[Orccon][HeroQuest] Completing the discussion

[Christopher Kubasik]

(edited in at Christopher's request: this thread has been split from Orccon][HeroQuest] In Glorantha, of all places! - RE)

So, a full year and two computer crashes, I'm finally finishing this post.

To recap:

A convention game.  The Players (who I don't know, and who don't know each other), each created characters with 100 word descriptions, per the HeroQuest rules.  We're focused on a Heortling village.

Alandres is the father of two sons in a Heortling tribe.  He is currently courting a woman of the tribe, Daleeta, who is pregnant with their child.  Daleeta is also secretly worshipping the Red Goddess.
 
Torkan is the younger son.  He's a rebel working to spark a rebellion against the ruling Lunars (who worship the Red Goddess).

Iskalli<BANGS
Bangs are a tool from the game Sorcerer.  But because of how I set up the HeroQuest game, I feel comfortable using them in play.  We have rich characters with lots of passion and conflicts in a situation rich setting.  I've started them with Kickers.  I know if I use Bangs in this game it's going to work fine.

When I say Bangs are a tool from the game Sorcerer, I don't mean that GM have never tossed emotionally and ethically grabby material that demand action on the part of the Players' characters before.  I am saying that Sorcerer was unique in using Bangs as a regular procedure of game play on the part of the GM.  In other games, Bangs might or might not come up.  In Sorcerer<Bangs always grow out of the fiction.<gift

[Christopher Kubasik]

[cont'd]

"EVERYONE EXCEPT ONE PERSON: DALEETA."<BLOOD BEFORE LUNARS<THE WRAP UP<Poor Daleeta!<HeroQuest rules to set up engaging play.  The write up is also an illustration of how I used procedures from Sorcerer and mapped them onto the game's play to compelling effect.

The Players didn't knew each other, nor did I know any of them.  And yet, because they were given the tools of "story stuff" they went to town on-the-fly creating compelling characters.  Although this was a one shot at a convention, it's clear there could be months and months of play grown from this one session.  As the GM I had no adventure or story in mind, but depended on the setting and situations of Glorantha and trusted the instincts of my players, feeding them story material they had already declared they were passionate about. 

Significantly, the Players built conflict between the characters, but there was no conflict between the Players themselves.  In fact, in the course of the narrative the characters only moved toward each other, unifying as a family and leaving their rifts behind in the face of their hatred of the Lunars.

The game had a unity and structure not because of a structure imposed on the Players ("You will all work together" or "This is your mission") but because we collectively built core seeds for ideas (the Heortling/Lunar conflict; Daleeta; a family feud over an impending marriage) and grew the adventure out of these seeds.

It was a blast to play this game.  But the tools and procedures I used are the same I use for most games I GM these days, always to the same effective and fun effect.

[Xose Lucero]

Okay, you know how sometimes we often remember how someone said, 'Okay, I'm going to go upstairs,'...

Thank you so much for this paragraph. Well, thanks for the others too but this is the one that enlightened me so hard that it stung.

[charles ferguson]

chris, thank you for finishing this. It's a gift.

charles