Rules Clarifications (Player Input required!)

[ChrisF]

For those unaware, I'm ChrisF, your new Rules Master, and I'm currently working to find out what rulings we'll need onhand for when the chat launches. As you all well know, no tabletop game translates perfectly online, nor are CofD games built to have all crossover interactions and miscellaneous rules perfectly ironed out. Plus, they tend to say things like "At Storyteller discretion, you may be able to..." and other things that are figured out at the table level by default.

For the sake of consistency, we want to make sure as many of these rules are universally applied in a consistent manner as possible. I've already gotten a few things, but I want to know what you players think needs clarifications in any of the books, things like which version of a ruleset we use if two books offer something different, how something unclear in crossover works, or whatever else you think needs to be decided on ahead of time.

Note: This is NOT a place for house rules suggestions (that is, blatantly new rules or contradictions to the books), only for ironing out existing inconsistencies or lack of information. As well, I'm unlikely to give a full ruling here and now, this is mostly to compile the questions together so I can work through them and have them ready for launch, where needed.

Note2: I've already started working through Auras (Predatory Aura, Hunter's Aspect, Nimbus, who can detect who and defend with what), Soul Loss (CofD vs Rules Update/Mage/Vampire), and Clash of Wills (mortal pools, 'generic' pools when a power isn't needed). So don't worry about mentioning those.

[BloodyQuill]

Auspex jumps to mind for vampire. Will we be limited strictly to the sample questions in the book or will it be a case by case issue or will we just expand the list to other common questions?

[Sciencecat]

Table-turner Merit allows you to roll first in a social conflict even though the other one initiated it.

Does this need to be declared before or after the first initiator has made their roll?
If so, do players need to OOC:ly declare to other players "I intend to roll persuade against you" to let other players have a chance to activate table-turner first?

[Ephsy]

Certain passages in different books state that supernaturals (most prominently, Werewolves & Vampires) can automagically sense eachother's predatory aura, problem being, there's no actual systems described for this, if it's only merely applied to these two splats, or how they would attempting to go incognito.

I believe this should be considered, particularly with regards at how easily it may be to spot other supernaturals if the name of the game is "we're all aware of the shadows all around us".

[Cinn]

I just want to know how explosives work in 2.0.

^_^

[Cinn]

Also, do you have to invest in shared merits to have access for them (in a motley of four, could three people invest in neighbourhood/safe place/motley and still benefit the fourth member)?

Is Professional Training going to be available for multiple professions per character? My interpretation of RAW was that the only merits available in more than one instance were the ones that specifically said so in the text (allies, status, etc).

How will mystery cults be handled? Are players meant to start out as low-ranking members of pre-existing cults, or can we start as the head of our very own following?

[ChrisF]

Added Auspex and tableturner to my list. Though I can tell you now my ruling on Auspex will PROBABLY be samples are just that, and you can ask anything reasonable.

As for auras, I've been working through that already, don't worry.

And explosives are going to be in hurt locker, and are currently drafted here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2K8R3 ... MtUWc/view
Not saying that's a final ruling, since it's not a published book yet, but my thinking is that it will hopefully be out (It's in layout) before anyone blows things up. Hopefully. If not, I'll deal with it at the time!

As for shared merits, I believe most of them say they need dots contributed to benefit (safe place, for instance), but I'll be sure we clarify that in character creation.

Professional Training is added to my list to look into. That'll likely be a character creation thing though, not a rules clarification.

Mystery Cults that aren't already posted in some format should be discussed with StoryMasters, but yes, players can make them, though should have more interest than just themselves if possible when submitting it. As for the initiation merit itself, that's going to be clarified a bit in character creation soon.

[Sciencecat]

As for shared merits, I believe most of them say they need dots contributed to benefit (safe place, for instance), but I'll be sure we clarify that in character creation.

I am part of a group that will hit the 5-max-bar for Neighborhood, Haven and Safe-place very easily. Does everyone part of the group still need to invest in all these three merits? If everyone needs to invest and we break the "roof", what happens with the overspent merits? Do we gain additional bonuses, or is five still the top?

[BloodyQuill]

One of the sticky parts of shared merits is keeping all the players sanctioned/active that contributed to the purchase. Im curious how we'll handle it in 5.0 actually.

[Sciencecat]

One of the sticky parts of shared merits is keeping all the players sanctioned/active that contributed to the purchase. Im curious how we'll handle it in 5.0 actually.

Yeah. Some of these merits make more sense in table-top where you have smaller, active groups.

If we end up with 10-ish players in the Kinsella family, does EVERYONE have to pump 3 of their merit points into merits to get to live in the house/act in our domain?

That's a total of 30 XP to gain the benefit of 15 XP spent!
Couldn't it be like with the Library Merit, where others can use it if you give them your permission?

[praetor]

New system, that's more like... 3exp.

Though your point remains.

[ChrisF]

In fairness, it's each person paying 3xp for 15xp worth of merit bonus. Some things can be shared with non-buyers, like safe place lets others live there if you want, and it'd still be hard to get inside, but those that don't contribute wouldn't get the initiative bonus.

But either way, I'll consider if it should work that way or not, and take this input into account.

[Sciencecat]

New system, that's more like... 3exp.

Though your point remains.

That's what I said though? Every play invests 3 XP, but in total we "overspend" by some 15 points.

And I'm fine with not retaining initiative bonuses and what not, fair enough, though it prolly should be clarified.

[Sciencecat]

The Changeling Merit Hedge-beast lets you buy merits for your Hedge-beast.

Will any of the merits be limited in this purchase (Could I for instance buy shared hollow with it? Or buy tokens?) and what access will I have to the merits I buy with it? I understand that if I buy status or allies, they are HIS allies and HIS status, but if I buy a merit that in theory could be shared, can I use it?

What I am trying to ask, could I get a Donkey with resources five who vomits gold for me, or will he want to keep the gold because it is his?

[Sciencecat]

After discussing it in the chat, some players were unsure how we were going to handle animals in the chat.

Some suggests they should go under the "retainer" rule, which however would clash with the Hedgebeast companion as you can only build it to max rank 3 dots.

The example in the Changeling document is to use the stats for the animals found in the core rule-book. There were very few animals in the core rule book, thus they were expanded upon here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xMw ... qjmpo/edit#

Following this link
http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main ... ower-cards

How will we be dealing with having animal companions? Will they get their stats and ability scores from the expanded rules, core-book only or will they be built with the retainer merit... Or some other way?