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Heart Quest

I sort of got this game by accident. I ended up buying this book as part of a lot off of ebay. The other 7 books were all d20 adventure modules from Necromancer Games, so this being included was somewhat odd.

It's a somewhat odd game. I had actually heard of this, not from RPG.net but from the OGL or d20 mailing list, I believe the head of the company that makes HeartQuest belonged to it for a while. (When they aren't intrusive, I do click on people's sigs).

But it's odd because of the genre it covers. "The World of Shoujo Manga", which according to the book means "Comics for Girls".

Given what the stereotypical role-player is like, it doesn't seem to be a good fit. For instance, the play example on the home page:



"Richard, the American exchange student, looked deeply into Chiharu's dark eyes. For some reason, he looked far less geeky to the girl than he had ever looked before.
"Richard-san," Chiharu stammered, "why are you looking at me like that? What's going on?"
"Because I have something to say. I love you, Chiharu."
Chiharu looked back stunned. "No, no you can't -"
"Please listen to me! Ive been thinking about you and only you ever since I came to Japan. You're the most perfect girl, the most perfect person I've ever met. And I...."

Imagine that coming out of the Comic Book Store guy's mouth or Jason Fox's (both of which are fairly typical gamer types) and you'll probably sputter.

Still, it's nice to see something that is original.

It uses the "Fudge" system, and about half the book is devoted to rules on how to play.

Fudge claims to be rules-light, but in practice, doesn't seem to be. The first problem, is that it apparently requires the use of special dice. If you don't have special dice, you apparently have to make your own, or use d6s and a special chart. If you have to use special dice, or a chart, it's not rules light.

Basically, the Fudge dice are labeled +1, 0, and -1 (apparently a cry back to Fantasy Wargaming). You roll 4 of these, and sum up the total. This is the modifier when you attempt a skill or somesuch.

Skills and attributes are rated by adjectives, not numbers. Superb, Great, Good, Fair, Mediocre, Poor, Terrible.

Personally, I find this incredibly confusing because adjectives tend to be subjective. Yes, Great is generaly considered to be better than simply "Good", but which is better, "Superb" or "Great"? (A Thesaurus lists both "Good" and "Great" as synonyms of "Superb" . Which is worse, "Fair" or "Mediocre"?

To help this confusion, the book recommends you just right a number next to them. -3 to +3. So why not skip the confusing adjectives and simply use -3 to +3 to begin with? (I think DP9s game system whose name I cannot spell at 4 am in the morning uses this tack).

Characters also have advantages and disadvantages, in this system, called "Gifts" and "Faults" respectively.

There is a fairly complicated formula on how faults, gifts, attributes, and skills are related to each other mathmatically so they can be swapped around. Again, not particularly simple or rules light.

Still, the rules do work. While I would almost certainly would not use them (Fudge has now displaced Gurps as my least favorite game system, I think), this is something that is really up to individual subjective case. It's comprehensive enough.

After the game rules themselves, which as mentioned, take up about half the book, comes info on roleplaying the genre.

First up, is "Teen Romance". Frankly, I didn't much like being a teen-ager much, so I have very little desire to ever role-play one. Similarly, I actually never found teen-aged girls to be all that interesting - they tend to giggle a lot, which drives me up a wall. But it's a description of Teen Romance in Japan.

After that comes a chapter on "Magical Girls". This sort of game probably has the most gaming potential, at least for the average role-playing, because it generally puts a teen aged girl with magical powers into a fantasy setting. I would guess that InuYasha on the Toon network qualifies as one of these shows. (Unfortunately, no explanation for why the title character on that show has dog ears)

Lastly, there is a section on historical romance. This is somewhat of a short chapter, but is the one that probably has the most commerical appeal, as that is essentially what "Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger" was.

There are 3 sample campaigns. Basically a gist of the setting is given, along with several sample characters.

One is a normal game, set in a Japanese High School. It's a bit weird because one of the sample characters is having an affair with a teacher. This gets about 10 pages devoted to it.

There's a Magical Girl campaign, called "Ghost Tamer Miyaki". This probably has the most potential for gamers. Miyaki and her gang of friends and her ghost dog Fido battle the evil Demon King. (It does kind of sound like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the book does mention that that show could be considered an example of this.).

Lastly, there's a pseudo historical campaign called "Steel Heidi". It's about a german swords girl who yodels..

The book is rounded out by several pages of generic sample characters, which seemed a bit like filler, IMHO, and a bibliography of Shoujo Manga (or Anime).

It's somewhat of a vanity press looking book. The art is pretty much fan quality. The typeface is pretty big, and there's a lot of white space, so the amount of text in it isn't great, either.

So, it's well, different. I'm not entirely sure who the audience for the game is intended to be (other than I'm not it). Since they use an incredibly confusing game system that uses special dice, it's not aimed at non-role players. At first I thought it might be suitable for a different sort of audience, kids, or at least teenaged girls, but the subject matter does get a little weird. So that's probably out. (As is weird rules/dice).

It's probably not aimed at the typical gamer, due to the subject matter. While they don't do a terrible job of addressing people who are clueless about the genre, it's not terribly comprehensive, either. Still, I'm not sure there is much they can do about it - it's like trying to play Call of Cthulhu without having read a HPL story.

So, I guess it's really aimed at the Otaku sort who are into "Shoujo Manga" and also happen to like Fudge. I'm not sure people other than that will get much out of this.

Why? Well, say you did indeed want to run a game set in a Japanese High school. Could you do this with just this book, not having seen any anime or such? Probably not. You'd get very stuck coming up with NPCs. The characters given in the book are more the typical PC, not NPC.

IMHO, this is really a game meant to role-play an actual TV show (or comic or book or whatever) that you and your gaming group are fans of (presumably anime). It sort of assumes you'd be getting source material from elsewhere.

So, ultimately, while it's not a terrible product, it really needs to be more expansive. I also think by focusing on 3 different sub-genres, they do none of them well. (Though frankly, the emphasis of the game seems based on the Teen Romance games, not the Magical Girl or Historical Romance, the latter especially feels tacked on.)

C-

Still, while I do think it's a bit weird, and I dislike Fudge, I do admire the attempt to expand the barriers of the role-playing world. Not a bad try for a first attempt.)

In consulting DriveThruRPG we've come up with a number of products which we think might be related, but some might be inaccurate because the name, HeartQuest, is so short. Nonetheless, take a look, as purchasing through the RPGnet Store helps to support RPGnet.