Pendragon is a stripped down version of Runequest, simplified and with a few additions to make it fit the genre. All characters are knights, which makes it simple. The addition of personality traits and passions help to make it fit the genre. CULTURE: Characters are from one of five cultures: Saxon, Pict, Cymric, Roman or Irish This affects starting skills and modifies stats. RELIGION: Characters have one of three religions: Wotanic, Pagan or Christian. Aside from the obvious roleplaying effects, this also affects which personality traits are important to the character and what bonus they get if suitably religious. STATS: A fairly standard set of: Strength(STR), Constitution(Con), Size(SIZ), Dexterity(DEX) and Appearance(APP) Derived Stats: Hit Points(HP): CON+SIZ Knockdown: SIZ (more damage than this and you may fall over) Unconscious: HP/4, below this you pass out Movement Rate: (SIZ+DEX)/10 Damage: (SIZ+STR)/6, you do this many d6 damage when you hit Healing Rate: (CON+STR)/10, in HPs/week of rest SKILLS: A wide variety, see list at bottom. You are always trying to roll less than or equal to your skill on a d20, but as high as possible. (Eg. if your skill is 12, you want to roll 12 or less, but 12 is better than 11 is better than 10 ..). If you roll your skill exactly, that is a critical success. Skills used unopposed - roll against skill. Skills used opposed - both roll, higher roll which succeeds wins. Combat - opposed usually, but success means you get your shield in the way even if you "lose" the opposed roll. Armour reduces damage you take, shields reduce it more. PERSONALITY TRAITS: There are 12 pairs of opposed traits, the sum of each pair must always equal 20. They are: Chaste/Lustful, Energetic/Lazy, Forgiving/Vengeful, Generous/Selfish, Honest/Deceitful, Modest/Proud, Just/Arbitrary, Trusting/Suspicious, Merciful/Cruel, Pious/Wordly, Temperate/Indulgent, Valorous/Cowardly There are virtues, both knightly and religious. The religous virtues are: Christian: Chaste, Modest, Forgiving, Merciful and Temperate Pagan: Generous, Energetic, Honest, Proud and Lustful Wotanic: Generous, Proud, Wordly, Indulgent and Valorous If all of them are 16+, you get the bonus. The Chivalric Virtues are: Generous, Energetic, Humble, Just, Merciful and Valorous. If they total 80 or more, you are known as a Chivalrous knight. PASSIONS: Specific things like Love, Fear, Loyalty, Hate etc. which can come into play. TESTING STATS/TRAITS/PASSIONS: All of those can be tested against like skills and may be used similarly. GLORY: Glory leads to reknown. You get glory for doing good stuff, and for being eg. Religious, Chivalrous, etc. IMPROVING SKILLS, ETC. Adventuring: In adventures successful use of a thing (skill, trait or sometimes passion) gets you a check. Over the winter, you roll a d20 and if you are higher than the current level, it goes up by 1. Winter: You may adjust one Trait, Stat or Passion up or down by 1 point, or get 1d6 of points to add to skills. Skills cannot be improved above 15 in this way. Glory: Every time you hit a multiple of 1000 glory, you may add 1 point to any trait, stat, passion or skill without let or hindrance. That's basically it. Here's a sample knight to look at. He's been around for a while and has some glory and such. ======================================= Sir Rafael Distinctive Features Strong Speaking Voice, Pox scars Scarred shoulder from bear. (SIZ 14 DEX 10 STR 18 CON 16 APP 8 - Pre aging scores) SIZ 14 DEX 10 STR 17 CON 16 APP 6 HP 30 Major 16 Knockdown 14 Unconcious 7 Move 3 Damage 5d6 Healing 3 Chivalric virtue(*) total= 87/80 Glory: 4309 religious virtue(__) all at 16? No _Chaste_/Lustful 13/7 Loyalty, Ieuen 15 *Energetic/Lazy 16/4 Love, Family 16 _Forgiving_/Vengeful 18/2 Honor 7 *Generous/Selfish 11/9 Hospitality 13 Honest/Deceitful 9/11 Trust Picts 8 *Just/Arbitrary 12/8 Love AElfrieda 5 *_Merciful_/Cruel 13/7 *_Modest_/Proud 18/2 Pious/Worldly 10/10 _Temperate_/Indulgent 14/6 Trusting/Suspicious 12/8 *Valorous/Cowardly 16/4 Skills Awareness 7 Boating 1 Chirurgery 0 Courtesy 11 $Cymric Custom 10 Cymric Literacy 0 Dancing 2 $First Aid 10 Folklore 3 Gaming 3 Hawking 3 Heraldry 3 Intrigue 3 Irish Custom 4 Joust 3 Latin Literacy 0 $Orate 15 Pictish Custom 1 Play Flute 4 Recognize 2 Roman Custom 3 Saxon Custom 4 Sing 2 $Speak Cymric 10 Speak Irish 1 Speak Latin 3 Speak Pictish 1 Speak Saxon 1 Stewardship 2 Swimming 2 Track 3 Worship 4 $Battle 15 $Lance (horse) 15 $Ride 16 $Sword 19 Spear 15 Dagger 3 Equipment: Reinforced Chain Armor [8] Arming Doublet [2] Great Helm [2] = [12] + Chiv[3] 2 Spears Shield Sword Dagger 5 Jousting Lances