Aeropaeia No Frames Rules Page

Just a brief background on myself and some of the rules of the game. I'm a fairly old hand at DMing (I started in the 1980's) having first learned D&D® with the original Basic D&D® Rules System. In this PBeM game, I intend to have no less than two turns per month — more if there is a fast turnaround from all involved. I would like to be able to do a turn a week — this will depend on you, the players.

It is my own world — most of the rules will be pilfered from WotC's AD&D®, but they will be heavily modified. A lot of the magic items and monsters will be modified/changed. The reason for this is that I want the world to be a fresh surprise every step of the way for both old time players and new alike. You (as a PC) might have heard of some of the things/critters/items in your (this) world, but as a young adventurer setting out to explore the world, most of it would be a surprise. It's a big world out there and you never know what's going to be over the next knoll . . . .

The characters will all be starting off at level 1 with 0 XP and basic equipment. You might have one or two armor items or weapons handed down to you by a parent or grandparent, but they will not be in tiptop condition. You may use any character sheet you want, or eMail me for a copy of one I made into a text file.

It will be open to most classes, but I only allow humans and no evil characters. All characters and character histories will be OK'd by me before play starts. It may or may not get kicked back to you for changes. I will need to do some tailoring to your history and whatnot to make it fit into my world, but it should be minor.

The following are gimmee NWPs (not counting against your initial allowance): Riding Land Based, Herbal Lore and Swimming. Everyone knows how to ride — from the rich to the slave, herbs are quite prevalent and everyone's Grammy taught them how to make poultices, herbal teas, etc., and because of the amount of water on this world, all know how to swim. Some may not like it (e.g., the Bedouins) but all know how.

I do allow more than normal starting NWPs. The catch — I do it in a pro/con way. You can add more NWPs, but your character will develop flaws for each extra one. Flaws can be something mild like fear of spiders — not a lot above ground, or fear of water — a major flaw in this water-logged world.

I do magic differently than AD&D® does.

For a priest type of character, they pray for an effect — if HaShem (literally, “the Name”) is listening, or deems the prayer worthy, something happens. At that point, I tell the character whether or not they learned a spell. If they did, they add it to their “prayer book” and can reuse it without having to explain what they are trying to accomplish.

Alas, there are no mages in this world. Oh, there are those claiming to be such — but as in real life, they are charlatans.

The following is a bunch of stuff that your character would know being a native to this world.

Money

A coin, regardless of type, is the size and weight of an American dime. So massive amounts of treasure are not that outrageous to horde or carry.

Value: The money on Aeropæia, is minted by several different city/states and varies as to design depending on which city/state you're in. One Silver is equal to 1 dollar American roughly.

Here are the coins for the starting land. There are other names in other sections of the lands, but all the characters are familiar with the following names:

1 Royal Plat. = 10,000,000 silver
1 Royal Gold = 1,000,000 silver
1 Royal Amethyst = 100,000 silver
1 Royal Silver = 10,000 silver
1 Platinum Dragon = 1,000 Silver
1 Gold Eagle = 100 Silver
1 Amethyst Hawks = 10 Silver
1 Silver Hounds =1 Silver
10 Nickel Squirrels = 1 Silver
100 Brass Mice = 1 Silver
1000 Copper Foxes = 1 Silver
10,000 Iron Slugs = 1 Silver

The Amethyst Hawk and the Royal Amethyst are the only nonmetallic coins in Aeropæia. They are carved from cross sections of amethyst. There is no difference in the value of the coin when considering the clarity, darkness of color, purity of color, etc. There is but one mine in Aeropæia that has the size crystal required to make the Amethyst coins in the uniform size that the land uses. The edges are not rounded off, rather the hexagonal shape of the quartz crystal is kept. The remainder of the coins are minted at the various cities/states around the land. Each bears the marking on the front of the creature it is named for — on the back they bear the seal of the place that minted them. The Royal coins have the face of the current king/queen/president/prime minister/etc. of that land. If a coin has no mint marking on its back, it was privately made.

Aeropæia has a silver based economy. Gold can be found, but it is rare. Platinum is almost unheard of — even legendary.

Sun & Moons

I've kept the Sun and the Moons referred to as "the Sun and the Moons" simply because it's easier to remember what is being spoken about than to tell the players, "The Spril(click)pitooie overhead feels extra hot today . . . ."

Moons (and phases at start of game)

Satellite 1 (Aleph) is New.
Satellite 2 (Bet) is Full.

Colors and Sizes of Moons

Aleph is Luna sized and Bet is more of an asteroid in a very eccentric orbit. Aleph is normal Luna colored. Bet is a dark blue color, almost to the point of being black.

Phases

1) Aleph is normal Luna — 28 days.
2) Bet is on a weekly cycle. New to new phase in 7 days.

The Sun

Right now it is Sol standard. Slightly larger — but not to the eye. (Add 7.9% total volume to ours for Aeropæia's star.) It is called Shemesh (or Sun — since that is what Shemesh translates out of Aeropæia common to English.)

I have a file with more rules for the PC that you will need — such as how to roll stats, what flaws are allowed, etc. If you are interested in playing, eMail me at aeropaeia@yahoo.com and I will send it to you in MS Word 6.0 format.

Now, no more hints on what is in store for my little world. Get down to worrying about your PC's own pathetic little life! Leave the creation of Shemesh's binary (and the tidal chaos it will cause) to me . . . .

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