House Rules/Possessed

House Rules Possessed "I live in sin, to kill myself I live; no longer my life my own, but sin's; my good is given to me by heaven, my evil by myself, by my free will, of which I am deprived." -Michelangelo (the artist, not the turtle)

We use Possessed (WW3810) as a primary resource and Freak Legion (WW3066) as a secondary resource. Autonomy We don't allow PCs to reduce permanent Autonomy below 4. Temporary Autonomy can drop to 0. If it would drop /below/ 0, then 1 permanent Autonomy is converted to 10 temporary Autonomy to make up the difference. If permanent Autonomy drops below Willpower, then Willpower is dropped to match. Kami do not have Autonomy. For the purpose of die rolls involving Autonomy (e.g. Spirit Kinship, Fading, Urges), we treat Kami as if they have Autonomy of 6 permanent / 0 temporary. They cannot raise Autonomy with XP, nor lower it to gain powers or remove taints. Anything else that affects Autonomy also affects these effective values, e.g. a Kami with Consecrated 2 would have effective Autonomy of 5 permanent / 5 temporary. Kami There are a handful of things that Kami can take that have either a dice pool or difficulty based on Autonomy, which they do not have. For these, pretend that the Kami has Autonomy 6: Kami using the 'Spirit Kinship' Power roll it at difficulty 7. Kami with the 'Fading' Taint roll 6 dice at difficulty 6 to check if it triggers. Kami with the 'Urges' Taint roll it at difficulty 6. If the Kami has the Consecrated background, then their pretend-Autonomy is reduced as usual, resulting in a lower difficulty for Spirit Kinship, fewer dice for Fading, and higher difficulty for Urges. Extra Powers and Taints Some of the Powers and Taints from Freak Legion have been deemed 'not necessarily Wyrmy' and thus approved for use by other types of Possessed. Full adjusted Power list here. Disintegration, Limited Mobility and Special Diet are now available to Gorgons and Kami. Inner Volcano is now available to Kami with suitable spirits. Others on a case-by-case basis; no promises. Banned Powers Some powers are not allowed on City of Hope: Brain Eating has been deemed inappropriate for a MUSH setting, as it grants free XP for using it. Balefire Flux has likewise been deemed inappropriate. No, you don't get to camp out by the local Balefire and get infinite free Powers. NerfedAdjusted Powers A few 'balance adjustments': The damage caused by Savage Genitalia IS soakable, provided the victim can normally soak Lethal damage. Armor does NOT apply to soak rolls versus Savage Genitalia. The damage from the 'Poison' Power is dice, not automatic levels. Likewise for 'Electrical Field'. Between 'Unnatural Strength', 'Exoskeleton' and 'Enhanced Attribute', no more than a total of 8 extra attribute dots per category (physical/social/mental) may be taken per character, and no more than 12 total across all categories. In addition, each individual attribute cannot exceed 8 (base + extra). Dispersion: Maximum difference of 1 health level between any two components, e.g. 3+2+2 but not 6+1. Body mass is roughly in proportion with health levels. Homogeneity: If an effect's duration would otherwise last beyond the end of the scene, it's only temporarily negated. The 'Hidden Power' Merit does not let you ignore the part about certain Powers and Taints setting your appearance to zero. You might not be obviously supernaturally hideous, but you're still hideous. Ghouled Possessed If any kind of Possessed character with the Berserker power (and thus a Rage pool) is also a Ghoul, they are subject to Frenzy rolls based both on Self-Control and Rage. If a given situation would apply to both, they have to roll both; if even one of the rolls indicates that they would Frenzy, they do. These things are NOT mentally stable. Possessed and the Blood Bond The human half of a Possessed character (if they HAVE a human half) might be subject to the Blood Bond, but their spirit half is completely immune - and a much stronger influence on the Possessed, unless they have very high Autonomy. Thus, it's not likely to be a particularily effective control method at all... Post-Chargen Possession It is possible to become Possessed post-chargen, for those that didn't start out that way; this is dependent on 1) staff discretion, and 2) whether or not you were playing something that's flat-out immune to possession. Just remember, just because something CAN happen doesn't mean that it WILL; the 'staff discretion' bit is important here. You are NOT entitled to post-chargen Possession just because you want it and you have the XP for it. (Unless you're a plain unpowered Mortal, in which case we're pretty likely to say yes. Full-on Supers are VERY unlikely to be accepted.) The following cannot ever be Possessed under any circumstances, don't even ask: Race:Wraith Race:Wraith/Risen Race:Demon Race:Vampire/Kuei-jin Other Possessed Race:Bygone Any race other than Mortal or Mortal+, while retaining that status. Anything below to the contrary is retained as a guideline for NPCs, and also in the unlikely case that staff actually allows them for PCs at all. (To the best of our knowledge, it's never actually happened in the past.) Fringe cases: Race:Changeling While a Changeling's mortal host could in theory become Possessed and turned into a Drone or Fomor, this would completely and permanently destroy their faerie soul, in essence leaving them no different than a possessed mortal. They would lose their Glamour pool, Arts, Realms, Kenning, Gremayre, Lore Changeling, and most Changeling-only Backgrounds. Losing all memories of their time as a Changeling would also get them a free Amnesia flaw. Race:Mortal+/Kinain You can become a drone or fomor, but you won't be kinain any more. Gorgons created from human(oid)s are nonexistent or nearly so. Kinain becoming kami are possible, but highly unlikely, as the criteria for becoming kami are not particularly parallel to the typical attributes of kinain. Race:Mortal+/Ghoul While a ghoul can become a Fomor just fine (see below), any ghoul that gets turned into a Drone will quickly cease to be a ghoul, as the Clarification process neutralizes the Vitae as well as the Blood Bond. No ghoul would EVER be chosen by Gaia to become a Kami. (Kami can be ghouled, but it's a terrible idea.) The following can become Kami post-chargen: Race:Mortal Race:Mortal+/Kinfolk Kinfolk that become Kami MUST purchase either the Kinfolk merit or the Skinchanger Kinship power, player's choice. Any Pure Breed they may have already had stacks with the points granted by Skinchanger Kinship, but still cannot exceed 5. The following can become Drones post-chargen: Race:Mortal Race:Mortal+/Kinfolk Mechanical benefits of Kinfolk-ness lost: Drones cannot have kids and are already not subject to the Delirium. Race:Mortal+/Sorcerer-Psychic Clarification leads to very Static Resonance. The 'Mana' Background and any merits that require Mana are lost. Race:Mage Again, very Static Resonance. Clarified Mages can never again raise their Spheres or Arete, no exceptions. They also lose the ability to attempt Vulgar rotes, but gain +3 dice on all countermagick rolls. Clarified mages are no longer subject to Paradox. Race:Vampire Lose the ability to spend blood points on anything other than getting out of bed in the evening: no blood pumping, no spending it to heal (they get standard Drone regeneration anyway), no activating Disciplines that cost blood to use. Clarified vampires never Frenzy, though they are still vulnerable to sunlight. Stakes can paralyze them briefly, but they tend to pop out as the hole regenerates itself away. Clarified vampires automatically receive the Infertile Vitae flaw: their blood no longer has the power to embrace, ghoul or blood-bond anyone. Race:Shifter Clarified shifters are permanently locked into one of their forms, not necessarily their breed form (Glabro is most common). Glabro-locked shifters get no penalties to social pools, as if they all had the Fair Glabro merit. No longer need to roll Stamina to regenerate in combat, as per standard Drone regeneration. Clarified shifters never Frenzy. Clarification usually removes metis deformities, but obviously not sterility. The following can become Gorgons post-chargen: Absolutely nobody. If you can't figure out why, you don't know enough about Gorgons to play one anyway. The following can become Fomori post-chargen: Race:Mortal Race:Mortal+/Kinfolk Requires the purchase of the Kinfolk merit (or flaw, if previously Faction:Gaian) or the Skinchanger Kinship power. Faction will be set to Wyrm, even for Gaian Kinfolk. Race:Mortal+/Kinain As noted in the fringe cases section above, this will mean the removal of all faerie Arts and Realms (and your Glamour pool), and requires the purchase of the Kinain merit. Race:Mortal+/Sorcerer-Psychic Likely to affect your Resonance. One of the more common combinations, due to Pentex' Project Aeneid. While it doesn't cost anything, it will mean losing access to the 'Mana' background and any merits that require Mana to use. Race:Mortal+/Ghoul Requires purchase of the Ghoul merit. Makes purchasing Disciplines more expensive, as per '+rules buying disciplines'. Also see note about increased frenzy risk. Race:Vampire (NOT Kuei-jin) Blah blah blah Race:Mage Blah blah blah Race:Shifter Blah blah blah (also: probably not going to happen) Autonomy Cap You cannot drop your Permanent Autonomy any lower than 4. If you're at 4, you will have to raise it before buying any more Powers with it. Rorqual Rorqual are Kami with Cetacean host bodies (dolphins, porpoises, orca, other whales) that serve as Gnosis batteries for Rokea and as roaming Freeholds for the Mer and Murdhuacha. The books are a bit sparse on actual mechanics, though. Thus: If you are Kami, and your host body is some form of Cetacean, you are Rorqual. The 'Spirit Ties' power (which is mandatory for Rorqual) also grants Rorqual one point of Glamour, with the ability to buy more with freebies/XP. Rokea can draw Gnosis from Rorqual with a Charisma + Primal Urge roll. For dolphin and porpoise Rorqual, this roll is at difficulty 5. Mer and Murdhuacha can draw Glamour from them in a similar fashion, but using Kenning instead of Primal Urge. For dolphin and porpoise Rorqual, temporary Gnosis and temporary Glamour combined cannot exceed 10. Larger cetaceans are currently not considered. In addition to all the Backgrounds normally available to Kami, Rorqual can also take Remora.