Hello all.

So, I had my 4 players here on thursday the 17th, and we went through almost the whole character generation process, starting at 14.30 pm and finished in the late evening around 22.30. Phew! And the characters are not completely finished for play yet. Not surprisingly the thing that took the most time was the "Family and fatherland" chapter rules. one of the player squires grandfather died early in the process, so had nothing to do until the father was old enough (I house ruled him to be active by 18 years of age) to participate. From 19 years of age it was first 33% and by 20 years 66%, 21 = automatic chance for knighting.

In spite of the basic material being extensive, I also gave each player character one roll on the tables for Childhood, Adolescence and Adulthood from a book not connected to the system: "Central Casting: Heroes of Legend 2nd ed" (Task Force Games, 1995). This can give certain interesting chance encounters, family happenings or some small extra skill knowledge. These rolls are also not all done by the players. I also used the BoK&L rules for random attribute scores and the table for Wealth Levels on page 41. One of the PKs is from a Poor wealth level. I am ruling that this adjustment happened only recently, and that the family where at Ordinary wealth level earlier but through bad harvests became Poor 2 years ago. As this PK is from the Broughton manor, the family estate's been hit by Saxon pillaging attacks recently. The other PKs are at: Ordinary, Ordinary and Rich levels of Wealth.

Before continuing the process for all, on the 3rd of June, I have some questions which I'm very grateful if someone could answer:

1. Being squires, do they all have the starting equipment on page 31 of the 5.1 corebook (or if I'm using the tables on p 41 of BoK&L) from start? Or do they start with 'downsized equipment' - such as padded armor and a sword?

2. Additional belongings from the corebook, in your experience, is it better suited to starting play NOT to supplement this with the expanded tables for Luck in BoK&L? And should I modify these rolls, if I use the expanded Luck tables, for different wealth levels?

3. What - if any - family background notes should a squire and knight-to-be, have when beginning play? I can use rules from the Central Casting book mentioned, for family background information, but I am reluctant to do that. The interconnection between manors is also very interesting, and I've heard different views on this, but want more if you have it.

4. Information about the family/manor Army on page 32 of the corebook, should I adjust it for different Wealth levels?

5. There are other questions, but my brain is almost cooked by the newly arrived summer temperatures.

1) and 2) I have my squires begin play without the gear they will have as knights. this includes all the gear from any luck tables. So I let them start with only a leather armor, a sword and a horse (rouncy).
Since they are knighted after the first adventure, they are granted this equipment then. so from then on they can use their full gear.

3) Since they are the heir I would assume they are briefed on all the latest information, but you could rule that they are not up to speed, since they are not knights and as such not privy to be with the nobles at the moment.

4) I did not use any different wealth levels, but let them all start at the same wealth level. Since the back story is that the poor manor was raided by Saxons it would seem normal that the army is diminished.

1) and 2) I have my squires begin play without the gear they will have as knights. this includes all the gear from any luck tables. So I let them start with only a leather armor, a sword and a horse (rouncy).
Since they are knighted after the first adventure, they are granted this equipment then. so from then on they can use their full gear.

3) Since they are the heir I would assume they are briefed on all the latest information, but you could rule that they are not up to speed, since they are not knights and as such not privy to be with the nobles at the moment.

4) I did not use any different wealth levels, but let them all start at the same wealth level. Since the back story is that the poor manor was raided by Saxons it would seem normal that the army is diminished.


Thanks to you Cornelius!

1) and 2) Yes! That's good. And, in my planning with the first adventure, my thoughts is the player characters should feel the their own under-equipped status when suddenly discovering there's Saxons in their vicinity! I am thinking of adding a real heavy summer thunder and rain with even a mist, so they'll meet the Saxons close on while being shielded by the weather. And if they're stealthy and prudent, they can sneak by the Saxons and reach the village with the reported troubles - and after discovering the giant, lead him towards the Saxons. Then again, I am not 100% sure this is the right order of events.

3) The poor knight is the 2nd son, but his elder brother is dead, and he himself was taken from church back to serve his family as the coming heir. You are exactly right, they should not be privy at all to the nobles, not even to their own liege knights they are serving since a few years back.

I also gave the players the opportunity to roll Loyalty: Sir (Sir being the liege knight for each squire), but they still have Loyalty: Lord, towards Earl Roderick 15. The values for Loyalty: Sir varied quite a lot. One of the squires are not that much loyal to his knight. This presents me with interesting opportunities. And the knights are testy since they're among the ones not accompanying Uther on this latest battle (Mt. Damen).

4) Thanks, yes, I'll take that advice!

In spite of the basic material being extensive, I also gave each player character one roll on the tables for Childhood, Adolescence and Adulthood from a book not connected to the system: "Central Casting: Heroes of Legend 2nd ed" (Task Force Games, 1995). This can give certain interesting chance encounters, family happenings or some small extra skill knowledge.


I've always loved the Central Casting series. Given that Pendragon has its own rules on generating background I've never used it with CC. How has that worked out for your group?

I've always loved the Central Casting series. Given that Pendragon has its own rules on generating background I've never used it with CC. How has that worked out for your group?


As of yet, we've not finished generating the player characters, so the players have only rolled their Childhood events yet, which turned to be as fun as usual, the other two consecutive rolls for each character will follow on the 3rd of June.

And even as these have yet to be used in the game, I must say atleast in every other rpg I've had these rules added, they've turned out to be excellent additions to the character backgrounds and helpful in adding that little "extra" building block that sometimes are missing between the bigger events.

To be frank, I actually think I liked the 1st edition of this book "Heroes of Legend" from Task Force more. It was crappier in the layout, but had a more loose and laid-back feel to it than this, the 2nd ed. You probably know that there's two other books in the series, "Heroes Now!" and "Heroes of Tomorrow", of which I own the first.