Universal House Rules

Character Generation

Mortals start with 10 points for merits, similar to other templates, instead of the 7 points that mortals would normally have.
Characters receive an extra 20 XP after approval.

Merits

Destiny

Destiny dot pools refresh at the end of the month (Story) instead of the end of the week (Chapter).

Enter the details of your Doom in a custom Note, with the name of the Doom in the title:

A brief description or summary of this Doom and how it relates to your character.

1. When spending Willpower in acts that avoid the character's Doom, grant +2 dice instead of +3.
2. When spending Willpower in acts that further the character's Doom, **and the act fails**, regain the spent Willpower.
3. The pool of Destiny dots refreshes each Story (month).

Acts that further the character's Doom include:

• Example 1
• Example 2
• Example 3

All Dooms must be from this list:

• Addicted
• Betrayed
• Crippled
• Devoured
• Enslaved
• Imprisoned
• Maddened
• Murdered
• Ostracized
• Possessed
• Ruined
• Turned

Group Merits

Merits which are marked as group merits (that is, shared among a Pack, Motley, Cult) may be shared with others in a group. Groups must swear the appropriate oaths or otherwise for inclusion, and are semi-fixed structures rather than fluid. That is, you shouldn't move from group to group to benefit from someone's merits.

The merits follow the same rule as Motley merits:

Merits tagged “Motley” can be purchased as a motley; any character that contributes dots to the total has access to the full, combined amount. For example, Resources is a Motley Merit. If one character contributes one dot, one contributes two dots, and one contributes zero dots, the first and second characters have access to Resources •••, but the third character does not have access to those Resources at all.

The system supports automatically sharing these dots via matching name of the merit parenthetical, which should match to the actual Organization.

General

Allies
Contacts
Library
Resources
Retainer
Safe place
Staff
Status

Changeling

Hollow
Stable Trod
Token
Workshop

Changing Breed

Den
Locus

Location Merits and Visitors

Any character from any sphere can enter any personal location that has a Location Merit, assuming they're permitted to do so (both ICly and OOCly). Location Merit Enhancements apply to visitors only if the enhancements are innate to the location, such as Phantom Phone Booth for Hollow.

Sphere specific "bases" like the are generally off-limits to characters outside of the sphere, unless specifically invited by leadership for large events or important matters. When these bases have such visitors, they typically swear an oath or manipulate with magics to muddle memories of the actual location.

Medium

Medium ••• applies to all ephemeral, ghosts, spirits and angels in its effects and interactions. This includes the source of disturbing messages in the drawback. In addition to hearing and communicating with ephemerals in Twilight, Mediums can visually perceive them as well.

Mystery Cults

Mystery Cult Initiation and other similar merits are restricted to any template that can access Supernatural Merits, as outlined in Supernatural Merits. No other template may add these merits.

Professional Training

The 9-again and rote benefits in Professional Training only apply to mundane rolls, i.e., rolls that are not involved in activating a supernatural ability. This means any supernatural ability, including those that do not involve the use of a Power Stat (Feral Heart, Wyrd, etc).

Striking Looks

Specializations for Striking Looks should draw from the list noted on the merit: stunning, alarming, commanding, repulsive, threatening, charming, etc. It should be one of those words or something similar that describes the effect that they have.

Supernatural Merits

Mortals, Atariya, Psychic Vampires, Beast-kin have access to supernatural merits.
Fae-Touched do not have access to supernatural merits.

Skills

Ride

The Drive or Animal Handling skills may be used for riding skill checks. Characters can use Animal Handling to perform basic veterinary first aid on common mount animals and build relationships with them.

Common specialties include: Jumping, Particular Breeds, Riding in Combat, Tricks, Tailing, and Unfamiliar Horses.

Riding checks work with Social Attributes except in cases where Wits is more appropriate, such as a roll to tail someone while mounted. Dramatically failing on a mount usually involves injury to the mount or uncooperative behavior, like throwing its rider or refusing to move.

Power Stat

Power stats such as Wyrd are limited to 5 by the system. This threshold may be changed later.

System

Touch Attack and Defense

If an ability specifies that it uses a touch attack or a touch, Defense does not apply when rolling to determine if you are able to touch.

However, if an opponent is using the Dodge action, then they may use their Defense and double as normal.

8-again, 9-again, and Rote

The Deviant ruleset allows players to upgrade their dice tricks. For example, two sources of 8-again on a roll would allow a player to roll it as a rote instead. While we use Deviant's clarifications in other respects, we do not use that one. Players may not stack dice tricks to upgrade a roll. Players may continue to use them in combination, however, such as someone with Professional Training using both 9-again and rote.