The system presented here is based upon the Advanced Character Generation method in Pendragon 4th Edition. It is assumed these characters will be male knights; for other types of characters, consult the GM.
Pendragon character generation is best done by noting everything on a scratch piece of paper and then transferring the final results to a character sheet. During the course of character generation, you will be writing down a lot of bonuses. I recommend that you do all the background first, write down all the bonuses, total them, and then do the rolls and point-spending needed to generate the character. Use the Character Generation Scratch Sheet to make your notes; there is also an ASCII character sheet template.
The generic culture in Britain is Cymri. These people populate much of Britain, including Logres, Cambria, Cumbria, Cornwall, and Brittany. (+3 CON)
The French are the descendants of the Franks, ruling France proper (northern Gaul). The stereotypical French knight is proud, courageous (perhaps recklessly so), and loyal. (+1 DEX, +1 STR, +1 CON)
The Occitanians (Gauls) occupy the lands to the south of the French -- Toulouse, Provencal, and so forth. The stereotypical Occitanian knight is courtly and refined, fond of the comforts of wealth; he is tylish, current with the latest fashions, and a proponent of courtly love. (+1 DEX, +1 CON, +1 APP)
The Irish are a fiercely independent people, loyal only to their clans. A stereotypical Irish knight is hot-headed, and prone to rapid shifts of emotion. (+3 CON)
The Picts are usually known as barbarians, small, nearly-naked tattooed men who paint themselves blue. There are only a few regions where Picts have been "civilized". They are believe themselves to be the guardians of nature, and are deeply superstitious. (-3 SIZ, +3 DEX, -3 APP)
The Romans are the dominant culture in most of the cities of Britain, holding to the old Roman urban traditions. A stereotypical Roman knight is proud, cultured, devious, and practical. They believe strongly in imperialism and the urban way of life. (+1 DEX, +2 APP)
The Saxons were conquered by Arthur, early in his reign. Stereotypically, a Saxon knight is a tall, muscular blond with his brains in his sword arm. They are expert sailors, and their axe-wielding warriors are much feared. (+3 SIZ, -3 DEX, +3 STR)
On your character sheet, underline the Traits important to your religion; characters who have all five Traits at 16 or higher receive a special Religious Bonus.
Christianity holds Chaste, Forgiving, Merciful, Modest, and Temperate as its cardinal virtues. The French, Occitanians, and Romans are always Christian, and all other cultures have regions which have been Christianized.
Paganism holds Lustful, Energetic, Generous, Honest, and Proud as its cardinal virtues. Paganism is a religion of nature, primarily. It is common amongst Cymri, Irish, and Picts.
Wotanism holds Generous, Proud, Worldly, Indulgent, and Reckless as its cardinal virtues. This is the traditional religion of the Saxons, emphasizing the materialistic over the spiritual.
Judaism holds Chaste, Energetic, Just, Prudent, and Temperate as its cardinal virtues. Jews can be found scattered throughout Europe; for the purposes of this campaign, anyone raised in a region dominated by Cymri or Roman Christians may choose to be Jewish instead.
Heathenism holds Vengeful, Honest, Proud, Arbitrary, and Worldly as its cardinal virtues. The Picts are Heathens.
Your homeland will determine who your current lord is, and you will receive a number of bonuses based upon your homeland choice. Write these down.
This campaign will not use the points and bonuses for initial character knighthood class, or father's class; all characters are generated from a 30 Skill Point base.
Mercenary Knights are little more than cavalry soldiers who have taken an oath of knighthood. They normally make a living by selling their swords.
Bachelor knights, sometimes called Household Knights, are pledged to serve a single lord; their name comes from the fact that they are effectively part of the lord's household, and they are rarely wealthy enough to support a wife. They normally serve as the lord's bodyguards and as his standing army. They are permitted to wear a small pennant (called a pennocelle) on their lances, distinguishing themselves from commoners.
Vassal knights own their own land, and generally live in their own manors. They have an obligation to dedicate a certain amount of their time each year to fighting for their lord, should he demand it of them, and to advise their lord at court.
Knight lords are knights who are lords over other knights, quite simply. The lowest rank of lord is the banneret knight. Particularly large estates may also require more than one knight to manage the affairs; these men are called officers. Arthur, for example, has a Chancellor, Butler, Seneschal, Chamberlain, Constable, Marshal, Justiciar, and Sheriff.
You must determine the place in your family. A Are your parents still alive? Are you the oldest son? What was your father's social class? Also, very importantly: are you legitimate? Being illegitimate doesn't really carry a social stigma, nor does it prevent you from inheriting, but normally illegitimate children are not in the line of succession and do not inherit. It is not uncommon to find an illegitimate son serving as an officer of his legitimate brother's court, for example.
Keep in mind that if your father's social class is different from yours, you must explain why this is so. Also note that if your father is dead, and you are the eldest, you are now lord of your family's lands, unless you can explain why this should not be so. You should also determine who your siblings are, and who would inherit from you, if you were to meet some unfortunate end.
Next, you should determine a bit more about your father's history, and perhaps, the history of your grandfather and great-grandfather as well. The GM has tables for guiding you through this process, determining what battles your ancestors fought at and thus, what stories you were told as a child, and any Passions, Glory, and Directed Traits you might have inherited as a result.
Once you have chosen which scores go with which Statistics, add any relevant bonuses, such as the Cultural bonuses. All characters must have a SIZ of at least 8.
Next, calculate your Dervied Statistics, as below:
Total Hit Points: CON + SIZ
Unconscious: Total HP / 4
Movement Rate: (STR + DEX) / 10
Damage: (SIZ + STR) / 6
Healing Rate: (STR + CON) / 10
When dividing, round up if the fraction is 0.5 or greater, and round down if it less than 0.5. For example, someone with STR + SIZ of 25 does 4 dice of Damage; someone with STR + SIZ of 27 does 5 dice of Damage.
Roll 3d6, eighteen times, and write down these numbers. You may choose to assign all these numbers to the left-hand column ("positive" traits), or to the right-hand column ("negative" traits). The numbers in the opposite column become 20 minus that number. For example, if you assign your rolls to the left-hand column, and have a Chaste of 12, its opposite, Lustful, has a score of 8.
Add any modifiers acquired earlier in character generation, from cultural modifiers, family history, etc. If any number is less than 1, make it 1; if any number is greater than 19, make it 19. Adding the left and right-hand columns should always give you 20.
Finally, you may add up to six points to your Traits; adjust the opposite column appropriately so that they continue to sum to 20. If you still don't like the way your Traits have turned out, you can augment them later with Character Points.
Values of 16 or higher are considered extreme; if you have a score of 16 or higher in something, you are expected to act strongly in accordance with that trait.
Note that knights normally have a Valorous of 12 or more. Also, the virtues of Energetic, Generous, Just, Merciful, Modest, and Valorous are the values of Chivalry. If these Traits sum to 80 or more, you gain a Chivalry Bonus.
Note that there may be modifiers to these Passions, as well as extra Passions, based on your culture, homeland, and family background.
You cannot have a Passion score greater than 18; if you generate a value greater than 18, make it 18.
You have 30 Skill Points to spend. No skill that begins at zero may be raised, except for weapon skills. Skills may not be raised above 15, unless you have received a specific bonus to that skill, in which case the skill can go no higher than 15 plus that bonus.
This step is intended to reflect childhood training, what your character knows by age 15, and thus tends to reflect primarily military skills, but the expenditure of points does not have to correspond to this.
You are allowed to choose one family heirloom with some sort of special property. What sorts of special properties will be considered reasonable by the GM will depend on how interesting the item's background is.
Passions: PC knights should not have strong Passions incompatible with civilized behavior in court and towards other PCs. This is a playability issue.
Skills: PCs who want to maximize their involvement in the game should have a mix of court skills and combat skills. All knights should have their primary weapon skill and Horsemanship at a minimum of 10. It is recommended that Lance, First Aid, and two non-combat skills should also be at 10 or more. Characters who come from vassal knight backgrounds should also have Battle at 10 or more.
Damage: Under absolutely no circumstances will a beginning knight be permitted to do more than 6d6 of damage with any weapon, once all bonuses are figured in. This is a game-balance issue, pure and simple. It is also recommended that you purchase sufficient SIZ and STR to do at least 4d6 of damage with your standard weapon.