House Rules

This section will define and list any new rules created or old rules changed in the interest of stream-lining gameplay.

Changes

 * Soak Calculations

Calculating in Soak during an attack now comes before rolling damage rather than after.


 * Weapon Defense

Base weapon defense value is added after calculation for Parry DV rather than before


 * Social Attacks

Direct Social Attacks are resisted via Wits + Integrity (Overt Order, Charmer). Indirect are resisted via Willpower + Integrity + Legend (Serpent's Gaze, Lunacy). Only non-power social attacks can be resisted via spending willpower, assuming the defender fails the resistance roll. The Epic Intelligence Knack Blockade of Reason always applies to the latter, and can be applied to the former in place of Wits.


 * Untouchable Opponent

Adds bonus dice equal to Epic Dexterity to Dodge DV (after calculation) rather than bonus successes.

At Hero level, Epic Attributes no longer add bonus successes on a scale. They now add bonus successes equal to their rating.
 * Epic Attributes

1 Epic Attribute = 1 Success


 * Fire Boons

Fire 3: Eyes of Flame and Fire 5: Flame Travel work on any Fire the PC has used any Fire Boon to manipulate or affect, or that they started themselves, so long as it has burned continuously rather than only those fires affect by Bolster Fire.

Fire 4: Flamin' Bullets adds 2 die per Fire Boon the character possesses to be distributed.


 * Prophecy Purview

Characters can use the Prophecy Purview a number of times per story equal to their Prophecy rating (instead of once) Characters can use the Mystery Purview a number of times per story equal to their Mystery rating (instead of once)
 * Mystery Purview
 * Pepper Spray

ACC +1, DAM Special, Range 5, Clip 30, Speed 4.

Pepper Spray is treated as a poison. It has a Tolerance of –, Damage of special (see below), a Toxicity of 2 and an Penalty of -4 (it tends to severely impair). When sprayed, a target will need to make a Stamina + Fortitude roll against the Toxicity, and for each success they make will reduce the penalty by 1. Extra success on the attack add to the difficulty of this roll (the more of it you get right in the face the harder it is to blow off), but repeated uses will at most reset the penalty. Once failed, the penalty will remain until the target can wash out their eyes and face thoroughly, and then fade at a rate of one per ten minutes. Armor and soak per se have no effect on any of this, though physical armor that protects the eyes and face will subtract their soak from the Toxicity and extra successes.


 * Taser

ACC -1, Damage +3B, Range 10, Clip 1-2, Speed 6, Piercing.

A Taser doesn’t do a huge amount of damage, but if even one level of damage gets to the target, it can stun or even disable them. When the target takes even a single level of bashing damage, they have to make a Stamina + Fortitude roll against the levels of damage they took. If they fail, they take a penalty of -2 until the attacker’s next action–and if they haven’t removed the dart by then, the attacker can hit the button again, dumping another charge of equal value into them. If they get no successes at all, they are incapacitated for (Damage - Stamina minutes, to a minimum of 1). If they botch, they take the damage as Lethal instead of Bashing damage.

Whenever a Scion spends a point of Legend where any mortal can see or hear him or her, the Storyteller rolls a number of dice equal to the Scion's Legend (if the Scion spends multiple points of Legend at once, the Storyteller rolls for each one). His successes determine whether or not the Scion is now Fatebound to a mortal, and how strong that Fatebond is; a roll of 3 successes or more indicates that the Scion is now Fatebound to a mortal, and any additional successes past that 33 or rolled for other Legend expenditures in the scene are added to a pool. At the end of the scene, the total number of successes in the pool determines the strength of the Fatebond. If a mortal who is already Fatebound to the Scion is present when the Scion spends Legend and the roll nets enough successes to raise his rating (i.e., a mortal with rating 5 is present when a 3 or higher is rolled), he increases in rating instead and the Scion does not accrue a new Fatebond. When a Scion gains a Fatebond, the Storyteller rolls a single die twice to determine the mortal's Fatebound Role as follows, once for the rarity and once for the exact role:
 * Fatebonds

Scions are inextricably bound to these mortals by the strands of Fate and may not stand idly by when they are acting out their roles; they must take an active part in their stories or suffer the consequences of Fate's displeasure. Whenever a friendly Fatebound mortal with a Fatebond Rating of 4 or higher dies and the Scion could have saved him or her but did not put forth their utmost effort to do so, the Scion suffers from the backlash of Fate in the following form:

If the Scion does not have enough Willpower to lose the prescribed amount, he immediately takes a number of levels of unsoakable bashing damage equal to the excess. Conversely, if a Scion causes or allows the death of an unfriendly Fatebound mortal, he or she immediately gains one point of Willpower. If, however, he or she allows his or her Fatebound enemy to escape without making an effort to properly deal with the issue, the Scion is subject to the same Willpower costs in the table above (though not the restrictions on the spending of Legend).

Friendly Fatebound Roles are considered to be Apprentice, Backup, Balm, Beggar, Boon Companion, Canary, Fan, Herald, Lover, Martyr, Mentor, Patron, Preacher, Shadow, Unrequited Lover and Victim. Unfriendly Fatebound Roles are considered to be Catastrophe, Foil, Jinx, Nemesis, Rival, Traitor, Trickster and Weak Link. Mortals with the Contrary role are considered friendly or unfriendly based on their hidden role.

New Rules

 * Perception Adds to Firearm Damage

Perception adds to the dice pool to firearm and associated weapons damage. Epic Perception adds bonuses successes to that pool.


 * Botching

If more 1s are rolled than successes on any roll, it is a botch, regardless of automatic successes.


 * Epic Stamina

Epic Stamina dots add an equal amount of -1 Health Levels and Dying Boxes Knacks which do not specify an activation time are a miscellaneous (Speed 5 / DV -1) action. All boons and knacks that directly target a creature or person may be resisted with an Integrity + Willpower + Legend roll unless otherwise stated. Any being without Legend may spend a point of Willpower in order to roll. A player can target a specific point on a enemy, increasing the difficulty of the attack, for various results
 * Activation Times
 * Boon/Knack Saves
 * Called Shots

These rules are designed to cover the creation of high quality goods as well as high technology items. Creation requires two parts, first...
 * Create Item

Design Phase A particular item need to be planned, at least to a minimum level, but only once. Planning includes gathering appropriate materials and planning out the job. Planning can be for multiple copies of the item, but double the difficulty for this roll as it would indicate the ability to mass produce the item. Furthermore, mass production is limited to the skill of the facility in question. (Most factories cannot build fusion reactors)

Roll: Intelligence+Craft or Science Difficulty: Technology Level Squared x Quality Roll Interval: See Technology Level

Technology Levels This is a mater of how advanced you object is, from a simple stone axe of the stone age to a teleporter from the energy age. Note: The Story Teller may require that you have the Concept to Execution Knack prior to accessing Technology Levels beyond the electronic age.

Quality The quality of objects can have a measurable effect on their stats. A crappy sword is unbalanced, dull, and weak, while a supreme sword has perfect balance and a razor sharp edge. These quality bonuses can omly apply to mundane attributes such as soak, hardness, health levels, damage, accuracy, and defense. Speed cannot be changed by quality. For non-weapon/armor items the benefits can add to their granted bonuses such as a super fast computer or car.

Mundane Improvement The quality improvement represents increases to the mundane function of the item. Limited per the Technology level. For Example, a supreme item get +5 mundane improvements, if it is a supreme iron sword (Iron Age) then you could put no more than 2 points into damage for example, the remaining 3 would have to go elsewhere.

Example: Designing a Superior Quality Fusion Powered Car requires and Epic Intelligence of 3 and 4 ranks of the Craft(automotive) skill. Each roll would take 8 hours because of the fusion age technology. The difficulty, number of successes required would 6x6 for fusion age x9 for superior quality for a total of 324 success required. This scion would roll Intelligence+Craft(Automotive) every 8 hours. This example would be possible for a Hero level Scion, if his Intelligence was 5(3) and Skill 5, and say he has assistants/drafting computer worth +2 dice, his average roll would be 10 successes every 8 hours. If he worked full time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, designing this car would require 6 and 1/2 weeks. With epic stamina 2 could do it in 1 sitting of 10-11 days.

Build Design Now that you've designed it and gathered the appropriate materials you have to build it.

Roll: Dexterity + Craft Difficulty: Size x Technology Level x Quality Roll Interval: Equal to Technology Level

Special: Multiple people can contribute successes toward building difficulty if the object being constructed is large enough, objects designed for mass production can have multiple people/machines working on them regardless of their size.

Continueing the Example from before: The Car is obviously car sized (5) the technolgy level is still 6, and the quality 9, requiring a total of 270 successes to construct, using dexterity+craft, at 8 hours per roll.

Certain firearms come equiped with alternate modes of fire
 * Rapid Fire

Burst Fire: This is a 2-3 round burst per pull of the trigger, general recoil is low and managable, leaving the bullets within a tight pattern on the target. This is the generally used firing mode. In this firing mode you perform an attack as usual.''' If you beat the target DV you strike with 2-3 bullets instead of 1. All rounds past the first do not gain the benefit of aiming or perception, nor can they benefit from knacks of any kind. Each consecutive bullet has 1 level of recoil accumulating.'''

Controlled Burst: This is a short, 1-2 second burst. The number of round varies by gun. These are "safest" full auto bursts, and can still deplete a weapons clip very quickly. '''In this case you are attacking a small area the size of a person. For each round fired you receive a bonus die on your attack, but you cannot benefit from aiming or knacks. Each bullet still suffers a cumulative 1 level of recoil. For each number that you beat the target DV by, is one round that strikes the target, dealing damage based solely on weapon and threshold (don't forget recoil)'''

Suppression Fire: This is a long, 3 second or longer burst. The number of round varies by gun. This depletes a weapons clip very quickly, only multibarrels, or specially cooled machine guns can fire at this rate for more then 6-10 seconds without the barrel deforming beyond usefulness. '''In this case you are attacking an area instead of a person. The area you can cover is 1 yard per dot of dexterity and marksmanship, including epic dexterity bonus. Every round you put into the area sets a target number of 1 cumulative, per Second. Anyone trying to pass through must roll Dexterity+Athletics to safely navigate the area. For each number they fail to beat the DV by, they are struck with 1 round, taking only the weapon damage, per round. Due to the popularity and "epicness" of Rambo Action, these types of attacks are always considered "Heroic" and get 2 successes on 10's. If the gunner is strong enough, or there are multiple gunners suppression fire can be done my multiple weapons, the TN is equal to the TOTAL number of bullets entering the area per second.' Note: The fastest rates of fire are 6000 rpm, which would put up 60 rounds per second, or 360 rounds per 6 tick action. Usually no more than 1,000-1,500 rounds are loaded/available. So watch your ammo.''


 * Recoil

Each consecutive shot has a total accuracy 1 less than the shot before it. Even if the weapon is mounted, recoil can still effect it, hot gases can, and do, subtly bend and warp the barrel for example.

Recoil penalties are reduced by your strength+epic strength bonus. Bipods double your effective strength, and tripods triple it. Vehicle mounts effectively absorb all recoil.


 * Reproduction

Characters that find themselves in situations wherein they may reproduce roll one die. If the result is 1-5, there is no pregnancy; if it is 6-9, the character in question becomes pregnant or impregnates his partner; if it is 10, the character rolls again to determine whether there might be multiple fertilizations (twins, etc). Characters with the Health purview may add or subtract their total number of boons on this roll.