House Rules

Gadget Tweaks
All gadget tweaks must be pre-approved by the GM.

This is to eliminate the gadget loop hole which is as follows...

Bill and Ted both make 200 point characters. Fred makes a magic hat gadget that can be lost stolen and destroyed along with a few other limiters, essentially giving him the ability to buy a hat that makes him buy abilities for the hat at -75% lets say. That means if he dumps every point into the hat he can have a character that might as well be a 350 point character, making Bill and Ted fundamentally useless because Fred outclasses them so much.

As the GM I can always take the hat away, but as soon as I do Fred's character is now completely useless and Bill and Ted outclass him several times over.

In either case, somebody is having a crappy day watching someone else be the hero over and over again while they sit and watch.

The ruling is you can still have gadgets, but they need to be pre-approved.

RITUAL MAGIC
To use a spell in such a fashion that it would give you a bonus for taking longer would take a successful ritual magic roll. Normally the taking extra time to do something would provide a bonus, but with spells this is specifically covered by a special skill. This doesn't apply to Jhya though as he does not cast "magic" which may seem like an advantage, and it is, but there are also many significant drawbacks to his spell-like gnostic abilities in comparison to standard wizardry. Ritual magic has a broader scope in this game world as well as nearly every "non-instantaneous/target" spell can be cast as a ritual in some fashion and it is not limited to spirits but often does incorporate them. Ritual magic basically works with anything that can use a physical component for the spell (be it a circle, candle, or eye of newt) and thus makes the casting somewhat easier (modifier) based on the spell. Generally the more elaborate, lengthy and expensive the ritual the higher chance it has to succeed. The modifiers for this are based on GM opinion.

Thaumatology
This will allow you to make minor alterations to how a spell is used with a successful casting. The modifiers and alterations are based on GM opinion and will have to do with what the skill level is, what is being changed and how much the spell and game is effected as well as the explanation for how it might work on the part of the player.

Combining these two skills will allow for a potent wizard that can make-up extensive rituals and spells on the fly based on their current abilities.

MAGE SIGHT
All classically schooled sorcerer's gain mage sight as if they had one point in it for free. This does not apply to gnostics and chi is not detectable with this spell.

Languages Key:


Common Tongue
Elven
Goblelly (orc,goblin, hobgoblin)
Dwarven

I'll add other langs as they become pertinent.

Please note common was switched from blue to navy because it's easier to look at. Bold and italics can now be used as punctuation.

Persuasion skill typically has no default.

In this game, persuasion can default to diplomacy -2 or Will -5. Persuasion is always contested unless special circumstances arise.

READERS

Readers are not to discuss with writers the details of the game. If this is ever an issue readers won't be permitted anymore.

Players may discuss in game data freely in PM's if they choose, but it should be done in the context of what their characters can reasonably relay to each other in down time and a post must be made of it in game i.e. "during this down time characters A and B discuss plot element X. Anyone is free to join the conversation." Then post a private tag and place the emails in there inside a spoiler tag. This way if anyone wants to join the convo I can give them a reasonable in, whether it be an NPC or PC. All this does really is save time for characters to discuss things with lots of posts so we can get through down time quicker. It would be best if the data exchanged was written in bullet points so we can refer back to it easily.

Character Death or Loss

There are lots of ways a character can exit the game, and not all of them include death. Character loss is a serious thing. Not only do you depend on your character, but so do all of the other characters AND players. When someone leaves the game it causes difficulties for the party even under ideal circumstances. That means first off, if you can't commit to the game, then don't commit to the game. You're not only ruining things for yourself, but also all of the other players.

As this is a writing project but is also a game we must consider that there are game consequences for character loss or death.

Now, GURPS is a very violent system, a single arrow or sword swing could very realistically mean the end of a character. If this happens as a result of "oops, the GM rolled a little too good" then you may make a replacement concept but you will lose all dice roll bonuses but retain 90% of your bonus earned XP. That means if the campaign minimum becomes 165 and you have 20 bonus points, you can remake with 183 points. The character should be a new concept, not a rehash of the old one.

If your character is killed due to player inactivity you may remake with no die bonuses and only 20% of your bonus XP.

If your character is killed while in character but dies during heroic sacrifice you may remake with 75% bonus XP and retain all of your die bonuses. (however massive bonuses are incurred for characters that make heroic sacrifice and live)

If you are simply unhappy with your character and wish to have them written out so you may reroll, you may retain 25% of your bonus xp and lose all die bonuses. NOTE: you must contact GM privately about this and you will be forced to follow GM guidelines concerning this, each situation will be unique.

If your character is killed because you did something out of character and are being a miserable player and are considered to be disruptive, you may not rejoin the game. Generally this will be the case if you make several paragraphs of arguments with the GM and other players and are generally having an attitude that makes things less than fun. NOTE: in character conflict does NOT count towards this, conflict in game is considered separate from OOC but MUST BE justifiable in character, which means you should have a handy motive ready to explain yourself if you do something like this, writing the motive as story into your post is even encouraged so that nothing is confused.

If the minimum total goes up before you rejoin the game this will apply to your reroll and not count against your bonus XP earnings.

Posting Rule Alterations

If the GM asks you to wait, you must do so.

If you are in a scene with many players and NPC's, do not post more than 3x in a 24 hour period to allow that other players will have a chance to participate before too much significant time passes and they miss an opportunity that they should have been afforded. This rule does not apply IF all parties in the scene (including the GM) have responded, meaning the spirit of the rule is not to outpost others in a scene by more than 3 posts within 24 hours. *(The GM may see fit to alter this according to whim, but don't ask for it)

If you are in a scene with you and only NPC's or just one other player, you post as often as you like, be warned though, some of it may be retroactively altered by the GM due to being too far ahead in the time line. This also applies if you jump 6 hours ahead, etc. So that we may maintain timeline congruency.

If a retroactive change occurs you are not given any consolation, sorry. Whatever you thought just happened, didn't. Thus far we've been good about this and no real issues of this kind.

This rule is designed to do as little retro-changing as possible, while still advancing the game and keeping minimum wait time for the players that are proactive and post regularly. Again, if you post less than once in 2 days the GM will move you forward, most often this will be done passively when possible.

You can tell who is in your scene by reading who is listed at the top of the GM's post in bold.

Inflection:

These are not mandatory but are fun to use and offer another form of tool to help others understand your character. I can promise you I won't even use them all that much due to time constraints, but in the case that someone does use them, we'll at least have an agreed upon definition for various kinds of inflections.

The one time this might count as a rule is if you claim a prior post was whispered but did not use the whisper tag NOR did you make note of it in story text (i.e. "hello" bill whispered). As long as you do at least one you're A OK. Could potentially have an impact on who might hear what you are saying.

Size 1 font: Indicates whispering

Size 5 font: INDICATES PRIMAL SCREAMING (this can be done with any emotion but is typical with anger and hysteria)

Bold: Indicates a stress in volume. Ex. "What the F*CK!?!"

Italicize: indicates unnatural tonal change, used to express additional sophisticated character animations. Ex. "That's what she said."; "It's a Loooooooooong way down." NOTE: Singing is done in all italics, yeah!

Underline: Indicates the word is not stressed with tonal inflection or volume, but rather with body language such as hand signals, facial expressions, arm waving, etc. "Every single time, she always does this." Bill's fist pounded on his desk with each invocation.

ENCHANTED GEAR

The new house rule I am laying down about wearing constant enchantments goes something like this:
1 enchantment per limb +body, +head. Artifacts with multiple enchantments count as one enchantment, hence why it's an artifact. If at any point any enchantments stack (whether constant or not), they will do "odd things". If you exceed one constant enchantment per limb, the enchantments will work but will also do "odd things" some which might not be safe.

An example would be wearing two rings of haste might age your character unnaturally. Regardless, the "odd things" are not going to be any sort of boon without some thaumatalurgical interference.