Several years ago, I ran the Great Pendragon Campaign (ArtHaus edition) for a large group of players. We have gamed every Wednesday night for 15 years, and GPC is considered, hands down, the best campaign ever. In fact, I wish to run it again in a year or so.

My question: How can I alter the campaign to make it interesting for players (about half the group) who went through it once before? There are many adventures they missed first time around, but has anyone else had experience re-running the entire campaign?

I've considered: 1) making the players Saxons instead of Britons, 2) Moving from Salisbury to a different city, or 3) allowing 'non-knight' characters (priests, commoners, etc.)

Any ideas on how to mix things up? Grateful for any thoughts. Thanks!
John

I have never run the same campaign with the same group, although I am about to start a fourth Pendragon group with a couple of the players being from the first one. The first group pre-dated the GPC's publication and I shamelessly stole the excellent campaign guideline of Warren Mockett to use as a guideline for the Anarchy period of Salisbury, before the Boy King book started. So even for these players, the Uther period will be a new thing and I expect butterfly effect (and the intervening decade or more) to make the rest of the campaign interesting for them too.

I am a great believer in the butterfly effect, in particular when you have new players mixing it up. The same, identical group, yeah, I could see people having their own grooves, but with new players, I would expect things to remain interesting. However, I would be sorely tempted to run a Levcomagus campaign in your place. :) This is somewhat similar to your 1) and 2) suggestions, but I would not go full Saxon, since lets face it, that sucks at Mount Badon and then you pretty much miss out part of the Arthurian period (even if your son might eventually become a knight under King Arthur). But being from Levcomagus? Lots of chances of seeing the Salisbury situation from the other side and the opportunity to mess with Salisbury in Anarchy. While still having all the advantages of being close to Camelot and to Salibsury to be able to use the events in GPC to add to your campaign.

(Also, I really should trawl through the forum to see all the stuff that I said 'this I would do differently were I to GM the campaign again' for the new campaign...)

Oh, the Levcomagus idea is a great one. Close enough to keep the pulse of the main story line but distinctly different. In the past players -hated- Silchester. Fantastic!
JQ

Although Morien had the best idea I still have some suggestions/ ideas:

1) I am currently running the GPC for the first time. and although the PKs interact with the big events, they have plenty of their own and that will make the campaign different the second time around.
2) You can tweak some small things. For instance in my current group there are some PKs with a hatred vs Merlin after his kidnapping of Arthur and using them. In a second time I might let them be one of the knight groups chasing him. This could create a different effect on the campaign.
3) If you place the PKs in a different homeland how about one of the following:
Escavalon: As vassals of Nanteleod they would have some influence on events during the anarchy phase.
Lothian: Here the most interesting part is what path will they choose when Arthur comes around. Will they choose the path of Gawain or that of Lot.
4) I would agree with Morien that playing Saxons is rather depressing. they are the main antagonist during Arthur's period. Of course it could be interesting to see how it will unfold, although the more esoteric aspects of the game (like the grail and Arthur's magic) is a bit lost.

4) I would agree with Morien that playing Saxons is rather depressing. they are the main antagonist during Arthur's period. Of course it could be interesting to see how it will unfold, although the more esoteric aspects of the game (like the grail and Arthur's magic) is a bit lost.


There was a Hastingas campaign in the old Saxons! -book (which supplement does suffer from the late-4th ed power-creep with berserkers having skills on-par with Lancelot's...), which might have been interesting to play. In that case, you are really playing a more 'dark ages' sort of campaign and the ending of the campaign is Badon Hill, in a same way that Camlann is for KAP.

However, it would be possible to then bring in the new characters around Arthurian 'Golden Age' in 530s, orphaned at a young age but now reaching their adulthood, just in time to start to enjoy the questing and tournaments. Or in time to become the villainous knights that the (would-be) RTK knights are sent to vanquish. :) Depending of course on the upbringing and the inclinations of the players, what sort of a campaign they wish to play.

I am just saying that this campaign would have much less 'oomph' from the GPC prior to 530, or even after if they select the villain way. Interesting, yes, but not really following GPC that much. And you miss out on a lot of interaction with Uther, Merlin and young Arthur (or Artie, as my players tended to call him affectionately). But yes, that campaign could be done and even incorporate the Arthurian Golden Age with the Grail Quest and then the Twilight and finally Camlann (might be at Mordred's side, even). Heck, it might even be a more cheerful ending for our Saxon knights, who, with Arthur's realm tearing itself apart, see a chance to return to the Good Bad Old Days of their great-grandfather's when the guy with the biggest axe ruled... And lookie here, a big axe!

So if I understand your suggestions, this really won't be too tricky. If I can switch out the Salisbury background in favor of another British region (Escavalon, Lothian, Silchester, etc.), I would be in pretty good shape. Flesh out a batch of NPCs, mock up a few maps of manors and borders - it would really feel different. Awesome

I would say so. I would add one suggestion.

It may be that the players as they already know what is going to happen may try to anticipate unto that. A good way to keep them from that is to add some twists to the story. That way they soon learn that they cannot rely on what they think will happen, but must react on what is happening.

Several years ago, I ran the Great Pendragon Campaign (ArtHaus edition) for a large group of players. We have gamed every Wednesday night for 15 years, and GPC is considered, hands down, the best campaign ever. In fact, I wish to run it again in a year or so.

Fantastic!


My question: How can I alter the campaign to make it interesting for players (about half the group) who went through it once before? There are many adventures they missed first time around, but has anyone else had experience re-running the entire campaign?

I've done is several times


I've considered: 1) making the players Saxons instead of Britons,

Saxons! was originally going to include a section where the Knights of the RT are trying to being a bunch of young Saxons who have a Hate King Arthur passion back into the fold
But I have never tried this angle


2) Moving from Salisbury to a different city,

I find the best solution is to start in another part of Britain.
The GM has considerably more work that way, but hopefully that makes it refreshing for him


or 3) allowing 'non-knight' characters (priests, commoners, etc.)

This will seriously alter the flavor of the game
Again, lots of GM work on this
KAP is designed to be played with knights

A thought I had, for whatever it's worth, would be to alter the tone of the game. One of the interesting ideas in KAP for me is which Arthur is it... so change which Arthur. For example, if you played last time with a classical, high chivalry knights-in-shining-plate mail tone, try for a grittier, more Dark Ages, Arthur. There have been so many different portrayals of Arthur and his knights, you can easily play the same characters, even with the same traits, in very different ways and so make it a totally different roleplaying experience.

A thought I had, for whatever it's worth, would be to alter the tone of the game. One of the interesting ideas in KAP for me is which Arthur is it... so change which Arthur. For example, if you played last time with a classical, high chivalry knights-in-shining-plate mail tone, try for a grittier, more Dark Ages, Arthur. There have been so many different portrayals of Arthur and his knights, you can easily play the same characters, even with the same traits, in very different ways and so make it a totally different roleplaying experience.


For some inspiration on this, Bernard Cornwell's novels could be worth a look.

For some inspiration on this, Bernard Cornwell's novels could be worth a look.


+1

Thanks, everyone. I'm definitely leaning toward starting things in Silchester or Lothian. Lothian would allow the players to have a more complicated relationship with Uther, Lot, the Boy King, Gawaine, Morgana and Mordred.
Is there a good sourcebook for Lothian (Beyond the Wall)?
Are they Christian, British Christian or Pagan?
It seems as though they would be fighting the Picts and Saxons in equal measure, so Lothian strikes me as being less sophisticated than even Salisbury - a grittier existence with few courtly manners and whole lot of fighting.
Finally, doesn't Morgana retire up in the north country at some point? I can't remember my GPC details sometime.
Again, thanks everyone for providing so much help!
John

I would strongly urge for Silchester(Levcomagus), if you wish to make things easy for yourself. It is right next to Salisbury, so it is very easy to adapt teh Salisbury events. Furthermore, over long term, it is much easier thanks to the closeness to Camelot. If you are playing a Lothian campaign, you will pretty much get to throw the GPC out of the window, save for 510 - 513 period and then again once the Dal Riada Scots start raiding in late 520s.

If you are set for a Lothian campaign, Beyond the Wall will be very helpful. Of course it doesn't detail Lothian to the extent that Salisbury has been detailed, but it is certainly equivalent to the treatment Silchester gets (but, like said, Salisbury stuff is easier to adapt to Silchester than to Lothian). If I recall, they are Christians. There wasn't 'British Christianity' in the early editions, but if you wish to introduce that heresy (literally!), then I would make them British Christians to start with.

Finally, remember that there are two sisters:
Margawse/Morgause: the elder sister and wife to Lot. Mother of Gawaine and the rest of the Orkney clan.
Morgan le Fay: the younger sister and wife to Uriens of Gorre. Mother of Yvaine the Lion-knight.
(And yes, you could say three by including Elaine, Queen of Garloth.)

EDIT: And of course those marriages will not happen until 492, so you will have a while to wait before the players get to interact with them let alone the kids. And as soon as the kids are adults, they will head south to Camelot anyway... One suggestion you could do is to set the PKs in the Duchy of Cornwall and to lose their lands when Uther takes Gorlois down. But they can then migrate to Lothian and gain new lands there, under the auspices of the young Queen, Margawse.