Troll Fertility, Scenario's,HeroQuest On the Cards... from Tim Ellis on 1996-05-11 (Glorantha Digest Vol 02)

From: Tim Ellis <tim_at_timellis.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 11 May 1996 17:01:55 +0100

TROLL FERTILITY

Joerg Baumgartner asks

>Which tempts me to ask a question about the role of Fertility among
>Hell-dwelling uzkind. Do they have some kind of negative poled
>fertility (works best in Hell)?

For sure! - In Hell Uzuz were born exclusively, since leaving and coming to the hurtplace (and before the Trollkin curse), Uzko became the main troll type. - Obviously, the curse has severly affected Troll fertility, whether returning to hell would counteract the curse or just lead to more superior enlo I don't know.

SCENARIOS

Sandy said way back in digest 542 that published scenarios were becoming increasingly hard to fit into ongoing campaigns, even sometimes needing provided characters to make them playable. Then more recently in the discusion between Freeforms (I too use Larp to mean rubber swording, sorry) and Traditional rpgs claimed the former were much superior, as (inter alia) you didn't have to worry about playing the same character again next time and were free to behave in character, even where that might lead to spectacular failure (or glorious success...) and death.

Do you see the link?

Long running campaigns are/can be great fun as your starting out young, unskilled, backwards, ignorant peasant farm boy rises to become one of the most important leaders in the Hero Wars with tribes, cults and strange exotic races rushing to obey their eveery whim, while lozenge threatening Magicks not seen since the golden age are unleashed upon the foe, (or, alternately, becomes a slightly older, more skilled semicivilised ignorant peasant farm owner, depending on your preferred style of play) but they do require a fair amount of work and commitment both from the GM and the players. A stand alone scenario is an equally valid roleplaying event, and an equally valid way of exploring/experiencing some facit of Glorantha (or any other game world for that matter). - Keep up the good work all you scenario writers says I (and not only because I am crap at it!)

HEROQUEST ON THE CARDS

David Cake (I think) expresssed horror at his own mock suggestion of a Gloranthan CCG. Which is a shame, as I was going to ask whether anybody had seen Mythos, and considered an adaption as a Heroquest Card game. Not, I hasten to add, that I think that such a game would be a perfect HQ mechanic, or that such a game would be a financial success, but it could be fun, and a way explore the heroplane.

For those who have not seen Mythos, a quick explanation. Cards represent Allies, Events, Locations, Spells, Arifacts, Monsters and Adventures. An adventure is in the from of a narative with certain words capitalized. These capitilzed words indicate the cards (some general (the MONSTER) and some specific (the "SON OF YOG_SHOTHOTH") that you need to play to succesfully complete the adventure, at which point you "Briefly but colorfully narrate the essential details of your Adventure, displaying the required cards..." to score the victory points for that adventure (different adventures are worth different points).

Now it struck me that a set of cards which drew on a "mythic Glorantha" rather than a "Lovecraftian horror" background would make a fine way of exploring heroquests without needing to worry about fitting in with existing RQ Mechanics ;-) - all this, and another tournament for Convulsions! (Go on David, admit it, you've always wanted to give away a free, limited edition Gloranthan Trading card with ToTRM haven't you.)

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| Tim Ellis           EMail tim_at_timellis.demon.co.uk                      |
| What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?            |
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