jrutila

14 hours ago, StanTheMan said:

And no explicit wealth mechanic too (there is, but only if you bother to make such an ability, which no one did).

A quick pointer to this to help you explain this. Think this from a movie's point of view. Do you often see the main characters in a movie keeping track of their money if it is not an interesting aspect of the story? If the main hero has to call with a payphone then it is interesting if he has money to do that, especially when someone's life is hanging on that call. In HQ terms he fails on the use of "Wealthy Parents" ability. If he just buys a snack to have something to eat during another scene it happens automatically and he has the money and we don't care if he now has little less money or not. HQ does not try to simulate the world, but the story.

Glad to hear you are continuing with the system and had fun.

3 hours ago, Ian Cooper said:

So I would like to be clear that I am not necessarily talking about 'new rules' which seems to be the default assumption by some here. If anything I am very happy to simplify.

That is actually a good clarification. After the news, I tend to twist in my head anything you say here to regard the new rules. Sorry about that.

3 hours ago, Ian Cooper said:

But, much as a keyword implies what is credible, the Extraordinary Powers Framework in HeroQuest (see genre packs in ISS2001) implies that it is useful to document how magic works, to the extent that it is possible to narrate effects.

Yes, it is good to document the magic for narration purposes. My point was that it is "weird" that you have limitations (Moon waning) to the magic ability as it just that: a HQ ability.

This also comes back to your original question (that I missed) about how the players can know what is the effect of the magic they cast. If a player ponders how can his Heler character make it rain on a sunny day I think it is quite ok to say: "You tell me". Let the players' creative juices flow. The outcome of the dice and the goal set helps here to define the level of supernaturalism of the effect and the actual effect etc. If the magic (ability) succeeds, it succeeds. Now it is up to the players and the GM to come up with some feasible narration. Maybe this way you can get quite Greg-like magic effects in the table.

What I have always liked in HQG is that it doesn't have any special rules about combat. In that lieu it has always seemed to me little weird having those different special rules about magic. Some of them are tied to the credibility test, yes, but for example the moon phase limits in Lunar magic deviate from core HQ ideology.

Again, why couldn't you treat magic as you treat any ability in HQ? I think David wrote well about this already. The result would then define what kind of effect there was.

On the other hand the magic descriptions and limitations help players and GM to play more "Gloranthan" game and you don't have to come up with your own effects.

First of all, excellent choice.

As the players are not too familiar with Glorantha start local and expand from there. You can build your Glorantha with the players.

Couple of things about HeroQuest as the system. Try to spot if you find yourself doing task resolution instead of goal resolution. If someone wants to try to hit with a sword ask what they want to achieve with it, the goal of the contest.

Also, contest if there is something interesting in the failure. Story branch or some kind of penalty or, as they say, fail forward. Because the failure might happen and there is no second takes!

Have fun!

2 hours ago, JonL said:

It actually never occurred to me that players might have to use the same ability for each exchange in an Extended Contest. Changing tactics and approaches in response to unfolding events just seemed like a natural thing. A quick check of the EC section in HQG finds mention choosing an ability at the beginning, but doesn't say anything about it thereafter either way.

I recorded this to the "Bring your dead" -thread. Good catch.

Overall this thread has good pointers about when and how to use extended contest but not one saying why one should not use them, ever. I am not trying to ignite any flame war but am interested in the reasons behind this. Maybe it would help us using them to use them also more properly.

In other thread come one good point that was unclear from the rules to me for a long time. The overall flow of an extended contest. It should be made more clear if the player is allowed, or even encouraged, to change his ability between the extended contest rounds. Also, is GM allowed to tune the resistance value during the extended contest? How about having different value per player even if they are contesting the same resistance.

Also, the Multiple Opponent Penalty is unclear, in my opinion. I think the "official ruling" is that the abstract resistance faces multiple opponent penalty just the same way as a PC faces MOP when contesting against multiple resistances. I think the rules do not say which of the PCs get to roll against the lowered value and who is rolling against the full value. That's why I tend to rule that the MOP does not affect the resistance, only PCs.

I really like the EC. It has multiple times (timed right) given players something to be excited and uncertain about.

As the idea of EC is just, instead of a simple contest, give the contest more meaning the timing is crucial. When the players are reaching the "middle climax" I usually toss in the extended contest and we spend little more time concentrating on that contest. I also use the Rising and Climactic consequences to spin the story more.

And a couple of hints about using EC:

•  Combat doesn't automatically mean to use EC
• Really concentrate the back-and-forth that happens due to EC in the contest. Don't just roll but discuss with the players where the story is going after every round.

I haven't read the Nameless Streets yet and the Chained Simple Contests but to me, they sound that instead of those you could just run an Extended Contest.

Before this conversation erupts in the wrong thread, let's continue the discussion here in its own thread (not sure if there was already a thread somewhere in the backlog).

Here is a dice help table for explaining the levels to new players. You insert player's die to top row and GM's die to the left column and read the correct level.

HeroQuest dice help table.pdf

Here is the printable format of the dice-table. I will cross-post it also to 

HeroQuest dice help table.pdf

I am planning to take part on my first online con and also play in a RQG game in over 15 years. There is still place for couple of more players in either of the two runs by Steve Parish.

Go check on http://www.aethercon.com

I'm interested why to introduce the concept of XP? I like the idea of cementing Benefits and Consequences (character arcs) but why not do it eith the same HPs? Can you open up the reasoning a little?

The cementing is also better in one-shots where no-one will spend HP to increase ability by one. But cementing a benefit in the beginning is a lucrative possibility.

I yesterday bought a physical copy of the Nameless Streets here in Finland from Fantasiapelit. I asked how many they have in stock to hint here and it just happened to be the last one. So, I think it is now, finally, out of print.

8 hours ago, godsmonkey said:

Sidekick: Bob the fire elemental 13

To make things a little more complicated sidekicks (Companions in HQG) can have three own abilities that the PC can use in contests and they have their special rules (for example 3RP and out) in extended contests and other places.

Retainers are "more or less anonymous servants or helpers" and easily replaced.

For starters, you should probably stick to Retainer model (single ability to use) as was in your example and later, when the system is more familiar, start dealing with actual Companions.

On 8/17/2018 at 9:05 PM, jajagappa said:

Buried in the Big Rubble, adventurers have discovered jars containing ancient cheese imported from distant Imther.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/science/oldest-cheese-ever-egypt-tomb.html

Somehow I immediately hoped the "nytimes" would've pointed to some new Glorantha "news site" (you know, not news about but from Glorantha). I was hoping the "nytimes" comes from Nysalor Times or something...

Could someone please create that. I would like to read those.

On 8/16/2018 at 5:10 PM, Ian Cooper said:

In addition, you can use a hero point to 'cement a lingering benefit' and make the change to your ability permanent. You need to spend 1 hero point to cement a +3 benefit, 2 hero points for a +6 benefit, and 3 hero points for a +9 benefit. You can't partially cement a benefit, you need to pay for the whole benefit. You can cement any benefit any time up to the point that the GM rules it is replaced by time, or by a subsequent contest result.

Regarding the Character arcs discussion I think this is good input for that too. Cementing a lingering benefit is about the character changing in some way thus creating the character's arc.

And yeah, I like the new name.

On 8/9/2018 at 4:50 PM, JonL said:

When handling group contests, I used to roll as many dice as I had players all at once, and the die that landed closest to each player at the table would be that player's opposing roll. It's super fast and works really well when everyone is sitting around an actual table, but it's less clear when folks are scattered around a living room on couches & easy chairs.

I've tended to move to run Group Simple Contests one by one. Even though the individual contest happens simultaneously it usually makes story sense to roleplay each contest. That way the last person rolling might turn the tables of the whole contest.

About the tricks you requested. I made this handy table to use with players new to HQ. It has been really useful and the players get the system better. Maybe someday I can write it into a printable format.

On 8/9/2018 at 4:37 PM, Joerg said:

Jumaltietäjä(t)" in Finnish, which should translate to "god knower(s)"? If my bare-bone grammar knowledge is correct, "jumal(a)" is "god" in singular, possibly like an adjective, and "tietäjä" is "wise man", "sage", "seer", "wizard". That would add "Gottwissender" (god knowing person) to my selection of translations to German. Or perhaps "Gottkenner" ("Kenner" translates as connoisceur, while "kennen" also means "to be acquainted with").

You are spot on with your Finnish grammar. One thing to note. The direct translation would also go to "jumaloppinut" (learned about god(s)). But that would have rather theological sound in it. So that's why it probably had the "tietäjä" which has the nice double meaning and an oldish sound. From our national epic: "Vaka vanha Väinämöinen, tietäjä iänikuinen". Väinämöinen is a shaman figure (tietäjä).

After reading about the ambuigity I see that the current translation doesn't really have anything for that.

I am all for these kind of initiatives rising from the fans. I think my question is boiling to: How can I, too, become a RuneMaster? It is interesting to hear from Continuum.

Can I ask what does this collective mean in practice? Are you providing them with scenarios? Dice? Something else?

I am asking because Finland is strong Glorantha country and our Ropecon convention will this year have nine Glorantha events (8 games, 1 talk). Okay, we are not short about providing the events but could it be more "organized" with this? Also having Glorantha stuff in other cons in Finland, too. Hopefully, we hear how it went in Continuum.

I have been reading and thinking about character arcs lately. HQ quite nicely supports the story arc with resistance fluctuation and rising and climactic contests. I think that the players, at least some players, would like to play the story of their character with ups and downs. But how to play a character arc inside the story arc (let's call it a session now). Reading different blog posts about this you could say that the character arc stems from a change of the character. The hero overcomes his inner obstacle to save the day or finds something new inside them. I started thinking how this could work in HQ.

Of course, you can build the PC's story during one session so that in the end there is a nice change in the PC. The hero could've given up something valuable to achieve the final contest. "Losing" the session could also lead to a meaningful character arc, with a possible down note.

So I started to think about how to play this change of a PC in HQ. And then I thought about Flaws. Flaws has always been something to add color to the PC. The GM is urged to bring them up to actively resist the PC or giving a negative bonus to a contest. But overall they are second-class citizens and stay fresh only for a small amount of time. There has been the house rule of getting an extra Hero Point for playing your PC's flaws. That was a good idea but the flaws could be used for something more: character arcs. After all, they might be the easiest things to change regularly in the PC. And building up the Flaw and then overcoming it has character arc written all over it.

So, hear my initial ideas how to use the Flaws for character arcs. The flaws are either in two states: growing or pushed down. When the flaw is first introduced it starts to grow. It starts with low value (either base resistance or PC's lowest ability value). When the flaw is growing it should mainly be used to augment contests. Yes, the flaw is positive. After every use, the flaw gets higher (second lowest ability and so on). This represents how the flaw is taking over of the PC bit by bit. Think of flaw "Greedy". The PC can use it to get victories in contests giving himself to the greediness. After the flaw is used like this five times (it is somewhere in the highest ability rating) it will act as a Flaw in rules: in a negative way. Now, every time the PC is negatively affected by their flaw (be it active opposition or penalty), it is reduced. This is the story of the character overcoming his inner demons that have grown too big. After four times the final overcome should be during or before the session final contest, closing the arc of the flaw. After the PC overcomes the Flaw last time it is removed and thus the PC has changed again. Next time if there is no Flaws (or under three) the player should get a new one that starts to grow again.

Concentrating to single or multiple flaws this way would spark more storytelling from players and GM to the contests. I was thinking how this idea would work in certain types of flaws. Greediness and drunkness are easy to think of (growing and pushed down) but how about something like "Hated by lunars". That is kind of an "external" flaw and not probably suitable as is.

So, what are your suggestions about character arcs in HQ and this Flaw-based idea of dealing with them?

About reprints. Would there be any possibility to get a reprint of The Widow's Tale by Chaosium? Is there even a theoretichal change?

I have to mention this product: http://d101games.com/product/gloranthan-adventures-2-red-sun-rising/

It is an adventure campaign of Lunar heroes in Dara Happa. It depicts the city of Serris (not canon, btw) where the inner tension rises from the three associations. One of them is a fully Lunar association, one is conservative and strictly non-Lunar and the last one is the leading one for the heroes. It is accepting Lunarization but struggles inside with the influence balance. The city is built before Lunars and all the Lunar action is packed into their own part of the city (actually it is outside the city walls). The military, on the other hand, is fully lead by Lunars. This setting is great for gaming purposes as there is always someone fully embracing the lunar way, someone oppressing it and someone in the middle. There is no full rebellious activity like in Dragon Pass.

We have ongoing PbF game of Red Sun Rising campaign at http://rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=70164 if you are interested in reading about lives of aspiring Lunar nobles in a Dara Happan city.

Not sure if I missed something or having faulty pdf (or reader) but does anyone else have captions in, for example, those whole page illustrations? Or where can I find the description for the page 22, for example.

3 hours ago, Scout said:

Ok, but in most if not all examples above, it's assumed you want to get something else other than taking out an orc. But what if you just want to smack an orc upside the head hoping to knock his block off, literally? It seems the rules work against you doing this. 

There is this method of "5 whys" to get to any root cause of a problem. Somehow these two statements are in two different levels of whys:

- I want to swing my sword to chop the orc's head off

- I want to get into the temple but the orc is blocking my way

In the first one I might want to ask "why" and get the second answer. The second I think we have clear understanding what is the prize and not go further. If the adventurer would have been tasked by the witch to bring orc's head then the prize would already be present in the first statement. But even then it should be: I want to get the orc's head (okay, how?) by using my "Head-chopping sword 3W".

I always try to frame the contests so that they can be resolved wuth multiple abilities. If the framing is "I want to swing my sword" it is pretty much nailed to one ability. Go up one why and try again.