Heroquest supers.

[Noita]

Just thought i would stick this here as its an active thread over on rpgnet.

https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?784731-HeroQuest-for-supers

[TrippyHippy]

While I have to be honest in saying I'd prefer the grittier percentile rules of RuneQuest for Glorantha (and any other fantasy game, actually), I do feel that the HeroQuest rules are ideal for the supers genre. 

If Chaosium ever decide to re-do SuperWorld, I'd actually like to see the HeroQuest rules as the basis, rather than BRP. 

 

[JonL]

Here's what I came up with from that thread (I'm Laminator_X over there):

Distribute 13/13/15/17 among Culture,Community,Occupation, and a Distinguishing Characteristic
Choose three Powers at 13,17,and 1M
Choose five Abilities at 13
Spend 20 pts on improving and/or adding new abilities or keyword breakouts. A new ability starts at 13 and costs 1pt. Any ability can become a keyword by adding breakout abilities underneath it
Choose (up to) three Flaws with ratings matching the highest, 2nd highest, & lowest ability ratings

Text template:

Character Concept – 
(13/13/15/17)
Culture - 
Community – 
Occupation - 
Distinguishing Characteristic – 

Power #1
Some Power - 1M
--------


Power #2
Some Power - 17
-------

Power #3 
Some Power - 13
-------

Ability #1 - Some Ability - 13
Ability #2 – Some Ability - 13
Ability #3 - Some Ability - 13
Ability #4 – Some Ability - 13
Ability #5 - Some Ability - 13
Flaw #1 - Some Flaw - Highest Ability Rating
Flaw #2 – Some Flaw - 2nd Highest Ability Rating
Flaw #3 – Some Flaw - Lowest Ability Rating

[Mankcam]

On 11/08/2016 at 2:13 PM, TrippyHippy said:

If Chaosium ever decide to re-do SuperWorld, I'd actually like to see the HeroQuest rules as the basis, rather than BRP. 

Yes I was only thinking the same idea just yesterday

I'm not overly fussed with HeroQuest having Glorantha for its default setting, as I just prefer having Glorantha strongly imbedded with the  RuneQuest mechanics.

However HeroQuest is a great set of scalable mechanics which suit settings that benefit from broad brushstrokes. Pulp Heroes and Super Heroes fit the bill for me, and I would love to see a HeroQuest Pulpworld or a HeroQuest Superworld.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Mankcam

[Michael Hopcroft]

In traditional supers games, powers are very specifically modeled and generally speaking tend not be be in broad strokes. This differs from the pay it works in an actual four-color comic, where being "the Fastest Man on Earth" is like a keyword and gives the hero abilities limited mainly by his imagination. Which when you think about it is very much how HeroQuest works in general.

Sounds like a great fit of system to genre, the only downside being that this is not how people are accustomed to playing supers games.

Here's a sample modeling question to get an idea how people would handle this, based on a hero I created years ago for the classic Marvel Super Heroes. Quarterstaff is a descendant of Little John (Rubin Hood's Merry Man) and wields his legendary quarterstaff. He can do innumerable tricks with it, including slapping aside bullets, and while using it he has phenomenal reflexes. It takes a lot to damage or break the staff, and when it is damaged it heals as though it were a living thing (and it doesn't take very long, although Quarterstaff can't use it while it heals). Building that character would be an interesting test of how the system handles a "super-normal".

Edited January 13, 2017 by Michael Hopcroft

[soltakss]

I have run SuperHeroQuest a few times at conventions and it works really well.

Some people don't like the narrative or freeform elements, but the mechanics suit Supers perfectly.

[JonL]

22 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

In traditional supers games, powers are very specifically modeled and generally speaking tend not be be in broad strokes. This differs from the pay it works in an actual four-color comic, where being "the Fastest Man on Earth" is like a keyword and gives the hero abilities limited mainly by his imagination. Which when you think about it is very much how HeroQuest works in general.

Sounds like a great fit of system to genre, the only downside being that this is not how people are accustomed to playing supers games.

Here's a sample modeling question to get an idea how people would handle this, based on a hero I created years ago for the classic Marvel Super Heroes. Quarterstaff is a descendant of Little John (Rubin Hood's Merry Man) and wields his legendary quarterstaff. He can do innumerable tricks with it, including slapping aside bullets, and while using it he has phenomenal reflexes. It takes a lot to damage or break the staff, and when it is damaged it heals as though it were a living thing (and it doesn't take very long, although Quarterstaff can't use it while it heals). Building that character would be an interesting test of how the system handles a "super-normal".

I think the description you wrote there is most of what you need. They main thing that HeroQuest doesn't give you from the mechanics is the fictional context of what is possible. Once you have that (which your write up clearly provides), you just need to assign a rating to it somehow and perhaps define a breakout or few for any standout applications.

I would also probably have a one or more other abilities relating to the heritage angle. Is Quarterstaff also a large & strong individual with the ironic surname of "Little?" Is there an immortal monk in a one of the Nottingham caves who has been the custodian of the artifact in between times of great need?

[RosenMcStern]

On 13/1/2017 at 6:37 PM, Michael Hopcroft said:

Here's a sample modeling question to get an idea how people would handle this, based on a hero I created years ago for the classic Marvel Super Heroes.

Problem is... your description is incomplete. It is below 100 words, so it cannot be used with the narrative method to create Quarterstaff. You ought to list explicitly the staff powers in order to create the character, or else you have generic keywords that get penalised when you use them. What we know so far:

Quarterstaff is a descendant of Little John (Robin Hood's Merry Man) and wields his legendary quarterstaff. He can do innumerable tricks with it, including slapping aside bullets, and while using it he has phenomenal reflexes. It takes a lot to damage or break the staff, and when it is damaged it heals as though it were a living thing (and it doesn't take very long, although Quarterstaff can't use it while it heals).

So far we have two umbrella keywords, quarterstaff and innumerable tricks, and one flaw (cannot use it while it heals). A comprehensive list of tricks would reduce the umbrella keyword to one. There are less than 70 words in that narrative, and some redundancies, so we could safely add 35 more words to enrich the characters.