Running a Knighthood Campaign

I'm in a bit of a pinch, here. My fiance wants to play a knight campaign. My first thought: "No problem, you're alignment will start at Lawful Neutral (normally I start everyone at pure neutral) and I'll help you scratch up a Mounted Charger." But now that the campaign has gotten running, I notice that it's essentially me railroad DMing the entire thing. My PCs go to the king, ask what service they can do of his Majesty, and promptly do it. That's the life of a knight. I've added some political intrigue to keep my players excited for the prospect of uncertainty, but I'm not sure how far I can go with the scandalous king and treacherous adviser plotlines.

So, does anyone have ideas for a DM in a knightly campaign? What ways can I encourage a sandbox style of adventuring into a Camelot setting? Are there any RPG books or essays I should be reading on this topic? Does anyone want to share their experiences with this kind of campaign?

Perhaps an idea of the questing knight? The romantic figure of a knight roaming the countryside, instead of serving his lord directly, spreading his ideals about the land. War is always available, but that might railroad them further unless you give them command of something. Finally, you could always introduce jousting and competitions in the game to attract them to certain areas.

Have you seen the Pendragon RPG? It is playing knights in Camelot so it could help with some of the issues you are having.

There are some good options in this kind of campaign. You can have them go out to take down bandits and learn the bandits are really out of work farmers that are being taxed to oblivion. Going this direction you can really steal a lot from Robin Hood and even have that kind of figure that the Knights have are eventually sent out to bring to justice.

How much supernatural is in the campaign? There is plenty that can be done with the occasional mythic creature, the fey, ghosts, and other similar elements.

If you like political conflict you could build to the death of the King and two legitimate heirs that are willing to take the country to civil war to become King. Who do the Knights support? There are all kinds of political problems that can be brought to bear. Maye the King is ordering them on secret missions and a Duke or someone else of power is trying to figure out what they are up to. And why is the King sending them on all these seemingly odd and unrelated missions?

You can have invaders or neighboring countries that stir up problems. Are the evil or just doing things differently? You can have all kinds of culture clashes.

One thing I like to do in this kind of campaign is having very few people and obstacles be black and white.

I like the questing idea.

Here's another: a friend knight has turned rogue (or at least seems to have) and is off doing crazy shenanigans. The PCs have been informed, but the king has not. What do they do?

If you're aiming for something more along the lines of the Arthurian legends, keep in mind those Knights were given a lot of leeway to travel, do as they saw fit, etc. Only once in a while were they really called on to do something specific and the biggest one of those things was the exceedingly broad Quest for the Grail.

Historically, Knights were often landholders (usually beholden to a higher ranking noble, who was sworn to fealty to another higher-ranking noble, eventually leading up to the King) and had responsibilities to go along with that function. The PCs in this format would need to handle things going on in their area, which could be taken on when they choose (bandits raiding a portion of highway, dangerous beasts in the forest, etc). But if you don't want to give them a March or a County, I understand.
The nobles would call on their Knights for a war... and little else. The Knight then answered the call (with their entourage of squires, men-at-arms, etc.) and went back home after the war.

If you're going for the romanticized angle, a roving Knight would pretty much be a peacekeeper, defender of the weak, protector of the helpless, etc. So toss out some hints of a brigand lord or terrible creature terrorizing the people. Play to a sense of honor and duty. The marauding dragon is a classic for a reason.

Only a half an hour and so many wonderful ideas! Thank you, thank you and keep them coming. ^_^

HoboGod said:

So, does anyone have ideas for a DM in a knightly campaign? What ways can I encourage a sandbox style of adventuring into a Camelot setting? Are there any RPG books or essays I should be reading on this topic? Does anyone want to share their experiences with this kind of campaign?

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In The Legend of King Arthur and His Knights after Arthur was married and established his court at Camelot, he bid all the knights of the round table to go forth and do great and heroic deeds. They were all bid to return in twelve months to share their deeds with the king and the court.

So what I would do is just that. Have the player already be a knight and be given that same order. The players can then go about the country side right wrongs, saving damsels, and doing good works in the name of the king.

-Entertainment Tournaments.

-More than one King seeking to secure that Knight's loyalty.

-Moral dilemmas with more than one good, or no good choices.

Do they go lawful good or lawful evil? Do they support a tyrant who is legally lord of the land by right of birth? Or do they deam the tyrant has violated their mandate from heaven to rule the people with a fair and even hand and see it as their duty to depose them and fine a worthy heir?

First, yeah, at the very least, start reading Pendragon threads over on RPG.net (use Google -- it should turn up a bunch). There's a lot of structural things built into that game that you can use.

Secondly, rip off King Arthur. Get sucession issues, the dark side of courtly romance, questing knights, political issues, military issues and religion into the mix.

Finally, one can be loyal to the king and disagree with others who are. And since knights are, at the end of the day, important military forces, this stuff MATTERS. So do they want to support a candidate for knight-commander who wants to aggressively drive back theoretically dangerous neighbors (who may, in fact, have been peaceful for some time)? Do they want to support a more dove-ish commander whose focus is on the spiritual life of the knights and the kingdom? And if the king cannot produce an heir, which relative will the knights support -- because, inevitably, they'll be asked. What if the king secretly wants one of the knights to father his heir? And what if a relative of the king finds out and wants to frame said knight up as an adulterer?

I ran a series of adventures in my Midwood campaign about the trials of several would-be knights, and there was plenty of intrigue (even murder) among the Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral and one secretly Lawful Evil (although she never would have thought of herself that way) knight-aspirants.

When in doubt, of course, just send everyone off on a quest that only one of them can succeed at and which may well cost the lives or the spiritual purity of everyone else. If it's good enough for Mallory, it's good enough for you.