Knights of Camelot

About this board game

Knights of Camelot is a 1980 board game for 2–6 players, with a listed play time of 240 minutes, in which freshly knighted adventurers roam an Arthurian realm in search of the Holy Grail.

The game is driven by a random table generation system that creates a remarkable variety of encounters. While travelling, players may meet damsels in distress, brigands, monsters, or other knights ready to joust. Encounters can produce surprising revelations, rewards, or sudden reversals of fortune.

• Explore an Arthurian realm as a newly knighted character.
• Encounter damsels, brigands, monsters, and rival knights.
• Use choices such as approaching, avoiding, or charging into encounters.
• Search for the Holy Grail amid highly unpredictable events.

Role-playing is central to the experience. A knight might discover that an apparently unusual rider is actually Lancelot in disguise, or receive help from Merlin in the form of a special charger, magic lance, and magic shield. Yet fortune can change instantly: a storm may sink a ship, stripping away equipment and followers, while a giant can emerge from a moat and kill a knight in one blow.

Knights of Camelot also supports a broader role-playing approach. Articles in Dragon Magazine Issue #58 explained how to play knaves, or bad knights, and game masters have used the game as an adventure generator for role-playing games. Its combination of Arthurian flavour, unpredictable tables, and memorable narrative incidents makes every journey distinctive.