Just wondering why arthur's stats would ever go down so dramatically over the years in the GM characters book for GPC? By mid life he has 100k glory--that's 100 glory points---most he would ever lose to aging is 4/year???? Unless I misunderstand the rules his stats should have been so high that aging wouldn't have really mattered?

First post also--if this is not in the right place, I apologize in advance.

The impression I received from the Great Pendragon Campaign is that Arthur's decline isn't due to natural aging, but a magical phenomenon, tied to the general decline of Britain as the Wasteland spreads across the land from 540 onwards (with an echo of Boorman's "Excalibur", where Arthur becomes an invalid at the same time that Britain enters a wasteland period - though Boorman attributes it to a dramatic maiming on the night of Mordred's birth rather than making it a gradual decline).

For one thing Arthur as written up in the characters supplement doesn't strictly follow the rules (he's already at 100k glory by the beginning of the Romance period and then doesn't get any more - but it's clear from the details of the sheet that he's not taken all of his glory points at that relatively young age).

Ignoring that for the moment (or handwaving that he has a stock of 'unused' glory points that he gradually spends over the next few decades) he isn't necessarily putting the glory points onto his stats. Just looking at his age 66 sheet I count a minimum of 57 points in the various traits/skills/passions that are >20 and there's probably a bunch of Suspicious checks he's bought off over the years in order to keep his Trusting score at 15.

But like Merlyn says, Arthur's decline is linked to the growth of the wasteland - "the Land and the King are one" - and so it is a magical (ie narrative) effect.

Regards
Luke

I think you'll find 100k glory is 100,000 glory.

He's talking about the glory points that you can use to bump up stats - you get one glory point for every 1000 glory you earn*. So 100k glory = 100,000 glory = 100 glory points.

* - provided you survive; glory points only accrue at the end of the winter phase. This is usually moot of course, but a knight's survival (or not) can turn on such details sometimes.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the timely responses.