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Chaosium Digest Volume 04 Number 09
Chaosium Digest Volume 4, Number 9 [v.1.0.1]
Date: Sunday, October 24, 1993
Number: 2 of 2
Contents:
Review: Pendragon 4th Edition (Henk Langeveld) PENDRAGON
Review: Pendragon 4th Edition (Paul C Duggan) PENDRAGON
The Adventure of the Sleeping Lord (Eric Rowe) PENDRAGON
Editor's Note:
This digest forms a sort of introduction to the Fourth Edition of
Pendragon, the newest version of Chaosium's Arthurian Role-Playing
Game. Besides two reviews, an adventure is also included. It's a
story of magic, and makes use of the new rules found in Pendragon 4th
Ed.
--------------------
From: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
Subject: Review: Pendragon 4th Edition
System: Pendragon
[Amersfoort, Holland, Oct 6]
This afternoon, when I arrived at home, I was pleasantly surprised to
find a copy of King Arthur Pendragon in the mail, accompanied by the
CoC 1920s Investigators' Companion.
For sheer size, Pendragon is stunning. With 350 pages, this must be
Chaosium's largest product ever, maybe surpassed by Horror on the
Orient Express...
I can only give a cursory listing of the contents. The main chapters
are: Welcome to Pendragon, What Your Character Knows, Character
Generation, Your Family, The Lands, The Peoples, Glory and Ambition,
Women, Game Mechanics, Ideals and Passions, Religions, Your Home,
Wealth, Chivalric Duties, Magician Character Generation, Magic and
Faerie, Scenarios, Characters and Creatures and seven pages of
Appendices.
Lots of artwork from previous editions have been used again (I still
like Lisa Free's Questing Beast).
Most people have wondered about the new addition to the Pendragon
rules: Magic. Some even doubt whether it is even a Good Thing(tm) to
have these rules.
The chapter on Magician Character Generation starts with an
explanation on the game concept of Insight. Very roughly speaking,
this is a combination of the RuneQuest concept of POW and experience,
of which the latter is most important. Only magicians gain Insight,
for actions and honours which would get a POW gain roll in RQ.
Magic is (as always) linked with religion. Magicians are either Pagan
(Enchanter/Druid, Bard, Enchantress, Witch) or Christian (Priest, Nun
or Monk, Friar/Hermit). Character generation starts with discovering
a natural Talent, and continues with finding the Starting Facts,
Training, Initiation, Continued Training, Qualification and
Graduation.
The initiate can gain guidance from a divine patron: the Pagan gods
and Christian saints.
Magic itself requires four components: Life Force, Magic Limit, Time,
and Talent. These are essential. Life Force is like POW and MP in
RuneQuest; it's the "fuel" for magic, drawn from the world around you.
A Magician's Magic Limit is the sum of all five religious traits. Any
magical act takes a certain Time to complete, typically hours. Talent
may have an effect on how easy certain actions are for a specific
magician.
My impression of the magic system is that it attempts to provide more
exact rules for magic than the original GM's fiat in earlier releases,
while still seriously restricting the possibilities of magic, compared
with the hit and run approach in RuneQuest.
Compliments to Greg and Sam.
There's a lot of love in this book.
King Arthur Pendragon,
Epic Roleplaying in Legendary Britain
By Greg Stafford, with Sam Shirley
CHA 2716, ISBN 1-56882-006-2
--------------------
From: Paul C Duggan <pduggan@world.std.com>
Subject: Review: Pendragon Fourth Edition
System: Pendragon
The new fourth edition looks very good. It's 351 pages, with (only)
one fold out insert in the back: a four-color map of Britain south of
Hadrian's Wall.
The cover is a beautiful painting by Stephen King, depicting a Knight
receiving a sword from a Druid, within a stone circle. The sun is
just peeking over the joint between two topstones.
The printing quality of the copy I purchased is not as high as my
third edition, however. Some type is broken, and smudges and
bleed-through shows on a few pages.
This new edition is much longer than the third, with many, but not all
chapters from Knights Adventurous included. Included are Advanced
Character Gehneration, Lands, Women, Religion and additional
Ambitions. The full hunting rules and tournament rules were not
there, but there is detail on some of these in recent adventure
supplements. I missed having a Feast chart.
There are no major game mechanics changes, as far as I can see.
Hawking is now Falconry, but that change was already indicated on more
recent supplements. I was happy to see that the "Your Own Land" solo
now provides some tangible benefit for an excellent harvest. This was
a question I'd raised concering the third edition. I still don't see
the fairness of requiring the (very low) stewardship abilities of the
Knight to avoid a poor harvest.
I also have a minor nit about the introductory adventure (which is the
same as previously) and that is that it's not a half-day's ride to
Imber as stated in the adventure, but at least a full day, if not more
(see the map on p. 231).
Scenarios are identical to those of Third edition, except the new
magic rules (see below) have been integrated where appropriate.
The real excitement of the new system is the rules for magic and
Magician characters. Magic is powerful, but still enigmatic, even
with these rules. Enchanters will not be adventuring with the
knights, as their powers need great preparation (waiting for the right
time and place) and recovery afterwards (weeks on end).
The system begins with Magician character generation. The Magician
seeks Insight, in place of Glory. She (the author's usage) gets this
by being initiated into her tradition, by maintaining sacred sites and
ceremonies and by expending life force by use of the magic talents.
The Magician skill of Sight is useful for (among other things)
identifying what level of Insight a given Magician has.
There are several traditions of Magician that a character can enter,
each with different emphasis, benefits and resposibilities. There are
Pagan Enchanters (Druids), Bards, Enchantresses, Witches, Christian
Priests, Nuns/Monks (non-players, since they are cloistered) and
Friar/Hermits.
Magician generation follows the flow of advanced knight gegeration.
First, a natural magic Talent is determined. The Magician will be
able to use this talent at a bonus in comparison to other, learned
talents. The land and culture of the Magician is then determined, and
initiation occurs. You may gain divine (if Pagan) or saintly (if
Christian) patronage, which gives a bonus to some specific talent, and
perhaps a stricture as well. Training is as per Previous Experience
for Knights. At age 21, you try to qualify for the tradition of
choice; it doesn't look to me like this is going to be very likely in
most cases without additional years of training.
The magic system is composed of four basic concepts: Life Force,
Magic Limit, Time and Talent.
Life Force comes from various sources: ambient forces from the land,
the seasonal cycles, sacrifices and the magacian herself. Two skills,
Geomantic Lore and Celestial lore, assist the Magician in making good
choices of place and time. The amount of life force is quantified in
the number of d20s rolled. Each effect has a suggested life force
cost.
The magician has a limit to how much life force she can use at a given
time, which is based on the religious traits. This can be increased
by high religious traits, critical talent rolls or grouping together.
Magic is time consuming, taking 1d3 hours, or possibly 1d6 minutes at
the expense of a talent roll penalty. Magic also has a hight cost to
the caster, requiring either weeks of sleep afterwards, or weeks of
preparation before hand.
Magic forms come classed into Talents, which function as regular
Pendragon skills. These include things like Glamour (temporary
reality, not illusion), Dispel, Travel, Animal Friend, Blessing, Curse
and others. Differing traditions will have differing starting values
for these, and some are prohibited.
Duration for effects is one hour, standard, and may be increased by
paying more life-force. The number of targets may be likewise
increased. Some effect descriptions seem to assume a more lasting
effect automatically (a blight on crops doesn't vanish after an hour
passes, apparently). Effects can also be placed in Talismans, for
discharge at a later time.
The magic system is sprinkled through with boxed commentary by Morgan
Le Fay explaing the theoretical and religious (Pagan) basis for magic
as presented. The game mechanics section ends with a description of
various magic sites in Britain, the amount of ambient life force (some
of it specific to a particular talent) to be found there and any other
curious effects. This is followed by the chapter on Faerie which was
previously published in Knights Adventurous.
Some sample magician types are provided in the Characters and
creatures section. Morgan Le Fay and Merlin are not detailed, however
(which is probably good).
The magic system looks like it will provide a flexible and interesting
addition to the game system. It will be quite a challenge for a
viable magician player character, but the same is true for women
characters. These rules do help the game-master be a bit less
arbitrary in running magic, and provide a bit of stimulus for
additional creativity. The effect lists are not intended to be
exhaustive, but to give an indication of the types of things that can
be accomplished at various levels of life force.
The problems I see with the magic system are as follows: there is much
chance for failure, as a talent roll must be made, and then life force
dice need to be rolled. Even 10d20 might result in very low numbers.
Also, the skill system mechanics mean that very low level talents will
critical a greater percentage of the time they are successful. This
doesn't seem to be too much of a problem when the only thing happening
is a swing of a sword or hunting an animal, but when channeling great
magical energies it seems a bit out of whack.
But, all in all the system seems to be interesting and fun. Magicians
will be enigmatic creatures, in the background of the plot, waiting
for the planets to be in alignment and searching for ancient sites of
power, working astounding acts in their own time. Or, they might be
sought out long and hard by the Knights, to find a cure for a curse
put upon them.
"Everything was a relic. All the world was a relic. paul +|+
I drew off my boots, which had traveled with me so --|--
far, and threw them into the waves that I might not +|+
walk shod on holy ground" -- Gene Wolfe pduggan@world.std.com
--------------------
From: Eric Rowe <rowe@soda.berkeley.edu>
Subject: The Adventure of the Sleeping Lord
System: Pendragon
Introduction:
This adventure results from the nobility not respecting the power of
the other side and its representatives. The player's lord has managed
to offend a powerful Enchantress. Her vengeance has manifested itself
as a powerful curse upon the lord, which has caused him to fall into a
deep enchanted sleep. He cannot be awakened and the court Enchanter
is not capable enough to reverse the curse. The lord's wife has asked
the knights to save her husband by either getting someone else to
remove the curse or to somehow find and convince the Enchantress to
uncurse her husband.
Gamemaster Information:
The magical rules from Pendragon 4th edition are necessary for this
adventure. It is meant to be run with a combination of several
knights and magic using characters, but can be run in several ways.
All the PCs can be knights accompanied by one or two NPC magicians,
some of the PCs could be magicians or all PCs could be magicians
accompanied by a few knights. When we originally ran this, each
player ran both a knight and a magician and it still managed to work.
Background:
At an important social function, the player's lord made the tragic
mistake of offending a prominent priestess by the name of Aweren. She
abruptly left the event and was not seen for many weeks. Then, the
morning after Samhain, the lord was unable to be awakened. Study by
the local court magician has revealed a powerful curse (Strength is
180). He is convinced that it is the work of Aweren, but is not
talented enough to counteract it. Under the magician's advice, the
lord's wife has asked the knights of the land to set upon a quest to
find either a magician capable of a cure, or Aweren, to force her to
undo her evil work.
Aweren is currently resting in her Sacred Space, a magical cavern on
the coastline. The entrance to her cavern is a small, circular keep
on the edge of the shoreline cliffs. It is guarded by some of her
special Glamour magic and very few people are even aware of its very
existance.
Finding Magicians:
The events of this secion depend primarily upon how many magic using
characters are PCs and how many are NPCs. In general, if the magic
users are PCs, then they should be able to determine the curse is too
powerful for them to overcome without criticalling a magical Blessing
talent roll. They may try, but the odds are not with them and the
effort will exhaust them (this adventure is not meant for extremely
powerful magicians). They may or may not, depending upon their local
knowledge, also realize there is no one else nearby able to remove the
curse. Therefore, they will have to seek Aweren.
If the PCs are all knights, then the hunt for NPC magicians to cure
the lord (or to help find Aweren) should become part of the adventure.
When found, local magicians will examine the lord and reach the same
conclusion as the court magician. Either way, unless there has been a
lucky talent roll (which will just make Aweren even more angry for
later plots), the group will find themselves looking for Aweren.
Finding Aweren:
Through various sources the players should be able to locate Aweren's
keep, but it should not be easy. Intelligent use of skills and spells
should be rewarded with an easier search. The best methods include
talking to people in the area who know her and eventually finding a
town near her keep, where Aweren has often been seen buying supplies.
Some of the townsfolk should know of her keep. In any case, several
short random encounters along the way should occur to give players a
chance to expend their strength and effort uselessly.
The Keep:
The keep is a small, two-story circular stone building. It is perched
precariously upon the cliffside. The wind there constantly blows with
an eerie moan. A narrow trail leads up to the gate. Standing before
the gate stands a large knight in lustrous armor. His shield bears
the coat of arms of the sleeping lord. When approached or questioned,
he will reveal himself to be the lord, relieved of his curse, but
under oath to guard the Enchantress until she has rested from the
effort of his cure. A sight roll or a criticalled recognize will
reveal the lord to be a glamorous copy.
In general, the illusion should be obvious to the magicians along, but
the knights should be making Loyalty Lord rolls. A success means the
knights should do as the lord says for now. It is very likely there
will be emotional conflict between knights and magicians at this
point. The lord will ask his loyal knights to remain with him on
guard duty. If knights do so, the fake lord will not talk more, but
will answer simple questions if pressed. He will neither eat, drink
or sleep as he guards. This should become a problem for loyal knights
at his side. Between thirst and fatigue, as well as the odd behavior
of the lord, the knights should get more loyalty lord rolls as time
goes by with increasing minuses. One every 12 hours, each time with a
cumulative -5, is reasonable.
While players are sorting out just how loyal and stupid they are, the
magicians may have some time to look for the Arewen's cave, whose
presence may be indicated by Geomantic Lore. Unfortunately, there is
no access to it other than the keep. At some point then, the
magicians and knights must fight their way past the fake lord. This
will be easier if they wait until none of them still believe it to be
the real lord. The fake lord has the statistics of a standard
mercenary knight with a sword skill of 15. It is up to the players to
determine whether or not honorable combat is needed in the case of the
glamourous lord (it isn't).
If the magicians try to Dispel the fake lord, he was created by a
Glamour spell of strength 100. The area around the keep has a level
of ambient magic of 4d6, with an additional 2d6 for Dispel and Weather
Control magics.
Aweren:
She will have heard the players coming and will greet them politely,
offering drinks if they so wish. Her cavern is also her Sacred Place,
and is full of magical tools and items for sorcerous use. It has an
ambient magic level of 5d6 with 1d6 bonuses for Protection and
Healing. Yet, the cavern is also warm and homey, giving a feeling of
welcome to visitors unless thay have offended her.
When Aweren is conversed with, players will discover her to be very
crafty; she will not agree easily to demands by players. Threatened
force is even less likely to work. She has powerful friends and she
realizes that only she can reverse the curse, or the knights would not
be here asking. In the discussion, she will describe why the lord
deserves his punishment (5 years sleep), although the players may
already have heard though intrigue and courtesy. Reasonable arguments
will win her over, but under no circumstances will she remove the
curse through a blessing without some payment and an apology.
Even with Aweren's great ability, she will be unable to Bless the lord
until Imbolc, when the magic forces will be appropriate for the task.
This gives her plenty of time to rest while her payment is extracted
by way of service. When Imbolc does come around, she will cast her
spell and should succeed in reaching the 180 total needed. Players
will be asked to bring in sacrificial cows and such to make sure it is
a success. Some of the players will also be required to guard her
keep while she is working and unprotected, for her great pride has not
left her without enemies.
Resolution and beyond:
What was the lord's offense? And how do the players feel about it?
Is either the lord or Aweren left with a grudge? What does Aweren
require from the players in return for her service? The answers to
these questions can lead to a more interesting and morally intriguing
adventure as well as to several others down the line.
What happened when we ran this adventure:
There were many knights and magicians along when the players reached
the keep. At that point, the knights all joined their lord in guard
duty, while the magicians wandered off to discuss knightly stupidity
and look for alternatives. Eventually, all the knights but one
wearied and grew suspicious, and joined the magicians waiting in the
nearby forest. The last knight had criticalled two loyalty lord
rolls, and applied his passion to his energetic, to continue at his
false lord's side. Fortunately for the others, when they slew the
fake lord two days later, the overly loyal knight was so weak that a
squire was able to sit on him to keep him from battle. Aweren was
talked to rationally and several items were recovered for her in
return for removing her curse on the lord.
Aweren
SIZ 12 DEX 13 STR 10
CON 12 APP 19 Age 35
Insight 6,750
Magic Limit 170 *
Personal Life Force 9d6
Magical Protection 85
* Aweren has a magic pendant which increases her natural magic limit
by ten to 180.
Notable Traits: Lustful 16, Energetic 18, Generous 16, Honest 16, Proud 19
Notable Passions: Love (Arianrhod) 18, Hospitality 16
Notable Skills: Geomantic Lore 17, Religion (pagan) 16, Sight 22
Notable Talents: Glamour 20, Heal 16
--------------------
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