Tinkgineer

I could GM, but I know very little Glorantha. I’ve only run HQ a few times each was a one shot with skeptical players. Part of it is the opposed rolls and part of it is players accustomed to other less narrative games. Part of the feedback I got was “it felt like cheating”. I’d use discord for voice and off-session chat/scheduling and possibly roll20 or anything that doesn’t require players to make a purchase for dice rolls. Even a discord dice bot is fine with me.

Chaosium our out some stuff encouraging playing online. Odd it didn’t link to the forums. I’m in US central time and available in weekday evenings or all day on weekends. Anyone want to get an online game going?

Anyone going to gencon? I’d love to play a game.

Just do what you want how you want it. Let's say there isn't a single game in your target genre, would you stop work once you're halfway done if someone launched a game very similar to yours? Why would you let that stop you? People like variety, and the things that make a person like X over Y are esoteric. I like Coke and can't stand Pepsi, but seriously... they're basically the same thing. If you feel the urge to be creative, then be creative. There's enough gate keeping in the world. Don't stand in your own way. You could make the next big thing, or you could make something that only your closest friends will play. But most people don't make anything at all. You have an editor at the company that makes the rules telling you he would like to help you. Your success helps their success. Tabletop gaming is a supersaturated market. There exist so many games that it would be impossible for one person to try them all in a lifetime. Your genre has probably been done more than once. Accept that, and make your thing anyway. You got this.

I know very little about Glorantha. I have a couple of books from MRQ2, but I don't think I've read them completely. It's a setting I really like, and I really want to share with people I know, but I only know some very disconnected anecdotal things. I don't have the same depth of knowledge as I do a setting I've experienced (through media) such as Star Trek, or Middle Earth. I'd really be interested in some proper narrative fiction to absorb some of this. Overall it just seems like the Lunars are a people that I can more readily understand. The Orlanthi are very different than my own culture and I don't want to end up making a caricature of what could otherwise be a multidimensional character.

We are prepping to run through the Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. But, I really want to know where to learn more about the Lunars. From what I've gathered, the Lunars would be a ton of fun to play.

My understanding is that a HeroQuest is more than just an adventure, but rather a repeatable interaction with a myth. Suppose I told you the story of Excalibur, and that I knew the secret to the myth that would allow me to HeroQuest into it. The secret (maybe some sort of ritual) allows interaction with the myth, like you going into it. You would then be a character in the story, and by the end you may be able to change the reality that is built upon the myth, or bring some sort of magical ability back out with you. It's not just an adventure because it's already "happened" and is repeatable and changeable. I remember reading on some source book about the god learners trying to convince two goddesses to switch places in order to prove that the gods were all interchangeable. They had to heroquest into these myths many times, and each time taking actions to eventually convince them that they were the same person or something. Maybe think of it like getting sucked into a re-run of a TV show episode, and being able to change the story in subtle ways each time.

I am working on a HQ, podcast but it’s slow going. Not Glorantha though. I do enjoy reading the setting books but without playing it as a PC I don’t think I could bring life to it for my players.

I was asking this because I wanted to try to objectively compare alternative systems. My 8 year old wants to understand what’s going on but she does not really “click” with the success/fail vs a success/fail chart becoming a level of victory. The FATE shifts are a bit more intuitive, where you just subtract the opposed roll to get your shift. But FATE rolls are purely high number after modifier and easier to math. HQ the roll is first a crit/success/fail/fumble and then afterwards compared. Since the skill modifies the target number and not the roll I am having a hard time turning it into math thingies. The fact I say “math thingies” is proof I’m out of my league.

I enjoy math, but I am very rusty. I am curious about how to model the odds of an opposed roll system like HQ2. Particularly for HQ2 the levels of success I think make it harder for me to understand. Would you have to make a table for each success level that’s every ability value vs every ability value?

Is this coming this year?

Is 20 points 0W or 1W? I ask because it’s impossible to roll a 0 and so it seems you just skip 20. If you start an ability at 17 and add 10 points at you at 7W or 8W? 17 + 10 = 27 or 7W right? So is the progression... 18 19 0W 1W 2W 3W 4W 5W 6W 7W or 18 19 1W 2W 3W 4W 5W 6W 7W 8W

They dont, but I explained mastery and how they cancel out. So an example of M1 and an M2 was used.

Knowing that it's a symbol for a crown makes a lot more sense. I've always just seen W for mastery... and accepted it in the same way that phone starts with a p.

My observations when explaining the HQ system to new players. Three players were following just fine until we got to mastery. Some confused the notation : 3W2 and flipped the numbers. Some got confused by the W (which I then replaced with an M for mastery). Ultimately they understood the “bump” concept but the notation for whatever reason was a sticking point. The solution I came up with is to just call it a “bump” instead of mastery. Example “3B2” would read “target 3 bump 2” but “B” sounds like “D” and I’m worried if someone said 3B2 someone would hear 3d2 and be more confused. I thought about using an arrow or carat symbol ^ for “bump” as well since bump seems to be a term this group could immediately understand: 3^2. For those of you that play outside of Glorantha do you keep the rune or W in the notation or use something else?