As I mentioned in this thread - http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=3228

Other Worlds

Mark Humphreys, Scott Mathis and Mike Holmes, after working on the Questworlds project (until it's subsequent reassignment to the
eminent Robin Laws), have teamed together to create a new role-playing game called Other Worlds.

Other Worlds is very much based on the lessons we learned as a result of that earlier project. As such, it will undoubtedly have some similarities to the base Heroquest system. But it will also be significantly different, reflecting our vision of the sort of game that we always hoped HQ would support (but which it didn't always provide, at least without some modification, and a lot of technique in play). Not a simple imitation of Heroquest, then, but a departure in a specific direction.

Other Worlds will be released as a core rulebook of around 100,000 words. Most of that material will be advice; advice on playing the game, advice on running the game, and advice on adapting the game to any genre or setting you see fit. We will also be including 'genre snapshots' for a wide variety of different genres - Fantasy, Science Fiction, Wild West, Pirates, Horror, Superheroes - to enable you to start playing more or less straight away. The game will be released with some sort of open license, and will be followed up almost immediately with a few more detailed books on how to play with the rules in specific genres, and even specific settings meant for play with the rules. Others will, of course, be able to create their own products based off the core rules as they wish as long as they abide by the details of the specific license.

When will Other Worlds be released? Given that we already have a very strong direction, we're hoping it won't take too long for us to take what we already have, and fashion the text to what we want it to be. We aren't making any promises, but it shouldn't take too long for us to get to an advanced state. That said, we're committed to thoroughly playtesting the game (both internally and independently), and it won't see the light of day until such time as that has happened - however long that takes. Our priority is to get this done right as opposed to getting it done quickly.

Finally, we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who contacted us with messages of support and encouragement. While we are disappointed that we won't be able to continue working on the Questworlds project, we are looking forward to creating our own game for publication. We have spent the last few months re-examining our design goals and making sure that we have something new and interesting to bring to the table. The response from all those who have seen our playtest manuscript has been an unqualified 'yes'. From that perspective, we thank Moon Design Publishing for pushing us on to create the game that we really wanted to make. This is a real labor of love for us and we hope it shows.

We'd be pleased to answer any questions you have about the project in this space.

Hi, Mike. This sounds cool. I am totally unaware of this until your announcement, and I've only skimmed. So, sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but ...

Is this new project of yours the HeroQuest engine, or something totally new? Like, some kind of license or whatever?

Either way, sounds awesome. HQ is one of my favorite systems around, so this can't be a bad thing, even if only "informed" by all the HQ love!

I gives a great idea, Mike. This sounds extremely promising. I'd love to give it a whirl at the big con, perhaps even take a stab at a playtest (though I'd need to make sure my infrequent group is willing & able).

Yep, we owe a debt of gratitude to Brian as the original project co-ordinator for bringing us all onboard. Thanks Brian! I hope that you enjoy the results.

Mike

Rock. Me. You. Lake Geneva Con. Playtest.

I'm not Mike, but I'm betting if he's got it ready for playtest this Saturday, by default it will be ready for playtest at Origins. I'll be down for playtesting there also. Will you be there for the whole thing Marhault? We could throw some dice, regardless of playtesting.

Awesome.

Clyde, yeah, I should be there for most of the Con. I may have to work part (or all) of the days Thursday and Friday (I'm a Columbus local), but I'm sure we can find a chance to meet up.

Mike, I'll have my dice with me this time, if I don't lose them throwing them at Clyde...

Excellent Clyde! Anyone else in the southern Wisconsin/northern Illinois area interested? http://www.trolllord.com/newsite/events/lggc.html

Mike

Sounds fantastic!

-Rob D.

Sorry not to have gotten back to you, Tim, that was rude. Somehow missed the update to the thread.

For now, we'll use space like this to track progress. If at any point we get more organized with a web-site or somesuch, we'll post here and elswhere to let you know.

Thanks,
Mike

Looking forward to this stuff with interest!

Joachim Buchert

Best or luck with this one Mike :)

You and the rest of the Otherworlds team deserve bucket loads of success :D

Hi Flynn,

Thanks for the interest. The current status of things is that I've been a little sidelined taking care of some health issues of late, but Mark has plugged on tirelessly. I've now gotten back on track with him, and I can say that we're getting close to releasing the playtest version. Really close. Many people have indicated interest in doing playtests, and we've made a list of them to whom we'll be sending copies. But if there are others who are interested, please do let us know. Here or by whatever venue you like.

Thanks,
Mike

P.S. Thanks, Newt, for the vote of confidence!

Frankly it's stalled. And this is my fault entirely. Due to changes in my life to which I have not sufficiently adjusted yet.

That's not an excuse, it's an analysis. I should be working harder to get it back on track.

To be clear, Mark is doing a yeoman's job, and the game really is probably playtestable right now. We just need to assemble that playtest edition and get it out. I'll try to do my part to get it back on track.

Sorry for the delay, and thanks very much for your interest.

Mike

Thanks. The support helps immensely. :-)

Mike

Also excited about this. Just sayin.

Add my happy stick to the support bonfire. I'd love to see Otherworlds.

Posted By: Mike HolmesWeekend is coming up. I should have some free time. I'm going to get back on track. That's a promise.

Mike

You have two young children. What is this "free time" you speak of?

~Andrew

Excited!!!

Terrific!

I'm about to run Exalted with HQ...debating now whether to hold off and use Other Worlds.

(and, yes, Alvin -- I'd be using ur very fine HQ-Exalted write-up)

BTW, where can one buy HeroQuest?

Note that the PDF you can get from the link below gives you plenty of insight into how HQ works, sans most of the Glorantha.

http://www.glorantha.com/support/GameAids.pdf

Yeah, it's missing a lot of the advice and context, of course, but you might be able to piece it together from what's in there.


Brand... I uh.... um...

<Mike suddenly darts out of the room and out from under the laservision eyes>

Because Mark and I are not Robin Laws. Other than that, at this point, you don't really.

But you will soon...

Mike

Mike, given that I already have HQ, and I'm fairly confident I can make it do anything I want it to do (with advice, some of which you have written), is there anything in either OW or the revised HQ that's worth my money?

Angelo, Moreno: There won't be any kind of update path or conversion summary, no. Other Worlds and HeroQuest are entirely separate games. Still, it's fair to say that it won't be too difficult to translate characters from one system to the other, because they are both based on similar principles (i.e. characters as long lists of descriptors).

Droog: If you've already drifted HQ in a narrativist direction then you will find the Other Worlds system gives you a lot more mechanical support for that playstyle. You will also find a huge stack of advice and suggestions about how to make it more fun and about how to adapt the system to different genres (including several quick-start genre conversion packages).

Neither myself or Mike can speak for the revised HeroQuest because we have nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Mark Humphreys

Everytime I read the Heroquest book I feel like the game is somehow lying to me about how it works. So I am really excited about Other Worlds, as Mike's essays have really helped me get through some head-scratching moments with Heroquest.

Well, I think that I'll find at home in OW!!!
The way I play HQ was so heavily influenced by the forgite post of Mike over the HQ board that I think that is must have playes QW lite :-P

Ah, I've 2 more questions:
1) OW will be released as a printed book? or as pdf? or as the previous 2 togheder?
2) The dice used will be the "classical" HQ d20? Or something other?

Angelo

Posted By: Alvin FrewerIt's OoP, so I guess the answer is "no where" or "various places" depending on if you want a new or used copy, or get lucky.

Umm, as far as I know, you can still get a PDF of the HeroQuest rules from DriveThruRPG.

Hmmm.... Interesting.... You could do it the other way, too... hmmmm

Anyhow, as an update, the writing of the playtest draft is complete, and we're just doing some small editing stuff to get it ready.

Soon, folks, soon! :-)

Mike

Posted By: Mike Holmes
The playtest rules are using percentile dice...

That's interesting. As a long time BRP head I find new players instantly like percentile dice and they have a certain comforting familiarity. Looking forward to the playtest :)

Oooh... good question. Better go with both to be sure...

:-)

Mike

P.S. My blue d20s will be there to counter!

I got Mike to use my pink d20's. Success.

One thing I want to make crystal clear, I have a penchant for playing Other Worlds in a specific way at cons, that being the "tabula rasa" method. I do this for one because I really like it, and what is produced. I also do it, however, because it means that I don't have to carry around a scenario, and can play the game at the drop of a hat.

But I don't want to give people the idea that this is the default way to play Other Worlds. We don't really present a default in the text, allowing people to play with whatever level of pre-creation that they're comfortable with. The option to play starting with nothing is just that, an option. Even if you do start with nothing, you can do a lot of character generation prior to starting the first scene, and not be thrown in the deep water immediately as I do most times in play at the cons.

That said, the game to which Clyde refers was a short one in which several species of "fish-men" (for lack of a better term to group them) were at war with each other. My old co-conspirator Ralph Mazza created a race of "shark-men" that were completely subject to the whims of their appetites, who had apparently eaten the queen and children of the king of another race. Tony (I forget his last name), created and ran that side, as a spy for their people about to make a retributive attack agains the shark people. He watched as Ralph's character, a War Oracle named someting like Bloodmonger Jawrek Tok, made predicitons about the battle, and dictated a battle plan to another PC. That PC belonged to a race of spikey fish-men who served as warriors for the shark-men, who formed an upper-class priesthood for the overall culture who, it turns out, was ruled by a killer whale (apparently a regular one, not any more intelligent than those in the real world). Another PC was a spymaster for the War Oracle.

As the battle erupts, I had a huge volcano beast erupt from under the sands, and start boiling the members of both sides. An emmissary from each side tried to parley with the PCs, to see if they would break off the engagement, perhaps to join up to deal with the new threat. To no avail, both sides decide to stay at each other's throats.

And after the PCs personally struggling to kill each other, both cultures are pretty much devastated, everyone dead...

Aren't you glad we're mammals?

Mike

I'm the player of the Jellyfish/Squid spymaster from the game, and I personally had a lot of fun. Like I mentioned later on Sunday, I'd love to get in on the playtest, if that gets worked out.

The vile blue sinuous finned people, known by my people as "Food" were played by Tod Olsen, who having watched me create Blood Monger Jawrek Torn (the War Oracle who fortells the outcome of battle by cutting the arms off of starfish and reading the future in how they grow back) promptly made himself my enemy.

While he did manage to kill the mighty Blood Monger Jawrek at the end, it was not before I ate him.

I claim victory!

Ralph

So, Mike, what dice did you finally use (d20s, then?), and how does the dice rolling mechanism works? How do you augment? How long did the initial brainstorming and character generation process took? I suppose 'trademarks' are the Other Worlds term for 'keywords'. How much detail do you need in order to define a Trademark? Is there any mechanism in place for adding details on the fly?

...from above.

There was zero "initial brainstorming and character generation process." Again, this is not the default style of play, just one I commonly use myself when I don't have stuff prepped. But, to be clear, play began with sheets of paper that were blank except for markings for blank templates to be filled in, and the opening dialog went something like this:

Mike: Matt, name a biome.
Matt: A what?
Mike: an environment, like forest or something.
Matt: OK, forest.
Mike: can you add something? Like Conniferous or deciduous?
Matt: Deciduous. You're lucky, I was going to say underwater.
Mike: Oooh, I've never done underwater, can we do underwater instead!!!
[Murmurs of enthusiasm from around the table]
Matt: sure.
Mike: Cool... Tony, your character peeks out from inside of a bed of kelp, what does he look like? Three things.
Tony: he's blue, sinuous, and scaled
Mike: OK, so he's not human, I take it? You probably want to note that as a trademark for his species. Put any abilities that he has because he's a member of that species under that trademark.

Etc. The other players are asked to simply describe their characters. At some point somebody has their character actually do something with the environment. In this case I describe Ralph's character as being by a stone altar, being watched by Tony's character. Immediately Ralph figures that his shark-headed character is cutting up a starfish.

Mike: So does that say something about his occupation?
Ralph: Yeaaah... he's a... War Oracle.....

Then the other players decide that their characters are a general, a spy, a spymaster. More traits get added as play goes on, and we find out that Tony's race hates Ralph's... hence why he's spying on Ralph's character. Suddenly the game is all about an imminent battle between their races...

No prep. Just questions in play that lead players to make stuff up about their characters, which, in turn defines the world. This is key...

Players, by creating the character they want to play, shape the world of play. They aren't given "Director Stance" authority directly, they are given the authority to make up whatever they want about their character. But in being given full authority to do so as long as it doesn't conflict with what the other players are doing (or with agreed upon setting info in a game that has that), the players are given ownership of much of the setting. A "cone" of authority, if you will, that descends from their work in creating an interesting character.

This can be done before play, yes, but it can also happen during play at any time. If the player is allowed to add an ability, or otherwise define his character, he's modifying the world as he does so. Note that, to begin with, you have grandios numbers of free abilities you can add to a character (typically from 50 to 80 depending on how wierd you want the setting to be), so you can go a long way in creating things before slowing down as things sorta solidify and "gel" if you will.

Note that with a more pre-prepared world, you usually still have such lattitude, but may decide to relinquish some of it, and just select from what's presented, and not feel forced to be creative. It's up to the player to decide how much they want to add (in my radical form, I force them to create everything, but, again, that's just one way to play).

Continued again...

This is getting really interesting, Mike. Thanks for your explanation. I like how Other Worlds is shaping up. As for dice rolling, I prefer the percentile method, if only because it looks simpler to me. Also, the 'supporting' trick (adding one-half of the first supporting ability and one-tenth of other abilities) is a nice Jedi mind trick, even though I wonder if players won't find it limiting :-)

So, you can define the world at large through the characters, who have two kinds of 'templates' - 'Facets' (which can be either cultural or personal features, for lack of a better name) and 'Trademarks' (highly character-specific features). If a method for doing this is clearly explained in the rules, I'd love to give it a try.

Matt, Ralph - thanks for the in-character world view. Seems like you enjoyed the carnage. Poor starfishes ;-)

Posted By: Mike Holmes...from above.


"Trademarks" are a sort of "Template." To be clear, Templates are what's replacing keywords. In fact, I'm not really comfortable with that term, either, truth be told. We need a term that means:

A grouping of abilities that represent different important types of facets of the character.

I think we even tossed around "facets" or something, and didn't like that. Any ideas?

Fields of Knowledge?
Areas of Competence?
Penumbra?
Talents?
Qualities?

Mike, how about Locus for the meta-category term?