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Chaosium Digest Volume 03 Number 10
Chaosium Digest Volume 3, Number 10
Date: Sunday, August 22, 1993
Number: 3 of 3
Contents:
Review: Robin Hood (Heidi Kaye) PENDRAGON
Review: Lionheart (Heidi Kaye) PENDRAGON
Review: Chivalry & Sorcerery (Shannon Appel) PENDRAGON
Review: Hidden Kingdom (Shannon Appel) PENDRAGON
Review: Arthurian Board Games (Shannon Appel) PENDRAGON
Editor's Note:
None of the products reviewed in this Digest are Chaosium products.
Rather, this digest contains reviews, thoughts and comments on
Arthurian products produced by other companies. In these supplements,
you might find fresh ideas for your own Pendragon campaigns.
Shannon
--------------------
From: Heidi Kaye [via <P.A.Snow@gdr.bath.ac.uk>]
Subject: REVIEW: Robin Hood
System: Pendragon
Robin Hood: The Role Playing Campaign
ICE, 160pg, $15
This volume shows that well-written adventure ideas and
thoroughly-researched historical background are infinitely malleable
to a variety of games systems. Graham Staplehurst wrote this I.C.E.
Supplement for use under Rolemaster, MERP, or Fantasy Hero, but Robin
Hood never caught on as a game in itself as it deserved. The material
here offers a wealth of ideas for use in Pendragon, despite one's
initial reaction that there seems little connection between an outlaw
band and a group of knights.
The 160 pages of Robin Hood are packed with information. The main
body of the supplement contains historical material on the kings of
England from William the Conqueror to John Lackland, including a
150-year timeline, and a detailed description of life in Norman
England. Political intrigue, warring factions, and dastardly deeds
abound in this history, ready to be transferred to inter-kingdom
friction and the acts of robber knights in Arthur's time. The social
history discusses such areas as government, armies, religion, feudal
society, magic and folklore, explaining the mutual obligations of
peasants, knights, nobles, and Kings and contemporary attitudes.
In the longer second section of the book, campaign ideas are
creatively set out. Small encounters, such as one with a pilgrim met
on the road, are developed into adventure nuggets by presenting four
or five possible twists to the identity of the pilgrim or his reasons
for travelling: is he a nobleman renouncing his titles, a thief, a
spy, a magician or faerie being, a man doomed to eternal wandering?
These are great examples of making a standard idea into something
really meaty. Locations such as abbeys and castles are detailed, with
helpful maps and pictures.
Finally, in the two campaign settings offered for Robin Hood, the
Forest of Dean (more political/historical) and Robin i'Hood (more
Michael Praed/mystical), ten adventures are included. The five Forest
of Dean ones are most adaptable to Pendragon, oddly enough, because
they include some good intrigue and religious/magical items, whereas
the five Robin i'Hood adventures tend to offer only outlaw plots like
kidnaps and gaolbreaks, unsuitable for knights, except for the fifth,
"The Cloister and the Cage."
Overall, the presentation quality is very high. Although it is
printed with two columns per page in fairly small typescript, the text
is clear and readable. The quality of the artwork and maps is good,
including the cover art. The bibliography of additional sources
offers further historical reading and includes Ellis Peters'
Chronicles of Brother Caedfael for background and adventure ideas.
This supplement would make a valuable addition to any Pendragon GM's
campaign material, helping her create the atmosphere of the medieval
world. It is engagingly and thoughtfully written, and has even got me
interested in running a Robin Hood campaign! Copies are increasingly
hard to find, so grab one if you can.
--------------------
From: Heidi Kaye [via <P.A.Snow@gdr.bath.ac.uk>]
Subject: REVIEW: Lionheart
System: Pendragon
Lionheart
Colmbia Games, 112pg, ~$20
This is a rather different product, written by Edwin King for Columbia
Publications, who produced Harn. Originally intended to be part of a
roleplaying system with its own rules and character generation, it
ended up as a historical sourcebook with no internal mention of
roleplaying at all. It aims to present an account of Britain in the
1190s, from a contemporary point of view. The first 24 of its 112
pages is made up of a history of Britain from the Romans to Richard
the Lionheart in 1190. It covers much of the same material as Robin
Hood on the English kings, and includes brief histories of Ireland and
Wales, and a bit more on Scotland. This book concentrates on
political history, leaving out the social history and more general
background of Robin Hood's text.
The main body of Lionheart is made up of the Index, a general
encyclopedia of geographical, historical, biographical, social,
cultural, and political information on the period. Here may be found
entries on "scutage," "serf," "Skenfrith Castle," and "Stigand,
Archbishop." To some extent this might make up for the absence of
text explaining in one place the rules of feudal duty, castle
building, or religious attitudes or persons, but this piecemeal
structure is not as helpful. Unless you are looking for an
explanation of a specific term about taxation or already know to look
up the Archbishop, you would not come across them as you would in a
discussion of the general topics.
In addition, most of the information about the people and places in
the Index are pretty drily historical: e. g., "FIANNA, A legendary
band of heroic warriors who protect the shores of Ireland from
invasion." This kind of description cries out for elaboration - give
us the legend! Who were these warriors meant to be, did they use any
magic to defend Ireland, what feats did they perform? Similarly,
entries on locations tend to say who built the castle or who lives
there, but little else. There is a real paucity of information on
local folklore, and no religious magic or miracles are recounted.
The presentation of the text and its illustrations are very good,
apart from the annoying lack of a table of contents for the historical
section. A fold-out colour map of the British Isles in 1190, showing
the existing roads and main towns, is included. No adventure ideas
are presented, but as a historical supplement, this book could still
provide a Pendragon GM with plenty of background material to develop
campaign atmosphere. On its own, Lionheart would be worth
recommending to anyone willing to wade through its awkward
presentation, because it is full of interesting detail; however, in
comparison to I.C.E.'s Robin Hood, it unfortunately does not hold up.
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: REVIEW: Chivalry & Sorcerery
System: Pendragon
Chivalry & Sorcery Second Edition
Fantasy Games Unlimited, boxed, out of print
C&S Sourcebook Second Edition
Fantasy Games Unlimited, 72 pg, our of print
C&S Swords & Sorcerers Second Edition
Fantasy Games Unlimited, 36 pg, out of print
Chivalry & Sourcebook is not a historical game in the same way that
Robin Hood and Lionheart are. Rather, in C&S, both historical and
geographical background are almost non-existant. However, rules and
backgrounds for many individual elements of medieval europe are spread
throughout the books, and this is what actually makes them useful for
the Pendragon gamemaster.
The C&S boxed set of rules is probably the least inspiring of all of
the material. One 56 pg book is taken up entirely by the basic rules,
which are next to useless for Pendragon, while another 80 pg book is
taken up by magic and monsters. The only thing I found somewhat
interesting in the latter was a few pages on alchemy.
Only the book on combat provides any great amount of information for a
Pendragon gamemaster. There, you'll find the chivalric code, the
making of a knight, a royal bureacracy, notes on feudalism, low and
high justice, modes of address, notes on armor and castles, the clergy
and tournaments. Overall, at least half of the 56 pg. provides
interesting information.
In sum, I wouldn't rate the C&S base set as too terribly useful for
the Pendragon gamemaster. There is some interesting stuff, even some
stuff beyond what's in Pendragon, but it just isn't enough to make
buying the whole set worthwhile, unless you see it relatively cheap.
I'd put the C&S sourcebook into about the same category. There are
some very interesting sections on heraldic arms, hunts and feudal
trade and commerce, but again it forms a small part of the book, maybe
a quarter in this case. The information that's there is very dense,
definitely full of information, but there's a lot of less useful stuff
as well.
The last C&S book that I have is by and far the most useful. Swords &
Sorcerers is 36 pages long, and nearly every one of those pages is
good. About half of the book is about Nordic Barbarians, while the
other half is about Celtish & Pictish Barbarians as well as the Nomads
of the Steppes. Foes of this type are very Arthurian, and the
information provided, while includes notes about the societies,
economies and magic is just great. If you're intrigued by the thought
of using any of these peoples in your Pendragon game, Swords &
Sorcerers is a excellent supplement to get. It's about 10 years out
of print, but I've actually still seen new copies available every once
in a while.
Overall, the C&S supplements showed a lot of promise. Unfortunately,
in most cases, the rules system filled the books, pushing the
background material out. If you're willing to wade through this,
you'll probably find something of use in each of the supplements.
Otherwise, Swords & Sorcerers is probably the only real winner amoung
the supplements I looked at.
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: REVIEW: Hidden Kingdom
System: Pendragon
Hidden Kingdom
New Rules Inc, 338 digest-sized pgs, out of print
One of the first Arthurian role-playing games, Hidden Kingdom was
published in 1983, two years before Pendragon. All told, it's a
somewhat odd beast. It was published in a loose-leaf digest sized
binder, not really the best size for putting on the shelf. In
addition, it seems to mix elements of war games and role-playing
games. I was never quite sure what to make of the whole thing.
As a source for Pendragon, Hidden Kingdom is somewhat useful. I've
included notes on some of the stuff I found good here.
There are about forty pages of random encounters. Several paragraphs
are given for each, and although not every one is an adventure, they
do all suggest an adventure, sometimes several.
About ten pages cover tournaments, including some short notes on a
sample tournament. Fun to read, and probably somewhat useful as well.
And then, there are over a hundred pages of appendix. There are pages
and pages of knights from the Arthurian stories, ladies and queens, a
listing of the kingdoms and provincse of England, several pages on
Heraldry (including a glossary of Heraldric Terms) and finally a
bibliography. This is all very dry information, not the kind that
will suggest stories or adventures, but definitely the kind of
reference that is useful.
Hidden Kingdom definitely shows its age. However, there still is a
lot of useful information in it. If you'd like some random tables to
scan, to help get a night's adventuring going, or would appreciate the
easy reference provided by the appendix, I'd suggest picking up a copy
if you can find one.
Shannon
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Review: Arthurian Board Games
System: Pendragon
Shortly after our group started playing Pendragon, I began to collect
Arthurian board games. Although only peripherally related to
Pendragon itself, I thought that some thoughts and comments on the
various Arthurian board games might be useful to others on the list.
So, I've included those (short) thoughts here:
KING ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS (Chaosium, 1978): King Arthur's Knights is a
game of quests. In it, knights wander around Britain (on a beautiful
map) fighting foes, romancing ladies and collecting treasures. It's a
very simple game, but still an enjoyable one. I'd probably rate it my
favorite Arthurian board game. It's really unfortunate that it's been
out of print for so long. I'd love a new boxed version of it with
nice components.
EXCALIBUR (Wotan, 199?): A much more accessible game, Excalibur is
definitely a war game. In it, knights enter a fertile valley deep in
Arthurian Britain. There, they begin to war against each other until
someone controls half of the countryside. When that occurs, the
victorious knight is named Warden of Newly Conquered Territories. In
the game, there is a nice mix of economics and combat, which is a
definite plus that makes the game quite interesting. The only
downside of Excalibur is that it takes a long time to play. I don't
think we've ever finished the game (but we've always found it very
enjoyable as we played).
KING ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE (Wotan, 199?): The last
game that I review here is a sort of combination of the previous two.
It begins as a questing game, with knights looking for lost artifacts.
Then, when Arthur dies, those knights begin fighting across Britain
for the right to sit upon the throne. The questing part of the game
was quite fun, but the war somewhat boring. Perhaps it was just
because the combined time for the two parts of the game was too long;
I vaguelly remember the sun coming up as we played. The game
definitely has a lot of fun features, including character sheets for
each player, so that they can mark their own knight's rise to power.
However, it sort of fell apart when the Civil War began, so I'm not
convinced that it's ultimately viable without major changes...
If anyone else has played any enjoyable Arthurian board games, I'd
love to hear of them. Since I first played Pendragon, it's rapidly
become one of my favorite genres.
Shannon
--------------------
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