SirUkpyr

14 hours ago, Darius West said:

Oh, "statted" out a Chimera.  I misread that.

What did you think it said?

Hello,

I thought that one of the adventures had the stats for a chimera, but I cannot find it.

Has anyone statted out a Chimera for Pendragon?

With My Thanks,

Sir Ukpyr

Morien - thank you muchly!!

Greetings fellow knights!

Where can I find a PDF copy of...

1. Book of the Manor

2. Book of the Estate

My thanks in advance for the assistance.

Sir Ukpyr

Greetings and Salutations!

I come seeking aid. I have been Pendragon for over 10 years, but this is the first time my players have reached the Grail Quest.

My problem is simple.

I have one RTK who is Spanish and follows the Arian Heresy, and another who is British Christian (but who has been missing multiple games).

The rest of the party consists of a Pict (Heathenism - follows Osprey), a Saxon (Germanic Pagan), and an Irish knight (British Pagan).

I've no idea what to do with my non-Christian knights during the Grail Quest.

HELP!

My thanks in advance for any ideas that people can provide.

Sir Ukpyr

(who really misses Greg right now, as I know he would have some great ideas)

14 hours ago, creativehum said:

I'm finally running the Great Pendragon Campaign! I'm having a great time, the players are having a great time. (None of them have played King Arthur Pendragon before, but are loving it.)

Last night, 490 AD, we ran the Battle of Lindsey. Tension all around. One knight got cocky and didn't divide his attacks to make sure he crit one of his opponents. He took a bad wound, and then another one on the next round. He was knocked down to -5 hp.

His companions hauled him to the back of the battle where the lover of one of his companions with a high First Aid made two rolls (one for each wound). One roll netted 2 points of healing, the second 3 points. So he was now at zero hp.

The rules say that a character at negative of 0 hit points will die if he is not restored to positive hit points by midnight of that day. 

The knight's companions are desperate to save him. He is mortally wounded, on death's door... and yet he is still alive. He only needs one more hit point!

The question is: Thoughts on what they might do in the remaining hours of this day? 

Mundane methods of healing allowed by the rules have been tapped out, as far as I can tell. (Yes?)

So, magic!

Somehow the companions need to breath a bit of life into their companion. How might they do this? (TO BE CLEAR: I know I can come up with something. I'm simply brainstorming with y'all.)

Are there any interesting adventures along these lines folks are familiar with?

Finally, of the four knights who have played so far, three are Pagan, one is Jewish. A fifth knight is joining the game next week, and she will be Christian. So all sorts of religious options are available, as well as straight up magic. 

I'm assuming witches and other mundane and magical creatures can come into play.

Thoughts?

First - it is perfectly ok to let him die - but Morien makes a very good point about "first generation".

In my game - the PKs have used prayer a few times - but as they say - "G-d works in mysterious ways" - so if they have at least a 10pt success or a crit - then... priest comes by with a healing salve (heals 1d3pts - 1d5 on a crit) which he will use to heal the PK - *IF* the others agree to a small service to the church.... OR one of the PKs notices a nearby herb which is known to help staunch wounds (but requires a chirurgery roll to use).... OR a strange (Fae) knight comes up to offer his aid - for a favor.... OR use Merlin - cuz it's just fun for PKs to owe Merlin a favor!.... OR seeing dead father/mother/grandpa.... OR whatever you come up with.

Do be ready for other players to want to use a trick - but ALWAYS at a cost.

Have fun!

Sir Ukpyr

ps: Do you know where your Towel is? Happy Towel Day!

I'll throw my hat into the "I'll take one please" ring!

My thanks to you both - some very good ideas - and easily enough that I can use it to get someone added if needful.

AND it gives me a good reason to add a new Investigator who is NOT from Peru.

Hello,

My Investigators have just reached the Temple Plateau in Peru, and I've got a new player interested in joining.

What is a logical way to add said person to the mix? Suggestions requested (grin).

Thanks for the help. 

19 hours ago, Voord 99 said:

Of course, if anyone actually eats anything at the Grail Feast (aside from participating in the Eucharist, I suppose), then they have committed the sin of gluttony and are immediately thrown out. 🙂

I had forgotten that - and honestly that just seems overly picky! I mean - these people must eat or they would all have died of starvation long ago.

Now - OVER-eating... oh yes - out you go!

On 4/7/2022 at 1:13 PM, Leingod said:

You could alternatively make this a thing where some other artifact is necessary for the Grail to be achieved or for the Grail Feast to happen, which the PKs can be the ones to acquire, perhaps as part of the counter-pointed quests thing. Perhaps, for instance, Percival's own virtues work against him in the quest necessary to acquire this artifact in some way, which could also help to "even out" the two kinds of knights being presented here and make it less of a "this kind of knight is obviously superior, though" thing.

One of my players asked if anyone had ever killed that silly Questing Beast - and reading "or for the Grail Feast to happen" - it occurred to me that making the main dish "haunch of questing beast" could be interesting.

this sounds like a lot of tracking - and I'm unsure if it is a good thing to force players to have to improve their Battle when they only want to play a "I am led into battle and fight" not "I lead others into battle" type of knight.

19 hours ago, David 2 said:

Have fun playing with this weird story! Don't forget the part where Eliavres is forced to have sex with a pig, a horse, and dog as punishment! 🙂

 

No - most certainly DO forget about this part, or at least don't do it without first making sure your **players** are ok with this direction. Not everyone is comfortable with this sort of stuff and you don't want to break their heads.

Quite well done - and some very very good improvisational DMing.

3 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

I know. Believe me, I know. I struggle years with this concept of lustful as a virtue, as a symbol of "immanence of the Goddess", or as a symbol of the celebration of life itself. From a social perspective, I does not make sense in my eyes, for the "legal" and "social" reasons given by @creativehum

The more I think about it, the less it makes sense. I don't understand how a lustful character can value monagamy, whereas there is so many opportunities to feel "the immanence of the Godess" with other people. I don't understand how a husband can be sure the children of his wife are his, where she is encouraged by her own religion to have sex with other people.
Free sex is not a sin in this religion. It's a virtue.

[SNIPPAGE]

Otherwise, I could use Indulgent. It's the "love of life" part of pagan life. As Morien said, neither are chivalric virtues. It does not change the balance of the game.

I've known many a married couple who were randy as goats and who had their physical pleasures as often as rabbits when they could.

"Lustful" does not mean "must have sex with anyone".

How about a LUST for good food/drink. Now INDULGENT is what happens when you have no control over how much good food/drink you partake in, but the strong desire for it could fall under LUST.

I've always seen INDULGENT as being "more - give me more", not just being "I want it".

8 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

You handled it differently in your game, and it works beautifully, but I disagree. If they were eating people, because the Giant code of honor allows it, the knights how let them go still gain their arbitrary check. The Just thing to do is to punish them for their bad deeds.

If they were eating people - they are being evil - as that is never a punishment - and thus would have been attacked immediately.

Being whipped - on the other hand - is something done to criminals and commoners. Now - the Giants consider this knight that killed their father to be a criminal - and is treating him as such with the whipping. I think a lot of the "arbitrary" aspect would revolve around how the two codes are being judged - does the knight ONLY accept his code as being the "right/correct" code or not.

My PKs have had to deal with Faerie a number of times, as well as travelling into the lands of the Zazamancs - so they are used to having to learn what the "right/correct" code is for the people they are dealing with is. Now I would agree with you Tizun if they were only judging based on the Knight's code - but as they are taking into account the Giant's code - I didn't give them an Arbitrary.

11 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

In the original story, Erec tried to talk to them, but the giants were too boastful and cruel, as Giants usually are. Maybe Erec failed his roll ^^

If the PKs manage to rescue the knight without any violence, in my game, they would check Prudent and Arbitrary.

The whipping of the knight, as if he was some kind of criminal, is a shameful thing to do, and should not be remain unpunished.

Definitely failed his roll.

As for Arbitrary - I would disagree. If the giants were knights - then it would be a shameful thing to do - but they are not knights - they are giants punishing the man who killed their father. Thus - to *them* - it is not shameful - it is simply a valid form of punishment.

6 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

In the original story, Erec tried to talk to them, but the giants were too boastful and cruel, as Giants usually are. Maybe Erec failed his roll ^^

If the PKs manage to rescue the knight without any violence, in my game, they would check Prudent and Arbitrary.

The whipping of the knight, as if he was some kind of criminal, is a shameful thing to do, and should not be remain unpunished.

So they hear the giants taking turns whipping the knight, and after one yelled "my turn" - one of my PKs yelled "NO - OUR TURN!!"

The giant responded "Who interupts our familial honor!?"

Now at this point - some of the players took dice in hand and rolled their vs their Honor. Note that I did not tell them too - they just did it. One PK fumbled while another critted. One of the players didn't even roll, but just went along with it.

SO - they come out of the forest and find the giants and the knight as described above - and the one who critted his Honor stopped the others from attacking - and then talked with the giants. He said it was dishonorable to whip the knight - and they responded they he had killed their father. The PK learned that the Giants had not ganged up on the knight but had fought him 1-on-1 - and captured him after he was clocked upside the head.

The PK spoke about why the Giants did not buy the sheep - and the Giant responded "who will sell to us - they attack on sight" - and all the players looked at me blinking - as they realized that it's true.

The PK who critted his Honor pretty much was running everything at this point, with those who had higher Honor openly stating that they were not going to take over and would back his play.

The PK acknowledged that the Giants had a valid reason to want revenge (as the PKs have been dealing with the Orkneys and thus truly grock "you killed my father - prepare to die"). The PK then talked with the Giants about honor - which the giants understood - and then about other options outside of torturing the knight - such as a ransom with wergild.

The PK had some amazingly well timed crits - like critting both Oratory AND Merciful while also making his Just - as he discussed with the Giants the release of the knight. The Giants made their Love Family - but their number wasn't as high as the PK's.

Now I was having fun - doing things like having the Giants count things as "1-2-few-some-many" - and the Giants going "we want 5 many sheep for his killing our father". The PK said that that was a fair number (being 500 sheep) - but that the sheep they had been stealing would make the number lower. After some discussion it was agreed that the ransom + weregild would be 3 many (300) sheep - and that the Giants would release the knight if they were given 3 some (30) sheep as a sign of good faith. The Giants also agreed - after some discussion - to return the knight's armor if they were given another 3 some sheep.

TRULY AMAZING adventure with some absolutely wild roleplay.

Thank you Tizune Thane for posting the adventure - my group and I had a blast with hit - and now I must reread Erec and Enide.

Oh - for figuring out how many "5 many sheep" and "3 some sheep" meant - I gave a check to Gaming - as I could not think of anything better.

19 hours ago, Morien said:

Easiest to make it a Merciful or Forgiving vs. the Giants' Love Family, I'd think.

Thanks Morien!! That will be perfect.

How would folks suggest I handle it if my PKs want to negotiate or talk?

They have this odd habit of talking to the bad guys - and I can see this being one such circumstance.

4 hours ago, vegas said:

@Morien

And while I have your attention, Morien, let me just write a thank you for all the resources you have posted: the thread on childbirth, your house rules, your suggestions for supplements. I am a Pendragon noob and I found your posts enormously helpful in getting up to speed efficiently on the game and the rough edges to think about. Thank You!

Here Here!!

I'm certainly not a Pendragon noob - been running it for over a decade - but Morien's ideas and thoughts are almost always ones I find myself stealing for my own campaign.

26 minutes ago, SaxBasilisk said:

I'm comparing it to the pilgrimage rules in Paladin, which give all those plus checks in a Passion and an Attitude. Is that too much, or is there a difference between the two settings?

Ah, but Paladin is much more generous in that arena than KAP. I would use a modification of Tizun and Hzark10. 

Let them roll for some of the religious traits, and if they make the roll they get the check. If they crit the roll - give them the bump without another check.

This is a very cool idea btw.

On 11/24/2021 at 3:49 PM, Leingod said:

Wasn't that Mordred? Gawain doesn't seem to have been all that invested in the matter until Lancelot killed Gareth.

I believe it was Agrevaine who did it.

43 minutes ago, Leingod said:

As for Nagashino: It's very likely that massed volley fire wasn't used at that battle, actually. Certainly it was invented sometime before Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea, since Chinese and Korean sources discuss its use there, but there are several reasons to believe it wasn't actually in use at Nagashino (which I won't get into since we're getting off-topic again).

Turnbull's book on the battle specifies how the volley fire was used, and if I recall there are letters/messages sent by Takeda Katsuyori or one of the surviving Takeda generals which detail their use against the army.

12 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

There is a lot of great info on the Waring States Period on line but I prefer the Osprey books mentioned above, many by Turnbull have really great source material. At the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583, there was record of some 200 women musketeers. You could imagine the fury of the samurai charging their ranks only to be raked by the volley fire of female fired harquebus' and then to add insult to their masculinity, the wounded get skewered by females wielding naginatas!? 

Erol - please, would you provide a source for your statement about women muskateers at the Battle of Shizugatake?

Mind you - the ashigaru arquebussers of Oda Nobunaga at the Battle of Nagashino was more than enough of an ego-cut!