Your Setting in HQ – Random Average

The Forge :: What is it About the HQ Rules and Bringing Out Setting?
A discussion of the recurring theme in HQ-related actually play reports about how “HQ finally let me play [cool setting x],” and why that happens.

Most games either ignore culture altogether or only take it for some minor “powerz”, like “All elves are competent with Elven Exotic Weapons as Martial Weapons” and similar stuff. This is, in a way, understandable, as it is harder to display cultural (or racial, or religious…) differences with a set of generic rules. Often, this is the skill systems “fault”, as it has a set of skill that apply to all and everyone in the game and thus have a hard time accounting for individual differences, like, dunno, a Fremens specific cultural background, for example. Of course, this can be done, for example by a “Specialisation”-system, but these often are used more for things that “are really useful” for the character. (Especially in point-buy systems.)
Heroquest allows, through keywords and player-created abilities, to display a characters cultural, religious, racial, whatever,… background without making the system needlessly complicated or making the character less “usefull”. It doesn?t punish the players for having characters that focus on their heritage.

This just reminds me of all the settings/genres I’d like to run with HQ. I’m doing my damndest to convert people.
Hell, Randy got me thinking about using HQ to run Amber — now I’ve got that bug buzzing around in the back of my head: using the Affinities rules for Amber Powers… man, it all works really, really well… might be a really good conversion to write up.

One comment

Doyce says:

2005-01-06 at 15:33

Another bit from the same thread, related to conflict management:

What you have to understand is that the HQ system doesn?t give you ideas for what to do, it supports the ideas you already have. In most RPGs you think of a vague action you want to take, look at your sheet for crunchy factors to enable it, and by doing that focus the general intent into a specific action. You may then add description/stunts on top of that, but in the end you get a lot of your direction, crunch, and support from looking to the system first. In HQ, you have to have your idea first, and then use the system to give it dramatic play support. You won?t have a list of maneuvers to scroll down, or a bunch of charms to choose from ? you simply do the thing that you think of to do – if you look to the system to tell you what to do, you?ll find it becoming a been counter system where APs go back and forth without meaning or direction. When you have clear ideas about what you want to do, when you go in with a goal and a desire to do something, then the system will support you in taking the actions you want to without the typical interference that?s already trained you not to do that in other systems.?

The short version of that:
Take this statement: “My goal for this duel is to give my opponent a scar so he’ll remember me.”
Now:
* Figure out how that would work in D20.
* Figure out how that would work in HQ.
Compare. Which system is discouraging that kind of specific, goal-oriented thinking in a conflict, simply because of rules complication?

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