The Spirit Path

The Spirit Path

Welcome to the wiki page for The Spirit Path, Heroquest game run by Mandacaru.

Characters

• Lrall, Son of the Lost Wanderer Dlen, Survivor of the Rite of Thorns, Keeper of the Pathways, Rosebearer of Queen Alachia, Wielder of the Red Mace of Keck (player: Coyoteboy)
• Template&Chargen - go here to see how to make a character

The World

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Rules

1. Chargen rules are explained on the template character sheet.

Results of contests. Beside the classic narrative consequences of contest outcomes, we will use the following effects on Vitality: Defeat - Marginal -2, Minor -4, Major -6, Complete -6 (represent wounds etc) Victory - Marginal +1, Minor +2, Major +3, Complete +4 (represents being flushed with victory. Note: these will not apply if there is a 1 or more mastery imbalance in favour of the eventual victor).

Augments and Target Numbers: You may use up to 2 of your character's abilities to augment. You may add weaknesses as negative augments. You may add single abilities from any number of other characters as augments, including followers. The final augment is 10% of the sum of the above, rounded appropriately (e.g. augments of 18 +15 +15 from friend = 48, gives total augment of +5). Any equipment, plus vitality (see below) is added straight to the final score to get your TN. Upping the stakes. Before the contest, you may use appropriate narration to up the stakes. The outcome of the contest (marginal, minor, major or complete) moves up 1 step (e.g. minor victory/defeat moves to major victory/defeat) to a maximum of complete. You may up the stakes two levels if you choose. But you may not cry afterwards.

Hold your ground/play for time.As upping the stakes, but you reduce the stakes, such that victory levels move down one. Caution: moving below marginal does not yield a tie but instead a swapping of (marginal) defeat and victory.

Pyrrhic victory. If you win a contest, you may increase your opponent's defeat level by one post hoc but you take a wound of -4 (see vitality below).

Vitality. Your current level is cumulative/additive; thus, if you are on +3 and score a minor defeat, you drop to -1. Likewise, it can be a way to get "healed". Vitality is added to the Target Number for every roll you make! Vitality is limited between -10 ("dying") and +10

1. Healing.

Natural healing - your vitality moves one step towards 0 every day (e.g. after sleeping). Active healing may be attempted once per day, using a skill appropriate to the cause of the wound. the default is an automatic success which heals one point in addition to natural healing. a more aggressive healing effort is a contest against (10 + the square of the vitality) and includes the active party's vitality (i.e. healing yourself has a negative effect of vitality). Any success level restores the victim to -2 vitality. Failure worsens the condition by -2. Example: Jim has been bitten by a venemous snake and is on -7 vitality. He is alone so rests up for a day, scoring a +1 natural healing shift to -6 At the same time, he applies a moss poultice using his very own Survive in the Wild 3W2 ability to score an automatic success of +1. He is now on -5. Next day, he has to move on so he uses the same ability at 3W2 -10 improvisational modifier and -5 for his sickness. His TN is 8W, facing (10+5^2 = 35 or 15W). He scores a success so heals 3 vitality and is now on -2, ready to move on but feeling the after-effects. Had he failed, he would have been on -7, so back where he started. Seems to make sense to me :)

Simple and chained contests. The default is simple, yielding victory levels as above, but the vitality rules allow for continued contests and upping the stakes plus vitality should capture the bidding aspect of extended contests in these chained contests. Character advancement. Start with 5 Hero Points. One aim of the limited pool of abilities is to make character advancement more meaningful. HP can be spent thus: 1HP to bump a result post hoc. 2HP to raise an ability by 1 (to make bumping more expensive, indirectly) 1HP to raise an ability by 1 with a concurrent increase of a weakness by 1 (an incentive) 2HP for a new ability at 14

Magic. You may have magic abilities or items. Each time you use an ability (or item? thoughts?), take -1 Vitality. Prior to a contest, you may also increase your magical ability rating by 3 at the cost of an extra Vitality point. Thus: +0 costs -1V; +3 costs -2V; +6 costs -3V; +9 costs -4V and so on [we may adjust this scale later]. Magicians have ways to defer this cost, via sacrifices, captives and so on.

any more?