Fate Points – experimental rules for HeroQuest

Posted by MortiS-the-Lost on Apr 07, 2009; 11:42pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/Fate-Points-experimental-rules-for-HeroQuest-tp2602210.html

HeroQuest is one of my favorite games, it's a lot of fun and the brilliantly simple combat system makes
it very fast paced and easy to teach to new comers. In the last year I've taught HeroQuest to
Ingrid's group in the Netherlands and to another group of friends from the Czech Republic as a
sort of introduction the hobby. HeroQuest is considered to be one of the 'gateway drug' games that
gets people into the wider world of RPGs and Wargames.

Anyway before I get all nostalgic about it, I'd better get the point...

The one thing that HQ really lacks is an advancement system and this rather limits the scope of the
game and means that a character that has grinded it way through 15 dungeons is not usually much
better off than a rookie character that has only just quit their job farming pumpkins and decided to
start a life of adventuring. Eventually you just run out of luck and/or healing potions and die.

After finding myself GMing HeroQuest a lot recently I'd began thinking about this problem and
after a request from Ingrid I decided to put my thoughts down into some experimental rules for
play testing.

A few weeks back I gave Ingrid a basic outline of how the rules work for her to do a bit of play-
testing with her group and in the mean time I have been play-testing the rules with my own group.
I'm still waiting for feed back from Ingrid, but what follows here is the results of my own play-
testing.

I've avoided the more complicated advancement systems like the Levels and Career Paths you see
in more advanced RPGs and gone for a more simple system inspired by the game
mechanics of the Fighting Fantasy books, Advanced HeroQuest and Talisman among others.

Anyway .... onto the rules ....

Player's Section

Determine Fate:

When starting a new Hero determine your Hero's fate points by rolling 2D6.
Write down the result on your character sheet and mark it as Fate

What do Fate Points do?

Basically Fate Points allow you to re-roll dice in the game, be they Combat Dice, Movement
or any other dice you happen to be using in your games. They also have another use, which will be detailed later.

Using Fate Points in game:

You can re-roll as many dice as you like in a turn, but for each individual dice re-rolled you must deduct 1 fate point

Once a dice has been re-rolled you must except the new result even if it is worse than the original.
Further fate points cannot be spent to re-roll a dice that has already been re-rolled.

Fate points can only be used to re-roll your dice.
They cannot be used to re-roll dice rolled by other Players or the Game Master.

If for some reason you are using a D100 and want to use your Fate Points to re-roll it you must re-roll both the Tens and Units dice together.
For the purposes of spending fate points the entire D100 counts as one dice and costs 1 Fate Point to re-roll.



Earning fate points:

To use these rules you will need to keep track of the number of body points you have taken off enemies.
For every 5 Body Points of damage your character dose to an enemy in game you may re-gain 1 Fate Point.

Damage inflicted on enemies by Henchmen, Pets, Summoned Creatures
or any other model under your control other than your character dose not count toward earning Fate Points.

Damage inflicted on enemies by Traps or other such devices initially triggered by your character
dose not count toward earning Fate Points.

The Game Master may also reward Fate points to Characters for solving puzzles, completing a task or good roleplaying.

Game Master's Section

Using fate points to Advance:

In between adventures characters may also spend Fate Points to increase their Stats this is called an 'Advancing'

Movement: a character's movement may not be increased by spending Fate Points

Attack: the number of dice rolled for one weapon may be increased by +1 at a cost of 12 Fate Points
(This represents the character becoming stronger or learning to be a better aim in the case of ranged weapons)

Defend: the number of dice rolled when defending may not be increased by spending Fate Points

Body: a character's maximum Body Points may be permanently increased by +1 at a cost of 10 Fate Points

Mind: a character's Mind Points may be increased by +1 at a cost of 12 Fate Points

A character may only make 1 advance (increase 1 stat by 1 point) between each adventure



Awarding Extra Fate Points:

here's a few suggestions of situations in which you may want to award your players with extra Fate Points

On completing a dungeon: 1 to 6 points for each player depending on over all difficulty
(if you are unsure you can always just roll D6)

Solving a puzzle: 1 point to player who came up with the solution

Taking on a 'boss' monster or large group encounter single handed: double fate points (if the character survives)

Rescuing another character from certain death: 1 point



Other uses of Fate Points:

as a GM you could also use fate points to make an enemy leader tougher
or give your self a 'pool' of 2D6 fate points to spend through out a dungeon

it might be interesting to give an enemy magic user a 'curse' type spell they can cast on a character
that drains the Hero's fate points or maybe create a 'cursed room' where fate points cannot be used

On the other hand the Heroes could receive a blessing from a powerful NPC Cleric or an ancient shrine
that gives them extra fate points.
Or maybe the Heroes could gain fate points for donating some of their hard earned gold to a temple.