Game: Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game (Palladium Books, 1983)
My Experience: This is another game where my play experience is mostly limited to Little Sister’s games. She put together a campaign in our early college years that fell apart almost as soon as it started because everyone involved was having more fun with her Shadowrun campaign. A few years later, she ran a one-on-one for me. We actually got a fair ways into that one, as she had a nicely detailed setting based on the old Legend of the Red Dragon BBS door game (showing our ages here). My character was painfully unoriginal, a port of my former primary character on a MUD which, itself, was based heavily on Warhammer Fantasy. But we were entertained. I own the 1998 third printing of the Palladium Fantasy rulebook, but it’s a Palladium product, so I suspect very little changed between 1983 and 1998…
Valpuri Savolainen, Errant Lady-at-Arms
Valpuri Savolainen has no particular pressing reason to seek adventure as a wandering knight. No tragic loss or unforgivable falling-out mars her family history; her parents are both in good health and she writes home whenever she can find a ship or courier heading in the right direction. No dark forces stripped her of her rightful inheritance; her mother still holds title to her ancestral county in a tiny seaside nation in the Eastern Kingdoms, and it will pass to Valpuri in due time. She’s never fallen prey to evil magics (yet), nor fled an arranged marriage (not so very necessary when succession is matrilineal), nor been figuratively backstabbed in the midst of political machinations (though she has seen her share of political disputes as a natural part of her training as her mother’s heiress), not been attainted for outlawry (what sort of bandit do you take her for?).
No, the truth is that Valpuri is a knight-errant because she can be. She enjoys seeing new places; testing her wit and sword-arm to uphold the chivalric code and protect the weak; experiencing new songs, new food, new drink, and the occasional new man or woman. Eventually, her responsibilities back home will overtake her, but for now, she’s taken all of the skills she’s been taught and is doing something with them beyond sitting around waiting to inherit. This is the time when she can live, so she’s seizing it for all it’s worth.
Traits
Race: Human
OCC (Occupational Character Class): Knight
Hit Points: 15
SDC (Structural Damage Capacity): 28
Attributes
IQ (Intelligence Quotient) 12
ME (Mental Endurance) 14
MA (Mental Affinity) 19 (55% bonus to evoke trust or intimidation)
PS (Physical Strength) 15
PP (Physical Prowess) 22 (+4 to parry, dodge, and strike)
PE (Physical Endurance) 13
PB (Physical Beauty) 11
Speed 31
Skills
Athletics
Dance 45%
Detect Ambush 40%
Field Armorer 40%
First Aid 30%
Heraldry 35/40%
History 40%
Horsemanship: Knight 40/30%
Intelligence 42%
Land Navigation 40%
Language: Dwarven 55%
Language: Elven 55%
Language: Human/Eastern 98%
Language: Human/Western 50%
Literacy: Elven 40%
Literacy: Human/Eastern 50%
Military Etiquette 50%
Mathematics: Basic 60%
Running
Sailing 45/30%
Sign Language 35%
Swimming 40%
Wrestling
OCC Training and Fighting Style
Armor Training: Can wear any type, minimal penalties (none while mounted).
The Way of the Horse: Superior horsemanship.
The Way of the Lance: Enhanced critical damage. Can unseat mounted opponents.
Other Knight Bonuses: +1 initiative, +2 to pull punch, +1 to save vs. horror factor.
Hand to Hand: Expert
WP (Weapon Proficiency) Archery
WP Knife
WP Lance
WP Shield
WP Sword
Equipment
2 sets clothing, boots, gloves, belt
backpack and saddlebags
bedroll
2 small sacks
waterskin
tinderbox
chain mail
small shield
dagger
lance
longsword (dwarven manufacture, exceptional quality)
short bow
Aarni, ill-tempered dapple grey horse (37 SDC, 22 hit points, Speed 33, worth 3,000 gold but there’s no way she’d ever sell him)
110 gold
Notes and Afterthoughts
I don’t know what the hell is up with this project, but this is yet another character who’s yielded above-average attribute rolls across the board. I suppose the shit luck I’ve had with random character creation for the last 40 years is now being repaid at a time when it’s utterly useless to me.
I also rolled a +15 on 4d4 for Running’s bonus to the Speed attribute. With Speed 31, the book says she can run 620 meters in one minute. That works out to a 2:36 mile or 23 miles per hour… I think I broke the system, and she’s almost as fast on foot as her horse is!
I wasn’t going to make Valpuri a knight until I saw the passage in the OCC description indicating that women almost never become knights in the Palladium World. Well… challenge accepted.