Ten Priests for Dragon Warriors

 So, following on from the ten random knights, I give you ten random priests. Except there’s really eleven, after I used one to fill a quick post in game and then added a replacement. Once again this is in the raw form I used in my own campaign.

Ten priests

1 Father Harald, tall, genial, long black hair, priest to ladies, not a monk...

"God does not deny joy"

2 Father Leopold, stern but non confrontational, keeps bees, brews mead, "fascinating creatures bees..." Tells bee parables, stretches it a bit

3 Father Rickon, blunt, black haired and bearded, "it is the will of God to suffer a fool, I am but a poor shadow of his grace" carries cudgel

4 Father Wulfric, willow thin, devoutly pacifist, sees the good in everyone even when their isn't any, trusts in God, forgiving of even the greatest sins

5 Father Osgar, brown hair, no beard, Tesshu like polymath, former knight, genuinely does not care if he lives or dies, faith is unshakeable, once took a beating from a Thulander thane to prove his faith was stronger than the man's hate, great calligrapher

6 Father Hrodgar, red faced, chubby, drinks, a lot, by turns incessantly cheerful and completely morose (now in Chapelfod's small monastery)

6a Father Llewin, cornumbrian, red hair, long drooping moustaches, great baritone, takes pity on small animals, 

7 Father Eardwulf, schemes, spies for the bishop, sees witches and heretics everywhere, secretly has them killed, renowned herbalist/clandestine poisoner,

8 Father Dunstan, tall, blonde, good looking bastard son of nobility, trained at arms but reluctant to fight, defender of the downtrodden, still has influence with his father

9 Father Cyneric, bookish, obsessed with the occult, knowledgeable but refuses to accept some things are better left alone (chapel at Saxton)

10 Father Aedelric, charming yet pure fucking evil in a cassock, sleeps with others wives, cruel to animals, revels in chaos for it's own sake and utterly self centred, although makes an outward show of piety......

Ten Knights for Dragon Warriors

 As my Dragon Warriors campaign is currently located half a world from Ellesland I thought I might share some of my old material in case it’s useful to other DW GMs. In any case I’m starting with this, a table on ten random knights you might meet in Northern Albion.

Ten Knights

1 Sir Readgar, mace and shield, black rose on a red field, zealous, sees heretics everywhere

2 Sir Rhaedbert, battle axe, red rose on a black field. Battle weary from the crusades, disillusioned, melancholy, thousand yard stare.

3 Sir Beornward, morning star and shield, white axe and sword on a green field. Devout, pious, dull. Very large. Montombre's man.

4 Sir Eodred, sword and shield, griffin rampant in gold on a green field. Dashing, brave, long curly hair. Has secret shame.

5 Sir Brictbald, greatsword, three stooping Hawks blue open a gold field.  Vicious, borderline robber knight.

6 Sir Caedfrith, warhammer, white lion head on an azure field. Tournament fighter, extremely strong, likes to drink fight and whore. Not a thinker.

7 Sir Eadwahl, sword, bow, two pike blue on a field of scarlet. Rough, country gentry, ancient line but poor. Fisherman knight. 

8 Sir Wilstan, axe and shield, black bear rampant on a field of argent. Gambler, owes money to merchants (including Earnwold) and others of low birth. Corrupt as a result. Raider. Sells slaves.

9 Sir Oslyn, spear, black boar's head of a white field. Proud, quick to anger, spoiling for a fight.

10 Sir Godward, mace, had a shield but constantly loses it. Three black crosses on a scarlet field. Drunk, friendly, not especially competent...

 

Don’t @ me about my descriptions of heraldry, if you want it done properly I cordially invite you to look elsewhere. 

I don’t tend to include stats in these sorts of things, I just eyeball the Stats for an Average Knight in the rulebook and decide what’s appropriate at the time.

In my campaign Sir Beornward was a feature for a while, as part of a rival group of adventurers in the service of Montombre. The PCs ripped off the others’ Holy Book heist before they could get there, and ended up in a confrontation with the group outside the small church in Igham. Churches seem to feature in a lot in this groups violent actions.

Art by @kekaikotaki on twitter 

Lockdown Gaming

During the lockdown I have gamed extensively, four times a week. Week in, week out. This has seen me actually use my Dungeon Crawl Classics rulebook for something other than a convenient perch for iPad. Also doing some real, actual playing as a player in other people’s games rather than just being the GM/referee all of the time.

I’ve been running Anomalous Subsurface Environment, the old school megadungeon written for Labyrinth Lord (although we’ve been using Lamentations of the Flame Princess rules because I have them in hard copy and they are easier to reference in that form.) This is my first and, probably only, attempt at running a megadungeon. It’s pretty great overall. The science-fantasy setting includes all sorts of weirdness, which might put off some more pure-fantasy mixed folks but I say give me a world ruled by despotic wizards and filled with cyborgs, dinosaurs and rejects from the sci-fi pop culture of yesteryear. It’s not that serious a game, just good fun.

I’ve been playing, and also trying my hand at running DCC. I played through The Chained Coffin scenario with one group (and also a nice home-brewed pulp 1940s adventure). With another group we ran through Hole in the Sky, Well of the Worm and are hex crawling the Treasure Vaults of Zababad. DCC has been a bit of a revelation to me, I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly and even drafted and run my own funnel; Crashed Black Ziggurat From Outer Space. This has led to sort of running a Crawljammer style game where I also ran Cry Freedom and Let Slip the Batmen of Venus from the Crawljammer zine #1. Thanks are due to Jürgen and Alex for introducing me to this excellent game.

Meanwhile my Dragon Warriors campaign has continued at an increased pace due to lack of social complications. This has seen the PCs leave the uncomfortable confines of Ellesland to pursue adventures in Ferromaine, briefly Molasaria and currently the Principalities of the Crusades. Much has been accomplished in this time but death has been a constant companion and only one character survives from the original four that set off to find funds to repair a church roof back in 2016. Interest in Dragon Warriors seems to be at a high point with an active discord server and more online games being played, plus the new zine Casket of Fays and the prospect of a new rule set designed specifically for Legend by Dave Morris in the works in the form of the Jewelspider RPG. Good times.

And last but by no means least I’m currently exploring Castle Drachenfels in WFRP 1st edition as a player. I finally ran WFRP in 2019 but what was meant to be a short campaign seemed cursed with many cancelled sessions and took nearly a whole year to work through even if we didn’t play that often. Castle Drachenfels is a contrast in that it’s high level stuff (or third career stuff in WFRP parlance) the other characters having already played through the entire Enemy Within campaign. Other people keep commenting to me that Castle Drachenfels is not that great an adventure but we’re having a great time with it, so cheers to Tom for running it.