Pendragon

Casey777 · October 10, 2008, 04:41:19 PM

While I like 5th, I'm not 100% how usable it is by itself for just playing a normal stock Arthurian campaign. Say I want to run a game for a group of Knights of the Round Table pre-Grail Quest. Is this possible with 5th ed. core without a lot of winging and generating of stuff?

Or to put it another way, if I want to run more than just pre-Arthur knights outside of the starting point, do I have to go out and buy GPC?

I do think 5th is very well written and presented, just looks to stop a touch short of what i want for out of the box use. Am I just missing a sidebar somewhere?

Quote from: stone;255104I am very fond of the 4th ed. Book that I have - lots of stuff crammed into a big book, including the rules for magicians and women characters.

5th has rules for playing women characters. Not sure how comprehensive they are compared to 4th editions, but they seem complete enough for playing.

Narf the Mouse · October 10, 2008, 05:33:41 PM

Just as a side note, 'women characters' and 'men characters' sound awkward to me. 'Female and male characters' flows better.

But I'm a bit of a bibliophile.

Ok, more than a bit. But can't everyone remember where they left nearly every library book?

droog · October 10, 2008, 08:18:30 PM

Quote from: Casey777;255527Or to put it another way, if I want to run more than just pre-Arthur knights outside of the starting point, do I have to go out and buy GPC?

If that's what you want, I'd go with 4th ed.

RPGPundit · October 11, 2008, 02:13:59 PM

Quote from: FASERIP;255339Hey Everybody,

At the moment, two sellers on Amazon have GPC at $70. It's a wonderful book, but I'm not crazy about it at the price for two reasons: I haven't run it yet (I've only played in two Pendragon one-shots), and the stats for the main characters are sold separately as a pdf on drivethru.

At that price, I would certainly recommend it to Pendragon fans who know what they're getting into, however.

I would add this: GPC or not, the stats on drivethru are a very inexpensive way to expand your Arthurian game. It was half-price--- $2.50 American or something when I bought it. That's a cup of coffee.

The GPC is an awesome book though; it gives you just about everything you need to run an entire campaign that could last years of play. You don't really need the stats for characters all that much, unless your PCs are planning to spend a lot of time fighting the Round Table knights or something.

In general, for those things you do need to know about, you can wing it, the 5th edition corebook has stats for generic knights at different levels of experience and even ages, so you can just figure it out from there (ie. most Round table knights would be "famous knights" or whatever).

RPGPundit

Ian Absentia · October 11, 2008, 05:14:57 PM

Quote from: droog;255574If that's what you want, I'd go with 4th ed.

What droog said. If you're more interested in the game and less so in Arthuriana, then 4th ed. is probably closer to what you're looking for.

!i!

FASERIP · October 12, 2008, 05:35:34 AM

Pundit, I have the GPC, and entirely agree with you about its excellence.

The reason that I reserve endorsing it wholeheartedly for those new to the game is that I myself haven't run anything from it. I would encourage newbs to acquire a copy of 5e (or 4e, or whatever), before commiting to buying it, just in case the game isn't to their liking.

But chances are, if you like Pendragon, you'll absolutely want the GPC.

Hopefully Greg Stafford gets his stuff squared away with WW/Arthaus/Lulu, and the GPC is available again POD. I can't imagine using it as a PDF.

RPGPundit · October 12, 2008, 01:45:26 PM

I'm running the entire GPC campaign, but you could also use the book to start out at a certain point in history and just use that material. Plus the extra adventures, the material on the faerie realm, etc, is all so much that there's tons you can do with it.

RPGPundit

Claudius · October 12, 2008, 02:26:59 PM

Quote from: Ian Absentia;255722What droog said. If you're more interested in the game and less so in Arthuriana, then 4th ed. is probably closer to what you're looking for.

!i!

Interestingly, I get a similar vibe when I look at the "non-Arthurian" supplements that were published for Pendragon 4th, like the one with Scandinavians, the one with Irish, etc. If you were a fan of Chaosium and wanted to run a viking campaign, you could choose between using RuneQuest and RQ Vikings, or Pendragon and Land of Giants.

Maybe the possibility of playing characters of foreign cultures, or being a magic user, is against the spirit of Pendragon, but I'm very happy that the magic system and those supplements with non-Arthurian cultures were published.

droog · October 12, 2008, 02:31:50 PM

I had this epiphany once in a drug-filled haze: PD isn't about knights, it's about the warrior societies of the Indo-European peoples.

Casey777 · October 12, 2008, 02:36:39 PM

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for GPC printed cheap but won't hold my breath waiting for it.

In the meantime I do have the Saxons and 4th edition rulebook on PDF (and I think I remember where) which I'll mine to supplement 5th then.

Ian Absentia · October 12, 2008, 02:50:11 PM

Quote from: Claudius;255870Maybe the possibility of playing characters of foreign cultures, or being a magic user, is against the spirit of Pendragon...

Oh, I think rather not. Both Greg Stafford and Peter Corliss were very interested in adapting the system to an historical Japanese setting. I think there are two very valid directions you can go with the game: Pendragon as an engine for exploring Arthuriana, and; Pendragon as an engine for exploring passion-driven warrior societies.

!i!

[Edit: Okay, I do think that rules for high magic defy the spirit of the game no matter what, though.]

MoonHunter · October 13, 2008, 12:15:52 PM

Quote from: Ian Absentia;255879Oh, I think rather not. Both Greg Stafford and Peter Corliss were very interested in adapting the system to an historical Japanese setting. I think there are two very valid directions you can go with the game: Pendragon as an engine for exploring Arthuriana, and; Pendragon as an engine for exploring passion-driven warrior societies.

Oh, I would of loved that. It would of worked so well.

Okay, time to dig out my Pendragon set and start to tinkering.

jswa · October 13, 2008, 04:59:17 PM

I've decided to definitely pick up Pendragon 5th and the Great Pendragon Campaign whenever I have the chance. It doesn't look like it's currently on Lulu, though...

If anyone's throwing these up onto eBay anytime soon, let me know.

jswa · October 13, 2008, 05:05:00 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;255859I'm running the entire GPC campaign, but you could also use the book to start out at a certain point in history and just use that material. Plus the extra adventures, the material on the faerie realm, etc, is all so much that there's tons you can do with it.

RPGPundit

Hey Pundit: Is that a weekly thing you've got going? Have any comments on the way it plays (with the extended time between adventures and that sort of thing; it's something I've never done before)?

Anyone else who's running/has run a Pendragon 5th campaign can chime in, also.

Casey777 · October 13, 2008, 06:17:25 PM

Hrm, I found the Pendragon Book of Knights & Ladies, Advanced Character Generation on Gregg Stafford's Pendragon page. It looks a lot like exactly what I'm looking for to expand 5th edition's options. Lots more homelands, British and beyond, more religions, and any time during the GPC. But for $50 printed and with no pdf version available yet, no go for me until a hopefully much cheaper pdf comes out!

Anyone have Knights & Ladies and is it as comprehensive as the preview info looks?