Everyone loves castles, but as anyone who has tried to build them in Pendragon knows, they have gotten expensive ( long gone are the days when a good horse cost more than a good tower. Ergo, I have a nifty idea, to wit:

The players knights are given feudal obligations as officers of some minor castle of the Count (or Baron, Duke, King or whoever is the immediate feudal superior of the PKs). The PKs are butler, castellan, etc of the castle. It provides a secure home base for the PCs, a good basis for the PCs to know and cooperate with each other, and, perhaps most importantly, it gives them each a castle to go home to which everyone loves but is something they could never reasonably afford on their own or collectively.

It also provides the opportunity to embezzle, which I believe Greg has hinted is going to be in the long awaited Book of the Castle (or is it the Book of Barons). Now they can each afford that Frisian they've all had their eye on, provided they're willing to risk disgrace and checks in selfish to get it.

What think you?

I think it is an interesting idea, and something that sounds like fun to play. To further tie them to the castle, you could have them to be mere household knights, hence without lands of their own; the castle is their home and their livelihood. Which I think was your idea to begin with.

Of course, castellan of a castle is a very prestigious position, a position of trust and honor, and there is a small difficulty that some players have with an intra-party chain of command. Which can either be fun with intrigue and backstabbing amongst the PKs, or can leave everyone with a bad taste in their mouths. Of course, the castellan PK ought to be someone that realizes that simply barking orders at other PKs might lead to problems. After all, knights, even household knights, tend to be a prickly lot, easy to take offence at being bellowed at like mere servants or commoners! :)

There's a fantastic adventure/campaign outline in Savage Mountains called the Bulith War. Set during Arthur's conquest of Wales; a detachment of PKs under one PKs leadership have the tasks of "civilising" the tribes in the local area and of building a castle. Along the way the PK leader has the task/privilege of assigning the positions of chamberlain, constable, justicier etc. Along with the yearly events, battles, intrigue and negotiations that go on, this is a cracking adventure that formed the basis of several game years of my campaign.

HTH

GR

Of course, castellan of a castle is a very prestigious position, a position of trust and honor, and there is a small difficulty that some players have with an intra-party chain of command. Which can either be fun with intrigue and backstabbing amongst the PKs, or can leave everyone with a bad taste in their mouths.

This is a similar issue to shipboard games where one character gets to be the captain. A way round this I've used in the past is to have an NPC take the command possition, but make him completely ineffectual. E.g. He's an ageing old codger with heal problems that has a 'senior moment' whenever any important decisions need to be made. Or maybe he's a high born, childish fop or wastrel that panicks at the first sign of a serious problem and turns to the PCs to make the decissions. Think of Hugh Laurie's characetrs in the last few series of Blackadder.

Any of these options puts the onus on the PKs to deal with the real problems, but also gives you a great NPC mouthpiece to create situations and nudge the course of events when you need to.

Simon hibbs