King Arthur Pendragon?

[Rowan]

Through a Bundle of Holding deal, I just discovered the RPG game system/setting of "King Arthur Pendragon."

Is anyone in the Birthright community familiar with this? It sounds really interesting, and apparently has rules for managing lands, estates, manors, nobles, etc, and medieval warfare. I'm reading through reviews, and it sounds like it is well respected as a solid game, well-designed system, and even more so, very well researched and thematically well-put together for an RPG.

Birthright might have something to learn from it, I don't know.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Here are the Bundle of Holding deals:
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/KAP2017
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Pendragon2


Here are some of the reviews I have bookmarked to read through:
https://alanbahr.net/2017/03/12/alans-unofficial-totally-biased-essential-pendragon-rpg-book-guide/
https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9348.phtml
https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12018.phtml
https://alanbahr.net/2014/06/04/pendragon-and-the-importance-of-thematic-rulesets/
https://alanbahr.net/2016/02/24/monthly-one-off-recap-pendragon/

[Lee]

I hear it's pretty good, and the dynastic elements may have something to tell us. I've never read it, but I've seen positive reviews in various places.

IIRC, I'm told that most of the action happens in the "good" parts of the year, and the dynastic, diplomatic, or ruling elements take place in a Winter Phase. That sounds like it could be useful to us; perhaps 4 identical Domain Turns per year is too many?

[Rowan]

Thanks for the input!

Yeah, I thought the "winter phase" was interesting, and rotating between would be a good way to focus on story/adventuring.

I think a lot of people have toyed with the idea of more variance in the seasons, or even extending the timeline, but doing so without increasing complexity or creating mis-matches in game time vs "real time" for the PBEMs is difficult.

Maybe 3 Turns for the Spring/Fall/Summer seasons (1 Turn each) and a Winter Phase for planning, where you essentially set things into motion and then just adjust during the year?

Then you punctuate the year with major events that provide the impetus for social interaction -- tourneys, weddings, fairs, holy days, summits, a Senate period or two, the Sword and Crown, etc.

[Lee]

Thanks for the input!

Yeah, I thought the "winter phase" was interesting, and rotating between would be a good way to focus on story/adventuring.

...

Maybe 3 Turns for the Spring/Fall/Summer seasons (1 Turn each) and a Winter Phase for planning, where you essentially set things into motion and then just adjust during the year?

Then you punctuate the year with major events that provide the impetus for social interaction -- tourneys, weddings, fairs, holy days, summits, a Senate period or two, the Sword and Crown, etc.

Maybe Spring & Autumn have only 2 rounds, Summer has 3, and winter 1 rounds?

I always had trouble believing that taxes/revenues in Winter are the same as in Summer DTs, for one.

Anyway, I like the idea of a Down-time phase. When all months are available for action or adventuring, then players want to use every last moment for things, and their achevements pile up.

[Thelandrin]

The current version of my Birthright rule-set has four-action turns lasting one year, with the winter action being downtime for diplomacy and training.

[carlwynn]

In 1e KAP Spring, Summer, and Autumn, are typically the time for adventuring, warfare, raiding, tournaments, and the like. Haven't read enough of the further editions to know too much about them.

Winter is used to manage your estates for the year, to manage family, "level up", to deal with aging, revenues accrued, etc.

The game Ars Magica has a similar system. They're older 4e book has been available as a free odd on the Atlas Games website. Might be worth a look.