Trotsky

Although I am early on in my Runequest journey - I am tending towards character death not being part of the Heroquest process. I want to focus more on the purpose of the quest and the success or failure of that - to me that is far more interesting and of greater significance. If a character 'dies' in a Heroquest I am thinking they will drop out of it - maybe battered and bruised - but the real consequence will be the effect on the success of the quest. I think there are great roleplaying opportunities from a failed Heroquest and I don't want a player to get out of the consequences of that by just dying That said the only 'otherworld' Heroquest we have completed so far was set in a time before 'Death' as a way to hedge my bets, it is all a work in progress...

This is an interesting thread – we are still finding our way with HeroQuests. After returning to Glorantha after a 35+ year break, we have had three HeroQuests in our short game so far. As we come to complete the Six Seasons in Sartar campaign, two of the Heroquests were initiations – one for adulthood, the other for their cult. The third was an ‘other world’ quest to improve the fortunes of the clan. Six Seasons in Sartar has an excellent initiation into adulthood Heroquest – it is detailed and was a great start to the campaign – worth checking out. The second was their initiation into three separate cults. There is some guidance for this in the rules and I also picked up a copy of Secrets of Heroquesting. I asked the players which Rune Magic they were going to choose and produced a short scene for each of them based around that spell. These were not long scenes and all three were completed in an hour of play. For the initiation each character had to undertake a task. The Ernalda initiate wanted the spell, ‘Inviolable,’ and so had to show, ‘There is always another way.’ Members of the cult took the roles of two ancient enemies, The Black Stag and the Seven-Tailed Wolf and she had to broker a peace. There were two Orlanth initiates. One wanted ‘Earth Shield’ and again with cult members playing the part had to convince Ernalda to give him Arran’s Shield and then protect her from ‘Chaos’ hurling stones at her. The other adventurer wanted ‘Raise/calm wind.’ He had to get the Upper Winds to help fight the Dragon Aroka, we played this out with the clan chieftain with an Aroka mask and a vine whip striking at the adventurer, who had to grab the vine and pull it from Aroka’s grip. The last one we played was a more substantial affair. The adventurers wanted to heal divisions within the clan through a Heroquest. To make life easy I wrote my own myth regarding the clan’s wyter, The Black Stag and the clan’s eternal enemy, the Seven-Tailed Wolf. The adventurers used their own stats but as they were avatars for powerful local entities such as Cob the Eight-legged Queen and Roara Father of Bears, I allowed the players to call on abilities they thought those entities might have as well. With a little negotiation we agreed on how to implement those. I read aloud passages from the myth as the players encountered each station. The Heroquest had five stations: 1. Talk with the animals of the valley and persuade them to join with the Black Stag. 2. Prevent Scale Fish-Mother from warning the Seven-Tailed Wolf (a chase station) 3. A combat challenge where each had to face their mythic adversary. This was complicated by a Telmori on its own Heroquest. 4. Increase the fertility of the Black Stag and Running Doe. 5. Help the Black Stag break the Sounding Stone. I have learnt a lot from running these three Heroquest so far, and no doubt there will be many more to come. I would urge anyone unsure of how to play them is just jump right in. The three quests we have done have all felt quite different and no doubt they will continue to vary substantially – we will do whatever is the most fun way to resolve them.

Thanks for the responses - not sure where this is going yet - all depends on the players!

I have been looking over the Foundry forums and it looks like there is some activity there too - looks like they are awaiting Chaosium approval...

I will willingly pay a subscription to any platform that supports Runequest well.

Good to know

Hi everyone, In our campaign there is a NPC Trickster who is bonded to the chieftain of a clan. Taking into account YGMV, anyone have thoughts on how a bond can be broken. I assume the death of either the bonded pair breaks the bond, or the bonded trickster is released from his bond. But are there other ways where the bond could be broken - I am looking for interesting ideas for our campaign.

I am not sure how far you can go with using real world physics in Glorantha. I would just go with what you think is most fun.

I agree, the group I am playing with is using Roll 20 - which has a good character sheet and you can use the initiative tracker for strike ranks - but it would be great to have some 'official' support. I look at the D&D and CoC support and wish there was something similar for RQG. I know it is still early days for the relaunched game but it would be nice to know that planned official support for at least one of the VTT platforms was under consideration...

I have consolidated all the seperate posts into just the one above with a link to the saga on my Google Drive.

Thanks soltakss, the map idea was discussed with assistant shaman player before the session. As the character is still pretty inexperienced we thought he would be more prone to map areas of the Spirit World to their physical locations - there are other areas but he lacks the ability to perceive those at his current understanding. btw: I think you know the Araldar player, he was the Jack’O’Bear that licked the dragon skeleton in your recent online game!

As promised I said I would let you all know how the Spirit World adventure went. Feedback from the players was that they enjoyed it – which is of course the main thing. The adventurers wanted to travel to the Spirit World and bring back the spirit of a young man who had been killed by a friend of theirs. That friend had only her word against the dead man for what had happened prior to the killing and so it was looking a little dicey for her – especially as their friend was from an adjacent clan and the stead of the killed man were out for revenge… The adventuring group consists of four players, although one could not make the session and so it was run with just the three of them: Araldar, son of Stoyan of Hill Base Stead. Apprentice Shaman of the White Hart. Initiate of Orlanth Thunderous. Sarooth, son of Gordanger of Twice Blessed Stead. Noble and son of the Chieftain of the Haraborn. Initiate of Orlanth Adventurous. Binta, daughter of Gunta of Twin Stone Stead. Healer and Midwife of the Haraborn. Initiate of Ernalda. The first task they faced was convincing Araldar’s shaman, Henarl, to help them. Binta brought a cake and they reminded Henarl of a story of the Black Stag (the clan’s wyter) where it helped someone from another clan. So, after some roleplay, orate rolls and cake, Henarl agreed to help. In our version of the Haraborn Clan, discorporation is called, ‘the Parting.’ Shaman of the White Hart each have a Parting Stone which they use to teach their apprentices how to first cross to the Spirit World. The stones have a spell matrix for discorporation. The adventurers then had to cast an extension to give them long enough there to find the spirit of the dead man. Sarooth and Binta were told by Henarl of the beauty and terror of the Spirit World. We used the illustration on page 365 from the core rules to demonstrate how Henarl saw the Spirit World and the adventurers’ were told that their perception of it will not be as clear. They were gathered together at Stag Hill (an Orlanth place of worship). Henarl did not go with them but did summon a specific ancestor, Longwalker, who acted as a guide and gave the young Araldar a bonus on his Spirit Travel rolls. The group then undertook the Parting and found themselves in the Spirit World. Their perception was indeed not how Henarl saw it… Longwalker, the closer figure, asked them about the dead man’s death and advised them to seek a spirit of Humakt. The figures in the background were the many Haraborn spirits that dwelled around the Orlanth holy place. Araldar, being an Orlanthi assistant shaman, had a slightly better perception of the Spirit World – this perception came in the form of the winds he felt in different locations. Arladar also has a rough mind map of Spirit World locations he had visited or had heard Henarl speak of. His mind map is shown below. He determined that Alebard’s Tower would be a good place to travel to, to locate a Humakt spirit. They successful undertook Spirit Travel to that location. Three spirits were within the perception of the group. A close spirit who was watching them intently, a further spirit who appeared to be lost or was looking for something, and a more distant spirit who must have been quite powerful for them to perceive it at all. They approached the first spirit, who indeed had a strong affinity to the Death Rune, and spoke to it. After they had explained their purpose the spirit indicated it might have information they required and was open for a trade. It demanded a sacrifice of nine magic points for it. The adventurers considered that the cost was very high but despite their protestations the priced remained the same. They considered approaching the other spirits but eventually decided to pay the price so they could immediately continue their quest. Binta particularly with her high Fertility Rune affinity wanted to be away from the Humakt spirits as soon as possible. The spirit told them that not long past a wailing spirit crying out the name of their friend and blaming his kin for his death did travel past – he was heading for the Chaos Grounds… The mention of the Chaos Grounds was most unwelcome to the group. Araldar had not travelled there before but was aware that the blood of the Crimson Bat had been spilt there and that Henarl had warned it was a dangerous place. They briefly considered abandoning their search before their impulsive Orlanthi spirit asserted themselves and they committed to travelling there. Another successful Spirit Travel and the group found themselves close to a swirling mass of spirits caught in a vortex – from the vortex were the screams and howls of trapped spirits trying to escape… The adventurers felt the pull of the vortex and had to steady themselves using strong Rune affiliations to root themselves. As they watched in horror, they could just make out the dead man’s spirit in the midst of the maelstrom. Every now and then it would make its way to the edge of the vortex and try to reach out to escape but was immediately sucked back in. The party debated what to do before Sarooth, an Orlanthi of action and not thought, decided to approach and try and grab the dead man and pull him out. As Sarooth approached the pull of the vortex intensified, and Binta came and taking on the guise of Ernalda helped Sarooth stay rooted and not drawn into the spirit abyss. As Sarooth waited, he saw also in the vortex other spirits swimming against the spin – these spirits were evil, foul things. When the dead man once again managed to reach to the edge of the vortex, Sarooth attempted to grab him and pull him out. Rolling his POWx5 he easily succeeded and spun the dead man out of the vortex – however also released was a dread chaos spirit of a broo… The raving dead man immediately fell on Araldar, who had been his rival in life for the affection of the woman who had killed him. Sarooth joined with the broos spirit and Binta aided him. Sarooth, imbued with the charisma spell, easily overcome the broo with an immediate special success and rolled incredibly well. I had wanted to try out some of the new diseases from the Legion Jonstown Compendium book – but maybe next time! Araldar and the dead man’s spirit tussled for a while with little effect before Sarooth and Binta joined him and in the spiritual melee the dead man was defeated. Before they had left for the adventure, Araldar had been lent Henarl’s belt which had a spell matrix for Spirit Binding on it, and Binta had with her a crystal to hold the spirit. With the spirit successfully held within the drop of a god’s blood the party returned to the mundane plane and the short adventure was finished. All in all quite pleased with how it went – it felt different enough and the players said it was an unsettling environment. I think it worked well as a short introduction for the Spirit World in our campaign.

Thanks Questbird - I am going to port over some of my own Aftermath! campaign from back in the day - Rubble and Ruin is going to be a good fit...

I am the Thane of Apple Lane, and so’s my wife...

Hi coffeemancer - sounds cool. In our game there is no mystery and we are going to use it as an introduction to the Spirit World - as we have an assistant shaman in the group it is going to be increasingly important.

Consolidated into Google Drive document...

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Thanks for the feedback everyone. I am writing the encounter this weekend and as I know some of the players in our game frequent this forum, I will let you all know how it went next week...

Thanks Nick, I picked it up and have read through it. It is a little more ‘Gamma World’ than the setting I want to run – which will be a more ‘realistic’ 20 years after game. However, Richard (author) has done a lot of the heavy lifting for me and it was well worth the pdf cost. The couple of scenarios at the back read pretty well…

I have one - not great but have used it on Roll 20... The background is from 2 minute Tabletop which I highly recommend (https://2minutetabletop.com/gallery/)

Hi everyone, back in the day we played a fair bit of Aftermath! post apocalyptic RPG. Aftermath was porously complex and although I still have the game and my old campaign notes I am note sure I really want to dive back into that quagmire. So I see that Rubble & Ruin is available - has anyone played it? Suggestions and recommendations on its use?

Thanks everyone. Joerg, one of the players is considering this. As the incident could lead to strife between clans then the clan's Lawspeaker might be interested in helping - there is quite a bit of tension within the clan already and none of the Ring would like to see this spread... soltakss, good points and some of which the adventurers are considering - they are not sure the victim was in a good mental/spiritual state when he died and they are worried if they bring him back he may not cooperate or make much sense.

If only the adventurers were not so 'Honourable'...

A question for the hive mind, In our Sartar campaign the adventurers want to help a friend who is accused of murder. She is from a neighbouring clan, but has been staying long term with their clan under the rules of hospitality. She was abducted and harmed by someone from the same stead and when rescued by the adventurers took the first opportunity to kill the man who abducted her. The issue now is there is only her word against the dead man that she was abducted – many at the stead believed she had willingly eloped with the man. To prove her innocence the adventurers, want to be able to contact/summon his spirit to appear in front of the clan’s Lawspeaker, so they can prove that she was ‘wronged’ and was justifiably retaliating – as is the way of the Orlanthi. So, how could that happen? One of the characters is an assistant shaman who is on good terms with his shaman who might help – could be part of his training. The man who abducted the woman also seemed not to be quite in his right mind, so a way to make him speak the truth would also be necessary. Has anyone done anything like this before? I am thinking it might be a good way to introduce spirit travel and binding to our relatively new campaign. Would really appreciate any help on this…

Consolidated into Google Drive document...