Random Support Materials for Pendragon/GPC

[creativehum]

I'm seeing this thread as a hodge-podge collection of items that fall outside the KAP product line, but that folks have found useful for their games. It's all idiosyncratic notions: What matters to one Referee might not matter to another. People can also make requests for details or materials. The KAP-Hive mind is a powerful thing!

I'm starting with a request:

I'm wondering if there is a solid, easy source for WEATHER in Britain during the time period of of the GPC. This might be random tables that have been published somewhere or something as simple as an Almanac that would be a reasonable representation of the time. (Weather has changed, after all!)

I know this might not seem like an interesting detail to some. But I live in Souther California. My sense of "weather" is distinctly not Logres, c. 500 AD. Anything that can help me nail down the texture and feel of the setting for my players is something I'm looking for.

Thanks!

[jeffjerwin]

Here's something: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/saxonadvent/climate.html

[creativehum]

Thanks!

And I googled 'Chivalry & Sorcery Weather' (a good bet for some tables!) and came up with a home brew PDF that contained random weather tables for different climates.

http://www.weisskrone.fr/Rules_Book.pdf

For now I think that will do the trick for me. I want a method of saying, "It's spring! Here's what the weather is like today!" I'm not looking for the most scientifically or historically accurate information. But something that will put me in the ballpark and produce random results so I'm not putting brain power on it. This will do!

Edited October 25, 2019 by creativehum

[Morien]

Everything you need to know about the weather in Camelot:

(Sorry not sorry)

[creativehum]

I do expect that the weather gets better and better in the middle Phases of the Campaign!

.... only for the lands to become all soggy again as things fall apart.

Edited October 25, 2019 by creativehum

[Atgxtg]

 

1 hour ago, creativehum said:

I do expect that the weather gets better and better in the middle Phases of the Campaign!

.... only for the lands to become all soggy again as things fall apart.

Yes, but it probably drops off with the watseland. Historically the climate cooled off during the middle ages, and that is what lead to chinmeys. Prior to that they could run a firpit and leave a door or roof often for a draft. Once it got colder they needed to keep more of the heat in.  

[BioKeith]

Just to add some really random items:
This is a free family tree generator that I quite like and use: https://www.familyecho.com/

and a random heraldry generator: https://drawshield.net/random/index.html

 

 

[creativehum]

1 hour ago, BioKeith said:

Just to add some really random items:
This is a free family tree generator that I quite like and use: https://www.familyecho.com/

and a random heraldry generator: https://drawshield.net/random/index.html

Awesome. This is the kind of stuff I'm hoping to see here.

[Dagonet]

I like The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by the historian Ian Mortimer. It's a social history of England in the fourteenth century.  Very well-written and accessible.  With all the glorious medieval anachronisms in Arthur as presented in the game, I'd say it's relevant.

[ericvulgaris]

Totally using those weather tables for my Pendragon game that just started. Thanks creativehum!

Once the land and Arthur are one, I'll have to change it but right now we're 485 in the uther period.

 I made one slight adjustment -- I split up the rain tables so each option has 50/50 chance of fog. I really like the movie Excalibur and its one of my favorite touchstones of Pendragon fiction and it's got a ton of fog and low hanging mist.

[ericvulgaris]

The book of feasts has some tables for meals, but in case you ever need more ideas, there's a twitter bot for Redwall feasts that can help spice up any party.

[creativehum]

On 11/3/2019 at 12:31 AM, ericvulgaris said:

Totally using those weather tables for my Pendragon game that just started. Thanks creativehum!

Once the land and Arthur are one, I'll have to change it but right now we're 485 in the uther period.

 I made one slight adjustment -- I split up the rain tables so each option has 50/50 chance of fog. I really like the movie Excalibur and its one of my favorite touchstones of Pendragon fiction and it's got a ton of fog and low hanging mist.

I have to admit, when I think Uther Period, I'm thinking lots of fog or wisps of mist.

[jeffjerwin]

On 11/12/2019 at 8:53 AM, creativehum said:

I have to admit, when I think Uther Period, I'm thinking lots of fog or wisps of mist.

In the summer of 535-6 all Europe was covered in a dense fog... (Which I link to the Wasteland). It's thought to have lasted months, long enough to have destroyed the harvest.

[Morien]

Interesting article here related to that: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive

However, from GPC perspective, 530s are supposed to be the Golden Age in Logres, continuing to 540s until the Yellow Pestilence. So simply thematically, I would hesitate dropping a famine or two on it.

[Atgxtg]

Wikipedia has an article on all the strange weather effects of that year and the leading theory is that it was caused by a volcanic eruption. I wonder if there is a Volcano in Listeneisse?

But Morien is right about the timing. It is the Golden Age of Arthur. Maybe Arthur's Sovereignty powers as King actually resists and drives this effect back, so that lands under his rule are immune from the effect?  So everyone else is suffering except for those who live under Arthur, who in turn prosper (except for  Listeneisse). At least until 437 when Percival fails to ask the question and releases the wasteland beyond Listeneisse.

 

I'm thinking along the lines of the film Excalibur, when after Arthur drinks from the Grail, is restored, and the land is restored with him and blooms. 

[creativehum]

We're wrapping up a campaign with my Monday Night Group. (We're currently playing the compelling module Silent Titans using the Into the Odd rules.) 

We might continue playing Forbidden Lands. Or jump back into the D&D 5e game one of our players has been running with great delight. Or we might play something else.

Since I'm itching to run Pendragon I checked to see what folks thought of Arthurian legend as a backdrop for a game. Apparently some of them only experienced Arthurian legend through some cartoon about high school football players who get transported back to old England, become knights, and fight Morgan le Fay. And I was like, "Yeah. Not that." He had not idea it was more about conflicts between choices and family and the fall out of lingering bad blood and histories.

So I whipped up a pitch document that sets out what I think are the interesting bits that matter to me... that is, the way I'd focus the game. I'll mail it out to my player when it is time to pick the next game. 

Here is an image of the first page. Here's a link to the doc.

Edited February 13, 2020 by creativehum

[Username]

15 hours ago, creativehum said:

Arthurian legend through some cartoon about high school football players who get transported back to old England, become knights, and fight Morgan le Fay

I remember some of that. I also remember there was an Arthurian Japanese anime that was a bit older too. Neat that there's cartoons about this stuff.

[Greyblade]

Great little document, CreativeHum!

[BioKeith]

I've started using Kanka as my campaign's wiki and I'm really liking it. Pendragon campaigns quickly suffer from Location and Character bloat, so having somewhere players can reference them all is quite nice. And this site is free (I have no affiliation with it, just to be clear).

https://kanka.io/en

 

[Atgxtg]

How is Kanka? I've been looking for some way to help me track all the various NPCs that come up over the years, but not sure what works out best as far as work required to set up vs. the utility. 

[BioKeith]

I'm loving it - it took me probably a day to set up everything I wanted for the campaign. I did copy/paste a lot from other sources for some of the generic things, like county descriptions - if you like, send me a PM and I'll give you a link to check out our campaign.

[Atgxtg]

Just now, BioKeith said:

I'm loving it - it took me probably a day to set up everything I wanted for the campaign. I did copy/paste a lot from other sources for some of the generic things, like county descriptions - if you like, send me a PM and I'll give you a link to check out our campaign.

Okay, will do. I just registered for the free version, and am trying to figure out how to do some stuff. I'm really interested in finding something to track the various NPCs I've introduced as well as possible handle the player knights manors and wealth.