The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 502

Summary: Our group is attempting a complete run of the Great Pendragon Campaign  using 5^th edition rules. Players are Matt, Mark, and Lilith. I am the GM.

Year 502

The seventh year in the Anarchy Period, there is no king in Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

·        Sir Safrax, played by Lilith.

·        Sir Quintus, played by Matt.

·        Sir Aeddan of Pitton, played by Mark.

Lots of politicking this year as Silchester approaches the Mercian alliance that the player knights set up, asking to join, but not formally. Word has come that raids are aimed at London and Duke Ulfias of Silchester wants to stop them. With the advice of the player knights, Countess Ellen is on board. The military alliance the player knights have set up is pretty strong right now, no match against all the Saxons unified, but luckily they are not unified.

The Saxons and Angles are fighting each other this year, and King Cwichelm, such a threat last year, loses in this little battle. It also keeps all the invaders off the Britons’ backs.

Thoughts: Again, the players’ efforts in unification pay off. Without all their work on the alliance, they and everyone else would be in a much more precarious position. This year’s “adventure” is basically nothing, something that happens a lot in the Anarchy period. There are a number of years where there are big political maneuvers, but nothing concrete provided for the players to do. Of course, what I do in these situations is find an adventure for them to go on, usually one that ties into the bigger events, but sometimes just a knightly adventure. My notes are bad for this year and I don’t remember what I had them do. Interestingly, the Anarchy period seems to be about the only one with this issue in the campaign. After Anarchy ends, almost every year has two wars or adventures, but at least one at the minimum. Anarchy calls on you to do a lot of stuff as the GM to keep the players entertained.

Special Note: Something important happened in 497 that I failed to mention in the writeup! Robert, the son of the Earl, is in his minority during the Anarchy period, and his mother, Countess Ellen, is running the county. I am keeping track of important families, and one of the events that can happen to such families is that someone dies, especially kids. Well, young Earl Robert died in 497, leaving his sister, Ishild, as the heir to the county. She has been growing up in the intervening years, and is now 15, getting close to the age where she could take over administration of the county.