King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame Developer Diary

The latest King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame II’s developer diary posted on Paradox’s website deals with the sources consulted by the team during the development of the game. Unsurprisingly, they include Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur:

One of the sources that had a major influence on King Arthur is the classic work of a certain gentleman called Sir Thomas Malory. Malory lived in the 15th century, and judging from the limited amount of information we have on him, he was quite a colorful character.

Sir Thomas Malory wrote the classic text on King Arthur: Le Morte d’Arthur, or The Death of Arthur. This masterpiece has all the major plot points which set the tone of the colorful Arthurian mythology: evil knights and good knights, the Holy Grail, Excalibur, the romance of Queen Guinevere and Lancelot, the rise of King Arthur and his betrayal by his illegitimate son. Even today it’s a fascinating read, and one of its greatest virtues is the portrayal of the larger-than-life heroes and their epic deeds. It has also plenty of anachronistic features (similar to our game): Malory mixes medieval Britain with a conquering Roman emperor and the Saracens on the Holy Land. We couldn’t follow the events in Malory’s book for various reasons, but we definitely wanted to capture the essence of his larger-than-life heroes.