[Project] The True History of Camelot

[RyanPaddy]

Here's an idea for a small, simple project that I'd be happy to lead as an online collaboration. See my suggestions for how these projects could work here: http://www.larplist.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=622

The type of project is a scenario with pre-written characters. The writeup will be systemless. The characters will have suggestions for types of abilities they might possess, but not mechanics. Any system could be used to run the scenario, with live or abstract resolution.

The vision is a short scenario for 6 players that details a meeting between several of the major characters in the Arthurian legends. For example these could be Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, Lancelot, Mordred, and Morgan Le Fay. In the Arthurian timeline, it could be set around the time when Mordred schemed to have it made public that Guinevere and Lancelot were lovers, in order to break up the Round Table.

The scenario will consist solely of writeups for the characters, and a common background that all the players can read. There will be no scripted events, and no NPCs. Each character writeup will be no longer than 2 A4 pages, more likely 1 page. The player briefing will be no longer than 2 pages. The finished work will not be longer than 12 pages. The tone will be lighthearted, but there could be some serious dramatic undertones so it can be played both ways.

Who'd be interested in helping write characters or the player briefing? You don't have to make a solid commitment, just "I'll help out when I have time" is cool. If there's a particular character you'd enjoy writing then chime in.

Mike (buggy), would you be interested in being the technical advisor for this? I was really impressed with your work on a project of this type - the "Humans vs Monsters" scenario in "The Book of LARP". Being advisor means not having to do any writing unless you feel like it, just commenting on how we can stay on track to produce a decent end result by your standards. If you have an overview of your methodology for writing this type of scenario, that'd be really valuable too.

Anyone like to volunteer to put it into PDF format? That involves doing layout, sourcing images, etc. There are heaps of copyright-free paintings and illustrations on the subject, or you could find someone to do originals. Don't need someone immediately for this role, we can always bring on someone to do layout further down the track.

This is a concept that I've had floating around in my head for a while, and it seems like a natural setup for this type of scenario. There are plenty of sources for inspiration. T. H. White's "The Once and Future King" is a lovely read that really digs into the characters and plays up the humour. You can go back to the classic source of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, although it's pretty dry reading. Also, there's an article on RPG.net about the "Arthurian Romance" genre.

[buggy]

Thanks Ryan. It sounds interesting, but my plate is full. I'm working on two larp projects and YaYoG in my spare time. Then, in July when those two are run, I have another large larp in August and one in September.

Then I get to sleep.

Thank you though.

Mike

[RyanPaddy]

No worries Mike. Feel free to comment anyway if you happen to be reading and have any thoughts.

Anyone else got experience in scenarios with pre-written characters?

I don't expect this to be a laborious project that takes a lot of time, just a few minutes or hours here and there when you're available. It's intentionally designed to have a small scope and have subject matter that you may already be familiar with.

[Malor]

I'd like to give a hand. I have written characters in mini one-off games with a limited scope, primarily designed to give people a structured first taste at larp. I have also got a lot of experience with lay-out and PDF, as I am layouting my club's rulebook now and I have allready done exactly that with a 40 page "intro to larp" book.

Writing and PDF-ing sounds cool. I can also easily find a few people to pose for pictures if we need those.

Cya,
Sander
_________________
Whoever said "Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder" never played D&D

[RyanPaddy]

Cool Sander, welcome aboard.

I hadn't thought of photos, that could be a fun way to illustrate the scenario if you have suitable models and costumes. I may have some available too (some SCA/swordfighting friends), and I've got a decent digital camera as well.

I think you're on the right track with the "introduction to LARP" idea. Our target market should definitely be first-timers. The player's briefing will probably need a short primer on the LARP medium. Which reminds me, we'll probably need a page directed at the organsier of the game, describing how to run it.

What do you think about characters and place in the Arthurian timeline? I figure we'll do an overview of how the characters link together first, then write the character briefings. Any particular character(s) you'd enjoy writing?

[buggy]

Well, you are welcome to any of the "intro to larp" stuff I've written in the book of larp. If you're interested pm me and I'll e-mail it to you.

[RyanPaddy]

Hey, that's great thanks Mike. I'm sure we'll want a very concise intro, but we may be able to borrow a paragraph here and there from your text to give us a leg up. So long as you're happy with our final PDF containing some of your work and being freely available.

If you could send it to ryan@mordavia.com that'd be much appreciated.

[Grimace_Reaper]

You can count me in if you need any B&W art for the project, all I need is to know exactly how big you want em, and what format.
Thats if you need them that is, examples of my work can be found at http://grims-dark-arts.webitsmart.co.uk
Just say if you need me.

[Malor]

[RyanPaddy]

Grimace_Reaper - great, thanks for the offer. It looks like we may be going with photos for the character images, but I'm sure there will be other image elements in the design that you can work on. For example, there might be some sort of border, corner flourishes, or embellished titles with Authurian iconography; crown, castle, knight, dragon, grail, etc. Malor is in charge of the PDF, so he can give you direction on it.

Malor - no worries, I'm organising an event for this weekend so I've been busy too. I expect we'll work on it as time is available, no pressure.

I agree it should be very character-based, and I think with the 6 characters I mentioned there will be no problem sharing the spotlight away from Arthur. The wizard, the witch, the world's greatest knight, the king's bastard son and nemesis, the loving but unfaithful queen - these are all big deep desirable roles, no extras in there.

I see the meeting of the game as being a "secret" meeting that was never told of in the legends. And it could result in a drastically different outcome than what's usually described. That's why I suggest the title "The True History of Camelot", the idea being that whatever happens in the game is what "really" happened, and the various legends may be incorrect. The meeting could take place in some rooms in Camelot, or in a large pavilion (which is possibly more suited as a secret meeting place in the woods).

It could be done with or without costumes and appropriate sets, depending on the inclinations and capabilities of the organiser and players. We could give suggestions on costume.

Here's a summary of the characters. This is without the character depth, just the raw background and links between them. It sounds like you're very familiar with the legend, but it'll be good to make sure we share a concept of it, especially given how many versions of the legend exist. Quite likely I remember it wrong and need some correcting, too. I can't remember where we are in relation to the Holy Grail quest at this point in the timetime. Should probably be mentioned whether it's in progress or completed. Some of the information below will probably turn up in the general player briefing, some in the specific character briefs. This is mostly derived from the Le Mort d'Arthur storyline, probably the best known and the basis for The Once and Future King.

Arthur Pendragon
King of England, son of Uther and Igraine. Married to Guinevere. Father of Mordred. Student of Merlin. Half-brother of Morgan le Fay. Was adopted and raised without knowledge of his birthright, was tutored by Merlin, then proved his birth by drawing a sword from a stone/anvil. Crowned King, set out to unite a divided England under his rule. Married the noble Guinevere for love, which also helped draw in her father's lands of Cameliard. Formed the Round Table, of which Lancelot was the greatest knight, to uphold the ideal of chivalry to the nobles of the land. Was tricked by his half-sister Morgan le Fay into conceiving Mordred. Set the bastard son adrift as a baby, but when the babe survived Arthur later repented and allowed him into his court out of guilt. Is aware that Guinevere is unfaithful with Lancelot, but Arthur loves Lancelot and does not want to split the Round Table or Camelot. In many legends it is said that the King is linked spiritually to the land, and if he sickens it will too. He can fight, but his greatest strength is probably the loyalty he inspires, and rightful possession of the sword Excaliber which makes him invulnerable in combat - I think only so long as he fights for good.

Guinevere
Queen of England, daughter of Leodegrance of Cameliard, husband to Arthur. Loves her husband, but is having an affair with Lancelot. Clearly more information and motivation needed here, room for a lot of characterisation and interpretation. Could play up her political power.

Merlin
Wizard of Arthur's court. Story of origin varies. Arranged Arthur's birth by tricking Igraine into thinking Uther was her husband and arranging the death of Igraine's husband the Duke of Cornwall. Tutored Arthur. Arranged Arthur's ascent to the throne. Mentored his kingship. Greatest strength is magic. May have arranged this meeting.

Lancelot du Lake
Greatest knight of the Round Table. Loyal to Arthur, but having an affair with his wife Guinevere. Son of King Ban of Benwick, was raised by the Lady of the Lake who also gave Arthur Excaliber. Quested for the Holy Grail but failed - his bastard son Galahad succeeded (but this may not have happened yet in timeline). Strength is being the greatest knight in the realm. Weakness may be mental instability.

Mordred
Bastard son of Arthur and Arthur's half-sister Morgan le Fay. Arthur tried to kill him as a baby by sending all infants who were born on the same day as him out to sea on a raft. But Mordred survived and was raised by his mother Morgan, possibly on Orkney. He came to Arthur's court where he was accepted as a Knight out of guilt. Plans to tear apart Camelot by making public the love affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, forcing Arthur to execute or exile his wife and greatest Knight, both of whom are also politically important to the court. Can fight, but greatest strength is his willingness to do anything to get what he wants - to be King of England and have vengence.

Morgan le Fay
Legitimate daughter of the late Duke of Cornwall and Igraine. Half-sister to Arthur. Mother of Mordred. Possibly ruler of Orkney. Seeks vengence on Arthur for both his father's wrongdoings and his own. Opposed to Merlin, who arranged the deceipt of her mother and death of her father. Greatest strength is witchcraft including healing, trickery, and various potions. May have arranged this meeting.

If Malor is doing a couple of characters, I'll probably do a couple too. Leaving a couple free if someone else wants to come on board and choose between Morgan, Merlin, Arthur, and Guenevere.

[RyanPaddy]

It occurs to me that if we wanted a seventh character (and to even out the male-female ratio a bit) it could be the Lady of the Lake. Having raised Lancelot, conditionally given Arthur Excaliber, and potentially being the magical woman who enchants and imprisions her lover Merlin, she could tie in well. May need to be re-interpreted as a noble lady rather than a water spirit - or could be somehow both.

Don't think we need an extra character, just an idea to keep in mind.

[RyanPaddy]

Okay, here are the steps I see this project needing. It's not a solid order of events, most likely we'll jump around between them.

* set up the framework, the reasons for interaction between the characters. The characters will hang off this framework. It includes abstract and concrete goals for the characters, resources and abililities available to them, and ways that they can affect each other and the environment. Ideally it should create an environment where the various possible outcomes balance on a razor edge so that the game is unpredictable and can turn out differently each time it's run.

* write the player character briefings. The briefings should be centered around the framework, focusing on giving characters reasons to interact and ways to do so. But they should also be creative and inspiring, giving new twists to these well known literary characters.

* write the general player briefing. This is the textual foreplay for the LARP, setting the scene and putting the players in the mood for the style of game we've written. It should contain all the relevant commonly known information, and give the players a glimpse into parts of the game that their character briefings may not relate to directly so they have a picture of the overall scenario.

* write the organiser notes. These explain how to run the game, which in this case will be arranged so that it could be organised by one person with no previous LARP experience.

* do the PDF. Layout, graphic elements, final editing and proofreading, etc.

Chances are we will have to revisit each part a number of times. Not only will the text develop piecemeal, sometimes we'll have to completely re-write parts of it either to improve them or bring them into line with the developing vision for the project. Likewise with the PDF, it may go through several iterations.

That's the nature of this kind of collaboration I think, so rather than trying to impose some sort of strict write-edit-layout-release plan we should just roll with what happens. Inevitably, each of us will have ideas that we think are cool but which don't integrate into the overall project. While one person may write the first draft of a character, someone else might revise it, and another person may do a final revision to bring it into line with all the other characters.

This will all happen here online, so expect:
* A bunch of long forum posts. Get over any inhibitions about writing or reading large posts on a forum now, before we start. We'll probably write the whole text of the document (with a lot of copy/paste and revising) several times over before it's complete.
* Some very unpolished and unfinished text in this thread, which will gradually improve over several revisions until it's ready for publication. Try to get your text into the best state you can before posting, but don't be embaressed to post things that aren't finished enough for the final work. It's better to have unfinished text up for comment than nothing, and other collaborators can pitch in and help polish it. I want everything to be up-front so that anyone reading this can see how it was done, and how all projects start out rough and need a lot of polishing.
* Arguments about direction. Dissent is good, it breeds innovation. As project leader I'll have to create enough unity of vision to ensure a final product, but expect a lot of disagreement along the way.

First up let's discuss the framework, what the characters are trying to achieve and how they can go about it.

[Malor]

Framework. Hmm. I have an idea, but this is just a framework, mind you. It is based on a few ideas earlier in this thread.

"We're in a small keep a day's journey from Camelot. Unoccupied at the moment and situated in no man's land it is considered neutral territory for all involved. At the behest of Merlin several notable figures have gathered, without retinue and unbeknowst to even their closest allies. Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot du Lake, Mordred, Morgan le Fay and the Lady of the Lake gather around their host, Merlin, in what was the main hall. The floor is laid out in a mosaic-style, mimicking a chessboard and in the center stands a huge table, its oak not yet deteriorated by the humidity. Huge candles and several torches fight against the gloom as the participants arrive one by one.
Hostility is in the air. Arthur stands near Guinevere, staring back and forth at Lancelot and Mordred. Morgan Le Fay has strategically positioned herself across the table near her Champion, the young Mordred, and warily eyes her sister, the Lady of the Lake. Lancelot is quiet, clearly not wanting to pick a side but constantly seeking Guinevere as she stands close to Arthur. Merlin patiently says nothing, waiting untill all have arrived.
After a short moment where the tension in the air is almost palpable, he starts speaking, explaining about how the infighting is weakening the Old Way, the kingdom and all involved, and that it should stop. If an agreement cannot be reached, he states, then all what has been accomplished shall fall to ashes and become the stuff of myth and legend, negating centuries of worship and hard work."

In this framework the players are let loose, all with their own motivations and goals for the evening. The question of course is if they can temporarily set aside their differences... and the next question is who will come out on top with their agenda. Personally we should maybe add a little spice to this story to make sure it lasts an evenening or half a day, but this basis should work okay from a roleplaying perspective. It would also give Merlin a bit of a referee-function in terms of the debate. Ow, and I took some liberty's with the setting, but that could pretty much be anywhere.

Cya,
Sander
_________________
Whoever said "Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder" never played D&D

[Jupe]

A sidenote to all this :

Using characters that exist already is always a) very easy b) really hard

Using this Arthurian things as an example :
Arthurian theme is often used in many different places, RPG, Larps, literature, movies, so many players will have pre-set attitudes over the characters of Arthur, Guinevere etc. When several players gather, they may have dozen or so different views of Arthurian legends. Original Malory, one from playing too much Pendragon, one from Mists of the Avalon, one from Holdstock, one from Winterking... I always see Lancelot as a spoiled brat (as I am fan of the Winterking) even as Malory pictures him as the greatest knight (until the failure with Guinevere / the Grail quest)...

In countries where we use lot's of DM written characters, we often try to avoid using the existing characters like these in the actual event. Characters may know them, even interact with them, but usually we keep them away... (Arthurian legends are actually an exception here, most Arthurian games have the original cast in some sense)


(Oh, and yes, I like the idea. I just said what I had to say, no intention of being negative. Thumbs up for the scenario)
_________________
Very few rules, very good games and ... Awesome food.

[RyanPaddy]

Cool Sander, I like that setup it has nice atmosphere. We'll need to flesh out the framework in terms of objectives of the characters and resources/capabilities.

Jupe, yes people have wildly differing takes on the characters. We'll need to make it clear from that start that this is just one possible interpretation, make the character briefings clear on what that interpretation is, and preferably leave some room for different players to put their own spin into the game without causing contradictions between the characters.

I'd like to think that the finished scenario could be played with somewhat different spins on the characters and setting each time and still hold up. I like the idea of it playing differently every time.

Jupe, would you be interested in playing expert advisor on this? No requirement for writing, just reading this thread occaisionally and making comment, like you've done. Only if you feel you have a little time free here and there, of course.