Pendragon

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Hijack away!

 

[mmadsen]

Wow. That's waaaay too complicated a system for me and my group. Too much book-keeping. Isn't there a simpler way to implement the system? Without so many categories?

If you enjoy D&D's alignment system but want to track character behavior a little more closely (esp. for Paladins and Clerics), you can use just two trait pairs:

Good/Evil
Lawful/Chaotic

Start Good characters at Good 15/Evil 5, Neutral characters at Good 10/Evil 10, and Evil characters at Good 5/Evil 15, and bump their traits up or down depending on how they behave. Do the same with Lawful/Chaotic.

You also didn't clearly say what all the traits and passions were.

The trait pairs in Pendragon are:

Chaste / Lustful
Energetic / Lazy
Forgiving / Vengeful
Generous / Selfish
Honest / Deceitful
Just / Arbitrary
Merciful / Cruel
Modest / Proud
Pious / Worldly
Prudent / Reckless
Temperate / Indulgent
Trusting / Suspicious
Valorous / Cowardly

The passions are open-ended; there isn't a set list. Chivalrous knights though have Loyalty (Lord), Love (Family), Honor, and Hospitality. Those things are all very important (in game) to a chivalrous knight.

 

[Green Knight]

I definitely like the traits. Very nice.

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

...If you enjoy D&D's alignment system but want to track character behavior a little more closely (esp. for Paladins and Clerics), you can use just two trait pairs:

Good/Evil
Lawful/Chaotic

Start Good characters at Good 15/Evil 5, Neutral characters at Good 10/Evil 10, and Evil characters at Good 5/Evil 15, and bump their traits up or down depending on how they behave. Do the same with Lawful/Chaotic...

I like this

Maybe the ranges could be something along the lines of the following...

If a value is greater than 12, the character gains that alignment aspect.

If neither value in an opposed pair is greater than 12, the applicable alignment aspect is considered to be "Neutral".

I chose the values so that Neutral would correspond to the range of 8-12.

This could then be used as a prescriptive/descriptive tool (as you mentioned earlier), or simply as a more tradional descriptive one. Even if only used descriptively for PCs, it could still be useful for helping determine the actions of NPCs when the DM isn't sure what they would be.

Perhaps a chart could be made listing +'s and -'s for various acts--something similar to the honor tables found in many oriental flavored RPGs--rather than simply using the experience check method of Pendragon.

(EDIT: Fixed an inconsistency I noticed while doing the house rules thread.)

 

[Maerdwyn]

I also like this - shall we get to work on fleshing this out over in the House Rules forum?

 

[Ayrk]

Pendragon was great for showing me how to do an adventure without combat.

Nothing like your fully armored and armed knight getting caught up in some courtly intrigue which can't be solved with the thrust of a sword.

Also, as was mentioned above, women seem to flock to Pendragon. Last GenCon I did some demos for Green Knight and I had at least one, often two ladies in each of my games. Something about the romanticism of the Arthurian mythos is my bet.

The Book of Knights is a great way to get a feel for the environment. Its opening little story does more to establish atmosphere than pretty much any game fiction I've read. Even if you have no desire to run a Pendragon game, that little book will fire up your regular D&D game (at least it has mine).

So why are you still reading this? Go out and get the Book of Knights. Go, now!

Erik

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

I also like this - shall we get to work on fleshing this out over in the House Rules forum?

Here you go...

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9077

 

[mmadsen]

Here you go...http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9077

Well done, Thorvald.

 

[mmadsen]

Pendragon was great for showing me how to do an adventure without combat. Nothing like your fully armored and armed knight getting caught up in some courtly intrigue which can't be solved with the thrust of a sword.

Good point, Ayrk. Pendragon adventures bear little resemblance to D&D adventures.

Also, as was mentioned above, women seem to flock to Pendragon. Last GenCon I did some demos for Green Knight and I had at least one, often two ladies in each of my games. Something about the romanticism of the Arthurian mythos is my bet.

Green Knight Publishing better grab this marketing angle and run with! Single men, listen: women flock to Pendragon!

 

[mmadsen]

The thing about Pendragon is that you are playing a knight in an epic campaign. You will NOT live through it. It spans decades and Father Time will eventually catch up with you....So your job is to gain personal glory AND start a noble house so that your progeny can pick up the banner for you.

I like that notion a lot better than Raise Dead.

Then there's the whole low-magic thing where you have very little access to magical healing. Lose half your hit points? Better be prepared to rest a LONG time.

That's not so bad in a system that doesn't rely on ablative hit points quite so much. D&D characters are guaranteed to get hit and take damage; they just have so many hit points an so much healing that they don't mind.

What turned off my friends to it was the fact that you have to be a knight.

I can see wanting some variety over time, but what's wrong with a campaign of knightly deeds of derring-do? Frankly, how many people have played a real knight even once in D&D? (Weird, isn't it?)