Quote15 Days to Go: INSPIRATION
Let's talk about some of the games, books, and films that inspired Arthur Lives!
Probably the most obvious influence on the game is Matt Wagner's MAGE, specifically the first volume of that series, which came out 1984-1986, right as I was transitioning from high school to undergrad at the University of Nevada, Reno. For those who have not read MAGE, it tells the story of Kevin Matchstick, who discovers in the second-to-last issue (spoilers for a 30 year old comic) that he is the Pendragon reborn. There are some unforgettable sequences in Mage, such as the scene in which Kevin pulls a glowing baseball bat out of a dumpster, re-enacting the Sword in the Stone, and it made a huge impression on me. Several concepts from MAGE I simply lifted and dropped into AL, such as the notion of "dressing" a Faerie creature in human shape so that it could (barely) pass in our world. The other characters in the comic -- Edsel and Mirth and Sean -- are all great examples of AL protagonists, and the Redcaps, Marhault Ogre, and Cromm Cruach all served as inspiration when it came time to make the bestiary. Now, MAGE is a superhero book, and Kevin's powers are more superhuman than I wanted to deal with in AL, but its also very grounded, and that was something I wanted to capture. It needed to feel not only real, but relevant. The second volume of the series was interesting, but it was less about King Arthur, and at the time it came out, it didn't sing to me as the first volume did. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the third volume, which Wagner recently announced, and I think I'll use it as an occasion to reread the whole saga over again.
A second very important influence, also a comic, was Brian Bolland and Mike Barr's CAMELOT 3000. This was the first long limited series DC comics put out; at the time, they called it a "Maxi-Series," but I suspect that sounded a bit too much like a feminine hygiene product, and the label is no longer used. It came out in 1982-83, mostly, but the final issue was delayed a long time. I was still on an allowance at this time, and could not afford to buy the monthly issues, so I read them in the aisle as they came out, one at a time, and hit my local Sav-On Drug Store. Barr's story of Arthur resurrected in the 30th century was fun, but it was the reincarnated knights who had the real interesting parts. They had normal lives, but also had to balance an Arthurian identity which they had just remembered. That moment when each of them suddenly remembers who they were became AL!s "Recognition," and the powerful chapter in which Arthur asks an adulterous and unrepentant Gwen and Lancelot, "You had a second chance to do things right, why did you make the same decision?" has never left me, informing the "Second chance" theme of AL. But the most memorable character in C3K is certainly Tristan, when the knight is reincarnated into the body of a woman, only to find that "she" is about to be married, and that Iseult is also around (and has no intention of allowing Tristan's new gender to stand in her way). Tristan's torment, the tension between what he perceives as his assigned gender role and his impossible love for Iseult, is the beating heart at the center of this book, and I learned from it. I learned that I could use this game to create a space where it would be possible to discuss and explore transgender issues in an interesting, fun, and creative way. I don't pretend to have any privileged knowledge on the topic, but by introducing the idea that Guinevere could come back as a man, or Arthur as a woman, I think Arthur Lives became a better game.
Finally, I have to talk about Greg Stafford's PENDRAGON. If, like most gamers, you have never played this RPG, you are missing out on the masterpiece of one of the hobby's greatest creators. PENDRAGON is the King Arthur RPG, and in it players play knights who are contemporaries of Arthur. For many gamers, the obstacle is simple: they don't want to be second fiddle to famous characters like Lancelot (who will always be better than the PCs), and they don't want to play a campaign which they see as pre-determined. Because there are some elements of the Arthurian myth which players really should not, or even cannot, change. No PC is going to draw the Sword in the Stone. You can't prevent Lancelot and Guinevere's affair, or kill Mordred before he becomes a problem. And that plot turns off a lot of players -- the same players who don't want to play a game set in, for example, Westeros or Middle-earth. Because they feel they're being "railroaded."
Well, that's not a problem in ARTHUR LIVES! I was inspired by Stafford's unmatched knowledge of the Arthurian canon, particularly in regards to the canon's compatibility with roleplaying games. Stafford has gone through virtually every Arthurian text we have and adapted them into adventures. He's written up all the giants, dragons, and witches as monsters to fight, and he's given game stats to every knight, queen, and enchanter he stumbled across. Although the rules for playing magicians were later cut from the game, his approach to magic was a tremendous influence on me, because he'd developed a list of magical powers based on the source material, a list I could use as a foundation for developing my own magic system using Fate Core.
There are many other sources which went into ARTHUR LIVES! It's fair to say, for example, that Joss Whedon's television shows -- especially Buffy and Firefly -- helped me figure out how player character groups should come together and operate. But these three -- MAGE, CAMELOT 3000, and PENDRAGON -- were the first influences, the bedrock on which everything else was built.

Quote10 DAYS TO GO: Magic
Let's talk about magic in "Arthur Lives!"
Characters interact with magic in many different ways in this setting. First, there's the simple fact of Arthur's reincarnation. We're not just talking about one sleeping king waking up, after all; knights and damosels, magicians and witches, queens and kings, have all come back. Why? How? What's going on? These are some of the Big Questions which your player characters will be trying to answer, all while dodging bullets, vampires, and the Templar Conspiracy.
Famous items of magic like Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are also around, but they're not quite what you expect. Much like the way Arthur and Merlin and the rest have all come back in many forms, there are multiple "echoes" of these enchanted items. Every Arthur has his own Excalibur, and it can take many possible forms. Merlin's Dragon Banner, which turned into a real dragon to breathe fire on Arthur's enemies, Balin's cursed sword, Lancelot's shield that tripled his strength, and so on, all of these have come back in multiple forms. This even includes echoes of animals like Gawain's horse Gringolet, or Kay's famous blood-red steed. If there's a real, true, version of these things out there, no one has identified them yet, much like the way there are multiple Arthurs and no one is quite sure which one is the "real" Arthur. (Maybe all of them. Maybe none!)
There are magical dreams warning of the future, potions of love and of sleep and of poison, magical places filled with raw power that magicians can tap into. Magic comes from Faerie, the land across the Veil and far from the fields we know; Faerie is filled with magical things beyond number -- giants, for example, and dragons -- but there are also supernatural things native to our own world: ghosts and vampires and all sorts of other things, less fantastic than manticores and hippogriffs perhaps, but no less dangerous.
But the most important form of magic for player characters in "Arthur Lives!" is enchantment. Enchantment is a "magic system" which simulates the sort of thing magicians in Arthurian myth are seen to do. I went through the source material compiling lists of magical acts. Malory, the most famous author of Arthurian stories, stripped a lot of the magic out of his source material, so I went back to the French sources (the so called "Lancelot-Grail" or "Vulgate" Arthur) to make sure my list was complete. And then I created magical talents to cover all those acts.
Here's the final list:
* Binding: You can force creatures (usually animals, Faeries, demons, or angels) to obey you. The greatest binding spells enslave the victim or trap him in a prison of your own devising.
* Blessings and Curses: You can place positive or negative aspects on a target (individuals, objects, or places), or remove those aspects.
* Dispel: Use your magic to oppose or remove the magic of another magician.
* Divination: Your awareness of the influence of magical forces allows you to answer specific questions.
* Emotion: You can manipulate the emotions of others, causing passion, sleep, or other effects. Emotion magic is often channeled through music.
* Glamour: Glamour is the temporary alteration of reality. It is a kind of illusion, but the illusions are real for the duration of the magic. It is used to craft disguises, to create advantages in battle, to add drama to a scene, and more.
* Healing: A magician can hasten the natural healing process or perform miraculous cures, albeit at great cost.
* Necromancy: Necromancers summon the spirits of the dead, forcing them to answer questions, or cause corpses to walk again.
* Refuge: You have access to a magical realm which cannot be entered by ordinary means; you can practice magic in power and safety there, and it makes a handy prison.
* Shapeshift: Many magicians are able to adopt the form of a specific animal, but a few are able to change their shape at will.
* Summon and Banish: You have the power to call or dismiss animals, Faeries, or other supernatural beings from the surrounding region or from across the Veil.
* Travel: Supernatural travel is faster than ordinary travel and skilled magicians can bring many allies with them, crossing impassable terrain at great speed.
* Unseen Hand: You can move objects without touching them; the power of the Unseen Hand can also be used to strike physical blows using only magic.
* Ward: You can use your magic to protect people, objects, or places.
* Weather Control: This is the calling or dismissal of fair or inclement weather, including thunder and lightning storms.
Each of these talents has a list of effects ("spells") it can be used to cast. Most spells are challenges in Fate, using multiple skills and requiring multiple exchanges, or even longer. But most of the talents have one or more Words of Power associated with them; these are short, simple magical effects which can be accomplished with a single die roll.
Characters with a magician High Concept select a number of talents equal to their Occult skill, for free. Other characters take an aspect that describes their magic, and they get one talent to go with it. Additional talents can be bought with 1 refresh each. Some special stunts -- like potion-brewing -- give you access to multiple talents but with a limitation (like your spells are all put into potions which need to be drunk to take effect).
We'll talk more about Enchantment and it's risk and challenges tomorrow.