I agree. But rules that make the mechanics a non-issue are a great start. A bit more about how the Other Side works would be great, though we already have a good start in Hero Wars.
I don't think we need to know the assorted Hero Paths, just the most important ones for the culture we happen to be playing in. A list of hero paths would be huge.
But what I would like to see are:
- - a set of guidelines on how to conduct a heroquest. A list of classic
archetypes of heroic paths, for example (ie Warrior, healer, seeker, etc)
with examples of challenges they might face, opponents, and rewards they
might gain.
- - a Rough Guide to the Heroplane - a list of known places in the Gloranthan
heroplane, how they would be perceived by various observers, and so on.
This is the most important thing in making the heroquest rules feel
particularly Gloranthan - it should describe the Courts of Silence, the
River Styx, the Gates of Dawn, and so on.
- - a few known inhabitants, at least ones that show up in more than one set
of myths. Explanations of a few notables, like the Broos of the Black Pus
or the Gift Carriers.
That said, I'd rather see a few more mundane source books out first. But there is nothing to stop us get started on it ourselves - nothing apart from the maddeningly lack of information, of course.
>Lastly, I've seen it argued that the Seven Mothers heroquest was actually
>the Orlanth heroquest for Yelm in disguise. Equally it would seem obvious
>that modifying an existing trick to produce a diferent effect is probably
>easier than coming up with something competely unique.
I'd say its more like 'the better your map, the more chance you have of arriving where you want to be'. The Seven Mothers did not perform a Lightbringers Quest. But they probably knew of it, and adapted some of the ideas in it (some of which they knew from the Dara Happan side). Having some myths to go on gave them some idea of where they where heading - that this tactic does no always work can be easily seen in that most (possibly all) of the Seven Mothers where rather surprised by the results of their quest.
Kevin asks further
>>Ok, then a simple question to be answered using "Hero of a Thousand
>>Faces". Assume that there exists this item, the Divince cup of victory and
>>it is guarded by a pair of powerful guardians. How many cults get screwed
>>over by someone annihilating the guardians and stealing the divine cup of
>>vistory? What are they and how will this effect them in the mundane world?
For these sort of questions, you will never have all the answers you want, so you are just going to have to get used to figuring them out. To answer all possible questions of this nature is an outrageous task. The real answer is, whoever writes up the divine cup of victory for game use should also address these questions in general terms at the same time, and the rest should be made up when it happens, just as if someone stole the (quite mundane) Kings Crown, or regimental standard.
If you figure that the heroplane works something like the real world, you won't go too far wrong. Someone quests for the divine cup of Victory after its stolen? What is the quest like - if it depends on going to a specific place, they will find the cup is gone, if it depends on a specific guide leading you to the cup, the guide may still be able to find it (and then whoever stole it is the new guardian).
Myths aren't the reality of the heroplane - they are maps of it. Like any map, they can get out of date. There is not much we can do to help GMs work out what happens when they do change. What we can do is provide a more useful flavour of map for GM use (one that addresses cross-cultural issues).
Cheers
David
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