Lots going on right now, and not much time to blog about fripperies. However! Considering I’ve mentioned roleplaying in theoretical form more than a few times recently here, I thought I’d mention it again in actual, practical form.
I’ve been lurking on the Brighton Roleplayers Yahoo! Group for a very long time, and had played before with a couple of other list members. I even knew they had a regular meet-up, venue and all. What with all this internal thinking about roleplaying, I figured I should bite the bullet and, y’know, actually go do some roleplaying.
I got a warm welcome, not least thanks to Kelvin, who found the blog here from some trackback I suspect and emailed me to helpfully point out what I already knew, but just hadn’t vocalised. As a result I ended up taking a seat in Kelvin’s off-and-on-again Call of Cthulhu game, which was a whole heap of fun, and very well summarised by Kelvin himself over on the BRPG blog.
Following that game, fellow player Ben asked if I was interested in playing a Pendragon campaign he was planning to run, using the rules from Green Ronin’s new A Song of Ice and Fire roleplaying game.
Pendragon? Talk about your magic word. I’ve wanted to play in a Pendragon campaign for about twenty years, and never quite got there, so I jumped at the chance. Thanks to the Easter weekend we’ve managed to squeeze in two sessions so far, and my only regret is that I already know I won’t be sticking around for the long haul. Perhaps my knight can perish in one glorious final battle… after I secure his bloodline, of course.
Ben has been writing up our sessions and circulating by email, but so far hasn’t posted them anywhere for you to peruse. Suffice to say I’m having a blast. It probably helps that Ben issued me with a lethal archer for the first session, Perin, who can fire off two arrows without blinking and put each of them through the smallest chink in armour from several hundred yards.
He’ll be moving on soon though due to the ravages of old age, but in his place I’m playing Alein, who I’ve described as “Prince George from Black Adder III, as a knight”. Yes: he does have ‘naive’ as a drawback….
It’s all good stuff, and I’m deeply indebted to Ben, Kelvin, Ad, Manoj, Rich and especially Paco for getting my butt back around a gaming table, and making the return so fun. The only sore point? I should have done it six months ago.
More on all this soon, especially on Pendragon itself – the great game I never quite seem to be able to get to play….
#1 by kelvingreen at April 17th, 2009
I’m sure that you want to play “pure” Pendragon, and I can understand that, certainly, but in all honesty, I don’t miss the original ruleset. As long as we still get to do the Winter Phase, which is I think key to the game’s charm, I don’t care what kind of dice we roll.
Speaking of the Winter Phase, it occurred to me earlier today that it could be bolted on to Traveller with some success. Have the adventures be the exciting stuff the ship’s crew do once a month or so, then have the rest of it be starship and resource management, swapping Pendragon‘s jousting, marriage and horse-breeding for trading, exploration, etc. If I wasn’t working on at least three other things right now, I’d start thinking about it!
#2 by Rockjaw at April 17th, 2009
Don’t get me wrong – I like the ASIF system quite a lot. No complaints. I think what I want to get, and won’t here just because of the pressing MOVE TO THE USA OHMIGOD HOLY CRAP (etc) is the ‘full’ experience – the entire sweep of the ‘classic’ campaign, from Uther’s rise to Arthur’s death.
Interesting idea for Traveller. Did we talk about that in person or am I thinking of some blog post I read? I did read something interesting today about using the Leviathan supplement.
Y’know, I really should try and pick up some Traveller rules at some point and give it another go, with the benefit of 20+ years more experience….
#3 by kelvingreen at April 18th, 2009
It may have been over at Jeff’s Gameblog, yes. He was writing about that very supplement, and with Pendragon on the brain, I made a connection between the Winter Phase and what he was talking about. It may have been his blog which pointed me here in the first place, actually. Small world and all that.
I see what you mean about Pendragon now; apologies for the misunderstanding.