Author Topic: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part Deux  (Read 3798 times)

Mad Dr Jeffe

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HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part Deux
« on: December 30, 2004, 12:57:45 PM »
Curse you Peter Jackson, Curse you James Ronald Ruhl Tolkien, curse you Decipher.... Well curse you Decipher anyway. You had the perfect license the hot gaming commodity of the last 5 years and what did you do,... well nothing apparently for quite a long while. I was disgusted with you for many months after watching RTK, and then I just sold all your books to a used book shop. The books are still there, while copies of 3.5 and Forgotten realms, (forgotten realms for gods sake) moved in and out in a steady stream. So I moved on, found other games, did other things. Tolkien I've discovered through my long love affair with writing loves to wait. He waits unused, dust gathering on the book-jacket until he is eventually found, magic things have a way of being found. It was Jackson in the end that lead me back to the bookshelf, to my dog-eared copies of Tolkien. To my copy of Heroquest a few feet away and to my scribbled notes I was making before some Lieutenant put me on the mid-watch. To the epic conversion I was making to change LOTR to Heroquest, a system that effortlessly changes between short quick takes, and long extended contest. A game where the trait, Loyalty to Frodo can actually be used for something. A game where magic, and myth are easy, and hard because the story and the character are so important and so inseparable. So Lord of the Rings/ Heroquest is back on my front burner, and anyone who wants to come along for the ride, can hop on the conversion train. I have to be very careful, because the Tolkein estate has a nasty habit of suing people who use Tolkein's intellectual property, even if they arent making money off of it. I already know Jams gonna get a copy of my manuscript in the mail soon, because he likes Heroquest.

Key ideas I have in mind...
No Evil player characters...
That means
No Orcs, no Black Numenoreans, No trolls, no Corsairs, no Hardrim, no easterlings, no Uruk Hai.

-Dunlandings are ambiguous because they arent always in the sway of Saruman and will most likely be included.

Of course I have to make up Keywords for them (something I had forgotten to do in the first attempt) but I have to keep them seperate.
Nothing kills a good LOTR setting more than a party of Corsairs and Numenorean and that one good orc, because its completely against the spirit of Tolkiens writing.

So they're out, sort of.

No Woses either, or ultra alien cultures. Beornings exist, but only Beorn can transform Im going to get my buddy Mike to help out with the Tolkein Religion aspect (Valar, Maiar etc) and Each major homeland will get a nice writeup. I may even help setting up a first age, second age, third age set of campaigns.

« Last Edit: December 30, 2004, 01:08:20 PM by ElJeffe »
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Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2004, 01:01:48 PM »
It goes without saying that I want to playtest it,... so anyone thats interested can tell me.
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Oseleon

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2004, 01:16:49 PM »
Quote
Im going to get my buddy Mike to help out with the Tolkein Religion aspect (Valar, Maiar etc) and Each major homeland will get a nice writeup. I may even help setting up a first age, second age, third age set of campaigns.


Do I smell a Tolkien Project  ;D
Alles!!!

Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2004, 01:27:49 PM »
Dont you always,... besides, how would we ever get a chance to hang out if there wasn't a Tolkein project involved.

Mike by the way wrote his senior paper in high school comparing Paradise lost and the Simirillion.

or something like that..
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Oseleon

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2004, 01:35:34 PM »
No, That was the paper... I think I went 10 pages over the maximum for the assignment... With a Teacher who disliked Tolkien (She actualy invited Jeffe and I back to teach "The Hobbit" to future classes)
Got an "A"
But I was still more impressed with the grade Jeffe got considering the length of HIS paper
Alles!!!

Lieutenant Kije

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2004, 01:44:11 PM »
Quote
so anyone thats interested can tell me.


Exactly what does this entail?

And can I be involved and yet not live in Virginia (or its environs)?

Entsuropi

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2004, 01:52:26 PM »
/me starts chanting

For-um game! For-um game! For-um game!
If you're ever in an argument and Entropy winds up looking staid and temperate in comparison, it might be time to cut your losses and start a new thread about something else :)

Fellfrosch

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2004, 02:28:09 PM »
Quote
/me starts chanting

For-um game! For-um game! For-um game!


Ok a quick one
Roll your hero....
Ok the setting is, You are in Numenor, Your party is at the Western docks preparing to board the GREAT FLEET that is preparing to conqure the Undying Lands...

This will be a short game
Alles!!!

Entsuropi

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2004, 03:08:30 PM »
 :'(
If you're ever in an argument and Entropy winds up looking staid and temperate in comparison, it might be time to cut your losses and start a new thread about something else :)

Fellfrosch

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2004, 03:15:54 PM »
RE_RAIL
I think I had a taste of Hero's quest in the past.  I'm curious to know what kind of material will be needed...  
Any excuse to start crackin the books with a goal...
Alles!!!

Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2004, 04:25:11 PM »
Well The only real thing is the Heroquest RPG main book for the rules...
http://www.warehouse23.com/search.cgi?comp=Issaries

$39.00

But I think the players guide might be enough... gotta check

But yes I was thinking a forum game might be just the ticket...

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JP Dogberry

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2004, 10:10:23 PM »
I am SO in. I played Hero Quest once, loved the system but hated the way the GM GMd, and am yet to pick up a copy of the book. Still, the translation to LOTR would work REALLY well.

Here's my one question: How are you going to handle Hero Questing? The idea, as far as I know, doesn't seem to exist in Tolkein's world, but it's a rather major part of Hero Quest.

If you havn't thought of anything, I'd say change the mechanic, whereby Hero Questing isn't taking the form of a previous hero, but rather an action whereby an ordinary person becomes a hero. For example, Frodo having the strength to carry on and do his quest - that's Hero Questing. Boromir taking three arrows to the chest and still fighting? A Hero Quest. Since the mechanic means a lot of +Xs, it fits to me.
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Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2004, 10:31:29 PM »
I like that, a lot, heroquesting does exist in a way for Tolkein, mainly through the telling of tales, events in the third age are echoes in some ways of events in the first or 2nd ages, the scene could shift to a tale of Beren and Luthian for example, or Gil Galad, or Elindil the fair but I also like your suggestion Jam,... I think a melding of the two could create a neat an unique form of Heroquesting.
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Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #13 on: December 31, 2004, 09:25:07 AM »
Quote

Ok a quick one
Roll your hero....
Ok the setting is, You are in Numenor, Your party is at the Western docks preparing to board the GREAT FLEET that is preparing to conqure the Undying Lands...

This will be a short game


This is also one of the reasons I think HQ works best as a rule set. Character creation is never as random as "roll a hero"

the three methods of character creation, ensure that you have a powerful, and balance hero without a single die roll. The system also has no levels and advancement occurs through playing and living.

My favored character creation method is the narrative 100 word paragraph because it allows for a lot of neat character development. Keep in mind that relationships in heroquest are as useful as skills. Keywords are also cool, and a great way to make a unique character, after all why have sword fighting when you can have the Splintering sheild feat or Skewer foe with spear.
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JP Dogberry

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Re: HeroQuest(the RPG) and LOTR conversion part De
« Reply #14 on: January 01, 2005, 08:27:30 AM »
and since a keyword such as "Rider of Rohan" would imply like thirty skills, including all of the basics, the relationships and such become a much mroe defining part of the character.

After all, which is more important - that Aragorn can swing a sword or that he's the king of Gondor?
Go go super JP newbie slapdown force! - Entropy