HeroQuests, Pavis, Illumination

From: Simon Phipp <crassus_at_dol.ru>
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 12:48:18 +0400


Philip Hibbs wrote a reply to someone's query:
>>If you're lucky enough to have enough Healing Spells for the 
>>entire quest, without stopping to rest up and get MP back, 
>>good for you.

>

All answers are as I play in my campaign and as such are worthless (like most things on the Digest).

> Does "time" as we know it occur on the hero plane?

Yes, but not on the God Plane (God Plane = God Time = Mythic Reality, Hero Plane = Places within Glorantha but Magical, Primal where normal people can't survive, two different things)

> Do people "heal" over "time"?

Not in the normal RQ sense. Before Death manifested in a place, people who were injured just knitted themselves together or were healed by others. I don't think that this happens automatically anywhere else.

> Do temporal spells "expire"?

Personally, I play that spells last for one Station on the Quest rather than for the whole Quest. I then break the Quest down into as many Stations as I can :-).

> Do magic points regenerate?

No, but they can be restored at various places or through Cult Support.

> Are these phenomenon experienced differently across cultures?

The role-playing or GMing ramifications of this are truly horrendous. Fortunately I only play in a theist game (with a bit of Arkati and Lunar sorcery thrown in) and the question does not arise. I would guess that the above phenomena (Healing, Spell Duration, MP Regeneration) are culturally independant. However, certain things would be dependant on culture - A Dragonewt HeroQuest would be different from a Malkioni Quest or a Stygian Quest or a Kralori DragonQuest or a Solar Quest or whatever.

However, all Quests have elements in common. The Questor encounters obstacles/people and overcomes/befriends them in order to gain knowledge/power/salvation/deliverance or whatever. Quests are easier if the Questor is being supported by people back home. Normal magic may work on the Quest but Heroic Magic is better. The results of failure are worse than the results of success.

Generally, I don't like the idea of tying to the Runes and drawing powers directly - doing this gives a cult like Brastalos (The No-Wind Storm Cult) access to Thunderbolts, Hurricane force winds, wind walking powers and so on - very undesirable. I prefer powers gained to be Cult based or HeroQuest based - so you gain powers depending on the Quest you are using. Thus people can invoke Quests during a HeroQuest and use those Invoked powers. For instance, someone on an Orlanthi HeroQuest has a companion who is blown off a cliff, so he invokes "Orlanth and Yinkin", leaps through space and rescues his companion (Using Teleport from the Quest). This means that people with knowledge of many quests (experienced HeroQuestors) have advantages over inexperienced HeroQuestors.

> With problems like this to cope with, the need to make life
> on the HP fundamentally more difficult (skill/10, hypercrits
> etc.) is reduced, as life is inherently more complex.

True enough, but the skill/10 (I use skill/5 as being more akin to RQ2 rules - special hits etc.) makes combats etc. shorter and more fun (anyone who has ever had 2 Rune Lords fighting at high percentages in RQ3 knows that combats can take hours real time - no fun there).

> Michael Cule

>>will someone explain to me why Pavis isn't still
>>the ruler of his city today.

>
> I'm not too sure about Pavis specifically

Pavis IS the ruler of the city today. He lives in his Temple, locked away from everyone, and rules through his Children (or their descendants) the City Council. The fact that there is a Lunar Governor in Pavis does not alter this fact - the Lunars are trying to court Pavis into marrying the Red Goddess and being incorporated into the Lunar Pantheon.

Historically, the reason why Pavis is not a "hands on" ruler is that he handed direct control to his children and retired into the Temple (Pavis Pack/Big Rubble somewhere) in other words he abdicated direct rule for a figurehead position. However when times are hard he will come out and rule again. During the Troll Occupation, Pavis did not show himself because he would have been shredded by the troll spirits - you don't get to found a city by being stupid. Now that the troll threat is diminshed, I can see Pavis playing a more active role in the City.

Mark Sabalauskas writes on Yelm in White Wolf:

> The write-up is about ten years old, though,

Ten years! Oh no...............

> so don't
> expect it to reflect all the new information in the Glorious
> Reascent of Yelm or the Fortunate Succession. For some of us,
> of course, this could be seen as more of a feature than a bug.
> :-)

Many a true word ........

Power Gaming:

Nick E. on the Pots and Pans story:

> I don't think that's power gaming, although I do recall one player who
> insisted on playing a crafter, and then using his collection of pots,
pans
> and ceramic jugs to lethal effect....

I don't believe anything is Power Gaming - all gaming is the same, no matter how you play. However, those who abuse the rules, twist and turn, combine sub-rules and rules interpretations and generally rape the rules for their own advantage - these are Power Gamers as is traditionally recognised (we have the concept of a D3 Sub Rules - being able to find some obscure point in an out-of-print supplement to prove your point, it's great fun)

Trotsky Writes:

> But then, a pious Humakti would never offer worship to a chaotic
deity
> (especially one connected with undead), wheras, AFAIK, a pious Illuminate
can
> worship both without a problem.

Whyever not? There is nothing in the cult of Humakt that excludes those of a chaotic persuasion. In fact, it is written somewhere that Chaotics CAN join Humakt as long as they can keep the rigid honour code and obey the restrictions.

> So I personally see no reason why a
> pious non-Stygian Malkioni could not become Illuminated. Of course, he'd
be
> regarded as a heretic and Naughty Person by his peers,

Only if he were found out.

Anyway, being Illuminated is not a problem anywhere in Glorantha. Being DISCOVERED to be an Illuminate is. A Storm Bull cultist who is Illuminated and kills all Chaos as a religious duty, even though he does not believe that Chaos is specifically bad, is a good guy and following his cult doctrines and everyone in Storm Bull is happy. If he were exposed as an Illuminate then he would instantly become a Demon of Chaos and would have to be hunted down by the cult. He hasn't changed one iota, just the perceptions that others have of him.

One question - Illumination removes the innate sense of Chaos being wrong, Storm Bull cultists feel a vague sense of unease when chaos is near, can Illuminated Storm Bull cultists Sense Chaos? Cults of Terror implies not - since Erik (I think - can't remember his name, the Storm Bull priest who became king of Bilini) could not sense the Crimson Bat's presence but it was probably more than 10m away (a rule I do not use in my campaign). Personally I play that Illuminated Storm Bull cultists can Sense Chaos but only because Storm Bull allows them to.

Anyway, got to go - haven't done any work so far today.

Simon - Coming out of disguise - goodbye to Nick Krass on the Digest.



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