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Get your own Free Home PageIn the great human city of Kron the world is known as Dreadl-Kal. According to legend, this name came from Lladmieh himself, via direct communication with the first Llah of the Church of Lladmieh, Llah Innocent the First. The Church of Lladmieh is the dominant religion in human lands and cities, and was established by official decree of King Beatold, the first King of Kron.
Hello all.
Welcome to a PBEM game, based in a world of my own creation named Dreadl-Kal. The focus of this PBEM will be on role playing, and is loosely based on AD&D second edition. In order to facilitate role playing, this game shall be diceless, low-level and low-magic.
At least it will start that way for new players.
By diceless, I mean that neither the players nor I shall ever have any reason to role dice. Magical items shall not be described in terms of pluses to hit, spells shall not cause a certain number of 'hit points' to be gained or lost. The rules of AD&D 2nd Edition (upon which the game is loosly based) shall be modified at my discresion to support diceless play.
For exmple, thieving abilities are described in AD&D in terms of percentage - this is one way to quantify the amount time spent learning one technique over another. In this campaign, theif characters may give me these statistics. The numbers are considered the relative amount of work spent training on a particular skill in relationship to the other skills. When a guild has conferred upon a player a new title and/or new responsibilities, I will ask you to allocate the new set of points. Again, this will tell me only the relative measure of time spent on any particular skill. While these numbers will be used in my determination of the outcome of actions, no dice will be rolled. I'll make the decision based on the given situation!
BAD DICE! BAD! BAD!
There will be levels of achievment, though the your progression may seem slow. So far, the average real time between increments in level for characters has been one year. Therefore, this PBEM will tend to be low-level and low-magic. If you do not like to play low-level and low-magic, please do not apply. There are some who argue that the concept of levels goes against the diceless style of play. In Dreadl-Kal, levels correspond with particular social status within your guild or society, and passing from level to level is usually accompanied by a formal ceremony. In some respects this follows more closely AD+D first edition, where each level of achievment had a corresponding title. Despite the diceless nature of combat, fighters will find that they have become more proficient after they have achieved the next 'level'.
Alignment is used only as a guide-line for role-playing. Furthermore, aspects of alignment are determined via relationship with a certain Kingdom, Empire or other area with a defined social structure. All players who wish to submit characters should be "good" aligned, in respect to the Kingdom of Kron, the kingdom around which the action centers.
As an example of the relative use of alignment, notice that Ik, the god of Druids, is listed as being 'neutral.' In fact, Druids do not consider themselves to be neutral, but instead to be devoted to the cause of growing, flowering things. Anything which tends to destroy flowering or growing things would be considered evil by Druids, and anything which enhances these things would be considered good. Since the city of Kron, by itself, is neither destroying nor creating growing things, Druids are neutral toward Kron. Hence, Druids are considered neutral. They do not help Kron, they do not consider Kron evil.
The set of gods of Dreadl-Kal form a pantheon. Each god has suzerainty over a different set of worldly phenomena. However, there are overlapping powers, and there are dieties which are worshipped more in one part of Dreadl-Kal than in others. For example, in Kron there are only about one quarter the number of people who worship Itersrof compared to those who worship Lladmieh. The description of the gods (see Gods of Dreadl-Kal) contains worshipers alignment with respect to the Kronian kingdoms (and mostly, the races of the eastern seaboard).
All characters, regardless of class, must choose a patron Deity, and include a description of the relationship between the deity and the character in the character's background. If a character wishes to be agnostic or atheist, that is OK, but must be accounted for in the background.
Playing in a PBEM is fun, but it is different from a regular game. It is good to know some things about playing in a PBeM before submitting a character. Some people find them too slow to be any fun. For more information on PBEM's, I would highly recommend the site The PBEM News.
Many PBEM's start out well, but then stop after a month or so. I plan to run this PBEM for a long time, measured in years rather than months. It has been running since April, 1998. Please consider the commitment you will be making when submitting a character. Any help which you, the players, can give me, the DM, will increase the likelihood that we will all have a good time, for a long time.
You will notice on this set of web pages large areas which have not yet been developed. For example, not all of the gods have a detailed background available for the players. All of the dieties play an integral role in the future, past and present of Dreadl-Kal. None of the individual deities are fleshed out on the web page until someone wants to play a cleric of the deity. I am willing to read potential backgrounds for any deity. If it fits with what I already know about the diety, or can be reworked to fit the history of that diety, you will likely see that background on the web page. If you have not guessed by now, the deities will be playing a large part in the overall story of the game.
However, when it comes to help, do not confine yourself to the religions of Dreadl-Kal. Help is needed for fleshing out the guilds, the caravan companies, the aristocracy, the races or anything else. Any help from anyone on backgrounds, NPC's inside the guilds, etc. will be considered!
It may also be apparent from the look and feel of the web pages that I am not a web-page designer by trade. Any suggestions or help on the layout, look and feel, or most helpfully on the artwork on any of the pages will be greatly appreciated. I consider the web page to be a resource, from which players can generate interesting characters. It is meant to provide an atmosphere.
I will not be posting moves on the page. I advise players to keep a complete transcript of what has transpired. Little things which happen now could make a big difference in a few months.
I have some philosophies about PBeMs and RPGs in general. It is better that I lay them out here so that potential players will understand what I am expecting.
If you are still interested, please submit a novice type character to be reviewed. Do not send statistics. There are no statistics here, except in general terms. (Enjolras is slightly above average intelligence, but he has always been a clutz...) Background is the most important factor in the initial development of the character. This campaign is about common people, who through strength of will, rather than physical attributes, are able to save the universe (maybe).
The best backgrounds will be accepted. Your backgrounds will be used in the game, so think about them. I will be using the hooks you provide, creating surprises based on background, and doing everything I can to twist your original intent to my own sly and evil purposes.
I hope you will join this PBeM. If anything in these pages has kindled an idea for a character in you head, please send it in. In the subject lines of all postings related to this PBeM, please put the word 'Dreadl' somewhere. All other mail may be tragically lost.
Players should be able to post once a day, weekdays. I will attempt to post once a day as well, though sometimes conversations take place between characters which do not require DM input. Every third or fourth week there may be a hiatus from postings, as I generate new materials for the weeks ahead.
It is the players responsibility to keep postings in line with the spirit of the game. I usually will not recap the emails of the players in my posts. If you claimed to do or say something in a post but were unable to perform the action, I will step in with a description of the reasons for failure. Hence, for the most part, your words are the game. I will provide descriptions and events, and will play the part of many NPC's, but you are the ones writing this story.
It is OK for characters to not respond in time. However, after repeated misses, you may find your character has had an unfortunate demise. Your reward for following all these rules is that unless your character does something completely bone-headed (sorry Delenn), it is highly unlikely that they will be rendered unable to play due to death or worse.
I will also go on vacation regularly, as I expect the players will as well. If you go on vacation, just tell me, and all will be well (or else, you will die!).
I accept very few characters. I try to maintain five active characters at a time. Any more than that becomes a real hassle, with slow replies to conversations etc. Character background is the most important criteria in the selection of characters. The best backgrounds submitted will play. A couple of sentences will not do the trick. Give me details on family, religion, trade, non-weapon proficiencies, etc. Your background does not have to be complete - there may be questions you have about the world of Dreadl-Kal or about a diety you are considering for a patron. Once you have been accepted, we can work on completing the background together.
For whatever reason, your character is answering a posted advertisement for work with the Gartner Group.
Let it be known that the Gartner group, a small company not associated with any guild, company, government or the aristocracy is currently looking for entities (of any race or gender) to join them.
The Gartner group is an association that takes on odd and occasionally dangerous jobs, typically here in the city of Kron but also venturing to some foreign locales. Our reputation is built on discretion, competence and effective execution of our duties. Our clients trust us with their most important tasks and belongings.
We are currently hiring someone to fill the capacity of team healer (no discrimination based on house of worship) and also someone with specialized fighting skills. However, any application will be reviewed to determine if the applicant brings something that can be of use to the team.
Pay is based on experience and abilities brought to the team. Initially, all employees will be on a fixed fee retainer based on assigned projects, with bonuses for outstanding contributions to the team. Extra-ordinary expenses will be covered out of project budgets. Expenses based on incompetence will be covered by the employee. Once a proven member of the team, a percentage of fees and rewards will be negotiated.
If you do not fit into the usual mold, this may be the company for you. Be fore-warned that our jobs tend to be highly dangerous and the group has encountered turnover of the permanent kind.
While the Gartner Group does not discriminate based on gender, race, creed or nationality - it does no tolerate those with habits that will interfere with the proper management of client duties.
Please inquire between the mid-morning bell and the lunch bells at the offices of the Gartner Group - Number 67 Camino del Toro, near the caravan district.
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