Timescales

[Banned Beetle]

I've always found the timescale of the Hero Wars to be slightly disturbing when playing RuneQuest 3. We started out in 1621, the Hero Wars are about to start, and we were given some information about what's going to happen when. Kallyr will soon start her rebellion, later followed by Argrath, Pavis will soon be retaken by the Orlanthi, etc. In the 2nd Age we have it too: The Machine City is under siege and will be destroyed, this and this year the following things will happen, etc.

Personally I prefer not to have a forward timescale. Did any of ye old 3rd Age players feel it's a bit disturbing too, or is it just me?

Trif.

 

[weasel_fierce]

some of my players didnt like it, when we played Stormbringer (8 years till the world is destroyed)

Thing is, most campaigns dont last long enough (in game time) to actually see these events, and you can of course ignore them if you want.

I personally rather like having a sort of continuity, but then, Im a bit of a fatalist

 

[duncan_disorderly]

I'd sooner have a published timescale than a secret metaplot that will only be revealed through subsequent supplements.

There's no absolute requirement for an individual campaign to follow the pubished timescale, but I'd prefer for diversions to be a matter of conscious choice.

 

[Utgardloki]

I always consider every setting I run to be an "alternate earth" setting compared to the published account. This means that events may or may not proceed the same way as they do in the official publications.

Keeps me sane.

 

[soltakss]

We generally ignored the timescales by year but kept the events.

The trouble with Timescales was that in RQ2 days, we had a glut of things published around the same date ST and then campaigns developed in a vacuum with no forward timeline except the Hero Wars as in the Dragon Pass game.

When King of Sartar came out, then we had a fixed Timescale that we could use in our campaigns. That was good.

Second Age is better because the timescale has been inherited from 3rd age Glorantha.

After all, you can always ignore a timescale if you want to, but it is very difficult ro make one up.

Imagine running a histroical game at the time of the Crusades. It is very useful for the GM to have a rough timescale to hang events from. It gives the players a sense of history and time passing.

Just don't adhere to it exactly all the time.

 

[Banned Beetle]

The problem I encountered with the timelines is this:

We play a group which goes on for several gloranthan years - following the timelines, the political landscape has suddenly changed a lot from the published material.

Now, this group is for some reason exterminated. Starting up a new group, do I start it up where the last one stopped, or do I go back in time. If so, should I run all the same events again?

For the most, I've totally ignored the coming of the Hero Wars, having a stasis of major events, but it's a bit unsatisfying.

Trif.

 

[Yoda300]

The problem I encountered with the timelines is this:

We play a group which goes on for several gloranthan years - following the timelines, the political landscape has suddenly changed a lot from the published material.

Now, this group is for some reason exterminated. Starting up a new group, do I start it up where the last one stopped, or do I go back in time. If so, should I run all the same events again?

For the most, I've totally ignored the coming of the Hero Wars, having a stasis of major events, but it's a bit unsatisfying.

Trif.

You have a lot of choices. A new group can start where the other failed, discovering reasons to this failure not known to the players. You can replay the same events, with a different tone (did you really believe it was Argrath on this cradle ?). You can change point of view (let's play some lunars). You can change region (let's play some westerners).
And you can cheat the timescale. As I'm reading MoG, I wonder if any player playing a dragonspeaker have a chance to escape Dragonkill. It's certainly useful to maintain such a hope if you want your player to portray succesfully his character. Cheat the timescale: in fact, Vistikos' spirit now inhabit the Inhuman King. His scheme is to destroy all EWF, gathering mystical energy from the dead and ascend as the Cosmic Dragon. The player can twart his plan, finally making the end of EWF the "right" thing. Or they can get along and collect formidable rewards as Vistikos ascends.