Chiarina

Thank you. These aids were helpful. I translated the cheat sheet about the four kinds of tests and the tactical options into german and adapted them to my own needs. My first experience was positive (although I suspect that in the end my struggle for the HeroQuest rules will stay a work in progress).

The third adventure (The Burning Of Lhankpentos The Blind) is over.

The second burning of Tormakt´s Farm turned out to be not as disastrous as the first. Our heroes acted effectively and the Clan of the Red Cow had to bemoan only a few members (Lhankpentos died, nevertheless).

In exchange Jaranil´s raid was a serious defeat. After the lost battle in Creek Turn, the Heroes not even succeeded in organizing the escape. Nearly 20 warriors of the clan died.

Time for peace weaving!

Meanwhile we finished the second adventure (Jorstak´s Raid) with the following outcome:

The Clan of the Red Cow had a successful raid and stole many cows and the price bull of the Emerald Swords. The Emerald Swords catched out the Clan of the Red Cow stealing their cows, but Rostakus Twice-Outlawed called his warriors off, because one of the player characters had one of his sons under his thumb and threatened to kill him. At the end some Emerald Swords were severely wounded or even dead, Jorstak Bristlebeard nearly killed a player character attempting to stop his battle madness (maybe it was kinstrife!) and the hate for each other in both clans was bigger than ever.

One of my players said, the imminence and seemingly inescapable doom could be too hard for him. I have to be careful.

"Allright, o.k., you win!"

I thought about it thoroughly, checked my dates and then registered for Eternal Con 2020.

I already got a provisional reply. Apparently there will be a bed for me.

Let´s see, what is possible, if I´m roleplaying in english.

If it doesn´t work at all, I´ll play trollball and watch the rhine gorge.

Thank you for the kick up my backside.

Meanwhile we finished the first adventure ("The Missing") with the following outcome: The heroes attacked the lunar guardians at the gravehill. They didn´t kill anyone, but the Lunars could identify two of them. This two characters are living in hiding now. The Clan had to pay a moderate amount of 10 cows for compensation. The heroes could soothe the anger of Wandle, the water of the Heortcreek is drinkable again, the children under the sway of the nymph are free, but two characters acted cautious (and cowardly?) when they observed the clash between Rostakus Twice-Outlawed and Renedala, the sister of Farnantyr. Broddi Strongkin is content with them, but their standing in the Clan of the Red Cow is not the best at the moment.

At the moment the heroes prepare to participate in Jorstak´s raid to prevent the worst.

I have two other players concerning themselves with the rules (one of them is mikyra). They are very helpful and we nearly are out of the woods by now. The many NPC´s are still a challenge for us, but slowly we get accustomed to them.

The group is engaged and I´m happy with the game. Next goal: Speaking more In-Character.

That´s the way we do it, too.

Allright, but this means, Augments are not only a method "by which a player helps her/himself", right?

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Augments are the method by which a player helps her/himself. 

Excuse me... but is this really true?

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P. 104: An augment is a bonus a hero gets to his target number as a result of a prior contest. This can be either a contest he took part in, or one performed by someone else, most likely a hero.

It seems to me the rule tells a different story. I´m confused...

I´m not able yet to discuss designer decisions, but I think, this problem is solved already by requesting more than one heropoint for a simple group contest, isn´t it? However, the simple group contest is extraordinarily in more than one aspect: You have to announce the use of hero points before rolling the die, the hero points don´t modify the succes but the level of victory and, last but not least, the hero points don´t help you, if you´re rolling a failure.

In my eyes, that´s a surprising anomaly in an otherwise consistently designed game... (I´m sure, I missed something...).

Allright. I was irritated exactly about the Group Simple Contest. Thanks for your help.

Sorry for asking such a beginners question, but I´m on and off confused about the effect of Hero Points spent in contests.

Do they always bump up the degree of success or failure (critical failure to failure / failure to success / success to critical success)?

Or are there occasions, too, when they improve the degree of success (marginal victory to minor victory, for example)?

This is a reasonable answer. It´s similar to the words I said to my players.

But I can´t remember rules about "hordes". Where are they?

Thank you for your patience.

O.K., thank you for convincing arguments in the case of many pc vs few npcs.

What about the opposite side: one pc vs. many npcs.

Here the rules for multiple opponents are in charge.

Imagine the orator pc before an auditorium of 100 npcs. He wants to convince his listeners of something. If I use the rules for multiple opponents, he´ll get a penalty of -297 at last.

I know, it´s an extreme example - but my players ask questions like this... they worry about the "mali ad infinitum".

Do you have an answer for them?

Interesting and helpful answers, so far. The rules for "Multiple Opponents" say "you" and "the hero". I admit, maybe only the player characters are meant.

Even in a combat situation?

If a player says: "What? It doesn´t matter if I´m attacking him alone or with my five friends?", then the answer could be: "Try it with an augment and assists!" Right? Sounds good. I´ll try it.

What is "QuestWorlds", by the way?

Recently my group had its third group extensive contest in the form of a persuasion action.

Of course it was a success.

The reason is the -3 penalty for multiple opponents.

My group consists of 6 player characters. They all talk at their single adversary as long as they are successfull. That means this poor soul has 5 additional opponents: -15! No challenge for my players.

Did I miss something?

I think, "Highwall Inn" is a really great one shot scenario. It reminds me on legendary things like "Jailbreak" for Unknown Armies. I´m sure, you can have a memorable evening with it. Unfortunately I think the best chance for the scenario to unfold its potential is the full lineup. In great adventures like this I´ll not content myself with less favorable terms.

So, what am I going to do? I´ve written a punchy bulletin with phrases like "fateful encounters", "Quentin Tarantino feeling moved to Glorantha", and "a night to remember", I´ve announced that the scenario will need 7 players and I´ve signalized that I have a more modest HeroQuest scenario for less players under my belt.

The con is a big german con (Dreieich Con) known for its notorious lack of gamemasters. If I get 7 players I´ll run "Highwall Inn", if there will be less players I´ll run the alternative scenario.

In the last case, I´ll spare "Highwall Inn" for a later date at which I´ll invite players personally.

Good plan?

I just enrolled to run it at a con in two weeks.

Wish me enough preparation time and 7 players!

I read the scenario and like it.

Especially I like the constant changing interest groups that arise from the backgrounds of the pregenerated characters and the sequence of events.

I feel like running it at a con, the only problem is the number of participants. In my eyes the scenario seems to work best if all pregenerated characters are taken. So, I´d like to have 7 players. What happens if I´ll find less participants? I´ll have to think about it.

My group has one HeroQuest Date in the time frame and will play the third session in our "eleven lights" campaign. We´re all new to the game, but I want to tell my players about Greg while we´re at it. I also will read the new "Highwall Inn" adventure attentively and if I like it, maybe I´ll run it at a con... but this will be after october 2019.

I already know of the ETERNAL CON and was tempted to attend.

So far I didn´t have the guts to come because my english could be better.

Maybe in 2 years I´ll be more courageous.

Thank you for your answers... even though the answers about my question on the target of magic sound a little bit divers for me.

We had a second session that went well. My players turned out to be from the narrative variety... I´m happy about it.

David, thank you for your friendly invitation, but I don´t think that I´m driving to the "Spiel" in Essen this year.

@ Zit: Our group is located in Frankfurt am Main. Are you from germany, too?

Maybe one more question: Do you include every test into the pass/fail-cycle? ...or only the most important tests? ...or only the all-dominant test at the end of an act? Is there a rule of thumb?

Thank you for your answers. I read some interesting things about Odayla and the bear rune.

Here is another question. Is there any rule about the targets of magic? As an Odayla initiate you may use your rune for things bears are able to. You´ll become a little more like a bear. But is it possible to use it on another character? Make someone other than yourself like a bear? I´m unsure.

Thank you for your hearty welcome. Perhaps you´re interested in some words about my "persistence":

I only had one singular Glorantha experience with RuneQuest 35 years ago and was fascinated by the setting, but afterwards there were no RuneQuest gamers around me. So for a long time I played other systems (but never forgot Glorantha).

For 5 or 6 years I gradually changed the kind of systems I was playing. Now I prefer narrative systems, ruleslight systems and even complete freeform gaming. I noticed that there is a new edition of RuneQuest on the market, but was not up to play such a rules heavyweight. A little later a friend showed me HeroQuest. A narrativist System for Glorantha? I was interested, but the system alone wasn´t enough to get me.

Still later I read a review of "The coming storm" and "The eleven light". It was a very well written review of a very well written publication and made me want to run it. That was my trigger.

Some things I already really love: My gamers can throw their dice, but I´m able to run a game without considering the stats of nonplayercharacters, for example. I´m much more able to concentrate on colourful descriptions and listen to my players if I don´t have to consider stats.

I´m no encyclopedist. I like Glorantha, but if there is something happening in my game that is not canon, I´m not too miserable. (I like the YGWV motto).

It is not easy to find gamers for HeroQuest in germany, but - yes - if there is a game I want to experience badly, I can be persistent.

The preparation for the campaign wasn´t easy, too. I realized, that it is not enough to know something about Glorantha. My gamers should know something about it, too. Narrowly I hit the balance between uttering too much and too little information. That was difficult for me.

I think we overcame the biggest obstacles. And that´s not all. Most of my gamers turend out to be unusually active. Three of them are researching Glorantha on their own and tell the others of their discoveries. Many emails were written in which the characters and the setting were discussed, a question log is arranged, one player even wants to write a synopsis of the characters. I was surprised and felt a little bit of the start-up spirit I experienced in the 80ies.

Our prequel was short (end of 1617, we played the funeral of Jordarn the Clash) but atmospheric, some illustrious personalities held funeral orations and in a second scene the characters saved a little girl of 4 years from falling down the cliff of red cow fort (some of the litter the people throw down the cliff got stuck in bushes growing off the rocks - without a sense for the danger the girl climbed at half height and searched for grave goods because she wanted to give the deceased something for his afterlife).

Now I´m looking forward to our next session in two weeks.

-

Maybe here a first question:

Is there a publication beside the rulesbook with explanations to further runes? Two of my gamers are interested in the fate rune and the bear rune (Odaylas rune), but I have no information.

After 10 months of learning the HeroQuest rules, becoming acquainted to Glorantha (at least rudimentary), studying the "coming storm / eleven lights" campaign (and the two Sartar sourcebooks), writing players-wanted, getting refusals, getting expressions of interest turning into refusals, convincing players on cons and running three demonstration rounds I finally reached my goal. Yesterday six players finished their characters and we had kind of a prequel afterwards. For the most part we´re experienced roleplayer, but completely new to HeroQuest and Glorantha. We had a very fine evening - and some questions. Maybe I´ll ask some of them in this thread. For the present a novice from germany sends kind regards to the more experienced like-minded gamers.