Started playing Pendragon

New town. New life. New friends. All mixed in with old friends and old habits (which die hard).

Had a great evening on Monday, playing Pendragon for the first time. Can’t believe I’ve never actually gotten around to playing it before now. It’s pretty epic. It’s pretty well-designed and it’s pretty detailed. I like it.

In short, Pendragon is set to mythical Britain at the end of the 9th century. The campaign spans 80 some years game time, and your character isn’t expected to survive through the whole ordeal. Oh, btw your character is a bona fide knight. As such, he is expected to act valiantly, die gloriously and most certainly, he is expected to produce heirs, as an insurance for the future. These heirs are your fallbacks when your initial character kicks the bucket, and they inherit (to some extent) your loot (mansions, glory, fealties, etc).

There’s a fair amount of bookkeeping between the sessions, which is reminiscient of Ars Magica. The bookkeeping concerns your mansion(s) and its household. However, system is much more “streamlined” (= you roll on tables, make a few choices, and follow a pretty straightforward procedure) than Ars Magica.

Real time, it will take about 3-5 years to play through a campaign at our present pace (and that’s pretty optimistic). Looking forward to it:)