How Many Players!

Am i the luckiest DM alive or what? Most of the DM's I know struggle to find enough players to get a game off the ground. Yet so far, I have eleven confirmed players for the first session of the expeditionary campaign tomorrow (I set the bar at at ten but elven gives me a comfort zone if someone can't make it at the last minute). But thats not all, I have a confirmed total (so far) of 21 players altogether!

Yes, that's right, you heard me. 21 players in the one campaign! When's the last time anyone ever heard of that? Outside the various RPGA Living Campaigns at any rate? When I sent out all those invites a few weeks ago, I never dreamed for a moment that I'd have so many confirmed players. I rather doubt I'll ever find myself in the situation where all 21 are available for a single session at once, but now my worry is, well, how do I make sure everyone gets a fair turn at the game. Only one way to find out I suppose: suck it and see.

Maybe after a few sessions I could enlist an assistant DM to run other games set on the island when I'm not available. Hmmm. That's worth considering. But how to make it work?

A PC Knight's "Army". Pendragon House Rules

One of the more interesting aspects of character generation in Pendragon is that, as well as your main character, the rules call for determining just how large an "army" the character can call on in time of need. The main part of this army includes other knights belonging to the same family, but not necessarily subordinate to your PC. These knights are divided up by age category and include such things as uncles, cousins, older (bastard) brothers and younger brothers. Then you have a category for other non-knight family males and, finally, a levy category.

This is all well and good, but where are the yeoman who provide military service to the knight in lieu of rent? Or, for that matter, the men-at-arms permanently employed to protect the manor while the knight is away? To fill the niche, I've replaced the "non-knight" category with Yeomen, (who fight as infantry for simplicities sake) and the "young knights" category with "men-at-arms"- family members who have not been knighted, but who are equipped as knights and serve the knight as his permanent force of arms.

Of course, normally these forces would left at home when the knight leaves to go on quests. Should a muster be called, I will rule that either the Yeomen or Men-at-Arms can be left at home. However, bearing in mind that the common-born soldiers who accompany knights to battle are organized into separate companies from the knights themselves, it is unlikely a PC knight would be able to command his own men in battle. Of course, should his lands be raided during the Winter Phase for example, well, that's a different matter. Should that happen, the knight, his men-at-arms and yeomen (and if things were really desperate, his levy) would form into a single unit (or at most two: foot and horse) for purposes of playing out the battle.

Pendragon Family History & Character Generation

Today's been busy. Aside from helping to create four new characters for the OSRIC Expeditionary Campaign (an Illusionist, 2 Fighters and a Cleric) and reviewing or discussing three characters created without my help (a Bard, another Fighter and a second (possibly multi-class) Illusionist, I've done some work on my forthcoming Pendragon Game as well.

Specifically, four squires have gone through the advanced, family-history style character generation to stand ready at the cusp of knighthood in the year 485 AD. We really enjoyed playing through the options together, alternately delighting in the fortunes of our characters fathers' and grandfathers' while mocking and deriding their failures. Going through the process also helped my players (all Pendragon virgins) immerse themselves in the settings detailed back-story and (for those familiar with Arthurian legends) helping them identify which of their normal expectations would apply to the Pendragon setting and which would not.

So without further ado, here are our four would-be hero knights:

Squire Galen the Loyal:

A 21 year old British Christian Squire, Galen's father and grandfather both died gloriously in battle. Galen's relatively glorious family history means he has some bragging rights among the other squires, but not so much that he stands out from the pack in the eyes of Salisbury knights. Noted for his considerable sense of loyalty as well as a truly awe-inspiring hatred of all things Saxon (starting Hate Saxon Passion of 21). Skill in horsemanship runs in the family, Glory: 322

Squire Godrick the Brave:

Another 21 year old British Christian, Godricks grandfather died in battle in the year of his fathers birth. His fathers luck was not much better, having spent many a year idling during uneventful garrison duty while other men fought and died in famous battles. Hates the Saxons almost as much as his friend Galen (Hate Saxon Passion of 19) and shares the family talent for Falconry. Starting Glory 269.

Squire Tywin:

A 21 year old Pagan squire, Tywin's grandfather was one of the longest lived knights of his day, participating in many battles yet rarely in the thick of the fray (as evidenced by low glory roles). A canny old fellow, he outlived all his sons, including Tywins father who died while the squire was still little more than a babe. The old knight imparted his skills in treating wounds to his grandson, along with an intense dislike of the Irish and a mild hatred of the Saxons. (Hatred Irish 8 and Hatred Saxons 15). Starting Glory: 132

Squire Valiance

23 years old, the energetic yet unambitious Squire Valiance was content to manage his older brothers lands as Steward until his unfortunate death from wounds this last winter. The oldest of the squires, Valiance is also the least forceful in voicing his opinions and often allows himself to follow the lead of the other lads. Both his father and grandfather had long, undistinguished careers. Valiance does not seem particularly driven to go against the family tradition in this regard. Valiance seems to have a rather indifferent attitude to most things in life, even the Saxons! (Hatred Saxons 12) Starting Glory: 153

Tomorrow we plan on playing through the introductory scenario in the 5th ed rulebook. It's not a great scenario, even for a free introductory adventure, but it should serve well to teach the newbies the rules and help clean out the cobwebs lingering in my brain. If all goes well, and we have time, we'll play through the remainder of 485 as well.

Persephone NPC's

For the benefit of myself and my players, here is a brief list of the notable NPC's from the Earthshaker Isles shipwreck. I say notable, because all the other NPC's present represent the replacement character pool and will stay unnamed and nebulous until needed to replace a dead PC.

Minerva: Priestess of Hestia and eldest daughter of the King of Mysos, Minerva is a passenger aboard the Persephone, the leader of a trade embessy en route to Zama and (some whisper) potentially an arranged marriage with Prince Hamilcar Zarka, Archon-Prince and Champion of Zama. Minerva is short in stature and dark haired, with a winsome smile that does little to hide the great intelligence and fine humour glittering in her eyes.

 Minerva has spent the vast majority of the journey surrounded by bodyguards, either at the Prow of the ship, where she has studied the motion of the waves with great interest, or taking leisure in her tent erected beneath the mast.

(Note: In this setting being a priestess does not automatically make one a cleric. A priestess is just as likely to be a 0 level character or even belong to another class altogether).

Antipater: Grizzled capatain and ships master of the Persephone, only the great respect in which he is held by his crew has prevented his lynching following the mysterious, clearly god-driven storm that has driven the Persephone onto the rocks of this mysterious island. Indeed, were it not for his firm and steady hand at the rudder, likely no-one would have survived the wreck. Instead, only a few sailors were lost, swept overboard by waves or crushed by snapping oars. Nevertheless, Antipater took a hefty blow to the head when the ship crashed upon the rocky beech and has yet to regain his wits.

Pendragon Campaign

I've been rattling on about the Isle of the Eartshaker campaign for more than a month now, but as I'm sure you've all realised by now I've never been one for limiting myself to a single project at a time. Project number 2 will the Pendragon Great Campaign, played by myself, my dearly beloved and the couple across the street. The same small group, in other words, that played in my last OSRIC campaign. The one that basically met whenever the four of us happened to have a free evening at the same time and no other plans.
So, tomorrow will be a big day character generation wise. I'll be meeting with some folks on Skype to create characters for the OSRIC game and I'll be meeting with the folks from across the way to create characters for both games at once.

I have to be honest about how excited I am by the prospect of getting to run two games at once. Especially given that one is my home brew game world and the other a campaign I've been wanting to get stuck into for years. Luckily, most of the work for Earthshaker is already finished (enough for several months gaming at least, I should think) and the Pendragon Great Campaign can pretty much run itself with the help of a pre-published adventure or two.

Ruminitions on the Isle of the Earthshaker Campagn

The central premise of the Isle of the Earthshaker expeditionary campaign is that the PC's are crew and passengers aboard the Persephone, a galley out of Mysos, that has somehow angered the Earthshaker and been cast onto the shores of a mysterious island (hopefully, the characters will eventually find out why their ship in particular has been so cursed -and whose fault it is. I expect sparks to fly when they do).

I selected an island about 40 miles wide (at it's widest point) by about 35 miles high (at it longest) purely because of the campaign style. With more than 30 invited players expected to attend sessions irregularly (and 15 people who have so far said YES) I was concerned that a player might persuade the group to visit one location, miss a session or two, and come back to find the group suddenly 300miles from where he was expecting. By restricting the size of the island (while having a built-in game-world reason for why so many monstrous types live there) I can make sure that PC's whose players attend more rarely don't wind up an infeasable distance away from the main party between sessions.

At some stage, when the characters find themselves some means of leaving the island ( I plan on having three not-very-accessible means of leaving the main island) I'll add additional islands to the sandbox as well as a means of reaching Zama, the Greyhawk or Waterdeep of my campaign setting. You might think I run the risk of the party using Zama as a jumping off point to travel wherever they like.  A valid concern, except that I know something you don't know (and I'm not telling).

In any case, I'm increasingly looking forward to Monday. I have just a few last minute touches to complete -printing our character sheets, sorting out starting equipment bundles scavenged from the wreck and painting up some appropriately armed and equipped miniatures to represent player characters.

I've also had a few requests for non-cannon or unusual characters and classes from a few players. Given that these very much fit with the themes of the setting I'm quite happily allowing one player to play a Bard and another to take a racial mult-class combination that, while not strictly permitted by the OSRIC rules, certainly fits how the race in question works in the world of Zama. After all, my elves are more like the Malevolent Fey or "Fairfolk" of ancient British Myth than tolkeinesque paragons. It makes sense for such creatures to have a little "glamour" (in the traditional sense of the word) does it not?

Hail to the Geek

Just heard this for the first time. It should be an official gaming anthem.