Miscellaneous House Rules (in
no particular order, mostly):
- New
characters: get 95 stat pts (humans; check with me for others) to
divide as they wish; 10 must be APP and points of APP are bought/sold at
1/2@. 400 skill points; maximum 2
skills at 75, 4 at 65. Attack/parry
or attack/dodge counts as 1 skill for points and caps. Skills w/o experience check boxes may be
raised to max 90 (1 skill only; doesn’t count toward max 75/65; others
do). You will probably start with 1
magic item that we/GM will design.
Choose 4pts divine magic, max 2 cults. Your age is 25 +/- a few years. You get
basic starting equipment. Personality traits: assign 1 at 15, 2 at 14,
remainder as you wish <13. Check
with me for cult virtues. Choose
passions if you like. We’ll work on
the background as we go.
- Death:
occurs (10-current GHP) strike ranks (SR) after reaching 0 or less
HP. So if you go to -10 GHP, you
die instantly. I usually allow D.I.
attempts and hero point usage (see
house rules on those) before this happens.
- Magic
casting: Does not count as a combat action, but must separate any
attack and magic casting by 3SR; so if you attack on SR 5 you can begin
casting a spell on SR 8 + your DEX SR.
You can speed up spellcasting by boosting w/1 MP per SR faster,
minimum DEX+1 SR (so you cannot speed 1pt spirit/sorcery spells or any
non-MP-using divine magic). If you
must dodge or parry during spellcasting, you must make a concentration
roll (INTx3%) or the spell fails and you lose 1MP. Ditto for wounding or other big
distraction such as running, piloting a boat, jumping, etc. We use Spell Fumble tables for any magic
casting fumble, so watch out!
- Melee
rounds are 6 seconds and 10 SR (not 12 seconds as in RQ3; thus a
minute is 10 rounds; a full turn is 5 minutes or 50 rounds). Thus movement rates are halved, so a
human can walk 1.5m/SR or run 3m/SR. In a round you can walk 15m or run
30m. “Run” skill boosts speed by 1
on a success, 2 on a special, 3 on a critical for that round. Mounts lose
-1 MOV for having a rider, and more if heavily encumbered. Swimming is at
1/2m/SR for humans; walking on the bottom of water is at 1/4m/SR. Mobility and Slow spells reduce speed by
1/pt, so a Mobility 3 person moves at 4.5; a Slow 3 keeps a person from
moving unless they make run rolls.
Using Mobility for a long time tires you out very fast.
- Fatigue:
We don’t use fatigue points (FP; STR+CON-ENC) often, but you start to slow
down running by -1m/SR once you reach 0 FP (running costs 1
FP/round). If your ENC is over your
FP, you lose 1m/SR anyway. ENC
subtracts from dodging, jumping, swimming (x5), and spellcasting as usual.
- Training
and practice use a special chart
downloadable from this rules section.
Subtract your bonus before calculating training time; it does not
penalize you.
- Experience
checks are as per usual RQ3 rules, but you always have a minimum
chance of (bonus or INT/2, whichever is higher) to succeed even if bonus
is negative. Take 1d6 or 3 pts on a successful check (failed skill
roll). POW checks are (21-POW)x5%; take 1 pt or roll d3-1.
- Spirit combat and melee combat (including parrying) have their own special rules; see
those pages for details.
- Damage
bonuses are calculated as such (STR+SIZ):
1-7: -1d4 (-1d2 missiles)
8-9: -1d3 (-1)
10-11 -1d2 (-1)
12 -1
(0)
13-23 0
24 +1
(0)
25-26 +1d2 (+1)
27-29 +1d3 (+1)
30-32 +1d4 (+1d2)
33-39 +1d6 (+1d3)
40-41 +1d8 (+1d4)
42-43 +1d10 (+1d10/2)
44-56 +2d6 (+2d3)
57-72 +3d6 (+3d3)
73-88 +4d6 (+4d3)
89-104 +5d6 (+5d3)
105+… each 16 pts gives +1d6; run for cover!!
- We use
modified Pendragon personality traits and passions, which are
important for heroquesting and cult progression, among other things.
- Sorcery,
shamanism and mysticism use slightly modifed Sandy Peterson’s RQ3
house rules.
- Anyone
can use spirit magic, divine magic, and/or sorcery (big difference w/RQ3/HW
rules); I’d do it differently if we redid campaign; too late.
- Languages
limit communication skill usages to (2x language skill) maximum.
- Magic
crystals:
- Dead
crystals (just store MP): no limit to how many may be attuned; takes 1
minute and a Ceremony roll to attune (fumble = no attunement for 24hrs). Thus crystals cannot be handed to
others in the middle of combat.
Takes 1 minute to transfer any personal MPs into a crystal to
refill; MPs may not be transferred out.
- Living
crystals (have POW): may only be attuned to one at a time. Other items such as amulets and spirits
that need attunement as well do not count toward this limit. To attune, find a quiet place for a day
and roll Ceremony skill; if succeeds may roll POW vs. POW to attune. If POW vs. POW fails, lose 1d3
POW. Can try again if Ceremony or
POW vs. POW roll fails, the next day.