House Rules

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This article is a Needs Completion. This is for Staff Use ONLY.
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Contents 1 House Rules 1.1 Setting 1.2 Canon 1.3 Combat 1.4 “Fitting” the Game 1.5 Internet Use and "Googling" It 1.6 Obfuscate 1.6.1 Mask of a Thousand Faces 1.7 Fortitude 1.8 Name 1.9 Text Colors 1.10 Fade to Black 1.11 Travel Time and Entrance Channels 1.12 Phone Calls/WiFi Internet 1.13 Foreign Language 1.14 Quiet Speaking 1.15 False IDs 2 Character Creation Rules 2.1 Sect and Clan 2.2 Caitiff 2.3 Alternate Paths 2.4 Balance 2.5 Concept will be considered 2.6 Dice Pools 2.7 Scale 2.8 Merits and Flaws 2.9 Flaws May Never Be Removed 2.10 Haven and Equipment Choices 2.11 Businesses 2.12 Biographies and Background Details 2.13 What is Assumed at Creation

House Rules

Setting

Though we use the third edition Vampire: The Masquerade rules, we do not use any of the third edition metaplot in our game. The Week of Nightmares never happened, the Ravnos, Assamites and Gangrel are unchanged from second edition, and the Malkavians do not use Dementation, or have access to the Malkavian Madness Network. Any questions on setting can be forwarded to #gamehelp.

Canon

When there is no storyteller available, refer to the canon White Wolf material (especially in the 3rd edition Core Rules book) for any rules issues, except for those rules which have been modified for our game, and laid out on this page. Understand that as Storytellers we will often go outside of White Wolf cannon for rules, setting and flavor, and that nine times out of ten it is completely intentional.

Combat

Combat must always be run by a storyteller. Under no circumstances may you engage in any sort of combat without the guidance of a storyteller. If no storyteller is present, a scene which involves combat must freeze and await storyteller presence. For a full list of combat rules, please see Combat Tutorial.

“Fitting” the Game

Our World of Darkness contains content which may be unacceptable for consumption by minors. The ESRB would likely rate our game “M”, and the MPAA “R” for it’s content. For this reason, we cannot allow any players under the age of 18 to participate. The World of Darkness that we present is a game of personal horror, violence and intrigue. In the WoD, even the most innocuous things tend to take on a somewhat more sinister shade, even if it isn’t obvious at first. When you role-play, try to keep this in consideration as overly cheerful and happy things (or characters) tend to stand out, which is the opposite of what survival minded Vampires do.

Internet Use and "Googling" It

There is no such thing as "Google" ICly in New Marseille. If you wish to use information garnered via the internet, this will count as a research roll and must be done in Gamehelp with an ST. Instead of "Google," New Marseille has "Gaggle"! This will take the place of any internet research.

With that said, New Marseille will have its own White Pages for use when looking for services and such.

Obfuscate

You cannot use a cellular phone or similar SMS device in obfuscate. Sending a text message, or any other kind of electronic message while in obfuscate will force you to drop it, and expose yourself.

The use of personal electronic devices such as cameras to catch users in obfuscate will not work normally, if you are videotaping a room, and an individual in obfuscate is present, their mind trick will effect you while you film – you will not notice them, even through the lens of the camera. However, if you review the film later and the user of obfuscate is not present, their image will show up on film. It’s not that the camera does not see them while you film, it’s just that the mind trick causes you to overlook them while you are in their presence.

Mask of a Thousand Faces

Nosferatu are allowed to create one "established" mask. This mask can be of any reasonable appearance that would equate to Appearance 1-3. Switching in and out of this mask is free and does not require a dice roll.

Any mask that is either in addition to this "established" mask (no matter how often it is used), would be imitate a person of Appearance 4+, imitates an established character or imitates a specific person must have the standard Man + Per (Diff 7) roll made in #GameHelp each time it is used before it is used In Character.

Fortitude

Fortitude grants automatic successes on soak rolls for lethal and bashing equal to your fortitude rating, instead of extra dice to soak. A character with fortitude 3 will have 3 successes guaranteed against lethal and bashing attacks before he or she ever rolls stamina. Fortitude still gives you soak dice for aggravated damage. A character with fortitude 2 has 2 dice to soak aggravated damage.

Name

Tags The following tags must be applied to your nick when appropriate:

player_ast: Auspex 5 – Astral form.

player_dsg: A disguise. Please have the description of your disguise ready, or alter your description file to reflect how your character looks.

player_hdn: Hidden.

player_msk: Obfuscate 3, Mask of 1000 Faces. Follow the same guidelines for disguises.

player_obf: Obfuscated individuals.

player_dtm: Donning the Mask of Shadows users.

Please add the number of successes you rolled on your disguise and/or hiding roll when using the _dsg and _hdn commands. (Example: John_dsg3 – John rolled three successes on his disguise roll.)

Text Colors

Do not use color tags. The only colors we should see are black for plain text, and the default color your IRC client displays when the /me command is used for actions. It confuses other players, makes text impossible to read for some people with different colored backgrounds, or who use other IRC clients, and makes our logs harder to read. Please be considerate of your fellow players and staff and turn your color scripts off.

Fade to Black

While we do not deny that the content of our game is for mature players and that grotesque and/or explicit events can and will happen in the course of our game (which we will make no effort to control), there is however a limit to how much of this we, as storytellers, wish to read. Because of this, there is a simple guideline regarding the sexually explicit: Fade to Black, please. If you and another player are going to engage in a sexually explicit scene, please post ::Fade to Black:: (FtB) and take the scene to a PM — away from the ever present eyes of Myrmidon.

Travel Time and Entrance Channels

Every indoor location in the game has an ‘entrance channel’. What this means is that New Marseille is a real location with real paths to get places. You could not, for instance, simply join #lepuanterose when you’re ready to play for the night, if that’s your chosen destination. La Rose Puante is located on Rue Vien, and as such you have to join #ruevien first, then leave and join #lepuanterose to allow players to catch you going in or out. By the same token, you cannot warp around the city. When leaving one location for another, please take a short break if you are not role-playing your trip in a private channel with a friend. A few minutes should do. Do not immediately join another channel if your character would have to drive or walk a distance beyond a block or two. Entrance channels are listed for every indoor location in their channel description, and a map is available on the Locations page to give you a better idea of where things are located in relation to each other in the city.

Phone Calls/WiFi Internet

When making phone calls, you must have the other party’s phone number in character – you cannot call somebody who’s telephone number you have not gotten by some machinations in character. To place a telephone call, you must check the channel description to be sure cell phone service is available in your area (providing you aren’t using a land line). Send a query (private message) to the player you’re calling that denotes their telephone is ringing. All words spoken into the phone should be denoted with a

tag, for example: “<John> <p> Hey, what’s up?”. If you are in a channel with other characters in it, you must paste your half of the conversation into the channel as well, because other characters can still hear what you are saying into the phone while you are present. Calling people without knowing their telephone number, calling when you have no service, and not running your call in an IC channel while you’re present in one are all forms of cheating.

**NO CELLPHONE SERVICE** Before placing a phone call while in a channel or role-playing using a computer WiFi connection, refer to the channel topic. If there is no service, you may not place a call or receive one and your internet access goes down. If you are in the middle of a call when the topic changes to reflect no service, you must inform the other party that the call has dropped, and role-play accordingly.

Foreign Language

We understand that for flavor, you may choose to say certain common phrases in the correct language they appear. (For instance, an Italian character greeting friends with ‘Ciao!’), however – anything more complex than simple greetings spoken in other languages must be posted with language tags. Example: “<John> <Irish Gaelic> Looks like rain.” You may only post in languages that are listed on your sheet with the linguistics knowledge, and you may not role-play understanding, or use knowledge gained from reading posts made by other players in a language you do not know.

Characters with a Linguistics skill 3 or higher, or the Natural Linguist merit may make a roll of Intelligence + Linguistics difficulty 8 to understand a language that is being spoken but is not on their sheet. See a Storyteller in #gamehelp if you believe one of the languages you speak would call for a lower difficulty than 8 – for instance, understanding Spanish when you speak Italian, or Japanese and Korean. If no ST is available, default to difficulty 8 always.

Quiet Speaking

To lower one’s voice, use the whisper tag “<w>”. Other characters not using Auspex, or who are too far away should react appropriately to a whispering party. Squinting, looking annoyed at the private talk and moving closer are all appropriate, acting like you heard the whisper from 20 feet away is not.

False IDs

In clarification to the "Assumptions" made below: A 'simple' false ID is nothing more then a US State ID card/drivers license that has your picture on it and somebody elses name. It is enough to get you past a traffic ticket, but will send up flags if a background check is performed against it.

In the interest of keeping things easy, we're going to assume an exception to this is acquiring a haven. We don't want to be monsters about everything. So, getting a haven, you're false ID will be assumed to work. Outside of that...

Character Creation Rules

Sect and Clan

We will only accept Camarilla Characters of the seven Camarilla clans and Caitiff. That is to say, we will only accept Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue, and Caitiff.

Caitiff

When rolling a Caitiff, please be aware The Storytellers have decided to take a different twist on how this clan will work. Upon creation there will be no option to choose disciplines, but as always you will get the initial three dots for them. The catch is, the Storytellers will select your disciplines for you. For further information, please see the staff.

Alternate Paths

We will only accept characters who are on the Path of Humanity. No other moral paths will be considered.

Balance

Twinks will not be accepted. The storytellers will be checking sheets for a reasonable degree of realism in your selections for dots. This means we will not approve your Former Waitress Malkavian with Melee 4. That said...

Concept will be considered

We take concept seriously because we want you to have a fun time and play with original and unique characters. That isn't to say that we won't let two psychic mediums be made, but we will warn you if someone else has a similar character in play. We will, however, deny concepts that are poorly thought out or are empty justifications for dots. "Ex Green Beret" is only interesting if it's meant to be played as a person, not as an excuse for Firearms 3+.

• Recently Updated: Players seeking to play the sire or childer of another player is currently not being allowed with the Coterie Online chronicle. This is subject to change at the storytellers discretion.

Dice Pools

When creating a character, dice pools of seven will be highly scrutinized and most likely not approved for a starting character. We will not accept characters that have a dice pool higher then 7 in any stat.

Scale

We remind our players that a stat rating of 3 in a skill is said to be equivalent to a professional level of skill: Your character could use a skill at 3 to make a living. That said, we will not approve characters with excessive numbers of 3's or 4's on their sheets. Please remember that the scale for dots is exponential, meaning a rating of 2 is twice as good as a rating of 1 and so on.

Merits and Flaws

Please remember that you have a maximum of 7 points available for flaws. Pushing this maximum, or taking a surplus of merits, may lead to your sheet being rejected until that changes. As noted on the Merits and Flaws List, if you would like to use a non-core book merit or flaw, we require you to copy down the exact text from the book it appears in, the book title, and the page number on your sheet.

Flaws May Never Be Removed

If you take a flaw during creation, that flaw will remain with your character. You may not spend XP at any time to "buy it off". Choose your flaws wisely.

Haven and Equipment Choices

A complete description of your haven must be included on your sheet, along with a complete listing of the equipment your character has available to them, in the appropriate sections. Please see the housing section for available options for havens. Listing a shotgun contained in a safe in your haven under the description of your haven, but not including it in your equipment list, makes it feel like you were trying to sneak something by. Please be careful to double check everything and be forewarned that we play with the ruling that if something is not recorded on your sheet, then it will not be allowed in play. Always maintain this gear list through out the life of your character.

Businesses

Since all new characters are considered to be new arrivals to New Marseille, it is not possible for starting characters to have an established business in New Marseille upon creation. Any businesses must be started after arrival to the city.

Biographies and Background Details

If you need help with ideas for explanations for your backgrounds or for your characters history, please see an ST. Character sheets need to have a brief but solid description of the characters past (including their mortal life) and for how they maintain each of their backgrounds. For backgrounds, it's best to avoid vague statements. Saying they have a "friend in the police" is poor form. Saying that they have dinner with a desk sergeant in the Homicide Department is much more helpful.

What is Assumed at Creation

• The name that the character uses is their given name.
• The character has a haven that protects him or her from sunlight.
• The character speak English as his or her native language. (If English is not a character's native Language, he or she must purchase Linguistics (English) to speak English.)
• The character has a traceable real life mailing address that is not a PO Box.
• All of the character's money is in one non-interest bearing checking account at a Howard & Turner's branch.
• If the character is young enough for knowledge of their real age not to constitute a Masquerade violation, he or she possesses an accurate ID card that has his or her real birth date.
• If the character is old enough for knowledge of their real age to constitute a Masquerade violation, he or she possesses a simple false ID card that can be traced with Bureaucracy x1.
• If the character is young enough for knowledge of their real age not to constitute a Masquerade violation and is not a resident of the United States, he or she possesses a temporary visa.
• If the character is old enough for knowledge of their real age to constitute a Masquerade violation and is not a resident of the United States, he or she possesses a temporary visa under a false name that can be traced with Bureaucracy x1.
• Any car the character owns is licensed under his or her real name with accurate information and is stored in a publicly accessible location.
• The character can be assumed to know how to drive a car with an automatic transmission, even without the Drive Ability.
• The character does not have a criminal record.
• The character can be assumed to have a high school education.
• If a character has Resources x1 or Finance Influence x1 or the Finance Ability, that character has credit cards in his or her name. Every character's credit history is assumed to start out good.
• The character was Embraced with sufficient hair and facial hair to explain any discrepancies in the character's appearance caused by players changing their character description/picture.