Genre Pack Use Cases

[Archivist]

Here are a couple of common "use cases" (situations) where the RPG or genre has a thing that I'd like to implement, but I'm not sure how to do so in HeroQuest 2. I don't need some incredibly complicated mechanical subsystem. Something along the level of complexity of "you have the flaw Y and you  must test against that when Y happens to do Z"

Use Case 1: Characters have a power, but the power is dangerous to use or of limited use.

Example: In Chronicles of Darkness Werewolf the Forsaken RPG, staying in Garou form for too long causes Rage, which means your character can loose control and start killing everything around them in Berserk rage.

Example: In World of Darkness Orpheus RPG, projecting yourself into the realm of the dead for too long is risky - at some point your physical body might die if you stay for too long

Example: Andy McGee from Stephen King's Firestarter. He can control minds, but the more resistent the target is the more likely he'll damage himself.

Use Case 2: Characters have a 'stat' that impacts their behavior / abilities based on their action.

Example: Vampire the Masquerade's Humanity mechanic. Each time the Vampire does a thing more terrible than the last, he tests to see if his Humanity degrades further. The lower the Humanity, the harder it is to resist Frenzy, seem human, and interact with mortals.

Example: Call of Cthulhu Sanity. As the character encounters mythos entities or uses spells, their Sanity degrades. Degraded sanity results in derangements.

Example Unknown Armies madness meters, Delta Green sanity. As the character does or is exposed to terrible things, they develop derangements and are less able to deal effectively with horrible things.

[jrutila]

I would turn these into settings things. HeroQuest is about the story. Think of a movie. There is no meter measuring when the vampire is too far away from the humanity. At some point in the movie it does something inhuman. All those "use cases" you described are just things that are happening in those worlds.

Now, there will be contests that the heroes must face and try to resolve. Those contests are part of the story arc. All of these things you described are fuel for the outcomes of the contests. For example, if in the Firestarter game the hero tries to control someone's mind and gets a Major Defeat the damage to himself happens. You don't really need a system for those specific things. Think of them as a setting thing and narration tools.

Don't know if this was any help but that is how I think HQ handles these things. If you long for a system or a rule to handle these special things in the world maybe looking at the original RPG for that world would give you guidance. On the other hand, you are safe with just HQ and following its story-driven contests.

[Archivist]

That makes sense - I'd describe these things in a Genre packs then describe the defeats / failures as the outcomes of contests.

[JonL]

Look also at Marginal Victories as opportunities for that sort of "Succss, but at what cost?" dynamic.

[boztakang]

Use Case 1: Characters have a power, but the power is dangerous to use or of limited use. 

This is easily handled by your description of failure, or by an additional contest if they try to over-use the power.  Ex1: "you feel the Rage building within you, how do you constrain it?"  Ex2: Returning to your body is a contest where the difficulty ramps with time spent in the otherworld.  Ex3: JonL's suggestion above seems good - Marginal success could include some self-damage, or you could again add a contest to resist the self-damage regardless of the success or failure of the actual mind-control (assuming the ability use warrants two contests worth of narrative attention) or you could rule that Mind Control always works, but that "failures" are just "costly success" - leading to the self-harm.

Use Case 2: Characters have a 'stat' that impacts their behavior / abilities based on their action. 

I see two good ways to handle this, as lingering penalties, or Flaws. Just apply Lingering Penalties liberally, and make them harder to remove than normally suggested. -or- Particularly bad defeats might give a Vampire char "Flaw: Tenuous grip on humanity" or an Investigator "Flaw: Paralyzing spear of spiders (or fish-men, or...)" or similar. You can, of course, mix and match to taste.

As a house-rules Idea, you could make these Flaws work more like a normal skill, and increase it's rating as desired, rather than tying it to other skill ratings like you normally would for a Flaw.

As a rule of thumb I would suggest that if the downside should be temporary, use Lingering Penalty. If "permanent" use a Flaw.

[JonL]

On 3/4/2018 at 9:06 AM, Archivist said:

Use Case 2: Characters have a 'stat' that impacts their behavior / abilities based on their action.

Example: Vampire the Masquerade's Humanity mechanic. Each time the Vampire does a thing more terrible than the last, he tests to see if his Humanity degrades further. The lower the Humanity, the harder it is to resist Frenzy, seem human, and interact with mortals.

Example: Call of Cthulhu Sanity. As the character encounters mythos entities or uses spells, their Sanity degrades. Degraded sanity results in derangements.

Example Unknown Armies madness meters, Delta Green sanity. As the character does or is exposed to terrible things, they develop derangements and are less able to deal effectively with horrible things.

I just did a brain-dump on Flaws over in the House-Rules thread. What strikes me as relevant to this case is the idea of engaging in an extremely Extended Contest with one's Flaw. A VtM-style Vampire could have a "Beast Within" Flaw. Whenever the PC struggles with it, keep track of RP for & against. Every time the PC or the Beast hit 5 RP, assess Victory/Defeat. non-Marginal results will impact the severity of the Flaw going forward as the PC evolves a more harmonious relationship with its dark side or falls further into its shadow.