I would go a little further though and mention that you can change your character's runes (but only as part of a story). So, it seems that even the runes are an encouragement for more story. Leaving one cult for another or joining a second cult has always been a matter of more story. With runes in the equation it's not very different: if your hero is deeply involved with the cult, (in addition to the story potential involved in trying to leave or integrate into another cult) their personality will reflect the cult ideals (and the rune ones - which have always been the same as the cult) and those may be in some kind of conflict with the new cult - more story again. Of course, if they are not deeply involved it will be a different kind of story.
>From Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes -
How Do I Get New Runes?
You can gain new runes through a special ritual or heroquest to the Other Side. Most people do this at initiation. However, the god-talkers and priests know of other heroquests you can do if you have outgrown those. For an Orlanthi leader to become a king, he must have the mastery rune. If he does not, then he can perform a heroquest to earn this rune.
Switching Runes
Some cults even cause you to switch runes. For example, the Orlanthi rain god Heler is normally worshipped as a subcult of Orlanth using the Air rune. However, one can initiate directly to Heler
alone and switch one's rating in the Air rune with the Water rune, worshipping Orlanth indirectly through Heler.
-end quote
The runes, while important (have been since the beginning of Gloranthan roleplaying, just not directly usable by the rule systems - our old RQ characters used them as a way of deciding allegiance when an NPC's runes were known), are not the first thing in character generation, now that I look: they are third on the list, after character concept and clan cultural keyword. So, we are initially asked to start thinking about two ways of creating story elements before deciding on the runes with which your character has affinity. Also, the rule books can be "more of a guideline": you can (tomato/tomato) make your decisions in any order to obtain your desired character. Personally, I think it's a cool idea to decide what sort of person the hero is before anything else, it can lead on to interesting choices.
One thing I'm glad of is that, for people like Kevin, HeroQuest 1 is working really well and that they already have what they want in that respect. The only problem for them using HQ2-centric books is that they will have to work out all the skills of the opposition in their stories. Let's face it, in HQ1 we had to do that anyway with HQ1 books - because the published ones were rarely compatible with our games (except, maybe right at the start - but after a game/campaign has become established, the published numbers began meaning less and less).
It is said that some want skill numbers so they can understand how tough challenges in Glorantha should be and that they want these numbers to come from the publishers. I'm confused! We can decide from the prose (or even any of the art) of published Gloranthan material (including all previously released stuff, right back to White Bear, Red Moon!) just how challenging each conflict should be in the context of our stories: if a king is described as mighty and our story already knows that he can't act freely due to politics, we can easily arrive at a difficulty (there are only five to choose from: Very Low, Low, Moderate, High, Very High) that suits the feeling 'round the table for the situation. This can be done in game flow without stopping to find published numbers. I've heard that a few people don't want to do this but I really don't understand the difficulty (if you want to enlighten me, please focus on what the problem is doing what I suggest) - unless it's a confidence thing? I know I found a confidence barrier when I first tried.
From: HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com
[mailto:HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Tim
Sent: 11 August 2011 10:17
To: HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: DnD4e to HQ2 (was Greetings)
I can see how Kevin got this impression, though I don't necessarily agree with him...
In earlier Gloranthan games a player chose to have his character join a cult / become an initiate / devotee etc of a God. These Gods were associated with Runes, and players wishing their characters to emulate their Gods would seek to gain/use/embody these Runic powers.
The S:KoH approach is that the player first chooses 3 runes that his character embodies, then uses these Runes, and the ratings assigned to determine which Gods he can worship and how he approaches them.
In some circumstances it's just a Tom-ah-to / to-may-to comparison. It doesn't particularly matter if you chose to play a Humakti, so concentrate on emulating his Death and Truth rune aspects, or chose to play a Character with strong ties to Death & Truth, so join Humakt. In other cases it might prove more limiting - A Spolite might, during the ongoing campaign find themselves exiled in Prax and, rescued by nomads decide to join the cult of Waha! to aid their survival in the harsh environment. He might find it more difficult under the latest rules where his Darkness, Law and Stasis Runes have nothing in common with the Cult he wants to join than he would have done under RQ, where you would have just checked that the two cults were not "enemies"...
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