Does role-playing in a world brought to life from the pages of Shoujo Manga appeal to you? Just curious what in the name of all that is Holy Shoujo Manga is? Then this review is what you've been waiting, and maybe the game too.
Post originally by Stitch at 2004-05-21 06:45:23
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> Which leads to my next painful disclosure of
> honesty: this game just does not appeal to me
Not a bad review, but obviously quite colored by your preference. I'll admit: I don't think I'd go for it either. But this comment (and your dissatisfaction with Fudge) leads me to think that you're a "gaming" oriented gamer faced with a "dramatic/story-driven" rpg.
I can't remember where I read the distinction, but it made sense; someone drew broad categories of RPG: Simulationist, where you're trying to exactly replicate a reality, even if it's not ours (there's a roll for EVERYTHING, should you choose to use it), Gaming (where gameplay is easier but the thing feels more "gamey"--like the artificial class-based world of d20) and Dramatic (where the rules are as light as possible and generally only used when necessary).
Fudge tends to be more of a "dramatic" ruleset--very light, very flexible, easy to get the basics of, but extremely grainy. I highly recommend it (or the fudge variant of "FATE") for introducing new players to RPGs. People whose eyes glaze over at the idea of "er, you have a 14 strength, so on a scale of 3 to 18 with around 11-12 being average, that means you're slightly above average, which means maybe a +1 to your damage rolls, which you can calculate after your to-hit roll, which is done by taking your base THACO plus..." can easily get behind "you are a GOOD swordsman, so by rolling four dice which show +1, +1, 0, -1 you get a net +1 for a GREAT attack against your opponent's FAIR defense"
My point is this: Fudge is a great system paired with the right group and setting. Taken out of context, it's lousy--just like trying to run a complex fine-grained battle using the base d20 mechanics or using the voluminous charts of SpaceMaster for what should have been a three-second knockdown punch.
And if I'm reading the setting and intended play of HeartQuest, I'm guessing that Fudge is a reasonable rules-light system to go with it. Although it does beg the question "why not BESM?" which is already an existing well-supported flexible system clearly oriented toward anime. Of course, then you have licensing issues, but you can't have everything.
Post originally by Drew Stevens at 2004-05-21 07:43:38
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First, either you're WAY out of the loop and still thinking of GDS, or you're misremembering GNS.
Second, you've confused rules light with dramatic/narrativist; a common and untrue association. The crunch of the system is almost independent of the creative agenda it's after.
FUDGE is, on it's own, a Simulation that's intended to be tweaked for simulating a genre. HeartQuest doesn't do much tweaking, and what it does, it reserves almost entirely for Combat- which is, by definition a competitive activity, a Gamist agenda.
HeartQuest purports to be a game focused on shoujo storytelling, but that's really not the case; it's fluff that talks about the genre tropes of shoujo, without coming up with a system that encourages a shoujo playstyle or story to emerge.
Post originally by Patrick Riley at 2004-05-21 10:42:00
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<i>it's fluff that talks about the genre tropes of shoujo, without coming up with a system that encourages a shoujo playstyle or story to emerge.</i>
Then again, some people would say that playstyle and story come primarily from the players and all you need is a functional, simple rule system to help make decisions like "Was my box lunch good enough to win his heart?" And if you had a system that overtly encourages such play and story, it ultimately gets in the way by "game-izing" elements that should be left to actual roleplaying. System does matter--it has to know when not to be there.
Post originally by Owl at 2004-05-22 01:52:14
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<i>Then again, some people would say that playstyle and story come primarily from the players and all you need is a functional, simple rule system to help make decisions like "Was my box lunch good enough to win his heart?" And if you had a system that overtly encourages such play and story, it ultimately gets in the way by "game-izing" elements that should be left to actual roleplaying. System does matter--it has to know when not to be there.</i>
I'd go for Heroquest. Augmenting your "Cooking" skill with your "Love for Bob" ability makes perfect sense and takes three seconds to figure out the numbers at the most? I must be addicted to Heroquest by now as much as I praise it to my friends and online. The munchies ought to come any time now.
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