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Global Matters for Pendragon variants


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So we have Paladin, obviously, and according to this post https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/14108-current-future-pendragon-6th-edition-books/?do=getNewComment we're gonna have a book on the Matter of Greece and the Matter of Japan.

I'm thinking about this, and . . .

Y'know, those two are the ones that I've definitely heard the most about over the years, and the Matter of France only makes sense as a follow up to the Matter of Britain, but....

there are 1.5 other canonical Matters left unaddressed (the Matter of Rome and the Matter of Spain) and like....

I would quite enjoy if the game (at this point we're needing a name for the engine itself, tbh) applied much more globally ~ the Matter of Kuru, for example (based on the Mahabharata) or the Matter of Teotihuacan (Quetzalcoatl and Xochiquetzal and them) or, for that matter, the Matter of the Conquest (Cortez and Cuauhtemoc and Malinche and all that) or the Matter of Mali (Sundiata) or or or....

Do y'all think any of that is likely?  If they were to do another Matter after the Greece and Japan books, what do you think it would be?

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I’m not sure if Chaosium would feel that it conflicted too much with their “real” Greek myth game, but I personally would love to see a Matter of Troy that was about the medieval understanding of what were originally Greek myths but came to the Middle Ages overwhelmingly through Latin sources and were then lensed through a very different medieval set of narrative conventions and values.  It could actually be done as a Pendragon/Paladin supplement rather than a standalone game.   Since both the Franks (originally) and the Britons (shamelessly copying the Franks) are Trojan descendants, you could even do it as a prequel to a normal Pendragon or Paladin campaign, flash-forwarding to the great-great-great-[insert many more greats]-grandchildren of the first PKs.

I imagine that the Greek-myth one will, like Pendragon, have a pseudohistorical, or rather pseudoprehistorical, setting, based on the Mycenaeans.  If so, a game covering the Near Eastern Bronze Age that could be played either by itself or alongside the Greek one would seem like an obvious fit.

There are a great many non-Western possibilities, obviously.  That being said, Pendragon is designed for a comparatively high level of realism — you could adapt it for traditions where the heroes are on a more astonishing scale, but it’s maybe not the best fit.   Close to home, it arguably doesn’t do Welsh or Irish myth all that well.

One nice thing would be a toolkit for creating a noncanonical chivalric-romance world like that of Amadis de Gaula or Tirant lo Blanc.  There were an awful lot of successful romances that weren’t based on a specific pre-existing set of stories, just set in a notional “long ago” time, where one might fall in love with the Queen of Scotland, but it wasn’t any Queen of Scotland who had existed before the composition of this particular romance.  Might be fun for experienced Pendragon players to have a game where you say, “All the chivalry and courtly love and tournaments and stuff works just the way that you know.  But this is all about you.  In this world, you’re Lancelot.”

Edited by Voord 99
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David Larkins has said a few times he would love to do a Robin Hood one so I see that as fairly likely. I went to University in Nottingham and always had a Robin Hood soft spot so that one really excites me. Also really a massive fan of Greek mythology so a Greek heroic era playing descendants of the gods is like catnip to me. 

Looking over literary cycles on Wikipedia there are a number of ones that jump out at me, the Anansi tales and 1001 nights. Other than those I'd love to see an Ancient Egyptian (Old Kingdom to say New Kingdom) one but not sure how well that would work.

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