RPG Design Patterns

Conflicted Gauge (wound traits can be used to aid success in some kinds of conflicts even though they are most easily conceptualized as penalties), Currency, Game Master, Negotiated Contest, Race, Rank, Resource (“Hero Points”), Template, Trauma Gauge

HeroQuest characters are almost entirely trait based. All characters possess a resource known as “Hero Points” that are spent in raising ranks in the character’s various traits. It can also be expended to improve the outcomes of conflicts in the hero’s favor.

All characters do have a “State of Health,” though, that follows the Trauma Gauge design pattern. The trait can take on one of the following states: “Healthy,” “Hurt,” “Impaired,” “Injured,” “Dying,” or “Dead.” However, this is not a strict ranking, because a character can have multiple “Hurts,” each of which has a detrimental effect on the character’s capabilities.

The remaining character traits fall into the six categories of “Skills,” “Relationships,” “Magical Abilities,” “Personality,” “Followers,” and “Possessions & Wealth.” (To avoid confusion, please note that the “Skills” category is really a list of trait abilities and does not conform to this book’s definition of the term “skill.”) Characters also have a number of “Keywords.” Keywords are especially important in that they convey a character’s “Homeland,” “Occupation,” “Magic,” and “Common Magic.” Keywords are very broad ranked traits which incorporate everything associated with the culture or profession specified. Here we call Keywords “traits” rather than “skills,” even though there are pre-defined write-ups of them in the rulebook. Although these write-ups are often used directly, they really only comprise an extensive list of examples. That is, players are encouraged to create their own as well. So, players either make up their own Keywords or select them from a list of examples. (You could rightly claim that HQ Keywords fall halfway between this book’s definition of “skill” and “trait.”) Even though the Keywords have ranks, they also act as templates, giving lists of suggested traits that characters with the keyword should commonly adopt. For example, the Occupation of “Hunter” suggests characters take the “Archery,” “Track,” and “Wilderness Survival” traits, among others.

Traits are ranked but the ranking scheme is not a simple numeric value. Rather, each trait has a numeric value and a “mastery” value. Twenty is the largest numeric value allowed. If the rank is increased to 21, it automatically drops to 1 and the mastery value associated with the rank increases by 1. Masteries are denoted by the runic symbol ᛗ in HeroQuest. So, a rank 13 trait with 2 masteries is denoted as 13 2.

Conflicts are handled as either “simple contests” or “extended contests.” A simple contest is one which takes only moments to resolve and do not necessarily deal with the primary purpose of the campaign. Simple contests are handled with a single die roll. Extended contests, on the other hand, are conflicts that take more time to resolve. They are essentially broken down into a number of smaller conflicts and commonly require several die rolls to determine a victor.

HeroQuest uses opposed d20 rolls to determine success in conflicts. Each d20 roll is compared to a threshold (determined by the rank of the skill being used by each side). If the die roll comes up as a 1, the action succeeds brilliantly. If it comes up greater than one but less than the threshold, the character succeeds normally. If the result is greater than the target number but less than 20, the action fails. And, finally, if the die rolls a 20 the character fails horribly. These four degrees of success and failure are labeled “Critical,” “Success,” “Failure,” and “Fumble.”

These degrees of success and failure can be “Bumped” up or down in two ways. First, if the character has masteries in the trait being used greater than that of his opponent, he can bump the success result up by the difference in masteries. Second, Hero Points can be used to bump the result. Either way, a Failure can be bumped up to a Success or a Success can be bumped up to a Critical. If a character has masteries “left over” after bumping his success up to Critical, he can apply the remaining masteries to bump down his opponent’s success.

The resulting degrees of success and failure of both sides are compared. Depending on the difference in these outcomes, the overall “level of victory” of the winner is: “Tied,” “Marginal,” “Minor,” Major,” or “Complete.”

In extended contests, the ongoing success of each side is rated in the form of “Advantage Points,” or “APs.” These are initially set based on the rank of the trait being applied as the first action of the conflict. The values wax and wane as each side makes gains or suffers losses in the contest. Before each roll, each side makes an AP bid. Depending on the degree of success of the winner on every roll, the AP bid is multiplied by a value. Depending on both sides the degrees of success in their rolls, the AP is then either merely subtracted from the loser’s AP or actually transferred from the loser to the winner. When either side’s AP total drops to zero or less, the contest is over. The end result of the contest depends on the loser’s final AP total as determined by a table lookup. For combat, a character’s State of Health can be altered to Hurt, Impaired, Injured, or Dying.

On the first action of an extended contest, the aggressor’s action goes first followed by his opponent’s. If the contest is not over (neither side’s AP total has dropped to zero or less), a new round begins with each person taking his turn in a round robin fashion. So, in general, the same character takes the first action on each round.

HeroQuest rewards players through the distribution of Hero Points. At the start of every adventure, each character gains 1 to 5 points. A long and arduous adventure lasting several sessions will earn a character another 1 to 5 points, depending on the group’s overall success and on the quality of role- play.