Systems for Arthurian Fantasy?
 

Hello guys, after having tried to play the Pendragon system with a couple of my friends I started to wonder if there's a more... workable system. Playing a game set in the mythical Britain or even the "quasi historical" one that seems to be in favour these days has been a long time dream for us, but we have yet to find a system for it. As such, can you suggest systems for us to use and perhaps some adventure hooks and such?

A Song of Ice and Fire by Green Ronin would be a good way to go this route.

GURPS Camelot? FATE/Dresden Files? Savage Worlds?

Hmm, though I love SIFRPG to pieces, I doubt it would function very well in this. There's bound to be someone who wants to be a mage or something.

FATE might be worth looking into! Will check it out to see if one can convert Dresden Files into it.

I'd suggest Gurps or Fate

What was the challenge with Pendragon? I have a Pendragon game currently running here that just passed its 2-year anniversary.

I will admit that the system is a little old-school for me. If I were to run it from scratch, I'd use the ORE system (i.e. Reign). I did a fair amount of work to build a random char generation system for ORE, import passions, and stat the various regional powers of Salisbury as ORE companies, before I got "elected" to take over my current Pendragon campaign. I'd be happy to share if you're interested.

(It is worth noting, however, that I don't usually allow PC spellcasters, or at least not without a lot of work and time investment. I do have a sense of how magic works in my game, but it would likely be less flashy than what you might be looking for... no teleporting armies across the map, for example, nor blinding King Lot's armies with a flash of light off Excalibur.)

The biggest problem is the fact that the system -is- old school. The player base we can get together for it is minimal. Currently I play with two groups which broke away from my larger group due to RL issues such as work. We tried running Pendragon for the "newbier" group where only one other is a veteran like myself. The problem became even bigger when we tried to continue it on Skype due to another player having to move again. Then again, the issue is as much the group as the system.

Right now my friend and I have pretty much given up on running a continued game and will try to find a game to play in together unless we get a cadre of willing and interested players.

Any other feedback that would be helpful?

How "gritty" do you want the game to be? How detailed or how lose?
I think if you are interested in a system that details things down, role master or GURPs crunches pretty well. I know someone will suggest a d20/3.5D&D, but don't do it man!
A light system that goes for capturing "feel" more than numeric detail I'd lean toward FATE. Aspects can really differentiate characters and open things up.
A middle ground would be Savage Worlds. You can dial the lethality up and down by fiddling with the wound/damage rules. There are other systems out there, but those are easy to find players and source material for and can be set up to handle different genres.

I suggest Warrior, Rogue & Mage...it works very well if yu want magic not to be all over the place and the rules are simple enough for newbies to grasp. Though character creation is the toughest part, but with a little group effort it could all work out fine...I also still believe you can get it for free at DriveThruRPG.com...