Morien
01-27-2015, 11:30 PM
So we finally reached the Grail Quest and now all the Round Table Knights are going off to try to find the Grail. Also, a good chunk of the NPKs end up going. But how to determine which ones will go, you might ask.
Well, in our campaign, I am using the following rule of the thumb:
- The household knights generally don't go, as they have their duties in defending the absent lords' estates.
- The older vassal knights generally don't go, as they have had enough of adventure already, and adventuring is a young man's game.
+ The younger vassal knights (and/or heirs) and knight errants are fired up with the lust for adventure and glory, and tend to go.
But in individual cases, I look at the Traits:
+ Good Christian: going, Grail is a miracle
+ Love God: see above.
+ Reckless: yep, he is going.
+ Pious: going, too.
+ Proud: too proud to be left behind, more likely than not.
- Lazy: counters one of the going-traits; too much work!
- Worldly: probably not going
- Prudent: probably not going
Energetic might be a tie-breaker, too.
Of course, the person's history and play personality influences this as well. For instance, two young knights (already in the danger zone) have one (dead) parent who was a RTK, and two grandparents who were RTKs. OF COURSE they are going! They need to get Glory and Recognition so that they will get to the Round Table eventually as well!
So how to solve their fates? Well, the RTKs have about 50% fatality rate (as stated in GPC Year 557). This happens during the three year period of the Grail Quest, from 554-556. While the common knights are less able to take care of themselves, they also presumably would not meet the worst challenges, either, having not managed to advance so far. So as a rule of thumb, I am assuming that those things balance out and if some brave soul manages to Quest all those 3 years, he'd have about 50/50 survival chance. Over 3 years, this translates to about 20% mortality rate per year.
1d20 Result
1-4 Dead
5 Captured by an evil knight, ransom demanded or help asked from the PKs (if suitable). Roll 1d6 each subsequent year, on 1 they die, on 6 a RTK saves them.
6-15 Rides around Britain, doing minor jousting and chasing bandits: 1d6*10 Glory (if you care to mark it up)
16-19 Rides around Britain, doing heroics (defeating a robber knight or two, saving a damsel): 1d6*50
20 Rides around Britain, doing major heroics (defeating monsters and major robber knights, saving RTKs and heiresses/damsels): (1d6+2)*100 (Potential candidate for the Round Table)
Potential candidate for the Round Table
Well, I figure that there will be openings afterwards, and I might as well be a bit on the generous side to give the NPCs a chance, too. Granted, it depends a bit if they already have a foot in, so to speak (family connections, history of service to Arthur, etc). I am not so sure that I would tie it so much to their starting Glory, although that is possible as well. I would definitely include any NPC who manages to roll 1000+ Glory from the above table during the Grail Quest and survive!
Is 1-in-20 too high? Well, we can count that. I forget what Greg has said about the number of knights in Britain during the late campaign. But if we assume that the number is around 5000, for an argument's sake. Since it is mainly young knights who go rather than the household knights and such, lets be generous and say 2000 of them will go. 1-in-20 chance gives us 100 RTK Candidates during the first year, which is pretty much what the vast majority of the knights would be doing. Lets be overly generous and say about 800 knights would continue. Presumably, those 100 candidates would be pumped up and part of this number. 20% of them would die, leaving 80 knights (we assume the captured are ransomed or rescued) of those 100. Of the other 700 knights, 35 would qualify for the candidacy, so we'd have 115 candidates at the end of the second year. Those fanatics might go in for the third year, so again 20% would die, leaving 92.
Round Table has 150 seats, of which 75 would be now vacant, at the end of the the Grail Quest. 92 candidates vs. 75 seats. Seems about right, especially as we are not actually modelling each and every knight, but mainly those who have connections with the PKs, and hence more important to the campaign. Yes, I know it is a very simple system that takes nothing into account about the knight's personal prowess, experience or moral fortitude. But then again, these are not PKs, but background/scenery NPKs. Also, any moral short-comings can be explained away by them attaching themselves to Mordred's patronage.
Hmm. Maybe I ought to make the limit 500 Glory for the candidacy. That would cut some of the knights away (quick calculation, about 33% * 55% * 55% * 100 = about 10 knights who would survive, roll one 20, but still have less than 500 Glory (darn!). It is actually a bit more than that since they can get unlucky with those 1d6*50 rolls, too. But yeah, that would give about 80 candidates with the above system, and remember, that assumed that you have a whopping army of 2000 knights running around the first year. If you drop that lot down to even 1600, you take 20 knights out of the running straight away, and if you continue pruning the second lot down to 480 or so, you drop another 15 knights from the third round. So that leaves you with around 55 surviving candidates (500+ Glory from Grail Quest), and even with just one roll of 20, you'd only get 80 knights the first year -> 64 + 20 the second -> 84 * 0.8 = 67 knights at the end of the third. So yeah, I think that works nicely enough.
Should a PK go on the Grail Quest and manage to rack up significant Glory (500+), then they might very well be short-listed for the new Round Table position. Given that all the PKs in the campaign have Chivalric (using the old 80+ rules), have already been before Arthur for heroics done and are affiliated with Agravaine (who is not afraid to use the Orkney Clan's political weight to support their candidacy), they would be very likely to get in. Frankly, some of them are likely to get in even without the Grail Quest, since they are starting to be up there in Glory, and have had family members who were RTKs (that smooths the way, blood will tell, people think).
Well, in our campaign, I am using the following rule of the thumb:
- The household knights generally don't go, as they have their duties in defending the absent lords' estates.
- The older vassal knights generally don't go, as they have had enough of adventure already, and adventuring is a young man's game.
+ The younger vassal knights (and/or heirs) and knight errants are fired up with the lust for adventure and glory, and tend to go.
But in individual cases, I look at the Traits:
+ Good Christian: going, Grail is a miracle
+ Love God: see above.
+ Reckless: yep, he is going.
+ Pious: going, too.
+ Proud: too proud to be left behind, more likely than not.
- Lazy: counters one of the going-traits; too much work!
- Worldly: probably not going
- Prudent: probably not going
Energetic might be a tie-breaker, too.
Of course, the person's history and play personality influences this as well. For instance, two young knights (already in the danger zone) have one (dead) parent who was a RTK, and two grandparents who were RTKs. OF COURSE they are going! They need to get Glory and Recognition so that they will get to the Round Table eventually as well!
So how to solve their fates? Well, the RTKs have about 50% fatality rate (as stated in GPC Year 557). This happens during the three year period of the Grail Quest, from 554-556. While the common knights are less able to take care of themselves, they also presumably would not meet the worst challenges, either, having not managed to advance so far. So as a rule of thumb, I am assuming that those things balance out and if some brave soul manages to Quest all those 3 years, he'd have about 50/50 survival chance. Over 3 years, this translates to about 20% mortality rate per year.
1d20 Result
1-4 Dead
5 Captured by an evil knight, ransom demanded or help asked from the PKs (if suitable). Roll 1d6 each subsequent year, on 1 they die, on 6 a RTK saves them.
6-15 Rides around Britain, doing minor jousting and chasing bandits: 1d6*10 Glory (if you care to mark it up)
16-19 Rides around Britain, doing heroics (defeating a robber knight or two, saving a damsel): 1d6*50
20 Rides around Britain, doing major heroics (defeating monsters and major robber knights, saving RTKs and heiresses/damsels): (1d6+2)*100 (Potential candidate for the Round Table)
Potential candidate for the Round Table
Well, I figure that there will be openings afterwards, and I might as well be a bit on the generous side to give the NPCs a chance, too. Granted, it depends a bit if they already have a foot in, so to speak (family connections, history of service to Arthur, etc). I am not so sure that I would tie it so much to their starting Glory, although that is possible as well. I would definitely include any NPC who manages to roll 1000+ Glory from the above table during the Grail Quest and survive!
Is 1-in-20 too high? Well, we can count that. I forget what Greg has said about the number of knights in Britain during the late campaign. But if we assume that the number is around 5000, for an argument's sake. Since it is mainly young knights who go rather than the household knights and such, lets be generous and say 2000 of them will go. 1-in-20 chance gives us 100 RTK Candidates during the first year, which is pretty much what the vast majority of the knights would be doing. Lets be overly generous and say about 800 knights would continue. Presumably, those 100 candidates would be pumped up and part of this number. 20% of them would die, leaving 80 knights (we assume the captured are ransomed or rescued) of those 100. Of the other 700 knights, 35 would qualify for the candidacy, so we'd have 115 candidates at the end of the second year. Those fanatics might go in for the third year, so again 20% would die, leaving 92.
Round Table has 150 seats, of which 75 would be now vacant, at the end of the the Grail Quest. 92 candidates vs. 75 seats. Seems about right, especially as we are not actually modelling each and every knight, but mainly those who have connections with the PKs, and hence more important to the campaign. Yes, I know it is a very simple system that takes nothing into account about the knight's personal prowess, experience or moral fortitude. But then again, these are not PKs, but background/scenery NPKs. Also, any moral short-comings can be explained away by them attaching themselves to Mordred's patronage.
Hmm. Maybe I ought to make the limit 500 Glory for the candidacy. That would cut some of the knights away (quick calculation, about 33% * 55% * 55% * 100 = about 10 knights who would survive, roll one 20, but still have less than 500 Glory (darn!). It is actually a bit more than that since they can get unlucky with those 1d6*50 rolls, too. But yeah, that would give about 80 candidates with the above system, and remember, that assumed that you have a whopping army of 2000 knights running around the first year. If you drop that lot down to even 1600, you take 20 knights out of the running straight away, and if you continue pruning the second lot down to 480 or so, you drop another 15 knights from the third round. So that leaves you with around 55 surviving candidates (500+ Glory from Grail Quest), and even with just one roll of 20, you'd only get 80 knights the first year -> 64 + 20 the second -> 84 * 0.8 = 67 knights at the end of the third. So yeah, I think that works nicely enough.
Should a PK go on the Grail Quest and manage to rack up significant Glory (500+), then they might very well be short-listed for the new Round Table position. Given that all the PKs in the campaign have Chivalric (using the old 80+ rules), have already been before Arthur for heroics done and are affiliated with Agravaine (who is not afraid to use the Orkney Clan's political weight to support their candidacy), they would be very likely to get in. Frankly, some of them are likely to get in even without the Grail Quest, since they are starting to be up there in Glory, and have had family members who were RTKs (that smooths the way, blood will tell, people think).