Rules and RegulationsThe Houserules are largely the same as what Ryo was using. If you are using them in a roll, please mention it as I do not have them memorized. I am adding a few (marked in red), which should not have a major impact.
Posting Everyday, ideally, even if it's just to check in with a couple quick lines about what you're doing in the background if the action isn't on you. That said, I know I will fall short of that ideal myself. I would like a more substantive post - doesn't have to be a huge essay - every two days or so to voice your opinion or to push the action forward. Obvious exceptions made for weekends and holidays. If you're going to be away for a few days, great. I probably will be too at some point. Just
let us know, and ESPECIALLY let us know if you have to take an extended leave for whatever reason. Don't leave us hanging for weeks and months.
I have the most opportunities to post while at work. I have a regular 9 to 5 with ample access to the Internet. Seattle proper, GMT -8.
KarmaDue to the nature of PbP, karma will be awarded on a per-chapter basis. Karma awards will be based on participation and role playing. Unless Ryo already has karma awards in mind, I will send out Chapter I karma awards to those players who were with us.
There will be a separate karma award specifically for developing knowledge skills. Knowledge karma will generally be 1/2 the amount of your normal karma award. Advancing knowledge skills costs the same as in the core rule book.Please run karma spending by me. Most of it will be fine but I'll want to keep track of it on your secret sheets too. Most of the time you will not need an IC reason to improve suddenly. The premise of the game gives us a good mechanic for most sudden improvement (i.e. you remember how to do something). It breaks down a bit for attribute advancement but oh well. It's a game.
Treat Metatype Attribute Minimum as 1 for the purpose of determining Karma costs. For example, if you are a troll with a Body of 5, which is the metatype minimum, improving to Body 6 only costs 10 karma, not 30.MagicSpells that create a barrier, such as Physical Barrier or [Element] Wall, create a barrier with a Structure equal to the Force of the spell, and an Armor equal to Force+hits. This is to prevent hilariously flimsy barriers and make these spells actually useful. A magical Barrier is still a Barrier, and is subject to the Penetration Weapons rule; only barriers of sufficiently high Armor will actually stop bullets.
Instead of Alchemy being opposed by Force of the preparation, it is opposed by Force - Alchemist's Skill. Therefore, an Alchemist with an Alchemy skill of 6 casting at Force 6 or lower would roll Magic + Alchemy [Force] unopposed, but if he were to overcast to Force 12, he would be opposed by 6 dice. This makes it easier to create preparations with decent Potency.
A preparation taking a single box of Physical damage will not make it lose its magic. This would render Disjoining obsolete, as you could disarm preparations without risking Drain just by smacking them. Instead, a sufficiently damaged preparation is immediately triggered.
Damage to a Preparation does not release the magic unless it is completely destroyed/ruined/scraped off the object. Alchemists shouldn't be at a constant risk of self destructing simply from putting their preparations in the same pocket as their car keys.
Flesh Form merges from Inhabitation have half their Force added to the Physical Attributes of the host.
When possessing a living vessel, the enhancement to Physical Attributes is limited by Augmented Maximum. This limitation does not apply to Inhabitation spirits.
Fake magical items made through Artificing stand up to Assensing in addition to Perception tests, using the same thresholds.
Quicksilver Cameras do not have a fixed limit, only increasing the threshold of the Assensing by 2, or by 3 for a copy.
VehiclesIn Handling Environments, Catch Up/Break Away is a threshold test based on the complexity of the obstacles as normal. In Speed Environments, Catch Up/Break Away is instead an opposed Vehicle Test, pitting the speed of both drivers against each other.
When crashing, a vehicle is treated as if it rammed itself, resisting with Body+Armor as normal. Half of the unresisted damage is applied to the passengers of the vehicle, resisted with Body+Armor -6 AP. If a passenger is not properly secured (wearing a safety belt/harness), then they must resist the full initial damage of the crash instead, and may be hurled from the vehicle (gamemaster discretion). This may result in further damage from impact with the terrain or other vehicles.
Drones that have their Condition track filled can still be repaired. The cost is 1% of the base cost per box of damage sustained.
So long as a Vehicle is moving, the driver defends against attacks with Reaction + Intuition. They can choose to use Full Defense, adding their Willpower for the remainder of the Combat Turn, and losing 10 initiative. They can also choose to use Evasive Driving, the equivalent of Gymnastics Dodge, and add their Pilot skill to the defense test. Doing this adds the Handling of the vehicle as a limit to the test.
A vehicle that is not moving does not get to defend against attacks.
SensorsThe signature table is nonsense. The signature of a given target is dependent on the type of sensor attempting to perceive it; Cameras are subject to vision penalties, Thermographic sensors lock on with heat, MAD sensors lock onto ferrous metal, Radio Signal Sensors lock on to Matrix Icons, etc. etc.
The Sensor Housings table should instead read Sensor Array Housings table. Single Sensors do not have their Ratings limited by the size of the Housing.
Area of Effect attacksGrenades and area spells can either be aimed at an area (Simple (3) test) or aimed at a specific target (attack roll vs. defense roll.) If you aim at the area, all the targets in the blast radius can (and probably will) use the Run for Your Life interrupt action to escape the blast. If you aim at a specific target, they cannot use this interrupt action; they get their defense roll instead.
The effectiveness of flash-bang grenades and Indirect Area spells (like Fireball) will decrease with range as per a normal grenade (-1 DV per meter). This is to avoid "can't miss" attacks due to the area of effect being larger than the possible distance of the scatter.TechnomancersAll technomancers have an innate ability to establish a Direct Connection to any device they touch. Technomancers can also form PANs.
Resonance abilities do not render properly in the Matrix and can often go undetected. If something does not qualify as an Attack or Sleaze action, the victim would have to make a Matrix Perception check to notice they were the target of something. This includes Resonance Spike. A persona forced to perform an action with Puppeteer is obviously aware it performed an action, but a Device that is Puppeteer'd does not notify its owner.
MovementMovement rates will generally be HALF of what's listed in the core rule book on p. 162.
Agility = meters per turn walking
Agility * 2 = meters per turn running
Hits on a sprinting test still add 1m/hit for Dwarves and Trolls and 2m/hit for other metatypes.
This is a little slow at the lower Agility ratings but I've done the math and like these values much better.Rulebooks in PlayAll 5th edition rulebooks, including PDF only books, should be consider valid. 4th edition content not yet available for 5th can also be consider valid on a case by case basis. For example, the amnesia quality itself is a negative quality from 4th edition that you all have.
The optional rules from Bullets & Bandages may be used.
Optional Rules RG2 and RG6 from Run & Gun are in use:
RG2: TARGET SIZE MODIFIERS
SIZE | MODIFIER | EXAMPLES |
Minuscule | -3 | Micro drones |
Tiny | -2 | Mini drones, door locks, door hinges, security keypads |
Small | -1 | Metahuman (Body + Strength ranges from 2 to 4), small drones |
Average | — | Metahuman (Body + Strength ranges from 5 to 10), medium drones |
Bulky | +1 | Metahuman (Body + Strength ranges from 11 to 15), vehicles, large drones |
Large | +2 | Metahuman (Body + Strength ranges is 16 or higher) |
Huge | +3 | Jumbo jet engine |
RG6: DAMAGE FOR NO DEFENSE
If an attack decreases a target’s Defense Test pool below 0 dice, additional penalties are added to the DV of the attack at a rate of 1 DV per two lost dice. This makes Full Auto or Burst Fire attacks against unaware or restrained foes truly deadly.