House Rules
House Rules
This page is the home of all House Rules on Fate's Harvest. For sanity's sake, and concision's sake, where the HR is written on another page, this page will link to that rather than duplicate the information.
A House Rule is, by definition, up to the opinion of staff to create. Many HRs have been formed as workarounds to blend the current Changeling: the Lost game with the requirements of GMC, and many of these are already extant within the game itself via the news command, +psyroll and others.
It is safe to say that if something is not mentioned here, it operates per standard book rules. If you have a question, or believe staff has made an oopsident and forgotten something which SHOULD be here, please send up a +request!
Contents
GMC
As the game is a blend of two different publications, certain situations fall under one category or another. As the MUX is primarily a Changeling game, for example, the Changeling XP schema is used instead of Beats and Conditions.
See the GMC page for a comprehensive list of what is and is not derived from the God Machine Chronicles rulebook.
The vast majority of basic mortal mechanics ARE taken from GMC. Typically speaking, WoD rules are used where A) GMC streamlined out something staff thought was cool, or B) where GMC just didn't have something at all.
Changeling
Clarity
This information is also written in 'news clarity'
As is made very clear in the books, Clarity is not morality. Clarity is a measure of how well a changeling balances being caught between two worlds. Acts of capricious passion and violence are considered threatening to Clarity not because they are morally wrong, but because they harken back to the horrors and sublime egocentrism of the Keepers.
Changeling 2.0 isn't out yet (and we will not be switching to it), but GMC is, which means the old hierarchy of Clarity "sins" does not mesh with our mortal players.
To streamline Becomings and keep our game consistent, staff has decided on a compromise for Breaking Points.
The old "sins" will be kept as so-called "standard" Breaking Points. They still apply to every character, and apply penalties as per the chart below, depending on which level the break is for. (See news clarity sins)
The points you choose during chargen are in addition to these, to flesh out your character's personality.
You don't need to roll if:
- Your Clarity is lower than a "standard" Breaking Point's former "sin" level.
You do need to roll if:
- Your Clarity is equal to or higher than a "standard" BP's former "sin" level. - You hit a personal Breaking Point. Your personal points are up to you (or your ST) to judge.
If you go through a Becoming, you will have a chance to edit your Breaking Points to reflect changes in what would still damage your psyche after your Keeper's tender mercies.
Plus or minus any situational modifiers, as with Integrity, rolling to preserve/lose Clarity after a Breaking Point will be a Resolve + Composure roll with a base bonus/penalty determined by your current Clarity. See the chart below.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 ====================================================================== +3 +2 +2 +1 +1 0 -1 -1 -2 -2 -3
"Why, characters at Clarity 0 can't be played! Why have it on the scale?" you might ask. Fate's Harvest is designed for the end-game. If you want to end your character's PC story by becoming a True Fae, the books offer some lovely tips, and Clarity 0 WILL be a thing. Briefly. In your final moments of glory, before staff relegates you to NPC status.
(Note that this affects the Lucidity Contract, Changelings.)
Example:
- Damian the Darkling has Clarity 4.
- He's having a fine old time in his sports car, and runs over a kid.
- That's a standard Breaking Point. Manslaughter, especially of a kid, is not good.
- But wait! Damian lost a son when he was Taken.
- One of his personal Breaking Points is causing children to be harmed.
- He decides that, to be fair, joyriding and carelessly killing a kid would deeply affect Damian's state of mind. It's just too much like what his Keeper used to do. He gives himself a -2 (or his ST does) penalty on the roll.
- Damian rolls: +roll resolve+composure-1-2 to a +job.
- --> He is at -1 to start with because his Clarity is 4. He has slipped far enough already that it's harder for him to retain clarity than it would be for someone with higher clarity.)
- --> He has a -2 penalty because he chose to apply a second breaking point to the roll.
- Note that if he hadn't chosen to apply the -2 Breaking Point, his penalty would have been -1, to reflect the level 4 "sin" of manslaughter.
- In a case where a Clarity break could reflect multiple Breaking Points, always choose the option with the higher penalty.
- If he passes, good, he's all set. He keeps his current Clarity level.
- If he fails... he loses a Clarity level.
- On top of that, he rolls his new Clarity as a dice pool to determine whether or not he acquires a derangement to go with it.
Example:
- Lucinda the Beast has Clarity 7.
- She's at a party, and does some very excellent drugs. What a trip!
- ...except it stops being great when she realises her Keeper's realm was awfully similar...
- This is a standard Breaking Point at level 7.
- Lucinda rolls: +roll resolve+composure+1-1 to a +job.
- --> She is at +1 to start with because her Clarity is 7.
- --> She has a -1 penalty because that is the penalty for level 7 "sins."
High Wyrd
See the High Wyrd page for a synopsis of what it means to be High Wyrd on Fate's Harvest, as well as a list of High Wyrd kith bonuses.
NOTE: The Seeming bonuses are not written here, but please bear in mind that every Seeming has a specific set of blessings and curses which begin to affect you as of Wyrd 7, and get progressively worse the higher your Wyrd gets. See p.15 of Equinox Road for the beginning of the chapter which describes them.
If a kith's High Wyrd benefit has not been changed, it will not be listed on our site. Some kiths never received bonuses at all, and if a player of one of these kiths reaches Wyrd 7 and would like to submit a suggestion, staff is open to recommendations!
Kiths
- Darkling Nightsinger blessing: the book says to roll "Performance + Wyrd" but there is no Performance stat. Expression has been substituted.
- Wizened Pamarindo blessing: original kith bonus used Iron Stomach, but Hardy replaced that merit in GMC. Gain 1-dot Hardy merit instead.
- Ogre Bloodbrute blessing: original bonus uses the Melee Weapons Chart on WoD p.170, but we are using GMC weapons. Substitute the chart on GMC p.202.
- Ogre Oni blessing: original specifies Morality 6. We are using Integrity, so that will be Integrity 6.
"Standard" Breaking Points
The following is a list of the standard Changeling breaking points.
By nature of the bonuses and penalties involved in streamlining to better match GMC and mortal Integrity, Clarity rolls are somewhat more forgiving than they would be in standard CtL.
Add the modifier below to any rolls based on the listed breaking points at that level.
| Clarity Sins - "Standard" Breaking Points | ||
|---|---|---|
| CLARITY | MOD | BREAKING POINTS |
| 10 | 0 | Entering the Hedge. Dreamwalking. Using magic to accomplish a task when it could be achieved just as well without. Minor unexpected life changes. |
| 9 | 0 | Using tokens or other mystical items. Going a day without human contact. Minor selfish acts. |
| 8 | 0 | Breaking mundane promises or commitments, especially to attend to faerie matters. Changing Courts. Injury to another (accidental or otherwise). |
| 7 | -1 | Taking psychotropic drugs. Serious unexpected life changes. Petty theft. |
| 6 | -1 | Revealing your true form to unensorcelled mortals. Going a week without human contact. Obvious displays of magic in front of witnesses. Grand theft (burglary). |
| 5 | -1 | Killing another changeling. Killing a fetch. |
| 4 | -1 | Breaking formal oaths or pledges. Extreme unexpected life changes (pregnancy, losing a loved one, etc.). Impassioned or impulsive serious crimes (manslaughter). |
| 3 | -2 | Actively harming a mortal by ravaging their dreams. Going a month without human contact. Kidnapping. Developing a derangement.* |
| 2 | -2 | Killing a human. Casual/callous crime against other supernaturals (serial murder). |
| 1 | -2 | Spending time in Arcadia. Prolonged or intimate contact with the True Fae. Mortal identity is suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed, totally abandoned or otherwise fundamentally changed. Heinous acts of torture, depravity or perversion. |
* Does not include derangements brought on by failed Clarity degeneration rolls.
Mien Guidelines
- See the Mien Guidelines page.
Wyrd Evolution
When you hit Wyrd 5 and, later, Wyrd 9, you have the option to gain another kith.
- For an example showing the absolute maximum number of kiths you could possibly have:
- You start out as a Fireheart.
- You decide to purchase the Dual Kith merit after you've been playing for a while, since you've decided your character was used as an ornament by your Keeper, and add the Treasured kith.
- At Wyrd 5, you evolve to Bright One, because you reason that your character's flames have been getting stronger, so it makes sense that you would have evolved to be able to illuminate your surroundings at will.
- Then you join the Pilgrims of the Endless Road, and while you have a Wits advantage from Fireheart, you're better at resisting things from Treasured and you can glow from Bright One, you don't really have any social bonuses. You decide to take Flamesiren as the benefit for that Entitlement, since it helps fill in an area your other kiths don't cover yet.
- Lastly, you've been playing for a while, and you'd like to try another character. You decide to go for Wyrd 9, and take the evo there. After giving it some thought, you decide to take the Darkling kith Mirrorskin, to reflect how mutable and fickle your character's grasp on his appearance has become.
As you can see, the Wyrd evolution did not happen at random. The kiths chosen reflect CURRENT character traits, but the player wants to bring them out and get mechanical benefits for them. If you are constantly doing grunt work, you are likely to evolve into kiths which help you do grunt work better, but you are not likely to become a glass ballerina.
Once you decide you want to go for Wyrd evolution, start playing it up. You're changing in minor ways before the PRP happens and finalizes everything. If you're already an Ogre and you're going for a Beast kith to be more boar-like, maybe you start noticing that your beard keeps growing back faster, that your hair is getting bristlier on your arms, stiffer, in the months leading up to the change.
Merits
As Merits have their own page on the wiki, and the house rules are rather lengthy, they're on their own page and can be found at House_Rules/Merits.
If a merit has (HR) after its name, it was created for Fate's Harvest, and is not found in any book.
Equipment
- Polearms: Despite the Strength requirement in the books being 4, it makes no sense for these weapons to require Strength 4 to wield. Instead, they are House Ruled to have a requirement of Strength 2.
