Hi Guys,

I have a couple of big events coming up Uthers Wedding for 1 and I am not sure what to throw at the players.

Looking for some input as to what other gm's or players have done in the past.

As a GM do you organise these situations and npc's or let the whole thing be player driven and improvise?

As a player what would like the GM to offer up in these situations?

Cheers,

BigSteveUK

P.S To be fair this is probably the weakest part of my game and one which I would really like to improve.

Court is always a time in the gaming evening when I never really know what's going to happen - I love it!

I start by stating where it is, and who, if anyone notable, is there, and remind them of the political situation and give them relevant up to date news. Then I throw in the gossip - although i must confess to having moved a bit from the wonderful lines that Greg has given us in the GPC - my impersonations of gossiping ladies will only ever get (& deserve!) stick from the players... (in the past if I've got organised, I might have emailled some of that around beforehand)
I will then get them to make intruigue roles and feed them the information from that section accordingly.
Then I shall ask them what they want to do, and then hold my breath...

Sometimes nothing much happens.

Often, the players will run with something, occasionally expected, often not, and that will turn into an evening's gaming in its own right!

If I had more time, I would put more effort into thinking through the npcs and what they might be up to and playing out the interpersonal stuff more, but we only get 1 1/2 hours a fortnight to game in, and so there isn't really the time for that is I ever ant to get the players out on a quest of some sort!

Right out of the GPC I read The RuMORS section. I tell the players that they are at court that year and then they are walking through the castle, or in the courtyard, whatever...when they hear the servants, maids, washerwomen, etc... saying the following.....blah blah..... Then I adopt old and young lady GOSSIP voices and read the Gossip stuff straight out of the GPC for that year and the players( who werent noticed by the servants) get to chuckle at the peasant conversation. Then at court I let them make a few court rolls, and play through them. If u wanna do music skills, you wait till the bards come out or an appropriate time. The first day at court everyone gets up early and goes for some falconry.... If a player doesnt like that he can stay behind while other players do it, and talk to the castle residents and so earn an intrigue, etc.... whatever his objective. The second day there is a hunt... etc... the third day, the earl of Lonazep sponsers a hunt, joust ,bow competition, poetry contest, etc..... the 4th day is a feast and i make a few appropriate women to interest the players. One is an heiress of great wealth who will lead a player on, and then if he wants more than sex in a dark corridor and becomes bothersome, She will scream rape to be rid of him, and he might even have tio fight for his innocence. The second women is poor but beautiful, demur and all the things a man wants, but has a controlling guardian who is WEll aware of her beauty and is using it to net a great knight ,and whatever he can for himself take , from her suitors as generous gifts. If a knight were to get too close to her and offend said ward,,, he might arrange for that knights demise... or something! These are all just e :)xamples that really enrich the game. But anything u want to happen at court can happen. Dances, topiary mazes by moonlight to interest young lovers, people coming and begging aid from the greatest knights in the realm and leading them to adventures, etc....

Uh, depends on the specific court. Being an SCA herald myself, albeit a bit rusty, I pretty much run it as a string of NPC's talking for the actual courts, and then let players pursue various rumors as they see fit. I let them know what kinds of rumors are available to pick from first, and let them seek out the right crowds, or let them pick which crowd and get the rumors from that group.

There is always an Opening court, and it always starts with the following agenda:

Court called
Arthur's Words
Guenevere's Words
Host's Words
Officer changes
New Fealty
Gifts to host (from Crown)
Gifts to crown (prearranged, by precedence
Announcing major buisiness (specific nobles in charge of the projects are called forth)
Awards & honors, if any
Host's closing comments
Guenevere's closing words
Arthur's closing words


And a closing court for a major event

Court called
Arthur's Words
Guenevere's Words
Host's Words
reports of officers and commissions
Gifts to crown (prearranged, by precedence
Awards & honors, if any
Announcing assignments
Host's closing comments
Guenevere's closing words
Arthur's closing words


Note that officers, awards, gifts, major upcoming event announcements, and assignments might be intermingled. The herald can really shape a court into either a travesty or a success by how things are delivered.

Of course, a couple of my players are well aware of this, since many of them are SCAers.

Great organization Aramis!!! Thanks for the great ideas. As I'll be taking over as relief GM shortly, I've been giving Winter Court a lot of thought.
With the computer age amongst us, many of our players in our group have computered RPG'd more that real RPG'd, this has trained us to move the mouse around until it lights up on someone worth talking to. No mouse in Pendragon. The challenge lays in breaking that habit and getting players to realize they can interact with whoever they want, as long as they make the courtesy role to get there;)

here's the best of the court heraldry resources I've found (in my 'native' West Kingdom of the SCA, no less...) http://heralds.westkingdom.org/

Look under the court heraldry link, and skim the PDF's at the bottom.

Court is where "Business becomes law" and "worthiness becomes recognition"...

Aramis
Known in the SCA as Herr Wilhelm von D?sseldorf, Pursuivant Extraordinary.

Cheers for the feedback, you have given me loads of food for thought. ;)