Pendragon And Other Settings

To make a long story short, I recently got interested in playing a solo campaign in an Arthurian setting. My first choice was King Arthur Pendragon–but that caused me to reconsider my gaming…

How I Got Where I Am

This all started as I was reading some articles about node-based adventure design. As I dug into that concept, the first thing that came to my mind was the old Metagaming adventure Grail Quest, for The Fantasy Trip. After talking to the always wise Jeff Vandine, I started mapping out the adventure with those node-based principles.

That was fun, and when I finish that I will post the results on this site. Still, it got me thinking about King Arthur, the Round Table and that whole series of stories and myths. I used to love it when I was younger, and this made me realize that I still did.

Of course, that led me to think about an Arthurian campaign, and how I could play that solo. Grail Quest is a great adventure, and could be easily adapted to Blades & Black Magic. Clean and simple.

But then I started thinking about the game King Arthur Pendragon, by Chaosium. I had bought a few of the supplements for that game for ideas and inspiration in the past but had not bought the actual game and tried to play it. So then I did buy it and am now reading through it to see if that is something that I want to do.

So What’s the Problem?

The problem is that I would now have 5 major roleplaying settings I am working on, with varying levels of effort, plus a few other minor ones. Adding yet another one on top of those could be a big distraction from my work on them.

After all, I just added the Vales setting, from the result of the Gygax ’75 Challenge. I was starting to make some progress on that setting, and I am still looking forward to having some good Swords & Sorcery fun there. And that setting was on top of the Middle Lands, Isle of Ealdun and my Far Jewel SF setting!

Don’t get me wrong–I’m having a ton of fun building these worlds and gaming them. Each one of them holds a place in my heart and scratches a particular gaming itch. It’s just there is only so much time in the day (and so much time the Wife will let me spend gaming!

What I Am Going To Do, And Why Should You Care?

Good questions! Well, I think I am going to start by reading through the Pendragon rules and source material. That will take a while in itself. However… I am going on vacation, so this will give me something fun to read. Just reading about Arthur and the legends of that time may scratch my itch completely.

Meanwhile, I will keep working on my Vales setting. For me, mentally, this can be hard to do–getting in the headspace for one setting while thinking about a different one. Still, I have done a lot of work on the Vales, and I want to see it come alive.

A nice benefit of Pendragon is that Chaosium has already done all the heavy lifting of world-building, too. You are just creating adventures and playing in that world, so there may not be that much "work" for me to do. That, too, will let me spend more time on my other settings.

Which brings me to why you should care. Because I am going to publish these settings on this site. The more work I can invest in these settings, the more likely you will see something you like—and play in, too.

And in the end, this is a hobby and supposed to be fun. We all do this because we want to, not because we have to. Letting my gaming bones wander where they may is all part of that fun, too. Hopefully, you will have some fun reading my work as well!

Marko ∞