Preparation for HeroQuest

[Scripty]

With my first real sessions of HeroQuest (set in Hyborea) coming up within a week, I thought it would be nice to seek the advice of those more experienced than myself with the system.

Normally, I prepare for campaigns/adventures by drawing up a list of 13 or so NPCs. I usually do not give the listed NPCs a place in the campaign setting. They serve solely as my pool of names/personalities from which I draw everything from henchmen to shopkeepers to long-lost relatives. Then I write out a list of Bangs (often about 10, but usually at least 5). Following that, I craft the major NPCs in the region and will construct a relationship map between them and ensure to maximize it for scandal and conflict.

I've done this for everything from D&D to Donjon and it's a formula that seems to work, thus far. I was wondering how other Narrators prepare for their own HeroQuest sessions.

I'm a bit nervous about this next session and still have a few kinks to work out before running. Because it's a Conan-inspired saga, it most likely will follow an episodic (as per the original stories) structure. Thus, I will probably prepare for it in much the same way I did for my Buffy games months ago. Starting out often seems more difficult to me in any case because I don't know what the players are bringing to the table. I prefer to run character driven stories. Initial Bangs are always the hardest for me to come up with because I have nothing to go on and, thus, am forced to come up with generic (and often irrelevant) Bangs that I can suit to as wide a group as possible.

So, what do you guys (and girls) do for your own preparation? How do you approach HeroQuest differently in preparation (and play) than other games? What pitfalls should I avoid in narrating the HeroQuest system? And, finally, do you have any advice regarding a campaign set in Hyborea?

Thanks in advance for any advice that you could send my way. I'm having to "convert" a few gamers and one is very skeptical about HeroQuest fitting his needs. Being as anal as I am about preparation, I would feel more confident hearing from those who had been to the mountain before me.

[dunlaing]

One thing I do different with HeroQuest is have longer "adventures" than I normally would like. Having had much success in a pulp game doing one-two session episodes, I wanted to do something similar with HeroQuest. Unfortunately, you can't do that and use the rules for Practitioners as written without unbalancing them greatly.

Because Practitioners get their fetish spirits back after each adventure, you need to stretch adventures out to at least 4 or 5 sessions in order to not make them too powerful. (Adding the spirit's ability to your own is pretty potent)

[Scripty]

Thanks for the heads up, dunlaing. I'll watch out for that. I'm not sure if the group will have any practitioners, though. In Howard's stories, those kinds of magic-users were generally villains. I'm seeing more talismans being used for spellcasting, possibly even a *little* Sorcery. But most heroes, I think, will be using Talents, Affinities and Feats, possibly a magical weapon (Stormbringer?). It's going to be straight ahead Sword and Sorcery (or should I say Sorcery & Sword?). :D

Animism seems more to me like the Picts and Hyperboreans in Howard's world. I'm pretty much holding the party to Nemedia, Cimmeria, Zingara and Aquilonia during character creation. I'm thinking Animism might be more something they face than something they utilize. But players can be pretty unpredictable at times.

Good point about the Practice Spirits and Fetishes in episodic adventures, though. I hadn't thought of that. Currently, I'm reading through some old Conan stories to recall the feel of the genre. I loved that stuff way back. I'm excited about using HeroQuest for the genre. I think the two will be a good match.

[Mike Holmes]

Hmm.

It seems to me that all people who use magic are villains in Hyborea. Of course that's because the only ones we know of were there for Conan to defeat. It seems to me that with the starting nations, that you're pretty much excluding magic from the realm of character concepts. I mean, I wouldn't even call Conan a "Worshipper of Crom" because Crom doesn't listen. Basically, Conan's belief system doesn't include magic, really.

This throws the whole Homeland/Occupation/Magic keyword triumvirate off. I mean you can probably go with just the first two, I suppose. But maybe there's something better to replace it? Given the nature of the stories, and Ron's work, how about a "Past" Keyword. Sure, Conan's a General now, but before he was a Pirate. Anyhow, it would give each character a whole new set of stats that might be cool.

If you wanted to go with the whole enchilada of bouncing back and forth through the character's history, at any time, the character would have a current occupation and a past that would represent the ones appropriate to when the adventure takes place. So, you'd list like ten occupations in chronological order, and the character would have the current one as his Occupation, and the previous one as his Past.

For kicks, have the Past have only a 13 instead of a 17 rating. Representing the characters forgetting stuff. But allow for the character to "stack" some abilities up that relate to the character's previous occupations. For example, if he learned some swordslinging in many, then add 4 points to the current ability total for each occupation in which that was a skill. So the character will be appropriately experienced late in life.

Just some thoughts.

Mike

[RaconteurX]

I'm with Mike, in that magic is quite a bit rarer in Hyboria than it is in Glorantha and Magic keywords are definitely out of place. I would make access to magic contigent upon possession of an appropriate occupation keyword (apprentice, priest, spirit-talker), and give every character two occupation keywords (one past and one present). Unlike Mike, I would suggest giving both a rating of 17, but only allow the player to increase the abilities in one or the other prior to play.

[Ron Edwards]

Sorcerers, only villains, in Howard's Hyborea?

Pish-posh.

Pelleas in The Scarlet Citadel, Khemsa in The People of the Black Circle, that old saint/dude in The Phoenix on the Sword, the witch in Hour of the Dragon ... and if you think Thoth-Amon is a villain in The Phoenix on the Sword, you're bonkers.

Best,
Ron

[Ian Charvill]

Another option would be to permit the Magic Keyword to represet a magical sword.  So you could end up with, frex.

Silverblade
   Smite Foe 17
   Fortify Spirits 17
   Protect from Fell Sorcery 1W
   etc.

This, I think, would tend to shift the focus of play onto Heroes with Magical Swords, which might not entirely suit the source material.

[Scripty]

I really like Mike's idea of a present/past occupation. I most likely will implement that.

I was thinking of allowing Talents, Affinities and Feats to also act like Feng Shui schticks to a degree. Of course, there's not going to be Common Magic, but what about heroes with "magical" abilities such as "Smite Sorcerer" or "Grab the Edge of the Chasm." It seems that Conan does quite a few super-normal things that save his hide, but they're not really magic, kind of like fate or his own determination. What do you guys think?

Also, as a nod to Ron, Sorcerers certainly aren't all evil. But it always seemed that the most powerful ones were or, rather, that Conan was always fighting an evil sorcery of some sort. I may be getting confused however because he always swore that such and such was some vile sorcery. Our group may go with a character that has magic abilities (if the players wish). I'm pretty open like that. I just wanted to avoid the whole fireball tossing thing. You know, the walking artillery pieces that wizards can be in D&D. Perhaps I should require that a character have to take Apprentice or something similar as a past occupation? And I'll certainly be adding luggage on to any spirit relationships...

Thanks for the suggestions. Please keep them coming. So far, the consensus seems pretty positive that Conan can work in the HeroQuest system. That's encouraging.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Scripty,

... it always seemed that the most powerful ones were or, rather, that Conan was always fighting an evil sorcery of some sort. I may be getting confused however because he always swore that such and such was some vile sorcery.

You mentioned that you had Sorcerer & Sword, right? You'll see in there my arguments that these perceptions are largely misconceptions, when we're restricting the argument to Howard's stories. Sure, Conan fights sorcery ... but it's much rarer in Howard's stories than in the "uber-literature" that utilizes Conan as a meme. And greatly-significant non-magical foes abound as well.

When all is said and done, nearly all of Howard's stories are about people who have to relate to one another. In many cases, the relation is intolerable and is resolved violently. But since the HeroQuest rules shine at providing a means for resolving human-interest conflicts, the rest is window-dressing.

As a minor tangent, "How would I do a Transmogrification spell in HeroQuest?" is by definition a misplaced question. The answer is always the same, for any sort of magic, for any sort of "power," for any sort of Kewlness - pick a number to indicate the impact of the thing-in-question on the situation. There you go.

Best,
Ron

[dunlaing]

How about this: Each character gets three keywords. They get to pick (but no more than one magic keyword). So one character might have his Homeland and two Occupations while another would have a Homeland, and Occupation, and a Magic. (Would it be possible to just have three homelands? probably not. Two seems legit though).

Anyway, the idea here is that the characters get something for giving up Magic. If they want Magic, they can have it, but then they don't get the second occupation. To make the second occupation worthwhile, I'd allow similar abilities to augment each other. So if you had Swordfighting from Barbarian and Cutlassfighting from Pirate, don't just make the PC use one, let him have one augment the other.

Also, use the Talents as is, but tell everyone that no one thinks of them as magical. That way a non-magical barbarian type can fill his Common Magic keyword with Seduce Foe, Leap Chasm, Wield Ridiculously Large Sword, etc. And keep in mind that magical abilities go against a resistance of 14 unless there's magical resistance (see the example of leaping over trees). So if a character has Leap Chasm as a Talent, he rolls against 14 to leap a 28' wide chasm (as long as there's no magic resisting him).

Oh yeah, and ignore the whole bit about common magic not being usable except as an augment.

[Scripty]

Hi Scripty,
You mentioned that you had Sorcerer & Sword, right? You'll see in there my arguments that these perceptions are largely misconceptions, when we're restricting the argument to Howard's stories. Sure, Conan fights sorcery ... but it's much rarer in Howard's stories than in the "uber-literature" that utilizes Conan as a meme. And greatly-significant non-magical foes abound as well.

Yep. I got it. It's one of my favorite RPG books. Great job. You make a great case, and one with which I am compelled to agree. Pretty much, though, at least for this campaign, I was hoping to keep magic-wielding player characters on the rare end of the spectrum. I have no problem with animism or the use of talismans (ala Wizardry) as long as there are consequences for such use or relationship. I'm trying to avoid Tapping altogether, unless, of course, the players want to be evil or can come up with an appropriate concept for such a character. These are just spot decisions on my part. Thanks for pointing out to others who might be interested in pursuing a HQ/Hyborea hybrid that this is a choice that's not supported in the literature. I'm planning on re-reading Sorcerer & Sword again (for the fifth time no less) as it is an excellent guide for running a game in this genre. I'll also be revisiting some of my favorite Howard stories.

Sorry to present my preferences as some sort of Conan-canon (heheheh). I'll work to extract my foot from my mouth starting now.

Hi Scripty,
When all is said and done, nearly all of Howard's stories are about people who have to relate to one another. In many cases, the relation is intolerable and is resolved violently. But since the HeroQuest rules shine at providing a means for resolving human-interest conflicts, the rest is window-dressing.

And this is something that I picked up on as well, from reading Sorcerer & Sword and HeroQuest. I thought the two would be a great match. I'm pleased to see the enthusiasm thus far. I'm hoping it goes well so that the players will be more open to playing in other settings and genres (including Glorantha) with HeroQuest in the future.

Hi Scripty,
As a minor tangent, "How would I do a Transmogrification spell in HeroQuest?" is by definition a misplaced question. The answer is always the same, for any sort of magic, for any sort of "power," for any sort of Kewlness - pick a number to indicate the impact of the thing-in-question on the situation. There you go.

Best,
Ron

For me, that's part of the kewlness of HeroQuest. My difficulty with magic is more with trying to portray it accurately in the setting as opposed to accurately in the rules, which is mostly covered AFAICT. The above concerns regarding magic-wielding PCs is primarily so that I won't wind up with one player wanting to be a Flying Spell-Cannon, another playing a Healing Priest of Pelor, and a third wanting to play an Elf. I'm more trying to limit the magical options available to PCs (unless an appropriate concept is established) so that Hyborea will be Hyborea and won't devolve into dark-n-gritty D&D. Fortunately, one player has read the Conan stories (by which I mean Howard's). The other two are only familiar with Conan through the movies, which is sort of a hindrance. I guess I could allow, in their case, the Talent: "Punch Camel in Face."

I'm looking forward to this. Sorry to mix up the magic, Ron. I was wrong to speak authoritatively. I was only presenting the setting as I was hoping to start it out with these players. Just so that we didn't go magic crazy from the starting gate. One of the players is a big anime fan. I could just see him wanting to play Lina Inverse. Fire Wizard, I'm okay with. Fire Sorceress with the power to nuke entire cities and skip around in the ashes...

That sounds more like a villain to me... but, then again, I could see Conan hooking up with Lina, although she most likely wouldn't live through the end of the story. IIRC, Conan's friends had fairly low life expectancies. But that's meant as more of a humorous statement than any sort of fact. I already have one foot in my mouth... It's been a while since I read the stories. I'm looking forward to revisiting them.

[Scripty]

How about this: Each character gets three keywords. They get to pick (but no more than one magic keyword). So one character might have his Homeland and two Occupations while another would have a Homeland, and Occupation, and a Magic. (Would it be possible to just have three homelands? probably not. Two seems legit though).

Anyway, the idea here is that the characters get something for giving up Magic. If they want Magic, they can have it, but then they don't get the second occupation. To make the second occupation worthwhile, I'd allow similar abilities to augment each other. So if you had Swordfighting from Barbarian and Cutlassfighting from Pirate, don't just make the PC use one, let him have one augment the other.

Also, use the Talents as is, but tell everyone that no one thinks of them as magical. That way a non-magical barbarian type can fill his Common Magic keyword with Seduce Foe, Leap Chasm, Wield Ridiculously Large Sword, etc. And keep in mind that magical abilities go against a resistance of 14 unless there's magical resistance (see the example of leaping over trees). So if a character has Leap Chasm as a Talent, he rolls against 14 to leap a 28' wide chasm (as long as there's no magic resisting him).

Oh yeah, and ignore the whole bit about common magic not being usable except as an augment.

That's a very functional and simple system. I most likely will use it whole-hog. I had the same feelings regarding Talents, of using them more like Feng Shui feats tailored to the Sword & Sorcery genre. Heck I can see at least 3 Talents in the following movie quote:

MONGOL GENERAL: We have won again! That is good. But what is best in life?
MONGOL WARRIOR: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcon at your wrist, wind in your hair!
MONGOL GENERAL: Wrong! Conan, what is best in life?
CONAN: To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamenation of the women!
MONGOL GENERAL: That is good.

Crush Enemies 13, Drive Enemies Before You 13, Hear Lamentation of Enemy's Women 13

I'm not going for spoof or anything, but that was the easiest example of which I could pull at this time. None of my Conan books on me right now. They're in the living room...

[dunlaing]

[CONAN: To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamenation of the women!

I believe it's spelled lamination with an i.

:)

[Scripty]

[CONAN: To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamenation of the women!

I believe it's spelled lamination with an i.

:)

LOL, didn't see that. HA! That's funny.

How exactly would you hear someone who had been laminated? I suppose that's why it has to be a near-magic ability...

That's the best laugh I've gotten all day. Thanks.

[Mike Holmes]

Well, Ron, we don't all have to ascribe to your particular Hyborea. I like the "bigger" DeCamp Hyborea, remember? If someone wants to play in it, I think that's perfectly valid. Even in the Howard stuff the sorcerers were at least antagonists. Or sidekicks, or NPCs. I mean, Conan is the protagonist in these stories, right?

In any case, we could go around and around with that. But I think we agree that magic is different in Hyborea and that having everyone with a magic Keyword might not be the best way to portray things? So, given that he's trying to make something like some version of Hyborea, it still seems to stand to reason not to have everyone with magic keywords.

Heck, if you want a closer version to HQ, then I'd advocate having Belief Keywords. That spoke to the religious or philospohpical underpinnings for characters. I'm not sure it's particularly relevant, but it could handle Sorcerers and Hyrkanians alike, I think.

Anyhow, I think we all agree that HQ is perfect for the setting in terms of relationships. But that's kinda what I was getting at anyhow with the Past thing.

Mike