 Goto [ Index ] |
HeroQuest, the poster-child of narrative roleplaying, having undergone two previous incarnations (Hero Wars, 2000 and HeroQuest 2003) has been released as a new edition. Somewhat dissociated from its previously strong association with the classic mythic setting of Glorantha, the cover itself indicates its new generic orientation with a rather attractive image by Jon Hodgson (gee, that name gets around) of a multi-genre group combating robots and monks. It's significantly lighter as well; at a mere 132 pages, the book is reminiscent of early editions RuneQuest in a desire to provide efficacious content.
The detailed table of contents outline the chapters and subsections. The former consist of an Introduction, Creating Your Character, Character Creation Methods, Overcoming Obstacles, Modifiers, Hero Points, Recovery and Healing, Relationships, Playing Stories, Narrating, Running Contests, Community Resources & Support, Creating Genre Packs, and Gaming in Glorantha, before moving on to the useful reference sheets, and a four-page, accurate, index. The two-column justified and serif font is interspersed with italicised examples and boxed text, and usually contextualised internal art which is mostly quite competent and imaginative, but with one particular exceptions (the group of players) that really shouldn't have made the cut. Each page has a sidebar which expresses the chapter and page numbers are likewise clear. The writing, written largely with a great deal of clarity, still includes annoying but illustrative examples of play; the first example of play has a character with an ability "Everything I Touch Turns to Crap". I suspect that such things will put more people off the game rather than amuse; which is a shame because one of HeroQuest's great pleasures is the flexibility of the ability system.
The Introduction is explicit of the game's stated purpose. It is multi-genre, providing "tools not rules", orientated towards gamers with skills in "creative improvisation, verbal acuity, and a familiarity with the techniques and stereotypes of popular fiction". As per previous editions a d20 die is required, but there's an interesting suggestion of green and red poker chips - more on that later. The game system states that is orientated towards story-based logic, rather than a "a traditional, simulative game". The difficulty of an set of actions is based not, in the first instances, based on physical calculations, but rather on the requirements of narrative rhythm. If dramatic rhythm requires that the characters fail; then set a high resistance. They will try to succeed of course, and the difficulty of the task can be justified post-hoc ergo propter hoc if one makes a simulationist argument.
Character Creation and Conflict Resolution
Character creation is based around abilities, highly variable traits, talents, training, knowledge, cultural backgrounds, possessions, occupations, equipment,resources, fantastic powers, or relationships; "if you can solve a problem with it, it's an ability". The use of narrative hooks in ability generation is strongly recommended, especially for risk-averse players. Keywords are a package deal of pre-existing abilities appropriate to a setting which may then modified according to the player's wishes, somewhat looser in definition than previous editions of the game. Flaws are a sort of reverse ability; they are rated the same but provide a negative augment to appropriate actions, based on the ability divided by 5 and rounded, a notable change from previous editions. As per the previous edition three generation methods are listed; prose (a 100 word statement and select abilities and keywords), list method (select keywords, add 10 other abilities and up to three flaws), or 'as you go'. For starting characters one ability is assigned a value of 17 (often a keyword) and others as value of 13. Added to this an additional 20 points are spent on the various ability ratings (no more than 10 on one ability). Any scores over 20 are noted by a level of mastery; so an ability of 21 is 1W and 41 is 1W2.
Once the stakes of a contest is determined, conflicts of all sizes are resolved as (a) automatic success (b) simple contest or an (c) extended contest. Automatic successes are what they say. A simple success is with a simple roll of a d20 die, resulting in either critical, success, failure or fumble, with the players attempting to roll under their character's ability and the Narrator assigning a resistance to the opposing force. Masteries are used first to cancel an opponent's mastery, bump up the degree of a success (from failure to success for example), or bump down an opponents degree of success (from success to failure, for example). Ability ratings can be modified typically due to imperfect conditions, multiple opponents and so forth. From cross-referencing the results (e.g., critical success versus failure), the consequences of tie, marginal victory or defeat, minor victory or defeat, major victory or defeat, or complete victory or defeat are then described by the Narrator with a handy chart provided for various situations. Degrees of impairment may also result; Hurt, Impaired, Injured, Dying or Dead. These descriptions can apply for literal wounds as well as metaphorical ones (e.g., socially injured). For the victors, often there are lingering benefits as well. Simple mechanics are provided to extend simple contests to group simple contests, which make use of poker chips to track the degree of victory for a group over an opponent.
Extended contests have significantly changed in the new edition. Reserved for pivotal events in the narrative, resolution of a contest is stretched over a series of smaller steps for the purpose of increasing suspense. Victors in each smaller contest receive a number of Resolution Points depending on the scale of their victory in the smaller step, with 5 being a target number for victory; the use of poker chips is recommended to keep track of the number of resolution points available. Comparison between the total of resolution points may indicate in a closely fought contest that the victor may suffer as well. 'Parting shots' may also be used by victors in extended or simple contests; this may result in the opponent recovering and a dramatic turnaround occurring if the victor fails significantly. With group extended contests, individual participants may be part of the winning group, but still suffer individual impairment. Extended contests can also, optionally, be forced to an early end through the use of a 'risky gambit', which gains an extra Resolution Point if successful but loses an additional two in failure. As an alternative (e.g., waiting for rescue) one may also optionally use a 'defensive posture' which reduces the degree of impairment one suffers in defeat but also doubly reduces the number of Resolution Points in victory.
An entire chapter is dedicated to Modifiers, which is a welcome inclusion. The system rewards specific ability choices over generic ones with a bonus of +3 or even +6. Thus a character an arm wrestle could use their 'Great Strength' ability, but if they specifically had 'Arm Wresting' they would gain a +6 bonus. In reverse, a stretch is a creative attempt to change an impossible use on ability into a merely implausible one and comes with a -6 ability penalty. Likewise various situational or plot modifiers can account for penalties of the + to - 6 range. Augments, the application of other abilities to an ability used in a contest, require a quick contest but with resistance modifiers based on the freshness of the augment, whether it illuminates the characters, creates suspense for the story etc. The benefit from an augment can be anywhere from -3 (a complete defeat) to a bonus mastery (complete victory). Quick augments bonuses can be determined by Ability/5 with all other rules applying; the quick method actually does introduce another interesting level of resource tracking. Various items of equipment, as well as acting as an ability itself, can also be used to augment abilities. As per previous editions, Wealth is measured as an abstract ability.
Character Development and Relationships
Character development is achieved through Hero Points; 3 points awarded at the end of character generation, 3 points at the end of every session and an additional 3 points at the end of a multi-session story-arc. This is a notable change from the previous edition which provided extra and more variable quantities; variation is now considered to be genre-dependent on the rate of improvement that occurs in the appropriate literature. Other aspects of character improvement however remain of similar values; 1 point to open a new ability, 1 point to add +1 to an existing ability, 1 point to 'cement an experience' or item of equipment that comes through actual play. Raising keywords, if allowed, costs double this amount.
Recovery and Healing can be achieved through the slow passage of time itself can lead to healing (although this is largely unstated in actual amounts), the use of medicine (physical wounds), improvement of confidence and moral (mental wounds), expiation (social wounds) can be used to reduce levels of impairment, with varying resistance depending on the degree of the wounding; a major or complete defeat increases the wound. From social damage, as can be expected, relationship abilities are damaged; this may include loss of ability to allies, patrons, contacts and followers - and in the case of Flaws - dependents and adversaries. Each of these type of characters receives some explicit definition and with abilities different according to the type of relationship. Communities too can act as a source for a relationship.
The Narrator's Role
In HeroQuest, following the literary model, narrative is presented as a chain of obstacles with a pass/fail structure. The key distinction explained is that fiction is linear whilst roleplaying branches through the use of unpredictable mechanisms. The recommended method of resolution depends on the emotional investment of the players. Resistances fall into the following six classes, from most to least daunting: Nearly Impossible, Very High, High, Moderate, Low and Very Low. The actual resistance value varies from a base number for the actual scenario and previous results; if the character group has had a run of failures, difficulties will likewise fall from the base difficulty and likewise a series of successes will raise the difficulty as a rough and ready guide. The base value itself varies according to the number of sessions played; slowly increasing the difficulty of conflicts as the competence of the characters increases.
The Narrating chapter is explicitly designed for all narrativist games, not just HeroQuest. Emphasis is given on the idea of collaboration, not mere authoring on behalf of the Narrator, achieved by deliberate gaps in the storyline for the player to pursue their own creative agenda. This includes minor narrative suggestions to previously undetermined elements, but with an additional plot element. Collaborative benefits for players also means responsibility; an onus now exists on the players as well to resolve deadlocks in an interesting manner. Further elaboration is given on running contests such as mass groups, and extreme extended contests. Two methods are also given for difficulty without the possibility of failure; arduous automatic success and costly success. The former is used when pacing is critical, the latter to ensure interesting plot branches. Finally there is the option for Pyrrhic Victories where the chance of success is boosted by accepting negative consequences; defeat in these circumstances is certain death. There is a fairly thorough discussion of various difficult cases of interpretation that may arise from the rules.
The Narrator also has the task of developing communities and the abilities that a community has at its disposal (e.g., Wealth, Diplomacy, Morale), and assigned ability ratings. These ratings are based on the ability of the community to bring the resources into use, not the total resources they may have available. Again, the dramatic telos trumps the accuracy of a simulation. Players may have a role in the development of community history through a questionnaire and may draw upon its resources in play - or they may even deplete it in the case of failure, or bolster it in cases of success. With equivalent ability ratings and resolution mechanics, it is quite simple for the Narrator to change the scale of a story from the individual to the community in conflict situations.
The Narrator is also given advice on how to create genre packs. Descriptive advice is given on the choice of keywords, and abilities related to keywords. A sample occupational keyword, cultural keyword and religious keyword is provided, along with a framework to explain the origin and limitations of whatever extraordinary powers are deemed appropriate to a genre. Some sample technologies are provided, as are some species and creature templates.
The final chapter is the venerable default setting of Glorantha; much has already been written about the quality of this location (including material by myself in other reviews) so I shall not repeat myself here. There is particular emphasis on the runic associations and related magic and a rather light treatment of the various cultures; it almost seems assumed that any reader of HeroQuest 2nd edition, is already sufficiently familiar with the setting.
Summary
HeroQuest 2nd edition is an impressive piece of work. There has been significant improvements in the readability of the text and the workmanship of the system with many genuine improvements and a more consistent vision of the narrative-based model, all of which is certainly to be applauded. The move from the Gloranthan fantasy setting to a generic one has been conducted without mechanical trouble and the game is truly multi-genre in the literary sense. One can certainly be happy with the improvements in editing and clarity in writing style.
On a slightly negative side, the total abandonment of a simulation perspective means that default ability ratings are simply not forthcoming to any extent throughout the book. Whilst the narrative imperative is noted, this lack may threatens plausibility and suspension of disbelief in actual play. As a stronger criticism, the lack of content in terms of the various genres that the game is now supposedly suitable for leaves too much work for the GM before reaching the stage of being prepared for actual play. Again returning to the plausibility issue, without well-developed guidelines the possibility of committing the worst anachronistic (and other) crimes of fiction remain too easy. Finally, the lack of some sample scenarios is also a step backwards from the previous edition.
Despite these minor criticisms, HeroQuest retains all the systematic benefits of previous editions. It is very much a game of creative, improvised and collaborative storytelling and the new edition can certainly recommended as much as the old for newcomers. There is sufficient differences in the new edition to the old to recommend that owners of previous editions pick this one up as well; but with the additional caveat that in actual play one may find themselves reaching for both set of rules and using the old rules as a content supplement to the procedures contained in the new.
Style: 1 + .7 (layout) + .7 (art) + .8 (coolness) + .8 (readability) + .7 (product) = 4.7 Substance: 1 + .5 (content) + .8 (text) + 1.0 (fun) + .7 (workmanship) + .8 (system) = 4.8
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
