u/TheGoodeKnyght

Just dropped a new knightly post on something I ran across in Guillim’s 1610 Display of Heraldrie. The harpy is not mere decoration, as it turns out. It was imposed on knights who’d committed manslaughter, so the shield itself became a stigma.

This one digs into the charge that inspired the Sir Gawaine Harrowmoor article and sets up a second article that will get into the Dolmenwood game mechanics — how characters might actually “read” a shield at the table.

See you in the lists!

Part Five of our Duke's Tourney actual play series is up — the final installment in the series. The joust reaches its finals and the championship gets settled, and we run a full mounted war-lance duel to properly stress-test that subsystem. There's a referee notes section at the end with some thoughts on pre-rolling random events and sitting on them until the right moment, plus a flag for a potential errata pass on the natural 1 social roll result.

Silver Celebration Sale ends tomorrow — 25% off at DriveThruRPG and TheGoodeKnyght.com (coupon code SilverSans on the site).

See you in the lists!

Bit of a milestone, and I hope you don't mind me sharing.

Our Dolmenwood tournament supplement, Knights of the Wood: The Duke's Tourney — Sans AI Edition, just hit Silver Bestseller on DriveThruRPG — in a little less than five short months, which, for something this niche, is a little surprising if we're honest — and great! A lot of that came from communities like this one, so thank you.

To mark it, it's 25% off through Saturday, June 13th, on both DriveThru and on our own site. Actually, everything in our own store is now 25% off for the next week, so if you've been standing by, now’s a great time to check it out! There's also a stack of free random generators on the site (knight opponents, feasts, Dolmenwood names) and the blog, no purchase needed.

See you in the lists!

Latest in my run of NPC knights for Dolmenwood tournaments is Sir Gawain, the Harpy Knight.

Twenty years as a quiet household knight, then he wins a genuine victory against crookhorns up north and comes home a hero. By the next morning, it’s all gone wrong. I’ll leave the how for the write-up, but the harpy on his shield isn’t arms he’d have chosen.

Fast-forward to the present day, and Sir Gawain now serves in the Duke’s retinue. He keeps to himself and knows more than he lets on about what’s stirring up north. Good man to have on hand when the party needs a straight answer.

Full write-up and stat block at the link, and there’s a free character sheet for him to download if you want to drop him onto the table as he is.

See you in the lists!

Day Four of our Duke's Tourney play example covers the Mêlée — five phases of Tide shifts, named opponents, and plenty of opportunity for things to go sideways. Two of the Duke's champions get unhorsed before the day is out, one player rolls so many natural sixes the referee runs out of rewards, and both knights walk away with recruitment offers from a Dolmenwood house.

All that and referee commentary on running the game as well! See you in the lists!