King Arthur Pendragon 6th Edition (2024)

Overview

King Arthur Pendragon is a tabletop roleplaying game of Arthurian chivalry, tragedy, and multi-generational legacy, originally designed by Greg Stafford and first published by Chaosium in 1985. It's one of the hobby's oldest continuously-revised games, having passed through five earlier editions and several publishers (including Green Ronin's Arthaus imprint and Nocturnal Media) before returning to Chaosium, who released the 6th Edition in April 2024.  Stafford completed the design draft for this edition before his death in 2018, with longtime Pendragon line editor David Larkins overseeing it to print - a fact the game's own promotional copy leans into, framing it as the culmination of nearly forty years of Stafford's design thinking on the setting.

Description

Players take on knights of Arthur's Britain, sworn to a lord and bound by a code of chivalry the game asks characters - and players - to genuinely wrestle with rather than simply declare. The Game Master (GM) runs a campaign built to span decades of in-world time: between adventures, a Winter Phase resolves a knight's marriage, estate management, aging, and family events, and campaigns are explicitly designed to carry a player from their original knight's prime through old age and into playing that knight's own heir.  The game asks a lot of a table willing to commit to it - character death by old age is expected, not a failure state, and a knight's personal flaws are written onto the character sheet where they can force bad decisions at the worst possible moment. In exchange, it delivers something few other RPGs attempt: a genuinely generational campaign where a table can watch the consequences of one knight's choices land on their grandchild decades later.

Active games and players

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PATH2E
Pathfinder 2E
PATH1E
Pathfinder 1
...
Online
Chris
So, about me, been playing for 11-12 years, started out GMing and probably on the whole find that the more rewarding part of the hobby, but I enjoy playing as well. Played quite a range of systems by this point; did my mandatory few years of D&D and Pathfinder, actually started with Dark Heresy. But I've run Shadowrun briefly, Mutants and Masterminds, dipped my toes in World of Darkness.  I think a benefit of my time behind the screen is that I'm relatively flexible in what I enjoy. I can go for deep and character driven games, but I also appreciate the fun of a good dungeoncrawl or epic combat. I'm absolutely a sucker for intrigue, but I'm not above playing characters dumb as a brick. I'm perhaps overly comfortable playing morally grey grand bastards, but when I think of my favourite recent characters, the Lawful Good Rogue probably ranks as the most compelling.  I'll admit, though I'm by no means someone who can only enjoy hyper-simulationist games, I do occasionally tend to press up against overly artificial system restrictions. In Starfinder, my character did over time trend towards 'why don't we vent the airlock before we go in... soften them up.', and in general, I see a balanced encounter and will often think 'how can rig the deck a bit more in my favour'. Also not a big fan of 'Narrative' games, like Powered by the Apocalypse. For whatever reason, they are the one genre I've never quite meshed with.  But yeah, I am generally open to try different systems, and flexible about my exact role in whatever party I join.
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Homebrew
Homebrew
...
Boston
Online
Adam
I’m an experienced GM, have run multiyear campaigns, and I regularly run games at local conventions. Preferred Systems: Mostly not D&D or similar traditional fantasy games.  Recent games include Agon, Unknown Armies, Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Mothership, Pendragon, Mythic Bastionland, Alien, Blade Runner, Symbaroum, Starforged, Over the Edge, Swords of the Serpentine, and Paranoia.  But I generally enjoy learning new systems Preferred Playstyle: Narrative and investigation are my first choice. I like roleplaying heavy games where choices carry weight and the setting matters: occult conspiracy, espionage, horror, gritty sci-fi, mythic adventure. Combat is fine when it’s brief, tense, and consequential rather than a grind. Character death in earned circumstances is fine.  I'm open to romance in games if the table is bought in.  I don't need a lot of rules but I care about the rules we agree on being consistent and well understood.  I enjoy and run both traditional RPGs and GMless story games. Preferred Tone: Serious stakes with room for humor. Warm, character-driven humor or dark humor works for me; contempt-driven or goofy comedy doesn’t.   I prefer a grounded game but pulp is fine as long as we're all on the same page. I’m happy to run a one-shot when the regular GM needs a break.
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