I stumbled upon a treasure trove of anecdotes for an older version of Le Morte D’Arthur, the version I worked on two years ago. This was the version in which I attempted to build a storyworld around a single battle. It was a miserable failure, so demoralizing that it induced me to abandon the Storytron technology. I had written 177 short anecdotes for that project. Here are a few:
"A lightly wounded Saxon boy has been caught and is dragged before you. 'What are you bringing him to me for?' you demand angrily. He is whirled around and one of the professionals rams a spear straight into his chest. The boy dies instantly. 'That's the way you kill someone mercifully' he tells the peasants around him.”
"It's early in the battle and everybody is fresh, so there's lots of shouting. Soldiers cheer, scream imprecations at the enemy, and some just shout to release the tension. “
"One of the Saxons behind the line fumbles around in a bag hanging from his belt. He pulls out a blackish slab of... something. Then he takes a bite out of it, pulling hard to tear it loose. Smoked meat? Saxon bread? Who knows?”
"The Saxons have a few archers; not enough to pose a serious threat, but certainly a damned nuisance. They let fly at any target of opportunity, so you don't dare take your eyes away from the Saxons for more than a second or two. Their bows -- or perhaps the archers -- aren't very strong, though: the arrows fly in a shallow arc rather than a flat line. You yourself have taken your share of hits, but your chain mail is more than adequate to stop them. This time, though, a Saxon arrow heads straight at a dense crowd of men. Rather than taking the arrow with their shields (as trained soldiers would do), the crowd parts to let it pass. One guy at the back of the crowd doesn't see anything until the men in front of him dive away -- and then he gets the arrow right in the crotch. You wince.”
These are shorter than my regular encounters, and they are not designed to present Arthur with any choices, but each one provides a useful kernel. I’m going to spend the next few days trying to bring them into the encounter set.
Here’s my first effort; note how much I had to add to flesh out the encounter:
Original version:
"Lancelot is slashing away at the Saxons with his sword. And quite a sword it is -- it's made out of some special steel that shows a strange pattern of bands. It is said that such blades are made far to the east, south of Constantinople, and it is true that Lancelot wandered the world before joing you."
Encounter version:
Lancelot is slashing away at the Saxons with his sword. And quite a sword it is -- it's made out of some special steel that shows a strange pattern of bands. He's let you play with it and it's far and away the best sword you've ever seen. It keeps a razor-sharp edge yet doesn't shatter on a hard impact. Normally with swords you must choose between sharpness and resilience. Swords that keep a good edge break if they hit something hard; swords that can handle such a blow usually can't keep a good edge. Excalibur and Lancelot's swords are the only exceptions to this rule. Even so, you keep Excalibur in its sheath until battle. You have a hard-steel knife that keeps a wicked edge.
The Saxons in front of Lancelot fall back ten feet and Lancelot follows them mercilessly, knocking, stabbing, and shoving with unbelievable energy. He's well out in front of the main battle line; the other guys are a bit reluctant to push forward by more than a few feet.
Options:
“Way to go, Lancelot!”
"Hey, Lancelot, don’t take such big chances; I'll need you tomorrow, too.”
“Everybody, if I had ten men like Lancelot, I could drive the Saxons back to their own lands!"