Forest of Fear

From Leicester and Newark in the north, to Oxford and St. Albans in the south, from Banbury and in Kineton in the west to Beford and Peterborough in the east, the forests have become one and as one, they are beginning to spread beyond their former boundaries. As the Forest Sauvage grows wild and unchecked, strangling paths and ripping up fields and starving villages, returning the heart of Logres into a wild forest of years past. When travellers wander too close to its eaves, they wonder where they are and in whose lands they journey, whilst the lords upon whose lands the forest borders worry at the encroaching undergrowth and canopy, fearful that what they hold by right will be lost and turned into an impassably dense morass of trees. Yet this is not a natural phenomenon. The kingdom of Logres has been weakened for decades now, ever since the death of King Uther Pendragon. Not just in terms of power and control, but also spiritually. It is this weakness that Madog de Sauvage, a lord of the fae, has taken advantage of to extend his kingdom into the mortal realms. As the newly crowned king, Arthur seeks to unite and restore his father’s kingdom, but this new realm, this Forest Sauvage, threatens his kingdom from within.

This is the set-up for Pendragon: The Sauvage King, a sandbox campaign framework that expands the world of King Arthur Pendragon and Pendragon, Sixth Edition thematically and chronologically. It can be run using the Pendragon Starter Set or the core rulebooks. As a supplement, Pendragon: The Sauvage King takes content from the start of the highly regarded Great Pendragon Campaign, which explores the spread and threat of the Forest Sauvage and updates it to Pendragon, Sixth Edition. In the previous Pendragon: The Grey Knight, the Player-Knights did enter the realm of the Fairy, but only in a small way, here they confront its power, its majesty, and its unreality in full force. They will discover its growing influence at the edge of the Forest Sauvage as they probe its fringes, hopefully in the process finding a way past the fringes and ever deeper under its canopy, in the process discovering what has happened to the former counties of Lambor, Tribruit, and Wuerensis, as well as their lords, and ultimately forge a path to the court of King Madog de Sauvage.

‘The Forest Sauvage’ is not the only content in Pendragon: The Sauvage King, but it is its feature content. Narratively, its starting point is the spread of the Forest Sauvage, but for the Game Master and her Player-knights, there are multiple starting points and ways into the Forest Sauvage. Four introductory adventures are divided between motivations and plot hooks that are personal or directed. The personal might be that the King Sauvage has kidnapped a Player-Knight’s child and replaced them with a Changeling, compelling the Player-Knight and his companions to go in search of them, whilst the directed include Saint Dubricus and Merlin the Magician becoming worried about the spread of the Forest Sauvage or King Arthur becoming concerned when an ally asks for help or contact is threatened with an important county, and so the Player-Knights are asked to investigate. The plot hook with the replacing of a Player-Knight’s child with a Changeling is likely the one with most interesting and radical of outcomes since it can lead to the creation of an interesting heir. The other adventures in ‘The Forest Sauvage’ take place inside the Forest Sauvage, typically in the towns and villages which have become trapped within the forest realm. Moving through the forest is challenging because like other fairy realms, it is very easy to lose track of time, and unlike the typical adventure for Pendragon, supplies matter. This is also a campaign where the Hunting skill is very important and the Folklore skill a close second. The Player-Knights will need to proceed with civility and their honour and their reputation will be tested throughout.

With multiple entry points, ‘The Forest Sauvage’ can be run by the Game Master more than once, each time with a different starting point. There is the possibility that a group of Player-Knights might try more than one starting point if they fail to make progress with another. The majority of the adventures are short and can be run in a single session, sometimes less than a single session. This does leave some room for the Game Master to insert content of her own, which can be the other two adventures in the book, generated from the tables at the back of the book, or selected from The Companions of Arthur community content. The capacity for this drops the deeper the Player-Knights travel into the Forest Sauvage. Multiple entry points and plot threads means that many of the almost thirty adventures in ‘The Forest Sauvage’ will not be run. That said, the Game Master can take some of adventures she has not run and adapt them to be run later in her campaign. The Game Master will also need to work harder with ‘The Forest Sauvage’ to set it up for her players and their knights than with other content for Pendragon as it is not linear. Fortunately, ‘The Forest Sauvage’ does guide the Game Master through the set-up process and along the possible plot threads. All of the mini-adventures are neatly organized into sections that in turn cover their Setting, Characters, Secrets, Problems, Solutions, and Glory rewards. Often the section of Solutions suggests multiple ways in which issues outlined in the preceding Problems section can be resolved. Many of the mini-adventures are short enough to run from the page.

Another issue in running ‘The Forest Sauvage’ is chronological. Since its events are triggered by the death of King Uther Pendragon in 495 C.E., it can be run from any time then onwards, particularly from 508 C.E. This gives it some flexibility, though if ‘The Sword Campaign’ of the Pendragon Starter Set and Pendragon: The Grey Knight, is being run, the likelihood is that the Player-Knights are going to be occupied! Later in the timeline, after the events of Pendragon: The Grey Knight, as Pendragon: The Sauvage King acknowledges, Merlin is not present in 517 or 518 C.E., so that limits the plot hook involving Merlin for the campaign.

As a campaign, ‘The Forest Sauvage’ present the Player-Knights with a ride range of challenges, whether that is gambling over games of knucklebones in ‘A Game of Chance’ or playing a game of skill to win knowledge in ‘A Scholarly Opinion’, searching for lost dogs in ‘The Baron’s Hounds’, literally overcoming indolence in ‘The Castle of Ease’, racing horses in ‘The Castle of the Race’, evacuating a village about to overtaken by the forest in ‘Cutting Through’, defeating a magical boar in ‘Horror at Alcester’, and more. They will find that many of the lords whose lands lie on the edge of the forest have reacted in many different ways and so have to be entreated in different ways too. This is a mystic maze of often soporific befuddlement, but in turn ‘The Forest Sauvage’ will also horrify and bewitch its Player-Knights.

In addition to ‘The Forest Sauvage’, Pendragon: The Sauvage King also contains two other adventures. Both could be used as introductory adventures, added to an existing campaign, or used in conjunction with ‘The Forest Sauvage’. The latter is quite easy because both adventures take place close to the borders of the Forest Sauvage. Both can also be played through in a single session. In ‘The Adventure of Black Annis’, the townsfolk of Leicester implore the Player-Knights to come to their aid in dealing with a horrifying hag who has been preying on lone travellers and children. Any encounter with her is likely to devolve into a nasty fight and she may even turn the tables and hunt the Player-Knights. She can be defeated though, but dealing with her permanently is an undertaking in itself. The Player-Knights have an opportunity to participate in a moon-lit horse race across the countryside from the Great White Horse of Uffington. This will test much more than the Player-Knights’ Horsemanship skill—though both it and their horses are greatly tested—but this is a thrilling flit across the landscape. Lastly, ‘Other Scenarios’ presents a handful of adventures, some of which could be run more than once as they include tables for generating their precise details.

Physically, Pendragon: The Forest Sauvage is well very presented. The artwork is excellent and the illuminations entertaining. The maps are decent and add much to the manuscript-like feel of the book.

After the rush of the Pendragon Starter Set and the Pendragon: The Grey Knight, which together laid the foundations of what is to come with the Great Pendragon Campaign, what Pendragon: The Sauvage King feels like is the difficult second album. It is both more challenging to use and more challenging to fit into a campaign, primarily because of the open framework of ‘The Forest Sauvage’, but also because rather than a single beginning and middle, it has multiple beginnings and middles. Picking and choosing between these require set-up and development effort upon the part of the Game Master, but the rewards are ultimately worth it, because with more choice, comes the scope to tailor the campaign framework of ‘The Forest Sauvage’ to the players and their knights. Supported by other content, in particular, two good adventures, Pendragon: The Sauvage King is a small campaign in which the Player-Knights can confront a threat to the realm like no other in a framework that lets them make its story their own.

—oOo—

Chaosium, Inc. will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

A Supernatural Search

Although Pendragon, the roleplaying game of Arthurian chivalry and romance can be run using adventures and stories of the Game Master’s own devising, at its heart is the great chronicle of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the period between his drawing the sword from the stone in 510 CE to his eventual death in 566 CE. It is an epic tale of romance, chivalry, questing, and generational adventure in which great knights uphold ideals, serve the king, and protect all against the threats that beset King Arthur and his kingdom. The heart of this chronicle is the highly regarded Great Pendragon Campaign, which encompasses the years 495 CE to 570 CE, and would win the H.G. Wells Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1985 (as the Pendragon Campaign) and Diana Jones Award in 2007 (as the Great Pendragon Campaign). For Pendragon, Sixth Edition, that chronicle remains at the roleplay game’s core with The Sword Campaign of the Pendragon Starter Set which initiates the Boy King Period with the drawing of the Sword in the Stone, covering the years 510, 511, and 512 CE. Pendragon: The Grey Knight continues the story, laying the groundwork for storylines that will be resolved later in the campaign and covering the years 513, 514, and 515 CE.

Pendragon: The Grey Knight is a scenario that delves into the weirdness and the supernatural of King Arthur’s kingdom, on a quest that will take the Player-knights across a land blighted by the Dolorous Stroke and a fairy kingdom, and back again, their faith tested again and again, and all the while bearded and tempted by those that would see them fail, Arthur’s honour besmirched, and the shining star that is his realm tarnished. It is a reprint and update of the first adventure to be released for Pendragon in 1986, written by Larry DiTillio no less, the author of the much revered Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign for Call of Cthulhu. It can be played using either the Pendragon Core Rulebook or the Pendragon Starter Set as well as a direct sequel to the latter. Where the original consisted of the one scenario, that is, The Grey Knight, this update has been expanded to include two scenarios that make it a trilogy and fills in the years between the end of the Pendragon Starter Set and the beginning of ‘The Grey Knight’. They bridge the gap between the two just as Pendragon: The Grey Knight bridges the beginning and the end of Boy King Period.

The first of the two prologue scenarios is ‘Bearding the Lion’. It is set in 513 CE and when news reaches King Arthur that King Ryons is besieging King Leodegrance at Castle Terrabil, near Stafford in Cameliard, he orders army to war in an attempt to lift the siege. A chance occurs for the Player-knights to shine and earn Glory when they have the opportunity to capture King Ryons on the eve of battle. The scenario ends with the Battle of Terrabil, offering another chance to try out Pendragon’s battle rules, and then with the appearance of the Lady Guenever. This brings in another aspect of the roleplaying, the Adoration Passion, which may have long term effects for the Player-knights. The second scenario is ‘King Pellinore’s Quest’. It takes place in 514 CE and is a slightly busier affair. The Player-knights begin on the road to Carlion, King Arthur’s capital, to attend his marriage to Guenever. Along the way, there is the opportunity to hunt for Questing Beast, chase after a dastardly knight, and rescue a very fair maiden. Both scenarios lay the groundwork for ‘The Grey Knight’ scenario—‘Bearding the Lion’ in particular—and both are playable in a session or so. Given that they are relatively slight affairs, there is scope too for Game Master to insert scenarios of her own in these years and if the Game Master has access to Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, could add to ‘King Pellinore’s Quest’ using the Feast rules for the wedding celebrations.

In between the two shorter scenarios and ‘The Grey Knight’ scenario, is a description of Carlion, which the Player-knights will return to in 515 CE at the start of the scenario for the Easter Tournament. There are some good roleplaying encounters on the road and at the court, with at least two of the Player-knights irritating to other knights in the process, and others attracting the attention of a lady. This sets up rivalries and love triangles that can be duelled during the tournament the following day, but the event is brought to a halt with a clap of thunder and out of a rolling mist ride a strange trio. A Dwarf, a Lady in Black, and a Black Knight. The Lady in Black makes grave accusations against the king and challenges to have her Black Knight face the king’s champion, and if he loses, the king will have been proven unworthy to rule. It is Sir Gawaine who throws down the mantle, but Merlin prophesises that he will fail unless one of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain is found and used to aid him in the duel. The Player-knights will ride forth in search of one of these, the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd.

The Player-knights are faced with three challenges. First, determining where the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd can be found; second, actually finding it; and third, returning it to Carlion in good time. This is because the duel between Sir Gawaine and the Black Knight is due to take place at Pentecost, some six weeks hence. The Player-knights will need to ride north and deep into the Wastelands. Here they will be constantly challenged by the strange encounters they have, especially if they are Christian knights, less so if they are Pagan knights, and not at all if they are Wotanic knights. Nevertheless, the Traits and Passions at the heart of Pendragon, Sixth Edition are given a thorough workout as the Player-knights progress. The trek through the Wasteland is a test of character as much as it is endurance, though there is one such test so severe that it could end the quest for a Player-knight (and the scenario for the player too)—and if too many fails, end the quest for all and place the kingdom in peril. (The scenario does include options as to what could happen if the Player-knights do fail.) After a big fight, the Player-knights can obtain the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd and begin the journey back to Carlion, though this has its own challenges.

‘The Grey Knight’ is a linear scenario with no room for the Player-knights to deviate from the path of the quest. This does not mean that the Player-knights are bereft of agency, they are free to act as they want (or as their much-tested Traits dictate) throughout all of the encounters in this scenario as well as both ‘Bearding the Lion’ and ‘King Pellinore’s Quest’, though of course there are benefits to certain actions and penalties to others. Another point about player agency is that the scenario makes clear that it is the Player-knights who are the heroes of the tales because they are the ones that find and return with the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd and so ensure the victory of Sir Gawaine and that without it, the king’s champion is doomed. Structurally, as written, the Player-knights are always going to arrive during the duel between Sir Gawaine and the Black Knight, the scenario providing the Game Master with extra encounters to run should the Player-knights have managed to have completed the quest in good time. Narratively, this means that six week time limit between challenge and duel does not actually matter, so really it is a means of keeping the tension high for the players and their knights and keeping them focused.

If the Player-knights do succeed, they will, of course, be well rewarded with Glory. There however, two further potential rewards. Both of which are fantastic, but will really only benefit one player each. One of them will grant extra responsibility (and even the potential for early retirement of the knight), but provide ongoing Glory and income. The Noble’s Handbook will be required to get the best use out of the reward. Hopefully future scenarios will offer similar opportunities for reward for the other Player-knights in the future.

There are really only three issues with Pendragon: The Grey Knight. One is that the maps showing particular locations and regions are difficult to locate on the full map of England in the back of the book. Another is that although it is subtitled a campaign, Pendragon: The Grey Knight is really too short to be that. Whilst it does have two extra scenarios before ‘The Grey Knight’, they are more like one session prologues to the main event. Lastly, it would have been useful to have had a pronunciation guide handy. As amusing it was to hear an American mangle many of the place and creature names whilst playing through Pendragon: The Grey Knight, it could easily have been avoided.

Physically, Pendragon: The Grey Knight is well very presented. The artwork is excellent and the illuminations entertaining. The maps are decent and add much to the manuscript-like feel of the book. The inclusion of the author’s notes is a pleasing and informative extra.

Pendragon: The Grey Knight is a great scenario made all the better by the addition of the two smaller scenarios which add depth and lay the groundwork for what is to come, much as ‘The Grey Knight’ does itself for The Great Pendragon Campaign. It tests and pulls at the Player-knights from start to finish, and in doing so, presents some delightful opportunities to roleplay as they are confronted with some of the more supernatural and more magical aspects of Arthurian Britain. Any Game Master and player who enjoyed the Pendragon Starter Set will definitely want to continue the story of their knights in Pendragon: The Grey Knight.

—oOo—

With thanks to Scott Joest and my fellow knights.

The Other OSR: Mythic Bastionland

Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd starts by committing a cardinal sin. It does not tell the reader what it is. It is clearly a roleplaying game and it does at least tell the reader that, but there is no explanation of what the players and their characters do in Mythic Bastionland. There is no explanation of what sets this apart from any other roleplaying game in its genre. Instead, it leaps straight into setting up a game and creating characters and more. Without this context, Mythic Bastionland leaves the reader and the Referee with more work to understand what the roleplaying game is and what it is trying to do. Now there is some commentary at the rear of book which through a combination of examples of play and commentary upon them does provide some of the context that Mythic Bastionland is missing at the very beginning of its book and throughout the presentation of the rules. Yet this comes in the ‘Oddpocrypha’, almost one-hundred-and-seventy pages after the end of the rules presentation, and since there is no introduction to the roleplaying game to tell the reader that it is there and what it does, there is every possibility that the reader is going to be mystified as what he has in hands and the Referee daunted at the prospect of running Mythic Bastionland.

And yet, check online, such as the DriveThruRPG page for Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd and clear and simple explanations as to what this roleplaying game is and what it is trying to do, can be easily found and understood. The fact that such an explanation—or something similar to it—is not given in Mythic Bastionland is both mystifying and profoundly unhelpful.

So, what then is Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd? It is an Arthurian roleplaying game inspired by British folklore, Arthurian legends, and more modern interpretations of both. This includes Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant comic strip, the films Excalibur and The Green Knight, the roleplaying game Pendragon, and the computer game, Elden Ring. It is published by BastionLand Press following a successful Kickstarter campaign and as its title suggests, it is a roleplaying game set sometime in the past of Into the Odd, an Old School Renaissance adjacent microclone of Dickensian horror and industrialisation. This also means that it is also set in the past of Electric Bastionland: Deeper into the Odd, the roleplaying game of incomparable debt and failed careers amidst a very modern and almost incomprehensible city. Mythic Bastionland even suggests ways in which Player Characters from one roleplaying game can go to another as well as several ways in which they are connected, all of which are true, and it even hints that it may not actually be in the past either…

In Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd, the players take the role of Knights, each different and knighted by a different Seer, seeking Glory, exploring a Realm, and confronting Myths, all having sworn the same oath—‘Seek The Myths, Honour The Seers, Protect The Realm’. Theirs is a world of brutal and bloody medievalism, but by gaining Glory, whether through the resolution of Myths, public duelling or jousting, entering tournaments, and fighting battles that history will remember, they will prove themselves worthy of rank, first of taking a seat in Council or at Court, next of ruling a Holding, and then of ruling a Seat of Power. Ultimately, as a Knight-Radiant, a Knight will prove himself worthy of undertaking the final task, fulfilling the City Quest. This will likely bring a campaign to an end as the Knights confront and deal with a series of omens.

A Knight is very simply detailed. He has a type and a rank, three Virtues, Guard, some property, an Ability, and a Passion. The three Virtues are Vigour, Clarity, and Spirit and they range in between in value between seven and eighteen initially, but can never go above nineteen. Guard is a Knight’s ability to avoid Wounds, whilst property is what a Knight owns, an Ability is a talent unique to the Knight, and the Passion is his means of restoring his Spirit. Both Virtues and Guard are rolled for as standard for all knights, but the property, Ability, and Passion are all defined by what type of Knight he is. This can be chosen or rolled for from amongst the seventy-two knightly types that Mythic Bastionland gives. The process is quick and easy.

Sir Wedell
Type: The Salt Knight
Rank: Knight-Errant
Glory 0

VIRTUES
Vigour 12 Clarity 11 Spirit 10
Guard 4

Property: Spined mace (d8 hefty), javelin (d6), coraline mail (A1), Everflask (contains an endless supply of fresh water), Scaled steed (VIG 12, CLA 8, SPI 5, 3GD), dagger (d6), torches, rope, dry rations, camping gear
Ability: Inspire Ire
Passion: Mettle
Knighted by: The Bright Seer

Mechanically, Mythic Bastionland is simple, though more complex than either Into the Odd or Electric Bastionland. To have his Knight undertake an action, a player rolls a Save against the appropriate Virtue. Beyond that, combat adds some complexity. In a turn, a Knight can move and attack—in that strict order, and instead of rolling to attack, a player rolls the damage his Knight will inflict. Combatants can attack the same target and their players roll their dice together. The highest die result counts, while the remaining dice that have rolled four or higher, can be discarded to perform Gambits. These start with ‘Bolster’ to increase the damage inflicted by one, but also enable a combatant to move after the attack, repel a foe, stop a foe from moving, trap an opponent’s shield, dismount a foe, and so on. There are greater Gambits for rolling eight or more. All Knights have access to Feats—‘Smite’, ‘Focus’, and ‘Deny’, which they can use in combat. ‘Smite’ adds an extra, larger die to the combat roll; ‘Focus’ lets a Knight use a Gambit without sacrificing a die; and ‘Deny’ blocks or rebuffs the attack before it lands. All require a Save against a Virtue lest the Knight become fatigued.

Armour worn and shields carried will reduce incoming damage, whilst the ‘Deny’ Feat will enable a Knight to avoid damage all together. A Knight’s Guard is reduced first, and as long it is one or more, a Knight can evade attacks. If his Guard reduced to exactly zero, the Knight gains a scar, but if the damage exceeds a Knight’s Guard, it is deducted from his Vigour and he is Wounded. If a Knight’s Vigour is reduced by half, he is mortally wounded and will die in the hour, but can easily and quickly be given first aid to prevent this. If a Knight’s Vigour is reduced to zero, he is dead. The other Virtues can suffer similar damage, often from Scars, but whilst some are debilitating, other Scars can also increase a Knight’s Guard. The rules for combat also cover unarmed combat, ranged combat, and mounted combat, as well as duels, jousts, shieldwalls, and spearwalls. They scale up quickly to include running warbands, the use of artillery, and handling sieges.

Combat in Mythic Bastionland is thus brutal. However, Knights do have the advantage of having the initiative in combat—unless surprised—and they and their players have the time to plan accordingly. Tactical use of Feats and Gambits will keep a Company of Knights alive longer than if they simply charge into combat.

For the Referee, beyond the basic rules, there is simple guidance on how to set up the game and its scope—how many sessions everyone wants the game to last, goods and trade, descriptions of the people and the realms, and setting up a Realm. This involves creating and populating a hex map, typically a twelve-by-twelve grid, that will mostly consist of wilderness. To this is added four Holdings—castles, walled towns, fortresses, or towers, held by Knights or influential Vassals of the King—one of which is the Realm’s Seat of Power, and six Myth Hexes, each one clearly affected by the presence of their Myth. The details of the various hexes, excluding the Myth Hexes, can be generated using the ‘Spark’ or prompt tables presented later in the book.

In terms of advice, Mythic Bastionland emphasises the ‘Primacy of Action’, that past actions and their consequences supersede content generated by prompts of the Spark Tables (and the bottom of almost all of the pages in the book) and the rules, ensuring that the players and their Knights have enough information to act, and using a simple procedure to determine the outcome of any action. There are also guidelines for improvisation, using prompts, handling luck, and how to end a session. The latter is important because every session should end with a discussion of what the players and their Knights want to do next. This can be to pick up where the current session has ended, but the players can also decide to end the Season or the Age, allowing for months or years to pass or even enough time for a Knight to mature from a young Knight or a mature Knight to become an old knight. There are numerous activities that the Knights can undertake in between—effectively off camera—but the passing of an age forces a player to reroll his Knight’s Virtues and accept the new result, even if lower. The result of which might be that a Knight has learned from his experiences and matured, or he could have been wounded and suffered a debilitating injury or entered his dotage. Further rules cover travel, exploration, and ultimately, dominion and authority. In the case of dominion and authority, a Knight comes to rule a Holding—or even a Seat of Power. At either level, what Knight will be trying to do is maintain and improve his Holding, deal with crises from within his realm, and see to his succession, and also crises from beyond his realm should a Knight hold a Seat of Power. This though is more for long term play than short term play.

All of which runs to sixteen pages. In other words, the rules to Mythic Bastionland are concisely presented in sixteen pages for everything! Which begs the question what exactly does the rest of Mythic Bastionland consist of given that that rules take up three-fortieths of the book? Over two thirds of the book is dedicated to two things. One is the Knights and one is the Myths, equally divided, for a grand total of seventy-two entries each. The Knights are what the players choose from, or ideally, roll for, and they include The True Knight, The Trail Knight, The Story Knight, The Rune Knight, The Mask Knight, and The Silk Knight, and every single one of them is different and interesting and will present a different way of playing a Knight.

The Myths are what the Referee uses to populate the Realm. They include The Wurm, The Tower, The Spider, The Toad, The Hole, and The Rock, and every single one of them will present the players and their Knights with a different challenge. Each is simply presented with simple description, a set of omens that trigger as the Knights discover more signs of the Myth, a set of NPCs, and a table of random details that the Referee can use to detail parts of the Myth. For example, ‘The Wall’ is described as “Cutting through the land, a wonder two storms tall Guarding from invasion, or built to cage us all”. Its Omens begin with, “Crumbling outpost. A band of labourers sharing a meal on their way to begin work repairing the Wall. They think Knights are being sent to stop them.” and will escalate to, “Two giant magpies, stealing shiny things. They nest in the trees that root among the Wall’s oldest stones.” The cast includes stats for Wall Wardens, Brin, Catrona, and Elish, a Wall Knight, the giant magpies, and empowered refugees.

So how then, is Mythic Bastionland actually played and what do the Knights do? Quite simply, they explore the wilderness map that the Referee has created, looking for signs of Myths. When they have found them, the Knights will look for the source, root it out, and resolve it. There is no set way to resolve any of these Myths. Ultimately, whether or not a Myth is resolved comes down to whether or not it remains a threat to the Realm. The typical six Myths of a Realm is enough to support a mini-campaign at least, though more can be added to extend the campaign once one set of six is done, whilst the mix of seventy-two different Knights and seventy-two different Myths means that no two campaigns are going to be alike because whilst the Myths provide the adventures to play, they also give and flavour to a Realm. Once the Referee has set up her Realm, Mythic Bastionland is very definitely designed to be played from the page with a minimum of preparation.

The last part of Mythic Bastionland is devoted to the ‘Oddpocrypha’. This consists of thirty pages of examples of ‘Play’ and ‘Thoughts’ upon those examples of play. From ‘Start & Scope’, ‘Character Creation’, and ‘Teaching the Rules’ to ‘Council & Court’, ‘Crises’, and ‘Delving into Tomorrow’, the ‘Oddpocrypha’ explores and examines numerous examples of the rules and their ramifications. In many ways, actually providing much of the context that the rules section at the start of the book lacks. Consequently, it is a lot easier to read, but there is dichotomy to the writing. Essentially, the ‘Play’ examples are written in one tone and the ‘Thoughts’ on the examples are written in another. So, what you have is the author writing the examples of ‘Play’ and then commenting upon them as if he had not written them in the ‘Thoughts’. It is weird. That said, the examples of ‘Play’ really do help the reader and potential Referee understand the rules and how the game is intended to be played and the thoughts‘Thoughts’ do explore what the designer thinks of his game.

Physically,Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd is a stunning looking book with every Myth and Knight fully illustrated, meaning that there is a profusion of artwork in the very big middle of the book. The tones are primarily earthy greens and oranges with splashes of red, blue, and purple and the whole look of the Knights and Myths section is as if Mythic Bastionland was not a roleplaying game, but a deck of Tarot cards. The layout of the book is tight in places and bar the ‘Oddpocrypha’ at the back of the book, the writing is very concise, the aim being to fit all of the rules for each aspect of the roleplaying game onto a single page each.

It is debateable how Arthurian a roleplaying game Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd is. There is no doubt that it is inspired by Arthurian legend and it certainly lists numerous Arthurian inspirations. In play though, the Knights are not engaging in the Arthurian legend and they are not going on quests such as the Quest of the White Hart or the Quest for the Holy Grail. Instead, they are going on their own quests, perhaps hunting down ‘The Wyvern’ or delving into ‘The Forest’ in search of a lost, but beloved Seer, only to discover darker, primordial secrets. The Knights are questing knights, ultimately if they prove to be glorious enough worthy to undertake the ‘Quest of the City’, but they quest more for their Realm than a mythical figure such as King Arthur and theirs is a world that is more one of bloody brutalism rather than one of romance and chivalry.

Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd is not an introductory roleplaying game. The rules are too concisely written, there is a lack of context to the roleplaying game, and play relies a great deal on improvisation, whether that is working from the prompts from the ‘Spark Tables’ or working the Myths and the Knights’ reactions to those Myths into the world of the Realm. However, armed with some context and Mythic Bastionland begins to hint at its possibilities with simple, clear rules that emphasise the brutality of the world that the Knights live in, before charging the reader and the Referee down with its gloriously fantastical Knights and Myths that demand their stories to be told. Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd is the film Jabberwocky with a seventies Prog Rock soundtrack, built not so much on rules light mechanics, but rules intense mechanics.

The Pinnacle of Pendragon II

The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is the second of the three core books for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the latest edition of a roleplaying game considered by many to be a classic, and by its designer, Greg Stafford, nothing short of a masterpiece. It is a roleplaying of high adventure, high romance, and high fantasy set deep in the legends and stories of Britain’s golden age, the mythical period when the country had one true king. That king was Arthur Pendragon, his reign the mythical period of honour and chivalry, courtly love and romance, that arose from the unrest following the withdrawal of the Romans, withstood invasions from the Saxons, before falling to evil and the country to the Dark Ages. In the process it inspired great tales of medieval literature and great tales of literature, including the Welsh The Mabinogion, Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth century Le Morte D’Arthur, and T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. Pendragon is a roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are knights in service to their liege lord and then to King Arthur himself, managing their manor and serving in his army, but also going on quests and adventures and so dealing with threats and problems that beset the men and women of the land, including their fellow knights, attending court and tourneys and involving themselves in intrigues and romances, and finding a wife and raising a family. Raising a family is important because a knight may adventure for only so long before age catches up with him. Then his eldest son will take up his mantle and inherit his father’s good name and reputation, and not only uphold it, but follow his ideals and make a name for himself, perhaps even more glorious than that of his father. Like his father, he will aspire to take a seat alongside King Arthur and become one of the Knights of the Round Table, to serve alongside the greatest knights in the country. In turn, his son will follow in grandfather’s footsteps and aspire to the ideals of the age, to be a bastion of duty and honour until the kingdom falls. The play of Pendragon is generational, and ultimately, intended to play out over the course of the decades that comprise The Great Pendragon Campaign.

It is not unfair to say to that the Pendragon Core Rulebook does not cover absolutely everything necessary to play Pendragon, Sixth Edition. However, it would be unfair to say that you could not play Pendragon, Sixth Edition using its content and still get a very good feel for how the roleplaying game plays and still have a very enjoyable and exciting roleplaying experience. The Pendragon Core Rulebook is very much as its title suggests, the key title that presents the principles of play and the cornerstones of characters. Further, it is actually possible to run and play Pendragon, Sixth Edition using only the Pendragon Core Rulebook and the Pendragon Starter Set as the latter does include the rules for battles—although in a limited form. Indeed, many of the titles on The Companions of Arthur, the community content programme for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, can be run and played using the Pendragon Core Rulebook and/or the Pendragon Starter Set. Which begs the question, is the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook really necessary to run and play Pendragon, Sixth Edition? To which the answer is a simple yes, not just because it contains the complete rules for battles, but also because it expands on the rules and setting at the core of the Pendragon Starter Set, as well as the wider stage too. Not far, but far enough and more than ready for the next book.

The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook begins by establishing and exploring where and when Pendragon, Sixth Edition is primarily set. There is an overview of Logres, the part of Britain where much of the Arthurian canon takes place; a good introduction to the primary source material for the roleplaying game—Le Morte D’Arthur, of course, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, the film Excalibur, are all listed as worthy sources, but many others and their merits are discussed too; and there is a framing too of when the roleplaying game is set. A quick guide to the who’s who of the chronicle across its four periods—Boy King, Conquest, Romance, and Grail Quest—previews their full stats presented for many of the leading figures later in the book. Another element which previews later content is the campaign set-up example of the Holding of Underditch Hundred, the primary holding of the—as will be revealed later in the book—surprisingly young Count of Salisbury.

Advice on running the Game Master is solid, focusing in the main on how to use the different aspects of the rules, including characteristics and handling time in the game. The advice on encouraging player contribution and adding courtly play is good, but elsewhere the advice on campaign set-up is a little light, again, feeling as if it is a preview of something to come. Not though of a section later in the book, but rather of a supplement to come. The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook really comes into its own with the discussion of Arthurian activities, in particular, the first rules addition that is feasting. A Player-knight gains a new stat, ‘Geniality’, representing his nobility in the eyes of his peers and a combination of his Appearance and his Courtly skills, which comes into play when Feasting. A Player-knight’s Glory will influence where he will be sat at the feast, the closer to the high table, the better the bonus to his Geniality, whilst his Appearance will determine how many Feast Event Cards his player will draw. Feast Event Cards work as mini-encounters much like Opportunities in Battles and the solo adventures that a Player-knight might have at the end of the year that will give him the chance to test a Personality Trait. Ultimately, as with other activities in Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the aim is to earn Glory. This is done by keeping a Player-knight’s Geniality as high as possible, but it gives him a chance to shine in a more civilised setting and use his Courtly skills. Of course, it is also a good opportunity for the players to roleplay. Other activities covered include ‘Fine Amour’ or romance, hunting, intoxication, seduction(!) at court and its consequences, tournaments, and visiting foreign courts. Of these, hunting and tournaments are more mechanically involving, but they are no less welcome for it.

If the section on ‘Feasting’ is entertaining, the chapter on religion in Arthur’s Britain is fascinating reading—and should be required reading for player and Game Master alike, since the Player-knights are classified according to both their cultural background and their faith. In turn, the chapter discusses the beliefs, the ethics and how they relate to a Player-knight’s Personality Traits, the worship, history, holy places, festivals, and notable places and figures in turn of Christianity, Paganism, Heathenism, and Wodinism. To these are added the requirements for religious knights of all of these faiths, details such as the differences between the churches of Britain and Rome, a list of Pagan deities, and more. There is a lot of useful information here that the Game Master can bring into play, especially for her players who have religious knights, but also for her NPCs. Plus, the inclusion of Heathenism opens up the possibility of bringing Pictish knights into play!

Previous versions of Pendragon have allowed for Player Characters who are not knights, but this is not the focus of Pendragon, Sixth Edition, and magic very much remains the province of the Game Master and her NPCs. However, magic plays a strong role in the Arthurian chronicle. Like religion, it is divided according to type. So, for Paganism, there is the four talents—Divination, Enchantment, Glamour, and Healing; for Wodinism there are sacrifices, talismans, controlling the weather, and carving runes; Heathensim employs the four Talents of Paganism, but through a shaman rather than a magician; and for Christianity, there are miracles and saints. They are able to perform Miracles like Divine Manifestation, Divine Intervention, and Divine Retribution. In addition to shaman, other magicians include witches, specialising in folk magic, and enchanters and enchantresses which can encompass druids as well as Pagan and Wodinic practitioners. They also include the Ladies of the Lake. More recently, they have been joined by magicians who have learned their magic from books—sorcerers and sorceresses. Covered here too is fairy magic and also protection from such magics. Religious, chivalrous, and romantic knights can all withstand the effects of magic, but this requires adherence to high ideals. Otherwise, a Player-knight has little innate protection against magic, so avoiding it is likely the best defence.

One issue with both religion and magic is that the examination is a preview for the mechanical treatment later in the book, so that the description and the rules for both are not given in their relevant chapter. Rather they are included in the stats and guidelines for their NPC types in the ‘Game Master Characters’ chapter. Mechanically, magic uses the four talents—Divination, Enchantment, Glamour, and Healing—as skills, adding the non-Knightly skill of ‘Clerk’ to represent book learning and accounting, and treats them as skills. Thus, under the ‘Pagan Religious Folk and Magicians’, an ‘Itinerant Bard’ can have ‘Enchantment 12’ for his Magical Talent, enabling him to immobilise a target with a song by making him fall asleep, weep, or laugh, whilst a ‘Druid’ has values in all four Magical Talents and thus be more capable and more flexible in terms of what he can perform. For the ‘Christian Religious Folk and Saints’, they will have values in the three Miracles—Divine Manifestation, Divine Intervention, and Divine Retribution—and again their mechanics are explained here. The rules are the loosest of those presented in the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, allowing for more narrative input, whilst avoiding simple, if constant, Game Master fiat.

Perhaps one of the more complex aspects of Pendragon, Sixth Edition is handling battles. Previously presented in a cut-down version in the Pendragon Starter Set, here they are presented in full detail and explanation. The rules cover how to set up a battle and determine the numbers involved, establishing the Player-knights’ conroi (effectively, their cavalry squadron as they will be on horseback), how to fight the battle and face each encounter, through to what might happen after the battle. Oddly only the means of determining victory or defeat during the Boy King Period is given, which limits the utility of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook. That said, numerous battlefield foes are detailed as well as a six opportunities, such as ‘Capture the Banner’ and ‘Clash of Champions’. This does feel like too few opportunities, essentially extra encounters in the battle where the Player-knights have an opportunity to shine, but in play they do not actually occur that often.

The earlier ‘Who’s Who’ of Arthurian legend is fully supported with stats and details of several figures, including King Arthur and Lady Guenever, and Merlin, alongside those from Pendragon itself, like Sir Robert, Count of Salisbury. Numerous NPC types are given stats—various types of knights, Saxon warriors, nobles, common folk, and practitioners of magic and miracles. The bestiary is nicely detailed, beginning with ordinary animals, amongst which it includes elephants and lions, but also covering a variety of supernatural creatures. This includes the cockatrice, dragons, unicorns (with details of how to employ the Virgin Ploy to put them at ease), giants, and more. Sidebars list the Dwarfs of Arthurian literature, Arthurian fairy knights and ladies, Arthurian fiends, and Arthurian giants, so that the Game Master can take more direct inspiration when using the accompany game stats. Many of the entries in the bestiary will be familiar from folklore or even other roleplaying games, but what makes the bestiary all the more useful is that every is put in an Arthurian context.

Lastly, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook presents two scenarios. These take place in the years 508 and 509, before the events depicted in the Pendragon Starter Set and ‘The Sword Campaign’. They are both set at Sarum Castle and are designed to help set up the campaign and establish Salisbury as the starting point for the campaign and essentially a home for the Player-knights. Except that the Player-knights are not knights at the beginning of the first of these two scenarios, but squires. To that end, Sarum Castle is fully detailed and mapped and the players have the opportunity to roleplay their squires proving themselves worthy of being knights and beginning their life in service to the young Sir Robert. These are both good scenarios, both easily run in a session or two each. Although designed to be played prior to the Pendragon Starter Set, the problem with this set-up is that some groups may already past the point where these scenarios are of use to them, playing through the Pendragon Starter Set and even the campaign scenario, The Grey Knight. That said, if a playing group has not started playing Pendragon Starter Set, then both scenarios are solid additions as prequels.

The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook comes to a close with appendices which give a detailed guide to Glory awards and a list of suggested reading. The latter is useful for the Game Master wanting further inspiration, especially in the context of the bestiary.

Physically, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is very well presented. The book is also a good read and profusely illustrated. Some of the artwork has a manically cartoonish feel to it in addition to the weirdness of the some of the illuminations.

To be clear, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is a very useful book and one that the Pendragon Game Master is definitely going to want and need. The new rules additions of feasting and tournaments are great, the guide to religion is very good, and the bestiary and the guide to magic are good. And yet… the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, as comprehensive as it is, is not and does not feel complete. Rather, it feels incremental, as if building the next part of Pendragon, Sixth Edition in readiness for the next book in the line. This shows in both the omissions and the focus of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook. One omission is the absence of the Feast Event Cards for the Feasting rules when the section on Battles has all of its foes and Opportunities given. The Feast Event Cards can be downloaded—and of course, since there are eighty of them, their inclusion would have greatly increased the book’s page count—but their absence is notable.

Also missing is detail about Logres and beyond in terms of setting and background, so that ultimately, the only location that is presented in any detail are the lands of Sir Robert, Count of Salisbury. Similarly, there are no details about running an estate and holding land. Together, this supports the focus of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, which whilst supporting long term play with the rules for feasting, tournaments, battles, magic, and the bestiary and guide to religion, concentrates the role of the Player-knights as household knights—ideally in the service of Sir Robert. This, combined with the emphasis on Salisbury as a starting point and the underwhelming advice on campaigns, means that the Game Master wanting to set up her own campaign and not wanting to run the content leading up to The Great Pendragon Campaign is not supported as well as she could have been and that she will have to wait for subsequent books which will support her. And to be clear, if this makes the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook sound as if it is a disappointing book, then it is very much not. Rather that it provides the Game Master with a lot that will support her campaign whilst leaving a few things for latter supplements.

The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is a mandatory purchase for the Game Master, expanding the world of Pendragon both mechanically and culturally in an interesting, informative, and entertaining fashion, whilst also proving a new introduction to the roleplaying game and setting that can lead into the Pendragon Starter Set. Whilst in the long term, it will require expansion with further supplements, there is nothing in the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook that is anything less than useful and the Game Master should have this to enhance her campaign.

The Pinnacle of Pendragon

Pendragon is a great roleplaying game, considered by many to be a classic, and by its designer, Greg Stafford, nothing short of a masterpiece. It is a roleplaying of high adventure, high romance, and high fantasy set deep in the legends and stories of Britain’s golden age, the mythical period when the country had one true king. That king was Arthur Pendragon, his reign the mythical period of honour and chivalry, courtly love and romance, that arose from the unrest following the withdrawal of the Romans, withstood invasions from the Saxons, before falling to evil and the country to the Dark Ages. In the process it inspired great tales of medieval literature and great tales of literature, including the Welsh The Mabinogion, Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth century Le Morte D’Arthur, and T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. Pendragon is a roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are knights in service to their liege lord and then to King Arthur himself, managing their manor and serving in his army, but also going on quests and adventures and so dealing with threats and problems that beset the men and women of the land, including their fellow knights, attending court and tourneys and involving themselves in intrigues and romances, and finding a wife and raising a family. Raising a family is important because a knight may adventure for only so long before age catches up with him. Then his eldest son will take up his mantle and inherit his father’s good name and reputation, and not only uphold it, but follow his ideals and make a name for himself, perhaps even more glorious than that of his father. Like his father, he will aspire to take a seat alongside King Arthur and become one of the Knights of the Round Table, to serve alongside the greatest knights in the country. In turn, his son will follow in grandfather’s footsteps and aspire to the ideals of the age, to be a bastion of duty and honour until the kingdom falls.

The Pendragon Core Rulebook introduces all of this for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. Published by Chaosium, Inc. once again, it remains much the same game as it was when originally published in 1985 in terms of game play and design, but with a few changes to streamline play and a very fetching new presentation. The changes primarily consist of adjustments to how derived characteristics are determined and amalgamating and broadening many of the skills. For example, Folklore replaces Faerie Lore and Folklore, Recognise combines Recognise with Heraldry, Lance is replaced by Charge, and so on. None of these are radical changes and are really only important when adapting content from older editions of Pendragon to this new edition. The presentation of Pendragon Core Rulebook runs counter to typical modern rulebooks, being on buff paper, almost like a medieval manuscript, rather than glossy paper, and like a medieval manuscript, decorated with monkish doodles and depictions of strange creatures of the illuminator’s imagination.

What the Pendragon Core Rulebook is not though, is a complete rulebook. There are aspects of the rules that are missing, notably the rules for handling mass battles, hunting, wider choices in terms of what you can play, and background setting details. Some of this will be presented in Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, and in the meantime, a streamlined versions of the rules for mass battles and setting content can both be found in the Pendragon Starter Set. Wider choices in terms of Player Characters will have to wait for a future supplement, though it is fair to say that any player coming to the Pendragon Core Rulebook expecting a similar range of character options after playing through the Pendragon Starter Set will be disappointed. Similarly, the lack of detailed, specific background to the Britain of before and during King Arthur’s will disappoint the Game Master wanting to create her own content. Again, all of this will be addressed in future supplements, and in the meantime, Pendragon, Sixth Edition is supported by the Pendragon Starter Set and Pendragon: The Grey Knight campaign, both of which are precursors to the epic The Great Pendragon Campaign. That said—and to be clear—everything in Pendragon Core Rulebook is playable and needed to play.

Pendragon Core Rulebook begins by explaining what the roleplaying game is and what its assumptions are. This is that it is set during King Arthur’s reign; that the Player Characters are members of the nobility and by default will be knights—thus Player-knights; and that not all knights and thus Player-knights are the same, for their deeds will be guided by their varying personalities. It is also a roleplaying game and setting in which acquiring Glory and a place on the Round Table is the ultimate goal, but doing so will mean being tested and facing hard choices, the possibility of being killed—the roleplaying game makes clear that world of Pendragon is a brutal one and combat is deadly and that no one has ‘script immunity’. It also notes that it is a modern roleplaying game set in an ancient, mythical past. What this means is that although Pendragon Sixth Edition and The Great Pendragon Campaign might be set in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian Era, this is a Britain, and a wider Europe where there are female knights and on-Christian knights, where Pagan belief is accepted, and where justice and equality may be found. What this means is that female Player-knights are acceptable within the setting, the book actually highlighting some examples from the literature, though to what degree is up to the Game Master and her players to decide. That said, the world of Pendragon, Sixth Edition is a feudal one and the Player-knights will owe fealty to their lord and their king, and there are women who will undertake more traditional roles. Lastly, the play of Pendragon, Sixth Edition, as in previous editions, is generational. A player will roleplay his knight as adventures, raises a family, and retires, and then roleplay his eldest child who will also go on adventures, raise a family, and retire. In the course of a campaign, a player will roleplay a knight and multiple members of his family.

Further, Pendragon Core Rulebook makes clear that ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’, so that for example, whilst in medieval Europe, red hair, freckles, green eyes, and being left-handed were all associated with evil, witches, vampires, and werewolves, this need not be the case in a Game Master’s own campaign.

The entire sweep of the Pendragon setting runs from 415 CE when Constantin is elected as the High King of Britain, establishing the tradition of knighthood and bringing peace and stability to the country, and ending in 566 CE when the Round Table splits and crumbles, Sir Mordred prevails, and King Arthur is carried away to Avalon. In between, the Saxons come to Britain, High Kings rise and fall, and following a period of anarchy, Arthur, the Boy King, pulls the Sword from the Stone, ushers in a new age of conquest and romance, and more. The default beginning and setting, again as in previous editions of the roleplaying game, is the year 508 and the county of Salisbury, with the Player-knights all Cymric knights, either of the Christian or Pagan faith.

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, or worse. 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 create a Player-knight, a player can either choose one of the pre-generated knights in the back of the core rulebook, assign points to create his knight, or roll randomly. The first step is determine the father’s life as knight, which provides for some background and possible hooks for the Game Master to develop, and then either roll or assign stats, skills, personality traits, passions, and more. Depending on his appearance, most Player-knights will have one or more distinctive features, for example, a big moustache, scars, dulcet tones, and so on, and also a Family Characteristic, like ‘Musical’ or ‘Equestrian’, which grants a bonus to the Play Instrument and Horsemanship respectively. At this point, a Player-knight is just fifteen years of age and still a squire. For each subsequent year, the player can increase his knight’s skills or add one to either a characteristic, a Trait, or a Passion. However, the Player-knight needs to have a minimum value of ten in Brawling, Charge, Sword, and two non-weapon knightly skills, such as First Aid or Recognise, and be a minimum of twenty-one years old, so the player will need to increase skills rather than anything else. A beginning Player-knight is given a ‘luck benefit’ too, like a broad belt etched with running stags that grants a bonus to the Hunting skill or a Roman spatha sword and scabbard with gold and silver decorations in the Imperial style which grants a bonus to the Courtesy skill when at a Roman court or can be given as a gift to a Roman lord in return for a favour. The Pendragon Core Rulebook also includes details of the knighting ceremony should the Game Master and her players want to roleplay this out for their knights.

As a young knight, Bellangere’s father, Melion fought at the Battle of Mount Damen in 484 and Count Roderick and later fought against King Octa twice. First in 490 when he helped capture King Octa at the Battle of Lindsey, and then at the Battle of St. Albans in 495 when among those who killed King Octa. He stove off more than one invasion by the Saxons, defeating a Saxon chieftain and taking his rune-scribed Saxon sword in 498, much the chagrin of the chieftain’s son, and then later slaying a Saxon berserker and gaining a knob of polished amber in a leather thong. In 500 at the Battle of Dorchester he became a hero to the men of Dorset, but to this day Cornishmen remember him with hate, whilst at the Battle of Royston in 504, was present at the killing of King Aescwine of Essex. Throughout his years, he also went on various quests for Merlin through the years and thus is known to the Arch-Druid. This included killing Djerl the Goblin, who cursed him with his dying his breath, and serving as an emissary to King Nanteleod of Escavalon, convincing him to come to Salisbury’s aid.

Name: Bellangere
Homeland: Culture: Cymric Christian
Father’s Name: Melion Father’s Class: Vassal knight Father’s Glory: 13,000
Son Number: 1
Liege Lord: Robert of Salisbury
Current Class: Household Knight Current Home: The Castle of the Rock in Sarum
Age: 21 Year Born: 487
Glory: 2400

Looks: Fair Distinctive Features: Golden blonde, dazzlingly white smile
Family Characteristic: Melodic (Singing)
Knight’s Luck: A lance blessed by Saint Dewi

CHARACTERISTICS
Size 13 Dexterity 08 Strength 11 Constitution 15 Appearance 14
Knockdown: 13 Major Wound: 15 Unconscious: 7
Total Hit Points: 28
Weapon Damage: 4d6 Brawling Damage: 4
Healing Rate: 3 Movement Rate: 14

PERSONALITY TRAITS
Chaste 14/Lustful 06
Energetic 06/Lazy 14
Forgiving 12/Vengeful 08
Generous 07/Selfish 13
Honest 12/Deceitful 08
Just 05/Arbitrary 15

Merciful 12/Cruel 08
Modest 12/Proud 08
Prudent 11/Reckless 09
Spiritual 14/Worldly 06
Temperate 13/Indulgent 07
Trusting 07/Suspicious 13
Valorous 17/Cowardly 03

PASSIONS
Honour 17
Homage (Lord) 17
Love (Family) 17
Hospitality 14
Station 12
Devotion (Deity) 05
Hate (Saxons) 15

SKILLS
Awareness 10, Compose 5, Courtesy 12, Dancing 4, Falconry 5, Fashion 9, First Aid 4, Flirting 9, Folklore 9, Gaming 5, Hunting 5, Intrigue 9, Literacy 0, Orate 9, Play Instrument 4, Recognize 5, Religion 5, Singing 10, Stewardship 5

COMBAT SKILLS
Battle 5, Horsemanship 10

WEAPON SKILLS
Brawling 10, Charge 10, Hafted 4, Sword 10, Spear 4, Two-Handed Hafted 4, Bow 4, Crossbow 4, Thrown Weapon 4

To have his knight 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, and on wielding weapons that are regarded as honourable. Although the use of missile weapons is acceptable against a besieging force, one knight using them against another is regarded as cowardly and dishonourable. To accompany the rules on mounted combat, horses get their own chapter, as do weapons and armour. The chapter on horses covers everything from horses trained for combat and the tack needed to equip a horse to training them and horse personalities.

Arguably at the heart of Pendragon and what sets it apart from other roleplaying games are the thirteen pairs of Personality Traits. They ensure that every Player-knight is different, defining both how he feels and how he typically acts. In play, they are used to determine how a Player-knight will act and make decisions, to test his character, to learn something about the world, even to help influence another Player-knight, and more. In most cases, a Player-knight will act in accordance with a Personality Trait, especially if it is high. Should a player want to have his knight act against a Personality Trait, literally act out of character, he will need to test it. If the roll is a failure, then the player must test the opposing Personality Trait. If the roll succeeds, the Player-knight will act in accordance with it, but if the roll is a failure, the player has the choice as to how his knight acts.

For example, Sir Bellangere has captured some Saxon raiders. His player declares that he will execute them, an unknightly act. The Game Master states that the player must make test Sir Bellangere’s Arbitrary Personality Trait, which is fifteen. If it was sixteen or above, the Personality Trait would be categorised as famous and Sir Bellangere would be automatically compelled in accordance with it. However, Sir Bellangere’s player has to roll and gets a result of seventeen on the roll of a twenty-sided die. It means that Sir Bellangere will not be immediately Arbitrary, but his player must still test the opposing Personality Trait, which is Just. Sir Bellangere has a Just of five and rolls three. This means that in this instance, Sir Bellangere will stay his hand and not kill the Saxon. It also means that there is a chance of Sir Bellangere increasing his Just Personality Trait and consequently, decreasing his Arbitrary Personality Trait, literally changing his personality!

What this means is that over time, a Player-knight can grow and change, not just in terms of skills or Passions, when it comes to his feelings, but in terms of his personality. This is not always beneficial to the Player-knight, as his Personality Traits might change such that he no longer matches the ideals of a particular type of knight, such as a chivalrous, religious, romantic, or courtier knight. Attaining—or indeed, re-attaining—one of these ideals is typically a long-term goal for a Player-knight, but aspiring to them is a roleplaying challenge in itself. And of course, they model the stories told of King Arthur and his knights, with great tales revolving around the testing of a knight’s ideals, being found wanting, and then attaining them once more. Mechanically, Personality Traits effectively work like advantages and disadvantages in other roleplaying games, but in Pendragon, Sixth Edition, whether a Personality Trait represents an advantage or a disadvantage depends on the situation and unlike other roleplaying games, in Pendragon, Sixth Edition, a Player-knight’s Personality Traits are often going to be tested. Given how integral they are to the roleplaying game, unsurprisingly, Pendragon Core Rulebook goes into some detail about the Personality Traits as well as the Passions, in particular the consequences of failing a Passion roll.

Although Pendragon is not a roleplaying game about money or loot per se, it has a role to play in the game. A knight has to maintain a certain lifestyle, there is his manor and family to maintain, and there are his dues to his liege lord. There will be a certain income form his manor, but a knight may need to spend more perhaps to make repairs to his equipment, pay a dowry, replace a horse that was lost during the Winter Phase, or worse pay a ransom if captured. A Player-knight may find loot on any adventure, be given it as a gift, or he may actually be paid random for capturing and releasing an enemy knight. Pendragon, Sixth Edition includes guidance on handling such situations, on income from other means such as gambling, on how to use such wealth, and on handling favours in the game. Besides the equipment list, here too is a guide to the types of supporting characters that a player might control, most obviously a squire. It seems oddly placed in the book though.

Although the Pendragon Core Rulebook does not include any scenarios, it does include solo activities which a Player-knight can undertake, especially if a session or two of play has been missed. As a Household Knight, a Player-knight has standard duties, such as garrison and patrol, attending a tournament, or even escorting a lady to a destination. Events can even occur multiple times during a year, requiring more checks, but unusual events can occur too, like visiting the royal court or facing an uprising of commoners. Several of these are expanded upon and there is a list of skills and Personality Traits which a player should be testing for his knight. With some development, the Game Master could actually go further and use these as scenario prompts for short adventures or quests.

One of the features of Pendragon is that it is played out in two phases per year. One is the Adventuring Phase, when the Player-knights go on quests and undertake assignments for their liege lord. The second is the Winter Phase. A Player-knight may benefit from a solo adventure in the Winter Phase, but this is the part of the game where player does upkeep for his knight, deals with any personal issues his knight may have had over the course of the year, handle skill and other improvement, changes to his knight’s Personality Traits, and work what happened to his family. The latter is particularly important, because a knight’s family will at some point provide an inheritance and when the Player-knight is killed or retires, a ready-made heir. Of course, the lives of a Player-knight’s family can be drawn upon for more roleplaying opportunities and storylines for the Game Master to develop.

Rounding out the Pendragon Core Rulebook is a trio of appendices. These highlight the changes from the previous edition of the roleplaying game, and then provide the Game Master with a quartet of pre-generated Player-knights and a coat of arms generator.

Physically, Pendragon Core Rulebook is a lovely looking book with a lot of evocative, full colour artwork. The layout is perhaps odd in places with the wandering third column, which typically contains prompts and quotes, changing from the middle of the page to the outer edge and back again, so there is no consistency. However, you do get used to it. The choice of a matte or buff paper stock gives the book a much more tactile feel than is to be expected.

Pendragon is, and always has been a great game, a masterpiece, even. Its matching and modelling of its game design with the source material to create a world and play experience within Arthurian legend is superlative. It is the reason why the previous edition of Pendragon was the thousandth review for Reviews from R’lyeh back in 2019. That has not changed. Pendragon Sixth Edition is a great game, beautifully presented with its elegant mechanics further explained and made accessible in the ultimate version of the roleplaying game that begins in detail in Pendragon Core Rulebook. Whilst there are elements of the roleplaying game and the setting that are missing from its pages, the Pendragon Core Rulebook does give the player everything that he will need to play, whilst the Game Master will want the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook and more for that missing content—or rather, that not yet released content. Because to be fair, the gap between the release of the Pendragon Core Rulebook and the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is actually not that long and everything in the Pendragon Core Rulebook is playable.

Pendragon Core Rulebook is a great update and explanation of the core rules to Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the perfect book for the players and a good rules reference for the Game Master. And in bringing back Greg Stafford’s masterpiece back to print, the publication of the Pendragon Core Rulebook heralds a new Golden Age of King Arthur and the adventures that Player-knights will undertake in his realm.

Feathering Fantasy

One of the most interesting and innovative roleplaying games of 2021 has to be Inspirisles. Published by Hatchlings Games, Inspirisles is an Arthurian storytelling game in which young teenagers find their way into the mysterious lands of the fae that mirror the British Isles where through the Shaping of magic collect Belief enough to protect the World Tree and so become Pendragons, the descendants of Arthur and Guinevere. It is specifically designed to do three things. First it is designed to be played by young adults. Second, it is designed to be played by the deaf and the hard of hearing. Third, and as a consequence of the latter, it is designed as both an introduction to and to help teach, Deaf culture and sign language—both American Sign Language and British Sign Language. To do that it uses sign language as part of game play. Just as words, letters, numbers, and expressions are shaped out in sign language, in Inspirisles, the players Shape out their characters’ magical control of the Elements, meaning that the players are literally Shaping what their characters are Shaping, and it gives the game a wonderful physicality.

Overisles is the first campaign for Inspirales, following on from the scenario collection, Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it takes the roleplaying game in a wholly direction—into the air and island hopping across the archipelago with the Pendragons riding astride their great feathered beasts, the Nimbus. At stake is the fate of the islands. All over the islands, Disbelief, brought about through greed, corruption, cruelty, and bloodshed, is bubbling up under the Nests of the Nimbus, masses of darkness that enable the great birds’ eggs to be stolen, Belief to weaken, and the islands to be dragged down from the skies. Could the culprits be Wyrm Pirates, infamous for stealing the eggs, or could it be something else? The Silver Apples, former Pendragons who stayed on once their quests were complete rather than returning to their lives on Earth far below, have searched far and wide for the cause, but all they have found so far, are hints of shadowy creatures roaming the islands committing theft after theft.

Although Overisles does include a quick guide to creating Pendragons, the Inspirisles rulebook is needed to create the Player Characters. In addition, the Grail Guide—as the Game Master is called—requires a pair of six-sided dice for use with the campaign’s various tables. The actual play requirements for Overisles are simple. Just five participants, one of whom will be the Grail Guide, the others taking the roles of the Pendragons, ideally one for each of the setting’s four Elements. Control and use of these four Elements is done via Shaping, the magical means used to overcome Belief Barriers and enter into Disbelief Battles. The former are puzzles or problems which the Pendragons need to solve or overcome, whilst the latter are contests against a threat infused with Disbelief, for example, a troll who has built a bridge into a community and is about to pillage it. Players and their Pendragons work together to solve a problem, explaining how their Shaping and their use of their Element contribute to the solution, working through a Leader. The Leader will change from problem to problem, depending upon which Element is best suited to dealing with the current situation. Key to Shaping, of course, is the use of Sign Language.

Overisles adds another form of Shaping. This is Feathering, which represents communication between the Nimbus and the Pendragon. Eight new words are added in both British and American Sign Language to handle the instructions that a rider will give his Nimbus, whilst in game, his Pendragon will bond with his Nimbus, its feathers coming to reflect the hue of the Element that the Pendragon specialises. There are other means to cross from one island to another, such as the Sky Bridges, but riding a Nimbus gives Pendragon the freedom of movement.

The play of Overisles involves the Pendragons travelling from island to island, encountering NPCs and possibly ‘monsters’, searching for signs of Disbelief, and hopefully solving each situation or problem on each island. Their progress is tracked in two ways. One is by the Pendragons and their players, in terms of the number of Nimbus Eggs and the amount of Belief they retrieve and offer. As they retrieve and offer more of both, they will unlock stronger Shapes and gain access to better items. The other is by the Grail Guide, and is the degree of Calamity which can befall the Archipelago. Whilst Disbelief can be reduced by recovering Nimbus Eggs, if it and Calamity increase, it can trigger calamitous events, starting with a Vorm Storm, when the captain of The Gallant Gull, which takes the Pendragons to Wingrest, the biggest island of the archipelago and the starting point for the campaign, loses control of his emotions all the way up to one of the Nests plummeting to the ground below, and beyond. When this occurs, the Pendragons have to act immediately in order to prevent a disaster.

Overisles details numerous NPCs across the Archipelago, including the four Crests who lead the peoples across the islands, the elite of the Silver Apples—including a very truthful Squirrel, and dangerous beings, like the Corrupted Glow (Glow are winged and birdlike creatures who research Belief, but the Corrupted Glow have been overcome by Disbelief) and Wyrm Pirates. Wingrest is described in broad detail, and there are a number of interesting NPCs that the Pendragons can encounter here in addition to the Crests.

A good quarter of Overisles is dedicated to describing the twenty islands of the Archipelago. For example, Felisia is home to many cats, including its king, Cat Sith. Its notable features include the Great Cat Tree, decorated with colourful tassels and ribbons, and dotted with sun dappled platforms and homes; the Sunning Hills, carpeted with lush grass where the Feliseans can bask or catch fish from the verdant pools; and the Green Fields, which consist of fields of catnip and cat grass, all to please the inhabitants’ sense of smell. It is inhabited by the Feliseans, anthropomorphic cats. Of late though, dark clouds have been rolling over the Sunning Hills at a moment’s notice, and where Cat Sith once hosted picnics, festivals, fishing competitions, and more, he has not been seen in weeks. The Pendragons will want to find out why and this is presented as a series of tasks that will see them climb the Great Cat Tree to Cat Sith’s palace, stand in for him at a festival, and come to his aid. These tasks are presented in succinct fashion and the Grail Guide will want to flesh them out and add a little colour too. All of the island descriptions follow a similar pattern—a description of a handful of important locations and NPCs, the problem causing Disbelief on the island, and the tasks to be done to overcome the Disbelief.

What this means is that the Pendragons have twenty islands to explore in any fashion that they want. That though may be a problem. The Players may not necessarily know which island to visit first and there are no real links in terms of hooks or pointers which will pull the Pendragons from one island to the next. On the one hand, this gives both them and their players a lot of freedom, but that freedom can be daunting. Thus, the Grail Guide may want to throw in some hooks and rumours in order to give her players some ideas as to where their Pendragons should go. One thing that the Grail Guide has to do is decide who is actually responsible for the rise in Disbelief across the Archipelago. Several suggestions are given, but the Grail Guide will need to decide as to who and why.

Physically, Overisles is brightly presented and decently written. The artwork is bright and engaging, one particularly enjoyable piece is of the island of Wingrest floating unseen over the British Isles.

Where Overisles has a problem is that it is underwritten in places and is perhaps too open in its structure, such that it lacks a good starting point and hooks to give reasons for the Pendragons to go to an island and their players to want their Pendragons to go to an island. It is here that it needs development upon the part of the Grail Master and that is in addition to deciding who the villain of the piece is. Inspirales does deserve a campaign, but Overisles is not quite the campaign it fully deserves. It needs a bit more input to run than it should and for less experienced players this could be off-putting. Of course, there are no other campaigns for Inspirales, so Overisles is the only option. Once the preparation has been done, Overisles will be a decent option, not just the only option.

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Hatchlings Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 31st to Sunday June 2nd, 2024.