The essence of a Robin Hood campaign

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

So Im struggling with a campaign I've been writing for Ars Magica 5th Edition. All in all though I think I've been able to mine a little gold for the Ars Magica setting.

I thought I'd list my assest before I get into the meat.

1. Edwin King's excellent Lionheart campaign book, set in the 1190's

2. A map from Dragon Magazine (I think May 2000) of Robin Hood countryand Nottingham Castle by Stephen Daniele

3. Ars Magica 5th Edition

4. The book of mundane beasts

5.Howard Pyles Adventures of Robin Hood and his Merrie men

6. The adventures of Robin hood NC Wyeth

The scene: 123 years after the Norman Conquest, King Henry II is warring on his rebellious son Richard and Phillip II King of France. He has taken ill and decided to sue for peace. Phillip II smelling blood presents Henry with terms, including a 20 thousand mark restitution for damages, the succession of Richard as King of England and Duke of Normandy a demand that Richards betrothed (Alice sister of Phillip) be safeguarded by persons appointed by Richard until he returns from Crusade, and a pledge of fealty from Henry to Phillip.  The last straw for old Henry was the revelation in the treaty that his youngest son John had defected to his brothers camp, broken in spirit and in health his health grew worse and he was taken to Chinon france where he died in July of 1189.  

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

The Magi arrive in Anjou to press King Henry for land in or near several mystic spots in England in march of 1189, but is stymied because Henry is at war. By the beginning of June Henry is beaten and in poor health. Summoning the Magi to his chambers, he quickly drafts a charter for a valuable grant of land in North Central England between York and London carving away a valuable chunk of Nottinghamshire (A dagger to the heart of Rebellious John as the Earldom of Nottingham was one of the bribes he accepted to support Richard). A few weeks later Henry dies.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

The Covenant now has a home, but at the price of alienating the brother of the next King. A king who will be on Crusade and far away from the seat of power.

In addition, building a Covenant will take a lot of time and resources, which the Magi are in a poor position to exploit. England will be cash poor, due to the demands of supplying a Crusading army, and there will be fewer serfs to recruit or co-opt for the covenant.

The obvious answer seems to be recruiting outlaws and criminals who may have an agenda of their own.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

So what would you do from here on in? Im just curious?

[Entsuropi]

As the magi? Annoy the priesthood. But that's just me.

I'd probably start currying favour with local nobles. Try and get them on the side of the magi. Then build a few low-key buildings scattered around the forest, until such time as a sufficiently large amount of resources and troops are aquired to build something more permanent. Until that time, just act like a bunch of terrorists if John comes a calling - run away.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Well local politics are a little dicey as both the Sheriff (at this time Roger de Lacy a trusted friend of John) and the Bishop of Herrford (William de Vere) are allies of John.

In York the Abbot of St. Mary's is the Sheriffs brother.

Other local nobles, like Sir Guy of Gisbourne are petty and vindictive.

Due to the circumstances of Henrys death, some nobles also feel that it was the covenants fault and that Henry was bewitched. Of course no one would say it in public.

The only bit of luck is that John will most likely be spending most of his time in France raising money for his brother and that the Bishop of Durham Hugh Pudsey was made regent instead of John.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

So wait... you're talking about playing a group that can't honestly portray themselves as loyalists to the just king, and are acting against the wishes of all the nobility and the King's acting agent (his brother, John). They support the local criminals (who don't seem to fall into the "give to the poor category") On top of all this, the populace and the Church hates them (or at least distrusts them).

So uh... we're the bad guys? This Robin sounds like a major jerk.

Yeah, I know it's not that cut and dry, but they don't have much going for them.

I think where you need to go is making some compelling reasons for wanting the covenant to succeed. Why are these Magi sympathetic?


See, the traditional interpretation of RH has that built in. They're loyalists. John is a rebel. Richard can't do anything about it because he's away. They support the poor, but the poor can't overtly help them because they don't want to be caught and jailed/tortured by the pretender and his forces. This gives us a reason to like RH other than forcing us to like his religious ideals. Feel free to keep the religious minority group, but make John rebelious, and you've got a set of characters I like more.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Thats the fun part... They are legal, and there isnt much John can do about it. Richard (the King) is too concerned with fortune and glory and spiting John.

At first John was more popular than Richard, and right now as Richard goes off on Crusade he seems like an OK guy. That is going to change, mainly when he asserts his right to be regent (and later when Richard is ransomed)

The Magi really dont care about local politics, and would have been a potent ally for any king who wanted to be nice to them. Right now all they want is to be left alone. The political situation is largly Henry's fault and forces the covenant to do several things at once. I think the setup takes advantage of the troupe play system because it foces the Magi to focus on different goals while companions and grogs run around willy nilly.

Things wont happen in a vacuum though and an unstable political situation is going to be harmful to the common people. Thats going to force the Covenant to react, and the threat of their reaction is going to accelerate the anarchy thats growing. Eventually they'll find themselves allied with the people against unjust rulers.

Outlaws are going to complicate things, because they are going to use the Magi's land to hide in. Since Sherwood Chase is theirs to run, the Sheriff is going to have problems prosecuting them. They arent bad or good per-se, but they will be a thorn in everyones side.

Its hard giving Ars Magica Magi real opposition because its easy to craft a single item (an arrow for instance) that can level a whole castle. Magically they are a 1000 times more powerful than a D&D wizard.

The reason the covenenat has to succeed is that Sherwood (where the covenant is housed) is a powerful magical regio and a good place for raw vis for spells and the like.

As far as they know they are the only wizards in the area (not true)

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

see, that doesn't do anything to make me like them.

And I don't see why John, if he's acting for Richard (Richard has to leave some sort of steward) can't just decide they're illegal.

So it's a magic place...
and....
so? Why do I, as a player, want to invest myself in a character who cares about their success?

I also don't buy the "you can make something to wipe them out to easy" argument. If you can do it, why can't John get someone to do it? They couldn't do that anyway, because as soon as they did something drastic like that to their enemies, whatever argument you put up to say that John or the Sherriff can't legally do anything becomes null and void. They've violated the King's Peace. It becomes John's DUTY to put them down at that point. It's moot whether it was provoked or not.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

because John isnt Regent. And he's pissed about it, but he's broke, and he needs to curry favor with the barons before he can do anything.

Why do I, as a player, want to invest myself in a character who cares about their success?

Because if your playing a magus you have to have a safe magic place to develop your power. With access to raw power you can research spells and learn mystic truths.

As a grog or a companion, you can be more involved with the community, and maybe show the locals that you arent bad guys. You can learn things, and live outside the Kings laws. You can make a little money for yourself. Maybe you can learn some magic, or get a priceless gift. Or you could help people out, rescue damsels and search for mythic treasures in hidden barrows forgotten since the time of Arthur.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I also don't buy the "you can make something to wipe them out to easy" argument. If you can do it, why can't John get someone to do it? They couldn't do that anyway, because as soon as they did something drastic like that to their enemies, whatever argument you put up to say that John or the Sherriff can't legally do anything becomes null and void. They've violated the King's Peace. It becomes John's DUTY to put them down at that point. It's moot whether it was provoked or not.

It may be a moot point to you, but its certainly scary and quite a deterrent for their enemies. After all not many of Arthurs enemies ever wanted to take on Merlin.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

so they don't like to take them on, but they still *will.*

But ok, given what you've described, the first thing I do is build my magic arrow, wipe out the mundane population of England and anyone who LOOKS at the ENglish Channel. Then I've got my safe place, no one will bother me. voila!

You still haven't made me like these guys. And if there's no conflict that can't be easily overcome... why are we playing?
'
You asked where I'd go, I told you. 1) make the protags something more I'd want to put emotional investment into, and 2) give me a real enemy/conflict.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

So uh... we're the bad guys? This Robin sounds like a major jerk.

Yeah, I know it's not that cut and dry, but they don't have much going for them.  

I think where you need to go is making some compelling reasons for wanting the covenant to succeed. Why are these Magi sympathetic?

I think this is where the roleplaying is going to come in. Players can either choose to side with the John, or decide to help the people.

Hopefully one of the companions im writing up... one Robert Hood will make that choice easier after John becomes regent and starts taxing the heck out of folks. Until then things are just going to be tense between Nottingham and the Covenant.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I didnt say they'd win, just that its enough to make people think twice before attacking them.
While you could make that arrow, it would exhaust the resources of the covenant. Plus they arent monsters and murderers.

Having said that you havent really told me what would make you care about the characters. What do you want there? Generally in my experience making entertaining characters is the players realm and not the GM's. I have a few samples, that Im writing, but I am open to suggestions.

I hope you can tell I've done a good bit of research on this already.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

So it's not easy to make that arrow. Right. see, this is why I'm having a hard time helping you. Every time I come up with something, you tell me it would be too hard to do in the campaign or just won't work.

I think what I actually said, at least originally, it to make the group compelling.

And since each player only has one character, and the gm controls the rest of the universe, the gm has to be a whole lot better at making good characters than the player.

Right now, tainted by my traditional understanding of Robin Hood, I feel like I'm supposed to hate John because of how he treats Richard. so I don't want to side with him. But I also don't want to side with Richard because he was such a jerk to his father. John still doesn't have my sympathy because he helped John.

On the other other hand, I don't like this covenant either. Bunch of wanks encouraging and protecting the people who raped my mom and stole our only wealth. I also don't want to be on their side because they seem to be alienating EVERYONE. Perhaps if I had some sort of belief in their cause other than "it's a magic place" I might want to forgive the fact that they seem to enjoy pissing people off. So I think I'm going to side with the Spanish kingdom and invade England, using the Norse as mercenaries (I don't even have to pay them, just let them keep what they pillage, and realize that I'll have to wait till they want some more kit before I can take over a new town).

So... make the covenant itself something more than just some power hungry bastards. Make them care about the people. You can leave in the people not trusting them, but have THEM not be a group of self-absorbed jerks.

Things being "tense" between two groups doesn't make for an interesting plot unless one side starts something. If I'm one of these Magi, I'll just realize don't start nothin', won't BE nothin'. I'll shop with the locals so they like that they can get money from me, but other than that I'll just leave them alone. I rigidly punish any workers who commit more crimes. so maybe the Sherriff gets made over some previous crimes, but I either turn them over for serious crimes, or I deny the extradiction. It sounds like it's unlikely they'd actually do anything to my group in that scenario.

So... No one likes me, but no one's going to come after me. Not in any serious way, at least. So,... .where's my conflict?

Oh, and I *have* told you a way to make them sympathetic. Make John a pretender and a rebel earlier on, and make the Magi loyalists. They have something good I can respect in that, and they have a clear enemy.  voila, problem solved. I'm sure there's another way you could do it, but that's the first that comes to mind.