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. NDARY BRITAIN

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I Cir Rntc I S ~ C Ditis Sir Bor- .+ Ganis Cir Dinadan Sir Gawaine Sir Kay the Seneschal Sir ---rak de Gales

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of King Arthur’s court Smite bloodthirsty giants, crush treacher- ous invaders, brave the inysteriou? lands of faerie, and dabble in Celtic magic.

couragc, honesty, fair play, and justice. Anned and armored, you are the law of land, in a life-or-death struggle to join the fellowship of the Round Table.

ncw Celtic magic system. Scour legendary Britain and the lands of fae

To become a knight of the Round Table you must uphold chivalric ideals of

Or, you might instead become a powerful magician using PENDRAGON’S

where and summoni

This book contains everything you need to explore the mysteries and dangers of Arthur’s Britain Its many features include a complete game system, extensive background information covering knighthood, chivalry, the magical traditions, your home and family, the feudal world,a nd chivalric duties. Clear, concise instructions make character generation easy and quick, and many examples are included Other sections teach you how to present a PENDRAGON game session and how to start your first campaign. Exotic monsters, fearsome creatures, and other peoples are described in detail. Statistics for many famous knights and nobles include Arthur, Gawaine, Lancelot, Guenever, Mordred, Merlin, and Morgan le Fay. Many adventures are pro- vided so that you can play immediately

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S tram t i n P s w Kino Arthur P---’-

Pendragon is a roleplaying game wherein you and your friends participate in heroic adventures. One player, the gamemas- ter, presents the story. Everyone else creates knight-characters - the heroes of the tale. Each player verbally responds to the gamemaster’s plot and the actions of the villains, and describes how his or her character reacts.You can face the same dangers that Arthur and Lancelot encountered, but this time you decide your knight’s actions!

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1 Want a FREE CATALOG including all Green Knight publications? Write to

WIZARD’S ATTIC 950-A 56th Stre

or call 1-800-21 3-1493

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i? Oakland CA 94 w z based on the legend

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4TH EDITION

EPIC ROLEPLAYING IN LEGENDARY BRITAIN

King Arthur Pendragon Sir Thomas Mallory

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by Greg Stafford with Sam Shirley

Cover Artist: Stephen King Cover Design: Charlie Krank

Cartography: Darrell Midgette, Carolyn Savoy Artists: Lisa Free, Gud DiZerega, Carolyn

avoy Arnie Swekel, Teanna Byerts, Michael Blu Celtic Border Decorations: Gus DiZerega

4th Edition Layout: Sam Shirley Proofreading: Anne Merritt, Jennifer Starling

GREEN KNIGHT

1999

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Pendragon

Credits

CONTRIBUTORS: Frederic Blayo, Bill Bridges, Heather NBryden, William Dunn, D. Hudson Frew, Sharon Grant, Peter Tamlyn, T. Michael Trout, Anne Vetillard.

SPECIAL THANKS GO to these people, who contributed greatly or a little, but whose impact has affected the game: Stephen Abbot, Don Alaman, Marcie Alaman, Matt Bailey, Mike Beavers, Christopher Beiting, Michael Blinde, Derek Boain, Martin J. Bourne, Heather Bryden, John Camahan,

Yurek Chodak, Morgan Conrad, Suzanne Courteau, Bogdan Dabrowski, Gigi D’ Arn, Philippe Dohr, Bruce Dresselhaus, Christer Edling, Steve Englehart, Jason Fink, Scott Fitz, Sean Fitzpatrick, Lisa A. Free, Don Frew, Rick Geimer, Sharon M. Grant, Marc Grossberg, Steve Hartman,

Keith Herber, Ed Holtz, Jim Hooker, Tony Hughes, Bill Johnson, Sherman Kahn, Ken Kaufer, Katherine Kerr, Bill Kayes, Charlie Krank, Eric Krupa, Mike Koop, Freya Lambides, Peter Larsen, Gary May, Teresa McLean, Harold Moe, Ed Mooring, Ellen Munro, Henri Naccah, Helmut Nikel, Daniel Nolte, Michael North, Carol Parker-Pollock, Gleb Perfiloff, Sandy Petersen, Jon Quaife, Richard A. Rian, Rory Root,

Wolfe Schaaf, Studette Scoflaw, Frank Shewmake, Leigh Skilling, Benjy Sikora, Noah Stafford, Bob Starfire, Andy Tauber, Marcus Thomas, Anne Vetillard, David W. Wilkins, Lynn Willis, Marc Willner, Elizabeth Wolcott, Bill Zurn...and my apologies to any others who were unrecorded.

FOR THIS FOURTH EDITION we owe thanks to Shannon Appel, Les Brooks, Tim Carroll, Peter Corless, Donald Dennis, Steven Kaye, Greg Maples, John Markham, Anne Merritt, Mark Morrison, Eric Rowe, Doug Schnur, Bob Schroeder, Michael Schwartz, Jennifer Starling,

Richard Strong, the Player’s Guild of Central Oklahoma, and the Berkeley Gaming Croup for playtesting and thoughtful comments; and Les Brooks for his occult expertise and constant good advise.

..... This work was prepared using the Penguin Classics edition of Le Morte D ’Arthur edited by Janet Cowen.

The arms of King Arthur’s Knights are based on the 15th-century document known as La forme quon tenoit des tournoys in the collection of Harvard University, attributed to Jacques d ’hagnac , Duc de Menours.

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Welcome to Pendragon

Table of Contents Welcome to Pendragon ......... 4 Which Arthur is This? . . Pendragon Chronology . . What Your Characte The Feudal World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Chivalry ........................... 12 Britain and Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Character Generation ......... 31 Your First Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 First Knight's Character Sheet . . . . . . 35-36 Default Knights ..................... 37 Advanced Character Generation . . . . . . . . 47 Knight's Character Sheet . . 49-50 Your Family ................. 59 Your Father's History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 The Lands ................... 67 Geography of Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Travel in Britain .................... 69 How to Use the Regional Sections . . . . . . 70 Logres ............................ 72

TheNorth ......................... 86

France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Gaul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

The Peoples ................ 102 Cymri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 French ........................... 105 Occitanians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

. 108 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

. 112

Saxons ....................... Glory and Ambitions ......... 115 Sample Glory Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Ambitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Women ..................... 138 Traditional Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Generating Female Characters . . . . . . . . 140 The Role of the. Warrior Woman ...... 142 Woman's Character Sheet . Game Mechanics ............ 146 Basic Concepts . . . . . . . 146

147 149 150

Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Movement ....................... 152 Combat .......................... 157 Skills ............................ 165 Injury and Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 The Winter Phase . . . . . . .... 185

Ideals and Passion ........... 192 Personality Traits ....... Passions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Religions ................... 207 Christianity ....................... 207

Judaism . . . . . . . . . Your Home ................. 223 The County of Salisbury . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Castles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Travel inBritain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Wealth ..................... 238 Standard Price. List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Great City Price. List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Major Investment List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Chivalric Duties ............. 247 . . . . . . . . . . 247

The Hunt . . . . . . . . . .

Romance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Religion .......................... 254 Adventuring ...................... 256 Battle ............................ 256 Battle System ..................... 260 Magician Character Generation 264 Insight ........................... 264 Magic Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Magician Character Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Make Your Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Magic and Faerie ............ 274 Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Enchanted Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2% Magic in Faerie .................... 300 LandsoftheDead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Scenarios ................... 303 Introductory Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 The Knighting Ceremony . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Solos ......................... Adventures .................... Short Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Stories ........................... 328 Characters and Creatures ..... 329 Ordinary Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

. . . . . . . . . 333

Hunted Beasts

Appendices ................. 344 Character Generation Synopsis . . . . . . . . 344 The Winter Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Bibliography ...................... 347 Appendix ......................... 349 Index ............................ 350

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Pendragon

Welcome to Pendragon Join the Story of King Arthur!

ENDRAGON IS UNLIKE any game you have played. It has many revolutionary features which are novel to roleplaying games. It provides an imaginary method for you to participate in the wondrous world of King

Arthur. This game portrays the legendary era of King Arthur

Pendragon, the mythical ruler who unified Britain, repelled the Roman Empire, vanquished the Saxons, and led the invincible brotherhood of heroes called the Round Table. The myth of Arthur’s world has grown over the fourteen centuries of its literary existence, added to by many authors, whose ranks you are about to join.

The game world of King Arthur Pendragon (hereafter known as Pendragon) is a place of high chivalry and glittering armor. In it meet the many interpretations of King Arthur, from the barbaric tribal realm of the ancient Welsh texts to the modern Hollywood glamour. Pendrugon is a literary game, based on the pioneering works of Chretien de Troyes, the later French Vulgate texts, and the culminating work of Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D ’Arthur:

It is a land where jousting and romance are the common sports, and where killing enemies is daily work. In this arena Christian virtues struggle to vanquish savage passions and worldly motives. Characters are clothed in noble court fashons, and equipped with medieval customs and morals.

It is a time of glorious and deliberate anachronisms, brought together because they are of King Arthur, a timeless hero. To start with, we have two chronologies crunched

together. The dates and politics are those of the sixth century, the so-called Dark Ages or Early Middle Ages, when King Arthur really lived. But the customs and fashions are those of the High Middle Ages, when the literature about him was first written. As a result, in this chronology feudalism was instituted by Uther Pendragon circa 480-495, in the style of his contemporary, Clovis of the Franks. Chivalry, which refines the brute ways of knighthood, is introduced by young King Arthur after he ascends to the high kingship in 510. Romance, the art of fine amot is popularized by Queen Guenever after her marriage to Arthur in 5 14.

T h s setting is not fair to people outside Britain, and does not strive for game balance for everyone. The untamed Celts, Saxons, and Picts who defy Arthur’s rule must rely upon their own barbaric cultures, devoid of the anachronistic gifts which feudalism, chivalry, and romance deliver. Their warriors might be addressed as knights, and their chieftains might be called kings, but these enemies of the Pendragon are deluded and are destined to be conquered by him.

Between the kingdoms of men lie the mythical domains of Faerie - great dark woods and bright shining fields unexplored by human foot or thought. Entire kingdoms of immortals lie beyond and within Arthur’s realm. Their cities and castles appear and vanish like mist. Their magical residents, such as the Green Knight, often visit the world of men. In turn, bold human questers enter the Faerie realm to seek the greatest adventures.

From the domains of the faerie comes the magic which enchants Britain in Arthur’s time. Merlin, Morgan le Fay, and the Lady of the Lake are the foremost practitioners of the occult arts, twisting enchantments to their own hidden goals. Ancient rites echo in the challenges of the magical foes found in lonely places, and old folk songs remember other stories with similar prizes. The world of Arthur is sometimes not at all what it seems, and much is yet to be discovered.

What Is Roleplaying? Roleplaying games give the players a way to rationally interact with a fantasy world. In a roleplaying game the players make up an imaginary person called a character: Then they direct the actions of this character as he interacts with other imaginary characters. Through the actions of their imaginary characters the players are like actors in the legendary world. The players, through the actions of their

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Welcome to Pendragon

character-knights, visit and explore the enchanted medieval world of Pendragon.

More advanced characters, such as Picts or Magic-users, are discussed later in the rules.

Most of the game is verbal interchange. Most actions are automatically successful: everyone can walk, talk, ride a horse under calm conditions, and so on. Dice rolls are used to determine whether or not a character succeeded at performing an act which is not automatically successful, such as fighting, leaping his horse over a ditch, or arguing with another person.

The players begin by controling characters who are household knights, bachelor knights, or banneret knights. If someone already knows how to play this game they can probably explain most of the necessary rules in half an hour.

Typical adventures of player characters are to combat robber barons, rescue damsels in distress, hobnob with famous knights at court, hunt fabulous monsters, and cross lances with the likes of Lancelot, Tristram, Gawaine, and Palomides. Knights will travel throughout an enchanted land to see many marvels and curiosities.

To play the game a second task must be undertaken by one player: that of the gamemaster. The gamemaster describes the world and events within it to the players. He controls the non-player characters.

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Pendragon

The gamemaster in a roleplaying game directs the flow of the game while the players control the actions of the characters. As the gamemaster describes what is going on, where they are, and other details of the plot, the players choose actions for their characters, thus cooperating with him in creating the adventure.

The gamemaster oversees the imaginary world, describing it in detail and directing its course. He is not an adversary, but rather the key to the world of Arthurian Britain. He brings both friends and enemies to life for the players. When they have questions or need help, players turn to the gamemaster for answers. Likewise, the gamemaster must ask for opinions from the players to make it an acceptable game.

One-on-one gaming is possible, with one gamemaster and one player. This type of adventure where a single knight travels alone against all odds is very Arthurian and should not be avoided.

Also, solitaire gaming is possible with a single person taking the both roles of gamemaster and player. The rules

will help to guide you through adventures. Remember, however, that it is much more fun with another player, and that the worst problem of solitaire play is when someone cheats.

Pendragon presents an on-going story. It is a campaign roleplaying game in which time progresses, unique events occur, and characters age. If the players play through the whole Arthurian campaign the players’ characters at the end will be the grandchildren of the original characters. Player-characters normally have one big adventure per game year, each of which will last one or more sessions.

The player characters’ knowledge of their world is different from the players’. Players should remember to differentiate between their knowledge and that of their characters. A good gamemaster will accept the players’ assistance and ask for their help when needed. Success in Pendragon comes through cooperation between player characters, and also between players and gamemaster.

Some familiarity with medieval history and customs is useful before play, but not much is needed. Seeing almost any film about knights, or reading almost any book about King Arthur will supply the minimal information needed.

The Unique Features of Pend ragon Some players may be new to this type of game, while many may already be familiar with other roleplaying games. Both should read this section, because Pendragon presents a novel approach to roleplaying, combat, and magic. To enjoy the game at its fullest you must use all the game elements summarized below. The game works best as a totality, and you will fail to give Pendragon a fair try if you start playing the game without understanding the intentions and overall concept of the game. Once you have experienced the game, you can go ahead and change parts you are unhappy with; but try the total package at least once before you judge it.

Knighthood Pendragon is a game about knighthood. It compares and contrasts the beauty and high chivalry of the literary romances with the brutal reality of the Middle Ages. The game tries less to adapt the milieu to the modem mind than to instruct the modern mind to the milieu. It is a realm of paradoxes: inspirational love and festering wounds; communication with elf-kind and brutal plunder; ecstatic spiritual visions and stillborn children. The beauty and inspiration of the legendary world take on depth and meaning within this contrast.

Knights are an elite and privileged part of a working society. This game provides the structure around which to build your personal knight in Arthur’s glorious and squalid age.

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