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Nebuchadnezzar

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  • RPG Biography
    Playing D&D since 1979 and started Runequest a few years later.
  • Current games
    HQG, Pathfinder, CoC, Symbaroum
  • Blurb
    Back in the game after a hiatus.

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  1. Just picked this up on DTRPG. Absolutely jaw dropping. This is the campaign I didn’t know I was looking for, but I’m so glad I found it/you made it. Simply incredible, thank you so much.
  2. Ah, didn’t realize they weren’t canon. Regardless, some of the content is too good to pass up - the Turzah Hounders from Champions of the Reaching Moon will definitely be appearing in my campaign. If Bundalini’s skeleton band can have a role, so can a military unit led by a man who completed the Molossiad heroquest (which as far as I can tell is the mythic equivalent of a dog biting the mailman).
  3. I’m not sure you can find them easily nowadays, but the Moon Design version of Heroquest (~10 years ago) had the Imperial Lunar Handbook Volume 1 (about the Empire itself) and Volume 2 (gods/mythology). Moon Design also put out Champions of the Reaching Moon (Lunar hero bands who could be adversaries or allies).
  4. I’m pretty new to HQG, but I try to take a view of what other abilities might apply and then rule accordingly. To use soltakss’ example of trying to row, I’d say: If the character had an ability or Profession breakout like Rows Like A Machine or Magic Oar of Tungten, that could be used with a +6 for specific ability. If the character had a Profession keyword of Sailor, Pirate or Fisherman, that could be used at its regular rating. Other non-nautical Profession keywords (like Warrior) feel at best a stretch with -6, if I’m feeling generous. If the player has been spamming their Profession keyword, trying to exploit the letter of the rules rather than embracing the spirit of the rules, I’d say the keyword doesn’t apply here, what else have you got? HQG is a storytelling game with a loose, fairly vague ruleset to encourage player and GM creativity. Players who min/max to try to exploit the letter of that ruleset deserve to be stymied at every turn, IMO.
  5. My group recently finished our first session of HQG using The Missing from Eleven Lights. It was a good experience and I figured I’d share some thoughts from the session. There are spoilers for The Missing so read no further if you intend to play. First, The Missing is a great introduction to Eleven Lights. The interactions with Broddi and his three rivals let the PCs quickly get up to speed on the main political currents in the clan. The scenario also introduced three of the clan’s main enemies – the Lunars, the Telmori, and the Emerald Sword – in engaging ways. It’s a great set up for the rest of the campaign. The potential downside is that there is a lot for the GM to keep tabs on. I did a lot of prep to make sure I understood all the different NPCs and how they relate. I don’t say this is bad, as I think Eleven Lights’ complexity is great, it’s just something GMs should be ready for. The Missing is also a great introduction to HQG. The scenario naturally flowed from simple contests to a group simple contest (the attack on Grave Hill) and then to a group extended contest (a fight with the Emerald Sword at Creek Turn) and a climactic extended contest (persuading Wandle to release the children). The group was therefore able to get the hang of the underlying mechanics before moving on to more complex iterations. All told I think there were 20+ contests played during the scenario. Of these, 2 (Grave Hill and Creek Turn) were combat. Grave Hill was a group simple, and Creek Turn could have been avoided with different PC choices. So there was a lot of dice-rolling and tense, fun moments with the vast majority completely unrelated to combat. I can’t think of too many systems where that happens. Finally, I love that there is little chance to get “100% player victory” in The Missing. The PCs found the children and reconciled with Wandle, so some of the clan think they’re heroes. At the same time, they stirred up trouble with the Lunars, including a massive weregild, and deepened the feud with the Emerald Sword, so some of the clan think they’re Trouble People. It’s great how “completing the quest” actually set them up for more problems down the road. Great job Ian and Jeff! I’ll have a few thoughts on how the play developed in another post and then probably a post with some rules questions that arose.
  6. Thanks for your reply, it’s a great help! I was thinking about your very example above as I was writing my original post. Then I figured that the Empire has been trying to Intimidate the Orlanthi into peace for years, unsuccessfully - and they have the Crimson Bat. Short-term, the Urox might land a truce. Long-term the feud would continue, and both clans would probably want the Urox dead for threatening their Rings. I could see Harrek the Berserk pulling it off by saying he’ll kill everyone in both clans if they don’t agree to peace (and it wouldn’t be a bluff!), but an Eleven Lights PC Uroxi Intimidating the Red Cow and Emerald Sword into ending a blood feud? Feels (to me) like it doesn’t pass the credibility test. Potentially he could augment someone else’s negotiating/persuasion abilities. That said, I take the push that I should embrace player creativity and allow them to use their abilities in “stretchy” ways if they can articulate a good rationale and it provides for a good story. I guess my view on the OP was that the Urox player (and his GM) seemed to be interpreting the Storm Bull runes as “Face Any Challenge” W2 and “Augment Any Contest” W2, and in my view that’s not what Air and Eternal Battle actually do - not in a Storm Bull context, and not in any context.
  7. Interesting thread. Going back to the OP, I’m now concerned I may be doing something wrong in my HQG game (context: my group has played exactly one HQG session so far, “The Missing” from Eleven Lights). I would have thought that a PC min-maxing in Storm Bull rune magic would not be a problem from a balance perspective because contests in HQG don’t need to be combat. But maybe I’m wrong. Appreciate thoughts from the community. Storm Bull magic (as I understand it) is about storm, battle, facing chaos, and rage/berserker. Maybe a little fertility given the god’s mythological links with various goddesses. But if the contest is healing the clan chieftain, the Urox’s W2 rune magic is no help - that’s not Storm Bull’s area. If the chieftain is wounded, the character might use their Thane/Warrior keyword (still at the original 17 due to min-maxing, perhaps a bit higher from automatic catch-ups), since warriors know how to treat wounds. If the chieftain is sick instead of wounded, the best the Urox could do is their Community rating (still at 13 because min-maxing), because all Sartarites know some folk cures. Probably best to let the Chalana Arroy priestess character handle this one. Similarly, if the climactic scene is a group extended contest “race against the clock” to find magical plants that will resolve tensions with the Aldryami, Storm Bull rune magic is no help. Leave this one to the Barntar initiate, the Ernalda priestess, and the Odaylan hunter, because the Urox will be using their Community rating of 13 (thanes/warriors don’t know plants so the Occupation keyword would be at 11 due to Stretch.) The Urox PC shouldn’t be punished however - the player intentionally designed a character who should be great at combat, so make sure to give him spotlight moments where he curb stomps every foe who comes around, even the Near Impossible ones. Just don’t let him lead the climactic extended contest to negotiate the end to a blood feud, because he’ll be a disaster. At least that’s how I’m thinking about it after one session of play. Do I have it wrong? Can people just min-max two runes (one to do the contest, one to augment) and it’s good for all challenges?
  8. I can’t express how great it is that more books are planned, including the Dragonrise. I think having HQG books focused on pre-1625 also makes a ton of sense. Personally that’s great for me as I enjoy the Occupied Sartar setting of the original RQ, so I’m glad it is the focus for HQG.
  9. Apologies, I’m still figuring out how to work the forum! My intended topic is Simple Group Contest Boosts, not Nebuchadnezzar!😟
  10. I’m starting to run a HQG game using the Eleven Lights campaign but we’re all new to the system. I’m trying to figure out whether victory level boosts in a group simple contest need to be bought before the contest is rolled or if they can be purchased retroactively. By RAW, they need to be bought before the roll (HQG, p. 70). However, in the example of play (Samastina’s Saga: Leaving Nochet, HQG, p. 72), a boost is purchased retroactively, to turn a tie into a Marginal Victory. I much prefer the approach in the example of play, but appreciate thoughts from those more experienced. Perhaps I’m misinterpreting something in the RAW?
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