[RPG]: The Great Pendragon Campaign, reviewed by Bobo (5/4)

[RPGnet Reviews]

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13006.phtml

Bobo's Summary:

An excellent, expensive, very well made and very big supplement/campaign book for Pendragon 5th ed. from White Wolf's Arthaus imprint. My opinion: Should be made available together with the rulebook in one single massive volume.

Go to the full review (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13006.phtml) for more information.

[C.W.Richeson]

Great review, Bobo!

This sounds like the sort of product that could keep a person entertained for a very long time. How easy was this to read? It sounds like there are lots of little fiction and historical bits.

[(un)reason]

Great review, Bobo!
Seconded. It hits just the right balance between informative and entertaining.
This sounds like the sort of product that could keep a person entertained for a very long time. Indeed. Given it covers an 80 year period, and you generaly play one scenario a year in the game, usualy taking 1-4 sessions per scenario, you could easily fill around 2-5 years of weekly sessions if you played through it at a leisurely pace. How easy was this to read? It sounds like there are lots of little fiction and historical bits. Its not bad, although I do find myself having to franticly scan to find important little bits of information. (such as exactly when merlin disappears. That was amazingly tricky to pinpoint) There isn't actualy that much fiction. Most of it is presented as game data, plus quotes from NPC's, and small excerpts of the books that the game is drawn from. There are some very detailed accounts of the way things will go in if the PC's don't interfere, (and this is generally quite tricky to do in the scripted parts of the game. ) such as battles and court interactions.

[Wood]

Sounds like fun.

One thought re. single largest adventure ever for an RPG: I believe that Beyond the Mountains of Madness (for Call of Cthulhu) just trumps it in page count, by about five or six pages.

[Bobo]

Sounds like fun.

One thought re. single largest adventure ever for an RPG: I believe that Beyond the Mountains of Madness (for Call of Cthulhu) just trumps it in page count, by about five or six pages.

Curse you, Chaosium! ;)
But then, Ptolus is also a serious contender in a way.

Regarding the amounts of little fiction bits and historical chuncs: the mix is very good, and there is hardly any superfluous stuff in it. Only a few instances of really important events turning into a kind of long cut scene, but the rest is mostly turned into adventures, adventure seeds and events the players can get involved in.

[The Last Conformist]

I'm not quite clear what character writeups are lacking. Friendly NPCs? Readymade PCs?

Also, a nit: at the very least, spell Queen Guinevere's name consistently.

[Jackob]

Full writeups were supposed to be available in a free PDF supplement, but in the end this turned out to be quite a big file carrying a small pricetag of $5 or thereabouts.

Where can I get this?

[Talassa]

Great Review, Bobo!

I found it also very entertaining and informative. And light, given the page count. ;)

Thanks.

João

[(un)reason]

Where can I get this?

Drivethru, of course. (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=15749)

[Bobo]

I'm not quite clear what character writeups are lacking. Friendly NPCs? Readymade PCs?

Also, a nit: at the very least, spell Queen Guinevere's name consistently.

Oh... well, it's just in keeping with the literature. With that insane width of spelling variations for names, I thought I... ah, hell. Tried to keep it constant, I swear.

For the character thing: WW did release the writeups for the first (Uther) period as a free PDF; you only have to pay for the other 9 chapters' characters. (Hmpf).
The free PDF can be downloaded here (http://www.white-wolf.com/downloads.php?category_id=82).

To give an idea of what's missing, the free PDF contains stats for Uther, Merlin, Prtince Madoc Ap Uther, Uther's bodyguard Brastias, Earl Roderick, Duke Gorlois, Duchess Ygraine, and King Aelle.

Oh joy! I see there's an index in PDF-format as well! Apparently it's been up since last year, and I never knew.
Hell, that might have tipped it over to 5/5.

(Edit: the nice colour map from the rulebook is also available here for free (http://www.white-wolf.com/downloads.php?category_id=30))

[Beckett]

Nice review. You hit some of the same points I'm bringing up in my review, but with a different style than what I'm using.

Although, now that I'm not rushing to be the first GPC reviewer, I might hold off on it in favor of updating my Actual Play being run from the book.

[Lev Lafayette]

Excellent review. I've been thinking of picking this supplement up for some months now. I think this may be the review that pushes me over that edge.

[cj.23]

One question: I noted there was a book of knights available on pdf, but Greg said something about expanded character gen rules to support non-Logres Salisbury knights? Has that ever been released? Also one actual play comment; the excellent map of the terrain, and the map of the roads, are, well different maps. Is there a map anywhere yet which combines both?

Great review - thanks!
cj x

[Brand_Robins]

Oh joy! I see there's an index in PDF-format as well! Apparently it's been up since last year, and I never knew.
Hell, that might have tipped it over to 5/5.


Link please?

[cj.23]

Link please?

http://www.white-wolf.com/pendragon/

I noticed it while browing there...

cj x

[Bobo]

Link please?

Same as the one above: http://www.white-wolf.com/downloads.php?category_id=82

[The Last Conformist]

For the character thing: WW did release the writeups for the first (Uther) period as a free PDF; you only have to pay for the other 9 chapters' characters. (Hmpf).
The free PDF can be downloaded here (http://www.white-wolf.com/downloads.php?category_id=82).

To give an idea of what's missing, the free PDF contains stats for Uther, Merlin, Prtince Madoc Ap Uther, Uther's bodyguard Brastias, Earl Roderick, Duke Gorlois, Duchess Ygraine, and King Aelle.
Ah, thanks. :) Seems like an annoying omission from the book, yes.

[smascrns]

Great review but there's a point where I just can't agree with the reviewer. It's about is repeated call for a single book containing both GPC and the basic rules. I'm one of those that thinks that separating these two is the way to go, it makes a lot more sense. It means that Pendragon can spread a lot more (there are plenty of people that will be willing to buy the basic rules book but would not buy a single book with these and the GPC), and that there's a book for people that may be interested in playing Pendragon in a conventional way instead of following the GPC approach.
Even if one is playing the GPC one is better served with two books: this way the GM may keep the GPC with him for his reference and have the basic rules book separate to circulate around the table for rules reference.

Of course, I'm one of those that would prefer to see big tomes like the GPC broken up into two or three smaller ones...

[Mr Jack]

This is a capsule review and, in this particular case, it really shows. Had I written a review from a read through I'd have probably written something similar apart from the odd desire for a single tome - having the two seperate makes play much easier.

However, and I'm now thirteen years into the GPC, the truth is that the book is, like the Pendragon main book, poorly organised and painfully lacking in important details. The campaign does not give you what you need to run it; but relies instead on you improvising fluidly throughout the campaign and reading well ahead in case you break something on the way. You have, on occasion, to break the rules of the game to keep it running.

Pendragon and the GPC sit together as a whole; but it's not a complete, designed whole into which the GM slides but a confused mixture of incomplete parts into which you are required to insert your own innovation and creativity.

Don't get me wrong, I love both Pendragon and the GPC; but neither of them are as well designed as they should be.

[Bobo]

I'll just say that the last two posts do hit the mark, at least up to a point.

1. Usability:
Well, 5th edition has seen great improvements in the organization department, compared to older editions of the rulebook, and I'm not sure how the organization of the GPC could have been improved without going all the way to fully annotated margins and referenced text, like Ptolus did.
Certainly it requires quite a bit of work and lots (lots!) of improv to actually run this; Greg Stafford has been quoted as saying something to the effect that you'd have to add 40% of improv and adaptive work to 60% of prepared stuff.
But that's one reason I'm looking forward to an actual playtest review, as has been promised (see above).

2. Regarding my strange desire for MASSIVE VOLUMES:
Sorry, that's just me. Partly a not-quite-serious way of expressing "how can anybody play Pendragon and not buy this book!!", partly reflecting the fact that the rulebook does not provide enough stuff for the later periods, and partly, well... it would feel right to me. I like that feeling of solid heaviness, that weighty promise of a big, fat book.
But of course you're completely right. Having two separate books is totally reasonable and obviosly the right thing to do.
Still, it would have been nice... and add more stuff from the nobles' sourcebook and older editions, while you're at it, will you? (Off fighting the windmills)