My group just finished 495!!! ;D What an amazing year. I won't go into detail so that I don't provide any spoilers. I will say this though, I had a player or two come out with tons of glory. One of them was the leader of the batallion and only lost 1 knight and survived the year. He has basically set himself up nicely for the next year. One of the knights had to spend some time in the hospital, and one knight didn't make it through the rest of the year (I wonder why ::) ).

I have some questions about the Anarchy period. I know that there are a lot of decisions that I have to make as GM. I'm wondering how have other people approached this. Did you just let lose and give total control to the players, let them do what they want? How did you handle the saxons (how often do raids occur, how long before they raid, etc.). Knights that earn themselves an officer position, say Marshall or a Castellanship, are they "retired" for the purposes of just free adventuring?

Thanks for all the advise/help/info.

Hi Fuzzy,
I am at exactly the same stage but just on a break for sometime :-\ :-

My plans:
Have a small internal civil war with the players having to bring to heel several rogue knights of Salisbury.

Have that Roman chap return, not sure why yet or as a good or bad guy.

Once there loyalty is proven they would be given a role on the counsel to help protect Salisbury and be involved in most key decisions.

During this period I would expect their characters to either die or gain positions of power, thereby going into retirement. Maybe to be dusted off for big battles and the odd bit of roleplay.

The relations are totally open ended, several knights said they would like to become sell-swords and support Brastias. I also wouldn’t be too surprised if they don’t try and overthrow the countess.

I don’t intend to plan to much as I have no idea who they are going to side with or offend.

My 2 cents,

BigSteveUK

In our game, I eventually gave our players pretty much free reign to take the campaign where they wanted to - this is a great opportunity for them to make a name for themselves, grab themselves some land, play the political game. As they grew in power I still let them play (in fact one is currently married to the Countess Ellen) - maybe not always so realistic, but great fun. Felt that it gave them a chance to develop heirs who would have the 'right' and chance to interact with the new High King when he appears...

What would I have done differently? The Saxons were too wimpy! I would have hit them harder and more often to really bring home the threat that they faced... (looks for evil GM icon, but can't find one...)

I also took advantage of the Forest Sauvage scenarios which gave a great counterpart throughout the Period to the battles and politicking that went on.

You're going to have a blast!

Remember that the anarchy is a two way street. As the Knights try and carve out a piece for themselves others will be trying to do so at their expense as well. i think this is best summoned up by the moral degeneracy of the period and the over all pettiness and spite. If you are looking for vignette ideas I recommend picking up Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks. Open anywhere in the book, read a couple of pages and your bound to find something of interest. Even degenerating into manor on manor squabbles as grudges are purged or started is not outside the realm of possibility. The people will be looking for strength for protection and not necessarily justice. The worse you make it the better it contrasts with the period of the king.

During Anarchy Period the player's world collapsed to Salisbury and a civil war developed in the county. Essentially there was the pro-Robert the Child Count party and the anti-Robert party. I created a map of Salisbury to show each manor, created the key npc rebels, and played out a terrific series of small clashes and a couple of sieges. One of my players (pro-Robert) ended up as Marshall of Salisbury as a result of his valor and leadership.

It was great, because all along the players had to help the brave Countess Ellen fend off Saxons with intrigue and bribes.

D

Great stuff.

Guess I'll share some of the background for my game. One of my players probably wont' be able to play any more. His knight was pretty much the meat shield of the group. The others gained glory by hanging around him. So I was already planning on making his knight the Marshall. The others have expressed an interest in trying to carve out their own kingdom, but once they heard that the meat shield was pledging loyalty to Countess Ellen, the rest followed quickly.

I'm already planning on giving them a chance to go to Rydychan.

The saxons will raid, still working on how much/often ::)

As many of you already know, my PKs are from Silchester, so they haven't been embroiled as deeply in the politics of survival against the Saxons. We're in 498 right now, and I'm building up some internal politics, thanks to the actions of the PKs:

1. They just finished escorting Merlin to Dorchester and had to defeat some of Ulfius' knights who were sent to kill the archdruid by the Bishop of Silchester (the PKs just learned that the duke admits he may have inadvertently authorized that action when he expressed his exasperation with Merlin aloud), and

2. One of the PKs (a poor knight who has required the help of his fellow knights to maintain his station during the anarchy) has fallen in love with Ulfius' youngest daughter (a "plain jane" girl who is about to turn 21 and is still without a husband). Needless to say, the duke (and others) feel Sir Aeddan is completely unworthy of the duke's daughter, especially since he's Cymric and she's Roman.

Needless to say, we're going to have some interesting politics over the next few years... ;D

Sorry about bringing up this old post, but I think my question fits the topic.

My players are very eager to expand their holdings. They want to take over another person's manor (specifically those taken by the Saxons of Wessex, but they are not opposed to manors in neighbouring counties). The anarchy period adventure: "Land Grab" gives a framework for such an event, but has few details.

Land is a valuable resource and Manors are very profitable. I know if I make this too easy, everyone of my PKs will want to try it (and keep doing it, year after year). But if I make it too hard/costly, they'll ask why anyone would ever try such a thing (and my understanding was it happened a lot during the anarchy period).

How have others run this event/adventure?

One thing to keep in mind is that the farther away the lands are, the harder they will be to hold on to. Especially if the manor is deep within enemy territory.

So whatever your players manage to grab onto, they will need to work to hold onto it. Just how much work would depend on when and where the manor is, who the neighbors are, an how well the PCs get along with them.

The real rewards of land grabbing are long term. So while it might be a bother and maybe not worth it for the knights, it might prove quite a boon to their sons.

I lryryoved running the anarchy period. It doesn't hurt that my favourite time frame in European history is the Norman/Angevin years, particularly the reign of Stephen of Blois and, hence, the Anarchy in England. I modeled my Anarchy period rather closely to the actual historical period, even introducing the character of Geoffrey de Mandeville. One of my pks was a vassal and, rather early on, had his lands raided by a more powerful neighbor and then wrongly escheated. The campaign really took off from there with the pk in question having quite a passion of Hate (Salisbury Duke). Anyway, good luck and lot's of fun!

Actually, my PCs led a major war campaign against Wessex at one point, and managed to succeed, killing Cerdic and driving Cynric off, and scraping the barrel for squires to turn into knights to fill manors.

This took some doing though; defeating Cerdic means doing the impossible. And if I'm not mistaken, Cerdic is a Vengeful bastard. So if you're trying to just pinch some land off the Saxons, they'll turn back and lay the smacketh down on your PCs' homeland. Seriously, that will not succeed; actually taking the fight to Cerdic is a victory-or-death proposition.

Trying to pinch off another neighbor...well, the thing is, you really can't just take "a manor." You need to be able to take it and hold it, which usually means taking the castle the manor is attached to. You need to be able to kill the local knight and anyone the other lord means to send to retake it.

In practice, if you're going to try this, you're making an enemy for life out of a count-level lord. Are your players ready to handle this?

I partly agree with Ramidel.

Though, there are opportunities to take manors. Look for lands that are constantly defending themselves from other raiders (on the edge of saxon territory).
Then find outlying and remote manors on the edge (opposite edge preferably) and take them. Though the lord's other enemies will likely have their eyes on those manors too.

If you kill the manors lord and ensure there are no heirs, you may be able to negotiate a feudal agreement with the overlord: "I have this manor now, and you can try to take it off me. Chances are, you'll lose knights in the process. But you are facing raids and invasions by saxons - you need all the knights you can get, and a strong sword like mine will be a blessing."
That could work.

Also, there are several manors and estates that fall to wilderness, get raided and ruined by saxons, and genuinely get taken over by robber knights. The overlords of Logres are suffering and can't defend all their manors. Look for such lands, and take them back - do it in the name of justice, and demand to keep it afterwards.

Also, there are several manors and estates that fall to wilderness, get raided and ruined by saxons, and genuinely get taken over by robber knights. The overlords of Logres are suffering and can't defend all their manors. Look for such lands, and take them back - do it in the name of justice, and demand to keep it afterwards.

Great point [Ka-ching!]. Not to many lords are going to be upset if some knight shows up with the taxes from a manor that was lost years ago to Saxons, bandits, robber knights, a giant, or even a redcap. An extra 2L income, plus a battle seasoned vassal knight. What's not to like.

The lord might be forced to complain if the old lord of the knight has any family still living. They still have a claim to the land, and they can agitate for it - and that's good adventure material.