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I'm considering ways to run an Arthurian fantasy using Pathfinder 2e. Yes, I could (and might still) use Chaosium's excellent "King Arthur Pendragon" system, but my players are all familiar with PF2e, so I'm considering ways to adapt that.
My first thought is that all the players would be knights, and would therefore take some form of a martial class (fighters, barbarians, rogues and champions, mostly) and that I'd keep a close watch on any supernatural abilities. Magic items would be strictly limited and would take the form of either holy relics or artifacts of faerie. In this system, spellcasters would be very few and always NPCs (Merlin, Vivian, Nimue, Morgana, the Fisher King, various mysterious damosels waiting in forests). Magical classes and archetypes would be right out.
There will be no orcs or demons, no archmages or gnolls. Foes will mostly be knights, faeries and the occasional giant or troll.
I'd like to reinforce the basic cultural assumptions of the Arthurian myth while sanding off its worst excesses. And for the hobbyists, my basic text would be Mallory and the French Vulgate (because people are familiar with it), but trying to tie in older Welsh legends, with a healthy dose of the Chaosium RPG and a patina of Boorman's Excalibur. Chivalry, loyalty, kingship, sacrifice and Christianity would be the central themes.
I envision the story unfolding in three chapters with the knights as squires during Arthur's Boy King days, as knights errant during the apogee and as quest knights (possibly the sons of their previous characters?) during the Quest for the Grail and finishing up at the Battle of Camlann.
I've thought a lot of this through, but I want to avail myself of the experience collected here. So. With all that, what house rules would you suggest?
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Are you considering Automatic Bonus Progression?
Seems like it is required if you aren't going to have much in the way of magic.
One decision you have to make is what the technological level will be. Do the knights wear plate mail, chain shirts, what?
I'm not sure that it makes much mechanical difference (apart from gunpowder and the bulwark trait being available), depends if you think the flavour is worth it.
Are you considering Automatic Bonus Progression?
Seems like it is required if you aren't going to have much in the way of magic.
I was sorta thinking that runes (particularly fundamental runes) would be holy relics. Y'know, the fingerbone of St. Anselm, etc.
One decision you have to make is what the technological level will be. Do the knights wear plate mail, chain shirts, what?
I was thinking of allowing only chain mail, scale mail and splint mail during the Boy King years. Then, during the Apogee and Quest Years, I'd introduce all of it.
I was also thinking that I needed to make jousting and fighting from horseback more of a thing. Maybe free Cavalier archetypes from the Apogee onward?
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In addition to APB you may want to consider introducing proficiency without level, depending on how dangerous you want fights to be.
Hmmmm....
Interesting, but maybe not. I don't want a bunch of smelly peasants to be able to take down Sir Gawain.
Don't know. Got a suggestion?
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Out of combat helpers with high Medicine proficiency should be OK.
In combat, Lay on Hands seems OK too, and even,from time to time, a potion of healing reflavored as water from a holy fountain.
And Battle Medicine should work as usual.
Maybe free archetypes with non-obviously magical powers would help. And even those with more mystical powers like the Blessed archetype.
Or give the PCs a free level compared to their opposition. That should reduce the need for healing.
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In the Pendragon RPG, there is virtually no magic. A single healing potion giving 1d6 healing is a valuable artifact.
Furthermore, natural healing (even with the assistance of a chirurgeon of some sort) is agonizingly slow, often requiring months. The Pendragon RPG is designed to have a single adventure each year, with the rest of the year being spent managing the PC knight's estate.
It seems self-evident that a PF2 campaign set in the world of Pendragon would be very different indeed. Even if you removed all magic, and used ABP to avoid a profusion of magic items, you would have a very, very different situation if PCs had access to standard PF2 medicine-based healing.
I'm not saying that it can't be done. Simply that you'll need to have extensive houserules, and that the end result won't look anything like the Pendragon RPG.
One of the things I really liked about Pendragon was the concept of opposed virtues and flaws, and they way they are used to determine PCs' actions. IMHO that would be a hard sell to players used to more free-form RPGs.
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I was also thinking that I needed to make jousting and fighting from horseback more of a thing. Maybe free Cavalier archetypes from the Apogee onward?
It would probably be simpler to just plain give them a free Cavalier archetype, period, and let them spend their class feats on other non-spellcaster archetypes if they wish. Since it would be hard to justify your PCs being anything but human fighters, you will definitely want to find other ways for them to differentiate themselves.
I was also thinking that I needed to make jousting and fighting from horseback more of a thing. Maybe free Cavalier archetypes from the Apogee onward?It would probably be simpler to just plain give them a free Cavalier archetype, period, and let them spend their class feats on other non-spellcaster archetypes if they wish. Since it would be hard to justify your PCs being anything but human fighters, you will definitely want to find other ways for them to differentiate themselves.
If that's not what I said, it's definitely what I meant!
I'm not saying that it can't be done. Simply that you'll need to have extensive houserules, and that the end result won't look anything like the Pendragon RPG.
No, I agree it won't. But if it looks a bit like a scene from "Excalibur", I'll be happy enough.
Will enemies benefit from magic - evil witches, etc?
You don't need to do away with all magic items, you can reflavor the fundamental runes. +1 striking can be an expertwork honed weapon, +2 greater striking can be masterwork, etc. You can reskin holy weapons as blessed weapons.
Arcana and Occultism are going way down in value, maybe replace them with other social skills? WIS-based Honor? CHA-based Chivalry?
If that's not what I said, it's definitely what I meant!I was also thinking that I needed to make jousting and fighting from horseback more of a thing. Maybe free Cavalier archetypes from the Apogee onward?It would probably be simpler to just plain give them a free Cavalier archetype, period, and let them spend their class feats on other non-spellcaster archetypes if they wish. Since it would be hard to justify your PCs being anything but human fighters, you will definitely want to find other ways for them to differentiate themselves.
Well, you did say from the Apogee onward. I was suggesting that you grant the free archetype much earlier. Maybe the Apogee is when it becomes more common among NPCs, but PCs would need it at 2nd level.
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It might be worth checking out this upcoming Kickstarter from Free League. I'd assume the material won't be as timely as you'd like for your game but it seems like something you might be interested in. It's for their game Vaesen and are sourcebooks for mythic Britain and Ireland. I'm a sucker for the art in all their games.
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I'm still reading through Wolves of God. It's a neat book on its own, entertaining to read. But it also contains a big system-agnostic toolkit for adventure and setting generation in 700s Britain.
It.. does have orcs, but those are basically people who spent too long underground in Roman ruins and have grown strange and monstrous.
I'm still reading through Wolves of God. It's a neat book on its own, entertaining to read. But it also contains a big system-agnostic toolkit for adventure and setting generation in 700s Britain.
It.. does have orcs, but those are basically people who spent too long underground in Roman ruins and have grown strange and monstrous.
That looks pretty cool. I'll have to check it out.
Those are both cool resources.
Wolves of God reminds me a little of FVLMINATA
This was really more a mental experiment than something I plan to run.
The next thing I'll -actually- run will probably be The One Ring when Free League finally publishes their new version. I keep flirting with other game ideas, then look at how many I'm running right now and come quickly to my senses.
Still, an Arthurian game is one I've always wanted to try.
I almost wonder if it wouldn't be better as a (gasp!) diceless game.
I ran quite a few roleplaying sessions using scissors/paper/rock with the results being bad/as expected/good on a lose/draw/win result. Ok so I was playing with children, and I had no other resources. Dice are nice but not essential for the hobby.
When I was a kid, my friend's parents confiscated our only dice because Satan, and we drew numbers out of a hat. We also used the hundredths of a second for our stopwatches but that ended because some people were really good at keeping track of the seconds.
If you haven't already, watch King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. It does an incredible job of integrating the King Arthur story with Sword & Sorcery stuff. It also has the best montage sequences I have seen in any movie.
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If you haven't already, watch King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. It does an incredible job of integrating the King Arthur story with Sword & Sorcery stuff. It also has the best montage sequences I have seen in any movie.
Caveat: don't expect it to be a cookie-cutter Arthur movie. It's more like a heist. I love that movie to bits but if you're dead set on a classic knight tale you're going to get the rug pulled out from under you.