House Rules/Miscellaneous

Ability Aptitude and similar merits

Merits that reduce the difficulty of an ability roll (such as Ability Aptitude) do not apply to supernatural powers using that ability roll, unless the merit specifically says that it does. Merely being classified as a supernatural merit' or similar is insufficient.

• Exception: Ability Aptitude in Rituals applies to performing level 1 and 2 rites, but not to performing higher level rites.

• Ability Aptitude also does not apply to combat (as usual).

• House rule for Ability Aptitude specifically: May be taken up to twice per PC.

Examples:

• A demon uses Lore of the Forge (Perception + Crafts) to improve a car. If the demon has Ability Aptitude: Crafts, then it doesn't apply in that situation.
• The above demon succeeded anyway, the car now gives -1 difficulty to Drive rolls. A ratkin steals the car and gets into a high-speed chase (Dexterity or Wits + Drive). If the ratkin has Ability Aptitude: Drive, then it does apply, and stacks with the car's bonus. (It's not affecting a power, just the side effect of a power.)
• A mage has the Natural Channel merit, which includes "difficulty to use magic to pierce the Gauntlet is one less". This applies as stated.
• Acute Sense (VtM Revised page 296) says "This Merit can be combined with the Discipline Auspex to produce superhuman sensory acuity." This also applies as stated. In particular, Aura Perception (Auspex 2) is specifically visual, so Acute Vision applies to it.
• Awareness is not a power, it just detects powers, so Ability Aptitude: Awareness is allowed. However, Awareness is not consistently tied to any of the five senses like Auspex 2 is, so the Acute Sense merits don't apply to Awareness.

Alternate Identity

This rule covers alternate/fake identities that are backed up by physical ID cards and/or paper/electronic records (as opposed to just lying on the spot and rolling Subterfuge).

If you just switched identities as part of your backstory, then you can just handwave that it succeeded. (Example: A vampire periodically creates a new identity, then fakes the death of the old one.) If it ever becomes relevant, staff will work with you to establish details.

The Alternate Identity merit (3 dots, Guide to the Camarilla 76) is for presenting an alternate identity to a supernatural faction.

• PCs in your faction may do more stringent checking if many spies have been caught.
• House rule: If you're just passing as a different clan/etc. within your actual faction, it only costs 2 dots (1 if you're passing as something low-status, e.g. Caitiff/Pander).

The Alternate Identity background (1 to 5 dots, The Bitter Road 113) is for presenting an alternate identity to mortal society. Mundane research into the supporting paperwork requires Intelligence + Investigation vs (3 + background level) to identify it as fake.

If you just have a physical fake ID created by a PC with Forgery, then a +note is sufficient. Any fake ID not supported on +sheet is assumed to be of this type. Mundane examination of the physical ID requires Perception + Investigation (resisted by the original Forgery creation roll) to identify it as fake.

NPCs will only investigate these things if they're prodded by a PC or have some other specific reason to do so. (Example: if you get a speeding ticket, then the officer will run your driver's license through some routine processing, whether it's real or fake.)

Character Generation

See also Character Generation

General

• All requests to add stats to CGen must include book references.
• Willpower cannot exceed 8 in cgen.
• Willpower is always 1 freebie.
• Abilities over 3 do not require justification.
• Abilities can only be raised over 3 with freebies.
• Resources 3 and below do not require justification.
• Merits do not need to be purchased with Freebies from flaws. They may be purchased with standard 15/21 freebies.
• Potent Blood is not available to Shifters (they already provide more blood, if you manage to not have them kill you).
• Special combat maneuver stats (Kailindo, Do, Fast-Draw, etc) are not in use.
• Awareness is available to all races.

Mage

• Magic Resistance is not an appropriate merit for Mages.

Mortal+

• Kinfolk and/or Kinain that are also Sorcerer-Psychic must be Subrace:Sorcerer-Psychic and purchase Kinfolk (Merit):4 and/or Kinain:4 merits.
• Ghouls that are also Sorcerer-Psychics are not allowed in chargen, you must pick one and pay XP later for the other. Their numina are also capped at (8 - Domitor background).
• It is recommended (but not required) that Ghoul PCs have an off-stage, statless NPC domitor.
• The Totem merit is not used, as it is sufficiently and more flexibly covered by backgrounds (e.g. Totem, Mentor, Guide).
• Sorcerer-Psychics get one free ritual for each dot of a Path that features rituals as described under Mythic Numina, WW4254/46.
  • We do not differentiate between Mythic, Technological, and Psychic Numina.
  • The free ritual is restricted to the Path providing the dot.
  • The free rituals are at character creation only.

Shifter

• All Faction:Wyrm shifters get Power, Cunning, and Infamy for renown.
• Ratkin: The bonus rite (and bonus rite only) can be used without having Rituals.

Vampire

• Assamites may choose to take their caste weakness (WW2359/46-48) instead of the standard clan weakness, but must get a +note approved before it becomes relevant.
• Gangrel Mixed Blessing (WW23252/56) are not in use.
• Vampires with Thaumaturgy or other blood magic get one free ritual at each level up to their discipline level.

Daily routines

Often, a PC will want to declare ICly doing something once a day (or night for vampires). This may involve spending and/or rolling something. It may only be relevant once in a while (e.g. Deflection of Wooden Doom when someone tries to stake a vampire). The typical approach is to set a +note, get it approved by staff, then whenever it's relevant, do any required rolls/etc. after the fact.

Requirements to get such a +note approved:

If canon says that a specific thing happens when it botches (e.g. activating a vampire-created fetish), not just the general 'ST may get creative', then you must either (a) have a dice pool at least as high as the difficulty, or (b) spend a Willpower for an auto-success (limit 1 per day as noted below).

If it requires spending a pool stat, then it must not exceed the rate at which you can regain that stat via routine effort. Also, you should deduct your dailies when determining how much you have available to spend during a specific scene, unless you declared at the start of the scene that you skipped some or all of them that day.

Pool	Daily cap
Willpower	1 per day for getting a good night's sleep (or vice versa for vampires)
Blood (vampires)	2 per night, 1 to wake up and 1 for other stuff Add 1 if you have Herd 3+ Add 1 if you have Fame 3+ Add more if you do extra hunting (see post on bb 18)
Gnosis	(Gnosis + Wits + Enigmas) * 0.05 per day
Quintessence	See '+rules nodes'
Mana	(Perception + Meditation) * 0.6 per day
Glamour	1 per day
Faith	1 per thrall (PC or NPC) per day

Others will be added if/when they come up

If the goal is to stockpile something (e.g. blood stored using Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion), then you may handwave that each roll gets the average number of successes.

If something happens that would prevent you from doing your dailies (being torpored, locked up without needed tools, etc.), then it does prevent you from doing them.

Difficulty

If the number of dice equals or exceeds the difficulty, the PC may handwave a single success without rolling. This does not work for all tasks, and never works in combat or other stressful situations. The PC may always choose to roll instead, e.g. if they want to try for multiple successes. (VtM 193, WtA 172-173, MtA 216, WtO 84; CtD 197 and DtF 222 just say "exceeds the difficulty")

Minimum/maximum difficulty are checked last, after applying all other modifiers. Example: If base difficulty is 11, but modifiers add up to -3, then final difficulty is 8 and works normally.

If a difficulty would otherwise be lower than the minimum, then it's the minimum.

If a difficulty would otherwise be higher than the maximum, then 10s still count as successes. (VtM 192, MtA 215, DtF 221, WtO 83; WtA and CtD are silent on this point)

Minimum/maximum difficulty for most things is 2/10; however, 2 and 10 are rare, which is why White Wolf left them off the example charts. (VtM 191, WtA 172, MtA 214, CtD 196, DtF 220, WtO 83)

Minimum/maximum difficulty for mage powers is 3/9. (MtA 208) Base difficulty is highest sphere level + 3 (coincidental) or 4 (vulgar) or 5 (vulgar with witnesses), and the sum total of modifiers is capped at +/-3. (MtA 149) If such a difficulty would otherwise be higher than 9, then it converts to a threshold (+rules mage misc).

• Sum total of sorcery modifiers is also capped at +/-3. (Sorc Rev 53, implicitly referencing MtA)

Minimum/maximum difficulty for changeling powers is 4/10. If the difficulty would otherwise be higher than 10, then skip the roll; the attempt automatically fails. (CtD 205)

Drive

Having a dot in an ability means that you have a skill, talent, or knowledge that not everyone has.

In the U.S., just about everyone can drive a car, so we don't require a dot in Drive to be able to drive. This goes for both automatic and manual transmission vehicles and anything that doesn't require a special license, including rentable moving trucks.

Some things that will require Drive:

• A motorcyle (Drive 1 is sufficient)
• A finicky or poorly-maintained manual transmission
• A tractor-trailer, RV, or industrial vehicle (Garbage truck, dump truck, tow truck)
• Tailing someone without being noticed at normal speeds
• Tailing someone blatantly at high speeds
• Evading pursuit
• Excessive speed (>100 MPH)

Home Base

See Home Base

Implicit Game Mechanics

Game mechanics, in canon as well as these house rules, are not exhaustive. They're not intended to be. Exhaustive rules would be long and unreadable. Non-exhaustive rules allow gaps to be filled in if/when needed.

How to deal with a gray area in the rules:

• Work out something acceptable to everyone in the scene. (+policy hand waving)
  • Don't be a dick. Being a dick will make people not want to RP with you any more.
  • If there's a ST (staff or player) present, they should take the lead.
  • This doesn't necessarily set precedent for future scenes, but you can +request it be added to house rules.
• If it seems like X should counter Y but there's no specific game mechanics for it, consider treating them as resisted rolls (successes cancel 1:1, defender wins ties).
• For mundane (non-supernatural) actions, if it makes sense that something should provide a modifier, then the question is 'How much'. (It may or may not be significant enough to actually affect game mechanics.)
• Before writing a long explanation, just ask 'Does X work?'. If everyone agrees, you've just saved everyone a bunch of time and effort.

Influence

Influence uses the categories from Laws of the Night 96-104, documented using +notes:

• Bureaucracy
• Church
• Finance
• Health
• High Society
• Industry
• Legal
• Media
• Occult
• Police
• Political
• Street
• Transportation
• Underworld
• University

PCs can +request to use Influence for the types of actions listed, based on a monthly cap. Example: A PC with Influence (Bureaucracy) 2 could pull strings to acquire one fake driver's license per month, or trace two utility bills per month.

Some actions may have broad long-term effects, e.g. a PC with Influence (Political) 4 gets the city council to alter the laws against vandalism. Staff will maintain a central list of such effects and take them into account when relevant.

Each PC may have a total of up to 5 dots in Influence, allocated to as many or few categories as desired (e.g. Underworld 5, or Underworld 3 + Media 2, but not Underworld 5 + Media 5; for that, you need two PCs working together).

In Public

Prospect is a city of millions and all those people have to be somewhere. Everywhere you go, there will be citizens doing their things. What follows are guidelines to determine whether or not there are people at your location:

• If you're in the Deep Forest, Desert, or Deep Ocean, '+dice 1'. If you get 1, there's at least one person somewhere nearby. If you get anything else, there's no one around (probably).
• If you're in a private space behind a locked door, there's no one around (probably).
• If your location is not in the above list, there are people around. This includes alleys (bums), parks (joggers, dog walkers, rapists), and the beach (more rapists).

Furthermore, if you're in a place that would reasonably be crowded such as a club, it is crowded. Crowds make it difficult to hear people, notice people, and find people. If there would reasonably be loud music playing, there is loud music playing.

If you're in a PC-owned location, and do something that would reasonably cause a NPC working there to notice and tell that PC about it, then please OOCly contact that PC and let them know.

• 'ex here' will tell you who owns the location (OOCly and usually also ICly).
• Non-exhaustive list of causes:
  • Getting into a physical confrontation.
  • Breaking the law (e.g. smoking or naked table-dancing in a family restaurant).
  • Doing something overtly supernatural (e.g. shifting to Crinos).
• Many NPCs will run away if threatened, and are affected by Delirium etc. as usual, but there are exceptions (e.g. ghoul retainers). Some NPCs / PCs won't care if you smoke / whatever, others will be concerned about being reported (possibly by another PC) and shut down. Run it by the PC just in case.

Instruction

Players with the secondary talent Instruction may teach abilities to other players for an XP discount:

• This only applies to the teacher's skills and knowledges, not talents (but see house rules below) or supernatural powers (which may have separate rules, e.g. vampire disciplines).
• This does not apply to the student raising the target ability higher than the teacher's level in that ability.
• Requires at least a one-month teaching period per teacher / student / target ability.
  • At the start of the month, teacher submits a +request.
  • During the month, teacher rolls Manipulation + Instruction vs (11 - student's Intelligence).
  • At the end of the month, student becomes eligible for a discount of 1 XP per success on the target ability.
• House rules:
  • Student must pay a minimum of 1 XP per level of the target ability.
  • For each additional one-month teaching period with the same teacher and/or student and at least two weeks of simultaneous overlap, the Instruction roll is +1 difficulty.
  • Talents with a major physical component can benefit from Instruction. (Primaries: Athletics, Brawl, Dodge, Intimidation. Secondaries: Flight, Juggling, Swimming, Throwing.)
  • If the teacher spends Willpower on the Instruction roll, then they cannot spend Willpower on anything else for one month afterward. Remember that this roll represents a month's worth of sustained effort.
• Playing out teaching on-camera is optional and eligible for +votes / XP nominations as usual.

References:

• Vampire Players Guide (2nd ed) page 28 (or 23)
• Wraith Players Guide page 41
• Book of Shadows page 16

Jack of All Trades

We use the 3-dot version of this merit from Players Guide to Garou 163:

"You have a little knowledge about a lot of things. If making a roll on a Skill you do not possess, you do not suffer the usual +1 penalty to the roll's difficulty. You may attempt a roll on a Knowledge that you do not possess, although the difficulty on the roll is raised by 2. Only homid or metis characters may take this Merit."

• Any race may take this merit, it is not restricted to Garou or even shifters.
• Fera are similarly restricted by breed.
• Does not apply to abilities not normally available to your race (e.g. Lore, Gremayre).
• Does not apply to secondary abilities.

Kryptonite

The term "kryptonite" is used here as shorthand for "race-specific weakness that causes aggrevated damage or significant disablement for a character because of their race/subrace". Examples include:

• Silver for Werewolves
• Cold Iron for Changelings
• Sunlight, Stakes for Vampires
• Gold for Corax
• Reference Book Organization for White Wolf Editors

Kryptonite weapons are not trivial to acquire. While the materials themselves (silver) might be very common, the purity and quality of weapons/ammunition made of these materials is rarely such that supplies the desired agg. Kryptonite to be used on NPCs in a PRP may be handwaved by the player running the PRP. Kryptonite to be used on PCs must be requested and approved by staff ("Kryptonite:Y" in +equip), and is subject to risk protection as usual.

For RP purposes, most of these materials as found in everyday items will have little effect on PCs. Players are encouraged to play out some level of trepidation and discomfort handling common kryptonite items and have reactions up to severe rashes from handling them, if desired. Changelings are free to use an iron railing to climb stairs. Werewolves can pick up a silver locket (but shouldn't wear it). Vampires are still incinerated by sunlight; sorry, there is no depleted sunlight.

Supernaturals have relatively few weaknesses and as such, they take those weaknesses very seriously. Brandishing Kryptonite at a PC in a threatening manner, in combat, automatically promotes the wielder to Risk Level 3 for the duration of combat. This is regardless of either player's level of sphere-specific Lore. For this to be the case, however, the kryptonite must be the appropriate type for the character's real race. If you're a Gangrel posing miraculously well as a werewolf and someone pulls a silver dagger on you, they aren't automatically promoted to Risk Level 3.

For vampires, holy water, garlic, and crosses are not considered Kryptonite, but stakes and fire are. Fire is not considered Kryptonite for anyone else.

Linguistics

• We don't do per-language skill levels. A language is at 0 or it is at 5.
• The number of languages you get per level of linguistics is by the books.
• Your native language is free.
  • English (everyone)
  • Garou, Lupine (Garou); similar for Fera
  • Enochian (demons)
  • Inanimica and phylum dialect (Inanimae)
    • Mannikin don't have a phylum dialect, and can understand all the others but not speak them

Linguistics	Number of extra languages
1	1
2	2
3	4
4	8
5	16

• Once you've reached Linguistics 5, additional languages can be purchased for 3 XP each.

Lore

For evocations performed by demons, see Lores instead.

At Lore 0, your character can believe, but your knowledge is inaccurate and mostly derived from popular culture.

The following types qualify for free Lore in chargen. Characters can qualify for multiple lores.

Supernatural Race Free Lore(s) Bygone Lore Bygone:3 Changeling Lore Changeling:3 Demon Lore Demon:3 Fera Lore Fera:3 Garou Lore Garou:3 Mage Lore Mage:3 Vampire Lore Vampire:3 Wraith, Risen Lore Wraith:3 Wyrm Shifters Lore Wyrm:3

Mortal+ Subrace Free Lore(s) Ghouls Lore Vampire:2 Hunter Lore Hunter:3 Kinain Lore Changeling:2 Kinfolk (Fera) Lore Fera:2 Kinfolk (Garou) Lore Garou:2 Possessed (all) Lore Spirit:3 Possessed (Fomori) Lore Wyrm:3 Projector Lore Wraith:2 Sorcerer-Psychic Lore Sorcerer-Psychic:3 Wyrm Kinfolk Lore Wyrm:2

Increasing lores

Lores are counted as primary Knowledges and can be purchased with XP if ICly justified.

If the lore would have been free in chargen

XP spends do not require IC justification.

If you choose to start with a lower value (including 0), or your race or sub-race changes after chargen or you buy a relevant merit (e.g. Lore Vampire after someone ghouls you):

• You can get the first dot for free at any time, additional dots cost XP as usual.
• You can still choose to RP through the learning process.
• Someone (PC or NPC) will probably make an effort to teach you that first dot sooner or later, and you may draw ICC for not having it. (+policy village idiot)
• If you have Twisted Upbringing flaw, it does not need to be bought off first. (There are many other things that you could have been misled about.)

If you choose to start with a higher value, your first 1-3 dots can come out of baseline (doesn't require freebies unless your baseline runs out) and free dots are added afterward.

Other lores

Non-exhaustive list of how to justify learning other lores:

• A PC teacher who explicitly agrees to ICly teach you a level they have is sufficient, regardless of how much/little of it is RPed on-camera.
• Lore 1-2: Occult Library merit is sufficient. Casual observation (e.g. Spirit Sight merit) is not. Mentor or backstory may be sufficient, but 'cured of amnesia' does not blanket-justify things not explicitly mentioned prior to approval.
• Lore 3+ requires a PC teacher (mentor/backstory is insufficient) or significant interaction with relevant PCs (detecting their existence is insufficient).

Maelstrom (aka Week of Nightmares)

The Sixth Great Maelstrom, aka the Week of Nightmares, was a major canon event that forever changed the world. It marked the entrance of Demons to the world, but it also screwed up the Umbra something fierce (something about the Technocracy using spirit nukes).

We like having Demons loose in the world, it lets us have them as playable characters here. We do not like the Avatar Storm, it excessively limits certain mages. Thus, we've chosen a compromise: it happened, but most of the Umbral problems ended years ago.

Short version:

• Demons are playable characters
• Wraiths are playable characters
• Ravnos are playable characters
• Mages can cross the Gauntlet to/from the Umbra without taking damage
• Mages still cannot cross the Horizon to/from the Deep Umbra

In mid-July 1999, after a week of psychic backlash that drove most Ravnos insane, the Ravnos Antediluvian rose and began wreaking havoc in India. It was finally put down in Bangladesh by the combined might of (a) three high-Dharma Kuei-Jin and (b) the Technocracy's 'Do Not Open until the Apocalypse' toybox.

The spirit nukes in said toybox cracked the Abyssal prison that the Fallen were trapped in, as well as causing the Sixth Great Maelstrom to sweep through the Underworld. A side effect was the Avatar Storm, a poisoning of the Gauntlet that would flay the Avatar of any Mage trying to cross it. It also wreaked havoc on the Horizon, making trips into the Deep Umbra even more difficult and dangerous than they already were, and trips back nearly impossible, cutting off Earth from contact with most of the high-Arete Mages, who had long since retreated Outside to escape the crushing weight of Paradox.

Another effect was the death of nearly all of Clan Ravnos. By the end of the Week of Nightmares, there were less than 100 left, mostly Ancillae and Neonates. Clan Ravnos is now effectively a Bloodline.

By 2012, things had settled down somewhat:

• Ravnos PCs are available, per our standard rules for PCs (no lower than 8th Generation). They can't really be considered a true Clan anymore without an Antediluvian or any Methuselahs, so consider them a Bloodline (this isn't really a mechanical effect, just a roleplay thing).
• The Avatar Storm ended years ago. How exactly it ended is a mystery. Rumors include: It simply burned itself out. It was repaired by the Traditions. It was repaired by the Technocracy. It was repaired by an unprecedented cooperative effort of Dreamspeakers, Void Engineers, Corax, and Nuwisha. The upshot is, it's gone, everyone has their own theory of why, and nobody knows for certain. You do not take agg damage when you use Spirit/DimSci to Step Sideways through the Gauntlet/Barrier.
• The Horizon, however, is still damaged. The Deep Umbra is still difficult and dangerous to access. Many of Earth's mightiest mages are still out of contact.
• Fallen (Demons) are still trickling out of the crack in the Abyss and claiming mortal bodies, per their canon. Nothing has changed there.
• The Underworld/Shadowlands are all kinds of messed up, but not nearly so bad as in canon. Thus you can still play Wraith PCs, see 'news wraith' for more details.
• There is no Red Star. The End of the World forgot to happen. Maybe the destruction of Ravnos forestalled it.

Medium

Medium (2 point Merit)

(VtM page 300) You possess the natural ability to sense and hear spirits, ghosts, and shades. Though you cannot see them, you can sense them, speak to them and, through pleading or cajoling, draw them to your presence. You may call on them for aid or advice, but there will always be a price.

(MtA page 295) Your mage is a natural conduit to the Underworld. Although this Merit does not reduce the difficulty of working Spirit magic, it does mean that your mage can hear ghosts naturally. The mage might not see wraiths without the right magic, but they do tend to hang out, talk, bug the character and ask him to do things. This talent can be helpful in some cases; wraiths are eager to talk to those who can hear them. However, they often make demands, and they can be difficult to banish if the mage doesn't have enough power with Spirit.

Clarifications / house rules:

• This allows '+rsee wraith', but not '+rsee fae' or '+rsee umbra'.
• This only lets you hear wraiths, not (ICly) see them.

Missing Stats

If a game mechanic attempts to reference a stat that a character doesn't have at all, treat it as if it was zero.

When rolling a dice pool (mundane or magic) that includes an ability that you don't have:

• Talents, roll the rest of your pool at no penalty. (VtM 120 et al)
• Skills, roll the rest of your pool at +1 difficulty. (VtM 123 et al)
• Knowledges, auto-fail unless the ST says otherwise. (VtM 126 et al)
• Exception: If you lack Awareness or a similar supernatural-sense ability, you can't use it at all.

Exceptions:

• Vampires and Path of Enlightenment vs Humanity, treat them as interchangeable unless canon says otherwise.
• Vampire powers and virtues, see '+rules vampire disciplines'.
• Kami and Autonomy, see '+rules autonomy'.
• Anything else that seems like it should have an exception, submit a +request.

Multiclass

These rules are for PCs with supernatural powers from more than one source.

• This includes anything that shows up in the 'Powers' section of +sheet.
• It does not include Spirit Sight merit, demon thrall bonuses, etc.

A supernatural PC (Race = anything other than Mortal or Mortal+):

• Cannot cross over with any other type of supernatural PC (e.g. Abominations)
• Cannot be ghouled or possessed
• Cannot learn numina except as allowed in '+rules sorcerer'
• Cannot learn gifts or have Gnosis due to Kinfolk merit
• Cannot learn arts/realms due to Kinain merit
• Cannot be a projector
• Non-Risen wraiths cannot take the Kinain merit (requires a body)

A mortal+ PC cannot have mortal+ powers from more than two of the following sources:

• Disciplines (ghoul)
• Gifts (kinfolk, but not possessed)
• Numina (sorcerer/psychic; counts as a single source)
• Arts/realms (kinain; counts as a single source)
• Possessed powers (possessed; includes any gifts supported by the Spirit Gift power)
• Projector horrors

A PC with hunter edges cannot have any other powers listed above. A PC with such powers may conceptually be a hunter but cannot have edges.

Additional limits for mortal+:

• Sum of Domitor background + highest gift + highest numina + highest art + highest horror + highest edge cannot exceed 8. (Treat anything you don't have as zero.)
• A PC cannot have more than one of (Mana, Gnosis, Glamour), and these are not inherently interchangeable even if a power can target more than one of them (magic items etc. may make exceptions).
  • Exception: Rorqual kami can have both Gnosis and Glamour
• Ghouls cannot be kinain (they interact badly with Glamour, G:FA 85) or have Gnosis (they seem thematically incompatible but this may change someday).

No Free Lunch

This rule covers using a supernatural effect to permanently alter a stat that normally costs XP (including removing/decreasing a flaw, Torment, etc.).

Target may pay the normal XP cost, handwaving the effect as IC justification.

• This does not require rolls, or even canonical game mechanics.
  • Example: Using Vicissitude to justify gaining the Winged merit.

Target may pay half the normal XP cost (rounded up) if:

• The effect has canonical game mechanics for such an increase.
• The caster succeeds at those game mechanics.
  • Example: Using Lore of Flesh 5 (Shape Flesh) to increase physical attributes.
• Cost is waived entirely if even the reduced cost would be excessive on top of the cost and scope of the effect.
  • Example: Pierce the Murk (Players Guide to High Clans 176) costs 3 XP and can grant Darksight (2 dot merit) for free.

Target may benefit without spending XP if:

• The effect has canonical game mechanics for such an increase.
• The caster succeeds at those game mechanics.
• The effect has some other type of permanent or ongoing cost.
  • Example: Using Vicissitude 2 (Fleshcraft) to increase soak dice, at the expense of decreasing Strength or health levels.
  • Example: Using Life/Mind to increase physical/mental attributes, at the expense of the caster suffering rote strain and possibly increased Paradox.

Sniping

Here we define 'sniping' to be the use of special abilities or items to discern information about another character. Specific examples include (but are not limited to):

• Aura Perception
• Sense Wyrm/Weaver/Wyld
• Scent of the True Form

Using these abilities requires at a minimum concentration, if not overt actions such as staring, making hand gestures, or licking the subject.

Sometimes sniping is okay. But not always. While we may only have a few hundred PCs, Prospect has a NPC population of millions. As such, sniping every single person you meet in public would be exhausting work; you'd get nothing else done. Sniping therefore requires a clear and specific reason to be used on a character, PC or otherwise.

A PC must have done something significant to warrant being sniped:

• A PC in the private territory of a race or faction (e.g. Elysium, caern) may be sniped at any time
• A PC using a supernatural power must offer the detection roll (if any) specified by that power, as well as a passive Awareness roll (+rules awareness), or contact staff to have such rolls performed in secret
• A PC mundanely reacting to a supernatural weakness (e.g. running from fire) is not sufficient cause for sniping unless the sniper has the relevant sphere's lore at 3+
• If you interact or plan to interact with someone more significantly than you do with most NPCs (e.g. go home with them from a club, establish an ongoing business relationship), then sniping is probably OK

For example, Willy the Werewolf sees Bob back away from a silver blade nervously. Willy the Werewolf suspects Bob is a BSD. Willy has Lore Garou at 3 and is justified in using Sense Wyrm. Turns out Willy senses no obvious Wyrm signs in the area. To figure out what's up, he uses Scent of the True Form on Bob. Bob happens to be a Mage. Willy sees that Bob isn't a Werewolf at all, he's something else. However, because he doesn't have any dots in Lore Mage, he doesn't know what he's looking at.

If Bob doesn't think he's been presented with sufficient justification for being sniped, he may refuse.

Specialties

For each attribute and ability with 4 or more dots, you may select one specialty.

• Specialties must be documented in +specialties or +notes and approved by staff. The main rulebooks contain several suggestions.
• Specialties must be clearly limited to a subset of all possible rolls involving the attribute or ability. The book suggestions for attributes tend to be bad about this.
• If a stat is temporarily/semi-permanently/conditionally raised to 4+, it may have a specialty that applies while the raise applies.
  • Examples: +effects from +shift forms or other sources, changeling birthrights while in the Dreaming
• Players should do '&VERBOSE_ROLLS me=1' to see how many 10s to re-roll. This also affects rolls shown to you by others.
• Any 10s in the original roll are re-rolled (before 1s canceling).
• Any 10s in the re-roll are re-rolled again.
• Any 1s in the re-roll cancel successes on a 1:1 basis as usual.
• Mages may also select one specialty for each sphere with 4 or more dots.
  • This is unrelated to your Tradition/Convention's specialty sphere.
  • This is unrelated to your specialty foci.

(References: VtM 117, WtA 108, MtA 117 and 156-189, CtD 136, DtF 136, WtO 112. Canon rules are not quite consistent; house rules are mainly based on MtA/DtF. Single-sphere PRPs may stick to that sphere's canon rules if everyone in the scene agrees.)

• Examples of approved/rejected/unreviewed specialties

Spirit Sight

Spirit Sight (4 point Merit, The Spirit Ways page 105)

You can see and hear all varieties of spirits, changelings, wraiths and similar entities. This Merit provides all of the advantages granted by the Merit Medium (The Book of Shadows, page 36). ... Nevertheless, this ability is a mixed blessing. Seeing these beings is not a choice; it is a normal part of your vision. You cannot help but see them. Being yelled at by an irate wraith who is shaking her fist in your face can be extremely distracting if you are attempting to hold a conversation with a Sleeper, and it's even worse if you are driving a car in bad weather!

Many shamans have this Merit, and shamans often look for people with Spirit Sight as potential students. Unfortunately, most Sleepers with this Merit conceal it poorly and instead end up in asylums.

Clarifications / house rules:

• You should '+rsee fae', '+rsee umbra', and '+rsee wraith', and leave them that way.
• PCs are not 'most people', but neither are they perfect. You should RP the distraction and confusion of this merit from time to time, though it doesn't need to be crippling, nor obvious to your potential enemies. Storytellers may increase the difficulty of your rolls from time to time.
• If you also have Dual Perception (2 point Merit), then you can turn each layer of vision on or off at will, but you need to ICly decide when to do so. You're trading off distraction/confusion for potentially missing something important.
• This only lets you see and hear things in other layers, not touch them or enter them. In particular, exits marked *FAE* lead to the Dreaming; this lets you see them, but does not (ICly) let you go through them.
• Immunity to the Mists is limited to seeing fae stuff in normalspace. If you're Enchanted and brought into the Dreaming, then the Mists still apply to that.
• Does not reduce the difficulty of Spirit magic. (This was based on a reference to the 1st ed version of the Medium merit.)

Stacking

These rules cover multiple modifiers to the same thing.

• If something explicitly indicates that it can/can't stack with other things, then that applies as written. In particular, if a single chart lists multiple possible modifiers to the same thing, then those generally can stack.

• Otherwise, if the same thing would receive multiple bonuses, then only the best bonus per type applies. For penalties, only the worst penalty per type applies. In both cases, multiplication/division applies before addition/subtraction.

• For the purpose of this rule, 'types' are as follows:
  • Mundane stat (background, merit, or flaw).
  • Mundane item. (Includes 'improved items' where a mundane effect was supernaturally improved, e.g. ultra-light armor, provided it's documented as such.)
  • Supernatural racial ability (e.g. vampire spending blood to raise attributes, shifter changing forms).
  • Supernatural power (e.g. discipline, gift, totem).
  • Supernatural item.

• This applies to any quantified game mechanic, e.g. number of dice, difficulty, number of successes, duration.
  • For a dice pool including multiple stats, each stat counts as a separate target. Effects targeting the entire pool overlap effects targeting part of it.
  • Final difficulty is capped per '+rules difficulty'.

• If some dice are changed to auto-successes, then they're no longer improved by effects targeting dice results.

Examples:

• A werewolf is wearing a flak jacket and kevlar vest, and casts Luna's Armor twice (3 and 2 successes). Their soak pool includes 4 from the jacket (but not 3 from the vest), and 3 from the first Luna's Armor (but not 2 from the second).
• A Tremere uses Spirit Manipulation to create a Fang Dagger, and also has Potence 2. The dagger bonus (*2) is applied before the Potence bonus (+2).
• A werewolf's Totem gives (a) -1 difficulty to Charisma, (b) -1 difficulty to Subterfuge, and (c) -3 difficulty to the Persuasion gift (which uses Charisma + Subterfuge). For Persuasion, only (c) applies. For the Tagalong gift (which also uses Charisma + Subterfuge), both (a) and (b) apply.

• A werewolf uses The Cleaving Hoof (Children of Gaia 67) and a Fang Dagger (WtA 301). The gift changes Strength dice to auto-successes. You still roll the rest of the pool, and the dagger doubles just those successes.

Status

Certain stats (usually backgrounds) are intended to represent a character's standing in their own society. These stats include but are not limited to: Status (Vampire), Pure Breed (Werewolf), Title (Changeling), and Eminence (Demon). These stats work well in table top where a storyteller is omniscient and can manage the implications. MUs are not such an environment.

Even in table top, Status only carries weight amongst those who respect it. The Brujah or Bone Gnawers with no status have no incentive to respect the status of others; they're unlikely to get any themselves so playing the status game is unlikely to pay off for them. In short, Status is something respected by those who have, or want to gain Status.

Those same Brujah and Bone Gnawers will, however, respect the authority of others within their sphere. Authority is delegated from the top down, not merely assumed. Authority can be assumed when there is no established structure, but assumed authority is not automatic; it must be defended, possibly through force.

Some Status stats can modify dice rolls. Those effects are by the book, regardless of the above interpretations.

True Faith

Prerequisites:

• True Faith requires answering one question, which is not disclosed in advance. An unacceptable answer permanently disqualifies the player (not just the character) from taking the merit.
• If you have a Path Rating, then True Faith requires Humanity 9+ (or same level of a Path of Enlightenment that preaches a higher power, at staff discretion, e.g. Road of Heaven / Path of Redemption). Even if you don't, you must make degeneration checks as if you had Humanity 9 ('+rules degeneration', '+rules missing stats'); on a failure, you lose the merit and must re-purchase it with XP.
• Demons are ineligible.

True Faith may be bought in chargen or with XP, at 7*N dots where N is the 'True Faith level' (not the same as 'Faith' on +sheet, but related).

For the purpose of these house rules, an 'unnatural creature' is any supernatural or mortal+ character that you consider hostile.

Effects:

• +N dice to all Willpower, virtue, and countermagic rolls.
• Faith increase to 3 (N = 1 or 2), 4 (N = 3 or 4), or 5 (N = 5).
• N = 1 allows warding/damaging unnatural creatures with a holy symbol (VtM 272).
• N = 2 also gives the benefits of the Iron Will merit.
• N = 3 also lets you passively sense unnatural creatures if it's quiet enough. ('+rules sniping' still applies; Perception + Awareness, or just Perception if you don't have Awareness; difficulty at ST discretion)
• N = 4 also gives the benefits of the Unbondable merit, plus immunity to unwanted mind-altering powers (including emotional manipulation).
• N = 5 also allows warding unnatural creatures by voice or touch (VtM 272).
• N > 5 is only available to plot-device NPCs with explicit staff permission and oversight. For examples of miracles, see page 66 of The Hunters Hunted.

Weapons

• Equipment comes from WtA Revised (WW3801).
• Customized weapons can be requested, but are not automatic for approval.
• Combat rules come from the character's sphere respective book.
  • For combat involving PCs from multiple spheres, see Combat.

XP Costs

See XP Chart