Probably Typical Stupid Question from Newcomer to Glorantha

[jajagappa]

19 minutes ago, LordNigel said:

And besides Trollpak they recommended to read Dorastor as well.

The RQ Classic Cults of Terror has a great running commentary along with the cults.  I don't believe that was brought over to the Cults Compendium, but its a good read and gives some context to the cults in the Dorastor setting.

The RQ3 Dorastor book is a challenging setting.  It's a harder (and more expensive) book to find though.

[soltakss]

9 hours ago, LordNigel said:

When you say "I use the NPC stats in the books, you mean the classic books you're using, or similar stats in the new books? That part wasn't extremely clear to me.

I just use the NPC Stats in the Classic modules.

If I need a Rune, I'll just invent one, same with Passions.

But, basically, if I ran the Cradle, I would use the stat blocks that are present in the Cradle.

as Rune Magic uses a rune pool and Spirit Magic uses CHA, some of the NPCs in RuneMasters don't correspond exactly to what is in RQG, but again I just handwave those and use what is in RuneMasters.

 

[Nick Brooke]

In my opinion, the single best RuneQuest scenario from the good old days was Gaumata’s Vision, by Mike Dawson, published in the RQ3 book Shadows on the Borderlands. It’s a wonderfully, insidiously creepy investigation of a backwater village where Bad Stuff may be happening. I had a whale of a time running it for a party of Sun County militia, back in the day, which is one of the reasons I was so happy to be able to help Jon Webb with his Sandheart books (they’re all about Sun County police procedurals).

Other “epic” scenarios tend to have the adventurers out of their depth and bailed out by powerful heroes who know the story (the Cradle is no exception). In Gaumata’s Vision, that’s not an option: the scenario really puts your party on the spot. Dead good.

[Nick Brooke]

Admin voice: please don’t encourage, advocate or make excuses for piracy on a Chaosium-managed forum. It won’t end well for you.

[Thoror]

12 hours ago, jajagappa said:

The RQ Classic Cults of Terror has a great running commentary along with the cults.  I don't believe that was brought over to the Cults Compendium, but its a good read and gives some context to the cults in the Dorastor setting.

Are you talking about The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale? That's in the Cults Compendium too.

[LordNigel]

6 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

In my opinion, the single best RuneQuest scenario from the good old days was Gaumata’s Vision, by Mike Dawson, published in the RQ3 book Shadows on the Borderlands. It’s a wonderfully, insidiously creepy investigation of a backwater village where Bad Stuff may be happening. I had a whale of a time running it for a party of Sun County militia, back in the day, which is one of the reasons I was so happy to be able to help Jon Webb with his Sandheart books (they’re all about Sun County police procedurals).

Other “epic” scenarios tend to have the adventurers out of their depth and bailed out by powerful heroes who know the story (the Cradle is no exception). In Gaumata’s Vision, that’s not an option: the scenario really puts your party on the spot. Dead good.

Thanks! I had never heard of that one.

The one called "Cradle" which you and @jajagappa mentioned is from what book?

[jajagappa]

7 minutes ago, LordNigel said:

The one called "Cradle" which you and @jajagappa mentioned is from what book?

RQ Classic Pavis: Threshold to Danger

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Thoror said:

Are you talking about The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale? That's in the Cults Compendium too.

Yes, just didn't recall that it had been added to the Compendium.

[LordNigel]

21 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

RQ Classic Pavis: Threshold to Danger

Thanks! Where exactly? The books is more of a city guide.

[Baron Wulfraed]

16 hours ago, LordNigel said:

So the new RQG Apple Lane is indeed a "return to" type of affair. I imagine it would be much more epic to "return" there after knowing the city as it was before.
From what I understood from your explanation, the current RQG initial characters would be too strong for the original Apple Lane, so I'd have to "pump the monsters" up a little. Maybe I could check around the other ready-made adventures I have (pegasus plateau/smoking ruin books) and inspire myself in those stats?

I would consider RQ:RiG starting characters to be rather over-powered -- Some of the ones I've generated have weapon stats in the 90-100% range (I've been generating a lot of characters including some not normally considered "adventurer", but don't currently have a gaming group; did get a niece interested and have bought her some of the books [the bundle RiG pack, and the reprint Classic/Apple Lane/Cults of ...]).

The weakest character I generated is an Esrolian SCRIBE (STR 9, DEX 10). And she's about on par with the old Apple Lane opponents -- Dagger @ 45%, Self-Bow @ 45% (Her strength is too low for cultural battle axe, and dexterity too low for cultural rapier). No armor might be a factor. My next weakest (well, not in STR 14, DEX 18, though POW 8 ) is an ENTERTAINER! He's got dagger @ 65%, broadsword @ 55%, sling @ 55%. Minimal armor (part of "costume" Leather Pants <G>) and neither have much in the way of offensive spells (mostly detection spells; the entertainer has a heirloom with Bladesharp 2 matrix). Even my FARMER is in the 60+% attack range. The sorcery-based PHILOSOPHER has 60% with a dagger, but no armor or effective combat spells.

The rest are rather high... My "walking tank" (STR 18, CON 16, SIZ 18 -- lowest stat is DEX 12; he's actually light cavalry, probably needs a large horse) a 115% broadsword [yes, he managed to get enough "adds" [occupation, manipulation adjustments, cult - Humakt] to break 100% before getting to the "pick 4 skills add 25%, pick 5 add 10% -- but do not go over 100% total" section of the rules]. Even the varied Ducks have weapons in the 90+% range.

{Enough about me <G>}

One thing you might do is use the RQ:RiG rules for starting characters at different ages -- cf Page 25

Quote

The gamemaster and players may prefer to create inexperienced adventurers right after their initiation into adulthood (about 15 or 16 years old). In that case, players should not take any personal events in their adventurers’ family histories (because they were not adults until the start of play) and should skip Step 7: Personal Skill Bonuses.

Also consider the sidebar on page 31 -- but rather than going for older characters, adjust dates for younger ones... You could perhaps have them around 18yo and run old Apple Lane in 1615 or whatever (which means they are involved in events normally part of parent's history)... THEN perhaps age them up 1625 to visit new Apple Lane.

Besides skipping step 7, I might suggest also skipping, or reducing [based on age difference below 21] the distribution of 50pts to Rune affinities (page 51). Possibly reduce occupation and cult skill bonuses (and spells) in proportion to age difference (keep note of them so you can add them back in when aging the characters up to 1625, same with step 7 and affinities. Also see the sidebar on page 81.

 

16 hours ago, LordNigel said:

Yeah, apparently this would be the easiest way to go. Just testing to see what works and what doesn't. The players would never know that all this tweaking was going on live anyway...

The treasure dropping, though, is still a bit abstract to me. Since I haven't played any Glorantha-related systems so far (though I am used to the percentiles due to CoC), I don't know how useful things really are. But I guess that it's just a question of practice.

Treasure (and random encounter tables) are things currently missing in RiG. The back of RQ2 has such items.

Determining treasure in RQ2 came down to calculating "treasure factors" (factors based on opponents best weapon, spells, etc.), then roll on suitable table(s). The "treasure dropping" is in the conversion guide: RQ2 tended to give out a rather high treasure amount vs what Chaosium considers viable in RQ-RiG. The treasure factors computation may also be the means by which to equalize the two sides: calculate party treasure factor, adjust opponents so the total treasure factor is similar.

[LordNigel]

56 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

I would consider RQ:RiG starting characters to be rather over-powered -- Some of the ones I've generated have weapon stats in the 90-100% range (I've been generating a lot of characters including some not normally considered "adventurer", but don't currently have a gaming group; did get a niece interested and have bought her some of the books [the bundle RiG pack, and the reprint Classic/Apple Lane/Cults of ...]).

The weakest character I generated is an Esrolian SCRIBE (STR 9, DEX 10). And she's about on par with the old Apple Lane opponents -- Dagger @ 45%, Self-Bow @ 45% (Her strength is too low for cultural battle axe, and dexterity too low for cultural rapier). No armor might be a factor. My next weakest (well, not in STR 14, DEX 18, though POW 8 ) is an ENTERTAINER! He's got dagger @ 65%, broadsword @ 55%, sling @ 55%. Minimal armor (part of "costume" Leather Pants <G>) and neither have much in the way of offensive spells (mostly detection spells; the entertainer has a heirloom with Bladesharp 2 matrix). Even my FARMER is in the 60+% attack range. The sorcery-based PHILOSOPHER has 60% with a dagger, but no armor or effective combat spells.

The rest are rather high... My "walking tank" (STR 18, CON 16, SIZ 18 -- lowest stat is DEX 12; he's actually light cavalry, probably needs a large horse) a 115% broadsword [yes, he managed to get enough "adds" [occupation, manipulation adjustments, cult - Humakt] to break 100% before getting to the "pick 4 skills add 25%, pick 5 add 10% -- but do not go over 100% total" section of the rules]. Even the varied Ducks have weapons in the 90+% range.

{Enough about me <G>}

One thing you might do is use the RQ:RiG rules for starting characters at different ages -- cf Page 25

Also consider the sidebar on page 31 -- but rather than going for older characters, adjust dates for younger ones... You could perhaps have them around 18yo and run old Apple Lane in 1615 or whatever (which means they are involved in events normally part of parent's history)... THEN perhaps age them up 1625 to visit new Apple Lane.

Besides skipping step 7, I might suggest also skipping, or reducing [based on age difference below 21] the distribution of 50pts to Rune affinities (page 51). Possibly reduce occupation and cult skill bonuses (and spells) in proportion to age difference (keep note of them so you can add them back in when aging the characters up to 1625, same with step 7 and affinities. Also see the sidebar on page 81.

 

Treasure (and random encounter tables) are things currently missing in RiG. The back of RQ2 has such items.

Determining treasure in RQ2 came down to calculating "treasure factors" (factors based on opponents best weapon, spells, etc.), then roll on suitable table(s). The "treasure dropping" is in the conversion guide: RQ2 tended to give out a rather high treasure amount vs what Chaosium considers viable in RQ-RiG. The treasure factors computation may also be the means by which to equalize the two sides: calculate party treasure factor, adjust opponents so the total treasure factor is similar.

Those are great guidelines! Thanks! It might be really fun to use the younger characters as a "tutorial" of sorts, with less fuss during character building, then "upgrade " them and return to a familiar place! I might actually start with that!

[GMKen]

1 hour ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

RQ2 tended to give out a rather high treasure amount vs what Chaosium considers viable in RQ-RiG.

Yeah, but the players tended to need that money to pay for all of the skill training from the various guilds.  Associating with the Alchemist’s Guild to learn Blade Venom 20 is going to run you 25,000 guilders.  That’s a lot of Treasure Factor right there, but I hear there’s an old grave everyone’s afraid of that has a boatload of money in it, or so I’ve been told by those in the know...

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, LordNigel said:

Thanks! Where exactly? The books is more of a city guide.

Assuming that you picked up the RQ Classic pdf, you'll find it listed in the table of contents.  If you've got the original box set, it's in the 3rd book of the 3.

[LordNigel]

14 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Assuming that you picked up the RQ Classic pdf, you'll find it listed in the table of contents.  If you've got the original box set, it's in the 3rd book of the 3.

Found it! Thanks!

Edited June 11, 2021 by LordNigel

[Oracle]

By the way: 'The Cradle' is also in the Gloranthan Classic Pavis & Big Rubble, but as this is a compilation (with some minor additions) of the original books Pavis:Threshold to Danger and Big Rubble:The Deadly City, now again available in the Runequest Classic line, it should be identical.

[LordNigel]

2 hours ago, Oracle said:

By the way: 'The Cradle' is also in the Gloranthan Classic Pavis & Big Rubble, but as this is a compilation (with some minor additions) of the original books Pavis:Threshold to Danger and Big Rubble:The Deadly City, now again available in the Runequest Classic line, it should be identical.

Yes, this is the one I have! I was about to ask if it was complete of it there was something useful that I'd need the original books for.

Also, since Cult Compendium doesn't cover the other things covered by the books such as Trollpak, just the cults, are there things that I'd miss from the original Cults of Prax or Cults of Terror, among others? Some of you have already mentioned the things included in Trollpak, but I wonder about the other titles.

Edited June 11, 2021 by LordNigel

[Nick Brooke]

3 hours ago, LordNigel said:

Also, since Cult Compendium doesn't cover the other things covered by the books such as Trollpak, just the cults, are there things that I'd miss from the original Cults of Prax or Cults of Terror, among others? Some of you have already mentioned the things included in Trollpak, but I wonder about the other titles.

Nah, that book’s got everything from the two Cults books, plus all of the other cults that were published. Rick Meints is a bit of a completist, so you’re in good hands.

[Oracle]

4 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

... Rick Meints is a bit of a completist, so you’re in good hands.

That's sooo true 😀 ...

[LordNigel]

10 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Nah, that book’s got everything from the two Cults books, plus all of the other cults that were published. Rick Meints is a bit of a completist, so you’re in good hands.

Good to know!

[Darius West]

On 6/11/2021 at 3:00 AM, LordNigel said:

I also am more or less aware of how to proceed in getting to know the lore. I should read the main Runequest Glorantha book as well as the Sourcebook at first. Then I think I will explore the Cult Compendium as I need.

For a long time Cults of Terror from RQ2 was the go-to source for Glorantha lore.  It has a summary of the history of everything Genertela in the first few pages that will take only minutes to read.  While it has been superseded these days, it is still a good short intro to the lore imo, and may save you wading through extensive treatises.

On 6/11/2021 at 3:00 AM, LordNigel said:

So what is the problem? The problem is that people mention the importance of infinite volumes but I don't see people discussing their compatibility. 

The compatibility of the volumes or the compatibility of the adventures?  As a disclaimer, pretty much all the material is lore friendly and consistent with both the history and mythology of Glorantha and the area where it is set.  In terms of the lore itself, well, it is important to remember that much of the lore is written from a particular bias, and it is open to the GM's interpretation about what "really" happened, much like history IRL.  There is a new Apple Lane scenario pack that comes with the GM's Screen btw, and it is entirely compatible with RQG, but is set in Apple Lane after the Lunar Occupation AND the liberation of Sartar; much has changed in the lane.  The original Apple Lane seems to have been set in the years before the fall of Sartar.

On 6/11/2021 at 3:00 AM, LordNigel said:

I want to know to what extent I can use "classic" material at the table, basically. I assume that as far as lore goes, I can use whatever I want, because it's the info that counts. But what about classic adventures? Is it easy to just get some modern monster/NPC stats from current material and just follow the old books? Will I run into some deadly pitfalls?

Seriously, things have changed a bit between editions, but not that much.  RQG is very much like RQ2, but better imo, as it provides more background info for new GMs and players to get a feel for things with.  The main thing that varies are the monetary rewards.  RQ2 splashed a lot more money around, and cash rewards should be halved (at least) for RQG or the players will be awash with cash after successful adventures.  You may also want to curtail the magical rewards a bit if you are uncomfortable with the players having too many magical treasures, as some new GMs can go a bit Monty Haul with the loot.

On 6/11/2021 at 3:00 AM, LordNigel said:

Then I go to Heroquest stuff. How easily can I get story ideas from Heroquest books and apply them to Runequest. Or, considering that I HAVE the Heroquest main book, would it be more interesting to alternate between systems and just GM The Red Cow and such adventures directly in Heroquest for my players?

I also get quite confused when it comes to the ages. As far a I can understand (from the books and discussions), each iteration of Glorantha RPG systems focuses on a specific time. How big of a deal is that? Does that make Heroquest adventures difficult to play in RQG due to different ages being expected by the mechanics? How easy is it to use a different age as a setting without changing systems?

The thing to keep in mind is that most Gloranthans don't Hero Quest, and live in awe and terror of those who do.  Perhaps we might consider one's initiation into adulthood a hero quest of sorts, but is it really?  While the forthcoming RQG Game Master's Guide will have hero questing rules, and experienced GMs will have their own ideas about what to do in the interim, and HQ itself has extensive rules for performing Hero Quests, RQG is more about life after time, and in the socio-political milieu of Glorantha in 1625 at the start of the Hero Wars. 

Remember that for the bulk of Gloranthans, they regard hero questing as a sort of death sentence.  You should read about Biturian Varosh in Cults of Prax, and how he is prepared to trade away truestone (which is super valuable magical treasure) in order to avoid hero questing.  This is the normal response people will display unless they are phenomenal warriors prepared to take phenomenal risks.  If hero quests are easy, you are GMing them wrong imo.  They should be terrifying.  Your characters are literally meeting gods or embodying the role of gods, and facing mythical problems and legendary enemies.  If a child from your village goes missing 411, there is always a secret terror among the parents that they have somehow wandered onto the Hero Plane, and unless they are frantically fortunate kids, they are worse than dead, i.e. may be spiritually destroyed or return cursed or chaotic etc.  The HQ rules are a lot more power-gamey than RQ, allowing you to choose what your character will improve at, rather than the osmotic learning process of RQ skill improvement rolls.  RQ thus has slower and more realistic progress than HQ imo.  HQ is a game that was made for the quick building of heroes, whereas RQ, RQ2, RQ3 and RQG are geared to a slower trajectory more in keeping with the expectations of ordinary Gloranthans.  HQ is sort of Glorantha Pulp Fiction, whereas RQ's various editions are more about the gritty realism of daily life.  That is not to say that you can't build a hero in RQG, just that it will take longer, and is not the character's "birthright" the way it is in HQ.

[Baron Wulfraed]

53 minutes ago, Darius West said:

Seriously, things have changed a bit between editions, but not that much.  RQG is very much like RQ2, but better imo, as it provides more background info for new GMs and players to get a feel for things with.  The main thing that varies are the monetary rewards.  RQ2 splashed a lot more money around, and cash rewards should be halved (at least) for RQG or the players will be awash with cash after successful adventures.  You may also want to curtail the magical rewards a bit if you are uncomfortable with the players having too many magical treasures, as some new GMs can go a bit Monty Haul with the loot.

The conversion guide recommends a 50% cut in the wealth of converted characters... Regarding treasure in published adventures it states (page 437 RQ:RiG)

Quote

Previous editions provided adventurers with fairly large amounts of amounts of treasure. If converting an old adventure, the gamemaster should divide the value of recommended treasure by 10, or adjust as desired.

Decimation, not simple halving!.

 

[LordNigel]

4 hours ago, Darius West said:

For a long time Cults of Terror from RQ2 was the go-to source for Glorantha lore.  It has a summary of the history of everything Genertela in the first few pages that will take only minutes to read.  While it has been superseded these days, it is still a good short intro to the lore imo, and may save you wading through extensive treatises.

The compatibility of the volumes or the compatibility of the adventures?  As a disclaimer, pretty much all the material is lore friendly and consistent with both the history and mythology of Glorantha and the area where it is set.  In terms of the lore itself, well, it is important to remember that much of the lore is written from a particular bias, and it is open to the GM's interpretation about what "really" happened, much like history IRL.  There is a new Apple Lane scenario pack that comes with the GM's Screen btw, and it is entirely compatible with RQG, but is set in Apple Lane after the Lunar Occupation AND the liberation of Sartar; much has changed in the lane.  The original Apple Lane seems to have been set in the years before the fall of Sartar.

Seriously, things have changed a bit between editions, but not that much.  RQG is very much like RQ2, but better imo, as it provides more background info for new GMs and players to get a feel for things with.  The main thing that varies are the monetary rewards.  RQ2 splashed a lot more money around, and cash rewards should be halved (at least) for RQG or the players will be awash with cash after successful adventures.  You may also want to curtail the magical rewards a bit if you are uncomfortable with the players having too many magical treasures, as some new GMs can go a bit Monty Haul with the loot.

The thing to keep in mind is that most Gloranthans don't Hero Quest, and live in awe and terror of those who do.  Perhaps we might consider one's initiation into adulthood a hero quest of sorts, but is it really?  While the forthcoming RQG Game Master's Guide will have hero questing rules, and experienced GMs will have their own ideas about what to do in the interim, and HQ itself has extensive rules for performing Hero Quests, RQG is more about life after time, and in the socio-political milieu of Glorantha in 1625 at the start of the Hero Wars. 

Remember that for the bulk of Gloranthans, they regard hero questing as a sort of death sentence.  You should read about Biturian Varosh in Cults of Prax, and how he is prepared to trade away truestone (which is super valuable magical treasure) in order to avoid hero questing.  This is the normal response people will display unless they are phenomenal warriors prepared to take phenomenal risks.  If hero quests are easy, you are GMing them wrong imo.  They should be terrifying.  Your characters are literally meeting gods or embodying the role of gods, and facing mythical problems and legendary enemies.  If a child from your village goes missing 411, there is always a secret terror among the parents that they have somehow wandered onto the Hero Plane, and unless they are frantically fortunate kids, they are worse than dead, i.e. may be spiritually destroyed or return cursed or chaotic etc.  The HQ rules are a lot more power-gamey than RQ, allowing you to choose what your character will improve at, rather than the osmotic learning process of RQ skill improvement rolls.  RQ thus has slower and more realistic progress than HQ imo.  HQ is a game that was made for the quick building of heroes, whereas RQ, RQ2, RQ3 and RQG are geared to a slower trajectory more in keeping with the expectations of ordinary Gloranthans.  HQ is sort of Glorantha Pulp Fiction, whereas RQ's various editions are more about the gritty realism of daily life.  That is not to say that you can't build a hero in RQG, just that it will take longer, and is not the character's "birthright" the way it is in HQ.

Great insight here!

I always thought of HeroQuesting as something "not so common", but this is the first time that I heard it described this way. It makes sense that it would be rare and terrifying though. Nevertheless, it sounds absolutely amazing, especially for more advanced characters (which makes sense; it would be weird for newbies to go on HeroQuesting and save the day).
However, the "real GM book" release sounds too far away and I hope some adventures include HeroQuests here and there just to whet my table's appetite.

I'm also aware that the Heroquest system is much more "high level" and heroic. But it sounds also very good for that. That's why I have previously considered playing some HQ sessions with my players as well, just to change the feel a little bit. However, until I get to play all that I have for RQ it's likely that the new RQ rules for HeroQuesting get published.

This is the first time that I have the chance to use two robust systems to play in the same game world, so it must be fun to play with that. (or perhaps not, pehaps playing HQ will spoil my players and then they'll hate to go back to the "normalcy" of RQ...)

Edited June 12, 2021 by LordNigel

[LordNigel]

3 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

The conversion guide recommends a 50% cut in the wealth of converted characters... Regarding treasure in published adventures it states (page 437 RQ:RiG)

Decimation, not simple halving!.

 

Decimation is a lot indeed!

I thought the conversion guide dealt  only with character conversion. It's nice to see it also includes this sort of tip!

[Sir_Godspeed]

4 hours ago, Darius West said:

The thing to keep in mind is that most Gloranthans don't Hero Quest, and live in awe and terror of those who do.  Perhaps we might consider one's initiation into adulthood a hero quest of sorts, but is it really?  While the forthcoming RQG Game Master's Guide will have hero questing rules, and experienced GMs will have their own ideas about what to do in the interim, and HQ itself has extensive rules for performing Hero Quests, RQG is more about life after time, and in the socio-political milieu of Glorantha in 1625 at the start of the Hero Wars. 

Remember that for the bulk of Gloranthans, they regard hero questing as a sort of death sentence.  You should read about Biturian Varosh in Cults of Prax, and how he is prepared to trade away truestone (which is super valuable magical treasure) in order to avoid hero questing.  This is the normal response people will display unless they are phenomenal warriors prepared to take phenomenal risks.  If hero quests are easy, you are GMing them wrong imo.  They should be terrifying.  Your characters are literally meeting gods or embodying the role of gods, and facing mythical problems and legendary enemies.  If a child from your village goes missing 411, there is always a secret terror among the parents that they have somehow wandered onto the Hero Plane, and unless they are frantically fortunate kids, they are worse than dead, i.e. may be spiritually destroyed or return cursed or chaotic etc.  The HQ rules are a lot more power-gamey than RQ, allowing you to choose what your character will improve at, rather than the osmotic learning process of RQ skill improvement rolls.  RQ thus has slower and more realistic progress than HQ imo.  HQ is a game that was made for the quick building of heroes, whereas RQ, RQ2, RQ3 and RQG are geared to a slower trajectory more in keeping with the expectations of ordinary Gloranthans.  HQ is sort of Glorantha Pulp Fiction, whereas RQ's various editions are more about the gritty realism of daily life.  That is not to say that you can't build a hero in RQG, just that it will take longer, and is not the character's "birthright" the way it is in HQ.

Is this really correct?

As far as I understand, there is such a variation in degree of Heroquests that generalizing them like this might be reductive. Holy Time rituals are often This World heroests, aren't they? And as you said, initiation rituals are effectively mini-heroquests. 

A full-on Other Side heroquest that is supposed to heavily influence the world, like say the Kalikos Expedition (maybe?), or god forbid the Lightbringer Quest, I totally agree are mind-bogglingly terrifying and the stuff of legends to most people.

[Bill the barbarian]

5 hours ago, Darius West said:

For a long time Cults of Terror from RQ2 was the go-to source for Glorantha lore.  It has a summary of the history of everything Genertela in the first few pages that will take only minutes to read.  While it has been superseded these days, it is still a good short intro to the lore imo...

Oh, hey cool, thanks you for the reminder. I remember a lot of that incredible lore (and as you said, in its day it was pretty hot!) but totally forget where it had come from. Just burrowed into my mind like a boggle or a krarshtide and took roost I supposed. But yes, this opened up a whole new level of Glorantha for me (much as CoP had).

 

5 hours ago, Darius West said:

it is still a good short intro to the lore imo, and may save you wading through extensive treatises.

Quite concise, quite great!

 

49 minutes ago, LordNigel said:

I always thought of HeroQuesting as something "not so common", but this is the first time that I heard it described this way. It makes sense that it would be rare and terrifying though. Nevertheless, it sounds absolutely amazing, especially for more advanced characters (which makes sense; it would be weird for newbies to go on HeroQuesting and save the day).

 

43 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Is this really correct?

As far as I understand, there is such a variation in degree of Heroquests that generalizing them like this might be reductive. Holy Time rituals are often This World heroests, aren't they? And as you said, initiation rituals are effectively mini-heroquests. 

Can not disagree with Darius, but there is HQing and there is HQing.

To Ma and Pa Harmast and Sora for instance, well they quest all the time. Let me ask Ma Sora ta eksplane herself...
“Questin’ eh? Weell all da time, ya ken. Once at birthin’ tha animals, lands sakes... oncet at tha time o’ tha  plantin’ and tha Harvest, and yet once agin for tha better part o’ Sacred Time... and let me tell ya, none can quest as loudly or more joyous than ol’ Pa Harmast when he gets down to tha Gray Dog Inn on tha old Ale Road...<spits and squints> ya get me?

Some say HeroQuesting by the folk who make up the better part of the Tula is what keeps the world afloat! The common folk. I quite agree with them, so I prefer my Glorantha seasoning to be be quite magical. To each their own. 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by Bill the barbarian