[Andrew Rilstone]

I have run "Boy King" and am playing in "Great Pendragon Campaign."

I think that there are three issues here.

1: In "Pendragon", you are the kind of character who sometimes gets sent on missions whether you like it or not. If there is a war and your lord says "go and fight in the war", you go and fight in the war. No "wandering about the universe in my tramp freighter looking for adventures."

2: "Pendragon" is about living through the story of King Arthur. It's predestined that certain things happen at certain times -- Uthur dies, the country degenerates into anarchy, Arthur arrives, the quest for the Grail happens, everything falls apart. The point of the game is that you live through these big events. That's what makes "Pendragon" "Pendragon", much more than the rules set.

3: In the "Great" campaign, much more, I think, than in "Boy King", Greg scripts certain specific events for the players to participate in. I am a player, so I haven't read the book, but it appears that "the player characters" will always be witnesses to big events and often have a minor but significant role in them: I assume that the idea is that you have a chance to become more and more important as the campaign progresses. I believe that the current incarnation of "Hero Wars" for Glorantha is written like that as well: one of the player characters might end up becoming the Legendary Prince Dude who saves Dragon Pass. This is all bound up with Greg's ideas about "heroquesting": that you can "participate" in mythology, and influence it in some way.

I must say that I'm not over-enthusiastic about the way in which the "Great Campaign" seems to be scripted so that player characters participate in particular events in pre-ordained ways. I think the backstory about Arthurian history is more or less essential to run the game, but I don't necessarily think that its imperative that in 425 all the player characters have to bring Uthur his breakfast, or whatever.