How Often to Camelot?

[SaxBasilisk]

For those with campaigns in the Boy King era and later - how often do your knights visit Camelot?

I came across this passage in Blood and Lust, p. 7:

Quote

Most characters should hold land from one of Arthur’s vassals, and work towards becoming close to Arthur. Most knights, even those already accepted to the Round Table, visit Camelot or the king’s court only every 4-7 years.

I know that in the 5.2 rulebook, the Round Table Knights are asked to return to Camelot each year to retake their oath, unless they have some dispensation. So it seems Greg had different thoughts later on about it.

[Morien]

14 minutes ago, SaxBasilisk said:

For those with campaigns in the Boy King era and later - how often do your knights visit Camelot?

Well, Camelot is not built until the Conquest Period, and gets barely finished by the time of the Roman War. So not so much before that. 😛

By Romance and especially during Tournament, the Pentecostal Tournament would be an island-wide draw. So unless the PKs are busy with something else, they try to make their way to Pentecost to participate in the festivities and in the tournament. The way that GPC describes the Tournament, you pretty much need a good portion of all the knights of Britain (and some from the Continent) to participate to make up the numbers.

So yes, I think there is some evolution of Greg's thinking between 1991 and early/mid-2000s. But I think his main point was valid, that the actual access to the High King would be rather limited. Sure, you can attend the tournament and so forth, but actually to talk with the High King might take some doing. Let alone to become one of his trusted knights.

[Darius West]

I think this is something of a "how long is a piece of string" question.  The string is as long as it needs to be for its purpose, unless and until it breaks.

As to how often characters visit Camelot, well, how often do they need to go?  Whenever I've played, I think we visited Camelot at least once per year, and sometimes more when there were matters to report on.  If you want glory, it is wise to try to get yourself invited to the Feast of Pentecost at Camelot.  Of course you may not see Arthur every year, but you are likely to find someone to provide patronage if you rub shoulders with the powerful.  Of course this may not be possible if your own subenfeudalization means you owe first duty to another lord than Arthur. 

[Tizun Thane]

4 hours ago, SaxBasilisk said:

For those with campaigns in the Boy King era and later - how often do your knights visit Camelot?

I follow religiously the advices provided in Blood&Lust. Once every 3/4 years I think. I try to maintain an aura of mystery around Camelot. The court of the Liege is the main court in my game, not the royal court.

Familiarity breeds contempt, after all.

4 hours ago, Morien said:

So unless the PKs are busy with something else, they try to make their way to Pentecost to participate in the festivities and in the tournament.

Once in a while, it's fine. Every year? It became boring quickly. My players hate Lancelot for this reason. They don't even compete anymore if he enters the jousts ^^

[Morien]

36 minutes ago, Tizun Thane said:

Once in a while, it's fine. Every year? It became boring quickly. My players hate Lancelot for this reason. They don't even compete anymore if he enters the jousts ^^

Why not? They can still gain Glory for doing well in the early section. It is not like they would run into Lancelot first thing. Or are your PKs so powerful that they eschew anything less than being the champions themselves? I think the best we got was that one of the PKs won a local jousting tournament. The bigger tournaments are nigh unwinnable, thanks to the presence of knights like Gawaine, Lancelot, Tristram and/or Lamorak.

We are using a One-Roll-Tournament resolution, which is my own take on the (in my opinion slightly flawed) GPC quick resolution technique. So Pentecostal tournaments won't take all that long to play through, but tend to net between 40 and 100 Glory in general for the PKs. In addition to this, we have our own court events which means that they will accumulate some trait and skill checks, as well as occasional opportunity to network, hunt for spouses, advance their siblings, etc... Sure, most of these could be done at the court of their own liege lords, but then I would have to run two smaller, parallel courts, and given the GPC, it does not seem likely that people would actively avoid the yearly Pentecostal Tournament, which tends to be the biggest one in the land each year.

Still, even though they get to attend all these activities in Camelot, they don't actually get to interact with the King and the Queen all that much. One PK managed to get into the Queen's Knights, and spent a year effectively as her household knight, but other than that...

YPWV, though.

[Tizun Thane]

I said boring in the sense that having a big tournament and a big feast every year is a bit repetitive. 

18 hours ago, Morien said:

YPWV, though.

If I remember correctly, you have  one "court session" and one "adventure session" per year. I have only one adventure session per year. It's logical you have more use of the Pentecostal Court.

[Morien]

50 minutes ago, Tizun Thane said:

If I remember correctly, you have  one "court session" and one "adventure session" per year. I have only one adventure session per year. It's logical you have more use of the Pentecostal Court.

That is so. We usually spend one session on the Pentecostal stuff, socializing, dealing with family stuff, and setting up the summer's adventure. Depending on how much time we have, the adventure might already begin in the same session, and then have one full session or even session and a half to wrap up. I am a slow GM. 🙂