What makes Arthurian fantasy its own genre, different from more traditional D&D-ish medieval fantasy? What are some Arthurian-style plots?

[Wolfpack48]

Unfortunately, $25 is a bit pricey for me now.

The link I posted upthread has several free adventures.

 

[The Soloist]

My current solo Perilous Land campaign is about a young knight with a list of wanted criminals. He roams the land looking for them and administer justice. During his travels he encounters supernatural beings. Last quest he visited a tavern haunted by the banshee of a prostitute killed by a patron. Her spirit was linked to her bracelet which he found under her bed. The knight took the bracelet, thus ending the haunting of the tavern. He learned the killer was one of the individuals in his list. The knight asked a smithy to melt the bracelet in his forge, which freed the banshee. He took the oath that he would avenge her. The spirit dissolved forever satisfied her death would not go unpunished. The knight resumed his tracking. The trail leads to the docks. TBC.

 

[aramis erak]

I will probably be running a game in that genre, but when I do a search, all I get is recommendations for novels.

The genre itself has the following tropes:

1) Knights do all the interesting stuff
2) The crown is fair and good, but bad is done in their name
3) Magicians exist, but are not showy, nor are they quick. Their work can be widespread, but it's going to take them time.
4) Religion is a factor of life, and a grounds for war, but the praxis of the religions is "off screen" - The Christians go to mass on Sundays, but we never watch them do so in the spotlight. The Saxons sacrifice to their gods and seek the wiseman's guidance... again, outside the spotlight.
5) Racism of the human type is prevalent, but not universal.
6) Magic Swords exist, but usually have some drawback
7) No viewpoint non-humans. The Faerie are widely varied, and totally inhuman. But they also are casually cruel, even careless, about the playtoys they make of humans. Forces of nature.
8) War is bloody and ever present
9) if Camelot falls to decadence or the Saxons or some other group, Britain returns to the dark ages. Merlin is the cause of it.
10) Merlin is suspected of not being human in several versions; Morgana, Morgan, and Morgawse may or may not be separate people, but it's rumored that they're part demon or part elf.
11) The Chosen of the Fates: there is one being chosen to be the protector of enlightenment. Canonically, this is either Arthur (most takes) or Merlin (in a few modern takes). Or, in I Mordred, Mordred.
12) The Big Quests are both important in setting and also strongly allegorical.
13) the downfall begins in Hubris. Arthur's disinterring the head of Bran, Lancelot's affair with Guenevere, The families of Knights feuding with each other.
14) Pageantry beside poverty...

OK, so the system will probably be Daggerheart. The actual setting will be Ravenloft. Yes, I realize neither of these scream Arthurian. Yes, I realize that my lack of knowledge of the genre isn't helpful. Anyway. I'm planning on running in Nidala/Shadowlands (which is described as Arthurian) and connect some other domains with similar feelings to create a cluster.

So keeping that in mind, what would you recommend. Keep in mind, I can make anything into horror, so you don't need to limit yourself to Arthurian horror ideas. Anything will do.

Arthurian really doesn't present a lot of horror elements.


The best movies for reference: Excalibur, First Knight, Tristan & Isolde (acting's so so, but the visuals are very period). Disney's Sword and the Stone is decent if more fantasy. The Name of the Rose is excellent, if not properly Arthurian, just like T&I.

Arthurian Games: Everyone's already mentioned Pendragon. it's got a great timeline to steal.
Scott Malthouse's Romance of the Perilous Land has a similar, but earlier set, timeline, and a ruleset that looks hybrid of Dragon Warriors and D20.
I, Mordred. Hard to find, but an excellent adaptation of Arthuran to D20; add Noble Knights and Noble Steeds, and you get a decent Arthurian D20 (D&D 3.x) experience.
Chivalry and Sorcery, Wilf Blackhaus. (several publishers). It's grounded in arthurian, but is more properly medieval.

The books of note, of the so-called canon:
Mallory, Sir Thomas, Le Morte d'Artur - get it in a translated edition for easier reading.
de Troyes, Chrétien, The Arthurian Tales – a series of ballads and tales collated.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae — History of the Kings of Britain The real point where Arthurian takes hold.
Nennius, Historia Brittonum – The birth of Arthur as a legend.
unknown., Mabinogion – Old Welsh tales, worked into later canon
Waite, Arthur Edward, The Vulgate Cycle of the Holy Grail, tr of Prose Lancelot (unknown authorship)

Some that Arthurian fans argue about:
Bradley, Marion Zimmer, The Mists of Avalon (and sequels) - Very feminist, Pendragon does include elements, carefully, from it.
White, T.H., The Once and Future King – Filled with anachronisms. Still, Pendragon incorporates elements of it.
Lawhead, Stephen R, The Pendragon Cycle (Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, Grail, Avalon)
Tristan & Yseult. This is not properly arthurian, but tropewise fits, and it's fun. Last I heard, Greg Stafford had not incorporated any of it.
Shakespeare, William, The Most Excellent and Tragical Historie of Arthur, King of Britain discovered in 2010. I personally haven't read it, but I've seen arguments for and against.

One that I love for a quick trip into a more realistic Arthurian tale:
McCaffrey, Anne, Black Horses for the King. This is a short small form factor book, but it's excellent and gritty...

 

[Tonguez]

The important thing about Arthurian Fantasy as opposed to other Fantasy is that Arthurian Fantasy is embedded in Chivalric Morality, which are mythic ideals bound in oaths and duty, then tested by court intrigues, romantic entanglements, mystical visions and moral failures that lead to grand tragedy.

The characters of such fantasy are mythic tropes in their own right, bound in the struggle between honour, loyalty, and temptation. Heroes in Arthurian Fantasy must swear fealty to their Lord, devotion to their Lady, loyalty to the Order and duty to the common man, all of which are tested by the trials of life in a corrupted world.

Knights and Heroes in Arthurian Fantasy are called to quest in order to test their ideals and prove their worthiness and honour. In such quest no encounter is random, they are all “fateful encounters” designed to highlight the heroes true nature.

All done on a backdrop of misty moors, ruined abbeys, enchanted groves, and twisting roads to cursed castles

 

[jian]

Yes, in some ways Arthurian stories are a medieval version of superhero stories - they are often telling the listeners (often knights themselves) how knights ought to behave. How to be humble, obedient, heroic, generous, and absolutely brutal if someone crosses you.

In the Matter of England I’d say there are roughly two types of Arthurian stories: those which advance the Arthur plot (sword in the stone, conquest of Britain, some quick child murdering, meeting Guinevere and Lancelot, Camelot, Galahad, the Holy Grail, Lancelot and Guinevere knock boots, betrayal all round, Camlann and the end) and all the other stories which are basically about one knight having adventures in his travels.

The latter are more interesting and varied and much more like monthly comics rather than the big crossovers like the Holy Grail storyline. The knight may be travelling for any number of reasons (he’s just wandering about; he’s on a quest; he’s travelling to meet his new wife; etc) but he’ll generally encounter some basic medieval superhero tropes such as mysterious ladies, black knights, people with achondroplasia (oh, so many), random tents with signs saying Joust Me, magic disappearing castles, and even the occasional giant or enchantress. All of these will combine to direct the knight into fun and occasionally dolorous and even satirical adventures (see: Gawain and the Lady Ragnell, AKA What Women Want).

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Alright, well my northstar for what is Arthurian is the works of Chrétien de Troyes. The codification of this originally Celtic mythology into English national legend came by way of a mostly French language story cycle, the Matter of Britain, because the actual middle ages tend to work like that. And yes you could go back to the original Celtic mythology, but that would be a lot of work to get beyond Arthurian legend as it is generally recognizeable to people likely to be at your table (unless you are running a game for a folkloric studies department or something).

So, looking at the literary Arthurian "Matter", some core tropes are:
-Protagonists are knights, usually travelling on horseback. No surprise here, but people below the knightly class barely even exist in this literature, and usually only get spotlight time if there is a reason.
-Questing in an episodic, random encounter filled way. This is probably the biggest thing ttrpgs and many of the modern fantasy works they draw on get from the medieval literature, and so there's not much to say about it, except to emphasize that if there is not an emphasis on overland travel, in a world kind of weirdly empty of human habitation, than a golden opportunity to have that rpg trope be 100% accurate to the source material has been missed.
-Quests to rescue a damsel in distress. This literary matter is basically where this trope comes from, and while there are more twists and turns to it usually than our modern sense of the trope may give you (sometimes the hero helps put her in the predicament), if you are ever going to do this trope so incredibly "overdone" that people are now afraid to ever just do it (or do it straight), this is absolutely the time.
-Villains are "Black Knights". The majority of human antagonists are evil knights, and the central antagonist is basically always an evil knight (lords are themselves knights). After all, defeating some mere bandit isn't very heroic, our protagonists need ostensibly equally matched opponents. Who's kidnapping those damsels? Black knights of course. Where is the treasure that needs to be recovered? A castle full of black knights. Often their evil has no stated purpose.
-Chivalry often involves swearing weird oaths. We don't need to get into a whole thing about "chivalry", it's a big topic (I was the TA for a whole college course on the subject), but one way it comes up is that knights are always swearing oaths to do things, sometimes arbitrary or weird things, and they can never ever break them or they're not a true knight. Often such oaths are extracted from their lady fair as a proof of their devotion, other times they are sworn to complete a quest. But the more flavorful part is that, in addition to all the "Black Knights" your protagonists should face, they are also likely to encounter antagonism from some honorable knight who has simply sworn to never let anyone cross the bridge he defends or whatever unless they defeat him in combat. We probably never learn why he swore this strange, seemingly pointless oath, but damned if anyone is getting accross the bridge without playing his game.
-Big tournaments. This literature emerged early in the heyday of tournaments and helped establish what they were. And they serve a narrative function of allowing our protagonist knights to prove their mettle against other knights without them needing to be Black Knights. When the protagonists get to or return to King Arthur's court there darned well better be a tournament.
-Hidden Indenties. Protagonists, and people they meet, are often unwilling to divulge their name and identity until some key moment. Often this is so that they can prove their worth for acts of prowess before being lauded for their illustrious name, but it's also a whole trope beyond that.
-Joyfully Anachronistic. This whole body of literature was founded on imputing knighthood, a concept only a few decades old, on much older figures of legend in long gone times. And generally the setting for all these early medieval characters was, in terms of material culture, the high middle ages when it was written rather than the older periods it took place in. The contemporary Matter of Rome did it one further and made characters from Roman history into medieval knights. The point is that in terms of avoiding anachronism, they don't even try, and while this was partly the limits of people's sense of periods other than their own at the time, it was also a bit of a tongue-in-cheek stylistic move to emphasize these were meant to be works more about contemporary ideals than historical events.

 

[Aldarc]

Pendragon is great, but it is a particular flavor of Arthurian, being generally much more grounded than a lot of actual Arthurian romances. Arthurian romances of the late medieval period have knights doing all sorts of superheroic things and encountering all many of monsters, devils, faeries and angels. Pendragon is better called Excalibur: The RPG, or the T.H. White RPG. Again, it is good but it does one particular flavor of Arthurian legend.

It is too bad that there is only one well known Arthurian game, because it gives the mistaken impression that "Arthurian" is one thing.

I don't think that you are giving Pendragon enough credit. It does its homework. The game leans heavily into the source material. It discusses the different versions of the tale, modern and medieval. However, it acknowledges that Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur is the primary inspiration for Pendragon, and the game book littered with quotes from Le Morte d'Arthur as examples to illustrate the inspiration for the mechanics. So hardly just Excalibur the RPG or T.H. White's Once and Future King.

Lancelot Fumbles an Energetic Roll
Lancelot and his cousin Lionel are adventuring on a very hot day. Riding in armor under the summer sun is hot enough to require an Energetic roll.

So they mounted on their horses, armed at all rights, and rode into a deep forest and so into a deep plain. And then the weather was hot about noon, and Sir Lancelot had great lust to sleep. Then Sir Lionel espied a great apple tree that stood by an hedge, and said, “Brother, yonder is a fair shadow, there may we rest us on our horses.”

“It is well said, fair brother,” said Sir Lancelot, “for this seven year I was not so sleepy as I am now.”

And so they there alighted and tied their horses unto sundry trees, and Sir Lancelot laid him down under an apple tree, and his helm he laid under his head. And Sir Lionel waked while he slept. So Sir Lancelot was asleep passing fast.
—Mallory VI, 1

Lionel receives a check for Energetic; Lancelot receives one for Lazy.

Yeah, I don't want to have to buy an entire game just to get a few tips on what adventures are like. Thanks, though.

Honestly, a big part of what makes Arthurian Romance different is its underpinning emphasis on Christianity, virtue, and chivalry of knightly orders as well as their failings. Adventuring often involves quests where knights are tested in combat and virtue by both the mundane and marvelous. Arthurian fantasy also often features courtly romance, which can create moral dilemmas. The knights are not perfect, and often knights (and their associated families) are rivals with other knights.

 

[CandyLaser]

Shakespeare, William, The Most Excellent and Tragical Historie of Arthur, King of Britain discovered in 2010. I personally haven't read it, but I've seen arguments for and against.

Unless I'm mistaken, this play is real, but is definitely not by Shakespeare; the story of its purported 'discovery' is the plot of the 2011 work of fiction The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips. Phillips wrote the play and included it in his novel.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The important thing about Arthurian Fantasy as opposed to other Fantasy is that Arthurian Fantasy is embedded in Chivalric Morality, which are mythic ideals bound in oaths and duty, then tested by court intrigues, romantic entanglements, mystical visions and moral failures that lead to grand tragedy.

The characters of such fantasy are mythic tropes in their own right, bound in the struggle between honour, loyalty, and temptation. Heroes in Arthurian Fantasy must swear fealty to their Lord, devotion to their Lady, loyalty to the Order and duty to the common man, all of which are tested by the trials of life in a corrupted world.

Knights and Heroes in Arthurian Fantasy are called to quest in order to test their ideals and prove their worthiness and honour. In such quest no encounter is random, they are all “fateful encounters” designed to highlight the heroes true nature.

All done on a backdrop of misty moors, ruined abbeys, enchanted groves, and twisting roads to cursed castles

In the amazing Green Knight movie, there's a weird, awkward sex scene that ends in Gawain being told "you are no true knight," not because of the weird awkward sex, but because, by being in the situation he was in, and behaving the way he did, he had failed to live up to his ideals.

In fact, the whole movie is one long test of Gawain's worth. The film is otherwise somewhat incomprehensible without understanding that.

 

[Laurefindel]

I will probably be running a game in that genre, but when I do a search, all I get is recommendations for novels.

OK, so the system will probably be Daggerheart. The actual setting will be Ravenloft. Yes, I realize neither of these scream Arthurian. Yes, I realize that my lack of knowledge of the genre isn't helpful. Anyway. I'm planning on running in Nidala/Shadowlands (which is described as Arthurian) and connect some other domains with similar feelings to create a cluster.

So keeping that in mind, what would you recommend. Keep in mind, I can make anything into horror, so you don't need to limit yourself to Arthurian horror ideas. Anything will do.

In light of recent threads, I’m no longer sure Arthurian Fantasy and Medieval Fantasy are that estranged. Arthurian fantasy has a romantic vision of the high Middle Ages and chivalry, D&D is pretty much its own sub-genre of high-fantasy; both are part of Medieval Fantasy.

There, I said it!