Starting in 1615 -- family background?

[Viktor Haag]

I'm planning on starting a new RQ campaign, and want to start the player characters in 1615 instead of 1625; sort of uncomfortably, this is kind of "half a generation" behind the family history progression in the core rulebook.

Does anyone have any advice for how to handle this? It'd be nice to have some semblance of family history generation and not just lean on "here's some points; assign them to passions", because all the players are new to Glorantha (and RQ).

Edited June 17, 2019 by Viktor Haag

[PhilHibbs]

1 hour ago, Viktor Haag said:

I'm planning on starting a new RQ campaign, and want to start the player characters in 1615 instead of 1625; sort of uncomfortably, this is kind of "half a generation" behind the family history progression in the core rulebook.

Does anyone have any advice for how to handle this? It'd be nice to have some semblance of family history generation and not just lean on "here's some points; assign them to passions", because all the players are new to Glorantha (and RQ).

If you just shift the boundaries by 10 years, your grandparents get the rolls in 1582 and 1597, parents from 1602 to 1610, and the character on 1613 and 1615. Of course any roll of "died" becomes "nearly died", and the history becomes a little sparse. It would be nice to get some more tables to roll on, so that the adventurer gets at least 4 things that they can have in their own background.

I think expanded familty history tables for other regions and time periods would be top of my list for things to see in fan publications.

[Kloster]

This is in fact the weak point of the 'new' background creation system. It is useful, elegant, gives nice ideas ... and restrict to 6 homelands and 1 period.

[Viktor Haag]

45 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

I think expanded family history tables for other regions and time periods would be top of my list for things to see in fan publications.

I can see why the base rules do what they do, and I don't begrudge it at all. I suppose I should have realized that having "starting 21 year old characters at 1610" is _sort_ of similar to having "36 year old characters starting at 1625", which the rulebook does have something to say about.

But yes, I agree that having expanded family history tables for other regions and time periods would seem to me to be useful and because they depend so heavily on Gloranthan lore not easily constructed for people who are only casually familiar with the background.

[Puckohue]

There’s also this thread: 

 

[daskindt]

Create a list of events that are relevant to your campaign and have the characters use that modified Family History.

I used the Coming Storm to create a Family History for our Red Cow saga starting in 1616. We also drew on Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. We only used the events from the RQG Family History if the Coming Storm explicitly detailed how the Red Cow interacted with those events in which case we included them (often with some customizations).

A friend undertook a similar project to create a custom Family History for the Colymar campaign in S: KoH.

I image the project is far easier though if your campaign is based upon a narrowly defined community.

[Bill the barbarian]

1 hour ago, Puckohue said:

There’s also this thread: 



Can someone tell me how to link a thread across forums in a quote like this?

Edited June 17, 2019 by Bill the barbarian

[jajagappa]

You can find a few other entries you can use for Sartarites (and others) in my writeup for Tusk Rider background which can help expand your tables for starting in 1615: 

Specifically:

Year 1591
Participating Homelands: Stinking Forest, Esrolia, Lunar Tarsh, Sartar
Kingdom of Sartar invaded by Lunar Empire with its Tarshite and Tusk Rider allies. Belintar the God-King
secretly supports the Kingdom against the Lunar invasion, and the invasion is defeated by Prince Terasarin.
Note: for Esrolia, Lunar Tarsh, and Sartar characters optionally add the 1591 event.

Year 1591 Events
Modifiers
Tusk Rider: -5 to D20 roll.
Esrolia, Sartar, Lunar Tarsh: +5 to D20 roll.
D20 Event
1–5 Raided other lands. Roll on Tusk Rider Raid table.
6-10 Sartar Invasion (below).
11-12 Died of other causes, see Random Causes of Death table (page 35).
13–20 A normal year.

Sartar Invasion
Modifiers
Tusk Rider: -2 to D20 roll.
D20 Result
1–4 Plundered the Far Place. Gain 1D6×100 L.
5–13 Survived.
14–18 Killed in battle. If Tusk Rider, gain Hate (Sartarite clan); otherwise gain Honor Passion.
19–20 Died with great glory in battle. Gain Honor Passion and Devotion (deity), and +1D3% Reputation. If
Sartarite, gain Hate (Lunar Empire).

Year 1609
Participating Homelands: Stinking Forest, Dagori Inkarth, Lunar Tarsh, Old Tarsh, Sartar
Persistent raiding by the tusk riders rallied their foes, and many lands (Sartar, Tarsh, Trolls) sent their best
hunters and warriors to hunt down the raiders. Success was, as usual, questionable.
Note: for human characters from Dragon Pass optionally add the 1609 event.

Year 1609 Events
Modifiers
Esrolia, Grazelands, Prax: –3 to D20 roll.
Dagori Inkarth, Lunar Tarsh, Old Tarsh, Sartar: +2 to D20 roll.
Stinking Forest: +10 to D20 roll.
D20 Event
1–9 A normal year.
10–11 Died of other causes, see Random Causes of Death table (page 35).
12–15 A normal year.
16–20 Fought in the Boar Hunt (below).

The Boar Hunt
Modifiers
Tusk Rider: –5 to D20 roll.
Hunters, Nobles, Priests, Warriors: +5 to D20 roll.
D20 Event
1 Died with great glory slaying a famed tribal warleader or clan chieftain while defending the Stinking Forest.
Gain Hate (tribe or clan) or Loyalty (Ivory Plinth) and +1D5% Reputation.
2–5 Died fighting invaders in the Stinking Forest. Gain Hate (selected Homeland).
6–10 Survived
11–12 Died of other causes, see Random Causes of Death table (page 35).
13–15 Witnessed the bloody sacrifices and rituals at the Ivory Plinth. If Tusk Rider, gain Devotion (Bloody
Tusk) or Loyalty (Ivory Plinth). If other, gain Fear (Tusk Riders) or Fear (Bloody Tusk).
16–17 Sacrificed in bloody ritual at the Ivory Plinth. Your grandparent or parent’s soul was bound to their
hand as a slave spirit and cannot be contacted until the soul is freed. Gain Hate (Tusk Riders).
18–19 Killed in skirmish. Gain Hate (Tusk Riders).
20 Died with great glory dispatching the Tusk Riders. Gain Honor Passion and +1D3% Reputation.

[Julian Lord]

18 hours ago, Kloster said:

This is in fact the weak point of the 'new' background creation system. It is useful, elegant, gives nice ideas ... and restrict to 6 homelands and 1 period.

The other weak point is that customizing the system to your own campaign needs if they don't coincide with what's published can be a fairly daunting proposal for a lot of GMs.

The system has been getting gradually looser since Greg and IIRC Rune Czar Rolston (?) first introduced it, and I'd hope that a proper GM's Book would help to loosen it up a bit more and make the customisation needs more easily satisfied.

[jajagappa]

One of the other easy things to do is to repeat the Interim Years event for your grandparents (set in either late 1580s or 1590s), parents (ca.1606-7 - see WF#15 where Army Activity chart for Sartar notes this as "Home Civil" for ongoing civil strife and includes the Annihilation of the Maboder and the Wolf Hunt) and then for self in 1611-12 (for the Righteous Wind Rebellion).

For variety with these, alter these two sets of rolls:

16 Resettled in New Pavis to escape Dragon Pass. [Note: this could become one of the following: 1) exiled, settled in {Jonstown, Boldhome, Swenston, Wilmskirk, Whitewall, Aldachur} - gain Loyalty (city); 2) exiled, found employment as mercenary/huscarl in another tribe - gain Loyalty (tribal king) or Honor; 3) resettled in Nochet, choose whether to use Esrolian or Sartar for subsequent events]

17–18 Killed by Telmori. Gain Hate (Telmori). [Note: this works fine for 1606-7, although could subdivide to have 17 be: Killed Telmori and Wolf Brother. Gain Reputation +1D3 and Enchanted Silver Dagger. For 1611-12, make this Killed by Harvar Ironfist's Lunar allies. Gain Hate(Lunars) or Hate(Harvar Ironfist). For 1590-2, if you use the Cinsina/Culbrea where Two-Pines clan exact the Tributes, this could remain as-is, or could be something like Feuded with Rival Clan/Tribe, Gain Honor or Reputation +1D3.]

[soltakss]

On 6/17/2019 at 8:18 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

Can someone tell me how to link a thread across forums in a quote like this?

It's still magic, innit?

To get the link without the summary text, copy the URL of the thread in question, then click on the little chain icon, the 5th icon from the left, paste the link into the section marked link and you get this: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/8203-crowdsourced-old-characters-and-1610s-family-history/. If you want some pretty text instead of the link, then type something in the Link text field, to get this: Crowdsourced Old Characters and 1610s Family History.

To get the link with the summary text, just copy the link and paste it into your post:

Edited June 21, 2019 by soltakss

[Bill the barbarian]

Thanks to Viktor Haag for allowing a little thread theft, and to soltakss for his answer.

cheers