Heroquesting; How and Why?

[Tias]

So I've just gotten acquainted with the world of Glorantha, via the awesome CRPG King of Dragon Pass, and one of the neatest features is the "God Quest" or Hero Quest - in which one's heroes re-enact a ritual drama from their religion - much like sacrament and similar rituals, though here the stories are pretty fantasy-ish.

So, my question is this: Since Glorantha is a Runequest world, what sourcebooks cover heroquesting? I'm particularly interested in rules concerning characters in heroquests, and ideas on how to apply the heroquesting system to my homebrew Legend fantasy setting.

 

[Loz]

HeroQuesting has been part of Glorantha's fabric since Day 1, but mechanics for it have been scarce.

For RQ, there are rules in 'Cults of Glorantha' published for Legend's precursor, MRQII. However this book is now out of print in both print and PDF. You may be able to find remainder copies online.

You can find a lot more on what HeroQuests represent in Moon Design's 'Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes' which is a must for any serious Gloranthaophile. As you probably know, RuneQuest 6th Edition has picked-up where MRQII left off, and we'll be covering specific RQ HeroQuest mechanics in our forthcoming book 'Adventures in Glorantha', however that won't be published until next year.

 

[Tias]

Oh cool, thanks a lot!

I'm not a Glorantha-file, at least not yet, but I do think the world is very cool and has a keen eye for realistic detail.

I'm thinking, for my homebrew stuff, that the level of HQ you can attempt depends on the level of Pact you have, so that the real cool stuff only applies to devotees of a given god. For instance, if you wanted to not get lost while taking a long journey, you could invoke a small-time HQ of Æol, the god of travel and winds ("Æol awakens in the Godlands" or something like it). Then, if you re-enact the myth properly, you get a bonus to your Lore and Navigation skills.

A bit like the blessing system in earlier Warhammer Fantasy, is what I'm getting at.

 

[soltakss]

So I've just gotten acquainted with the world of Glorantha, via the awesome CRPG King of Dragon Pass, and one of the neatest features is the "God Quest" or Hero Quest - in which one's heroes re-enact a ritual drama from their religion - much like sacrament and similar rituals, though here the stories are pretty fantasy-ish.

King of Dragon Pass is fantasy, so the stories will be fantasyish.

So, my question is this: Since Glorantha is a Runequest world, what sourcebooks cover heroquesting? I'm particularly interested in rules concerning characters in heroquests, and ideas on how to apply the heroquesting system to my homebrew Legend fantasy setting.

Have a look at http://www.soltakss.com/indexheroquesting.html - I have written a fair bit on HeroQuesting over the years, some of it might be helpful, some of it might not.

As for official rules or guidelines, they are few and far between. Glorantha the Second Age covered HeroQuesting briefly. Jrustela has God Learning 101, which covers HeroQuesting in some detail. HeroQuesting is covered in some of the new HeroQuest supplements as well.

I'm not a Glorantha-file, at least not yet, but I do think the world is very cool and has a keen eye for realistic detail.

Hopefully you will soon get the bug.

I'm thinking, for my homebrew stuff, that the level of HQ you can attempt depends on the level of Pact you have, so that the real cool stuff only applies to devotees of a given god. For instance, if you wanted to not get lost while taking a long journey, you could invoke a small-time HQ of Æol, the god of travel and winds ("Æol awakens in the Godlands" or something like it). Then, if you re-enact the myth properly, you get a bonus to your Lore and Navigation skills.

Possibly, that could work. You could have a high Pact skill without being advanced in the cult, though.

I agree that your example is a good example of how people could use HeroQuests in normal gaming.

A lot of people see HeroQuesting as big events - changing the world, performing God Quests and so on. Sure, they can be used for that and the biggest Heroes do that kind of thing. However, most HeroQuests, in my opinion, are performed for mundane reasons. Want to gain a wife - perform the Scarf of Mist Quest and gain a different gift at the end. Want to gain fire magic as a troll - perform the Hill of Gold Quest. Want to rescue someone held in a prison - perform the Castle of Black Glass section of the Lightbringers Quest.

In effect, you overlay the Quest on the world and use that to gain some advantages.

 

[Tias]

That was what I was thinking. Every ritual in real-world religion is, in theory, the same as a hero-quest. You eat an oblate, drink altar wine, you ARE the disciple sharing the last supper with Jesus the unbegotten son. You touch your head to the ground and affirm that Allah is the only god, you ARE Mohammed levitating on the road to Medina.

Also, a bit more esoteric, but the ritual dramas in early gnostic christendom and the greek mystery religions (some of which can still be found in rit. drama-oriented new religions like Thelema and Hermeticism) use godquesting as a literal rite of passage, advancing the initiate - a very clear parallel to the experience and leveling up in RPGs.

I think a hero quest should be a tool for every man, depending on the challenge at hand and his level of power. It could be anything from finding your sword after last nights bender to changing the fate of the world, really.

Thanks for your insight and the link, looks like I have some neat reading to do <3

 

[Tias]

Also, what would be the best introductory work for the Glorantha setting? It seems that there is a frightful lot of books for it..

 

[Loz]

Also, what would be the best introductory work for the Glorantha setting? It seems that there is a frightful lot of books for it..

There are.

The best introduction will be the forthcoming 'Guide to Glorantha' which should be released before Christmas. It aims to provide everything one needs to know about the world in one place. The Moon Design Publications website at three-wubble-yous glorantha dot com gives more information and lots of samples of the Guide's content.