I understood it, but I'm still not at all convinced. I think the whole idea will fall down when you actually try to create a system that associates traits with runes (in a non-culturally specific way). Bestial anger, for example - why anger rather than any number of other traits? Are all animals notably angry (the turtles revered by the Sofali, for example)? I think there are probably only about 4 or 5 runes that you could uncontroversially associate with a trait in a given culture.
I think Alex is right that associating traits with particular religions is much better (and if there is an uncontroversial association of a rune with a trait for a given culture, it should come out via the religions anyway - ie if Orlanthi really think valorous is associated with death, all major death gods should have valorous as a trait).
> I'm not
>suggesting that the runic connections with each trait are fixed between all
>cultures, but that each culture has traits that it in it's mythology
>associates with each 'rune'.
OK, but even then it doesn't really hold up. What single trait sums up Orlanth Rex, Gagarth, and Storm Bull?
>Oh, BTW, whoever said that successful HQing didn't seem to reduce the
>HQer's abiltiy to HQ and thus the "Free Will expenditure for HeroPlane
>change" mechanic was flawed was right IMHO. Any ideas for a fix that feels
>right?
Uh, ditch the Will mechanic? That was the fix I was thinking of.... (well, ditch the idea that Will is something that can be summed up in one number, and return to ideas like traits or geases or POW sacrifice).
Mike Cule
>Something about HeroQuesting uses up your
>mortal life until there is nothing left for you but an immortal life.
Says who? We have a few examples where this does not seem to be true, and even some of the most visible examples (Arkat, for example) are highly dubious (why did Arkat hang around for 75 years after most of his heroquesting was complete?). Most of them seem to end their career by the more traditional method of dieing.
>We need a point
>at which the Hero can no longer continue to shuttle back and forward
>between the Hero Plane and the Mundane Plane.
I think its far from clear that this is an inevitable consequence.
>(By the way, whoever asked, I don't think that the Only Old One was a
>Hero, although I'm willing to be corrected. He just survived from before
>Time and didn't maintain any mythological structures of his own.)
We even know what the OOO hero cult spell is (Cure Iron Wound). If anyone is clearly maintaining mythological structures, its the OOO.
I'm currently inclined to believe that contrary to almost everyone elses theories, a well trodden heropath (Hill of Gold, say) is intrinsically absolutely no easier (or at least, not much). Its just a LOT better documented, so those who try it have no unexpected surprises. And no unexpected surprises makes the quest vastly less dangerous. Some quests are still harder than others, but its not directly correlated to ease. Comments, anyone? This makes rather a contrast to Alex rather neat 'clearing a trail through the undergrowth' metaphor.
Cheers
David
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