Hero Questing / Hero Wars in 13th Age

[Dan]

I know this could quite possibly be a bit of a contrarian opinion, but I do want to say that I actually have a bit of reservation on the stated focus for the 13th Age in Glorantha…

Heroquesting
Our focus is on what we call a myth-crawling campaign in a time when Chaos has erupted and thrown the world into crisis. The prose of the myths (both familiar Gloranthan myths and new myths) is interwoven with the stations of the myth corresponding to the adjacent text. You can read the myth as a story by skipping the game text, or you can scan the game text as you read to see what the expected heroquest experience for the myth might be like. . . if Chaos wasn’t loose in the Godtime, corrupting the myths and thereby destroying the world.

Heroquesting to set things right, or to at least set things into a place that isn’t infested with demon-goat larva, is the focus of the default campaign style. Glorantha veterans will have no trouble adapting the heroquesting tools to their own campaign styles. Newcomers to Glorantha will get to learn about the world by playing through its foundational myths.

To me the charm of the 13th age is it’s throwback feeling to the old school free wheeling open ended games of yesteryear. I love the added emphasis on the player’s relationships with the world shaping powers like icons. I’m just not sure I want more apocalyptic strives-with-gods kinda stuff in my gloranthan 13th age games. I’d rather have my adventurers bumbling about the big rubble with their biggest worry being an ambush by some troll bandit gang.

I want the great powers to be there behind the scenes. Alliances shifting, powers gaining ascendency and falling, providing great campaign material.

But, I want my characters to feel like little fish in an awesome ocean, with some tiny (but perhaps pivotal?) role to play (anyone up for defending a giant cradle from those Lunar swine?), rather than taking center stage on a cosmic scale arena. Or maybe I’m just having too much fun to have the world end just yet. 🙂

Don’t get me wrong, I love having rules for hero questing and background material related to the Hero Wars, I just don’t want a set of rules so centered on those things that it becomes an impediment or a disincentive to playing a more classic freewheeling game reminiscent of the older RQ2 games we all (or at least, I) used to play.

I don’t know if, or how much others agree with that sentiment, but I thought I’d just throw that out there.

[Simon Phipp]

I like HeroQuesting, so anything that supports it is fine by me. In fact, that makes it more likely that I would back the KickStarter, if it is still open.

[Dan]

Don’t get me wrong. I’m haunting the 13thageinglorantha.com website and will support the kickstarter the day it goes live, regardless.

It’s just to me personally, I’d like to see the different rules systems fit into different Gloranthan “ecological niches” and I feel like the here questing/hero wars niche is nicely filled by HeroQuest.

At the end of the day, I’ll support and buy 13th Age in Glorantha, regardless of how it is designed, but I am hoping (perhaps selfishly) that the hero wars/hero questing parts are not so integral that it would make it difficult to run my prefered campaign style with this rule system.

[Eklund]

I’m also not a big fan of Heroquesting, I prefer a gritty Runequest Glorantha campaign with Heroquesting being rare and trippy. Might not be in line with where Moon Design is going, but that is how I and my group play. I really look forward to Adventures in Glorantha.

But I do support and buy Heroquest and other products because they bring the excellent Glorantha world and myth forward.

[Mankcam]

I tend to agree with you blokes. Demigod heroes are a great niche for HeroQuest, but I would not want that to be the primary aspect associated with Gloranthan gaming. I still prefer the gritty, down and dusty approach to fantasy gaming. I love it when my sessions feel like ‘Mad Max meets Gladiator’, or like a street-level episode of HBO Rome, or like the Vikings series.
BRP and RuneQuest suit my gaming tastes, although I will support other systems if it means expanding my access to the Glorantha setting.
The biggest drawcard to me with 13th Age is the fact that the setting timeline has been progressed almost a decade, this will make it quite an interesting product. Also, if I ever have a new troupe that insists of D&D as a game system, then this will come in handy as my option for them.

[Mankcam]

Wow, it has reached its target goal for funding within the first day! Makes you wonder how many stretch goals it will have now!

[Simon Phipp]

Wow, it has reached its target goal for funding within the first day! Makes you wonder how many stretch goals it will have now!

Are you really surprised?

Any guesses for the final figure backed? I would guess around $100k.

[Thomas]

Returning to the point made. Why not play RQ for the low level gritty game and 13th Age for the HeroQuesting? With HQ for the narrative but in the middle?

That’s what I shall do when I return to Glorantha in 2015 after a break of many years

[Author]

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