Using HQ:G for hero questing in an RQ:G campaign

[Valnar]

I'm contemplating switching to HQ for running an hero quest in my RQ:G campaign. Has anyone else done this? Am I insane? Will I drive my players insane? Will they hate me? Any tips for converting RQ chars to HQ? 

[jajagappa]

7 minutes ago, Valnar said:

I'm contemplating switching to HQ for running an hero quest in my RQ:G campaign. Has anyone else done this?

As someone who runs both HQG and RQG games, I'd just note that you don't need to switch from RQG to HQG to do a hero quest. They can be run in RQG as well - you just need to think stats or skill tests for obstacles vs. an abstract difficulty (RQG Opposed Rolls work well for these).

HQG does provide a lot of ideas for developing stations/stages, etc. through a quest.

11 minutes ago, Valnar said:

Will I drive my players insane? Will they hate me?

Depends on your players. But HQG has a very different mindset - it is narrative, not simulationist - and that can throw off both players and GM. The natural instinct going into HQG will be to try to run events like combat as if they were RQG, and doing so will likely render situations the PC's can't/barely survive. 

14 minutes ago, Valnar said:

Any tips for converting RQ chars to HQ?

Rough guidelines:

• Top 3 Runes become their HQG runes - add initiate status under the preferred rune
• Include top passions either as abilities or flaws
• if reputation is high, or based on certain event, include that as another ability (e.g. "well-known in Nochet" or "the butcher of Whitewall"
• Put special Rune points under the relevant HQG runes
• create keywords for culture and occupation
• select top 5-7 skills as breakouts from culture or occupation (or as standalone) - others just fall under keywords
• select 1-2 characteristics (either high or low) as part of a "distinguishing characteristic" or distinct ability
• if distinguishing characteristic not from a characteristic stat, determine what personality trait (perhaps from runes or passions) and add distinguishing characteristic from that
• add any familiars/bound spirits as companions
• special magic items/family heirlooms get a distinct ability

Do not try to put everything on the RQG sheet into distinct HQG abilities - you are trying to distill the "flavor" of the character into succinct items that would be called out. 

[Valnar]

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

As someone who runs both HQG and RQG games, I'd just note that you don't need to switch from RQG to HQG to do a hero quest. They can be run in RQG as well - you just need to think stats or skill tests for obstacles vs. an abstract difficulty (RQG Opposed Rolls work well for these).

One of the reasons I'm considering HQ, is because the hero plane is not the physical world and to my mind if a hero quest is the full journey to the god time type then the characters are some sort of amalgam of their real word self and the role they are playing in the myth. Which means the players should be able to some (or maybe all) the things a god or hero can, which rather breaks the whole real world modelling of the RQ rule set. 

 

[jajagappa]

23 minutes ago, Valnar said:

to my mind if a hero quest is the full journey to the god time type then the characters are some sort of amalgam of their real word self and the role they are playing in the myth.

If you and your players feel comfortable making the switch (at least for the Hero Quest), then I wouldn't discourage it. You can cast their HQG self as how they appear in the mythic world - those parts of their characteristics that have enough "presence".

[soltakss]

On 7/17/2019 at 1:14 PM, Valnar said:

I'm contemplating switching to HQ for running an hero quest in my RQ:G campaign. Has anyone else done this? Am I insane? Will I drive my players insane? Will they hate me? Any tips for converting RQ chars to HQ? 

Personally, I wouldn't bother, and I am a ig fan of HeroQuest.

Instead, I'd use those aspects of HeroQuest The Game that you think would work better for an actual HeroQuest and bring them into play in RQG.

So, for example, if you think that Extended Contests would work well on a HeroQuest, just port them into RQG.

On 7/17/2019 at 3:01 PM, Valnar said:

One of the reasons I'm considering HQ, is because the hero plane is not the physical world and to my mind if a hero quest is the full journey to the god time type then the characters are some sort of amalgam of their real word self and the role they are playing in the myth. Which means the players should be able to some (or maybe all) the things a god or hero can, which rather breaks the whole real world modelling of the RQ rule set. 

It does, and it doesn't.

You can still use the concepts of HeroQuest the Game on a HeroQuest. For example, in RQG, casting Bladesharp gives you a particular effect, as does casting Lie. However, on a HeroQuest, you could equally well just use Bladesharp or Lie as effects, in the same way that someone with Keywords with Breakouts of Bladesharp and Lie could. In other words, you have more of a Narrative session when on a HeroQuest. using Jumping to jump over a chasm that would normally be impossible is OK on a HeroQuest, no matter what the actual rules for the Jumping spell may be.

For me, HeroQuest the Game has several things that make it really good: It is scalable, it is Narrative and rules are simply guidelines to help the story along. With the exception of scalability, the same things could be introduced in a RQG game quite easily.

[jrutila]

Just an off-note to make life easier: you could use the form HeroQuest of the rules system. And when you are writing about heroquesting you can use the lowercase form. HeroQuest is a proper noun and heroquest is just a noun.

[Hteph]

I have also been thinking of this, mostly because I feel the narrative focus of HeroQuest feels better to me thematically and I also want a divisor between "here we are murderhobos" and "now we emulate important mythic stuff".

The HQ character making is also easy enough (when you get a hang of it) that it is possible to make a new "character projection" for each individual heroquest, putting emphasis on what mythic role (if any) the RQ character take on.

[Chekmx]

Just to say that I had the same thought.  has anybody done this yet?

[Valnar]

I've not done it yet. The campaign has moved slightly more slowly towards the planned hero quest than I anticipated. I'm actually thinking of swapping the whole thing to HeroQuest , partly because of the players propensity to go off at tangents, it appears easier to wing things under HQ. I'm going to run a none Gloranthan HQ one shot first to try the system out in actual play. 

[Lloyd Dupont]

I changed rule set 4 times in a few months.. Players still joke about it! 😛
(Just sharing Classic Fantasy => Mythras => BRP => Revolution D100)

I guess it depends of the players.. mention that you'd like to try to see how it goes... implying it's both an experiment and you can roll back..

The only real issue is if they bought materials (rule book and the like) and you made them waste money that way.. 😕

Since I earn good money I bought rule book for my players, because I was sorry one of them did buy a book and I changed the ruleset.

[Atgxtg]

On 7/17/2019 at 8:14 AM, Valnar said:

I'm contemplating switching to HQ for running an hero quest in my RQ:G campaign. Has anyone else done this? Am I insane? Will I drive my players insane? Will they hate me? Any tips for converting RQ chars to HQ? 

Are you just going to use HQ for the HeroQuests, or to handle the whole campaign?

I think just doing it for the HeroQuests is a bad idea as players will have a harder time judging their abilities and if they are ready to go on a HeroQuest or not as their actual game stats won't be the same. If, on the other hand, you want to charge over entirely to HQ it is a bit easier as the players will have the chance to become familiar with the new system, and how their characters work in it. Which ever way you are going with it, make sure to give the players some sort of "dry run" adventure in order to learn the new system and how thier players can function in it.

 

As for RQ to HQ conversion, based on the info from earlier editions of HW/HQ, I'd say Mastery in RQ (90%+skill) is probably equal to two masteries in HQ, instead of one. So you could convert skills over at Skill%/2-5. But I'd also suggest making sure that a character ends up with enough keywords, bumping stuff up to the 13 minimum (appox 36% in RQ).

 

 

 

 

[soltakss]

On 9/22/2019 at 5:46 AM, Hteph said:

I have also been thinking of this, mostly because I feel the narrative focus of HeroQuest feels better to me thematically and I also want a divisor between "here we are murderhobos" and "now we emulate important mythic stuff".

For me, I can have a campaign of murder hobos in HeroQuest as easily as in RuneQuest, as well as emulating mythic stuff in RuneQuest and HeroQuest.

That kind of thing is just a state of mind. 

[Hteph]

10 minutes ago, soltakss said:

For me, I can have a campaign of murder hobos in HeroQuest as easily as in RuneQuest, as well as emulating mythic stuff in RuneQuest and HeroQuest.

That kind of thing is just a state of mind. 

Yes, of course you are right, it is all about presentation and intent, I was more after the effect that changing system as a marker of that change of mindset. Then I also think HQ is a easier (for me at least) to build and maintain a mythic heroquest.

In RQ I like to like to be down to earth and gritty, the change to HQ allows me to use pastell and four colour and keeping the systems for that separate and not bleeding into each other.