[Glorantha] Disciples, Feats and Heroquesting

From: Greg Stafford <greg>
Date: Sat Apr 8 05:00:09 2006

YGWV
> From: Lightcastle <lightcastle_at_3web.com>
> Subject: [Glorantha] Disciples, Feats and Heroquesting

>> YGFV
>
> I'm going to expect that is a typo, otherwise, what does the F mean?

Your Glorantha Fill Vary, of course. :)

>> > As I understand it feats are learned by heroquesting. How exactly is this
>> > done, and what level of quests are these?
>>
>> These are full Otherworld HQ. It is done by going to the Hero Plane and
>> observing what your god did the first time that he used it, and then doing
>> it yourself.
>
> So only Theists have this very complicated way of learning magic, right? They
> have to go to the otherworld, and perform (and survive ) a quest.

Yes, they have to go to the Otherworld to get the magic. This is generally done
during a public ceremony, which are much less risky since they are regularly done. They also generally have the public support or at least temple backing to
ensure success.

> I presume this means there are lots of Theists who have feats they can NEVER
> perform, since you can only ever do a quest once.

The "do it once" rule for HeroQuesting is a game artifact that I've not been terribly happy with. It was introduced to keep people from going back and back and back again, and upping and upping and upping a particular power once they learned how to do it. With my newly enhanced understanding of the variance of most HQs, I would modify this to be, "You can only to EXACTLY THE SAME HQ once." But that'd be a function of the Otherworld, not of the game rules.

For instance, you can go the War Against the Ocean several times for several anti-water Feats. You might be in the same battle, even, but probably different
parts of it, or different moment, or different proximity to Orlanth performing the Feats.

> For Animists, only Shamans go to the other side and bargain spirits down,
> correct? (Or am I misremembering that?) The other Animists get their spirits
> how?

HQ p 136.
Practitioners can get the spirits of their Practice or Tradition. They do it by
oepning the way to the spirit world and getting it. This is relatively safe, since they go only to their known spirit demense. Shamans have more wide-ranging and dangerous options. Of course, Practitioners can also go into the Hero Planes to find ancient or long-extinct spirits of outside their Traditions and Practice.

> And Wizards do have to open a portal and forge a connection to their grimoire
> and individual spells, but this seems much less hazardous than reenacting a
> myth. Or is it effectively also an otherworld heroquest, and if they fail in
> whatever esoteric form of mental contest is required, they too can never cast
> that spell?

Yep, this is a bit easier for spells. Grimoires require getting deeper into the
nodes.
Again, they can go into the Hero Plane to find lost spells, etc.

---

Sincerely,
Greg Stafford

Issaries, Inc.
2140 Shattuck Ave., PMB #2030
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA Received on Sat 08 Apr 2006 - 02:34:52 EEST