Last updated 12/14/95.
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November 29th, 1995:
More information about Pendragon in general can be found on my Pendragon home page.
Sections of this document:
A Few Introductory Notes
Game Mechanics
Characters
I will use Malory as a reference, not as gospel. The events in Malory (and in other Arthurian sources) can be considered "tales your character might have heard". They are not "objectively true" in the game universe. In general, I will use the chronology detailed in the Pendragon supplement The Boy King, but don't count on it.
All characters must be knights or occupy a fighter's social status that makes them able to interact with knights. I would prefer all of them to be male and, if not Christian, at least not opposed to Christianity. If you feel you absolutely must play a female, I may permit it, if you come up with a stunning character concept. I will treat Christianity as objectively real; those of other religions can still get a Religious Bonus, but it is considered to be something which is mundane and personal in origin, not divine.
All characters need to find some way to be survivors of the Battle of Camlann, and to have been campaigning (in the "war" sense) for the last several months (or have other good reasons for being out of touch with local affairs). The campaign will open on the dawn of the day after the battle. All characters should have reasons to care about what happens to Arthur's lands after his death; preferably, they should have some sort of ideals that support this notion. They should also have some reason to stay in the vicinity of Camelot, at least for a few months.
Characters, in general, can be flawed, but they should have some reason for heroism, and for working with other PCs. This is likely to be the sort of campaign where characters will have their ideals slowly crushed -- or triumph over evil, one or the other. I am a big fan of a character's worst enemy being himself.
This is a one-turn-a-week game. This means that you should be writing something at least once a week. I will write things when points need to be clarified or when Outside Events intervene; I do, however, expect there to be significant debate between characters over what to do about a given situation, which means that there may be periods of time when it's simply PCs talking to each other.
Characters must be at least 21 years old, but no older than 30. You get one Option Point (known as Previous Experience in 4th ed.) per year of age above 15. You are strongly encouraged to spend these on raising skills instead of buying stats; one Option Point buys you 4 (not 1d6) skill points (for skills under 15). I will permit raising skills from zero if you can give me a good reason why your character should know how to do something.
I will allow you to choose your character's background, rather than rolling for it. I am well aware that this will permit you to create unbalanced characters. Don't do it. Please submit your background before thinking about how to represent it using the game mechanics.
There is a flat cap of a maximum damage statistic of 6d6 per character; I would prefer characters that do a maximum of 5d6 damage with whatever their primary weapon is. This includes any bonuses -- religious, weapon, or otherwise.
There's some pretty heavy-duty weaponry and armor available by Phase Five (to use the Boy King terminology). Nonetheless, unless you can give me a good reason otherwise, you start with the equipment listed under your social class in the character generation rules, with one exception -- no characters will start with anything better than partial plate armor (14-point armor), or horses that have a damage statistic greater than a standard destrier (8d6) or more than 5 points of barding. Supplemental equipment is available as justified by character concept. Remember that knights do not use missile weapons.
You are permitted to begin the game with lands, a wife, and children. I discourage the latter two, however, since the acquisition of such is a major part of a knight's development. Either way, this must be justified by concept.
I will make you roll for the other standard things you have to roll for at character generation time -- find me on TooMUSH. For statistics, this is 2d6+6 for SIZ, and 3d6 for DEX, STR, CON, and APP, with appropriate cultural modifiers. For the last four statistics, you may choose which roll goes with which stat (before the modifiers are applied). Passions are rolled as-is; if you generate something totally contradictory to your character concept, I will permit a re-roll. Traits are also rolled; I will allow you to assign the rolls as you wish. Again, if you come up with something that contradicts your concept, I will allow re-rolls.
My approach to Traits in Pendragon is fairly basic and not quite in accordance with the standard rules: I will never force you to roll your Traits, even if they are above 15, unless you are inexplicably acting against them. I will, however, award checkmarks for acts which strongly reflect one side or another of a Trait.
Because this is a PBEM, I expect to run dice-lite; in general, I'm likely to look at your character sheet and determine a degree of success or failure, rather than going with the normal/critical success/failure dice-rolling system of standard Pendragon.