Chaosium’s ‘Pendragon 6E’ Hits Shelves In April – Arthurian Adventures Await
A first look at the upcoming Pendragon 6E Player’s Handbook shows off the depth of Arthurian adventures coming later this year.
Chaosium might be best known for the Call of Cthulhu RPG, a game in which hapless investigators discover eldritch horrors and find horrible ends in an effort to combat them and keep the world safe, but the venerable publisher has two different lines of fantasy adventures as well. If you’ve ever played RuneQuest you’re familiar with the biggest one.
But Pendragon, the RPG of Arthurian Knights ruled by passions and virtues with campaigns meant to span generations, might be one of Chaosium’s favorites.
The original Pendragon quickly won critical acclaim. With its new ideas of knightly virtues and vices, with rules that broke away from the wargame paradigm at the time, many were blown away. Last year, Chaosium released a starter set for Pendragon 6E, complete with solo adventure and pre-generated characters. But today we got a first glimpse at the full Pendragon 6E Player’s Handbooks thanks to Dicebreaker, whose first look reveals dates and more.
Pendragon 6E – Coming April 2024
Pictured above is the 6E player’s handbook. As you might expect, the Pendragon PHB is just the beginning. Chaosium also has a GM’s guide and Noble’s Handbook that promises “more advanced rules for higher-level play” in the works. But the first one to hit shelves will be the Player’s Handbook.
The book itself will have full character creation rules, something fans of the Starter Set will be excited to play around with. But of particular interest here is Chaosium’s focus on designer Greg Stafford’s vision for the game. In late 2018, when Stafford passed away, he left behind a draft of 6th Edition which designers have been working from, as described by Dicebreaker:
“Pendragon’s Sixth Edition represents what Stafford described as the “Ultimate” vision of his RPG, with the designer working on the rules for a decade before his death.”
New mechanics join revised rules. Players can expect to see “overhauled rules for battles and sieges” along with more non-male knights and new artwork, including “full-colour interior illustrations” from Jeff Richard and Simeon Cogswell.
But April holds more than just the 6E Player’s Handbook for Pendragon.
Along with the new PHB, Pendragon 6E launches with a revised version of The Grey Knight, the first ever adventure for Pendragon when it released back in the 80s. The adventure, written by the co-designer of the legendary Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign, features a very Arthurian quest, where the players are sent off to find the Thirteen Treasures of Britain to figure out how to save Sir Gawaine from death at the hands of the Grey Knight.
Look for the Pendragon 6E Player’s Handbook and The Grey Knight in April, and the rest soon(ish) after!
