Our long slow moving GPC Campaign which has been going since the great book first came out is finally about to reach the infamous Battle of Badon Hill. The players don't know what's coming, and I want to make this year really count. Any tips from those who have been there before? Although I hope we'll see this campaign all the way to Camlann, it's going so slowly that might be up to the next generation at this rate, and so I really want to make the most of the showcase moments such as these.

If you have access to Saxons!, read the Battle of Badon section of it. It has been written from the Saxon point of view, but I think it would have added a lot if I had had it available when we were doing BoB for the first time, by adapting the situations for the Briton side, too.

It's on the shelf right in front of me! Thanks for the reminder! Didn't even think to look in it... ;)

Our long slow moving GPC Campaign which has been going since the great book first came out is finally about to reach the infamous Battle of Badon Hill. The players don't know what's coming, and I want to make this year really count. Any tips from those who have been there before? Although I hope we'll see this campaign all the way to Camlann, it's going so slowly that might be up to the next generation at this rate, and so I really want to make the most of the showcase moments such as these.

I want to stress that the Gamemaster needs courage here, to kill a couple of player knights. I think it is usually bad form to plan this as an objective in itself, but this kind of gigantic battle deserves the treatment. If several player characters die then the survivors will shine even more, and ever afterwards in the campaign when someone says, "I fought at Badon," it will really have the proper impact.
The supernatural creatures available for day 3 are intended to fight only those superknights who have remained untouched, thanks to the skills of 25+.
Go for it!

The use of the 'Skirmishes' in Saxons! would help in winnowing down the ranks of the player characters, function pretty much the same way as the Extended Melees of the Battle system. This is simply because more rolls -> more chances of getting damage and enemy rolling criticals. I'd do that especially towards the end of the Battle, like Day 4, when they'd get the chance to go against the enemy kings. Lots of chances to drag things out and make it a grinding bloodbath. On the other hand, all the more glory for the survivors if they manage to take down a Saxon King in a duel, eh?

The fact that the Battle of Badon lasts for so long means that there should be plenty of damage onto the player characters that is first aided, meaning they will be upright but at low hit points towards the end. And this tends to spell danger to the PKs, since there is less of a 'buffer' of first-aidable wounds to take you back from negative points to the positive. As an example, imagine a guy who has 4 wounds, bringing him to 10 hit points, and then he takes a 15 point wound = -5 hit points and dying. Having 5 wounds for the first aid though means that the chances are good that he gets back enough hit points that he returns to positive and survives. Whereas if those 4 wounds have accumulated in previous fights and have already benefited from first aid, but still left him at 10 points, he is almost certainly dead after that hit, needing a critical first aid and a roll of 6 to save his life.

Discourage Disengaging, especially during the last two days. "The battle hangs in the balance. Are you sure you wish to be the first man to retreat, perhaps triggering a rout?" Also, Arthur Expects Every Man To Do His Duty on the 3rd and 4th day. You are barely able to stand upright from your wounds? Surely you can fight a round more, right? Might make a difference between a Briton Victory or seeing the island swept over by Saxon brutality... Hope you didn't have Loyalty (Arthur) or Hate Saxons 16+

Cheers all - some helpful advice there! Battle commences on the 9th June, I'll report back...

Ok, promised reporting back. We managed to meet (always impressed when that happens, as you can tell by the fact that this campaign has been running since the GPC came out...) After two hours, battle is yet to commence! Instead, to ramp up the tension and underline how serious things were going to get, I had the players sort out their characters affairs and roll up their back-up characters (one a son, the other a cousin) and name and detail their squires properly (three each with names and basic stats etc.) I have also produced details of the knights accompanying them in the Knightly Order that they have instigated using the fantastic knight generator found in the game aids section. This way as knights and squires fall, they are not just numbers, but people known to them. Also as their characters fall, then their replacements are ready for battle to continue, and the players already have emotionally invested in them so that the loss of their original characters if/as it happens will be compensated to some degree.

Although it was a prep session rather than active gaming, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. All being well, battle will commence on the 23rd and I'll report back again then.

Although it was a prep session rather than active gaming, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. All being well, battle will commence on the 23rd and I'll report back again then.


Great job!

Much to my surprise we managed to fit another session in last night. In the two hours we fought through Day One, a gentle introduction to what is to come...

http://pendragonchronicles.org.uk/boyking/518.html

518AD: The Battle of Badon Hill (Day One)
Date played: 16th June 2014
Court this year was charged with a nervous excitement. The Saxons were massing with a force of 30,000 expected. 518AD would be the decisive conflict, one way or the other. Arthur had put the call out for all able men to fight, no matter how old. Even Gaelavin responded, maybe not as fit as once he was, but eager still to demonstrate his prowess and experience. The numbers of the Knights of the Round Table were filled, Sir Erec and Sir Gaelvius were amongst those newly honoured in this way, although how long they would live to enjoy the honour was uncertain.

Taking advantage of their local knowledge, Gaelvius and Erec set about preparing the landscape of Sailsbury plain as best they could to give them an edge in the fighting to come, but these efforts were to prove futile, to start with at least, as word came that Silchester had been besieged. Arthur ordered that the forces should march out to rescue them, only to find that they were ambushed as the crossed the Endbourne River. The forces that poured out against them were a dread force, more numerous than grains of sand on the beach. Arthur might have the superior troops, but they were vastly outnumbered and caught up in the water.

The order was given to charge and Erec, Gaelvius and Gaelavin charged with the rest of the Round Table Knights under the banner of Arthur and their own standard of the Knights of the Grail. The onslaught was vicious. Their senses were overwhelmed with sound and movement and they smashed into ranks of wild eyed barbarians wielding mighty clubs like trees. With a cry for Arthur and Britain they charged through them, finding themselves in the thick of the fighting.

Back they pulled again and again in a desperate attempt to break free to charge once more. Heorthgeneat, the Saxon warriors, fell upon them, young and old, grim faced in their determination to overcome Arthur’s forces and take Britain for their own. Squires were lost and lances smashed as they did so. Followers too died in the onslaught. Before the day was over Erec lost Sir Eiddef, and Sir Richerch fell from Sir Gaelvius’ ranks. These loses were exacerbated by arrows and the taunts of Sir Robert, still wrangled by the formation of the Knights of the Grail, calling them cowards for backing away from the thick of battle.

Finally clear they charged once more, triumphant against mounted heorthgeneat, crashing once more alongside Robert, finally able to return his insults to his face before a final pulling back and charge. By this point the skies had darkened and the order gone out to retreat back for the night. No sooner had they done so, than the rain began to fall, a torrential deluge that continued through the night. There would be no horses in the morrow.

They had made it through the day, wounded and with loses and slept a fitful night in fearful anticipation of the next day.

Sounds like they are having a grand old time. :)

You have only two players? Also, my curiosity was piqued by your off-handed comment about the formation of the Knights of the Grail annoying Sir Robert? Is this Count Robert of Salisbury, or just one of their personal enemies?

Yes, only two players at the moment. We have had various others from time to time, but they keep moving away from us!

The Knights of the Grail? The players decided back in the Anarchy Period to start preparing Salisbury in light of the Saxon threat. They instigated a school for knights in order to train up as many suitable men as possible. One of them also managed to win over Roderick's widow, the Countess herself. relationships have never been good between him and Robert who sees him as a competitor on a number of levels.

During the their adventures in the Wastelands (Castle Joy etc.) they saw the Grail. After that sequence of events, they decided to name their order of knights after it.

In 517AD during the Battle of Lincoln, the tension between them and Robert came to a bit of a head. They rallied together the Knights of the Grail which by now had a reach further afield than just Salisbury, and who are pledged to serving not just their liege Lords but also Arthur. Robert suddenly realised their extent and felt undermined by this even further...

It will be interesting to see where this one runs to ultimately. My players can't help but want to have everything and have it now! Of course, by the end of Badon it might be an irrelevant train of thought, but we'll see...

So kinda like King Filip IV saw the Templars as a threat? How did they support those knights during Anarchy? I am assuming that nowadays, it is more like an order you join, kinda like the Companions of King Arthur, since if Erec and Gaelvius are able to support dozens of knights, they mush have loads of lands, too?

I'll be honest and admit we play fast and loose with the economics of it and in general - we only manage at best 2 hours every other week, often less often, and so don't really have time to worry about money matters and book keeping. I let the players get away with things that they'd normally have to work hard and long at, because at our frequency that would require many real years to achieve! In game terms, however, they began with training knights for Salisbury, but instilled in those knights a loyalty to Arthur and to themselves. Their plan was to franchise the operation to other counties! (A thoroughly modern concept I'd imagine and totally unrealistic). What I've said in a hand wavy way is that knights from their lands (Erec is in effect a Baron now) belong to the order and other knights can sign up to it if they meet the standards in skill and passions required. It is more a fellowship pledged to Arthur than a private militia owned and paid for by the player knights. It does, thought, lend itself nicely to political play so what they thought would bring them power and fame etc. also brings them enemies and conflicted loyalties. If they and the order survive Badon, at some point Arthur may have something to say about it...