 Goto [ Index ] |
Before I could even contemplate putting up my feet in front of a roaring fire and sorting out my house campaign, I had Battlemasters to get out of the way. This meant three scenarios that were already underway with the HW rules. Converting them was dead easy, and in the process simplified a lot of concepts for me, not just in the rules but also in the game write up. Laying out contests and NPC states, especially NPCs with a large group of followers who lead different types of contests, became much easier. Also a lot more fun as well than the exercise in maths that was Runequest stats. As a result the games ran much more smoothly, since I had clear stats written down, and had more depth because I had spent more time developing the story. If you are wondering whether or not to convert over to HQ from HW, do it, your game will benefit greatly.
I'm fortunate my local games store Travelling Man in Leeds does a gaming night, so I'm doing demo games with new players once a month. These games are similar to the convention games, but have to run even more quickly, because we are playing upstairs in a loud town bar, and at the end of the game session everyone dives off to catch the last bus home. Here the fast playing nature of the game really comes into its own. Epic combats that would have taken one to two hours under RuneQuest (or any other similar roll to hit, roll to damage, do the maths to see if he falls over system), are over even with a great deal of player input within 20-40 minutes. Overall the rules have been very simple to explain, taking only about 20 minutes to explain combined with going over the character sheet, the only sticking point being extended contests. This was not because they are intrinsically hard or difficult to understand, its just the core concepts of how they work that need explaining clearly to an audience brought up on a diet of hit points, damage rolls and all that conflict is combat based. Also since we've been running a Lunar game even with people who know Glorantha from previous incarnations are new to the background as well as the rules. But they are getting it!! The relationships and magic rules are quickly getting them into the setting at quite a deep level. We've had some quite intense discussions about the game?s mythology and religious background, coming from new players within an hour of them playing. Plus the personality traits of the characters and the way they link to the skills resolution system, is getting even the most quiet players role-playing with the extroverts! I?m finding thorough these sessions that HeroQuest provides new and existing players with an invisible doorway into Glorantha.
So as the nights get darker in this part of the world, I finally get the opportunity to update my 10 year old campaign Now this is a mess of old RuneQuest notes, long winded collections of stats and background that got tangled up in unfulfilled expectations, and some HW conversion work which was patchy and confused. However converting it all to HeroQuest has been a joy so far. As previously mentioned NPCs are a doodle to write up. This carries through to presenting player information. The new Homelands and Occupations layout for character background means that 10 pages of RuneQuest material for one of my player cultures have been cut down to three. This simplification, but not dumbing down, of the way that information is presented about Glorantha, has let me get down a lot of the detail I want to very quickly, allowing me to expand on those areas we came across in play but I didn't have time to write up because I was struggling to write up the basics. So as a Narrator I've finally got the system I wanted to express my own personal vision of Glorantha. Greg Stafford's adoption of the maxim Your Glorantha Will Vary (YGWV) has also opened up the setting for innovation as well. One of the great strengths of the new rulebook is that it presents a lot of information about the different areas of Glorantha, in a way that is open to interpretation. Some people have moaned that there is not enough coherent detail, but hold up Glorantha is a big place! There's enough detail in the Homelands, creatures and Narrators sections to get you started. In none of the previous incarnations of Glorantha has there been this much detail about the world in the rulesbook.
However before you start believing that HQ is going to cure all your gaming ills let me point out some of its shortcomings. First off the way the rules are presented it is geared up to run big heroic campaigns. If you like gritty low level stuff, then the system is capable of it, but you are going to have to tweak it. Second the rules are still a big leap from the rest of the crowd, since they are almost completely divorced from Role-playing's War-gaming roots. This can lead to both you and your players suffering from confusion for a short while, until you actually sit down and play it.
Overall I am very pleased with HeroQuest. For the record I deeply disliked the previous edition HeroWars. As a rules system it was fundamentally flawed, and the background material and was ponderous and fenced in. It fell well short of being playable, and dangerously came close to breaking my love affair with Glorantha. HeroQuest has turned things around and I am now playing with renewed vigour and having more fun than I have in years with role-playing. The nicest thing when demonstrating the game is seeing the players get that same gleam in their eye and big grin on their face.
