Where will your Heroquest game go?

[Ian Cooper]

I'm trying to understand appetite for material outside of Dragon Pass. Traditionally, supplements for areas outside of DP and Prax have not done so well, because folks can't use the material in their own game. But, post the Guide, folks may have more of an appetite for exploring the wider lozenge.

So let's talk about where you might want to go, if you could only pick one to cover for the next two to three years

 

[Joerg]

Holy Country development was reported to be under way, without telling us for which system.

Return to the seas. Martin Hawley's Men of the Seas was a good first step to expand the horizons at least to the ports of call, with occasional forays into the hinterland, almost Traveler-style.

Wolf Pirates. With or without Harrek. Apart from the Yggite homelands off Winterwood, they have islands in western Seshnela, northern Jrustela and on the Threesteps archipelago south of Kethaela.

Ralios is under-used in official publications, too. As much Orlanthi action as you may need, plus all the city states, lake navies, neo-Arkati and more or less orthodox Malkioni you may want to encounter or vanquish. And you could strike into Seshnela down the Tanier River.

Peloria is a bigger bid. Saird would be a logical next step northwards, but even Tarsh could do with more official attention. The Dara Happan heartlands might be interesting for a Jar-eel-centered campaign involving the White Moon developments, and then the drastic changes in the Empire. In order to illustrate those changes, we would need to get to know the situation before the changes, though.

All these backgrounds are part of the Argrath Saga, so they might address ongoing Orlanthi campaigns as well as new starts in more or less exotic locales.

 

Kralorela could be approached from the Lunar Empire, from Genert's Wastes, or over the Seas. Each approach would lead your external explorers into a different initial environment. This could be done in the form of chained scenarios rather than a detailed setting book.

A native Kralori campaign would be a challenge, and offers as much variety as a "native Lunar" campaign in some corner of Peloria in terms of local influences to choose from. I am not sure how much interest there would be for this kind of campaign before introducing the setting through scenarios for characters with more conventional backgrounds. The same goes for much of the rest of Glorantha, really, so a naval setting might open these areas for gaming.

 

Other styles of gaming might be explored - for instance the fate of a few bloodlines to stand against the same immortal foe again and again, through the ages. A set of ancestral abilities developed in earlier encounters with this foe could be re-incarnated while the exact origin of the new set of players may vary wildly. A Heortling family might survive only in the descendants of some unfortunate slave of Praxians, and return mounted on whichever tribal beast.

[Ian Cooper]

Just to avoid doubt.

I'm dont want you all to worry about discussions you may seen on work in the Chaosium pipeline etc. Don't let that affect your judgement.

I'm trying to understand, irrespective of those concerns, what you would want to see next. So assume a blank sheet. Given that "what's next" is a blank sheet, what would you want.

And because folks worry, no I am not suggesting anything about items you may have heard about in the pipeline, either their likelihood of their happening or thier status. Don't try to 'read the tea leaves' from this request. It is what it is: I'm taking raw input on preferences.

 

[JonL]

Being the crossroads between the Theylean and Western cultures, full of rival factions and intrigues (but with the Seshnegi, Dorastor, & the Kingdom of War all lurking nearby with the potential to unite the rivals), Ralios calls out for further development, in my view. I'd rate the Holy Country as a close second though.

[Oracle]

In fact I have issues to make a decision here, because every time I touch an unknown are (e.g. in the Guide), I'm completely fascinated and would like to know more, so that I could start a game there. And even exploring Sartar and Prax in the detailed level, that is available already is quite exciting.

But one area, that catches me again and again is Kralorela (probably because I'm interested in this kind of philosophy ...). Joerg's proposals in his above posting would be quite a good start. I could imagine purely Kralorelan scenarios with all heroes from Kralorela (similar to 'Crouching Tiger, Sleeping Dragon' or 'Heroes') or scenarios with outsiders (e.g. from Sartar or Prax or the Lunar Empire) being confronted with a completely unfamiliar culture (similar to 'Shogun' or 'The Great Wall').

But in the end a detailed setting book would be great.

[Corvantir]

It was a tough call for both votes.

For the sourcebook, I chosed the Holy Country but I must admit I would also like to see a Tarsh/Lunar Provinces sourcebook. The farther we go from Dragon Pass and Prax the least I am interested though.

I also voted for Demi-Gods/Heroes but I feel closer to "Heroes" than "Demi-Gods". I usually prefer the characters to be Heroes rather than Super Heroes.

[jajagappa]

While I'm currently running Colymar and Nochet campaigns, my soft spot is for Lunar Provinces since that's where I started and developed large amounts of background for.

If I ever have the time, though, I'd love to do a Vormaino campaign.

[Richard S.]

I'm gonna be rebooting my scout troop campaign, setting it in the Holy Country. Ralios and the farther west would be fun settings too, but I sadly don't have enough time to run a structured game, though I may try to do some PbFs  sometime.

[davecake]

My next game is planned to be East Isles. 

And I love Pamaltela, especially the inland plains. 

But if you are asking me what area would I most like to buy a HeroQuest book about, it's somewhere in the West. I want official Glorantha to properly tackle the Malkioni and sorcery. Seshnela, Ralios, or Fronela would all do. 

Not that I'd complain about a Holy Country or Lunar book, but I'd prefer to stretch ourselves a bit more. 

I'm actually weirdly a bit reluctant about Kralorela. I think if we rushed a Kralorela book into production in the near future, it would probably end up being too obviously Chinese. We need a bit more time for Kralorela to percolate. 

[Newt]

I'm returning to my old stomping grounds of Karia in the Eastern Wilds of Ralios immanently

I've voted for big and large Heroes and Demi Gods level of play for a new published book - for years we've been tantalised by tales of the setting's big heroes and heroines and I know from experience that HeroQuest really shines at this level of play. I ran a game in Black Horse Country were within 14 sessions the players had gone from being teenagers all the way to rivals for the position of Count. The game ended in a Gloranthan version of the Battle of Grunwald/Tannenburg with a full on clash of heroes and their armies.

[JonL]

19 minutes ago, davecake said:

I'm actually weirdly a bit reluctant about Kralorela. I think if we rushed a Kralorela book into production in the near future, it would probably end up being too obviously Chinese. We need a bit more time for Kralorela to percolate. 

This. If it's just "Not-China," nobody needs a sourcebook for that. If you're going to do a deep dive into Kralorela it needs to become it's own thing in the same sense that the Orlanthi aren't just a Celt/Viking mashup and Dara Happa is not just Babylon or Assyria.

[Newt]

I've played games set in  Kralorela, for which the I've published Mark Galeotti's take in Hearts In Glorantha issue 1 (now in Hearts in Glorantha 1-5 Collected),  and Mythic China, seeing as I publish a game set there, and the two are different in ways that come out during play. Problem is until you get stuck in and run it, those devils in the detail that come out during play don't emerge, and the setting won't develop through play.

Kralorai could almost do with a 'playing group' that takes the cannon information found in the Guide, goes away and 'plays' it and records their findings

[davecake]

I'm very keen to eventually develop Kralorela, and explore a lot of the details - I just think it is a way off being fully baked, and not the highest priority to develop the setting. I'd even rather see an East Isles book first that develops more orthodox mysticism a bit more before diving into the complexities of pseudo-draconic mysticism turned state religion (and an oceans and islands book would nicely tie into a Holy country setting). 

[SDLeary]

Seeing as you asked about settings, and essentially had an "other" category (More "exotic" locations), I'm going to take this in another direction...

Superworld
A Nameless Streets replacement
More along these lines

For all intents and purposes, you guys have two competing game systems at this point. If you want to grow things more quickly (beyond the Glorantha Guard, or nostalgia purchases) you have to also expand your setting portfolio. Now this is true of either system really, but Heroquest would be a seriously good fit for the first example above. We have had discussions on this board about Worlds of Wonder... perhaps this time around, WoW uses HQ at its core, to show its play diversity. 

In sort, think Heroquest, not just HQ:G (imo, this is simply a bridge-book for those that want to use the system in Glorantha).

As for power levels, I'd love to see more examples of low powered play. Not that I don't like high powered stuff, but I'd like to see characters start from humble beginnings and become high powered. HQ has the ability to scale in this fashion, but tends to focus on those that are already heroes. 

SDLeary

[Matt Ryan]

We ran a Petty Gods of Glorantha campaign in which the PCs were demi-gods volunteering for the Lightbringers Quest, re-writing Glorantha cannon with our sessions. The players loved it and wanted more, so we bopped around First Age Dragon Pass for awhile before heading east to Kralorela. I read through Revealed Mythologies a couple times to prepare for the campaign, but the group changed and I never picked it up again. Perhaps I should. Running a Demi-god-level game in Kralorela sounds fun. (I drew a couple maps that I could share if folks are interested.)

For the survey, I opted for a setting off the beaten track. One of the things I don't like is that the future/history of Sartar and Prax are predetermined. I could set a game there, but it's really just mice running around waiting for the cats to come and play. I never got the sense that my players could do anything more than watch major events unfold. The Siege of Whitewall is difficult to play when we know it falls, and the threat of the Lunar Empire loses some of its zing when we know that the Red Moon falls in 1655. I know the nitty gritty of the Hero Wars in Dragon Pass, but I don't know what happens during the Hero Wars in Pamalta or Kralorela, and that sounds more fun to explore.

[Matt Ryan]

It will be interesting to see how HeroQuest differentiates itself from the new RuneQuest. Two rule systems in the same setting? Three, if you count 13th Age in Glorantha (which you should count, and I'm very keen on getting those books).

It's also interesting that the most recent HeroQuest release was Ian's very nitty-gritty, low-level play Coming Storm setting book.The detail is very fine, almost too fine for the rubbery, hand-waving HeroQuest game engine, I think. I wonder once the new RuneQuest finds its footing if we'll see RuneQuest stats for the huge list of NPCs in the Coming Storm.

[Aprewett]

I just wanted to point out why I was drawn to the setting.

Long time gamer since the 70's. On a recent discussion with the developer on The Blade of the Iron Throne forum, we were discussing the funnel that the big rpg titles and fiction were taking gaming as acceptable/sellable. He mention Glorantha and I was remembered of the pathetic collection I owned. Glorantha and games like Talislanta, maybe SkyRealms of Jorune etc that push the imagination back into our hobby. I recently backed another game called Upwind that seems to fall under this umbrella. So my point and my vote was to see some exsotic location not more blah mainstream easy.

allan

[Joerg]

2 hours ago, Aprewett said:

I just wanted to point out why I was drawn to the setting.

Long time gamer since the 70's. On a recent discussion with the developer on The Blade of the Iron Throne forum, we were discussing the funnel that the big rpg titles and fiction were taking gaming as acceptable/sellable. He mention Glorantha and I was remembered of the pathetic collection I owned. Glorantha and games like Talislanta, maybe SkyRealms of Jorune etc that push the imagination back into our hobby. I recently backed another game called Upwind that seems to fall under this umbrella. So my point and my vote was to see some exsotic location not more blah mainstream easy.

allan

That points straight to the Harreksaga - travel around the Homeward Ocean and meet and raid all those quaint local people and their likewise quaint exotic dangers. Exotic encounters galore.

[Aprewett]

I just checked and my phone was auto spelling exotic as exsotic, could have been operator error or it's a super version of exotic...

[Ian Cooper]

On 04/04/2017 at 5:00 PM, Matt Ryan said:

It will be interesting to see how HeroQuest differentiates itself from the new RuneQuest. Two rule systems in the same setting? Three, if you count 13th Age in Glorantha (which you should count, and I'm very keen on getting those books).

It's also interesting that the most recent HeroQuest release was Ian's very nitty-gritty, low-level play Coming Storm setting book.The detail is very fine, almost too fine for the rubbery, hand-waving HeroQuest game engine, I think. I wonder once the new RuneQuest finds its footing if we'll see RuneQuest stats for the huge list of NPCs in the Coming Storm.

I am thinking hard and talking about how the lines should differentiate. Obviously we don't want to repeat material across the two lines, and we would like some cross-fertilization.

But Heroquest and Runequest are quite different games in what they are trying to achieve.

I'll save questions about that for another poll though :-)

Edited April 5, 2017 by Ian Cooper

[SDLeary]

1 hour ago, Ian Cooper said:

I am thinking hard and talking about how the lines should differentiate. Obviously we don't want to repeat material across the two lines, and we would like some cross-fertilization.

But Heroquest and Runequest are quit different games in what they are trying to achieve.

I'll save questions about that for another poll though :-)

I think this is really really important as it appears from Ricks comments that there will be heroquesting in the new RQ rules. 

Chaosium can always publish Glorantha material with multiple stats, or systemless (as the Guide), which will allow play across the two or three "Gloranthan" games.

Please seriously consider things outside Glorantha. HQ would be a good core for Superworld; find a replacement for Nameless Streets; utilize the Gateway process. HQ:G should become the Heroquest book on how to play in Glorantha, not the core book. Revise and expand the third edition book.

HQ and RQ are different games, but what is Chaosium trying to achieve with them?

SDLeary

[Dimbyd]

For me, Heroquest encourages players to think that the most mythic solution is the best solution to a problem. However, the Coming Storm makes a compelling case for lower powered campaigns- I also think that book is very adaptable to Runequest. 

I'm also ruminating on an Ars Magica/ Heroquest hack for Grand Tribunal in August. 

 

[jajagappa]

On 4/3/2017 at 11:36 PM, Richard S. said:

I sadly don't have enough time to run a structured game, though I may try to do some PbFs  sometime.

That's why I went to PbF's - and have found those work well for my time availability and the narrative style of play of HQG.

[Mark Mohrfield]

18 hours ago, Dimbyd said:

For me, Heroquest encourages players to think that the most mythic solution is the best solution to a problem. However, the Coming Storm makes a compelling case for lower powered campaigns-

Note that these are by no means incompatible.

[Mark Mohrfield]

I'm having some trouble with the lack of granularity on the second part of the survey. Would locally powerful heroes fall into the first or second category?