ilClan / Hour of the Wolf / Sarna discrepancies (SPOILERS!!!)

[Inxentas]

I'm a new player and I'm trying to get into the current lore, so I read the ilClan sourcebook.

Earlier I had the impression BT lore was "not for me" due to being bone dry history-book style content, but despite my initial hangups I sort of enjoyed ilClan. Turns out that having Jihad: Final Reckoning as ones primary memory about BT lore is actually a bit detrimental to ones impression of the lore. I enjoyed ilClan for what it was, despite being the type of player that would gladly sacrifice 10 lore pages to get more Tracks, TRO's or other "gameplay" elements. One thing did irk me though.

Because I didn't read much of the older lore I checked Sarna for the origins of the character Cynthy. Turns out that in Hour of the Wolf it's explained that Cynthy is the person to actually kill Malvina Hazen while ilClan only sort-of implies this might be the case. that made me wonder... why is this fact omitted in the ilClan sourcebook? Is this because the content is a bit "adult" and these sourcebooks are intended for a younger audience? Personally I find the whole "kill the villain when she is no longer any threat" to be kind of a cringey thing but meh, it's not like the character lacked any motivation. I get it.

When I found out on Sarna, I also asked myself what would be a better fit: getting my lore from the novels, or the sourcebooks? What are your thoughts on that? I found some parts of ilClan to be an absolute slog to get through, but I have no experience with the novels apart from the booklets we get from BB, AGOAC, and AS.

[Adrian Gideon]

Novels are the things that actually happen.

Sourcebooks are told “in universal” and so may be unreliable. It’s been that way for 45 years. There are very few exceptions.

You’re experiencing the exact same disconnect I went through decades ago. I wonder if we all go through it.

[Adrian Gideon]

So in your example, the reason it’s not in the sourcebook is because the “authors” don’t know, or aren’t telling.

[Inxentas]

That is unfortune. I think I've also had my disconnect a few decades ago, and this is more or less a conformation that I'm probably not the intended demographic for this kind of fiction. Oh well, I gave it a shot at least 

[Adrian Gideon]

It really isn't for everyone.

I will say however, as someone who was deeply involved in both the Jihad: Final Reckoning and the *years* it took to produce ilClan, that neither are the best introductions to BattleTech sourcebooks.

[Inxentas]

Could you give me a recommendation? I can imagine why from a marketing / IP viewpoint by the way. For what it's worth, I do not regret my purchases. I apply the 'use what you like' approach to the rules as well as the fluff. I guess that's the upside to approaching BT from a TTRPG viewpoint.

[Chris Hartford]

The new/upcoming “Battletech Universe” will probably by the good standard for intro books, coving large swathes of history and politics, but even then there’s always a slight disconnect between the “truth” of the novels (though even here you don’t necessarily see everythig and can be misled)), and the in-world narration of sourcebooks.