As some of you already know, the Chronicle where we will all be playing is a crossover of various World of Darkness books that in most cases weren't meant to be played together, and because of that house-brewed systems were made to bring balance and fair-play among of the races; these rules will have priority over those of the books, and the /help guide in-game, and are expected to be followed by everyone.
Damage Nets: The successes for a damage roll carry over entirely. You don't need to substract one from the attack nets.
Thresholds: The maximum difficulty that may be rolled for any given action is 9; If the difficulty exceeds 10, tresholds from Mage: The Ascension apply for everyone and everything.
Thresholds Mechanics
If the difficulty of a roll is higher than 10, the maximum is set to 9, but for each difficulty point above 10 you will lose 1 success on the roll. For example, casting a very complicated ritual in strenuous situations might call for a difficulty 13 roll. (13-9=4). This means that your roll is made at a difficulty of 9, with a treshold of 4. You will need to get a minimum of 5 successes for the ritual to be considered an abyssimal success. 6 successes will count as though you had 2, and so on.
Advantages:
Lucky Merit can be used 3 times per IC month.
Firearms License Merit's cost is 2 no matter what game line your character belongs to. You may opt to get certification background instead as it serves a similar purpose.
Self-Confident may only be used three times per IC hour.
Turn-based powers: Powers that have Turns as the specified duration are treated as 1 turn = 10 IC minutes when outside of combat. When entering combat, substract 1 effective turn for every 10 minutes spent before initiative is rolled.
Desperate Defense: You can perform Blocks, Parries and Dodges in your desperate defense mode.
Soaking: Humans, Hunters, Mages and Werewolves in their homid/lupus, can soak lethal by rolling Stamina at a difficulty of 8 by default. Creatures with supernatural bodies such as Demons and Vampires can soak lethal even in their breed/human forms, at the normal difficulty.
Grapples: If the attacker grapples a victim successfully, they engage in a contest of raw Strength.
The attacker adds his Maneuver Successes to a Strength (difficulty 6) roll against the defender, who also rolls Strength (difficulty 6).
If the defender declared a deliberate action to break free, he may roll it: Strength + Brawl, normal difficulty. The successes are added against the grappler's Strength (difficulty 6 for both) roll.
Clinches: allow a target to be damaged in the second turn after being grappled. You are not able to immediately roll damage upon a successful clinch. Net successes do not carry over to the damage roll on clinches nor on Joint Lock.
Breaking Free: is not considered a defensive maneuver. It does not bypass the Initiative order, BUT you can roll Willpower 6 or cancel a pre-existent action in favor of breaking free. You can also use extra actions to do so, but again - they happen on the regular order.
Letting go does not take an action, but follows the initiative order and must be declared accordingly.
Changing Targets: If the criteria fits, you can roll Willpower (difficulty 6) to change your target. The subsequent attack is done at a +1 difficulty penalty should your initiative be lower.
Stuns: Humans, Changelings, Mages, Hunters, Ghouls, Numina Users and so on are stunned when the damage they receive in a single hit equals or exceeds their Stamina rating.
Werewolves, Vampires, Fera, Demons (both forms) and other beings with innately supernatural bodies are stunned when the damage received in a single hit equals or exceeds their Stamina + 2 rating.
Shields: Shields do not grant automatic damage reduction in combat. The Rating adds to the target's soak for ranged attacks, for close quarters combat, the opponents gain an increase in attack difficulty whether or not you defend, so long as they face you.
Multiple Opponents: A character who battles multiple opponents in close combat suffers attack and defense difficulties of +1, cumulative, for each opponent after the first (to a maximum of +4). This penalty applies if you declare actions against more than 1 character, or if more than 1 character declares actions against you. If you spin around the battlefield and attack 5 enemies in 1 turn, even if you use Celerity - you must add the penalty. In large but even group fights, provided there is mutual agreement - the penalties may be skipped. Counting moves in a clusterfuck is not a good idea.
Tasers: Electrical taser weapons inflict 5 bashing damage by default. This damage is static. It isn't rolled and nets do not increase the damage. The users soak normally. For each unsoaked level of damage they reduce their dicepool in subsequent turns by -2. If the soak roll fails, they are stunned for a turn, and receive the -2 dice penalty for 5 turns. If the Stamina roll botches, they are stunned for 5 turns or 5 minutes if combat is over.
Touch Based Powers: Supernatural powers that require touch as a basis of activation (Lore of the Flesh, Thaumaturgy, etc) require only one action, but you make two rolls. One to touch (but never damage) the opponent, via Dexterity + Brawl/Martial Arts, and the power roll itself. Enemies can dodge normally.
Dodging Bullets: You can dodge bullets with a normal Dexterity + Dodge/Athletics roll at difficulty 9. This difficulty is static and can never be lowered by any means.
Ambush Mechanics: There are several powers that benefit a would be ambusher in certain situations. Though things like Obfuscate are meant to give a clear advantage against a defender, often in the form of an automatic ambush - that should not be the case. The same goes for sniper ambushes. Ranged ambushes are rolled with a Wits + Stealth dicepool instead of Dexterity.
Ranged Ambushes and Snipers: Snipers preparing an ambush will require a NPC placeholder in the position they are sniping from. When setting up your NPC, /cnpc 0 Sniper_[your unique ID]. Players will be able to interact with you until you move on from the area. Ambushes that do not have an NPC spawned in will be deemed illegitimate.
Powers: Things such as Invisibility, Obfuscate and other powers will contribute by reducing the Stealth difficulty of the player (to a minimum of 3), or by adding extra dice.
Obfuscated players add their Discipline rating as extra dice when ambushing.
True Invisibility powers benefit the user in a reduction of the ambush difficulty by 3.
Powers like Blur of the Milky Way increase the Perception difficulty instead, and as such do not provide other bonuses.
Camouflage and Stealth: Players using camouflaged suits in a forest environment, or black clothes at night - may benefit additionally from a reduction of stealth difficulty. Though this is normally added in the details of the item, if it isn't - assume that proper camouflage can grant the ambusher anywhere from 1 to 2 extra dice on the roll.
Ranged Ambushes: Any attack initiated from beyond 20 yards follows these mechanics.
The roll for sniper ambushes is Wits + Stealth, rather than Dexterity + Stealth. It encompasses your ability to pick an inconspicuous spot, as opposed to maneuvering around your target's field of view in your approach or launching quick attacks.
This is the complicated part. Ranged ambushes do not benefit from dexterity and sneakiness as much, but rather concealment in advance. There are three modifiers to pay attention to. Weather/camouflage/cover, distance and line of sight.
Every 100 yards of distance between the ambusher and the target results in a +1 difficulty of detection for the defender.
During the night, fog, or other severe conditions where visibility is lower - the defender suffers from a +1 or +2 difficulty of detection. Keep in mind that these conditions may impair the attacker as well.
If the target is not facing the hiding location of the sniper at the moment of attack, increase the difficulty by an additional +2. After all, how would you know you're about to be shot from behind unless you had danger sense?
Camouflage works the same as normal ambushes, by providing from 1 to 2 extra dice on the Stealth roll.
Taking Cover provides a benefit to the user in the form of a difficulty reduction on the Stealth roll. Half covers results in -1, where as taking a prone position gives the user -2.
Sniper Advantages and Drawbacks: If the Sniper scored 4 successes on the W/S roll, and the defender scored 2 on the P/A roll, then the sniper enjoys 2 extra turns, just enough for him to use his Sniper scope to aim in and get a -2 difficulty on the main shot.
Having been sniped, especially with a silencer - the defender may not automatically know where he was shot from. In cases where the initial ambush failed, the defender may roll a reflexive Perception Alertness roll, at difficulty -3 of the previous one given their alertness state. This is contested by the Wits + Stealth roll. If the defender fails to score more successes, then he does not know where he was shot from. The second roll may reach the difficulty of 2 to spot the ambusher. Loud guns are easier to trace, so reduce the difficulty by -4 overall.
You can still run away and hope you escape their line of sight, but if you wish to take actions against the ambusher - a successful roll to detect them is required.
Danger Sense: The Danger Sense merit or effect requires a succesful Perception + Alertness roll.
This roll is reflexive and can only be performed once. Willpower may not be spent on it, In case of ranged ambushes, this is done before the player is being aimed at.
If the attacker is unaware the defender possesses the merit, their attack will be rolled back by a number of turns which allow the defender to prepare accordingly.
Enhanced Senses do not lower the difficulty of this. Auspex offers a premonition system and at the storyteller's discretion may stack to offer extra dice. In such cases, add Auspex to your dicepool.
The difficulty of the roll depends on the nature and closeness of the threat.
Difficulty 5 - The attacker is within 5 yards and lunging at your character with a drawn weapon.
Difficulty 6 - The attacker is within close proximity but has not yet shown any signs of aggressiveness.
Difficulty 7 - The attacker is employing ranged attacks against your character. (I.E. thrown knives, guns)
Difficulty 8 - The attacker is far away (100 yards or more) and employing a sniper.
Difficulty 9 - The attacker is using magic, explosives or other subtle means of attack that may not be easily discovered.
Note that the Storyteller may increase or lower the difficulty as they see fit.
Danger Sense Successes and Outcomes: The effect of your Danger Sense is determined by the number of successes rolled.
Failure - The defender remains unaware of an impeding attack. Roll Ambush normally.
1 successes - The defender is immediately alert, and may defend themselves. You don't need to beat the enemy's successes to be able to react. You also gain a general direction of where the impeding danger might originate. (South/North/East/West/Above/Below)
2 successes - The defender is immediately alert and may act fully. This calls for an Initiative roll. You gain an accurate assesment of the threat's direction and distance.
3 successes - The defender is made aware of the impeding threat and gains a free turn to act before it comes to pass.
4 successes - The defender can now distinguish the general nature of the threat.
5 successes - The defender gains two turns in which they can prepare to deal with the threat or find ways to avoid it alltogether.
6 successes+ The defender reaches a higher state of alertness for the scene. They can no longer be ambushed and no threats will elude them. Each attempt counts as though they scored 5 successes. Additionally, each 2 successes after the fifth will add 1 turn in which they may prepare a response.
Resources Background Adjustments
The Resources background will be really useful in our chronicle, and it is recommended to be taken (unless you plan to roleplay a homeless man.) Here's a list of how it works:
Resources • - Starting Money: $1,000 / Income Per Paycheck: $200
Resources •• - Starting Money: $3.000 / Income Per Paycheck: $400
Resources ••• - Starting Money: $4.000 / Income Per Paycheck: $600
Resources •••• - Starting Money: $4.000 / Income Per Paycheck: $800
Resources ••••• - Starting Money: $4.000 / Income Per Paycheck: $1000.
Money transfers: Transferring money from character to character isn't allowed in our chronicle, as Resources give a huge starting advantage already itself.
Damage Nets: The successes for a damage roll carry over entirely. You don't need to substract one from the attack nets.
Thresholds: The maximum difficulty that may be rolled for any given action is 9; If the difficulty exceeds 10, tresholds from Mage: The Ascension apply for everyone and everything.
Thresholds Mechanics
If the difficulty of a roll is higher than 10, the maximum is set to 9, but for each difficulty point above 10 you will lose 1 success on the roll. For example, casting a very complicated ritual in strenuous situations might call for a difficulty 13 roll. (13-9=4). This means that your roll is made at a difficulty of 9, with a treshold of 4. You will need to get a minimum of 5 successes for the ritual to be considered an abyssimal success. 6 successes will count as though you had 2, and so on.
Advantages:
Lucky Merit can be used 3 times per IC month.
Firearms License Merit's cost is 2 no matter what game line your character belongs to. You may opt to get certification background instead as it serves a similar purpose.
Self-Confident may only be used three times per IC hour.
Turn-based powers: Powers that have Turns as the specified duration are treated as 1 turn = 10 IC minutes when outside of combat. When entering combat, substract 1 effective turn for every 10 minutes spent before initiative is rolled.
Desperate Defense: You can perform Blocks, Parries and Dodges in your desperate defense mode.
Soaking: Humans, Hunters, Mages and Werewolves in their homid/lupus, can soak lethal by rolling Stamina at a difficulty of 8 by default. Creatures with supernatural bodies such as Demons and Vampires can soak lethal even in their breed/human forms, at the normal difficulty.
Grapples: If the attacker grapples a victim successfully, they engage in a contest of raw Strength.
The attacker adds his Maneuver Successes to a Strength (difficulty 6) roll against the defender, who also rolls Strength (difficulty 6).
If the defender declared a deliberate action to break free, he may roll it: Strength + Brawl, normal difficulty. The successes are added against the grappler's Strength (difficulty 6 for both) roll.
Clinches: allow a target to be damaged in the second turn after being grappled. You are not able to immediately roll damage upon a successful clinch. Net successes do not carry over to the damage roll on clinches nor on Joint Lock.
Breaking Free: is not considered a defensive maneuver. It does not bypass the Initiative order, BUT you can roll Willpower 6 or cancel a pre-existent action in favor of breaking free. You can also use extra actions to do so, but again - they happen on the regular order.
Letting go does not take an action, but follows the initiative order and must be declared accordingly.
Changing Targets: If the criteria fits, you can roll Willpower (difficulty 6) to change your target. The subsequent attack is done at a +1 difficulty penalty should your initiative be lower.
Stuns: Humans, Changelings, Mages, Hunters, Ghouls, Numina Users and so on are stunned when the damage they receive in a single hit equals or exceeds their Stamina rating.
Werewolves, Vampires, Fera, Demons (both forms) and other beings with innately supernatural bodies are stunned when the damage received in a single hit equals or exceeds their Stamina + 2 rating.
Shields: Shields do not grant automatic damage reduction in combat. The Rating adds to the target's soak for ranged attacks, for close quarters combat, the opponents gain an increase in attack difficulty whether or not you defend, so long as they face you.
Multiple Opponents: A character who battles multiple opponents in close combat suffers attack and defense difficulties of +1, cumulative, for each opponent after the first (to a maximum of +4). This penalty applies if you declare actions against more than 1 character, or if more than 1 character declares actions against you. If you spin around the battlefield and attack 5 enemies in 1 turn, even if you use Celerity - you must add the penalty. In large but even group fights, provided there is mutual agreement - the penalties may be skipped. Counting moves in a clusterfuck is not a good idea.
Tasers: Electrical taser weapons inflict 5 bashing damage by default. This damage is static. It isn't rolled and nets do not increase the damage. The users soak normally. For each unsoaked level of damage they reduce their dicepool in subsequent turns by -2. If the soak roll fails, they are stunned for a turn, and receive the -2 dice penalty for 5 turns. If the Stamina roll botches, they are stunned for 5 turns or 5 minutes if combat is over.
Touch Based Powers: Supernatural powers that require touch as a basis of activation (Lore of the Flesh, Thaumaturgy, etc) require only one action, but you make two rolls. One to touch (but never damage) the opponent, via Dexterity + Brawl/Martial Arts, and the power roll itself. Enemies can dodge normally.
Dodging Bullets: You can dodge bullets with a normal Dexterity + Dodge/Athletics roll at difficulty 9. This difficulty is static and can never be lowered by any means.
Ambush Mechanics: There are several powers that benefit a would be ambusher in certain situations. Though things like Obfuscate are meant to give a clear advantage against a defender, often in the form of an automatic ambush - that should not be the case. The same goes for sniper ambushes. Ranged ambushes are rolled with a Wits + Stealth dicepool instead of Dexterity.
Ranged Ambushes and Snipers: Snipers preparing an ambush will require a NPC placeholder in the position they are sniping from. When setting up your NPC, /cnpc 0 Sniper_[your unique ID]. Players will be able to interact with you until you move on from the area. Ambushes that do not have an NPC spawned in will be deemed illegitimate.
Powers: Things such as Invisibility, Obfuscate and other powers will contribute by reducing the Stealth difficulty of the player (to a minimum of 3), or by adding extra dice.
Obfuscated players add their Discipline rating as extra dice when ambushing.
True Invisibility powers benefit the user in a reduction of the ambush difficulty by 3.
Powers like Blur of the Milky Way increase the Perception difficulty instead, and as such do not provide other bonuses.
Camouflage and Stealth: Players using camouflaged suits in a forest environment, or black clothes at night - may benefit additionally from a reduction of stealth difficulty. Though this is normally added in the details of the item, if it isn't - assume that proper camouflage can grant the ambusher anywhere from 1 to 2 extra dice on the roll.
Ranged Ambushes: Any attack initiated from beyond 20 yards follows these mechanics.
The roll for sniper ambushes is Wits + Stealth, rather than Dexterity + Stealth. It encompasses your ability to pick an inconspicuous spot, as opposed to maneuvering around your target's field of view in your approach or launching quick attacks.
This is the complicated part. Ranged ambushes do not benefit from dexterity and sneakiness as much, but rather concealment in advance. There are three modifiers to pay attention to. Weather/camouflage/cover, distance and line of sight.
Every 100 yards of distance between the ambusher and the target results in a +1 difficulty of detection for the defender.
During the night, fog, or other severe conditions where visibility is lower - the defender suffers from a +1 or +2 difficulty of detection. Keep in mind that these conditions may impair the attacker as well.
If the target is not facing the hiding location of the sniper at the moment of attack, increase the difficulty by an additional +2. After all, how would you know you're about to be shot from behind unless you had danger sense?
Camouflage works the same as normal ambushes, by providing from 1 to 2 extra dice on the Stealth roll.
Taking Cover provides a benefit to the user in the form of a difficulty reduction on the Stealth roll. Half covers results in -1, where as taking a prone position gives the user -2.
Sniper Advantages and Drawbacks: If the Sniper scored 4 successes on the W/S roll, and the defender scored 2 on the P/A roll, then the sniper enjoys 2 extra turns, just enough for him to use his Sniper scope to aim in and get a -2 difficulty on the main shot.
Having been sniped, especially with a silencer - the defender may not automatically know where he was shot from. In cases where the initial ambush failed, the defender may roll a reflexive Perception Alertness roll, at difficulty -3 of the previous one given their alertness state. This is contested by the Wits + Stealth roll. If the defender fails to score more successes, then he does not know where he was shot from. The second roll may reach the difficulty of 2 to spot the ambusher. Loud guns are easier to trace, so reduce the difficulty by -4 overall.
You can still run away and hope you escape their line of sight, but if you wish to take actions against the ambusher - a successful roll to detect them is required.
Danger Sense: The Danger Sense merit or effect requires a succesful Perception + Alertness roll.
This roll is reflexive and can only be performed once. Willpower may not be spent on it, In case of ranged ambushes, this is done before the player is being aimed at.
If the attacker is unaware the defender possesses the merit, their attack will be rolled back by a number of turns which allow the defender to prepare accordingly.
Enhanced Senses do not lower the difficulty of this. Auspex offers a premonition system and at the storyteller's discretion may stack to offer extra dice. In such cases, add Auspex to your dicepool.
The difficulty of the roll depends on the nature and closeness of the threat.
Difficulty 5 - The attacker is within 5 yards and lunging at your character with a drawn weapon.
Difficulty 6 - The attacker is within close proximity but has not yet shown any signs of aggressiveness.
Difficulty 7 - The attacker is employing ranged attacks against your character. (I.E. thrown knives, guns)
Difficulty 8 - The attacker is far away (100 yards or more) and employing a sniper.
Difficulty 9 - The attacker is using magic, explosives or other subtle means of attack that may not be easily discovered.
Note that the Storyteller may increase or lower the difficulty as they see fit.
Danger Sense Successes and Outcomes: The effect of your Danger Sense is determined by the number of successes rolled.
Failure - The defender remains unaware of an impeding attack. Roll Ambush normally.
1 successes - The defender is immediately alert, and may defend themselves. You don't need to beat the enemy's successes to be able to react. You also gain a general direction of where the impeding danger might originate. (South/North/East/West/Above/Below)
2 successes - The defender is immediately alert and may act fully. This calls for an Initiative roll. You gain an accurate assesment of the threat's direction and distance.
3 successes - The defender is made aware of the impeding threat and gains a free turn to act before it comes to pass.
4 successes - The defender can now distinguish the general nature of the threat.
5 successes - The defender gains two turns in which they can prepare to deal with the threat or find ways to avoid it alltogether.
6 successes+ The defender reaches a higher state of alertness for the scene. They can no longer be ambushed and no threats will elude them. Each attempt counts as though they scored 5 successes. Additionally, each 2 successes after the fifth will add 1 turn in which they may prepare a response.
Resources Background Adjustments
The Resources background will be really useful in our chronicle, and it is recommended to be taken (unless you plan to roleplay a homeless man.) Here's a list of how it works:
Resources • - Starting Money: $1,000 / Income Per Paycheck: $200
Resources •• - Starting Money: $3.000 / Income Per Paycheck: $400
Resources ••• - Starting Money: $4.000 / Income Per Paycheck: $600
Resources •••• - Starting Money: $4.000 / Income Per Paycheck: $800
Resources ••••• - Starting Money: $4.000 / Income Per Paycheck: $1000.
Money transfers: Transferring money from character to character isn't allowed in our chronicle, as Resources give a huge starting advantage already itself.