Comments on: Chatty’s Initial Thoughts on 4e

By: First impressions of reading 4e « Incredible Vehicle

First impressions of reading 4e « Incredible Vehicle — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:39:37 +0000

[...] said, I’m inclined to believe that this is worth the price of admission— as Chatty pointed out, it should be fairly simple to compile a list of treasure tables, and I’m sure [...]

By: GAZZA

GAZZA — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:45:34 +0000

Correct. In Pendragon your fame - or infamy - is more or less your “level”, and it’s inheritable. You’re rewarded in this way even for being Cowardly - what matters is that your behaviour is extreme, rather than whether it is extreme in a “good way”.

I’m oversimplifying here considerably, of course - there are GREATER rewards for being a “Chivalrous Knight” (which means having a total of 80 or more in the 6 traits that are traditionally considered virtuous) - but that’s the gist of it.

By: Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:10:16 +0000

That’s why I said “like”
I don’t know how I’d work the bonuses since I haven’t even read the pendragon rules, but you could have a predefined set of aspects that the players had to pick from, each part of an opposing set. (You obviously wouldn’t pick one of each set, and you would have to be able to gain and lose aspects to show character changes akin to moving away from 10/10 in pendragon)

By: Tommi

Tommi — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:12:50 +0000

Michael; might work. I’d be inclined to use something native to the game, and barring such, points that are rerolls. Minimal changes are easier to explain.

Tommis last blog post..Process of play

By: Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:30:54 +0000

Tommi-
Maybe something like Spirit of the Century’s Aspects?

Michael Phillipss last blog post..Geneology, what’s that

By: Graham

Graham — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:59:21 +0000

@Tommi -

That would be a great hack.

By: shadow145

shadow145 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:17:21 +0000

Pendragon! I love that system. I think the mechanics are somewhat elegant. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve played though. But hearing you guys talk about it makes me want to play again.

Pendragon is good for roleplaying Arthurian Fantasy. There’s nothing like a tourney and joust, with some courtly intrigue. Although I have never had the opportunity to play with anything but knights.

The traits could be considered restrictive, but the idea in Arthurian fantasy is that your character is trying to be over-the-top in the Chivalrous traits. Glory is the greatest thing you can achieve, more than gold or power. If you are facing a dragon to save the princess, the game rewards you for challenging it. Hopefully, a GM has this in mind and will give you a way out when you get toasted, but it’s not about success or failure, it’s about the act. The lady is coming onto you, but you resist her charms. You could easily get away with a tryst, and it would benefit you, but Chivalry demands that you resist. So you have to make your check (I believe this would be a chastity check, as this is the action you are initiating). If your character has a history of being chaste, it will be easier for him to resist her beauty. But if your character fails, then he gives in to his emotions, he cannot resist her, and hilarity hopefully ensues when the queen’s other lover catches you.

I forget if the GM can just outright declare changes to your traits in the middle of the game based on character actions. I know they can change in between in the winter phase, I just don’t remember if they can change during.

The system would not work in a D&D type setting, at least not as written. D&D is a game about killing monsters and taking their stuff, and accumulating power. The goals of Pendragon are entirely different. I really don’t think we can compare them.

Sometimes you want an apple, and sometimes you want a cookie.

I really want to play some Pendragon now.

shadow145s last blog post..long time no see…

By: Tommi

Tommi — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:16:54 +0000

Graham, I’m not particularly defending Pendragon here, just saying that the rules in questions can be used for good.

(My Pendragon hack would remove the mandatory actions and replace them with significant rewards for following the trait in circumstances where the other road is attractive.)

Tommis last blog post..Process of play

By: Graham

Graham — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:43:44 +0000

From the sounds of it, though, Tommi, Pendragon is not built on a philosophy of balance, since it rewards higher scores in traits (and thus imbalance in the traits) with what GAZZA called “Glory”.

I have no problem with using a system like this to describe character behaviour and tendency, but as you said, I’d like to leave a character’s decisions up to the players, and trust them to act in accordance with their character. This, of course, does not mean that they will do the same thing every time just because they did it before.

By: Tommi

Tommi — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:26:13 +0000

Graham - are the character’s emotions and drvies not part of the fiction?

I’d say that if characters making choices regarding the situations is central to the game, it should be left to the players, generally speaking. Now, if the game is built around a philosophy of balance and staying true to that philosophy is central, a rule like Pendragon’s could work very well.

Tommis last blog post..Process of play