Re: Re: HQ questions

From: Nick_at_...
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 14:48:47 +0100 (BST)

Charles wrote:

> The "regular" worship services where initiates and devotees get
> affinities and feats and where the community (not necessarily in the
> same service) ensure that the grass continues to grow and the sun
> continues to shine etc. are heroquests and I agree with Greg's point
> that the bulk of the community act as the faceless
> followers/redshirts - there is only room for one person to act as
> Vinga.

ISTM you're talking about community support and communal worship, not heroquesting per se. The term has been muddied, but let's not pretend that every Heortling congregation is made up of capital-H HeroQuesters. That way, madness lies!

There is an obvious difficulty in asserting that "you have to be as powerful as Orlanth to succeed in the mythical actions which Orlanth undertook". I suggest that this is, therefore, a silly thing to say.

Throwing two principles out, to see who bites:

1. The "power" of a heroquest should be determined -- in large part -- by the power of the heroquester, and not by some absolute value set by the original mythic event.
2. The "challenge" of a heroquest should be relative, not absolute. Why not express the strength of opposition/resistance in terms of "X mastery levels' advantage", not just an ability rating.

(It might require fine-tuning how much bonus/ carryover could be obtained to implement this properly. I'm bothered that the "generic" preparing-for-heroquests ritual -- the Arming of Orlanth -- is outside the normal guidance).

Cheers, Nick