Those who do new stuff in heroquests are cheaters. That's what I've
decided things boil down to. Either they exploit some loophole in "the
rules" to invent new rules (Peter Suber was one of my professors as an
undergraduate), or they have sufficient whateverittakes to actually get
away with ignoring or contradicting a single rule and exploit that
ability to again rewrite the rules. The majority of heroquesters are
good players. They stay within the rules and play according to the
rules. The innovators, of whatever stripe, cheat, either against the
letter or spirit of the rules.
Truly powerful heroquesters might be able to break both letter and spirit
simultaneously, but the risks for that would be absolutely enormous.