Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

HQ2 – New characters in an existing game? (2012)

Submitted by cj.23 on Sun, 15/04/2012 – 13:17

Hullo.

In my campaign in the seventh session (base resistance 17) two characters wrote themselves out of the story. This was fine, and made narrative sense, and Phil and Rob have created new characters — but as starting characters. A replacement Sidekick would get higher abilities — and there is now quite a disparity.

Now an admission. Having just finished writing my playtest review of HQ2 last night I have somehow deleted my pdf of the rules (!) – yes I had it yesterday – 🙁 and Esrolia. I think my hardrive is eating random files, or renaming them. Even when I had the rules I could not find a section on introducing new characters to an existing campaign.

So my question: are there any guidelines for this?

cj x


Submitted by Dreamstreamer on Sun, 15/04/2012 – 15:51.

I just skimmed through the rules and didn’t see anything definitive on the subject.

A good rule of thumb might be giving the new character a number of bonus points equal to 20 + 3X the number of sessions played and raising the cap on ability scores to 7W + the number of sessions played.

In your case, the new characters would start with 41 bonus points and abilities would be capped at 14W.

Of course, this method assumes that the characters are spending three hero points on advancement each session. You may want to reduce the number of bonus points available for new characters based on the average number of advancements made by the remaining characters.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

A billion years is too short a time to accomplish everything you can imagine, for imagination is infinite.


Submitted by Jeff on Mon, 16/04/2012 – 03:18.

This is a great question for Robin Laws to put in Wyrms Footnotes 16 – let’s put together a list of such questions!

My way of handling this is much simpler – I just raise the starting value of the primary ability or keyword by the same amount as base resistance has gone up. So if you have played 10 sessions, the new character gets one ability that starts at 1W instead of at 17. They can still put up to 10 points in that ability.

Short and simple.

Jeff

Editor-in-Chief, Moon Design Publications


New Abilities

Submitted by Philmagpie on Tue, 17/04/2012 – 09:48.

Hi Jeff,

I have been running a HQ2 game for 40+ Sessions, and I have adopted the same principle.

Namely, Standard Abilities for new PCs are at Base-1, with a single Breakout Ability is a Base+4.

In a similar vein, I have ruled that new Abilites for existing PCs start at Augment-1, as such Abilities are generally used as Augments, but they are still at a decent level that they can be raised closer to Base and used as a primary Ability if a Player is prepared to spend Hero Points on them.

Phil 


My series also runs for 40+

Submitted by RoM on Wed, 18/04/2012 – 11:17.

My series also runs for 40+ session and has seen many characters come and gone. I usually check the number of total ability points of the second to last character. Then I give the newcomer a little bit less. That way the newbie is weaker than the characters who have already performed some epic deeds. I admit it’s not really a system, rather gut feeling. But it works for me.


Related Pages

  • D101 Games – Empires Ending (2013)
  • D101 Games – Empires Rising available in PDF (2012)
  • D101 Games – HeroQuest supplements included in GMs Day sale (2013)
  • HQ2 – 1 mastery equals 10 men (2012)
  • HQ2 – Area effect spells/weapons (2013)
  • HQ2 – Berserk Magic (2013)
  • HQ2 – Community abilities (2013)
  • HQ2 – Compelling Conflicts (2012)
  • HQ2 – Conversion Rules for RQIII to HQ – is there such a thing? (2013)
  • HQ2 – Daka Fal Help (2012)
  • HQ2 – Default resistance (2012)
  • HQ2 – Doing things without skills (2013)
  • HQ2 – Edges from Hero Wars? (2012)
  • HQ2 – Enhance skills (2012)
  • HQ2 – Fantasy Grounds II Ruleset (2012)
  • HQ2 – Grimoires for the Lhankor Mhy? (2013)
  • HQ2 – HeroQuest II FAQ (2012)
  • HQ2 – Keyword and break-out abilities maximum rating (2012)
  • HQ2 – Leverageable Items from RuneQuest 6 to HeroQuest 2 (2012)
  • HQ2 – Lingering Benefits / States of Adversities (2013)
  • HQ2 – Lots of Lingering Penalties (2012
  • HQ2 – Multiple Abilities in Extended Contests (2012)
  • HQ2 – Multiple opponent penalty in group simple contests (2012)
  • HQ2 – Need some help on framing contests (2012)
  • HQ2 – Notes from running an Orlanthi Initiation scenario (2013)
  • HQ2 – Pyrrhic Victory (2012)
  • P:GTA – Doubt about the naming contest in Red Moon Rising (Pavis gateway to adventure)(2012)
  • P:GTA – Formal Scene Structure to Facilitate and Intrigue in Pavis Game: Feedback sought. (2012)
  • Perception in HQ2
  • Resistance for players
  • RQ/HQ Confusion (2012)
  • RQ6 – Book of Quests Now Available for Pre-Order (2013)
  • RQ6 –  Previews (2012)
  • S:KoH – Added Mechanics (2012)
  • S:KoH – Sartar character examples (2013)
  • S:KoH – Wyter Abilities from the Clan Questionnaire in The Colymar Campaign (2012)
  • Sidekick rules
  • Single-Source Superheroes–how best to leverage Heroquest for this genre
  • Something Wicked; other Gateways? (2012)
  • Spell Casting “Cost”
  • Tap? (2012)
  • Tips for Solitary GMing (2012)
  • Too few players in a group
  • Using Heroquest for Horror
  • What HeroQuest Gateway supplements would you like to see? (2012)

2012, HQ2, Old Heroquest Rules Discussions

Page Last updated: 2025-02-25 12:37:38

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • The Grasslands of Prax

    Something to keep in mind about Prax. The grasslands of …
  • Praxian Kinship Groups

    Praxian tribes are divided into smaller kinship groups or clans, …
  • Lunar Resettlement of Tarsh after 1460 ST

    After 1460, large sections of Peloria (especially east of the …
  • The Spread of the Lunar Way

    In the Lunar Provinces, about 26% of the total population …
  • Gods of Fire and Sky and the Lunar Way

    The Gods of Fire and Sky co-exist alongside the Lunar …
  • How Much Land is a Hide?

    So in RQ, a “hide” is a unit of accounting …
  • Agricultural Data for RuneQuest

    Back in the late 70s and early 80s, Greg‘s only …
  • Farming in Dara Happa

    In anticipation of the Fire/Sky Book, here’s a few notes …
  • Farming in the Big Rubble

    There are some 1600 humans in the Big Rubble, with …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Fillable excel RQG character sheets?
  • Where is there a list of temples in Dragon Pass?
  • New on the Jonstown Compendium: Many Suns
  • control entity spirit spell question
  • spell matrix cost
  • Subcults vs Associated Cults
  • Gorgorma and Dendara's Chess Game
  • Merged deities
  • Elf plant ships and dwarf stone ships
  • Do Dwarves have souls?

Popular Tags

Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tapatalk post Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • Spirit Magic by Cult and Associate Cult

  • ISS1102 Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars (2000)

  • Dragon Pass – A brief outline (2013)

  • Some Fronelan Population And Cultural Details

  • Notes on Fronela III

  • Notes on Fronela II

  • Notes on Fronela I

  • Hon-eel Temples and Shrine

  • Seven Mothers Temples and Shrines

  • Ernalda Temples and Shrines

  • Barntar Temples and Shrines

  • Babeester Gor Temple and Shrines

  • Voria Shrines

  • Ty Kora Tek Temples and Shrines

  • Asrelia Temples and Shrines

  • Maran Gor Temple, Shrines and Site

  • Odayla Shrines

  • Humakt Temples, Shrines and Sites

  • Orlanth Rex Temples, Shrines and Sites

  • Hippoi Shrines

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme