Everyone’s always King Arthur this and Matter of Britain that, but what about Charlemagne and the Matter of France, hm? HM? Well, here’s Paladin (2019), a hack of Pendragon the explores the reign of Charlemagne.

This is the Chaosium printing and while it bears some Nocturnal logos, the publication date is two years after Stewart Weick’s death; I’m not sure there was ever a Nocturnal edition, or if this was part of Chaosium’s custodianship of Nocturnal after Weick’s passing.

Regardless of the murkiness on the business side, this is an impressive book, weighing in at about 450 gilt pages. It contains everything needed to play, including pretty detailed material on the setting and a frame for the campaign, though it stops short of year-by-year details you’d perhaps expect after perusing the Great Pendragon Campaign. The most surprising thing about Paladin is honestly that it took so long to come out — the subject is such a good, natural fit for the Pendragon rules.

Jaime Garcia Mendoza is the cover artist. Interiors are by Justin Gerard, Lucas Graciano, Matthew Ryan and Mark Seydewitz. No clear credits, unfortunately, but it’s a nice-looking book. Manticore’s got wings, though. Tsk, tsk.