Currently I am running a one player GURPS Campaign with Dwayne of Gamer's Closet. Dwayne recently listened to the Game of Thrones audio book and liked it a lot. He came to me to see if I could come up with a campaign where he got to play a knight. Luckily I have an area of the Majestic Wilderlands that is perfect for this. Nomar my "Arthur" land. Instead of focusing on the myth of Arthur, I will focus on the politics. That in conjunction with recent events of my setting should produce something that gives the feel of Game of Thrones but has it own unique situation.
During my prep I discovered something interesting. While knowing the geography and locale was useful of far more importance was the roster of NPCs. The campaign was going to be a sandbox but it wasn't going to be about wandering from place to place. But instead it was more likely it was going to be more about going from people to people.
I am still developing my thoughts on this but here is one of the background documents I developed for the campaign. It details the regions of Nomar focusing on the nobles. Currently I am working fleshing Dwayne's family and I will post later on that. Here the link to the maps to make sense of the writeup.
Very intriguing. It seems to combine the best elements of the sandbox and medieval politics. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Pendragon -only without the straightjacket of the Arthurian timeline and mythos- and a greater emphasis on the people your player's character is actually likely to meet and interact with.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you've isolated and successfully combined the two best elements of sandbox and plot-driven play.
This is exactly what our table is about. I'm glad to see someone else look into a "sandbox" of NPCs.
ReplyDeleteWe're playing Pendragon, which really does quite enhance the medieval politics of it all (and is a very good game system for someone who wants to focus on playing a knight.) The fact that the overarching plot of King Arthur is so well known by everyone at the table leaves us plenty of room to explore the second-tier nobles and lesser peers of the kingdom.
Dangerous Brian, I'm sorry to hear you think the Arthurian timeline is a straightjacket. For us, its more liberating than anything else.
Actually, I love Pendragon. I'm running the great campaign myself just now and love the Arthurian setting. However, the Uther and Anarchy periods are by far my favorite. Mostly because there's more room for my own NPC's and adventurers than there is the later periods. It's probably accurate to say I love Pendragon despite the Arthurian mythos rather than because of it.
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