Well, in HeroQuest, going to the God, Spirit or Sorcery World is no longer "the way it is done" for the vast majority of quests.
When starting a quest with the proper rituals etc. (instead of falling down the Rabbit Hole) you end up in whatever world (God's Temple, Spirit Node, Great Spirit's Desmesne) that the Ritual specifies, but when you leave that place you will be on the Hero Plane, not the X World. The God's World (etc.) are never-changing, and if you *can* force a change you'll be making major changes in the belief systems of many people. The Red Goddess forced a change on the Gods World (and the others as well - powerful lass!), not the Hero Plane. Harrek (AFAICT) worked on the Hero Plane level - getting major benefits, but never really making a major change in the Mythical world (except maybe skinning the White Bear in the first place). Arkat worked in both the Hero Plane and the Gods World levels.
Anyone who "becomes a god" is making a change to the God World level.
God/Spirit/Sorcery world HeroQuesting is root-level hacking, HeroPlane HeroQuesting is using a public access terminal. (to borrow a simile from the computer world for a little bit...).
>My question is, can these people gain any benefit from a quest, other
>than the forging of a tie with the other world? In other words, to
>gain some benefit in the other world, do you have to have an other
>world tie of some sort? If this was the case, you could take an
>atheist along on a quest, he/she could help you succeed at it, could
>perform battles, etc, but would not gain any benefits, or suffer any
Sure he can. Some quests might *require* a non-member of the religion/belief system along (maybe as an ally, maybe as an enemy...). Since we're no longer playing in the distinct God/Spirit/Sorcery worlds, but in the "everything jumbled together" Hero Plane, there is no such thing as being "unconnected".
>consequences from the quest. Presumably he/she would also be subject
>to the penalties of an alien other world, which would make most
>hesitate to go along in the first place, but that is another issue.
No Otherworld Penalties on the Hero Plane unless under really wierd circumstances.
>Another option would be that you can take those with no other world
>connection on a quest, but they cannot really do anything unless and
>until they forge an other world connection. So you could take an
>atheist with you, but he would seem like little more than a ghost,
>able to observe in some manner, but not to do anything.
>Finally, it is possible that except for certain carefully developed
>paths, such as initiation quests and whatever else the narrator
>desires, unconnecteds cannot fully penetrate the other worlds, and
>they get stuck in the veil or something like that.
No "unconnecteds", so the problem is not really there.
>Any thoughts? And how would all of this apply to something like your
>companion horse that you want to bring on the quest?
It becomes your God's HORSE or whatever if properly ritually incorporatd in the ceremony. Otherwise it is one of the faceless, nameless supporters of the Quest Hero.
>Also, if you are a communal worshipper you can clearly go along on a
>quest, but can you cross on your own, not having a specific god's
>domain to cross too?
Communal Worshippers worship someone as the head of the pantheon/religion, so would end up in the main Otherworld Place/Temple of the pantheon (Heortling CWs worship Orlanth&Ernalda, so would end up in his/her hall, Female Heortlings worship Ernalda, so Lunar CWs would end up in Natha's (or one of the Red Goddesses - there's too many of her!) hall, etc.).
A problem for the Communal wanting to quest for himself: since crossing over needs a high amount of power, how is a communal worshipper going to do it? He needs to convince someone to get him to the Other Side, and what priest is going to agree to sending an (obviously) unqualified person into the Hero Plane? A communal worshipper with the power to go by himself is something *really* special - rituals are not something you teach to all & sundry!
RR
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