Pendragon is back and back with a bang!
Sometimes my mind boggles at the way our GM, Nigel, manages to take the massive complicated morass of 'stuff' that has been shoe-horned into this campaign and consistently come up with a game that proves engaging, dramatic and most of all escapes being engulfed by the tome it is drawn from. There has been some critique on 'Story Games' regarding TGPC and whether it is too restrictive regarding the actions of the players. I think this session was a perfect example of how this is simply not the case at all!
Lets recap where we are. It's the winter of 504 and Britain is in turmoil. Saxons, Cornish and Irish are ravaging the country and there is still no real sign of a High King. Nanteleod, a welsh king, has been pushing through Wales and the north, but has not yet tackled the burgeoning Saxon problem. In response to this, we, the ruling knights of Salisbury, have been on a little expansionist push of our own, effectively annexxing Marlborough and casting glances at Oxford and the rest of Rhydychan (or however you spell it!). Our cause is helped by the Countess Rhyd-whatever being an ally and begging our Countess to help out.
Thats the metaplot - what about the actual game?
The main central piece of this game was the love triangle between Sir Aeryn the Younger, the half-fey manipulator Rhiannon and the scheming Sir Merrin. Aeryn loves Rhiannon. Rhiannon loves Aeryn. Merrin has a pact with her father, the King of the Forest Sauvage, to have her hand in marriage. She has no choice but to enter this loveless union. It's magnificent and totally Arthurian! If you want to get even deeper it's almost the antithesis of the themes that have been running through the storyline of my character, Brion - family, fidelity, children, love and faithfulness.
The marriage itself wasn't the centrepiece - it was the scenes around it. The initial rebuff of Aeryn as she broke the news, the cold, almost staged nature of Rhiannon's acceptance of the proposal, Aeryns conspicuous absence from the wedding, his night before the wedding final attempt to win her heart and Merrin's automatically controlling changes to her lifestyle - moving her to his castle, annexing the Tower of Babel and seeking to use his power as Chancellor to legitimise Aeryn's bastard son as his own ward.
You would think that he wanted to die a slow and painful death at the end of Aeryn's sword!
However, thats not all! The spring festival was attacked by British mercenaries hired by the Saxons to confuse us. All very bizarre. However, the battle was again just a ruse behind which a smorgasbord of personal issues played out. Merrin's desperate attempts to protect his bride-to-be at the cost of his own body. Aeryn's son rushing to Merrin's aid and being firmly put in his place. Aeryn himself single handedly taking the gatehouse and the archers, because he IS the best swordsman in the land. Guillame protecting his churchmen and his Countess - a theme that seems to be rising in prominence with him. And Brion? Him and Cullwch tearing through the courtyard back-to-back ('the Irish wrecking machine') and then him rallying the troops and driving the usurpers to their doom. All great stuff, especially as the 'no armour' situation added to the danger and suspense.
And that is just the first part of the year!
I still haven't written about the machinations of the politics that we have to get up to in order to keep our borders even passingly safe or the building programmes that have been undertaken. It doesn't take into account the plotting of battles or the balancing of troop movements or the consideration of treaties. Why? Because in the end thats window dressing to some of the great character displays that are being had in the game.
Character centred, character driven stories with a great deep background and something for everyone? I don't care whether it's labelled 'story' or not - it's a damned fine game!
Neil
9 comments:
It all sounds excellent!
I can't help but feel that the power struggle between the more intelligent Merryn, flexing his secular power and Aeryn, who could find himself backed into a corner, thus falling back on his only true skill: his sword, might end up quite explosive.
Which is good.
This son we are talking about, it's the eleven year old giant? The one that's like a dangerous version of Chunk from the Goonies?
Yup - the pawn in the power plays. Oh thats never going to work out well is it?!
Neil
Not really, because even if it doesn't end badly this generation, it will influence the next, as he's 'the son to be played' next!
I resent being described as "scheming". I havent actually really plotted anything at all.
Marriage to Rhiannon was hardly something I actively sought out but if it has to be then he will does things properly.
Also, I notice no mention of the hero of the day who did the actual saving of the Countess and Robert...
:)
andrew
1. We know you are scheming. Even though you may seem not to be scheming, you were scheming.
2. If you REALLY think that your squire could have taken on those six axe wielding mercenaries single handedly, without armour and walked away to brag, good luck to you! (I'll be honest, the exact details of who was where when were a little vague when I wrote the piece. The frenzy of the battle!)
Neil
Of course he could. After all, he is the foremost Knight (in training) in the land!
I found it to be an interesting game in which I really had to try and get myself in the "head" of the character, which is always an interesting thing to do.
Aeryn is in a horrible situation by his standards. He's finally fallen in love, after many younger years of wildly sowing his oats, and now, just as he's starting to get into his later years where a wife he loves being at his side would be a rather pleasent occurance it's all snatched away...
By a member of his own fellowship!
And thats the sting. Almost anyone else Aeryn would have just found them in a darkened corridor somewhere and cut them down rather savagely, and damn the consequences. But a member of his own loyal band? No. His code of honour prevents him from outright attacking Merrin unless Merrin actively dishonours or attacks him.
So... Aeryn the Younger is in a place he has been before and hated.. That place where the sword doesn't work... that horrible place where a few breif seconds of swordfighting can't solve all his problems.
Thus he becomes spiteful, moody, and withdrawn, retreating to his castle and talking in whispers with men of ill-repute.. hoping that a Saxon solves all these problems for him in the upcoming battles.
Or that Merrin actually gives him an excuse to cut him down (though the bastard keeps being infuriatingly nice to Aeryn's son, so that tactic doesn't seem to be working)
Pendragon *isn't* a story and character driven game?
It could have fooled me :-)
David
Pendragon is very good, and I'm not overly interested in defining it as a story game or not - but, you have to put the story games discussion in context.
Some people are using very specific terms to mean very specific things.
As an example, Dave's post above could well be described as not 'story game' thinking by some people as you are thinking very much in actor stance - thinking through how your character would logically react.
Some people would link the story games intrinsically to author stance and choosing what is the most interesting and best story as a player - and then factoring in how your character accommodates that afterwards.
Not saying either is better, or following all these terms is even that useful - but some of the story games people are coming from very specific places.
Ian
Pendragon is very good, and I'm not overly interested in defining it as a story game or not - but, you have to put the story games discussion in context.
Some people are using very specific terms to mean very specific things.
As an example, Dave's post above could well be described as not 'story game' thinking by some people as you are thinking very much in actor stance - thinking through how your character would logically react.
Some people would link the story games intrinsically to author stance and choosing what is the most interesting and best story as a player - and then factoring in how your character accommodates that afterwards.
Not saying either is better, or following all these terms is even that useful - but some of the story games people are coming from very specific places.
Ian
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