I suspect one answer is the way it was recently reported that Greg runs
Heroquests, by changing sufficient details and introducing choices such
that it becomes personal to the players and not just a rote recitation
of known events.
One of Greg's examples I've heard him discuss at Conventions is crossing
the ocean as part of the LBQ. The important thing in terms of the quest
is that you cross the ocean, and in practice this will require help from
someone else. It is not important to the overall quest whether you sail
across on the back of Giant Turtles, in the belly of a whale, fly on the
back of a Giant Albatross, hitch a ride with the Waertagi or buy passage
on a Vadeli merchant ship, although obviously the choice you make will
be important to your particular quest, and will bring its own challenges
and opportunities, and may have consequences to you or your supporters
It is something I've been thinking about for a while, so I'll try and
put something down in writing to provide a starting point for
discussion.
I'll take a well known RW myth as my starting point, so hopefully
everyone will be aware of at least one version of the story.
In this tale, the Hero (whose role will be taken by the questor) takes
the family cow to market, but instead of selling it for a good price he
exchanges it for a bag of "magic beans". These grow into a giant plant
which he is able to climb up, entering a land ruled by a powerful giant.
The hero is able to steal magic treasures sufficient to ensure the
survival of his family, but is discovered. He escapes back down the
beanstalk, followed by the Giant. He takes his axe from his mother and
cuts down the beanstalk, causing the Giant to fall to his death.
So how would we make a Heroquest of this? Break it down into stages
and see how much latitude we can build in to each stage.
Stage 1: Take the cow to market.
If this is a Heortling quest, you may have a choice of cows to
represent the lone cow of the quest. Do you take a young heifer, a
proven milk cow, an old cow reaching the end of her useful life, an
entire bull, or a plough ox. What you get out depends on what you put
in, so the ratings of later challenges might vary depending on what is
chosen, as might the rating of the benefit obtained. (Players should be
encouraged to think that this is the case, even if, in reality nothing
is changed. Someone can turn down the chance to buy the chosen animal
because they are looking for something else. The "old cow" will be the
hardest to sell, but is probably the (mythically) right choice.
Taking the cow to market is always running the risk of attack by
outside forces - Bandits, a rival clan on a cattle raid, Broo.
Obviously loosing the cow at this stage is likely to end the quest
immediately. (The horrific consequences of Broo managing to impregnate
the cow before being driven off is best left to the sadistic GM). You
might be able to rescue the quest if one of the attackers is
killed/captured and turns out to be in possession of the magic beans
Depending on your physical and/or political landscape you might
introduce other "mundane" challenges - a bridge is out or a ford
swollen. The route takes you through another clans tula (maybe it is
their market you are attending?) and you need to go through the greeting
ritual. A lunar patrol is encountered looking for rebels, or escorting
a tax collector who is interested in the ownership and value of the cow.
None of these should prevent the quest continuing...
Once you reach the market (assuming you do - see below) there
may be further requirements. The market might be controlled by Issaries
or Etyries traders who won't let anyone not affiliated to the cult enter
as a trader. Joining either cult is easy, but will obviously have
repercussions later on. Failing to enter the market need not result in
failure of the quest. In some versions of the tale, the cow is sold on
the road - maybe on the way to market, or maybe on the way home again...
Stage 2: Selling the Cow
Obviously the whole success of the quest revolves around selling
the cow for magic beans. The "standard myth" suggests the purchaser will
be an old woman (In a Gloranthan context I'd guess an Earth Priestess)
but there are a number of alternatives which can be offered. The players
must decide whether to accept any particular offer, since there is no
guarantee that the "correct" purchaser will turn up. Assuming that the
GM actually wants to continue the quest#, possibilities include
* An elf offers to trade the cow for an Acorn - This will grow into a
giant Oak, which can be climbed like the beanstalk, but will prove
harder to cut down.
* A Goose-girl offers to trade the cow for a basket of eggs. One of the
eggs will hatch into a giant goose which can carry the questor to the
castle in the clouds. Of course getting down again might prove more
difficult...
* A crazed-looking Shaman offers to trade the cow for a spirit-bag that
he claims contains wealth charms. Amongst the items in there are the
magic beans.
* A Pol-Joni Kahn offers to trade the cow for something to aid the
fertility of the heroes fields. It is a cart of manure. (getting the
cart home after you've sold your cow is your problem!). It will (or
can) have the desired effect, providing you spread it on a field with an
appropriate crop (Jack & the Rhubarb, anyone).
* A Mostali offers to trade the cow for large boulder (again,
transporting it home now you have no cow might prove problematic).
Placed on the ground it starts to sink in, and in the morning a tunnel
is found which descends to a magical kingdom ruled by a ferocious Giant
(or ferocious giant troll...) Events can continue much as before,
although again escaping from the Giant at the end might prove more
problematic
* A final possibility (although I'm sure you can all think of plenty of
others!) is that the hero needs to make a multi-transaction deal,
selling the cow to one party and purchasing the beans from another, with
as many intervening steps as you find fun. This might be particularly
appropriate for an Issaries hero.
#Obviously the GM can always make any choice that does not involve
trading the cow to an old lady for beans "the wrong choice" and choose
to end the quest there as a failure for the questor and deal with the
consequences thereof. However if you can present them with a variation
of the story where their choices do matter then (hopefully) it will
encourage them to think about their choices and what they might mean in
future, but still be prepared to make the stories their own, without you
needing to be prepared for half a dozen widely differing adventures
depending on what they choose.
Stage 3 - Enter the Magic Kingdom
...By climbing the beanstalk, or other appropriate method as
determined by the results of the previous stage. While technically this
should be a task no self respecting hero can fail (there wouldn't be
much of a story if Jack fell off after climbing 10 feet...) I think you
do need a roll here, failure indicating how difficult the climb was and
reducing the time the hero has to search for treasure and the amount
they can successfully bring down.
There is, again, the possibility to have opponents try and
disrupt the climb, or cut down the beanstalk before the hero returns...
Stage 4 - Explore the Magic Kingdom
If the questor doesn't go straight to the castle then they are
into the realms of experimental heroquesting, as the myths tell us
nothing about the Giants realm, so the GM is free to throw anything at
them.
Entering the castle might be as simple as walking through the
open door, or might involve sneaking past guards, climbing through
windows, or fooling magic door-knockers into revealing the password.
Failing at any part of this stage can lead to the PC being
captured by the Giant's minions and imprisoned in the castle - now all
he needs to do (all!) is escape and make off with a treasure to get back
on track.
Stage 5 - Gain the treasure
There are a number of versions of the myth with different
treasures - The goose that lays golden eggs (you might get a bonus here
if you arrived on the back of a goose...). The Harp that plays itself
(Important if the hero's clan is seeking to restore/ensure harmony). The
kidnapped princess, bags of cash. In fact you could place any treasure
or treasures in the giants lair. My preference would be to have
multiple treasures, but limit the amount the hero can take, so as to
force him to choose between them. This is where the results of stages 3
and 4 are important, if too much time was wasted getting here then there
will be less time to investigate and take treasure before the Giant
wakes and comes looking for you. Also the more you take the more
difficult escaping will be. If you want a "Heroquest Challenge" with
the player gambling some ability of their own then this is where it
would take place. Maybe stake your "sneaky, thiefy" type abilities to
steal treasure?
Failing to gain any treasure is pretty much failing the quest,
but you still have the chance to escape with your life...
Stage 6 - Escape with the treasure
Fee Fi Fo Fum... The giant awakes and detects the hero, and
starts to chase him back home. The more treasure the hero is carrying
the greater the penalty he will be under. Of course he can always
choose to discard treasures along the way to lighten his load (and maybe
cause the Giant to pause to collect them). In this case there should be
a definite downside at the end of the quest for failing to bring the
item back, even if the quest was otherwise successful. (So if the
primary object of the quest was to improve clan wealth by gaining the
goose that lays golden eggs, and the questor got greedy and also tried
to bring the harp, but discarded it halfway home then there should be a
noticeable increase in strife in subsequent years. Alternatively if the
object was the harp and the goose discarded then although peace is more
prevalent the questor's clan suffers an economic setback - you get the
idea).
Stage 7 - Kill the Giant.
Assuming you climbed the Beanstalk, all you have to do is cut it
down on your return. If he makes it down, you'll have to fight him,
which should be a difficult fight (if it isn't then there was no need to
run away in the first place) and there will be collateral damage to the
clan tula when the quest is over (or maybe the arrival of a Giant or
similar large monster. If you used another method as a result of stage
2, you'll need an alternative. Hopefully the player(s) will have
considered this and planned ahead...
Adapting the quest for multiple questors
The first option is to allow multiple questors to escort the cow
to market, while 1 person has the responsibility for actually trading,
and have one person climb the beanstalk while the others protect the
base from opponents seeking to disrupt the quest (another time limit on
the treasure grab...)
On the other hand British panto tradition allows for all sorts
of people to follow Jack up the beanstalk in order to perform all the
regular comedy routines in the castle (He's behind you!) and require
rescuing, so there is a precedent for more than one questor to climb the
beanstalk. In this case you probably need to limit the magical benefit
of the quest to a single item, otherwise it is likely to be too
generous. On the other hand a group of questors allows a wider variety
of challenges, so as to allow everyone their "moment of glory".
Now all that's required is a Gloranthan version of Jack & The
Beanstalk...
(Saint Jack the Giant-slayer? One of the Thunder Brothers sent to
negotiate a brideprice for Uralda, and being tricked into accepting
beans by Eurmal?)
. Because what they need to do to win is all written in black and white for them, players don't get confused they just try and do it.
