Morien

Very nice Lineage stories, too. (And having already seen the session stories in Discord, you guys are in for a treat. )

As you correctly point out, the Horned Boar is set in the post-Roman War era, when the Saxons (incl. Angles and Jutes) have been subjugated for half a generation if not longer. As such, they are not by default enemies, but just belligerent neighbors to others in the area. Besides, most of the high Hate Saxons crowd has probably died at Badon or retired in the intervening years. The situation is somewhat different in the 490s, especially given that the Nohaut Saxons, who these guys are*, have just invaded Logres. I assume you intend to run it with the Mission to Malahaut, since you mentioned the PKs as emissaries? That works pretty well, since there is a bit of a lull in the fighting (as far as Logres is concerned). That works better than 490, at least. To bring this back to the actual PKs, high Passions come with a cost. This is the main thing that balances the huge benefits that a high Passion gives in combat via Impassioned bonus: you are ruled by your emotions even when the smarter course would be not to fight. I would not recommend weaselling out of the downsides of high Hate. It cheapens the impact of the Passion, and allows the PK to have his cake and eat it, too. Consequences. Always consequences. However, since apparently only ONE of the PKs has such a high Passion, he need not derail the whole adventure. I mean, if I am planning a diplomatic mission to an enemy stronghold, I am not bringing the guy who starts frothing at the mouth at the mere mention of the enemy. No, I am sitting his ass down at home (i.e. the closest friendly place) and telling him to cool his heels for the duration. The other PKs can easily do this. Sure, it means that the player of the high Hate Saxons PK will miss out on some of the fun, but hey, he should know there are consequences. He will get his spotlight in any combat against the Saxons, as well as the rest of the adventure that doesn't include talking to the Saxons. And the other PKs can try to constrain his Hate, although with Hate 20, it will be a tall order... Did I already mention consequences? * Historically, both Bernicia (Nohaut) and Deira were Anglish. However, in GPC, Angles don't show up until later, and Nohaut and Deira are both referred to as Saxon, which is an umbrella term for all of them, even if Kentish was historically more Jutish (again, this distinction is not made in GPC nor in Book of Sires). Martin Bourne (the author of the adventure) has clearly followed a more historical take as he refers to Nohaut as 'tribe of Angles', but I would simply make them Saxons as per GPC and Book of Sires.

Another example comes to mind. In Adventure of the Circle of Gold, the guardian knights are using magic against the PKs in friendly jousts and duels, and do not seem to lose Honor by this. Granted, it is possible that they don't even know what the magic items actually do, as their effects are not obvious to the eye. It may have become a tradition, a part of the ritual of the challenges.

As Atgxtg points out, Lancelot and Arthur use magical items against their opponents without any issue. Gawaine at least has the excuse that he can't turn his power off, but Arthur goes to the duel with Accolon with the belief that he still has both Excalibur and the scabbard, without even thinking of levelling the odds by using a normal sword. So by our examples, that seems to be fine. In the Grey Knight, Arthur sends his knights to seek magical items to help Gawaine in his, essentially, judicial duel in behalf of Arthur. Somewhat justified that the Grey Knight is clearly backed by supernatural forces, though. But I could see someone yelling foul if, say, there is a judicial duel and Arthur loans Excalibur to Gawaine to fight with, since clearly, this is prejudicing the outcome.Of course you could always claim that if the cause is just, prejudicing it won't matter, since God will give victory to the righteous anyway. Historically, this was less of an issue since no one had magical swords, but in a marital duel between a husband and a wife, the husband was handicapped to make the duel more fair, which would indicate to me that in the presence of actual magical items, there could be a similar effort to balance things out. That being said, in ordinary duels of honor, I think you would be expected to take your lumps. It is your own fault for getting into a duel with someone with a magical sword or a big charger or a better armor than you. My inclination would be not to make a big deal of it, as magical items are rare enough as they are. If a PK manages to get his hands on a magical sword, the Player wishes his character to be able to use it, understandably enough. That being said, I would recommend that if the weapon in question is particularly lethal, the PK ought to consider either pulling his swings (and cause less damage) or switch to a regular sword, if it is a friendly duel for love (such as the first blood duels in the Kingdom of the Circle of Gold).

But if you are going historically, (Roman) Britain has been Christian since early 4th century, almost 150 years ago. It is the Celtic Paganism that is anachronistic. Other than that and the idea that Ambrosius' knights would still be alive at Camlann (being around 120 years old unless you mess the GPC chronology), it sounds very nice.

Yeah, but someone would be sent to check up on things way before 'a few years'. It is not as if Imber is in the middle of a Faerie forest and cannot be found (it is only about 5 miles from Tilshead). If Sir Richard didn't show up to Spring Court and then missed out on any county & hundred courts, then that would already be reason enough for someone to investigate, like a neighbor. And when that neighbor goes missing, that is when the Count starts to take notice that there is something wrong. They wouldn't just go 'Oh, it has been a few years since anyone had anything to do with this village, and the knight of that manor has not shown up to do any of his vassal duties nor at court... I guess I should so something about it... next year.' Besides, if it is something relatively minor like 'oh, Sir Richard didn't show up for the Easter court at Sarum, while he usually is punctual about that... send a few squires to see if he is sick or something', that makes it more sense that mere squires would be sent to check it out since no one expects it to be anything dangerous. Also, if no one can escape without the bear eating them, then the Player-squires really don't have a choice. They will have to fight the bear. And of course, this way they wouldn't even have to hunt for it, since it would come to attack them when they leave the village.

1. I would use Customary Income = Glory, up to 100. Hence, I would not count the investments until the place is reassessed. The Player is already getting rewarded by the investment income as free income until then. But as I say below, a couple of points here or there doesn't matter. So my answer here: 10 Glory. 2. Up to you. You could read it so that only the Fortifications, not the manor house itself, provide DV Glory. However, it is probably easier to just calculate it all up. A couple of more Glory per year is not going to make a difference. So either 1 or 4, in this case. I'd say that if you have spent the money for a Large Stone Hall, you have earned the Glory.

Just to note that Elizabeth would be taken as a ward by the Count, if it has already been a few years. It is not as if Imber is to the hell and back. A few months would be more believable, although even then, it is strange that Lady Elizabeth wouldn't have called anyone for help. I admit, at the first glance, I was totally expecting the Bear to be the transformed & cursed Sir Richard.

Nah. It is just replacing the knights' (males') cultural luck table with a generic female one. So nothing extra. p. 60: "New knights may roll once on the Luck Table: Males use an appropriate cultural table; all ladies use the same table, found on pg. 65." Ah, now I understand your point, I think... You mean that prior to K&L, there was no Luck table for a lady to roll from? I always let them roll from the same Luck Table as anyone else, whether or not they were male or female, knights or non-knights, so it didn't dawn on me that you would consider it as extra. KAP 5.x APP bonus is worse in that regard: flat +10 to APP. I think you are right about the potions, although they did make a bit of a comeback in K&L via Wondrous Substances. Although those are more akin to the Healing Potion, as if you get unlucky, it might be one use only, rather than something you can brew again and again.

As you have pointed out to me numerous times, KAP 4 is basically KAP 3 + Knights Adventurous. Female chargen & Women's Gift is introduced in Knights Adventurous, where it is stated (p. 78): "... women are special characters. Thus their character generation information is given here instead of the basic character generation chapter." (Same text is also in KAP 4, p. 140.) This is strong evidence, in my mind, that: KAP 3: Male knights only, they get FC. Knights Adventurous: Female characters get Women's Gift. KAP 4: As above. KAP 5.x: Ladies get Women's Gift, Women Knights get FC (same as men). K&L: Everyone gets FC, no one gets Women's Gift.

Thanks. We have not used K&L in our campaigns, so I am not as familiar with it. At the same time, it strongly implies to me that Ladies no longer get Women's Gift, since that is no longer mentioned anywhere in K&L. Also: "males inherit their father’s characteristic, and females their mother’s", which further solidifies my reading that Women's Gift is now gone, if you use K&L chargen. Anyway, my main point was that in our campaign, Women Knights get Family Characteristic, same as male knights would, and only Ladies get Women's Gift.

KAP 5.0 & 5.1 p. 32: same stuff for Family characteristic. p. 43: same stuff for Women Knights. KAP 4: Bit more unclear, as it says that all children of all men have the Family characteristic, but only brothers and sons are explicitly mentioned. Later in Women chargen section it says that the Women's Gift is inherited through the female line, and sons are explicitly discluded. Family characteristic is not mentioned at all. So to me, this does fit the same idea that Women's Gifts replace Family Characteristic, as clarified in 5th edition books.

Which is why there was a big, fat "In Our Campaign" at the top. Nuh-uh. By RAW, women get only the Lady's Gift. KAP 5.2, p. 42: "The Family Characteristic is transferred through the male line, and is given to all male children of this bloodline. Thus your brothers and sons also have this characteristic. (Your sisters and daughters have their own women’s gifts from their mothers’ side of the family, as shown later in this chapter.)" Also, later at p. 55 on Women Knights, it says: "Generate a female knight exactly the same way you would a male knight." Furthermore, if the Lady Knights are eligible for Chivalric Bonus (GM's call), they cannot get the Gentlewoman Bonus, too. That gave me all the cover and reason I needed to rule that the Women Knights get Family Characteristic instead of the Lady's Gift, too. Not that I needed it since I already have a list of on, thirty or so houserules.

In Our Campaign: We use 10% of the Glory of the more Glorious Parent (yes, this is usually the father, but we have had cases where this is actually the Mother, usually a female Player-Knight but at least one Player-Lady managed to rack more Glory than most knights (20k+ in the end). Also, we give the female knights the Family Characteristic, not the Lady's Gift, and hence we let the children inherit the Family Characteristic from the female PK rather than the NPC father. In short, the female knights are 'honorary males' in a sense. Their status as a knight trumps their status as a woman, even as a heiress, so they get to choose their own husbands and so forth. And if I did have a player who insisted only playing female characters, I would not have a problem of either tweaking the inheritance rules in that particular instance to give the same continuity of a manor that other players of male characters get, or simply ensuring that the (older) brothers kick the bucket and thus leaving the coast clear for the female knight / heiress. There are always ways to work things out and the main point is to have fun. That being said, for most campaigns, there is value in knowing the son number, not just the child number, for inheritance purposes as Tizun Thane points out. Even in our campaign (above), the default is that the eldest son inherits (or heiresses split equally), and any deviations from that require some storywork.

I whole-heartedly endorse this. Especially if you can tie it into something the PKs would like to accomplish on their own. Take down a hated enemy. Try to capture an enemy nobleman in order to get his permission for one of the PKs to marry his daughter. Save your own liege lord. Something that makes it more than just randomly bashing people before the battle is over. Introducing enemy heroes helps a lot, too. It is instantly more memorable when the fight is against Sir Meriot, the Mace of Morrowind, than just 'Famous Knight template'. I am seriously thinking of just ditching the whole battle round system entirely and simply roll like Battle and weapon skills once vs. the typical enemy to see how they did, give some wounds based on the result, and then off we go to the IMPORTANT skirmish/combat of the battle. For example, I just ran Battle of Autun (slightly abbreviated, since I didn't want to have full 9 rounds of grind) today, and thanks to the PK unit commander failing some battle rolls, they got stuck in enemy infantry and lost their horses. So they missed out on a lot of the things that I had planned for them. Oh well, I just have that in store for the next battle, which will come soon. Still, I doubt that they will soon forget the hail of plumbata that the enemy infantry hurled at them... "Hah, no archers, this will be... HOLY SH..."

Here you go (Warning, contains hella spoilers for players, so don't read unless you are the GM): http://kapresources.wpengine.com/Pendragon Forum Archive/index.php/t-2802.html The downside is that most of the pre-5th edition stuff started from Boy King or later. So most of the published (long) adventures are explicitly or implicitly in Arthur's time. I have often spoken about my love for the Adventure of the White Horse (part of 3e and 4e rulebooks), since it is very easy to move it around in time and even use it as a recurring event once per generation or so. It is also a nice palate-cleanser after all the military action in Uther Period, as it is very combat light and shows off a more mystical side of Pendragon. Tales of Magic & Miracles ( https://www.chaosium.com/tales-of-magic-and-miracles-pdf/ for just $5.99) has two faerie related adventures, Deceitful Faerie and Faerie Road, both of which can easily be run at Uther Period. Given Salisbury's closeness to Somerset/Summerland, and the fact that the PKs would be crossing Summerland to and from Cornwall, such encounters would be quite possible. Spectre King ( https://www.chaosium.com/the-spectre-king-pdf/ for the 3rd edition one, $7.99) has the Horned Boar, which is also very suitable for Uther Period, once you adjust the background of one of the characters a bit (it references events in 520s, but you can easily make that to refer to 480s with some handwaving). A slightly bigger issue is that it is set near the Wall, so it is somewhat harder to get the PKs there, especially with all the fighting going on in Malahaut in 489. That being said, Spectre King is one of my favorite adventure supplement book (Tales of Mystic Tournaments is another contender, thanks to the Grey Knight, the Tournament of Dreams and the Circle of Gold... unfortunately all set post-513 time frame), and I personally prefer the older 3rd edition with the Grand Tourney of Logres rather than the White Horror in the 4e re-issue, Tales of the Spectre Kings. (As for regional books, I would say my favorite is Blood & Lust, thanks to the Heart Blade mini-campaign, and yes, I count it as a regional book due to the Anglia section. Savage Mountains with the Cambrian War is very good as well. Perilous Forest suffers a bit for having the Wasteland stuff being already in GPC, but the adventures themselves are nice, as is the regional overview.) Finally, there was a con game Siege of Castle Pennith that was explicitly set in pre-Arthurian anarchy, when Saxons were kicking ass. However, I have been unable to find it online.

BotEnt, p. 21: "No woman can be forced to marry a fourth time, ... [Note: This is official errata for King Arthur Pendragon 5.1 p. 39, which states “a woman cannot be forced to marry a third time” — Ed.]" (With Indeg, just assume that the third husband was a favored household knight of the Count who died in a recent battle, no widow's portion for him.) Although I will admit that the two marriages is much more playable, since it makes it more likely that it actually comes to play, especially when you have PC Ladies. Then again, I would probably not be enforcing this rule anyway with PC Ladies, opting to give them a bit more control.

Everything you need to know about the weather in Camelot: (Sorry not sorry)

By RAW, it would only be Mom if she is already thrice widowed. BotEnt: "No woman can be forced to marry a fourth time," and it is highlighted as official errata to KAP 5.1. Until then, the Mom becomes a ward of the liege lord as well. As I said previously, if the Mom is alive, there is a good chance (especially if she is still in childbearing age) that the liege would marry her off quickly to a trusted household knight. Thus rewarding the household knight with a possibility that if the PK snuffs it, the household knight's children might inherit instead (since the Mom is an heiress in this case, as unlikely as that is for all PKs). If the Mom remarries, then it is likely that she and the new husband would be living at the manor and taking care of it. That being said, even if the Mom is not remarried to someone, it is possible that the liege would let her to continue to look after the manor. It is no skin off his nose, and it would probably ensure that the manor gets more personal attention. However, there are a lot of examples (and story potential) in having the manor entrusted to someone else, who either wants to try and keep it for himself, or is trying to squeeze every potential profit out of the manor before the PK inherits. Such as selling off some of the flocks and so forth, which can then lead to court cases, feuding, etc. That is, if you wish to do it.

The liege. So in practice, probably bailiff running day to day and a steward checking up on it from time to time. It probably doesn't have a resident knight at this time, although it is possible that if the dad died while the mother was still relatively young, she may have been married to a household knight who would have taken up the duties of the vassal knight until the PK grows up. A nice way to reward a household knight even though it is not a permanent possession. Name, title/home, some description, mannerisms. Handouts (pdfs) with Name, Picture, and a brief blurb helps A LOT. In the end, the players will remember the NPCs that they are interested in or have a grudge against or vice versa. Especially once they meet repeatedly. If they don't meet repeatedly... well, it wasn't that important an NPC to begin with. I do usually provide some context when re-introducing people, such as: "Prince Lak, or as you met him in YYY, Squire Lak, now all grown up..."

Fair enough. The intro actually ends with a winter phase, so that is why I was suggesting doing it at the end of 484. However, of course you could GM it at the start of 485 instead and just postpone the winter phase until the end of the year. Actually, I would be tempted to do this: 485 Introduction + Sword Lake. This gets them into the whole Excalibur & fantasy thing right away, and makes missing of the battle more of a blessing in disguise. 486 Great Sword Feast. Then join the skirmishing at Colchester under Prince Madoc. This offers more freedom for the players than a battle, and possibly a good place to introduce a lady or two for them to heroically rescue (wife candidates, maybe even potential heiresses but their lands have been taken by the Saxons)? As a bonus, they will grow more familiar with Prince Madoc, making subsequent events more interesting. 487 I'd be tempted to skip the whole Naval engagement and go straight for the Soissons campaign under Prince Madoc. 488 A bit more involved Faerie adventure in Somerset rather than just the Water Leapers? 489 Saxon raid or some such to keep things interesting, a chance to save a lady? Then Excalibur's Peace. Or if you prefer making as few changes to GPC as possible, then my suggestion would be Intro + White Horse in 485, or Intro + Raid (see below), and save the White Horse for the otherwise pretty boring 489. Looking at my notes, I see that I was introducing a bunch of Levcomagus knights, peers of the newly minted PKs, at Uther's court in 485, and had some insults being exchanged to make that whole Levcomagus-Salisbury feud more personal. However, this would definitely slow down the campaign a bit, if you are adding more stuff in, and if the Levcomagus thing is not that important for you, I'd advise against it. Instead, I'd tie it to the whole courtship of the ladies. Have some Levcomagus knights come to the Court of Salisbury and make some advances on the ladies the PKs are interested in. The Count is not going to favor their suit, of course, so they will leave. But then you can have them staging a bride-stealing raid later on, and the PKs can be on a patrol to come and rescue the lady/ladies in question. This way, you can have your feud as well as advance one of the main personal storylines: to get married!

That would be possible, of course, but it would have pretty insane start-up cost. I think I prefer the 'Ars Magica' route of keeping track of the actual books, especially since you can then buy and sell them individually, making it a bit more flexible for the player to pick and choose.

There is nothing preventing you from pushing the timeline forward. I mean if you want to, you could have intro at the end of 488, sword lake at the start of 489 followed immediately by truce with Gorlois. 490 for battle of Lindsey followed by a feast during which Uther starts lusting after Ygraine. 491 for Gorlois' revolt. 492 for Arthur. In short, other than the very first session of the intro, you are right in the Excalibur Gorlois Uther Ygraine mess. Frankly... If King Arthur is what you are interested in, then there would be a strong argument for playing the fathers here as a prequel of sorts. Maybe even let them to be executed by Uther. And then flash forward to their young sons at the end of anarchy riding to London in 510...

The suggestion in OP was that you can only get one check by year by reading books no matter how many books you have. Good point about them counting as treasure, though.

I know you said you'd start at 485, but I'd be tempted to start it near the end of 484, with the armies having returned from Mt. Damen and more knights being needed. Do the intro here and you'll have the knights ready for 485. However, I would urge you to keep Pellinore and the Questing Beast for 490s, since they become more plot-important then. If you have access to the 4th edition Adventure of the White Horse, it is a very nice, mystical but combat-light adventure which will introduce the more magical elements to the game. It is a very nice adventure to run for newbies, although it requires a bit of touch-up to port it back in time to 485 from 531, but not that much. You could easily throw in a little raid, either from Levcomagus deciding to take advantage of most of the attention being in Sussex, or even a riverine raid up River Avon by Kent. As for heiresses... Rather than get hung up on heiresses that are going to be outside the reach of the PKs for years and years, come up with some of your own eligible ladies for the PKs to woo and win. Here are some notes that I wrote to a friend of mine who was thinking of trying his hand in KAP GMing with his local group. I suggested that he ought to start from 479 and avail himself to the Marriage of Count Roderick free scenario as well. " I very much recommend focusing on introducing suitable ladies for the PKs to court. And I recommend having one NPC Rival as well, like I mentioned before, to make it a bit more personal for the PKs. Here are some suggested ladies: 1) Lady A : This would be the lady that the Rival and at least one of the PKs would go after. Beautiful and Rich (although not an heiress). Dowry: £20? 2) Lady B : Little sister of the Rival. Rich as well, and probably not as much of an ass as the Rival is. The Rival's dad is already dead, so he inherits the family manor and becomes a Landed Knight before the PKs does. Also, this means that he decides who his little sister marries. Dowry: £20? 3) Lady C : The plain and poor (in comparison at least), but skilled and a kind personality. Dowry: £10? 4) Lady D : The most beautiful but also most impoverished (very small dowry: £4?). Perhaps she is the daughter of one of the Count's household knights who dies in 480 so she becomes the ward of the Count? She might be trying to seduce one of the PKs into a marriage*, if her looks don't seem to do the work without help. If the PKs are sneaky, they might try to conspire for Lady D to seduce the Rival and hence get him out of the way with regards to Lady A... * As heirs to vassal knights (I'd keep the dads still alive at this point), the PKs are very eligible. However, while their fathers are still alive, it might not be possible for the PKs to marry just yet, as they cannot support a wife (not to worry, situation is soon remedied). The Ladies should be around 15-17 when they are introduced, so that there is some time for the PKs to woo them (APP, Flirting) and their fathers/brothers/guardians (Courtesy might help). Ladies C & D should be reasonably easy to achieve (once the PKs have inherited their manors, see below), but Ladies A & B are the real prizes. Really, one could say that getting married is the whole point of this mini-campaign! On a macro-level it is Count Roderick trying to find a wife, and on personal level, the PKs are trying to get suitable wives, too. "