Dresden House Rules
From UTRPG
Contents |
[edit] Aspects, Fatepoints, Declarations
[edit] Arbitrary Scene Aspects
- Subject to GM whim and player suggestion
- On a serious exchange an aspect may be placed to represent fallout from the action
- Several aspects invoked together may evoke a theme aspect
- Anyone can tag the aspect if they can find a way to use it
- Powerful magic could produce an unresolved fallout 'Something Got Hexed'
- The use of unusual magic like Necromancy might drop a 'Filthy Cold' on the area.
- Broken scenery may be about to collapse 'Hammer is going to Fall'
[edit] Fate Points For Declarations
- Fate points can still be spent to make declaration.
- For making a cool contribution to the City you may receive a fate point.
- These are Threats and Themes we can get plot material from - and spiffy Locations to use.
- This weekend is the annual Zombie Parade and my nemesis is going to include Real Zombies
- My Abandoned Laboratory where I dissected were-people.
- Our Ward is running a Halfway House for Supernatural Types over on Blank Street.
- The Winter Knight is getting married in X days and we have an invitation.
- Building an NPC may also merit a fatepoint. (Give us your unused character concepts.)
[edit] Character Creation
[edit] Refresh and Monster Characters
- No negative refresh rates.
- No fully non-mortals (red/black Vampires, Faeries, Ghosts and so on.)
- Why? It makes the game much inconvenient to run.
[edit] Increased Cost for Toughness Catches
- Toughness catches still break down into two categories, Research and Rarity
- Research covers how much knowledge or reasoning is needed to employ a catch
- +2 Pop culture classics: Werewolves and Silver Bullets or Superman and Kryptonite.
- +1 Solid Lore Material: Faerie Lore, Red Court Vampire lore, Ghost lore
- +0 Unique Personal Insight Required or No One Knows or White Court Vampire Lore
- Rarity covers how common the threat is in typical city setting
- +2 Iron (including alloys) or Water (getting soaked) or Bright Lights, constant threats.
- +1 Silver (including alloys) Fire, (real or magical) or Holy Water - You could have it via a declaration.
- +0 Royal Blood, a Baby's Laugh, Your Own Weapon/Magic, Your True Name - Big Plot Elements really.
[edit] Additional Aspects
- All players may now have a 6th and 7th aspect
- Aspect 6 refers to a relationship inside the group, used when you share a scene with them
- 'Bosom Buddies' or 'Rivals to the End' - Shaggy and Scooby Doo are the 'Comic Relief Duo'
- Aspect 7 refers to your role in the group or relationship to the 7th Ward
- 'The Crazy One, The Leader, The Black Sheep,' or 'I owe them everything' or 'Their Chief Enforcer'
[edit] Magic
[edit] Evocation
- Control Nerf
In the novels Harry Dresden is a wizard who used to be an investigator. In his later novels he is basically a walking insurance liability/act of god as he tends to take the fallout option more often than backlash. Also amusingly he doesn't break the first law except for that time in his background.
Rocco Perri is a Jerk. Like Dresden he's a Wizard, perhaps not as powerful outright as Dresden but what he lacks in Power he makes up for in Finesse, and dickishness. Rocco specializes in Force and Air attacks mostly as he is not as big on collateral damage, except when he nukes his friends. Rocco has a Discipline and Conviction rating of 4 (Great).
We have ruled in a mod to dumb down the usefulness of control, such that Control shifts do not add to damage. Interestingly still, Control is still very important.
Rocco wants to shoot someone with light. He has a lot of specializations and focus items towards that goal. His totals for that is +4 Control, +2 Power. Why did he focus on control still even though it doesn't add shifts to crushing folk? That's due to the nature of stress boxes.
Rocco has 4 mental stress boxes. Technically he could vary the power of his spells for up to Conviction +3 without going into consequences, so long as his ass can keep control of all that power. Granted he can't keep on summoning big hits like that, but that's in theme for the nature of desperation magic in the books.
So going back to Rocco's desire to hit someone very hard. He can summon standardly 6 shifts of magic. But he wants to hit the guy really hard so he concentrates really hard on that idea. (places a maneuver on himself) Then he pushes 4 more shifts through. He has 10 shifts of magic balancing inside his brain waiting to crush someone. With the maneuver he can control 10 shifts on a zero. If he hits someone they will be taking 10 + (6 + roll) - defense damage. as opposed to 10 + (10 + roll) - defense damage which would be the norm. This does 4 mental stress to him, which he takes on his 4 box. He can't do this again next round but he could go with a 9 shift attack in 2 turns, then 8, and 7 shifts the following turns. If the fight doesn't end by then he could try a 12 point action, then probably he will die.
[edit] Enchanted Items
- Getting Enchanted Items
- Changing/Recharging/Replacing item slots requires lore/lab/magic/materials be availible.
- Refinement without the ability to use magic can be taken but only provides enchanted item slots.
- Items that produce effects you cannot produce yourself must be provided to you by another person.
- If so, retooling, replacing, recharging may require additional assistance.
- Potions and Potion Slots are declared at the start of the session.
- Declaring an empty potion slot to contain X potion requires a lore roll or fatepoint.
- If you can use magic, you can take a mental stress to use an item when its uses have been exhausted.
- Potions cannot be 're-used' via mental stress.
- Specialization
- Only Specialties for Crafting (thaumaturgy) apply and they add to Frequency or Strength.
- Frequency adds to the default uses of each item (including two uses per potion)
- Strength modifies Lore, making items more potent.
- Focus Items
- You can create focuses for Crafting as normal.
- These work precisely like Specialization bonuses.
- These bonuses stack with Specialization bonuses.
- One Slot Item
- Is a spell in a Box, as Evocation or Thaumaturgy.
- Spell Equivalent with effect strength = your lore rating
- Usable Once Per Session.
- Reduce effect strength by 1 to increase uses by 1, no limit.
- Reduce Strength by 1 if item can be used by other characters.
- See Calculation Method
- More than one slot
- Each extra slot dedicated to an item adds to either Frequency or Strength.
- Added Frequency is always two more uses per session per extra slot.
- Added Strength is always one strength per extra slot.
- Potions
- As regular items but...
- Automatically usable by others at no extra cost
- Cannot use extra slot to increase Frequency
- Can use extra slot to increase Strength by 1.
- Can invoke aspects to increase the Strength by 2.
- Can increase Strength by 2 for an un-disclosed gm compel, GM offers and determines the effect.
- Can't be used as a reaction. Must be used as an Action.
- Calculation
- Determine Strength. Lore + Strength Specialization + Focus Item Bonus + Extra Slots devoted to Strength
- Determine Frequency. One + Frequency Specialization + Focus Item Bonus + Extra slots devoted to Frequency (at 2 per extra slot)
- If Item is usable by another, subtract 1 from Strength
- Determine Effect just like Rote spell of control and shifts equal to Strength.
- If the effect needs to be targeted, roll the appropriate skill when used.
- The Strength of the Effect cannot be greater than twice your basic lore skill.
- Examples
- Jay builds an Armour Coat with his Lore 4 and 5 item slots.
- He has specialization in crafting, 2 for strength and 1 for frequency.
- He has no crafting focus items.
- The item occupies the first of the five item slots.
- Strength: His lore is 4, specialization 2, totaling 6 strength.
- He reduces strength by 1 to make the item usable by others.
- He devotes three item slots to strength, making it 8, the maximum (twice his lore.)
- 8 shift effort gets him armour 4.
- Frequency: The item has one use per session and one more use for his specialization.
- He devotes the fifth item slot to frequency, adding two more uses per session.
- He now can use his Armour 4 Coat 4 times per session and lend the item when necessary.
- Each time time Jay uses the coat after 4, he'll pay a mental stress point.
- Joanne brews a Veil potion to grant invisibility, she has lore 5 and uses five item slots.
- She has a specialization in crafting, 1 for frequency.
- She has a focus in crafting granting her 2 frequency and 1 strength.
- The item occupies the first of three item slots.
- Strength: Joanne has lore 5, no specialization and 1 strength from her focus.
- She devotes four extra item slots to strength, totaling 10.
- Her veil has 10 shifts, she reduces it to 6 to add 4 to the duration.
- Frequency: Base item is one use per session, plus 2 for her focus and 1 for her specialty.
- She now has a potion to chug as an action, making her invisible for 5 exchanges (rounds)
- The veil is a personal Block 6 against Alertness.
- She can drink from this potion four times a session, but no more, not even with magic.
- She can invoke an aspect on drinking to add 2 shifts to the effect, increasing the duration or block strength.
- She could lend it around to some friends, allowing them to ambush an enemy.
- Specialized Items
- Items built beyond twice the makers lore strength are probably big or tied to a location.
- Small items, replacing mundane gear or adding flavour are likely one slot.
- Set of stones that act as radios, a light source, a skeleton key, a cutting tool.
- Items can be subtle and creative but scale matters.
- A grenade explosive could be a notebook, but not a slip of paper.
- An item doesn't need to be 'one item.' It can't be split up though.
- A blasting ring with four uses could be a set of four rings, each with one charge.
- A portable ward could be a pair of statues, but a single statue is not 'half a use.'
- A potion might be shared rapidly outside a conflict, but not divided into smaller potions to be drunk in the middle of an action scene.
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