>From: "Jeff Richard" <richaje_at_...>
>
>Come on Jane, you know that the Heroquest (subtitled "Roleplaying in
>Glorantha") rules are not generic.�
I may have inadvertently been the source of some of this confusion (maybe not, too, but still). My position is that, yes, of course HQ was written specifically to deal with Glorantha. But it just so happens that it works very well for just about any fantasy world, even without changing the "three otherworlds" model. In part I have this opinion for the same reason I put quotes on the words in the previous sentence, which is because HQ does not have a three otherworld model at all, from what I can tell. It has a "many otherworlds" model, of which three have been written up well to date. With at least one more due to be published soon.
Few are fantasy worlds with only one otherworldly model (and they're pretty boring, IMO). The idea with the HQ model is that it should fit multiple otherworlds, no matter the amount, with specific support for three typical types.
The only really contentious bits are the heroplane itself, and the notion of heroquesting being limited to it. But, given that Greg has admitted recently that the rules system can be used for other otherworlds (even if we don't call them heroquests), I think that's mostly a moot point. A particular fantasy world may have something like the essence world, it may not. It may have a heroplane, it might not. The rules work fine in any of these cases.
Really the problem with using HQ for other worlds is in understanding that the three otherworlds presented in HQ are samples, not some canonical whole. Once you get past that, the system becomes eiminently useful for other fantasy worlds, IMO.
Which is not the same thing as saying that HQ is generic, or that the model is intended to work for worlds other than Glorantha. Just that, IME, it just happens to. In any case, I assume that all definitions used in the text are Gloranthan ones, and only extrapolate to other settings that I use the rules in. So for a term like ceremony, I may have to translate it. Just as I've had to translate Theism into Channeling for my Shadow World game, for instance.
Mike
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