Hi all,

I've recently got the GPC and KAP 5.1 on POD with a view to starting a game. My players have so far shown most interest in a dark-ages type game (which initially is easy enough of course in the Uther and Anarchy periods) and I like the idea of the Welsh Arthur, an active and energetic war-leader with perhaps an ambiguous relationship to the church in a land of magic and mythical beasts.

Reading the Mabinogion aside does anybody have any rule ideas for this kind of game (it's easy enough to say go light on Chivalry and Romance but how to replace or modify these central elements) or has anybody got experience of this sort of game? I'd be interested in what people have to say :)

Reading the Mabinogion aside does anybody have any rule ideas for this kind of game (it's easy enough to say go light on Chivalry and Romance but how to replace or modify these central elements) or has anybody got experience of this sort of game? I'd be interested in what people have to say :)


The best idea I have heard is to work out a set of Cymric Tribal Traits to give a magical bonus, and the players get the supernatural abilities that are in the Mabinogion.
If you are not going to have armor escalation, just jack it to start.

You might find a lot of good material in the excellent 4th edition supplement for Pendragon called Pagan Lands.

It's based on dark age Irish myth and culture, but not too far away from the old Welsh and Celtic.

The book mentioned by Caledvolc is actually called Pagan Shore, but it is indeed an excellent source of material on Dark Age Celts in KAP. You may also want to take a peek at Savage Mountains for detailed information on Cambria.

Yes, thanks UT, Pagan Shore it is.

It's right above me on my bookshelf too. :-[

Need some new glasses. ::)

does anybody have any rule ideas for this kind of game


I was looking up armor types on wikipedia recently and found the following, which might be useful for providing a basis for jacking armor values, expanding on Greg’s suggestion, for a more Dark Age centric Arthurian campaign.

The bulk of this is assuming, of course that after the main Roman forces were withdrawn from Britain, there were enough Roman armorers left in the cities to produce enough of this stuff to be widely available to the warrior elites. And that the culture of knowledge needed to produce it survived a couple of generations.

Roman chain mail – Lorica Hamata – 10pts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_hamata

Roman scale mail – Lorica Squamata – 12pts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_squamata

Roman banded mail – Lorica Segmentata – 14pts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_segmentata

Roman Tribune’s mail – Lorica Plumata – 14pts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_plumata

Roman plate cuirass – Lorica Musculata – 16pts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_cuirass

For lower armor types you could allow warriors to wear an xtra layer of padding under their leather so that 4pt leathers would give 6pts protection (but potentially be more encumbering), and 6pt cured leather would give 8pts protection.

Alternatively, or additionally, you could allow warriors to boost the rating of their leather armor with arm and leg guard segments scrounged from, or modeled on, those found with full sets of Lorica.
You could add a point or two to the armor value, for instance, of a warrior who wore some lorica manica with his leather armor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_manica

Lastly, you could allow warriors to use larger shields, like those used by old Roman auxiliaries. In The Boy King, the Roman Infantry encountered by Arthur as he marches on his Roman campaign have 8pt shields.

That’s just a few ideas on the armor front.

Where’s atgxtg? He’d have some good info on all this I’d imagine.

i think that this should also go here. what about really pseudo-historical arthur; i have been recently reading keith taylor's bard series and narrow seas and british isles in 6th century seem like great setting (with a little magic of course). so how one should go about making pseudo-historical arthur? what should go and what should be added?

i think that this should also go here. what about really pseudo-historical arthur; i have been recently reading keith taylor's bard series and narrow seas and british isles in 6th century seem like great setting (with a little magic of course). so how one should go about making pseudo-historical arthur? what should go and what should be added?


please start a new therad!

sorry. :-[