Good morning. The tabletop subforum is young and rather sparse. I would like to help rectify this by running a game, should there be sufficient interest.

The System

I plan to use Robin D. Laws' Heroquest system (not to be confused with the other Heroquest). Chances are you haven't even heard of it before. That's alright - I don't require any prior familiarity with the system and I am willing to take care of much of it by myself and explain the rest as we go. If I do my job right, then not being familiar with the system shouldn't be a major handicap at all, the way it might be with some other games. That is because Heroquest is a narrativist game, geared less towards number-crunching and realistic simulation and more towards telling a story, something that everyone here should have at least a passing familiarity with.

The Setting

Bioware's Mass Effect trilogy (or is that quadrology now?) you are more likely to have heard of, on average. I expect anyone who would be interested in this game to be at least somewhat familiar with and more importantly interested in its setting, though I do not require academical expertise or 100% completion (besides, the wiki is always at your disposal). That is an actual requirement as well as an assumption, because I'm not sure why else someone would want to play this; playing around with the Mass Effect setting is a big part of what I look forward to in relation to this game, and I hope that the same goes for any interested players.

That being said, this isn't exactly the same Mass Effect setting. I prefer to be true to its spirit than to its letter. On the surface, things may be similar enough - there is the Citadel Council, the human Systems Alliance that is trying to join the turian-asari-salarian trio, the Batarian Hegemony that lurks in the Terminus Systems. There are even some familiar NPCs out there, though their role in the story may end up being very different. But there are also certain... creative additions and changes that may not be apparent at first glance. Some are relatively mild reinterpretations: for instance, I think the game hadn't really sold how new and not-so-ubiquitous humans would be in the galaxy at large, and I plan to play up that angle. Others are simple expansions that do not contradict the canon but build off it: it has been implied now and then that there are other minor species in the Terminus Systems that Commander Shepard has never encountered, and existing races may have some rogue colonies out there as well... not that the asari Matriarchs would want you to know that. Changes like those should add to the diversity and the excitement of exploration - something that I think was a very big part of the fun of playing through Mass Effect on the first time, and that I want to recapture here.

But I've also taken the liberty to rearrange some of the setting's deeper secrets. The Shadow Broker is still out there, but his (or her, or their) true identity and motivations are different, and you might never find them out. Systems Alliance intelligence and conspiracy theorists alike are aware of a "human survivalist" group called Cerberus, but its true plans, structure and resources are a matter of much speculation and little certainty. Prothean technology is the foundation for modern galactic civilisation, but the mystery of its creators may well have a very different resolution. And there are other, even more enigmatic forces at work too. Hopefully this should make your investigation this much more suspenseful.

And, of course, Commander Shepard's dead, or perhaps has never existed, and none of the events from the games have happened as yet. The galaxy is still in danger though, and needs to be protected.

The Game

The exact details of the premise are still somewhat in the air and depend on what sort of characters I get and what the prospective players would prefer. The short of it, though, is that the Citadel Council has seen fit to assemble a special task force to deal with some outstanding threats to galactic stability in the Attican Traverse and beyond... and it all escalates from there.

One of the things to decide when coming up with your character would be whether he or she is a Spectre, a Spectre-in-training or not at all connected to the program. I'd rather not have an all-Spectre group, that would be silly - but one or two might serve our purposes just fine, with the others perhaps being candidates who might become Spectres later on based on their performance. Or maybe none of you are connected to the Spectres at all, which would make any encounters with the Spectres particularly tense if they should see you as a sign of the Council's disfavour and mistrust. Or it may be something in between, not unlike the actual series. Your choice. Either way, you have a) superiors who give you orders and b) considerable operational freedom in how you get those orders done.

Regardless of that, though, your characters are expected to be competent. When coming up with your character concepts, look to actual squad members and character classes for inspiration. You are about that powerful, and have that kind of specialisation. Give some thought to your background; if your character got assigned to this group by the Council, then there must have been some reason. A military or intelligence background is likely; mercenaries and other freelance specialists are somewhat less so, but still within the realm of the possible. Outright criminals would have to be both really good and really trustworthy; so think ME1 more than ME2. Species-wise, expect all due preference to be granted to the three Council races and humans, though drells, quarians and even batarians and krogans might find their way onto the team if you could come up with a plausible explanation as to why.

A note on the game's style. Once again, the video games are about as good a guideline for it as anything you would find. I am going for an epic, cinematic game, where you could blast your way through vastly superior numbers of mooks... so long as you plan well. Clever tactics making good use of your equipment, powers and environment will be rewarded. While action is perhaps the primary focus, character interaction and investigation are a major part of the game as well. Likewise, as in the games, comic relief is more than welcome, but the characters on the whole should not be overly silly, and I reserve the right to veto them on that ground.

I have some requirements for people who would want to play this. While a few typos and awkward sentences wouldn't be a deal-breaker, I would prefer it if my players had good grammar and spelling. I believe brevity is the soul of wit, and so will usually favour well-written, clear, coherent and concise posts over long and rambling ones (although this applies more strongly to action than to if, say, you wished to detail what your character gets up to in his downtime or in her inner monologues). Perhaps most importantly, I want them to be able to commit to the game and to post... let's say three times a week, if not more often. If for some reason they would need to be away, I would like it if they notified me in the OOC thread if it is at all possible. If someone disappears without trace, I reserve the right to NPC their character for the duration of the current mission and then deal with them as I see fit.

For this reason, while I seek no more than 4-6 players at the moment (and even 5 might be stretching it), I would never say no to having some spare applications. If someone disappears, I may well need to bring in the reserves.

I intend to start the game at some point in mid-February, if all goes well. But that's no reason not to start looking for players and working on characters now. I'll explain how to make characters based on the rules a bit later; for now I want to see interest, comments, questions, and any initial thoughts on what character concepts you would like to use.

Would this, being a narrativist type tabletop RP make use of the dice mechanics from something like ApocalypseWorld/DungeonWorld?

Like if you roll 1-6 its a failure
7-10 is a success but not how you originaly envisioned it
10+ is a success

Hmm, not exactly. The Wikipedia article actually sums up the most important mechanics nicely enough. Basically, in a contest, a player rolls for his/her character and I roll for the opposition. The rolls are then compared, determining the level of success/failure, which then determines how the outcome is narrated (among other things). Critical outcomes can bear pleasant/unpleasant surprises, as can minor victories or defeats, while more moderate levels of success are more in line with what might have been expected to begin with.

Sounds rather interesting.

I'd be willing to give it a shot if this picks up enough interest :)

Just to clarify, would this follow the reaper arc, or would it be an entirely new story?

Yeah, I'd be interested

Fulsom said
Just to clarify, would this follow the reaper arc, or would it be an entirely new story?

Well now, that would be telling. :P Chronologically, it's 2183, and nothing of too great an interest had happened on Eden Prime or in its vicinity as yet. While the story will touch on many of the same issues in the setting, I plan for it to be significantly different from the story in the games - it'd be rather boring if we just retraced the same steps, I think. Though I'm not sure if I would call it an entirely new story yet.

Haha, that is true.

Well you answered my question quite nicely, and aye, it seems like something I'd be greatly interested in. Hope your idea gets the response it deserves.

Yes, a hundred times yes.

I would like to join if your accepting.

Four people already, huh? Not bad at all, considering the difficulties I had recruiting for something similar in the past. :P That might even be enough to start with, but, as I said, there's no harm in having reserves, so anyone else who would like to join is welcome.

Any thoughts on what character concepts you'd want to use? I find it's best to discuss those things as a group beforehand. Preliminary ideas about backstories, plot hooks and appearance (descriptions or images, or both) would all be welcome too.

Some notes on character creation in Heroquest. The building blocks of a character are called Abilities. This is a bit deceptive because they can actually as easily be personality traits, relationships with other characters, ideals or items as actual skills. They can all be used to overcome obstacles and achieve objectives in the story, and have their own ratings that are used in rolls. For instance, in order to fight your way through an army of batarian mercenaries to rescue the Asari Consort, you could use your Modified M-8 Avenger Rifle, or your Commando Training, or Secretly Infatuated with Shaira - or Hates Those Ugly Four-Eyed Batarian Bastards. As you can see, coming up with Abilities is more of an art than a science. Still, there are some basic guidelines. Colourful and flashy descriptions of abilities are generally preferable but not necessary. There are advantages both to more general and more specific abilities: a Skilled Tactician might be able to apply his ability in a greater array of situations without it being penalised as a Stretch, but an Ambush Expert would gain a bigger bonus during Contests that have to do with ambushes specifically.

Note that item Abilities presuppose being able to use the item in question and those like it, while profession abilities like Soldier or Technician presuppose having access to at least the basic tools of your trade.

I don't have any special requirements for your Abilities (besides common sense, fitting the character concept and the setting) except for this: I want one of them to be related to your background and reputation, like Shepard's psychological profile (Ruthless, Survivor, etc.). You get 10 Abilities at game start.

Two special types of Abilities are Keywords and Flaws. Keywords are broad package deals that include multiple preset abilities which don't need to be detailed further unless you raise their ratings on their own. You get two Keywords each: one for your Species and one for your Class, making a Turian Soldier, an Asari Adept and so on (you could get more creative with your Classes, so long as I still understand what they mean :P). Your Species Keyword is a package keyword, meaning it can't be raised during play (but you could still raise the individual abilities that fall under it). You can use it to play off species stereotypes (salarians are clever, humans are determined, asari are sexy), use your species' natural gifts (asari biotics, krogan regeneration) or draw on your allegiance with your species' state (a turian could use his Turian Keyword to try and request help from fellow turians or the Turian Hierarchy... though it's not bloody likely that this is all it would take). Your Class Keyword is an umbrella keyword and so can be raised as a whole, though it would cost you extra; it is assumed to include all the training and basic equipment that belongs to your class, as well as any professional connections that would derive from it (so a Turian Biotic would be able to use it to help interact with fellow Cabal members).

Flaws are simply Abilities that usually harm you, like character flaws, powerful enemies or old wounds - but note that there is no rule against you using them in your favour every now and then. You get 3 Flaws (though you don't have to pick them all at once), and their ratings are tied to the ratings of your normal Abilities.

I'll explain ratings and the actual character creation method a bit later. Does everything make sense so far? Are there any questions?

There are actually three character creation methods: Prose, List and As You Go. Prose involves writing a paragraph of about 100 words, describing the character's most essential traits, and then underlining phrases from it that would serve as the Abilities. List simply involves writing down your 10 Abilities and 3 Flaws. And As You Go would mean starting with just the keywords and one other ability, and filling everything else in later during play.

Those methods all have their pros and cons, but I'd prefer to use the List method for the purposes of this game. Since it is supposed to be story-heavy, improvising things on the fly would not work too well, as I prefer to have some character hooks to work with from the start. Prose could be fun if any of you really want to try it, but List is probably simpler to use, especially if you lack experience with the game.

In any case, after the Abilities have been chosen, you need to assign their ratings. You could put any one of your abilities (including a keyword) at 17. All the others have to start at 13. Next you have 20 points you could distribute between all of your Ability ratings, though you may not add more than 10 to one of them. Your most dire Flaw has the same rating as your highest Ability. The second direst has the same rating as they second highest. And the last Flaw has the same rating as the lowest Ability.

All the ratings in the game go up to 20. If you raise it past that, you gain your first Mastery in that rating, meaning that 20 is followed not by 21 but by 1W. The Mastery is one of the unique game mechanics that I'll explain in more detail a bit later, but basically it means that your ability is on a completely different level. Masteries are sweet to have.... but it is worth noting that they cancel each other out.

Heroquest uses d20 dice. During Contests you make a 1d20 roll and succeed if your result is lower than or equal to the Ability's rating. In response, I would roll for the opposition (which doesn't have to be another character, but can be any significant obstacle). The outcome and the degree of success or failure is determined by the results of this comparison. However, it is possible to bump up your results by one level using a Mastery or a Hero Point, though the latter are best used at least somewhat sparingly, because they also double as your XP - used to upgrade your character's ratings in between missions.

Hopefully all that rules talk didn't scare everyone off. :P I'm willing to explain anything if it is unclear. In the meantime, it would be good if we were to start talking about character concepts.

Also, I'd like to know where the interested players stand on the Spectre issue. Having one Spectre and a group of Spectre candidates would be easy to fit into the canon, though we'd need to decide which of you would be the Spectre. On the other hand, a non-Spectre group would create some interesting conflicts as well, and allow us to shape a new organisation from the start. Either option could be pretty fun.

List makes sense for practical purposes, especially since this is a tabletop game, though, I think you'd want some kind of sample to ensure that the players that join are up to snuff and not just random people who wandered in from the Free Roleplay section.

Regarding Spectres, having at least one Spectre would be good so that we could theoretically go wherever we want and act with that Spectre's authority, e.g. Noveria in the canon. Having none would be interesting since a non-Spectre group would have to work within the confines of local law and be somewhat restricted to what it's legally allowed to do, allowing for some interesting choices and plot developments.

I have no opinion either way, however, though it should also be said that whoever is the Spectre would probably be the leader of the team.

If it is the Spectre it would probably be the leader, yes. The last time I tried running a game like this, the Spectre was the "leader" but encouraged the rest of the team to show initiative and make plans themselves, since that was part of their test as Spectre candidates - basically he was Nihlus if Nihlus had lived. That seems like a good approach to me, though of course a different Spectre might always have chosen to pull rank instead.

The stats would be arranged as proper RP stats in the end anyway. :P The prose write-up is mostly for fun, and I guess it could be easier for some people to make a character like that. That being said, I would require brief appearance and backstory write-ups in addition to the character sheet itself either way. It's easier to extract plot hooks from a backstory, and appearance helps visualise whatever is happening with the characters.

EDIT: Also, yes, not having Spectre authority would probably force you to tread more lightly and be more sneaky. On the other hand, it'd also help keep a low profile.

If you're taking on more players, I'd love to get in on this. I can post a character concept a little later if so.

I'll go ahead and echo that List seems like the most practical style of character generation. As for my character concept:

I was thinking of playing a Salarian Infiltrator, ex-Special Tasks Group. He was disavowed by the STG after a failed op on [REDACTED] in the [REDACTED] Systems, where he demonstrated high risk tactics and flagrant disregard for [REDACTED] and the chain of command, exposing his team to unnecessary danger and resulting in the [REDACTED] of [REDACTED], a mission critical asset. Most recent surveillance reports show that he works as a mercenary, based out of Omega, taking contracts for ops that official channels can't be seen involved with, involving bounties, corporate sabotage, and internal security. His clients are varied, and include the Hegemony, Systems Alliance, [REDACTED] Group, Citadel [REDACTED], as well as various corporations and private interest groups.

I think a character like that would probably work better with a covert, non-Spectre team. Either that or a team led by a Spectre who is reasonably far on the Renegade end of the... spectrum. Hopefully no one minds that too strongly.

Welcome aboard!

I literally just registered to this site to see if I could get in on this game. Big Mass Effect fan and have just been introduced to pbp d&d style games. If you are still recruiting I would love to get in on this.

Thanks

Sure thing. I'll probably end up starting with six players if I could. And even then, experience has taught me that it never hurts to have people you could switch in if someone disappears - so even I get six more reservations on top of this, chances are I'll find something I could do with them eventually.

Excellent! I might wait until others have decided what characters they want before I decide mine. I'd really like to be a Krogan merc who is recruited by the council (almost unwillingly) because, quite simply, he is the best at what he does.

In saying that, I am more than flexible and would be willing to change up depending on what everybody else wants to do. I just really wanna be in a game. I have been looking for a good game to join for a while now :)