The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 503

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 503

The eighth 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.

One of our major deviations from the way things are “supposed” to go in the narrative as laid out by the campaign takes place this year. The Mercian alliance decides to go to help London as a massive force of Saxons attacks. Sir Aeddan, with a Battle skill approaching 30, has been appointed Marshal by Countess Ellen, and leads the armies in this conflict. The rolls are so exceptional that the Saxons are defeated, their lines broken, and the entire force routed. In official continuity, they capture London. In our game, they are driven back.

Some shit is also going on in the north, as King Nanteleod of Estragales starts gobbling up territory, including Lindsey. His main rival there was the kingdom of Malahaut, bolstered by Saxons, but Nanteleod defeats them in battle and is relatively unopposed. Lyndsey gives fealty to him, and he looks like he’s planning to keep going. This creates a new threat from the north in addition to the Saxon problems, and it looks like Cornwall is going to start making trouble too.

Thoughts: I wanted the character of Aeddan to be able to have a real impact on the outcome of the battle as Marshal, and the Salisbury forces were on the right wing along the river. He managed to make the Saxon forces break and fall back early in the battle, allowing his forces to reach and destroy their ships, cutting off their retreat down the river. Swinging in, the right flank then caused another rout in the center of the line. Overall, the defending forces had many more soldiers than they are assumed to have in the text and several really good Battle rolls turned the tide of the battle from defeat to victory. This also makes Aeddan one of the most influential characters in the country about now.

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.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 501

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 501

The sixth 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.

King Cwichelm of the Angles makes a surprise attack, capturing the counties of Hertford and Huntington before anyone can raise an army to prevent it. He continues to advance, but is stopped by the combined armies of Salisbury and Rydychan. While away fighting the Angles, Salisbury is left open to raiding from the Jutes of Kent, retribution for failing to pay tribute. A new Saxon chief arrives and sets himself up in Portsmouth, luckily mostly fighting other Saxons on arrival.

In Wales, Escavalon conquers Norgales, solidifying his hold over the entire region.

Saxons also kidnap Ygraine and her daughter Morgan from the nunnery where they were staying, but all the Saxons are found mysteriously dead and the two ladies unharmed. The young Morgan is perhaps the cause of the deaths. Sir Safrax, Sir Quintus, and Sir Aeddan then accompany the pair northward, where Morgan is married to the king of Gorre.

At winter court, a clamor of Saxons demanding tribute, including an emissary of King Cwichelm, who claims dominion over all other Saxons. Allies counsel caution, and pressure mounts from Lindsey and Wales to become subjects for mutual defense. The knights counsel the Countess to wait and see before committing to anything. Duke Ulfius of Silchester also sends an emissary asking to join the Salisbury alliance.

Thoughts: The alliance is holding pretty strong, although the pressure is mounting. Due to their political maneuvering, Salisbury is actually in a much stronger position this year than the book assumes. They now have strong provinces coming to them to join, rather than having to actively recruit. King Cwichelm is a huge threat, though, but luckily the Saxons don’t all get along or else it would end very badly for the Britons.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 500

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 500

The fifth 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.

King Idres of Cornwall marched on Dorset, but the combined forces of Dorset, Salisbury, and Somerset repulsed the Cornish advance. Praetor Jonathel of Dorset is thrilled, and solidifies his alliance with Salisbury.

Despite this win, there is bad news on the Saxon front. A new group of Saxons, the Angles, land in Caercolun and quickly overtake it, creating a new kingdom of Anglia. The Earls of Hertford and Huntington come running to Salisbury, looking for aid, as they are next on the chopping block.

In Wales, Escavalon conquers Estragales, creating a more powerful kingdom there. The King of Escavalon also looks to Norgales, where three usurpers rule, aiming to expand there as well.

In Salisbury proper, at the prompting of the player characters Countess Ellen agrees to a marriage with the son of Duke Killian of Clarence, securing an alliance with both Clarence and Marlboro. The allied block is quite large now, comprising most of central Logres.

Thoughts: The player characters are starting to change the scripted narrative. In the campaign book, Idres conquers Dorset, but through the diplomatic negotiations they undertook the players have changed that and secured a valuable ally. They also negotiated the marriage deal to bring Clarence and Marlboro into their alliance, creating a strong Cymric block in the center of all the invading nations, allowing them to resist much more effectively. The players put a lot of their efforts over the five years of Anarchy into this, and with good rolls and lots of legwork it paid off.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 499

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 499

The fourth 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.

The knights visit the ruler of county Dorset, Praetor Jonathel, and convince him an alliance with Salisbury is in his best interest. Jonathel has his eye on the encroaching Cornish king and agrees readily. Thanks to this alliance, it looks like war with Cornwall is on the horizon! King Idres has captured county Jagent, and Dorset is clearly next. King Idres’ son, Mark, has tried to woo the Countess of Salisbury but is rebuffed and sent packing.

Luckily, the Saxons continue their squabbles, with Kent and Sussex hiring fighters to go against one another. Sussex and Essex just ask for some fighting men instead of their usual tribute. Salisbury still does not submit, sending nothing to any Saxon but Wessex. Salisbury suffers no raids, the Saxons are too busy fighting amongst themselves.

The player knights take a grand tour, up through Gloucester and Marlboro, seeking alliances with Salisbury. Their great honor and courtliness impresses many of the lords here, and negotiations of alliance open. After helping the Countess of Rydychan regain her seat from usurpers, the newly restored Countess eagerly joins the alliance. Marlboro is interested in a marriage alliance, which is proving a bit harder to secure. Knights from Gloucester are appearing at court in Sarum, where the walls have been completed, strengthening the forces of the Countess.

Thoughts: This year is where the players really took the lead. They were determined to create a coalition among the counties remaining outside Cornish and Saxon control, and began laying the foundation for such an alliance. Their actions in aid of both Dorset and Rydychan created a good core, if they can see to it that Dorset is not destroyed by Cornwall next year. Their constant advocacy for strong leadership in Salisbury and alliances all around has made a big difference, as their actions start to make the dire situation in Anarchy diminish just a bit.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 498

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 498

The third 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.

King Idres of Cornwall is attacking the county of Jagent. The knights are more worried about Saxons, and luckily the Saxon lords seem to be fighting amongst themselves. That doesn’t stop the extortion request from Wessex, however. They want either double tribute or vassalage. On the player knights’ advice, the Countess opts for double tribute. Other Earls are swearing allegiance to Saxon kings, adding British knights to the forces of those kingdoms.

Within Salisbury, new walls are being built around Sarum, the county seat. They will take a couple of years to complete, which is why the player knights counseled appeasement toward Wessex. They are already making plans to resist, and are also looking at King Idres with a great deal of mistrust. The knights go over to Jagent to help the resistance to the Cornish advance. Their efforts are not enough to force the Cornish back, but they do not do themselves any harm in the battle.

Thoughts: Another year where a lot of the knights’ efforts were concentrated on building defenses in Sarum and trying to hold back the tide of invasion. They are very worried about Saxons, and the county on its own has no means to resist. The player knights are now considering how to deal with that, perhaps by finding allies among the other free counties in Britain.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 497

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 497

The second 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.

Invasions press from all sides! King Idres of Brittany and Cornwall is rolling up into Britain, capturing Tintagel this year. The Isle of Wight refused tribute to Cerdic of Wessex, so he invaded and put everyone to the sword, giving the island to his son.  Lords elsewhere in Britain are paying the Saxons, or are out-and-out joining them as vassals.

This year, the player knights decide to consolidate Countess Ellen’s hold on Salisbury. There are a number of recalcitrant bachelor knights who have not sworn loyalty to the new Countess, so the player knights travel around from manor to manor convincing the knights to swear fealty. They are mostly successful, through a combination of persuasiveness, deal-making, and outright bribery. Salisbury stands united.

This is a good thing, as three separate Saxon lords come demanding tribute. The Countess decides to pay this year, but the hostility between the different Saxon legations allows her to play them off one another to Salisbury’s benefit.

Thoughts: The campaign book is super light this year, but the players decided to try to bolster the regime in their home province. This self-directed task was quite successful thanks to many very good rolls on courtly skills. The knights they could not just convince through talking were given concessions or bribes by grace of the Countess, and Salisbury is in a pretty good position pretty quickly. This is super important, as will be seen in future years.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 496

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 496

The first 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.

The realm is in chaos after the loss of the king. He is buried near Stonehenge in Salisbury. Our player knights have also shuffled up significantly, we have two new young knights and Sir Aeddan returns from his madness to a world changed. So many knights died at St. Albans that there are many manors held for children in Salisbury, and the Countess Ellen takes over for her slain husband until their son Robert can come of age.

All over Britain the Saxons are coming around to extort protection money. Almost every lord pays, and the Saxons are good to their word, not attacking those who have paid up. Based on the counsel of her court, the Countess Ellen did not yet pay, and two Saxon emissaries are in court demanding money. Things are looking pretty grim. That’s when a new threat emerges in Hampshire, reports of a new Saxon king landing and quickly capturing land. The player knights are on the southern border of the county and they meet King Cerdic, the new Saxon ruler, who claims to be descended from a former British king, and is looking to claim what he believes is his inheritance. These Saxons, even more than those in Sussex and Kent, are a real direct threat to Salisbury.

The year ends with lots discussion. The knights all have a particular hatred of Saxons, and advise the Countess not to treat with these interlopers. It’s unclear how long Salisbury can withstand their demands, however, but the Countess puts off their extortion for a second year.

Thoughts: Lilith brought in a new character, Sir Safrax, a cousin of her old character Eleanor, and the main surviving knight of her household. Sir Conmorl’s son is still far from his majority, so Matt brings in a new Roman character, Sir Quintus, a bachelor knight. Neither knight is a landholder. Playing lower ranked knights is an interesting choice, and their decisions and ambitions are definitely affected by the status. The players had all had pretty high Saxon hatred passions, which are starting to cause trouble in the Anarchy Period, definitely the age of the Saxons.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 495

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 495

The eleventh and last year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•         Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•         Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•         Sir Aeddan of Pitton, played by Mark.

This year is a biggie. The death of Uther, and the end of the Uther period of the campaign. It all begins with the Battle of St. Albans. A massive Saxon force is met at this town and the battle is hard-fought. Sir Eleanor falls in this battle, slain by a Saxon berserker. Sir Aeddan tries to use his passion of hatred for the Saxons and critically fails, running mad with grief at the death of one of his kinsmen. He disappears from the battlefield, rushing off into the wilderness. Ironically, this is what saves him from the betrayal later. Sir Conmorl fights and kills one of the Saxon kings, and his bravery earns him a place at the main hall in the subsequent feast. Again, ironically, this success is what dooms him.

Someone at the feast poisons the wine. All the greatest knights of Britain imbibe and die horribly at the main hall. Only Sir Conmorl is present, but he drinks freely and dies, along with King Uther, Earl Roderick, and almost all of the lords of Logres. Things begin to fall apart almost immediately after.

Irish are invading Gales (Wales), Picts are scouting the north in preparation for invasion, King Idres of Brittany prepares to invade Cornwall, and a Saxon emissary from Essex arrives in the Salisbury court demanding tribute in exchange for protection from the other Saxon kingdoms. The dead Earl’s wife takes on the role as Countess until the Earl’s heir can reach majority, but not all of the local knights swear fealty to her.

Duke Ulfius of Silchester survived the poisoning because of his wounds from the battle, and is calling a Collegium to appoint a new king, clearly hoping it with be himself. A sword in a stone appears in London bearing an inscription indicating whoever pulls it is the right king of Britain.

Thoughts: The banquet is a scripted event. The outline of the campaign really requires this disaster to happen, and there was very little the player characters could do. I did give everyone a chance to avoid dying along with all the other knights from their county with some Temperate rolls. Since the poison was in the wine, I ruled that a successful Temperate roll would keep the knight from indulging and dying. Sir Conmorl, however, chose not even to make  the roll, going for Indulgent off the bat as a celebration.

One interesting thing about this event. It’s clearly a super important plot development, but the text of the campaign gives no clue as to who is ultimately behind the poisoning. One of the ladies at court is the direct culprit, but motive or conspiracy is not revealed. Everyone assumes it was Saxons but it’s never explicitly stated.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-Through Year 494

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 494

The tenth year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•         Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•         Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•         Sir Aeddan of Pitton, played by Mark.

My notes are super light for this year, this report is reconstructed mostly from the campaign book. Saxons run rampage in the north while the king lies ill. The player knights are sent on an embassy to Estragales to seek allies there. On the way, they meet a number of young knights who will be prominent in future. They meet King Canan of Estragales and he hosts them with a chilly and formal hospitality. After their initial introduction, they are put off for some time. The court moves several times before the knights’ embassy is heard. Finally, the king is poisoned at banquet, apparently by his own son. The knights investigate and find that the king’s steward Sir Orcas is to blame, and make friends of the sons of Canan, securing a promise of aid.

The Saxons break through and besiege Lindsey, there will have to be a conflict the next year.

Thoughts: Obviously, this year didn’t make a big impression. There were lots of courtly opportunities here, though, and the players took full advantage.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 493

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 493

The ninth year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•         Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•         Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•         Sir Aeddan of Pitton, played by Mark.
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This was a relatively uneventful year, primarily consisting of a diplomatic mission to the Kingdom of Malahaut in Cumbria. Their lord, Earl Roderick, has been sent to secure an alliance, and the knights accompany him. They impress at court with a few Orate rolls, and go on a hunt, where Sir Conmorl gets lost and captured by bandits for ransom. He manages to get loose and kill the bandits, but is hopelessly lost until Sir Aeddan and Sir Eleanor show up on the scene. Not much else of note occurs.

The King is ill, and it really seems like he may be suffering some sort of curse. He is despondent after the loss of his son, and Queen Ygraine is still wroth at Merlin for the abduction and won’t hear that name spoken in her presence. The player knights are better off away from court, as they are all still Merlin loyalists.

Another meeting of the Fellowship of the Condemners is held over the winter, and this lays groundwork for connections throughout the south of Britain that will end up being very important in a few years.

Thoughts: This was a good court scene, but for the most part not particularly eventful or notable. Sir Conmorl would surely have beaten the bandits had he been fully armed, but he was in his hunting leathers.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 492

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 492

The eighth year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•         Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•          Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•          Sir Aeddan of Pitton, played by Mark.

The big news this year is the kidnap of the king’s infant son. The player knights witness this, with Merlin telling them he is pursued by enemies and disappearing. The player knights then engage with the pursuers, only to find they are the king’s men. They are arrested and tried for aiding the kidnap, and questioned closely by several priests. Sir Aeddan, a pagan, is subject to particular scrutiny and is more than a bit resentful about it.

The knights are spared if they denounce Merlin and swear new loyalty to the king, which they all do. They are uneasy about all this, though, since they believe Merlin has the best interests of Britain at heart. Sir Aeddan gathers all the knights who were accused, including some NPCs, and creates a new order, the Fellowship of the Condemners. They take this name as a badge of shame for denouncing Merlin when they all believe the wizard is a loyal Briton. They agree to meet annually, and to do what they can for Britain for all their remaining days.

In Saxon news, the two captured kings Octa and Eosa escape to their northern kingdom. From the continent, new swarms of Saxon warriors arrive to reinforce them.

Thoughts: The whole kidnap and trial is on rails, rails, rails. The thing is really just a straight steam along a scripted storyline, and if the knights wish to survive, they have no choice but to denounce Merlin. The king is in a rage and the queen wants them dead. Of course, our players clearly found a way to express their frustration and created a whole new knightly order. This turns out to be hugely influential and beneficial to the future story in our campaign, so it’s pretty cool to see the players put their own individual stamp on the game, something that will continue and I will encourage as the game proceeds.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 491

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 491

The seventh year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•       Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•      Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•       Sir Aeddan of Pitton, played by Mark.

This year is the conflict between Duke Gorlois and King Uther. After Gorlois returned to his lands, afraid for his wife’s safety near the king, he has declared the insult unbearable and raises his knights. While they have their doubts about the justness of this battle, they go along anyway.

The Battle of Tintagel is fought this year. While the knights, led by Sir Madoc, go up against one of Gorlois’ fortresses, the King assaults Tintagel, a fortress atop a sea spire connected to the land by a causeway, very difficult to storm. The battle is hard fought, and the Cornish attack at night in a daring raid. It is chaotic close-quarter fighting, and Sir Madoc is slain by Duke Gorlois, who is then in turn brought low by the player knights. When news of this reaches Tintagel, the castle surrenders.

King Uther immediately announces that he will wed Ygraine as spoils of war. She reports being visited by Gorlois even as he fought to his death many miles away. The players all know what happened, even if their knights do not. By end of summer it is clear the new Queen is pregnant.

Thoughts: Again, lots of important events that have little to no player involvement. The battle was fun, and the death of Madoc and Gorlois ordained. I decided to let the players have the victory over Gorlois, especially as they seemed to like Madoc a bit. The Uther period is all setup for the Arthurian times so it seems heavily on rails. My players are playing along, but I also am chafing a bit and the highly scripted adventures at this point.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 490

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 490

The sixth year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•          Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•          Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•         Sir Aeddan of Pitton, played by Mark.

In this session, Mark brings in a new character. His old character’s son is still far too young to inherit, so he takes on Sir Aeddan, the old character’s younger brother. Matt decides his old character Sir Galmwr has run off back into the woods, seeking out the Lady of Flowers to live at her court again.

This year features the Battle of Lyndsey (by way of Geoffrey of Monmouth, apparently). The Cymric knights go north to fight the Saxons coming down through Northumberland, and fight them back from their march southward. The two fearsome Saxon kings Octa and Eosa lead them. The battle is pretty fierce, and culminates in an opportunity take down King Octa as the Saxons are routing. Sir Aeddan is the one who breaks through, capturing the Saxon King to win a huge sum of Glory and potentially a great ransom. After the battle, there is a great victory feast, and the player knights get their first glance at Ygraine, apparently super hot, since just laying eyes on her makes you make a Lustful roll. Even Sir Eleanor makes the roll, as Lilith informs us that Eleanor is mostly into women. Sure, she’ll marry for heirs, but that’s not where her romantic inclinations lie.

Further intrigue follows in winter court with the King. He has released all his lords back to their own lands, but won’t let Duke Gorlois go and the duke is getting irritated. The king is besotted with Ygraine and keeping the duke around so she has to stay too. Gorlois steals away along with his wife in the middle of the night, witnessed but not stopped by the player knights. The king then claims that Gorlois has abused his hospitality and prepares once again to make war on Cornwall. Meanwhile, Earl Roderick of Salisbury, lord of our player characters, and the king’s bastard son Madoc are far more concerned with a massive landing of Saxons in the lands they already hold. The Earl leaves many of his men behind to guard the county while he is off on the king’s war.

Thoughts: More battle! There’s a lot of that early game in the campaign. This time, a really cool opportunity for the players to shine and capture the enemy king. I took this event as inspiration forward and tried to give players the opportunity to make a difference in a battle, and if they get the result that indicates an enemy general or hero, let them have a shot at someone important.

The Ygraine stuff is super heavy handed. I see what they are going for here, the tragedy of Uther needs to play out. I don’t think being a passive witness and unable to change anything is really involving the player knights, though. There some serious railroading here in this section. The whole Lustful thing is also interesting. Only Queen Guenivere inspires the same sort of rolls in the campaign. It did reveal some interesting information about one of the player knights, so that turned out well. Sir Aedden ended up hopelessly in love with Ygraine, which ends up pretty cool later as he runs into her many times as they slowly age out of the game. 

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 489

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 489

The fifth year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•        Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•        Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•        Sir Aeron of Pitton, played by Mark.

A planned fight with Duke Gorlois of Cornwall ends in a truce, with the Duke pledging himself to King Uther in a scene right out of the 1981 movie Excalibur. Like, literally right out of it. The Campaign text acknowledges the source, and Matt immediately recognized the scene from the movie. No one had a problem with this, in fact it seemed to get my older players more excited about what was happening.

After this supposed battle is cancelled, the player knights decide to go up north and harass the Saxons besieging Eburacum and raiding into Lindsey. This is run like a skirmish, which is different from a battle, instead it’s a straight-up round-by-round combat. The fight goes pretty well until Sir Aeron engages with the leader of the Saxon warband they are fighting, a Saxon berserker. Berserkers have a Hate (Britons) passion at 20, so a guaranteed bonus on their attack, and this guy also has a really good Axe skill. He crits Aeron and kills him in one blow. It’s just as brutal and surprising as our first session. Mark seems a little disheartened, but we’ve decided to engage the system as it comes and let the result stand. He’ll bring in his backup knight next session.

As the year winds down, news comes that more and more Saxons keep landing in the north, led by the very frightening sons of Hengest, the kings Octa and Eosa. They are laying waste to Northumberland and it’s clear that local Britons aren’t going to be able to hold them back. Uther is resolved to go up there next year and drive them back.

At the end of this year, Sir Conmorl gets married to one of the many NPCs of Salisbury I’ve created and been keeping track of. It generates a great list of eligible knights and ladies, and creates a little bit of story outside our featured knight’s progression. As an example, Sir Caramides, lord of Wylye, had a terrible string of rolls this year, losing his wife in childbirth and his only son to illness.

Thoughts: The brutality of the system is really brought home this year. Our player knights are still relatively young, and the players are learning about the efficiency of their builds. Lilith made the mistake of making her lady knights small in stature, and that has a big effect on damage rolls, despite the fact that Sir Eleanor is really strong. Sir Aeron died because of the way passions work in play, his enemy had a passion and thus got a really good chance at criticals. The players are now trying to work their passions in whenever they can for their advantage, and are spending a lot of year-end points and glory points to raise them. The closer you can get to a 20 the better off you are at getting that hit on the passion. They are also all really doubling down on that Hate (Saxons) passion they’ve all got, since we’ve pretty much been fighting Saxons since day one.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 488

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 488

The fourth year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•        Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•        Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•    Sir Aeron of Pitton, played by Mark.

The Saxon kings Octa and Eosa are pillaging Northumberland, but the Duke of Lindsey has so far kept them out of the south. The Franks take over the remaining Roman territories on the continent, but the player knights are not involved in any of this at all.

Instead, they embark into the forest to see if they can find the missing Sir Galmwr (the player knight who ran off mad in our first session). This was a completely unscripted adventure, I didn’t use anything from the campaign at all. The knights find Sir Galmwr, completely lacking his own memories, armed all in blue and defending a castle from all travelers. The knights defeat him and go inside to see if they can get to the bottom of this. They find the Merry Hall, presided over by the Lady of Flowers, a fairy lady. All of the court here is women, apart from Sir Galmwr, and the Lady of Flowers puts the player knights to a test to see if they are worthy of leaving her hall and taking her knight protector with them. The player knights comport themselves well, and the Lady gives Sir Galmwr his memories back and escorts them to the edge of the woods, flanked by a leopard and a lion.

King Uther has decided to go to war against Duke Gorlois of Cornwall next year and tells everyone to get ready. Matt decides he’ll continue to play Sir Conmorl as his primary character. Sir Galmwr is still enchanted by the Lady of the Flowers and is trying to return to the Merry Hall (he will eventually succeed in a couple of years).

Thoughts: This was my first time straying from the main narrative of the Campaign, and it was a lot of fun. My players definitely enjoyed it. I drew on my own readings of knightly adventures and made up most of it on the spot. There are a number of years in the campaign that are a little sparse on events and doing this sort of unscripted adventure is definitely something I did more as the campaign went on.

The players are also taking a longer view, and Matt is interested in having Sir Galmwr’s son come back into play, a young man raised entirely in fairy, coming to Camelot from the Merry Hall. He wants to bring the character in during the Romance period, which we haven’t quite hit yet, but I am down with players bringing characters in and out as needed. I was expecting to bring Sir Galmwr back sooner, but Matt wanted to take him out of play completely.

Designing Worlds

I revived my old Fantasy Heartbreaker world to play a Burning Wheel game. Ironically, BW does a lot of what I was trying to do in that design, just a lot better. When I break out BW, I go back to this world a lot. I figure why not keep developing this old fantasy world for my own interest.

The world was created for my game The Legend of Yore back in the mid-eighties to nineties, when I was just getting started on this whole game design business, and it’s a pretty derivative fantasy world. It’s got elves and dwarves and wizards, and has great big nation-states that are not particularly Medieval. It’s also super racist and I’m way more aware these days so that’s pretty unacceptable to current me. One of my goals when revisiting the game is to clean this up and be more respectful in the treatment of the non-white nations.

One of the things I’m doing as I dig back into this world is to try to make it more real. How do these magical things interact with culture? In a world where gods are real and manifest, how does worship work and what does that do to society? What about multiple species of sentient beings? How does that adjust and distort the ways people relate to each other? I’m taking a close and practical view of all of this stuff that is normally pretty epic and not deeply thought about, especially in knock-off fantasy game settings.

I’m doing this because it’s fun and entertaining to me to think about. Take a major premise that is sort of standard in fantasy worlds and then figure out what the actual implications of that situation are and how it distorts social order from the ways we do things in the real world, or at least apply real world examples to this big world-changing facts and try to sort out how that would play out in this fantasy world.

When the game hits the table in actual play, all of these details are not dumped on players. Instead, they touch on various things and a deeper history and society are hinted at. That adds depth and richness to a world. You don’t need to explain everything every step of the way, but you do need to let players get a little window into that depth and richness. That’s what all the best story settings do.

There’s a lot to cover on this topic, I’m planning to write a few more of these as time goes on, both to share the stuff I’m coming up with but also as an archive for myself. The details I’ll be hitting are those I’m working on for my Burning Wheel campaign, but also for the game I’m developing that will use a small part of this world, the Art of Power. I did a lot of work on the fantasy gods for the world, so that’s what I’ll talk about next.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 487

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 487

The third year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

•         Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•         Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
•         Sir Aeron of Pitton, played by Mark.

Overall events, King Uther’s bastard son Sir Madoc leads a big naval operation against the Saxons, but our player knights decide to perform a diplomatic mission instead, accompanying the King northward to Lyndsey and Malahaut to visit Duke Corneus and King Heraut respectively. They tell the tale of Excalibur to these rulers, trying solicit alliance with King Uther based on the mantle of the Sword of Victory. This goes well with Duke Corneus, but not so great with King Heraut. More courtly skills get a workout. Our knights are still pretty young and not particularly glorious, so a lot of courtly skills had failed rolls. On a hunt with King Heraut, Sir Conmorl is ambushed and kidnapped by bandits, and Sir Eleanor and Sir Aeron ride out and rescue him.

As the knights begin to look around for likely matches in marriage, this is when I started keeping some more detailed records of the other families in Salisbury, using a shortened year-end procedure to randomly determine what was happening with births, deaths, and marriages in the other peer households. This has over time turned out to be a lot of work and a lot of lonely fun, but I’ve kept it up throughout the campaign and have a pretty robust history of families and relations between the various households in Salisbury.

Sir Aeron and Sir Eleanor both get married this year. At this point, we have the conversation about the childbirth table, which includes a 10% chance of death in childbirth for the mother. Lilith is not interested in having her knight die on a random chance from a once-a-year roll, so we rule that player knights are exempt from the death in childbirth result.

Thoughts: This was an interesting session! The heavy emphasis on diplomacy was interesting, but the reaction of the rulers is pretty heavily scripted in the book. I decided to start to step afield from this and allow the player’s rolls to have a larger effect on the attitude of the non-player characters they are interacting with. This decision gives a lot more agency to the players, but also had some large unexpected results later in the campaign. Also, it really highlights how weak the diplomacy rules are in the game. Sure, there are social skills, traits, and passions, but how that interacts with another character’s attitude or actions is sketchy at best, completely missing at worst. I pretty much just winged it.

Last note: Earl Roderick of Salisbury randomly had a child this year, a girl named Ishild. This was determined by my year-end NPC rolls. No mention of any of Roderick’s kids besides Robert, his heir, is made in the book, and I applied the same rules to his family that I was doing to all the rest. This is super important later in the narrative, as is Ishild, but just a side note for this year.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 486

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 486

The second year in the Uther Period, with Uther Pendragon as king of Britain.

Our current roster of characters:

• ·        Sir Eleanor of Dinton, played by Lilith.
• ·        Sir Conmorl of Winterbourne Gunnet, played by Matt.
• ·        Sir Aeron of Pitton, played by Mark.

Outside threats are the Saxons, wreaking havoc up in Caercolun. The Duke of Lindsey is killed fighting them. These guys are calling themselves the East Saxons at this point, and they’ve seized a lot of territory. There are already some Saxon enclaves in Sussex and Kent. The Kents are actually Jutes, not Saxons, but to our players they are all Saxon invaders.

In this session’s big adventure the player knights all get called upon by Merlin to help him out. This serves as a tutorial on the personal combat system, after last session’s tutorial on the battle system. The knights all fight a three-eyed giant, demonstrating again how dangerous combat can be. They are lucky and don’t get hit by using terrain and ganging up on the thing, and manage to take it down. Following after Merlin, he instructs them to defend him while he busies himself in a boat on a small lake. A strange green knight that appears to be made entirely from plants appears and fights the player knights. Again, with teamwork, they dispatch the creature.

Merlin gets good old Excalibur from the lake, and the knights head back to Uther’s court. We get some cool early medieval flavor here, as the king inspects the spoils from the battles against the Saxons this year, and gives a gift out to every knight in the court from it. Merlin then presents the sword Excalibur to the king, and asks one of the player knights to tell the tale of their adventure. This brings us into the courtly skill part of the game, and Sir Aeron steps up to do the honor. He comports himself well, impressing the king and earning some Glory for himself.

Thoughts: At this point we’ve seen all of the different systems in the game, and I like how the Campaign is walking us through this as a starter, doing battle, personal combat, and courtly activities all within two sessions to get you up to speed. The Excalibur business was interesting, but the player knights seem like a bit of a third wheel in this adventure, getting led around by Merlin and witnessing some epic event but only sort of participating on the fringes. Thanks to the constant threat of lethality, there is a certain amount of emotional remove between you and your character that the system itself seems to encourage.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: Epic Play-through Year 485

Our group is attempting a complete run of the GreatPendragon Campaign. We’re using 5^th edition Pendragon rules, and we’re trying to play it by the book if possible. A few tweaks and add-ons are being used, some tables that can be found online, specifically for feast and courtactivities.

Players are Matt, Mark, and Lilith. I am the GM. This narrative will go over our experience with the game year by year and I’ll call out areas where we had trouble or made some adjustments for our group comfort (generally with rules).

Year 485

This is the start of the Campaign book. Uther Pendragon is the king of Britain. The campaign focuses on the county of Salisbury, and we did standard startup based on the book. All of our knights are landed knights from Salisbury, in charge of a manor.

We had a bit of discussion regarding gender in the game, since Lilith wanted to play a female knight. The rules discourage this a bit, but there is a section on creating women knights. We decided that succession rules in our fantasy Britain favor male heirs, but a woman can inherit if no male heirs are available. Also, female knights are not unheard of. They are somewhat unusual, but are generally accepted, especially in families with no male issue or a tradition of the practice. Lilith also expressed some concern about her character dying in childbirth on a single winter phase roll, and so we ruled that player characters are exempt from childbirth mortality.

Our final roster of characters:

•          Sir Florentina of Dinton, played by Lilith.
•          Sir Galmwr of Burcombe, played by Matt.
•          Sir Aeron of Pitton, played by Mark.

The big event of 485 is the Battle of Mearcread Creek. King Uther calls up his knights to fight the Saxons of Sussex and the freshly knighted player characters follow their lord, Earl Roderick, to the battle. We were still learning how things work in Pendragon, and the reason the rules advise you to create a backup character along with your first quickly becomes obvious.

The players all tried to invoke their Hatred of Saxons to gain an advantage in this battle. Passions, when successfully rolled, allow a major bonus to skill rolls. There is a danger in failure, however, and Matt fumbled his Hatred: Saxons roll. On a passion fumble, the character goes mad from their lack of conviction, and run off to the woods. Since the roll occurred at the beginning of the battle, we decided to let Matt play through the fight and then run off mad. Once a character succumbs to madness, it is entirely up to the GM when they return.

The battle was joined and we got a taste of Pendragon lethality. Sir Florentina was hit with a critical from a Saxon axeman, and was killed outright. It was kind of shocking to lose a player character literally in the first session, but we all rolled with it. She had a backup character, Sir Eleanor, Sir Florentina’s twin sister.

The Battle of Mearcread Creek ends indecisively, neither a side a clear winner. Big picture politics: Franks have capture Soissons on the continent, a large Saxon expeditionary army has landed in Colchester and defeated the Britons there. More battles against Saxon loom for certain.

Our tally on player characters as winter phase begins is one mad, one dead, and one survivor. Pretty grim for a first session! We run through our first winter maintenance phase. Sir Aeron, our survivor, gets married. Matt decides he’d like to leave Sir Galmwr’s fate mysterious for a bit and brings in his backup character Sir Conmorl.