To all lords and ladies of Arthur's realm!

After a long summer, and an overly-long break from producing an edition of "Pendragon News," we are squeeking out an October issue just in time for the traditional start of Gawaine's adventures to the Green Chapel, All Hallow's Day.

Unlike the solo hero, Gawaine, this year and for this issue, we have updates from the whole Green Knight team: myself, James Lowder and Roderick Robertson.

The month of October is time for the annual Berkeley Topline retailer's gathering. For those not familiar with the gaming industry distribution system, Berkeley Topline is a game distributor par excellance, which in their discriminatingly good taste, carries and promotes the sale of Green Knight products throughout the land. Berkeley gathers together their loyal retailers, like the people to a feast, together with as many game manufacturers who can venture forth, for an industry-only trade show.

This was the second Berkeley Topline show Green Knight in which participated. Last year, we were so brand new, hardly anyone had heard of us. This year, almost no one left without dropping by at least once. (Maybe the free t-shirt give-away helped, but I am sure it was truly because of the quality of the product, and the good humor to be found within our circle!)

The Green Knight presence was definitely more impressive. I had a complete booth next to Wizard's Attic, draped with the banners from the Pendragon Faire: Arthur's heraldry of "on a field of azure, three crowns or" plus the arms of many famous knights, including Lancelot, Bors, Gawaine, Mordred, Tristram, even Turquine.

We also had product to show: "King Arthur Pendragon" in Green Knight's imprint, the new adventures in "Tales of Chivalry and Romance," "Lordly Domains" back in print, and sample copies of the upcoming "Tales of Magic and Miracles" and "Saxons!"

My goals for the show were to prove Green Knight is a viable company, a reputable publisher producing wonderful product, and that stores should keep it in stock. My specific objective was to see how the retailers feel about Pendragon, and if they felt positive, to get them to commit to stock some level of the core Pendragon products. We had even made "three-by-three" packages of three Pendragons, three Boy Kings, and three Lordly Domains. This is sufficient core product to get three gamemasters in a retailer's area materials to set up their campaigns.

Even people who had "known" about Green Knight were impressed when all the available products were laid out on a table and written up in a product list. Because the Pendragon product line draws from Chaosium's rich history, we have a lot more to offer than many other "start-up" roleplaying companies.

So what's next? Well, getting more responsive would help. Many of you have contacted me for business and personal reasons, and I have been tardy and scattered in my response at times. Having Roderick and Jim on board has certainly helped. In addition, this month Green Knight acquired the services of someone to help with marketing and advertizing, though because this is so new, I will keep details on this private for now.

Speaking of Roderick and Jim, let me cede the narrative to these two gentlemen, so you can hear directly how our product development plans are progressing.