Excalibur d20

[Vigilance]

The first of several preview nuggets I will dropping here along the way, I thought I'd start with the class list for the game.

New Core Classes:

Hermit, a healer both magical and mundane who dislikes the trappings of the church.

Hedge Mage: taps ley lines for magic, primarily illusions and enchantments

Knight: the ultimate mounted warrior with abilities tied to nobility as well

Noble: good skills, good combat, the ability to make those around him better, many abilities tied to nobility

Priest: healing magic as well as political power granted by the church

Robber Baron: a knight turned to banditry, has no honor.

Yeoman: a classic figure of british legend, an outdoorsman, tracker, and deadly archer

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Chuck

 

[Greg K]

Vigilance,

I have a couple of questions.

1) Are you starting with DeTroyes for influence (I am probably wrong, but I think this is who began the version of the Knights of the Round Table that with which most people are familiar) or are you going back to any of the Celtic influences on the stories?

2) Will you be drawing upon the Mists of Avalon for any influence?

3) How are you handling the relationship between members of the Druidic order (bards, ovate/ollave (not quite sure what the difference is, but I have seen both titles used to represent Celtic priests, who acted as priest, diviner, and judge) and Druid)?

4) Are you using the DND bard and druid or are you rewriting them?

Thanks

 

[Vigilance]

This is ridiculous- *triple*

 

[Vigilance]

double

 

[Vigilance]

Vigilance,

I have a couple of questions.

1) Are you starting with DeTroyes for influence (I am probably wrong, but I think this is who began the version of the Knights of the Round Table that with which most people are familiar) or are you going back to any of the Celtic influences on the stories?

Well, Chretian de Troyes did not write about the Round Table as we think of it today, his main interest was in the Grail, and he was the first writer to bring that into the mix. His story (and he was far from finished with what he planned to write at the time of his death) was centered on the grail and the grail castle almost exclusively.

That said, my main influence is Malory's Morte d'Arthur, Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and Bullfinch's Mythology, in that order. The reason I picked these particular sources was because they did not focus on the central characters as much, allowing minor characters to sometimes carry the day and be major players.

I feel like this feel is important for a role playing setting. If everything is done by Lancelot, Arthur, and Merlin, then there is little room for the PCs to feel important. However, Malory operates with a cast of thousands (almost literally), and gives the sense of a living breathing community of men and women.

2) Will you be drawing upon the Mists of Avalon for any influence?

I liked the Mists of Avalon a lot, but am not using it for the game because it, like Once and Future King, are under copyright to the best of my knowledge.

3) How are you handling the relationship between members of the Druidic order (bards, ovate/ollave (not quite sure what the difference is, but I have seen both titles used to represent Celtic priests, who acted as priest, diviner, and judge) and Druid)?

I don't deal with druidic politics overmuch. Those groups seem very much in the background in my source materials, and I like them as sort of shadowy groups. That said, I certainly don't think I do anything that would make than an unworkable campaign choice for any DM. I basically treat them like secret socieities.

4) Are you using the DND bard and druid or are you rewriting them?

For the moment I am using the bard, druid, fighter, barbarian and rogue unchanged, along with the new classes in the game, as my suggested group of core classes.

There has been a lot of discussion among playtesters and the design team about making a new version of the druid, but everyone seems to think the bard is a nice fit with the system and the magic system.

A new version of the druid is still a strong possibility.

Thanks

Thank *you*, all comments and feedback is appreciated, and is taken as seriously as playtest comments when Im writing my games.

Chuck

 

[Vigilance]

Hey guys, Excalibur now has a product page up at rpgobjects you can check out here:

http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?page=pro&product_id=36

You can find out more about the game here, and as always questions and comments are appreciated

Chuck

 

[zenld]

If you haven't checked this out, you should.

I love what I have seen so far.

zen

 

[Hoodooman7s]

Wrong on ley lines.

Actually leylines have been around since the Middle Ages. Plus the Chinese have believed in leylines, which they call dragon nests, for hundreds of years prior.

QUOTE=tetsujin28]Ley lines are completely an early C20th invention of 'fringe archaeology', and have no more basis in reality than kooky reconstructions of druidic ritual or crop circles


Do your research. Don't just read an article and take it for Gospel Truth.

http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/cult_archaeology/ley_lines.html[/url].



-Hoodooman7s

"Reality is perception."

 

[blackshirt5]

Hey, just wanted to bump this and let people know that this is very cool from what I've seen so far(I'm playtesting it for Vigilance); it's definitely evocative of Arthurian Legend, and that is a Good Thing.

Vigilance, I'll get back to ya sometime this week via email with specifics; right now I've been testing the combat classes and stuff, I'm gonna move onto the spell system soon.

 

[Vigilance]

Vigilance, I'll get back to ya sometime this week via email with specifics; right now I've been testing the combat classes and stuff, I'm gonna move onto the spell system soon.

Hey- zen and blackshirt- send me an email next time you get a chance- I have a new version of the player's guide- and a "DM survival guide" of some stuff that will help you guys get your games up and running.

Thanks.

Chuck