mbnlarp.sasktelwebsite.net House Rules

House Rules

Last updated on Wednesday April 19^th, 2006

Allowable Characters

- In the beginning, there are 7 basic clans. That's the Camarilla six plus the Gangrel. And what the hell, we'll allow a few catiff too. Later on in the chronicle we'll allow other stuff here and there. This should cut down on the problem clans and disciplines.
- A written character history will be required to play a character. High quality backgrounds may be rewarded at the ST's discretion.
- The chronicle will start off with an NPC prince and the player of this character will be voted to do the job by you, the player base. It won't be unbeatable, just so we have someone here when the domain starts.
- Ghouls are allowed.

Duration

- This will be a Chronicle of Limited Duration. Dave's looking for about 2 years to do what he wants to, but that's approximate.
- At the expiration of the CLD, we're going to hold a player vote for the selection of characters that would be allowed to continue into the subsequent CLD. The number of players that will continue has not been decided yet, but we'll get to that.

Character Sheet Rule

-We have a copy. It is the real copy. Come and get it from one of us at the start of the game. You may have as many copies as you please, but we have the real copy. This is done to prevent cheating. Period.
- If the scene wasn't done with the real copy, we reserve the right to re-engineer the scene as necessary.

Side Scenes

- Inter-character scenes are fine. If a testing situation arises, the scene should be paused until the ST or a narrator is brought in. This ensures the sanctity of the character sheet rule, as well as reducing the incidents of "It didn't happen like that" and "I shouldn't have died because of my magical butt monkey...". This is good for everyone.
- If all parties involved want to keep going without the presence of a storyteller/narrator, they do so at their own risk. If an unsupervised scene becomes in any way contested by a participant, the ST will take any necessary step to resolve the outcome, including erasure of the scene, and/or wanton use of the God Bomb. Besides, a supervised scene is a happy scene.

Game Etiquette

- We've got the Q Room once a week to talk about out of character stuff. Why pay to play once a month when you don't play? Game is In-Character. Come In-Character. Stay In-Character. At least keep all the OOC stuff to a minimum.
- We actually encourage the spread of misinformation out of character about in-character stuff, when appropriate. Telling someone that your Gangrel neonate is actually a werewolf with Vicissitude-like powers from your wraith-skin belt is fine, out of character. Keep what you learn in-character, in character.
-Everyone will be responsible for identifiable "blood Tokens" as well as "Willpower Tokens". Poker chips with your name on them, mana counters, brightly colored fossilized boogers. It doesn't matter what they are, they don't have to get shown around, and you give them to an ST or Narrator when you use either Blood or Willpower. You can have them back when you feed.
- On a related note, Spot-hunting tests will crop up from time to time. There will be times when we test everyone, and times when we test no one.

Three Strike Rule

- Hardcore rules apply. If there is a problem that is self evident, St reserves the right to issue a strike. Three of them and you're out of the game.
- Appeals may be made to the board, or directly to Dave.
- After the appropriate time, you may request that the strike be lifted. This, again, will be left to the judgment of the ST and the board.
- Strikes may be given out, but are not limited to, the following:
== Proven, willful metagaming.
== Disruptive arguing
== Proven violation of the intent of the 4 R's (respect, role play, rules, relent)
== Instances of game related out of character bullying or intimidation.
== Extreme rudeness.

Abilities and Attributes

- Permanent abilities and traits don't disappear after you use them - if you lose the test, you don't lose the ability or trait.
== Wound penalties are thus more important, as are negative traits, so pay attention.
- At character creation you begin with the standard 7/5/3.
- After build, traits #1 - 6 will cost 1XP to purchase. 7 + 8 will cost 2XP and then +1 for each following ( 9 = 3, 10 = 4, etc.) Abilities will have the following costs: ability 1 is one point, then ability 2 is 2 points, etc... These numbers may be subject to change once we see how the chronicle proceeds. If it proves to be too expensive, we'll refund the difference. We'll see.
- To off-set the increase in price, we'll be giving a guaranteed minimum of experience each month. The actual minimum is yet to be determined. We're undecided about the maximum XP gained per month, but again, we'll see.

Initiative in Combat

- We don't want the game to continually degenerate into mass combat. It's only fun for the goons. To the Goons out there: There will be combat, but not so much so at the game nights. Try to save the bloodshed for side scenes.
- Initiative applies to cross-trait categories (ex: Dominate vs Potence)
= Declarations from the lowest number of traits to the highest with appropriate Celerity insertions.
- 1 on 1 combat is non-initiative, just contested. (if rock wins Dave Dominates, if paper wins RJ Potences.)

Merits and Flaws

- If it's Clan specific, you do not have a good enough reason to have it as non-clan.
-Flaws are called flaws because they leave you FLAWED. Be prepared for vigorous enforcement of the consequences of neg. traits and flaws. For example, Joe the Non-Reflecting Nos looks Exactly like Francisco Domingo Despolonia, the ArchBishop of New York. At least he does when he tries to cross the border.
- We reserve the right to disallow certain Merits or flaws on the basis of the character. These will not necessarily be firm - we can be convinced.
- For Dave's first trick, he needs a volunteer for Dark Fate. It's worth it, but you can't talk about it. Hehehe

Disciplines

- The time it takes to learn a discipline is the same as in the book. (1 month per level of discipline)
- If you tell Dave in December that you want to buy Aegis, come see him in March to buy it.
- Being as you don't lose traits ever, here's a tentative idea for how discipline expenditures will work:
== if it calls for the expenditure of a willpower, you spend a willpower. ::)

== if it call for the expenditure of a single attribute trait, you spend 1 blood.
== if it calls for an expenditure of 1 - 5 attribute traits, you look at how many traits you have in the given category and divide that number in half, rounded down.
Example: Johnny Ventrue wishes to use his Dominate power of Possession. He checks his mental traits and he's got 9, dived in half he comes up with the number 4. In looking on the chart for Possession he notes that he can, while in the possessed body, use all the disciplines listed at 4 traits and lower. (Dementation, Dominate, Presence, etc)
- The above two rules should apply to most disciplines except for Protean lvls 4 and 5. They state that to change form you can spend 1 blood and change over the course of 3 rounds or 3 blood and change instantly. We're going to tweak that a bit. If you want it to take 3 rounds you spend 1 blood, if you want to do it instantly you spend 1 willpower. Again, if some of these become too much of a problem we will more than likely re-think the way they are done.
--Important Note-- Character screwing is allowed - if RJ teaches Rob Ford Presence 5, but makes up the last month of instruction, then Rob will not learn Majesty.

Additional Stuff

- Starting characters will not be allowed to begin with any discipline above level 3.
- Starting characters will not be allowed to purchase more than 5 points in influences with a maximum level of 2 in each influence. (ex. Street-2, Police-2, Underworld-1)
==Any influence purchased upon character creation will not become active until contacted and controlled in game (this will take a very short amount of time). This is due to the fact that everyone, everyone is new to the city.
- Remember that no one will have their character starting in Saskatoon. Therefore please include a reason for being sent here in the last couple sentences of your history.
==Several examples might include: My sire sent me, decided to make a name for your character in a newly controlled Camarilla territory, there's money to be made here, etc. Remember the more creative and original your history is, the better off your character will be.
-Negative Traits: The freebie points for Negs will be as follows - +1xp for 1st neg in any given category. +2xp for the second trait in the same category. +3xp for the third trait in the same category. So you could, if you took say 5 negative physicals, end up with an extra 15 points to spend on your character. On the other hand, if you take say 2 negs in physical, 2 negs in social and 1 neg in mental you would only have 7 points ( 1+2, +1+2, +1 = 7)

That's it for now, expect this to be modified and solidified as time progresses to the game. If we feel that changes need to be made, we'll make them.

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