Others, however, recognise that their deities made mistakes. Their job is to try and rectify those mistakes.
/// That's interesting. Again, it forces us to reconsider what following a religion means. To keep things low-key, would your try to "correct your ancestor's mistake" when he dealt with the neighbours and was betrayed ?
Wouldn't it be the kind of hubris that led to GL excesses ("we'll fix'em" / reconstructionalist school) ? After the Rebound, wouldn't most people be terrified or trying that ? Only the most enlightened / demented questers (Arkat, Harmast) would do that.
If PCs went to try to "correct" their God's mistakes, they'd be opposed by their priests and community. Also, the Quest might spring many new surprises as well - they'd go off the chart. But that's all OK - it's all good gaming stuff.
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.
/// Again, this is arkatism/godlearnerism creeping back in. It makes very good playing, especially when your whole community comes at you with pitchforks chanting "burn the heretic" ! I would allow this kind of thing but put A LOT of stress on the players by hinting at consequences of failure or even success ("so you clan's cows won't have horns for ten generations and the neighbours will think you're all chaotic"). Social / political pressure is never far from Heroquesting. Hell, it's part of it.
(Players) are 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.
/// Oh yes. Let them rant and listen in. Then smile knowingly and interrupt : "THAT is interesting. In fact, you now see coming..." and watch them bang their heads on the table in despair wailing "not again" and "next time we'll shut up".
And there's one thing that completely spoils HeroQuests - talking about them in gamese. I tend to avoid anything gamey when doing a HeroQuest.
/// Yes, well, depends on whether you're playing a game, trying to have a nice afternoon's fun, or to explore metaphysical issues. Personally, I'd rather have solid game mechanics ready to get in gear at any time needed. This is HEROQUEST, not "the hero with a thousand faces", a book I'm discovering right now and which I'm not very fond of.
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