Transhuman Space & Heroquest

[Eric J. Boyd]

So I am almost finished reading the HQ rules and I have never been so excited about a system.  I've already got plans to use it for a fantasy campaign using either the Midnight or Conan/Hyborian setting (depending on player preferences).  But then it hit me that nothing in HQ limits its use to fantasy at all--by emphasizing story over crunchy bits any kind of abilities or conflicts can be handled.  

That brings me to Transhuman Space, another all time favorite of mine, but a game I've never actually played due to a strong dislike for GURPS.  My initial thoughts are that HQ could handle the technology and such much like any other abilities.  Most items would simply get a rating, genetically engineered abilties would become affinities and feats, and I could crib from the animism rules to handle AIs as something like spirit allies.  And the idea of virtual heroquests is pretty funky too.

So has anyone done a sci-fi game using HQ?  Any thoughts on the issue?

Thanks in advance.

Eric

[Mark Galeotti]

Funnilly enough, this was precisely the point on which I closed my review of TS for RPGnet. It was a very quick'n'dirty conversion, but essentially

Normal, 'fixed' tech was handled by giving it a rating (essentially in masteries, or rather 1-mastery-x: 1w3 was a highgrade piece of specialised kit), which was generally applied either as an active ability or as a bonus when used for its standard role (so that 1w3 scanner could scan at 1w3 or could give you a +6 bonus if you were using it to augment your ability). The idea was that tech ought to be powerful enough that it was more often the dominant factor, not a character's skills.

Also, giving tech high ratings meant that combat (handled generally as simple contests) was appropriately deadly: my 1w3 railgun, augmented by my Gun 17 skill against your Dodge 17 was a pretty dead cert, pun intended. In TS, this is how it ought to be!

However, in the world of TS there is also lots of 'fluid' technology, like robotics, AIs and nanotech, which can be used for multiple roles. Again, they had an ability, but it was handled as an affinity, with appropriate feats or just an open affinity. Thus, Construction Nanoids 20W (Create Preloaded Form, Dissolve Material, Interfere with Rival Nanoids)

If it had been more than a one-off invented while driving, I probably would have come up with much better ideas, thoughts about keywords and the like. But it wasn't ;-)

All the best

Mark

[RaconteurX]

Hey Eric,

So has anyone done a sci-fi game using HQ?  Any thoughts on the issue?

Hard science-fiction can be somewhat difficult to run with HeroQuest, if only due to its cinematic focus. Technology is often better represented by using the options for tools, in that tech typically confers fixed bonuses rather than the potential variable augments of magical items possessed of individual ability ratings.

The item rules are certainly in keeping with the tropes of space opera, as we all can imagine Han Solo spending Hero Points on modifications to the Millennium Falcon. Less certain would be the claim that Captain Kirk  or Mister Scott invested HP on the Enterprise, which would function more like a community.

Robin's original design for the Clan Questionnaire allowed one to calculate Wealth, Magic, Threat and Morale ability ratings for a community. These could then be used by a narrator to generate random "community crises" to fill in the gaps between planned adventures. To use Star Trek as an example, these could be adventure seeds for "this week on Star Trek: <your campaign here>".

[Eric J. Boyd]

While digging around a bit more on the subject I ran across the following useful thread for anyone else considering sci-fi HQ: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=977

Some great stuff for handling ranged weapon combat from contracycle.  Any other ideas or prior threads I'm missing out on?

[soru]

my 1w3 railgun, augmented by my Gun 17 skill against your Dodge 17 was a pretty dead cert, pun intended. In TS, this is how it ought to be!

Example of the use of this rule: the 'dodge this' scene with the helicopter-mounted chaingun in the Matrix.

soru