HeartQuest: Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo Manga

[James Birdsong]

Somebody somewhere had to create this thread so it may as well be me.

Spoiler: DrivethruRPG

HeartQuest: Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo Manga contains all the rules to role-play romance, intrigue and adventure in the worlds of shoujo manga. The game covers the vast variety of the shoujo field, from teen romance stories and magical girl adventures to fantastic quests in bizarre new worlds.

HeartQuest: Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo Manga uses the Fudge System to create rich, deep characters. Play a naive schoolgirl looking for her first love, a powerful magical girl saving the world from elemental evil, a suave mysterious bishonen, or any other shoujo character you can imagine. Form lasting relationships with other characters, both player and no-player. Find the one love worth sacrificing everything for, or leave a trail of broken hearts in your wake. Face evil you cannot imagine, or the horrors of the all-important high school entrance exams. Travel to fantastic worlds, or cram yourself into a crowded bullet train to shop in Shinjuku.

HeartQuest: Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo Manga is a complete game that includes everything needed to play except dice: complete rules for character creation, task resolution, combat, and supernatural powers; plenty of good advice for players and gamemasters alike; extensive bibliographies of comics, books, animation and web sources for the shoujo genre; and three settings in which to host your shoujo games: Sendai Academy, Ghost Tamer Miyaki, and Steel Heidi.

Written by: Michael Hopcroft, Robert Pool, Dimitri Ashling, Ewen Cluney, Ronert Boyd, Robert Bain, Ismael Alvarez, Travis Johnson, and Douglas Larke.

Pages: 130 (including front and back covers.)

Spoiler: What is Fudge?

No, I am not referring to the tasty treat. it's an acronym or at least it used to be. Freeform Universal Do-it-yourself Gaming Engine uses pluses and minuses instead of stats. Though just calling it Fudge or FUDGE gives the gist.

A person uses a set of Fudge dice or alternatively normal 4d6 (four six-sided dice). If a person uses the second option 1-2 is a minus. 3-4 is a blank. 5-6 is a plus. The more pluses the better. Use the system to determine how well you do anything you need a roll for be it an action or performing a task. I am not awesome at describing the phenomenon.

Basically the game mechanics amounts to character traits such as abilities and skills, are rated on a seven-level, ascending adjective scale: Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good, Great, and Superb.

Fudge characters can also have Gifts and Faults, which are positive and negative traits that do not fit into the adjective scale.

Spoiler: Why I personally am interested in HeartQuest

All month (March of 2020) I've been daydreaming about the existence of a magical girl roleplaying game using the characters of Miraculous. Perhaps HeartQuest or Mutants and Masterminds: Mecha and Manga would work.

Boys. Girls. Everybody else. Please use this thread to talk about HeartQuest. Oh, and remember if you are looking for this on Amazon or something, this is the game by Seraphim Guard; not the book series also titled HeartQuest. I almost made that mistake.

 

[James Birdsong]

This information is from the Seraphim-Guard website.

Spoiler: Steel Roses

The HeartQuest guide to mecha is back. Romance, angst, and really big robots!

Steel Roses is a HeartQuest Core Book, designed to work seamlessly with HeartQuest: Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo Manga. Accept no substitutions — look for the HeartQuest Core Book logo.

Welcome to Steel Roses, a rules supplement to HeartQuest. This supplement encompasses the various nuances of mecha anime with shoujo elements. It takes the HeartQuest FUDGE rules we all know and love, and tweaks them to include mechanized vehicles. Using flexible and dynamic mecha creation rules, nearly any vehicle (from cars to star cruisers) is possible. Combining classic HeartQuest rules with new and innovative mecha design/resolution, Steel Roses will bring your mecha ambitions to life!

This book contains expansion rules for the creation and action resolution of mecha in HeartQuest games, Steel Roses also contains a sample campaign setting, with pre-made characters and mecha. Steel Roses includes an outline on how mecha are used in anime, with hints/tips for GM-img of such environments.

However, this book is not a replacement for HeartQuest, it is an expansion. The in-depth concepts on character creation and action resolution in the HeartQuest core rulebook are critical to an effective game of Steel Roses. If you have this book, it is recommended that you pick up HeartQuest as well, if you haven't already. Because of the importance of the HeartQuest rulebook, character creation is only briefly outlined in Steel Roses, and will provide hints and tips for making an effective mecha pilot character.

Spoiler: Musical Mistresses

Ever looked out your window and wondered if there was intelligent life out there? Well, don't bother. Trust us.

What IS out there is a crazed maniac who likes to dress up as fruit and furry animals, two evil little faeries who like their humans filleted, a race of polite but conquering aliens led by a suave Villain of etiquette, and last but not least, a whiny rich brat who really knows how to annoy masses at large.

Only one force can stop them! The Musical Mistresses!

The Musical Mistresses are a group of young girls who combat evil with musical instruments and magic (along with tempers the length of a toenail). There's Miyoko (supposedly the leader, believed to be a klutz), Akemi (technically a girl, really a psycho), and Fujiko (the one true worshipper of Biff and Yougi - Bihounon carriers of our planet).

They're all we got, and they've got their hands full!

Musical Mistresses is a HeartQuest Source Book, designed to work seamlessly with HeartQues: Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo Manga. Accept no substitutes — look for the HeartQuest Source Book logo.

Spoiler: Livin' On A Dream

Livin' On A Dream follows the exploits of four young high school girls, Yuuki, Kaoru, Keiki and Yoshiko, as they attempt the annual under-sixteen hip hop dance competition and thwart the villainous plans of the Sea Demons, a local bosozoku gang.

Set in a beautiful beachside area, the sourcebook contains complete gaming stat for all the major characters and NPCs. Full details are included of all the beachside attractions, such as Chapel Gabriel, the romantic wedding chapel that overlooks the harbor, Musashi, the yaki niku restaurant and Surf's Up, a specialist marine sports outlet. And when the sun and fun become too much, hop on the ferry and take a short ride over to Kara Shima, to dive and relax in the shade of palm trees.

Livin' On A Dream includes four ready-to-run scenarios as well as hooks and GM guidance running a complete summer-long campaign.

Livin' On A Dream is a HeartQuest Sourcebook, designed to work seamlessly with HeartQuest: Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo Manga. Accept no substitutions — look for the HeartQuest Source Book logo.