Saxons appear to recognise the customs of hospitality (in the Saxons! book) but do they extend it to visiting Knights and would a Lord of Logres extend it to visiting Saxons?

In particular would the host, Saxon or Cymric, demand that his visitors hand over their weapons?

Yeah, Saxons do recognize Hospitality. It is very important if you live in a inhospitable climate, too.

The lord wouldn't expect guests to hand over their weapons, but he is not necessarily bound to extend hospitality to enemies. If the Lord decides to treat the visitors as guests, then they are bound by Hospitality, and the guests would be as well. So everybody knows that pulling out a weapon and burying it into the skull of an enemy would be a terrible breech of Hospitality and that the offender would be cursed and punished for the misdeed.

Still, if someone in the room has an applicable Hate passion, they might violate Hospiltailty, despite the consequences. There are a couple of examples of this in the legends. Balin of the Two Swords and the Fisher King being the most obvious examples.

Still, if someone in the room has an applicable Hate passion, they might violate Hospiltailty, despite the consequences. There are a couple of examples of this in the legends. Balin of the Two Swords and the Fisher King being the most obvious examples.


I've dealt with such events before when running a previous campaign through the anarchy period.

The way I dealt with meetings with Saxons was:
Fail Hate (Saxons): Hatred in control, no problems
Pass Hate (Saxons) & Pass Hospitality: Knight full of hatred but kept in check by hospitality, the Knight either excuses himself or remains seething and unable to contribute much to any discussion.
Pass Hate (Saxons) & Fail Hospitality: Knight looses control and has an outburst, if critically pass the hate roll then this may be a violent outburst.

Does that seem a reasonable way to play the passions out?

Reasonable.

I wouldn't necessarily have characters roll for their Hate unless something triggered it or they had high (16+) values. Then I'd use an opposed roll of Hate vs. Hospitality to see what they do. Possibly with a modifier (even someone with a high Hate passion can count, and figure out that starting a fight in a Saxon hall where you are outnumbered 10 to 1, fifty miles away from home, could get you killed).

But people with High Hate score problem won't be asking to stay as guests in the first place, or offer hospitality to someone they hate. Ifyour PCs have Hate (Saxons) at a high rating, why would they be looking to spend the night in some Saxon hall anyway? They hate those guys. And vice versa.

But duty, can be a real pain. I suppose a PK could get sent into hostile territory on some sort of mission for his Leige Lord. Maybe even something diplomatic. But then they could at least try to use Loyalty (Lord) to control their hatred.

Oh yes I should have clarified that this is always for people with a Hate of 16+.

And while they might never choose themselves to visit or host a Saxon as you say either their Lord might send them or a Saxon ambassador might come calling and their Lord accept them as guests.

Duty vs. passions is always an interesting balance.

Loyalty (Lord) does give another way to govern what might happen if a hate passes and a hospitality fails so thanks for that.