Questions on how Heroquesting is different from Adventures in Strange Places

[Joerg]

2 hours ago, Charles said:

One of my views is that if you travel far enough from home that you don’t recognise the magics of those you visit and they do not recognise yours then you potentially are HeroQuesting.

Isn't the point of many a heroquest to pull an enemy into a rather predictable set of options by assigning him a well-known (and disadvantageous to him) role?

An out of mythical context situation is what happens if you lose your path while heroquesting.

2 hours ago, Charles said:

Lots of Gloranthans actively do not want to HeroQuest (see Bituarian Vorosh in Cults of Prax) and have choices available to prevent their journey or actions becoming magical (eg. Orlanthi kings and chiefs know how to avoid being identified as the Evil Emperor).

Biturian did not want to face Chaos that would kill an accomplished Sword of Humakt and keep his soul prisoner. That's different from "do not want to heroquest as the active quester." Being on the receiving end of other people's quests twice (Strikes of Anger in Sun County, the Zorak Zoran encounter) and wishing to remain a trader rather than a desert tracker in Corflu just means that these were not his causes.

 

2 hours ago, Charles said:

Most actions and events in the mundane world are reflections of events in the God Place. So conversely, it should be possible to invest sufficient ritual and magic in mundane activities that they become a HeroQuest re-enactment of The First HouseCleaning.

No, that's a Green Age event. More like "Orlanth and the Broom", or "How the dust mice became visible to men". 😉

2 hours ago, Charles said:

Sometimes, an enemy or rival will target a pc, whether generically looking for an opponent, or specifically that pc and the signs of rising magic are ignored or misinterpreted so that the pc is dragged unknowing into a role in someone else’s hq.

That sounds a bit like what happened to Biturian on his ZZ encounter. Probably still "marked" as a stand-in for Orlanth, he may have been dragged into Rurik's partial (?) Hill of Gold quest (?) to pin down that ZZ death lord.

2 hours ago, Charles said:

And finally, some places (or places at auspicious times or extremely rarely just completely random) are weak spots, where the barrier to the God Place is low or non existent. If you adventure into Snakepipe Hollow, it may be just an adventure. Until you get to Baroshi or go into the maggot tunnels...

Not just some places. The historical world of Glorantha is a mosaic of surviving shards from the God Time, with some spider glue in between, and those areas of spider glue are fairly common,  and weaker in reality.

2 hours ago, Charles said:

The upshot of all of this is that it really is up to the player and gm how much effort they want to invest in making the adventure ‘mythic’.

That.

[Grievous]

6 hours ago, Charles said:

One of my views is that if you travel far enough from home that you don’t recognise the magics of those you visit and they do not recognise yours then you potentially are HeroQuesting.

Lots of Gloranthans actively do not want to HeroQuest (see Bituarian Vorosh in Cults of Prax) and have choices available to prevent their journey or actions becoming magical (eg. Orlanthi kings and chiefs know how to avoid being identified as the Evil Emperor).

Hmm interesting post and the first paragraph is a trippy concept or way of looking at things that I very much like.

For the second quoted paragraph, I'd really like to hear some more examples concerning what you mean, because I don't quite grasp what would be things Gloranthans would do to prevent stepping into otherworldly territory (I'm probably overthinking this though). 
 

[Charles]

3 hours ago, Grievous said:

For the second quoted paragraph, I'd really like to hear some more examples concerning what you mean, because I don't quite grasp what would be things Gloranthans would do to prevent stepping into otherworldly territory (I'm probably overthinking this though).

A rebel can identify a king as the Evil Emperor and start a this world quest that, if successful, will end up with the rebel killing the king. The king, on the other hand, can recognise the signs of the challenges and break identification with the Evil Emperor by, for example, offering recognition and hospitality to the rebel.

Sometimes, of course, the choices available to break identification lead to consequences worse and more immediate than accepting the identification and participating in an enemies' heroquest. When being dragged into another's quest, the involuntary participant, though less prepared, can still attempt to move the narrative onto a different path than the antagonist wanted.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Charles

[The God Learner]

1 hour ago, Charles said:

The king, on the other hand, can recognise the signs of the challenges and break identification with the Evil Emperor

Interesting approach. Since I am what I am, I can envision something like Arkat or the God Learners did, except with two players. In particular, a culture could do strategic defensive heroquesting for god plane shaping, allowing them opportunities to derail an enemy HQ/myth into a suitable friendly myth. 

(Such a twist might make the whole 'heroquest-as-ritual' a bit more unpredictable and exciting too.)

[Charles]

19 hours ago, The God Learner said: 'heroquest-as-ritual'

A HeroQuest as a ritual is a Worship ceremony, in my opinion. Carefully controlled and very low risk, so that only extremely rarely (once in 50 years?) does something unexpected happen.

Any ‘real’ HeroQuest is too complicated to be a ritual, but usually will be supported by at least one ritual to open the way to the other side, and often several more to get community support and other magical ‘tools’ or benefits.

[The God Learner]

On 5/24/2019 at 1:56 PM, Charles said:

A HeroQuest as a ritual is a Worship ceremony, in my opinion. Carefully controlled and very low risk, so that only extremely rarely (once in 50 years?) does something unexpected happen.

Those could be seen as 'confirming' quests that are intended to maintain the God Plane as it always has been. (Or, more sneakily, to slowly and incrementally change it into a more suitable place. Many hands chipping away over the years, the drop hollows the stone, etc.)

If you're, say, using Summons of Evil to pull in and beat up opposition who are just minding their respective gardens, I think they would prefer to even the odds a bit beforehand. For instance, by preparing various 'trap myths' that allow them to turn the tables and change meanings at certain points. 

Well, this of course depends on what sort of 'mythic sophistication' is found in a specific society. I believe Arkati, God Learners and Lunars would at least see the possibilities. 

[Charles]

On 5/25/2019 at 11:53 PM, The God Learner said:

Or, more sneakily, to slowly and incrementally change it into a more suitable place. Many hands chipping away over the years, the drop hollows the stone, etc.

I suspect that the priestesses in Esrolia are attempting this with a programme to conflate Arachne Solara and Ernalda.