I have to admit that an additional problem for myself is that I find Mallory unreadable. Perhaps I'll try the French sources.

Quote from: Simon W on September 28, 2020, 05:30:22 AM
Cool. Downloaded. I'll study those later maybe with a view to further simplification!

Interestingly, while my recollection of Pendragon is that it was not a particularly complex game, looking over those sheets does seem to give a very different impression.


Part of that is probably because of the variety of min-games. Tournaments, skirmishes, massed battles, hunts, feasts etc ... each come with their own systems that, while (in most cases) individually simple, do add up.


There are also a lot of optional rules in the plethora of suplements each adding more detail to various subsystems.

Quote from: Sable Wyvern on September 28, 2020, 08:21:42 PMInterestingly, while my recollection of Pendragon is that it was not a particularly complex game, looking over those sheets does seem to give a very different impression.


Part of that is probably because of the variety of min-games. Tournaments, skirmishes, massed battles, hunts, feasts etc ... each come with their own systems that, while (in most cases) individually simple, do add up.


There are also a lot of optional rules in the plethora of suplements each adding more detail to various subsystems.

I thought Tournaments were just Jousting, which is just a skill roll. Did they add something else after first edition? [Edit: looking at the cheat sheet, it appears that they did. Personally I'd consider that level of detail something that would only be seen in the later stages or periods of the campaign.] And aren't Skirmishes just a simplification of the massed battle mechanic rather two different games?

In any case, the GM should gradually introduce the various mini-games one or two at a time which will make the complexity more manageable for both sides of the table. If you follow the Pendragon timeline I'm not sure that formal Tournaments (like the more elaborate castle designs) even exist in the first period of play.

Yes, I believe the skirmish (technical game term) is a simplified, small-scale battle. I was using the term in a more general sense to refer to the default personal combat rules.


My game only ended up running for the first period or two in the GPC, and I think there was quite a bit of stuff on the main sheet we didn't actually use.

Update: Well, I finally took the plunge and ran Pendragon 5e (The Great Pendragon Campaign). It was a text-based thing on Discord that we were diving into daily between our two usual group video chat games on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We got as far as the end of year 486 and heading into the Winter phase. Then posting kind of dried up for a couple of days. I figured I'd lost enthusiasm - so I messaged my player and said I wasn't really enjoying all the page flipping to find all the rules scattered around the place for everything. He agreed that the book-keeping was a chore and he had forgotten how time-consuming it all was. We both agreed we enjoyed that sort of stuff years ago but it isn't something we enjoy now - although Pendragon is still a great game. I'm now running a homebrew "Eternal Champion" type thing for him instead.

Thanks for everyone who chipped in with their thoughts though. At least we tried!