Yesterday afternoon I ran the Chalk Man myth from The Book of Heortling Mythology, with the addition of a prequel stage of the myth where Kolat meets Granny Vo and Uncle.
I started out by baffling and boring them with the God Learning 101 lecture from the 1st Edition Jrustela book. Then they met the Order of Greater Glorification scholar who was going to act as guide on the quest, casting Open HeroQuest Gate, Energise Mythic Mask, and potentially Maintain HeroQuest or Deflect Mythic Backlash if required. He told them the myth, and discussed with them who should play what role, what they could do to help complete the stations, and what kinds of rewards they could aim to gain. They went shopping for some magical dice, but decided that they were too expensive to buy so they rented them, I figured that an industry has grown around providing props to heroquesters. They also hired two supporters who would provide a Hero Point each for anyone to use on the quest, this cost them 500sp per supporter. Benito, the trickster, I gave the ability to make a Lore roll (which I later decided should probably have been Pact) to catch a Hero Point that had been spent for re-use later in the quest but not to keep. This turned out to be very powerful, perhaps too much so, no-one had to spend any personal Hero Points at all as they kept re-using them due to lucky (and trickster-gift-cheated) dice rolls.
I also allow the use of Common Magic, as much of the quest writeups in the Issaries library books mention Fireblade, Mobility, Coordination, etc.
The guide took them to the Gate Room where he used a powerful Open HeroQuest Gate spell matrix in the form of a large iron-bound stone ring with runes carved on it that rotated to line up the right runic combination, and they walk through, first Granny Vo, Uncle and Kolat to arrive on the plain by the tent, then Chalk Man and Rabbitface to start in the valley where they come into existence and hide in the lair respectively.
The characters played the roles of Chalk Man, Kolat, Rabbitface, Uncle, and Dora. The Dora character started off in the role of Granny Vo and then switched roles through a fresh casting of Energise Mythic Mask to switch costumes to be Dora.
The characters who were playing the roles in each station in turn role-played their roles, mostly remembered the details with two Hero Point uses to guide them when they forgot an important detail such as what the powers of the Three Bow are and what Kolat wagered against Chalk Man in their first gambling bet. Each station rewarded everyone with 1 Hero Point plus a bonus of 1 or 2 points for the active participants depending on how well they performed their role. 2 points were awarded for a flawless performance, 1 if there was any way in which they could have done it better, they got about a 50-50 success rate at the flawless performance. I divided the myth into 6 stations including the extra one at the start giving a potential reward of 16 for Chalk Man who was in 5 of the 6 stations. I let people cast helpful spells on each other if there is time in or between stations.
Kolat gives the proper greeting to Granny Vo and Uncle (courtesy check) who welcome him and give him the Three Bow. Station 1 complete.
Chalk Man draws a chalk silhouette of himself on the ground and says "That was me. I am Chalk Man." He finds the lair (perception check) and challenges Rabbitface, but loses (afterr accidentally rolling a crit on his gambling, and using a Hero Point to re-roll it) and has his eyes ripped out (ouch) - I did give him the option of avoiding the blindness somehow but he chose to do it properly. Station 2 complete.
The other questers are brought in as extras to taunt Chalk Man as he stumbles blindly around, I roll a dice to see if any other random participants are provided by the mythic world, but none are, so there are no unexpected interruptions. He stumbles into Granny Vo's tent who greets him and feeds him and says he can stay for a night and a day. The Rabbitface character is dressed as a badger and comes into the tent, fails to run away and is grabbed by Chalk Man with an Athletics check. He gives Badger to Granny Vo, who thanks him and rewards him by giving him her three daughters as wives. Station 3 done.
The Granny Vo character switches roles to Dora and marries Chalk Man, and tells him how Uncle has been mean to her. Uncle follows her when she goes to gather food, he got a bit confused between this stage and the later one, so that cost him a pointon his reward. Dora shouts for Chalk Man when Uncle pounces on her, and makes a difficult Perception check to track them down, and kills Uncle with crit to the head for maximum damage. His mother turns up and is angry, but gives birth to him as a girl. When he grows up, a random stranger turns up and molests him, so he makes a Persistence check to kill himself. Mum is angry again and gives birth to him as a boy again, and is so sorry for what he has done that he gives Chalk Man some new gambling sticks (the dice they acquired earlier). Station 4 done.
Chalk Man goes off and finds the lair again (another difficult Perception check) and challenges Rabbitface to get his eyes back. He wins, challenges him again to free Kolat, then Kolat's brothers, then the gods, then the people, then Rabbitface's life. He crushes Rabbitface's skull and - instead of a maggot - a wyrm bursts out. This is the group's "recurring enemy", brought on by their fight against a dragon in an earlier session, a dream emanation of the true dragon whose dream they killed. Everyone is there, having been freed from the prison, except Rabbitface who is dead on the floor. I let him roll initiative along with everyone else, he will have a chance to roll Persistence, Resilience, or Brawn to bring himself back to life. Kim / Morticia / Dora goes first, tries to befuddle the wyrm but it resists. Chalk Man goes next and rolls Influence to persuade it that they are friends, and it fails to resist so is convinced that it is in fact Ikspit the Maggot, and shrinks back into Rabbitface's skull. Station 5 done.
Kolat comes to Chalk Man's lair and asks him to gamble, but can't remember what he is supposed to wager, so a Hero Point is used to remind him that it is his wife, but having no gambling skill he proposes a throwing competition, which he wins. He comes back and challenges again, this time he decides to try gambling "I am always changing, never constant, I will try this new thing", and having no skill at gambling, Chalk Man handily beats him, Kolat blew his cards everywhere so Chalk Man could see them. Station 6 done, quest is complete.
They come out with between 12 and 16 Hero Points - including those they started with, from 2 to 4, now I need to figure the Hero Point costs of the rewards that they want. Heroic Abilities are easy as they already have prices in Hero Points, but a magic bow, characteristic and skill increases, Rune Touched, etc. are a little more tricky.
*update* wrote Rabbitface instead of Chalk Man in last station, added supporter cost
I started out by baffling and boring them with the God Learning 101 lecture from the 1st Edition Jrustela book. Then they met the Order of Greater Glorification scholar who was going to act as guide on the quest, casting Open HeroQuest Gate, Energise Mythic Mask, and potentially Maintain HeroQuest or Deflect Mythic Backlash if required. He told them the myth, and discussed with them who should play what role, what they could do to help complete the stations, and what kinds of rewards they could aim to gain. They went shopping for some magical dice, but decided that they were too expensive to buy so they rented them, I figured that an industry has grown around providing props to heroquesters. They also hired two supporters who would provide a Hero Point each for anyone to use on the quest, this cost them 500sp per supporter. Benito, the trickster, I gave the ability to make a Lore roll (which I later decided should probably have been Pact) to catch a Hero Point that had been spent for re-use later in the quest but not to keep. This turned out to be very powerful, perhaps too much so, no-one had to spend any personal Hero Points at all as they kept re-using them due to lucky (and trickster-gift-cheated) dice rolls.
I also allow the use of Common Magic, as much of the quest writeups in the Issaries library books mention Fireblade, Mobility, Coordination, etc.
The guide took them to the Gate Room where he used a powerful Open HeroQuest Gate spell matrix in the form of a large iron-bound stone ring with runes carved on it that rotated to line up the right runic combination, and they walk through, first Granny Vo, Uncle and Kolat to arrive on the plain by the tent, then Chalk Man and Rabbitface to start in the valley where they come into existence and hide in the lair respectively.
The characters played the roles of Chalk Man, Kolat, Rabbitface, Uncle, and Dora. The Dora character started off in the role of Granny Vo and then switched roles through a fresh casting of Energise Mythic Mask to switch costumes to be Dora.
The characters who were playing the roles in each station in turn role-played their roles, mostly remembered the details with two Hero Point uses to guide them when they forgot an important detail such as what the powers of the Three Bow are and what Kolat wagered against Chalk Man in their first gambling bet. Each station rewarded everyone with 1 Hero Point plus a bonus of 1 or 2 points for the active participants depending on how well they performed their role. 2 points were awarded for a flawless performance, 1 if there was any way in which they could have done it better, they got about a 50-50 success rate at the flawless performance. I divided the myth into 6 stations including the extra one at the start giving a potential reward of 16 for Chalk Man who was in 5 of the 6 stations. I let people cast helpful spells on each other if there is time in or between stations.
Kolat gives the proper greeting to Granny Vo and Uncle (courtesy check) who welcome him and give him the Three Bow. Station 1 complete.
Chalk Man draws a chalk silhouette of himself on the ground and says "That was me. I am Chalk Man." He finds the lair (perception check) and challenges Rabbitface, but loses (afterr accidentally rolling a crit on his gambling, and using a Hero Point to re-roll it) and has his eyes ripped out (ouch) - I did give him the option of avoiding the blindness somehow but he chose to do it properly. Station 2 complete.
The other questers are brought in as extras to taunt Chalk Man as he stumbles blindly around, I roll a dice to see if any other random participants are provided by the mythic world, but none are, so there are no unexpected interruptions. He stumbles into Granny Vo's tent who greets him and feeds him and says he can stay for a night and a day. The Rabbitface character is dressed as a badger and comes into the tent, fails to run away and is grabbed by Chalk Man with an Athletics check. He gives Badger to Granny Vo, who thanks him and rewards him by giving him her three daughters as wives. Station 3 done.
The Granny Vo character switches roles to Dora and marries Chalk Man, and tells him how Uncle has been mean to her. Uncle follows her when she goes to gather food, he got a bit confused between this stage and the later one, so that cost him a pointon his reward. Dora shouts for Chalk Man when Uncle pounces on her, and makes a difficult Perception check to track them down, and kills Uncle with crit to the head for maximum damage. His mother turns up and is angry, but gives birth to him as a girl. When he grows up, a random stranger turns up and molests him, so he makes a Persistence check to kill himself. Mum is angry again and gives birth to him as a boy again, and is so sorry for what he has done that he gives Chalk Man some new gambling sticks (the dice they acquired earlier). Station 4 done.
Chalk Man goes off and finds the lair again (another difficult Perception check) and challenges Rabbitface to get his eyes back. He wins, challenges him again to free Kolat, then Kolat's brothers, then the gods, then the people, then Rabbitface's life. He crushes Rabbitface's skull and - instead of a maggot - a wyrm bursts out. This is the group's "recurring enemy", brought on by their fight against a dragon in an earlier session, a dream emanation of the true dragon whose dream they killed. Everyone is there, having been freed from the prison, except Rabbitface who is dead on the floor. I let him roll initiative along with everyone else, he will have a chance to roll Persistence, Resilience, or Brawn to bring himself back to life. Kim / Morticia / Dora goes first, tries to befuddle the wyrm but it resists. Chalk Man goes next and rolls Influence to persuade it that they are friends, and it fails to resist so is convinced that it is in fact Ikspit the Maggot, and shrinks back into Rabbitface's skull. Station 5 done.
Kolat comes to Chalk Man's lair and asks him to gamble, but can't remember what he is supposed to wager, so a Hero Point is used to remind him that it is his wife, but having no gambling skill he proposes a throwing competition, which he wins. He comes back and challenges again, this time he decides to try gambling "I am always changing, never constant, I will try this new thing", and having no skill at gambling, Chalk Man handily beats him, Kolat blew his cards everywhere so Chalk Man could see them. Station 6 done, quest is complete.
They come out with between 12 and 16 Hero Points - including those they started with, from 2 to 4, now I need to figure the Hero Point costs of the rewards that they want. Heroic Abilities are easy as they already have prices in Hero Points, but a magic bow, characteristic and skill increases, Rune Touched, etc. are a little more tricky.
*update* wrote Rabbitface instead of Chalk Man in last station, added supporter cost
