Actual Play: Pendragon

Last night we had our first session of the Pendragon campaign.  And it went great.

Overall, the players were highly impressed with the quality of the game's mechanics. They enjoyed what I call the "Price is Right" mechanic, whereby you have to get as high a roll as possible "without going over" your actual value. They loved the Traits and passions, and seemed content with the combat.

And everyone enjoyed the character creation process.  We did it the long way, rolling up histories for the character's fathers and grandfathers. As it turns out, most of the characters had both fathers and grandfathers that died very young, something that emphasizes the brutality of the age, I suppose. Most of them didn't end up getting any particularly juicy family history out of it though, as a result of mostly mediocre rolls, except for Federico Pereira, who's father died "gloriously" in a siege at Carlion, netting him 1000 glory points.

I ran the introductory scenario from the appendix of the main book, so the characters all started out as squires receiving their final training and going on their first solo mission before being knighted. The players agreed with me that this adventure acts as a truly excellent "Tutorial" for Pendragon (one of the best examples of a "learn the system as you go along" tutorial-adventure I've ever seen in any game). The scenario starts with the characters doing some basic training, then they go off to hunt a bear; on the way back from the hunt they run into some bandits, and then finally return to the castle where they meet the Earl and get to be knighted.

At first, the characters were all still relatively nondescript, when they were practicing with their lances and horse races; but by the time the characters started off on the road to Imber to hunt the rogue bear, their personalities really began to crystalize. It happened mostly as they were figuring out the way the traits worked, and exactly what their skills made them good at.  So after a bit, you had one seriously pagan throwback knight that's more comfortable in the woods than in the castle, another pagan knight who's a bit more cultured and very big on chivalry, a very british knight who's interested doing everything properly, a devoutly Roman Catholic paladin out to convince both pagans and british christians alike of the truth of his faith (and who values his chastity above all else), and another Roman Catholic knight that is more worldly and fashionable.

By the time they'd gotten back to the village and were celebrating the killing of the bear, the players were going out of their way to get checks for whichever traits mattered to them. They also came to see, and I got to confirm, that even though the Pendragon game is limited strictly to Knight PCs (ie. no "thieves" or Bards or wizards or anything other than knights), in fact each character is very different, and they saw how they had to defer to different PCs on different occasions depending what their strengths were.

At the end of the adventure, the Earl chooses to knight all of the PCs, and we went through the whole ceremony of knighthood. At the end, the PCs all performed the ceremonial leap and every single one of them made it on their horse!

I got the feeling, from my point of view, that the Players were very much awed by the feeling of the game, they really got into the "immersion" of seeing themselves as a band of young almost-knights, amazed by the majesty of the Earl of Salisbury, affected by the power of the older NPC knights around them, and very wary of the reality that Salisbury is on the verge of war with the neighbouring Saxon kingdoms. I think the players were all also very amused by the combination of history and legend that the setting comprises, the little historical details that made the setting come alive, and the importance of religion (and the three competing religions of the setting) to the atmosphere of dark-ages Britain.

So basically, my players and I were all very happy with the results of the game, and its a good augury for a productive "great campaign".

RPGPundit

This was my feeling when I ran Pendragon too. Excellent game, and WW to their credit didn't mess it up.

-clahs

As I said in your blog, this is very cool. Please, keep us posted!

I intend to start an AP on my new Mutants in Shadows very soon, by the way.

I will mention that we have now played the second adventure:

Only Federico Pintos, Federico Pereira, and Alejo Michelena were present at the game.  Marcel is away on a sea voyage and Esteban couldn't make it.

Anyways, the game could well have been called "Massacre at Mearcred Creek".  The PCs traveled to Leicester where they visited at the court of King Uther, where it was announced that the King would confront the Saxon invasions of Salisbury.

The King's army rushed over to the border between Sussex and Salisbury, where they confronted a great Saxon army. It was the first time we used the "Battle Rules", and all my players agreed they were very cool, and worked very smoothly.

Unfortunately, an injury in the battle knocked Fed. Pereira out of the action rather quickly.  In a sense it was fortunate for him; because on the 4th round of battle the "circumstances of battle" table gave the PCs a +10 bonus, and they decided to make use of that to look for a "special opponent".  As it turns out the special opponent rolled up was a mounted Saxon Knight of considerable experience, but he wouldn't have been unstoppable, had it not been for the bodyguard he had with him: a Small Giant wielding a Tree!!

Alejo went after the Knight, and Federico Pintos went after the Giant.  The Giant squashed Fede with the tree, killing him; while Alejo managed to kill of the Knight.  I gave Alejo the chance to flee, having the giant more interesting in eating Fede's corpse than fighting Alejo (plus, Alejo was on horseback so the chance to escape was practically guaranteed), but Alejo decided to fight the Giant anyways, out of loyalty to his dead friend.
Needless to say, Alejo (after holding his own for a couple of rounds), joined Fede on the dead pile.

The two players weren't too upset over the deaths of their characters, and quickly rolled up new knights (since neither had direct heirs, they both chose to start a whole new lineage), who will come into play in the next game.

Meanwhile, Federico, the sole survivor, healed easily from his wounds and then we worked out the "Winter Period" for 485 with his character, being the first time we made use of that.  All agreed that the Winter Period mechanic works very well.

Oh, and the overall result of the Battle of Mearcred Creek was mostly a draw, the Saxons weren't decisively defeated, but they were hurt enough that they couldn't raid Salisbury.  At the same time, though, a brand new tribe of Saxons have landed further north and scored a major victory against one of Uther's vassals.  So things look bad for the Britons.

RPGPundit

How does the Price is Right mechanic work, and what's the in game explanation? I'm trying to figure it out in my head but everything I come up with makes being more skilled a danger sometimes, so I'm sure I'm missing something.

Daaaaaamn!!!

*wishes he had more free time to play this campaign*

Quote from: RPGPunditThey loved the Traits and passions...

[...snip...]

...the players were going out of their way to get checks for whichever traits mattered to them.

This warms my little heart.  Traits are a wonderful way of guiding your character in keeping with his emotional and cultural make-up, essentially just like knowing what his strength or dexterity scores are.

Quote from: James McMurrayHow does the Price is Right mechanic work, and what's the in game explanation?

The mechanic is a simple ability score, rated from 0 to 20 (and exceptional scores that go higher), with a roll-under (without going over) requirement.  Any roll of your skill or trait level or lower is a success, but the closer the roll is to your score, the better it's considered to be.  If a baker with a Baking skill of 15 rolls a 3 for one batch of bread, a 14 for another, and 18 for a third, you're going to want to buy a loaf from the second batch -- the first is okay, but maybe a little off, while the third is going to be hard and nasty.

Opposed rolls are a little different.  If you have a score of 18 with a sword, you're pretty killer -- all you need to do is roll 18 or under on a d20 to hit.  Now, if you're fighting someone with a sword skill of 13, and he rolls a 12 while you roll an 11, you both succeed, but he came closer to his score without going over than you did, and thus gets the edge on you in that round of combat.  He scores a normal success, while you get a partial success (which would likely reduce the amount of damage he inflicts upon you).

!i!

Sounds cool, thanks for the info.

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaOpposed rolls are a little different.  If you have a score of 18 with a sword, you're pretty killer -- all you need to do is roll 18 or under on a d20 to hit.  Now, if you're fighting someone with a sword skill of 13, and he rolls a 12 while you roll an 11, you both succeed, but he came closer to his score without going over than you did, and thus gets the edge on you in that round of combat.  He scores a normal success, while you get a partial success (which would likely reduce the amount of damage he inflicts upon you).

!i!

A little correction here. The 12 beats the 11 just because it's a highest roll, independently of the skills involved (as long as the roll is successful, of course).

Quote from: ImperatorA little correction here. The 12 beats the 11 just because it's a highest roll, independently of the skills involved (as long as the roll is successful, of course).

Right, Impertor! I was confused by Ian's post, as my recollections jibed with yours. I wasn't sure if he or I was right until you posted, as I didn't have the game with me, and it's been six months since I ran it. Great game, though!

-clash

Quote from: ImperatorThe 12 beats the 11 just because it's a highest roll, independently of the skills involved (as long as the roll is successful, of course).

Odd -- I had to look at that a couple of times before I realised how it clarified what I wrote before.  Very true -- a higher success wins simply by virtue of being higher, not by virtue of being closer to the target number without going over.

A good clarifying example would be the same two swordsmen I mentioned above, you with a skill of 18, the other with a skill of 13.  You roll a 14, while he rolls a 13.  He's dead-on to his skill level -- he can't roll any better; you're a full 4 points away from your best possible roll.  However, you still rolled higher, so you still win that round.  In this case, your opponent's success, but with a lower roll, allows him a partial success.

!i!

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaA good clarifying example would be the same two swordsmen I mentioned above, you with a skill of 18, the other with a skill of 13.  You roll a 14, while he rolls a 13.  He's dead-on to his skill level -- he can't roll any better; you're a full 4 points away from your best possible roll.  However, you still rolled higher, so you still win that round.  In this case, your opponent's success, but with a lower roll, allows him a partial success.

!i!

Um, actually no, you got it wrong again because in that case the guy who got the 13 got a critical; which automatically counts as a "20" for comparison purposes.  So the guy who rolled his exact number wins.

RPGPundit

Ian, you are required to turn in your PDGM membership card.

G'ah.  I forgot the critical rule. I am shamed.

!i!

[Edit:  Wait a minute, though.  "Wrong again"? My first example wasn't wrong, though it needed clarification.]

So yesterday we played again; this time all the players survived, and they got to face off against a Giant again! This time they got the upper hand, but just barely. Then they fought a horrid fairy creature while Merlin (who had "recruited" them) went and took a certain mysterious sword from the Lady of the Lake.

The regular group was joined now by Cristian, who is playing a fairly worldly knight who's chronically impoverished.  Cristian had been unable to resist joining the campaign even though the time of the game was too early for his liking, because he'd heard too much cool stuff about the game.  
In any case, he and everyone else were really happy with how this session turned out.  At the end of the night we did the Winter Period for the next game.

RPGpundit