I need help from a sticky situation

[artslop]

I have just started playing runequest and am about to lose a second character in the time of less than eight nights of playing. The first character was very fast to die and I would like to keep this one alive as long as possible.

let me explain my situation to you.

My character's name is Aldel or known to the group as "Scooter". He is traveling with a trader, a godlearner, a barbarian that wishes to be in the cult of orlanth, and me, the thief.

We were on our way find sheep to pay to for the chieftain's daughter that eloped with our barbarian. on this game session our barbarian could not play so we went ahead and he would catch up to us later. easy background and I caused a big mess as soon as the barbarian that kept my character in check left.

At this tula I make a boast that me and two other men killed a bear in physical combat, and since it was a party, everyone was drunk, and I rolled extreamly well on my influence, the story was eventually changed to "When I was one, I killed three bears with my bare hands." The next day, I was known as Deathgrip the mighty. which was re-enforced when I crited in a basic streanth test to throw of a 200 pound man that fell asleap on top of me.

So everyone in the village believed that as an infant I killed three bears at once. This got around to a warrior of Vinga, that just happened to be there, and her name was Brittomart. This warrior has hero quested several times and is well known throughout the land. I "flirted" with her so she followed us to the next tula. At that tula, I failed to flirt as well and she offered to go and get me a bear to restore my strength. because I obviously cannot fight a bear I tried to lie my way out of it(instead of confessing of my fake boast). Well after a couple of really good rolls by my dice(bad for me) and she had some bad rolls. I convinced her that the bear was just to give me strength and now to make me stronger I must take on a dinosaur from the leader of an empire of the wyrms friends.

Since they are far far to the north of where we are I thought I was safe. she asked me what type of dinosaur I had killed and I told them that I have killed three horns(all this while I always rolled better than Brittomart). It turns out that at the next tula that we were going to had these people in it. Well then I said that I needed a sign from orlanth to kill the beast.(not remembering that she could bring me to the gods) and of course she offered to take me to orlanth.

After phill told me that in the hero plane any ability under 90% would not count at all, as well as how things worked. I quickly apologized and tried to back-peddle my way out of the situation. now she is extremely pissed at me and is bringing me to the tula with the dinosaurs at it. she is bringing me to the Humack temple to see if my apology is genuine as well as my respect for Orlanth and Vinga(which phil said that it was not because I was just trying to get out of fighting s wyrm)

now I have two weeks from today to find a way out of this or loose another character. the choices I have now are to apologize in the church and hope she doesn't kill me, hope to find a eurmal priest and give up a lot of power point to get out of it. The last is to see if I can convince to try a hero quest and talk to either Humakt and see if he can make my hand one of "death" and try to become "deathgrip the Mighty" or talk to Orlanth and beg for his forgiveness. truthfully, I do not want to worship eurmal nor do I think Brittomat will forgive me. So I want to try to become the Mighty Deathgrip. This will be very hard, however Phil said that I could use this time to research the information and any information that I find I can use. If this is hopeless please give me an idea of what is the best choice.

Just to give you a little about Scooter's stats and best abilities they are: str 10, con 13, dex 18, size 11, int 15, pow 14, and cha 15. his best abilities are: bow 55, influence 55, perception 50, and stealth 52. We have two spells that can help me with protection 4, and versatility to add 40% to one skill. I have conviced the godlearner to come with me but his only skill he could use would be rapier at 92%. I may be able to convince the barbarian to join and he will have a 121% in 2h axe.

Since Phil is a big name in gaming I thought that you may be able to help me, I thank you for even reading this and hope that you can give me ideas on how to save myself.

[soltakss]

I have just started playing runequest and am about to lose a second character in the time of less than eight nights of playing. The first character was very fast to die and I would like to keep this one alive as long as possible.

Looking at the story, I can well imagine how you run through characters

My character's name is Aldel or known to the group as "Scooter". He is traveling with a trader, a godlearner, a barbarian that wishes to be in the cult of orlanth, and me, the thief.

After phill told me that in the hero plane any ability under 90% would not count at all, as well as how things worked. I quickly apologized and tried to back-peddle my way out of the situation. now she is extremely pissed at me and is bringing me to the tula with the dinosaurs at it. she is bringing me to the Humack temple to see if my apology is genuine as well as my respect for Orlanth and Vinga(which phil said that it was not because I was just trying to get out of fighting s wyrm)

First of all, the biggest mistake you made was to back-pedal. Never admit that you lied, in this situation, instead build bigger and bigger lies until you can wriggle out.

now I have two weeks from today to find a way out of this or loose another character. the choices I have now are to apologize in the church and hope she doesn't kill me, hope to find a eurmal priest and give up a lot of power point to get out of it. The last is to see if I can convince to try a hero quest and talk to either Humakt and see if he can make my hand one of "death" and try to become "deathgrip the Mighty" or talk to Orlanth and beg for his forgiveness. truthfully, I do not want to worship eurmal nor do I think Brittomat will forgive me. So I want to try to become the Mighty Deathgrip. This will be very hard, however Phil said that I could use this time to research the information and any information that I find I can use. If this is hopeless please give me an idea of what is the best choice.

You probably have more than 2 choices.

First of all, unless she is completely kill-crazed it's unlikely that she would kill you for this, especially after dragging you back to town. She'd probably humiliate you and destroy your reputation, but that's about it. If you had managed to seduce her then perhaps she would be more annoyed. Since you seem to have the gift of the gab, perghaps you could talk your way out of a full apology or try to persuade her that she misunderstood you earlier.

Trying to become Deathgrip the Mighty is all very well, but it may take some time. If it takes a couple of years then you will have a scenario arc that you can play with.

If I were doing this then I'd find out any myths about Heroes who killed bears, especially as infants, then I'd try and find out where they are worshipped, what they did, find their holy places and study their story. On the Heroplane you could then use their story to define how you become Deathgrip the Mighty.

So, for example, if you found a story about an Orlanthi Hero called Bearbane who was attacked as an infant by a bear but managed to kill it with his mother's necklace and another story of Bearhood a Hero who killed a bear and skinned it, turning its skin into a hood. On your HeroQuest you could use parts of both stories to kill a bear, perhaps using a rope rather than your mother's necklace, then skinning that bear and turning its skin into a cloak. Above all, be inventive. There's no point starting a HeroQuest thinking "I can't do this, I can't do that, this is the only way that will work". Instead think "I can take this bit from here, this bit from there, mix them up and try this, if that doesn't work I'll try something else". If the GM doesn't have any stories, then make them up and prsent them as some background. Say that you have done some research and this is what you have found. As long as they are reasonable he should at least give you the benefit of the doubt.

Since you have set Aldel as being a boaster and a charmer then use that in the HeroQuest. Seduce someone in order to get their help. Steal things that could help you. Talk your way out of things. Play on your strengths. Above all, be confident and assume that things will work out in the end.

Also, I'd take the other party members to the other tula and try to kill one of the dinosaurs. After all, how hard can that be? If you prepare beforehand then you can tip the scales to your advantage.

Just to give you a little about Scooter's stats and best abilities they are: str 10, con 13, dex 18, size 11, int 15, pow 14, and cha 15. his best abilities are: bow 55, influence 55, perception 50, and stealth 52. We have two spells that can help me with protection 4, and versatility to add 40% to one skill. I have conviced the godlearner to come with me but his only skill he could use would be rapier at 92%. I may be able to convince the barbarian to join and he will have a 121% in 2h axe.

Does the Godlearner have any magic he could use? What about the barbarian? Can you borrow any magical items to help you? What about asking Orlanth for help? After all, Boasting is an Orlanthi tradition and all you did was exagerrated a few things, perfectly acceptable to Orlanthi.

If you GM has said that skills below 90% don't count on the HeroPlane (not the way I'd do it, but I'm not your GM and wouldn't want to undermine him) and all your skills are well below 90% then you need a way to boost your skills. Can you borrow a matrix or learn some skill-boosting spells? Can you add the 40% Versatility to only one skill or is it a changeable thing? If you can cast it on Influence, Prerception or Stealth then you can have 90% in all those skills, which would be useful on a HeroQuest. If the GM only allowed it to be used on one skill then I'd choose Influence as it fits in well with your character.

Since Phil is a big name in gaming I thought that you may be able to help me, I thank you for even reading this and hope that you can give me ideas on how to save myself.

1. Don't panic otherwise you might as well throw aweay the character.

2. Be positive, don't be negative.

3. Come up with alternatives for the GM to play with - a scenario is as much about the players.PCs as it is about the GM/NPCs.

4. Be creative - something that the GM thinks "that's a clever/good idea" is more likely to work than something mundane.

5. Don't assume that combat ios always the answer - you are a charismatic thief not a hulky barbarian, use that fact.

6. Don't give up - if you struggle to the end the chances are that the GM will give you an out of some kind.

I hope that helps a bit.

[RosenMcStern]

If I was the GM, I would never kill a character that provided such a good and fun story

Anyway, Simon suggested that you could try and kill one dinosaur anyway. Dinos are stupid, try outsmarting them and then pretend you were tired of brute force and tried something different this time. Could work.

But above all, since you are playing MRQ, remember to use Hero Points at the right moment. This is your best advantage.

[skarl]

I take the Warhammer approach, be glad I am not your GM. There would be demon bears and infernal dinosaurs in a gladitorial arena for you to sort out after a whopper like that.

I remember playing RQ Deluxe ages ago and I couldn't kill one of my characters to save my life, he kept failing upwards. Different GM styles, I guess.