Post by The Darkness on Apr 11, 2015 20:23:57 GMT
Character Sheets:
We are in open rp overall. Existing characters from the old game do not have standard creation rules. Just submit them to me here: Admin email so that I have a central database for all the players here. For new original characters we will be dealing with those individually. If someone really wants to start something from scratch. I will be posting general creation rules for the site.
Backgrounds
The common backgrounds for all the games are as follows:
Allies
Arcane
Arsenal* (restricted)
Artifact* (restricted)
Contacts
Fame (Replaces Mortal Status)
Influences* (have some restricted Influences)
Library
Mentor
Military Force* (restricted)
Past Life
Resources
Retainers
Talisman/Wonder *(restricted)
All other backgrounds are considered to be game specific and are only available to characters belonging to the respective game that they come from.
Experience
Currently, this is all open rp. As such we are not awarding xp. When and IF we do. It will be on the following basis:
All characters played during the week period will may 1 XP/week, for a total equal to the numbers of weeks in that month. XP will be updated Each week between Sunday night and Tuesday morning. That's it. Nothing more to it.
Humanity
Humanity is the measure of a being’s soul state. In order to help all the games of WoD work in unison here, we have assigned Humanity as the unifying trait. In each game it has a different affect on the characters based on their states of being (i.e. type of creature) but on all of them it affects their central behavior. The higher the humanity, the more benevolently they behave. The lower the humanity, the more monstrous or cruel they behave. Not every being has the same concepts of sin on them, so those distinctions are up to the STs to moderate by game and monster type. Killing a wyrm tainted formor is not a sin to a garou at any time, but wasting granny May from across the street in a rage haze is, for example.
As stated before Humanity will affect each game differently; below are the breakdowns by game. (This just covers the basics, for details on how humanity affects different creatures see that creature’s creation rules):
Vampire: Normal rules for Humanity apply here, however, it should be noted that allowing a vampire’s humanity to drop below 3 turns them mindless and they become npcs. Once a vampire reaches humanity 3 they must find a path to go onto from humanity or they will be removed from play. (See vampire section for more details)
Werewolf: Humanity acts as the control mechanism for rage. So long as a character’s humanity is higher than their rage, they may interact with humans without their rage driving human’s away. Once rage exceeds the character’s humanity the normal affects of rage on humans apply. Frenzy, based on rage may also be easier to resist by high humanity shifters, allowing them to re-roll for each point difference between their rage and humanity scores. (see werewolf rules for more details)
Mage: Mages use humanity in much the same way that mortals and vampires do. However, they also use it to resist the affects of Quiet. The character’s humanity rating is the amount of paradox that they may accumulate before it causes mortals to react to them oddly or suffer backlash. High humanity kind of reduces the inherent “weirdness” that unawakened beings feel around a mage. Mages will also use their Humanity as the dice pool to use to resist a fall into Quiet.
Changeling: Humanity as a measure of the innocence of the soul of the person that a changeling is in the mundane world helps prolong the life span of the Changeling. Changelings may add 4 years to their maximum lifespan for each dot of humanity they have over 7 (base age 18). Those changelings of the Unseelie courts use a path similar to the ones used by the kindred Sabbat.
Mortals: Normal rules for Humanity apply here, however, it should be noted that allowing a mortal’s humanity to drop below 5 automatically gains them a derangement of some kind. Humans who drop further than that gain a new derangement for each level they drop until they hit humanity 2. Mortals who reach Humanity 2 are considered to be clinically insane and sociopathic. I don’t think that anyone wants to live next door to Jeffery Daumer…
Instruction
Instruction may be used to help another character lower the cost of purchasing a new ability or power. In the case of this, the way that the talent is used comes from a combined roll from the player and the teacher. To use instruction to teach, the players involved must have at least 2 logged scenes of instruction.
Once that is done the players roll. The teacher rolls instruction + manipulation verses a difficulty of 5 + the level of skill he is teaching. Every 2 successes will lower the cost of the new skill or skill level by 1. Then the student must make a roll of their knowledge in the ability (or power) + their perception. Once success, means that they have successfully learned the skill, no successes means the instruction has failed. Each botch takes away successes from the instructor’s roll and since using instruction to help another character costs the teacher an XP to use, a critical botch costs both characters an XP. The maximum effect for instruction is 50% to the cost of a new power or ability
Instruction use costs the teacher 1 XP to use, this 1XP cost can be applied to several characters at once if they all share the same training scenes; otherwise, if one character is teaching a bunch of characters could get expensive.
Martial Arts
Unless you are part of the Year of the Lotus games, martial arts available are restricted to those common to the US. Those martial arts are:
Aikido
Boxing
Jujitsu (Brazilian or otherwise)
Taekwondo
Tang Soo Do
Shotokahn
Wing Chun Do
Tai Chi Chuan
Kickboxing
Mag Grava
European Fencing
These Martial Arts can be learned at normal skill cost by any character in the game. For the rest of the Asian Martial arts, players outside of the Year of the Lotus games pay Current rating X3 for cost.
There are some exotic other cultural Martial arts that exist in the world. If a player wishes to learn one of these arts then they need to contact the HST and then with that ST work out the allowed or appropriate maneuvers with the HST of his/her game. Once that is done, then they will have to play the same cost. The only exception to this is if the character is from the culture that created it. That will allow them normal skill cost as per the YotL games.
[Example: Akelos, a Greek sailor wants to learn, Pankration (ancient Greek wrestling/boxing form) and in his character history he included studying this with his grandfather who passed it down to him from their family as part of their heritage. Then this character would be eligible to learn Pankration as a standard skill.]
Lastly, if you are unsure of what maneuvers a player can purchase, contact me. Just because a maneuver sounds cool or does a lot of damage does not mean it belongs in a given martial art. Maka Wara sounds sweet, but boxing doesn’t teach you how to break an opponent’s arms on your own. Take some time and research a martial art before just taking one.
For more on Martial Arts, see the combat section.
Merits and Flaws
Merits and flaws that are presented in the 2nd Edition and Revised Edition world of Darkness books are all available to players to use. The Storytellers for the games have the final say on any of the merits or flaws requested and may deny or allow any of them at their discretion.
There are a couple of merits and flaws that appear with varied costs in the books, others have been altered to prevent abuse. Those merits and flaws are clarified below:
True Faith (7 points)
Iron Will (3 points)
Medium (4 points)
Fist of God (7points)
Restricted Background, Merits, flaws, etc
Items listed as restricted are items that have the potential to create problems both IC and OOC in the game. To prevent this, the STs will look very carefully at these items before allowing players to take or advance in them.
There are no out and out banned items here, but some items may be need to be reviewed, for the good of the game. If the item is refused, don’t take it personally, just move on and play. I will be sure to talk to you about it and why I denied the request. Plus, if you are asked to take something off, you will be given something (that we work out together in return)
True Faith
This merit exists in a form based on the levels of power based on Vampire: the Masquerade core book (Revised) the ratings run on a scale of 1 to 10. To possess TF a character must first meet three requirements:
• Purchase the merit for 7 (14 after character creation)
• Have a recognizable religious background and set belief structure, including a hierarchy of sins.
• A humanity rating of no less than 7
Characters begin rp with a True Faith rating of 3 and may only gain more through RP as their humanity increases or as ST rewards. With each increase in Humanity the character may bump up their TF rating by a maximum of 2. The rating of their TF is recorded as Numina on their sheet and is also the number of TF abilities that the character can possess at any time. No Character may have a TF rating of 10 in game, at attaining 10 they become Saints and become NPC's.
NOTE: No Kindred will have TF higher than 4 in game, their half damned nature prevents it as the beast will inevitably force them to act out in some inhumane manner eventually no matter how hard they try. Were-creatures suffer from the same problem due to their rage and have the same limitation. Aura Perception shows up a person with faith, it cannot be hidden, it shows as a Silver/Gold "Halo" around her body, its radiance is in proportion to the amount of faith.
Mages and sorcerers with TF automatically gain certain abilities with their first dot of True Faith these are the only automatically gifted abilities and anything beyond the first 3 must be Storyteller awarded. A non-Mage starts with only Warding. Additional abilities may be earned with RP and as their TF rises. However, they must be awarded by a Storyteller and you cannot purchase them. All additional powers must be approved by the Storyteller and noted on the character’s sheet prior to play. To use any of these holy powers of Faith, a Character Must make a Faith roll with successes determining the outcome. With each use of faith there is the chance of failure due to a weak moment. Anytime the faith roll fails the character loses a temporary faith point.
The inherent powers to all beings with True Faith are:
Sensing the unholy: (as per True Faith level 3 Vampire: the masquerade corebook revised page 272)
Countermagic: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65*
Blessing: a character with TF and the rituals KS may bless an item. Such a blessing is temporary and will fade after the item has been used. The time it remains “holy” in use is the character’s TF rating in weeks. To create a permanent blessing requires a TF rating of 7+ or the use of magic.
Greater True Faith Abilities are:
Acceptance: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Convictions: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Faith Healing: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Holy Shielding: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Intercession: and Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65, with countermagic rules from Mage corebook page 155
Mental Resistance: Add your faith Dice to resisting mental or emotional incursion (Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65)
Penance: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Transmutation: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Visions: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Warding: (Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65).
The number of TF abilities a character can have is limited by her TF rating. Characters gain the inherent abilities with TF level 3; for each level beyond the third, they can have an additional ability, if so awarded by the ST. Hence, a character with TF 6 could have a max of 6 TF powers: the 3 base + 3 earned.
True faith inflicts 1 level of unsoakable aggravated damage per round to any creature of, infernal, wyrm, yomi or other unholy taint. Items blessed by someone do not inflict unsoakable damage, but the damage inflicted by such Blessed items, weapons, etc…is still aggravated.
True Faith can be lost as well as gained. Characters with True Faith must remain within the tenants of their established faith system/pattern/paradigm during RP. Losing humanity, too many failed faith rolls (yep, sometimes dice suck) or slipping from their chosen path will cause the PC to fall into a faith crisis. A Faith crisis must be role-played with a ST to a conclusion that can result in a loss or restoration of faith. During the crisis however their TF rating is treated as if it were 0.
We are in open rp overall. Existing characters from the old game do not have standard creation rules. Just submit them to me here: Admin email so that I have a central database for all the players here. For new original characters we will be dealing with those individually. If someone really wants to start something from scratch. I will be posting general creation rules for the site.
Backgrounds
The common backgrounds for all the games are as follows:
Allies
Arcane
Arsenal* (restricted)
Artifact* (restricted)
Contacts
Fame (Replaces Mortal Status)
Influences* (have some restricted Influences)
Library
Mentor
Military Force* (restricted)
Past Life
Resources
Retainers
Talisman/Wonder *(restricted)
All other backgrounds are considered to be game specific and are only available to characters belonging to the respective game that they come from.
Experience
Currently, this is all open rp. As such we are not awarding xp. When and IF we do. It will be on the following basis:
All characters played during the week period will may 1 XP/week, for a total equal to the numbers of weeks in that month. XP will be updated Each week between Sunday night and Tuesday morning. That's it. Nothing more to it.
Humanity
Humanity is the measure of a being’s soul state. In order to help all the games of WoD work in unison here, we have assigned Humanity as the unifying trait. In each game it has a different affect on the characters based on their states of being (i.e. type of creature) but on all of them it affects their central behavior. The higher the humanity, the more benevolently they behave. The lower the humanity, the more monstrous or cruel they behave. Not every being has the same concepts of sin on them, so those distinctions are up to the STs to moderate by game and monster type. Killing a wyrm tainted formor is not a sin to a garou at any time, but wasting granny May from across the street in a rage haze is, for example.
As stated before Humanity will affect each game differently; below are the breakdowns by game. (This just covers the basics, for details on how humanity affects different creatures see that creature’s creation rules):
Vampire: Normal rules for Humanity apply here, however, it should be noted that allowing a vampire’s humanity to drop below 3 turns them mindless and they become npcs. Once a vampire reaches humanity 3 they must find a path to go onto from humanity or they will be removed from play. (See vampire section for more details)
Werewolf: Humanity acts as the control mechanism for rage. So long as a character’s humanity is higher than their rage, they may interact with humans without their rage driving human’s away. Once rage exceeds the character’s humanity the normal affects of rage on humans apply. Frenzy, based on rage may also be easier to resist by high humanity shifters, allowing them to re-roll for each point difference between their rage and humanity scores. (see werewolf rules for more details)
Mage: Mages use humanity in much the same way that mortals and vampires do. However, they also use it to resist the affects of Quiet. The character’s humanity rating is the amount of paradox that they may accumulate before it causes mortals to react to them oddly or suffer backlash. High humanity kind of reduces the inherent “weirdness” that unawakened beings feel around a mage. Mages will also use their Humanity as the dice pool to use to resist a fall into Quiet.
Changeling: Humanity as a measure of the innocence of the soul of the person that a changeling is in the mundane world helps prolong the life span of the Changeling. Changelings may add 4 years to their maximum lifespan for each dot of humanity they have over 7 (base age 18). Those changelings of the Unseelie courts use a path similar to the ones used by the kindred Sabbat.
Mortals: Normal rules for Humanity apply here, however, it should be noted that allowing a mortal’s humanity to drop below 5 automatically gains them a derangement of some kind. Humans who drop further than that gain a new derangement for each level they drop until they hit humanity 2. Mortals who reach Humanity 2 are considered to be clinically insane and sociopathic. I don’t think that anyone wants to live next door to Jeffery Daumer…
Instruction
Instruction may be used to help another character lower the cost of purchasing a new ability or power. In the case of this, the way that the talent is used comes from a combined roll from the player and the teacher. To use instruction to teach, the players involved must have at least 2 logged scenes of instruction.
Once that is done the players roll. The teacher rolls instruction + manipulation verses a difficulty of 5 + the level of skill he is teaching. Every 2 successes will lower the cost of the new skill or skill level by 1. Then the student must make a roll of their knowledge in the ability (or power) + their perception. Once success, means that they have successfully learned the skill, no successes means the instruction has failed. Each botch takes away successes from the instructor’s roll and since using instruction to help another character costs the teacher an XP to use, a critical botch costs both characters an XP. The maximum effect for instruction is 50% to the cost of a new power or ability
Instruction use costs the teacher 1 XP to use, this 1XP cost can be applied to several characters at once if they all share the same training scenes; otherwise, if one character is teaching a bunch of characters could get expensive.
Martial Arts
Unless you are part of the Year of the Lotus games, martial arts available are restricted to those common to the US. Those martial arts are:
Aikido
Boxing
Jujitsu (Brazilian or otherwise)
Taekwondo
Tang Soo Do
Shotokahn
Wing Chun Do
Tai Chi Chuan
Kickboxing
Mag Grava
European Fencing
These Martial Arts can be learned at normal skill cost by any character in the game. For the rest of the Asian Martial arts, players outside of the Year of the Lotus games pay Current rating X3 for cost.
There are some exotic other cultural Martial arts that exist in the world. If a player wishes to learn one of these arts then they need to contact the HST and then with that ST work out the allowed or appropriate maneuvers with the HST of his/her game. Once that is done, then they will have to play the same cost. The only exception to this is if the character is from the culture that created it. That will allow them normal skill cost as per the YotL games.
[Example: Akelos, a Greek sailor wants to learn, Pankration (ancient Greek wrestling/boxing form) and in his character history he included studying this with his grandfather who passed it down to him from their family as part of their heritage. Then this character would be eligible to learn Pankration as a standard skill.]
Lastly, if you are unsure of what maneuvers a player can purchase, contact me. Just because a maneuver sounds cool or does a lot of damage does not mean it belongs in a given martial art. Maka Wara sounds sweet, but boxing doesn’t teach you how to break an opponent’s arms on your own. Take some time and research a martial art before just taking one.
For more on Martial Arts, see the combat section.
Merits and Flaws
Merits and flaws that are presented in the 2nd Edition and Revised Edition world of Darkness books are all available to players to use. The Storytellers for the games have the final say on any of the merits or flaws requested and may deny or allow any of them at their discretion.
There are a couple of merits and flaws that appear with varied costs in the books, others have been altered to prevent abuse. Those merits and flaws are clarified below:
True Faith (7 points)
Iron Will (3 points)
Medium (4 points)
Fist of God (7points)
Restricted Background, Merits, flaws, etc
Items listed as restricted are items that have the potential to create problems both IC and OOC in the game. To prevent this, the STs will look very carefully at these items before allowing players to take or advance in them.
There are no out and out banned items here, but some items may be need to be reviewed, for the good of the game. If the item is refused, don’t take it personally, just move on and play. I will be sure to talk to you about it and why I denied the request. Plus, if you are asked to take something off, you will be given something (that we work out together in return)
True Faith
This merit exists in a form based on the levels of power based on Vampire: the Masquerade core book (Revised) the ratings run on a scale of 1 to 10. To possess TF a character must first meet three requirements:
• Purchase the merit for 7 (14 after character creation)
• Have a recognizable religious background and set belief structure, including a hierarchy of sins.
• A humanity rating of no less than 7
Characters begin rp with a True Faith rating of 3 and may only gain more through RP as their humanity increases or as ST rewards. With each increase in Humanity the character may bump up their TF rating by a maximum of 2. The rating of their TF is recorded as Numina on their sheet and is also the number of TF abilities that the character can possess at any time. No Character may have a TF rating of 10 in game, at attaining 10 they become Saints and become NPC's.
NOTE: No Kindred will have TF higher than 4 in game, their half damned nature prevents it as the beast will inevitably force them to act out in some inhumane manner eventually no matter how hard they try. Were-creatures suffer from the same problem due to their rage and have the same limitation. Aura Perception shows up a person with faith, it cannot be hidden, it shows as a Silver/Gold "Halo" around her body, its radiance is in proportion to the amount of faith.
Mages and sorcerers with TF automatically gain certain abilities with their first dot of True Faith these are the only automatically gifted abilities and anything beyond the first 3 must be Storyteller awarded. A non-Mage starts with only Warding. Additional abilities may be earned with RP and as their TF rises. However, they must be awarded by a Storyteller and you cannot purchase them. All additional powers must be approved by the Storyteller and noted on the character’s sheet prior to play. To use any of these holy powers of Faith, a Character Must make a Faith roll with successes determining the outcome. With each use of faith there is the chance of failure due to a weak moment. Anytime the faith roll fails the character loses a temporary faith point.
The inherent powers to all beings with True Faith are:
Sensing the unholy: (as per True Faith level 3 Vampire: the masquerade corebook revised page 272)
Countermagic: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65*
Blessing: a character with TF and the rituals KS may bless an item. Such a blessing is temporary and will fade after the item has been used. The time it remains “holy” in use is the character’s TF rating in weeks. To create a permanent blessing requires a TF rating of 7+ or the use of magic.
Greater True Faith Abilities are:
Acceptance: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Convictions: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Faith Healing: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Holy Shielding: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Intercession: and Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65, with countermagic rules from Mage corebook page 155
Mental Resistance: Add your faith Dice to resisting mental or emotional incursion (Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65)
Penance: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Transmutation: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Visions: Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65
Warding: (Celestial Chorus (revised) page 65).
The number of TF abilities a character can have is limited by her TF rating. Characters gain the inherent abilities with TF level 3; for each level beyond the third, they can have an additional ability, if so awarded by the ST. Hence, a character with TF 6 could have a max of 6 TF powers: the 3 base + 3 earned.
True faith inflicts 1 level of unsoakable aggravated damage per round to any creature of, infernal, wyrm, yomi or other unholy taint. Items blessed by someone do not inflict unsoakable damage, but the damage inflicted by such Blessed items, weapons, etc…is still aggravated.
True Faith can be lost as well as gained. Characters with True Faith must remain within the tenants of their established faith system/pattern/paradigm during RP. Losing humanity, too many failed faith rolls (yep, sometimes dice suck) or slipping from their chosen path will cause the PC to fall into a faith crisis. A Faith crisis must be role-played with a ST to a conclusion that can result in a loss or restoration of faith. During the crisis however their TF rating is treated as if it were 0.