I'd like to get some thoughts on running multiple groups through the GPC from those that have have tried it in the past.

My setup is this. I've been playing the GPC for 18 months now, currently up to AD490. Playing every two months or so, with some years requiring multiple sessions, hence our slow progression. As time has gone on some of my PCs have been pushing for more play sessions and that has caused a slight issue with those that absolutely cannot commit to more. Not wanting to up the session count and disadvantage those not present I proposed running two groups, both following the same timeline, but with separate characters and adventures. This would up the session count without affecting the main group, and everyone seems happy with this idea.

The campaign framework remains the same for both groups with Group A running pretty much the GPC adventures as they are and Group B playing adventures of my own, sometimes as a spin off from the main or entirely new ones. I've told my PCs they would need new knights and new families and they're ok with this extra workload, but a few thoughts;

- Should I run them purely as household knights with no lands etc,? This makes bookkeeping easier but as they are effectively entirely new PKs I wonder if this would be wise. They are putting in the play time after all.

- At first i thought I'd just run them as other Salisbury knights but then wondered if placing them elsewhere would be even better. Knights of Dorset or Silchester for example.

- How to handle court. If they are all knights of Salisbury then all the PKs would normally be present at court. Running the same court scene from two perspectives feels just too repetitive. Just have the PC decide which PK was active this year at court with the other an NPC in the background?

Finally, is this a can worms just not worth opening! :)

I have done this, more than once, and it worked well for me.

Whether you start them as household lands or not, they'll eventually reach landed knight status, so I see no reason to penalise them to start off with. I'd say, by default, start as vassal knights just like you would normally with a new campaign. Only change this if you have a good campaign reason - like you plan to take the opportunity to explore the differences in lifestyle that household knights face. They don't have the same freedoms, for the most part, that landed knights do, so the liege will be much more an active part of their lives. One thing i have done, is made one player a landed knight, and have all the other players his household.

Re: Salisbury: I'd definitely recommend starting somewhere else. I've started groups in lands that will eventually be Arthur's enemies, for example: vassals of King Lot or Uriens would be fun choices. But Logres is a big place, plenty of space there for another campaign group. Wherever you pick, it has the advantage that some GPC events are big enough to play through twice, once with each group (for example, you could play a battle twice: the second group to play will know who wins, but in pendragon that doesn't matter- they will be more concerned with whether their character survives!). The different location will sometimes provide a different perspective on the same events, too.

Thanks, Darren.

- Having 1 guy be the vassal knight and the others his household - Didn't that give the vassal knight guy quite a major advantage or was the vassal knight an NPC?

- I had been leaning away from having the new PKs come from another county (it means I'll have to develop totally new NPCs, maps, etc etc) but your comments have made me think again.

The lord knight was a PC, and it did give somewhat of an advantage, but the players weren't in competition against each other (except for glory). In theory, the Lord knight had final say on decisions, but once on an adventure, players will often be off doing their own thing, or will be willing to argue with the liege - who, as feudal reality shows, had better learn to not ignore the advice of his closest advisers and friends.

You could also divide them into two groups - 2 lords, each with a household knight (or two). The two lords may disagree with each other, the household knight of one lord might agree with the other lord and try to persuade his lord to change his mind, etc. You can get some fun politics out of this.

If you plan on making them landed knights, you could still do something like this, by making the landed knights vassals of another landed knight who has more land. I've had situations like this arise naturally over a long-term campaign, where one knight has gaiend a lot of land, and in later generations, I have encouraged those knights to recruit replacement household knights from the families of other players.

Often families can't afford to knight a second or later son - this allows them to do it, so a lot of players are happy to take up a subordinate role with another player, to get that knight in play.