. I do wish some of the character art had been a bit more distinct, as a few of the character designs look exactly alike.
One thing about this chapter is that it included several sections that probably should have been transplanted over to the main chapter on Japanese high schools. There is information on social stratification, school regulations, and class schedules which really would be beneficial in the main section, as opposed to being tucked in an independent campaign.
Next up is the magical girl campaign, Ghost Tamer Miyaki, which at first glance appears to be Ghost Sweeper Mikami with the numbers filed off. It isn't, but first impressions count for a lot, and the title is an unfortunate one, because this is a good, well-plotted setting. It has everything it needs, from a sullen bishounen bodyguard to a cute and fuzzy phantom puppy advisor. A sample PDF of this chapter is available at the HeartQuest page.
The final sample campaign is Steel Heidi, which to me sounded like it was going to be an otherworldly mecha setting, similar to Escaflowne. Instead, it turned out to be a historical drama set in eighteenth-century Germany, amidst the turmoil of squabbling dukedoms and principalities, with the Holy Roman Emperor attempting to maintain some illusion of control over the region. Similar to Rose of Versailles the title character of this campaign is a young woman who just happens to be the best swordsman in the land, who finds herself in the center of courtly intrigues. This setting is probably my favorite of the three, despite the fact that I have a soft spot for high school love dramas.
The next chapter of the game is a set of sample characters, for use in a number of different settings. While it is a good demonstration of the variety of characters that can be created under the system, I can't help shake the feeling that the space could be better spent on GM and player advice, or more detail about Japanese culture and customs.
The final chapter of the book, incidentally, was the first one I read when I purchased the game. This section lists the bibliography, sources, and inspirations for the game. Naturally, the first thing I wanted to find out what titles the authors liked and considered to be good examples of the genre of shoujo manga/anime. I had to agree with most of the suggestions, though I had to question some of the choices. Kimagure Orange Road is most decidedly not shoujo, and while it's debatable whether Oniisama E is a shoujo series, it definitely is not a teen romance. Still, the list was a good one, and balanced easy-to-find series with some more obscure titles. I would have suggested, however, that they had put the Japanese titles of some of the series alongside the translated ones. The book then wraps up with a brief list of anime-related books, anime-based RPGs, and a few select websites.
Actual Play:
Though I felt I had a good grasp of the system just based on my reading of HeartQuest, I did not pass up the opportunity to get actual hands-on experience with the game when the GM for my weekly gaming ground called in and said he'd be late. So, I pulled out the binder containing my printed copy of HeartQuest and handed out the characters for the Steel Heidi campaign. My group contains a few anime fans, but aside from the GM and myself, none of them really care for shoujo anime. A couple of them, in fact, outright hate it, and it took some convincing to give the game a try.
With only an hour or so to play, we concentrated on stress-testing the system, which a little political intrigue and a little swordplay. We roleplayed through a dinner scene, with the characters discussing an up-coming town festival, all while trying to sway, manipulate, and decieve each other. There were a few attempts at roleplaying out romantic entanglements between the characters, but some of the players were uncomfortable with it. A couple of the players had trouble getting the hang of things, but they tend to hate social situations in any game. They did relish the opportunity when the scene shifted into a shouting match, with challenges to duels being issued.
For the most part, the social scenes flowed well, with the players settling into their roles easily. The dice were being used to punctuate minor points of contention and inner conflict, rather than being used to drive the story. Interestingly, a couple of the players began, to voice their character's inner monologues as they tried to rationalize their courses of actions in light of their dice rolls. It was completely spontaneous, but it grew naturally out of interpreting, for example, a blown willpower roll.
As would be expected, combat in HeartQuest tends to be drawn-out. The high Wound Thresholds keep characters on their feet for quite a while, unless they are seriously outclassed. This reduced lethality is quite appropriate for shoujo series, where conflicts rarely turn fatal, unless the character is intentionally buying time for his compatriots to escape.
This also has the effect of discouraging the use of violence as the first choice solution in a setting where it would be inappropriate. In settings where combat is expected, though, the damage can easily be augmented through the use of supernatural powers or melee weapons.
Thoughts:
Let's be honest. This is not a game you are likely to play around a table with your friends. Most gamers do not care to roleplay out tender love scenes, and would rather chew their leg off than try to imagine their friend across the table is actually a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and then proceed to attempt to seduce them. This is a game that will appeal to a small, select group of gamers. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that for the most part, many of these gamers live nowhere near each other.
This leads, of course, to the solution of playing HeartQuest online, which in turns leads to the revelation of the game's true potential: Online play. Online play, in my opinion, is the probably the best usage for HeartQuest.
Across the planet, there are hundreds of freeform shoujo roleplaying games being conducted online. Having played in a few, and witnessing others, I would have to say that many of these games lack long-term sustainability. While some manage to survive, often they collapse under the lack of support from a set method of conflict resolution. On the other hand, a number of online games relying on conventional tabletop systems tend to collapse under the weight of maintaining the rule structure.
HeartQuest carefully balances both extremes, providing a flexible, but robust framework for modeling the genre and defining the essential aspects of shoujo characters, while still remaining light and unobtrusive enough that it doesn't intimidate non-gamers. True, the dice mechanic is unconventional, but a script to roll FUDGE dice would be easy enough to write and distribute along with the game.
Unfortunately, there is not a single mention of online play anywhere in the book. Considering the game's origin, as an independent game developed online, this is somewhat ironic. There is a large, untapped audience for a game such as this, and the game designers seem not to have realized this. Instead of spending space on the sample characters, they could have devoted a chapter to advice on running or playing in a game conducted via chat (be it IRC, OpenRPG, AIM, or whatnot), and by advertising toward that market, perhaps opened the industry a little wider.
Conclusion:
HeartQuest is not a bad game, not by any stretch of the imagination. Nor is it unplayable, destined only for the bookshelf where it will be taken down and read once every six months. No, HeartQuest is a very solid game, marred by a few critical flaws. While this may sound negative, it really isn't. This is simply my disappointment in a product that has unfulfilled potential.
Mechanically, I have no problems with the game, whatsoever. The system accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, and does so admirably. My complaints stem almost entirely from the presentation side. If the game hadn't been rushed to meet deadlines coinciding with con season, I'm sure that many of the issues with the game would have been resolved before going to print. HeartQuest designed to be flexible, facile, and fluid, and it shows. However, it is also plagued by sloppy mistakes, a very niche market, and an uneasy public image.
So, the question becomes, should you buy HeartQuest?
If your tastes run to more detailed, discrete rules systems, you should feel perfectly comfortable taking a pass on HeartQuest. There are people for whom this game will never appeal to, and that's perfectly all right. However, if you like shoujo manga or anime, or if you are interested in a system that handles emotional conflict or adapts easily to online play, then by all means, go ahead and check it out.
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