King Arthur Pendragon: Epic Role Playing in Legendary Britain (Paperback)

The detail on characters is high and contains some beautiful and unique features: in the Arthurian romances the personality and interactions of those personalities of characters are often considerably more important than the heroic adventures the knights are on. This is true in Pendragon and gives it a unique taste: characters personalities are depicted by thirteen pairs of opposed traits (ie Chaste/Lustful, Valourous/Cowardly, Forgiving/Vengeful and so on). Initially these are fairly neutral (all beginning characters are now ensured to be fairly brave- again to ensure their survival), but will become shaped as the player plays the character. Many situations will occur when these traits are tested, either by roleplaying or by dice rolls (usually in sitations where there is some doubt as to how a given character would behave, or in cases of extreme temptation).

Most impressive are the huge amounts of effort and advice presented to encourage and assist player in thinking like mediaeval knights- their mindset is considerably different to that of modern, free-thinking gamers. Ideas of loyalty, honour, vassalage and obligation are not abstract in this world- they are firm realities and strongly adhered to by all. There is still huge amounts of choice: you don't play a fighter or thief (or whatever) in Pendragon so much as you play a personality. The game is all about character, personality and interaction set upon a backdrop of quests, errantry, adventuring, tournaments and jousts and battles and wars of epic proportions. After a few weeks of play there is no Pendragon character who cannot tell their grandchildren, literally, heroic or humourous adages from their younger days.

The time scale of the game is also unusual: generally one session of the game covers a year in the characters' lives. There may be wars, tournaments, adventures or whatever in that year- the game session covers this. All of these people mature and develop, marry, fall in love (often not with their spouse- marriage is a political contract more than anything, at least until later in Arthur's reign), have children, lose children to nature or to war- this game is one huge soap opera. The campaign (for there is essentially only one) spans almost one hundred years- although the basic game begins some years into this (the full campaign is covered in `The Boy King' and the ancient `Pendragon Campaign')- beginning in the high points of Arthur's reign, featuring all the best known and loved knights, although lacking Merlin who has long since vanished. The Arthurian cycle has been analysed to an almost scholarly level and reproduced to create a unique and wholly interactive legend where the players and gamemaster can create their own addition to the myth-cycle. This does sound pretentious, but the game is truly on that scale should you decide to play it that way.

The illustrations are of a high standard, and atmospheric. The cover is excellent.

On the downside: the book is huge and only scratches the surface of its source: only 20% or so is the game system. The players are given incredible amounts of information with which to enter into the heroic realms of Arthurian myth, but it is also a daunting amount of information and the game still isn't complete, in many ways. It is likely that players will need to read a good twenty or thirty pages of the material to understand the game world enough to play- not vital, but the way of thinking in Pendragon is wholly unique. The referee will need to read copious amounts of Arthurian, and related, literature (at least `Le Morte D'Artur'): but if you are thinking of buying this game you are probably reasonably versed in these wonderful stories anyway.

The game is superficially limiting: you can only play knights (not entirely true- see below). But again without these constrictions the game does not feel `right'- it is not a recreation of Arthurian myth without them, it is A.N. Other roleplaying game. There is a section on integrating female characters, and the possibility of playing female knights- which is not wholly unthinkable given the Celtic origins of the Arthurian cycle: women characters can have considerable opportunities for roleplaying, just not the more traditional adventurous elements. There is also a section on magic which is well thought out and includes rules for playing magicians of various types- although well executed this section really takes away from the essence of the game.

The game-system is elegant and refined, using only 20 sided and 6 sided dice, in essence a stripped down and streamlined version of the usual (percentile) system used by Chaosium.

This game is worth playing just once to experience its wholly unique scope and feel- it is very taxing to both referees and players in its different nature, but is by far the most rewarding roleplaying game I have ever played. Effectively all the elements of a roleplaying game that are usually brushed aside and ignored are the game in Pendragon. An absolute opus of a game that is a true work of love by its author, and will encourage similar passion for the legends it recreates in those who play it. Do not miss this game!