Practice quests (mainly)

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2006 20:54:41 +0000 (GMT)


> Yea, was huge eh?
> I was hoping to have an entire issue of this digest
> form to myself. :)

I haven't tried reading these lists in Digest form for ages, I dunno how much you'd need. But that must have come close!  

> > I'm still struggling to fit this "Gods War"
> concept
> > into the idea of the "heroplanes" - the word "god"
> in
> > the name makes it seem like a purely theist idea,
> but
> > I gather the whole point is that it's mixed?
>
> Yes.
> It rings more clearly than the Gods and Spirits and
> Essence Wars.

Not a snappy title, it has to be said. Shame the abbreviation carries that Theist-only implication, though.

> > Here you seem to be treating the phrases "Gods
> War"
> > and "Hero Wars" interchangably? And from the look
> of
> > the top of p192, the Gods War is what the rules
> > generally refer to as the Hero Planes?
>
> The terms are synonymous.

er, "Gods War" and "Hero Wars" are synonymous?

>>Page 191, second column. "Other practice quests

> > have specific benefits as their goal, such as an
> > awakened animal familiar or a new magical
> ability."
> >
> > It doesn't limit that statement to theism as far
> as I
> > can see. It doesn't use the word "minor".
> > It does imply to me that if you want a new magical
> > ability, or an awakened animal familiar, you may
> well
> > be doing a Practice Quest.
>
> You are correct in this. These HeroQuests, minor
> though they be, can be the
> methods whereby magical powers are gained.

And, if I'm reading the rules correctly, it's only in Practice Quests that one can provide the opposition - bringing along a trollkin to represent Zorak Zoran, for instance. Which can be a lot of fun, in game and plot terms.

There's a great scenario on the glorantha.com site, in fact:
http://www.glorantha.com/hw/fan/saddled_with_the_night_1.html that uses this. The original idea was to have a trollkin as the Darkness rep. Only some clever sod has decided to up the stakes a bit and use a Black Horse Rider instead. This turns out to be a mistake...

In fact it seems to me that Practice quests are much more useful for gaming than the ones that go to the HeroPlane/Gods(and others) War. They're at opposition levels where the players have a good chance of success. You can have all the fun of catching your opposition. You can meet your traditional enemies as they get "sucked in". You can have accidental effects on the mundane world, since you're still in it (if glowing a bit).

> AGain, yes, the magnitude of the resistance does
> affect the magnitude of the effect.

Good. Any suggestions as to the proportions? Opposition at 10W2, size of result is...?

Would I be right in guessing that if you want to enchant a power into a location, you'd do a practice quest at that location? Say you want a certain field to produce better barley, you go there and do the "Esrola makes the barley grow better" quest? (Or of course the "Maran Gor sacrifices lots of blood" quest, preferably on a day when you're expecting another clan to come raiding).

Do the Gloranthans have a clear understanding of whether a quest is at practice level or on the Hero Plane?

Can a quest change from one level to another, partway through? Either by deliberate PC action, or "accidentally"?                                   



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