Describe
your Campaign
Web Adaptation by Nick Eden
Towards the end of 2004 members of the
HeroQuest-RPG Yahoo group were invited to describe their games.
If you would like a
description of your own game posted here, please use this
link.
Light Castle
My game (first time narrating or playing in Glorantha, playing in HQ)
involves a motley collection of people coming to Karse right after the
Lunar takeover in 1619. Each thinks the chaos and connections in the
city can get them closer to something they want.
Stephen Rennell
1330 Dragon Pass, (much stolen from KoDP the Computer Game) The players
are trouble shooters for their bloodline and attracting attention from
the clan. Dad's a windlord who only shows up long enough
to cause trouble once every year or two.
Some of the players are trying to get their elder brother married off,
and using the invocation "Heroic eye for the Heortling Guy" to make him
more attractive to women, as currently he's too dependable.
Horse races are important. A favored method of attacking the nearby
clans they don't like is to give them gifts that are hard to
reciprocate, and watch them squirm with embarrassment. A favored
augment is reckless...
Matthew Cole
I narrate one game and play in two others; we take turns between the
three campaigns. All three with the same group.
My Game (two or three sessions away from the climax of season 1)
Echoes of the Wyrms Friends
Set in the Far Place, the heroes are nearly all members of the
Tresdarnii Clan and live in Ironspike. The main antagonists are Duke
Harvar "Ironfist"
and a strange little man they know as Vork (who has been stealing
bodies from their urnfield and turning clanspeople into undead).
Recently they were arrested while in Alda Chur paying their clan taxes
and they are currently awaiting execution for terrorist crimes.
Jamie's Game
Seapolis
My character, Bolat, swam to shore during the Ceremony of Blue Coral in
Seapolis, he had no memory of his life before being in the Mirrorsea
and
arrived hairless and naked. Since then the Lunars have tried to use him
and assassinate him but, due to his new friendships and half-remembered
mystic skills, they have failed. Recently Bolat and his friends
(amongst whom are members of the guys trying to bring back the old
Pharonic Navy, Pelaskan spirit folk and a member of the Capratis
family) took the heropath to Ironfort on a mission for the Pharonic
Admiral, hastened the arrival of the Lunar Fleet (oops!) and killed an
important dolphin (at his own
request!).
Spooney's Game
Balazar
I play Gral, a Votanki shaman and prophet of the Bear Cult of Tsukan;
he and his divine companion, a huge grizzly called Sooty, have joined
up with a disparate group of individuals who represent a weird
cross-section of
anti-lunar interests in Balazar. Gral's vision foretold them joining
forces and now they quest to find Tsukan so that the power of the Soul
Claws can be brought back.
Rob
Helm
In the campaign I'm running, my kids, brother, and I are using
HeroQuest rules to play short scenarios set in "Fantasy Medieval
Belgium". The quests use the Grimm folk tales as myths. So, at the
moment, the characters are trying to rescue the city of Namur from the
imminent
wrath of the Pied Piper (late of Hameln). I think they will be helping
out Snow White in the next one.
Adrian Smith
The party is part of a band of 100 survivors from a failed expedition
into the Redlands. To hide the shame they were sent into exile by being
given a land grant on the edges of the Upland Marsh. When they arrived
they found no
trees or other materials for building homes and must now forge links
with local humans or ducks to get them.
Jane Williams has taken on the role of chronicler and the can be
read here http://www.jane-williams.me.uk/glorantha/upland/index.cfm
Mike
Dawson
The game of the House of the Rass has been running pretty consistently
since early 2000, with (alas) me as the sole narrator for a group
of 3-5 active characters, though six other people have been in
the game in the past. The campaign ignores most of the recently
published Pavis source material, instead focusing on a family-centered
campaign and on heroes who are central to the city's resurrection.
The Rass campaign examines the story of a noble Pavic family that has
broken an ancient curse and struggled out of the ruins of their own
past to rediscover their rightful place and power in a broken city
attempting to do the same. They are covertly set against the Lunars and
overtly against the Jaldonites of the Wastes to restore Pavis' ancient
plan for his holy city, though they don't know exactly what that means.
They are on the cusp of becoming true heroes, with possession of the
true Mask of Potonis, one hero transformed into a (nearly)
undifferentiated man, and many of them having participated successfully
in forays into the hero world, the god world, the spirit world and the
land of the dead. They have met an Argrath, broken a siege at the
Flintnail Temple and faced Sedenya when she tried to marry their city
god.
Details (still in very rough form in some entries) are at http://differentcomputers.com/differentgames/summaries/
Paul Andrew King
Set along the Oslir, a group of misfits try to make their way in the
Vanchite Trading Corporation. A crazed Lunar Priest came and went, now
they travel with a flamboyant Esvulari thug. They encounter many
peoples from the Lunar Empire and beyond. As they travel, they are
caught up in the edges of schemes and plots, little and great, most
recently having a brief encounter with one of the legendary bird of
Rinliddi's Past Ages - the Great Cathedral Builder Wren.
Victor Lane
My current game features a band of "entertainers" trying to survive in
occupied Sartar. Really, the group is a puppeteer, a pick pocket and a
insane man who thinks he is a king and spends much of his time trying
to convince people to become his subjects. They are about to get caught
in a clan feud and are being hunted by the Silverflame (from Barbarian
Adventures).
I'm playing in a game where I play a Teshnos noble. The other two
characters are the nobles talking elephant and the nobles servant. That
one just started, so I don't know where it's gonna go.
And yes, we play weird characters. . .
P.S. The insane King and the talking elephant are played by the same
player.
Mark Galeotti
In SARTAR, Simon Bray's long-running game of Heortling adventure set
amongst the Lismelder most of the time, run albeit with extended
sojourns in the Far Place. Eorkan the wily Issaries trader, Borin the
lustful Yinkini, Cutrid the Black (chieftain of the Deadwood clan)...
In TARSH, a very dark co-narrated game of organized crime in the
backstreets of Furthest. It did get very downbeat, very quickly (let me
put it this way, when I wasn't narrating, my character was an exiled
Kralori warrior who collected scraps of skin from everyone he killed...
and he was by no means the most maladjusted of the characters).
In the Empire, a rather short-lived campaign in MIRIN'S CROSS, with
some of the characters from Furthest, and some new ones (including
arguably my most willfully irritating character, 'Smiling Shura' the
penny ante conman).
The CHAR-UN, of course! Bloodthirsty playtesting for Sons of Kargzant
and great fun.
In ESVULAR, a game of hijinks and animal followers (my young knight is
very attached to Lionel, the Melancholy Bull), which started quite
light and low-level in Caldvale Manor (since published in Tradetalk)
but has since become rather darker and more serious, with conspiracies,
Godforgot revivals and the rest. We've just discovered a hidden heir to
the throne and vowed to see her crowned... .
Swashbuckling pirate adventure at SEA, currently in Fonrit. Recently,
we managed to escape from a rotating fortress full of God Learner
artifacts being blasted by a floating sky-city. You know how it is. Of
course, we held to what was important: the character playing a criminal
mastermind went for the magical crystal skull, while my debonair
womanizer instead rescued the entire harem!
We've dabbled in BALAZAR, befriended demon-dogs in Darran Simm's TARSH
BORDERLANDS and done a little bit of PAVIS (not, I will confess, much
of a favorite of mine, but I enjoyed playing a Rinliddi remittance man
with his avilry mount).
And soon, we should be wandering into MYTHIC RUSSIA...
Keith Nellist
I play in a few games, via email:
Far Place exiles - we are a smallish band of Far Walker exiles cutting
a stead in the no mans land that is uncomfortably close to trolls,
Snakepipe Hollow, Skyfall Lake, and gets lots of traffic noise from the
Giants footpath.
Currently 1618.
Imperial Pavis - once a FTF game, but since I am now a long way away it
has been morphed into an extreme form of HQ where only the "yes,but"
rule applies*.
Characters include a dead gorp who once looked like a man and whose
essence now corrupts the city, a fearsome bison rider lawyer called
Eugenia Primrose and Jardaniel and Harjooniel, a groundman hating High
Llama Shaman, a being that prefers to use his own two feet when walking
and his own two feet and tail when swimming, a mysterious slontan that
no one trusts, a man with chronological tattoos, and a sandfly (?).
*don't tell the players.
Safelster - in Arkat's Shadow - not really started yet - still in
chargen while narrator away.
ZooHQ - still under development, idea is to be half beasts during the
period between the end of the Third Council and the Dragonkill. I
imagine the first scenario might be the release from the Stitched Zoo
and them vengeance on the Remakerelans.
Rob Davis
I started a Sartar Rising campaign as a newbie to HW/HQ, old time
Gloranthaphile.
The characters are now in Whitewall, the Lhankhor Mhy player being made
Steward while Broyan is out of action after they all saw off the
crimson bat. About to hand over the narrating to one of the players and
become a player myself, which I am looking forward to immensely!
Rob later posted:
Our game follows the Sartar Rising campaign and all that is in them.
I have two players who own BA so had to find other stuff for them to be
involved in, specifically researching a Star Disc (Thanks to Patrik
Sanberg) and helping to defend Whitewall. I am handing over to a GM who
has read OiD and plans to run it for us - thanks Ali. Right now we now
find ourselves in the Elder Wilds!
I will be running the Cradle Heroquest style if we find ourselves in
Pavis/Prax at the right time. I am personally looking forward to
playing
through Gathering Thunder as I get to play, not narrate, that as
well.
Newt
My campaign is on an indefinite hiatus, as I'm taking a break from HQ.
However before summer this was what I was running;
It was an episodic affair set in the Eastern Wilds of Ralios. The
heroes where an odd bunch of outcasts from the Duchy of Naskorion, who
do not approve of the current Duke's foreign and religious policies.
Basically the Duke thinks he's the heir to Arkat's dark empire. He has
invited trolls into the Duchy displacing many of the peasant class and
reformed the Sygian Church of Arkat to include worship of the
Troll Gods.
After witnessing the invasion of the neighboring Orlanthi Kingdom of
Delela, the heroes fled down river. Here they came across the magical
Black Boat of Arkat whose Capt specializes in transporting Naskorion
exiles to a settlement in the land of Karia.
"You'll be going four hundred miles up the river. You'll never be
seeing your family or friends in Naskorion ever again. Do you still
want to travel on my ship?" asks the Capt. With nothing to lose the
heroes agree to travel with the boat.
The voyage of the Black Boat sees the heroes travel up river through
the Mad land of Vustria. Vustria is a strange land inhabited by mad
shamans where there are waterfalls that flow backwards! There are five
towns on the river on the way to Karia, remnants of Arkat's Empire,
and the boat must stop at each to restock supplies.
The whole campaign is very much Jason and the Argonauts meets Guilvers
Travels. The background material for the Naskorion's and Delelarite's
comes from TradeTalk 4 which was an Eastern Wilds special. The whole
idea of the boat trip came from an e-mail correspondence with David
Dunham, who also has an interest in Ralios.
I also run an on off Troll Campaign in Halikiv, with a friend and a
large stash of beer :). This forms the basis of the Troll games I run
at cons.
I'm currently writing up a Lunar Campaign set in a Dara Happan City. It
has five episodes and the plan is to playtest it as a whole (all but
one episode has been played at conventions individually) and then
publish in some form.
Newt then followed this
up with 100 word descriptions:
The Voyage of the Black Boat.
Not content with the radical reforms of the Duke of Naskorion who
believes he is the heir to Arkat's Dark Empire, along with Troll loving
tendencies, the heroes are looking to leave the duchy. Reaching the
boarder they narrowly miss being overrun by the Dukes invasion of the
Barbarian Kingdom of Delela they take passage in one of Arkat's Magical
Black boats sailing up river to the distant land of Karia. A journey of
400 miles through a land called Vustria where mad shamans ride
mountains, Giants devour whole towns, and people mistakenly keep
Dogs to keep away rats.
Ascent of the Red Sun
In the city of Serris the Dara Happan nobles stubbornly keep out the
Lunars, with the might of their tradition and god built walls.
Patriarch Vorden guides the Five Trees of Bounty Association, and has
cannily allowed the heroes, lower ranking members of his house, to join
the Lunar way. Hence he benefits from the Lunar way, whilst keeping his
own family pure to rule in the name of Yelm. What would happen if one
of his own was to fall from the Purity of the Sky? How
would the Associations rivals in the city take advantage of the
situation?
Fire and Storm.
Thrlanthi Warbands from Carolaland move over the broken land through
the mushroom forests of Halikiv. The young come first thinking they
have a magical advantage found in the ruins of the City of Ironsmash.
Then their elders prepare the Wedding of Orlanth to the Eagle Woman.
Finally the Death Priests of Humath try to wrestle the power of Death
from Zorak Zoran. Only the Heros of Arkat's Black Legion can save the
Trolls of the City of Blackrock from the human scum.
Mike Gibb
The PCs in my game were originally all of the Greydog clan of the
Lismelder, using the excellent background from Tales of the Reaching
Moon 19. Having gone through initiation, fighting off sheep raiders and
tackling the Rainbow Mounds, two of the original PCs have gone insane
and been replaced by two Far Point refugees and now a 3rd Eye Blue
swordsmith.
During Starbrow’s revolt they heroquested to gain the aid of the
Telmori and fought at the Battle of Hofstaring’s Flood. Having been
exiled for five years to stop Lunar reprisals against their clan they
escorted fleeing ducks to safety, fought chaos at the Block, defeated
Lunar attempts to subvert the ceremonies at Barbarian Town, ran a
pit-fighting scam in Corflu and escorted the Kralori ambassadors to
Pavis.
Having royally screwed things up with the embassy they are currently
unemployed in Pavis, but they understand someone called Raus is
recruiting mercenaries....
David Dunham
My game:
Set in Umathela, just over the border from Fonrit, the heroes are
mostly members of the Weather Drummer clan, though now joined together
as the Burning Men. They have declared themselves foes of slavery, and
may have ignited a ninth Season War was a result. Currently they are
heroquesting across the plains of Jolar to the Land
of Fire, where they hope to gain magic to aid their fight.
Jeff's Game
At long last, the Seattle Farmers Collective plays in Sartar, in the
Hero Wars. Heroes are all from the Orlmarthi clan, thus their main foes
are the Lunars and until recently, the Greydog clan. They are
increasingly caught up in the doings of the Iron Ring of Sartar, and
recently contacted a First Age spirit who can help them make new
friends.
Kevin McDonald
Lions of Rhugandy
House Rhugandy had fallen on hard times - but the times, they are
a-changin'. House Rhugandy regained a lost fief, and won a bloody civil
war within Great House Sharpan. Now the Hero Wars have come calling. A
new planet rose into the sky, and the immortal Veth Ethdisi
reappeared on Lake Oronin. The ancient defenders of Old Carmania told
the heroes that an enemy of House Rhugandy, the renegade Lunar magician
Damonius EstarVen, was influencing the dreams of a true dragon. The
heroes traveled to the Yolp Mountains, defeated Lord EstarVen,
witnessed the awakening of the dragon, and were magically transported
to Dragon Pass where they witnessed the devouring of the new Temple of
the Reaching Moon. They fought their way home and currently plot
rebellion against the Empire.
The campaign narrative can be seen on Lions of Rhugandy website: http://kpmcdona.home.mindspring.com/carmania/before.html
Jane Williams
1597, a group of youngsters of the Marshedge Clan and the Lismelder
Tribe go through initiation and learn about adult life. Some of them
are ducks, in this clan by adoption. We have raided the Poss, searched
for
sheep, raced boats at Duck Point, escaped from the Rainbow Mounds just
before they collapsed (crying "it wasn't me, I never touched it!"), and
made recurring enemies of a group of bandits.
Rules-wise, this started with RQ, moved to HW, will if I restart it
move to HQ.
We have a "pool" of characters: the players have their regular ones but
may also choose to run one who would normally be a follower or an NPC
if that seems like more fun for that scenario. So my take on
limitations on the abilities of "followers" and "sidekicks" is
necessarily fluid.
I'm playing in the Upland
Marsh Lunars
game Adrian's running, and also in the Swords campaign. Since Guy
hasn't yet described it here:
Part of a Humakti mercenary band wandering Prax in 1621, spending more
game-words on philosophy than fighting (since "we win" seems to cover
that adequately). Recurring enemies include a vampire HQer, a major ZZ
villain, and a Lunar. Saved the Cradle (Garrath who?), improvised a few
heroquests, befriended and freed a river, slew a dragon. Currently
about to be sacrificed by a strange bunch of non-Yelmalians, unless of
course
we somehow escape in the last reel.
The Swords campaign journal
can be found at: http://www.jane-williams.me.uk/glorantha/swords/index.cfm
Rules: started in HW, moved to HQ, now considering moving to something
much rules-liter like Pool or Puddle.
Jennifer Geard
Fleeing the Pharaoh, folk from our clan moved kin and kine to the newly
re-opened lands of the Dragon Pass frontier, where the winds move
freely and we can make our own beginnings. The land here now knows the
taste of our sweat and our blood -- we've felled trees and ploughed
fields, built steads, fought off strange creatures which attacked us,
and lost good fyrdsmen to an attack by Grazers -- and over the land we
weave a tapestry of bonds
between peoples -- with the Aldryami who halted our tree-felling and
blessed our fields, with the neighboring clans with whom we shared our
bounty and with whom we hope to make marriages, with the spirit of the
river, and even with our old enemies the Mockingbirds, who have
recently arrived to press the frontier further and who might well
provide us with a raiding target.
And we have traveled far: to Karse and Nochet to return the axe my
WindLord father borrowed from Babeester Gor, and to Kerofin to
slaughter a red bull (a tiresome traveling companion) and scatter the
ashes of our godi.
Ian Cooper
Set amongst the Red Cow clan of the Cinsina in 1605, shortly after the
Lunar Invasion and before the end of the Maboder and the subsequent war
with the Telmori. The heroes are the new generation emerging to replace
the heroes lost, maimed, or disillusioned by the fall of the kingdom.
The feel is Icelandic saga and generational in scope; the current focus
is on the disintegration of the peace of the House of Sartar and the
repercussions among the clans.
Will this use the Sartar Rising material? The campaign will jump
between significant
points in the clan's history. Now we have the Maboder/Telmori conflict.
We will jump from there to Starbrow's Rebellion and then to Sartar
Rising. The published material there will be as much inspiration for
events as directly run. Barbarian Adventures was useful in creating
background episodes in Setting background, player resources, and cattle
raiding and feuds. Orlanth is Dead was used to generate the clan
history.
We did have a (shared narration at times) Sartar Rising timeline game
but it ended, for a variety of reasons. Orane's Spindle and In
Wintertop's Shadow/Wintertop Fair both emerged from that campaign.
I made a conscious decision not to start this one in the same time
frame.
There is an fairly full clan and people background. Pretty much what
you would expect. Quite what I do with pushing it outside the game
group depends on II publication policy, personal sentiment, etc (though
it is something anyone could create from the information in TR, ST etc.)
Trotsky
I'm not the GM in my current one, and we've only had one session, so
its a bit difficult to say much, really.
However, I can say that we are the crew of a small merchant ship,
currently traveling the south coast of Kethaela and Prax. The party
consists of a Rightarm fisherman, a knife-throwing, magical
booze-making sailor (also from the Rightarm Islands), a wizard from
somewhere out West, and a duck. We have, I believe, just completed the
introductory
scenario in Men of the Sea, so I'd probably better say no more about
what we've done so far!
The other players seemed quite surprised that my character has no close
combat skills, for some odd reason. At least the GM didn't seem taken
aback (and he had, of course, already approved the character sheet),
and I still had plenty to do :)
John
Hughes
Mud, Madness and Murder - The Lagerwater Campaign
Long and wet and steady the rain. The soggy monotony of life in the
raincape of Skyfall is broken by occasional bursts of storm and hail.
When the sun does shine, the
Yelmalians of our Tresdarnii clan
get
uppity. All we want is to to be left alone in the freedom of the gors,
but Chaos, Uz, Harvar's Gargarthi, the politics of the Ironspike ring
and the cries of the noble dead for vengeance give us little time for
the pleasures of hearth and herd. We could handle most
intruders, but
when a solitary outtheyn Vingan came among us with her tales of mad
Kallyr, our stead changed forever. Seduced by her wiles, some of us
journeyed north midst the ruins of the Youf, and a few came back
changed, haunted by visions of Orlanth riding a dragon. Now secret
murder strikes down at our kin and the vingan grows increasingly
reckless as
her influence grows. The long-imprisoned hero Taros Ridgeleaper rises
from his watery prison 'neath the Lagertarn and calls his Far Walkers
to a final march on Alda Chur. Despite being his proud descendants, we
support our despised Yelmalian tribal king in the futile stand against
him. We birth a bear god on the hero plane (don't ask), and the
Righteous Wind blows cold amidst the gors. Such is life on Snakepipe's
edge.
Long running, but these days very
occasional. It's always been a bit
angsty, but there are also ducks and market days and bridequests and
cukbird beauty feuds, and of course long nights in Broddi Clapsaddle's
lodge drinking crimpy and telling stories.
For more details see the Questlines
website:
Russell Cole
Starting in 1619 a group of Uz heroes are drawn together in a quest to
release the spirit of an Uz warrior trapped by the magic of a Vampiric
sorcerer. The group are led by a follower of Argan Argar, who strives
for wealth, leads a philandering lifestyle, but is haunted by
nightmares involving a tormented soul. He enlists the help of a dim,
but powerful Great Troll, an orphaned warrior of Karrg, who yearns for
respect and later by a psychopathic Zorak Zorani, who serves a powerful
Hag of Subere.
Three seasons later and with much adventure behind them, the heroes
have released the spirit of the warrior they sought to help. They have
made enemies, fought horrible chaos monsters and other foe. They have
also risen in the respect of their clan and have made powerful allies
including Gareth Sharpsword in Pavis. They are now back in Dagori
Inkarth and find themselves pulled into the mysterious and long range
plans of a mighty Mistress Race shaman.
Gerald Bosch
Our current campaign is set in Pavis sometime prior to 1618 (I'm going
to set the date when the reprint of Borderlands comes out and I decide
what to do with it...) Our group includes a merchant and a Zola
Fel riverman who are trying to set up a transport business between New
Pavis and various points in the Rubble, their former Real City Watchman
"native guide", and a Lhankor Mhy sage who is looking more and more
like Indiana Jones as the games continue.
Our last campaign was long and filled with working for the good of the
clan, ties to the community, the Hero Wars, etc... My players
want some greed and monsters for awhile.
Luke Silburn
I narrate a whacky Pendragon-using-HeroQuest game. The players are
knights in service to Duke Corneus of Lindsey who are doing their best
to stay afloat as the saxons flood in (phase -1, grim). Recently a PC
got
involved when Uther Pendragon made his initial move on Igraine, so the
players are currently in company with Gorlois as he flees to his
estates. Obviously
its all going to end badly for Gorlois, but the fate of the PCs is a
little more flexible.
|
