Monday, 13 July 2009

Pendragon en Bretagne

I believe I'd like to run a Pendragon campaign set in Dark Ages Brittany (or Vriezh, or Bretagne, depending on your linguistic persuasion). In my opinion it is more or less perfect for what the game is geared for, with a little bit of added exotic flavour. Here are the key items of interest:
  • There was no central authority in Brittany for many centuries up to the 9th. Instead, there were a number of regional counts jostling for control. This makes for a nice bit of internal strife between petty noblemen, and plenty of opportunity for behind-the-scenes scheming for power.
  • Brittany had more or less the same roots as the Arthurian Britain which the core rules describe, being founded by Romano-British migrants and being of Celtic culture and blood.
  • It faced more or less the same threats which the Britons faced. From the East there came Germanic invaders bent on conquest (the Franks, related to the Angles, Saxons and Jutes); from overseas came Viking raiders and later the Normans. Ultimately, there was tragic defeat and suppression.
  • The Breton language looks and sounds really cool, full of 'z's and 'h's in interesting places. Viz: "Un urzhiataer zo gantañ", "Ra zeuio ho Rouantelezh."
  • If you play as a Bretonnic Knight you get to beat up loads of garlic chewing, frog leg eating, onion wearing, moustache twirling, snail fancying Frenchmen.
  • When it was united as the Duchy of Brittany (Dugelezh Vriezh, Duché de Bretagne), one of its earliest Dukes was called Conan.
Can't argue with all that now, can you?

(I like the French really.)

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