soltakss

12 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Sure but "it's super bad-ass" isn't quite the requirement for an adventure being a heroquest? 

OK, we are confusing several things here.

A HeroQuest doesn't need to be badass. Most aren't.

An Orlanthi who wants to marry someone from a forbidden clan can perform one of the many Orlanth Abducts a Maiden HeroQuests to abduct her and marry her. Although the act is normally forbidden, the HeroQuest makes it possible. This isn't a badass HeroQuest, the HeroQuestor invokes the HeroQuest and conforms to the Stations, where possible or finds encounters as per the Stations. It ritualises certain aspects of the scenario, causes some participants to want to behave in certain ways and gets a legally-binding result in the end.

A Yelornan Maiden who want a Unicorn can perform the Unicorn Quest. She goes out into the wilds, purifies herself, hunts for a Unicorn, proves herself worthy and comes back riding the Unicorn. Again, not badass but with a magical effect at the end.

12 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Apparently you can go in the Underworld to accomplish any arbitrary deed (save someone that was never saved before, like Hofstaring, bring back a rare plant nobody brought back before, pet a bunny, whatever) and still be able to "piggy back" onto a variety of mythological quest that went down there even though those myths went down there to do something different. 

These are Other Place HeroQuests, to places outside of the Mundane Realm, to the Sky Dome, to the Red Moon, to the Underworld or Hell, to one of the Planets, to the Eternal Battle, to a Star. You can go there in many ways, but only the most powerful HeroQuestors do this. The magical rewards of going to the actual place on the Other Side are more than doing it in a mundane place.

12 hours ago, lordabdul said:

This does indeed sound to me like you can turn any adventure into a heroquest if that adventure's general outline is "close enough" to an existing myth, no?

In my Glorantha, yes, you can do exactly that, as in the examples above.

11 hours ago, Joerg said:

You cannot heroquest into the Gbaji Wars to re-enact the final fight between Arkat and Nysalor (and Gbaji) as a heroquest as that was a moment in time. You might be able quest into a few of the Timeless events when the Compromise was broken - like when Nysalor/D'Wargon hurt Kyger Litor/Korasting by burning his way out of the womb of the Black Eater during the Battle of Night and Day.

Now, I think that you can. Every major event causes a Node on the God Plane and this allows HeroQuestors to travel to that Node. The Gbaji/Arkat Smackdown, Dragonkill, Battle of Night and Day, First Battle of Chaos, red Goddess at Castle Blue, The Dragonewt Dream, Wounding of Korasting and many more are events powerful enough and mythical enough to have created a God Plane Node.

Still waiting for the Jonstown Compendium, Jonstown Library or whatever the RuneQuest/Glorantha equivalent is.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Vasana has left her ransom deposit with Harmast's cult, which makes a lot of sense since ransoming captives of war is a time honored function of the Issaries cult, and one reason they will receive some form of free passage even from Wolf Pirates and the like. In the end, it is her employer who bails her out.

We always left at least two ransoms, in case we had to use one of them up. Our cults normally stumped up for a ransom as well, as they knew that we were good for it.

8 hours ago, metcalph said:

I didn't know Cults were credit lending institutions. 

They are in my games, especially for Rune Masters. The cult will pay for things that the Rune Master needs, so binding the Rune Master deeper into the cult.

50 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

(response in blue above - so if you haven't turned it on, you'll need to read between the lines)

If you highlight a section and press the Quote button that appears, then you can quote sections of a post.

You can even highlight a quoted section and it gives both quote and response.

It's a good site, with lots of useful stuff.

It started off really friendly, then got a bit snippy, but has gone back to being really friendly again, which is good.

On 5/3/2019 at 3:35 AM, lordabdul said:

So unless I have it completely wrong (which is possible, I'm a Glorantha n00b), I'd rather "hero-questing" be just a set of GM recommendations and tips about how to incorporate a little, a lot, or a whole bunch of mythology into the adventures (themes, archetypal roles, historical journeys, etc.) rather than a special type of adventure.

It can be both.

Have a look online, there are lots of ideas about HeroQuesting, with GM tips, sample HeroQuests and enough extra rules to make your head spin.

On 5/2/2019 at 8:49 AM, Crel said:

From what I remember of Plunder there's a lot of cool items, but the general trend was more "cool/terrifying artifact from the Godtime" rather than "here's something your adventurer can learn or set as a goal."

There are some things that PCs can make in Plunder. A Ball of Tails is the best example. 

I have a very relaxed attitude to Magic Items and making them. If the players can give me a good explanation of how they made the Magical Item then I might allow it.

In theory, you'd need a spell or skill to be able to make the Magical Item, but there used to be a Rune Matrix Enchantment written up somewhere and I'd allow that to be used.

On 5/2/2019 at 5:21 PM, lordabdul said:

What I generally find more intimidating and/or confusing is really figuring out where the information is coming from, how authoritative that source is, etc... so I know what to think about it for my Glorantha.

Probably a third comes from sources, a third is misremembered stuff and a third is made up stuff. The problem is when people claim their made up stuff is actual stuff, or when two people are doing the same.

On 5/2/2019 at 5:21 PM, lordabdul said:

I often see big rants about some aspect of some Praxian tribe culture or whatever, all written in a very factual way, and I have no idea where that's from. Maybe it's from the author's own campaigns, maybe it's from some long OOP sourcebook, or some obscure Stafford Library book, I don't know.

That's the problem.

Some people argue about their own ideas and treat them like canon, only to dismiss other people's ideas as made up. It can get quite ping-pongy, with I said You Said I said You Said. Sometimes they contain useful information, often they don't. The Page Down Button is you friend.

On 5/2/2019 at 8:48 AM, Joerg said:

The host in the case of Cu Chullain was a poor old widow, and the stew was the only food (ready to eat) in the house.

It was also, in my opinion, a trap for him.

In Glorantha, geases are seldom fatal, as it doesn't make for a good game.

On at least one level, HeroQuesting is Strange Adventuring.

If you Adventure in a Magical Realm then you are HeroQuesting, in a way.

However, for me, a HeroQuest is laying a Myth onto a scenario. You want to raid some trolls, so you lay the Orlanth and the Sandals of Darkness Myth onto your troll raid and it becomes a HeroQuest. You get a magical benefit from the scenario. You might even strengthen your cult, if you steal Troll Magic from their Temple.

7 hours ago, Aprewett said:

But still no one as really answered my question about what happens if the ghoul wins the extended competition. Is it a total party kill. The advice seems to be no, you twist it narratively to the story to keep it interesting. But the rules don’t point to this way. They say - Players; name the prize, name the tactics and then the GM secretly does the same. So I don’t think to myself ‘kill enemy and eat them’, but some other softer option, based on advice here. But at some point this is not going to be the case. The big climatic monster does want to kill and eat. There is no advice on this outcome, but to find some softly resolution.

Sure, you could say "The Ghoul has won a Complete Victory and starts eating you, you are all dead". Well done, you get to roll up new characters,

Or, you could say "The Ghoul has won a Complete Victory and leaves you tied up in a dirty cellar, while he eats someone he has prepared earlier. He leaves, but you know that Ghouls are always hungry and will probably eat one of you when it gets back. What are you going to do?" 

Both are reasonable results from a Complete Victory. One has absolutely no drama, the other has a lot of dramatic tension.

7 hours ago, Aprewett said:

Where is the threat to the players.

For me, the threat to the PCs is what could have happened, rather than what happens.

My HeroQuest style is making things dangerous without them being deadly. That is different from RQ2's "You roll up a PC, it dies, you roll up another PC, it dies, you roll up another PC ...".

I suppose it all depends on what you are used to and what you, and your players, want out of the game.

3 hours ago, klecser said:

My biggest fear right now is attempting to explain the three tiers of the Magic system and players having a character that they feel is ineffective because  of this. Some of the slipcase characters seem fairly complex to my untrained eye and specialize in calling Spirits and casting magic and I'm not sure how to "pitch" that to whoever plays one. Combat will obviously be a huge part of DAL. Another challenge is that we will only have one rulebook, so I anticipate printing full spell text from the PDF for players to use (for personal use only!  )

Don't explain the Magic Systems. Instead, explain what you need to.

"Anyone can learn Spirit Magic, if you can find a teacher. If you join a cult, you can get some Spirit Magic, if you become an Initiate you can learn Divine Magic, which is more powerful.", that's all you need at the start. Explain rune Pools when they come up, explain sacrificing POW for Runemagic if it comes up. Don;t bother with Sorcery, unless they want to play a Sorcerer.

If you don't really get Spirits, then don't use them at first. 

3 hours ago, klecser said:

How do you teach Runequest efficiently to one-shot groups?

Start with the Basics - You have a skill and need to roll under it on 1D100, if you roll low then you get a Special, if you roll really low then you get a Critical, a Critical is better than a Special, which is better than a Normal Success. If you roll above your skill then you Fail, if you roll 96-100 then you Fail, but if you roll 100 or just below then you Fumble, Fumbles are bad.

For combat, leave it until you have a combat. Nothing teaches RuneQuest like playing RuneQuest. People learn about Combat by rolling a Combat.

Ignore all the fancy rules, you just don't need them. 

Take little baby steps, don't explain everything at once otherwise they'll forget the first thing you said when you explain the third thing.

We played that they worked by boosting similar effects, so a Power Enhancer 4 would change a Bladesharp 4 to Bladesharp 8 and also a Damage Boosting 4 to Damage Boosting 8.

On 4/29/2019 at 8:38 PM, Rick Meints said:

Chaosium has a long and storied history of announcing 'forthcoming" products that never end up making it into print.

And long may it continue!

On 4/29/2019 at 4:24 AM, jeffjerwin said:

It could be worse. In Irish legend, a geas is a fatal taboo, one, which broken, invariably triggers the death of the subject.

Exactly, none of this "I didn't know" or "I was tricked into it" rubbish. You have a geas of "Never refuse Hospitality" and "Never eat dog", what do you do when you get served a cooked dog at a feast? You die horribly.

12 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Similar to the Expanded Presence for Shamans to have more Spirit Magic spells than their CHA would normally allow, how about a HQA that allows for more Rune spells (+3D6?) than normally allowed?

In that way, we really do start to see more heroic adventurers and their attachment to their gods?

That's a good one, especially as Rune Pools are limited. You could do the same for Spirits, but effectively having a higher CHA.

4 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

On 4/27/2019 at 10:12 AM, soltakss said:

Some general ideas that we have used in the past:

• Heroic Casting of a Spirit Magic Spell - Casting a particular named Spirit Magic spell costs 0 MPs to cast. The spell has to be linked to something gained on the HeroQuest, for example Bladesharp gained on Humakt Gaining Death, or Sleep gained by a Chalana Arroy HeroQuest or Face of Lanbril gained on the Lanbril Loses his Face HeroQuest.
• Heroic Casting of a Rune Magic Spell - You can cast a particular Runemagic Spell using Magic Points rather than Rune Points. In effect, your POW becomes a secondary Rune Pool for casting particular Runespells. As above, the spell needs to be one gained on a HeroQuest related to that power. So, Humakt gaining Truesword on the Humakt Gains Death spell, Orlanth gaining Lightning in the Lightning Spear Quest and so on.

Are these in canon somewhere? If so, can you please point me in the right direction?

No, my RQ rules are better than canon! 🙂

Seriously, HeroQuesting has been woefully underdone in RQ in the past and this kind of ability has never been described before. They just made sense to me and I have used forms of them for years.

On 4/29/2019 at 4:39 AM, Shiningbrow said:

I certainly accept the first -a Humakti is obviously going to care what their god thinks and cares about. It's just respect!

Not so sure about the Orlanthi caring so much about Humakt's geasa, given the "no-one can tell you what to do" bit! It would imply to me that all Humakti HQ abilities should come with a corresponding geas. That's a LOT of Spirits of Reprisal getting a ton of work (good for the economy, I suppose!) 😛

Oh, it matters. If you continually break Humakti Geases then the Spirit of Reprisal  comes for you and your swords shatter, until you get off the naughty step.

For me, HeroQuest Geases are more important than normal ones, break them at your peril.

On 4/29/2019 at 4:39 AM, Shiningbrow said:

(Q: Does a SoR only attack once, and then off it goes? Or, if it fails in its mission - - or even if it succeeds - does it keep on hanging around to annoy for as long as it can? Or what's the deal?)

Depends on the situation. A naughty Humakti might get Impests for a long while, but might get things thrown at him once. A bad Humakti might find that he can never use a sword again. 

It really does depend on the deity and the transgression.

1 hour ago, Richard S. said:

Iirc, Chaos Sense in "canon" is a passive ability that lets a storm bull know when chaos is nearby. It doesn't point out any one specific person, it just gives the Uroxi a sense that something is wrong.

Unless you are a Storm Khan, then you can use it once a day as a Detect Chaos, making anything chaotic within your POW in metres glow to any nearby Storm Bulls. We have used that a few times.

Ogres had a False Form spell, from Cacodemon, that hid their Chaotic Taint. I think it might work against Sense Chaos, but am not sure. It certainly hides their sharp teeth.

1 hour ago, jrutila said:

We are doing our share here in Finland (which, as we know, is one of the big ones when it comes to Glorantha).

I normally run HeroQuest at conventions, as it is just easier. It also allows me to run in any genre I want, with no changes to the rules.

17 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

I had a quick theoretical chat with my group and we came up with that as the minimum - you atone at the next holy day and take an additional random geas per geas broken in order to get the gift back. The players were a lot more harsh than me in that they thought you should lose access to your Rune magic as well until you atone.

I am not surprised. Players often see the fairness/unfairness of a situation and see things in black and white. "You broke a geas, you have to pay for it".

3 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

What should happen if a Humakti or Yelmalion break a geas?

Clearly the gift is lost, so keep track of that relationship, if you go by the Lottery Swords example. Is that permanent, or can the gift be re-acquired by some form of attonement?

The Gift is lost, permanently, however, the Geas is retained. However, as a GM, I'd say the PC can HeroQuest, or otherwise atone, depending on the circumstances, to regain the Gift.

However, it does depend in the circumstances.

A Yelmalian with "Never let a horse suffer needlessly" who takes his horse into a Chaos Nest and is attacked by randy broos might have broken his Geas, but it isn't really his fault, so he might be able to atone and get his Gift back.

If he takes his horses to Ikadz' Flaying Pit where they are flayed and their souls given to him as beads on a necklace, I'd say the Geas is irrevocably broken and he couldn't get the Gift back, ever.

3 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

If one of the geases for a multi-geas gift is broken, does that mean that the other geases can be dropped, or are there further consequences for either or all of the first or subsequent broken geases? If you have to take the gift again to get it back, could you end up with 3, 4, or 5 geases for the gift?

For me, the Geas is not dependant on the Gift, so if you lose the Gift you still retain the Geas, so no, I'd say you cannot drop the other Geases.

If your Gift has a corresponding Geas, you just pick the Gift back up and keep the Geas. You might get an extra Geas for being a bad, bad cultist.

If your Gift has a Random Geas, I'd just roll another Geas. If the Gift has multiple Geases and one was broken, I'd allow the Gift to be retaken with one random Geas.

3 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

You'd still require a geas for a HQ gift???

Sometimes, sure.

If I am a Humakti and go on a Humakti HeroQuest and gain a Humakti Gift as the result, then I'd expect it not to have a corresponding Geas. However, if I am an Orlanthi and go on a Humakti HeroQuest and gain a Humakti Gift as a result, I'd expect the associated Geas.

Soltak Stormspear did this several times, he had a Yinkin and Yelmalian Geas and, even though Illuminated, rigidly kept the geases. I think he had "Never let a Cat suffer needlessly", but can't remember the Yelmalian Geas.

21 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Pretty tough if your POW is already at species maximum, because the roll is impossible, unless you allow 01-05. Still, should it be harder to raise your species max if your POW is really high?

We played that you still had a 5% chance of increasing.

Also, in RQ2, Priests had a bonus to POW when determining POW Gain Rolls, so they effectively had an increased Species max POW for making rolls.

We played that if someone went over their Species Maximum via a POW Gain Roll, they could instantly sacrifice the extra POW as a RuneSpell.

21 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

So what I did this evening is offer each character an automatic increase with no roll required on one ability that they had successfully used. The Hueymakti took +1D6 to a sword skill, Harmast took 1D3-1 to STR (for breaking free of a Krarshtkid's goo) and rolled 2, and Vishi Dunn who had POW 21 took a +1 to his POW.

I think that makes sense, the way you increase your species max is by already having it at maximum.

That works as well.