Thank you. It was an interesting exercise in that I wrote the answers in an afternoon shortly after your post and then came back to them several days later and re-read them with a view to explaining my thought process. This took much, much longer than throwing together the answers. Firearms in fantasy worlds? Shots fired…. I’m not a fan of ‘advanced technology’ in medieval fantasy worlds but, then again, I think that fantastical versions of the 16th and 17th centuries make for excellent settings and black powder weapons fit right in.
Pendragon was a weird one for me. I think it first appeared in the mid-1980s at a time when all I knew of was AD&D and CoC. Later, I heard about the renowned campaign for it but, at the same time, learned that it was based on Mallory's Arthurian tales. While I like the Mort d'Arthur as a piece of late medieval literature and find Corman's film of Excalibur to be visually interesting, I never quite got on with the concept of an RPG set in sub-Roman Britain wearing the 15th century as a skin-suit. I cannot reasonably justify this prejudice other than to say I find the whole concept weirdly meta.
I did finally pick up what was then the newest edition (5th?) a few years ago and flipped through it. It was... OK, I guess. It made annoying design choices which said, on the one hand, 'This is the rule for X' only then to introduce dozens of instances in which 'The rule for X' was changed or varied. I thought the broad concept of passions was good but, as a friend of mine says - 'Don't make me do things in an RPG with mechanics if I want to do them in play anyway'. If you tell me the thrust of a game is to explore the ethical dilemmas of a caste of chivalric knights, I can take it from there without the need for checks and tables and charts.
Thank you. It was an interesting exercise in that I wrote the answers in an afternoon shortly after your post and then came back to them several days later and re-read them with a view to explaining my thought process. This took much, much longer than throwing together the answers. Firearms in fantasy worlds? Shots fired…. I’m not a fan of ‘advanced technology’ in medieval fantasy worlds but, then again, I think that fantastical versions of the 16th and 17th centuries make for excellent settings and black powder weapons fit right in.
Great answers! Really enjoy your knowledge. Have you ever played Pendragon? (I think it’s from Chaoasium) If so, did you like it?
Thank you.
Pendragon was a weird one for me. I think it first appeared in the mid-1980s at a time when all I knew of was AD&D and CoC. Later, I heard about the renowned campaign for it but, at the same time, learned that it was based on Mallory's Arthurian tales. While I like the Mort d'Arthur as a piece of late medieval literature and find Corman's film of Excalibur to be visually interesting, I never quite got on with the concept of an RPG set in sub-Roman Britain wearing the 15th century as a skin-suit. I cannot reasonably justify this prejudice other than to say I find the whole concept weirdly meta.
I did finally pick up what was then the newest edition (5th?) a few years ago and flipped through it. It was... OK, I guess. It made annoying design choices which said, on the one hand, 'This is the rule for X' only then to introduce dozens of instances in which 'The rule for X' was changed or varied. I thought the broad concept of passions was good but, as a friend of mine says - 'Don't make me do things in an RPG with mechanics if I want to do them in play anyway'. If you tell me the thrust of a game is to explore the ethical dilemmas of a caste of chivalric knights, I can take it from there without the need for checks and tables and charts.