Paladin - No flirting?

[Alexandre]

Hi all,

I have just started gamemastering a Paladin campaign and, coming over from Pendragon, was surprised by the lack of the Flirting skill, which was a staple of all the Pendragon campaign I was involved with. Charlemagne's knights are so much more serious than their Arthurian counterparts? Would you just use an APP roll, coupled with the Peasant Girl's (or Boy's, we have a female knight after all) Lustful (or maybe Selfish)?

Thanks,

Alex

[Morien]

4 hours ago, Alexandre said:

Would you just use an APP roll, coupled with the Peasant Girl's (or Boy's, we have a female knight after all) Lustful (or maybe Selfish)?

APP vs. Honor or Chaste, typically. See p. 31, 92, 171 & 421. There seems to be a bit of a contradiction between 171 and 421. I would use the higher of the two. A very honorable but Lustful Lady would be difficult because she knows giving in to her urges will destroy her reputation, whereas a very Chaste but not very honorable noblewoman is simply less interested in carnal pleasures.

With a commoner, I wouldn't even bother to roll, unless there is a particular story reason that the PK needs to seduce this exact wench.

Edited June 3, 2020 by Morien

[Clydwich]

On 6/3/2020 at 4:56 PM, Alexandre said:

Charlemagne's knights are so much more serious than their Arthurian counterparts?

It is generally believed that yes, they were (at least in the stories). This is thought to also be a reflection of when, and for who the stories were written. Most of the original Charlemange stories are generally older than the original Arthur stories, and were for a different audience. Most early Charlemange stories were for male audiences, and an audience for which fighting was their way of life, and what they knew about and wanted to hear about. In my view they are in a way another form of the Norse Sagas. By the time the Arthurian stories came about (not the original Welsh ones, as those are very differentm but the Chretien de Troyes ones), some say as a reaction on the Charlemange stories, the audience now also included women, and their narative tastes were different. As those women had enough influence, and money, to get the authors to write about themes that would also appeal to them, the tone of the stories changed.

And in a way the Charlemange stories were also about carnal things anyway. One of the recurring themes in Charlemange stories is that the captured christian prince at the court of the heathen sultan has the daughter of that sultan fall in love with him, convert to christianity, and then help him escape, and becomes his lawful wife when they are back in Charlemanges empire.