HeartQuest

Game: HeartQuest
Publisher: Seraphim Guard
Series: HeartQuest
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 4th, January 2003
Reviewer’s Rating: 7/10   [ Good ]
Total Score: 18
Average Score: 6.00

HeartQuest is an anime RPG that makes good use of the excellent Fudge system. Old gaming veterans will be pleased to see that HeartQuest includes the appropriate Usenet credits for the creation of Fudge.

I think old gaming veterans might just be caught out with the idea of a Shoujo anime game though. Shoujo is the Japanese word for girl. Shoujo anime is designed for girls. HeartQuest’s full title is “HeartQuest – Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo manga”

It’s easy to address that style of game with a sceptical “Huh-uh”.

At least, that was my first reaction. I imagine it’ll be a first reaction that HeartQuest will come up against again and again. It’s not that simple though. The Shoujo classification for anime is a bit like a style classification for music.

You can argue over whether the Foo Fighters are grunge rock or not in a similar sort of way that you can debate whether Vampire Princess Miyu is Shoujo manga or not. There’s a detailed bibliography at the end of the download that does an extremely good job of listing various influences and inspirations. It includes books, videos and even anime RPGs. If you watch any anime then the chances are that a series you’d not have considered Shoujo – might be.

Indecently, I always thought “anime” was the style and “manga” a company. It’s probably more complex than that but I’ll use the word anime more often in this review.

And the romance; is it tasteful, is it natural? I don’t know about that. I think it’s an incredibly awkward thing to do in a roleplaying game. Crisis of faith, mass murder, genocide, the corruption of the soul, demonic summoning and political assassination are easy.

They’re every day in roleplaying games. Very many people find romance a rather trickier aspect of real-life to incorporate into their fantasy escapism. I’m not convinced that HeartQuest makes it any easier. HeartQuest certainly doesn’t make it any harder.

The game is rather successfully targeted towards the gamer who is genuinely interested and able to roleplay romance. There’s no guide to romance – that would naff. I’m glad there is no guide to romance.

The chapter titled Teen Romance is about sex. Sex and dating. Sex, dating and why they have those old fashioned uniforms in Japan. It’s a cultural study. I’m really pleased with the Teen Romance chapter! It doesn’t talk down at you. It doesn’t preach. It doesn’t letch. It’s not dry academia. It could have so easily been any of these. I’m honestly amazed that it isn’t.

HeartQuest might not make the natural flow of romance any easier but it certainly makes it easier to enter the world of romantic roleplaying in Shoujo manga. A success!

Remember; HeartQuest uses Fudge. The mechanics work too. Before we know it – two great big successes for the game. So much for that sceptical “huh-uh” earlier.

If you’re worried about Fudge – don’t be. HeartQuest doesn’t contain every scrap of Fudge mechanics ever published but it is a complete game. You have full character generation rules, skills and even “supernormal” powers. HeartQuest is one of the few games to go as far as providing a graph showing the normal distribution of modified results of 3d6 rolls used in the mechanics.

HeartQuest also comes with the common “an introduction to roleplaying” and so it caters to people who’ve never seen the expression 3d6 before.

Oh yes, the “supernormal” powers. That’s their phrase and not mine. There are different genres within Shoujo; Magic Girl, Fantastic Adventures and, of course, Teen Romance. The first two lend themselves to supernormal powers.

There’s plenty of game in HeartQuest. It’s just that usual combat chapter and the skill examples are laced with references to favourite anime shows. This is an advantage native to HeartQuest and the game uses it well; it builds on the atmosphere of the game and helps new players get to grips with roleplay issues.

For example, in the campaign setting section, there is a discussion about what sort of powers characters should have and that it would be wise if they didn’t clash too much. HeartQuest reminds us that, “In Sailor Moon, for instance, each girl is named after a planet (Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus, Sailor Mars, etc.) and has a type of power that is associated with it.”

A good proportion of the download is spent on settings and campaign style. Each of the main styles (Magic Girl, Fantastic Adventures and vanilla Teen Romance) and the sorts of issues that each tends to address, the gender roles, typical heroines and villains.

There’s even a paragraph on evil. In the Magic Girl style, for example, evil is typically the manipulation of emotions. It is this sort of immorality that defines an evil character. Evil characters in Magic Girl Shoujo rarely commit crimes more severe than robbery.

That sort of observation is helpful for roleplayers used to hack’n’slash and to anime fans trying HeartQuest as their first game. There’s a whole chapter dedicated to historical settings for the campaign. Tips and advice for historic settings include the Roman Empire, Dark Ages, Medieval and recent history.

There’s no special mention of feudal Japan though and that’s a shame. There is an out of this world section though – great if you really want to have a small pet dragon in your anime RPG.

Then there’s a sample adventure. Then there’s another sample adventure. Then there’s yet another sample adventure. That’s an awful lot of sample adventures! HeartQuest has stuck to the pattern of providing examples for as many of the Shoujo sub-genres as possible.

There’s a historical romance, a magical girl campaign (and I rather like the name Ghost Tamer Miyaki) and a teen romance without superpowers but with plenty of drama and romance. Three sample scenarios are really too much for me, I grudgingly put up the presence of one in a game. Nevertheless, I can see why they’re here and I’ll admit they’re helpful to those newbies that might well be playing HeartQuest.

I probably shouldn’t use the term “adventure” for any of them, actually. It doesn’t sound right. There are three “interesting set-ups” where the main characters and their motivations are introduced. This is actually my favourite way for a pre-written scenario to be presented.

There’s everything you need without the needless linear constraints. They’re all good plots but I would have settled for just the one. I really didn’t need a chapter of sample NPCs but that’s there as well.

In a PDF space is fairly cheap and so the NPCs and two scenarios don’t count as a waste of space – even if you don’t want them – they’re still a bonus. HeartQuest’s layout does well on PDF. It’s black and white with text in two colours.

Illustrations are mainly line drawings and a few filled pictures. It’s not uncommon to find a whole page with nothing but an illustration on it. The start of each chapter is marked by page with nothing but the chapter title and rose decoration on it.

There’s no bulky sidebar instead on alternate sides of each page there are long black roses. Yup – an RPG with flowers! It reminds me very much of scenes from Revolutionary Girl Utena. That’s no bad thing since Revolutionary Girl Utena is Shoujo anime. The PDF lacks bookmarks. Ouch. Nasty. This makes navigating the 130-paged download a chore. It should have bookmarks.

It’s a good game. I don’t think HeartQuest is so good as to win people over from a determined anti-romance RPG stance. I do think it’s good enough to put people tempted to give the genre a try at ease.

I’ve mixed feelings as to whether HeartQuest is a good way to introduce a wider range of people to roleplaying. I’m sure total newbies will need to read the Fudge mechanics carefully and that really might put them off. Of course, by newbie, I’m thinking of teenage girls here. On the other hand, the Internet is -full- of teenage girls free-forming Shoujo anime on forums and I think HeartQuest is a good way to get them to give tabletop roleplaying a try.

Is HeartQuest excessively girlie? No. Not at all. Sure, there are flowers up the side but there are certainly no horrors like a little heart for the dot on an i. The tone of voice seems to be carefully balanced throughout. I think it’ll work with experienced players, men, girls and newbies alike.

If you’re tempted – try it. If you know it’s not your thing – then you’re probably right.