Tag: Monty Python

It’s… Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactement Programme. (Liberty Bell march starts playing) and it’s my Day 9 entry in the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge.

I’ve been a fan of Monty Python every since I saw my first episode on our local PBS station. There isn’t a gaming session that didn’t make it out with at least one Monty Python quote (much to the chagrin of my Dungeon Master). So when I discovered that there was going to be a Kickstarter for a Monty Python Role Playing Game Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactement Programme, I had to make a pledge. And no, Mediaeval is not spelled incorrectly. Yea, I had to look that up.

In the past I’ve posted about some of my Kickstarter rewards, such as the one for Mystery Science Theater 3000, The B/X Advanced Bestiary and the XDM 2nd Edition book. I haven’t written about the Monty Python RPG and the RPG for Cowboy Bebop because the physical books haven’t arrived yet. But I promise that I’ll give you first looks when I can. Until then, they have sent me the PDFs for both books. Today I am making a Participant Character for this comedy game. This is for students of history who will use the programme for a memorable learning experience. Most of the items in this game came from the Monty Python movies: The Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But there are references to other works from the comedy troupe.

The PDF is 360 pages long with the Character Creation process listed on page 84. The character sheet is one page. And now for something completely different.

Oh and I should mention, the GM is called the Head of Light Entertainment aka The HoLE. It is possible that the HoLE could get sacked while in session.

Your participant is a member of a Situation. This is also called job, role, career or calling. Basically it’s the character’s class, but the game doesn’t call it that. Probably because when you choose your Situation, you also choose if you are Upper Class, Middle Class or Lower Class which is how some NPCs might react to your character (not all class types available for all situations). The possible Situations to choose from are Churl (peasant), Cleric, Enchanter (aka the Wizard), Eremite (A hermit like the one seen in various Monty Python episodes), Knave (aka the Thief), Knight, Monarch (Well I didn’t vote for you.), Monk/Nun (Pie Jesu Domine, Dona eis requiem. [WHACK!!]), Noble (not Donna from Doctor Who) and Troubadour (aka the Bard). Do I want to be a king? Do I want to be a knight? I wanna hit things. Knight it is.

So look at the “Creating a Knight” section and it says that he is definitely upper class. So I circle that. On my character sheet is a very colorful section for Traits. A Knight has the Valour trait, which is doing various manly deeds of strength and arms. This could be serious or silly. If it is more on the serious side, you roll a larger die when attempting to complete a task or a test. These dice range from D4 to D30 (there are a lot of standard and no-so-standard dice for this game). Now for each Trait, you get an Accoutrement. This is a device that your character owns (and may have some minimum requirements for). I roll a 1d10 and it came up with Shield which gives me +1 to Strategy. I also get to roll the type of shield and it came up Buckler. Next Trait for the Knight is Chastity, which helps my character avoid temptation (oh boy, avoid the Castle Anthrax). The Accoutrement for this Trait rolled up an elaborate codpiece (why am I suddenly thinking of first season Black Adder?) which gives the character +1 Decorum. A Knight also has a Manservant as a retainer (it takes one of my colorful slots) which will be the character’s squire. The remaining two slots are selected from a list available, which I chose Heartiness and Strategy. My character’s indifference is Subtlety (i.e. he can’t do this trait).

I wrote down the character’s Spiffing Serious Ability, which is Slay. If I use it during a game, I roll a D30 and consult a chart. This could have good or bad results. And if I’m reading the steps correctly, we are done making this character. There is a section on the sheet for money (of the different types of currency) and Merits/Demerits (system currency earned in the game). Let’s give our Knight a name, which is Sir Richard Hammond (wink). Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I liked that some of the links within the PDF didn’t go where you thought they would go. Very sneaky and on tap with the brand of humor. There was a ton of in-jokes and easter egg references. But you don’t need to know them all to understand the game.

While making this, I was thinking that it could be useful for that other famous British fantasy comedy, Blackadder (well not the fourth season that takes place during World War I). But I was getting the same vibes.

I know I didn’t really go into the system too much for this blog entry, I think I’m saving that for the physical book review. But what I read, it did make sense. There were a lot of flowery words used in the book, but this was part of the Monty Python charm. I really think that the writers were able to capture the spirit of the comedy troupe. They even had warnings about forcing the humor. If played well, the humor would naturally come into the game.

There is a lot of unusual dice used for Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactement Programme. Luckily I had some dice for the Dungeon Crawl Classics which had all but one of the need die. I wonder where I can find a D18?

(in bad French accent) Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.

Additional Notes:

There were quite a few readers who did not know that Star Trek: Alpha Quadrant existed. This is not surprising since it is a fan made game that was released about the same time as Star Trek Adventures. It probably got brushed to the side with the first official Star Trek licensed RPG in 15ish years.

I discovered another message board with a Character Creation Challenge thread. I’ve added the link to the list of participating sites. The thread itself isn’t very large, but the other threads have been interesting to read. I’ve signed up to post on The Piazza, but at the time of publication, I hadn’t been authorized yet.

Coming Up Next:

Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game 4th Edition

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