so, last night we played battle at terrabil (and it was terrible in a good way). so, one of the players has cousins (uncles) on cornish side. they are might warriors in the service of the duke gorlois. he has love family 15. on the other hand he has loyalty lord 16. so there is a battle and this guy is already pissed off by uther's behavior and roleplays it appropriately and he claims that his loyalty to the earl is undiminished but that he considers uther to be unfit for a king as a man that is primarily driven by his lust.

so there is the battle. night attack everybody screaming, everybody fighting. so at first knights just want to stay out of the fighting. then they see madoc face off with the gorlois. one of the knights, gaulo-roman refugee from the frankish conquest, who got his horse demands a roll for his loyalty lord, passes, is inspired and charges duke gorlois. bam. he hits with a crit but rolls straight 1s and 2s. other knights just watch him (one tries to flee, other is rallying troups and cornish guy is just fighting defensively). i ask other guys do they feel they should check their loyalty lord and the half-cornish guy flat out says that he is more loyal to his family than to the bad king. i am a little bit confused but i ask him for opposed roll loyalty lord vs. love family. he crits love family and fumbles loyalty lord. i diminish his loyalty and increase his love and he stays on the defensive for the rest of the engagement. fleeing guy is cut down by cornish guys uncle and unfortunate gaul is slaughtered by gorlois who is brought down at the end by npc knights.

did i do something wrong? gauls player was a little bit peeved by the whole stuff claiming that he feels betrayed by his friends.

Loyalty (Lord) would not have been my choice, since it's not Earl Roderick who the player-knights are serving by attacking Duke Gorlois. It's pretty much a straight-up Loyalty (Pendragon) for whatever reason... either to confront a lord rebelling against the king or avenge the king's son. There's not much for the one player to get peeved about, seeing as the player whose knight fled also lost his character while the one who rolled a critical Love (Family) versus a fumbled Loyalty (Lord) was portraying his knight faithfully.

yeeeeees... that also leads us to the question of new passions? how do you handle it you guys?

for example, i think that half-cornish guy will have to get hate (uther) since he is mightily pissed after whole affair. in combination with lust (ygraine) this should work out great :D

Might not be worth a Hate in the long run, but a Directed Trait of Mistrust Uther would not be out of place. A notable Hate for one's king normally would mean outlawry or a death sentence. If your player asks for one, give it to him at 2d6+3 so it doesn't start notable. That way, if he really wants the added trouble it'll bring his knight, he can increase it using Training And Practice or his Glory bonuses.

yeeeeees... that also leads us to the question of new passions? how do you handle it you guys?

In my experience, players can be a bit too eager to get Passions that a couple of gaming session later might seem like a mistake or a bother. PK also tend to get a lot of passions as the years go by.

On the other hand, I don't just want to be a bore. Character development is essential in roleplaying, and so is all initiatives from the players. So I try to be positive, but Prudent. Ask them if they realize the consequences in game of taking that Passion. Ask them if they really want their character to be about that Passion. Tell them, that okay you can take a Hate Passion or a Love Passion or whatever, but this PK will probably only have one or two Hates and one Love in his whole life - is he still keen on taking that Passion?

Often it is a good idea to let the player rolls his Passion, but with 3d6. If the result is 10 or lower - no Passion. If its 11 or more, he MUST take it (to stop player of asking to frivolous or taking Hates because they think its good to have High Hate passions).

And I agree with Sir Trout - a Directed Trait can be a good compromise.

hm. directed trait sounds good. PK didn't ask for hate (uther) passion but he really behaved in such fashion. he even contemplated hurting uther seriously during the mock combat practice while laying the siege to the terrabil castle. i thought giving him hate (uther) could be appropriate.

how do you assign a value to the new passion?

how do you assign a value to the new passion?


If I am skeptic or think that the player only want a Passion because it value as a game statistic, I generally have them roll 3d6.

If I think that the Passion is warranted, good roleplaying has already taken place, a Trait has been rolled and it was a crit or I see good potential in the Passion and the situations it might lead to, I generally let them roll 2d6+6 or 2d6+9 (bet never start higher than 18). If I am really positive, I just assign a value I think is appropriate, usually 15 or 16.

how do you assign a value to the new passion?


By the RAW it's a 4d6+1 roll (don't have my books handy so I can't give a page ref). I sometimes give players a choice and offer them a tighter spread around the same mean value - 3d6+5 say, or 2d6+8 - or a flat value.

Whatever method you choose however, granting a new passion is serious stuff - it's a significant milestone in a character's life story and should be a major driver for that character going forward.

Regards
Luke

i'll definitely re-read passions chapter tonight and see what i have missed :)