House Rules/Merits
This is a list of house rules specifically for merits.
Contents
Changeling Merits
- Bastion Amenities/Battlements/Size See 'news bastions'
- Enchanted Mortal: Mortal and Mortal+ characters may both take this merit.
- Goodwill: Goodwill requires a vote of the Court in question, and the members of that court decide whether or not the merit will be given.
- Hollow Amenities/Doors/Size/Wards/Workshop: See 'news hollows'
- Mantle: This requires at least a sentence of justification to raise.
- Seeming: Must be Fae-touched to take this merit.
Hollow Garden
This merit is designed to represent how much of your Hollow has been readied to support growing Hedgefruit. You cannot have more dots in Hollow Garden than you have in Hollow Size. Each dot of Hollow Garden is equivalent to the same amount of space as that number of dots in Hollow Size.
Example: You have a Size 5 Hollow and purchase Garden 1, to represent that an area the size of a small room has been cleared and tilled and fed tasty corpses for growing plants in.
Each dot in Hollow Garden increases the number of plants you may grow in your Hollow. Plants are rated with "plot" values, corresponding to how much space/energy/care they will take. You may not grow more plants than you have plots to support them. See Hollow Gardens for more details.
| Hollow Garden • | 6 plots |
| Hollow Garden •• | 12 plots |
| Hollow Garden ••• | 18 plots |
| Hollow Garden •••• | 24 plots |
| Hollow Garden ••••• | 30 plots |
Psychic Merits
These merits are a blend of Second Sight (SS) and GMC (GMC). Many psychic abilities formerly available were removed in GMC. Fate's Harvest staff thinks they are still shiny, so there will be a few House Rules to make things mesh. If a merit was created for Fate's Harvest by staff, it is marked with (HR) for House Rule.
All "Options" are available in SS merits. All "Drawbacks" are required in GMC merits.
- If you have any of these merits, you are considered a Psychic.
- If you have any of these merits, but also follow a Tradition (Hedge Witch, Shaman, Apostle, etc.) you are considered a Thaumaturge.
- Animal Rapport: Dot value depends on Size of animal. See book.
- Clairvoyant •: This merit allows a psychic to add an alternate method of scrying to her repertoire. It may be purchased multiple times. Specify a new scrying method (crystal ball gazing, etc.) with each purchase.
- Death Sight: Brought down to 3 dots instead of 4, to mesh with scaling of GMC Medium ability. Medium is not used in FH due to staff's preference for certain SS psychic merits which it would preclude.
- Psychic Empathy: Prerequisites are Aura Reading & Telepathy
- Psychic Illusions: Prerequisites are Mind Control & Telepathy
- Psychokinetic Immunity: Your character is completely immune to manifestations of his psychokinetic element. If a Doubting Thomas is present, a successful Stamina + Resolve roll is required to maintain complete protection. If the roll fails, the merit instead provides 1 point of armor that protects only against that element's damage.
- Psychic Invisibility: Prerequisites are Mind Control & Telepathy
- Telepathic Communication: Thought Projection is now unnecessary, as it is covered by Telepathy. Prerequisite is Telepathy •••••. In addition, activating the power does not require the expenditure of Willpower if the Telepathy merit has already been successfully activated for the scene. Roll Presence + Empathy, succeed, and you can trade thoughts for the scene at will, as long as the target is within sight.
- Telepathic Rapport: As Thought Projection no longer exists and Mind Reading IS Telepathy, a rapport may now be made after successfully communicating a message to the target with Telepathy ••••• and spending the requisite Willpower dot. Note: dot, not point. New dots may be purchased for 8xp, as usual.
- Telepathy: Staff is retaining some SS functionality. With ••• you cannot read Supernaturals' thoughts. With ••••• you may, subtracting their Resolve + Supernatural Advantage (if it's a player on FH, that'll be Wyrd!) from your regular Wits + Empathy roll.
Biokinesis
The GMC functionality has been retained (1 Willpower + 1 minute of concentration = shift Physical attribute dots around; only shift as many dots as you have dots in Biokinesis, and no attribute can go above 5 dots).
Of what was possible in SS, the following has been retained: Passive Bonus: +1 dice bonus per Biokinesis merit dot to rolls for entering a trance/beginning meditation
- Roll extended Intelligence + Composure to acquire one temporary merit-equivalent, spending successes to 'buy' them.
- The psychic must meet all prerequisites for the merit she attempts to give herself.
- The psychic must have Biokinesis dots equal to success-cost + 1. (e.g. a 1-success merit requires Biokinesis ••)
- Effects last 1 scene unless specified otherwise.
- If one of the extended rolls is an Exceptional Success, the psychic may choose a second effect to spend successes on.
- Each roll's duration represents minutes equal to the desired trait's success cost. Only one (or two with Exceptional) effect may be active at a time.
- Biokinesis Merit List:
- Eidetic Memory (WoD p.108) - 2 successes
- Fast Reflexes (WoD p.110) - 1 or 2 successes
- Fleet of Foot (WoD p.112) - 1-3 successes
- Fresh Start (WoD p.112) - 1 success
- Improved Awareness (SS p.46) - 1-3 successes
- Improved Immune System (SS pp.46-7) - 4 successes - Duration varies depending on illness/drug severity. See book.
- Iron Stamina (WoD p.113) - 1-3 successes
- Iron Stomach (WoD p.113) - 2 successes
- Natural Immunity (WoD p.113) - 1 success - Lasts 1 day per Biokinesis dot or until Biokinesis is used again, whichever comes first.
- Pain Resistance (SS p.47) - 3 successes
- Quick Healer (WoD p.113) - 4 successes - Lasts 1 day per Biokinesis dot or until Biokinesis is used again, whichever comes first.
- Strong Back (WoD p.113) - 1 success
- Strong Lungs (WoD p.113) - 3 successes
- Toxin Resistance (WoD p.113) - 2 successes - Lasts 1 day per Biokinesis dot or until Biokinesis is used again, whichever comes first.
- Biokinesis Merit List:
Psychokinesis
To keep psychokinesis in line with other psychic powers and compensate for higher GMC Defense ratings, rather than subtracting Resolve from attacks, use: half Defense (round down) for direct physical attacks (lashing out with fire), Stamina for attacks on the body (dropping someone's body temp).
| Short | Yards equal to psychic's Intelligence + Wits + Psychokinesis |
| Medium | Twice the above distance (-2 penalty on attack pool) |
| Long | Twice medium range (-4 penalty on attack pool) |
Psychokinetic Shaping
Prerequisite: Psychokinesis ••• - Your character is more skilled than most at manipulating how an existing manifestation of his element behaves. The electricity in a fallen power line might arc out to strike a foe, a line of fire might streak across the earth to form a flaming wall, or a cup of water might be drawn up into a sculpted, tiny horse to 'spill' its way along a table's edge.
This merit acts in concert with standard Psychokinesis rolls.
Whenever your psychic chooses to spend successes on shaping his chosen element, gain a +3 bonus to your Intelligence + Crafts roll.
Aura Reading
Since the GMC writeup doesn't specifically say so, staff clarifies that the following SS functionality is retained: dematerialized ghosts/spirits/astral projectors show up as faint wispy blobs with this power, enough to show that something is there without showing what, necessarily, it is.
Staff is not going to insist upon a chart of aura colors, but if you prefer to have one, the following chart is based on http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Aura. Additions have been made.
As a general rule, the more strongly someone feels something, the more brightly that color appears.
| Afraid | Orange |
| Aggressive | Purple |
| Angry | Red |
| Anxious | Aura is scrambled like static/white noise |
| Bitter | Brown |
| Calm | Light Blue |
| Compassionate | Pink |
| Confused | Mottled, shifting colors |
| Conservative | Lavender |
| Daydreaming | Sharp, flickering colors |
| Depressed | Gray |
| Desirous/Lustful | Deep Red |
| Distrustful | Light Green |
| Envious | Dark Green |
| Excited | Violet |
| Frenzied | Rapidly rippling colors |
| Generous | Rose |
| Happy | Vermilion |
| Hateful | Black |
| Idealistic | Yellow |
| Innocent | White |
| Lovestruck | Blue |
| Obsessed | Green |
| Psychotic | Hypnotically swirling colors |
| Sad | Silver |
| Spiritual | Gold |
| Suspicious | Dark Blue |
| True Faith | Halo of silver/gold, brighter if more faithful |
| Changeling | Iridescent highlights in aura; brighter/more rainbowy with higher Wyrd |
| Diablerist | Black veins in aura |
| Ensorcelled | Single iridescent vein in aura |
| Faerie | Brilliant rainbow highlights in aura |
| Fae-touched | Iridescent splotches in aura |
| Ghost | Weak, intermittent aura |
| Ghoul | Pale blotches in aura |
| Mage | Myriad sparkles in aura |
| Pledge-bound | Fine threads of scarlet in the aura |
| Thaumaturge | The occasional sparkle in aura |
| Vampire | Aura colors are pale, washed out |
| Werewolf | Very bright, vibrant aura |
| Wolfblooded | Always slightly brighter than it should be |
Thaumaturgical Merits
- Dream Travel: The merit itself is the same, but when purchasing via +xp/buy, to avoid conflicts with the Psychic Dream Travel merit, this merit is called 'shamanic dream travel' instead.
- Familiar: When purchasing via +xp/buy, use 'familiar (twilight)' and 'familiar (embodied)' to differentiate between the two variations on the merit.
- See Auras: Use tables listed under Psychic 'Aura Reading' above.
- The Last Spell: This is found in errata at http://www.conradhubbard.com/games/secondsightcut.html
Universal Merits
- Kin: Mind you, this is useless to anybody who doesn't intend to pursue interactions with werewolf NPCs. There are no player werewolves.
- Hobbyist Clique: Send in a group +request to staff with all prospective members to briefly explain the clique. Staff will set the merit on all members.
- Psychic Resistance: Since the book was written before Changelings became A Thing, assume that they are on the list with other supernatural beasties this won't work for.
- Striking Looks: If you purchase this merit, please include 'SL1' or 'SL2' in your &short-desc. Mechanically you are more noticeable and memorable.
Professional Training
| Suggested Professions & Asset Skills | |
|---|---|
| Profession | Asset Skills |
| Academic | Academics, Science |
| Artist | Crafts, Expression |
| Athlete | Athletics,Medicine |
| Cop | Streetwise, Firearms |
| Criminal | Larceny, Streetwise |
| Detective | Empathy, Investigation |
| Doctor | Empathy, Medicine |
| Engineer | Crafts, Science |
| Hacker | Computer, Science |
| Hit Man | Firearms, Stealth |
| Journalist | Expression, Investigation |
| Laborer | Athletics, Crafts |
| Occultist | Investigation, Occult |
| Politician | Politics, Subterfuge |
| Professional | Academics, Persuasion |
| Religious Leader | Academics, Occult |
| Scientist | Investigation, Science |
| Socialite | Politics, Socialize |
| Stuntman | Athletics, Drive |
| Survivalist | Animal Ken, Survival |
| Soldier | Firearms, Survival |
| Technician | Crafts, Investigation |
| Thug | Brawl, Intimidation |
| Vagrant | Streetwise, Survival |
Mystery Cult Initiation
If you are joining an existing cult, please send in a +request and CC the cult leader. Staff will not add you to a cult without a comment on your +job from the cult leader consenting that you qualify as an Initiate.
If you are beginning a new cult, your +request must include the following information:
- Purpose - Why does your cult exist?
- Relic - An item which grounds members' faith.
- Doctrine - The rules and traditions which define your cult.
See the book for details and examples of the benefits each level of the cult's merit will provide.
Please include suggestions for your cult along those lines.
