Converting Heroquest scenarios to Runequest

[David Scott]

So who out there has actually converted Heroquest adventures like the Colymar Campaign, the Pavis GTA adventures and the coming Storm campaign.

Given that HeroQuest has no stat blocks how much work do you have to put in? Did you use resources like the Mythras character generator or wing it?

Was it worth it in the end? Or did you just use the supplements for flavour? Did you use the HeroQuest cult writeups and RQ them?

Enquiring minds would like to know...

[hkokko]

Many of the encounters in pavis and sartar are in encounter generator.have not done anything for coming storm

[David Scott]

19 minutes ago, hkokko said:

Many of the encounters in pavis and sartar are in encounter generator.have not done anything for coming storm

But have you actually run the scenarios? and if so how much work was it (other than the generator).

Edited April 24, 2017 by David Scott

[Mankcam]

I never find it hard to convert HQ to RQ. I don't have a system, I just wing it.

HQ is so narrative that it provides enough flavour for me to come up with approximate NPCs stats, and often many of the HQ stats translate into behavioural ways to play the NPC rather than into any statistical form.

Magic is the biggest thing to deal with. HQ Magic is much more free-form than RQ, and it sometimes takes alot of work to find RQ spells which fit, although I often makes new ones up if really necessary. Hopefully RQG may be a little easier in that regard.

I never really found game conversion much of any issue, regardless of any system.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Mankcam

[Pentallion]

There isn't really such a thing as needing to convert an adventure.  Even if it is a RQ adventure, it must be tailored to the level and abilities of the players.  In HQ, they give you the adventure. That's all you need.  For instance, I've run the Battle of Iceland twice.  Once with miniatures. (WarHamster works great for this btw) In both cases, I just gave the bad guys some stats that made sense, at skill levels that the PCs could handle, but not too easy.  I did this at the moment each particular enemy engaged.  Only prep was understanding what spells, weapons and armor they carried.  Once  you have that basic idea of who they are, the rest is done on the fly.  As for roleplaying, you don't need stats at all to play a part.  I felt Mythras' fatigue rules wer far superior to RQ 3 in handling the long term effects of such a huge battle.

Mostly you just wing it, which is what you do anyways with any adventure.  At least, I do. 

I've run the entire SKOH adventure, pretty much everything in HQ and I just wing it on the fly.  It's easy if you've been playing RQ long enough.  They hit my sorceror for 16?  Okay, I don't want him to die, but I don't want him to be invincible either so he's got a damage resistance 20 up.  Does it matter how long?  Then it will be long enough.  My players quickly realize that the more they force me to define things, the worse it gets for them so just roll with it.

Edited April 25, 2017 by Pentallion

[Mankcam]

I love the HeroQuest system, its really pulpy and handwavey, perhaps the best narrative system out there. 

Despite such, I feel that it is not my favourite system when trying to evoke the Fantasy genre. Maybe it could do classic fables, or possibly something like Wizarding World; but I feel that heroic fantasy, psuedo-historic settings, and sword and sorcery, are better suited to a more simulationist ruleset for me.

If I want to play Hyboria or Glorantha, then rules like RuneQuest seem to work better for me.

I really would love to see HeroQuest in a pulpy setting like Hong Kong Action Cinema or Hollywood Action Flick style. Characters like Lethal Weapon's Riggs or even Magnum PI and good old Macgyver seem to be perfect for portrayal with HQ. The Fast and The Furious also spring to mind.

However converting HQG is quite easy, so I am more than happy to buy Gloranthan products regardless of whether they are made for RQ or HQG.

When RQG is released, I am quite interested in starting the PCs in Apple Lane (using the RQ2 scenario), with options to either moving from Sartar to Pavis & Prax (RQ2 supplements, HQ supplements, or some D&D dungeons for The Big Rubble), or remaining in Sartar (HQ supplements - likely The Coming Storm). Systems don't really factor into my campaigns 

I can easily see the day when Gloranthan products come out in pure narative content, no game mechanics. Then low cost pdfs of 'stat packs' could be purchased online which have the official stats for particular scenarios in different game engines.

Sorry for digressing a bit. In reply to David's original question, I have played HQ supplements using RQ3/BGB, and just winged it in regards to game mechanics.

Edited April 25, 2017 by Mankcam

[g33k]

Most of my group really likes to have "notable" foes have stat-block sheets comparable to their own.  They have no problem with mooks being tracked with utterly-simple check-boxes (drops on one normal hit, two minimum-damage hits), and Plot-Element (unassailable) NPCs having RP-only (no "mechanics") notes; but it really chafes if I'm too hand-wavey with near-peer NPCs' game-mechanics.

Or else what's the point of even having/using those mechanics?

That said -- no, sorry!  I haven't converted any (but I may be converting in the future, and will try to recall this thread and revisit it, if/when I do).

 

[WoeRie]

I converted and played "Rough Busines" from Pavis GTA to MRQ2 and I also started to convert "The Celestial Engine". Of course there are no stat blocks in HQ2, so, I simply decided how the opponents and NPCs should look like compared to the HQ difficulty of the contests and the strength of my players. However, at the end I always handwave difficulties if they get out of hand.

I also finished converting "Kakstan's Art Museum" from Ian Thomson. I think it was in HQ1, but not 100% sure. I did more or less the same, sadly we never played it (until now).

"Converting" from HQ to RQ works fine, as in fact it is no converting, but simply an own creation of the opponent values/stats. As long as they are properly decribed in the book it is quite easy to create them from scratch.

[Pentallion]

You know what I get out of this?  In HQ you have all the narrative, none of the crunchy.  In RQ you have all of the narrative and as much crunchy as your heart desires.

[Pentallion]

4 hours ago, g33k said:

Most of my group really likes to have "notable" foes have stat-block sheets comparable to their own.  They have no problem with mooks being tracked with utterly-simple check-boxes (drops on one normal hit, two minimum-damage hits), and Plot-Element (unassailable) NPCs having RP-only (no "mechanics") notes; but it really chafes if I'm too hand-wavey with near-peer NPCs' game-mechanics.

Or else what's the point of even having/using those mechanics?

That said -- no, sorry!  I haven't converted any (but I may be converting in the future, and will try to recall this thread and revisit it, if/when I do).

 

I think you nailed it.  I use Roll20 almost exclusively nowadays since my group has scattered across the country and we can now only meet up online.  I will pull up a character sheet and create my major NPCs for some occasions.  Especially the recurring ones.  OTOH, my greatest nemesis of all time, the God Learner Tezzerre Aton, never had a single stat created for him.  Yet everyone agrees years later that he was the greatest villain I'd ever created.  I wouldn't want to put stats to him.  It would lessen him.  Which is why I understand the reason to never statting up Argrath or Harrek.

Edited April 25, 2017 by Pentallion

[soltakss]

Most of the HeroQuest scenarios work with RuneQuest as they are "Go there, investigate this, meet these and do something" style of scenario. Just make up RQ stats for the NPCs and it all works.

What I do is to use RQ NPC Stats, in a sketch form and add magic where required. Where a spell is not in RQ, I check my HeroQuest Cults Conversion page and, if the spell isn't in that, then I either make a spell up or use an existing spell. It's not particularly important to get an exact conversion for the NPCs anyway. 

[narsilion]

When i was publishing some scenarios for WFRP 2ed, character generators like this:

 https://www.silverghost.me.uk/wfrp/chargen02.php?race=Human

appeared to be very useful. I took a lot of statblocks from them. Is there any similar statblock/character generator for RQ?

[7Tigers]

You can have a look at
https://basicroleplaying.net/rqg/adversaries/

&

https://www.cradleofheroes.net/

&

https://basicroleplaying.org/files/file/851-npc-squads-txtzip-npc-squadspdf/
 

 

[Akhôrahil]

On 4/29/2017 at 5:58 PM, soltakss said:

Most of the HeroQuest scenarios work with RuneQuest as they are "Go there, investigate this, meet these and do something" style of scenario. Just make up RQ stats for the NPCs and it all works.

Agree. While it's more rote work to convert from HQ to RQ, it's in many ways the easier direction. Any HQ scenario will work structurally in RQ, while some RQ scenarios don't have the narrative "oomph" to work in HQ. People can enjoy a pure dungeoncrawl or fight-fight-fight scenario in RQ in a way they're far less likely to do in HQ.

[Akhôrahil]

On 4/25/2017 at 6:29 AM, Mankcam said:

I really would love to see HeroQuest in a pulpy setting like Hong Kong Action Cinema or Hollywood Action Flick style.

HQ is in many ways quite similar to FATE (through convergent evolution more than any outright influence, I would think), and pulp has always been FATE:s go-to style (it takes an effort to keep FATE from becoming pulpy). So I feel confident that this would work out well.

HQ is also excellent if you want magic and powers to be more free-form than nailed down in what they can do (as RQs are).

Edited June 29, 2023 by Akhôrahil

[Soccercalle]

I "converted" the Colymar Campaign in the old Sartar Book to RQG. How? I made it up as I went along. You dont need to have detailed info about all the NPCs. The most complicated part was the LBQ.