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The Great Pendragon Campaign
For 1500 years King Arthur’s story has been told around campfires, in noble courts, in taverns, books, movies and now, with the prize-winning King Arthur Pendragon roleplaying game, at your game table. The Great Pendragon Campaign begins during the reign of Arthur’s father King Uther, when player knights can participate in the events of Arthur’s conception. The long and brutal Interregnum of Saxon wars is forever altered when Arthur draws the Sword from the Stone to start his great and glorious reign. The Boy King leads his knights through periods of consolidation and expansion until the entire Western world is brought under his sway. Then, to High Adventure! Knights gain Glory and lands in the periods of Romance and Tournaments, and at last engage in the greatest adventure of all, The Quest for the Holy Grail. Then, amidst tragedy and broken dreams, the Twilight Period draws the epic to a close. Eighty years of campaign detailed year-by-year provide the background, on-going events and adventures that define structure of King Arthur’s glorious reign. The Magic is in The Details, and The Details are in This Book. Included in this book * Year-by-year details from 485 to 566. * Maps and descriptions of Logres, Cambria. Cornwall, Brittany, Cumbria, the North, Ireland and France * Maps of the important cities of Britain, including Early and Late Camelot and London * Over 100 Adventures * Statistics for over 50 Faerie Creatures and Nonplayer Characters * Expansions for the Pendragon rules “I’ve been working on this book for over 20 years, since the first publication of King Arthur Pendragon. This is the culmination of forty years of research, pleasure and gaming. It’s a tremendous joy to bring my love of the legend all together here.” –Greg Stafford, designer of King Arthur Pendragon
Hardcover
First published November 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 2, 2023
I ran the Platinum Extended edition of this campaign for over 7 years. Worth it.
MY GRADE: A-minus to A.
MY GRADE: A-minus to A.
August 7, 2020
I rather torn on my rating for this book.
On the one hand it is rather well done, and presents a comprehensive 80 year long dynastic campaign covering the entire sweep of the Arthurian legend.
I foresee two troubles with this book.
First of all, it's not really a campaign in the modern sense. Almost all the events are very bare bones and will require extensive fleshing out by the GM in order to make them interesting. In many cases, the GM will need to supplement the events in the story with numerous lesser events of their own invention. In short this is more of a campaign framework than an actual premade campaign, and is suitable only for either a highly experienced GM with good extemporaneous skills or one that is willing to buy supplemental material and/or spend 5-10 hours a week fleshing out and preparing scenarios.
And word of warning, if you think you are a really skilled extemporaneous GM, chances are you are suffering Dunning-Kruger effect. No GM I've ever met skilled enough to really go extemporaneous prefers to do so, because the necessary skill to run games extemporaneously is born out of a lot of time spent preparing games. So in short, do not buy this book thinking that you can just flip it open and run a Pendragon campaign.
The second trouble I see is I can't imagine this campaign ever being finished by an average group. Between book keeping and combat and fleshing out the RP, there is literally thousands or if not tens of thousands of hours of game play involved in starting knightly families and then playing out a multi-generational dynasty during a period of epic wars and quests. This is almost certainly more than any group however stable is likely to finish.
Of course, both of those problems may not be viewed by you as problems at all, and that is in fact pretty much why I give the book four stars. As a supplement and a setting, this is a veritable gold mine of ideas to inspire endless creativity by GMs of moderate to great experience. And viewed with that as it's purpose, this is one of the finest setting books I've ever encountered because it doesn't just deal with the who and where of the setting, but with events and the passage of time. It not only provides space for adventure, but tells you how and why such adventures may take place. In the hands of a novice any such long form 'adventure' is likely to become railroady and redundant, but I don't think it would require extraordinary skill to use this as a basis of a truly extraordinary game.
If you are new to Game Mastery or are looking for something that involves little work to run, then this is probably more of a 3 star book.
On the one hand it is rather well done, and presents a comprehensive 80 year long dynastic campaign covering the entire sweep of the Arthurian legend.
I foresee two troubles with this book.
First of all, it's not really a campaign in the modern sense. Almost all the events are very bare bones and will require extensive fleshing out by the GM in order to make them interesting. In many cases, the GM will need to supplement the events in the story with numerous lesser events of their own invention. In short this is more of a campaign framework than an actual premade campaign, and is suitable only for either a highly experienced GM with good extemporaneous skills or one that is willing to buy supplemental material and/or spend 5-10 hours a week fleshing out and preparing scenarios.
And word of warning, if you think you are a really skilled extemporaneous GM, chances are you are suffering Dunning-Kruger effect. No GM I've ever met skilled enough to really go extemporaneous prefers to do so, because the necessary skill to run games extemporaneously is born out of a lot of time spent preparing games. So in short, do not buy this book thinking that you can just flip it open and run a Pendragon campaign.
The second trouble I see is I can't imagine this campaign ever being finished by an average group. Between book keeping and combat and fleshing out the RP, there is literally thousands or if not tens of thousands of hours of game play involved in starting knightly families and then playing out a multi-generational dynasty during a period of epic wars and quests. This is almost certainly more than any group however stable is likely to finish.
Of course, both of those problems may not be viewed by you as problems at all, and that is in fact pretty much why I give the book four stars. As a supplement and a setting, this is a veritable gold mine of ideas to inspire endless creativity by GMs of moderate to great experience. And viewed with that as it's purpose, this is one of the finest setting books I've ever encountered because it doesn't just deal with the who and where of the setting, but with events and the passage of time. It not only provides space for adventure, but tells you how and why such adventures may take place. In the hands of a novice any such long form 'adventure' is likely to become railroady and redundant, but I don't think it would require extraordinary skill to use this as a basis of a truly extraordinary game.
If you are new to Game Mastery or are looking for something that involves little work to run, then this is probably more of a 3 star book.
May 11, 2009
Whilst I may not get around to listing all my roleplaying books here on Goodreads, this one had to be included. This is quite simply the best rpg supplement I've ever come across. Designed for the Pendragon rpg, it is an 80 year epic campaign running from the time of Uther, through the rise of Arthur and his Kingdom through to his Fall and the end of this magical age. A great read, and even better to run and play. In case you've not got the hint, I'm a big fan!
May 1, 2013
This is the single greatest RPG supplement ever written.
December 1, 2022
Greg Stafford's magnum opus makes the entire span of the Arthurian age, from the reign of Uther to the fall of Arthur in his final battle, available for gaming purposes. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
September 8, 2025
Currently running it. A massive effort, but what a great saga. You'll seldomly find a better source for the Arthurian Myth.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews