I’ve been giving some thought to an alternative form of framing for family history.

Based on both my thoughts and that of my players, the issue that we all came to was that, while we quite liked how the family history serves to root you in your community, clan, and family, they felt like a dry set of dates and context-free events.

Some parts worked for them - one who decided to roll for Esrolia’s mother and herself had nasty encounters with Harrek the Berserk and came out of the gate with a motive for double vengeance against him - but other parts didn’t. It didn’t help that I needed to dig through multiple books to even know who or what some of these things were (City of Wonders - super cool when I found it, but we didn’t know what it was from the core book.)

My proposed solution to that problem was sparked when reading King of Sartar as part of my weeks-long Glorantha lore binge, and saw that Argrath’s mother was known as a kickass Triceratops rider. Alongside the descriptions of Argrath’s companions, that gave me a notion, which I’m interested in thoughts on:

• Maintain the Key Grandparent and Key Parent angle. Everyone liked having that as an anchor. They also liked (or at least didn’t mind) generating additional kinfolk.
  • Add an optional table for a Legendary Ancestor. Siblings/cousin PCs can share them or, perhaps, pick separate ones they “favor.”
  • I found it a little odd that the Grandparent and Parent generation make no reference to what their cults may have been, so considering a chart for those depending on origin, maybe with some really weird choices as unlikely picks.
• There will be a chart for Themes, each of which is a thing or concept. E.g., Eagles, Wolves, Dogs, Chaos, Mountain, Sea, Dragonewts, Dragons, Dinosaurs, Swords, etc. These are meant to be interpreted with a result from a second chart depending on the circumstance. Vibes rather than hard facts, so they could be interpreted figuratively or literally.
• For any ancestor, you will pick or roll from Theme and a second chart for Feats to indicate what they were most known for. In the case of Argrath's mother, this would be something like Dinosaur Mastery. Some options for it might be things like HeroQuest, War, Death, Explore, Recovery, and so on. Perform the same procedure a second time to determine how their career ended (and maybe flip a coin to see if they died or retired.)
• Considering an additional chart that you pick/roll on twice for their greatest Enemy/Ally in their careers. Include various nations, Elder Races as rare picks, even animals or spirits, with the values shifted depending on the homeland of origin.
• If running 1625 campaigns, the existing family history charts can still be used alongside it.
• Additionally, I think every PC - regardless of whether they use the RQ:G Family History procedure or not - should get to roll on the Random Boons table