With Knights & Ladies Adventurous due to go into its final development pass this summer, I thought I’d share the basic play-test notes I wrote up about four years ago concerning cultural bonuses. As with all play-test material, this is subject to change, but feel free to use it in your home games if you’d like to experiment with making knights from other cultures besides the default Cymri presented in the Core Rulebook. If you do, be sure to let me know in the comments how it goes!
Fun Pendragon trivia: These are the notes I used to create the various characters from the Starter Set!
Enjoy!
With the introduction of Cultural Skill Modifiers in 6th edition Pendragon, we have leeway to take a somewhat nuanced approach to how we handle Characteristic modifiers by culture.
The new approach aims to root itself in Medieval ideas of culture and geography. The Picts are descended from nomadic Scythians, for example. To the Celts, everyone across the sea are either Scythians or Germans. Keep walking and eventually you run into Romans. Beyond them live the Huns in the east and the Zazamancs in the south.
Cultural Skill Packages are how we differentiate sub-groups of these broad cultural groups. So, for example, the Celts may be divided up into the “feudal” and “urban” Cymri (in old editions, the Cymric and Roman cultures; the “feudal” Cymri are the Core Rulebook default), the Irish, and the Bretons. The Latins include the Romans, of course, but also the Greeks of the Eastern Empire, the Romanized Spanish living under Visigothic rule, and the Aquitanians—everyone still subject to old Imperial Roman cultural influence, essentially. Germans encompass a sweeping group, from the Saxons and Danes in the north to the expansionist Franks, and the Goths of Spain and Italy. The Picts of Caledonia (and elsewhere) share a common Scythian origin with the dwindling Alan population of Brittany, the last remnants of Sarmatian mercenaries brought west by the Romans to man a wild frontier.
I'm in the process of sourcing quotes for each of these cultural groups, but we're basing modifiers off what ancient scholars wrote about each. Most notably, the +3 DEX modifier for Scythians comes from a variety of sources describing them (and their Pictish descendents) as “lanky” or “long and loose-limbed.” In other words, although they are tall and long of stride and reach, they are not as densely muscled as the Germans, and thus do not have a built-in SIZ bonus.
Celts
+3 CON
Cultural Skill Bonuses
Cymri
Knights: +3 Charge, Horsemanship, Courtesy*
Ladies: +3 Industry, Stewardship, Courtesy*
Irish
Knights: +3 Spear, Orate, Play Instrument
Ladies: +3 First Aid, Folklore, Singing
Bretons
Knights: +3 Spear, Horsemanship, Courtesy
Ladies: +3 Chirurgery, Stewardship, Courtesy
*Cymri from Roman cities may use the Latin Cultural Skill Bonus instead, at the Player's option.
Germans
+3 SIZ
Cultural Skill Bonuses
Saxons
Knights: +3 Two-handed Hafted, Gaming, Singing*
Ladies: +3 Industry, Intrigue, Singing*
Danes
Knights: +3 Sword, Hunting, Seamanship**
Ladies: +3 Chirugery, Folklore, Industry
Franks
Knights: +3 Horsemanship, Intrigue, Thrown Weapon
Ladies: +3 Brawling, First Aid, Stewardship
Goths
Knights: +3 Hafted, Folklore, Orate
Ladies: +3 First Aid, Religion (type), Stewardship
*Saxons from Berroc County may use the Cymri Cultural Skill Bonus instead, at the Player's option.
**New Skill
Scythians
+3 DEX
Cultural Skill Bonus
Picts
Knights: +3 Spear, Folklore, Hunting*
Ladies: +3 First Aid, Folklore, Industry*
Alans
Knights: +3 Bow, Battle, Horsemanship
Ladies: +3 Bow, Falconry, Horsemanship
*Picts from Jagent County may use the Cymri Cultural Skill Bonus instead, at the Player's option.
Romans
+3 APP
Cultural Skill Bonus
Greeks
Knights: +3 Spear, Literacy, Intrigue
Ladies: +3 Courtesy, Literacy, Intrigue
Latins
Knights: +3 Sword, Literacy, Orate
Ladies: Stewardship, Literacy, Courtesy
Aquitanians
Knights: +3 Sword, Flirting, Courtesy
Ladies: +3 Horsemanship, Flirting, Courtesy
Spanish
Knights: +3 Awareness, Horsemanship, Spear
Ladies: +3 Horsemanship, Literacy, Industry
Huns
+3 DEX
Cultural Skill Bonus
Hun
Knights: +3 Bow, Horsemanship, Falconry
Ladies: +3 Awareness, Brawling, Horsemanship
Zazamancs
+3 APP
Cultural Skill Bonus
Zazamanc
Knights: +3 Spear, Hunting, First Aid
Ladies: +3 Chirurgery, Fashion, Recognize
Native Culture
Bonuses to Characteristics and Skills are derived from the culture one is raised in, which is not always the same as the culture one is born into! For example, the knights of the Orkney clan may be Pictish (King Lot), Cymric (Gawaine), or even Greek (Mordred).
If you are fostered or raised in a culture different than your parents’ own between the ages of birth and 7 years, you inherit the Characteristic modifier and Skill Bonuses of your fostered culture. If you are fostered in a foreign culture after age 7 up to age 14, you retain your native Characteristic modifier but may use the Cultural Skill Bonus of your fostered culture, if you wish.
If your parents hail from two different cultures, you may take your pick of which culture your character most closely emulates, gaining the Characteristic modifier and Cultural Skill Bonus of that culture. At the Gamemaster's discretion, you may apply the Characteristic modifier of one parent and the Cultural Skill Bonus of the other, representing a balanced upbringing.