Space 1889 using HeroQuest

[RaconteurX]

This notion came to me while discussing which systems seemed best-suited to capture the flavor of the steampunk, pulps, and scientific romance sub-genres. The research and development of inventions, gadgets, and assorted maguffins simply screams for HeroQuest's contest mechanics. Anyone care to take a stab at homeland keywords for the Major Powers (Britain, Germany, Russia, France, etc.)? :)

[Donald]

This notion came to me while discussing which systems seemed best-suited to capture the flavor of the steampunk, pulps, and scientific romance sub-genres. The research and development of inventions, gadgets, and assorted maguffins simply screams for HeroQuest's contest mechanics. Anyone care to take a stab at homeland keywords for the Major Powers (Britain, Germany, Russia, France, etc.)? :)

I'm not sure the homeland keywords would be all that different unless you wanted to emphasise national stereotypes. I'd be more inclined to do Homelands as Europe, Middle East, India, Far East, Africa and the Americas.

More critical is occupations which is where the big differences are, indeed the are probably differences between the different genres although I'm not sufficently familiar with them to be sure.

[AnyaTheBlue]

For this kind of a game, I think you need to split up the Homeland keywords a bit more finely.

Europe, the Americas, and so forth are a bit too broad, I think.

I'd go for something like American Wild West, British City-Dweller, British Gentry, and so forth.  You could argue that some of these bleed a little into professions, but I think you could certainly have a British 'lower class' Detective and a British 'Noble' detective, and get very different characters as a result...

[Donald]

You have class distinctions in most cultures in Glorantha and its reflected in the occupation section. In the detective example only the 'lower class' detective would have the occupation (probably policeman rather than detective) the noble would have an occupation of petty noble. Both would then have extra skills relating to detective work from the character write up.

I'm not saying you can't do it by writing up a large number of 'Homelands' for each section of each society but the split between Homelands and occupations makes it easy for players who are unfamilar with the setting. It would also be a lot more work with considerable repetition.

Remember this is only a basis of character generation - there's nothing to stop any player adding any skill either at character generation time or during play.

[RaconteurX]

I'm not sure the homeland keywords would be all that different unless you wanted to emphasise national stereotypes. I'd be more inclined to do Homelands as Europe, Middle East, India, Far East, Africa and the Americas.

I'm not certain that reflects the period particularly well, although it works reasonably well in Dark Continent. Still, I thought regional variation within a given nation could be handled like the distinctions presented in Imperial Lunar Handbook rather than a full keyword of its own. We do not have separate keywords for Quivini, Aldachuri and Hendreiki after all.

[Stewart Stansfield]

Hi Michael & all,

I've seen lots of people looking at using HQ for other periods, genres etc., but never yet 'Victoriana', so I saw this and... great! As this is the one period I've used on myself. I've been scribbling over a set of ideas for KulturQuest, a variant set in a similar timeframe, though I was more skewing towards the Edwardian period. The ideas came from a great Space 1889 PBEM I'm in at the mo (we started in 1876, and are now in 1904).

In my musings, I try to shy away from the idea of a keyword in a definite form, to be used as written, and instead publish them as examples. Because there are quite a few variants one can explore...

I've provisionally defined four keywords in character creation: Culture, Ideology, Occupation and Religion. It should be noted that in my development, I'm assuming a highly stereotypical pulp reference frame. Also, development is in its nascent stages, so...

Culture
Personally, I'm going by region. There are so many regional differences out there that keywords are examples only. Players are encouraged to develop their own (under narrator supervision) if they cannot see one appropriate. If one takes the Germanic areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a Wiener is going to have a different cultural backdrop to a Tyrolean, etc.

What is interesting is that culture is near totally influenced by social class in some societies, but negligably in others. Within reason, we might expect a rural Hungarian Baron to display similar cultural archetypes to less hochgeboren peasants (they might both have Dance, but the form would be different). Yet in other societies, abilities could vary radically, and one might have to differentiate based on class. Note no mention of the 'Noble' occupation here, I'll come to that later. e.g.

Tyrol Keyword
Abilities: Alpine Survival Skills, Climbing, Endurance, Geography of the Tyrol, Speak German and/or Speak Italian, Tyrolean Customs, Yodelling or Play Alphorn; Rifle Shooting (male) or Handle Farm Animal (female).
Typical Traits: Adventurous, Conservative, Claustrophobic, Hearty, Joyous, Pine for Mountains, Simple
Relationships: to Family, to Village, to Church

Religion
I use religion to define an idea of spiritual faith, or other supernatural abilities. This could be as simple as a Common Religion (e.g. Methodism, Sikhism, Freemasonry) or a Specialized Religion, embracing Shamanism, Magick... or Khali worship! Specialized Religions would provide more definite 'magic', whereas Common Religions may simply provide abilities and virtues, with a possible feat.

Ideology
This defines the character's outlook towards human society. The later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were periods of great social import. The level of politicisation was heavy. This is, more than any other keyword, a set of roleplaying traits. This is partly an exercise in fun. There are a whole spectrum of ideologies one may follow, and I list some of the more common simply as guidelines:

Anarchist; Conservative, Monarchial (e.g. Metternich); Conservative, Parliamentary (e.g. Benjamin Disraeli); Imperialist, Liberal (e.g. Joe Chamberlain); Imperialist, Wanton (e.g. Dr. Carl Peters); Liberal; Nationalist, Oppressed (e.g. Fenians); Nationalist, Rabid (e.g. Bismarck); Socialist etc.

Within a country, you could have a whole spectrum of ideologies for a given cultural keyword.

Ideological Keyword - Monarchial Conservative
Abilities: Argue, Call [police], Drink Health of [ruler], Good Citizen, Incite Fellow Monarchists, Know Place in Society, Spot (any three of Anarchist, Foreigner, Nationalist Demagogue, Ruffian, Socialist Agitator or Vagrant).
Virtues: Proud, Protective of [ruler]
etc.

Occupation
There are many possible here, from Pugilist of the Proletariat to Explorer to Steam Baron, and I guess their application is self explanatory. The concept of nobility as an occupation needs addressing, and I haven't entirely thought it through. For some it is their 'work', for others simply a cultural background, behind another occupation (e.g. a career in the army, parliamentary or diplomatic service).

I'm inclined (at this moment) to tie elements of birth into culture (if appropriate), and offer a dilettante occupation for wastrel peers.

Schooling
I would offer the 20 points to add on to abilities, but also offer some set skill packages, e.g. take three skills from a choice, at 17 each for 5 points, symbolising varieties of education. This could include:

Public Schooling (England: Gymnastics, Cricket, Old School Tie relationship etc.), University Schooling (academic skills, including Schlaeger Fighting in Germany...), Military Schooling (e.g. America or Prussia: Endure Cold, Disciplined etc.)... or just the School of Lifemanship (Carousing, Seduce etc.) or School of 'Ard Knocks (Brawling, Lockpicking etc.).

Right, I think I've rambled on enough and lost myself! These are some of my key ideas, but it's still in a working through stage at the mo, and I've been too busy to devote much time to it recently!

All the best,

Stu.

[RaconteurX]

I wonder how much regional variation could be subsumed into the model I proposed in the Tekumel thread, borrowed from the second edition of Behind Enemy Lines... urban/rural, mountains/plains, inland/coastal. That gives us eight basic regional keywords, which can be customized to fit a majority of homelands.

As a Yank, I don't have half any European's knowledge of the minutiae of Nineteenth Century politics, ideology and culture. Very impressive, Stu... please, sir, may we have some more? :)