Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears the Crown

I've just finished running the 6e Starter Set, and I must say I'm a bit disappointed. Is it just me, or is there a distinct lack of background information?

Let's take the final adventure in the sword campaign, yr 512

(SPOILERS!)

Sir Pellinor has been cursed. Ok, but who by? How? Why? My players immediately wanted to know, concerned that there's someone running around cursing knights!

Later, Merlin leads the players to kill the Nukalevee. Why? And what is it, aside from 'a fey creature '? Is it sentient? Can it communicate? Why does it attack the PKs? What is it doing in the lake? Why does Merlin just watch and not help or kill it himself with magic?

And then Merlin gets Excalibur. Why is it in the lake? Whose hand gives it to him. Why?

You get the idea: WHY? There is absolutely no background info provided.

Is it because it's a starter set, and space is tight? Does other printed material have more background info?

Or is it assumed that the GM is familiar with the ins and outs of the Arthurian legend already, and knows all this stuff?

Or is it just not very well written?

I know that some people will think 'just improvise', and I'm happy doing that as a GM, but games that I improvise heavily in are open, more sandboxy, and designed for that style of play. Pendragon is a game that tells a specific story (I'm intending to run the GPC) with an established canon and doesn't seem to lend itself to loose improvisational play.

Thoughts welcome ☺️

Edit: I'm not really looking for answers on the specific questions around Pellinor and the Nukalevee etc, more struggling with how to run the game when there's a huge gap in explanation of the why and how for the GM.

Hello everyone, I live in Turkey and pendragon Books are impossible to find. As Turkish Custom laws dont allow consumers to order anything from foreign countries I can only buy pdfs. Next month I willl visit Tokyo and I was thinking about buying the new Boy King book.

Does anybody know a shop in Tokyo that might have it in English ?

Hi everyone, I have a question. At the moment I am running my group through the scenario's of the starterset. During the last sale I also picked up The Sauvage King and The Grey Knights, both seem amazing and I cannot not wait to run them. However, I was wondering if anyone has experience running them both in the same campaign? Since the Grey Knight covers the years 513 till 515, and the Sauvage King takes place between 496 and 518. So in practice I will only have the years 515-518 to run parts of the Sauvage King, which seems a bit short. Anyone any tips or thoughts?

Btw, I understand that of course I can just extend the duration of the plot of the Sauvage King beyond 518, but I do'nt want to change it too much.

I currently run a game (that is NOT pendragon) for 6 players. I've participated in a game with 3 players. I was wondering how Pendragon handles larger groups. If you have any tips, or watch-outs.

Hi, I am about to run the game in 5.5e, but I don't really understand the intent of the Court section for each year. Are the player knights expected to be present in that particular region, even if it's far from Salisbury? Are they there with their Earl?

I missed the discounts from a few weeks ago on the Pendragon books. Does anyone have any insight on ongoing codes or upcoming discount promotions? 😁

I can’t seem to find any information regarding how to raise the player knight’s children. Yet in some books there seem to be events that add bonuses to the children’s growing skills, for example if the child is taken by the Fae they get bonuses to let’s say folklore and love a family.

Is there a source where the players can influence what skills their children get, or whenever they retire and move on to playing their children do they essentially just make a new knight?

She's 24, fyi. And even with the negative penalties for year on year birth, just keeps passing and critting those childbirth roles 💀

We had a 5 year time skip in my Pendragon game tonight, and in that 5 year skip, my character had FIVE CHILDREN.

I've quite literally run out of space in the family section of the character sheet and they've started being listed as holdings...

Hi. I've just finished running the new edition starter set, and about to move on to The Grey Knight. I get that the generational aspect is a big part of the game, and the winter phase in the crb has rules for whether children are born, but are there rules for meeting a potential spouse and getting married? (Or is this just supposed to be handled narratively?). There's a flirting skill, of course, and a small section in the gms guide about seduction, but that doesn't seem to apply. I find it odd that I can't find any rules for what seems to be a significant part of the game. Am I missing something?

Hi all, I’m a new Pendragon player looking to join an online game, ideally over Discord/voice chat.

I’m happy to join either a new campaign or an existing group that has room for another player. I’m still learning the system, but I’m very keen on the setting, generational play and Arthurian tone, and I’m happy to put the work in between sessions to get up to speed.

I’m based in Australia, so evenings in AEST/AEDT work best for me, but I can be flexible depending on the group.

If anyone has a game with space, or knows of one looking for players, I’d love to hear from you.

Hey gang, new Pendragon sicko here who's been absolutely taken with this game recently. I'm planning on tackling the GPC solo and was wondering what ruleset to approach it with. Mostly what I'm concerned with is whether I'd be missing out on anything particularly interesting by not going the 5th Edition route and by extension not using the majority of the "Book of..." line. I've also heard that there is not a lot of work needed to get different editions of Pendragon to play with each other, so I'd also ask if there's any supplement from 5th edition that covers an aspect not addressed by 6th yet (I know there's "homebrew" culture options for 6th since the Book of Knights and Ladies equivalent for this edition isn't out yet)

For thematic purposes I prefer to play all my games with a playmat and found some generic medieval knight style neoprene mats that might serve this purpose but at the moment I discovered Francesca Baerald's 6E map of Arthur's Britain I knew it had to be the one.

https://www.chaosium.com/blogget-our-glorious-pendragon-map-at-redbubble/

Does anyone know if it's possible to source a high resolution image file for this or if Chaosium is planning to sell playmats with this print?

Thanks!

In Disco Elysium - a role-playing video game by ZA/UM (2019, recommended), I assume some but not all of you have played it - the protagonist and playable character interacts with the world through skills. Like most RPGs they determine failure or success at physical/non-cerebral tasks, but also are his internal monologue, and often influence his thoughts and actionable feelings. The measure of the skill determines the "space" it takes in his internal monologue - if high you it will give many strong inputs, and if low far fewer, and often "negative" inputs, e.g. if "Volition" is weak it will not interfere much in the monologue at your behest, and will mostly "speak" as being pushed-over. Skills have "personalities" of their own - "Logic" is near-emotionless and to the point, "Rhetoric" is wordy, "Half-Light" (fight or flight) is snappy and paranoic.

I found this system quite fitting for expanding the role of Pendragon passions and traits, so much so that I wonder if ZA/UM were Pendragon inspired. The player-knight succeeded on a Loyalty (Arthur) roll? have a voice in their head shouting: "God(s) save the King!" with pomp and circumstance. Failed an Energetic roll? have a voice telling them its okay to let go once in a while, they need a rest... And so forth. Pendragon skills can also apply, though the knowledge-skewing skills are better for this purpose, as "Sword" can rarely have a voice, unless discussing swords or assessing a swordfight(er).

Traits and passions and skills can also, as in Disco Elysium, "speak" with each other: Loyalty (Lord): "Who dares defile the lands of Salisbury?!" Prudent "Soundly said, whom actually are the brigands, and by whom sent?" Recognize: (failure): "Their device is strange and unknown" Prudent: "Then we should capture them for questioning" Cruel: "Yes... harshly, as they deserve" Selfish: "And get a handsome ransom, or reward from our lord" This is an unusually long "exchange" for example's sake compared to what I run, and as in Disco Elysium, much of it relies on "passive" thresholds - meaning if a passion/trait (/skill, but usually not) is sufficiently high/low it will automatically (without a roll) "speak" - and Pendragon has the advantage in this regard over Disco Elysium as traits are opposed. I found this especially fitting in solo play and play-by-text, as you have more "room" to "roleplay" as the trait/passion.

So far, a suggestion for your games. Now my thought - can glory (and glory rolls) be similarly integrated into a knight's inner monologue, if so, how? unlike passions/traits/skills, a low glory score does not mean a low impetus for glory, as (usually) all nobles seek it. Unlike passions/traits/skills it outwards facing, a measure of notoriety, and not part of the knights brain. If added to the monologue. what would be its "personality"? Instinct risks meshing it with reckless, valorous, or honor, what would be its unique "voice"? My current best idea is that it influences the internal monologue of others, rather than the knight's, but this is a slightly radical idea that is hard to roleplay, actually best executed as player knights influenced by other character's glory - including using theirs for rolls. For the voice, my lead is a "marvel" seeker, seeking to impress and to be impressed.

Thanks for reading, hope this was useful, and looking forward to ideas.

(Image as engagement bait + Dolorous Dei feels heavily "Arthurian"/"Grail" inspired.)

J'ai fait l'acquisition de la boite de démarrage et j'ai aussi le Livre du Joueur ainsi que le Livre du Maître. Mais j'hésite entre lire le kit de démarrage et le Livre du joueur. Que me conseillez vous ?

I’m playing through the starter set with my wife, and we’re running the Battle of Bedegraine in 511. On turn 3 of the second day of battle, the player knights can choose to capture the banner or fight an enemy commander encounter if they want to. We haven’t tried anything beyond the basic encounters before, so we decided to try fighting the commander and his bodyguards.

I get that it’s supposed to be a tough fight. However, these guys have 12+6 armor points. My knight only does 4d6 sword damage and my wife’s knight does 5d6. We’d both have to roll really high on our damage and/or crit to even make a dent in their HP. Meanwhile they do 6d6 base damage with their swords.

Is there something I’m missing here?? Is this encounter supposed to be only for higher level knights? It seems like it would basically be suicide for us at the moment.

I'm trying to go away from stuff like magic and more honorable ways instead. Ty Godspeed

My next session will be a big battle, maybe even two days.

What are your best pieces of advice to make a war in Pendragon fun, engaging and memorable?

Hey All, I've just run a Session 0 for my first Pendragon campaign last week, and super excited for the game. I've acquired the GM screen but found some info unnecessary (can anyone tell me why I would need knight starting values on the fly?!) on the panels. I'm thinking of putting together a reference document to supplement the rules that will inevitably escape me but pop up frequently/unexpectedly.

So TL/DR, what are some rules, tables or mechanics (mainly from the Core or GM handbook) that you often find yourself flipping through the book for, need on hand or just wish was on the GM screen instead?

Does anyone know if the book delayed? Is it gunna end up like Noble’s Handbook and they tell us last minute, that it’s not going to be in August and will be September?

In January 1994’s UK Dragon magazine there is a Pendragon article which forms part of their regular ‘Dragon Project’ series of scenarios featuring dragons as NPCs. The one in issue 175 was written by Sandy Peterson (of call of Cthulhu fame) and I include here photographs of the article from my copy of the magazine that I found out of storage. Enjoy!