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Issaries, Inc. answers
Frequently Asked Questions about
HeroQuest, Roleplaying in Glorantha
We would like to thank everyone who has contacted us with enthusiasm, good wishes, and
the inevitable questions. If you have a question that is not covered here, please
contact us.
When will HeroQuest be released?
HeroQuest is scheduled for a June 2003 release date. It will be sold to distributors by Steve Jackson Games, who now provide fulfillment to Issaries, Inc. It will be available for sale at fine retail stores everywhere. If you are not near a retailer, you will be able to order it online from Warehouse 23, the official online source for HeroQuest and all of its supplements.
Is this the board game? The one with the cool toys?
No, it is not. HeroQuest, Roleplaying in Glorantha is a new game by award-winning game designers Robin D. Laws and Greg Stafford, based on the world of Glorantha. The world of Glorantha has been subject of many games, including RuneQuest by Chaosium and Avalon Hill, the Dragon Pass and Nomad Gods board games, and the King of Dragon Pass computer game by A Sharp LLC.
What about Games Workshop? Don't they have a trademark for Heroquest?
No, not any more. The board game Heroquest is out of print and no longer available. Games Workshop allowed their U.S. trademark to lapse. Issaries, Inc. is now using the HeroQuest trademark.
Is this Hero Wars 2nd Edition?
No, this is HeroQuest. Hero Wars is now the name of the book series for playing HeroQuest in "modern" Glorantha. The Hero Wars roleplaying game is no longer in print, and we will not be printing a 2nd edition of that game. Although HeroQuest contains the same basic rules system as Hero Wars, every section and element has been streamlined and revised. All of the rules, examples, and player keywords have been completely rewritten. Although previous Hero Wars supplements are compatible with HeroQuest, the game is better, faster, and stronger than it was before. Everything about it is new.
Why are you changing the brand name now?
When we released Hero Wars, the HeroQuest name and trademark were not available to us. Now they are. We feel that the HeroQuest mark has both broader application to Glorantha and also better market appeal and recognition. It also better represents one of the key features of the game, which is the role of the hero as an intercessor between his culture and the Otherworlds.
Is Issaries going to publish HeroQuest lines set in other ages of Glorantha?
Issaries is not actively developing any other lines for HeroQuest, Role-Playing in Glorantha. However, several people have approached us expressing interest in such projects, and we would like to publish information and scenarios set in other times. For the moment, however, our energies are going towards release of the new game, completion of our current projects, and consolidation of our publishing schedule.
Is Issaries going to re-release existing Hero Wars supplements for HeroQuest?
No, because all of the existing supplements are in print and are compatible with the new game. Although there will be times that the old supplements do not match the new rules exactly, such discrepencies are minor and easily addressed by the narrator. In most cases, these arise from specific references to obsolete Hero Wars rules. Depending on the supplement, it may be revised when it goes out of print, but that will be decided on a case by case basis.
Especially in the case of recent supplements, such as Barbarian Adventures, there is absolutely no reason to put off buying them just because of the new game. In fact, many features of the new game are already incorporated into these supplements, such as the new format being used for contests and important narrator characters.
Are you going to define common abilities in HeroQuest?
We plan to fully address the most significant rules changes at a later date, before the game's release. Although the core rules and concepts are mostly unchanged, including the open-ended ability system, we want to highlight a few changes now. First and foremost, many rules and special cases that Hero Wars contained have been completely removed. The whole rules set has been streamlined with an eye toward making the game easier to learn and play.
HeroQuest does provide more guidelines on developing and using interesting abilities. Many existing rules have been simplified, so that Augments, for example, do not require a contest or die roll unless the hero wants to try for a larger bonus than he would receive automatically. Common Magic, available to everyone (even if they do not worship a god, spirit, or saint), is described as the basic form of magic. Hero Bands provide a framework for player heroes to learn new magic and abilities without having to understand the fundamental metaphysics of the Gloranthan Otherworlds or even spend too much time worshipping back at the temple. The existing magic chapters have been streamlined and reorganized to provide simplified mechanics, easier access to information, and better understanding of how magic works in Glorantha.
Is Glorantha going to be portrayed differently in HeroQuest?
Any game must by its very nature alter the way it presents the background world. RuneQuest did an excellent job of portraying the "nitty gritty" realism of parts of Glorantha. King of Dragon Pass portrays the culture and religion of the Heortling peoples better than we could have hoped. Hero Wars was a great leap forward in accurately representing Glorantha in game terms, but even it had problems representing some aspects of magic and the Otherworld.
HeroQuest goes a step farther. Its simplified rules system actually makes it easier to represent Glorantha, although of course at a slightly different "focus" than its predecessor. Two years of working with the game system have enabled us to discover more about Glorantha and how it works. It is by far the best game representation of Glorantha ever published, probably the best that could ever be published.
I still play RuneQuest; why should I switch to HeroQuest?
We plan to address this issue more fully before the game's release, but for now there are several simple reasons why we think you should give HeroQuest a try:
- HeroQuest contains by far a better representation of Glorantha than RuneQuest ever did, even in its heyday.
- HeroQuest is a much simpler, more intuitive game. Simple events that in RuneQuest might take two hours to play through (such as a moderately complicated combat) can be dealt with in HeroQuest in a matter of minutes; by a single die roll if the narrator feels that it is not an important event.
- Some things, such as heroquesting and many aspects of magic and worship, simply cannot be represented properly by RuneQuest no matter how much work is done.
- HeroQuest is a more heroic game, sacrificing some of the detailed realism of RuneQuest in favor of more epic storylines and greater control over character creation and development.
- We are releasing new Gloranthan material for HeroQuest. The two games are very different in style and mechanics, and translating much of this information into another game system, especially one like RuneQuest, is difficult at best.
Additionally, some features of the new game (such as Common Magic, which resurrects the concept of Battle Magic) should make it a little more familiar to players of RuneQuest.
I'm a GTA member, why did I find out about this from the web site or a press release? I thought we were an "insider's group".
We apologize to all GTA members and observers that we did not notify them directly about the change before making the public announcement. Although we prefer to be able to notify GTA members and observers about important changes in advance, sometimes circumstances do not allow us to do so. The decision was literally made less than 48 hours before we left for the GAMA Trade Show. With such a short timeframe, we had to concentrate all of our time and efforts towards the show, which was the natural place to publicly make the information available.
I'm a GTA Runemaster who chose to sponsor Hero Wars 2nd edition. Will I get HeroQuest instead?
Yes.
Contact Information
For more information about HeroQuest, contact Issaries, Inc. at:
Issaries, Inc.
c/o Greg Stafford
1942 Shattuck Ave, #204
Berkeley, CA 94704
Email: heroquest
Visit us online at www.issaries.com
Coming soon: www.heroquest-rpg.com
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