The Trouble with Pendragon

From: s.lucek_at_ic.ac.uk
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 97 14:49:21 +0100


 The Trouble with Pendragon
- ----------------------------

I agree with Michael Cule's points about difficulties with the Pendragon System.

In my Pendragon campaign, skills are getting very high. This is largely through the use of glory points, so in future campaigns, I will say that skills can only ever increase above 20 through experience. I think that should damp down skill levels. If necessary I might say that for every five points of skill above 20 you increase the critical chance by 1, but I do not think this would be necessary. I like really low level campaigns so generally characters start so young that it takes a long time for them to get good.

I would add a caveat with glory, that if I were running my campaign again, I would award glory far more evenly amongst the party, as now we have had a run away situation where one character gains glory, gets powerful, gains even more glory. Now I think that characters who are in it over their heads, but try valiantly, should get as much as the big hero who spectacularly succeeds. After all, it is really brave to stay around when over matched!

I have not had the same problem with inspiration that Michel Cule has had. I have only allow inspiration rolls in very exceptional circumstances (e.g. when characters leaders/family are killed or captured). Thus cases of inspiration have been very rare, very memorable and extremely effective role playing. A berserk Sir Catianus would send a shiver down any referee's spine!

I suspect I run Traits rather differently from Michel Cule, from what I piece together from his e-mails (so here follows a straw man argument!). I like my players to use them as a rough framework for deciding how a character, who is different from them, might behave. Used this way they are really a spectacular innovation for roleplaying. It makes it much easier to play, with some consistency, someone different from yourself. Very rarely are they used to determine behaviour through dice rolls, and then almost always the player should be the one who decides whether to role. I only 'force' roles if I feel the roleplaying situation demands it. I hate being ruled by mindless dice, and I HATE, LOATHE and DETEST the published scenarios which involve quests in faery where traits were tested by dice roll not player decision. I would (and have) run faery where the right and wrong decision is not obvious. Each choice is valid, and the plot develops according to which path is chosen. Naturally, the results depend on the path taken, but I avoid fail this and you are out situations. Also for faery / hero quest adventure, any trait, passion (perhaps even skill?) used should automatically increase, though this is a recent idea of mine, and I have not tested it.

Having said all that (in case I am accused by any of my players reading this) there have been times where I have used trait roles to push the play in some direction which I think will be especially fun or rewarding. I have rather picked on one characters temperance, resulting with some of the most memorable moments of the campaign. There is a story involving a bag of nuts...

Again I am sorry for this discussion of Pendragon on the Glorantha digest. Since no-one complained last time I did this (though it is probably just that my name inspires copious amounts of down paging!) perhaps I will get away with it again.

Stephen Lucek.


End of Glorantha Digest V4 #557


WWW at http://rider.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html

Powered by hypermail