If you’re playing in person, writing materials, paper, and standard gaming dice (including the percentile dice). Ideally every player will have their own set of dice, but you can share.
Next, you’ll need somewhere to play. If you’re playing in person, a table and comfortable
seating for everyone is a must. If you’re playing online, use the voice and/or video
program of your choice. Age of Vikings is available on online game platforms such as Quest Portal and Roll20.
You’ll need to set aside enough time to play, so plan to spend two to four hours having an adventure with your friends.
Finally, you’ll need to decide who you want to play with. A group between three and five players, one of whom must be the gamemaster, is ideal.
This page serves as an introduction to the world of Pendragon and the game’s mechanics. Players and Gamemasters alike may read it - The Pendragon Starter Set contains everything a fledgling Gamemaster requires to run a band of freshly-knighted characters through several adventures in the historic fantasy of King Arthur’s Britain.
The Pendragon Starter Set contains three soft-cover books.
Lastly, the appendix sheets include additional rules and setting details you’ll discover as you play through The Sword Campaign.
Pendragon is set in a mythical version of Dark Ages Britain. It is Greg Stafford’s unique synthesis of centuries of Arthurian tales, a vision of history informed by medieval scholars and troubadours, by Sir Thomas Malory and Edmund Spenser, by Romantic novelists like Tennyson, and by more contemporary visions from popular literature and cinema. All these stories have contributed to this legendary
game setting.
Now imagine that it is the Year of Our Lord 509. Britain is a large, verdant island surrounded by turbulent
seas and consisting of five geographic regions: The North beyond Hadrian's Wall, Cambria and Cornwall to the west and south, respectively, Cumbria in the middle, and Logres to the south-east. Some smaller islands sit off its coast, and the big island of Ireland lies just to the west. Britain is riddled with many navigable streams and rivers, and its coasts boast many fine natural harbors.
Much of the land is hilly and covered in dense, ancient forests, some rumored to be haunted. Deadly beasts, like the fierce British lions and panthers, have kept the woods dangerous, even where crumbling old Roman roads cross them. Deeper into the heartwoods and marshes live dragons whose occasional sallies wreak terrible havoc upon nearby settlements. Other portions of the forest are set aside as hunting grounds for kings and their followers, who fight monsters more than they fear them.
The people of Britain self-define themselves as one of five distinct cultures—Cymric, Irish, Pict, Roman, or Saxon—and have divided themselves into scores of tiny warring kingdoms; some, like Penllyn, of no greater size than a valley. The most powerful of them all is the kingdom of Logres. It occupies most of southeastern Britain, and holds three of the largest remaining Roman cities. Now, in these dark times, enemies converge on Logres from all sides, her warlords vie for supremacy, and her few allies fear her imminent collapse.
Pendragon Britain is a land of adventure and danger, of scheming lords and ambitious ladies, of great passions and glorious deeds, of mysterious castles and strange, hidden kingdoms, and of savage beasts lurking in shadowy green woods. It is a fabled realm waiting for you to explore.
There are only two types of dice used in Pendragon: The twenty-sided (D20) and the six-sided (D6). You use the D20 to resolve actions as well as test your character’s morals and beliefs in times of crisis. The D6 is most often used to determine damage dealt in combat.
The stories of King Arthur and his knights and ladies are filled with characters consumed by their passions and driven by their emotions for good and ill. Throughout the course of this adventure, and later when you play Pendragon with your friends, you will find your character’s personality at times driving the narrative in surprising directions. Much enjoyment is thus derived from trying to get yourself out of trouble of your own devising!
This touches on the central question underlying all gameplay in Pendragon: Finding out what kind of knight you really are.
The measure of all knights is taken by their Glory and Honor values.
Glory is the measure of a knight’s notoriety and fame. It only increases with time and is not tied to the knight’s inherent moral character—knights like Sir Agravaine or Sir Breuse sans Pitie are infamous for their rotten personalities and questionable behavior, but both achieve high Glory values.
Honor, on the other hand, may fluctuate quite a bit over the course of a knight’s lifetime and is dependent on their behavior. Some actions increase Honor; many others decrease it. Honor is a precious commodity and must be closely guarded, for if a knight’s Honor ever falls too low, they lose their status and place in society!
During an adventure, players will keep track of the actions that would normally earn them Glory if they were a knight, as well as their Honor value. This is done by placing checks in the boxes next to the indicated Skills, Personality Traits, and Passions. Each box may only be checked once—if you earn a check earlier in the adventure, any further instructions to check the box are ignored. After completing the adventure, you will find instructions on how to tally everything up based on your checks and find out what kind of knight your young character will eventually grow up to become!
As noted earlier, you roll multiple six-sided dice to determine how much damage is done in combat. Sometimes you add a set number to the total (such as rolling 2D6+4 when brawling with a quarterstaff); other times (like when you throw a punch), you simply apply a set number of points of damage (usually between 4–5, depending on your Size and Strength).
Armor protects against damage, but whatever gets through is deducted from the character’s Hit Points. Hit Points fall below the character’s Unconscious threshold, the character is incapacitated; if Hit Points ever fall to zero or less, the character is dying!
The Pendragon Starter Set serves as an introduction to the world of Pendragon and the game's mechanics. It also provides a solo adventure, "The Adventure of the Sword in the Stone", to get you started and playing quickly!
A character sheet is provided with this scenario. This is a simplified version of the standard Pendragon character sheet, representing your character as a 14-year-old page about to become a squire. You have benefitted from a lifetime of active and passive instruction in the traditions of your Cymric culture, Christian religion, and the duties of knights and nobles.
Give by your character a name. They may be any gender; all children of nobility serve as pages, and some girls choose to then go on to a career as squires and, eventually, knights. If you are having trouble coming up with a name, think of examples from literature or history. Some suggestions are:
Aeddan (m), Adwen ( f ), Brian (m), Briant ( f ), Caradoc (m), Collwen ( f ), Eleri ( f ), Eric (m), Geriant (m), Graid (m), Gwen ( f ), Heledd ( f ), Hugh (m), Iain (m), Indeg ( f ), Madog (m), Meleri ( f ), Morien (m), Nai (m), Nia ( f ), Owain (m), Padern (m), Pridwyn ( f ), Rhun (m), Tathan (m), Tydfil ( f )
Characteristics are your physical attributes. You have no notable strengths or weaknesses. How these function in play will be covered through events in the scenario, but note that they also determine your Derived Characteristics such as Hit Points, Movement Rate, and so forth.
Next, look at Personality Traits (often written simply as Traits). These quantify and guide your character’s actions. All Traits come in pairs, with two values that sum to 20. The values of each are written on opposite sides of a slash (/), for instance like 13/7. As one Trait rises, the other falls by an equal amount: 14/6, 15/5, and so on. A character tends to act according to the Trait with the greater value.
The bold Personality Traits are called your “Religious Traits” and represent the values most important to your religion. Other Traits (those marked with a star) are particularly important for knights.
You may now customize your Trait values. All Traits start at a base value of 10. Your Religious Traits each gain a bonus of +3 points. (Remember that this reduces the opposite Trait by 3 points as well!) Your Valorous Trait begins at 15.
Now choose one Trait and make it 16. This is your Famous Trait—what you are known for amongst your peers.
Finally, distribute 6 points amongst any of the other Traits. No other Trait may be raised above 15, but you are free to put all of your points into a Trait if you wish, so long as it remains under 16.
For example, if you really wanted to play a Proud character, you could put all 6 points into that Trait, offsetting the +3 Modest bonus and giving you a final total of Modest 7/Proud 13.
Once you have allocated your points, fill in your final Trait values, remembering that each Trait pair must sum to 20.
After finishing with your Traits, move on to Passions. Passions are intense beliefs that may provide inspiration, boosting a single Skill or Trait for a short time. Passions are especially useful in combat or when attempting a difficult task. If Traits represent your personality, Passions represent the values your character holds most dear. The most important Passion is Honor, and this begins with a value of 15. There are many other Passions, including Adoration, Devotion, Hate, Station, and Chivalry. For the purposes of your character, we focus on three others aside from Honor: Homage (Lord), Love (Family), and Hospitality. These each start with a value of 15 as well.
The final step for customizing your character is assigning points to your Skills. As the name implies, Skills are what allow characters to accomplish great deeds in the game. Each Skill has a default value listed on the character sheet in parenthesis. These values are increased in a variety of ways, as outlined below.
Because you are a Cymric knight in training, you add 3 to your Charge, Horsemanship, and Courtesy Skills.
Every family has a certain inborn talent for a particular Skill. Roll 1D6 and consult Table 1: Selected Family Characteristics to find out where your natural talent lies, then increase the indicated Skill by +3.
Now distribute 10 points amongst your Skills with the limitations outlined below. These Personal Skill additions represent where you have put your time and attention as you have grown up at court. As with Passions, not all Skills are useful in every scenario! However, some Skills of use only to knights (such as Stewardship) are not included on this character sheet. For definitions of each Skill, see “Chapter 4: Skills” in Book II.
When distributing the points listed below, you must follow these rules:
Bonuses from your Cymric Skill Modifiers and Family Characteristics may raise Skill values above the limitations set out above.
takes place in the fantastical world of Greg Stafford’s Pendragon role-playing game. Although you normally play Pendragon with one or more friends, for this adventure all you need is a pencil, some dice, and your wits. You are playing the part of a page serving in the household of a kindly, aging knight named Sir Ector. His manor lies nestled in the wilds of modern-day Wales, in a tiny kingdom called Penllyn. Pages are young boys and girls between the ages of seven and fourteen who learn the ways of courtly life by observing their elders and doing menial tasks for them. After serving as pages, most girls become handmaidens to ladies, though some may pursue a martial path and become squires. Boys almost always become squires, though the runts and third-borns of the family are sometimes sent off to the priesthood. Now that you are fourteen, you are among those pages at court who dream of soon becoming squires to great and noble knights.
Sir Ector has two squires in his service, his sons Kay and Arthur. Squires study the ways of knighthood while they serve. Those who a confident in themselves, show promise, and who have the right connections may become knights. Most remain squires after age 21 and are called esquires to indicate that they are not in service to a specific knight. Kay is an accomplished squire, brave and brash, and is due to be knighted soon (as he is only too happy to remind anyone who will listen). Sir Ector says Britain will need many more knights with strong arms like Kay’s in the years to come. For these are dark times, indeed. The land has fallen into anarchy and despair. The last High King of Britain, Aurelius Ambrosius, died thirty years ago. His brother, Uther, ruled for fifteen years after that from the mighty kingdom of Logres but never achieved the coveted title of High King. He died, along with most of the nobility of Logres, over the course of one fateful evening, victims all of foul Saxon treachery. That was fourteen years ago when you were still in your mother’s belly. Except for that brief blessed time, you have never known a wholly peaceful world. Raids from the hill folk of the Cambrian interior, border skirmishes with neighboring petty kingdoms, and Irish reavers from the sea trouble your land, particularly in recent years; Logres, they say, may fall to Saxon invaders at any time, its warlords too busy squabbling amongst themselves to mount an effective defense against the barbarians. Britain cries out for a new High King, for the return of strength, unity, and stability. But here in Penllyn, on Sir Ector’s estate, these troubles seem far away now. A brisk autumn breeze riles up your hair as you step out of the manor hall and spot Arthur and Kay getting set for quintain practice. If only you could join them!
Read the following sections to get oriented, then proceed to the first numbered passage and start reading, following the prompts based on your decisions to other numbered passages in the text. At times you are instructed to make dice rolls, both for your own character and sometimes on behalf of another. The outcomes of these rolls will also guide you to other numbered passages. Through a combination of choice and luck you will eventually reach the end of the adventure. At that point, you proceed through a point scoring system to see just what kind of knight you will eventually become—ranging from a wandering mercenary who promises their sword to the highest bidder, all the way to a chivalrous peer of the legendary Round Table!
