Role Playing at the Dawn of the British Dark Ages
A game by Alex Epstein
with puzzles by Sean Elliott
You know this scene. You have been here, in dreams.
On a field by a river, two armies face each other. Fathers face their sons, brothers look for each other so they can try to avoid each other in battle. This battle will be the end of a world, everybody knows that. The sides are too well matched, the stakes are too high.
But in a pavilion between the two lines, their leaders are working out a peace. The King will acknowledge his bastard son, concede his right to inherit the crown. The son will forswear his war against his father. There will be peace; the foreigners will be driven from the land.
But as the two men turn to send their armies home, a viper hisses in the meadow. A warrior draws his sword. It flashes in the sun. The other side sees it, and they draw theirs, shouting betrayal. In the battle, the King kills his son with his legendary sword, and the son mortally wounds his father.
It is the end of a world. The foreigners come soon after. The land changes its gods, its language, its name.
You know this story, don’t you? We grow up with it. It’s in the angles of roofs, the arches of tall buildings. It’s in the words we breathe, the colors of waves and the fog. It’s the destruction of Britain. It is the last battle, the Mort d’Arthur. It is the story of Camlann. The end of the saga of King Arthur is the battle of Camlann. It is a battle no one could win, but no one knew how to avoid. The two armies annihilated each other; Arthur killed Mordred, his rebellious bastard son, but was mortally wounded by him. Afterwards, the British were a broken race. Soon the Saxons began inexorably to push them into the chill mountains of Wales.
The game takes place on the eve of the battle. All the knights and ladies of the Arthurian romances are there on one side or another. There is magic in the air. Merlin is still bound in a stone, but he is struggling to break free, or exercise his powers from within his prison. Morgan’s powers are exhausting themselves, but they are deep and she is powerful.
The night before Camlann is the eye of the tornado. Britain is in the middle of a sea change. The Christian monks have pushed the pagan followers of the Old Religion into the shadows, but they are still rooted in the land, and their gods have not yet departed. There are nights the Wild Hunt still shrieks across the sky even over Camelot. Saxon longboats scout the rivers and bays; Saxon spies have infiltrated the land, disguised as merchants or monks or mercenaries ... and their agents may be at work even at court.
If peace can be made, or if one side can gain overwhelming strength, then Britain will survive. But war has a momentum all its own...
This game was played on January 15, 2000, at Under Hill in Santa Monica, California. Here's what happened! I am leaving this web site up in case anyone wants to run their own game, or get ideas for their own game from this one, or wants to know what I was doing during November and December, 1999. If anyone is mad enough to run this game again, contact me for the rest of the game materials at crafty @ craftyscreenwriting.com.
The King’s Tent (really a peasant's barn being used for the purpose), and King Arthur’s surrounding camp, on the river Cam. Across the river, the campfires of Mordred’s army twinkle.
470 AD. However, characters and costumes from the medieval romances will be joining us. Also, the many knights killed in Arthur’s war with Lancelot, and on the Grail Quest, are assumed to be alive, with other, nameless, knights having perished in those endeavors.
Caveat lector: No effort will be made to reconcile conflicting Arthurian traditions. No guarantee is made of period accuracy. However, no intrusions later than the High Medieval Period will be allowed.
Everybody is a knight, a lady, priest, druid or magician. There may be a handful other characters in keeping with Arthurian tradition, but talk to me about that.
Any character from any of the Arthurian stories are fair game, from the Welsh prose tales, through Malory’s Mort d’Arthur, Chretien de Troyes, and The Once and Future King, to Excalibur.
Some questions dear to the hearts of various characters are:
Will the battle take place tomorrow, and will anybody win it?
Will Christianity triumph over the Old Religion?
Can Lancelot be cured of his madness?
Can Merlin be freed from the stone?
Will Guinevere’s dishonor be lifted, and will Arthur be reconciled with her?
Who’s the fairest one of all?
And what of the Questing Beast?
If you are sure you want to play in the game, please answer 1-5 as soon as possible.
1. Your real name, phone number and eddress.
2. Your character’s name, and a description to put in the Cast of Characters.
3. Are you a Knight, Lady, Priest or Druid?
4. On a scale of 1 - 10, how big an involvement in the plot do you want? 1 = “I want to hang out and chat in my Faire garb.” 10 = “I want to devote the entire game to determining Britain’s destiny.”
5. Please rate on a scale of 1 to 10 how much you want to be involved in the Court Intrigue:
Romance:
Puzzles:
Cooperative Efforts:
Combat:
Other? Please specify:
6. In as much detail as you like, please tell me about your character. How does your character feel about King Arthur? How does your character feel about Mordred? Who are your character’s allies? Who are your character’s enemies?
9. What are your character’s three most important goals?
10. Please list a couple of good ideas for gessa, and what their consequences might be. (You will not be stuck with the ones you come up with, generally speaking. Please see the rules if you are not clear on what gessa are.)
11. If you are a mage, priest or druid, please list five spells you think your character might have.
12. What Oaths have you sworn?
13. Are you currently Charmed by a Lady? The cast of characters is here. Frequently Asked Questions are answered here.
The Game
In Game Location
Feast
There will be a simple feast of bread, cheese, roasted meat and mead. (Well, simple except for Angel, who has to cook it.) Players are asked to contribute $5 to the cost of providing the food.
In Game Date
Characters
The Plot
THE QUESTIONNAIRE
following (1 = not at all, 10 = Completely):
I have also written a story that will give you some sense of the world the game takes place in.
