# Aspirations
…then the king stablished all his knights, and them that were of lands not rich he gave them lands, and charged them never to do outra¬geousity nor murder, and always to flee treason; also, by no means to be cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asketh mercy, upon pain of forfeiture of their worship and lordship of King Arthur for evermore; and always to do ladies, damosels, and gentlewomen succour, upon pain of death. Also, that no man take no battles in a wrongful quarrel for no law, nor for no world’s goods. Unto this were all the knights sworn of the Table Round, both old and young. And every year were they sworn at the high feast of Pentecost.
—Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, book III, chapter 15
Good knights aspire to become more than they are. Above all, they yearn for Honor and Glory.
Honor measures the conduct and quality of Player-characters. It reveals the degree to which they uphold the values of feudal society. Glory speaks of the deeds Player-characters accomplish. It is the lens through which the world perceives them, the legacy they pass on to their children, and the path to immortality.
Honor and Glory are achieved by fulfilling Ideals and realizing Ambitions.
# Honor
Nay, Said Sir Arthur, I may not so, for I have promised to do the battle to the uttermost, by the faith of my body, while me lasteth the life, and therefore I had liefer to die with honour than to live with shame; and if it were possible for me to die an hundred times, I had liefer to die so oft than yield me to thee; for though I lack weapon, I shall lack no worship, and if thou slay me with weaponless that shall be thy shame.
—Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, book IV, chapter 10
Honor is the measure of a knight’s integrity, decency, and morality. It is the basis for both personal and social conduct, both necessary and virtuous. Honor is inborn and inherent in every noble. It is automatic, so deeply ingrained that it is almost unconscious. Every noble naturally assumes other nobles have Honor until proven wrong. It is one’s sense of self-worth and the respect that others give. It is the driving force behind all lords, knights, ladies, squires, and esquires. Honor sets nobility apart from all other classes. Churchmen do not need Honor, for they are supposed to put the interests of God and Church before their own. Commoners do not need Honor, for they have enough difficulty just staying alive.
Honor upholds social norms and expectations. An underling must uphold their lord’s good name. Loyalty to lord, love of family, holding to class rules and bias, and upholding the universal custom of hospitality are all social norms. To violate these norms would be dishonorable.
Honor requires that members of a group accord each other mutual respect and act in prescribed ways towards each other. It is dishonorable for a knight to accuse another of cowardice because courage is a requirement of knighthood. Since only nobles are part of the group, no offense is given accusing peasants and clergy of being afraid. Actions outside of expectations are outside of Honor. For instance, it is not dishonorable to accuse another knight of being serious or funny, since those behaviors are not part of the knightly code.
Honor includes a personal code of integrity, pride, and dignity, that if questioned, requires response. The individual is free to determine some additional aspects of Honor, not related to common social consent. For instance, Chivalrous or religious ideals are individual sources of Honor.
Honor is a man’s or woman’s true worth. Honor is the measure of public trust and recognition of the common virtues. A knight may be bereft of land, wealth, lord, and family, have their Glory doubted, even be without horse and sword, clapped into a dismal dungeon; but if their Honor is intact, they are still fundamentally worthy. Glory without Honor is the definition of an unworthy wretch.
Honor measures trustworthiness in a world without written contracts. Without Honor, an oath is worth nothing, for without it the sworn word cannot be trusted. It is conceivable that a knight could cheat and connive, but still maintain their own sense of Honor as long as they do not violate the oath of knighthood, but it would be extremely difficult.
Honor increases by exercising virtues. Honor decreases through actions contrary to standards, or by defending those actions and losing. When someone deserves greater Honor, others grant it to them. A person cannot seize, buy, or trade Honor; they can only receive it from their peers. It depends entirely upon other people recognizing Honor and granting it. Thus, secret actions neither provide nor diminish Honor so long as they stay in the dark.
# Gaining Honor
Gaining a check to Honor requires the knight to perform an honorable deed that goes beyond their normal expected duties. Such deeds are usually the expression of a character’s Traits or Passions, and thus the check to Honor follows a successful Trait or Passion roll that also results in a check to that Trait or Passion. The Gamemaster may notify Players of these opportunities, or Players may ask if a check is deserved.
Some deeds that may give a check to Honor include:
- Granting clemency to a foe when none was asked for (Forgiving).
- Giving money to a starving village (minimum £10), or donating a similar sum to a religious community, or contributing at least one-tenth the total of the ransom of a non-relative (Generous).
- Keeping a secret, even under torture, or revealing sensitive or harmful information about yourself (Honest).
- Making a lawful decision against your own interest (Just).
- Granting clemency to a knight who asks for it (Merciful).
- Sharing your recently gained Glory with your fellows, even if they did not take part in the deed (Modest).
- Upholding the virtues of your religion in the face of great adversity (Spiritual).
- Re-entering battle with fewer than half of your Hit Points, or fighting when everyone else runs, or picking up a standard when the standard bearer has fallen or facing an enemy (3:1 odds against) and surviving, or causing a battle to be won (Valorous).
- Stopping a fight, or otherwise keeping the peace in a lord’s hall (Hospitality).
- Defending your liege lord’s honor, or following an order, or helping a superior when it is contrary to self-preservation (Homage or Fealty).
- Obeying an obviously unwise order or following an order when it is contrary to self-preservation (Fealty).
- Maintaining order in the face of a hostile mob (Station).
Honor increases the same as any other checked Statistic: roll against the value during The Winter Phase. If you roll above the value, it increases by 1 point.
# Losing Honor
It is far easier to lose Honor than it is to gain it. Once a knight has less than 5 Honor, they lose their title and noble society casts them out.
It is impossible to quantify everything that may cause characters to lose Honor, but over time the Gamemaster develops an intuitive measure. Examples follow to help in this development.
# Defending Honor
Player-characters must defend their Honor. Whenever someone publicly questions, doubts or insults a character’s Honor or a deeply-held personal virtue, the abuse requires action or else Honor diminishes. For instance, a would-be Chivalrous Player-knight may lose Honor if someone questions their valor, as Valorous is a Chivalrous Trait. Likewise, if a knight is dedicated to being Religious, they must defend their religious virtues. Failure to act upon an insult to one of these virtues results in a loss of Honor.
For example, Sir Cadwallon is Famously Merciful, so he reins in when he sees a knight strike a lady. The lady happens to be the wicked sister of his worst enemy and part of him wants to allow the abuse to continue. But he should act because he has a Merciful Trait of 17. To stop himself from acting, he opposes his Hate Passion against his Merciful Trait; the Hate Passion wins, and so Sir Cadwallon chooses not to intervene and rides on.
Sir Cadwallon has acted dishonorably. As a Chivalrous knight, he has pledged himself to protect all women, even those he knows to be wicked and ungodly. The Gamemaster declares that giving in to Hate costs him 2 Honor. Since his inaction had witnesses (i.e., it occurred in public), then his dishonor is not secret, and he immediately subtracts the points.
A knight must also defend the Honor of their family, their liege lord, and their king, for an attack on a lord’s Honor is an attack on the knight’s own. For instance, if a knight paid Homage or Fealty to a lord and someone publicly accuses that lord of being stingy at feasts, they also insult the knight’s own Honor. The knight must act, otherwise they may lose Honor.
When a knight must defend their Honor, they may attempt to use their Honor exactly as if it was a Passion to gain a bonus to one Skill. See Using Passions.
# Through Traits and Passions
Just as it is possible to gain Honor through your Traits and Passions, so too can they cause you to lose it if you act against them. The list below includes some violations of Honor that occur through a successful Trait or Passion roll.
When a violation occurs, the Gamemaster asks the Player to make a roll against a Trait or Passion that stands in opposition to the act, as indicated in the parentheses of the examples below. If the roll succeeds, immediately lose the indicated amount of Honor and gain a check to the Opposing Trait.
Thus, a Pagan knight with a high Lustful is more likely to lose Honor when their virility is called into question than a Chaste Christian knight.
Following are examples for how Honor may be lost for acting against Traits:
–1 to Honor
- Seduce a married noblewoman or cuckold a married nobleman (Chaste).
- Be idle during a crisis (Energetic).
- Lie, cheat at games, or steal (Honest).
- Fail to attend a feast in your honor or refuse a toast when offered (Indulgent).
- Have your virility questioned (Lustful).
- Boast to excess (Modest).
- Hold back your action (Reckless).
- Dress as a commoner, or insult a noble, or provoke a noble to insult you (Station).
- Disobey your liege over a small matter (Homage or Fealty).
- Insult another guest or your host (Hospitality).
–2 to Honor
- Defraud or slander someone (Just).
- Attack an unarmed knight, or kill them after they have begged for mercy, or can be ransomed (Merciful).
- Use missile weapons against another knight or build a place full of hidden traps to kill intruders (Valorous).
- Refuse an order from, or argue with, your liege (Fealty or Homage).
- Defer to a wealthy commoner, or publicly embarrass a noble (Station).
- Physically harm another guest (Hospitality).
–3 to Honor
- Perjure yourself (Just).
- Disobey your liege over a significant matter (Fealty or Homage).
- Physically harm your host (Hospitality).
- Perform hard labor or do any type of work a commoner would do (Station).
–4 to Honor
- Kidnap a lady (Merciful).
- Survive the killing of your liege if you were their bodyguard (Valorous).
- Defer to a poor commoner (Station).
–5 to Honor
- Kill a holy person of your religion (Spiritual).
- Use poison to kill (Valorous).
- Cause a battle to be lost while in service to your liege (Fealty or Homage).
- Kill another guest or your host (Hospitality).
–10 to Honor
- Unjustly kill a member of your family (Love [Family]).
- Betray your liege—reveal secrets, cause harm, kill, oppose in battle, etc. (Fealty or Homage).
This is not a list of absolutes; parts appear to be contradictory, but when dissembled into their cultural components they make sense.
# Through Inaction
A knight loses Honor when they ignore others’ dishonorable deeds as given in the previous section.
Other Passions can drive you to actions, and you lose Honor if you do not follow through on them. For instance, if someone insults a knight’s family, the knight must act. If someone slays their brother, the knight must avenge the death or lose Honor. “Revenge” could come as a blood feud, or as a simple Just settlement. Failure to act in this manner loses 1 Honor.
# Through Shame
A knight loses Honor when they do not fulfill a vow or break an oath. The Gamemaster decides how much Honor to dock (usually between 1 and 5 points depending on the gravity of the vow or oath violation and the knight’s reputation).
Losing a formal challenge or honorable fight defending the knight’s Honor, or on behalf of another, loses 1 point of Honor.
# Killing a Prisoner
A knight who kills a knight who has surrendered loses 5 Honor points. If the killer is Chivalrous, they instead lose 10 points.
# Grievous Dishonor
Some activities are so vile that they warrant a huge, instantaneous loss of 10 points of Honor, as well as other punishments in certain cases—up to and including death! These are crimes against the king, society, or the natural order of things.
- Breaking and Entering: entering another’s house without just cause to steal goods or harm the inhabitants, even a peasant’s house, is a crime against the king and is a capital offence (Honor loss and death sentence). “Just cause” does not include pillaging a foe or taking a castle, because fighting enemies is always considered Just.
- Fratricide/Sororicide: killing a brother or sister.
- Murder: to perfidiously kill someone outside of honorable combat is a high crime. Note that killing to protect a woman in danger is honorable. Killing someone in secret is murder. Even killing a criminal is the king’s prerogative unless you catch the criminal in the act.
- Parricide: killing a parent, even accidentally (Honor loss followed by outlawry); intentional murder for personal gain results in loss of all Honor and stripping of knight’s status.
- Rape: forcing sex upon someone is a capital crime (Honor loss and death sentence); the king’s court has jurisdiction over other cases.
- Rebellion/Treason: planning or acting against the monarch (Honor loss and death sentence).
- Working magic: dabbling in magic, trying to cast spells, making potions, or bargaining with spirits for magical powers (Honor loss and loss of knightly status).
# Glory
The object of the game is obtaining Glory.
Glory is the measure of fame accumulated for deeds done. Only nobles gain Glory.
Glory can increase, but never decrease. Bad behavior results in loss of Honor, but not Glory. In fact, successful bad behavior adds to Glory just as surely as successful good behavior.
Glory requires public acclamation. Deeds done in secret, or that go unobserved and unannounced, gain no Glory. If a secret deed later becomes public knowledge, the character receives retroactive Glory at the time of revelation.
Glory decides precedence when other factors are the same. However, Glory does not overrule the normal ranks of precedence. A great noble, such as a count, with 3,000 Glory enjoys precedence over a baron with 5,000; barons always rank higher than knights, and so on.
For every 1,000 points of Glory accumulated, knights gain one Prestige Reward. See Prestige Reward.
The more Glorious you are, the more likely it is that folk have heard of you and may recognize you or your heraldry. Add +1 to the Recognize Skill of others for every 1,000 points of Glory a character possesses.
# Gaining Glory
Under the proper circumstances, any non-routine act may win Glory. There are two requirement for this: successful resolution of an action with notable consequences, and public knowledge of the deed. Glory can accrue for winning at combat, for obtaining a social position, witnessing great actions, and especially for succeeding at a quest. The scenarios in Book III provide calculated Glory awards throughout. As Gamemaster, feel free to grant other Glory awards as you see fit, based on the examples given in that book and elsewhere in this text.
Never award more than 1,000 Glory for a single deed; such awards are once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
# Passive Glory
Passive Glory is a special type of award that automatically accrues each Winter Phase. The characters included in this Starter Set earn Passive Glory in one of three ways, detailed below: Appeal value, Ideals, and Traits & Passions.
# Appeal
Characters of Fair Appeal (13–15) gain 10 points of Glory each Winter Phase, while those of Elegant Appeal (16–18) gain 25, and Surpassing Appeal (19+) gain 50.
# Ideals
Religious knights (see Ideals, below) gain 100 points of Glory each Winter Phase they maintain their ideal for the year.
# Traits & Passions
Famous Traits and Passions add 15 points of Glory each year. Exalted Traits and Passions add 25 Glory. A character cannot gain more than 100 points of Passive Glory from each of Traits and Passions in a year.
# Ideals
Some noble folk do not settle for the usual norm but continually strive for perfection—to fulfill an Ideal. Naturally, definitions of “Ideal” vary between different people and different social classes. Pendragon quantifies the most important Ideals, each of which has different requirements and different bonuses obtained if the Ideal is attained.
Ideals grant bonuses. Each Ideal has different combinations of Skills, Passions, and Traits that require certain minimal values.
Knight characters may choose to pursue any one of the Ideals available to them, however some of these are mutually exclusive. Others overlap, and nothing keeps characters from fulfilling multiple Ideals whenever possible. Usually knights realize Ideals through action rather than official bestowment, and the benefits accrue as soon as the character qualifies.
# Chivalrous Knight
A Chivalrous Knight is one who aspires to the ideal of chivalry promoted by King Arthur early in his reign. Upon reaching this lofty ideal, a knight gains considerable benefits. The supernatural power of chivalry always functions and places, regardless of whether anyone is familiar with its actual tenets.
Benefits
- A Chivalrous Knight may invoke the Chivalry Passion if offended by something contrary to the Code of Chivalry (see Chivalry).
- Armor of Virtue: A Chivalrous Knight has tapped into the spiritual power of the age and it grants supernatural armor worth 4 points of Armor Protection. It acts as regular armor to block all damage, even that which would normally bypass armor, such as from falls, fires, and so on.
- 150 Passive Glory per year
- Protection from Magic and Miracles: A Chivalrous Knight may roll against their Chivalry Passion, with a success or critical success granting complete immunity from any supernatural effect that would cause them to directly violate a tenet of the Code of Chivalry.
Required Traits and Passions
People recognize Chivalrous knights by behavior and reputation. Although six different Traits are important, chivalry does not hold a person to have a minimum value in each Trait. Instead, chivalry strives for an average high quality from among them. Knights must have a total of 96 points among the following Traits.
Chivalrous Traits: Energetic, Generous, Just, Merciful, Modest, Valorous
The Gamemaster may rule that purposefully violating this code results in a loss of the Chivalrous Ideal. Chivalrous knights must maintain minimum values in each of the following three Passions. If the value of any of these Passions should ever drop below 10, the knight loses all Chivalrous benefits until such a time as their requisite scores are restored.
- Chivalry 15
- Station 10
- Hospitality 10
# Religious Knight
These are knights who follow a religious way of life. Such knights work hard to promote their religions through exemplary lifestyles and are usually treated as embodiments of the virtues of their faiths. Virtues are not fixed but vary according to a knight’s behavior. In general, behavior that is the opposite of a virtue is perceived as a vice. Religious Knights strive to exercise their virtues during their daily lives and avoid the temptations of vice. As a reward, the Religious Knight is blessed by their deity with increased vitality or strength.
Benefits
- Christian: Total Hit Points +4
- Pagan: Damage +2, Healing Rate +2
- Wodinic: +1D6 Damage
- All Religious Knights gain 100 Passive Glory per year
- Protection from Magic and Miracles: All Religious knights use their faith to protect themselves against magic (if Christian) and miracles (if Pagan). They may roll against their Devotion (Deity) Passion, with a success or critical success granting complete immunity from any magical or miraculous effects, depending on their religion.
Required Traits, Passion, and Skill
Bonuses are awarded to characters who maintain a minimum value of 16 in all the virtuous Traits of their own religion, as listed above. Below are the virtues of the three faiths most found amongst British knights.
- Christian: Chaste, Forgiving, Merciful, Modest, Spiritual, Temperate
- Pagan: Energetic, Generous, Honest, Lustful, Proud, Spiritual
- Wodinic: Generous, Indulgent, Proud, Reckless, Valorous, Worldly
Religious Knights must maintain minimum values for the following Passion and Skill. If the value of either of these should ever drop below 10, the knight loses all religious benefits until such a time as their requisite scores are restored.
- Devotion (Deity) 16
- Religion (same as character) 10