Pleased to meet fellow Pendragon appreciators.

I'm starting a game for my old role playing group soon. I'll be using 4th edition rules, probably with Perilous Forest and the Boy King. I've got a bunch of RL 5th century info off the internet which I can use to provide detail for the area. Although I missed out on 5th edition and Greg's own stuff, I've got most other things. Is there any other official Pendragon source for Cumbria in the pre-arthurian period?

GR

Well,
I've generated my first couple of characters. I winged the changes, based on the changes given for logres knights in the Boy King and changing the region table to reflect a northern-centric game.

Generating a Homeland – Regional Table 495 Cumbria based campaign
d20 Region
01-10 Cumbria
11-13 The North
14-15 Cambria
16-17 Logres
18 Western Isles
19 Cornwall
20 Brittany

Changes to Starting Skills
Irish
Remove Heraldry,Romance,Tourney. Add +1 to Recognise, Hunting, Singing and Battle

Pict
Remove Heraldry,Romance,Tourney. Add +2 Battle

I've only got the changes for Irish and pict because so far I've got a Pictish Christian from benoic and an Irish Christian from Estregales.

The setting will be Rheged. Historically it seemed to comprise far more than the one small kingdom it does in the Perilous Forest. Perilous Forest is set after 514 or so because we've already had the dolorous stroke. In addition certain of the kingdoms pay allegiance to Arthur. In the earlier period I've decided for my purposes that some of them will be part of Rheged in 495.

The kingdoms that will be part of Rheged in 495 are Cambenet, Appleby and Rheged. In addition a large part of Lancashire and Lestroite will be areas that Rheged has a historical claim to but which it does not currently control.
The idea is that these additional lands will be stripped from Rheged after it is one of the 12 kingdoms that fight against Arthur in 512 or so to bring about the political situation we see in Perilous Forest.

Later, possibly after Arthur when the historical period reasserts itself, the medieval fades and the dark ages comes back, these lands will be claimed back by Urien Rheged.

Are you intending for all your PCs to be knights in service to one overlord? If so, which one?

Are you going with the Boy King assumption around chargen, which is that knighthood is not necessarily a given if you are unlucky with your family circumstances and cannot qualify? Or will you tweak things so that everybody starts off at the same station in life? If the latter, which station will you use and what tweaks to the chargen process will you condone?

Are you concerned about the fact that the campaign is likely to be anti-Arthur in tone (at least in the early years of his reign)? What will you do about the (even lower) life expectancy of anti-Arthur knights during the early wars?

['Nothing' is an acceptable answer to this last question, BTW.]

Regards
Luke

I'm intending that the P.K.s are/will be in service to Meirchion Gul, king of Rheged.

Excellent question actually. The Boy King/4th edition combo gives the opportunity to come from various different fathers classes. 4th edition is 531 AD by default and I suppose I should have altered the fathers class tables for the era; but in the event, for the two I've rolled, I just went with the tables in 4th edition for the realms they came from. JH got a Mercenary Knight as a parent and RR got a Household Knight. With the standard five years of augmentation they both qualified for household knighthood according to the standards set out in 4th edition, with the exception of the requirement for Loyalty Lord at 15 which they both failed by 4 or 5 points. Because of the starting situation (see below) I told them not to worry about it. I figure they may develop it in play, if not, it'll certainly be a role playing point!
I've another three players to roll up characters and if their fathers class and homeland combo is particularly bad they may not be able to make the requirements for knight by age 21. Just thinking about it now, in that case I'll just let them continue with previous experience points and rolls until they do qualify. This will make them older as a starting character, which again, will give us more role-playing hooks.

As far as station in life, they'll all be starting off as squire equivalents, though some of them may well not come from cultures where they would think of themselves as such and I've deliberately not used the word. In fact they are wandering warrior wannabees who've fetched up at the court of this young King. He has modern ideas. He has a horse herd and the secret of stirrups and a degree of ambition and he is looking for warriors, men with the fire of justice in their belly and a strong sword arm to enforce it. Men who could be knights.

Anti-Arthur isn't necessarily evil. Meirchion Gul favours independence. Maybe the Pks might try to change his mind. My King Arthur Companion tells me that Duke Escan of Cambenet sends soldiers to fight for Arthur at Bedegraine. I'll assume that is the start date for the splitting up of Rheged. Lot will call a great conference of the North before the battle.
Arthur, to my mind is right and the players will know it and their knights will probably recognise that too. But a knight doesn't always do what is right. Those Loyalty Lord scores may come in to use. They may make different choices to one another and their choices may change over time. Certainly I'd like them to meet some of Arthur's knights before the battles. There is a sense of fierce melancholy about a doomed charge against men who you admire and respect who share many of the same values but just happen to be on the other side.

Early period games with 6 point cuirboilli armour are always deadly but then Pendragon with a tink,tink,bang is always deadly anyway. Less chivalrous notions of combat with ganging up on folk and a judicious use of horse and charge bonuses should help give characters more survivability. :-\ However I might encourage statting out and adopting NPCs in some kind of troupe play effect.

You've given me a lot to think about, thanks. :)

GR

Well,

I got started. The potential problem pointed out by Silburnl didn't materialise in the end. I rolled up one more character by e-mail with NA, a logres household knight's son and two more on the night, a vassal knight's son from Jagent for JP and a household knights lad from Bernaccia for PH. Both of these latter two had a lot better kit than the first two characters (outfit 4 compared to outfit 1 if I recall) which caused a little friction between PKs and allowed for a nice role playing hook to start with.

I ran the first game for four players. It fell a little flat actually. The Bear hunt didn't really hold up to my jaded old players and I probably presented it too flatly as well. Ah well.
The Marshall equivalent who gave them the job is Sir Erthgi, Marshall of the hosts of Rheged. He is nearly sixty years old and was a trusted confidante of the late king Gwrast Lledlwm. He has long grey hair tied back with a leather thong and long drooping grey moustaches. He no longer rides, except when absolutely necessary.
Sir Erthgi made them do Cumbrian wrestling to see who would be the group leader. Later in the village they talked to the priest Gorthyn Hen. JP commenting with a smile that RR was their leader because he was the best wrestler!
They recruited 8 or 9 peasants with dogs to roust out the bear and after tracking it down (all sticking with their best huntsman JH) they managed to spit it. I gave JP a tick on proud as he called attention to the fact that the party leader RR who finished off the bear had hit it after it was "dead" but whilst it was still attacking JP. He's famously modest. He shouldn't be claiming kills!
The bandit fight on the way home was a bit grim. Several nearly dead bandits were allowed to die in the grass. One captured one was allowed to go free on the penance that he return to the village and work for a household that contained a young girl who had been injured by the bear. The last bandit was taken back to Meirchion Gul's travelling court at Carduel to be hanged.
Next time we should have a knighting. After that the PKs will be following a certain young Knight called Sir Escan on a patrol of the borders of Rheged.

GR

Our next session started off with the end of 495.

Sir Erthgi (NPK, think Lee Van Cleef in The Master) managed to secure a place in the feast hall of Carduel for our heroes. Drust Mac Peithan of Benoic(JH) a mercenary knights son from the wilds beyond the wall with his excellent family skills in compose provided a good story in the alliterative epic style, of the slaying of the bear.
Sir Cathal, the bachelor knight's son from Estregales stood to recite it but it fell flat in the busy feasting hall. Nonetheless, later when the nobles of the kingdom stood to propose young men of valour and integrity for knighthood, Sir Erthgi proposed the characters.
The vigil was held. Owain was pious, requesting confession. Drust was worldly and his "confession" was more of a boast. Still, on the morrow all were knighted in the full form.

At this point I was a little taken aback when JP was reluctant to have Owain knighted. The random rolls had made him a vassal knight's son from Jagent and also decided that his father has been missing for 7 years. In a fit of creativity I had decided that his lord had refused to knight him as his father wasn't dead, keeping him as a ward, and the revenues for himself. Owain had run away and was seeking his father where he was last heard of, the North.
I managed to persuade JP to play along, in a metagamy sort of way. However I owe it to him now to work the fate of his father, which was supposed to be a throwaway line in character generation into the game.

Rheged, north west Britain, 496 AD. The Adventure of the Gallgaels.

Sir Owain(JP), Sir Cathal(RR), Sir Ieuan(PH) and Sir Drust(JH) are accompanying Sir Escan on a patrol of the western lands of Rheged.

This was based on the few paragraphs in the introductory adventures outlining a raid. In my case I used Sir Escan (who may grow into the Duke Escan of the later periods but who is now a young knight who just happens to be the eldest son and heir of the Vicarious and head of the Civitas Carvetiorum centred on Carlisle which will become Cambenet) as the leader.
For the raiders from over the border I have a bunch of Gallgaels, arriving by longship from the kingdom down the coast settled by Irishmen from the Long Isles. In The Perilous Forest it's called Cockermouth but I prefer the translation of the Brythonic words and call it the Kingdom of the crooked river.

I'll post how it turned out tomorrow.

GR

So it's 496 AD, northern Britain. The weather is blustery and cold with the occasional spatter of rain coming from the sea to the west. The PKs under the leadership of Sir Escan are leaving the shelter of the trees when a young boy on a faltering hill pony gallops up. "The Irish," he gasps, "the Irish are raiding!". Behind him in the distance, a poor, huddled fishing village is burning.

Sir Escan exhorts the PKs to follow him and they canter forward. As they get closer they can hear the screams of the dying. As they approach they can distinguish a couple of clusters of men, one carrying and stripping the clothes from a young girl, one in the process of nailing a priests to the door of a broken down church. All around the village are scattered spear and shield armed raiders, looting and killing.
Sir Escan couches his lance and gives the order to charge the group attacking the girl. First Sir Cathal suggests the group attack the priests attackers and then Sir Owain asks permission to attack them himself. But Sir Escan won't allow it, harshly he demands they stay in formation. They hit hard. Three of the girls' attackers are put down, two of whom are killed outright.
The PKs now have a minute to look around and pick their targets. The fight breaks into isolated, circling groups. First one then another of my individual NPCs are picked off by PKs.
Sir Owain has broken away to fight the group by the church and is heavily outnumbered. He sets himself between the church and a hut where only two can approach him at once. Splitting his skill, he strikes about him both on the right side and the left and slays both opponents including one of the two knights who are leading the raid, Sir Conngall, young and tall with blood and lime spiked hair. His other opponents back off and head for a gap between burning huts on the side of the village nearest the beach.
In the centre Flainn the Salmon is dodging and evading but the PKs kill him and the last raiding spearsman in that group and wheel to their left where the raid leader, Sir Cormac of the Crooked River with his axe and long red pony tail has formed a rough shield wall with a spearsman and the seven foot tall, great axe weilding mute, Nathi.

Sir Cathal is free to engage first and doesn't hesitate. He spurs his horse forward. It's not a charge but [Lance roll is a hit] Sir Cormac runs forward plants one foot on Sir Cathal's lowered Lance for extra distance and leaps. [Critical] His Axe smashes in below Sir Cathal's shield. [4th edition gives an extra die for an axe against a shield user. I'm kind {and can't find the rule ;)} so I rule the extra die isn't doubled. 11d6 for 37 points. 12 points off for cuirboilli and shield gives a 25 point hit and Sir Cathal hits the ground hard on 3HP.]
Sir Escan, Sir Ieuan and Sir Drust between them deal with Nathi and the spearsman and Sir Cormac, the divine ponytail turns to flee. Sir Escan and Sir Drust ride him down and with two slashes [10 and 18 points through armour respectively] they cut him down.
The group pause to take stock. The raiders are in full retreat. They have reached their beached longship and put to sea.

An enjoyable and brutal fight.

GR