Hi everyone!
I'm a Call of Cthulhu and Old School D&D player looking to try a different game with his gaming group. Thought Pendragon would make for a nice change of pace. However, I'm not sure how well it would go for a one shot. I was thinking about maybe using the scenario included in the 5.1 rulebook. None of the players will have read the rules and I guess I'll go with pre-generated characters.

Do you have any other suggestions for a scenario? Anything else in general I should look out for in a first game where we'll all be newbies to the game? Also, I'm not sure how I should pronounce Logres (I'm not a native english speaker). Is it like an ogress?

Thanks.

P.S.: Is this the right forum for general KAP chat?

"Derived from the Welsh word “Lloegr”, Logres (pr. lō'-grĕz)". I've found that when playing Cymric characters, their names get pronounced many different ways and the final solution ends up miles from what it should.... :o

Are you referring to "The Squires' Adventure" (called "Introductory Scenario" in KAP 5.1)? It has been my experience that when not generating characters, my group's playstyle makes this only last half of the evening.

I would recommend adding the rounds with Marshall Elad to it if you want to give your players more to do.

If you are planning on playing more than one night, Drive-Thru RPG has many adventures from Pendragon on sale for about another week. The Great Pendragon Campaign is truly the only other "must-have" for Pendragon GMs. (Although I do personally use all of the "Book of the XXX" supplemental materials.)

Hope that this helps.

Yes I was referring to the Squires' Adventure. It seemed like a good starting point to teach the system.

Do you have any particular book of adventure to recommend apart from the GPC (a bit long for a one nighted ;) ) ?

One adventure I've used as a taster session is the Adventure of the Dancing Tree by Eric Rowe:
http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=235
Haven't used it for a while, but it a lovely little adventure which gives a good feel for Arthurian questing.

My experience is that new players to Pendragon are sometimes overwhelmed by the number of traits and skills. It may be wise to take some time to explain it. the truth is that the the large number of traits and passions makes playing a character even more easier. You have a better idea about the psychological make up of your character.

The squires adventure is a nice one to set the mood and I personally like to add the knighting ceremony as well and elaborate on it. This is especially nice if you want to continue with the characters.

Thanks Merlin for the link, I'll look it up.



The squires adventure is a nice one to set the mood and I personally like to add the knighting ceremony as well and elaborate on it. This is especially nice if you want to continue with the characters.


I guess it would be better if the players generated their own PKs instead of using pre-gens. But then, I fear this will take too much of our 3-4 hour session. None of the players will have read the rule. I was thinking of making this a bit of a surprise "Tonight we're gonna try this game called Pendragon.", a quick tour of the character sheet and then start playing. How long would it take for newbies to generate 3 brand new PK?

I'm playing Pendragon (in fact the GPC) for a few month. When we startet, we had a similiar situation, exept that we where preparing for a full campaign. I went through the generation point by point together with the group og 6 players. Just running the mechanical part of generation took about an hour. The creative part (to get a feeling for the new characters) and the use of 'Salisbury family history' extended that greatly.
For only a 3-4 hour one-shot it seems best to use the pre-gens.

I agree, you're best off using the pre-gens for a one off. Trick is to make them Arthurian caricatures so that they each have a niche and are set up with the Traits and Skill to show off the strengths of the system - makes sure each player has a high trait that you will test in the game and different skills so that some one can show off the combat side of things, another the courtly side etc.

Hummm, I really like the Adventure of the Dancing Tree.
Might be perfect for a one-off with three pre-generated Knights and then if the players take the bait and like the game, I could start a campaign using the squire scenario in the rulebook.
However, the squire scenario seems to very good at teaching the game so I might be a good first scenario too.

Decisions, decisions...

One adventure I've used as a taster session is the Adventure of the Dancing Tree by Eric Rowe:
http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=235
Haven't used it for a while, but it a lovely little adventure which gives a good feel for Arthurian questing.


From this same website, may I also recommend The Adventure of the Missing Hawk (also by Eric Rowe).

http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=257

I'm currently running an adaptation of it as a play-by-post, for my first time as GM. It's been a good scenario, though I changed parts of it substantially (i.e. I didn't include a magic squirrel, for starters! :) ). I strongly considered the Dancing Tree, as well... I don't think you can go wrong with either scenario. There are several other good ones on that website as well.

Also, you could give each player a famous knight

Sir Lamorak
Sir Gawaine
Sir Agravaine
Sir Tor

and do a one-shot Tournament. Give them each a goal - Lamorak's is to be the tournament winner, Gawaine and Agravaine to kill Lamorak in a "fair" fashion, Sir Tor to gain a romance, etc. Run a joust, feast, melee and then for fun finish it off with Lamorak and Gawaine battling to the death

Thanks, all great ideas.

BTW, anyone know where I could download a PDF of the character sheet for the 5.1 rules?

Try:

http://www.gspendragon.com/

There are character sheets. I'm not sure if they are 5.1 or earlier.

NT

Try this one:

http://db.tt/XShtpphl


Best,


T.

Try this one:

Thank you very much!