From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@toppoint.de)
Date: Wed 21 Aug 1996 - 20:13:00 EEST
John Brown aka arkat has a problem with personal experiences within roleplaying.
>Well, I as a person don't go and do something to gain insight about my
Excuse me if I am ignorant of the therapist culture (so often depicted in
Don't you ever face your players with a moral dilemma, and let them fail to
>I'm sure that a PC in the game also
Yeah. You did read Campbell, sure (I'm currently at my first run, and fail
HQing _is_ about personal experiences shared with others. Myth is. The power
Your example about "Who is Yelmalio" is a good one: every Yelmalian/Elmali
>Introspection and overcoming of prejudice may come as a result of
Understanding of any power is the object of a heroquest. More often than not
>It sounds like that Mr. Hughes would like the idea of having several couches
You seem to be prejudiced that problems have to be solved in therapy...
As you have said, you won't play heroquests for personal insights. Fine.
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>personality unless I go see a therapist.
"typical views of American life", like Woody Allen movies), but why the
Hellcrack would anyone go to a therapist when he or she can _experience_ or
insight through a fun action?
sort it out? Make them decide which "lesser evil" to choose? That's a lot
what the HeroQuesting mechanics John has been describing are about. HQing is
_not_ restricted to super-RQ, it needn't include any of it. (It can - Harrek
or Argrath type questing tends to, some Lunar stuff as well. Other Lunar
T&Jing is quite removed from any skill use.)
>doesn't go on an HQ to have some cathartic experience or gain some insight
>into his own personality. A hero goes on an HQ to get something (for himself
>or his people) or to find out something (like who is Yelmalio?). A hero does
>not go on an HQ to find out that the reason he can't trust women is because
>he hated his mother.
to be inspired or impressed by that part), and bought into the Freudian
mistake as well. Your problem. Maybe even worth a session or two, if you
want to do something about it. (Sorry... :)
of myth is that it resonates with some strings deep within you. When that
resonance is absent, the myth doesn't mean much. This is why some "Mythos
and History" sections of cult write-ups maybe describe the mythic actions,
but fail to evoke anything but "gee, what a cool way to power" reaction.
should go on this quest, and find his personal answer. Which may be a part
of a cosmic truth, possibly even a single one. However, a quest yielding a
lexicalic definition of "the god-plane entity falsely appelled as Yelmalio
by unwitting savages" probably fails to register as a heroquest, unless you
are a God Learner and do this as part of your personal quest to
depersonalize all the myths, in order to construct something with them or
raid something out of them. Not even the Loskalmi forays into the
semi-reality beyond the mystical guardian take away the personal experience
from their quests. (Which are the only reason why I think that Loskalm
stands a chance to keep the KoW at bay for as long as it takes Argrath to go
on his LBQ, the Loskalmi wizard-knight-questers can use the resource of
men's dreams which the KoW has cut itself from, thus they can defy the harsh
and brutal reality of the KoW with romantic and dreamlike stunts.)
>heroquesting but it is not the object of the heroquest.
the "power" gained in the quest is the knowledge about the weakness of the
enemy, and a token to use this weakness against the enemy. If the enemy's
power consists of knowledge about the quester's weakness, then introspection
is the reward. Add some flashy piece of armour or heroic ability or whatever
you want to visualize this, it's like a battle magic focus in RQ2. Useful to
have, but not really mandatory.
>at the place where we would play HeroQuest. That way we could all lie down
>and psychoanalyze each other and cure ourselves of problems like prejudices
>both in the game and in our RW lives.
Those won't (can't) be in the rules anyway. They can't be in published
scenarios either, although some of the "problems" can be.
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