Knightmare fan community project. The intention, as in RPG Season 3 and those following, was to create a set of Knightmare-inspired interactive adventures, playable via Knightmare Chat and illustrated with video clips.

As noted in the Lexicon entry on RPG Season 6, filmed in 2004, 'it was acknowledged among the group that RPG6 left plenty of room for improvement. The quests, due to the rushed writing process, had in places proved unworkable and uneven, with some actors appearing in far fewer scenes than others. The combined dormitory-studio had an element of claustrophobia that caused some stress, and other hostel guests were disturbed by the noise of the late night filming. Preparation began in earnest for a bigger and better seventh KMRPG season.'

Cast and crew

Several RPG6 cast members and their existing characters returned for RPG7:

Forester (Frégo)
Kieran (Treguard)
James Aukett (Gabriel)
Dave (Morgaine)
Keith a.k.a. KaM (King Tharadus)
David (Drassil)
Pooka (Robin)

Other RPG6 cast members played new characters:

Matt (Lon)
Anna (Aranel)
Jason (Toddy)
Gareth (Rhollgar)

Robin John Barlow returned to tread the boards for the first time since RPG5 in 2003, playing Ah Mok. Also returning was Lucy (a.k.a. Sidriss), who had been part of the RPG Season 4 cast and played the elf Isilmé Tindamerel this time.

New to the RPG cast and crew for Season 7 were:

Rich (Brother Virtue)
Graham (Dungeoneer)
Darryll (Ergo Grimwold)
Hannah (Milly)
Sue (Phyliss)
Keith a.k.a. The Brollachan (Pyron)

The group decided that, as a rule, each actor should play only one character. There were some exceptions, which consisted of:

Minor characters e.g. goblins, Festus
Cameos out of character (Robin John Barlow as himself)
Cameos by RPG6 characters

Writing

To make the writing process as open as possible within the group, and to add efficiency to the overall planning, Forester created a bespoke section of IKM called the Quest Builder. The impressive and helpful features of the QB included the ability to:

Post revisions of other people's scene ideas
Arrange scenes into levels and levels into quests
Allocate characters to scenes and automatically keep track of their scene counts, to ensure fairness and to aid scheduling

In addition to story arcs across the season, and the intra-level 'side quests' familiar to Knightmare watchers, many quests had self-contained plots and themes. These included a Wizard of Oz parody and a whodunnit.

Maps were created for each dungeon level, showing how locations were connected. A location was chosen for each scene.

Ambitiously, 20 quests were written for RPG7. This enabled a depth of storytelling and character development far surpassing previous RPGs.

However, the balanced inclusion of 15+ main characters across 300+ scenes - all of which needed to have continuity, workability and entertainment value - made for a colossal undertaking in terms of writing, editing and organisation, which may not have been fully recognised by those group members who had more limited involvement in it. It began within four months of the RPG6 filming and continued right up the RPG7 filming, and indeed during.

Significant contributions were also made in costume, make-up, props and other areas to elevate them above previous RPGs.

Location and filming

The YHA hostel in Alstonefield was chosen as the venue for both accommodation and filming. For convenience, the group hired the entire hostel. While previous RPGs had been filmed around Easter, this time filming was moved to the summer and extended over a longer period. It took place in August 2005.

Two cameras were used to film scenes in a bluescreen void with the intention of using chromakey in post-production. One scene was filmed outdoors. Andy (Snowcat) took a leading role in filming and directing.

Members of the group returned to the hostel for a social event later in 2005.

Regrettably, as with its three predecessors, post-production on the RPG7 footage has never been completed and the season has never had a public showing.

Some RPG7 characters are depicted in Pooka's 2012 fanfic Level 5.

More recent filming projects among the Knightmare fan community have included AegisQuest, Notmare and Behind the Scenes of Knightmare with David Rowe.

[Earlier version: 2020-04-18 10:44:11]

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