New to Pendragon: seeking fresh Adventures and GM tips for early GPC

[Paul Ceasar]

Hello everyone!

I’m the GM for a group playing Pendragon 6th Edition with four players, and we’re heading into our fourth session. We’re all still learning the rules together. Our group has been playing D&D (and only D&D) for the past six years, so I was skeptical about whether they’d enjoy Pendragon, but they’ve absolutely loved it!

We’re running the Great Pendragon Campaign (GPC), starting with the Uther Expansion. However, I’ve encountered a bit of a challenge: the game is starting to feel repetitive and lacking in direction.

We began in 479 AD with an introductory adventure in Sarum. Since then, the knights have:

Fought alongside Uther against the Irish in Menevia | Battled Saxons in Salisbury and witnessed Aurelius Ambrosius’s death | Interacted extensively with Merlin, Count Roderick and Prince Madoc | Participated in his knighting ceremony and epic feast | Seen Uther ascend to the throne and being a total jerk to Gorlois (who was really nice to them) | Explored Londinium and did some non-knightly stuff (👀) | Got madness and melancholy | Captured highwaymen and got conflicted when they noticed they were stealing food for hungry peasants | Undertaken a royal hunt, and more.

I’ve been using the Book of Feasts for courtly events and banquets and I have been illustrating the battles in a very detailed and dynamic manner, but as former D&D players, they miss the sense of high-stakes adventure—and honestly, so do I.

Do you have recommendations for pre-written adventures that can be adapted to this early period without creating inconsistencies in the GPC or overwhelming the group with overly difficult challenges?

Additionally, do you have any advice for a Pendragon GM just starting out, especially with a group accustomed to D&D’s "three-pilars" style of play? I assume I'm struggling with the rules, the book is not an easy read.

[Luca Cherstich]

There are many good adventures hooks in the GPC. I know they look a bit "bare bone" (especially if you come from something like the adventures in the recent editions of D&D....many of which I frankly find to be just railroaded descriptions of events).

Try to be creative with Pendragon, I recommend to establish a web of relationships between your PCs and NPCs. Do not waste too much time in detaling them, but give the PCs some reasons to be linked to such NPCS: lords, ladies, enemies, friends, brothers, wives, lovers, etc....you rival may become family when you marry his sister, or you may be obliged to fight your cousin, if he serves Silchester and raids your lord's lands. Maybe occasionally spice things up with a giant or small faeries, but the web of political/war relationships are the core to be enjoyed in the Uther period.

And I reveal a secret: in terms of stats many important NPCs can even have just the generic stats for knights which were in KAP5 (and which I guess are now free in the old bestiary pdf). I guess the forthcoming GM guide (Early 2025!!) will further help.

If you play Pendragon at the normal rate (1 session = 1 year), give hints about what happens to NPCs during that time. Enrich those links through the Winter Phases events. The random events from this last edition are just pure gold in giving you hints for create stories.

Even if you limit yourself to the schematic events in the GPC you'll soon see PCs creating their own stories, as they start taking interest in the world, planning and deciding what to do, without waiting for the GM to create their stories. Or at least this is my experience.

Edited December 15, 2024 by Luca Cherstich

[Luca Cherstich]

11 hours ago, Paul Ceasar said:

Additionally, do you have any advice for a Pendragon GM just starting out, especially with a group accustomed to D&D’s "three-pilars" style of play?

Do you think "avenge your father" is merely a variation of the "combat" pillar? Or  is "fulfilling a quest to save your lord" just a variation of the "explore" pillar?

 Come on...My advice is just to ignore what recent D&D designers believe to be the foundations of rpg.  Enjoy the stories as they are created in the interplay between you and the players, whatever happens and wherever the story goes....take it easy without preconceptions!

Edited December 15, 2024 by Luca Cherstich

[Luca Cherstich]

11 hours ago, Paul Ceasar said:

Do you have recommendations for pre-written adventures that can be adapted to this early period without creating inconsistencies in the GPC or overwhelming the group with overly difficult challenges?

Two things:

1) if you fear creating "inconsistencies" with the GPC you'll never play the Anarchy.....really just try to have fun, as everybody says "You Pendragon May Vary"

2) About the "overly difficult challanges", please Step out of the D&D mentality. There is no balancing mechanic in this game and to be concerned with balance just kills the Pendragon fun.

Your characters may flee a powerful enemy (especially if the fail a Valorous test....the penalty to valorous tests given by strong monsters or enemies with higher Glory are there for a reason). Enjoy the full range of your passions and traits (Reckless/Prudent, Valorous/Coward).

Combat in Pendragon is unpredictable and dangerous. Sometimes very strong PCs just die or newbies may inflict a critical to a unbeatable monster. Foolishly charging against strong berserkers impassioned by Hate Saxons passion may change many things.

And do not fear PCs deaths: they happen in this game and may create memorable moments....and furthermore playing in a deadly game make you think about solutions other than combat while, on the other hand, brave acts are really brave acts in this game ..... not like when you play the latest editions of D&D and you're just an unbeatable superman.

To be frank playing Pendragon in the last 10 years has given me way many more memorable moments that all the D&D editions which I played since the early 1990s. 

Edited December 15, 2024 by Luca Cherstich

[Morien]

On 12/15/2024 at 2:11 AM, Paul Ceasar said:

We’re running the Great Pendragon Campaign (GPC), starting with the Uther Expansion. However, I’ve encountered a bit of a challenge: the game is starting to feel repetitive and lacking in direction.

Fought alongside Uther against the Irish in Menevia | Battled Saxons in Salisbury and witnessed Aurelius Ambrosius’s death | Interacted extensively with Merlin, Count Roderick and Prince Madoc | Participated in his knighting ceremony and epic feast | Seen Uther ascend to the throne and being a total jerk to Gorlois (who was really nice to them) | Explored Londinium and did some non-knightly stuff (👀) | Got madness and melancholy | Captured highwaymen and got conflicted when they noticed they were stealing food for hungry peasants | Undertaken a royal hunt, and more.

So you have played what, one year (480) thus far? As Luca said, the campaign works best when you have game-years to let it unfold. It would perhaps be more helpful to consider Pendragon to be more of a sandbox, with the GPC giving the Big Plot (the arcs of Uther's and Arthur's reigns) with the Player-knights interacting with the big plot but also being involved with their own quests. The point is, unlike in D&D, you are not supposed to be adventuring 24/7. You generally have one big battle (as a quick aside, the Battles of Menevia and Salisbury are happening simultaneously, so the PKs should have participated in only one of them) or an adventure per year (which may take multiple sessions), and then the rest of the time is just glossed over with a few dice rolls. 

Here are some links to older posts that I have made, which may or may not be helpful:

This is pretty much my compilation thread to "how I GM Pendragon and GPC in particular", with lots of links to particular things (including generic advice which you should not skip, even though it was written originally for 5e in mind; 6e fixed some of my big bugbears): 
Morien's Musings on GMing Different GPC Periods - Pendragon & Prince Valiant - BRP Central - The Chaosium forums

Here is a thread about free adventures that you can download. While the context was to give new players and GMs something to play while waiting for the 6e edition, it can also act as a list of adventures that you can easily weave into your story (with some editing to change armors and the like, based on the period you are playing the adventure in):
 Whilst waiting for 6th edition: Having your own starter pack on the cheap - Pendragon & Prince Valiant - BRP Central - The Chaosium forums

In short, if your players are getting bored, you can always send them off to do something else. GPC is not a straitjacket, but a campaign skeleton (it took me some years to get that through my own thick skull). Use what you need and change what doesn't fit your campaign. As an example:
Anarchy: So you allied with Cornwall... what happens next? [Archive] - Nocturnal Media Forum

Also, you might want to read ahead to 486 in the GPC, if you have not already.

Spoiler

If you think that the Players need to be reminded that they are playing in an Arthurian setting, you could even nudge that event a bit earlier, although at the risk of messing up some of the battles... You may notice that once Uther is armed with Excalibur, he never loses a battle after that. So even if the PKs help Merlin to recover Excalibur, I would not have him give it to Uther until after the disastrous Battle of Eburacum (484), and hence allowing Uther to inspire and lead his men to victory at the Battle of Mount Damen. And instead of Uther leading the Cymri in 485 at Mearcred Creek, I would let Ulfius take that L/draw, while Uther is on a tour in the North to shore up support.

As a final comment... In my opinion, KAP works best when it is a story about the Player-knights and their trials, tribulations, and triumphs. Do they have rivals, enemies, friends, ladies they'd like to court, damsels to be rescued from distress? What is it that the Player-knights want from their lives? And of course, what the Players want to play? One thing to keep in mind... in KAP, the Player-knights are not the Chosen Ones Destined to Defeat the Ancient Evil, which is a plot construct I have seen used in some D&D campaigns in the Olden Days. Instead, it is about them doing their best in the sometimes unforgiving world, trying to be the best versions of themselves (usually), and trying to leave the world (or at least their families' place in it) better than when they started. The generational play is one of the strongest aspects of Pendragon, and a huge draw for me.

Edited December 16, 2024 by Morien

[7dot62mm]

The Pendragon 4th edition is often an inexpensive purchase on Drivethrurpg. Though the rules themselves are now outdated, the book includes a very good scenario plus some 20 shorter scenario seeds, some of which may be of use to you.

Tales of Magic & Miracles and Tales of Chivalry and Romance may also be useful.

Are any of these going to satisfy a bunch of D&D players who are used to saving the world in every second scenario? I don't know, but there are many good ones in this listing.