Jump to content

David 2

Member
  • Posts

    14
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Converted

  • RPG Biography
    Back in the day I helped make maps for Columbia Games using the Mappa Harnica Tool Kit for Campaign Cartographer. To this day, Robin Crossby's Harn manor maps are some of my all-time favorites.

    Played in Greg and Suzanne's Berkeley, CA Pendragon game with a fantastic group of players.

    Edited, contributed to, did layout, and artwork for Book of the Manor, Book of Knights and Ladies, Book of the Entourage, Book of Battle, and Book of Armies - whatever Greg needed to keep Pendragon afloat back when he was self-publishing and when he was with Nocturnal. Those were the clip art and Kinkos days. I'm thrilled with David Larkins' direction and with the new 6th edition layout and artwork team (and really, really glad I don't have to do any of it!)

    Worked with Greg to write the 6th edition magic system and Codex Mirabilis, formerly known as the Book of Magic.

    Currently helping David Larkins and a terrific group of talented folks to develop and edit Greg's 6th edition books, including the Core Books and the new Great Pendragon Campaign. I hope David publishes our Slack conversations some day. :)

    Next in the pipeline are Codex Mirabilis and Codex Sanctus, which has a Christian miracle system, and allows you to create a living saint character. I'm psyched that Ellie Akers is helping with this one, and has written my all-time favorite, multi-year, Christian-themed quest.
  • Current games
    Pendragon, Call of Cthulhu

Recent Profile Visitors

165 profile views

David 2's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/4)

18

Reputation

  1. 1) We did the four-day battles. In Greg's game, only one player out of five survived Badon. He warned us it would be deadly. 2) Yes, we did that, too! Great way to let them go out in a blaze of glory. 3) Good idea! 4) I don't mind killing half the group if that's how the dice roll. As long as you prep the players that the battle's going to be deadly and they agree aforehand. 5) I don't think Merlin's involved in Badon; don't remember Greg having him there. I definitely never had him at Badon.
  2. King Lot, for not submitting to good King Arthur. ๐Ÿ™‚
  3. Without a doubt they are portrayed as supernatural creatures, said to have their own "kings," and to come from far away lands (Kingdom of the Antipodes, etc.), and, in the case of a few knights (Gawaine, Lancelot), they can appear at will with their master's horse and gear. In the vast majority of cases, they are written as comical and nasty. They abuse ladies, humiliate knights, and usually attend wicked characters, but a few useful servants to good knights exist. There are even a couple of "dwarf knights". One of my favorite takes on medieval dwarfs is from Par Lagerkvist's, The Dwarf. The main character, a dwarf, believes himself to be non-human, though born of humans, and born wicked at that. That said, it's pretty clear the dwarf characters of the romances, particularly in courtly scenes, are based on real human little people, who served the nobility.
  4. I agree with other posters. I always prefaced my groups with: "In Pendragon, you will die. How do you want to live?" They all had backup characters, which could join the group right away ("Suddenly, a mysterious knight enters the glade!"). I've found that it makes rpgs really exciting when there are real consequences. And the feeling of accomplishment for surviving is thus amplified. That said, as GM, you are free to have a magician, living saint, or fairy magically or miraculously heal players, if you think it's in the best interest of the story or group dynamics. And Tizune Thane presents a great way to limit such interventions, though it does place onus on the GM to come up with the payment plan. ๐Ÿ™‚
  5. This is a great little adventure! If you'd like some KAP6 feedback: 1. For the first rolls: Stewardship is only about the knowledge of the quality of land, agriculture, and animal husbandry. There is no more Law as a skill. Instead, this situation involves the laws of the nobility, and so Courtesy (knowledge of the culture and laws of the nobility) is probably better. 2. There is no more Faerie Lore skill. It is either a Folklore roll (knowledge of the culture and laws of the common class) or Religion roll (knowledge of the culture and laws of the clergy) to access knowledge (in the moment) about fairies from what was learned about them in childhood (stories, tales, etc.). 3. Omit any mention of selling or giving away a bride as compensation for Merlin? 4. I wonder if there's a way to hint that Cornelius is really Merlin? A game of riddles or some such? As I said, this is a great adventure, and very Arthurian. ๐Ÿ™‚
  6. Aalardin's a really fun character. When riding, Aalardin was always โ€œsurrounded by a flock of birds singing different melodies,โ€ and โ€œsurrounded with a bright light, like brilliant ray of the sun.โ€ No rain ever fell upon him, โ€œfor him the weather was always fine.โ€ In addition, he cannot be approached on horseback, no matter how hard the horse is spurred. He turns out to be a good guy in the end, and marries Arthur's niece I think. ๐Ÿ™‚
  7. Ha ha ha. Blood, death, killing, murder, incest, racism, misogyny, murdered May Babies - all ok. But bestiality, man, we need to have a talk with the group. It's always fascinating to see what people will be offended by, what they won't be offended by, and why. ๐Ÿ™‚
  8. Man, David Lynch has nothing on medieval Arthurian writers. ๐Ÿ™‚
  9. Caradoc is one of my favorites. In KAP6, Eliavres is a wicked fairy knight and features largely in a future regional supplement about Brittany, Cornwall, and Tristram. 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! ๐Ÿ™‚
  10. Well, in Greg's Pendragon - the game he created - Pagans see Lustful as a virtue and if you wish to be a pagan religious knight, then you must behave in a Lustful manner. That is, unless a GM doesn't want it. As Greg has said, many many times, Lustful doesn't have to mean slutty, and, to quote, "monogamy and non-monagamy are equally valued", though marriage is still a contract relating to property and inheritance. That's clarified a bit more in KAP6. In Greg's game, there certainly are festivals with fertility components (Samhain and Beltaine) and most non-monogamous couplings occur during these times. There might be no evidence of Celtic fertility festivals in real life (maybe), but there are in Pendragon. I personally think it's great, and contrasts nicely with the Christian virtues. And remember, Chaste doesn't mean sexless. It means abstaining from sex if single; and practicing monogamy if married. Or trying to. Characters can fail Chaste or Lustful rolls. According to Ronald Sutton, we don't know jack diddly about pagan perceptions of virginity and we do know they weren't uniform across Europe. We do know that proven fertility was very sexy in the ancient world, and that virginity was a requirement to serve as priests or priestesses in a few pagan cults, but not all of them, and we certainly don't know if it was most of them.
  11. I think it depends on how you handle your game year. My groups always did 1 session = 1 year, and usually about 4 hours of play per session. So, we tended to not spend time on the journey to our destinations, unless the journey was the destination, as it were. We'd play "travel music" and one player had coconut shells to simulate horse galloping sounds. It lasted about 20 seconds and then we were at our destination. ๐Ÿ™‚
  12. There were no African Americans in 6th century Britain, but Black folk certainly existed in Roman Britain. Legionaries from all over the world came to Britain, including from Roman Africa. https://www.history.co.uk/article/the-history-of-black-britain-roman-africans
  13. I agree with Hzark10 that Morgan's ultimate nature and motivations should be left up to the GM. I know that Greg wanted her to be more a "sympathetic antagonist" than a proto-feminist pagan, as in Mists of Avalon. He ultimately settled on a a version closer to Malory, Lancelot-Grail Cycle, and Suite du Merlin, rather than Geoffrey of Monmouth's. Which I kinda agree with. I don't particularly like the earliest Queen of Avalon depiction of her, as it makes her a remote, inhuman, feminine ideal. A faceless goddess. I like how she's depicted in Malory, Lancelot-Grail, and the Suite du Merlin. She's human, and as other posters have mentioned, has a right to be pissed off about her father's death. She was torn from her mother's side, and the learned environment of Amesbury Abbey, to be married to a much older man in the far north. It might be inferred that she had a rough childhood. ๐Ÿ™‚ But, what I like the most about her in these stories is that she's deeply flawed, though more wicked than evil. While she uses her magic to attempt to seize political power (and kill her brother and husband), and torture her perceived enemies (that poor boiled woman), she also uses it for frivolous reasons, out of spite, petty jealousy, and most often to seduce handsome knights. And she's tragically unlucky in love. So many of her lovers leave, betray her, or die. There's every indication that she's obsessed with Lancelot. And yet, as Morien mentioned, she does seem to slow down close to the Grail Quest. Whether it's because she's given up because of her Divinations, or simply because she's pushing 70-80 by the end of the story, Morgan definitely seems to mellow out in old age. She even seems to attempt a rapprochement with Arthur (murals), and perhaps demonstrates tenderness for him on the barge to Avalon. That's a fully realized character arc. But, again, it should be up to the GM to decide. GMs should be able to use Morgan - or let her use their players! - in any way they find useful, interesting, or fun.
×
×
  • Create New...