HeroQuesting is always confusing.
> The biggest one is about being drawn into someone else's heroquest.
> I get the theory (I think) but have great trouble understanding
> what this is like from the perspective of the character being
> drawn in. Does a band of Orlanthi thanes out patrolling their
> tula suddenly get the urge to ride off and attack some solar types
> who they just know are there..or what? Is their free will taken
> over in some way?
You can play it in many different ways.
A band of Orlanthi Thanes are patrolling around Windy Hill, a locally important landmark, when they see some Yelmalians walking up the side of the hill. Enraged, they challenge and attack the Yelmalians, disarming them and taking their weapons. One of the Yelmalians mentions the Hill of Gold and the clack drops, so they let them go.
A band of Orlanthi Thanes see Yelmalio climbing the Hill of Gold on their Tula. They are Orlanth and fly to fight him. They defeat him and disarm him, then let him go on his way.
A band of Orlanthi Thanes are patrolling around Windy Hill, a locally important landmark, when they see some Yelmalians walking up the side of the hill. They approach and the Yelmalians call out that they are Yelmalio and they challenge Orlanth. Realising that this is the Hill of Gold Quest, they decide to attack, knowing full well that this will be an easy fight.
> On an Otherworld heroquest I have less of a problem, as people
> you meet are other heroquesters whose heroquests you cross, and
> they can come from any time. How does this work for This World
> heroquests?
The HeroQuest itself will make it desirable in some way. Orlanthi Thanes see giving Yelmalio a kicking as an easy target. A Chalana Arroy healer sees an enraged Storm Bull/Uroxi and calms him down.
In the case where the HeroQuest goes against the PCs, it is harder to justify involvement. Try and make it so that the PCs are sucked into the HeroQuest. The Travels of Bituran Varosh has an example of someone being sucked into a Yelmalian HeroQuest against his will.
> Also (a side issue), what if the character who is drawn in
> recognises the myth and doesn't want to play his/her part?
It depends how powerful the PCs are. The Orlanthi Thanes could refuse to attack the Yelmalians, but that would mean that they have shirked their responsibilities. One way around it would be to attack and defeat the Yelmalians, but then to return their weapons, that is one way that Yelmalians can prepare the HeroQuest to stack the odds in their favour.
> The other (lesser and more mechanical) problem is with
> deliberately failing stations on a heroquest. Assuming a band of
> PC's correctly identify a station as 'Orlanth was beaten up by
> Kygor Liter', how would you actually play this in a way that was
> fun for the players?
Some people think that HeroQuestors have to perform the HeroQuest in exactly the same way as the Gods did. Any deviation from the HeroQuest is heresy and might bring the world to an end. Some use examples from the past of people who changed HeroQuests and caused major problems. Personally, I do not agree.
In one way, the very pious might think that the best way to emulate their deity is to do exactly what the deity did. They would even perform "Loser" Quests to show how good and pious they are.
Others, however, recognise that their deities made mistakes. Their job is to try and rectify those mistakes. So, Yelmalians do the Hill of Gold HeroQuest and avenge the loss of fire to Zorak Zoran by taking those powers back. Flamali might want to stop being killed by Zorak Zorani. Storm Cultists might want Tien not to rise to take their heads. All of these are reasonable outcomes to HeroQuests.
hcarteau_at_uv50QALfKpK3d0SFNNqKSGuJvj3_SKB6fuuoH0NncOmGS3sSofNo9cnPvcAZv_lNdB6zHAXPm2sk.yahoo.invalid:
>>The biggest one is about being drawn into someone else's (Real World, or Practise) heroquest.
>/// IMO, it's not a Heroquest if it's on this plane.
I disagree.
> It's a practise run, or a rehearsal. It is only affected by faint
> echoes of the Otherworld. UNLESS something unexpected happens
> (i.e. someone rolls a 1 or a 20) and you get catapulted on the
> Other Side. Good luck then.
If it is a HeroQuest then it is affected by the underlying Quest and takes on the magical nature of the HeroQuest. The rewards will be less, you are not going to affect a whole nation or cult, but you might affect yourself or your family/companions.
>>Is their free will taken over in some way?
>/// NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU DO ANYTHING. That goes in that case too.
Well, they can. Being captured and put into an arena with nothing but a sword and shield against a fully armoured Yelmalian means that the Orlanthi could well sit back and say "Nobody can make me do anything", then they die with a smug expression on their face.
>>Assuming a band of PC's correctly identify a station as 'Orlanth was beaten up by Kygor Liter', how would you actually play this in a way that was fun for the players?
> /// You can play their survivability ; being beaten is one thing,
> being killed another. You can have them try "Not to be eaten by
> Deldorella" ritual. You could also have them try to escape after
> defeat to avoid being eaten, via Jumping, Flight, Teleport,
> whatever. Or, best of all, you can have the "Try to get laid with
> Deldorella" story... Not for the faint of heart.
That is a very important example. You can use a ritual to counter or change another ritual. That's what powerful heroQuestors do. They use their knowledge and experience of HeroQuesting to fight other HeroQuestors accordingly.
Phil Hibbs:
> Then they risk losing their relationship with the part that you
> have drawn them into. If the Zorak Zoran troll decides not to
> kill you on the Hill of Gold, then he might weaken or lose his
> fire powers, or his entire connection to Zorak Zoran.
That danger is very real. A Yelmalian on the Hill of Gold could lose his inability to use Fire by doing the HeroQuest in the wrong way.
dougiepunk:
> Hmm. That makes sense but S:KoH p186 sez re. This World HeroQuests
>
> "The magic of the heroquest draws appropriate
> encounters and opponents that usually match the
> known or expected inhabitants of the site in the
> Gods War. Thus strangers travelling nearby can be
> drawn into This World Heroquests, most commonly
> as opponents, though possibly as helpers. The power
> of the myth may prompt them to play their part or
> they may be one of the surprises outside the normal
> myth."
>
> which is where I get stuck....
Put simply, if a HeroQuest needs Orlanth then the HeroQuest will seek out Orlanthi to put in the HeroQuest. It will probably include your own personal enemies first, so if you are a Yelmalian and have a sworn enemy who is an orlanthi then he will probably appear as an opponent in your Quest. It might use the locals, so if you are on a Quest on somebody's Tula then those Orlanthi will become involved. It mmight even use someone who isn't a good match, so a Storm buller or Issaries merchant who is happening by might become involved in the Quest.
boztakang:
>> Does a band of Orlanthi thanes out patrolling their tula
>> suddenly get the urge to ride off and attack some solar types
>> who they just know are there..or what?
>
> I think usually, a band of raiding orlanthi find themselves
> "accidentally" facing a perfectly formed solar phalanx with all
> their battle magic cast/etc.
That sounds reasonable to me.
> Failing that, some poor pelorian farmer walking to market
> suddenly finds himself being called "rebel" and "stormer" and
> all sorts of other horrible insults.
Which is another good way of doing the Quest. It might ensure victory as well.
> I run "this world" heroquests using liberal dashes of strange luck
> and cooincidence to provide whatever is needed at the moment. In
> cases where a "real" participant is simply not possible to find, it
> is either the "heroquest suprise" and that station of the quest
> isnt supposed to go that way anyhow, OR the participants can
> "discover" things about otherwise familiar poeple and places that
> they did not "know" before...
That sounds good to me.
> "Worry not gentle townsfolk! I hast saved thee from Old Bob the
> Stickpicker who was really an Ogre all along!"
> "But he was just sitting there... eating a rabbit..."
> "It was a BABY, I could see his OGRE TEETH!"
> "but Bob didn't have any teeth..."
> "He doesn't NOW, because I hast smote the vile chaos from his
> mortal form!"
Exactly. Bob was forced into a Quest, so if he didn't exhibit chaotic tendencies before the Quest he may well do afterwards, so best to kill him anyway.
> Heroquesters can be extremely dangerous to random passersby who
> do not know what quest they or doing, or how to respond to them
> safely.
Yes, I agree. If you are pulled into a HeroQuest then you won't always know what to do. There is always a chance of knowing the myth via an Ability roll, but that isn't always the case, exspecially if the HeroQuest is based on an obscure or forgotten myth.
> Also, trust your players to help you make the connections if you
> dont immediately see anything obvious. They are at least as
> motivated as you to keep the quest moving along, and will have
> all sorts of interesting ideas about what "should" happen ;-)
They are also very pleased if they work something out, even if the first the GM/Narrator has heard of it is when they work it out. I use players for a lot of my background, to the point where they refuse to talk about some things in case I nick the idea.
Greg Stafford:
> I'm gonna spit out an answer before Jeff explains in in gamese
And there's one thing that completely spoils HeroQuests - talking about them in gamese. I tend to avoid anything gamey when doing a HeroQuest.
All in my opinion, of course.
See Ya
Simon
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