Shields & armour in HeroQuest Glorantha

[Tobbe]

I’m coming from RQ2, RQ3, AiG, etc, and after a decade of not playing, trying to wrap my head around HQG.

Is there any “rules” reason to wear/use protective armour and/or shields of mundane quality?

[Christoph Kohring]

The short answer is yes, there is. Shields & armor & weapons & tools of whatever quality are simply abilities like any other & can be used in the game as such. Take a look at Karganvale the Vengeful Mercenary sample character in the rules for just such an example.

HQ is not RQ, this cannot be stressed enough!?! AiG is coming to Gen Con this year, by the way, so let us all rejoice.

[David Scott]

At a simple level shields, armour and weapons are rolled into occupation keywords – you get them for free. What you feel an occupation should have in the way of these and what your GM agrees with should suffice. Specific occupations describe these items in more detail – specifically:
 

Heavy Infantry: These warriors are typically armored with bronze or leather armor and armed with spear and sword. Heavy Infantry most typically fights in a phalanx or shield wall.
Light Infantry: Skirmishers and missile users are common to every society, even the most primitive. In many societies, light infantry is used as a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry.
Heavy Cavalry: These mounted warriors engage in direct contact with the foe, usuallywithlances(spears), sometimes with swords, maces, or axes.
Light Cavalry: These mounted warriors are armed with missile weapons, typically bows or throwing javelins. They skirmish with the foe, withdrawing from any offensive only to turn around and counterattack once the offensive is spent.

 
Depending on who you are fighting, it’s possible to get a +3 or +6 advantage. e.g. heavy infantry advancing on a group of farmers (heavy infantry vs untrained militia) +6, heavy infantry vs light cavalry +3, etc. As already mentioned shields, armour and weaponscan be stand alone abilities or better still breakouts from a keyword e.g.
 
Warrior 1W
sturdy shield +3
 
Death 3W
awesome sword +3
 
Movement 1W
shiny armour +1
 
So basically mundane quality shields, armour and weapon are included where relevant.

[Tobbe]

@David Scott
It is a bit telling that shields do not feature in the equipment of any of the four warrior typer that you list. Having given it some thought I will frame the answer to my players that they need to have the tools of the trade to use the keyword fully. Quite obvious now that I got some help in mulling over the Concept. Thanks!

@Christoph Kohring
Being old skool, by AiG I meant the unrelesed book:
The RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha project was headed by Oliver Jovanovic. It was an attempt to update the RQIII rules by adding more detail: three different levels of skill difficulty, a highly complex character design system, and a new Sorcery system.
http://www.maranci.net/rqpast.htm

[David Scott]

I’m not sure you’ve picked up the references and illustrations of shields throughout the book pages:
37 Heortling should wall use, Clan keyword how to fight with spear and shield
40 illustration and description of Grazelander Heavy Cavalry – small round shield faced with bronze.
43 (as quoted above) Heavy Infantry: most typically fights in a phalanx or shield wall.
45 illustration and description of a Tarsh Exile – He has a square, leather covered wooden shield.
65 illustration and description of Lunar Provincial soldiers: large shield
96 illustration and description of University Guards: They carry a kopis, a small round shield, and a bow.
and many more.
 
I feel you’ve got the rules back to front – possessing the relevant Keyword gives you the equipment, not, to use the keyword you need to obtain the equipment.

[Charles]

If the player wants to make weapons and armor important, they can add them as a breakout from their occupation keyword. This not only makes a +1 over the keyword but also makes it likely that they will get a more specific ability bonus (or not suffer the penalty for too general an ability).

Another possibility is to have a named weapon or named armor as an entirely separate ability, which might be used to impress and influence people; as well as in their own right; or as an augment; or even augmented by a keyword.

[Charles]

On a more philosophical note, HeroQuest is designed as a toolkit to assist in telling stories in a dramatic mode, similar to TV or films (or movies depending on dialect of English). Occasionally, the small details will be emphasised as part of characterisation or otherwise setting the scene. But more often, the less interesting things like maintaining weapons, restocking and even minor conflicts will be skipped over as the story builds to a climax using only the most entertaining sequences.
Some people love this approach, others do not like it or even cannot understand it, and that’s where the alternatives like RuneQuest and (soon) 13th Age in Glorantha come into play.

[Tobbe]

I’m a dyed in the wool RQ grognard on a personal HeroQuest on how to frame the concepts of HQG so that I will understand them from the right angle. After all it is now 30 years ago that I saw the blurb for HeroQuest and the Sartar Campaign in the RQ2 rulebook.

1. David Scott: “I’m not sure you’ve picked up the references and illustrations…”
I certainly did but I asked for help since I failed to see defensive equipment usage reflected in the rules.

As you say the equipment comes with the Keyword. Or to put it in a way that is clearer to me; mundane equipment does not confer bonuses but is needed to use the Keyword fully. I assume that for a Keyword like Greydog Fyrd losing you shield would be -3, and if you lost your hard hat as well -6.

2. Charles: (or not suffer the penalty for too general an ability)
Ahh, thanks, that makes sense to me..

[Charles]

Unless there is a specific to the scene and story driven reason, a hero will always have ready to hand all the equipment and tools implied by their keyword. The purpose of this is to completely remove any necessity for book-keeping so that everyone can focus on the storyline.

[Charles]

Making this more specific, a hero with the Heortling keyword will always be able to use their spear and shield to fight at any time, because the keyword mentions spear and shield fighting. A Heortling hero with the Warrior keyword will always be able to fight with spear or javelin or sword or bow or shield, because these weapons are mentioned in one or more of their keywords. Nothing other than their keyword is written on the character sheet, as the keyword is a big package of abilities and the supporting equipment.

Unless.

The player wants their hero to have better than usual equipment. The players spends some of their 5 additional abilities to write the equipment either as independent abilities or as breakouts from a keyword. This both gives colour and also gives game mechanical benefits in the situations where the player wants their hero to excel.

[Tobbe]

the keyword is a big package of abilities and the supporting equipment.
This gives me the lever I needed to continue wrapping my head around the HQG mechanics.

Thanks Charles!

[Charles]

Two things to remember about a keyword such as Warrior.
– The package includes the physical abilities of a warrior, the equipment of a warrior, the personality traits of a warrior, the reputation of a warrior, the relationships of a warrior, and any other type of ability that a warrior might reasonably have, without having to explicitly document any of them in advance.
– This is intended to be continuing, with no need to do any book-keeping. For a story based game, just like a TV series or film, the book-keeping can be boring and so is ignored and kept ‘offscreen’.

[Author]

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