Ringan

4 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

I guess that means you'd be interested in some alternate takes on King Arthur too, like a "historical" Arthur.

Oh for sure!  Always interested in placing the tales in the context of the happenings of the wider world.  (I read a good thread yesterday about trying to re-create a cheeseburger in Roman days 😁)

That sounds good, too!  BTW, for anyone who isn't aware of it, I'm a big fan of GURPS Camelot as a general sourcebook.

Thanks for all the perspectives!  I feel like I have a good understanding of the situation now.

25 minutes ago, Khanwulf said:

It's things like this that could go into a Arthurian Britain Gazetteer, explaining how the culture and lands work, and all the myriad differences that make the setting more than Sword & Sorcery with extra knightings. 

Eventually we may have a collection

Yeah, maybe something like the Dragons of Britain, which I believe @sirlarkins contributed to.

All right, now say you are a single knight riding in the woods and you spot a band of three Saxon marauders.  I see a few ways this might be approached:

1. Surprise attack them (i.e. unopposed attack) - is this dishonorable?
2. Charge at them.  You get the charge bonus but you're probably too loud on your horse to be "surprising" - no dishonor here, right?
3. Hail them and formally announce you'll attack them, allowing them to prepare - overkill, right?

For 1 and 2, does the scenario of being an outrider, in a build-up to an imminent battle change the honorableness?

What is the general consensus on surprise melee attacks?  KAP says "it is very dishonorable" to attack an enemy from surprise.  Yet there are a couple instances of battles where the Cymri catch the Saxons by surprise, and these aren't characterized as dishonorable moves.  I'm wondering if surprise is ok on a relative basis, like:

• vs. beasts: not dishonorable.
• vs. honorless men (e.g. bandits, Saxons): not dishonorable, but gain less glory to do so.
• vs. fellow knights: dishonorable.

Seems like nocturnalmediaforum is down.  Does this mean migration is happening soon?