As announced elsewhere (http://www.gspendragon.com/roundtable/index.php?topic=1164.0) on these boards, I just began a new play-by-post campaign called Exile Sons. The core tenet of exile manifests, in character creation, by means of a simple conceit: all the player-knights' families originally came from somewhere outside Salisbury. My players were each asked to provide a reason for exile and a possible homeland, then proceed to roll up their knights' Attributes, Traits and Passions. I randomly determined the year in which each family's exile occurred, then gave each player special instructions for when that year comes up in their knight's family history.

Thus far we have learned that: A) in 461 a Cumbrian lord's former seneschal, grandfather of one player-knight, had a messy love affair with the wife of a neighboring lord which led to the family's disgrace and exile; and B) in 477 a landed Regneses knight, father to another player-knight, fled the Saxon conquest of that tribe's homeland with his family. Details for the father of a third player-knight need to be ironed out, but according to rumor he abandoned both family and feudal oath to live as paramour to one of the enchantresses calling themselves the Ladies of the Lake.

The fun has only just begun... :)

My remaining two players have firmed up some details about their knights' families. We have two more former officers, one the former Chamberlain to the Earl of Marlborough (whose politics got a wee too radical in the wake of the dissolution of Vortigern's dukedom, resulting in his removal and exile for treason) and the other the Deputy Sheriff of Salisbury (who did in fact abandon duty and family to take up with some watery tart). All those rolls of 19 on the Father's (or in some cases, Grandfather's) Class Table, oy gevalt!

I developed suitable backstories to explain why each of the player-knights inherited a manor and the rank of Vassal Knight, and decided to connect them all by making them neighbors. They occupy four manors smack dab in the center of Salisbury Plain along the River Till. From north to south they are: Orcheston, Shrewton, Winterbourne Stoke and Berwick St. James. Picaresque downs, and lots of old barrows, settlements and earthworks all over the place. Ought to keep things quite interesting, later in the campaign, when little things like the Enchantment and the Wastelands work their changes on the character of the land.

Hi Undead Trout, I love seeing others post here about their campaigns. I saw your Looking For Players post and had to resist signing up myself (I'm already too busy running a http://www.russelldeneault.com/gpc"]Great (http://"[url) Pendragon Campaign[/url], you see). Please shower us with stories of your game's progression!

An updated version of the local area, to account for the re-assignment of the local manors based on more complete information (I was missing one player-knight's family history, and the fact that his dear old dad married well led me to tie that knight to Sir Amig).


How do all your knights know one another? That's easy, you're neighbors! Your manors all lie in the Till Valley, along the banks of the River Till and among the downs of Salisbury Plain. At the northernmost end is Orcheston , a demense manor of Sir Amig of Tilshead, who is Sir Durtor's maternal great-uncle. South of Orcheston, where the Salisbury-Devizes Road crossed the river, is [b]Shrewton [C-2], held by Sir Durtor. South of Shrewton on the Till's eastern bank is Winterbourne Stoke [C-6], held by Sir Urilen. Southwest of Winterbourne Stoke on the opposite bank is Berwick St. James [C-5], held by Sir Gwegon. Also on the eastern bank, near where the Till meets the River Wylye, is Stapleford [C-8], held by Sir Bradwen. Numerous ancient sites can be found in the region, ranging from former settlements to barrows, earthworks and megalithic sites. The ancient hill-fort of Yarnbury Castle sits at the westernmost corner of Berwick St. James, at the boundary with Steeple Langford [just off the map near A-8].

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm271/raconteurx/Game/till__and_avon_grid.jpg


One grid square = one Roman mile = 1,000 paces = one-third of a league = 1,618 yards = 1,479 meters. At two leagues' distance, Amesbury [J-5] is perhaps a third of a day's ride from Shrewton or Winterbourne Stoke. A rider passes Stonehenge [G-4] about two-thirds of the way there. The ride from Amesbury to Sarum [at the edge of the map near H-11] takes an additional third of a day. Northwest off the map from Shrewton lie the market town of Tilshead, a ride of similar duration to Amesbury, and, another half-day beyond that, the castle of Devizes.

When I rolled to determine the locations of the manors of the first two players to complete character creation, I got Shrewton and Winterbourne Stoke. It was at that moment that I decided the player-knights would within feuding... wait, raiding... uh oh, no... neighborly distance of one another. Hm, seems like new Passion material. Fellowship* (My Neighbors), anyone? ;D

[hr]
* -- rather than Loyalty, for feelings of camaraderie and bonhomie I created the Fellowship (Person or Group) Passion. Meant to embody close individual friendship (Duke Galeholt for Sir Lancelot, by way of example) as well as the esprit de corps amongst people who spend a fair amounts of time working together (Fellowship for one's comrades-in-arms, whether those of your lord's household, your homeland, your nation or simply the fraternity of knighthood), it's the sort of Passion I don't tend to let anyone have at a high level immediately. Fellowship should develop over time, during the course of play.

I just kicked off the inaugural year of Exile Sons by recycling a great encounter from a classic adventure. Ought to give the player-knights someone to hate other than the Saxons. Details as they unfold.

I'm a firm believer in recycling story concepts, in this case it's the socially-connected adversary. At the height of Arthur's reign we have the Ganis, Gales and Orkney clans, so I thought it might be rewarding to develop similar groups for the Uther and Anarchy Periods. The immediately obvious choice, the sons of Ulfius, parallels the Orkney kin and ought to cause the player-knights all manner of grief. My initial encounter of the game introduced the player-knights to Severus, Ulfius' third son, who is analogous to Agravaine and equally unpleasant. Mordred's equivalent will be named Allectus... after the historical usurper from the Third Century who assassinated his superior and was eventually defeated at Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester). I've not yet settled on names for the remaining three sons, but I'll choose those soon enough. The Mistrust (Silchestermen) directed trait which half the player-knights possess should come in good stead now. :)

Just an update, it's 485 and my player-knights are halfway to Leicester for Easter court. They've just learned a few pieces from the sinister legends concerning Dunsmere (Hzark's and my old stomping grounds in Wuerensis from a past face-to-face game we were in together), and volunteered to be the vanguard of Earl Roderick's retinue as it travels along the Fosse Way. Before this there was the aforementioned encounter involving one of Ulfius' sons (a scene repurposed from The Grey Knight in order to introduce my Uther/Anarchy equivalent to the Orkney kin), which dovetailed into a bit of foreshadowing with the Steward of Levcogmagus and Earl Roderick's daughter Jenna (who IMGPC is his child by a first marriage and does not get along with her stepmother, Countess Ellen) on the road outside Wandborough.

I also tossed a few random events based on die rolls. One knight had to seek lodging in town after a fumbled squire roll left him without a pavilion, and met the widow of one of his maternal uncles. Owing to a fumbled double-d20 roll to determine whether he was robbed by one of his admirers, a token was left for the Pagan knight who chose to entertain multiple camp followers. We'll see what that turns out to be down the road. The other Pagan knight just entertained one, who turned out to be quite exceptional based on a critical double-d20 roll. Though rather plain, she knows animals well, is a superb cook, and has an extraordinary singing voice. His player is secretly worried that she is an enchantress (the knight has a Hate (Enchantresses) passion due to his family history), but has thus far enjoying the little subplot. My fourth player-knight didn't end up with any subplots of his own, but enjoyed commenting on those of the others.

Another little trick for random events I'm going to try is turning a series of Whimsy Cards and see whether anything clicks. My lovely assistant (the co-GM I recruited to be Exile Sons' authority on all things female and romantic) has already sent me many fiendish ideas... some too fiendish.

I wanted to expand upon the notion mentioned in my last post about the use of Whimsy Cards to generate random events. I created a 6-by-20 table listing Whimsy Card titles in alphabetical order. I roll 1d6 and 1d20, consult the table, and whichever Whimsy Card is listed becomes a potential plot twist I can introduce (my players may introduce their own with the Whimsy Cards they receive). I roll four at a time, just so I have several queued up and in mind as play unfolds. Here were the last batch I rolled, in response to a bit of frivolity on the player-knights' part whilst riding in the van of Earl Roderick's retinue on the road to court:
Extraordinary Circumstance — Unusual conditions change the course of events for good or ill.
Sudden Panic — Someone is overwhelmed by dread and flies into a frenzy of stark, blind terror.
Change Of Heart — Someone's feelings undergo a shift, leading them to reconsider a decision.
Turn For The Worse — Things were going well, but something suddenly changes the situation.
One of the PKs challenged his comrades to a race up a small hill they were passing that overlooked the Fosse Way and the surrounding countryside. In my notes I'd established that the wealthy Felden (the unforested south) of Wuerensis, through which the PKs and the Salisbury contingent were passing, was subject to raids from Wuerensis' poor neighbor in the Forest Sauvage, Tribuit, due to a long-standing feud between the two counties' lords. I tapped Extraordinary Circumstance to introduce a raiding party comprised of two mercenary knights, a dozen sergeants, and a few dozen bandits who had just arrived and were scouting the road to make certain they could cross without being seen.

I called for opposed Horsemanship rolls to determine the outcome of the PKs' race. Two fumbled, their mounts colliding and getting tangled with one another. One simply failed. The last rolled a critical success, not only easily cresting the hill but spotting the raiders laying in wait before he himself was spotted. Now, the PKs were not alone; in addition to their squires, Sir Amig had assigned them each a half-dozen men-at-arms. I outlined his options to the PK atop the hill: he could hold fast, summoning the entire vanguard to him and charging the raiders with the advantage of terrain, though he might not be able to form up ranks before the raiders closed, would surely alert the raiders to his presence, and have to fend off a few bowshots; he could retreat back down the hill and organize a charge in safety, but surrender the higher ground in the process; or he could charge the raiders alone, hoping the surprise would disorder them and allow the vanguard to fall on their flank.

The PK stalwartly chose to hold fast atop the hill and made the Battle roll I requested (his score, a mere 10). He and the other PKs lowered lances and charged, men-at-arms streaming down the hill behind them while their squires waited atop the hill. All the PKs rolled critical lance attacks. I tapped Sudden Panic and now the PKs were facing even numbers rather than being outnumbered two-to-one, as the young knight, half the sergeants, and half the footmen fled what they believed was a Wuerensis ambush. The melee churned for several rounds before the PKs emerged victorious and captured nearly all the raiders who had not run off (one sergeant was killed in the charge, and two of the bandits in the melee).

As the PKs came through the fighting largely unhurt, I tapped Change Of Heart to induce the raiders who ran off to rally and pursue the PKs who, joined by Sir Amig, were now leading a slow-moving coffle of prisoners along the road toward Kineton. The attack came after nightfall, the PKs being blind to much outside their file of torchbearers. Bows sang and several knights and their mounts were injured. The torchbearers panicked and the now-haphazard lighting gave the PKs penalties to their Awareness and fighting skills. The melee was more desperate this time, the raiders being Inspired by various Passions: the young knight by Love (Family), the sergeants by Loyalty to the knight that the PKs has captured, the bandits by Hate (Knights).

The young knight, squaring off against the PK who'd led the others in the earlier charge, insulted the PK by calling him a bastard. The PK's scores in Honor and Love (Family) both being notable, I asked him to roll against whichever he preferred. He succeeded, and the two clashed. The PK won with a critical success, and inflicted a Major Wound. The young knight made both his Hit Point roll to remain conscious and his Valorous roll to continue fighting. Because the PK had invoked Honor as his Inspiration, to keep the benefit I told him that he would need to dismount and meet the other knight on foot. In a moment of riveting drama, the PK demanded his opponent yield, and killed him with a quick, clean blow when it became obvious the young knight would do no such thing.

I then tapped Turn For The Worse, and the raiders were dismayed by the death of the young knight. Those who could, fled. Those who could not, including the prisoners, were butchered by those Salisbury men-at-arms who were still capable of fighting, their blood up and boiling for revenge. All save one of the PKs were injured, a quarter of the men-at-arms were dead and half were injured, even Sir Amig shed his share of blood. Of the raiders, over thirty lay dead; perhaps one in ten managed to flee. A memorable and dramatic interlude, all born of some random inspirational card-play.

roll
01
02
03
04
05
06

01
Abrupt Change Of Events
Adversary Appears
Ancient Civilization
Animosity Increases
Attempted Abduction
Auspicious Event

02
Bad Tidings
Betrayer Or Betrayed
Bizarre Coincidence
Boon Companion
Burgeoning Paranoia
Call Of The Wild

03
Change In The Weather
Change Of Heart
Compelling Argument
Concealed Weapon
Covert Activity
Debt Called In

04
Dirty Little Secret
Disfigurement
Divine Right
Double Cross
Double Jeopardy
Emotional Release

05
Entrenched Positions
Envy Rears Its Head
Erratic Behavior
Error Of Judgment
Extraordinary Circumstance
Extreme Caution

06
False Accusations
Feelings Of Regret
Fleeting Glimpse
Forgotten Clue
Fortunate Misfortune
Good Samaritan

07
Greed Shows Its Face
Green-Eyed Jealousy
Guilty Conscience
Hapless Victim
Hidden Desires
Hint Of Madness

08
Horrible Failure
Horrifying Discovery
Idle Hands
Inopportune Arrival
Internal Conflict
Last Chance

09
Lasting Impression
Legendary Figure
Light In The Darkness
Lost Cause
Lustful Interlude
Malicious Urges

10
Meaningful Glance
Misguided Hope
Misguided Love
Misplaced Trust
Mistaken Identity
Momentary Distraction

11
Moral Dilemma
Mysterious Stranger
Nature’s Fury
Nebulous Assurances
Needful Things
Newfound Escape

12
Obstacle Along The Path
Ominous Omen
Open Assault
Otherworldly Encounter
Outside Intervention
Overheard Conversation

13
Pangs Of Sympathy
Parting Of The Ways
Personality Clash
Pivotal Decision
Pyrrhic Victory
Red Herring

14
Remembered Dream
Renewed Hope
Returned Favor
Sacrificial Lamb
Second Chance
Secret Passage

15
Sense Of Foreboding
Shadowy Presence
Something Missing
Spectacular Success
Startling Discovery
Strange Apparition

16
Sudden Panic
Sudden Reversion
Surfeit Of Melancholy
Suspicious Stranger
Tables Turn
Taint Of Corruption

17
Things Are Not As They Seem
Tongue-Tied
True Confession
True Love
Turn For The Worse
Ulterior Motive

18
Unexpected Aid
Unexplained Event
Unfinished Business
Unforeseen Calamity
Unknown Assailant
Unnatural Silence

19
Unnerving Premonition
Unseen Pursuit
Unwelcome Visitor
Vast Unknown
Veiled Threat
Vengeance Is Mine

20
Vivid Detail
Weakness Revealed
Wealth Beyond Measure
Whispered Rumor
Who Playeth The Fool
Wrath On The Rise

That's some table you've got there - well done on getting it laid out properly for us! :)
I've recently discovered the joy of random events to be used at court etc. to make these a bit more interesting. Had until recently dismissed such tables as old hat and, well, too random! Can now see how useful they are when needing some inspiration on the fly. Will definitely try this one out.

An interesting use of randomised story elements, thanks for posting (and thanks for the table in your follow up post which I have now nicked for my own nefarious use). I've used 'In A Wicked Age' oracles to spark my creative juices when devising a scenario, which is in a similar line of country but that was focusing the randomisation on my prep time activities rather than the at-table time.

I have one question for you about a specific use of one of your cards during play:



I then tapped Turn For The Worse, and the raiders were dismayed by the death of the young knight. Those who could, fled. Those who could not, including the prisoners, were butchered by those Salisbury men-at-arms who were still capable of fighting...

At the point you tapped this card it seems to me that 'things were going well' for the PKs and then they 'went better' (surviving opponents fled, prisoners at their mercy). Which seems to me to be against the intent of the card. Can you expand a bit on how things took a 'Turn for the Worse' as a result of this card?

Final question: were the cards 'in play' for the session open knowledge around the table or did you only reveal them as you tapped them?

Regards
Luke

That's some table you've got there - well done on getting it laid out properly for us! :)

It was easier to lay out that you'd think. I just copied it from RPOL, pasted it into Word, did Replace All four times to switch the HTML to BBCode, pasted it into a post here, and re-sized all the table text. I do have one more rather laborious task to really complete it, though: getting all the descriptive text from the cards transcribed so I can post that also.

An interesting use of randomised story elements, thanks for posting (and thanks for the table in your follow up post which I have now nicked for my own nefarious use).

You're welcome, hope the nefarious uses are manifold.


I've used 'In A Wicked Age' oracles to spark my creative juices when devising a scenario, which is in a similar line of country but that was focusing the randomisation on my prep time activities rather than the at-table time.

I've always been surprised that no one created an Arthurian Oracle over at Abulafia (http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=In_a_Wicked_Age), that would be handy. In a pinch, the Shakespeare Oracle (http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Shakespeare_Oracle) works pretty well, but for the broadest inspiration I recommend the Oracle Oracle (http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=IAWA_Oracle_Oracle).


I have one question for you about a specific use of one of your cards during play: At the point you tapped this card it seems to me that 'things were going well' for the PKs and then they 'went better' (surviving opponents fled, prisoners at their mercy). Which seems to me to be against the intent of the card. Can you expand a bit on how things took a 'Turn for the Worse' as a result of this card?

It was a turn for the worse in that the player-knights lost control of their men-at-arms and what began as a melee became wholesale slaughter. The prisoners they'd captured earlier were butchered, despite being unarmed and bound. Only one was a knight, and none of the PKs were directly responsible for his death, but a lot of men-at-arms were killed or injured during the fight and it reflected poorly on the PKs.


Were the cards 'in play' for the session open knowledge around the table or did you only reveal them as you tapped them?

Neither, I didn't reveal the process to my players at all. As this was play-by-post, strictly speaking we don't have a table. :)

I recently allowed a fifth player to join Exile Sons, and his knight ended up putting Hzark10's expanded Family History Tables through the ringer. The player rolled Caercolun as his knight's homeland, which fed marvelously into the game's theme of exile since the county will be invaded in 485 and its lord killed the following year.

Starting with the Logres A tables, we followed the career of the knight's grandfather until his glorious death in 457 at the Battle of Kent, where he fought on the rebel side. Given the option to join the Second Migration, the player decided that his knight's grandmother fled to Brittany with her children to avoid loyalist retribution.

Switch to the Brittany tables. The knight's father was eighteen, knighted early to fight the Angevins who sought to prevent the British from settling. The knight's mother (who we established is the youngest daughter of Sir Amig of Tilshead) was sent to Brittany in the wake of the Night of Long Knives, and the knight's parents were wed. The knight was born a year later.

The knight's father followed Ambrosius and Uther back to Britain and, after five years of battle (Isca Dumnoniorum. Ganerew. Maisbeli and Conisbrough. Ireland. Skirmishes too numerous to count), as a reward for faithful service had his family lands in Caercolun restored to him. Back to the Logres A tables for the last ten years of the knight's father's career, and his glorious death at the Battle of Salisbury defending the fallen Ambrosius.

A very colorful family history, all in all. Quite pleased with it.

I recently allowed a fifth player to join Exile Sons, and his knight ended up putting Hzark10's expanded Family History Tables through the ringer. The player rolled Caercolun as his knight's homeland, which fed marvelously into the game's theme of exile since the county will be invaded in 485 and its lord killed the following year.

Starting with the Logres A tables, we followed the career of the knight's grandfather until his glorious death in 457 at the Battle of Kent, where he fought on the rebel side. Given the option to join the Second Migration, the player decided that his knight's grandmother fled to Brittany with her children to avoid loyalist retribution.

Switch to the Brittany tables. The knight's father was eighteen, knighted early to fight the Angevins who sought to prevent the British from settling. The knight's mother (who we established is the youngest daughter of Sir Amig of Tilshead) was sent to Brittany in the wake of the Night of Long Knives, and the knight's parents were wed. The knight was born a year later.

The knight's father followed Ambrosius and Uther back to Britain and, after five years of battle (Isca Dumnoniorum. Ganerew. Maisbeli and Conisbrough. Ireland. Skirmishes too numerous to count), as a reward for faithful service had his family lands in Caercolun restored to him. Back to the Logres A tables for the last ten years of the knight's father's career, and his glorious death at the Battle of Salisbury defending the fallen Ambrosius.

A very colorful family history, all in all. Quite pleased with it.


hi trout, could you please point me into direction of the expanded Family History Tables you mention?

hi trout, could you please point me into direction of the expanded Family History Tables you mention?

As they are part of a project for publication, you'd have to contact their creator listed above. Not certain he is soliciting further playtesters at this time.