I just started GM'ing my very first Pendragon campaign, and it went better than I could've ever hoped for.

I ran the simple intro adventure from the back of KAP5 where the knights (or knights to be at this point in time) meet Sir Elad at Vagon castle. I had Elad put them through their paces and split his teachings into week long drill sessions (in game time obviously). Each week focused on a different aspect of combat or die roll resolution, first grappling, then armed combat, then a simple joust. Even though each "week" was really just one or two die rolls, I really played up Elad's character and tried to embed everything into reality. Thus when he talked about grappling, I had him say how it was a dangerous but valid tactic against heaviliy armoured knights. With combat I introduced the different combat manoeuvres (Berserk, Defence etc) and Elad advised when they would be useful and the pros and cons of each. As my group were totally new to KAP5 this really helped explain the system. Elad had the characters practice their very first grapple roll (to explain how unopposed resolutions worked) on a wooden dummy which I named ?Sir Jaunty?. This was a little construct of my own which has now become a little joke. The very first knight failed his roll and some of the soldiers from Vagon castle nearby laughed at him; later when at court another knight joked "I hear you had a tough time with Jaunty".

One thing I learned here. Never guess how long or short a session of gaming can be. I thought this would be over in half an hour but because there was so much chatter this chewed up 2 hours.

We then moved onto the bear hunt. This again went really well and the rules were spot on. Most of my players were hopeless hunters (having the base value) but one had a base 20 skill (15 plus his family trait). Obviously he lead the others and bore down on the bear in double quick time, well six hunting rounds. Having never played a KAP5 combat, and sensing it's lethality after the mock rolls earlier, the players were really on their toes for this. This proved wise as the very first bear claw swipe criticalled the lead hunter; 23 damage and a knockdown! Amazingly, just short of a major wound after armour. The others waded in and immediately resorted to Berserk attacks seeing that they outnumbered the bear.. 2 rounds later it was dead, without it landing another blow. Phew great stuff! They proudly carried the prize back to Elad and after feasting and resting at the village made their way back to Vagon and then onto Sarum to meet the earl.

This was the section I was most apprehensive about - Court. Id GMd D&D with this group for years and I was anxious to see how they would react to this highly player driven section. I was worried that if they DID nothing, ie never really engaged the NPCs then it would be over very quickly. I'd prepared for this section more than the others. I had a set of PC speakers hooked up to my ipod playing - to begin with - medieval harp music. I'd also printed off pictures from the GPC and KAP5 book of every major NPC present (the earl, the ladies etc) and hung them over the top of my screen. Every time one of them spoke I picked up the picture to cement that character into their minds. Things began somewhat gingerly, but very soon picked up and this became the best section of the day. Every single player began to try and impress the ladies present. One, a knight of 19 chastity stayed true to his morals, until - fantastically - the young lady Jenna engaged him in very playful girly conversation and, with me calling for a Chaste trait roll, he fumbled and rolled a 20! Knowing this scenario from the example presented in the KAP5 rulebook, I had him brush her cheek with his hand to which she blushed, giggled and ran off to tell her friends, while my super chaste knight player sat dumbfounded over his rush of lust with a 14 year old, average looking virgin!

The ipod tripped over to a faster medieval tune with a drumbeat, and I used this moment for the Earl to stand, clap his hands and invite everyone to dance. Two of my players traded Dance moves against each other trying to woo lady Elaine, one of them failing his roll just a second after the music finished which was priceless timing. Another, by dint of his character generation, had received a distinctive feature of "Straight Teeth" which he argued (somewhat successfully) would be so unusual in the Dark Ages that his constant flashing of them would surely attract the ladies. And yet another, the wounded hunter from earlier, took to the floor with only a Dance skill of 3, which he made and thus impressed his lady until (just like Arthur from Boorman's Excalibur) was forced to retreat back to the sidelines as his wound was coming undone. Finally, one of the knights also approached Lady Gwiona, a girl I'd earmarked Sir Jaradan as having a crush on. As I'd also decided that Jaradan was going to be a slightly arrogant type (due to him being known as the best courtly swordsman), he immediately tried to intervene. As the player was not yet a knight this took the form of Jaradan dropping slightly sarcastic comments ("tell me, when do *squires* have time to dance"). My player knight wisely deferred but his Proud trait made sure that he fired back a few *very* subtle digs of his own. There's plenty more role playing to mine there.

It all ended with the knighting ceremony and one player critically his "leap" DEX roll into the saddle! The perfect ending.

All in all, a fantastic day's play. We're looking forward to AD485. So far, Pendragon is *really* delivering!

ps.. a big thanks to the members of this forum for helping me with all my rule questions beforehand.

Congratulations on what sounds like an awesome session. The mediaeval music was a nice touch - i've done that myself.

Brilliant - sounds a blast!

Thanks, guys.

I would be interested to hear how other GMs handle the timing of their court sessions. Looking at the years ahead in the GPC, I'm a little confused. There are often years with Royal Court and Courtly occurences. Does this mean these courts are two seperate entities at two sepatate locations?

If so, what is the norm here? Run court, then adventure, then run court, then winter phase? What's the usual flow?

Sounds like an amazing first session.

I play it that the knights and earl attend the main court in the spring/summer to pickup rumours, intrigue, royal conversation and mince about a bit. The length is totally down to the players I let them do what they want unless I have pre-planned events to happen.

Then the players are usually at home for the winter court when we do the end winter season part.

Good luck, it gets better and better.

I should be finishing of the Uther period starting Tuesday with the Battle of Lindsey can't wait.

Off the point
Word of advice to my fellow role-players stay away from Exalted, brilliant idea, great setting love it, but the system is a devils cow pat!!!

If so, what is the norm here? Run court, then adventure, then run court, then winter phase? What's the usual flow?


In our games we start with the Spring Court, and tend to take some time over this. If I'm organised, I email around the group the gossip, but leave any intruigue to be found in play. Quite often I find as a GM that the players run with things picked up in here for the gameplay and have to adjust what I had planned accordingly. This happens increasingly as you go through the GPC - at the start its quite scripted. We're just finishing the Anarchy Period and here its quite loose. Then we move onto the 'quest' or whatever it might be for the year. The Winter Court I usually just fly through - it tends to be a time to simply wrap up loose ends and summarise the play. Our Winter Phase we tend to leave until the subsequent session.

In our games we start with the Spring Court, and tend to take some time over this. If I'm organised, I email around the group the gossip, but leave any intruigue to be found in play. Quite often I find as a GM that the players run with things picked up in here for the gameplay and have to adjust what I had planned accordingly. This happens increasingly as you go through the GPC - at the start its quite scripted. We're just finishing the Anarchy Period and here its quite loose. Then we move onto the 'quest' or whatever it might be for the year. The Winter Court I usually just fly through - it tends to be a time to simply wrap up loose ends and summarise the play. Our Winter Phase we tend to leave until the subsequent session.


That is how we try to do it too, though of late we've b een extremely indulgent in having the years run on for two or three sessions.

Begin and end with a Court.
If the events refer to Royal court, then it just so happens that the Earl (or his representative) attends (it is his duty) and the player knights are his escort.

--Greg

If the events refer to Royal court, then it just so happens that the Earl (or his representative) attends (it is his duty) and the player knights are his escort.

Thank you. This explains something that was puzzling me.