A pseudo-Arthurian RPG and plotting against my players

The Game Room
1

I’ve seen GMs look for advice on running RPG storylines on the Dope before, so I thought I’d give it a whirl because I’m just a bit stuck with this one. I know none of my players read the Dope and surely if they managed to find the SDMB somehow they’d have the decency to not read this thread. Ahem.

First, the background: The game is run on a message board and while we do have dice for handling combat, it’s pretty casual for the most part. Play is focused more on setting up situations and making the players actually write their way out of it than on hack-and-slash play. The setting is an alternate history that combines steampunk with elements of magic. The Louisiana purchase never took place, with the area being taken over by the people who had settled there when Napoleon couldn’t hold it. New Orleans is the capitol, which is where the action is taking place.

Currently, there is a war between “Louisiana” and the Spanish Empire, which has become extremely powerful as it uses steampunk technology to fantastic ends. When the plot begins, the Spanish will be occupying the capitol city.

Now, the plot: Two fishermen find the Holy Grail on a small island off the coast, where it was hidden centuries before. A Spanish officer is the only one able to retrieve the Grail and she brings it back to the capitol with her. Excalibur is sealed in a stone that is used as a magical focus for a powerful local family, who had it brought over from the old country. The combination of these two relics in the same region when blood is being spilled and a country overtaken triggers changes in the spirit world, so that certain people will begin to have memories of Camelot and attempt to carry out quests to make things right. It’ll be handled as a sort of mild possession/being influenced by mythological archetypes rather than as reincarnation.

My players don’t know “who” their characters are in this, just as their characters are ignorant. The Arthurian persons that I’ve been able to attach to people’s characters are Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, Gawain, Percival, Morgause, Mordred, and Morgan le Fay.

My problem is that I need something for each character to do. Percival is the Spanish officer who has the Grail, so this sets up conflict from the start. Most of the characters can also be attempting to retrieve the Grail (which will be used to help fight off the Spanish), on top of Mordred and Arthur beginning to realize that they’re less allies and more rivals.

I want a small quest for each character, though, rather than turning everyone into NPCs in someone else’s adventure. If I could set things up so that there’s some artifact or act for each character, it’d help a lot. Guinevere, especially, is baffling me. A romantic triangle is nothing to hang an RPG plot on, and I can’t think of anything else to do with her, but there was no one else who really “fit” the character I pinned her on.

Anyone else ever run a game with lots of little Arthurian quests like this? Any suggestions? I want this to be fun for all of my players, not just for “Arthur” and “Mordred.”

2

I can give you two general pieces of advice. First, there’s an RPG called Pendragon from Chaosium. It is thick with Arthurian detail; you might not care about the feudalism details but it can give you a spring board from the chivalry angle.

Second, read the existing material and know them well. Knowing Le Morte D’Arthur can also help set you up. A similar thing to this was done in comics called Camelot 3000. You might be interested in how the past incarnations and present life conflict in that book.

3

Arthur prolly wants his sword back.

Considering the nature of that sword (with some 1st edition AD&D rules for intelligent swords fanwankery) it might want Arthur back, too.

4

Thanks for the RPG suggestion, Just Some Guy! I’ll check it out. I wrote a research paper on the development of Morgan le Fay as a villain, so I’ve been going back to a lot of the notes I had from back then. Unfortunately, I’d never much cared for Guinevere and Lancelot, so am having to reread a lot to know much about them, since I’d tended to skim their story in the past.

Oakminster, that’s exactly the direction I was thinking. Preferably, I’d have some sort of enchanted object for each player to get. Arthur obviously has the sword, I was thinking the scabbard for Mordred (which would then prevent him from ever bleeding to death, rather than just being a lame consolation prize), etc. Choosing objects for the other characters (save Percival, who obviously gets the Grail) is turning out harder than I thought.

5

I’ll give it a try.

Merlin needs to avoid imprisonment in a tower of air. Alternatively, you can turn to the prophecies of Merlin from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historiae. Endless sources of RPG stuff in there.

Gawain has another encounter with the Green Knight. Perhaps even acquires his axe.

Lancelot goes somewhat insane, or at the very least, spends a lot of time wandering in the wilderness. Or becomes an excellent painter, who paints scenes out of someone else’s memory.

You can create a Fisher King/Maimed King that would involve pretty much everyone.

This is just a start. I have to run off to a meeting: hopefully I will be thinking about this rather than the rather dull topic of business. :slight_smile:

6

In the legend, Guinevere had a couple of notable traits. She betrayed Arthur; she was coveted by various people (Arthur, Lancelot, Mordred); and she bore children who were heirs to the kingdom.

In a more mythical sense, Guinevere was a creator. In this world she could be an artisan, famous inventor, a specialized merchant, a potion-making apothecary, or a sorceress: someone, in short, who provides that which is rare and valuable.

At the beginning, Guinevere might work for Arthur, creating magical trinkets or supplying his side with spells or potions. She can be captured and forced to work for another; Arthur can rescue her. She can be “seduced by” (that is, be convinced to work under the table for) Lancelot. In this way she can betray Arthur.

I recommend that you make a chart or a list of the figures in the legend and reduce their interactions to their barest simplicity. Which figures are allies, which figures are enemies, who betrays whom, who defeats whom. Be as vague and symbolic as possible: Arthur becomes leader of Group X; Mordred has grudge against Arthur; Arthur allied with Guinevere. Arthur refuses to bow to Lucius of Group Y; group X and group Y fight. It might become clearer, then, which characters ought to be on which sides of the conflict.

7

Nothing to suggest off the top of my head, although I recently re-read Thomas Berger’s* sublimely funny, subversive but ultimately respectful retelling of Arthurian legend, Arthur Rex, and can’t recommend it highly enough. God, I love that book. Lots of good adventure fodder in there.

  • Better known for writing Little Big Man.