More About HeroQuests. (Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa....)

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 14:44:45 +0100


I like Richard Melvin's idea that the Sacred Time re-enactments require the direct sacrifice of MPs to renew the Rune Magic Effects used during the Quest. It gives a quantifiable mechanic for how much support a myth needs.

Now ask the next question:

You've come back from the Hero Plane and established your new Quest as the reality for your particular temple. Or you've established a new Cult altogether. The next stage is (isn't it?) to make the myth you have made a truth for everybody. Can we come up with some sort of guidelines for growth of a cult's power? I think they can only be guidelines not firm rules.

There are heroes whose cult never spread beyond a particular region such as whatshisname Greydog and his Undead destroying cohorts and there is on the other extreme the Red Goddess who went from a back room at a pub to being nearly the Big Red Cheese for all of Glorantha.

Steve goes on about:

>HQ Will Accounting Systems:
>
>I don't think anyone is advocating these failed ideas anymore, but
>I did notice a few references to the pecularities of such systems.

I am the guilty man, sorry. I'm still thinking about the Will Idea but I'm ioclining towards Richard M's route of analysing the way bound POW is used.

>Linking Will to POW or points of divine spells could work. The problem
>I have is that I think the RQ POW gain roll is a bad game mechanic.

Ummm, why exactly?

>
>Trait Based Systems:
>
>Lets say I have a rune lord candidate, with all 5 cult traits at 16 ("legendary"
>status or whatever it is called). His test is an Orlanth re-enactment HQ, and
>has to roll all five traits. His chance of success is 33%. If his traits are
>18, then his success chance is still only 59%. Lastly, if there is always
>a 5% chance of failing a roll (as in RQ), then the chance of making 5 rolls
>is only 77%, no matter how good your traits are.

Very good points. Under PENDRAGON mechanics you loose the chance of failing if you have scores of 20 or more. One of the things I dislike about PENDRAGON.

Strikes me there are three levels of having a personality trait.

  1. Indiferrent. You just don't have any commitment to the stat. 15 or less.
  2. Noted. 16+.
  3. Heroic. 20+

Someone with all of his God's traits at 16+ should get a religious bonus, either one especially designed for the cult or a generic one like a reduction in the cost of Divine Magic.

>The more I think about HQ, the less I like dice intensive sytems. There is
>just too high a chance of a character failing some critical roll, and either
>looking like a fool, or hosing up your carefully planned scenario.

You have a good point again. One reason why I'm thinking of something like the EVERWAY card based resolution system.

More I think about it, the more I like the idea of HeroQuest as a capsytem that can be used with both RQ and G:tG. You would derive the HQ character sheet from the character used in the other game but use the systems devised for the HeroQuest.

>The system could be summed up as: "GM requires a Will roll to succeed in
>some task. If you fail, think up a reason why you can make another roll.
>Repeat."

This is what we're trying to avoid.....

But a certain amount of handwaving may be unavoidable......

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