Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 62.142.248.1

Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 6
Advanced Saxon Character Generation
Review the Advanced Character Generation system
(Pendragon pages 47-58). Many of these rules, like the
rolls for Statistics and Traits, can create more idiosyncratic
Saxon characters. The following rules expand that system.
Recommended Rule: Improved Previous Experience
As noted in Basic Saxon Character Generation Step 8, all
Pendragon characters now gain three Previous Experience
Benefits per year between the year they turn 15 and the
year they enter play. This new rule gives players more
fully developed starting characters, enables PCs and NPCs
to reach professional adulthood at a more realistic age,
and encourages often-neglected skills like Compose or
Falconry by forcing players to spread their benefits over
three ratings each year. Most characters will now enter
play between ages 21 and 25. Gamemasters may even
require characters to enter play no older than 25.
This recommended rules revision is best introduced at
beginning of a new Pendragon campaign. Introducing it
into an existing campaign requires careful consideration,
since it may favor new characters over old characters.
Optionally, gamemasters may give old characters one or
two extra Winter Phase Training and Practice Benefits per
year until they “catch up,” phasing these Benefits in over
six or more winters.
Recommended Rule: Winter Phase ’Raining and Practice
This note applies to Training over Winter by established
characters (Pendragon page 186). Generally, characters
receive the same Training and Practice as before: one
Benefit per year. The two extra Benefits gained in
Improved Previous Experience represent hypothetical
“experience checks” resolved during the unplayed adolescent
years. In that light, gamemasters may spend three
Winter Benefits per year to update non-player characters,
or player characters who are utterly out of play (no
adventures, no solos) for years at a time.
Note that under both new and old rules, Winter Training
lets you increase skills that start at 0, while Previous
Experience does not.
Optional Rule: Improved Family Characteristics
As noted in Basic Character Generation step 7, players can
use Father’s Class benefits (only) to increase a Family
Characteristic up to its bonus +15 (hence up to 20 for a
+5 bonus, and up to 25 for a +10 bonus). After the
Father’s Class step, these skills increase by normal rules.
This rule encourages character idiosyncracy. Use it if you
feel that skills like Singing, in your campaign, are too
rarely increased or attempted. This must be weighed
against the risk of too cheaply increasing a skill that is
actually crucial to your game - which Singing might be
in a campaign centered on bards, for example.
When using this rule, a character passes on only 1/2 the
normal bonus to his child if he has not increased his
Family Characteristic by at least 5 points by the Winter
Phase when the child is conceived. A GM may allow a
child to be a “throw back” to previous levels of skill.
British Characters for the Saxons! Campaign
Create British characters using the phase One Character
Generation rules from The Boy King, and from the notes
in the “Chronicle” chapter of this book. Without The Boy
King, use Roman or tribal Cymric characters from
Pendragon.
Mixed Children, Foster Children, Stepchildren
Many heroes come from complicated families. You may
choose a mixed family background as a role-playing exercise,
or to reflect campaign or Lineage events.
Mixed Children
Children may have two sets of cultural-determined
Statistic modifiers due to intermarriage, raider rape, or
the begetting of bastards upon foreign concubines. You
may use any combination of your parents’ Statistic modifiers,
as long as your net Statistic gain does not exceed
+3. Example: A CymridSaxon may choose from the following
Statistic modifiers: +3 CON, +3 STR, +3 SIZ, -3
DEX. He may use part or all of any of these modifiers, as
long as he does not gain more than a net +3 to his statistics.
He might choose -3 DEX and +2 to each of CON,
STR, and SIZ, or -3 DEX, +3 STR, +3 CON, among many
combinations.
Mixed children gain both sets of Cultural Trait modifiers,
but reduce each modifier by -1. These may cancel each
other out (+1 Chaste, +1 Lustful = 0). Mixed children
inherit Family Characteristics from their fathers.
Foster Children
First, work with your GM to decide why you were fostered.
Were your parents slain by enemies, leaving you in
the care of your uncle, or are you a hostage to the good
behavior of your birth family? Some cultures (the Irish
and the Picts in particular) customarily foster out noble