Customer Reviews

King Arthur Pendragon (Pendragon 5th Edition)

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Pendragon is a role-playing game in which the characters all play knights (although there are some additional options for female characters). When I told my players this they looked at me and winced. "Are you sure I can't play a mage?" one quickly asked. Character generation subdued the complaints because while all the characters are knights, they are also all unique. A remarkable system of "passions" and "traits" is really what ends up defining a character. You do not just play a knight, but a "Just", "Valorous" knight; or a "Lustful" knight with a "Hatred of Saxons"; or a "Cruel" knight with little respect for his liege; or a "Pious" and "Chaste" Christian knight; and so on.

Some earlier editions of Pendragon had a wider range of options for knights. They could come from different parts of Europe and be of different faiths. This edition places a few limits on those options, but does so with a purpose. The game has its own built in campaign and the early glimpses of this we get in these rules shows this to be more even more focussed and comprehensive than before. The "Great Pendragon Campaign" (which is scheduled for release sometime in 2006) will hopefully cater for these options and allow players to take them as time in the campaign passes.

"Time passing" is actually one of things that really makes Pendragon stand out. It is a game in which time passes quickly. Your knight will hopefully marry, develop a fief and have children. He (or she) will also grow old and decrepit and will eventually have to retire. And this is where you will be very grateful for those kids. As the campaign progresses your character's children and his/her children's children will take front stage. Your dynasty will expand. Connections will develop with others. Loyalties will be tested. And alliances will be forged and shattered.

"Pendragon" is designed to take you into the world of early Britain. Into a green and pleasant land besieged by Saxon hordes. At this stage you don't need anything else to transport you, but if you purchase this book I am sure you (like me) will soon be waiting for the "Great Pendragon Campaign" to take your party from the darkest days of anarchy, through the Battle of Badon, into the glory of Arthur's realm and beyond into the final dying of the light. If (again like me) you can't stand the wait, purchase this book and, when its prodigious well of ideas runs dry, pick up some of the old 4th edition resources to keep you going.

If I had to come up with one word to review Pendragon with it would be "elegant". Everything about this game flows with an understated grace that sets it apart from anything that has ever appeared in the RPG market. Very highly recommended.

I've been playing RPGs for most of my life, starting in second grade with Dungeons and Dragons. I quickly got into Legend of the Five Rings when I discovered it in middle school, since then it had been my favorite system. Slowly Pendragon is replacing it as my favorite.
The system in Pendragon covers some great concepts such as generational game play (with mechanics to match). The Winter phase is also very cool as it lets players recover from their adventures, gain normal income, have a family, gain experience and spend experience.
I think any experienced RPG fan needs to give this a try, but feedback I've gotten from my group was that they didn't feel it was very accessible to new players, thus we put our game on hold while we break in the new players.
Also, since Amazon doesn't even list it it should be mentioned that DriveThruRPG has Pendragon 5.1 as a PDF [..] or paperback for [..] or Hardcover for [..] (5th edition paperback at [..]).

This game is great. Like a fine wine, it has only gotten better with age. It is a classic. Enough said. If you have any interest at all in the Arthurian mythos or knights and the middle-ages in general, check this out. You won't regret it.