Qualities House Rules

# Qualities

## Gaining and Buying off Qualities

Players are allowed to purchase and buy off qualities outside of character generation, except as noted below. Most qualities do not need approval, you simply need to purchase it with karma as it is already recorded on your chummer sheet.

### Purchasing

* Players may not purchase new positive metagenetic qualities.
* Post-chargen purchase of qualities that cause awakening (becoming magic) or emerging (becoming a technomancer) should be approved by democratic vote in the #community-votes channel. It's not like we hate it or anything, it's just a big deal, so don't be afraid to put up a vote and have a conversation about it.
* As with any other quality, a character purchasing the appropriate Awakened or Emerged qualities must spend double the requisite karma cost that is outlined at character generation.

### Buying off

* Players may buy off negative metagenetic qualities but purchasing a Cellular Repair treatment is required in addition to the karma cost.
* Positive qualities can be bought off for the base karma cost. {v}

## Notes

### Training Time

Due to removing training time, several qualities must change. See Altered Qualities below.

### Kill Code

Except where noted, all Positive and Negative Qualities listed from in Kill Code from page 96 to 100 and page 76 to 79 shall be permitted for any matrix PC, not just technomancers.

#### Rigger 5.0

All Qualities listed from on pages 33 and 34 of Rigger 5.0 shall be permitted for AI use, except for Motion Sickness. Any reference to the character "being in the vehicle" will be replaced with "being loaded into an autosoft slot in the vehicle" when referring to AI.

## Banned Qualities

The following qualities are not permitted for characters to have:

#### Positive Qualities

* Apt Pupil (Forbidden Arcana, Page 32)
* Better to be Feared than Loved (Chrome Flesh, Page 54)
* Blood Crystal qualities (Forbidden Arcana, Page 132) are restricted to NPCs only
* Dissonant Streams (Kill Code, Pages 132 - 134) are restricted to NPCs only
* Elemental Focus (Hard Targets, Page 191)
* Friends in High Places (Run Faster, Page 147)
* Groveler (Kill Code, Page 96) shall not be permitted for use on the Farmer's Market in any capacity, in any universe, ever.
* Human Lifespan (The Complete Trog, Page 188): Having a human lifespan can be done for free as a fluff decision.
* Massive Network (No Future, Page 177)
* Observant (Street Lethal, Page 129): Is assumed to be automatically possessed by all characters. See Below.
* Revels in Murder (Chrome Flesh, Page 56)
* Stalwart Ally (Forbidden Arcana, Page 42)
* SURGE I and SURGE II (Run Faster, Page 103) Farmer's Market allows player characters to thematically be class 1, 2, or 3 changelings, however, this is done through the exclusive use of the SURGE 3 quality and mechanics.

#### Negative Qualities

* Amnesia: Neural Deletion & Surface Loss (Run Faster, Page 152)
* Borrowed Time (Run Faster, Page 153)
* Code of Honor: Black Hat (Kill Code, Page 99)
* Dead Emotion (Chrome Flesh, Page 57)
* Dead SIN (Better Than Bad, Page 162)
* Earther (Run & Gun, Page 169)
* Echo Chamber (Kill Code, Page 78)
* Hung Out to Dry (Run Faster, Page 155)
* In Debt (Run Faster, Page 156)
* Information Auctioneer (Kill Code, Page 78)
* Lazy Fingers (Kill Code, Page 79)
* One of Them (Chrome Flesh, Page 58)
* Pregnant (Bullets & Bandages, Page 12)
* Resonant Burnout (Kill Code, Page 99)
* So Jacked Up (Chrome Flesh, Page 59)
* Stay Out Of My Way (Street Lethal, Page 129)
* Stolen Gear (No Future, Page 177)
* This Is Your Last Chance (Street Lethal, Page 129)
* Tough and Targeted (Chrome Flesh, Page 59)
* Well, Actually... (Kill Code, Page 79)
* 'Ware Intolerance (Kill Code, Page 100)
* Wildcard Chimera (Dark Terrors, Page 163-164)

# New Qualities

## Mundane

* The Mundane quality costs no karma, and is exclusive to mundane characters. It applies a scaling reduction to the karma costs of buying new skill ranks post-gen. Ranks 1-4 receive a reduction in cost of 1 karma, ranks 5-8 are reduced by 2, and ranks 9 and above are reduced by 3, to a minimum of 1.
* Characters that are not a type of awakened or a technomancer are eligible for this quality. This means that metasapients, infected, and shifters with a magic score may take the quality as long as they are not any type of magic user (adept, mystic adept, magician, aspected, aware, etc.).
* AI are not eligible for this quality.

## Mentor's Mask (Page 182, Forbidden Arcana)

* A Mentor's Mask effect is only triggered by casting a spell or using an Activated adept power. The mask is visible for a short time before fading away.
* Mystic Adepts, if they take a Mentor’s Mask, get the type of Mask bonus dependent on the bonus they receive from their Mentor Spirit (IE: If they took the Adept bonus from their Mentor Spirit, they get the Adept Mask, and if they took the Magician bonus from their Mentor Spirit, they get the Magician Mask.) The negative effect of a mentor’s mask applies to all aspects of their magic usage (Both their adept powers, and magician abilities.)
* The choice to have a Mentor’s Mask is made when a character acquires a Mentor Spirit. If they later switch Mentor Spirits, they get to make the choice again. If, for any reason, they lose their Mentor Spirit, they no longer have the advantage, or disadvantage, of a Mentor’s Mask.
* You may obtain or remove your Mentor’s Mask by paying 20 karma without ‘losing’ your Mentor. (Effectively buying off the Mentor, then buying it again.)
* Metasapient critter powers do not cause a Mentor's Mask to manifest.
* A Mentor's Mask retains its listed penalties to Numinous Perception, but does not automatically alert nearby entities and does not give a penalty towards rolls to remain physically hidden.
* There is no way to hide a Mentor’s Mask, This is absolute.

# Altered Qualities

#### Adept Healer (Page 31, Forbidden Arcana)

* Adept Healer does not function on drain damage.
* Damage transferred by this ability will count as drain, and as such, cannot be transferred by further instances of this power, or healed by anything other than rest.

#### Animal Familiar (Page 31, Forbidden Arcana)

* Animal Familiar requires you to purchase the animal as normal, then perform the Animal Handling + Charisma [Social] (12, 1 week) test as outlined in attune animal, to function. If purchased at chargen it is assumed you already succeeded this test.
* A Familiar must be a mundane critter.

#### Alchemical Bombmaker (Page 31, Forbidden Arcana)

* Alchemical Bombmaker is limited to a number of increases in drain equal to your alchemy skill rating divided by 2 per prep, rounded down: Once at rating 2, twice at rating 4, three times at rating 6, and so on.
* Can only be used with combat spell preparations.

#### Alchemical Armorer (Page 31, Forbidden Arcana)

* Alchemical Armorer is required to learn the Alter Ballistics (p51) preparation. You learn the Alter Ballistics preparation automatically for no additional karma upon learning the quality per RAW. It has no other effect other than providing you with the knowledge of how to make the preparation.

#### Arcane Bodyguard (Page 32, Forbidden Arcana)

* As per page 48 of the Core Rules, "A Note on Rounding", round the dice you can use on yourself up.

#### Arcane Improviser (Page 32, Forbidden Arcana)

* Requires 4 spells (not preps) from each category, excluding rituals.
* Does not allow you to perform rituals you don't know, nor does it allow you to make preparations that you do not know, or fulfill requirements related to knowing spells.
* The 1/week limitation will be altered to 1/run for ease/simplicity of bookkeeping
* You must meet all the prerequisites to cast the spell, or otherwise be able to learn the spell (meaning no banned spells, and no spells that you wouldn't be able to take otherwise.)

#### Archivist (Page 32, Forbidden Arcana)

* This will only work with the following knowledge skills: Magical Theory, Magical Threats, Magic Traditions, Magical Groups, Magical background, (Appraising of) Magical Goods, Manasphere Studies, Astral Topography, Talismongering, Thaumaturgy and Arcano-Archaeology. More may be added to this list by requesting approval from the community.

#### Astral Bouncer (Page 32, Forbidden Arcana)

* Not all qualities may be revealed in an aura. it is up to GM discretion if a quality may be tied to an aura. For example, SINner may not be evident, as owning a SIN is not something that has an effect on your mind, soul, or body. That said, perhaps the GM believes it is. That is up to the GM.

#### AVRSE (Page 76, Kill Code)

* Applies a -4 penalty to all actions taken while in VR, regardless of location. VR is how you get your brain fried, chummer.

#### Barehanded Adept (Page 33, Forbidden Arcana)

* Barehanded adept will function as RAW with the following modifications/clarifications.
* Any restrictions to Spellcasting also apply to casting spells through Barehanded Adept (such as not being able to use the Spellcasting skill if you have Dedicated Conjurer, this would result in not also being able to cast spells even though Unarmed Combat is used.)
* The use of Unarmed Combat for Spellcasting applies only to spells gained through Barehanded Adept (eg, you cannot use Unarmed Combat to cast a spell gained through Adept Spell or from being a Spellcasting Mysad).
* Spells gained through Barehanded Adept can only be cast through the methods detailed in Barehanded Adept (ie, if you're a mysad, you cannot use a spell learned through barehanded adept using Spellcasting and ignoring force limits and drain values as detailed in Barehanded Adept).

#### Better on the Net (Page 96, Kill Code)

* Shall only be permitted for Technomancers, and shall only affect their Living Persona.

#### Big Baby (Page 77, Kill Code)

* Shall function as written, except that the penalty is -1 to all actions, and will always fade when you next would regain edge

#### Brittle [Attribute] (Page 99, Kill Code)

* Shall only be permitted for Technomancers, and shall only affect their Living Persona.

#### Chain Breaker (Page 33, Forbidden Arcana)

* New spirit types are restricted to UMT spirits (Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Man, Beast, Guardian, Task, Plant, Guidance)

#### College Education (Page 145, Run Faster)

* This quality is incompatible with the Uneducated Quality (Page 87, Core)

#### Corporate Loyalist (Page 128, Street Lethal)

* Shall be permitted only with a genuine Corporate Limited or Full SIN. On loss of the SIN, you lose the quality.

#### Corporate Pariah (Page 129, Street Lethal)

* Shall be permitted, but only with a current (7 karma version) or past (10 karma version) corp SIN from an AAA corporation. Records on File is required for the 10 point version. It is not actually required for your character to have had the Corporate SINner negative quality, merely that they have had it in their fluff at some point in the past.

#### Community Connection (Page 188, The Complete Trog)

* Can only be taken by orks/trolls and metavariants of those.

#### Cyber-Snob (Page 57, Chrome Flesh)

* Shall be altered to allow Alphaware as the minimum grade so that it may be taken at chargen.

#### Dark Ally (Page 35, Forbidden Arcana)

* Only spirits that are not toxic or blood related which PCs normally have access to can be chosen.

#### Data Hog (Page 99, Kill Code)

* This quality shall only be permitted for Technomancers. Deckers are encouraged to examine “Wanted By GOD” instead, from Data Trails.

#### Death Dealer (Page 35, Forbidden Arcana)

* Note that the maximum bonus from this quality to melee damage is +1, regardless of the rating of the quality, as per RAW.

#### Dedicated Conjurer (Page 33, Forbidden Arcana)

* New spirit types are restricted to UMT spirits (Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Man, Beast, Guardian, Task, Plant, Guidance)

#### Dependent (Page 80, Core Rulebook)

* Some addictions are better suited with the Dependent quality, and thus we recommend its use instead for alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, video games etc. Speak to your Chargen member to see if the Dependents or Addiction quality applies.

#### Discombobulated (Page 77, Kill Code)

* Will instead apply a -2 penalty to all actions when acting outside of VR.

#### Durable Preparations (Page 36, Forbidden Arcana)

* Durable Preparations stacks with Practiced Alchemist (p39, FA), effectively changing the duration before a prep begins to degrade to (Potency x 6) hours.

#### Elemental Master (Page 36, Forbidden Arcana)

* Elemental Master associates electricity with air, acid with earth, and cold with water.
* Elemental Master does not apply to damage received from drain.

#### Dual-Natured Defender (Page 36, Forbidden Arcana)

* Dual-Natured Defender is a free action to activate, and free action to deactivate.
* Dual-Natured Defender only functions on your innate dual natured quality, such as that from being infected. Any other sources of Dual Natured, such as Channeling a Spirit, or being in an Astral Rift, are unaffected, and do not qualify you for the quality.
* The duration of having this quality active rounds up to the next minute for purposes of determining how long it can be used before losing magic, essentially making it so that it is always used in one-minute chunks.
* Rather than simply cease Astral Perception, Dual-Natured Defender will temporarily cause you to not count as a Dual Natured being while active.

#### Frostbite (Page 78, Kill Code)

* Shall only be permitted in abilities for which the character has at least 4 ranks. It also may not be applied to any skill in the Tasking group.

#### Location Attunement (Page 128, Street Lethal)

* After a month, only the quality's benefits are lost, not quality itself, negating the need to repurchase it

#### Hi-Rez (Page 160, Better Than Bad)

* Does not permit a character possessing the quality to make a Matrix Perception test to detect hidden icons as a free action.

#### Hold the Door (Page 96, Kill Code)

* It provides a stacking, cumulative +2 bonus to the Data Spike action when targeting Persona or IC. The bonus is gained upon filling a persona or IC's matrix condition with a Data Spike or Brute Force. This bonus is retained until the character takes a Simple or Complex Action other than Data Spike, or until a Data Spike action is taken that does not fill the condition monitor of a Persona or IC.

#### Illness (BB 12) shall function as follows:

* Roll a single d6 at the beginning of each day. If the character rolls below a 1/2/4 (depending on illness severity), they must then roll Body+Body (3) or their illness will have a flair up for the remainder of the day. This may result in having to roll the d6 several times during a run as time progresses.

#### Instinctive Hack (BTB 160)

* The user may not gain any benefits from teamwork from either sprites or agents for this action. The user also does not get any free actions to shift deck attributes or swap programs before this action. It is made as a sudden reflexive action.

#### Infected: Ghoul (Page 138, Run Faster)

* Once ghoulified individuals purchase cybereyes, the penalties to sight due to cataracts is removed.

#### Missile Deflector (Page 38, Forbidden Arcana)

* Missile Deflector requires a successful Missile Parry (p310. CRB) interrupt, followed by the Counterstrike Adept Power (p170, SG) interrupt, for a total of -10 initiative to use. Rather than the normal effects of the Counterstrike Adept Power, when this ability is used, it will allow you to make a normal simple action thrown weapon attack against any valid target, with all appropriate modifiers, using the object you have caught.

#### Mood Hair (Page 121, Run Faster)

* Shall not bar Scales, Feathers, and Unusual Hair and vice versa.

#### Nasty Trog (Page 188, The Complete Trog)

* Can only be taken by orks/trolls and metavariants of those

#### Natural Hacker (Page 97, Kill Code)

* Shall only be permitted for technomancer characters.

#### One With The Matrix (Page 97, Kill Code)

* Shall only exist at the 8 karma level. The 2 and 10 karma versions are not permitted for use on the Farmer's Market in any capacity.

#### Paragon (Page 103 - 104, Kill Code)

A Paragon's favor may be lost in the course of a run. Typically, this shall be due to the written cause in each Paragon, though a GM has discretion for other related things to cause a loss of favor. If this occurs, it is lost until the end of the run, unless the GM wishes to offer an opportunity to regain it at their sole discretion. Favor is automatically regained at the start of the next run. While favor is lost, the technomancer loses the advantages offered by their paragon, but still suffers the disadvantages.

A technomancer may choose and change paragons freely during downtime, including "no paragon", but may not change them during a run. The sole exception is that if they follow no Paragon, and have not for the entire run, they may gain one mid-run given 5 minutes alone in VR.

Additionally, several Paragons have had their mechanics altered:

* The Archivist's advantage shall give a +1 dice pool bonus and +1 limit bonus on Matrix Search actions, rather than the listed bonuses.
* Daedalus's advantage shall give +1 die on Hardware tests, and +1 limit to Pilot [x-craft] skill tests - specifically, tests which roll an attribute and a Pilot skill together. It does not increase the limit for purposes other than the number of hits one can keep on these tests.
* The IC paragon shall not apply against or in relation to IC.

#### Pacifist Adept (Page 39, Forbidden Arcana)

* The Notoriety restriction on Pacifist Adept is removed, due to the possibility of gaining Notoriety via peaceful means such as refusing to do a job when you realize it involves murder, or similar. Limits cannot be reduced below 1.

#### Prototype Materials (Page 160, Better Than Bad)

* Prototype Materials may only be earned as a run reward. It may be earned an unlimited number of times. Each level of Prototype Materials allows a third level of Special Modifications to be applied to one weapon. This third level of Special Modifications must be purchased separately. This may not be transferred to a new weapon.

#### Prototype Transhuman (Page 54, Chrome Flesh)

* Genemods can be taken inside the 1 allotted essence.

#### Resonant Discordance (Page 161, Better Than Bad)

* Despite being a Mastery Quality, this does not require a Magic score. It may be taken by any Technomancer who has submerged at least once, by paying the appropriate karma cost.

#### Resonance Stream (Kill Code p. 89 - 93)

* These qualities have had several aspects altered, see House Rules (Deckers and Technomancers)

#### Restricted Gear

* May not be used to get Deltaware or Milspec armor.

#### Revenant Adept (Page 40, Forbidden Arcana)

* If used, note the date used on your character's wiki page along with a link to the run where it was used on.
* Revenant Adept works until it's cleared all the damage that Regeneration can clear, you've died, or the run ends. This means that having one box of drain does not allow you to have Regeneration indefinitely.
* Revenant Adept does not take an action, even a reaction, to trigger. It can be used while unconscious or in physical overflow. This can be done in reaction to an attack, and the user does not need to be aware, in character, to do this.

#### Special Modifications (Page 161, Better Than Bad)

* It shall remain mundane only quality - only characters without a Magic or Resonance score may take the quality. Further, it shall be modified by the following:
	+ The cost of Special Modifications does not double post-gen.
	+ A character may purchase an unlimited number of Special Modifications. They may, however, only apply it twice to any one weapon (with the exception of applying it a third if applying a level of Prototype Materials). These modifications may not be altered at a later time or transferred to a new weapon.
	+ If a character has any ranks, they may change the fluff of the weapon within relatively close reason without expending a "slot", but this cannot alter the concealability, apparent legality, or other mechanical attributes of the weapon.
	+ If a weapon does not deal elemental damage natively, it cannot be altered to deal elemental damage, however, if it does natively deal elemental damage of one type, one may spend one "slot" to change that type permanently to another type from the following list: electricity, acid, fire, water, cold.
	+ Disregard the entire last paragraph of the quality.
	+ Special Modifications can also be used by mundane unarmed fighters to modify their unarmed attacks. This is flavored as development or utilization of martial arts techniques.
	+ A single rating of special modifications may be used to increase the Device Rating (and linked stats) of a weapon that is not a cyberdeck or commlink form factor and does not have an installed commlink.
	+ A half rating of special modifications may be used to increase the penalty to hear a gun by 1 point.

#### Silence is Golden (Page 77, Kill Code)

* Functionally provides 2 noise reduction to all devices and personas within a 10 meter radius of the character with the quality.

#### SINner (Page 84, Core)

* Instead of a tax on NuYen earned, the SINner quality shall act as an increase to lifestyle costs, similar to Dependent (Page 80, Core).
	+ Full Corporate: 10% increase
	+ National or Criminal: 15% increase
	+ Limited Corporate: 20% Increase

#### Spell Jammer (Page 40, Forbidden Arcana)

* Spell Jammer is not affected by Mana Barriers, but is affected by background counts.

#### Spirit Hunter (Page. 40, Forbidden Arcana)

* Spirit Hunter will cancel any sustained powers, and prevents the use of any active powers, with the exception of Materialization.

#### Skinwalker (Page 40, Forbidden Arcana)

* The pelt for a mundane creature will cost 50% of the price of purchasing the critter itself, and has an availability equal to that of the critter. Prices and availabilities can be found at Animal Availability.

#### Sloppy Code (Page 79, Kill Code)

* Applies to tests to defend against Matrix Perception when running silent, not to Stealth tests.

#### Spectral Warden (Page 40, Forbidden Arcana)

* Binding replaces summoning for the initial summoning tests made by a Spectral Warden, but they must bind the spirit immediately after summoning, the spirit cannot be used for any other purposes before they are bound.

#### Sprawl Tamer (Page 41, Forbidden Arcana)

* Sprawl Tamer interacts additively with our existing house rules (Effectively adds another +1 modifier to the number of tricks a critter can learn.)

#### Sprite Combustion (Page 99, Kill Code)

* For Technomancers only with at least 6 combined ranks in Compiling and Registering.

#### State of Purity (Page 160, Better Than Than)

* Change all references of 'Combat Rounds' to 'Combat Turns'.

#### SURGE III (Page 103, Run Faster)

* Player characters are allowed to thematically be class 1, 2, or 3 changelings (Run Faster, Page 101). However, this is done through the exclusive use of the SURGE 3 quality and mechanics.
* SURGE characters are allowed to take as many negative metagenic qualities as they want, so long as they have at least as much karma in negative qualities as in positive qualities. No additional karma is gained from negative qualities taken past the balance point.

#### Taint of Dissonance (Page 100, Kill Code)

* Shall only be permitted for Technomancers with at least 6 combined ranks in Compiling and Registering.

#### Team Player (Page 97, Kill Code)

* Should read as "This quality enables the Brute Force and Hack on the Fly actions done as teamwork tests to have the following added effects." instead of "This quality enables the Brute Force and Hack on the Fly actions to be done as teamwork tests."

#### Technical School Education (Page 150, Run Faster)

* Incompatible with the Uneducated (Page 87, Core) quality.

#### Trog Traitor (Page 189, The Complete Trog)

* Can only be taken by orks/trolls and metavariants of those

#### Trust Fund (Page 151, Run Faster)

* May be taken with a Corporate Limited SIN (Page 84, Core)

#### Uneducated (Page 87, Core)

* This quality is incompatible with the College Education (Page 145, Run Faster) or the Technical School Education (Page 150, Run Faster) qualities.

#### Vexcraft (Page 42, Forbidden Arcana)

* Suppress focus is a simple action, and can be used from either the astral or physical, if you have line of sight on an active focus.
* Grounding focus is a complex action, and can be used from either the astral or physical, but requires both the focus to be eligible to target, and the owner to be eligible to target. This means you can only use this ability to damage a dual natured, or purely astral target, if you yourself are astral, for example.
* Counterspelling does not apply to the defense test, but power foci do, as does the force of any mana-barriers between the caster and the defender.

#### Worship Leader (Page 42, Forbidden Arcana)

* The GM has final say on if enough people can be gathered. Regarding group contacts, organized crime groups and gangs tend not to worship. One must have the Rank quality in any religious order.

## Qualities affecting Training

* Dependents will remove all references to training time. All other impacts are in effect.

* The Sensei quality will have the following changes.
	+ If the Sensei is a skill sensei, the karma cost for increases in the selected skill will be reduced by 3. The karma cost for buying a specialization in the selected skill are also reduced by 3.
	+ If the Sensei is a skill group sensei, the karma cost for increasing individual skills in the selected skill group will be reduced by 1. The whole group can be improved at a cost reduction of 3. Specializations in the skills in the group may be bought at a cost reduction of 1.
	+ If this reduced the cost for a new rank to zero, you may increase the skill to the rank instantly, for free. This applies even in cases where other qualities interact with this house rule.
	+ Sensei does not require a contact. The “Sensei” NPC may be a contact already on your sheet, but may also be a described but non-contact NPC. The quality does \*not\* grant a free contact.

* Day Job will follow the table below, increasing the karma cost for attributes, skills, martial arts and specializations.

 Day Job 1
 Day Job 2
 Day Job 3