I am a huge fan of Pendragon (even if I honestly don't understand all the rules yet) - a few years ago I picked up the 5.0 rulebook and the GPC (both in hardback) and have read them many times over (though I have yet to play - something I hope to rectify soon).

I just had a couple of general questions if those of you in the know would not mind helping me with.

1. I understand that the timeframe of the game is set during the GPC but do you have to run the GPC? Could you run a game that occasionally uses elements of the GPC (such as a battle or politics as backdrop)?

2. If you wanted your PKs based out of Brittany or Cambria - could you have a game with Knights and Ladys and intrigue but not necessarily overlap with the GPC?

Thoughts? I do want to run the GPC but I know my players and they are going to drift if I let them.... so I figured if I used it as backdrop - change the Christmas court gossip a bit and let the PKs have lots of adventures it may work better.

Thanks in advance - this is one of the best games I have ever encountered (I have not played but I just love reading all the rules [a cry for help perchance?] such as all the "Book of" titles - I wish Greg would publish more and more!!!!)

Todd

I am a huge fan of Pendragon (even if I honestly don't understand all the rules yet) - a few years ago I picked up the 5.0 rulebook and the GPC (both in hardback) and have read them many times over (though I have yet to play - something I hope to rectify soon).

I just had a couple of general questions if those of you in the know would not mind helping me with.

1. I understand that the timeframe of the game is set during the GPC but do you have to run the GPC? Could you run a game that occasionally uses elements of the GPC (such as a battle or politics as backdrop)?

YES! There is no need to run your game with GPC. The advantage is many background ideas are already filled in and there are lots of scenarios. But, if you want a campaign to be set elsewhere, go for it!

2. If you wanted your PKs based out of Brittany or Cambria - could you have a game with Knights and Ladys and intrigue but not necessarily overlap with the GPC?

Again yes. The hardest part will be is giving background and events local to your area, but it frees you from following the actual timeline.

Thoughts? I do want to run the GPC but I know my players and they are going to drift if I let them.... so I figured if I used it as backdrop - change the Christmas court gossip a bit and let the PKs have lots of adventures it may work better.

First, decide where you are basing the game. If Salisbury, then start with the GPC, but events there can quickly send you elsewhere. Perhaps saving a knight/lord in battle will net you some political points as well as glory. Perhaps you were the knight who kills Gorlois and rids King Uther of a hindrence to Igraine. Surely that could mean a manor/land directly from the King. And so on..

Thanks in advance - this is one of the best games I have ever encountered (I have not played but I just love reading all the rules [a cry for help perchance?] such as all the "Book of" titles - I wish Greg would publish more and more!!!!)

Todd


See suggestions above.

Robert Schroeder

Robert already answered quite fully the questions, but I'll just add a few things from my perspective...



1. I understand that the timeframe of the game is set during the GPC but do you have to run the GPC? Could you run a game that occasionally uses elements of the GPC (such as a battle or politics as backdrop)?
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You don't have to run the GPC. However, IF your players want to be part of Arthurian saga, then there is little harm using it. In principle, you could do any knight-oriented game and chuck GPC aside. And you certainly can use only parts of GPC that you want, and come up with the rest yourself. This is actually pretty close to what we have done, using GPC as a guideline of what is happening in the realm, whilst the PKs do mainly their own thing. I launched the Second French War earlier than in GPC, and the reason was Kay defending his right to Normandy as its duly appointed Duke (by Arthur, during the first French War), and nothing to do with Guinevere's cousin. Guinevere's kidnapping was postponed by a year, too, so that it would fit better with the timeline of the PKs: their year had already been busy enough. And now there is fighting in Rheged that is nowhere in the GPC, and the biggest events impacting on the PKs lives are arguably those that I have come up on my own or adapted. Which is pretty much as it should be, I think. Each GM gives a bit of a spin to the GPC, and the PKs make it even more different.

[quote]
2. If you wanted your PKs based out of Brittany or Cambria - could you have a game with Knights and Ladys and intrigue but not necessarily overlap with the GPC?
[\quote]

Definitely. Brittany would be especially good, if you want to be in the outskirts of the Arthurian Britain. Cambria... might do, but there is a lot of stuff happening in Escavalon in the early years. Perhaps somewhere around Anglesey would work better.

On the other hand, if you are NOT going to use GPC and Arthur, then my personal preference would be to forget all about Arthur and play in a fantasy world of my own, or in 'historical' medieval England.

[quote]
Thoughts? I do want to run the GPC but I know my players and they are going to drift if I let them.... so I figured if I used it as backdrop - change the Christmas court gossip a bit and let the PKs have lots of adventures it may work better.


You will find that it is much harder for knights to drift than for conventional wandering adventurers. The default characters in Pendragon are vassal knights, who have their own lands to look after and defend, and duty to their liege lord. In short, they have homes and responsibilities, as well as a chain of commands. "The Lord commands that you will go to X to do Y." A built-in quest-giver. :P This is even more the case if they are household knights, attached to the Lord's retinue. Then they are at his beck and call 24/7, and should be looking for a chance to distinguish themselves, so that they would be rewarded with a rich, landed heiress.

Sure, you could play knight errants, ignoring the economics, wandering around and having adventures, but IMHO, that would be missing out on one of the things that really separate Pendragon from Those Other Games. If your players are new to this knight thing, I would suggest household knights. Just tell them to think of it as being soldiers, Special Operations team, ready to be sent where the fighting is hottest or where their skills are most needed. It is close enough. :)