House Rules

House Rules, how fun.

Remember, each splats might have some parts changed (Like Mages and how casting works) so read the articles on your own splat. These house rules are about things that are universal or apply to nearly everyone.

Specific House rules for your splat can be found at the navbar at the top, or through here.

Werewolf House Rules

Vampire House Rules

## Writing

All (official) writing must be done in third-person, narrative style. This means no asterisks (not that you can use them in discord properly), first person, or horribly mistyped sentences. We're not going to get on you for small grammar and spelling mistakes, but please put in the effort.

There's no posting minimum, but please remember that characters have agency.

## Social vs Story Scenes

There are two types of scenes for Trial by Fire.

Story Scenes are ones run and handled by storytellers. The main crux is what they do, and how they handle scenes.

Social scenes are ones driven by players. While a storyteller might participate to adjudicate rolls or handle a minor event, the major thing is the two people interacting, over the characters.

Ultimately, the decision between what is a story and social scenes is handled by the storyteller.

## Rolling

All rolling requires you to declare your action in your post **first.** Then, a storyteller will tell you what to roll (Though, you can suggest the dice pools yourself).

All rolls must be made in the specific channel, and any error in the pool requires the entire roll to be rerolled. That means rolling 6 dice instead of 7, or having an incorrect difficulty rating.

Willpower expenditure, and special voodoo things need to be declared on the roll itself or before (not AFTER). If nothing is declared before or on the roll, the WP/vodoo point is considered not spent. Please write down the the new temp and total of your resources (AKA, 4/7 WP).

## Healing

Please follow your splat books statement on your rate of healing. Nothing on this has changed, but recall the game is done day to day.

## Willpower

Willpower is restored in two ways.

The first is acting in accordance to your nature. Make sure to tag a storyteller when you feel like your character has acted on their nature.

The second is roleplaying in a social scene. Usually, just participating in one will restore a single dot of willpower, but longer moments of relaxation or socializing can restore more.

**Starting Willpower may not exceed 7.**

## Experience

Experience is earned and documented on the games excel sheet. You can only spend this experience on in game Sundays, with approval. Any ability or attribute being used has to be justified on why its being increased.

Mentors, Libraries and that fun stuff lower XP costs on your special abilities. Having a mentor that can reasonably train your character on their special attribute is either the requirement (learning gifts as a werewolf), or aid in your development.

Generally, if a mentor is not a mandatory requirement, you receive -1xp on the cost of the Art/Sphere per level they help in. A 2 dot mentor can only help with the first two levels of whatever they're qualified for -- a five dot mentor can help through each level.

For mages, a library of equivalent rank to the sphere you wish to learn counts as a mentor as well.

Just remember though, Mentors do offer a lot more than a reduced XP cost, and you can fall out of favour with your mentor. It is a relationship.

## Death, Dying, Rerolling

When your character dies or you choose to reroll, you are given 50% of the XP of your previous character as carry-over.

While dying is no question asked, you generally should have a reason to reroll.

## Player vs Player

Player vs Player is moderated. You shouldn't actively be hostile, but remember, this is the World of Darkness.

Basically, don't be a dick.

## Merits and Flaws

We have a list of approved merits and flaws. Note, this list is not comprehensive, and might be out of date. There are over 600 merits and its hard to keep track of. Some of the merits are miscategorized, and should be allowed to be used by all splats -- ask if a merit says it belongs to another splat, but you're sure it can apply to the general case.

**Note:** All Demon: The Fallen merits are not approved for any splat besides Demon Characters. They come from revised and those merits tend to be hilariously useless or broken.

Final reminder here too: Even if a merit says its banned, if your character's story makes a compelling reason for it, we would consider it. A lot of the things banned/ask first are just there for balance reasons, but a well made character trumps that.

Merits and Flaws List

**Note:** Immortality (and things like Faerie Age, Rip Van Winkle) are always banned. Luck Merits usually remain banned. **Nephilim** will always be banned (it's far too powerful).

## Detection Rules

Abilities like Aura Sense, Glamour Check, Wyrmscent, and/or Mage Aura Sense do not identify members of other splats. This is for the sake of making sure the *average* character isn't honor-bound to kill another one. Likewise, it keeps the (IC) mystery of what people are doing in their secret life alive, rather than having someone look at them and solve it. Note: This only really applies to other PC's. Aura Sense and the like will work as intended versus NPC's. Against PC's, you'll have a minor 'hint'

Within your own splat, you're able to use these powers normally. You'll be able to tell what clan, tradition and things like that are.

## **Cross-Faction Concepts**

Cross-Faction concepts are generally disallowed unless they’re minor in detail. A wolfkin shaman is perfectly valid, but a mage with a Vampire lover (From the get-go, at least) is not. To define this: You can have a minor note that you were part of another group tangentially (a wolfkin shaman), but you can't actually be *part* of another faction or know how it works. The closer you get to "I can hang out with X faction and My faction" The closer it becomes "No." The inverse is also not allowed, and being hated by X Faction is not allowed either. Basically, just stay away from cross concept unless you really need to include it.

## Follower Creation

**Note: These rules are only for Thralls/Retinues/Allies. If you’re making a blood doll/retainer/dreamer or whatever, it doesn’t need one. The general rule is, if the person in question will ever be involved in combat, social situations, or things that might require a roll -- make a sheet. If they rather run or are not relevant at all, you don’t need too.**

For creating a mortal character/follower that's relevant to you, please follow your own splats kinfolk/kinain/acolyte character creation process. Use the sheet of the splat your main character is in. We will be using this for followers, allies (NPC versions), and anything else -- each splat will mention its key changes for anything it requires specifically. Obviously, your character shouldn't have any disciplines or blood pools. Remember, most relationships are bilateral, so if this is your ally, you are obviously their ally. I understand retainer isn't strictly like that, but a mentor/patron is the proper term for that. Please spend freebie points to reflect this relationship. These characters do not receive 8 bonus background freebie points.

Note: You have two ways to use an ally dot. Each Ally dot can be used to make another ally, or gain 10 additional freebie points. (A 3 dot ally could either be 3 allies, or 1 ally with 20 freebie points, or 2 allies with one of which has 10 freebie points).

When you're creating an NPC, answer 4 key questions.

1. How did you two meet?
2. What is their relationship to you, and your relationship to them?
3. What are they like?
4. What is their role in the city?

This should easily be enough for a paragraph or two, about 300 words. More is always good