('bump up') the result of their die roll by one step. (e.g. A failure becomes a success, or a success becomes a critical). If the side with the higher mastery reaches critical and still has masteries to spare, they use the extra masteries to reduce (or 'bump down') the opposition's result down by one step for each additional mastery. Hero Points Hero Points are awarded at the end of successful adventures. Hero Points can be used to improve ability levels, or can be held in reserve and used to bump contest results, as with Masteries. Masteries are applied automatically, Hero points are a conscious decision of the player. The use of Hero Points to bump up results represents the ability of fictional heroes to summon up reserves not available to ordinary people, to turn a difficult situation in their favour. History HeroQuest was first announced by Chaosium in 1980 in the RuneQuest second edition rule book as "an FRP wherein the mighty of Glorantha may enter into the lands of legend and myth, penetrating the immortal stories to participate in the Gods War, fight against chaos in the Great Darkness, or aid in the trials of the Lightbringers or the Protectors. A revolutionary approach to myth, magic, and role-playing. By the Chaosium". When Greg Stafford learned that Robin Laws was a fan of the Glorantha setting, Stafford approached Laws to create a new game for the setting. By 1998, the RPG was under development using the name Glorantha: The Game, with Stafford playtesting it at Chaosium with staff and friends. In contrast to the original Glorantha-set game RuneQuest, this new game was a storytelling game, designed by one of the main proponents of those games. By mid-year the new game had become known as Hero Wars. Stafford had wanted to name it HeroQuest after an in-universe term that had been part of Glorantha lore for 20 years, but the Milton Bradley Company had used it for an unrelated board game. Laws' new game was scheduled to be demonstrated to the public for first time in May 1998 at Glorantha-Con VII. At the last moment Stafford decided to create some t-shirts for the event, which would highlight the convention and the fact that it was the public unveiling of the new Gloranthan game. Shannon Appelcline recalls that he "was working at Chaosium at the time, and I was the one who