Tizun Thane

1 hour ago, Morien said:

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.

And yet, as you know, Arthur did just that in canon. Magical items are ok, it seems.

11 hours ago, Khanwulf said:

Bonus: how did Gawain get his solar superman power? Any explanation?

As Atgxtg said, there is clear pagan solar connection to Gawaine. In the Vulgate (and probably Malory), he was christened by a holy man the hottest day of the year (St John's day). As you see, it's a "christian" explanation of a pre-christian myth.

11 hours ago, Khanwulf said:

Arthurian legend has a variety of "magic knights"

As Atgxtg said, this "magic knights" are in game either fae or fiends, or sorcerers, i.e. NPC. They are tools in the hands of the GM.

20 minutes ago, Hzark10 said:

That also is good.  So, from one basic scenario, we now have 9 different ways in can be presented:

normal bear, magical bear, shapechanged bear.

kills everyone, just knights, just christians.

That's the spirit!   Make this generic adventure your own adventure.

18 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

You forgot the giant chicken. It seems silly, but it is very Celtic. 

You know that the T-rex is very close to a giant chicken, don't you?

https://earthbuddies.net/are-chickens-really-the-closest-descendants-of-t-rex/

Seriously, for beginners, the Stag/Bear connection sounds celtic, not the giant chicken. But I am very interested in the celtic/giant chicken connexion.

Fair points 😀. When I played this little adventure years ago, my Imber (called Fullerton, because why not) was in the Forest Perdue, so it makes much more sense.

17 minutes ago, Morien said:

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.

A few months works better in the Imber context, I agree.

19 minutes ago, Morien said:

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.

Exactly. The PK will not test the hunting system, and they better show up fully armed. Its a different adventure.

That's why your idea to make Richard the Bear is interesting. Players may try do dodge the Bear to find the Hag (or whoever did this). They will be preys to the Bear, and you can still use the hunting system in reverse.

No one can escape Imber without being eaten by the Bear, so no one knows. The "ward thing" is what the count will want to do later.

14 hours ago, Morien said:

I admit, at the first glance, I was totally expecting the Bear to be the transformed & cursed Sir Richard.

Clearly, it's a better idea 😀 but it turns the simple adventure into a full scenario. PK could escape the bear to find the Hag to kill her/beg her to lift the curse. I could swear there was an adventure online years ago with the same premice (a maiden and her father turned into a bear) !

When I began my campaign years ago, I improvised this little adventure for my squires. I still like it today. It's simple but effective.

The new adventure of the bear of Imber

Problem :

There is no news of sir Richard of Imber since few years. Sir Elad asks a bunch of squires to go to Imber to learn the truth. Sir Richard may be the uncle of one PK for more drama.

Characters :

• Richard of Imber, his sons Rickard and Christian, all deads.
• Elizabeth of Imber, daughter of Richard, a noble maid of eighteen summers (glory 250, App 17, stewardship 15, singing 13, First Aid 17, and chirurgy 15, chaste 16, merciful 15, selfish 13, love family 16).
• The Bear of Imber. A strong black bear with 4d6 damage and armor 8 (100 against a knight), Valorous roll +0.

Secret :

Richard, a christian knight, was cursed by a pagan witch or faery (Nineve for example, or a hag if you want more direct action).  She sent a magical bear who slays every human trying to leave Imber. The exact reason of the curse is left to your imagination.

Solution :

Going to Imber. As the village is far away from the main roads, a hunting roll (or two) is necessary to find the way. On a fail, PKs became « Lost in the woods » (as the solo).

Finally, they will arrive in Imber, and hear a lovely voice singing sadly a beautiful lament from the manor. Soon or later,  the lady of Imber, last survivor of her family, will narrate her sorrowful tale. Her father and brothers fought bravely the beast, and died. A woods witch (or the Hag herself if there is one to fight) foretold that « No knight will ever slay the beast », but her lord father didn’t listen. Many peasants were eaten as well.

She will urge her guests to stay at her manor to be safe. They are only squires after all. I suppose PK (squires happily) will not listen either. Finding the Bear is surprisingly easy : it will attack any people leaving Imber after a few miles. Elizabeth will be grateful of course, but won’t unavoidably fall in love with one of her saviors.

Glory :

• 60 each for complete success.
• 10 for joking about Eowyn ("I am no man!")
• 10 for good Roleplay
• 100 to share for killing the bear.

As it was not mentionned before, there is the Lindsey KAP campaign with Greg Stafford himself as GM.

http://satnightpendragon.blogspot.com/

The reports are telegraphic in the beginning and the end of the campaign, but oh boy... The middle is fantastic. The Anarchy and the first years of Arthur are a awesome testimony of his gaming style.

Otherwise, the first KAP campaign (playtesting, I suppose) by Greg Stafford in Salisbury is interesting as well, but much more conventionnal.

http://tuesnightpendragon.blogspot.com/

Thanks Atgxtg. I play mainly with KAP3, even now so it makes sense. Personnaly, if I am much more strict about female knights than others, I don't mind women cumulate family characteristic and lady's gift.

Did they change the rules behind my back?😮 

@ Morien: Your rules are good, but they are not RAW. 

51 minutes ago, Morien said:

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.

RAW, women gain both the Family Characteristic from their father, and the lady's gift from their mother.

14 hours ago, JaredS113 said:

I changed Son Number to Child Number.

14 hours ago, JaredS113 said:

Father's Name to Parent's Name

Are you sure about this? Even a daughter have a father after all. The world of KAP is socially a patriarcal world, full of olds conceptions (even odd). The name of the father is more important in this society. That's why you gain 1/10 of the glory of your father (not your mother) and you inherit your Family Characteristic from your father.

The Son number is important as well because sons inherit before daughters, and the eldest before the youngers.

It was there for a purpose.  I'm afraid you will lost something by erasing it.

Like Morien said in the old post. The Anarchy is supposed to be free-play, not railroaded. It's a bit strange to be gallivanting in Britain during the Anarchy, and there is no hint of the repercussion of the choices of the players (tributes, alliances, etc.). In every campaign, you have to react to the choices of your players, so the list is abstract and can not be played per se.

Ultimately, the choice to place an adventure in 535 or in 540 is subjective.

In Savage Moutains, the "adventure of the best wine in the world" is perfect during the reign of Uther. The PK are sent to scout Gwaelod to look if a conquest is possible if the king refused to submit to Uther, and things happened. There is an ancient feeling for this adventure perfect for this rough times.

Otherwise, the list of the old forum is interesting, but not really useful, especially during the Anarchy. There is plenty of odd choices, with little freedom for players.

For beginners, the rulebook battle rules are perfectly fine.

BoB is for experimented players frustrated with the limitations of this abstracted system.

18 hours ago, creativehum said:

While they are still squires who is running the manor?

Good question for you, but Players generally don't care, and it's not really important for the game (Except if it is, as an uncle who don't want to release the manor for example).

18 hours ago, creativehum said:

How do you present them? How do the Players keep track of them?

Players forget. It is known. Present them organically. Make them real. Let them interact with the players. Some will stand up, and the other will fade in the Background.

11 hours ago, creativehum said:

How does the introductory adventure from KAP play out for people? Fun? Engaging? Set the right tone? 

The adventure is simple, but in play, it's working fine. When I played it, I had a little feast in the village. Some dancing rolls, indulgent/sober, chaste/luxurious, this kind of things.

Like Morien, i think the easy way is to begin in 484 with this little adventure. You're knighted at the end. There is rumors of battle next year. The characters will be a bit stronger. You can play it in 1 session. For the heiresses... Don't introduce them randomly. They are long term goals. For the first session, you could introduce some sisters of the PKs, a impoverished cousin.

21 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

The GPC lists "Phantoms" as -5 to -15, giving us a lot of leeway. . A Banshee is +0 and fills a similar role, a Nukalevee is another "horseman terror" is +0, yet is truly horrific to look at, having no skin. So if you think a -10  fits better, go with it. Ultimately it seems to come down to how tough a given creature is. The guardian ghosts in the barrow mound from the GPC are tougher, and keep coming back.

I checked the GPC yesterday, and clearly, I did not find any unquestionnable logic in it either. It's subjective as you said.

• First Round: players fight bodyguards
• round 2: players get an opportunity to fight the army leader (who can not flew this round)
• round 3: if the leader wants to flee, he rolls his riding skill against the melee skill of the player opposing him. If he wins, he manages to run away. And yes, there is probably bodyguards as well trying to protect their lord (inspired maybe), and blocking any pursuit, so it's really challenging.

On 10/21/2019 at 9:51 AM, Atgxtg said:

I doubt that it would need to do that with a  -10 to Valor  That would zero out all those commoners.

A ghost is an -10 Valorous and it's immaterial. That's why I'm suggesting a -10.

23 hours ago, Morien said:

A Bookworm Solo, if you will.

I forgot this damned solos. You're right. Your idea reminds me of the jousting improvement in the book of the manor. You pay 1 £ and you gain a check in lance. If the PK studies a book (4-5 £ for the simple ones), he will gain a check in correlation with the topic of the book. It's not game breaking.

2 hours ago, creativehum said:

thank you again

You're welcome

[Beware, english is not my fist language] No written scenario survives contact with the players.

So… My campaign was currently in 535 ( !),and I decided to play « the quest of the Red Blade » last Sunday, and it was … interesting ?

The group was high level with two round table knights and a third fellow very close to it with an Dex 24, aka the « ninja knight », all with partial plate. So I buffed up the opposition, with warriors with 5d6 damage, some longbows, etc.

The first part, with all the journey and the meeting with Gregor of Stafford and the others, was played as written. I was afraid it became tedious (another host, another talking, etc.), but the players were happy, and I was happy to present them the « savage » cambrians and their pre-feodal ways.

The best encounter was king Garan and his magical crane, a proper arthurian « marvel ». I roleplayed all his long tale with all of his glorious ancestors, and it was probably the best roleplaying encounter of the game. My players were overhelmed by all the news, and they forgot 90% of it.

The encounter with the knights of Gomeret was short and bloody. After that, they pondered what to do next.

1. 1)      They could rally the invading army.
2. 2)      They could go to the castle of the Kite to warn the evil king about the invading army to win his trust (and then stole the sword).
3. 3)      They could use the invading army like a big diversion and take advantage of it to sneak around to stole the sword unnoticed.

Of course, they chose 3) after much talking, and I was forced to improvise.

They tried to gain intel in a local hamlet (Minffordd), but the villagers warned their king of the intruders. PK were purchased by 15 mounted warriors. They felt their invitation was a trap. A fight ensued. 10 mounted warriors were slain, and the others fled.

After that, they decided to hide and to wait the invading Gomeret army to sneak into the castle. They were shocked the Gomeret army was so easily defeated. I described a heavy fog engulfing the whole army to « show » them the powers of Idris.

Then, they runned to the castle to attack it before the return of the victorious army. I decided than the garnison left behind was minimal (20 warriors and 3 knights).

The ninja knight infiltrated into the castle. Without his armor, his climbing and discretion skills were at 24. Despite my best efforts (he made 10 rolls at least), he managed to open the front door. His 2 friends rushed in. There was a few skirmishes, an longbow archer in the round tower they learned to fear, and then the big battle in the keep.

They fight the two surviving knights with 6 warriors. It was a harsh fight they managed to win. After the surrender of the last knight, the survivors of the garnison dropped their weapons in fear and surrendered as well.

At 3, they just took an impregnable fortress. My players discovered the treasure (150 £ !), and their joy knew no limits anymore. At this point, Pig Boy approached the party and explained his situation. They briefly hesitated to negociate with the evil king to exchange his sword against his son, but were revulsed by his cannibalistic habits.

So, they cooked up a new plan. They went to king Garan (The Crane King) with Pig Boy. The son was the bait to lure the evil king to their trap outside Merionnyd. I felt it was their first brillant idea of the day.

King Garan was happy to learn that he did have an opportunity to avenge all his ancestors and gathered his own army (100 warriors).

The Merionnyd army was ambushed in a last battle. The evil king Cadwallader died in a duel against a PK. They recovered the sword, and convinced king Garan to give up his claim on the blade.

Pig Boy was renamed Adelin (the saint of the day they met him), and left to the care of king Garan (his great-great nephew ?). I supposed king Garan will marry the boy to one of his daughters to unify the two kingdoms. Everything was well.

The End.

PS : By the way, my players felt the sword was cursed, so they broke the blade into pieces🤣

Their is many roman books to be found too, on many subjects.

Otherwise, no, I will not give a bonus to a knight for reading a book. Except if she forgot her winter training to read... If I were you, I will let the player create her own library (if it's her wish). Later, during a saxon raid, the library will burn to show the cruelty and stupidity of the dark ages...

The tower is higher and bigger.

Good work. My quibbles:

• An undead have no Unconscious or Major Wound threshold. You have to put it to 0 HP
• A -5 Valorous is a bit weak for an " agent of death ". -10 is probably more accurate
• 5d6 damage is a bit weak for a monster. 6d6 seems better
• Glory won become 200 if you follow my advices

Otherwise, your dullahan will probably show up in my game one day or another

6 hours ago, creativehum said:

The books on the current list are either books of non-fiction about feudal society or (apart from Malory) more recent tellings of the Arthurian tales. None of them approach the stories with the kind of analysis we might expect to find, say, in someone like Joseph Campbell.* That is the kind of thing I was asking about.

At the end of Knights Adventurous, there is a double page of Greg Stafford explaining what he thought of Joseph Campbell and the arthurian mythos.