Ron's "A toolbox for playing Hero Wars"

[Maitete]

In the thread Where to begin? Ron made a mention of providing a document he wrote called "A toolbox for playing Hero Wars" to the poster.  Does anyone (specifically Ron) know where I can get a copy of this?  I'm enamored by Hero Wars/HeroQuest, but a bit lost on the best way to organize the voluminous information into useful play material.

An additional question:  This might be very naive, but do the GM or players make up the myths for a HeroQuest, or is it supposed to be something published.  In other words, when the situation arises for a group of characters to need a HeroQuest (say the land is in a drought and they want to bring rain), does one have to scour the source material for a proper Orlanthi myth about rain-making, or does everyone get together and create such a myth, weaving it into the history of the world, or both?  Does anyone know if there's an actual play thread that walks one through a HeroQuest, just to get a feel for what sorts of things are done and how they're done?  I've read much of the material, but this is still a bit unclear to me.  The books I currently have (so people can quote references if they'll help) are:

• HeroQuest
• Deluxe Hero Wars (Players Book, Narrator's Book, Gloranthan Visions)
• Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars
• Dragon Pass
• Imperial Lunar Handbook Vol. 1
• Thunder Rebels
• Storm Tribe

Thanks to everyone,
Tony

[Ian Cooper]

In the thread Where to begin? Ron made a mention of providing a document he wrote called "A toolbox for playing Hero Wars" to the poster.  Does anyone (specifically Ron) know where I can get a copy of this?

Don't know but I would be interested to see it as well.

An additional question:  This might be very naive, but do the GM or players make up the myths for a HeroQuest, or is it supposed to be something published.

You can use published myths, but they are limited in number. You have some in Storm Tribe and Thunder Rebels already. King of Sartar has more. But there are not enough myths so you will want to make up your own. Co-operation with your players is a great idea as it lets them co-create aspects of the setting. For my part I think you have to decide how you and your own group feel on that one.

Some tips

• The published myths are often 'what Orlanth did'. HeroQuest puts these at a high difficulty level with correspondingly large benefit. HeroQuest points out that there will also be versions of these myths featuring heroes and lesser challlenges with lesser rewards. So you should feel encouraged to take Orlanth's Mkaing of the Storm Tribe and re-use it many if its ideas to compose 'How Stravul the Lean founded the Starvuli'
• Thunder Rebels buckets up mythic history into ages. HeroQuests take place in the Storm Age and the Darkness period so looking through the relevant age write ups will give you an idea for what conflicts are extant at the time.
• Most Gloranthan religions have terrestial analogues whose myths you can mine. So for the Orlanthi look at the myths of Northern Europe - the Celts, the Germans, the Norse -  for Dara Happa look at the myths of Sumeria and Babylon etc.
• Providing a set of myths that have a premise may be one way to re-inforce that in your game. For example there are a lot of extant Orlanthi myths in which Orlanth confronts the Emperor - a tyrant - but later has to figure out how to rule without becoming a tyrant himself. Many of these myths ask questions around 'Must power corrupt'. Orlanth kills the Emperor but later regrets the chaos that comes with the removal of authority. So another essential themse might be 'Is regicide justifiable?' The Argrath story in the Hero Wars (covered in King of Sartar) certainly reflects these questions as the rebel becomes ruler and perhaps tyrant. So consider what questions you want your myths to make the players ask

[Lamorak33]

In the thread Where to begin? Ron made a mention of providing a document he wrote called "A toolbox for playing Hero Wars" to the poster.  Does anyone (specifically Ron) know where I can get a copy of this?  I'm enamored by Hero Wars/HeroQuest, but a bit lost on the best way to organize the voluminous information into useful play material.

Hey, I'd like to see that list too! Just a couple of things;

When running Heroquests they have the potential to become incredibly linear - I have been burned by running a Heroquest, but was present when Ian ran one to great aplomb. The trick is to make sure its not an obvious a to b gets you c thing. Maybe Ian could give us some feedback on how he writes them and what information the Heroquesters are working from.

In terms of running Heroquest, thats pretty easy as the game assumes that player characters have very little information about the world they live in. If you are going to run a game, pick an area and read up on that. www.lokarnos.com is a great resource, the various Glorantha/Heroquest mailing lists. The Glorantha website also has some helpful stuff. The most explored and ready to use stuff is based on Heortling and Lunar society, although not to everybodies tastes. But there is something of everything in Glorantha.

If you have an area or genre you are looking for, toss us the cliche and we will help you to find it.

Regards
Rob

[Tim Ellis]

I posted something to the Glorantha Digest about 6 months ago addressing the "linearity" of Heroquests - find it here

(I assume posting the URL is preferable to quoting the whole thing.  I'm happy to discuss it here if anyone wants to follow up here rather than resurrect a 6 month old thread there (especially for people not on the digest anyway...)

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Sorry guys, that ship sailed a long time ago. I wrote it, I gave it to whoever it was who wanted it, and I have no idea what disk or hard drive it may or may not be saved on, probably states away from where I sit.

Best,
Ron