What's Pendragon like and what is it suited for?

[Yora]

So Pendragon 6th edition has made it into the top most anticipated new games of the year for the third time in a row. And apparently, this year it's actually coming out.

Pendragon has always been one of the games I knew existed and sounded pretty interesting and fun, but which never turned into actual plans to get some kind of campaign going, and I really don't know anything about the rules. With a new edition coming out, this seems as good a time as there will ever be.

Of course the new edition isn't out yet and so I can't just pick up the book and start reading. So what can you tell me about the game's general characteristics and are there any things that are worth looking up now? (Is 6th edition a new game, or just a new printing of existing rules?)

From what I always understood, the game is about the PCs being Knights of the Round Table, managing their own castles and coming together to go on quests to protect the realm. I'm personally a bit overdone with English fantasy, but the idea of reskinning the whole thing by moving the action from England to the Kingdom of the Burgundians during their struggles with the Saxons, Huns, and Romans. Which I think should be easy enough.

 

[Tonguez]

Ive not read it but there is a Pendragon supplement called Paladin set in the Kingdom of the Franks (lands of Charlemagne)

There is also a Pendragon quick start adventure if you want to try it https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/Pendragon/6th Ed - QuickStart/Pendragon - The Adventure of the Sword Tournament.pdf

the game is skill based with combat being opposed rolls, roll under, and generally straight forward.

The games complexity comes with rolling dice for Traits and Passions which mechanically define and direct a Knights behaviour. Its how the game enforces the Knightly Conduct aspect of the game and thus imposes limits on players if they want to get the end goal of more Honour and Glory for the Winter phase.

I understand 6th Edition has quite a few refinements to the rules and there is a Design Journal blog Pendragon Design Journal #11: Writing the Starter Set, plus download 'The Adventure of the Sword Tournament' Pendragon Quick-Start

 

[GrahamWills]

From what I always understood, the game is about the PCs being Knights of the Round Table, managing their own castles and coming together to go on quests to protect the realm. I'm personally a bit overdone with English fantasy, but the idea of reskinning the whole thing by moving the action from England to the Kingdom of the Burgundians during their struggles with the Saxons, Huns, and Romans. Which I think should be easy enough.

Pendragon is a pretty unique beast. I've mostly been involved with D&D4E, PF2, Fate, 13th Age, CoC and Gumshoe campaigns and it feels very different. Part of that is the slow pacing; a game session typically corresponds to a year of time, so a romance subplot can take years to develop. Players manage families of characters, and their castles/manors are a way to keep families safe and prosperous.

Another way if differs is that life is really cheap. If you go fighting a dragon, one bad roll kills you. In ongoing battles and combats, players will regularly drop out, leaving the other characters to fight, because death is too likely. That sort of behavior is very rare in other, especially fantasy systems.

The Pendragon passions system is also a big difference, and you need to make sure your players are on board with it. It allows huge GM control over character motivation. Last night one of my player-knights say Guenever for the first time, rolled a critical success on their Lust passion, and now has a passion Amor(Guenever) at 26. That means that if I as, a GM, have Guenever ask him to do something as a favor, he rolls a d20 and if it is 26 or under, he will do it, no choice. (If he there are other circumstances that 26 might get reduced). This can be very hard for players who are used to absolute emotional agency for their characters to cope with.

It's also a different form of fantasy; it's not really about magic and spells and other fantasy staples. They exist, sure, but knights tend not to use them as much as be threatened by them. And magic is not formulaic magic; it's the GM making up stuff uniquely each time. As examples, here are the magic swords the part has encountered:

• The Sword in the Stone. Powers: cannot be pulled out except by Arthur.
• Excalibur: Powers: It improves battle skills by +5
• Red Blade of Death: +10 to sword skill, cannot critical, always causes a minimum of 6 points of damage on a successful hit

It's soft magic, soft fantasy; not the mechanically rigorous magic other systems features.

If you are happy with these uncommon system features, I think any vaguely medieval world setting should work fine; Burgundian knights would be a relatively easy transfer.

 

[billd91]

The Pendragon passions system is also a big difference, and you need to make sure your players are on board with it. It allows huge GM control over character motivation. Last night one of my player-knights say Guenever for the first time, rolled a critical success on their Lust passion, and now has a passion Amor(Guenever) at 26. That means that if I as, a GM, have Guenever ask him to do something as a favor, he rolls a d20 and if it is 26 or under, he will do it, no choice. (If he there are other circumstances that 26 might get reduced). This can be very hard for players who are used to absolute emotional agency for their characters to cope with.

Yeah, I think this is one pretty big departure. The game isn't simply about murder hoboing around as an Arthurian knight - it's about Arthurian romance. It's about passion, honor, loyalty, courtly virtue, and so on, as much as questing after grails and other adventures. And if you want to be famous for something - some trait whether valor or honesty or even recklessness - you may, occasionally, be ruled by the trait even if it's sub-optimal for your survival as a PC. The tail can wag the dog.

 

[John Dallman]

It is not a general-purpose fantasy RPG. It's specifically for Arthurian Knights - those are the only type of PC. But it makes that kind of story really sing and dance.

 

[Tonguez]

It is not a general-purpose fantasy RPG. It's specifically for Arthurian Knights - those are the only type of PC. But it makes that kind of story really sing and dance.

Ive seen a homebrew variations for Samurai and another for Klingon Naval Academy cadets, so it can be expanded via the use of different Traits and Passions, but it does cater to a particular type of story focussed on Honour-bound Noble Warriors

 

[Mannahnin]

I've been playing in my first Pendragon campaign for about a year now, online, and can confirm Graham and Bill's comments are accurate.

Deadliness is definitely a feature. You're expected to occasionally need a new character, either your squire or a relative being promoted to PC, or (if you're lucky) having the old PC retire once old age decrements their ability scores enough and they've got an heir who's survived to the age of majority and been knighted.

Passions overruling a character's best interests is also a significant feature. Though once you're into the spirit of it, this is amusing and part of the fun more than frustrating.

 

[Teo Twawki]

Decades back, the husband played in a long-running Pendragon campaign with a motley sort of folk from the SCA.

More recently--few years back--we reskinned the setting to the Slavic lands during the reign of the Ottoman Empire.

An excellent system that perhaps gets overlooked because of how perfectly it fits its own setting. We've lifted the balance of Traits for a number of other games ranging from sword & sandals Babylonia to Nephilim to using it for background character creation in such seemingly incongruous games like Delta Green (marking the Before image of an Agent; and showing how far the Agent fell to their After image).

 

[John Dallman]

An excellent system that perhaps gets overlooked because of how perfectly it fits its own setting. We've lifted the balance of Traits for a number of other games ranging from sword & sandals Babylonia to Nephilim . . .

A friend used it for Glorantha, in a game he called PenDragon Pass.

 

[Tonguez]

A friend used it for Glorantha, in a game he called PenDragon Pass.

What did the magic system look like in that?
Did it use the 4th efition version or something else?