> Perhaps a rules question, but I didn't spot a rule, and I'm more
> interested in the spirit of how to run this...
>
> I'm planning to run a heroquest for several characters with
> followers. Some of them are animals (a dog, a horse) and some
humans
> (brother, squire). It makes some sense to roll for Follower
> Reluctance for a squire to enter the Otherworld, but not for a dog.
I was wondering about this same thing the other day. I didn't come
up with any definitive conclusion, but it seemed to me that in the
end the follower ability still made sense to use. When you get to
the ritual, there will be some weird magic going on, that animals are
certainly able to sense. Some might balk and refuse to go, but
others will stay with you....it is even possible that your faithful
hound that you intended to leave behind breaks away from its
handler/pen/whatever and comes bounding to meet you at the last
minute, knowing only that its wonderful master is doing something
awesome/awful, and darned if he/she/it is going to let you blunder
into it alone.
> But does it even make sense for them to be going on the quest, if
the
> main character didn't have followers? My sense is that probably the
> myth should prevail. Except that all the characters will be the
main
> character (like on p.194), which sort of goes against the solitary
> nature of the myth.
I think making it wonderfully scary and a lot of fun should be the
main goal, so if having followers along helps with that I can see a
number of ways around it:
- as was already said, many times followers in myths are treated
somewhat allegorically, so if the hero "smelled the blood of his
enemies victims" then maybe it wasn't really he who smelled it, but
his huntsman, his dog, his horse, or whoever.
- you could probably also use a ritual this way, allegorically making
the followers part of the hero. So for the purpose of the myth,
snuffles the beagle is your sense of smell.
- you could bring the followers along, but decide that means you are
on a slightly different version of the myth, with things happening
not quite per the myth you know....maybe there will be another
stations especially needing the followers or especially dangerous to
them, or drawn to the questers because of them (they are attacked by
the dogging hating Green-Leapord people, all augmented with
their "hate dog people" passion)
- It was kind of implied in HQ that going on a quest together
requires sharing a wyter of some sort. (at least, getting community
support required a wyter, so it would seem to me that everyone
actually on the quest would have to be tied to that wyter).
Frequently followers are not included in the band (many may not be
able to join the band), so you could rule that only those that are
supporting the wyter may be on the quest. The heroes could
quickly 'buy in' their human followers, but maybe not the animal ones.
- The followers could be used to give special support at a particular
station. Normally this would require sharing a wyter in common, but
maybe this could be overcome with a ritual of some sort? Or maybe
the hero could set up a mini-band appropriate to binding his animals
and him (or her) together? The "provide support on a single roll"
seems particulary appropriate to an animal follower, basically you
magically bind them to a token that you break/inhale/whatever at the
right moment, and that pulls their loyalty and support to you at that
moment.
Most of all it seems to me that whatever works dramatically and for
the players should be fine, unless they are all comsmological rule
keepers (not impossible with Glorantha.....)
--Bryan