Heroica RPG General Discussion

[swils]

Heh, good thing that Romulus has that cowl. I was afraid that the horses would stampede the heroes from being offended by the inferior offers of cheap food.

Hey, that biscuit was, in Heroica time, probably only starting to get stale and the chicken was only just showing signs of mold! I'm not sure where they apparated from, but those sugar cubes were a good idea. Gave those horses some cubes. Horses love cubes.

[Zepher]

We decided to, for sanity's sake, do one a day.

I actually have read the books before, but long ago and back when I was too young to really absorb them.

Updates will be a-rollin' in. Give me a half an hour or so!

[Flipz]

I do want him to finish sometime soon, so he can get back to Quest 72.

My first time through, I was rather young and got bored with it easily, so it took me about two weeks. Nowadays, though, I'll eat through it in an afternoon.

*(Because I forgot that quotes don't quote quotes): context: The Silmarilion.

[Peppermint_M]

We watched them in a row, but I have a habit of mainliing things. Star Wars day was fun, all the original triology on the old VHS tapes from back in the day. Then there was the time I watched nearly all the Robotech the Macross Saga in one sitting... I woke up that night when I heard an alarm and it took until I was halfway down the landing to remember that I wasn't supposed to be scrambling for a veritech fighter because it was a TV series and not real...

So, with all this, what do you think it Required Media for all players and QMs of Heroica?

I'd demand as much Discworld as you can cram into your head.

[Palathadric]

And they have to be the Extended Editions. Also familiarize yourself with the LotR wiki, the basic storyline of The Silmarillion, and know what the chorus is chanting during the Nazgûl theme.

I have never actually seen the extended version of The Two Towers. I have it though, so I'll see it...one of these days.

[Scubacarrot]

Nothing. I don't get any of the Terry Pratchet, Doctor Who, most of the Star Wars, most of any other theater or literary references. And that's totally cool, I can run on movies, tv series and video games.

[Palathadric]

He survives in Troy.

Yeah, as the only decent fellow who does.

[Zepher]

Required reading: while I know this is a "dodgey" answer, I really advise people to READ (or watch or play) WHAT THEY FIND INSPIRING. You already have a style of story. BD quests are different than WBD quests are different than Sandy Quests. You have a type of story you tell, and chances are you read stories similar to that. So if you read GOOD stories within the type of stories you like, you will be even better at telling the stories you want to tell.

That being said, if you want to be fantasy literate (which is sort of required to a degree in this game): Lord of the Rings would be a good idea (sort of created classical fantasy), Game of Thrones is the new pop-ciulture fantasy, Harry Potter, while not as classical as we are here, is probably another sort of requirement. I would also personally add Discworld, but that's just me. We pull from lots of sources. My stories all pull from my favorite books, very few of which are actually fantasy.

[Scubacarrot]

Yeah, as the only decent fellow who does.

I still say it's a shame they didn't make Odysseus with the same kind of budget. But it'd be kinda impossible to do it justice in a 2 hour movie. I think.

[Palathadric]

Animal Farm!

All the way.

[Endgame]

I don't think there is anything "required" to QM. it is nigh impossible to host a quest without absorbing any form of literature or media whatsoever, so typically you'll mold your quests to what you have seen. I like to build my quests with a quirky set of characters, only dabbling in major issues and not answering them (hate/revenge for 48, for example... or the concept of free will right/wrong for 70) and with villains built around a vice or idea - because that is what I've observed.

Mind you, I have yet to see a 3 story tall omnicidal ancient crustaceans, but it is on the bucket list.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Endgame

[Capt.JohnPaul]

I've never seen any of those. I can't even watch five minutes of a Harry Potter movie before I walk away. (Though I do remember watching LOTR, though it was a long time ago and I kind of forgot a lot.)

[Palathadric]

I still say it's a shame they didn't make Odysseus with the same kind of budget. But it'd be kinda impossible to do it justice in a 2 hour movie. I think.

I didn't see it.

I saw the old Odyssey though.

I've never seen any of those. I can't even watch five minutes of a Harry Potter movie before I walk away. (Though I do remember watching LOTR, though it was a long time ago and I kind of forgot a lot.)

Screw the others, LotR you must see. Now! If I see you online in the next few minutes, I will see to it that Alexander dies.

[Flipz]

Nothing. I don't get any of the Terry Pratchet, Doctor Who, most of the Star Wars, most of any other theater or literary references. And that's totally cool, I can run on movies, tv series and video games.

Star Wars is a movie series, and Doctor Who is television...

For me, I pull from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings...but I also draw from less-used sources. I have a tendency to create Loads and Loads of Characters, all linked together with shared experiences, most likely due to the influence of (pre-reboot) Star Trek (think about it); likewise, I pull a lot of "ancient magitech"-type material from Indiana Jones, along with characters with a lot of expertise about the past. I'm not sure what I take from Harry Potter...it's really the first franchise SINCE the original Star Wars to attain SUCH a level of cultural immersion that you don't even notice yourself using it.

Other sources: BIONICLE, Back to the Future (there is a LOT of smart storytelling in that series, particularly in the first and last films), Samurai Jack, Ace Attorney, and lately Doctor Who and

.

I also know I've been heavily influenced by theatre, particularly Oscar Wilde's form of linguistic wit (as seen most famously in The Importance of Being Earnest) and Neil Simon's brand of strongly human conflict humor. (Arthur owes a lot to Neil Simon, even though he's a (for the most part) very serious character.)

I know I could come up with more if I thought about it, but I can already see everyone's eyes glassing over, so I'll stop now.

[Palathadric]

Back to the Future!

Heh! I remember watching it sometime back at the house, and a few people were criticizing it and saying it was such a waste of time. Well, they stayed for the beginning and ended up watching the whole thing, by the time we were finished they asked when we'd watch the next two.

[Dannylonglegs]

If you guys do want to fight the spider that's fine with me, but Sylph won't join in the fight at first, and after a few rounds, he'll begrudgingly join you and once the spider is dead he'll plot your individual demises but otherwise remain helpful. He values group synergy after-all.

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[Brickdoctor]

Agree with The Lord of the Rings (the obvious quintessential example of high fantasy, setting up fantasy tropes and including a sprawling expanded universe and storyline). I've never seen any of the Harry Potter movies or read any of the books (apart from bits and pieces of the movies when other people were watching them, of course), like John Paul, but I know enough of it to get the references. Back to the Future and Indiana Jones are great for references, but I don't draw too much from them because of the different setting. Star Wars would probably be the same, but the sheer amount of knowledge I have of that universe pretty much makes it impossible for me to not take things from it.

As far as fantasy that other people haven't mentioned, the Chronicles of Narnia and the Chronicles of Prydain are pretty well-known medieval high fantasy series that should be read, even if they're children's novels. And then there's classic stuff like Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Epic of Gilgamesh. I don't really draw that much from those, though, at least not directly. (I say that because I don't consciously take elements from them, but they're old enough and well-known enough as fantasy that it's likely that I draw from stories which themselves draw from those stories.)

[Palathadric]

All for the XP, but I can't see Pretzel being overly enthusiastic about it anymore, which is a shame.

[Capt.JohnPaul]

I more draw inspiration from difficult moral life questions, problems, etc. For example, the Fantome Croise was thought up of as I wanted a character that really wanted to do good, but was emotionally unstable. I came up with the idea as I wondered, "Hey, could there be a perfect world? If you eliminate all bad, doesn't that make 100% good?" And once that was in my mind, a whole story rises up out of it. Now of course, the theory seems to work*, but it's hard to put in place without being a maniacal laughing crusader who kills people.

*I really don't want to get into a debate or something about theories of perfection, this really isn't the place for moral arguments on evil and chaos. (Well maybe it is, but save it for Arthur or go on a Croise quest yourself. )

Also, Sullivan in Quest #60, came up from another question. How good really is life? In short, I just like the heroes take a pause and think.

Screw the others, LotR you must see. Now! If I see you online in the next few minutes, I will see to it that Alexander dies.

I did see it. Oh, Alexander dies? Fine by me, we don't need all those archers.

[Scubacarrot]

If someone eliminates all bad people. There is only one bad person left.

[Palathadric]

I did see it. Oh, Alexander dies? Fine by me, we don't need all those archers.

You're still active? I kill you!

If someone eliminates all bad people. There is only one bad person left.

[Endgame]

Alternatively, exterminate all humans.

[Kintobor]

Alternatively, exterminate all humans.

ACK ACK ACK!

[Dannylonglegs]

If someone eliminates all bad people. There is only one bad person left.

That's the idea.

Alternatively, exterminate all humans.

What do you mean Alternatively?

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[Flipz]

Back to the Future and Indiana Jones are great for references, but I don't draw too much from them because of the different setting. Star Wars would probably be the same, but the sheer amount of knowledge I have of that universe pretty much makes it impossible for me to not take things from it.

Don't do that to yourself--it doesn't matter what the setting is, you can always draw thematic elements from other things even when the settings are different. One of the first things I realized when I started looking into writing as part of a professional career was that stories are universal. You could set Heroica in space or in Rome or in the modern day, and you could still find many of the same characters and many of the same stories and themes. Things would be different, but they'd also be the same--because people are people are people, always.

I'm sure you've read Campbell, whose work exemplifies certain universalities of storytelling, but I'd also recommend looking into structuralism and semiotics--keeping in mind, of course, that neither is the be-all end-all of literary theory, but they're good starting points for analysis.