A Pendragon Starter

The starter set for any roleplaying game is always designed as an entry point into that game. It has to do three things. First, it has to introduce the game—its settings and its rules to both players and Game Master. Second, it has to showcase the setting, the rules, and how the game is played to both players and Game Master. Third, it has to intrigue and entice both players and Game Master to want to play more and explore the setting further. A good starter set, whether City of Mist: All-Seeing Eye Investigations Starter Set, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, or the RuneQuest Starter Set, will always do that, whereas a bad starter set, or even a mediocre starter set, such as the Sixth World Beginner Box for Shadowrun, Sixth Edition, will not. Whilst a starter set is always designed to introduce a roleplaying game, it has another function, depending upon when it is published. A starter set published as a roleplaying game’s first—or one of its first—releases introduces the game and setting to everyone. A starter set published later or deep into a line’s run, when there are multiple supplements and scenarios available as well as the core rulebook, is designed to introduce the game, but not to those who are already playing it. If there is content in its box that veteran players of the game and fans of the setting will enjoy and can bring to their game, then that is an added bonus. Ideally though, it is intended to introduce the game and setting to new players, at the time of its publication providing a means of getting into both when the range and number of books and supplements available might be daunting and there might not be an obvious point of entry to the prospective player and purchaser. The Pendragon Starter Set reintroduces the classic roleplaying game, Pendragon, and introduces Pendragon, Sixth Edition, intended as the definitive edition of Greg Stafford’s masterpiece.

The Pendragon Starter Set comes in a dense sturdy box which weighs two-and-a-half pounds! It is designed to introduce new players and new Game Masters to Pendragon Sixth Edition, the hobby’s premier Arthurian roleplaying game, inspired by Le Morte d’Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory. It promises ‘All you need for adventure in a World of Chivalry and Honour’ and by following the format seen in the earlier the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set and the RuneQuest Starter Set—consisting of a solo adventure, source book and rules, and a mini campaign as well as a sheaf of pre-generated Player Characters and dice—it certainly has the content to do that. The dice themselves consist of six six-sided dice in golden yellow and a single twenty-sided die in deep blue, which matches the Pendragon tournament banner on the front of the starter set. The starting point and the first thing that you see upon opening the starter set is the ‘What’s in this Box?’ sheet. This sums up what is in the box and gives pointers as to what both the player and the Game Master should do next. Below this there are three books—and more. These are the forty-six page ‘Book I: The Adventure of the Sword in the Stone’, the sixty-six page ‘Book II: The Fabled Realm’, and the sixty-six page ‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’. Then there are eight pre-generated Player Character Knights, Battle Cards generating Battle Encounters and Opportunities, and four appendices which add further rules and details for the campaign.

The Pendragon Starter Set really gets going with ‘Book I: The Adventure of the Sword in the Stone’ with an eponymous SoloQuest which teaches the player some of the setting, how to play, and how to be a character in the setting. It introduces the rules for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, and in doing so, does three things. First, it explains the basics of what a Player-knight and his stats and skills and traits look like. Second, it introduces the fact that both male and female knight are acceptable and perfectly normal in the setting. This it supports with a selection of male and female names, and later in box, with three of eight pre-generated Player-knights being female. Third, it gives scope for the player to customise his Player-knight in terms of his Personality Traits, Passions, and Skills. The Player-knight begins play 510 AD. He is fourteen years old, a page, about to become a squire, in the service of Sir Ector on his estate in Penllyn, in the Vale of Glamorgan. The ageing Sir Ector already has two squires—and this is the important for this SoloQuest and the subsequent adventures in ‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’—who are his hot-tempered son, Kay, and his adopted ward, Arthur. Right from the start of the one-hundred-and-thirty-five entry solo adventure, the player is being taught the rules and mechanics of Pendragon, Sixth Edition. Initially with some lance practice that nicely shows off the personalities of the Player-knight as well as both Kay and Arthur. This is quickly handled in a few entries before the main storyline kicks in. First a hunt in preparation for a visit by the local king and then to the great tournament in London where it is hoped that the High King of Britain will be determined. The adventure constantly switches back and forth between detailed incidences of combat, from round to round, to longer narrative sections that push the story forward. Within the narrative there are several story strands, such as on the hunt and in London, that make ‘Book I: The Adventure of the Sword in the Stone’ worth playing through more than once to explore them all and also to see if a higher score can be achieved. Overall, the SoloQuest is a really good solo adventure that nicely introduces the rules and the setting, preparing the player for later events in ‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’—though the Player-knight so created is too young to play in its events. That said, the other great thing about this SoloQuest is that it means that the Game Masters get to play Pendragon, Sixth Edition before she runs it for her players.

‘Book II: The Fabled Realm’ explains the setting and rules for Pendragon Sixth Edition. The setting is Arthurian, a romantic interpretation of the so-called Dark Ages as seen through the eyes of a Mediaeval author. It is a time between kings, when there rose a man of honour and valour, who brought about a golden age of chivalry and romance that saw the kingdom of Britain founded anew, links forged with Europe, and Saxon invasions withstood, before the kingdom was undone from within and then without. The new king is, of course, King Arthur, and it is his proclamation as king and his first steps to prominence when the events of the Pendragon Starter Set take place. This is a time of feudalism when knights lived up to chivalric ideas, owed fealty to their liege lords, and owed a duty of protection to those below them, but at the same time sought glory and recognition. The background in ‘Book II: The Fabled Realm’ is just a few pages, but a player will already have experienced some of it in playing through the SoloQuest in ‘Book I: The Adventure of the Sword in the Stone’ and elements of it will certainly familiar, since the legends of Arthur are incredibly well known.

The bulk of ‘Book II: The Fabled Realm’ is dedicated to the rules. ‘Book I: The Adventure of the Sword in the Stone’ explains some of the rules via play, but ‘Book II: The Fabled Realm’ presents them in a more accessible fashion. So, a Player-knight is defined by Homeland, Culture, and Father’s Name, then Father’s Class, Son Number, Liege Lord, Current Class, Current Home, Age, and Year Born. He has five Attributes—Size, Dexterity, Strength, Constitution, and Appearance—which are rated between three and twenty-one. Skills are divided into Combat skills, Courtly skills, Knightly skills, and Woodcraft skills. They range between one and twenty, but unlike in previous editions of Pendragon, do not go above twenty. Instead, when a successful Experience Check suggests a skill should, the skill gains a bonus which is added to any roll for that skill. Every Knight has Glory, a measure of his renown and his actions, the higher it is, the greater the chance of his being recognised.

A Knight is also defined by his Traits and Passions. Traits represent a Knight’s personality, consisting of thirteen opposed pairs. So Chaste and Lustful, Honest and Deceitful, Valorous and Cowardly, and so on. Each Trait in a pair is assigned a value, the two values together adding up to no more than twenty. So, a Trusting of ten and Suspicious of ten, an Energetic of fourteen and Lazy of six, and so on. During a game, a player can look to the values of his Knight’s Traits to determine how he might act, but if unsure or wanting guidance, the player can roll against one of them, and the Game Master can also direct a player to roll against one to see how his Knight will act in a particular situation.

A Knight’s Passions, like Loyalty (Lord), Love (Family), and Hate (Saxons) are strong emotional and psychological tendencies. When a player rolls against one of his Knight’s Passions, it can grant inspiration and a bonus for a task, but should it fail, it can leave the Knight disheartened and suffering a penalty to a task. A Trait is rolled against to determine whether a Knight will act in accordance with that Trait or act in accordance with its opposing Trait. A Passion is rolled against to gain a bonus on a skill roll, but failure can trigger a Passion Crisis, which can result in the Passion being partly lost, melancholia, or even madness.

To have his player undertake an action, a player rolls a twenty-sided die. The aim is roll equal to or lower than the value of the attribute, skill, Trait, or Passion. A roll under is a success, a roll equal to the value is a critical, a roll over a failure, and a roll of twenty can be a critical failure. For opposed rolls, used for contests and combat, the roll still needs to be equal to or under the value for the knight to succeed, but the quality of the success will vary also according to what the opposing knight or NPC rolls. A roll equal to the skill is still critical, whilst a success is under the skill value, but higher than the value rolled by the opponent, and a partial success is under both the value of the skill and the value rolled by the opponent. In combat, the quality of the rolls are compared to determine if the combatant’s armour and/or shield provides him with any protection, if he inflicts extra damage, or even if he drops or breaks the weapon he is wielding. In play, it also avoids the back and forth of combat rolls as first one combatant rolls, followed by the other, then back again, and so on. It gives an immediacy to the clash of arms, with both parties being involved from the off. In addition to covering dropped weapons, there are rules for knockdowns; combat actions such as Reckless Attack, Defend, Mounted Charge, and more; and also, both mounted combat and missile combat. There is an emphasis in the combat rules on the importance of wearing helmets and wielding shields. To accompany the rules on mounted combat, horses get their own section.

Rounding out the ‘Book II: The Fabled Realm’ are chapters on ‘Wealth & Treasure’ and the ‘Winter Phase’. Neither wealth nor treasure are the point of playing Pendragon or being a knight, but both are important. Loot can be found and Ransoms paid—both to a Player-knight and by a Player-knight, depending on the circumstances, and this can become wealth which goes towards upkeep for the knight and his household, and also shows of wealth, perhaps with guests coming to stay. The Winter Phase takes place at the end of each year. In terms of the mechanics, this is when a player makes Experience checks for his Player-knight, trains skills, traits, passions, and abilities. In the full rules for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, this is also when a player checks for his Player-knight’s family health, and more. However, the ‘Book II: The Fabled Realm’ truncates this to what the adventures require in ‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’.

‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’ introduces the campaign proper. It focuses on just three years of the Arthurian saga, but they are important years. There is advice for Game Master on how to run the three scenarios in the book, how the Game Master’s Pendragon might vary, and how to track time between quick narrative and scenario time. Then it is quickly into the first scenario which takes place in 510 AD. This is ‘The Adventure of the Sword Tournament’, previously released as The Adventure of the Sword Tournament quick-start for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, but the whole of that scenario rather than part of it. The Adventure of the Sword Tournament quick-start ends with Arthur drawing the sword from the stone, enabling the Player-knights to witness a great event, but this is the full version and goes beyond to let them explore the immediate consequences of Arthur being proclaimed king. Primarily this is King Lot refuting Arthur’s claim to the throne and moving against his newly gathered forces, including the Player-knights, enabling them and their players to experience a battle and its mechanics for the first time. This is, of course, followed by a Winter Phase.

Where ‘The Adventure of the Sword Tournament’ showcases the main rules and the Battle rules—as detailed in the separate Appendix B in the Pendragon Starter Set—the second adventure, ‘The Adventure of the Forest of the Silver Deer’ makes use of Appendix D with its rules for visiting foreign courts. Essentially, the Player-knights have to make an Arthurian Progress around the country visiting one minor king after another in order to gain their support for King Arthur in the face of King Lot’s obstinate aggression. There is much more narrative and roleplaying involved in this scenario, but unless the Player-knights fare badly on their tasks, they should be back in time for another battle, this one bigger, longer, and more complex. ‘The Adventure of the Broken Sword’ takes place in 512 AD and is much shorter than either of the previous scenarios. A strange knight is challenging all to fight him and King Arthur disappears. Could the two be connected? The scenario and the campaign will end with the Player-knights witnessing another great event. It is a quiet end to the campaign, but leaves the Player-knights ready for The Grey Knight campaign, the next part of the Arthurian saga.

Four appendices provide rules and details for various events not covered in ‘Book II: The Fabled Realm’, but which come up during the play of ‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’. Appendix A covers tournaments, the latter noting that jousts are not yet part of tournaments during the period covered by ‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’; Appendix B is the longest of the four and details the battle rules; Appendix C presents the overland movement rules; lastly, Appendix D, examines what happens if the Player-knights visit a foreign court. These are handy references as much as rules explanations and thus useful when their relevant situations occur in play.

Penultimately, a set of eighteen Battle Cards is included for all of the major threats and NPCs that the Player-knights will encounter during the play of the three scenarios in ‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’. All are double-sided, with stats and details on the front and descriptions of  game use on the back. There are some reference cards included among them as well. They are perforated, but will require some care when separating them.

Lastly, at the bottom of the box is a set of eight pamphlet Player-knight characters sheets, intended to be used in conjunction with ‘Book III: The Sword Campaign’. Each has a full illustration on one side, whilst the other has spaces to record ‘History & Events’, ‘Passive Glory’, ‘Escutcheon’ (or shield heraldry), and background. There is a note here to explain why a player might want to choose that knight to play. The character sheet can then be flipped open to reveal all of the Player-knight’s abilities, skills, traits, and passions, plus details of his horses and other equipment. They include a chivalrous and ambitious knight, a romantic, often lustful knight, a proper lady-turned vengeful knight, a wise-cracking household knight, a bow-wielding knight, an ambitious squire, an axe-wielding pagan Saxon knight, and a household knight from far Syria. They represent an interesting range of Player-knights and include three female knights.

Physically, the Pendragon Starter Set is a solid package. The three books are akin to sturdy magazines, but everything is done in rich, painted colours on manuscript style paper. What is notable about all three books are the monkish marginalia, illustrations echoing the drawings and doodles marked in the margins by monks in medieval manuscripts. The four appendices, primarily a mix of single sheets and double-page pamphlets, are flimsy in comparison, as are the Player-knight character sheets. The Battle Cards, done on light card, are much sturdier by comparison. Lastly, the rear of each of the three books has part of a map of Britain at the time of the sixth century. In turn, they are marked with a map of Logres (southeast Britain), Cumbria (northern Britain), and the north (Scotland). Unlike the maps of the backs of the books in the RuneQuest Starter Set, these three do not slot together. Or rather, they do not slot together to form a whole with any ease. Rather, the reader has to lay them out and line them up, often resulting in some overlap between the maps. Lastly, it should be noted how neatly the cover to the Pendragon Starter Set complements the cover to King Arthur Pendragon: Chivalric Roleplaying in Arthur’s Britain, the first edition of the first and original Arthurian roleplaying game published in 1985.

The Pendragon Starter Set is as comprehensive an introduction to Greg Stafford’s Pendragon roleplaying game and its new edition as anyone might wish for. As with previous starter sets from Chaosium, Inc., it has everything that a playing group would want, including a great chance to learn the rules and the setting through play before involving everyone in the setting, in this case, Britain during the age of King Arthur. The Pendragon Starter Set is an opportunity for the members of a gaming group to experience the greatest Arthurian roleplaying game of them all and take their first steps into experiencing the legends of King Arthur, Merlin, the Knights of the Roundtable, and more.