Giant Ice Spider

14 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Oh, they would know of them and even use them at times, but more as a hobby or tool for getting meat, rather than as a weapon.

 

Yes, but it doesn't lend itself well to game play. Stalking prey armed with a bow is more something that a hunter would do alone or maybe in a very small group, as opposed to the social event of the formal hunt. Some one player makes a few hunting rolls and maybe a DEX roll or two to get in position to take the shot, while everyone else just sits around the table waiting. I think the players would almost have to break up into single hunters or pairs.

This is was in the context of The Hunt scenario from the 5.2 rulebook.

[SPOILERS INBOUND]

In that scenario, the PKs are squires sent to deal with a 'man-eating' bear. They don't have any knights to supervise them (they're nearly knights themselves), and although they do have some peasants (and possibly Old Garr) with them, they aren't a large party. And even though it might be considered craven, there's no doubt in my mind that someone in Vagon Castle would (if only in jest) suggest they take bows ("[They're] only squires, after all!"). My players being my players, they'll take that literally.

I think what I'll do (since I've had to reschedule the one-shot) is give them a default Bow skill of 2 (certain pregens may have higher Skills at Archery). If they ask for bows, the person who asks gets a Prudent or a Cowardly check (their choice), and I might knock off 2-3 Glory for having attacked the bear with a ranged weapon (though not Honor, since it is a hunt).

Dammit. I thought it would be fun to give them some crossbows to toy with. Ah well.

Hi all,

I'm running 'The Hunt' from the 5.2 rulebook as a one-shot tomorrow, and something is perplexing me. Again, SPOILERS.

The scenario seems to expect the PKs (PSes?) to use swords and lances to kill the bear with swords and lances. But wouldn't they use crossbows? I presume Vagon Castle has a couple they can lend the squires to use? And they could use them, as I understand it, using the Hunting Skill (or am I confusing this with another system)? So ... why no crossbows?

Thanks in advance!

-Spider

OK, the Fealty/Homage rules in Book of the Estate are confusing me. I get that you have an Homage Passion for your highest-ranking liege and a Fealty Passion for everyone else, but, these things I can't wrap my head around:

1) Say I have a PK in my campaign who has Homage (Earl of X). They then, by whatever means, acquire lands lands from the Earl of Y. Does the PK's Homage Passion stay with the Earl of X, go to the Earl with the better Glory, or something else?

2) How do you generate the new Homage (for the new liege) and new Fealty (for the old liege)? Is the old Homage (for the old liege) ever used?

Thanks in advance,

-Spider

Please bear in mind I still haven't got to run this yet, but here's how I as a layman would do it.

You inherit Famous Traits/Passions in the form of a modifier to it equalling (Trait or Passion) - 15. If your character chooses to take after their father, it's applied as a bonus; if they rebel and try to be a rebellious brat (or rise above their father's venality, as appropriate), it's a penalty. This gives the new knight a tad more flexibility than just to-clone-or-not-to-clone (and if the father is still alive, it sets up a dynamic between them).

For knights et al, it's the same as their ransom.

Page-wise, that's 'Ransom and Blood Price' on p. 188 of the 5.2 rulebook.

On 5/8/2020 at 8:07 AM, Morien said:

The issue with starting in 506 is that you are actually in a hopeful phase of Anarchy, a Cymric resurgence. The feeling that things are going to crap is more like around 500. Or you can push it even further and start in the aftermath of the Battle of Netley Marsh. The issue is that I doubt you are going to get the same feeling of Dystopia that you would get from actually playing through the Anarchy. Part of what makes it work is that the Players get to influence the decisions and feel the oppression of the forces arrayed against them.

You make a good point. I think I'll go with 500.

On 5/7/2020 at 10:36 PM, Morien said:

If you are trying to lure in new players, starting in 510 works. However, if you are most interested in just running knightly quests/adventures in the heyday of Arthurian Chivalry, feel free to skip straight to 531. Although I warn you that GPC is not all that helpful in 531 - 553, with most of the events focused on the big names (Lancelot, Tristram, Percevale). What you really want for those years are the adventure & regional books (with adventures in them).

One thing I would seriously recommend if you want to get through GPC quickly... don't be afraid to 'skip' some years. Greg used to say that the intended pacing was 1 session per game year (which is about 3 times faster than my norm, but there you have it). This can allow you to put those years away rather quickly.

I'm not necessarily trying to get through it too quickly, as part of why I'm running this campaign is so my friend group can stay in touch while I go study abroad for a year (if that happens - no word yet)*. I mostly want to give my players the impression we'll be getting through the campaign a bit quicker (because one of my players has certain mental issues and I don't want to stress them out or overload them).

Psychologically (not that I'm a psychologist), the brain hears "shortened" and doesn't care by how much, so shortening by 15 years vs 21 years vs 25 years vs etc would all be about equivalent.

*Obviously I don't advocate breaking social distancing. I would only go abroad if the current situation at least partially clears up and my uni gives the go-ahead. Stay safe, everybody.

Hi,

I'm planning to run the GPC for 2 friends. I haven't received my copy yet, so I'm not going into year-by-year specifics for this thread - I just want to have an idea in my head of what the campaign will look like before I start prepping. Knowing them, we won't get through all 80 years of it, so I want to do a time-jump and start later on. I'm most excited personally about the period of 531-565, but feel it would be best to have established PKs for that era.

The 2 start dates I'm considering are 506 and 510. The advantage of 510 is it's later, so we'd get through more of the GPC; however, 506 gives us (part of) the Anarchy, which could add a bit more depth to the campaign. Or perhaps a 3rd option would be better?

So, any thoughts?