Pendragon, AD 485

Marshall Elad of Vagon Castle, where the PCs are training as squires, continued their training. He puts them through their paces and then asks them to go check out a rumor of a bear up near Imber. Elad thinks it's probably just a dog, but you know how peasants are.

Hey folks!  Been a while.  So here's what I've been up to:

1.  I've been playing a lot of Dungeon Crawl Classics.  I collected the session reports here:

http://rpggeek.com/geeklist/144678/idiots-adventurous

That has links where you can go to read all about how stupid we are.  I had a blast, and then the GM apparently needed a job and had to move to the big city.  Sheesh.

2.  I decided to start GMing Pendragon, specifically the Great Pendragon Campaign.  Here's a copy of the rough session report:



After my Call of Cthulhu (2nd - 6th Edition) game kind of stalled out, and two of my favorite players moved away, and two of my other players revealed that they weren't really that into the game anyway ... it was time to reevaluate.

While running through The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep is still on my bucket list, I decided to take a crack at one of the other things on my list. Enter the GPC!

I've never GMed KAP before; just played. Only two players could make it, so we took it small and slow.

We're playing by the book, using King Arthur Pendragon: Edition 5.1. Supplement-wise we are definitely using Book of the Manor (2nd Edition), probably using Book of Armies, maybe using Book of Knights & Ladies later but definitely not now, and probably not using Book of Battle.

I walked them through character generation using the Salisbury family history to make some Cymric characters. I love the history tables; not only do they create a sense of grounding for your character but they create connections with the other characters -- "hey, our grandfathers both fought at the Battle of XYZ!" (or whatever).

Spring, 485 AD!

We went through the beginning adventure in the book. Marshall Elad of Vagon Castle, where the PCs are training as squires, continued their training. This "adventure" is really just a method to walk them through the basic mechanics. Which is fine, but Squire Nidian remarked that it was very similar to the beginning of CRPGs. This feeling was enhanced when Elad asked them to go check out a rumor of a bear up near Imber. At least no one was asked to clean out a basement full of rats.

Turns out there was a bear! Nidian, whose family has a proclivity for hunting, quickly outpaced Squire Owain and found the bear! The bear was pretty tough, so Nidian decided to cut and run. He found Owain and they went back together to make short work of the beast. The local priest bound their wounds and got the peasants to clean and dress the bear, giving them its hide as a prize and as proof of their deed.

On the way back they found a pair of bandits beating up a peasant and decided to charge! Unfortunately for Owain, his target rolled a critical and spitted Owain on his spear, taking him to 1 HP. Owain was a mess but they managed to get him back to Vagon.

Back at Castle Vagon, Sir Elad was suitably impressed! Not with Owain getting skewered to within an inch of his life, but with their general leadership and heroism. Owain was bedridden for a few weeks but was eventually able to get up and around -- just in time for a messenger to arrive for the Marshall. They've been summoned to Sarum by Earl Roderick!

At Sarum they hobnob a little with the castle folk, and then Earl Roderick calls Owain and Nidian up in front of the assembly and knights them! Arise, Sir Owain! Arise, Sir Nidian!

We called it a night there. King Uther has summoned Roderick and his knights to aid in an attack on the Saxons!