From: Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland (henkl@yelm)
Date: Thu 07 Oct 1993 - 04:16:33 EET
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, 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, concluding with seven pages of Appendices.
Lots of artwork from previos 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. (Hey Nick, Orlanth is called Beli Lleu, or Sky-father here - initiates get +10 to Weather Control).
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
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