Pyramid Pick
Tales of Chivalry & Romance
Published by Green Knight
Written by Shannon Appel, William G. Filios, Geoff Gillan, Heidi Kaye, and Eric Rowe
64 pages, $13.95
Tales of Chivalry & Romance is a new collection of adventures for the Pendragon roleplaying game, originally published by Chaosium but now handled by spinoff company Green Knight. Pendragon isn't one of the most heavily-supported games out there, but what does come out is usually top-notch. This new supplement is no exception.As the title might indicate, Tales of Chivalry & Romance deal with the "knightly virtue" of chivalry and the ideal of courtly love, both concepts fairly unique to Pendragon in the world of roleplaying games. (Whether RPGs -- and indeed, society itself -- could use more of the virtues Pendragon extols is another discussion for another time.)
The first scenario, "The Adventure of the New-Made Knight," drops the players smack-dab in the internal struggle to adhere to the game's six chivalrous traits -- Energetic, Generous, Just, Merciful, Modest, and Valorous -- in the face of trials designed to test those qualities. Upon the death of his father, a newly-made knight has tried to follow his father's example, but failed. The PC knights are asked by the churl's mother to take on the same tests her son could not complete, and "Prove that a good and decent man cleaving to the virtues of knighthood will win the day!" The trials range from dealing with the drunken, bullying sons of a nearby lord . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 5, 1999
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