I'm not going to attempt to answer the more technical rules questions anyway. Someone more expert can do that. :)
"Ivan" <runequester_at_...> writes:
>3: Lets say Im using the list method to make a character. So I get to
>pick out 10 abilities that I want. If I want to have 2 retainers (say,
>two bodyguards), can I pick them as one "ability", or do they take two
>picks or ?
Each follower is a separate ability (and only one of your followers can be a 'sidekick', who gets bonus abilities). However, remember that you can replace retainers between adventures - so, for example, a character who leads a band of loyal warriors might choose one of them - or perhaps a different one each time - to act as her personal bodyguard each time she goes on a mission.
If you wanted to get more adventurous, with the narrator's permission you could also define your single 'bodyguard' to actually be a pair of identical twins who always act in uncanny unison (and therefore fight as a single follower with a single keyword and AP pool...). :)
>4: I sort of get the impression that you can more or less define and
>create your own Homeland and Occupation keywords, but then, the book
>lists quite a few and gives fairly specific skills for them. Could
>someone elaborate this a little bit for me ?
If you're interested in playing in the Glorantha setting and want your game to match published material or other people's campaigns, then the Homeland keywords give you a quick overview of what the people from each nation are like. They also make it quick and easy to create a new character instead of having to list out each skill in longhand.
But they're still stereotypes... the male Heortling keyword includes 'Farming' and 'Spear and Shield Combat', implying that the typical Sartarite man has those skills - and if you did a keyword for a modern Western country, you might have 'Drive car' and 'Operate computer' as typical skills. But that doesn't mean that every single person in that culture has them - so varying the skills in the keyword is perfectly acceptable.
For that matter, one phrase that gets used a lot in HeroQuest discussions is "something no self-respecting Hero would fail at." So if something crops up in play which no listed ability seems to cover, but it seems obvious that your characters would be able to do it, then just add that ability into the appropriate keywords.
As for making up a brand new keyword - sure. In Your Glorantha, there's nothing to stop you deciding your characters come from a little-known country not shown on any official map, and which has completely different base skills - just don't expect any published materials to mention your invented country. :)
If play balance is important to you, then you might want to consider counting up how many abilities each keyword contains, and making sure new ones contain a similar balance of abilities. Other people don't worry so much about this: since keywords cover all relevant skill anyway, it's the ability score rather than the name of the ability that really matters.
Stephen
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