I'm getting closer to the Boy King Era now, and I've been pondering a lot on how to play out King Arthur. I'd like to ask you how you play him?

The thing that has been bothering me a bit is that i want King Arthur to be a truly inspireing character in the game, so that the characters get the feeling that this really is a man above others, and I'm not sure how to portray him.

One way to make this happen would be to pre-write speeches, especially before or during battle-scences. Are there any examples in litterature or movies that would be fitting to use as a base. My thought would be that for example during the battle of Badon Hill, Arthur stands before his troops (cue epic music) and deliviers an epic speech (perhaps one of several depending on an Orate-roll) that really inspires his troops.

Well, we went the opposite way, actually.

Our Arthur started out as a friendly teen, feeling a bit out of his depths. But rallying nicely under pressure and showing he had what it took to lead the armies. The PKs, already knights in their late 20s at the time (we started in 503), had an almost big brotherly demeanor towards their High King. Although of course a bit more respectful.

By the time Badon rolled around, he was more hardened warrior and confident in his ability to lead. I think Henry V's speech at Agincourt as rendered by Shakespeare would do well in that: facing an overwhelming force, rallying his troops to fight with a promise of immortal glory. Seems to fit nicely. :)

Now we are in 544, and Arthur has become a much more sedate monarch, ruling in Camelot and dispensing justice, adventures and rewards. He is still friendly and somewhat approachable by RTKs, but tends to have less time for minor characters. Not because he is rude, but because he is a busy High King.

I think the players enjoyed watching him grow.

think Henry V's speech at Agincourt as rendered by Shakespeare would do well in that: facing an overwhelming force, rallying his troops to fight with a promise of immortal glory. Seems to fit nicely. :)


I agree and envision him delivering like Kenneth Branagh in Henry V. I would also use Mel Gibson's speach from Braveheart.

My version of King Arthur is a combination of Nigel Terry and Mel Ferrer. The young Arthur is Terry from Excalibur but as he ages, he becomes Ferrer. Robert Taylor from Knights of the Round Table (1953) is my version of Lancelot. That movie is also the way I see the knights dressed and armoured.

I personaly would not use brave heart to me the speech Mel Gibson gave is more what Unthur Pendragon would say in my opinion Mel Gibbison's brave heart or Unthure are more alike then Artur and brave heart.

I would use the movie Excalibur as interspersion to portray the boy king a good book if you can find it its out of print but you might find it second hand is rose Mary Sutcliff The sword and the circle great story and inspireing and makes Arthur look like a noble warrior who truly ca inspire others to be better then they are. If your planing on running Galahad i would recomind her book the light in the forest by Rose Mery Sutcliff it realy starts with galahad comming to camolot and going through the grail quest, and him collecting all the prices he needs for the quest and how depends on god to help him take care of him and show him the way. Also I would to as Arthur gets older have him be more like the Arthur in the king Arthur movie.

Arthur enters the game as a squire to an obscure country knight and has greatness thrust upon him, but he also rises up to meet that greatness with great rapidity - the untried youth who quails in the face of Lot's host at Carlion has gone by the time of Terrabil just three years later. Thus to the extent that your players actually get to interact with him (which, if you are playing the game close to the core assumptions, should be fairly rare even in the early days) I think you should aim to show off this growth in confidence.

The other thing to note is that in terms of raw prowess Arthur is pretty good but he is by no means outstanding - at Badon for instance after eight years of hard campaigning and a remarkable string of victories, he is still only at Battle 19 per the GPC. Of course it doesn't matter how good your skills are if fate has her thumb on the scales (or Merlin for that matter...), but it seems to me that a key ingredient in Arthur's success is not individual skill but his ability to pick out good subordinates and then inspire them to outperform. So I would try and showcase that talent for inspirational leadership.

Ways to do this include:

nicking famous bits of oratory, as previously noted (I like Theoden's speech ahead of the Battle of Pelennor Fields in LotR myself)
give him a genuine interest in people and a formidable memory for faces, so he is constantly astonishing people who think of themselves as beneath his notice by greeting them by name and asking after their particular concerns (generally this would be the player knights of course, but show him doing it for someone truly obscure such as a squire who was presented to him, once, as a page a few years before or similar)
emphasise his energy (his Energetic starts out 'famous' and is one of his key traits later in life) and an infectious enthusiasm for getting to grips with whatever is the matter at hand - lots of 'forward momentum'


Regards
Luke

Hey Luke some great points I like these! I hardly use Arthur except as an NPC of Great Importance and most of the player knights who are not Round Table Knights hardly see him except from affair!
Only PK's that see him up close are those he has personally knighted in my campaign. The type of campaign I run depends on the players roll on my table of Kings I have two Tables I go off of one tells me who is sponsoring the young man for knight hood the tells me what King Knighted him. So with that in mind they need to roll a 20 to be knighted by Arthur and is sponsored by a knight of the round Table. Guinevere is a 19 and she converses Arthur to knight the young squire becuse he will make a great knight and husbend some day for one of her lady's in waiting. This squire has been trained if playing Phase 1 to 2 after their wedding then they were sponsored and trained by Sir Armen head of the queens Knights and her champion, he has been killed (by the time Lancelot comes to court and takes his place) and so he is already dead at the hands of the black knight. this is how I portray Arthur in my campaign world most of my campaigns I run are starting with the event of Arthur's and Guinevere's wedding forword if running a Camaolot campaign and the player knight's compete for the attention's of Sir Armen's Daughter Ahvehille, with Arreate and Isolate being other possible lady's for marriage in the contest of the queens Knight adventure if i have need for more lady's I then use other Salisbury eligible lady's.

Other wise I use other Kings and campaign's I have designed and draw from the literary sources and other pendragon books.

I personaly would not use brave heart to me the speech Mel Gibson gave is more what Unthur Pendragon would say in my opinion Mel Gibbison's brave heart or Unthure are more alike then Artur and brave heart.

I would use the movie Excalibur as interspersion to portray the boy king a good book if you can find it its out of print but you might find it second hand is rose Mary Sutcliff The sword and the circle great story and inspireing and makes Arthur look like a noble warrior who truly ca inspire others to be better then they are. If your planing on running Galahad i would recomind her book the light in the forest by Rose Mery Sutcliff it realy starts with galahad comming to camolot and going through the grail quest, and him collecting all the prices he needs for the quest and how depends on god to help him take care of him and show him the way. Also I would to as Arthur gets older have him be more like the Arthur in the king Arthur movie.


Not the speech verbatim but I could see the Arthur of my game rallying his knights before Badon in a similar manor.

The Clive Owen Arthur would never appear in my game. Nor would the Bradley James Arthur nor Jamie Campbell Bower Arthur. The Sean Connery Arthur is also unlikely and I doubt I'd use the Richard Harris one either.