>Maybe I just haven't bought into the dominant HQ
>paradigm of 'it's all good' yet. I'm still trying to
>figure out how characters improve in any real way. Or
>how they grow in the story over time. So far, I
>haven't quite been convinced that the HQ game system
>helps in the storytelling at all. It's like you have
>this system, floating out in the ether, and then you
>have the story... and there's no connection at all. I
>find it frustrating.
The characters improve by getting more abilities and improving the ones they have. Remember relationships are also abilities and often the best to build up in terms of best value for HP spend. The rules encourage spending HP on things related to the story - what the character did, who they met and so on. Unrelated abilities cost double. It's also worth looking at characters abilities and thinking how to use them as flaws. Brave is a nice ability in most fights but when the character needs to run away it's a flaw.
Think of improvement less in terms of being a better fighter, magican or whatever but a more interesting character. That's why some of the more experienced narrators don't bother too much with the rules for chargen - if the player comes up with an interesting character concept or ability which doesn't fit the rules they still allow it.
In the meantime if you feel a particular cult is unbalanced from the point of view of the game you intend to run don't allow it as a PC. There's no need to allow everything that's been written for Glorantha as a PC. Indeed for a new group there's an argument for all Heortling PCs choosing cults from Thunder Rebels. Introduce the ones from Storm Tribe as NPC's who are a bit strange.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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