Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption Q&A
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A Q&A with Lori and Corey Cole made its way to the halls of Rock, Paper, Shotgun this week, during which the original Hero's Quest/Quest for Glory creators are quizzed about their upcoming adventure/RPG, Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. You'll recall that the title is going through another round of crowd-funding on Kickstarter, so it's a good time to take in some more information about the game:
RPS: Yeah, I was going to bring up Ultima, simply because it amuses me that if you look at the series' story, the Avatar is the worst thing to happen to Britannia. His quest creates the Guardian, destroys the Gargoyles' realm, and while he's meant to be a figure to look up and emulate, all that actually happens is that everyone waits for him to sort their problems. And that's before we get to the killing and stealing and so on. It always felt an interesting counterpoint to QFG, which tends to adopt more of a focus on saving the world through compassion, one act of kindness at a time. I've not really seen that in other RPGs.
Corey: Well, beside getting a swollen head, I think I have to talk about context. We get a lot of people talking about lore in our games and inconsistencies. Richard Garriott, when he wrote Alkalabeth, he was only about 15. We all played a lot of D&D, but when we broke into the industry at Sierra, we were in our early 30s. We had a lot more life experience to draw from. and we probably played a lot more D&D! If there's a bit more mature feeling to them, it's probably because we were a bit more mature while making them. Everything we brought to QFG was things we'd encountered in our lives. My favourite example, which I've told a hundred times, is the seed-spitting Spirea in the first game, based on a kinetic fountain that we saw in Phoenix, Arizona. A lot of the other stuff came from mythology and other readings, and having a child. it all gave us a different perspective on this.
RPS: So how would you go about defining heroism?
Corey: To me, heroism is. I think of what I call quiet heroes. A hero is anyone who goes out of his or her way to do something good, usually helping people, in a way that costs them something. If they get a reward afterwards, that's fine, but they don't do it for that. A hero is someone who says. here is something that needs to be done, and I'm the one to do it.
Lori: In effect, Hero's Quest was an exploration of what it means to be a hero and to sacrifice. Throughout the series you go from a wannabe thinking he's going to save the kingdom and find this lost child, and each time you think you know what you're supposed to be doing and the reality turns out to be very different.
Corey: The world is not that simple. It's also good storytelling to put in plot twists, but the reality is that the world is a messy place. You think you're going to rescue the princess and-
RPS: .you discover she's the brigand leader.
Corey: Spoilers! But yeah. You find that she's your foe. You still rescue her, but it's not like she's this helpless damsel. You just have to bring her back to her senses.
