Inspired by jdrakeh's thread.

Many years ago I read a book called 4000 Years Ago, which tells the story of the 2nd millenium BC in a clever way. Each chapter describes the life of a person of the time, and covers about seventy years, so there are fourteen or fifteen chapters.

I've had it in mind for many years to do something with this idea, but never quite put it together (my first notes for it are for RQ from about '87). Pendragon spans generations, but too slow. I've heard that Hero's Banner plays a bit like PD at a greater speed, but to cover an entire millenium would take a time-scale beyond what I've seen.

There might be a groovy indie way to model a game like this, and I might float the same idea in those circles, but I wondered how the old-schoolers might approach such a game.

There was Aria, where you played a whole society over years, but I don't know if anyone actually played it...

They old-school way would probably some kind of Eternal Champion thing

The True20 companion has some nice bits taken from the Hero's Journey mumbo-jumbo, where you get some additinal abilities according to your heroic role (hero, companion, innocent maiden, mentor etc.). In addition, True20 characters are very quick to make, even at higher levels.
So you could combine those, start with a 1st level ice-age character and advance the time period for each level. The base character will probably be rather different, the heroic role stays the same, though.

time tends to fly by in traveller, wot with spending a week in jumpspace each trip. . . .

gotta get me pendragon.  i'm dying to use those seasonal rules for something

I played an online version that went from medieval times (basically, Dark Ages Mage) to a future based on Aberrant/Trinity to a past based on Exalted.  It was a lot of fun.  I used mostly White Wolf products.  Characters would reincarnate after we were through with the "adventure" in that time period.  Points for stats could be switched around between being "born again," and serious changes could happen to the character (the characters became nazis during WWII, as the stories tended to revolve around the country of Germany), but XP only accumulated for that one adventure during that time period that the characters met up again (as they did in each time period--An Archmagician put an Entropy/Fate spell on them so that this happened every time period--they just happened to meet up again, remembering some of it from their "racial memory"==Spirit Merit).  Characters played mages/psions/Exalted, depending on the time period.  A rival Oracle (now Exarch) was the opponent.  The characters were the only thing between him and ... a really bad fate for reality.  Epic but well done, if I don't say so myself.
     Being able to play a very different character each time was a lot of fun, as was trying to figure out what needed to be done in each time period.   Ye olde vague mentor.

Hero's Banner may work for this, though the mechanic for generations isn't so much that as it is a mechanic for character inspirations. That is, old characters serve as inspirations for new characters -- there are no actual mechanics to support blood ties or kinship as such. Of course, you can handwave that kind of thing, if need be.

The real issue that I had with Hero's Banner was that, like Shock, the author often assumes that the reader lives in his head and so many things (some rather vital) lack clear explanation. You can ask for guidance on forums, of course, though you shouldn't have to (and you really do as the game is written). This, for me, would disqualify Hero's Banner as an option.

The way I see it, nobody's done exactly what I'm thinking of, so I'm just fishing for ideas and inspiration.

So, I kind of like what you say about what HB does. In the book I read, the characters weren't linked by anything in particular: one was an Egyptian queen, one was a Swedish sailor and so on. What I liked was the sense of time passing and the changes you could see happening at that rate.

Would that make for an interesting game? What would players get out of it?

Quote from: droogWould that make for an interesting game? What would players get out of it?

I would like it, though as you may have gathered from my own thread, my idea of "epic" involves adventures that span long periods of time and/or many generations of heroes. Indeed, I think that my idea of "epic" is very much inspired by Snorri Sturluson's writings.

What is the speed of play in HB? Could you do a whole lifetime in one session?

Quote from: droogWhat is the speed of play in HB? Could you do a whole lifetime in one session?

Well, as written, Hero's Banner is very much a traditional fantasy RPG despite an artsy resolution mechanic and flighty character creation philosophy. This is actually why it appealed to me in the first place (kind of a new way to do the same old thing, I guess).

The assumed standard story arc in Hero's Banner isn't really all that different from the standard D&D story arc, save for the focus on personae motivations during character generation and the predestined end of a hero's journey through life. The 'in-between' is pretty standard stuff, despite the designer's claims.

[Edit: I should note that you roll against traits that represent personal motivations to resolve action, though the manner is which these traits are actually used in play is disappointingly similar to making a skill roll, attack check, or other such thing in mainstream RPGs.]

In terms of condensing a lifetime into a single session, I'm not sure that Hero's Banner would work any better than D&D would, honestly. You'd have less fiddly bits, of course, though ultimately what fiddly bits do exist achieve remarkably similar results.

I almost think that Aria, unplayable as parts of it are, might be the best place to start as it specifically deals with the condensation and dilation of time during actual play.