jajagappa

There's bits that get reflected in ILH1 and ILH2, Champions of the Red Moon, and Sons of Kargzant.

My favorite dark fantasy works are Raymond Feist's Faerie Tale and The Talisman by Peter Straub and Stephen King. All American authors.

It's Thrunhin Da, and she's off in the Sea of Fog. Of course, the future Great Flood may in fact be a ritual to raise the Blue Dragon by connecting the Creek-Stream River with the Oslir.

Another interpretation for Darkness, Life, and Plant is Flamal. He is the Seed Father, that is the life of the plant, yet hidden in the dark within the shell of the seed. As such, the character might find he/she is of great interest to Earth cults, elves, trolls, ... GtG p.150 notes him in the Elf Pantheon: Flamal: Father of seeds. Runes: Plant, Infinity, Plant [i.e. he is the manifestation/bearer of the Plant Rune] p.162: For the Aldryami, the Underworld is the home of Flamal the Father of Seeds and source of the Primal Plasma that animates all Life. [That certainly says Darkness to me!] Typically Flamal is subsumed into cults such as Aldrya or Ernalda. However, there are scattered sites where he is worshipped. Notable sites include: GtG p.182: Clearwine in Sartar (Colymar land): Clearwine is noted for its large temple to Ernalda and Flamal, and for the sublime purity of the wine produced from its magical vineyards. [Note that Sartar:Kingdom of Heroes has a whole celebration, the Feast of Beasts, that is dedicated to Flamal at Clearwine.] p.259: Vinavale between Esrolia and Caladraland: The inhabitants offer their tithes and sacrifices to the Volcano Priests of the Vent, but also to Ernalda, Barntar, and Flamal. p.321: Riyestan, in Sylila (Lunar Empire): These ruins are still a sacred place to the Earth cults of Terarir and Saird. They are the home of Riyesta Earth Mother and Kemar Seed Father, commonly associated with Ernalda and Flamal. p.384: Hrelar Amali in Ralios: this is the most important site of Flamal. The City of the Gods is located on the Crimson Plains between Ralios and Seshnela. It is the spot where Flamal was murdered in the Gods War. For this reason, it is one of the most sacred spots in all Genertela. Hrelar Amali served as a temple to the Nine Great Gods. At Flamal’s death, the Enerali people built a temple to him, and added a temple to Ernalda and one to Xentha, who carried off Flamal’s body, to appease the Nine. I have also included a temple to Flamal in Nochet (Tershis district): T127. Flamal’s Temple. Here dwells the First Husband of Ernalda, and his temple is ever lush and green. Occasionally, one of the aldryami is seen here, though how they arrive or depart is usually a mystery. One approach to have a character follow Flamal would be to have some tie with the Earth Witch, who can hear the whispers within the Earth, in this case the Whispering Seeds who call for a hero to find them.

Nochet, in my game. 😉

If there was an Asrelia presence, they may have long-term hidden caches of food. Or perhaps there are fungal gardens within that the healers normally use for healing potions, but are turned into food sources.

I don't recall it ever being explicitly stated. Since Slonta subsequently rolled over, she could certainly be one, and Esrola/Ketha would be a natural (& neighboring) one to pair her with. I seem to recall some speculation about it being between Ernalda and Dendara though.

Och ... well ... he wasna really a man, d'you ken … He was as strange a thing as ever I saw, or ever I hope to see, [Storm Bull] willing. He was a strange unearthly creature - a quivering, glistening mass... He wasna so much a man as... a blancmange!

Because you can still fumble and have some unexpected psychic shock! Happened when I ran the QuickStart. Poor Harmast, drew upon his affinity with Storm (90%) for inspiration and failed utterly (100). Wasn't great timing either as they were busy fighting rock lizards. Just because you are heavily motivated or influenced by a particular Rune (or Passion), doesn't mean you are drawing on it constantly to go over and above. That's really what inspiration is about. Later in the QuickStart when Harmast was fighting the Grey Dog Damakos, he succeeded quite well with his Hate(Greydogs), and that drove him to ensure his foe was completely dead. Yes, most definitely. Mine have. Haven't found it so to date.

No, it means example character.

Given that there are still dream dragons and dragonewts that will hunt and kill humans, yes. And with the stories passed on to children of whole mountain ranges rising up to devour entire clans and tribes, in a world where monstrous beings like the Crimson Bat can swoop down upon your village or terrors like Cwim haunt Prax, definitely yes.

I don't recall any of my players ever having a character who didn't go through Advanced Experience. That was really the minimum to be able to play. When I ran the Quickstart, my reaction to the pre-gens and how my players ran them was that each had: one or two skills that would have been a bit higher than initial RQ3 characters; rune magic that they could use and was interesting for them to use; an ability to defend against some spirits; and an ability to try to augment/boost other skills through runes and passions. As it was there were still rather challenging moments against rock lizards, Idrima, and the dream-weft spirits. And I felt they would not overwhelm any published adventures, whether Rainbow Mounds, Snakepipe Hollow, River of Cradles, or Borderlands.

That's the goal. As an HQ GM, I try to keep my players thinking about what they want to achieve, then how they want to go about it. Without that, it becomes difficult to determine what the outcome is.

Not to mention survive Spirit Combat!

Just blancmanges.

Then that is really the contest - you've been attacked and want to survive. You use your sword-fighting ability to do so. Simple contest, and some difficulty level for the orc. When I got started with HeroQuest after years of playing RQ, I found I had to make a shift in mindset. RQ was choreography, each step of the 'dance' outlined and detailed. HeroQuest was screenwriting - the contests are defined and enacted, but not the details.

Correct, added in the enchantment rules in RQ3.

What's your point in doing so? Are you trying to impress someone? Trying to prove yourself an orc-killer? You can frame the contest as "I want to kill the orc for the hell of it". There's some difficulty, and you try it. But it's still framed as a contest, not the minutiae of each task within it.

"I swing my sword" is a task. It's a very specific action. You make a roll. You hit or you miss. The goal is trying to hit, and doesn't take into account why you want to do so. That's something you may have in mind, but is somewhat irrelevant for the duration of the task. Here each action of the conflict is explicitly spelled out through multiple detailed rolls. "I want to get into the Temple of Doom, but there is an orc blocking my way" represents a conflict. You are choosing specifically how you will approach resolving that. "I'm going to take him down with my blazing sword skill" is a statement of how you are approaching that conflict. And there's some level of difficulty. But you could just as readily say "I'm going to trick him into investigating somewhere else" through some other action. Again it's a statement of how you approach the conflict. And maybe the difficulty is greater or lesser, but the goal is getting the orc out of your way. Here the entire conflict is encapsulated into one roll.

Sorcerous defensive effects? E.g. ring of fire, ring of invisibility, whirling gyre of winds to surround the camp, etc.

Paper minis. Perhaps even just silhouettes. Cheap and make as many as you need.

They can have limits on who uses them. That was part of the User Conditions that could be applied during the enchantment ritual. There were other conditions, too, that could be added.

That was my thought as well, and went through, but didn't find anything there either.

A key difference as @Jenx noted is that the contest is not the same as a traditional RPG round of combat. In some of the Extended Contests it may feel like it, but it is different. In a traditional RPG, you may be confronted by a troll and begin a combat. Each round, you state an action, make a roll. Then repeat, eventually getting to some outcome. In HeroQuest, you have the same confrontation. But you might simply state: I'm going to use my Howling Wolf Combat training augmented by my quick Movement to run rings around the troll and wear him down until he submits. You make a roll to try to achieve your goal. The GM rolls the difficulty. You get some level of success or failure. Contest is done. If you've been victorious, the troll has submitted (possibly with some but... condition). If you failed, the troll won, and perhaps you're off to become troll food now.

http://etyries.albionsoft.com/etyries.com/songbook/newlunar.html The original RQ2 material definitely had a Greco-Roman feel. The "Red" Emperor etc. prompted a lot of soviet references in the 90's and early 2000's (many humorous, of course). If you read through the Imperial Lunar Handbook materials or Champions of the Reaching Moon, you'll find them (e.g. secret police, fiscal anarchists, the Char-Un as Cossacks).