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Game-Wide House Rules

Game-Wide House Rules & Character Policies

Allies

Allies may be purchased for a group, not for an individual. If you want to have influence with or the help of a Setting NPC, you must purchase the Mentor or merit, which require staff approval.

Alternate Identity

While the Alternate Identity merit doesn't require justification, a system is now in place for someone who is repairing a damaged Alternate Identity.

The roll is Manipulation+Politics, extended. 5 successes are required for basic IDs--this is for people getting Alternate Identity 1-2, and for the Lost who have no IDs at all, and just want their base one made official. If you're creating an Alternate Identity 3, the target is 10 successes.

This process requires Allies (Legal), and will draw upon them. PCs can create ID per dot of Allies (Legal) per week. Getting an Alternate Identification 3 level ID will take 2 Allies dots per week, however. So you can get 2 basic IDs done (at max Alt ID 2) a week, or one Alt ID 3 a week.

Changelings who are getting their first identification will have it covered by the Freehold, they don't have to pay anything. For any changelings getting further IDs, or for people outside of the Freehold, getting basic IDs (up to Alt ID 2) is Availability 2 and Alt ID 3 is Availability 3. These Availability costs can be lowered with the Fixer merit as per usual.

The Freehold will pay for anyone who is getting their IDs fixed/replaced after the Gentrification plot.

Armor Stacking

A character can benefit from one mundane and one supernatural source of armor at a time, per the rules in the God Machine Rules Update p. 206. If you have more than one mundane or supernatural source of armor, you can choose which one applies for the scene but can't change it for the duration of the scene without removing the chosen armor.

"Intrinsic" armor, like the Iron Skin merit or armor from a Life spell, or anything of that sort is either mundane or supernatural armor depending on its source. Iron Skin would be a mundane armor source, and skin toughened by Life magic would be a supernatural one.

All of this, of course, is subject to the fact that specific rules outweigh general ones. If a source of armor says that it stacks in a way that contradicts this HR, then follow the text of the source (merit, power, etc).

Character Age

Your character must be, look, and in all ways act 18+. You may not mention that your character 'looks underage', state or imply your character is childlike or underage mentally. This is grounds for immediate banning.

Clash of Wills

Please see Changeling Clash Of Wills for information on how to handle the instances of Clash of Wills which either require a House Rule or were written in an unclear fashion.

Conditions

The Madness Condition is now called "Overwhelmed" on this game, in order to eliminate ableist language and more accurately describe the Condition in question. If you have this Condition on your sheet, please put in a ticket so staff can update it.

Crafting System

From Dusk Till Jawn uses a modified crafting system similar to what you will find in the Chronicles of Darkness core book and in the Hurt Locker supplement. You can find the details here.

Creating Works of Art

From Dusk Till Jawn uses a modified art crafting system similar to what you will find in the Chronicles of Darkness core book and in the Hurt Locker supplement. You can find the details here.

Custom Conditions & Tilts

We accept pitches for custom Conditions either written by the player or adapted from forum posts. You can find those Conditions & Tilts here. Clarity Conditions have their own listing.

Custom Fighting Styles

We have a very small selection of custom fighting styles designed to flesh out some shortcomings in 2e, primarily on the heavy weapons and heavy armor end of spectrum. We do accept custom pitches for merit trees, but reserve the right to decline custom content pitches.

Equipment Houserules

  • The Bomb Suit provides coverage to the legs, arms, and torso. Head coverage requires a helmet, with the usual -1 to defense and -1 to perception rolls for sight and sound. This is a change from how it is listed in the books, and is done to bring it in line with the rest of the armor.
  • Because 2.0 presently lacks stats for watercraft and aircraft, or availability for land vehicles, please feel free to use the following tables:

Aircraft

Vehicle Dice Modifier Size Durability/Structure Speed Occupants Availability
Light Aircraft
Single-Engine -2 18 2/20 180 1+3
Twin-Engine -2 21 2/23 370 2+14
Stunt Plane 0 15 3/18 220 1+1
Glider 0 15 1/16 160 1+1
Commercial Aircraft
Business Jet -2 25 2/27 660 2+10
Airliner -4 35 2/37 700 3+180
Light Transport -3 30 2/32 270 2+6
Heavy Transport -5 40 3/43 700 3+9
Helicopters
Observation -1 17 2/19 180 2
Service 0 20 3/23 210 2+8
Transport -1 25 3/28 160 2+2


Watercraft

Vehicle Dice Modifier Size Durability/Structure Speed Occupants Availability
Small Craft
Canoe -2 7 1/8 Str+Stam 3
Kayak -1 6 1/7 Str+Stam 1
Jet Ski +2 6 2/8 50 1+1
Inflatable Boat 0 8 1/9 25 1+7
Motorboats
Fishing Boat 0 9 2/11 15 1+3
Motorboat -4 10 2/12 60 1+5
Racing Boat +2 18 2/20 120 3+2
Houseboat -3 18 2/20 20 1+7
Sailboats
Day Sailer -2 8 1/9 Wind Speed 1+2
Yacht -1 20 2/22 Wind Speed / 15 2+8
Racing Yacht 0 25 3/28 Wind Speed 6+6


Land Vehicles

Vehicle Dice Modifier Size Durability/Structure Speed Occupants Availability
Motorcycle -1 7 2/9 100 1+1
Compact Car -2 8 3/11 90 1+4
Family Car -3 12 3/15 80 1+4
Sports Car -1 10 2/12 140 1+3
Limousine -4 20 3/18 60 1+8
Van -3 18 3/21 80 1+7
Pickup Truck -2 15 4/19 80 1+3
SUV -2 15 4/19 100 1+5

Exceptional Successes on 3

Any time you have a 'three successes means exceptional' roll and you are comparing successes, you count that as having 2 higher, but not in any situation where you are just getting Exceptional and not comparing successes with a contesting roll.

Example: Alice and Clarice are rolling for a contested roll in which Alice's Kith blessing applies. Alice rolls 3 and Clarice rolls 4. This is counted as though Alice had rolled 5 successes. Later, Clarice is rolling a non-contested roll to which her Kith blessing applies. She achieves 3 successes and receives the benefits of an exceptional success, but doesn't count it as 5 for any purposes in which successes count (damage levels done or wound levels healed, for example).

Familiar Creation Rules/Guidelines

Step 1: Concept

  1. These questions help determine what kind of entity will be your familiar, how it'll behave and what kind of powers and influence it has.
    1. Is it a Ghost, a Spirit or a Goetia?
  2. What is your familiar's name?
    1. Spirits and Goetia tend to have names that fit their concepts.
    2. Ghosts usually have human names.
  3. What was your familiar's purpose before it became your character's familiar?
    1. What kind of Spirit is it?
    2. Who was the ghost in life?
    3. What kind of idea or personification is the Goetia?

Step 2: Attributes & Advantage

  1. Distribute dots between Power, Finesse, Resistance.
    1. Unlike PC stats, there is no 'free first dot.'
    2. 2-dot Familiars receive 5 dots to distribute with a trait limit of 5.
    3. 4-dot Familiars receive 9 dots to distribute with a trait limit of 7.
  2. Essence: 2-dot Familiars receive 10, 4-dot Familiars receive 15.
  3. Calculate Defense: Power or Finesse (2-dot Familiars pick the higher of the 2, 4 dot familiar pick the lower - this is not a House Rule, please see MtAw p. 255)
  4. Calculate Initiative: Finesse + Resistance
  5. Calculate Willpower: Resistance + Finesse (Max 10)
  6. Calculate Speed: Power + Finesse + Species Factor
    1. Adult ghosts & humanoids: 5
    2. Cheetah: 15
    3. Child ghosts & humanoids: 3
    4. Deer: 10
    5. Dog/Wolf: 8
    6. Horse: 12
    7. Inanimate objects: 0
    8. Rat: 2
    9. Turtle: 1
  7. Language/Communication:
    1. Ghost Familiars communicate as they did during their lifetime, often utilizing the same language and speech patterns.
    2. Spirit Familiars speak Spirit tongue and may communicate in other ways depending on their concept: a Cat spirit can communicate with other cats and can respond to effects that would allow someone to communicate with mundane cats for example.
    3. Goetic Familiars speak human languages appropriate to their origins.

Step 3: Numens and Influences

  1. Select Numina: A 2-dot Familiar gets 2 Numina and a 4 dot Familiar gets 4 Numina.
    1. List may be found on Mage: the Awakening p. 261
    2. Selecting Numina marked rare is subject to approval.
    3. A numen may be exchanged on a one-for-one basis for a dot of Influence or an extra Manifestation.
    4. Each influence is capped at the spirit's Rank.
      1. A Rank 2 fire spirit cannot have Fire 3, but might instead select Fire 2 and Fear 1.
  2. Select Influences: 2 dot familiars get 1 dot of Influence, 4 dots familiar gets 2.
    1. Mage: the Awakening pp. 256-257 explains Influences.
    2. Ghost can only Influence their Anchors.
    3. Spirit and Goetia Influence things directly related to their concept.
      1. A Goetia representing the concept of bullying might have Fear as an influence, a Fire spirit could have Fear, Fire, or Heat.

Step 4: Ban and Banes

  1. Choose one Ban and one Bane.
  2. These should connect to the concept and idea of the Familiar in question, similarly to Changeling Frailties.
    1. When in doubt, ask for help in the Character Creation channel!
  3. 2-dots Familiars pick a simple, straightforward ban:
    1. A Cat must chase yarn balls.
    2. A Fire spirit must burn unattended papers.
    3. A Ghost murdered by someone wearing red will not approach red objects.
  4. 4-dot Familiars pick a moderate and somewhat complex ban:
    1. The example ghost above might be forced back into Twilight and unable to manifest in the presence of bloodied clothes.
    2. The Cat might lose all Willpower if it doesn't attempt to trip someone who carries more than one thing in their hands.
  5. 2-dots Familiar pick a common bane:
    1. Contact with salt will harm the ghost.
    2. The Fire and Cat spirits might lose corpus from contact with water.
  6. 4-dot Familiars pick a Bane natural to their being but more arcane and difficult to obtain:
    1. The bully goetic familiar may recoil from a folded leather belt wielded by a man.
    2. A ghost might be harmed by the exact same model of knife which killed her.

Step 5: Rank

  1. As mentioned in the Familiar merit, 2-dot Familiars are a Rank 1 entities while 4-dot entities are Rank 2.

Step 6: Manifestations

  1. All Familiars (including Goetia) get the Familiar Manifestation condition.
  2. Unlike other Manifestation conditions, the Familiar Manifestation condition does not stop them from using any of their other Manifestations. See Mage: the Awakening p. 260
  3. Manifestations are how the Familiar interacts with the physical world.
    1. The conditions referred to in most of the list on MtAw p. 259 are created using the Familiar's Influence or by encountering a situation in which the proper 'vibe' is created in the area.
    2. Spirit, Death and Mind magic may create those conditions or force Manifestations.
    3. Goetia do not possess manifestation naturally. They require the assistance of Spirit or Death spells to achieve physical Manifestation or may Possess victims through Mind magic.
  4. Spirit and Ghost Familiars begin play with the Twilight Form Manifestation and 1 more per Rank.
    1. Thus, 1 additional Manifestation for 2-dot Familiars and 2 for 4-dot Familiars.

Fighting Style Damage

Fighting styles that say that you can inflict extra bashing damage in certain circumstances, like when someone in reach rises from prone, always do bashing damage regardless of the normal damage that your character may do. This includes, but isn't limited to:

  • Boxing 2 (Defensive Jab)
  • Chain Weapons 1 & 2
  • Close Quarters Combat 5
  • Grappling 2 (Small Joint Manipulation OR Takedown), 3 (Joint Lock) and 5 (Positional Dominance)
  • Kino Mutai 2
  • Kung Fu 3
  • Street Fighting 3 & 4
  • Trunk Squeeze
  • Unarmed Defense 4
  • Weapon and Shield 1

Group Merits

Any merit which refers to a group, such as Hobbyist Clique, Mystery Cult Initiation, cadre/coterie/motley merits, etc. requires a minimum of three Player Characters from three different players.

Mentor

The merit Mentor may be purchased for Setting NPCs, that is, any NPCs within the From Dusk Till Jawn IC hierarchy, with staff approval. We do not permit the purchase of True Friend for Setting NPCs, and Allies are for a group, not an individual.

You may not purchase one of the Crowns, an Order Head, the Sakima, or other 'head of the city' NPCs as a Mentor at Character Generation. They must be earned in play.

Mystery Cult Initiation

  • MCIs may not grant merits to templates that would not ordinarily be eligible to receive them. For example, Vampires can't take Mage merits, and Werewolves can't take Changeling merits, full-template supernaturals can't take Mortal+-only supernatural merits. This also applies to Gift Facets, Disciplines, Contracts, etc.
  • MCIs merits may ignore other prerequisites such as Skills and Attributes. If the MCI grants points in a Style or a scaling Merit, you may not purchase beyond what the MCI grants unless you meet the ordinary prerequisites of the merit.
  • MCIs must have a minimum of three player character members at founding, played by three unique players.

Owning A Business

We encourage PCs to build businesses and IC locations for roleplay purposes. The following are the basic guidelines for doing so:

  1. Create a sheet for that location just like you would any other Safe Place/Hollow/Haven/etc. even if it isn't a Haven, etc. This allows staff to easily reference what stats you have (or that you have none!)
    1. Select a neighborhood/location for the business; this should be listed on the sheet as with any other location. If you need help picking a Philly neighborhood, please ask on the 'character creation assistance' channel. Spider (and others!) are happy to help!
  2. Purchase Safe Place for any private locations if you wish to have it counted as a Safe Place.
  3. If you wish to have the location open/accessible when your PC is not present in a scene (or your PCs for a business owned by 2+ PCs, as the case may be), you must purchase Staff or Retainers to run the business. Without that stat, the business isn't open if you're not there, because you have no employees. It's okay if that's how you choose to run the IC business. Lots of small businesses IRL are only run by one or two people.
  4. Please create a wikipage for your business if applicable -- this allows other players to engage with your location. List any applicable stats which other players would be able to see (such as Staff) on that page. Maddy's Wafflehouse's page is a good example of a location page.
  5. Once all of this is complete, if you'd like to have us add this as a permanent room on the server for RP, please do so, and we'll add it for you, provided that you have purchased Staff or Retainers, and other PCs can access it when your PC isn't there. For locations which are only open if your PC is there, we ask you to use a Public or Closed Room as appropriate, so that we can keep dedicated RP rooms only to those which are generally accessible without a specific PC required.
  6. Instances of Staff are separate merits for each location, and under these circumstances you may purchase Staff multiple times, and should. Example: Bob owns a coffee shop and a gun range. He purchases Staff (coffee shop) at 2 and Staff (gun range) at 3. If you have 2 separate businesses and want them to both stay open when you are not there, you will require two instances of Staff.

Professional Training

We do not use the Professional Training merit.

Prosthetics

Using a prosthetic allows you to temporarily replace the condition with the rules of the prosthetic. It does not relieve the condition per se, but replaces one set of rules with another. Your character then reverts to the condition once they are no longer wearing the prosthetic.

Relenting

Unless a power or action specifically says you can't relent and must resist or contest an action, you may relent to someone else's power, action, or roll.

Safe Place

In reviewing Safe Place rules and the version from Hunter 2e, which is the most recent version, we have decided that we are going to transition over to Hunter 2e Safe Place rules with the following changes:

  1. The rule that you cannot be surprised in your Safe Place regardless of Home Security dots present or disabled is maintained and extended to Sanctum, Haven, and Hollow.
  2. The available features for mundane Safe Places are as follows: Arsenal, Concealed, Escape Hatch, Infirmary and Home Security.
  3. Anathema is not an available Feature. This Feature is intended especially for Hunters and we have no intention of including it now or ever.
  4. Concealed and Infirmary are altered so that they match Home Security, providing not a flat bonus but a tiered bonus dependent on dots purchased.
    1. That is, if you have 2 dots of the Infirmary feature, you get +2, and if you have 3 dots of the Concealed feature, someone trying to get information on who owns your property will suffer a -3 penalty.
    2. This means you'll get a slightly lower bonus at the first dot but can have a greater overall bonus.
  5. You select features relevant to your Safe Place up to the dots in the merit.
    1. Additional Features (above 5) cost two XP per Feature. This is not a change, just a clarification.
    2. You will be able to purchase an Additional Feature (that is, Features above 5 dots) once per month on a given Safe Place.
  6. If you have more than 5 members, you still have to have everyone buy a 'dot' of Safe Place to be able to independently access it.
    1. This does not grant additional Features.
    2. Example: the members of Direct Action all buy 1 dot of Safe Place, so they can all access their new warehouse or whatever.
    3. Individual members may also spend 2 xp per Feature dot above 5 they want to contribute.
  7. You may not buy multiple instances of the same Feature for the same Safe Place.
  8. In addition, we will be allowing Motleys to use the Feature purchase system to purchase additional Features dots for their Hollows!
    1. This is in addition to any Features you get for purchasing dots of Hollow and for having 5 dots of Stable Trod, which gives you a 6th Feature dot.
    2. This is subject to the same 'buy up to 5 dots of Features right now without waiting' offer during changeover.

Features

  1. Arsenal still grants +2 to cleaning, fixing, repairing, modifying, or upgrading equipment.
    1. This applies to mundane and supernatural equipment.
  2. Concealed provides -1 per dot to any rolls to determine the Safe Place's location which are focused on the location itself.
    1. This would apply to attempts to look up property records, for example, but would not apply to rolls using Space to try to locate someone, or attempts to track an individual by scent or tail them in a car.
  3. Characters may not be surprised within their Safe Place. An Escape Hatch allows them to flee the premises after a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll without suffering environmental damage in the event of an explosion, fire, or other event.
    1. This does not prevent assailants from following them. An Escape Hatch is not necessarily a 'get out of capture free' card.
  4. A Safe Place with an Infirmary counts as a hospital for healing purposes & grants +1 to Medicine rolls per dot of Infirmary, provided that the character utilizing it has at least one dot of Medicine.
    1. Hospitals in CofD require at least one medically-trained person (that is, at least one dot of Medicine) other than the patient to supervise recovery for their healing acceleration to come into play.
  5. Home Security levies a -1 penalty to all attempts to break in per dot.
    1. This applies to both mundane and supernatural break-in attempts.
    2. We don't require an exhaustive writeup, but please note one type of security per dot just for ST sanity.
    3. If Hot Doug has a Safe Place with 3 dots of Home Security, he might note that security as 'exterior cameras,' 'interior cameras,' and 'exterior motion detector.'
    4. Home Security dots may be negated by loss of power, Contracts, Forces, Industrial Key, or Dread Powers.

Sexual Assault

Sexual assault in backgrounds is permissible; that is an unfortunate reality and also can be a part of CtL theme. This must happen off-camera. Mentioning that your character was assaulted at seventeen = okay. Writing it out in detail so staff has to read it when staff reviews your background = WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT, don't.

Sexual assault committed by STs in a plotline, or by PCs on either NPCs or other PCs, regardless of OOC consent, is grounds for immediately being permanently banned from From Dusk Till Jawn.

It's one thing if you want to, say, hunt rapists for sport outside a bar at close, but no actual assault can occur as part of RP in any way, including plots, on-screen Durances, etc.

Addendum/Clarification: Vampiric feeding requires OOC consent under our Sexual Assault House Rule, and we prefer IC consent, though understand there may be times when a vampire ICly hides feeding from a Mortal PC, etc. However, if other players or staff are required to deal with Blood Rape Drama after the fact, that's a Problem(tm).

A vampire feeding their blood to another PC of any splat always requires IC and OOC consent, and failure to obtain IC and OOC consent will be considered a violation of our Sexual Assault policy. The often-sexualized nature of blood bonds/blood addiction and the issues of PC agency around these acts makes consent necessary; "I consented OOC but not IC and now everyone else has to deal with weeks of unenjoyable drama and seeking vengeance/justice" is just not a plotline the staff of FDTJ want to deal with under any circumstance.

Shared Merits

Any group may take shared mundane merits (Resources, Contacts, Allies, Safe Place, etc.) even if their core book does not specify that they are able to do so, with the following restrictions:

  1. The group has three or more members.
  2. The group has a linking merit such as Mystery Cult or Hobbyist Clique, or a sphere-specific family group such as a coterie.
    1. Only members who possess the above merit(s) or are in the group and have contributed to the merit in question can directly access it.
    2. For groups who natively are able to share merits, the contribution rule applies, too. If Bob, Clarice and Alice are in a motley, and Bob and Clarice have both purchased Resources 2 and declared it shared, and Alice has purchased no Resources or has decided not to share her Resources (see below), then only Bob and Clarice can purchase things directly with the shared Resources. Bob can, however, buy a car for Alice and give it to her.
  3. The group has a single shared Resources pool for purchases; when that Resources pool is spent for the month, it's spent for everyone. You don't get to make 3 Resources 5 purchases if you have a group of 3 with Resources that add up to 5. Once the merit is shared, the Resources pool is treated the same way as if it was a Resources pool for an individual, e.g. the group has one pool totaling the number of dots that they have; the individuals no longer have separate Resources pools.
  4. Regardless of the number of members, shared merits cannot ever go above 5 in effect unless specifically written in the book that it can go above 5.
    1. This may mean in a group of six or more, that some members do not have access to the shared Resources pool. You may purchase dots above five for access purposes only, that is, if you have seven people in a group, and each has Resources 1 (shared), you still only have Resources 5, but everyone has access to it directly.
    2. Members may choose to maintain their own Resources or if joining an existing group, may choose to invoke Sanctity of Merits and use those dots for something else, or may keep dots for access purposes.
      1. Example: Seven Changelings, each with Resources 2, create a motley. They may choose to split their Resources pool, having 1 (shared) and 1 (mine), or Sanctity that second dot, or keep it, but that would honestly be a waste.
    3. An existing group may have only one shared Resources pool. You cannot have ten members and have two Resources 5 (shared) pools.
  5. Characters may choose to share some, all, or none of their share-able merits. It is up to a character to determine, when the group is formed or when stats are purchased, whether that stat is shared. You may change your mind later. Staff may decline to let you change your mind a bunch if you keep saying 'yes it's shared,' 'no it isn't.'
    1. The obvious exception to this is things like Safe Place, Hollow, etc. If Bob buys Hollow dots for the Shiny Things Hollow, and Alice also buys dots for the Shiny Things Hollow, those are shared by default, since they're for the same physical location.
  6. When players leave the game, their dots donated to shared merits (such as chapterhouses, motley Houses, Safe Places, etc.) are considered to be permanently donated.
    1. If a PC is retired by a player who remains on the game and the player does not actively specify that they are removing their donated dots, the dots are considered to be permanently donated.
    2. Should a player leave and later return, it will fall under the latter policy, so, like, if you leave, those dots belong to wherever you donated them to.
    3. This is for staff sanity and a modicum of fairness to other players; if you donate a bunch of dots to your Court's library or whatever and then peace out, leaving others to scramble to cover those dots kinda sucks.
  7. If a member of the sphere-specific group (such as a Motley) joins from outside that group (say, a Mage or Sin-Eater) utilizing the rules that the group has for allowing external members in, this does not give them access to any merits they could not purchase on their own.
    1. Example: Cliff the Sin-Eater joins a motley with Jane, Rita, and Larry, who are all Changelings. Jane, Rita and Larry have shared Resources and a shared Hollow, the Doom Manor. Cliff has access to the shared Resources once he contributes his Resources 1 from his previous career as a race car driver, but he cannot have independent access to the Hollow, since he couldn't buy it himself.

Sleepwalker Merit

We do not allow any M+ characters which would otherwise not be Sleepwalkers. Therefore, the Sleepwalker merit is useless on this game and has no mechanical benefit. We do not use the Sleepwalker merit. Any characters which purchased Sleepwalker previously should put in a ticket for Sanctity of Merits.

Specialties

Per Chronicles of Darkness p. 73, Specialties function as a bonus to rolls made where the Specialty is applicable; they do not increase the base stat. That means that Specialties don't factor into anything where a roll isn't being made, including stats like Defense.

You may take a specialty in a single supernatural power, such as Medicine (Gift of Warm Blood), but not Medicine (Spring Contracts).

Status

  • At character creation you may have one status as high as 3, a second status as high as 2, and any additional statuses no higher than 1.
  • Status may be used like Resources for aquiring equipment related to the status concerned. Someone with Education Status 3 might be able to acquire lab equipment using their status alone, but would be hard pressed to justify a firearms purchase. Similarly, someone with Philly Mob status 3 could easily justify acquiring a hand gun, but lab equipment would be a stretch. This may be done once per story. (Once per month.)
  • Status may be added as a bonus to social roles for actions where that status is pertinent. The people at the country club might be impressed by your Politics status, but may not think too highly of your Union status. Similarly, the guys in that alley you're trying to talk out of mugging you are probably more likely to think twice about your mob status than they would about your tenure at Drexel.

Status Actions

We have a system in place for using your status to effect change within the game. You can read about it here.

Timekeeping

For purposes of our game, we define many of the terms used in the books for periods of time in an ongoing game in the following ways:

  • Scene = Scene
  • Session = Day
  • Chapter = Week
  • Story = Month
  • Chronicle = A year and a day

Tiebreakers

If there's a contested roll (like Stealth vs Perception, or contested power activations) that results in a tie, the both parties reroll the same number of dice as on their original roll until one or the other is the winner. For determining how many successes were achieved on the roll, look only at the first roll.

For example: Bob is trying to sneak past Sam and rolls 3 successes on his Dexterity 2 + Stealth 3. Sam rolls Wits 3 + Composure 3 and spends a willpower for 3 more dice, for a total of 9, and gets 3 successes on their roll.

Since this is a tie with 3 successes each, Bob rolls his 5 dice and Sam rolls their 9 again for a tiebreaker. This doesn't cost Sam another point of willpower, even though willpower was spent on the initial roll, since they both roll the same pool as their original roll. Both of them get 2 successes on their reroll.

Because they were still tied, they both roll the same number of dice again: Bob rolls 5 and Sam rolls 9. This time Bob gets really lucky and gets 6 successes, while Sam once more gets 3. While this would be an exceptional success for Bob normally, the only roll that counts for determining his actual successes on the roll is the first one, which had 3 successes, so it's not an exceptional success in this case -- the roll with 6 successes serves only as a tiebreaker.

True Friend

The merit True Friend may not be purchased for any Setting NPCs (that is, any NPCs within the From Dusk Till Jawn IC hierarchy). The merit Mentor may be purchased with staff approval.

Weapon Damage: Mundane vs Magical

If something specifies that it works with weapons that have a damage rating above or below a certain threshold, like the Light Weapons fighting style which only works with weapons whose damage rating is 2 or lower, this is based on its mundane, non-magical damage rating. If something magical increases its damage rating later. If you have a switchblade and you make it sharper magically, but it's still the same weapon, it stands to reason that the same techniques still work with it.

Workshops,Tools, & Instruments

Workshops are static locations containing tools and equipment geared towards a specific purpose. They provide a +1 to +3 equipment bonus to rolls to create, repair, jury-rig, or modify items within their specific area of focus. They breakdown as follows:

  1. +1 Workshop. Availability 1. Size: A small room.
  2. +2 Workshop. Availability 3. Size: A single room.
  3. +3 Workshop. Availability 5. Size: A garage or large room.

Tools are portable equipment containing tools geared towards a specific purpose. They provide a +1 or +2 equipment bonus to rolls to create, repair, jury-rid, or modify items within their specific area of focus. They breakdown as follows:

  1. +1 Tools. Availability 2. Size: 2
  2. +2 Tools. Availability 4. Size: 3

Musical Instruments vary in quality from a 0 bonus to a +3 bonus. This bonus only applies to performances made while playing the instrument, and potentially to social rolls made while holding it at the ST's discretion.

  1. +1 Instrument. Availability 1.
  2. +2 Instrument. Availability 3.
  3. +3 Instrument. Availability 5.

Appropriate descriptions for tools and workshops include: Archaic Weapons, Firearms, Armor, Sewing, Leatherworking, Painting, Electrical, Automotive, Bowyer & Fletcher, etc.

Changeling House Rules

Here are our House Rules & Clarifications. Hooray!

General

Clarity

  • Regarding psychotropic drugs and what counts: Does the drug actively confuse your reality? Then it's a Clarity breaking point. So that does mean that THC taken in large enough quantities would be a Clarity Break, as would alcohol. If you get drunk enough to get to the 'what is going on???' stage, then you're endangering your Clarity, but a glass of wine won't do that. As with all other Clarity items, this is a judgement call.
  • Meditation has no effect on Clarity Breaking Point rolls. Changeling Breaking Points are about the event itself and the modifiers are all based on how the event is more or less important to you; there are no modifiers in the book based on what you do.
  • The illusions caused by Nightmare 1 are not sufficient to cause a Clarity check in Lost. The fact that there is no resistance roll and the fact that Blood & Smoke was written literally years before 2.0 Lost means this requires a bit of handwavium for balance purposes. You can't induce Clarity damage in Lost with illusions that have no resistance roll.
  • The Breaking Points for going without contact specify "going one day/one week/one month without human or changeling contact". You do not need to interact directly with non-Lost in order to avoid Clarity breaks, you just need to be interacting with somebody who isn't a fully-Fae creature. Chatting with only hobs for a day? Roll the dice. Say "hello" to a member of your motley on your way to the bathroom while you're sulking because your girlfriend broke up with you? No dice roll needed. You have interacted with another not-fully-Fae being, you're good.

Clash of Wills

Even if not specified in the book, Clash of Wills require an active power. Some of the powers (e.g. Mirrorskin, Lost Visage, Rigid Mask, Wayward Guide) do not specify this; this is merely unclear writing. They do not work differently from any other Clash of Wills. The only power which has an actual Clash of Wills difference is Hostile Takeover. If you have an active power which allows you to see through illusions or not be deceived by them, for example, you may roll to not be deceived by Rigid Mask. If you have a power active which fortifies your mind against deception or perfects your memory--a power, not a merit, Eidetic Memory isn't a supernatural power!--you may roll to not have your memory tampered with by Lost Visage.

Cold Iron

  • Siderite does not count as Cold Iron. This is not up for debate. Please don't bring it up, it makes Spider grumpy.

Court Contracts

  • Court Contracts for your Court use Favored XP costs. Court Contracts for other Courts still use non-Favored.

Elemental Affinities

  • If you are not an Elemental, the first time that you pick an Contract which requires you to have an Elemental Affinity (such as a non-Elemental being taught the Elemental Clause for Primal Glory), you must declare your character's Elemental Affinity. You may pick anything which is reasonably thematic for your character and you can justify to staff. If you choose to have your mermaid have 'fire' as an affinity, please be prepared to explain that choice. The affinity may not later be changed.

Goblin Debt

  • We use tracking tickets to track Goblin Debt. Please open a ticket when your character first uses a Goblin Contract; we will keep that open and use it to track your Goblin Debt -- acquired and paid off.

Kenning

  • Items carried by an individual do not ping for Kenning done by that individual. If Alice uses Kenning while wearing her Hedgespun underpants and carrying her Token basket, these items do not ping.

Mien

  • A Changeling's Mien does not provide for extra functional limbs, functional wings, or functional antennae, etc. It is permissible to pose cosmetic extra limbs, wings, antennae, etc., but they have no function: you cannot lift items or fly. You could potentially pose antennae as a bit of fluff for Acute Senses, for example, but you wouldn't lose that if your character had her antennae cut off by Huntsmen.

Motley Merits

Can characters who are not in a motley purchase motley merits as a shared group?

The short answer is: No.

The slightly-longer answer is: No, because those are benefits exclusively for characters which commit to being in a motley, which is a basic thematic social block of the sphere, and we want to retain those benefits for the characters who are doing that. It's a benefit of committing to a motley oath that those resources become pool-able, and allowing people to do so without committing to the motley oath sort of shorts the characters who do commit to motleys. Why would anyone commit to a lifelong oath if they can get most of the the bennies without one?

Oak, Ash & Thorn

IN USE From Oak, Ash & Thorn:

  • The Freehold Reputation System and the Sample Freeholds
  • Trifles, Baubles, and the Token Creation system
  • Crystal Web contracts, substituting Wyrd for Mantle.

NOT IN USE AND WILL NEVER BE IN USE FOR PCs from Oak, Ash & Thorn:

  • Empty Hearts/The Empty
  • Custom Mantles. We will always only offer Seasonal Courts/Mantles.

NOT IN USE BECAUSE WE'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT HOW TO USE THEM

  • Entitlements

Pregnancy & Childbirth

  • Lost do not have any special inability to become pregnant or cause pregnancy; previous statements to this effect were staff misunderstanding and carrying over information from 1e which doesn't exist in 2e. Still no surprise babies on an OOC level, but now only because we have a game policy about both the gestational and non-gestational parents having to consent OOC. There's no special supernatural inhibition for Lost to become pregnant on a game level. If you want your Keeper to have a policy about that, or just have to done that to you specifically if you share a Keeper with others, go nuts.

Regalia from Kith & Kin and The Hedge

  • Characters may not take approved Regalia from Kith & Kin (or The Hedge, when it comes out, presuming it'll have more Contracts) as secondary Favored Regalia. One of our founding principles from FDTJ is that players should have access to the same stats and the same basic advantages stat-wise regardless of when they joined the game. This is part of why everyone on the game has the same Experiences total. Characters created before the release of Kith & Kin have almost undoubtedly used the benefits of their secondary Favored Regalia xp-wise, so are unable to change it (and honestly, no, it's too much work to let y'all retool your entire sheets).
  • tl;dr: No one can have the new Regalia from K&K and The Hedge as Favored Regalia. Come up with whatever reason you want for why it works that way IC; this is a matter of OOC fairness.

Sealing

  • When a Changeling seals the words of anyone who does not have a Glamour pool (that is, anyone except for a Changeling, Fae-Touched or other Fae creature), the subject of the Sealing is unaware of the sealing unless otherwise informed by supernatural power or merit. For example, a human with the merit Unseen Senses (Fae) would be aware something has been done using Wyrd powers, though not the specific fact that their words have been sealed. Likewise, if the subject breaks the Sealing and suffers consequences, he would not typically be aware that the consequences are connected to his broken promise. Under very limited circumstances, unsubtle bindings could, in theory, be traced back to the one that bound them. Contact Staff if you believe your circumstances qualify before acting on that hunch ICly.

Who Counts As Human?

  • Mages and Sin-Eaters, for most intents and purposes where the Changeling sphere is concerned, are human beings. They count as human beings for socialization purposes, for hurting/killing purposes, for being-scorned-by purposes. Unlike Vampires and Werewolves, Mages and Sin-Eaters are still, like, inherently people? Just people with super-souls or with super-ghosts welded to their butts.
  • If a Vampire has a Coil that allows them to turn into a human being temporarily, then they count fully as a human being for Clarity purposes, sealing, etc. During that time, they are a person, so all mechanics treat them that way.

XP Spends

  • Most items do not require justification of any sort. If you have the XP and any prerequisite stats, you can just buy it.
  • Mantle 4+ requires justification as above.
  • Tokens or Hedgespun require pre-approval of the item and a number of scenes roughly equivalent to the level of the item. This can be preparatory scenes, scenes about checking up on the item if you leave it in the Hedge, scenes of going to find or buy it in the Goblin Market. Please discuss Token or Hedgespun plots with staff before starting them so we can help you.
  • Goblin Contracts must be purchased from a Goblin and therefore require a Goblin Market scene which is pre-approved by staff or run by staff.
  • Pupil's Oaths, whether with an NPC or a PC, should by preference happen on-screen, though this is not required, and the Oath itself should be submitted to staff for recording, as with all Oaths.
  • Hollows acquired after character creation should be built on-screen. Hedgespinning a Hollow or Trod.

Contracts

Please carefully re-read the text of the Contract -- the book answers most basic questions!

  • All Contracts which have Wyrd-related bonuses are an exception to the rule that your bonuses can only go up to 5 from a single source. If you have Wyrd 6, you can grant +6 if that's what the contract says.
  • If the book specifies a number of dice as a Clarity breaking point for a particular Contract, those dice pools are subject to modification per the chart on CtL p 104-105.
  • Independent Contracts require either an IC teacher (none of the NPCs can currently teach these Contracts) or a plot to obtain, except Momentary Respite, which may be freely learned. Learning these Contracts may come with complications, as per Kith & Kin.
  • This means that Independent Contracts cannot be taken at character generation.

Beggar Knight

  • Beggar Knight is no longer Resisted; it is Contested with Composure + Wyrd, and the caster must choose one of the three effects.
  • The Exceptional Success condition for the Contract is replaced; it now inflicts all three effects. The Clarity attack portion is struck and will not be used.

Blessing of Perfection

  • For armor, Blessing of Perfection replaces both ballistic and general armor. 0/1 reinforced clothing becomes 2/2 armor when Blessed by a Wyrd 2 character.
  • For weapons, Blessing of Perfection replaces the weapon damage with the Wyrd of the contract-user.
  • Blessing of Perfection replaces all relevant bonuses.
  • The skill portion of Blessing of Perfection cannot be used on yourself. You can only use that on someone else.

Blood Debt

  • This Contract triggers a Clash of Wills with anyone who has a power which directly protects their Fate or bodily integrity, such as the four-dot Life Attainment "Bodily Autonomy". The wounds only appear if the Changeling wins the Clash of Wills.

Burning Ambition

  • We do not track Aspirations and thus this Contract is not in use.

Changeling Hours

  • When used to 'freeze the clock' on an item worn by or containing a living being, this contract lasts only one turn. With the Wizened clause and the expenditure of a willpower dot (which you can purchase back for 1 xp), you may still permanently freeze an item. Yes, this means you could potentially kill someone by freezing their shirt in place. You could also punch someone to death. There are many means to any given end, and some of them are Contracts.
  • Any supernatural attempt to break free of a frozen item triggers a Clash of Wills. This includes things which supernaturally increase your strength like Vigor, Might of the Terrible Brute, Red Revenge, Physical Intensity etc.
  • Portaling still works if your shirt is frozen in place. Changelings are really hard to contain. You can spend a glamour and do a Clash of Wills and if you win you will be shirtless and free.
  • The contract works normally on items held by a person as long as they could let go of the item and move normally. So if someone freezes the sword you are swinging at them in place, it's going to stay there for a chapter.
  • Using this contract on something which is worn by or contains a person constitutes one heck of a Clarity break, because you are acting like a Gentry and kidnapping or jailing a living being.

Chrysalis

  • Players may purchase a second (third, fourth, fifth... ) instance of Chrysalis in order to accumulate more animal forms.
  • Doing so requires finding teacher(s) for those animals. They may be PCs or NPCs. Pupil's Oaths are not required for this unless you're buying one of the Seeming Clauses too.
  • No, an owlbear is not a 'mythical creature' as specified in Chrysalis. Please choose something from the existing human mythical canon and not something invented for D&D in 1975. There are a lot of things to choose from, please pick something else.
  • Cultural Mythical Creatures (such as Thunderbird) should be appropriate to the character or player. W*ndigo is a hard no.

NPCs who can teach large quantities of animals (ask them!) include Roswell Green, Alice Jordan, Liane Fuchs, and Izzy Higgins.

Closing Death's Door

Because it accumulates Goblin Debt, this Contract counts as one of the contracts affected by the Chimera Kith Trickery.

Coin Mark

  • Inflicting either of the Conditions mentioned in this Contract requires not only the expenditure of a Glamour as noted in the original text but a roll of Presence + Persuasion + Wyrd. The target Contests this with Composure + [Supernatural Tolerance].

Crystal Web

  • Crystal Web contracts are in use, substituting 'Wyrd' for 'Mantle.'

Curse of Hidden Strings

  • Utilizing this Contract constitutes a five-die Breaking Point (brainwashing), subject to modifiers at ST discretion.

Cynosure

  • We do not track PC Aspirations and thus this Contract can only be used on NPCs.

Dance of the Toys

  • All objects use the rules on p 134 for completing their tasks, whether they are a car running someone over or a gun firing.
  • The successes on the activation roll become a gun's attack roll, for example, or a sword's.

Exchange of Gilded Contracts

  • This is not a house rule but a reminder and clarification: this Contract requires a willing partner. Coercing or forcing someone into agreeing allows the contract to work but may constitute a Clarity breaking point.

Fake It Till You Make It

  • In the Fairest Seeming Benefit, inflicting the Condition requires the Unicorn to defeat the target in a Clash of Wills.

Frozen Star

  • Utilizing this Contract on an unwilling target constitutes a five-die Breaking Point ("Using Glamour to force someone to change their behavior"), subject to modifiers at ST discretion.

The Gouging Curse

  • Utilizing this Contract constitutes a five-die Breaking Point ("Using Glamour to force someone to change their behavior"), subject to modifiers at ST discretion.

Helios' Light

  • This contract does not specify a duration, and the Blinded Tilt specifies that it ends when the damage caused is healed, but Helios' Light causes no damage.
  • Therefore, the Blindness caused by Helios' Light lasts for one turn per use, which makes it equivalent to Murkblur in duration, another Common contract which causes Blindness.

Hostile Takeover

Clash of Wills for Hostile Takeover requires the supernatural in question to be home, and resistance is Supernatural Tolerance + [Safe Place/Haven/Hollow/etc.]. In the case where more than one supernatural dwelling merit applies, the highest dot level is used. Group dwellings with shared merits require only one person to be home, and that is the person who rolls; the shared dot value for merits is used. If multiple people are home, each person may roll.

Locus, Hallow, and other 'place of power' merits are not dwelling merits and are not used. You don't live inside your locus, you live inside your house.

Jealous Vengeance

  • Utilizing this Contract constitutes a five-die Breaking Point ("Using Glamour to force someone to change their behavior"), subject to modifiers at ST discretion.

Litany of Rivals

  • We do not track Aspirations and thus this Contract is not in use.

Mastermind's Gambit

This Contract creates A Thing which grants the +5 equipment bonus. Whoever has The Thing gets the +5 equipment bonus. It does not grant the +5 equipment bonus to anyone in earshot hearing your Amazing Plan. You can choose to have the Thing manifest however seems Super Cool to your character. Maybe it manifests as a lucky coin or a scrap of paper or a small book. Whatever. It's a Size 1 object that lasts as long as the contract does, and whoever has it? Gets the bonus to The Plan. If you use the Loophole, that piece of old paper becomes your Thing.

This is really the only sane way to handle what the Contract says it does.

You can have up to Wyrd active plans at one time, and you can only have one plan per goal.

Pole Star

  • For some reason, this contract does not just work in the mundane realm. It also works in the Hedge and Underworld directly connected to Philadelphia. This is different from what PCs expect.

Riding the Falling Leaves

  • Elemental Blessing may or may not be able to interact with this to allow the Elemental to use their Blessing while in leaf form. It is entirely subjective and up to the storyteller of the scene based on individual circumstances.

Shared Cup

  • Utilizing this Contract on unwilling targets constitutes a five-die Breaking Point ("Using Glamour to force someone to change their behavior"), subject to modifiers at ST discretion.

Talon & Wing

  • This contract does not grant flight. A single Glamour and no activation roll for the ability to fly and additional 10 Speed would be incredibly unbalanced and is not the intention of the contract; that clause only grants 10 Speed.

Tempter's Quest

  • We do not track PC Aspirations and thus this Contract may only be used on NPCs.

Thirty Pieces

  • Utilizing this Contract constitutes a five-die Breaking Point ("Using Glamour to force someone to change their behavior"), subject to modifiers at ST discretion.

Unmask the Dark Horse

  • We do not track PC Aspirations and thus this Contract can only be used on NPCs.

Custom Content

  • We are currently accepting pitches for custom Needles and Threads, Kiths, Tokens, and Hedgespun.
  • Custom Needles and Thread pitches must contain a description of how the Needle or Thread helps to define the character that has it, and the one willpower/all willpower conditions.
  • Custom Token pitches must follow the rules in the core book. Hedgespun rules are pretty straightforward; ask if you need help!
  • Custom Kiths must follow the rules in the core book and fill a mythic niche not currently filled by another Kith. 2.0 is specifically moving away from 'function' based Kiths and to 'mythic niche' Kiths. Be prepared to demonstrate in your writeup how a new Kith would add a new mythic niche and how it fits into fairy tale archetypes. Pitching a new Kith just to get a new Kith blessing is not what we're after, here.
  • Custom Seeming Blessings must make sense both mechanically and thematically. You should be able to explain why this particular Contract interacts with this particular Seeming in this way.
  • Custom Conditions can be found here.
  • Custom Merits can be found here.
  • Custom Contracts can be found here.
  • Custom Seeming Blessings can be found here.

Fae-Touched

  • Fae-Touched are not Lost and may not have Mantle, though they may swear to a Court as per p315 of CtL 2e core; they may have Court Goodwill.
  • Fae-Touched may swear Oaths and may use Tokens. Only Heirloom Fae-Touched may initiate Oaths, but other Fae-Touched may agree to them.
  • Freehold membership is open to (and required of) Fae-Touched. Better close and watched than potentially swiped by Them without anyone to watch them. The relationship between individual Fae-Touched and Lost may be anything, but the official position of the Freehold is that they are part of Lost Society. (Therefore, we require that all PC Fae-Touched follow the same rules about Freehold Membership as Lost.)
  • Fae-Touched may not buy Supernatural Merits intended for M+ characters. They have access to Contracts. :)

Heirloom Fae-Touched

  • Heirloom Fae-Touched are the only way which an Oath may pass between generations of Fae-Touched. The reference in the core book to Oaths passing through generations means Heirlooms.
  • You must be aware of inheriting an Oath. You cannot inherit one accidentally or against your will; you must be a willing participant in the Heirloom process, though your character doesn't have to like it and may take it up out of familial obligation or take it up without really being as dedicated as the original Avowed. In either case, the new Avowed knew at least kinda what they were getting into.

Fetches

  • This is not a House Rule or clarification but a restatement of a rule that is oddly placed in the book: Fetches cannot swear Oaths or be party to Bargains.
  • Fetches are 'almost immune' to having their words Sealed. If you're trying to Seal a Fetch, please involve a staffer in the scene, Shenanigans May Occur.

Goblin Fruit Cultivation & Preparation

This system details means of cultivating goblin fruits, as well as means of using goblin fruit in changeling cuisine and medicinally. Players are encouraged to use goblin fruits in their roleplay, and these methods of preparing the fruits likewise. The system can be found here.

Kiths

Antiquarian

  • The Kith blessing Secrets and Whispers may be used once per week.

Artist

  • The book text is unclear as to whether this effect lasts for a single roll or for a scene. The ability only applies to art forms for which the Artist has an Expression specialty, and lasts for a scene.

Bequerel

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is not in use due to mechanics.

Chatelaine

  • An unconsenting target may roll Composure + Supernatural Tolerance to contest Will That Be All? as modeled on the Hunterheart power resistance.

Chimera

  • If the Chimera only has one Goblin Contract, that contract benefits in perpetuity.

Cloakskin

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is presently not in use due to thematics. It will never be approved. Changelings always have a Mask; this Kith breaks what staff consider to be essential Changeling physics. In addition, the mechanics of this are not suited for a multi-splat game and are incredibly unbalanced.

Cleverquick

  • This Kith is the only Kith from Dark Eras 2 which is not in use due to mechanics. It will never be approved.

Draconic

  • The Kith & Kin version of this Kith is not in use due to mechanics. The custom version which preceded Kith & Kin remains in use.

Helldiver

  • The Elemental Seeming Blessing and Helldiver do not permit a Helldiver who is discorporated to use their Seeming Blessing to manipulate their Element of choice in the real world. They are discorporated and cannot be surrounded by/touch the element in question in a meaningful way.
  • Depending on the element, they might be able to use that Element wherever they are. For example, the Earth or Water of the Underworld or Dreams may or may not count as 'Earth' or 'Water,' depending on the element and the location where the Elemental is trying to use it. This is entirely at the discretion of a scene ST. There are simply too many potential variables to nail down each one.
  • Helldivers who are Diving shift into Twilight. Twilight is not a place, it's a state. This power therefore works in every place, realm, etc., unless otherwise contraindicated directly (example - all ghosts are solid in the Underworld, which is specifically called out in the book).
  • Helldivers cannot simply 'shift' into other Realms or create Gates to step through. They require an existing Shadow Gate, Avernian Gate, or Gate to any other Realm they wish to pass through, either existing already by its own means or created by other powers (such as a Spirit Mage or Fetish creating a Shadow Gate).
  • Upon spending a point of Glamour to open such a Gate, the Gate acts like a Hedgeway and follows Hedgeway rules, including staying open as a **two-way door** passable by any entity for a number of turns equal to the Helldiver's Wyrd.
  • Additionally, that Gate will remain passable by any Lost with the ability to do so (i.e. other Helldivers) *without* an expenditure of further Glamour until the turning of the next season. (This is also how Hedgeways work!)
  • If a power is used to close the Gate, the above does not apply, because it's been forcibly closed. Think of it as the difference between a door being closed vs closed and locked but the Helldiver has a key.
  • If the Gate gets destroyed or the spell or effect creating it expires, the Helldiver must seek another way out. Good luck!
  • Loci are not gates. Loci are thin places in the fabric of the world where some entities, such as werewolves and certain spirits, can osmose through like water passing through cheesecloth. Helldivers therefore cannot pass through loci with their Kith power.
  • The powers of Helldivers who still have their Silver Threads and are still bound in service to a Fae may differ and be more powerful. Everything costs something, even freedom.

Mirrorskin

  • While normally it is possible to, with a supernatural power and a Clash of Wills, see through the changes that Mirrorskins (and those who have been Mirrorskinned via a Darkling using RiddleKith on them) make to their Masks and Miens, it is the considered ruling of staff that this simply does not work in the cases where RiddleKith & Mirrorskinning has been used to make gender-affirming changes to Masks and Miens. If you want to change your face and become another person entirely, the Clash of Wills will still occur. If your character uses Mirrrorskinning as a sort of supernatural HRT/FFS/top surgery replacement, there is no power on this game that will let you 'see through' that. This has nothing to do with any RAW and everything to do with the fact that this is a game run by queer people for queer people and their allies, and ain't nobody got time for 'oh no your affirmation is destroyed by Auspex.' It is pure handwavium. It just doesn't work.

Nymph

  • As with other Kith Blessings, the Nymph's ability to switch between legs and a tail costs a Glamour. Additionally, the act of changing from legs to a tail or vice versa is an instant action.
  • The book specifies that the Nymph may always breathe both water and air; no Glamour or action is required to switch between these activities.

Playmate

  • Playmates may heal themselves as they would heal anyone else, trading Clarity for wounds.

Plaguesmith

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is not in use due to thematics. It will never be approved for the same reason that we don't have COVID-19 ICly on the game: this game is our escape, and staff don't want to deal with the thematics of this.

Shadowsoul

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is not in use due to mechanics.

Merits

Court Goodwill

  • Court Goodwill can only be purchased by Changelings and Fae-Touched.
  • Court Goodwill is restricted to 3 at character creation.
  • When calculating dice pools for the effects of Goodwill-granted effects, use Goodwill-2. Therefore, someone who has Winter Goodwill 3 would penalize rolls as though he had Winter Mantle 1.
  • Goodwill does not add any dice to Court contract rolls. Unless you have the appropriate Mantle, you roll only the base 2 stats.

Hedgebeast Companion

  • This custom merit's writeup is available here.

Hollow

Easy Access When a Hollow has Easy Access, the normal Portaling rules are amended. Each Changeling must enter and leave separately, expending a Glamour every time they either enter or leave. The Hollow has no permanent entrance from the mundane world, and every Lost returns to the same mundane door that they entered at.

If Bob and Alice share a Hollow, and Bob spends a glamour and enters the Hollow from a door in China while Alice spends a glamour and enters from a door in Algeria, Alice may not 'follow' Bob out to China when Bob spends a glamour and exits to the mundane world. To exit to the mundane world, Alice must also spend a glamour, and she will exit to Algeria.

If Clarice the vampire is brought through the Easy Access portal by Bob, she may exit with Alice. As she is unable to expend glamour to open her own Portal, she is at the mercy of whoever will ferry her through.

If a Changeling enters through an unlocked door that is subsequently locked, she may not exit into the mundane world until it is unlocked. She must exit into the Hedge.

Such is the tradeoff for being able to enter your Hollow from literally anywhere.

Hollows with Easy Access may still only be accessed by their owners normally. You can teach someone who has not bought in the special whistle, but they aren't one of the owners. Breaking-in rules still work for Hollows with Easy Access if the secret code is known.

Mantle

  • Mantle is restricted to 3 at character creation.
  • When requesting to raise Mantle above 3, please link in your request a number of logs which demonstrate your character as an exemplar of your Court equal to the number of dots being requested. So if you're asking for Winter 4, please give us 4 logs which show your character acting in a particularly Winter way. (If we aren't sure what your log is supposed to demonstrate, we'll ask!) If you use logs to buy Winter 4, you can't use those same logs for Winter 5.
  • Please give at least a month between Mantle raises. Mantles should rise gradually, over time.
  • Examples for what constitutes a scene that counts for Mantle 4 or 5 are here.

Mentor

  • All setting Changeling NPCs are available for purchase from character creation on except the Crowns.
  • Purchasing the Crowns as Mentors is permitted after time & RP. They're sort of the brass ring of Mentors. Staff will reach out to PCs who we think should purchase the Crowns (present or past).

Rigid Mask

Rigid Mask is a weirdly-written merit, and does not specify that an active power is required in order to trigger the Clash of Wills. It's also the only merit we could find in either book which specifies a Clash of Wills in the contexts of a merit as opposed to a Contract and/or Discipline. However, the Clash of Wills section on p126 of CtL 2.0 makes it clear that all Clashes of Wills happen when powers come into conflict. Therefore, without Auspex or other supernatural powers active, the Clash of Wills simply doesn't happen. 'Being a vampire' does not trigger a Clash of Wills. Some other merits, such as Acute Senses, may come into play if a Lost is affected by a Changeling's strengthened Mask or a Vampire wishes to see through their attempts at emotional deception. Some psychic powers may trigger a Clash of Wills, such as Aura Reading, though the Mortal+ has no Supernatural attribute and will only be rolling their Finesse attribute.

Stable Trod

When a motley submits for the Stable Trod merit, they must follow the rules on p201-202 of the CtL core book to determine the Trod's length and how well the motley cares for the Trod. A length 3 trod which is "well cared for" is a 5 dot trod. You must submit the start and end points for your Trod on the request where it is first purchased.

Tokens

  1. Token/Hedgespun bows and pistols require mundane ammo. The power is in the thing doing the firing. You have to have arrows for your keen-ass magical bow. Unless, of course, 'infinite ammo' is the power of the bow/pistol, which is potentially a thing.
  2. The baseline weapon for a Token or Hedgespun weapon can be any item that can be created with our crafting system. Hedgespinning cannot create any item that violates our crafting system as the base item. No swords with 8-Again, no axes with Incendiary, no knives with 5L damage ratings, etc before adding the bonuses from Hedgepinning.
  3. Hedgespun may be implanted in your body with the following costs, which basically account for how difficult it would be to disarm/remove the Hedgespun in question:
    1. 1 dot for a Hedgespun implanted in/attached to a limb (a replacement finger, a glowing bead implanted in your forearm)
    2. 2 dots for a Hedgespun implanted in/attached to your torso or head (a replacement eye, replacement teeth, implanted wires in your mouth)
    3. 2 dots for a replacement limb
    4. This is in addition to any actual points costs, so for example, a +3 damage grill implanted in your mouth is a 5-dot Hedgespun -- 3 for effects, 2 for implanted in body.
  4. The Crown of Thorns (p. 228 CtL) is not available for PCs to purchase. It is simply too antagonistic of an item for FDTJ PCs.

Workshop

  • Workshop (for Hollows) may be set up for Expression, Crafts, or Medicine. As per the books, you must declare one Specialty per dot, you may not use the Workshop unless you have at least one of the designated Specialties, and a given Workshop location may only be set up for a single skill. You may not have 2 dots of Crafts and 2 dots of Medicine in the same location. We may consider other skills on a case-by-case basis.

Custom Content

Mage House Rules

Arcana

  • Per Mage: the Awakening 2.0 pg84, when raising your common arcana to 5 or your inferior arcana to 3+ you will need to find a mentor to tutor you in the practices you are attempting to learn. Log the scene and submit it to staff along with your XP spend.

Arcane XP

Arcane XP is not in effect. All Mage purchases may be made with Regular XP.

Changeling Dreams

  • Due to the strange and alien nature of Changeling dreams, and a desire for balance and focus in one of the areas where Changelings should exceed the abilities of all others, Mages suffer the following penalties when attempting to use magic (whether from Arcana or Attainments) to access, modify, or otherwise affect Changeling dreams:
    • -1 to all rolls per dot of the subject Changeling's Wyrd to a maximum of -5. This stacks with any other penalties to these rolls, including the Oneiromantic Resolve penalty from CtL 2e. Even a willing subject subconsciously resists tampering with their own dreams.
      • Acanthus lower that penalty by 1 due to their Tower's alignment and possible overlap with Arcadia. Example: Ollie the Obrimos and Yuri the Acanthus are both trying to enter the dreams of Telly the Changeling. Telly's Wyrd is 4. Ollie suffers -4 penalty to all rolls due to Telly's Wyrd, while Yuri suffers -3.
    • A Clash of Wills with an unwilling subject. Changelings always Lucid Dream.
    • These penalties may be modified by purchasing the following custom merit:

Arcadian Affinity: , , This merit offsets situational penalties encountered when dealing with Changeling dreams, and Arcadian mysticism derived not from the Supernal but rather from Changeling lore. The two dot version eliminates one die of penalties, the four dot version eliminates two dots. The five dot version of this merit permits the user to initiate a socialize roll to improve first impressions with hobs, eidolons, and other denizens of Arcadian origin by one step.

Dark Eras 2

Spells from Dark Eras 2 currently in use:

  • Wyrdbound Oaths.

We are not including, nor will we at any point in the future include, nor permit as creative thaumaturgy:

  • Malleable Thorns
  • Masking the False Fae

Additionally, the guidance for how the Hedge reacts to Mages is currently not in use just because we haven't had a chance to talk it all through. Anything from DE2 not explicitly included is discluded.

Dissonance

  • If you raise an attribute or skill beyond the mortal maximum using magic, the effect becomes subject to the Dissonance rules on M:tA p299. To be clear, this is caused by either rolling the impacted stat around sleepers, or using a derived trait of those stats around sleepers. If you have Strength 10 and move your full speed, that will cause Dissonance. If you have Dex 6 and use your defense, that will cause Dissonance. If you use your heightened persuasion in a roll to convince someone of something, that will cause Dissonance. Dissonance gains the same roll factors as Paradox does with evermore larger crowds.
  • Causing Dissonance is a minor breach of the Precept of Secrecy. The degradation of your spell's integrity is happening because the Abyss is attacking your magic. This is generally accepted as a "Bad Thing". Furthermore, when Dissonance happens, you are causing breaking points in the integrity of sleeper witnesses. This is also generally accepted as a "Bad Thing". Use your magic carefully, subtly, or within the limitations of the the human experience.

Ex Nihilo

  • This spell creates a mundane item. It can create any item legally permitted by our crafting system. It cannot create any item that violates our crafting system. No swords with 8-Again, no axes with Incendiary, no knives with 5L damage ratings, etc.

General

  • We do not use the term "cabal" on this game. The term we use is "cadre". For similar reasons, we do not call them covens, nor circles: simply cadres. Please get used to saying Cadres. It has always been Cadres, ICly. This isn't a local peculiarity. It's just a word we're not using. Feel free to DM DadHoc if you'd like the explanation.
  • We do not use the term "mana" on this game. The term we use is "potentia". It has always been Potentia, ICly. This isn't a local peculiarity. It's just a word we're not using. Feel free to DM DadHoc if you'd like the explanation.

Hermese

Type: Language Merit
Cost:
Prerequisites: Mind 2 or Forces 2
The language of the various Hermes Mark units. It is not spoken, per se, it is projected into the Consciousness Module and/or brain of the individual through either magical or digital means. Without the aid of magic, the human mind just hears signal noise. With application of Forces, the digital signal may be translated or encrypted and broadcast. With Mind 2, Hermese may be spoken directly into the mind of another, akin to Telepathy. Possession of this merit represents actual knowledge of the language, which can also be bypassed with use of Universal Language.

Legacies

  • Legacies who provides no additional ruling Arcana now provides one. (Either one that is made obvious by the Legacy itself or the character's relation to it, subject to staff approval.) This should be recorded on your sheet.
  • Legacy attainment that matches Praxes your character have no long offer a refund and an Arcane Beat as we do not use beats or Arcane xp, they are swapped out with a different praxis of your choice.

Mage Sight

Piercing The Mask

Having discussed it, because it's not laid out in the book clearly, piercing the Mask for Mages requires Prime 1 AND Fate 1 Active Mage sight (not Peripheral) and a Clash of Wills if the subject is unwilling. Pierce Deception may tell you that something hinky's going on over there but then you would require the IC knowledge to know you'd need to layer in another Mage sight, etc. etc.

Peripheral Mage Sight

What 'pings' Peripheral Mage Sight? Any activated power or supernatural event, with exceptions as below.

Examples of things which 'ping': Kith Trickeries upon activation (the things with italic names), werewolves shifting, Mage spells, Vampiric disciplines, Changeling Sealings, powers designed to conceal when you win a Clash of Wills (Obfuscate, Forces invisibility, Mask of Superiority, Mirrorskin kith blessing).

Examples of things which do NOT 'ping': Mage attainments, previously-activated powers, Kith Blessings (the 'exceptional on 3' part of a Kith's writeup), always-on powers, powers designed to conceal when you lose a Clash of Wills (Obfuscate, Forces invisibility, Mask of Superiority, Mirrorskin kith blessing).

Clash of Wills only 'pings' when you WIN for powers which are designed to conceal. Otherwise, you'd win when you lose. Think about it: 'gosh, there's no one here but me, but something just went off on my "radar", I better look again, more closely, or change my behavior!' So if it pings on that CoW even if you lose... you're still winning even when you lose the Clash. Not cool, not fair.

Naturally Perfecting

Places of Power: Items left in the influence of places of power which naturally provide potentia or a potentia analogue will begin to perfect if left undisturbed for a number of months equal to their size. At the end of that month, roll one chance die. If it succeeds, the object perfects. Every month thereafter, another chance die may be rolled. The power rating of the place of power must equal or exceed the size of the object being perfected otherwise the object will remain unchanged. It's much easier to find naturally perfected pebbles than naturally perfected VW Bugs.

Mother's Tree: Children of the Tree receive an additional chance die to roll each month. Thyrsii receive an additional chance die to roll each month. Dreamspeakers receive an additional chance die to roll each month. Therefore Dreamspeaker Thyrsii Children of the Tree roll four chance dice per month when perfecting objects at the tree.

Ritual tools perfected by the mother tree provide an additional +1 to their usual tool yantra when used by Children of the Tree.

Naturally perfected cold iron still has magical modification and does not count as cold iron for the purposes of Changeling banes. This is a direct overruling of the text in Signs of Sorcery and wherever else that reference may exist in the future. It is not up for debate. Please don't ask, it annoys Spider.

Perfected Items

  • Raw Materials: A single item's worth of the base metal is Availability 2 for Tin, Lead, Iron, Steel, or Copper. A single item's worth of the base metal is Availability 3 for Gold, Silver, and Mercury.
  • Ritual Tools: If you are creating perfected path tools, these do not require you to purchase the Perfected Item merit. If you are creating perfected weapons, or equipment with a purpose other than ritual application, the merit then applies.
  • Siderite: Siderite does not count as Cold Iron.

Praxes

  • Regaining Pools: You will only regain Potentia and Willpower from a praxis if it is used on screen. It need not be used during a time of dramatic tension or threat to life, but it must rise to the importance of being viewed within the lens of your on screen life.

Ritual Casting

  • Merits such as Good Time Management and Patient, or any other non-supernatural merit which impacts extended rolls in general do not apply to Ritual Casting times. Your Gnosis is always the determining speed factor. Ritual Casting is not an extended roll.

Sleepwalker

  • This is not a house rule but a reiteration of RAW: any Mortal+ counts as a Sleepwalker for the purposes of causing no Dissonance and immunity to the Curse. Sleepwalkers who have no other supernatural community ties (that is, they are not a Fae-Touched or Ghoul, but are otherwise a Sleepwalker) may buy Sleepwalker merits from MtAw 2e.
  • We do not use the Sleepwalker Merit, as all of our Mortal+ characters do not require it.

Sleepwalkers & Shadow Names

  • Sleepwalkers who are members of a cadre must purchase the Cadre Theme merit (MtAw p 100) for their cadre to qualify as having the entire cadre purchasing the merit.
  • Sleepwalkers may purchase the Shadow Name merit (MtAw p 104) and receive the Withstand benefits and the mundane skill rolls protection benefit -- basically, any benefits which are not linked to spellcasting.
  • This means that a Sleepwalker who purchases Shadow Name at 3 and is part of a cadre where all members have the Cadre Theme merit receives +4 to Withstand on Temporal Meddling(tm) and -4 to attempts to identifying her mundane persona as the same person as her magical self.

Supernal Sensitivity (••/••••)

Prerequisite: Sleepwalker (Mortal+ & not Fae-Touched, Ghoul, etc.)
With this merit at two dots, the Sleepwalker senses supernal magic in a manner mechanically similar to Peripheral Mage Sight. They cannot discern which practices or Arcana are being used and they cannot sense non-Supernal magic without a separate merit which permits them to do so; they simply sense the Supernal presence of uncloaked effects, feeling it rather than seeing it. The player should define how this sense manifests, within reason -- it is always identical regardless of the magic being used. The hairs on the back of his neck stand up, she tastes summer ineffably upon her tongue, they feel a sudden wash of nostalgia with no apparent cause.

At four dots, the Sleepwalker knows when Nimbus Tilts affect them the way that Awakened do. Additionally, she may enter into a Clash of Wills to sense cloaked magic, rolling her Wits. If the magic targets her directly (as a numbered target but not as within an area of effect), she may add her dots in Supernal Sensitivity to the roll. If she has Supernatural Resistance (HL p. 78), she may add the dots of Supernatural Resistance to her Clash of Wills roll as well; the dots of Supernal Sensitivity do not add to her resistance roll, if any.

Sympathetic Magic

  • Sympathetic Names: Everyone has a true name. Even Mages. It's the name they confide to their most trusted allies, the name they whisper into the ear of a lover. The name that, when someone shouts it in a crowded room, has them turning their heads to see who is calling them. Only the individual knows if the name they were given at birth is true to them or not, and many choose to select and use new names that resonate with greater truth to them for whatever reason. Knowing this name becomes a Yantra. Not knowing it increases the withstand against the sympathetic range attainment by 1.

Temporal Anchor (Time ••••)

Practice: Patterning
Primary Factor: Potency
Cost: 1 Potentia
Suggested Rote Skills: Science, Investigation, Empathy
 Without the assistance of magic, it is impossible for the human mind to discern when the time stream alters around them. Even with time magic at some of its most advanced practices, it can be difficult to truly comprehend. At the Storyteller's direction, whenever encountering events or objects that are contrary to the time stream in which this effect was cast, enter a clash of wills with the entity attempting to perform it. Success or failure does not effect the event in any way, save that success means the temporally anchored individual recognizes the anachronism for what it is, and understand their original time stream to be the "true" time stream.

Universal Language

  • This spell also allows the subject to speak any human language.

Wisdom Degeneration

  • Daily Meditation: Daily Meditation adds +2 to your rolls to resist Wisdom Degeneration. Meditating on high concepts and the Supernal is a fantastic way to bulwark your Wisdom. The roll for your meditation must be made prior to your degeneration check. You may not reroll a failure.

Mortal House Rules

Character Creation

  • We use the optional character creation rule which allows Mortal+ characters to take 10 merit dots at character creation.
  • We do not permit "vanilla mortals." All characters must be from a permitted Mortal+ type and affiliated with one of the open PC Supernatural spheres (Changeling, Geist, Mage, Vampire).
  • Your character must be an active part of the affiliated Supernatural sphere upon approval.

Custom Virtues & Vices

You can find these custom items here.

Merits

Biomimicry

By changing their eyes into a cat's eyes, a Biomimic may eliminate negatives imposed by Environmental Tilts for natural darkness. Darkness imposed by magical shadows or Contracts/Disciplines/Magic whose effects remove sight still affect the Biomimic.

By growing gills and webbing between fingers and toes, a Biomimic may breathe freely while underwater and remove movement/action penalties for underwater actions. While active, the Biomimic is unable to breathe above water without 'holding breath' as one would normally do underwater, with the same rolls.

Deadpan

This merit impacts magical fear and revulsion imposed by sources as various as the Nightmare Discipline, Autumn Contracts, and even the Nosferatu Curse with the same caveats as Awakened magic.

Death Sight

The conversion of this merit from 1e to 2e is as follows:

Effect: Your medium can see dead people. The psychic may perceive and communicate with any ghost she encounters. The power allows only perception of and communication with ghosts in Twilight — ghosts tied to the material world and not to any otherworldly spirit world. The power affords no ability to contact spirits in Twilight. This Merit does not permit the psychic to aid ghosts in manifesting in the physical world. Most ghosts instinctively realize when a mortal can perceive them, and psychics who possess this power are often inundated by requests from desperate beings seeking help to resolve their earthly affairs.

Cost: None to sense the presence of ghosts. One Willpower to see or initiate communication with them.
Dice Pool: Wits + Composure
Action: Reflexive

Dramatic Failure: The medium is unable to use this Merit for the rest of the scene. Alternately, she may attempt to use the power again but also suffer horrific visions of some hellish underworld, inflicting either Spooked, Dissociated or Paranoid, which must be resolved and do not fade at the end of the scene.

Failure: The attempt to activate Death Sight is unsuccessful.

Success: Your character can perceive and communicate with any ghost in her vicinity for the remainder of the scene. Such ghosts remain intangible to her, however.

Exceptional Success: The medium gains a +2 bonus on all rolls made in dealing with ghosts during the scene.

Option [Permanent Death Sight]: The medium’s ability to see the dead is always active. The stress of constantly being surrounded by spectral beings inflicts a Persistent Condition -- choose from Addicted, Madness, Chronic Agony, or another appropriate Persistent Condition with ST approval. The player must still roll Wits + Composure in order to communicate with ghosts, but with this option, such rolls gain a +3 bonus.

Mind of a Madman

This merit is now called "Holmesian Insight" to eliminate ableist language. Please put in a ticket to have staff change this if you have this merit on your sheet.

Psychokinesis

When using the attack form of Psychokinesis, the attack functions like a ranged attack. This means that unless the target has some method of dodging firearms or similar attacks, they do not receive their defense against Psychokinetic attacks.

Sleepwalker

In Mage 2.0, any Mortal+ with a merit or power which is something inherent to or installed in themself (a Lost Boy's upgrades as opposed to a Relic, for example) counts as a Sleepwalker in that the Curse does not affect them. We do not approve any character without such a power anymore, so there is no need for the Sleepwalker Merit.

Sojourner

When using this power, objects still take structure damage and characters receive one bashing per mile of distance traveled rather than for each yard.

Universal Engineer -

Prerequisites: Wits or Dexterity 4+, Crafts 3+, At least one crafting spec

Throughout the course of human (and supernatural) history, there have been innovators and thinkers who have been immortalized in time for their feats of technical, mechanical and mental prowess. From the Ionians of ancient Greece with their marvels of antiquity, to Eratosthenes determining the circumference of the Earth, to the modern day and it's vast, technological achievements, there have been those who seemed to have an almost innate, semi-mythical understanding of how mechanisms, engineering and physics all work together. While these technological wunderkin devised where perhaps not outright magic, but in the times which they were built in likely seemed so, and perhaps still do to this day. While a PC may not be able to actually create a truly magical machine, her understanding of science, technology, engineering and creation are such that there may not be much difference either way. Equipment, gear, vehicles, weapons... whatever she makes, the Universal Engineer produces such advanced works that they stand above and beyond their nearest counterparts, leaving anything but the most bespoke of purchased items in the dust.

Effect: Crafted items the PC makes are of a quality far above any purchased version of the same thing, and may even exceed what their peers can produce. For each dot in this merit, any crafted item gains one additional offset to be spent on improving it, before additional offsets are added via increasing strength, availability or initiative penalty. These additional dots still follow all crafting rules and limits (Damage or Armor rating cannot be raised past double their base amount, speed, defense or perception penalties can only be negated rather than turned into positives, etc), and must still be crafted by the PC in question, rather than simply purchased.

Drawback: Such impressive, cutting edge technology has a tendency to attract attention, not all of it worthwhile or healthy. Whenever she uses her personally crafted gear, any witnesses during the scene (PC or NPC) get a +2 bonus to remembering said technology, and possibly the person who created it.

Universal Translator

Prerequisites: Protocol at Rating, Implanted Interface, The Devil In the Detail Status

Originally a side project turned custom upgrade by a Detail associate doing research into the Protocol and the Serum, this implant upgrades the Implanted Interface with a combination of specialized neural net centered hardware designed solely to run an advanced real-time translation algorithm. It is currently unavailable outside the members of The Detail, with even the exact method of installation remaining a secret, for now.

Effects: Through a comprehensive database of languages combined with an advanced translation algorithm, the Universal Translator Protocol allows a user to understand and speak any language known to man (effectively granting the benefits of Multilingual to all Human languages.) It does not, however, enable the use of Spirit Speech, High Speech, or any other language of supernatural origin, including contextual languages created by subgroups such as Winter Cant and Guardian Doublespeak.

Deprived: You gain the effective use of the Language Merit, instead of Multilingual, allowing you to also fluently read and write all human languages subject to the restrictions above.

Vampire House Rules

Blood Sorcery

  • The Potency of a spell is capped at twice the user's Cruac rating.
  • The casting of a ritual immediately ends upon reaching the required success threshold; the caster can't keep going to increase potency.

Character Creation

See our page on Joining Vampire.

Clan Banes

  • The Nosferatu clan bane applies to interactions with anybody who is "human". Any character who has a Virtue and Vice counts as "human": Mortal+ and half-splat characters of all sorts (Fae-Touched, Ghouls, Sleepwalkers, Wolf-Blooded, etc) as well as Mages. Lastly, while "Touchstones" are an exception for the curse, this applies to the Touchstones of the Nosferatu in question, not just any human who is a Touchstone. A human who is some other Vampire's Touchstone still has the Nosferatu's curse apply.

Coils of the Dragon

Coil of Zirnitra is not in use here.

Crossover

  • Rigid Mask is a weirdly-written merit, and does not specify that an active power is required in order to trigger the Clash of Wills. It's also the only merit we could find in either book which specifies a Clash of Wills in the contexts of a merit as opposed to a Contract and/or Discipline. However, the Clash of Wills section on p126 of CtL 2.0 makes it clear that all Clashes of Wills happen when powers come into conflict. Therefore, without Auspex or other supernatural powers active, the Clash of Wills simply doesn't happen. Some other merits, such as Acute Senses, may come into play if a Lost is affected by a Changeling's strengthened Mask or a Vampire wishes to see through their attempts at emotional deception.

Custom Content

Disciplines

Auspex

  • Uncanny Perception (the Auspex power, not the Lost Boys merit) is contested by Resolve + [Supernatural Tolerance]. Any powers which conceal the target's mood, fate, or other concealing powers may also trigger a Clash of Wills, and any merits which give bonuses to resisting supernatural prying also apply.

Ghouls and Disciplines or Devotions

  • Ghouls consider their regnant's in-clan Disciplines to be in-clan for purchasing them with XP.
  • Ghouls can only learn Auspex, Dominate, Majesty, Nightmare, and Protean dots if they've consumed blood from a vampire who knows that Discipline , in the same way as vampires.
  • Ghouls can learn other Disciplines even if their Regnant doesn't know them. The potential is in the blood.
  • Ghouls can learn blood sorcery, and can use Theban rituals that they're taught. They can't use Cruac rites beyond the first level, even though they can learn them, because any level 2 or greater rites require spilling of blood to fuel a power, and that's something that's expressly called out as not possible for ghouls (pg 297). They can perform level 1 rituals in theory, but most Acolytes would not be accepting of their practices being taught to a mortal... even a ghoul.
  • Ghouls can learn Devotions, but they cannot develop them independently like vampires can. They must be taught by a vampire or ghoul who knows the Devotion.

Learning Disciplines

This is a reminder, not a house rule, but learning a clan's unique Discipline if it's not your Clan or Bloodline Discipline requires having drunk blood from a vampire who knows that Discipline already, with everything that comes along with that (blood bond risk, vitae addiction, etc). Drinking once allows you to learn the entire Discipline.

This means that if you're starting play with any such Disciplines, you're possibly also starting play with vitae addiction and the associated persistent Addicted condition.

Nightmare

  • The illusions caused by Nightmare 1 are not sufficient to cause a Clarity check in Lost. The fact that there is no resistance roll and the fact that Blood & Smoke was written literally years before 2.0 Lost means this requires a bit of handwavium for balance purposes. You can't induce Clarity damage in Lost with illusions that have no resistance roll.

Protean 3, Beast's Skin

While being in animal forms does permit you to activate Disciplines as normal, if they require you to do something else that the animal form can't normally do (like if you're a dog and trying to use Dominate, which requires speaking words of command), then you may still be unable to use some Disciplines.

Devotions

  • The Khaibit Devotion "Pseshkf" can be used to boost unarmed attacks as if they were weapons. It lasts for one scene.

Merits

  • The Invictus merit "Oath of Matrimony" is not in use on From Dusk Till Jawn.

Thousand Years of Night

Content from Thousand Years of Night is allowed for PC usage on a case-by-case basis, and only for characters with an age greater than 200 years. Please note that the purchase of ANY stat with Elder as a prerequisite also means adopting the Elder Bane for your Clan.

Approved Elder stats:

  • Bones of the Mountain

Werewolf House Rules

Retained for archival purposes. Not currently in use as Werewolf is closed with no current plans to reopen.


Character Creation

  • You get free dots in Moon Gifts according to your Auspice Renown, a two Facets of Shadow Gifts from your Tribe and Auspice, and one (essentially free) facet of a Wolf Gift.
  • In addition to what's in the book, you may choose a Blood and Bone from the Blood and Bone list, or submit your own using the rules listed on that page.
  • Upon character creation, you are limited to one Renown at 5, and a second Renown at 4, and the rest may be at 3 or below.
  • Wolf-Blooded may take the merits: Supernatural Resistance, Aura Reading, Mind of a Madman, Cursed, Unseen Sense, Clairvoyance, Laying on Hands, and Medium.

Custom Abilities and Items

Dedicated Locus

  • When taking this merit, you must fill out and submit a Safe Place sheet, and indicate which of the setting Loci you are claiming. If you're originating a new Locus, please indicate its location and resonance.

Fetishes and Talens

  • When crafted, Fetishes and Talens must be supported by dots in Resources or Esoteric Armory equal to their rating.

Gifts

  • The Pure Gift trees from Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon are permitted: Agony, Blood, Disease, Fervor, and Hunger. These are all considered non-affinity.
  • The Gift of City (non-affinity) and the Gift of Essence are permitted: read them here.

Hunting Natures

  • Hunting Natures are not in use; no drawbacks or benefits of Hunting Nature Conditions are granted.

Packs

Renown

  • Raising Renown in-play beyond 3 must be justified.
  • You are limited to one Renown at 5 upon character creation, and a second at 4.

Rites

  • The Merits Good Time Management and Patient apply to Rites.
  • When you learn a Rite from someone else, you do not have to inherit their dice pool. You may select your own, representing your own spin on the Rite.

Territories

  • Werewolves do not take quarrel with other supernaturals dwelling inside their territory, provided there has been no conflict or action to provoke such.

House Rule Merits

Once-Wolf (•)
Prerequisites: Non-Forsaken Supernatural Major Template
Effect: Your character was a Wolf-Blooded, prior to whatever supernatural events caused her to become a Mage, Vampire, Changeling, or other Major Template. This grants her no specific mechanical advantages: she is not able to purchase Totem as a result of this merit (though may be able to for other reasons). She knows about Werewolves, and Werewolf Society, and may be generally on good terms with them as a whole, though her own actions or the actions of others may of course change this. Werewolves detect Once Wolves the same way they would Wolf-Blooded, but require a successful Wits + Occult roll to tell the difference.

Pack Affinity (• or •••)
Prerequisites: Membership in a pack
Whether from a great deal of time spent in each other's company, a strong totem bond, or other events, the bond between packmates with this merit has an undeniable and tangible strength. Packmates pick up on each other's moods, finish one another's sentences, and anticipate the needs of their pack and individual packmates. This sort of uncanny awareness of one another may unsettle those unaware of the intensity of their bond.
At the one-dot level, the Uratha gains +1 to Social rolls with her packmates, due to her ability to read their body language and a subconscious awareness of her pack's moods. This bonus extends to the entire pack as long as one member has the Merit.
At the three-dot level, the pack's bond becomes truly intense. Regardless of distance, she knows the general mood of each of her packmates, and becomes instantly aware of any massive shifts in mood--including any form of Kuruth. She may utilize this awareness to send messages of up to three words to her packmates upon which no one can eavesdrop by any means--the messages are encoded in the understanding the pack has of one another's moods, body language, and mindset. In combat, this does not require an action, similarly to a character's ability to speak while also taking an instant action, but in combat the Uratha must choose between speaking and utilizing this private communication.
Drawback: Regardless of distance, packmates with the three-dot version suffer the highest wound penalty of any packmate, even those without the merit. Merits or powers which ameliorate wound penalties only do so for the Uratha who actually has the merit. (If Bob and Alice have the three-dot version, and Bob is injured but Alice has a merit that allows her to ignore wound penalties, only Alice benefits from it.) 'Feeling one another's pain' becomes frightfully literal when your ties get this strong.