Post originally by Rob Donoghue at 2004-10-18 06:17:23
Converted from Phorums BB System

Let me begin by giving mad props where they are deserved – Heroquest is brilliant. I picked up Hero Wars (the earlier version) purely on the strength of Robin Laws’ name and while editing and layout made is almost entirely incomprehensible, after much digging, I determined that there was a really cool game in there, dying to get out. That game was Heroquest, and I think it’ s pretty awesome.

I’m doing a disservice to abbreviate it like so, but the core element of Heroquest (Aside form a fairly slick d20 based mechanic) is the idea that your character is based on words, ranging from the mundane “Merchant” or “Doctor” to the more specific and esoteric “Seven Devil Bag” or “Ranging Cow Dance”. These words can be almost anything, and will have a value assigned to them so you can roll them when appropriate. All of your stats and skills and advantages and disadvantages and notable equipment and everything else you can think of I handled this way.

Fate ends up being a little more structured (and in some ways a little more traditional) in that the skills are pretty normal. The similarity comes from the aspects, which have a similar degree of flexibility to the keywords of HQ.

Now, here’s an important additional issue about HQ. It has a rich, deep setting, one of the richest in all of gaming. The important thing that the keywords bring to the table (And which aspects can also provide) is not the traditional fantasy elements but rather the specific cultural elements of the setting.

Without dipping into Gloranthan lore, I’ll switch to history for an example. Suppose you have a player who wants to play a priest in a Musketeer game. That’s easy, in most any system, since it’s a fairly common trope. Generally, the priests will look mechanically the same, and distinctions like different sects, orders and creeds will either express themselves purely through roleplay, or through other skill selections (A protestant in the court of the Sun King probably has a lot of deception-oriented skills, for example).

In HQ, keywords presume a context. If you choose something as broad as “Priest” then it should be obvious from the cultural context of your character that you are actually a particular type of priest. More likely, however, you are a “Jesuit Missionary” or “Lutheran Rabble Rouser” or the like. This has an interesting two-fold impact. First, it gives you a lot more leeway in what a given Keyword can allow. While Priest might be rolled in only a few situations, these more detailed Keywords are more broadly applicable. Second, that breadth is based on how interesting the keyword itself is. If you know a little bit about the Jesuit order, for example, you can make a case for applying your “Jesuit Missionary” level to things like scholarship and debate, even outside of the usual theological realm.

(In contrast, in Fate, you would have the aspect “Jesuit” which you could use in any skill roll where Jesuit training or connections would be apt, but which can also be used as a drawback if you end up someplace that doesn’t like Jesuits)

Now, this approach really shines when the player and the GM have a solid shared understanding of the world, which is what makes it such a good match for HQ. As I observed earlier, the HQ world (Glorantha) is crazily detailed, and most of its fans are playing it for the setting, so the cultural context of descriptors is a given. Alternately, even without that depth, if the players and GM have similar storytelling sensibilities, it can work out very well.

There are other similarities – in my mind there’s some overlap in the handling of combat, but that may just be hubris on my part. But the keywords/Aspects thing is the big one to my mind.

Anyway, I obviously know Fate a lot better than I do HQ, so I welcome corrections and expansions.