Six Seasons in Sartar is a good product; but, from the reviews, you would think it is a perfect product. Six Seasons has some problems. My intention is to provide some constructive feedback to the author.
I integrated Six Seasons into my campaign and I'm quite happy to have used it. For me, Six Seasons did a great job in transitioning the campaign from a clan-based narrative to a "we're in the rebellion now" narrative.
I'll start with the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. At the end, I have notes on the scenarios. While I don't wish to spoil the scenarios, there will be some light spoilers. Don't read my comments if you want a spoiler-free review.
THE GOOD
Andrew has a terrific grasp of what makes Glorantha work. As many other reviewers have noted, Six Seasons is an easy way to start a campaign. The sequence of episodes provides an excellent pathway as earlier episodes provide foreshadowing into the later episodes; Six Seasons flows well. By the time you get to the final episode, players shouldn't feel like it is a shock ending because Andrew has telegraphed it well.
THE BAD
On one level, I love a lot of the narration that Andrew has put into the work. That narration has lots of useful Gloranthan bits and is important in the context of the Six Seasons campaign.
My problem with it is that much of it works a piece of fiction like a short story as opposed to an RPG. Since I'm running the episodes in the VTT environment, I find myself in reading a large wall of text to the players. Without seeing the player's faces, I can't easily tell if the players or with me or if I have lost them. There's too many places where it seems like a firehose of information is presented to the players. The initiation episodes are particularly problematic.
THE UGLY
Andrew needs an editor. The spelling and grammar are atrocious. The maps are very weak and I ended up using other resources for the encounters.
THE EPISODES - Spoilers below, you have been warned.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The Riddle and Rites of Passage are both Orlanthi initiation episodes; one for the women and one for the men. They're drawn directly from Greg Stafford's writings. Before Six Seasons was released, I attempted to write up my own version and I'll happily admit that Andrew's version is far superior to my version.
The Riddle is about the women's initiation and is a terrific introduction to becoming a worshiper of Ernalda or another Earth cult. For a PC who intends to worship Ernalda, this is a perfect introduction; simply follow along Ernalda's path and learn more about her story. The problem is with female PCs who are not following Ernalda's path. Early on, there is some discussion about making other choices; however, that discussion is quickly discarded for the remainder of the episode. The PC seems to have no choice but to follow in Ernalda's footprints and loses all of her agency. [I don't want to put all of this on Andrew. There have been significant discussions on the Chaosium messageboards in the past about improving the ways that we work with female PCs in the Glorantha setting.]
Rites of Passage works very well. The meeting with Hengall drags a bit. Hengall talks and talks and talks. There's lots of good information in there. But it needs to be interrupted occasionally to give the PCs a chance to act. The episode can be a tough experience for male PCs who aren't designed for combat such as a Lankhor Mhy or Issaries PC. It would be nice if they had a way to shine. Otherwise, I've run this episode about ten times and it is a lot of fun.
In Sheep's Clothing: The PCs find themselves trying to solve a murder mystery. This episode succumbs to the same problem that I have seen too many times in other RPG mysteries: nothing the PCs do really matters. The episode certainly works as the PCs run around trying to gather clues and figure out what is going on. But, at some point, the bad guy reveals himself and forces himself into a fatal confrontation with the PCs. The actions of the bad guy don't make any sense; he should go to ground for a bit and let everything cool down. Instead, he sows the seeds of his own destruction for no apparent reason.
The Deer Folk: This episode really gets the metaplot for the campaign going. There's lots of good stuff. There's a nice discussion of Harvest Day and Reaping Day that give terrific insight into the clan's worship ceremonies. There's lots of good narration, but too little for the PCs to do. That's followed by a significant discussion with the clan Ring and the PCs have no reason to be present for it. In my campaign, the PCs are much more experienced and there was a good reason for them to be present. In any event, the PCs are sent off on an important mission and are lucky enough to come across something important; the descriptions are colorful and evocative. But it isn't interesting. The PCs don't need to do anything other than walk in and get something. It's important, but there's no challenge.
The Taking: This episode builds nicely from a previous episode. The initial investigation is nice although very brief. The meat of the episode works well.
The Starbrow: The interaction with Kallyr is wonderful; the players really enjoyed how all of that played out. That part of the episode works great. But then there's the dungeon delve. It's short and not interesting; there's just one hazard and one puzzle. The delve could really use a combat encounter to give the PCs more to do here. The puzzle ended up working very well and only about 1 of 4 of players did the right thing. Fortunately, each group had at least one PC doing the right thing.
The Turning: This episode worked out really well. It's a good conclusion for the Six Seasons campaign.
|