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Narrator Advice

Improvising Keywords

by Mike Holmes

Players will at some point want to create new keywords. One of the barriers to players taking on this challenge is that they might not feel comfortable about it. After all, other RPGs make this difficult to illegal. Not having a strict method for development of new keywords, narrators might not feel comfortable coming up with new keywords with players. However, the rulebook does imply that it's an option:

Page 18 - "First Time Narrators"
Start with the keywords in this book. As the players learn the system, they can experiment with keywords from the player's handbooks, mixing and matching keywords, or creating entirely new ones.

Indeed, what if a player wants a character to be from an area that's off the map, or to have an occupation that isn't listed? Certainly such exist, and as viable options for heroes. There are many cases where it makes sense to alter existing keywords or invent new ones. This article will hopefully serve as a guideline on some of these issues to lower the barrier to players making their own keywords.

When to Tinker

When is it appropriate for a player to make a new keyword? Well some might even take the view that most keywords should be individualized to the character - everybody should have them! But that's probably overdoing it. As I said, for a player new to the game, it really all depends on how much they want to investigate this part of the game's potential. Still, there are some common times when it might behoove you to at least alter a keyword.

The Obvious Cases

Some players just create things out of the blue, such as new occupations, or they want to play a character from an area that you don't have keyword information on (for example, Haragala if you only have the regular HeroQuest book). Assuming the narrator allows this addition to the world, she should briefly explain the process of creating a new keyword, have the player look at the Keyword Templates to see the basic format, and go for it if the player decides that he's interested in participating in the work. If they're not invested enough to help you with the process, suggest to them that they might be more comfortable with one of the published keywords.

Subtle

There are less obvious cases, however. To catch these opportunities to customize the character, pay attention to each keyword selection the player makes.

Species Variance

Species can be a complex issue in HeroQuest. There may be occasions where alterations to species are suitable, but in general the topic requires a lot of consideration and so might be the subject of a future article.

Homeland

Often, in a narrative background, players will describe their characters as being from part of a homeland that doesn't seem to match the overall homeland description. This is actually likely to be quite common. For example, the Heortling keyword might need to be altered to fit a character from the Heortling city of Boldhome. The homeland keywords can be modified to cover the variety of characters available from the entire homeland.

Social Class

Class also potentially impacts homeland keywords. Does it seem that the nobles in this region don't do any farming? Then perhaps there needs to be a "noble" version of the keyword with farming replaced by something like hunting. Yes, noble can also be an occupation. But the homeland keyword represents a base cultural knowledge, whereas occupations ought to be considered separately. So, similarly, the poor (where they can eke out a living) will likely also have their own keywords. Some cultures may have special castes or other class systems that merit this treatment.

Gender

In many cultures there will be differences in sex - if you think that a current keyword doesn't take this into account, then by all means alter it for sex.

Occupation

Often, a player's description of his occupation doesn't exactly match one in the main rulebook (or in any of the other HeroQuest books available to you). This is one place where it really behooves you not to ask the player to just pick from the existing list of keywords. Instead, ask him to describe what he has in mind. Lists are important for things like homelands where the player may not have a good knowledge of what exists. But the "tropes" represented by the occupation keywords are well enough known that players can come up with them on their own. And when they do, titular differences or varying descriptions can tip you off that you may do well to at least alter an existing keyword. It's OK to use a close match if nobody objects, but just as often it's really a simple matter to create a new keyword.

Overlap

One case deserves special mention. Frequently, keywords will "overlap," meaning that there will be an ability contained within more than one keyword in which the player is interested. There are lots of ways to handle these redundancies. One is to just ignore the redundant ability. While the rules support this (page 19), players sometimes feel punished by this rule for what are often very good hero concepts. Another method people use is a kludge that involves the notion that the player would keep the second ability, but that it would more or less always augment the first. That translates into a +2 bonus to the starting ability in most cases (editor: many narrators give +4 to emulate the process used for the homelands in books like Imperial Lunar Handbook), which is usually added straight onto the rating for simplicity's sake. But a potent and interesting method is to alter one of the keywords instead. We'll start the next section with how to do just this.

How to Tinker

Once you've decided to tinker, then, how do you do so? Well, first review the various Keyword Templates. Where you go from there depends on the types of changes you need to make.

Adjusting for Overlap

If, say, a character had Barter from his Homeland and the same ability from his Occupation, it seems likely that he wouldn't have had a need to learn to barter in his occupation, having learned to do so as a youth. People of his occupation from this land wouldn't learn that particular ability as part of their occupational training. What they might have learned was something similar to it, however: an enhancing ability that would broaden their range of ability in the general area. Thus, in the case of Barter, the narrator and player might decide, based on the description and typical personality traits of the culture, that Haggle might be an appropriate ability for the occupation.

This method has several benefits. First, it doesn't violate the rules in any way. It is the most potent option available, in that it maintains the character at the same level of effectiveness that he would have had if the keywords selected had no matching abilities. The character will likely have the benefits of the auto-augment from one ability to the other, but will have a somewhat broader base, given that either ability can be used as the primary ability. And when one of the two augments a third ability, it's likely the other will as well. By comparison, the other methods discussed above for dealing with overlap (automatic augment, permanent bonus, ignoring the overlap completely) weaken the character ever so slightly, creating a dis-incentive to take the combination.

Other Minor Adjustments

Often, modifying a keyword is simply a matter of changing just one ability. For homelands, this probably represents the majority of cases. If they speak a dialect in that area, then note that in the title of the spoken language skill, as in Speak Holayan (Tarsh Border Dialect). The neat thing about dialects is that, though they probably have some small penalties with the base language, they may be understandable to other cultures. In any case, it certainly gives some color to the character and the setting if the player has invented the dialect or accent. If from a far-flung province, the character might be familiar with a slightly different geographic region. If the culture mixes with another over the border, the player might be able to wrangle an additional cultural ability out of the narrator (or a change to a syncretic culture). There are many ways to change things slightly, such that they take on a unique cast.

In general, changing one or two abilities in a keyword is such a small and sensible alteration that you really can't go wrong. Just make sure that the abilities exchanged are about equal in number and breadth. Obviously, you don't want to substitute a very broad skill for a narrower one.

Major Adjustments

Sometimes slight alteration isn't enough. Sometimes you're going to want to make up new keywords from the ground up. To do this, simply emulate the sort of template that the example keywords set out for you. Find the abilities in any text that you have that describes what you're defining, using a method similar to the narrative character generation method. That is, go through the text looking for important words, and pull them out for use (underlining them, or using whatever technique works for you).

If the keyword is something that there's no text for, a completely original addition, then ask a lot of questions about it, until you have enough information that you think you can start making your list. Once you've gotten going, you'll find that more and more questions pose themselves, especially in light of comparisons of the new keyword to the samples. A lot of, "This keyword has X, does the new keyword have something similar?"

Species Keywords

Again, this is a complex subject, and as such, will be dealt with in a future article dedicated solely to it.

Homelands Explained

On page 37 there is a definition of the overall format for these Homeland Keywords. They break down into the following salient areas.

Native Abilities

These tend to be very formulaic. For example, every homeland has the following in its Native Abilities section:

Language
Survival Skill of some sort appropriate to the typical ecosystem in which they dwell.
Geography knowledge of the surrounding area.
Culture knowledge, representing knowing one's own customs

Add to these a couple of abilities that everyone needs to support the local socioeconomic and political mode. For example, in a very agrarian society, everyone will have Farming. In highlands where farming is harder, everyone knows Herding. In hunter/gatherer societies, everyone knows how to hunt or gather (split between men and women, typically). In militant societies, one weapon type will be taught to everyone. In trade hubs, everyone knows how to bargain or barter or trade, depending on how advanced they are. In places that are power centers, abilities revolving around intrigue and politics become ubiquitous. Fill in those blanks, and you have your Native Abilities covered.

Typical Personality Traits

Personality is just a matter of how you view the people. Are they Stubborn? Hospitable? Warlike? Enterprising? Just jot down four things that describe the stereotypical member of the society. One more or less than four is probably not problematic, as long as the culture is well described by the selections. While it's true that players don't have to take all of these abilities, it behooves you to do a complete list, so as to have a reference for the culture as a whole.

Typical Relationships

Relationships depend, again, on what sort of form the society takes, including their religions. "to Family" is almost ubiquitous, though one can imagine a society where family isn't important (probably tribal or clannish, then, where these institutions perform the same roles). Following that, what other sociopolitical structures are there? If it's feudal, then you'll have a house that you belong to in some way or another. If there are guilds, you may belong to one of them. Castes? Religious organizations? Leagues? Clubs? You can look at what exists in other homelands for examples, and go from there. There should be several, however; again, you're looking to complete the keyword, not just include those abilities that the character will have.

Other

Religions are covered below, on their own. The sample names that are included with written up keywords are unlikely to be important at first, but it can be fun to create them. These often give an idea as to what the language might be like.

Religions

Religion Keywords are short and to the point, and shouldn't present much problem to create at all. These are practically spelled out in their entirety on pages 106-107 of HeroQuest, in the section on Worshipper Abilities. (The format can be found on page 37.) They are formulaic to the point of requiring almost no creativity to produce. Once you have an idea of the nature of the religion, enumerating it is very straightforward. (Example, Common Religion template).

Occupations

Occupations are a tad tougher - tough enough to generalize upon that not much can be said here, other than to use common sense and guidelines similar to those given above for other keywords. Fortunately, those that exist cover a lot, and creating ones completely from scratch will be rare. If an occupation bears any resemblance to one already listed, then just swap out better-labeled abilities of the same scope, one for one, in a manner similar to the above methods for simple changes. If it is absolutely necessary to make one from scratch, the format can be found on page 31.

Balance

Balance in HeroQuest comes at the point where the player will see each keyword as potentially inviting. To that extent, the number of abilities in a keyword should remain near the average, but can vary somewhat. There are other ways to balance things out as well. Looking at keywords that have more than the average number of abilities, many of the abilities tend to revolve around something in particular, really being facets of a larger area of competence. For example, Grazers (HeroQuest, page 46) have all sorts of horse-related skills, but it all boils down to "Great Horsemen," essentially. If you have a homeland that needs a couple more abilities, then break a larger ability down. Sailing can become Boating, Sail Ship, and Navigation, for the right culture. Another might have Fishing, Boating, and Make Net. Yet another might have Rowing, Lobster Trapping, and Repair Boat. Hunting can break down into Tracking, Stalking, Spear Fighting, etc.

Little breakdowns like this can really help detail a culture. The first maritime culture above is one composed of ship-builders; the second, fishermen; the third, trappers. The example hunting culture hunts with spears instead of using bows. These little things say a lot about the daily life of the culture's members, and go a long way toward making a keyword attractive. This is an effective way to balance a new keyword with other keywords that offer more abilities.

Benefits

Characters with tailored keywords are probably more individualized than characters with only standard ones. Further, if the player works with the narrator to create these keywords, the player takes on greater ownership, not only of the specific character, but of the elements of the world that he's helping to define. Such a player often becomes more easily engrossed in what's happening in the setting.

By making new keywords, you expand the game world as you go. There becomes more for the narrator to use in making narrator characters for the heroes to come into contact with. More for players to interact with. More context in which to have fun play. Give it a try.

Latest revision: 1 Dec 2004, sspm