Musings on Heroquest

[em_gumby]

Dear readers, the Glorantha bug has not quite passed me by yet.

Since last I posted on the matter, my interest in Glorantha has diminished from an obsession to a hobby level interest, and has broadened out into more thinking about the Heroquest system (in various incarnations, but primarily in the most recent one).

Comments

[em_gumby]

Ever since the days of the original Deadlands (the first time I became acquainted with that sort of mechanic) I have thought it was a dumb idea, and one designed specifically to suppress or limit player cooperation.

In terms of the "Yes, but..." suggestion, I understand what you are saying, but I don't know how well players would react to that - after all the whole idea behind spending lots of HP in the first place would be to get a higher level of success, and adding extra complications to that would have something of the opposite effect.

[em_gumby]

Another reason that I think HP are very powerful is that there is actually a pretty small variation in levels of success with the die roll. Discounting crits and fumbles, you can get a minor failure, a marginal failure, a marginal success, or a minor success. One Hero Point gives you the equivalent of an entire Mastery level. That's far more powerful than, for example, the Benny in Savage Worlds that only lets you roll another die - it's equivalent to giving you an automatic "20" that is additive with what you already rolled.

[em_gumby]

I think that part of the solution may lie in my isolating the conflicts that are real turning points in the storyline, and running them as extended conflicts. This eliminates the problem of being able to win just by dumping a bunch of bennies on the table, since you can only spend one per round in an extended conflict - but it does complicate the resolution and lead to more rolling and keeping track of rolls.

[em_gumby]

Well, this GM at least.

[em_gumby]

Honestly, it all goes back to "Red Star", where one character with a bunch of HP was able to wipe out 300 heavily armed troops in one round of combat, all without hitting civilians or doing any other collateral damage