Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - House Rules

Below is a listing of House Rules applicable to the Game.

All optional rules unless they wind up stated otherwise, are in effect. If I wind up deciding an optional rule is not to be used in this game I will list them below.

Advanced Lifestyles:
Advance Lifestyle options must be approved, but otherwise all options are in play.

Books in use:
Most (But not all) books are in use, including most of the PDF books. The only books not in play are the adventure books as I don't own any of them. That said if it's something out of a book I don't have yet I may withhold judgment until I can acquire the book in question.

Game year:
The game year is 2071. This means the characters that kick start the game have likely been 'retired' from the shadows for several years.

The Exchange:
The Exchange, though battered and bruised has survived Crash 2.0 in a new, more 'portable' format. Characters may join the Exchange for the cost of 4 Karma at any time, or at the cost of 6 contact points. The exchange always offers up something in return for what ever often seemingly random tasks or questions it asks. Sometimes it's favours, and errands, other times it just seems to ask you questions. So long as you don't lie to it or try and abuse it's gifts, The Exchange always comes up with something in return of roughly equal value at some point. Abuse of The Exchange will not necessarily lead to it severing contact, but certainly guarantees some ill in return.

Gear Rating:
While gear ratings remain the same in CG, WAR and other books are in effect. This means you may encounter hardware/software that goes over R6 (By the same token, once you are playing the game it's possible to get your hands on it)

Legendary Quality:
The Legendary quality may be purchased if a character has accumulated 600 Karma in game.

A note on non metahuman races:

In 2071 racial bias is still very much alive. Additionally there are still very, very few countries in the world that recognize the rights (or indeed any rights) of sentient critters, shifters and the infected. If playing a non metahuman race, expect there to be potential complications in the form of treatment, and possibly even having bounty hunters after you. At the same time it's possible to use some of these things to your advantage if you get creative and by all means do.

As the game is intended to take place over various places on the globe, it's all but guaranteed such characters will run into complications at some point unless they can properly hide their true nature (Something that's usually easier for shifters than say, centaur or naga)

A note on Weapon Modifications:
Arsenal states Recoil Pads are not cumulative with stocks, yet several weapons include both recoil comp from a stock(Collapsible or non)/recoil pad combo, and in the real world you very much can benefit from the addition of both (there are even collapsible stocks with build in recoil comp pistons). As the books are contradictory on the matter, it is the GM's ruling that recoil pads are cumulative with other forms of weapon recoil compensation.

Custom Weapons:
While the books offer 'base line' models of many guns, it is possible to get 'special edition' or 'custom order' guns. Costs are entirely up to the whim of the GM, availability etc. Common features that can come prebuilt into guns (Without affecting their modification slots) that LE/M verions (Law Enforcement/Military/Limited Edition/Collectors Edition or simply different gun versions) are modifications such as High Power, Heavy barrel, Electronic Firing, Smartlink, Skinlink, Ceramic/Plasteel components, Chameleon Coating, Extended clips, replacing solid stocks with folding or powered folding stocks (Or vice versa, putting a fixed stock on a gun that comes normally with a folding stock), Recoil pads, Redundant Process Manufacturing, Trigger Removal, Melee Hardening, Metahuman Customization, Barrel Extension (And reduction in most cases) and Extreme Environment Mod L1.

Here are house rules and optional rules in play involving the use of Edge.

Initiative:
As it's left a little unclear by the book, Characters who normally get 4/5 Passes in a Combat Turn (due to augmentations/spells etc) may spend a point of edge as per RAW and still gain an extra pass. As such it is possible to have an absolute maximum of 6 passes in a Combat turn. (Absolute maximum potentially subject to change if they ever put something in that can push you over a max of 5 passes a turn)

Additional uses for Burning Edge:
Force Refreshing Edge:
You may burn a point of edge, to immediately refresh your remaining pool of edge dice.

Negating Attribute Loss:
You may burn a point of Edge to negate physical or mental attribute loss (But not magic, resonance or essence) at a rate of 1:1 brought about due to injury or other similar permanent effects. This can not be used to negate any penalty brought about by sacrifice metamagic or a flaw (Unless the flaw is bought off).

Miraculous Recovery:
You may burn a point of edge to make a 'miraculous recovery' from an injury that would have your character out of play for an extended period of time (Such as if you used HOG). This will bring about some form of event that will at least attempt to explain how you recovered so quickly rather than, for example, requiring several months of therapy etc. This can not be used to negate any penalty brought about by a flaw until such a time as the flaw is bought off.

Optional Rules in effect:
You may use a point of edge to reduce extended test interval in half.
You may use a point of edge to buy hits instead of adding your edge dice to a test.


Normal Edge Refreshing:
Edge refreshes normally under the following circumstances:
When the GM wills it
Usually after a set point in the game is reached (Set by the GM), all edge dice will refresh for the whole party
If you suffer a critical glitch in a test where edge was not used, you will refresh 1 point of edge.
If you score a critical success in a test where edge was not used, you will refresh 1 point of edge.
If you achieve an important personal goal (That must be worked out with the GM ahead of time) your entire edge pool will refresh.

Cover in Combat:
Rather than having cover add additional defensive dice to defensive rolls in combat, the optional rule for cover is in effect. The optional rule applies a negative to an attacker's dice roll instead. IE so if cover normally grants 4 dice to the defence pool, it now instead adds a penalty of -4 dice to the attacker's roll.

Armour Encumbrance:
Custom Fit Armour allows the wearer to wear up to body X3 instead of the usual Body X2, however due to it's custom fit, anyone other than the intended wearer uses it, they can only wear body X1.5. Custom fit armour can be combined with Soft Weave and (only in the case of Milspec armour) the mobility Upgrade. As no base cost is listed for this 'enhancement' custom fit armour that is not custom fitting by default (Such as Milspec) costs 2X base cost (Before armour modifications). This also increases the availability of the armour by +4.

Armour Modifications:
Carbon-Boron, Kevlar Threading and Delta-Amyloid modifications may be applied to armour well as clothing, however they are mutually exclusive modifications (Meaning you can only add one, not the others) and apply only to the full 'set' (IE Pants/Shirt/Jacket combination it only adds the bonus once, not 3x). It's also being ruled in instance of this that the modification can be added to other suits such as Milspec, SWAT etc but again only applies once to the entire set (IE You cant apply it to both the helmet and the main suit and have it stack the bonus twice). As Armor suits and Helmets have separate capacities however you still must modify the individual parts (Helmet and body suit) for the bonus to count as all round protection. (IE If you mod the helmet but not the main body suit as well any shots to the main body do not get the benefit of the modification and vice versa).

The Feedback clothing modification may be added to armour suits.

Securetech PPP:
Forearm Guards may be stacked with Arm Casings (It just looks even more obvious and bulky). Like wise shin guards may be combined with leg casings.
Arm and Leg casings do not stack with individual Arm or Leg casings
A full 'stand alone' suit of Securetech PPP provides the following bonus: +2/+6

Ammunition:
High Powered rounds may be combined with other ammunition effects. The ammunition will then take on the damage type of the special round used. In this case add the availability ratings together, add the cost together and then multiply the cost by 2. Modifications such as RFID are added to the cost as normal

IE if you made a High Powered Armour Piercing Flechette round it would have the following statistics:
Damage (Impact): +4, AP mod: -1 Avail: 38 Cost: 480 per 10 rounds

If you added the RFID modification to it:
Damage (Impact): +4, AP mod: -1 Avail: 40 Cost: 500 per 10 rounds

Dice Rolls

Please use Invisible Castle for all rolls (as is standard on this site), if your not familiar with it, you can find it here: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/

Post the link to the rolls, not just the results
Put in your character name
Put in the name of the game the rolls are for (It can be short form)
Put in the notes section the source of your dice, Bonuses, Penalties etc.

If these additions are not included, the rolls will be considered null and void (constituting failure) and I may, or may not reroll them for you.

Comlinks:

Unless it is clearly stated otherwise all comlinks are considered to be 'on' as it's generally the only way to communicate with anyone in 2070, and indeed it's actually illegal in many areas to NOT have a comlink online and in public mode. (Such as most of Seattle that's middle class and up, corporate enclaves etc).

Just so that it's easier to track I would request all players who have a comlink that's off add a separate line at the end of their post indicated which Comlink(s) are turned off.

Movement Rates:
It will be assumed time to time that you will drop below normal walking rates when moving such as attempting to be stealthy, crawling etc. In some cases your movement rate may be reduced to 1/2 or even 1/4th depending on if your walking, crouched or crawling and how much debris, foliage or other obstacles may be in your path. Ruthenium Polymers are not considered to be a counter to this, as they specifically only blend the normal visual band around yourself and have no effect on the sound you are generating. Conversely it may be possible to move silently at a full on sprint under certain conditions (Such as in a noisy factory or when sound is muffled by tech or spell/ability etc). The movement reduction will also make for the assumption that even if you are darting cover to cover quickly, you are periodically stopping to ensure you haven't been noticed etc.

As a result, for the sake of simplicity I'm going to assume that when ever some one is using infiltration they are travelling at half their normal, unagumented speed when in quiet environments (Such as empty/mostly empty rooms, moving through brush etc) and at walking speed when there is relative amount of background noise (Moving through areas with reasonable crowd density etc)



Crawling:
Since it doesn't really appear to be covered by the book, I'm going to assume anyone crawling will at most move 1/2 their augmented walking rate, given that it's generally slower to crawl than to simply get up and walk.

Crouched stance:
While moving in a crouch it will be assumed one can maintain a normal/augmented walking rate (Unless your really out of shape)