Saxons! and Land of Giants

[Wolfpack Six]

Hello again,

In keeping with the question of other uses for the Pendragon system, does anyone have any experiences, positive or negative, with the Saxons! or the Land of Giants sourcebooks?

(I figured that since these sourcebooks were actually designed for Pendragon, this question deserved its own topic.  There are other similar sourcebooks; these are just the ones with which I'm familiar.)

Anything particular good or bad about them?  Do they work well within the system, or do they strain it to the point of breaking?

Thanks,

WP6

[Morien]

The two big things you have to be aware of in Saxons! character generation are:

1) It is '4.5 edition' from Green Knight era, which means that it starts from 15 year old youth who then acquires experience via aging until he qualifies as a theng (knight), as in 4th edition KAP, BUT...

2) ... since it is 4.5, instead of the ONE previous experience benefit as in 4th edition, he gets THREE.

So if you are using vanilla 4th edition, Saxons! is much stronger. If you are using also Book of Knights, which is also 4.5 edition and gives the three benefits, then not such a big deal. Or if all of the players are Saxons, again, no worries, since they all start from the same footing.

But if you are mixing books, be sure that you don't give another character 12 extra yearly trainings just because he is using a Book of Knights or Saxons! while other are using 4th edition or Land of Giants! (I haven't used LoG, but after a quick glance, it seems to conform with 4th edition chargen rules with 1 benefit per year.)

Additionally, I am not fond of the Berserk rules in Saxons!, as I find them a bit too superheroic.

 

[Ian Absentia]

Land of Giants is fabulous as a grey-to-sepia adaptation of KAP.  Primarily, it's a cinematic 'port to a different setting (Beowulf!), with little in the way of changes to mechanics.  As Morien points out above regarding Saxons!, LoG is written for an earlier edition of the rules, but with few changes that can't be adjusted if you know the difference between the two.  Chronologically, it's contemporary with KAP, but playing a cross-over between the two might show  some strain.

!i!

[Cornelius]

Both supplements are in the same timeframe as Pendragon. You could use Saxons! to play out the King Arthur legend only witnessed from the other side.

Aside from the issue with Saxons! as mentioned by @Morien you can use them in conjunction with the other books.

I use the Saxons! book as a sourcebook for my GPC. Especially when they are going to those locations. Saxons! has information of the Saxon Coast. I do the same with other books like Savage Mountains (Cambria) or Perilous Forest (West Cumbria). The books have some more indepth maps of the area and a description of the various kingdoms and fiefs.

By the way: If you need more background. The Book of Sires gives a good overview of these areas up to 480.

[Atgxtg]

On 7/4/2019 at 6:27 PM, Morien said:

Additionally, I am not fond of the Berserk rules in Saxons!, as I find them a bit too superheroic.

They do tend to match up with the sources though. In fact there are stories of true berserks being practically immune to edged weapons. Saxons! seems to downplay some of the weaknesses of berserks (i.e. getting beaten to a pulp by someone with a blunt weapon, vulnerability to Christian Holy Men), too.

 I do think it is far to easy to be a "true" Berserk in Saxons!, as it only requires a character to take a passion or two. For NPCs it's controllable as the GM can use or not use them in any numbers that he wishes, but for players it seems far too easy to grab Love (Wotan) and go tot town..