All—

I've been scouring website for a couple of years looking for photographs (for the most part) to depict various characters in my campaign. Since it's true that pictures paint a thousand words, I find it useful to use these portraits to form a concrete picture in players' minds. I've also been working some of the various coats of arms encountered in The Great Pendragon Campaign, plus a few from my own campaign and a still a few more whimsical ones. I'm sharing all of these with you here today. The collection will not doubt continue to grow, and if you'd like to add some to the gallery, simply attach them (or a link to them) to a PM. Note I may or may not use any images you send — they have to be of sufficient resolution to be suitable — but I'm happy to consider anything you care to send along. Also please note that I don't claim any copyright on the character images, nor does Nocturnal. They are merely a collection of fan-curated images already available all over the internet. We encourage you to seek out these movie and shows and buy the product, if you're feeling inspired. However, I do claim the copyright for my original shield designs, ever though the arms themselves are sometimes not copyrightable, belonging as they do to mythic figures don'tcha know...

You'll find a lot of diversity in these images; many historical eras are represented in a sort of Pendragon salad. You'll find some actors in different roles, a few multiple of actors in the same role, etc. Some of the images are too "Hollywood," others are plenty gritty. Women are not often depicted very accurately, but then again, neither are the men. Some of the players are well-known and others less so (these are my favorites). So without further ado, let's get to the links, shall we?


The first is the GPC Dramatis Personae. These are the portraits that I use for various characters in the GPC. I'm showing here how they may be combined with coats of arms to capture the whole experience. These are NOT the official images of the characters by any means — just my own preferences. They may or may not work for you.

The next one is the Character Portraits gallery. There are nearly 300 images here. Have a blast.

The final one is the images of the Coats of Arms. These are my interpretation of the legacy design from the GPC ad other KAP supplements. It is by no means an exhaustive list, as I've only been tackling the Uther Period. This will continue to grow and you will see some of these in upcoming books.

You can access them all here: http://goo.gl/DtbnfY

If you like these images, please bookmark the pages for your own use. Google won't be able to find 'em. You'll pretty much have to return to this page or use your bookmarks to get to them easily.


Enjoy!


T.

Awesome!
Many thanks you for making your collection public. You just saved a lot of people a lot of work.

No prob! Just added ten new characters this evening.


T.

Wow! Thank you, thank you, thank you Taliesin. What a great Christmas present for KAP GMs.

This is an awesome collection of images and the coats of arms are superb. You have saved me a stack of work for my next GPC campaign.

You're welcome, Dux. I should have mentioned in my description above that there are a few of knights from my campaign in the GPC Dramatis Personae gallery. So all the characters are not official, nor can they be found in the GPC. Too, I'm not above stealing characters from various blogs to use as NPCs in my campaign. So some of you may recognize personalities from your own campaigns! Thanks for the inspiration, and I hope these portraits help repay the debt.


T.

These are awesome Taliesin. I've been looking for images to put to characters so my gamers can get an idea what they look like. This is gonna be a big help for me. Thanks once again.

Very nice, Taliesin. :)

I have started gathering pictures for the Orkneys, the De Gales and the Ganis RTKs to share with my players. Perhaps I can post the links on this thread, too? Of course, I have played little enough attention to the actual ages of the actors and the pictures should be taken more indicative what the knights looked like at some age. Although I am giving the RTK knights some benefit of longevity, given how most manage to survive and be efficient fighters still at Camlann.

Sure, I have no objection to you posting a gallery here. The more the merrier!


Best,


M.

Well then, I had the starting position in mind that I wanted Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Notthingham for Mordred and then decided to keep that general dark hair style for the rest of the Orkneys as well. For some reason I have always seen Morgause as a dark-haired woman, and after James Purefoy as Lot and the Prince Valian Gawaine as an ebony-haired charmer, I have difficulties seeing them in any other guise. :) Just to repeat the earlier caveat, these portrayals are not intended to be at the exact same year for all the boys. After all, Gawaine is what well over 15 years older than Mordred.

Orkneys

Gawaine: Eric Bana, http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/10300000/Bana-in-Troy-eric-bana-10309225-853-480.jpg
Agravaine: Roger Rees, http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120504130759/villains/images/9/9a/14435-16142.gif
Gaheris: Luke Evans, http://www.standard.co.uk/incoming/article8582799.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/Luke-Evans.jpg
(Just an aside, I was seriously tempted to pick Luke Evans for Gawaine since he looks so much like the Prince Valiant Gawaine in this picture... but I wanted him and Gareth look more alike, and I think Luke Evans and Ioan Gruffudd have a bit more of a resemblance.)
Gareth: Ioan Gruffudd, http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Lancelot-3-ioan-gruffudd-216179_1400_943.jpg
Mordred: Alan Rickman, http://chekyang.com/musings/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/blogrobinhood02.jpg
(I was so tempted to pick Orlando Bloom as Mordred, but Alan Rickman plays such a nice baddie... Rufus Sewell was a strong contender, too. Might pick Rufus for Ywaine.)


De Gales
(I decided to go for more blondes with De Gales, just to distinguish them more from the Orkneys.)

Lamorak: Seam Bean, http://24.media.tumblr.com/89b3741f13bc8e2f9e0a948ed1dc7992/tumblr_msmy65ZQgX1scoyeso1_400.jpg
Tor: Heath Ledger, http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/2001_A_Knight_s_Tale/2001_A_Knights_Tale_106.jpg
(I was very tempted to use Heath for Percivale, but choices had to be made.)
Aglovale: David Wenham, http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080605162610/lotr/images/c/c1/Faramir-Boromir.JPG (Here with his brother, Lamorak, probably after the conquest of Cherbourg.)
Dornar: Karl Urban, http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121031131448/lotr/images/0/0b/Eomer_at_the_coronation.png
Percivale: Chris Hemsworth, http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/thor-hemsworth.jpg


De Ganis

Lancelot: Nicholas Clay, http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100922195208/kingarthur/images/4/45/LancelotExcalibur.jpg
Bors: Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/229/files/2013/06/jamie.jpg
Galahad: Finn Jones, http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120426212854/gameofthrones/images/4/47/Loras_Tyrell.jpg

I haven't decided on the rest yet.

Well done! Great choices, all. Thanks for sharing. I might have to see about getting finding some higher res version of these for my galleries. I'm a ways away from all those intrigues in the GPC yet...


T.

50 more images uploaded to the Portraits Gallery. A few repeats, but pretty good images all the same. The well is starting to run dry, I'm afraid! It's getting harder and harder to find good pix.


Enjoy!


T.

Excellent stuff guys! I've been collecting some occasional photos myself for use in an eventual campaign. I've always felt that using photos from movies and TV series' characters was not only a great way of making the NPC characters more alive in the players' minds, but also that it helps the GM greatly in adopting personalities and mannerisms for the different NPCs, specially in game that relies so heavily in NPC numbers and character roleplay as KAP.

I'll be stealing a lot from these links, for sure. Thanks!

Very very great. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Posted five new images in the portrait gallery (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-F8xZQ) today. They're all by the incomparable Andrew Wickens of ARW Photography.

Check out his site (http://www.arwphotography.co.uk) and like his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/ARW-Photography/139505589490415) while you're at it, because he's a phenomenal photographer that loves knights as much as we do!

I also started sorting the gallery by most recent images first. In this case, Andrew's are the first five starting from the top left.


T.

I have a few to share. All converted to 400x600.

A few pictures. (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qp46oiseyzjsq9n/6-1dMqXivW)

Very nice, Memnon. :)

I especially like the Michael Praed. I have used his likeness a few times. Exceeded only by the picture of Jeremy Irons from The three Musketeers, Alan Rickman from Robin Hood, Robert Taylor in Knights of the Round Table and Rutger Hauer in Ladyhawke.....

Hello Taliesin, thanks so much for these awesome visual resources.

Did something change with your portrait gallery? You mentioned that there were about 300 portraits there, but I'm only seeing 39 across 4 pages. Did some get removed or moved elsewhere?

They may be small but RPOL.net has a HUGE gallery of photos also. I recommend digging through it.

Hello Taliesin, thanks so much for these awesome visual resources.

Did something change with your portrait gallery? You mentioned that there were about 300 portraits there, but I'm only seeing 39 across 4 pages. Did some get removed or moved elsewhere?


I have three different galleries. One is generic portraits of all manner of medieval folk, including knights. One is for my versions of prominent characters from the GPC and my campaign. One is for cots of arms only. I need to update all of them as I have lots of new images.

You can access them all here:

http://goo.gl/DtbnfY

Let me know if you have any trouble.


T.

Amazing! Yes that works. Thank you so much for your collecting efforts Taliesin. These photos will add immense life and immersion to my players' experience.

The previous link I followed to the generic portraits (from a post at the top of the thread maybe?) was sending me to just the Unsorted category without a way back to the other categories.

Amazing! Yes that works. Thank you so much for your collecting efforts Taliesin. These photos will add immense life and immersion to my players' experience.

You're welcome!


The previous link I followed to the generic portraits (from a post at the top of the thread maybe?) was sending me to just the Unsorted category without a way back to the other categories.


Ah, I see. Well, I went ahed and posted this updated url to that first post. Sorry for the difficulty. Something must changed since I originally set those links up.

Has your campaign continued beyond the Uther phase? We're in Boy King era, so I'll be choosing lots of portraits for new key personages.

Has your campaign continued beyond the Uther phase? We're in Boy King era, so I'll be choosing lots of portraits for new key personages.


No, but we're in the middle of 494, so it won't be too long till we move into the Anarchy.

I posted seven new pictures in the "Christians" gallery this evening (the first seven pix in that gallery, now). That's were I put all the ecclesiastics, so you'll find a new bishop or two and five new monks, mostly of an unsavory type.

I have lots more images, just need time to prep and post them all...

UPDATE: Posted three new images in Squires.

UPDATE: Posted about 50 new images of Ladies, in all age categories, but mostly Young.

Enjoy!


T.

Very awesome. I like the new categorization (squires, monsters, etc)

Very awesome. I like the new categorization (squires, monsters, etc)


Thanks! They're a little loosey-goosey, but hopefully they'll help people find stuff faster...

Thanks! They're a little loosey-goosey, but hopefully they'll help people find stuff faster...


Yeah, they definitely help. Thanks, Taliesin.

My only teensy-weensy complaint has more to do with the way that Pendragon breaks down the age categories... Granted, Book of the Warlord gives a bit more nuanced breakdown in the Warlord Generator, and this is how I'd categorize them (example in the parenthesis):
Fresh: Boyish, even (young, 1-3/33)
Youthful: Sparse beard, still looks young (Henry Cavill, young, 5/33)
Adult: Nice full beard or some such, looks like an adult (Tom Hiddleston, middle-aged 32/40)
Mature: Starts to show signs of living, a few lines (James Purefoy, middle-aged, 34/40)
Aged: Some grey, lined face (Liam Neeson, middle-aged, 18/40)
Old: White-bearded, etc. (old, 11/20)

You could break down the characters in those age categories. Of course, Mature+Aged = the previous Middle-Aged category and so forth.

My only big beef would be Tom Hiddleston being Middle-Aged in your categories, when I would classify him as an Adult based on the pictures (i.e. less than 35, and hence Young in the old classification). Granted, many of those classifications are kinda on the edge... James Purefoy, for example, is probably Mature-Aged. I think that is partially because modern people do not tend to change all that much during their late twenties to early fourties, and that is exactly where the Young / Middle-Aged breakpoint is in Pendragon.

EDIT: And of course, some people look more mature than others and vice versa. For instance, Leonardo Di Caprio, Elijah Wood and Michael J. Fox have that youthful look going. It is much harder to find opposite cases, since Hollywood tends to worship youth. :)

Yeah, I dunno — six age categories? Seems like it might be splitting hairs a bit, and might actually make it harder to find someone that's on the cusp of categories. Seems like I'd have to follow suit with the Lords, Kings, Ladies and Queens, too, to be consistent. It could start getting a little overwhelming. If the consensus is it'd be easier to navigate and find just the right portrait, it's not very hard for me to categorize them as you describe, but I'm not convinced it would actually make things easier. Simpler is better, I think, and just being able to visually scan the thumbnails in just three categories is a boon, I think.

BTW, to avoid any confusion, the difference between "Lords" and "Knights" is that knights are wearing mail or other armor. "Lords" are also knights, of course — they're just dressed in courtly duds.

Best,


T.

I've uploaded six new knight portraits — one Middle-aged and five Old Knights.


T.

I have been using Pintrest recently and been pinning alot n a kap rpg board for me to use later on
here is where my boards can be found enjoy
https://www.pinterest.com/captainhedges/