Ringan

Let's say some PK(s) have put Agravaine or Mordred in their crosshairs. Avoiding skullduggery, they want to honorably duel them to the death. Unlike other RPGs with super-strong "bosses", the PK(s) might be strong enough that they have decent chances. These villainous deaths could seriously mess with the story. What kind of options might a GM take? Starting off with a few of my thoughts: Roll with it: simply plan to adapt the plot without these villains--almost no one but Arthur is essential Forbid Round Table Knight infighting: If the PKs are also RTKs, then their vows forbid them from fighting the villainous RTKs. However, maybe there options like being too rough at a tournament...? Direct Pleas or Edicts from Arthur: Maybe Arthur intervenes directly to demand the conflict is ended? Villain is unavailable: PK is just never able to get access to the villain to make the challenge. We could try to leverage a Kafkaesque bureaucracy of status and etiquette in support of this. However, what if the PK publicly calls out the villain? Post-combat Villainous Escape: PK defeats the villain but is unable to kill him. See relevant TV tropes. Magic?: In the case of the Orkneys, maybe it's some kind of magic from Morgause/Morgan le Fay that helps them dodge the bullet. For other villains, we could contrive analogous allied sorcerers. Really curious to hear how other GMs have approached this.

In David Larkins' Matter of Britain campaign (Esoteric Order RP podcast), Sir Blaines of Silchester raids the Salisbury PK manors during the Uther period, and the players counter-raid his Silchester manor. Greg et al. talk about some of the details of raiding here, and Greg speaks of raiding Britons and raiding in the Uther period as expected things. On raiding during the Anarchy, Greg says: There is some good discussion of raiding (including during Uther period), by Greg, @Morien et al. here. Morien says:

Related discussion from the old forums here.

Thanks for the substantive insights, @creativehumand @Morien!

When does a knight face an honor penalty for running away from a fight? I see the explicit penalty of -1 for "Desertion from battle or military service". But is any running away considered desertion, or only something as egregious as never showing up in the first place? Here are a few possible places one might draw the line; would there be an honor penalty for these situations? Or would the penalty simply be the failure to attain glory? Without even engaging in combat, running away from: A dragon or other monster requiring a Valorous check A horde of enemy knights vastly outnumbering your group A single enemy knight An engagement, after hearing family/lord/etc. in danger Sometime in combat, running away after receiving: A major wound A moderate wound Any wound at all Realizing that you could take a moderate wound in the next round Curious to see how you reconcile these situations with tracked PKs' honor.

You might find this thread from the old boards interesting: Nerfing SIZ

Great point, especially in Arthuriana. There's the prominent example of the knights who swear to immediately do a favor, without even asking what the favor might be.

What kind of meaning do you assign a success on a suspicious roll? Does it simply mean that the character is suspicious? Or does it grant the character actual insight into the reality of a situation/conversation (like the "sense motive" skill from D&D). To what extent does a suspicious success result in, say, a false positive vs. a true positive? Thinking about the inverse, can a character with high trusting recognize someone is probably lying, but incline to trust them anyway?

Might Cornwell's Winter King series be a good inspiration if we went in this general direction, especially as they have a more historical flavor?

Thanks very much for the clarifications, gents! The first person was what tripped me up--I read this as Greg's personal voice, not a knight's voice, and was wondering about his conviction 😄 Excited to see more about public & private honor...

Greg wrote a note: “Gwen is honorable & I’ll kill anyone who disagrees.” I am open to this interpretation, but the case is not immediately clear to me. Can someone argue this based on the game rules? I am looking at 5.2 since the "Great Hunt" preview doesn't substantively speak to honor. In 5.2, the dishonorable acts list includes "Breaking an oath" (-3, marriage?) and "treachery against a member of your family" (-5, infidelity?) Even if her infidelity is of lesser magnitude than what these acts refer to, it seems relevant. Are there some affirmative actions she takes that nullify this?

Right, Page 204 in the paperback for anyone who wants to look it up later.

Without surnames, how do you denote a family in your campaign? Using the "Titles" section of KAP 5.2 as a reference, If we use "of <place of origin>": Is this the character's homeland? How geographically-specific do we get? How does this reconcile with what the character might rule? Especially if the character eventually gains a title like Count of Rydychan? Confounding example: the de Gales family are well-known, but what if a new, semi-prominent family arises in Gales? If we use a patriarch's name, what about related family that do not have the patriarch as their father? Do we use something like cadet branches? Epithets (e.g. "the bold") are nicely unique, but they only describe an individual

This was a good reminder to me that I am viewing the story through a 21st century American lens, thanks. And great clarification on the meaning of "worshipful". Yes, the Grail's implicit acceptance of Garlon's presence was really bugging me! Thank you for this alternate interpretation of the stroke. @Voord 99 I also appreciate your integration of player character adventures into what might otherwise be solely background machinations.

Yes, I think that Pellam is quite justified in retaliating against Balin. But in terms of holding him to a higher standard, and to your point about the Orkneys, it seems that Pellam is seen as remarkably moral or "worshipful", where, say, Agravaine is certainly not. Is there text to be found, or rationalization to be offered, that point to particularly noble qualities of Pellam, aside from his descendancy from Joseph of Arimethea?

Sir Garlon behaves just about the most shamefully of any knight in the literature, running around invisible and arbitrarily assassinating knights and ladies alike. When Sir Balin attacks him, King Pellam, as I've seen written in some Pendragon materials somewhere, chooses Love(Family) over Hospitality in siding with his brother over Balin. What I always struggle with is the narrative heaping of praise on Sir Pellam, given his enabling of his horrible brother. For example, Sir James Knowles calls Pellam "the truest and most worshipful of living knights". While I understand the contemporary values prize loyalty to the family, is that true even in this most extreme circumstance? How can we reconcile the assertion of Pellam being some sort of British paragon given that the only major behavior he exhibits is defending his infamously dishonorable brother?

Sorry to necro this thread, but for the sake of posterity, I wanted to add two more timelines I had found. I'm attaching a spreadsheet of adventures ordered by year that was made by folks in the Pendragon Yahoo group. Nightbringer has another timeline that uses a different start date (410) but you should be able to essentially add a century to all dates. Pendragon Adventure Order.xls

After hearing that the new Malleus Monstrorum was finalizing, the wheels started turning in my head about adding some Lovecraft to Logres. I was digging around, and found this thread of interesting ideas. Some highlights: Anyone have any other dark thoughts? 🐙

Post acquisition by Verizon, Yahoo abruptly announced it would end its Yahoo groups service 😭 Groups are now no longer accessible to the public, and there was a KAP players' group dating back to 2001 that was affected. The good news is that Yahoo is allowing users who had belonged to the group to download its data until the end of January, which encompasses: All emails sent to the group. The list of useful URLs the group had recorded. A number of player's aid files, including things like maps, house rules, compendia, etc. I was a member of the group, and was able to obtain it. The Chaosium forums seem to be the new hub for KAP players, so does it make sense to share the files here?

I've only recently started running a game too. The traits and passions really set Pendragon apart from other systems. Be sure to engineer moments where two or more different traits/passions conflict when the character's making a decision. Bonus points if they are 16+ values, because there's an extra element of compulsion. Each of these situations will accumulate, year over year, allowing the player to make their character their own.

It looks like the forum may not be indexed by Google currently? I tried a Google search using "site:http://kapresources.wpengine.com/" and no results came up. Is there a robots.txt or something that can be configured to have Google index it? Is the volunteering Chaosium-only, or could some hypothetical grassroots Pendragon-playing IT folks take it on?

BTW, great free resource on medieval beasts online: The Medieval Bestiary

I saved this from the nocturnal forums, which hopefully will be restored soon. Below is someone's - I believe Greg's? thoughts on boosting APP. Note that it boosts certain skills and costs you honor at character creation time if it's below 10. === APP Appearance is one’s exterior look, being visual and thus entirely outward and superficial. Appearance provokes deep responses in human beings, automatic and normally outside of our awareness, never mind being within our control. (Exceptions exist, but not among knights.) APP Interpretation 01-05. Ugly. See below 06-09. Plain, unattractive, flawed 10-15. Handsome, pretty 16-20. Superlative; beautiful (women) or spectacular (men); gorgeous, dazzling. See below Appearance is only useful when it can be seen. It has no affect when men are clad in concealing armor. Superlative Appearance Gorgeousness has its advantages, and disadvantages. In a crowd of equals, the most handsome person will be addressed first, as if he or she is the leader (since handsome people have Honor, the most handsome is the most honorable!). Everyone is always watching, especially when the beautiful person is not watching. Thus it is very difficult for them to do anything in secret, including whispering at a feast, speaking to anyone, and even how long is spent with him, or her, or that group over there. Appearance Bonus Each superlative APP point (16+)grants a +1 bonus to the following: Flirt: Natural attraction makes it easier to Flirt. Intrigue: The handsome fellow, giving even just a little bit of unusual attention to the staff, gets information much easier than usual. Orate, Singing, Play, Dancing: People prefer to be entertained by pretty people, because even if the performance is not as good, at least they had a pleasant evening observing the attractive performer. It does not affect Romance. Ugly Appearance Ugliness carries a taint with it. Commoners lack Honor, and are thus less appealing to the noble eye. OPPOSITE OF ABOVE--text not complete Ugliness has its advantages and disadvantages. In a crowd of equals, the ugliest person will not be addressed. At all if possible. If something goes wrong, the ugliest person is always blamed first. Nobody looks at you. In a crowd you are practically invisible, able to stand nearby to whisperers, or in a room perhaps entirely unseen, as if you are one of the servants. Honor All heroic characters are handsome, and all their ladies are beautiful. Being ugly is a terrible disadvantage since people immediately judge a person on his superficial traits. Thus, at character generation, each point of APP below 10 costs 1 Honor. Losing APP due to major wounds or aging does not diminish Honor, however. Scars from wounds are a note of courage and strength, and counteract the loss. Likewise, aging adds to honor in exact proportion to losses. ===

It's a Ming dynasty conversion instead of Three Kingdoms, but you may find useful material in the Great Book of Pendragon Treasures, page 27.