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Chaosium Digest Volume 1, Number 10
Date: Monday, March 22, 1993
Number: 1 of 3

Contents:

Replies on Sanity   (Matt Grossman)  CALL OF CTHULHU
Queries on Elric!   (Anthony Ragan)  ELRIC!
Pendragon Fanzine   (Heidi Kaye)  PENDRAGON
Hero List    (Heidi Kaye)  PENDRAGON
The Siege of Castle Pennith [Part I] (Fergal Somers)  PENDRAGON

Editor's Notes:

Sorry to take so long to get this set of digests out.  My UUCP
connection has had continued problems, making it hard to send mail
from erzo.  Hopefully, those problems should be clearing soon.
Tonight's digest is in three parts, mostly consisting of a long
PENDRAGON adventure, run at Gaelcon '92.

Heidi Kaye, who has some articles a bit further down, asked a few
questions concerning PENDRAGON.  First, she wondered if anyone could
explain how the battle system works, commenting that the original
rules made little sense and seemed very impersonal.  She went on to
say that there was little sense of actual damage to opponents.  Heidi
said that a flow chart for a round of battle would be helpful, as
would any indication of how to make battles more exciting for PCs.  If
anyone has any suggestions/comments/ideas on the battle system for
PENDRAGON, please send them in.  I've seen some of the same problems
in running PENDRAGON battles (indeed, every time we run one, the rules
end up somewhat changed).

Heidi also mentioned that it was difficult to run a full length
campaign in the pre-Arthurian period of THE BOY KING due to the lack
of published adventures.  She asks people to post more adventures set
in the 490-531 era, in particular 490-510.  Heidi is trying to set the
tone of Britain as "warring kingdoms, invaded by marauding Saxons, in
the dark days after Uther's death."  The Siege of Castle Pennith,
included in this issue as well as V1.11 and V1.12 will probably help
out somewhat.  If anyone else has adventures, or even just short ideas
for adventures in THE BOY KING era, please send them in.

That's about it for this week.  Hopefully, my UUCP will have
stabilized by next Sunday, so keep those submissions coming.

Shannon

--------------------

From: <MGROSSMAN@hamp.hampshire.edu>
Subject: Sanity Rules
In-reply-to: V1.9 Sanity RUles
System: Call of Cthulhu

Jan Engan made some good points about sanity, but I disagree with the
idea that gaining sanity for killing monsters is dumb.  It seems to me
that it makes sense that, if what causes sanity loss upon seeing a
monster is its horrifying alien-ness, then killing the monster,
showing that it is, after all, just flesh and blood, should increase
the character's self-confidence, and therefore their sanity.  Also,
characters are generally able to kill only the weakest monsters, so
any sanity they gain back will be minimal compared to what they might
lose upon, say, seeing Cthulhu.  At any rate, I find that this works
well in my campaign, where wise players soon learn that outright
combat against monsters or cultists is not a good idea.  Gaining back
three points of sanity for killing a Deep One just isn't worth it if
your leg gets ripped off or your friend killed in the process.  So
far, I haven't had any problems with characters becoming powerful
sorcerors; in fact, I sometimes have a real problem keeping them sane
and alive long enough to advance the plot!

As for characters getting back sanity just by resting, this would work
in some circumstances, but not in others.  For example, if the
characters know that while they are wandering through the peaceful
hills, the stars are slowly coming into the proper conjunctions and
the Atlantean High Priest Shar-Yugga is roaming the world again, their
sanity will probably go down, until they do something about the
threat.  Generally, I prefer to maintain a very tense, harried
campaign enviroment in which stuff is happening all the time and the
characters have no time to rest, let alone regain sanity.

The caution about characters seeking a reputable psychoanalyst is
valid.  In my current campaign, the characters are not seeking
psychiatric help (although some of them really need it) because they
do not think that an analyst would believe them.  I have this image of
a CoC character going to an analyst:

Investigator (on couch): "...so that's when the tentacle came up
through the floor and got Bob, and Doc.  I just haven't been able to
sleep well since then."

Analyst: "Really...(picking up phone and calling nearest Mental
Hospital)...  come round quick...I got a live one here!"

Of course, this could lead to an adventure in which the characters
have to rescue their friend from the hospital, or an adventure with
the committed character discovering horrible goings-on in the insane
asylum.  Maybe I should persuade them to see an analyst after all...


Matt Grossman
Hampshire College
mgrossman@hamp.hampshire.edu

--------------------

From: Anthony Ragan <ECZ5RAR@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Queries on Elric!
In-reply-to: V1.8 Elric! and the Books
System: Elric!

I read Liam Routt's summation of the Elric magic rules with interest,
even though I'll admit to being one who's skeptical of a need to do a
Stormbringer revision so soon after the 4th appeared.  (Or, has it
been that long already?)  [I don't have the exact date handy, but SB4
has been out for at least 3 years -sda] I do have a couple of
questions, though, tied to demon summoning.

One of the reasons I bought 4th edition at all was that I had fallen
in love with the "chaos value-point" system.  The design-a-demon
method is a kick, and giving the player and GM a share in its creation
is a piece of perverse genius.  Is this method going to remain for
those few PC sorcerors the new system will allow?  I certainly hope
so.

I'm also concerned about the previously-released supplements for 4th
edition Stormbringer.  Several of them were of quite high quality and
I would hate to think that they will become obsolete upon the
publication of Elric (not to mention the money I spent on them).  If
anyone at Chaosium reads this newsletter, please (!) include some
conversion notes.

--Anthony
  ecz5rar@mvs.oac.ucla.edu

--------------------

From: Heidi Kaye
Subject: Pendragon Fanzine
System: Pendragon

Gareth Jones is starting a Pendragon zine called BEAUMAINS.  Copies
are #1.75 and his address is:

69 Atherley Road
Shirley
Southampton
Hampshire
SO1 5DT

I am sure he would welcome contributions of articles and artwork.

--------------------

From: Heidi Kaye
Subject: Hero List
System: Pendragon

List of Pendragon characters' birth and death dates

Agravaine          -563
Arthur          493-565
Balin           482-515
Elaine             -562
Galahad         535-557
Gareth             -563
Gawaine         495-564
Griflet         491-
Gwenever        497-573
Kay             488-564
Lamorak         494-552
Lancelot        508-573
Lot             470-513
Margawse        487-545
Marhaus         481-529
Merlin          454-522
Mordred         512-565
Morgan le Fay   484-
Pellinore       475-522
Sagremor        482-
Tristram        501-559
Yvaine          500-

--------------------

From: fergal somers <ftsomers@cs.tcd.ie>
Subject: The Siege of Castle Pennith [Part I : Background]
System: Pendragon

Here's the first Pendragon event held at Gaelcon, Ireland's national
games convention. It was intended to give new players (about a handful
of people in the country had seen the system) an introduction, so the
plot is quite linear - the characters are nice though. It was meant to
last about three hours.

Fergal

--

The Siege Of Castle Pennith

A Pendragon Event for Gaelcon'92

Copyright Fergal Somers July 1992

Notes

I've included relevant rolls where necessary.  Feel free to ignore or
substitute other rolls as you see fit.

This adventure is non-standard for two reasons: (a) it is set before
Arthur becomes king, in the dark anarchist times of Saxon raids (b)
since it is set before Arthur, the chivalric ideal is not widespread.
This adventure is supposed to be dark in style.  Britain has fallen
into warring factions, saxons are invading and peasants are
mistreated.  These are the grim and nasty dark ages where power is
everything.  Mysterious ground fog, unholy dark woods and that sort of
thing should set the tone of the adventure, essentially the opposite
of the bright coloured tents and pavilions, shining knights and
chivalric courtesy that will characterise the reign of Arthur.  In
addition, the characters are not evenly designed.  Good roleplaying
opportunities exist between the characters Ieuan and Domicus.  Rivalry
also exists between Gwair and Robert; Amig and Peter are there to
prohibit the party from dividing into factions.

Honourable Mentions

Pendragon is not a competition game, it is a roleplaying game, thus
there are no winners or losers.  There will however be honourable
mentions for players whose actions during the course of the adventure
are memorable.  One method of gauging this is the number of traits and
passions experience checks.  So, during this scenario, we relax the
rules on traits and passions. Whenever a character acts spontaneously,
tick the relevant guiding trait/passion.  These will provide a basis
from which to discuss who deserves honourable mentions.

Characters:
Sir Amig   Young knight of Silchester
Sir Robert   Veteran knight of Silchester
Sir Gwair   Veteran knight/courtier of Silchester
Sir Domicus   Exile in service at Windsor
Sir Peter   Knight of Windsor
Sir Ieuan   Exile knight errant

Background

King Uther Pendragon, sick and tethered to his horse, finally defeated
the Saxon invaders at the terrible battle of St. Albans; but he's dead
now, poisoned some say, and Britain's shores once again are prey to
Saxon raids.  The country cries out for a King, but no heir comes to
claim the throne.  Portsmouth was the first to fall, then the Saxon
Cedric took all of Wessex.  Some say that all of Salisbury will soon
fall also.  Duke Ulfius, Uther's old friend and advisor rallies men
around him to battle the Saxon horde.  Knights arrive at Silchester
daily to swell the ranks, but never enough; many lords, lacking a King
to guide them, look to their own affairs and their own lands.  These
are bad times for Englishmen: land squabbles set knight against
knight, lord against lord; Saxon raiders advance ever inward; and
strange tales are heard of terrible faerie powers of Saxon raiders in
the South.

Character Summaries

Sir Domicus and Sir Peter of Windsor have been ordered to offer their
aid to Duke Ulfius, by their Lord, Sir Herringdale (a loyal supporter
of the Duke).  Sir Domicus is an exile, his homeland having been
overrun by Saxons.  He passionately hates Saxons and sees this as a
trip as a possible means to reap revenge.  Sir Peter is obsessed with
chivalric purity and morality, but his intentions are better than his
practice of it.  They are joined by Sir Amig, Sir Robert and Sir Gwair
all household knights of Duke Ulfius who are being sent to Castle
Pennith as reinforcements against expected raids on this clifftop
stronghold.  Sir Peter and Sir Domicus and have been asked to
accompany them.  Sir Robert is a veteran old knight who lives somewhat
in the past and sees his role as keeping the others in line.  Sir Amig
is young and recently knighted.  He has overdosed on folktales of
knightly derring-do, something which is far removed from the gritty
reality of an England falling apart.  Sir Gwair is the typical court
advisor, slimy and underhand with an overriding sense of
self-preservation.  They are also joined by Sir Ieuan, a knight errant
who took-up Duke Ulfius' call to battle, but who tires of the waiting
and planning at Silchester and wishes for adventure.  Sir Ieuan was
kidnapped and brought up as a Saxon until he was allowed to search for
his real parents.  Though he found his family, he was never fully
accepted by them and now works essentially as a mercenary knight, with
no particular sentiments or deeply held loyalties.

--------------------

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