With four new players out of five, two of whom are new to Pendragon, and entirely new characters, my campaign based in Leicester has been accorded a second life. Our cast of player-characters is as follows:



• Sir Arthmael de Vannetais (Cymric Christian): father died young but grandfather is a banneret and still quite hale, Chivalric and Religious;

• Sir Galinus of St, Albans (Roman Christian): eldest son of a vassal knight, father went missing just this past year, Chivalric and Religious;

• Sir Kynan of Salisbury (Cymric Christian): vassal knight, holds a large manor near Amesbury, Chivalric;

• Sir Rion of Wuerensis (Cymric Pagan): household knight, Chivalric;

• Brand of Leicester (Cymric Christian): squire due to be knighted at the Battle of St. Albans, Chivalric.



As is traditional, I began with a hunt. The player-knights were extraordinarily successful, thanks to squire Brand's superb Hunting skill, bagging a large fallowbuck and a hart of 32 by mid-day. The day was not yet over, however, as spoor of a greater unicorn(!) was found. Sirs Galinus, Arthmael and Rion opted to pursue... not to kill it, but to merely witness first-hand this most miraculous creature. Sirs Arthmael and Rion caught the barest glimpse of it in the distance, but Sir Galinus actually saw it clearly across a small clearing... a distance such that a courser might cross in a round at full gallop.

After the hunt came a feast, at which Sir Galinus flirted chastely with Lady Cordelia, the ward of the host, Sir Rion drunk the other household knights under the table, and Sir Kynan left the feast with not one but four lovely ladies. Sir Arthmael spent the evening, and the following two weeks, recuperating from injuries he sustained helping take the hart (which were exacerbated by his squire's fumbled First Aid). He luckily found himself in the tender, capable care of Lady Nerys, the host's youngest daughter. Brand enjoyed a nice little tryst with Sioned, a Pagan lady-in-waiting.

A few weeks later was Easter court at Leicester. There was a huge scandal as Sir Kynan was accused of dallying with and impregnating the wife of another knight, Sir Swyno. It turned out that the lady was the daughter of Sir Cibno, the knight who killed Sir Kynan's father in a personal feud, and she had thought to accuse him when she had in fact been impregnated by her lover. The events were the result of Whimsy Cards played by the other players, though the particular nuances were my own. Sir Galinus and Sir Arthmael requested and received permission to woo the Ladies Cordelia and Nerys, respectively.

And all this in a single four-hour game session! :)

Hi, Michael.

The time/events ratio sounds pretty darn good, I admit.

Did people seem pretty engaged? What did you learn from this session?

With the exception of one player, who was exhausted from taking care of his grandson all day, everyone seemed very engaged. They enjoyed the mayhem they could "inflict" upon one another (and themselves) using the Whimsy Cards, but also enjoyed the structure behind them as well. I did not have much time to prepare, between our character creation session and this first night of play, but it was nice to be able to weave in several minor character details into the story. It's those little details which often turn out to fuel the most memorable storylines. :)