This campaign will employ elements of AD&D 1st ed, 2.0, Ravenloft Campaign, Masque of the Red Death, Cthulhu Britannica and Call of Cthulhu rules and some elements of GURPS 3 and a few House Rules from other Home Brews! (Confusing, yes?)
Before you go any further, read Important Changes to get a feel for what is different. You will find greater detail in the pertinent sections.
Lets start with the basics….
These are the rules for generating Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and so on.
Here is where you pick the type of character you are going to play. Fighter, Rogue, Adept… The page contains brief descriptions as well as links too detailed pages for each class.
All Character classes have a minimum age that the character can be. Additionally the player may opt to age his or her character to gain additional skill points and changes in Attributes.
In Victorian England, Social Class is EVERYTHING! It determines your educational opportunities, employment, profession, who your friends are, marriage prospects and how the strangers and the law will treat you. Social Class will help determine the skills you know. To society, THIS is more important then your character class!
Unless the player chooses otherwise all characters are assumed to be English.
In Victorian Dreadful your character is much more then a thief or a magic user. He or she will have a slate of skills available that help define the character in terms of profession or job, providing a source of income other then adventuring. The skills allow the character to augment their abilities and provide optional solutions to many of the problems they will face. There are Base Skills that everyone knows, there are Core Skills that form the groundwork of your character class, there are Professional and Job skills that will help earn income and may come in handy in other circumstances. And there are additional Class Skills that can enhance your character’s abilities.
These are generated by rolling 1d6 in front of the DM. They are spent in one of six possible ways at the time of character creation.
Your starting money is determined by your Character Class and your Social Class.