Sartar Rising and RQ

[smiorgan]

 

EDIT: Short clear version: I have these old HW booklets which I never used - I never got to play HW or HQ - but now they seem kind of fun. How can I use them with RQ? Will that period (1621-24) be covered in future RQ supplements? How has the approach to the Hero Wars and Argrath changed in RQ?

 

ORIGINAL RAMBLING VERSION:

Yesterday I was reading "Orlanth is Dead", the Hero Wars module, which made up the second installment of the Sartar Rising campaign.

The book is partly written by Greg Stafford. 

Paging through it raised a number of questions, which are mostly RQ related so I post them here.

How canonical is it? The depiction of Orlanthi, even if we discount the Viking looking art, is much more barbaric than the current one. Certain terms, such as the Battle of Iceland, for the Battle of Auroch Hills, are not used in RQG.

Will future RQ official products explore the pre-Dragonrise era and, in particular, the 1621-1624 period? It's true that earlier RQ2 and RQ3 products are all pre-Dragonrise, but they're mostly not about Sartar and don't go beyond 1621.

What are the best sources to run a RQG Sartar campaign set in that earlier era? I know of Six Seasons (which I own in PDF) and Company of the Dragon. How compatible is that version of Sartar's history with earlier material for Hero Wars (Sartar Rising) and for Hero Quest (Red Cow campaign)? Do they gel together or it's really three incompatible Sartars...?

I read that in the Sartar Rising campaign the identity of the Argrath was not pre-defined. Argrath could be a number of different NPCs or even one of the player characters. Will the upcoming RQ campaign adopt a similar approach? Or it is decided that Argrath is White Bull? The RQG corebook seems to suggest the latter.

Thanks for your wisdom and help!

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by smiorgan

[David Scott]

40 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

"Orlanth is Dead" [...] Paging through it raised a number of questions, which are mostly RQ related so I post them here.

How canonical is it?

Putting it into chronological publication perspective, it came out in 2002. A lot has happened in-between. If you use RQG as the base, and ignore the HW materials, the adventures are fine. Canonical doesn't matter, it's history and the outline fits into whats in the Guide. Bear in mind the players can change the outcome so canonical is a bit meaningless.

40 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

The depiction of Orlanthi, even if we discount the Viking looking art, is much more barbaric than the current one.

As above just use RQG as the baseline.

40 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

Certain terms, such as the Battle of Iceland, for the Battle of Auroch Hills, are not used in RQG.

Many things have multiple names, Battle of Auroch Hills is the single term used in RQG, it's a synonym. Hero Wars did over complicate many things. The Battle of Iceland was last used in 2003, and after that, only in Wyrm's Footnotes #15 and then only in a reprinted article from 1983.

40 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

Will future RQ official products explore the pre-Dragonrise era and, in particular, the 1621-1624 period?

I would doubt it. Why produce historical material when you can finally do the Hero Wars? That's what the JC is for.

40 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

What are the best sources to run a RQG Sartar campaign set in that earlier era?

The key publications are Sartar Kingdom of Heroes, Sartar Companion, Pavis Gateway to adventure and HeroQuest Glorantha (if you don't own them you'll have to wait for them to resurface as QW publications)

40 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

I know of Six Seasons (which I own in PDF) and Company of the Dragon. How compatible is that version of Sartar's history with earlier material for Hero Wars (Sartar Rising) and for Hero Quest (Red Cow campaign)? Do they gel together or it's really three incompatible Sartars...?

As these are fan publications and I've not read them, I can't say how they fit into the timeline.

40 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

I read that in the Sartar Rising campaign the identity of the Argrath was not pre-defined. Argrath could be a number of different NPCs or even one of the player characters. Will the upcoming RQ campaign adopt a similar approach? Or it is decided that Argrath is White Bull? The RQG corebook seems to suggest the latter.

Ignore this as above, use RQG as the baseline and it will all work.

Looking at the actual campaign, I assume that you are going to run Volume 1 first to set the scene for the main campaign. Orlanth is dead is broken into seasons so that takes care of the RQG story basis. If I were to run the Battle Iceland again, I'd convert into the Pendragon style RQG battle system that you can glimpse elsewhere on this site, Jeff showed the Battle of Queens. Given the structure of the adventure in the book it should be easy to convert.

I would also:

• go through the book and cross out the HW god names and add the usual ones. (Storm Bull for Urox, Yelmalio for Elmal.)
• Get the players to pick a clan from Jeff map (make sure it existed): Clans of Sartar Sketch Map WIP
• Make a few quick notes for the NPCs (I wouldn't convert them) - The Lunar all get eaten at the Dragonrise anyway:
• eg

You might find it easier to use a simple conversion for HW values to RQG %

first change any masteries to whole numbers: 2W2 = 42

I use a scale of 1 HW level = 3% so 42x3 = 126%, you can adjust that as needed (eg Priests and Runelords).

(When I ran These Women need help for RQG, I just ran though the blocks and wrote the % where needed)

So Dognose would be:

Spear & Shield 129%

Bow 171%

Track 210%

No armour but has Reflect Hostile Magic 18 which I treat as reflection 5.

These may seem high but Dognose was a formidable npc even in Hero Wars. Clearly he has HeroQuest powers (like his nose). All his rune magic is included in %s.

 

 

[Oracle]

4 hours ago, smiorgan said:

...

I read that in the Sartar Rising campaign the identity of the Argrath was not pre-defined. Argrath could be a number of different NPCs or even one of the player characters. Will the upcoming RQ campaign adopt a similar approach? Or it is decided that Argrath is White Bull? The RQG corebook seems to suggest the latter.

...

 

Basically I would use the RQG approach, because that's probably, what will be the official approach used in the upcoming RQ Campaign book (not sure, if this is the right title. It's the RQ equivalent to Pendragon's Boy King Campaign book).
BUT:
Just because the GM knows, who Argrath is, doesn't mean, that the PCs or even the NPCs know it too. Could well be, that there are other people, who are deemed to be the Argrath. Or who even think themselves to be the Argrath. Or who are imposters. So the GM knows, what the official history will be. But nobody in Glorantha knows it in the moment, when it happens. History is written down later always.

And that's just, if you follow the canonical line of history. YGMV, so feal free to create your own history ...

[Joerg]

The date of the arrival of the Crimson Bat is given as 1621 in Orlanth is Dead - the RQG rules book gives the arrival of the Bat and Broyan's victory as 1620 in the previous experience. But then 1619 is given in HQ2 Sartar Companion and in The Eleven Lights.

YGWV whichever of these dates you take for your game.

[David Scott]

4 hours ago, Joerg said:

The date of the arrival of the Crimson Bat is given as 1621 in Orlanth is Dead

Some info on that here: 2021-07 Jeff on Facebook in The invasion of 1619, part 2

[Nick Brooke]

9 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Some info on that here: 2021-07 Jeff on Facebook in The invasion of 1619, part 2

It's the "RuneQuest Effect," kiddies.

If your Glorantha doesn't include blurry dating, and divergent events, and heroes nobody else has heard of, you are canonically Doing It Wrong.

[Alex]

3 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

If your Glorantha doesn't include blurry dating, and divergent events, and heroes nobody else has heard of, you are canonically Doing It Wrong.

Canon is canonically wrong!  Gain +1D3 Illumination chance, or reasonable facsimile.  May or may not include Draconic Consciousness or spontaneous Trickster devotion, check local availability.

[David Scott]

2 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

It's the "RuneQuest Effect," kiddies.

If your Glorantha doesn't include blurry dating, and divergent events, and heroes nobody else has heard of, you are canonically Doing It Wrong.

I look forward the that essay in Gloranthan Manifesto - Volume Three.

[French Desperate WindChild]

21 hours ago, David Scott said:

go through the book and cross out the HW god names and add the usual ones. (Storm Bull for Urox, Yelmalio for Elmal.)

 

it seems I missed something... "Urox", "uroxi" aren't a name of storm bull(er) any more ?

[AndrewTBP]

38 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

 

it seems I missed something... "Urox", "uroxi" aren't a name of storm bull(er) any more ?

The word Urox doesn’t appear in any of my RQ:G PDFs so far. It appears in my 13G PDF a lot. I use it all the time in my 13G campaign.

YGWV 😉

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

"Urox", "uroxi" aren't a name of storm bull(er) any more ?

Ur-ox simply means "first" or "original" ox, and so became a designation for Storm Bull in the HW period when all deities seemed to get named (instead of having a title like Storm Bull).  Urox is also a similar sound/meaning to Aurochs, the great cattle of the Godtime.

Whether you want to use one or the other or both is up to you, but RQG has not been using Urox to this point.

[jajagappa]

On 10/24/2021 at 8:48 AM, smiorgan said:

I read that in the Sartar Rising campaign the identity of the Argrath was not pre-defined. Argrath could be a number of different NPCs or even one of the player characters. Will the upcoming RQ campaign adopt a similar approach? Or it is decided that Argrath is White Bull? The RQG corebook seems to suggest the latter.

20 hours ago, Oracle said:

Just because the GM knows, who Argrath is, doesn't mean, that the PCs or even the NPCs know it too. Could well be, that there are other people, who are deemed to be the Argrath. Or who even think themselves to be the Argrath. Or who are imposters. So the GM knows, what the official history will be. But nobody in Glorantha knows it in the moment, when it happens. History is written down later always.

Since Argrath means "Liberator", anyone who has liberated an area (e.g. Broyan in Heortland, Kallyr in Sartar) could be reasonably called or hailed as The Argrath. 

Argrath Whitebull, born of the Colymari, is a distinct individual and is presented that way in RQG.  He is the White Bull.  But if playing in the 1621-1624 period, then there are only rumors of such a figure drifting into Sartar and the Holy Country.  In 1621, many may see Kallyr Starbrow as the prophesied "Argrath"/Liberator (including Kallyr).  Others see High King Broyan of Whitewall as the Liberator.

Up to you to decide how you want your own campaign to play out.

[Kloster]

15 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Ur-ox simply means "first" or "original" ox, and so became a designation for Storm Bull in the HW period when all deities seemed to get named (instead of having a title like Storm Bull).  Urox is also a similar sound/meaning to Aurochs, the great cattle of the Godtime.

Whether you want to use one or the other or both is up to you, but RQG has not been using Urox to this point.

The word Urox is from the RQ3 era. It is used (at least) in 'Dorastor, land of doom'.

[Akhôrahil]

34 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Ur-ox simply means "first" or "original" ox

I don't believe this is correct. Ur/ürr/úrr/ūro/*ūraz is just the name for the animal - it has nothing to do with it being "primal" or anything even though it sounds like that in some languages (including Swedish). Aurochs/Urox is basically a tautology, where "ox" is attached to a word that already meant the type of cattle.

(Although weirdly Wikipedia suggests both explanations, even though they can't really be compatible with each other.)

Edited October 25, 2021 by Akhôrahil

[smiorgan]

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Since Argrath means "Liberator", anyone who has liberated an area (e.g. Broyan in Heortland, Kallyr in Sartar) could be reasonably called or hailed as The Argrath. 

Argrath Whitebull, born of the Colymari, is a distinct individual and is presented that way in RQG.  He is the White Bull.  But if playing in the 1621-1624 period, then there are only rumors of such a figure drifting into Sartar and the Holy Country.  In 1621, many may see Kallyr Starbrow as the prophesied "Argrath"/Liberator (including Kallyr).  Others see High King Broyan of Whitewall as the Liberator.

Up to you to decide how you want your own campaign to play out.

Edited for clarity.

I like the idea of in-world confusion and disagreement about Argrath as a campaign theme. My true Argrath can be your false Argrath and even when the prevailing "canon" settles on a specific individual, there will be always apocryphal sources disagreeing and telling a different version of the story. As it happened with Arkat and Nysalor.  

Heortling messianism (Argrathism ?) and its uncertainties is a very interesting theme for a campaign and one that - at least to me - gives it a flavor that is much more Middle-Eastern / Mediterranean than anything (Northern) European, or at least not Pre-Christian European (obviously Arthur and Charlemagne do have a messianic component, but they're Christian/ Christianized figures).

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by smiorgan

[Jeff]

3 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

 

it seems I missed something... "Urox", "uroxi" aren't a name of storm bull(er) any more ?

Not so much in Third Age Dragon Pass. The center of gravity of the Storm Bull cult is Prax - the Block to be precise. You can see the Block from Boldhome. Praxian terminology and myths are definitely going to incorporated by the Sartarites, and so Storm Bull is preferred to Urox. There are perhaps 3000 Storm Bull cultists in all of Sartar, but some 14,000 in Prax.

The Storm Bull and Orlanth cults have a long history of overlap. At times in the past they have even been conflated, with Orlanth being the Storm God of Dragon Pass and Storm Bull being the Storm God of Prax.

[smiorgan]

@Jeff Related to my original question... are there any plans for a pre-1625 part of the RQ campaign? A bit like Uther era for the Pendragon campaign? 

[Nick Brooke]

37 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

My true Argrath can be your false Argrath

Of course it can. "Your Glorantha Will Vary." Knock yourself out.

But once you move the setting into the prime-time Hero Wars, the publisher has to choose which "true Argrath" to support. Which it has done. When we were still paddling around in the shallow end with HW/HQ/QW, pretending that "any of you could be Argrath!" was good clean fun, but it doesn't translate well for campaign, scenario, artistic purposes once you actually get there and meet him.

Don't like it? Don't use it. Same as with anything else. We trust you to make the right decisions for your table.

Edited October 25, 2021 by Nick Brooke

[smiorgan]

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

But once you move the setting into the prime-time Hero Wars, the publisher has to choose which "true Argrath" to support. 

Don't like it? Don't use it. Same as with anything else. We trust you to make the right decisions for your table.

@Nick Brooke Just to be clear, my original post was a question. I was asking whether the publisher had chosen a true Argrath or the HW idea of multiple possible Argrath was still supported. Thank you for answering.

And I did not want to say I dislike this approach, sorry if I wasn't clear.

If Pendragon is any indication, it can be a lot of fun. What I wanted to say in the post you quoted is that I find it interesting to have in the fictional world people with differing opinions about who's the Argrath, and, even when the majority settles for an answer, having stubborn/ non-conformist people who have widely diverging interpretation of myth/ history as it happens.

And just one last thing. I'm almost ridiculously a fanboy of everything Chaosium is putting out and of everything the community is putting out (Jonstown).  I'm not the kind of guy who goes in search of reasons for discontent.  

   

[Alex]

11 hours ago, Jeff said:

The Storm Bull and Orlanth cults have a long history of overlap. At times in the past they have even been conflated, with Orlanth being the Storm God of Dragon Pass and Storm Bull being the Storm God of Prax.

Top Storm Tarumath-umps!  How many storm gods can you worship in one cult before the Gift Carriers and/or Vargast turn up and...  advice a different course of action.  Could be the next euro-style Gloranthan boardgame, if not a foray into Buckaroo territory. 😄

 

13 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

I don't believe this is correct. Ur/ürr/úrr/ūro/*ūraz is just the name for the animal - it has nothing to do with it being "primal" or anything even though it sounds like that in some languages (including Swedish). Aurochs/Urox is basically a tautology, where "ox" is attached to a word that already meant the type of cattle.

(Although weirdly Wikipedia suggests both explanations, even though they can't really be compatible with each other.)

I took the comment to mean that the implied in-game 'etymology' was 'primal bovid', but punning on the word "aurochs" in the process.  Well, kinda punning, I wouldn't pronounce them the same, they do worse on a weekly basis on UK quiz shows.  (Yes, Victoria Coren, I was about to write and complain that "Berne" and "burn" being homonyms...  they're not! 😄) Which must be about my level, as I rather like it.

As far as I can tell from my google-grade research you're right about the etymology.  None of this is at all surprising, though -- the weird derivation, the uncertain etymology (I think lexicographers have a macro for that), nor the contradictory wikipedia edits (I've a source, you've a source, we can't be arsed trying to reconcile or properly sum up).  I think you could call that a "reduplicated doublet", or something along those lines -- though that makes it sound like cowcowcowcowcowcowcowcow, rather than just cowcow. Guy Deutscher has a whole series of hilarious examples, like the phrase "up above", which already is bordering on tautology, but if you unpack the etymology of "above", actually derives ultimately from "up on by on up".  People use a common noun, but the senses drift.  So people take it as a proper name, then compound it with another element with the same meaning, and you end up with "River Avon", "Torpenhow", and such shenanigans.  Or reinterpret it as meaning something else -- conceivably the case here with the "ur-" element, in a way "merging" the two derivations.

[Alex]

On 10/24/2021 at 1:48 PM, smiorgan said:

How canonical is it? The depiction of Orlanthi, even if we discount the Viking looking art, is much more barbaric than the current one. Certain terms, such as the Battle of Iceland, for the Battle of Auroch Hills, are not used in RQG.

To put it in very broad strokes, RQG has changed the preferred terminology in some cases, but in many has gone the route of if there were half a dozen different obscure names for something before, it's going consistently with the simplest and best-known one.  I think it's pretty straightforward to pick the approach you prefer -- "cool, bonus, more exotic names for things!" or "thank heavens, my players can actually follow this now" -- and adapt accordingly in either direction.

Bear in mind that Sartar's a fairly varied landscape.  Clan differs from clan, tribe from tribe, and the backwoods are very different from the cities.  (That last one I feel to my very core, as someone living in a relatively small city, where every other political debate involves Dublin and "rural Ireland" yelling at each other.)  I think you can use both (nay, multiple) sets of material if you like both, and are happy to wield a firm editorial hand in deciding what works together, and works for your table, and what doesn't.

 

On 10/24/2021 at 1:48 PM, smiorgan said:

What are the best sources to run a RQG Sartar campaign set in that earlier era? I know of Six Seasons (which I own in PDF) and Company of the Dragon. How compatible is that version of Sartar's history with earlier material for Hero Wars (Sartar Rising) and for Hero Quest (Red Cow campaign)? Do they gel together or it's really three incompatible Sartars...?

I did see a comment somewhere that there were now three different non-canonical but prominent published versions of the Battle of Dangerford -- the Battle of Freedom if you like variant titles! -- so certainly at some point it does tip over into You Can't Have Everything.  (Where would you put it?)

I haven't read ALM's campaign books, but I've glanced at the preview freebies, and seen some reviews (which range from "positive" to "rave"), and they seem to do the very sensible thing of making their starting assumptions explicit (initiands in one case, forming a new warband on the other), and to offer advice for how to use the material in different ways. orders, etc.  Oh the face of it it seems to dovetail well if you wanted to use either or both of those in conjunction with significant chunks of Official, by way of a light change to the start date.  To use them with the HW material sounds like it needs more editing -- some or all of SSiS first I'd assume, then the Iceland arc, then some less timeline-critical stuff in the middle, then segue into 1625+ workflow?

 

On 10/24/2021 at 1:48 PM, smiorgan said:

I read that in the Sartar Rising campaign the identity of the Argrath was not pre-defined. Argrath could be a number of different NPCs or even one of the player characters. Will the upcoming RQ campaign adopt a similar approach? Or it is decided that Argrath is White Bull? The RQG corebook seems to suggest the latter.

You could very reasonably take the "Argraths all the way down" approach.  Kallyr's ship has sailed as a candidate (well, she did liberate Sartar! -- and then got liberated from further liberation duties) if you go with the official product line.  But should you "plot protect" White Bull if you want a high-stakes adventure to protect him?  Or if your PCs decide they'd like the job instead?  "How's he going to be The One if he's dead...  Ohyeahresurrection, silly me."  I think you have to play that by ear.

 

12 hours ago, smiorgan said:

If Pendragon is any indication, it can be a lot of fun.

As you mention KAP...  There was at one point the idea to produce a GPC-style book in for Sartar.  Apparently not at the top of the pile now, but maybe some decade in Glorantha...  I'd assume that'd -- wildly hypothetically -- cover the period in question, season-by-season.  I wouldn't put your life on hold waiting for it, mind.

 

12 hours ago, smiorgan said:

What I wanted to say in the post you quoted is that I find it interesting to have in the fictional world people with differing opinions about who's the Argrath, and, even when the majority settles for an answer, having stubborn/ non-conformist people who have widely diverging interpretation of myth/ history as it happens.   

Sure, but as the timeline advances some of the possibilities will inevitably get precluded (or become crystalised).  We find out who's Prince when (short of civil wars), who does which deed against the Lunars (short of conspiracy theories), who goes on what heroquest (mind you, timey-wimey and mythic subjectivity!), etc.  I don't think the Official Timeline has too much scope to do that, unless it simply stops, or confines itself to just prophecy and future history stuff beyond a certain point.

[smiorgan]

58 minutes ago, Alex said:

To put it in very broad strokes, RQG has changed the preferred term,...

... unless it simply stops, or confines itself to just prophecy and future history stuff beyond a certain point.

Thanks @Alex that's a very helpful answer.

My understanding was that the upcoming RQ campaign, will be a kind of Great Pendragon Campaign of the Hero Wars starting with the Dragonrise. Is that correct?

As someone who has basically missed the HW/HQ era, I'm attracted also by the potential of what happens before. So I wonder what's the best approach if I want to cover that period in my games.

Possibly, Six Seasons and Company of the Dragon offer the most solid source, as they have been developed with RQG's approach in mind.

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by smiorgan

[7Tigers]

18 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

My understanding was that the upcoming RQ campaign, will be a kind of Great Pendragon Campaign of the Hero Wars starting with the Dragonrise. Is that correct?

You may want to check this Jeff's post in february:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RuneQuest/posts/1878146689027988/?comment_id=1878214199021237
 

Quote

The Hero Wars themselves are the wars between Sartar and the Lunar Empire. Here's a super quick overview:

 

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

 

The Hero Wars are thirty-year conflict that ends the Third Age of Glorantha. The player characters play adventurers amidst a massive, world-wide struggle of magic, myth, and military that spills over from the Mundane World into the Hero Wars, and even threatens the eternal stability of the Gods World. Before the struggle is over the adventures must make decisions that will affect their survival, their society, and indeed the entire cosmos.

 

The campaign is presented in five phases, with two phases taking place prior to the default campaign start.

 

Lunar Occupation (1602-1621). This is the period of Lunar domination in Dragon Pass. The end of the phase has the Lunar Empire in seeming final triumph.

 

Rebellion (1621-1624). During this phase, the Lunar Empire suffers numerous reversals, while its foes seek new weapons against it.

 

Prince of Sartar (1625-1629). This is the default start of the Dragon Pass campaign. The phase begins with the destruction of the Lunar Army in Dragon Pass with the Dragonrise. Sartar is liberated and Argrath rises to power. The phase ends with Argrath marrying the Feathered Horse Queen and becoming the King of Dragon Pass. This is the default starting point of the Hero Wars campaign.

 

King of Dragon Pass (1630-1643). This phase sees Argrath as ruler of Dragon Pass. After nearly destroying itself with a civil war, the Lunar Empire desperately tries to recover its position but is defeated. In the end, Argrath adds the former Lunar Provinces to his empire.

 

Twilight of the Gods (1644-1655). The Lunar Empire strikes back with a vengeance, using Chaos and weapons taken from strange realms. Sartar is defeated, and a desperate Argrath performs a mad Lightbringers Quest that changes the world. Nightmares awaken, sheets of ice cover much of the world, and mutual enemies recognize each themselves as mirrors of each other. The phase ends with the destruction of the Red Moon and the rise of the White Moon.

 

[Alex]

1 minute ago, smiorgan said:

Thanks @Alex that's a very helpful answer.

Praise indeed, you're most welcome!

 

1 minute ago, smiorgan said:

My understanding was that the upcoming RQ campaign, will be a kind of Great Pendragon Campaign of the Hero Wars starting with the Dragonrise. Is that correct?

Iunno, above my pay grade -- which to be 100% clear is €0 for these purposes -- perhaps a Chaosium person can clarify.  But my understanding is that they don't do sweeping-vista publication plans, so they may not wish to get into the weeds of that.  It was originally mooted in the HQ line context, so lots of time for plans to have changed radically in the meantime, as well as the start-date having been advanced.  I'd have presumed if you were doing the whole timeline in one book, you'd want to do it partly in hindsight, and after advancing the 'start date' with all the immediate long-form adventures you immediately planned for the that period, then loop back to do each season in shortform.  But that might be a model based on an entirely false analogy.

 

1 minute ago, smiorgan said:

As someone who has basically missed the HW/HQ era, I'm attracted also by the potential of what happens before. So I wonder what's the best approach if I want to cover that period in my games.

Hard to say in generalities.  Do what works for you!  (There, that was the most general of all possible generalities.)  If you have particular concerns about which scenarios dovetail with which others, or about the compatibility of background material, you should feel free to be as specific as you like about that.  The main risk is that it might be like Yelm's punishment for bigamy -- you might ask and get more answers than you wanted!  Moves the problem from editing the material to sifting through the opinions, but sometimes even someone terrible take can clarify what you what you don't want to do...

But to give two equal-but-possibly opposite suggestions:-

• Don't get too far sucked into "I paid for this material, I'm going to use it somehow!" or the like.  As a recovering Calvinist I can relate to that, but if something doesn't fit and doesn't feel right, don't force.  There will be other games some day, if we're all spared.
• Don't sweat the canon thing more than you have to.  YGWVLION, so good to get philosophically resigned to (or excited about!) the concept early, and if you see merit in making a bold edit, grasp the nettle and do it sooner rather than regret it later.  We'll all be making running repairs at some point, if we're not already.  (LION being Like It Or Not.  I doubt it'll catch on, but the YGWV thing bears repeating so much I feel I have to, but also obliged to break up the monotony of doing so.)

 

1 minute ago, smiorgan said:

Possibly, Six Seasons and Company of the Dragon offer the most solid source, as they have been developed with RQG's approach in mind.

That certainly sounds to be like a relatively light edit (and one it anticipates and sets up to do some of the editing for you).  The author is active on a number of the forums and has his own blog, so you also have the option of asking if he has any additional thoughts on this.  I'm not guaranteeing this is any sort of after-sales policy on his part, just to be clear!

I think basically ask yourself:-

• What sort of age and experience of characters would work best for your table?
• Do you have a particular "scale" of game in mind?  Clan, tribal, rootless mix-and-match wanderers, epic lozenge-trotting, transitioning between one of those to another?
• Are there particular events you find would make especially good elements to incorporate?
• How does available material impedance match to how fast you anticipate working through it?  On the one hand, if you backdate too far, will you ever 'catch up' to the present day?  Or conversely, do you worry about overshooting it, and having to vamp too much without "official arc" updates?
• Are 'hard edits' a good option?  If you want to cover some Epic Background Event, but not commit to following directly on from it, is a TPK/graceful character retirement something that'd work for your group?  Likewise if you wanted to use different tribal backgrounds -- though then you're no longer doing "Relative's History Table" in detail, you're essentially doing a campaign reboot/splice.

[Akhôrahil]

2 hours ago, Alex said:

Top Storm Tarumath-umps!  How many storm gods can you worship in one cult before the Gift Carriers and/or Vargast turn up and...  advice a different course of action.  Could be the next euro-style Gloranthan boardgame

Gotta Worship 'Em All!