Greg Stafford, brought to you by the Nissan Sentra (I suppose it beats the bus...) writes:
> Heroquests normally occur in the Hero Planes. These (as we all know now)
> are the previous eras of the mythological world.
> In those heroquests the opponents for a particular task are variable to
> meet the questers on a more or less equal level. The mechanic for this is
> to be illustrated in a Sartar Rising! supplement in a scenario by Martin
> Laurie and Wesley Quadros. The rewards change with the level of action.
> A beginner is a follower in a mythic story, probably one of the faceless
> masses. [and so on]
I like this; that was a very clear account of why this variation can occur. But if I might be permitted to needlessly multiply entities...
There's also the practice quest, whose "mythic location" is in the here and now, the present Age, which I assume tends to be the least difficult.
There's also the "emulating an emulator" syndrome; if one practices some form of hero-worship (and the Orlanthi seem to do this endemicly, to a greater or lesser degree, as part of their normal theistic practice), it can be ambiguous whether one is taking the part of the hero (or the hero's hero, or...), or the god. Which perception one choses (or has thrust upon one) would have implications both for the difficulty and rewards of the quest, but for how it appears to the quester: in what mythic age it appears to be happening, whether one (say) experiences it as Orlanth, or Orlanth's companion, or as Harmast.
(This is getting to be less and less and rules-ish, so we might want to relocate it to the GD if if rumbles on too much longer.)
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