If anyone is super bored and into it, i thought together we could all come up with a list of Arthurian knights that were well known, but less important to the literature, so that they could be used in game and if they died they wouldnt really change much ijn the campaign. Any ideas? ???

If anyone is super bored and into it, i thought together we could all come up with a list of Arthurian knights that were well known, but less important to the literature, so that they could be used in game and if they died they wouldnt really change much ijn the campaign. Any ideas? ???


For me, the thing here is to avoid messing up the game by using someone in an inappropriate way. I tend to use the GPC and Morte D'arthur in conjunction and the primary aim is to avoid killing someone off before he has an important role (even a walk on) to play. On this basis I would recommend the Arthurian Companion if it is still around.

(This is from someone who randomly picked a round table knight for Gm purposes form the list of Round Table Knights, and then realised that in the next few sessions he would die - we were playing Blood and Lust - and he was not who I thought he was.

Chris

The companion Avalon Lad mentioned is this (http://www.amazon.com/Arthurian-Companion-Pendragon-6208/dp/1928999131) or this (http://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Companion-Legendary-Camelot/dp/0835936988).
If you can get your hands on a copy of that., it is very handy. Sadly, mine has gone astray.

The companion Avalon Lad mentioned is this (http://www.amazon.com/Arthurian-Companion-Pendragon-6208/dp/1928999131) or this (http://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Companion-Legendary-Camelot/dp/0835936988).
If you can get your hands on a copy of that., it is very handy. Sadly, mine has gone astray.


very cool. I simply hesitate to use Really famous knights because My players somehow has to kill them !! LOL thanx guys. i do make knights up too and then just attach them to verious clans. Ive made up several DeGanis members , for instance so my players could whip them.. hahah

I think there's advice from Greg somewhere that says something like: if a canonical character gets killed off, don't worry about it. Just put the players through their adventure instead.

The vast majority of Arthurian characters really are disposable. If you want to keep the basic storyline of the campaign, you basically only need Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Gawaine, and someone Gawaine considers important to get killed by Lancelot. Most of the characters have very minor effect on the overall story, and can easily be replaced - you could even replace the major characters above (sometimes people play them in such radically different ways, they might as well have been replaced!). Even Gawaine's role could be replaced by one of his brothers, or another character like Bedivere.

(Well, Merlin, too - but I don't think we need to worry about players killing him by accident - he is made of handwavium.)

There are other characters we love (Kay is awesome!), but if they were dead, surrogates could easily take their place. People like Pellinore, Tristram, Lamorak, and so on, have important contributions to the campaign, but it wouldn't be a showstopper if they died early. The campaign is the players campaign, and having surprising deaths of such characters
Even someone as archetypal as Galahad isn't essential - he was a late addition anyway. If he, bors, or Percival died, it's no problem - there could have been others who weren't named, a perfect opportunity for the players to take their place in finding the grail. Or maybe some previously unimportant knight surprises everyone (basically, that's what Percival did in the movie Excalibur and was his only claim to fame there really).

So you can just let players kill kill kill. heh.

Another thing I have dine in the past is outright tell players: "This knight has plot protection" and let them know the players can defeat that knight, and capture him, but they can't kill him regardless of how many hit points they roll. If they try to lock him away forever, the plot will ensure he escapes. But if they do defeat him, they can profit from it - ransom the guy, release him for a favour, or whatever. (And remember, Arthur and Lancelot tend to be very gracious in defeat - they would be impressed by their victor and assuming he treated them well, would most likely want to reward him rather than hold a grudge, and holding great events to honour them and commemorate the event, such as paying for "The tournament of the knight who defeated Lancelot", or whatever.) But at the moment I only do this with Lancelot, Arthur, and Guinevere (though the later shouldn't be necessary!), and Uther earlier on, and also Pellinore just because I'm a softie for him. But the players know all about this ahead of time.

This approach means I can still roll dice out in the open and let them fall where they will, without worrying about what happens.

I think Darren's right, and I think the dynastic nature of Pendragon helps - behind every NPC is the NPC's brother/son/uncle etc. In our campaign a grudge developed between Brastius and one of the players. It ended in a duel after which Brastius caught an infection and died. Turning the page in the GPC Brastius turns up again *panic* but this just gave me the chance to introduce a character in a tournament that looks strangely familiar, but the players couldn't quite pin him down. A few sessions later he is revealed as Brassius, Brastius' son who in turn has a score to settle with the players... Sounds contrived, but so far its worked a treat.

I also allow players some latitude. Because I roll openly, all the above is true. In my current campaign, one of my players is playing a lady knight during Uther. After lots of role-playing, she decided to try a romantic relationship with Madoc. Well, surprise, surprise, the dice fell in her favor and they had a hot and heavy relationship spanning a few years. Their impending marriage and Uther's refusal to name him heir kept everyone on their toes. Finally, they decided to secretly marry and they had a son and daughter before he died on schedule. Then, unbeknown to the player, she found out that in one version, Madoc did have a son and there was prophecy about it.

Bob

If anyone is super bored and into it, i thought together we could all come up with a list of Arthurian knights that were well known, but less important to the literature, so that they could be used in game and if they died they wouldnt really change much ijn the campaign. Any ideas? ???


Start with page http://www.gspendragon.com/lesarmes.pdf

If anyone is super bored and into it, i thought together we could all come up with a list of Arthurian knights that were well known, but less important to the literature, so that they could be used in game and if they died they wouldnt really change much ijn the campaign. Any ideas? ???


Start with page http://www.gspendragon.com/lesarmes.pdf



I gotta learn french man. I just got to!!!! :-[

I have a copy a very obscure Arthur RPG called the Hidden Kingdom that was published in 1988. It has all of the Knights listed as well inaccurate shield patterns.

The King Arthur Companion has all the correct shield patterns.


David Peters

I gotta learn french man. I just got to!!!! :-[


Or just slow down and read what is there, and astonish yourself at how much French you already know!

Someone publish a list of the colors here, eh?

I gotta learn french man. I just got to!!!! :-[


Or just slow down and read what is there, and astonish yourself at how much French you already know!

Someone publish a list of the colors here, eh?



From the Heraldy Society:

http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/articles/blazoning/brief_multilingual_glossary_of_heraldic_terms.htm - where they usefully have the terms in old English and French

Or: Yellow/Gold
Argent: White/Silver
Gules: Red
Sable: Black
Vert: Green
Azure: Blue

Somebody looking to translate the coats of arms could also find it useful to look at the following articles:

http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/ARblazoning.htm

A useful book I would recommend for a start would be Discovering Heraldy - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Discovering-Heraldry-John-P-Brooke-Little/dp/0852634765 -
http://books.google.com/books?id=GzDDnhcuOoIC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zo om=1&l=220

Chris

I've got a copy of "Discovering Heraldry" (I bought it at a local used book store) - now if I can just remember where I shelved it.

One bizarre location, incidentally, for the traditional heraldic devices of King Arthur and his knights. I recently read a Muppets retelling of the story of King Arthur - it contained the usual wacky humor you'd expect (it starts off with somebody talking about the virtues of Excalibur in the style of an "It slices! It dices!" infomercial), but the end-papers gave depictions of the main characters, and Arthur (played by Kermit), Percival (played by Fozzie), Lancelot (played by Gonzo), and Gawain (played by Animal) all bore the familiar coats of arms from the Arthurian Companion. I was pleasantly surprised to find such an off-the-wall treatment taking the time to research the knights of the Round Table's blazons.