Hey all,

I just began a play-by-post campaign, Exile Sons, and the central theme is displacement from one's ancestral home. Many of the great knights from canon are or have been exiles: Ambrosius and Uther, Lancelot and his cousins, Astlabor and his three sons, Sirs Balin and Tristram, etc. The idea I had for my game is to make the reason for a player-knight's exile the focus of homeland determination, and set up a table of homelands appropriate to each reason.

Being forced out by foreign invaders, for example, limits one to a very specific group of homelands. The Parisi were forced from Deira and Nohaut by the Angles in 455, the Cantiaci from Kent by the Jutes in 457, the Regneses from Sussex by the Saxons in 477, the Trinovantes from Caercolun by the Saxons in 485, the Demetae from Estregales by the Irish in 480, the Belgae from Hampshire by the Saxons in 495, the Iceni from Caerwent by the Angles in 500. (Yes, I'm leaving an option for player-knights to become future exiles.)

Being banished for political reasons would offer a considerably broader array of homeland options, as would fleeing imprisonment or a death-sentence for crimes real or perceived. What I'm looking for is help coming up with a reasonably comprehensive list of reasons for exile and a suitable set of homelands to go with each. Logres is as much an option here as other regions, a knight could have been exiled from any given county for various reasons. Our starting locale will be Salisbury, but at the moment I'm still working out the details with my players as to whether or not their knights will all begin with the same current class.

Any help would be appreciated. :)

Do you need a comprehensive list of reasons? If the campaign premise is that the PCs are all exiles, i would just let people choose their homelands and then with them come up with the reason for their banishment. Maybe get all the players together and brainstorm it to see if links could be created between the characters as well.

I'm compiling a list because not all my players are familiar with Dark Age Britain or Pendragon. Also, the homelands that were invaded in the past are not options in the current set of tables. Guess I could create a Logres D region table with those homelands as well as the Duchy of Cornwall (so the three counties which make up that homeland are distinct in my players' minds from those making up the Kingdom of Cornwall).

Some possible political reasons for exile are

1) Related to The Wrong Person (e.g. Ewaine because of his mother Morgan, even though he had foiled one of her earlier plots and was related to Gawaine)

2) Friends with The Wrong Person (e.g. "The Man Without A Country").

3) Framed by a foe (e.g. "The Count of Monte Cristo").

4) Made a vow not to return until he completes a task/proves his accusers wrong (e.g. Muntz in Pixar's "Up").

Note that the exile may not have done anything wrong himself, depending upon the tone the GM wants to set ...

Note that the exile may not have done anything wrong himself...

Indeed, it's entirely possible that a knight's grandfather or father was the individual exiled. Could even be their grandmother, mother or other relative (and I could argue for a bonus to Love (Family) in such a case, if the rest of the family followed them into exile.).