Get your own Free Home PageComing attractions:
| 07-01-1996 | Added a link to Nick E's YfB and fixed a stupid HTML error. |
| 19-12-1996 | Cleaned up the layout of the example page. |
| 14-11-1996 | Added table of contents after a suggestion by Peter Michaels. |
| 22-10-1996 | Trying to get the page to work after the move... |
| 06-08-1996 | Nick E now has a web page with his ZZ heroquest. Just follow the link below. |
| 31-07-1996 | Some examples, courtesy of Nick E. Unfortunately, the home page editor I'm forced to use has some limitations, so the examples will go on a separate page with links from the appropriate positions. |
| 30-07-1996 | Added Rune rules. Yes! the 'R' word! |
| 28-07-1996 | Added copyright notice, this section and fixed an error spotted by David D, Nick E and Michael R |
YAHQS is not intended as a stand-alone system. Instead it is supposed to be used as an extension/ adjunct to RuneQuest in order to run Glorantha-style heroquests.
The male pronoun is used throughout the rules. The reason is convenience, not sexism.
This is version 1.1, so it should be an improvement, even though it is slight, over 1.0. Most of the improvements stem from the questions, comments and actual playtest by Nick Effingham. The first chapter still contains mostly hastily written blather which should be reformulated.
A sample heroquest for Zorak Zoran heroes is available from Nick E.
Nick has also put up a page for YfB, YAHQS for Battles. Go check it out!
Glorantha is a trademark of Chaosium, Inc. Gloranthan material is copyright 1996, 1997 by Nils Weinander and by Greg Stafford. Glorantha is the creation of Greg Stafford, and is used with his permission.
A heroquest is an interaction with the world of myth, a step up from the microcosm to the mesocosm or the macrocosm. Travelling beyond the borders of the Inner World is to visit the mesocosm. Such adventures could be run with a mix of RuneQuest and YAHQS rules. Interacting directly with the gods and spirits of myth and legend includes a visit to the macrocosm, also called the Heroplane. This is what YAHQS is primarily intended for.
A heroquest requires a lot of preparation of course. To leave the Inner world you need provisions for this kind of travel, and you must be very skilled and magically strong to survive among the monsters and demigod who prowl the reaches beyond the mortal world.
To go on a traditional heroquest you must first have the means to transfer from the mundane reality to the myth you want to visit. For well-known quests, the divine cults know the appropriate rituals, and the priests can usually rework them to make a new quest, as long as it is related to the myth of your pantheon. Then a rare few individuals know the secrets of heroquesting first discovered by Arkat in the Dawn Age. Those who have learned these can visit the mythical world from any place and create new paths where there none before. This is of course difficult, dangerous and potentially disastrous.
There are also "natural" portals and magic roads which may take you to the Otherworld. These of course tend to be jealously kept secrets and well guarded against foreign intruders.
Shamans, with their familiarity with the spirit plane have access to many heroquest rituals. Exactly which depends on the shaman's tradition. Contacting great and powerful spirits is a heroquest.
Heroquests are parts of many cult practices. Most cults have clearly defined heroquests which interact with the myth of their god. In a way, all divine cult ceremonies are minor heroquests.
A western sorcerer could no doubt research a spell which send him on a heroquest, but the practice is rare in the west. Heroquesting involves the mythical world, even the gods, and is thus heretical to the Malkioni. Note: this is the author's personal view and might not be completely in sync with the current canon.
Kralorelan mystics can learn heroquesting by mastering the Mysticism skill. The high magic power of Mysticism is an expanded awareness of the world, where the mystic realizes that the boundary between the mythical world and the mundane world is but an illusion.
East Islanders have two paths to heroquesting. The cults of the Isles know rituals and divine magic to quest in the same way as theistic cults do. The elucidated true dream magicians can approach the mythic world in way similar to that of the Kralorelan mystics.
YAHQS contains just the rules for how to handle the resolution of events and rewards in a heroquest. What quests the characters can go on, how to gain the Arkat style heroquesting ability etc. are up to the GM. The rules are not dependent on the structure of the quests themselves, but the Campbellian "double curve" model is popular and is probably a good start.
Since YAHQS is intended to use together with RuneQuest, the same characters should be usable with both game mechanics. There must also be rules to translate between the systems so that experience and rewards gained in under one set of rules are reflected in the other.
A character's avatar is what the character looks like in the mythical world. Initially the original appearance usually remains, but as the character has heroquested more, the GM and the player can work out new and different details for the avatar.
These are the equivalence of the basic characteristics, STR, CON etc. Abilities are rated 1, 2, 3 etc. where each point roughly corresponds to 20 points of RQ characteristics. This scale is very granular, so certain magic and other powers which enhance abilities can add a mid step, written as 1+, 2+ etc.
Body represents the character's physical ability. It is an amalgamation of STR, CON and DEX. If all these are 20 or lower, the Body score is 1. If one of them is 21+, the Body score is 1+. If all three are in the range 21-40, the Body score is 2. The calculation is analogous for higher scores.
Body can be lowered by wounds taken in combat contests, see [3.2]. If Body goes below 0, the character is physically defeated. He is not dead however, unless the opponent has high magic or a power of death or the character lost the Body points by gambling, see [3.4].
Mind represents the character's reasoning ability and willpower. It is mainly based on INT, but life experience and knowledge must be weighed in. INT 1-20 gives a Mind score of 1, 1+ if the character has lots of experience and knowledge. INT 21-40 gives a Mind score of 2 etc.
Spirit represents the character's magical and spiritual strength. It is based on the character's POW, the amount if magic a character commands and the "cult" status of the character. POW 1-20 gives a Spirit score of 1, POW 21-40 gives Spirit 2 etc. A rune priest, rune lord or shaman adds a +. Each 10 points, or fraction thereof, of reusable divine magic or fetch POW then adds another +. Thus a priest with POW 18 and 12 points of divine magic has a Spirit score of 2+ (1+++ becomes 2+).
Spirit can be lowered by damage taken in spirit contests, see [3.2]. If Spirit goes below 0, the character is spiritually defeated. He is not dead however, unless the opponent has high magic or a power of death or the character lost the Spirit points by gambling, see [3.4].
YAHQS does not delineate individual skills. Instead a small set of skill categories is used. Like abilities skills are rated 1, 2, 3 etc. with a mid-level 1+, 2+ etc. to lessen granularity somewhat. A RuneQuest skill level of 1-100% is translated to skill rating 1 in YAHQS. When one of the character's individual RQ skills exceeds 100%, the corresponding YAHQS skill category rating goes up to 1+. When a majority of the skills in a category (admittedly a subjective measure) are in the interval 101- 200%, the skill category rating goes up to 2 etc.
Agility corresponds, of course, to agility skills in RuneQuest.
Combat corresponds to weapon skills in RuneQuest.
Knowledge corresponds to knowledge skills in RuneQuest.
Perception corresponds to perception skills in RuneQuest.
Social corresponds to communication skills in RuneQuest. In addition, if a character is renowned and famous in the mundane world, add an extra +. Likewise a CHA score of 21+ gives an extra +.
Stealth corresponds to stealth skills in RuneQuest.
Like skills, magic is greatly simplified. A distinction is drawn between low magic and high magic. Low magic is exemplified by spirit magic, dawn magic and low sorcery. Low magic can be used as long as the character has magic points left, see [2.5.1]. Examples of high magic include divine magic and high sorcery. For high magic the number of uses must be noted. Otherwise magic does not usually have a score in the way abilities and skills do.
Low magic can not be stacked, each use costs one magic point and has a fixed effect. Several uses of high magic can be used at once, and the effects are stacked. "Primal" divine spells should be treated as two points of high magic, for example spells like Resurrection, Sever spirit and Sunspear.
Finally, truly monumental and unique spells may be created through heroquests. First there is a quest to "invent" the spell, then each casting is a quest. These spells should be powered with support points instead of magic points, see [2.5.1] and [3.5].
The rules cannot detail all magic, but a few examples are given here.
Low magic Healing restores 1 Body level. High magic Healing restores all lost Body levels.
Low magic Protection subtracts + from an enemy's damage in a combat contest. High magic Protection subtracts 1 from the damage.
Low magic Control adds + to a character's Social skill. High magic Control adds. It can also be used to control an opponent with lower Spirit score.
Each element is a separate magic. Element magic can be used for any of the normal effects of the element. In combat low element magic can be used as an attack, where the character's Spirit score is used for the contest. With high element magic use Spirit + 1.
Low magic Death adds + to the character's Combat skill. High magic Death adds 1. Alternatively, Death can be used to increase the damage done by a successful attack. It can also be used to permanently slay a defeated opponent.
Now is a good time for a break for an example of how to map RuneQuest to YAHQS.
Examples of true heroquest spells could include resummoning the Crimson Bat after it has been banished, the Moonburn and the turning of Tanian away from the East Isles.
Powers are all capabilities not covered by abilities, skills and magic. They include natural powers, like a chaos creature's chaotic feature or a nymph's ability to exist as both a spirit and in corporeal form. Special gifts gained on heroquests are also powers.
Like magic, powers are usually not quantified with a score, but like magic powers can add bonuses to ability and skill scores.
Check out some examples.
Magic points is the only power possessed by all characters. External MP sources are only included if the source is of such a nature that it can be brought with the character on a heroquest. Allied spirits and shamans' fetches are always available while bound spirits are not.
This section should be ignored by readers who think that the Gloranthan runes are a failed, false God Learner mistake. For those who think that the runes are reflections, although with varying graphic repre- sentations, of basic structures of the universe the sec- tion tells how knowledge of the runes can influence a HeroQuest. Anyway, consider this section optional.
All creatures are connected to one or more runes. This tells only that you partake of the basic essence which is represented by this rune. Then there are gods who are sources and owners of various runes. It is theoretically possible for a heroquester to become the owner of a rune. In this case he has definitely become a god. In fact, it should not be possible to assume ownership of a rune without being a powerful deity since the previous owner would object to that. Only the original deity for a certain rune can be its source.
In YAHQS a character has a rating in any rune that they are connected to. A person begins with 0 in every rune except those associated with his species. The rating in your species rune(s) start at 1. Here are examples of runic connection for some species:
| Species | Rune |
| Human | Man |
| Uz | Darkness |
| Aldryami | Plant |
| Merman | Water |
| Beast man | Beast |
| Wind child | Air |
| Mostali | Stasis |
| Broo | Chaos |
In addition to the species runes a character who is an initiate of a cult gains a rating of 0+ in all runes which the deity is associated with. If the deity is the current owner of the rune (double runes in Gods of Glorantha) or the source of the rune (combined with the Infinity rune) the rating is 1. A priest or rune lord has a rating of 1 or 1+ for owned runes. A shaman also has a rating of 1+ in the Spirit rune.
If the deity is associated with a rune that is also connected to your species the ratings are not added, but the higher score is used.
Furthermore, for every full 10 points of divine magic which is clearly connected to a certain rune, the character gets a + in the rating for that rune.
The only other way to increase rune ratings is by gaining powers from heroquests. For every power which has a clear runic connection a character gains, there is an associated increase in rune ratings. A minor power increases the rating by +, for example a power to hurl fireballs at opponents (Fire). A major power awards an increase of 1, for instance if those fireballs could be called down from the clouds to rain down on an entire party of enemies. A truly magnificent power could give a bigger increase. Continuing the example, if the the quester could call down the fireballs over an entire city or army, his Fire rating would increase by 2.
Most commonly, you use rune ratings just like support points, in order to increase your abilities for a contest. Once used, the rune points are unavailable for the rest of the quest. This restriction does not apply to the current owner and the source of a rune.
The following description of the application of the runes is by no means exhaustive.
Condition runes
| Rune | Application |
| Mastery | The rune points can be added to any ability or skill. |
| Magic | The rune points can be added to any magic. |
Form runes
Form rune points can usually not be used to increase skills or abilities. They can however be necessary to gain certain powers or even to enter some heroquest paths. Then there are of course exceptions:
| Rune | Application |
| Plant | The rune points can be added to Social contests when dealing with Aldryami. |
| Beast | The rune points can be added to Social contests when dealing with animals. |
| Man | The rune points can be added to Social contests when dealing with humans. |
| Spirit | The rune points can be added to your Spirit score in contests. |
| Chaos | The rune points can be added to any contest, but there is a 50% chance that it works against you and subtracts instead. |
Power runes
The power runes can be used to increase abilites skills or magic pertaining to actions which are clearly tied to that rune:
| Rune | Application |
| Truth | Perception, social contests. |
| Illusion | Disguise, social contests. |
| Harmony | Social contests. |
| Disorder | Social contests. |
| Mobility | Add to Body for races etc. |
| Stasis | Add to Protection magic. |
| Life | Add to Healing magic. |
| Death | Add to Combat and Death magic. |
| Luck | Usable in any contest. |
| Fate | Usable in any contest as long as it supports the "expected" outcome of the quest, i.e. is in line with the corresponding myth. |
Element runes
Element rune points can be added to element magic. If the quester has a rating in an elemental rune, but doesn't know any magic of that element, the rune points can used directly to do magic, but at half strength, i.e. 1 point of Air can be used as low Air magic, 2 points can be used as 1 point high magic etc.
Severing runes is quite a difficult task. The Death rune can be used to sever runes, and those gods who are the current owner or the source of a rune have the ability to remove it from people. Finally those gods who are in opposition to a rune, such as Chalana Arroy to Death or Yelm to Darkness, can also remove that rune.
When you have severed the connection with a rune, powers of that rune no longer affect you. On the other hand you can no longer use any powers of the rune in any way whatsoever. This might seem like a good deal, but should have serious drawbacks in just about any case, even though a point can be made for severing Chaos...
Strong passions can help or hinder a quester. For example, a Storm Bull berserker's intense hatred of chaos should give him a + bonus in all violent contests with chaotic creatures. On the other hand, an Orlanthi quester who has met Jar-Eel in the mundane world and fallen in love with her and then meets her as an opponent on a quest would have a similar penalty in all contests.
Thus a characters strong passions and beliefs should be thought through and noted before the quest begins. The following are some examples of personality factors which may influence a quest: Hate, Love, Fear, Honour, Loyalty.
No randomizer is used in YAHQS event resolution. A simple comparison of ability or skill scores is used in a deterministic fashion.
For an unopposed action, i.e. overcoming a passive force, like climbing a mountain, the appropriate ability or skill is compared to the difficulty of the obstacle. If the character's ability or skill score equals the difficulty, the action succeeds but the character suffers from mental or physical exhaustion. If the score exceeds the difficulty the character can perform the action without fatigue. E.g. if swimming across a river is a difficulty 1 task, a character with Agility 1 succeeds but arrives exhausted on the other side, while an Agility 1+ character suffers no exhaustion.
In a contest the opposition is active, i.e. there is at least one other person or monster to oppose the character. In a contest the opponents compare their scores in the abilities or skills which are used. The one with the highest score wins. If both have the same score the contest is a tie and neither of them can win.
If the contest is physical combat, the loser takes damage to his Body. The amount subtracted is the difference between the winner's and the loser's Body scores, minimum +.
If the contest is spirit combat or the like, the loser takes damage to his Spirit in an analogous manner.
Take a look at an example of a straightforward combat contest. Here is an example involving magic in a physical contest.
If the action or contest permits, several characters may stack their forces together. One character is still the main actor. His ability or skill is used at the full score. Each additional character adds half his score.
To increase an ability or skill score, a character can gamble points from an appropriate ability or a power. Each point gambled adds + to the score. If the character succeeds in the action or wins the contest, nothing additional happens. If the character fails or loses, the gambled points are lost.
Body can be gambled in most physical actions. Spirit can be gambled for almost any action, but failure is disastrous.
If the heroquest is supported by other people participating in the ritual in the mundane world they can lend support to the questers. Each 10 priests, rune lords or shamans and each 100 initiates yield 1 point which can be used to increase an ability or skill score once. The actual number of support points depends also on the "quality" of the supporters. Spiritually strong, dedicated and learned supporters are of course much more valuable than indifferent and exhausted ones. The following table provides some examples:
| Quality | Multiplier | Examples |
| Poor | 0.5 | Trollkin, Teshnos Night caste, Veldang slaves in Fonrit. |
| Normal | 1 | Your average villagers or tribesmembers. |
| Good | 1.5 | Noble clan, large temple. |
| Excellent | 2 | Fanatic cult (Humakt, Storm Bull). |
| Superb | 3 | Lunar magic college, handpicked priests & lords, enlightened mandarins. |
While the quest is going on, the supporters are busy with mundane reenactments, sitting in a trance etc. and cannot do anything else. Afterwards they are drained and fatigued.
The supporters can choose to lend their support only to parts of a quest, for example those encounters and contests which are relevant for their cult.
Support points can be used a second time, but that will kill the supporters. This drastic measure is only available if the supporters agreed to it beforehand.
Any number of available support points may be used on the same action or contest but the support points must be called on before that action or contest.
It is not possible to get divine intervention in the normal sense on a heroquest. However, a quester may sacrifice permanent POW to increase an ability or skill score. For a sacrifice of 1d10 POW, one ability or skill is increased by 5 for a single contest. Note that the loss of POW may lower the quester's Spirit score.
Defeat does not normally mean death on a heroquest. A character who is physically or spiritually defeated can loose powers to the winner of a contest but then the character usually just drops out of the quest unconscious.
Permanent death can occur if the character is defeated and the winner of the contest uses high magic or a power which contains true Death. If the characters Body or Spirit goes below 0 as the result of a failed gamble, the character is also dead. Victims of Body death can be resurrected. Victims of Spirit death are lost forever. Their souls dissolve and will haunt the worlds as powerless ghosts.
Magic and powers of defeated opponents can be taken by the victor. An opponent with its Body or Spirit reduced to 0 is helpless to resist the stealing of powers. It is also possible to admit defeat before that and allow the opponent to take the power. Stolen magic becomes one-time use unless the defeated opponent is the source of the magic (sorcery is an example). Stolen powers become a permanent addition to the character.
Abilities and skills can normally not be taken from a defeated opponent, but exceptions can occur.
The exact working and limits of the taking of powers must be tailored for the quest and the questers. Note that some powers or magics might be less savoury, if the defeated opponent is chaotic for example. They might even have nasty side effects.
Finally, in a trickster type quest it may well be possible to steal powers without defeating the opponent.
The course of a heroquest may lead to other rewards, in the form of new powers or increase of abilities or skills. This depends entirely of the nature of the quest. E.g. a quest where a character discovers the nature of birds might earn him the power of flight.
Some enchanted items may be possible to take back with you to the mundane world. Since magic crystals are formed from the congealed blood of the gods they are probably abundant on Otherworld battlefields.
Another possible rewards is spirit allies. In fact, imagination is as usual the only limit.
When a reward is gained, the character has the choice to hoard it for his own use only or share it with his cult/clan/whatever, e.g. the people supporting him in the mundane world during the quest.
If the reward is shared its effect is as a rule of thumb halved, but those who share all receive 1/10 of the effect. Supporters can only share those rewards resulting from actions which they actively supported. So if the support crew elected to stay out of a certain part of the quest, they will not be able to share the powers the quester gained in that part.
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