Transition to HQ V2
I've got my copy of HQ version 2.
I like it.
There are differences. Unsurprisingly.
Biggest difference: AP are gone, except as an option. Robin has redesigned extended contests into something very like a series of simple contests that link together. It is easier, faster, and also carries along the interesting effect that unlike V1 extended contests, both sides can end up hurt. You can win and still be dying!
Here are the basics of the extended contest rules now:
Much like simple contests, you roll against each other each round and note the result, very similar to simple contest results ranging from complete defeat to complete victory. But this isn't the end, that's the result in that round. Those values become some rating from 0-5, as do yours on your opponent. First side to 5 points loses, but the number of points the other side has stays in effect on them. 5 points is Impaired, a minimal defeat. 8 points is dying (if I recall correctly.)
The other big change: Augments
No more fiddling and stacking. For any given contest, you get to augment ONCE and it has to be entertaining and unusual. Quoting from a review:
One major change is augmenting is now usually with one ability, and you roll for it (or in some campaigns the GM can use the optional static augment – but then it’s now a 5th of your skill.) The need to think up something new to do each time you augment to justify it appeals to me, but some GM’s may wish to ignore it I guess.
This will really speed things up, but it will change some stuff too.
There is a change of emphasis in v2 that is explicitly threaded into the rules too: the idea that what the game does is to enable us to experience a shared story, not to experience another world as a simulation. How does that change things? It encourages the Narrator/GM to modify resistances in the game based on the needs of the story, not the simulation of a set world. Do I need to explain that more? Here's one simple example.
The recommended default moderate resistance in v2 is supposed to go up by one point for every 2 sessions of the campaign.
And another:
Resistances in general are supposed to be tailored to the needs of the story, not the reality of the game world.
I solicit your thoughts about embracing this. Personally, I think it can make for more exciting stories, but at the cost of feeling like, as characters, we are truly accomplishing something.
http://jerome23.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/heroquest-2-0-the-first-mini-review/
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=110832951683
http://rpg.geekdo.com/thread/450352/heroquest-transforms-to-a-generic-rpg-engine
HQ2
First: Mike, where's you Amazon affiliate link for us to order our own copies?
OK, now on to B: the rules.
This sounds like an explicit capitulation to the side of the Greenberg-style game, as opposed to the Les-style (or what I know second-hand of Greg's). More White Wolfish, without the cannibalizing your own fanbase part. This style is influenced by GM whimsy, but lets you run games like "A Day in the Cradle: Hercules Unswaddled!"*
If I've got that right, that would be my first time to see you on the driving end of one of those games, a challenge but come on: If your're willing to run that, I'm DYING to see it!
-Brad
* dibs!
Have a referral link!
Have a referral link!
I ran Pendragon much more story based, back in the day. I will note that several of my very favorite moments of PC role play occurred in that game.
At the same time, I doubt that anyone who was in that game felt like they were being railroaded.
You mean Greg Maples, right? Not Stafford?
Rosetta stone
Brad, can i get a translation please? :-) Are you saying that the new rules gives the GM inspirations to hose you in the name of the story?
As long as I am allowed to do anything my character would think is necessary, even if charging the Lunar Waktopi Spear Phalanx isn't the smartest thing to do, I adapt to the rules as needed. I'm not sure I have my head wrapped around the idea of 'the needs of the story'. That sounds awfully like what we are doing know already. I mean there is already a story with future events of Sartar, and I would suspect nothing the players do would drastically change those events.
The story in small chunks
Translate "needs of the story" as "maintenance of dramatic tension."
If Indiana Jones shot the trench coated SS guy in their first meeting, a lot of dramatic tension would have drained from the movie.
HQ2 provides a structure for adjusting difficulties so the story flows more satisfactorily from a structural standpoint.
Part of this may be fixed by the transition the rules are going to make. I expect to see that top level contest skills will drop by a mastery or more. With only 1 augment per contest per person, things will be a lot faster and a lot lower. So the chances of you just rolling through opposition will be less.
Transitioning
The new version validates what Mike has already made central in his game. The Story. Now we don't have to mini-max as much because the story is more important than game physics. We were already on that track. I wonder how the +1 resistance/2 sessions equation will change our game. Perhaps it requires us to play in ever more creative and clever ways in order to adapt. Survival of the fittest story teller.
Front Page News
Out of the forum and onto the front page: http://commonworlds.org/hq2-transition
Willing
I've read through V2 and your notes on runes, no AP, only one (unusual)augment, resistence, etc. and am willing to transition characters and find out how the updated system works or doesn't work for our characters. I can see your point that these changes might enhance stories while limiting effectiveness. I'm considering Earth - Man - Life for Will, but looking into stasis (stone)instead of Man.
+1 per or whatever
I strongly disagree with this, I predict it will cause problems. As last season's Dr. Who showed us, you fdon't have to go bigger, better, harder each time.
It also contradicts the philosophy of The Story First! They say that, and then give some arbitrary game mechanic so the numbers change? Forget it! Suddenly, because I'm a big hero, it gets harder for me to make my Get Out of Bed roll?
Not buying it. Repealed in next edition, I bet!
-B