House Rules

## **Character Creation**

### **Tremere** **Starting Virtue:**

The Tremere no longer receive the Minor Magical Focus (Certamen) virtue, instead they receive the Temporal Influence Virtue.

### **Personality Traits**

As per Realm of Power: The Divine, a Major Personality Flaw corresponds to a +6 in the given personality trait and a Minor Flaw is a +3 in the trait.

## **Combat**

### **Initiative**

Base Initiative is rolled at the start of combat

**Initiative:**
Simple Dice + Quickness - Encumbrance

At the start of every turn, those involved in the combat chooses which action to take and modifies their initiative by the equipment used.

### **Actions during Combat**

During any given turn, a character has a single can only take a single action, the type of action depends upon the whether the character is active or reactive (the active character is the one whose turn it is).

The only time the character may violate this rule is when responding to another character’s non-defense Reactive Action with one of his own, this counts as the second action for the purposes of penalties, the penalty does not carry over to Reactive Actions made during during another’s turn.

#### **Active Actions**

In addition to the standard actions a character can do on his turn, the character can do the following:

##### **Charging**

Charging allows the active character to move and attack in the same turn, by Exerting. A Charging character gains the standard bonuses from Exertion unless they move through difficult terrain. Running extended distances during a charge may incur additional Fatigue at the GM’s discretion.

##### **Delaying**

When a character chooses to delay an action, he can act normally on any later time, whenever the character wishes. However this does not permit the character to interrupt another character’s action. The delayed action expires on the character’s next turn, whereupon he may of course choose to delay again. If more than one character has chosen to delay and subsequently act at the same time, the character with the highest initiative total goes first.

##### **Reactive Actions**

When using any of the Reactive Actions except for Defense the Active and Reactive characters do a contested Ability + Quickness - Encumbrance + Stress Die roll, should the Active character win, he proceeds with his action, if the Reactive character wins, the Active character may use a Reactive Action. Every non-Defense Reactive Action beyond the first incurs a cumulative -6 penalty until the start of the character’s next turn.

A Soak roll is not a Reactive Action.

During another character’s action, a character may choose to do only one of the following actions in response:

##### **Activating a Magical Item**

Unless specifically designed not to, activating a Magical Item is as time consuming as Spontaneously Casting a spell. No Ability is associated with the action, instead the item’s effects must be enchanted with the Fast Trigger effect on page 33 of House of Hermes Societates, which provides a +1 to all Reactive actions in addition to its current effect.

##### **Attack**

The character may attack with a weapon which uses the following Abilities: Brawl and Single Weapon.

##### **Defense**

A character may make a standard Defense roll.

##### **Fast Casting**

As per the rules with the above exceptions.

### **Avoiding Death**

As part of their special status, Companion and Magus characters may take a Minor or Major flaw when receiving an Incapacitating Wound or being killed to stay in the fight:
Taking a Minor Flaw reduces an Incapacitating Wound to a Heavy Wound or Death to an Incapacitating.
Taking a Major Flaw reduces Death to a Heavy Wound.

### **Morale**

The rules regarding Morale as described in Lord of Men are in use.

### **Ranged Attacks**

Abilities for ranged weapons cannot be used for Defense, Brawl, or Single Weapon where appropriate, must be used instead.

## **Dice**

Instead of the normal rules for stress dice, rolling a 1 forces the character to check for a botch. When rolling a 10 instead of rerolling and doubling the result, reroll and add 10. This is cumulative.

## **Laboratory Activities**

### **Laboratory Improvement**

**Refinement**
When spending a season to refine a laboratory, the magus may install a single minor virtue and flaw.

**Installing Virtues**
When taking a season to install virtues the maga may install up to three points of virtues (with minors counting as one, and majors as three as per usual)

## **Familiars**

### **Study Penalties**

Familiars may be taught by their master without any study penalties due to might being applied and any other study penalties due to might are reduced by 3 times the Silver Chord.

## **Spells**

### **Might Strippers**

Perdo Vim spells which reduce a creatures might, instead reduce the creatures might points by an equal amount, should the targeted creature have it’s might points reduced to 0, it starts loosing it’s might score as per normal.

### **Size Changing Spells**

An increase in size gives the target of the spell a bonus to strength and penalty to quickness as per usual. Humans do not get these bonuses until they exceed size +2, they do however get a bonus +1 to strength at size +2.

## **Virtues**

### **Experience Virtues**

Major Hermetic Virtues which grant a bonus to study totals, such as Elementalist, grant 50% of the experience spent during character creation, which comes under its purview, to spend as per the virtue. This bonus does not stack with itself.

***Exempli Gratia***:
Anicetus ex Mecere has the Major Hermetic Virtue Elementalist, and during character creation he spends 30 experience in Ignem, which grants him an additional 15 experience to spend evenly amongst Aquam, Auram and Terram.

### **Blood of the Nephilim**

Replace the section on Aging Rolls with the following:
You need make an aging roll only at the age of 150 and once every ten years thereafter, you do so as if only one year has passed, likewise you receive a -10 to Aging Rolls.

## **Experience**

### **Adventure Experience**

Adventure experience is not mutually exclusive with other forms of experience.

### **Languages**

In addition to the standard rules, a character may earn an additional 5 experience towards any single language that they been exposed to for a majority of that season. This experience cannot make a character exceed rank 4 in the given language.

## **Vis Finding**

The Ease factor for finding a vis source for a given area is dependent on the vis scarcity chosen at the start of the game:

**High Vis is Ease Factor 3**

**Moderate Vis is Ease Factor 6**

**Low Vis is Ease Factor 9**

The Ease Factor is further modified by the number of vis sources already in the covenant's possession.

The skill used is:

**Area Lore + Intelligence + Bonuses**

The following skills may be added as a bonus:

**Dowsing**

**Magic Lore**

**Divination & Augury**

Likewise, the magnitude of an appropriate Intelligo Vim spell may also be added.

Other Realm Lores may also be used, however Magical Vis will not be fund under such circumstances.