Chalana Arroy heroquests from Andrew Larsen on 2000-05-19 (Glorantha Digest Vol 07)

From: Andrew Larsen <aelarsen_at_facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 10:31:51 -0500

Does anybody out there have any ideas about how to run a CA heroquest? It seems to me that the question is sort of messy from a game standpoint (apart from the general lack of suitable myths for her) for a variety of reasons

What sort of conflict or test can you offer a CA in this situation which don't simply involve healing something? One could conjure any number of heroquests wherein something like this happens: GM: You seea man lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from a horrible wound. CA: I go over and heal him. GM: Okay. That was exciting. Next station.

Obviously, the challenge is to figure out obstacles to performing

healing, or situations where healing is not the solution.  But apart from
healing, CA doesn't seem to do much.  Yes, she's a goddess of Life and
Harmony, but in her case, these principles seem mostly expressed as healing.

2) CAs have no combat abilities, except perhaps the odd Parry or such. How do you put them into situations that involve some real danger and tension without completely overwhelming and slaughtering them? I suppose you could allow some Orlanthi warriors to come along on the hq, but somehow I doubt that CA heroquests would work well if there was a lot of slaughter occurring around her (although the LBQ seems to be an exception to that).

3) How do you make it interesting for the non-CA's in the gaming group to at least watch, if not participate in. One could ask other players to play NPCS during the quest scenario, but I suspect that it would wear thin quickly if it wasn't done well.

This last point is a general problem with heroquests, so far as I see. If the quest is written broadly enough that anyone can participate, what makes it special to a particular cult? One could allow the questing deity unspecified companions (such as in my 'Lankhor Mhy finds the Torch of Truth' quest), but doing that too much feels like a cop-out. One could write a quest that has roles for several questors of different deities, but honestly, how many myths are going to have room for Orlanth, Issaries, CA, LM, and Eurmal, apart from the LBQ? Slapping them all together regularly undermines the uniqueness of the LBQ. And what if your group is a little more mixed--how many myths are there going to be for Yelorna, Humakt, Donadar, and CA (as one of my old campaigns had)? If the hq is only run for 1 or 2 characters, the other players get to sit around and watch, which isn't great planning. I've been going around in circles on this one for a while, and still haven't come up with any real solutions. Any ideas out there?

Andrew E. Larsen