I think this extra keyword point per year and other such mechanisms as generally misguided, and from the same school of thought as 'all begining pc's are crap' which is something else I don't agree with. I'd bet my starting warrior with 3 heropoints against the clan champion and no hero points any day of the week.
As for GM's, have a look at the general ratings given in Heroquest and pitch the npc at the level you think appropriate with regard to the needs of your story, without have to go through all this heartache about how old they are.
To players - if you come up with an idea that says your character is a battle hardened humakti champion that doesn't mean that your narrator is duty bound to give you loads of free experience, anymore than you 'kill with a glance 13' is not going be be attracting pompous magic modifiers of d+60 and you require a total victory to succeed.
Its my opinion (Y Game WV) that the players have a duty to the other participants of the game to select characters that are likely to fit into the group (not referring to the HUmakti example above here) and will not stretch the shared fantasy imagining to breaking point for having them along in the typical scenario. Face it, some cults and occupations make better colourful NPC's than player characters.
I know Jane and one of her groups actually select ability levels to suit their 'vision'. This does not mean character gen presented in the Heroquest rules is broken or undesirable. It just means that the Heroquest system promotes a style of play that is wonderfully accomodatng. Imagine generating a Runequest character and wanting to play a WindLord straight away, and the GM allows you to take a Bastard Sword skill of 150%. This is wrong in my book, as one of the beauties in Runequest was developing the character, and by running around chasing Wheels and clacks, training and avoiding death by a critical hit from a trollkin with a short spear!!! But, if thats the game the GM and players want then thats just fine.
Heroquest (again in IMO) is about adventures that range from the humble cattle raid to heroic world shattering adventures such as dragonrise and the battle of Queens or the battle of Iceland. In fact, its the juxtaposition of the characters being involved in the mundane and the spectacular that is a core premise of Glorantha. Quite where figuring out at what rate NPC's should advance fits into addressing this premise or any other is beyond me. This seems like a throwback to those charts in RQ3 where you could actually grow a character using the previous experience charts.
Right, rant over I'm off to bed!
Best regards
Rob
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