So my group is one of the groups that is mainly adults who have issues with scheduling get togethers.  I admit, I am one of the issues.  Since my divorce, I have my daughter every other weekend.  That means, flat out, I am out every other weekend unless a holiday or such moves it.  Others have their own scheduling issues.  We were playing Castles & Crusades, but the gaps between games meant every time we got together, we had to spend a good amount of time catching a few of the guys up.  Enter, an idea to try a game where I would wrap it up each session and leveling up was not so important.  Enter, HeroQuest 2E.

I sent feeler-emails out to the guys, asking what kind of one-shot they would be interested in.  Fantasy and witch-hunting were two of the ideas that came back.  Working on that, I presented a very high level picture of the world.  Going old world style, similar to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but not the same.  Also, the characters are part of the Theocracy, and are sent out on missions similar to Steakley's Vampire$.  We were all good so far.  Some guys made characters early, some did it when we got together.

Essential part of the concept is The Codex.  A militant religious order that the characters could be members of.  This is the group that hands out the assignments above.

Shaoul - a Justicar of the Codex, modeled after Judge Dredd.  Idea is he performs judgment and punishment for crimes, instead of being meted out in a court.  He is considered to be a court.
Aristes - a Fist of the Codex.  The muscle.  The one who is called to go and break things, or destroy things.
Justin - a Blade of the Codex.  If you've seen or played Assassin's Creed, you know what this character is modeled after.  (Played by the 10 year old son of Aristes' player).
Tal - a bounty tracker.  Not a member of the Codex, but if you want to find something, this is the guy you hire.  He almost always finds and gets what he is paid to.
Filos (renamed Falus, because of our group - phonetic, but not spelled correctly) - a very well-connected noble son, known for his dad's money and his extravagances, as well as his affairs.

The party starts off being summoned to the Codex by the Shadow Speaker of the Codex.  The seers are blinded to a blight that has falled on the town of Phaffenchen.  It is an agricultural town known for exports of grains, livestock, and the shrine to the Codex that is there.  The blight was brought to the attention of the Codex by the family of Falus - as they have seen an impact to financials.  The seers cannot say what is blocking their visions, but the players are able to determine that it could be:

a) Opposing forces that are using magic to obscure
b) a creature of such great evil that it blocks out the visions

The 3 Codex members along with Falus headed to the Prancing Crawdad looking for Tal to assist.  Tal was on the job, watching one of the gamblers focused on the crawdad fights.  The party arrives, and Falus spots his friend.  But Aristes notices that one of the gamblers is using magic.  He asks for the magicker's papers.  The magicker tries to bribe him with money, then tries to bolt and run.  Justin puts a hand out to stop him, using his hidden blade and sliding it in-between the ribs.  He slowly eases the passing gambler back into his seat.  During this, another gambler made a side comment about the magicker using magic again.  Shaoul and Aristes go to question the man who knew of the unlicensed magick.  They take his tongue when he tries to lie.  Tal's original target tries to bolt at this point, but Tal has been moving around to the door during the whole incident, and cold-cocks the mark as he tries to flee.  A few side-comments from the barkeep results in him losing a finger to the Fist, along with getting a decent grievance settlement against the Codex.  It appears this particular Fist, Aristes, has had many such grievances filed against him.

The party travels to Phaffenchen uneventfully, meeting with a closed gate during the middle of the day.  They find a charnel pit outside of the village, where dead livestock is being burned.  Upon investigation, they find grievous bestial wounds on the livestock.  They hail the guards and the mayor is brought to the gates.  Upon proof of being Codex, they are allowed inside.  Through discussion, they find out that just over 2 fortnight ago, 3 Codex members showed up, stayed in the mayor's house for 3 days, and then left.  After that, killings started, always outside of the palisade.  The party split up at this point, Shaoul and Falus going to check the mayor's house, Aristes going to check the Shrine, and Justin and Tal just doing general gossip and digging into the crowd.

Aristes finds that one of the volumes of the codex is missing from the shrine.  It is the volume dealing with summoning spirits and binding them to victims.  In place of the volume is a wood block that looked like the book spine, but instead had evil sigils carved upon it.  He questions the elderly Keeper of the Codex, who was not aware of the theft.  It was guessed that the 3 imposters were the culprits.

As Justin and Tal walk through the market, someone bumps into Justin.  A note is slipped into his tunic.  The note says the imposters went northeast every night they stayed in the town. Justin used his shadow training to follow the person that deposited the note, finding an herb shop that the person entered from the back door.  He sent Tal to get the others, while he stayed there and kept an eye on the place.

At the mayor's house, Shaoul and Falus investigate.  Shaoul finds reason to suspect something under the beds, and moves them.  There he finds carvings in the floor.  Evil runes that are used in binding spirits.  Falus investigates the house and find that he has caught the eye of the mayor's daughter.  She asks him to meet her after nightfall outside the palisade.  Tal shows up and gathers the others, who all head to the herb shop.

Upon arrival, they confront the woman tending the store, only to find out she is one of the Eyes of the Codex.  Trained spies who live their lives among the common people, watching for any events that might indicate issue.  They ask why she hasn't contacted the Codex, and learn that she has sent weekly missives since the killings started.  She tells them of a copse of woods that the strangers went to.  But she is not trained for combat.  She did what was required of her, and what she was capable of.  When they leave, the Codex members knock over her carts and shop goods so she doesn't appear to receive special treatment.

They return to the mayor's house and destroy the bindings.  They party gets prepared to head to the copse of woods.  They should arrive shortly before nightfall.  But Falus has other plans, and flatly states that his specialty is not combat, plus he has a meeting scheduled.  So the party splits again, with 4 heading to the woods, and 1 heading outside the palisade at night.

The party at the copse encounter an old idol with 3 effigy set up on it.  One appears to be a boar, another a wolf, and the third a woman.  The woman looks remarkably like the mayor's daughter.  They proceed to destroy the altar.  During the process, as they are using magic to dispel the ancient god's foothold here, a larger than possible boar with flaming red eyes and foot long tusks attacks.  Tal steps in and counters it, grappling with the beast.  The others destroy the effigies, weakening the beast.  They fight continues, with the others defeating the dark god while Tal manages to defeat the possessed beast.  They discuss the effigies and head back toward town.

Back in town, darkness has fallen.  Falus bribes the gate guards to let him out with a code to be used to let him back in.  He has the rendezvous with the mayor's daughter.  After a brief meal and a not-brief physical session, Falus is tired.  The mayor's daughter gets up and walks away, saying she is ready to replenish her needs, and she hungers for him.  She turns and her blazing eyes, black claws, and fangs catch in the moonlight.  Falus, though, had oracular visions earlier in the day.  He saw something wrong this night.  So he left a note for the mayor saying his daughter was going to be outside the palisade that night.  They see torches off in the distance, so Falus takes off running toward them.  The beast gives chase.  Falus realizes the beats may likely catch him, but the daughter's affection seemed real.  He turns on the charm, and tries to talk her out of this.  Unbelievable, this starts working.  She really did desire him, and she is fighting the possession with his help.  Between the two of them, she is able to drive the spirit out of her.  They go to the guards, and head back toward the gate.

The rest of the party arrives as they are about to the gate.  The Codex claim she is possessed.  She admits she was, but is no longer thanks to Falus.  The Fist and Justicar investigate the guards and find that the spirit fled to one of them.  They restrain him, so he tries to swallow his tongue.  The Fist binds the spirit to the flesh, so even if the host dies, it will be trapped.  Then they head out looking for the wolf.  They find it and make surprisingly quick work of the wolf through a lot of hero points.

------------------------------

All in all, it was a good first session.  Or one-shot, if we never go back to that setting.  Everyone enjoyed it.  It was refreshing to see someone use their abilities to overcome the challenge without it being violence.  I like that this system encourages that.  Frame the contest, and say how you are trying to win it.

It sounds like you guys had a great session, and I hear you on liking that abilities, other than the martial, are used to overcome challenges.

HeroQuest 2 is one of my favorite narrative systems. You can play pretty much any setting at the drop of a hat. I also like that it doesn't feel all loosey-goosey while hammering the rule of kewl. Some of the most grounded and serious feeling sessions I've ever run were with HQ2.

Yes, everyone had a blast.  The 10 year old got bored when there wasn't blood, but that's pretty standard for him.  I liked the way most folks built their characters; a good amount of depth and possibility.  We did a modified play as you go / list.  I gave them 11 abilities to lay out, with 1 being a possible breakout/keyword.  Then I offered up to 3 flaws, that I would use to cause character drama, but also for hero points.  It went very well.

I also used the HeroQuest Glorantha conceit that, in case of a tie, high roll wins.  That allows the guy at 19 who rolls a 17 to beat the guy with a 6 who rolls a 5.

Did they buy the rights to HeroQuest from Milton Bradley or Games Workshop? Or is this an RPG based on the HeroQuest board game?

Quote from: Ulairi;980122Did they buy the rights to HeroQuest from Milton Bradley or Games Workshop? Or is this an RPG based on the HeroQuest board game?

It's this.

https://rpggeek.com/rpg/1618/heroquest-2nd-edition

Or, if you prefer PDF, this:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/65600/HeroQuest-Core-Rules?manufacturers_id=2

I would recommend the HeroQuest Glorantha version for better reading.  But the one I just linked there is very serviceable.  HQ:G has made some changes as well, as it is built for running in Glorantha.

Quote from: Ulairi;980122Did they buy the rights to HeroQuest from Milton Bradley or Games Workshop? Or is this an RPG based on the HeroQuest board game?

Just to give you background, heroquesting is a thing in Glorantha. There was always a planned game/supplement to RuneQuest called HeroQuest that they never got around to before Milton Bradley used the name for their unrelated game. When MB let the rights to the name lapse, it got grabbed again for the Gloranthan-based 1st edition of HeroQuest.

From the publisher

QuoteHeroQuest is the innovative, dynamic, and flexible rules engine by Robin Laws, suitable for play in any genre or setting. It present a simple and flexible system that allows Game Masters to make decisions the way authors and screenwriters do when creating novels, TV episodes and movies.

HeroQuest encourages creative input from your players, resulting in an exciting, unpredictable narrative created through group collaboration. Its resolution methods and scalable character levels make it equally suited for any genre, from epic fantasy to satirical soap opera.

Whether your next game idea draws on horror, war, westerns, martial arts, pulps, cyberpunk, cliff-hangers, giant robots, super-powered heroes, space opera, cop action, corporate intrigue, furry animals, swashbuckling adventure, Greek tragedy or even drawing room comedy, HeroQuest can handle it! You can even use HeroQuest to emulate a musical - although it won't do the singing or dancing for you.

In before the move to Other Games.

This would be much more useful if it described the actual interactions at the table and how the rules were used, instead of being a chronicle of events purely from the in-game perspective.

I have a soft spot for HQ2.  Good to hear you're having fun with it Imaginos:)

Quote from: Imaginos;980128Or, if you prefer PDF, this:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/65600/HeroQuest-Core-Rules?manufacturers_id=2

I would recommend the HeroQuest Glorantha version for better reading.  But the one I just linked there is very serviceable.  HQ:G has made some changes as well, as it is built for running in Glorantha.

Is the Heroquest Glorantha available in pdf? I may need to spring for the hardcopy.

Quote from: Voros;980210Is the Heroquest Glorantha available in pdf? I may need to spring for the hardcopy.

It is, but only direct from Chaosium.  I cannot link to their site from work (they are blocked).  I ordered my hardcopy from GameNerdz (it was $30) but they are out of stock.

Quote from: Arminius;980137This would be much more useful if it described the actual interactions at the table and how the rules were used, instead of being a chronicle of events purely from the in-game perspective.

I second this motion.

I own Hero Wars and Heroquest (the two predecessors to Heroquest 2E) and the rules never clicked for me. I'd be interested in seeing how someone actually used the rules in play.

Quote from: Bren;980323I second this motion.

I own Hero Wars and Heroquest (the two predecessors to Heroquest 2E) and the rules never clicked for me. I'd be interested in seeing how someone actually used the rules in play.

Here's a quick summary of a Robotech: Macross Saga game I ran a while back, with some system details:

http://platonicsolid.blogspot.com/2009/08/heroquest-20-mecha-veritech.html

Quote from: Eisenmann;980326Here's a quick summary of a Robotech: Macross Saga game I ran a while back, with some system details:

http://platonicsolid.blogspot.com/2009/08/heroquest-20-mecha-veritech.html

Thanks, though other than for a couple of attacks with the GU-11 I'm not seeing where it is clear what was rolled or the result of the roll. Also it would be helpful to have stats for the opponents to get a better sense of the mechanics.

To be fair, part of my problem is also that I'm not too knowledgeable about Veritech so when you say in paragraph 3, "As the veritech changes modes to evade enemy fire..." I don't know what mode he changed to. I assume he started in Fighter mode since he was on patrol and that he changed to a mode with a better maneuverability than the Fighter's Maneuverability 6 for evasion, but I don't know if that was Guardian (Maneuverability or Battloid (Maneuverability 12). Also, if in Battloid mode, when would the player roll for Poor Flight 15 (-3).

Also, is the (-3) a die roll mod for any Flight rolls?