Re: Acquiring abilities by HeroQuest Challenge

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:17:08 +0100 (BST)

Good and helpful stuff as always.

> Re-read page 203 - Heroquest challenge.

If I could get at my books, I would :(  

> I'm only covering the *basic* cases below - yes, an
> initiate might have a
> stand-alone feat to wager, and if you are Arkatting
> the quest all bets are
> off, or your Myth has several challenges in it, but
> for the most part...

OK - variations I can do myself. I want to make sure that I know how an NPC got certain abilities, and whether a Cunning Plan of theirs makes enough sense for them to try it and others to regard it as a serious threat.

> You start by following a particular myth - "How
> Zorak Zoran stole Fire from
> that wimpy Yelamlio". Before the quest starts, you
> declare your "wager
> ability" - what are you putting up to get the power
> in the myth?

Before it starts? So this is part of the "setup" ritual, where the presiding godi makes sure all the conditions are right, you'll end up in the right bit of Other Side, and so on? So if he gets it wrong, or even more interesting and relevant, if he's trying to stitch you up....

> Once you get to the proper point in the quest, you
> declare the wager, and your opponent declares his.

Your opponent being another HQer, probably? Possibly even one provided for the purpose? In which case they may not realise there's a HQ Challenge due at this point.

> Then you have a contest using the two wagered
> abilities.

This is where I get a bit puzzled: ISTR some myth (Eric of the Vanak Spear?) where the hero wagered some random ability against Asrelia's Lucky Dip, and got some pigs out of it. It seems unlikely that either side were using the ability that they hoped to win/lose as their TN in the contest. Playing chess with Death (yes, a little non-Gloranthan, but...) you use your ability to play chess, but wager something else (your life, say).

> The actual ability rating the winner will get is the
> *lower* of the two
> ratings wagered - so if I wager a 10w3 ability, and
> you wager a 10w, the
> actual new rating (whoever wins) will be 10w.

And the wager is the base ability, but the TN used in the contest will be that ability after augments, whether positive or negative?

> Considering that you've got to use the abilities
> wagered in the challenge,
> I'll probably win, with a 2-mastery advantage...

Unless I can manipulate things so I've got a major +ve augment and you've got a major -ve one?  

> > So an experienced HQer could have Feats from all
> sorts of other (enemy)
> > cults, to use just as effectively as they could
> have done?
>
> Yep. *Assuming* the god he follows has myths to
> support it - Orlanth does
> (the four weapons, frex), but not everyone does.

So I write my own - no big deal in this case.  

> And the new ability might be a Spell or a Spirit (or
> dragon magic, or chaos
> magic, or...) rather than Feats, and the hero can
> use them as if they were
> always a part of his belief structure (ie, it's not
> "misapplied worship" and
> doesn't break his concentration to have magical
> abilities from another magic system)

Great, just what I wanted to hear.

> > And when can you do this - at fixed points in a
> HQ?

> It occurs at the point determined by the myth. So
> you do it only when the
> myth says "And Zorak Zoran faced Yelmalio and stole
> his Fire" or whatever.
> You don't get to make every part of a HQ into a HQ
> Challenge. Most quests
> with HQ challenges only have one challenge.

I believe some HQs have rewards to be gained at intermediate stations, and may be done with that in mind rather than the main outcome - could your godi set things up so those are a HQ Challenge this time, say? Still being declared in advance?

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