House Rules

House Rules

House Rules are, by definition, created at the discretion of staff. Many HRs have been formed as workarounds to blend first edition Changeling: the Lost with the requirements of GMC, and many of these are already extant within the game itself via the news command, +psyroll and others.

In most cases, it is safe to assume that if something does not appear on this list or the GMC page, it operates per standard book rules.

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. 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.

See the GMC page for a comprehensive list of what is and is not derived from the God Machine Chronicles rulebook.

Dice

We use a sliding scale for dice rolling. Start from the standard 10-again then move up a step for each distinct 9-again you receive, then move back down for each penalty you might have.

• /weak - No 10-again, subtract 1s from successes.
• /0 - No 10-again, don't reroll 10s.
• No Flag - This is where you start. Reroll 10s as usual.
• /9 - 9-again, reroll 9s and 10s both.
• /8 - 8-again, reroll 8s, 9s and 10s!

For example, if you're a Darkling Palewraith, you get 9-again to Stealth from both your seeming and your kith. This stacks and becomes 8-again. If you had another 9-again from something else, it would not be of any further benefit.

Rote (reroll all non-successes once) is its own separate thing, unchanged by this HR.

Obtaining Things

Not all, but some stats, such as high Wyrd or tokens require either a PrP or Justification before they can be obtained. A list of those things can be found at Justifications.

Time - How Long Does That Power Really Last?

Annapurna's in agreement with the staff over on Fallcoast on this one.

For powers which last a specific time duration or can only be done once a <time>, use the following table:

3s	=	Turn
3h/scene	=	Scene
1 day	=	Session
1 week	=	Chapter
1 month	=	Story
6 months	=	Chronicle

Archery/Bows

This is a clarification more than a House Rule. The Armory book mucked up the tidy mechanics for these, and we are choosing to ignore that.

• Projectile weapons use Firearms.
• Thrown weapons use Athletics.

Ergo, all types of bows use the Firearms skill.

Changeling

Age Limits

This elaborates upon what is written on the Age page.

In both cases below, you can wiggle around oddball time periods by saying that someone else dragged you away/helped you escape, even if your own memories of the human world are sketchy at best. Please make sure you write this in your +bg if you decide to go this route.

How long ago could I have been taken?

Staff is extending the by-the-book age limit here to 100 years. To be very clear: this refers to the span of Mortal world time between the date you were taken and the date when you escaped.

For an extreme example:

• Thomas was taken in 1807, at age 15.

He escaped in 1907 (100 years later, the maximum allowed), but only aged 10 years while in Arcadia, leaving his physical age at 25.

Now, as a regular human being, he could expect to live between 75-100 years, in which case he would ordinarily die between 1957 - 1982.

However... he is a Changeling. Per the handy dandy table on CtL p.174, even Wyrd 1 extends your life by +10 years. At Wyrd 5, his life is extended +50 years, putting his estimated range of death up between 2007 - 2032, so today he would appear to be somewhere in his 70s or 80s, an older man.

How long you subjectively believe you were in Arcadia is up to you. Time is relative, and your Keeper may well have a realm where every faerie day, a mortal year passes. Or vice versa!

Please bear in mind that if your character's Keeper kept her in there for "millennia," staff will eyeball your background more than usual... :) It's extremely unlikely that you would still have the memories/ties to your mortal self left to escape after having been there for that long. This goes doubly for characters who were Elementals or Beasts, as those particular Seemings specifically mindforn you.

How young could I have been?

Hard limit: staff will NOT approve any concept with a character who was younger than 10 real-world years old when s/he was taken by the Fae.

Your ability to escape the Hedge is predicated on having a tie to the human world, on having had enough of a life there to form the right intensity of memory. Little kids just don't have the same kind of cognitive structure as adults, and, frankly, they are more malleable overall, and more likely to be changed beyond the point where they COULD return to the human world at all.

Clarity

NOTE TO STAFF: This (and thereby likely 'news clarity') needs to be updated to be consistent with the breaking point rules on the GMC page. Examples below refer to degradation/derangement rolls, but we've HRed those. We need better cross-referencing between the HR and GMC page wherever possible. Like here. Also, aim for concision. Might also be nice to move the list of Standard Breaking Points off to its own place (or the GMC page) where it can be consolidated for all spheres.

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.)

Clarity Sins

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 Changeling 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.

Examples

Example 1:

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 (or his ST) gives himself a -2 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 2:

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 realizes 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."

Dropping Clarity in Chargen

At Fate's Harvest, we do allow for dropping Clarity in Character Generation to award xp. At Clarity 6, you gain 5xp. At Clarity 5, you gain another 5, for a total of 10.

Unlike the book, however, we do require rolls to check for Derangements if this method is used.

Contracts

See Contracts for all allowed options, including custom Contracts. See House Rules/Custom Contracts for how to create said custom Contracts.

Artifice 5: Cost to extend the duration is a "blessing" from a Token/Trinket/any other Hedge item + 1 Willpower.

Eternal Summer 5: Instead of subtracting full Defense, halve it and round down.

Eternal Winter 4: Instead of subtracting full Defense, use the higher of Wits or Dexterity.

Fleeting Spring 2: Exceptional success is no longer permanent. It lasts 2 days per success.

Fleeting Winter 3: Round up when determining the dice penalty to Social rolls.

Fleeting Winter 4: Exceptional success is no longer "until the changeling releases it" in perpetuity. It lasts 2 days per success. The changeling may release it at any point during that time period.

Four Directions 4: Exceptional success blessing is specifically the ability to sense the direction of an incursion (i.e. to know that it was in the "living room", but not "third window from the left of the bookshelf in the living room").

Lucidity: Reminder: Clarity rolls are house ruled here. See the "Clarity" and "Standard Breaking Points" House Rules for advice on how we have adapted the old system into the new.

Mirror 1: Clarification: The new appearance chosen may be a blend of kiths to represent someone with Dual Kith/Wyrd Evolution. Have fun!

Potential 1: Dawn Mantle is added to the roll, to bring it more into alignment with other Court Contracts.

Potential 2: Dawn Mantle is added to the roll.

Potential 3: Dawn Mantle is added to the roll.

Potential 5: Dawn Mantle is added to the roll.

Separation 5: You are NOT invisible. You are intangible. You can say you look misty or like a ghost, but you are still _visibly_ there. In addition, you are not fully in Twilight (especially in the Hedge, where there IS no Twilight at all), because by the writeup, you are still seeing/interacting with the material world. You cannot see ghosts. They, however, can see you. This is explicitly to preserve the utility of the Shade clauses.

Court Titles and Positions

House rules and policies pertaining to the titles and positions a changeling can hold within their court can be found at House Rules/Court Titles and Positions.

Entitlements

Certain Entitlements have been House Ruled to gain additional or modified privileges, to better accommodate the relative value of their prerequisites and supposed IC thematic power.

These house rules are subject to change if abused, as usual.

• The Adjudicators of the Wheel - Adjudicators may use Hearth clauses at range. They are no longer limited to being in physical contact with the recipient.
• Bodhisattvas of the Broken Cage - Once per day, they may select a single target. The Bodhisattva gains a pool of dice equal to his own Wyrd score which may be split however he prefers on any actions related to furthering the "growth" of his chosen charge. Dice are not a damage bonus, but may be used as an attack bonus.
• College of Worms - The Diviner's training has left her extremely sensitive to her environment. Always watching for signs of Fate at work means they are more likely than most to spot something unusual. They gain a +2 bonus on all Perception (Wits+Composure) rolls.
• The Duchy of Truth and Loss - Due to their skills at studying potential Fetches, Dukes/Duchesses gain a +2 bonus on all Investigation rolls.
• The Family of Silent Nights - Gain a +2 on all Empathy-related rolls to manipulate dreams. This bonus does not apply to Empathy rolls outside of dreams.
• The Guild of Goldspinners - Goldspinners are accustomed to examining the motives and personalities of those they serve. They gain a +2 bonus when detecting Subterfuge. In addition, they are REALLY good at guessing what somebody's name is. ;) For each person they meet, the Goldspinner may roll one die. Any successes mean they guess a target's name, or one of their names, if the target has multiple aliases. The Goldspinner does not know whether or not this guess is correct, and this effect only works once per person.
• Guild of the Sacred Journey - Gain +2 dice to (Non Combat) rolls to avoid situations that would impede the delivery of a message. Example: Drive, Althletics, Dodge. Stealth. Persuasion. You are exceptionally talented at getting from point A to B.
• The Hedge Wardens - Hedge Wardens are particularly observant in their own territory. Gain the effects of the Danger Sense merit when in a section of Hedge they have claimed for their own patrols. If the merit is already on their sheet, they gain an additional +1 to their rolls, making the total bonus a +3.
• Knighthood of the Dragonslayer - The Knight gains a +2 circumstance bonus on any Clarity degeneration rolls made while performing his duty. His moral certitude assures him of his path through all but the most heinous acts.
• Knights of the Knowledge of the Tongue - The existing +3 bonus to locate ingredients in the Hedge for a meal has the following revision: This does not need apply to an upcoming meal if the Knight has tasted it before. Rumors persist that canibalistic Changelings have used this to find changeling meals that have escaped them. Separately, the Knights gain +2 to identify dried/cooked/stewed goblin fruits/hobgoblins by scent, sight or taste, through long experience working with Hedge cuisine.
• The Legion of the Iron Wall - Warmasters train to fight in groups, and when fighting in a group of three or more, their skill at coordinating efforts affords a +1 Defense bonus to the entire group.
• The Lost Pantheon - The Ancient has more control over his own Mask, but risks accidental revelations of his godly being by exercising it. By spending 3 Glamour and 1 Willpower, he may drop the Mask on command, but for the next 24 hours, must roll Resolve + Composure when feeling any strong passions. On failure, any unensorcelled mortals catch a brief glimpse of some part of the deity's Mien.
• Magi of the Gilded Thorn - Gain a +2 bonus to navigation rolls of any kind made in the Hedge.
• Magistrates of the Wax Mask - One wouldn't like to be labeled a busybody or a bully, no no; once per day, a Magistrate may apply a +3 bonus to a Persuasion roll meant to bring someone around to their point of view through humble suggestions and delicate tact.
• Satrapy of Pearls - Satraps have an almost supernatural sense of relative value, and infallibly know the worth of an item for sale/being traded. This includes living creatures and people. In mechanical terms, they know the dot levels, and how many of Item A would balance out the dots of Item B. See the Goblin Markets book as a guideline.
• Scarecrow Ministry - The Scarecrow may roll Wyrd + Intimidation vs. Resolve + Composure once a day to frighten a Mortal (Mortal, Psychic, Thaumaturge) into avoiding a particular location.
• The Twilight Gleaners - The Gleaner's bonus/penalty is +2/-2 for the Gleaner himself.

Fetches

See the Fetches page. While most of the information is derived directly from CtL and AN, a fair amount is specific to the stance the changelings in our game take toward their fetches and the powers thereof.

For playing PC fetches, please check the Fetches/Applications page.

Glamour

For the most part, Glamour works as in the standard CtL harvesting rules. In addition, Fate's Harvest has adopted/adapted the following, inspired by optional rulings from Rites of Spring:

• Just as you feel weak or ill or light-headed from lack of food or drink, having a low Glamour reserve is not a pleasant feeling. Staying tip-top full is as satisfying as eating a hearty meal.
• You may voluntarily gift 1 point of Glamour per turn (3s) to any target you can touch. If you are in a noncorporeal form, that doesn't count as touching. I'm looking at you, swirls of leaves and Separation-users.

If you would like to drain and attack others, please check out the Glamour Thief merit.

Goblin Contracts

• Calling the Guardian - In GMC, your Armor trait specifically reduces damage taken by attacks. The book phrasing does not state that the Guardian called will pierce Armor. Consequently, staff rules that your Armor blocks its value's worth of damage done by this contract. I.e. if you have 4 points of Armor and take 5 damage, you only take 1 damage. The knockback effect is unchanged; it still pushes you away.

Goblin Contracts (Custom)

http://fatesharvest.com/w/Goblin_Contracts

Goblin Fruit Inventory Management System

See the House Rules/HH page for a summary of the entire +hedgefruit/+fruit/+garden/+hh system. This is how Fate's Harvest handles fruit. Most of it is hands off, as far as staff is concerned; only certain fruits require staff support.

At the time of game opening, staff has added a particular subset of fruits to the system's automatic 'You Need To Ask Staff' list; this subset may change, depending upon what actually seems to be being abused.

Goodwill

See the Changeling/Goodwill page for details.

Staff is allowing players to buy up to 2 dots of Goodwill as a regular merit in CG, to represent past goodwill with the Courts. Anything above that must be earned ICly and won via Court-wide +votes. Having goodwill allows you to join the other Court's channel and, if the Court allows goodwillers in, to participate in Court events.

Hedge Duels

See the Hedge Duels page for our House Rules regarding Hedge Duels (and a brief summary of mechanics for your convenience).

Hedgespun

See the Hedgespinning page for our House Rules regarding Hedgespun items.

High Wyrd

High Wyrd blessings for each kith are listed on the main Kiths page as well as the individual category page for each kith. Most of these High Wyrd blessings are house ruled and will be noted as such.

High Wyrd blessings begin to benefit you once you hit Wyrd 7.

Remember that for every dot of Wyrd you buy 6+, you get frailties.

Seemings

Every Seeming has a specific set of blessings and curses which begin to affect you as of Wyrd 7 and get progressively more potent the higher your Wyrd gets. Each Seeming's blessings and curses, including those granted by High Wyrd, are listed on their individual Seeming category page. Those which are house ruled are noted below. See Equinox Road, starting on page 15, for the chapter which describes them.

Beast

• Wyrd 7 Blessing: Instead of an additional Animal Ken specialty, the spend a glamour to gain a die bonus is extended to Survival dice pools.
• Wyrd 8 Blessing: As such, the improvement to the spend a glamour gain two dice bonus is extended to include Survival dice pools.
• Wyrd 9 Blessing: Choose a free specialty in either Animal Ken (original) or Survival (new).

Fairest

• Wyrd 9 Blessing: Instead of halving all XP costs for Social Merit purchases, gain a single free dot in one of the following merits: Allies, Contacts, Fame, Retainer, Staff or Striking Looks; this dot will add to any existing owned dots but cannot bring a merit above its standard cap.

Example: If a fairest owns Striking Looks •, this dot can be used to bring it to Striking Looks ••, but a fairest with Striking Looks •• could not use this dot to exceed that merit's cap and gain Striking Looks •••.

Hospitality

Hospitality is something which is ICly beaten into your head the instant you join Changeling society. Even hobs have their own version. See CtL p.34-5 for the full writeup. That's what staff's stance is based on.

If your character has ever been a part of Changeling society, they WILL know what Hospitality means.

There is just no way to escape it. It's THE primary social convention Changelings have, to assure one another of mutual safety.

Basic Rules of Hospitality

This is directly from the book, and here as a courtesy/clarification.

1. The building is marked in some way (personal choice) to indicate that it operates under Hospitality.
2. The leader(s) enforces polite conduct.

   In effect, by marking your territory with Hospitality, you are swearing an oath to defend these rules with force and possibly with your life. This is NOT done lightly.

3. Duels are acceptable.
4. Don't attack anyone with magic (Contracts, tokens) or mundane violence (unless it is done with prior agreement).

   Non-violent Contracts do not count as attacks. 'Violent' in this case covers emotional manipulation/Fleeting clauses which would force someone to feel something you want them to feel, but using Contracts to, say, read someone's emotional state with the intention of avoiding a subject which might upset them would not be considered anti-Hospitality.

5. Honor any promises made there.
6. Anyone who claims sanctuary may stay there for at least one full day.

   They may be asked to leave after that time.

   Note: ANYONE who claims sanctuary. Even a True Fae could come there and you would be required to treat them with the same non-violent respect.

Custom Hospitality

Local variations and specific rules are allowed, per the book and per staff.

• These rules must be posted, in public, where anyone seeking Hospitality may see them.

(the Colors 2 Contract or other methods of leaving faerie-sight only messages would keep them safe from accidental mortal viewing)

• If they are not clearly written, violators are within their rights to claim that they did not know the non-standard rules existed.
• Custom rules must be explicit.

Example: saying "no sneaky shit" is not specific, and will quickly get you in trouble with Changelings who refuse to obey such a vague instruction.

Saying "No using Light-Shy (Smoke 5) while you are here" or "Call the owner the Grand Poobah of Periwinkle Lane" or "Never bring weapons into this house" would be a specific custom rule.

Hospitality's Hold Goblin Contract

Contracts are made with the Wyrd for specific agreements. Tit for tat.

It is staff's stance that the Hospitality's Hold goblin contract will react to violations of "Basic Hospitality", but not to custom rules added to further limit what is/is not permissible in your personal space, since they weren't part of the contract's original agreement.

Iron

Iron and its purity are controversial topics, and given that even when it was more popular, smiths were more concerned with the work than the science, exactitudes of purity are not going to be our benchmark for whether your weapon or the paperweight you desperately grab counts as cold iron.

• For the purposes of this game, if an item has high iron content (such as steel) it disgusts the Fae and wards them off; its presence is uncomfortable, but not yet painful. It has no inherent magical effect upon Fae defenses and Contracts.
• If an item is usually called "iron", such as a wrought iron fence or a cast iron skillet, it will cut through the Fae's defenses like butter...and yours, Changelings, if you are using tokens or hedgespun. It's always wise to have armour around which won't act like tissue paper against somebody with an iron sword. It does no additional damage. The True Fae find this iron physically painful to be near, and touching it feels like burning, as though the implement were hot out of the forge. If you want your torture implements, you've got them right here.
• If an item was beaten and hand-shaped without heat, with nothing but muscle power, out of either pure iron (not iron from an ore) or meteoric iron, it is "hand-forged iron" and in addition to cutting through Fae defenses, it is both LUDICROUSLY rare and expensive (5-dot resource item), and also does Aggravated damage against the True Fae when used to attack them. Otherwise it behaves as regular iron.

Iron vs. Changeling Magic

Players have asked questions/asked for clarifications, so we're posting the answers here for the sake of consistency.

• You can't affect iron with Hedgespun, Contracts, Kith blessings or Tokens.

Examples:

• If you are sheathed in Elements (Fire) 2 for Armor, that armor doesn't even exist as far as an iron weapon is concerned.
• Ditto for Hedgespun Armor. You receive no Armor bonus for wearing it if your attacker is using an iron weapon.
• Speaking of Fire, you couldn't use Elements (Fire) to, say, heat an iron sword. You could use fire control to help you raise the heat of the fire itself, but you couldn't use fire control directly on the sword to hold fire on it and heat it.
• If you happen to have cold iron handcuffs on, powers like Separation 2 will not work to let you 'free' yourself of the restraints.
• A set of Token lockpicks would have no effect on the cold iron handcuffs above.
• If you are using a Token/Separation 5 to walk through a wall, any iron in that wall will immediately cause the Contract to break. If you are already partially inside of the wall, yes, you will take the Agg damage the Contract specifies.
• If you have a Hedgespun sword and your friend is stuck in an iron cage, expect that sword to break if you attack that cage.
• Same for something like trying to pick the lock of iron shackles with a Hedgespun dagger.

• Carrying iron does not make you incapable of using Contracts or Kith blessings.

Examples:

• Having your hands bound up in iron handcuffs does not stop you from using most of your powers. You can't directly affect the shackles, but you can still use Contracts. See above: you can't affect iron directly. This means that a super magical Strength bonus wouldn't necessarily apply to tearing iron apart, though it would work just fine on regular steel.
• Being a Tunnelgrub wearing iron handcuffs is still a good deal, because you are changing your own body, not the iron.
• Same goes if you are using Mirror to physically alter your own body. You aren't using magic on the handcuffs. You're using the power on yourself.
• "GTFO" clauses such as Separation 5, Smoke 5, Elements 5, Fang & Talon 5, Eternal Autumn 4, etc., are not affected by having iron knives shoved into your body. You can still use the magic. You are transporting yourself. The iron just happens to be coming with you. Really, sheathing it in your own body is an inconvenient place to have it, but... Changelings be wyrd, yo.
• Shooting someone full of iron buckshot while they are using Elements 5 will not shock them out of the Contract, but it WILL do normal damage to them.

Kenning

Kenning, or "knowing," is a Changeling's innate ability to detect the supernatural in action. Per success rolled, it allows you to sense the presence of one nearby supernatural being, item, or magical effect within range of unaided sight (no binoculars, sneaky Changelings) which is not being actively concealed by any form of supernatural obfuscation.

Staff is using both the original rules on CtL p.92 and their enhancements on DitD p.65.

Certain aspects have been modified to better fit Fate's Harvest. Typically, if there is a ST around, the ST will do the rolling for you.

Changes:

Your Clarity rating does not stop you from Kenning. Apply your perception penalty or bonus (if any) to your Kenning roll.

You do not need to spend 1 Willpower to activate Kenning. To encourage the use of this ability, staff has removed the Willpower cost. Changelings may roll/have their ST roll for Kenning at any time.

Basic Kenning Mechanics

Roll Clarity +/- any applicable perception modifiers. Trained Observer does apply. This is an instant action.

See the failure/success list below for which standard abilities are available.

Per DitD's expanded rule set, the mechanics for detecting active Contracts/Goblin Contracts via Kenning are similar to those for detecting supernatural beings. Per success, the Changeling can detect one already activated, non-concealed Contract in the area.

On a standard success, he learns only which general Contract it is (e.g. if someone in the area were using Smoke 1, the Kenning might detect that Smoke was active in the vicinity, but NOT that it was Smoke 1 in particular). If, however, the Changeling using the Kenning ALSO has Smoke 1, he CAN identify exactly which clause the other is using.

Identification:

Roll Intelligence + Occult to determine the specific clause active (if the character doesn't know). This roll may be repeated for every clause the Changeling senses.

In order to notice that Suzie Q is casting a Contract, the Changeling MUST be alert and actively attempting to notice supernatural effects. In this case, the roll is reflexive, and on top of any other modifiers, incurs a -2 penalty.

Success:

The Changeling knows another Changeling is activating something in the area, but doesn't know who is doing it, or what it is.

Exceptional Success:

See the rules above. The Intelligence + Occult roll is the same.

If YOU are the target of a Contract, Token or other supernatural effect, the -2 penalty above is canceled out by an automatic +2, and you also gain a +2 to the identification roll.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: A potentially disastrous reading of the situation, as determined by the Storyteller. The character might fail to notice the presence of dangerous supernatural entities, or misidentify a harmless bystander as a powerful mystical being. Alternately, the character might simply suffer from some form of sensory overload that imposes a small penalty and renders this ability useless for the rest of the scene.

Failure: The character is unable to get a clear impression one way or another.

Success: Each success reveals the presence of one nearby supernatural being, item or magical effect, assuming there are any present to detect. This will not allow the changeling to detect anything that is being actively concealed with some form of magic — Contracts are required for something like that — but it will allow him to spot supernatural individuals even if they are not engaged in any unusual activity at the time.

Exceptional Success: As a success, with the added possibility that the changeling gets a hint regarding the true nature of the things detected, and might even become sensitive to the presence of mystically concealed targets. This should not be enough to automatically locate hidden items or individuals, but sufficient to justify the changeling using other powers to detect them or otherwise react to their presence.

It should be noted that unless the changeling scores an exceptional success, she may recognize that a particular person is a supernatural being but will not automatically be able to tell exactly what type of creature the person, which means any potential contact is best handled very carefully and discreetly.

NOTE: the Goblin Contract "Wyrd's Eye" is deliberately unchanged. It is an option for those who cannot ordinarily Ken well. See, too, the "Nothing Hidden" clause of the same.

ANOTHER NOTE: Changelings with the custom Deep Kenning merit can do nifty things. Check it out!

Kiths

Almost every single kith is house ruled and should be considered custom content, specific to Fate's Harvest. While the books are still the best reference for thematic flavor for most of the kiths, the books should not be relied upon for mechanics. The mechanics listed on the wiki and within the +kith command should always be favored over what is in the books. Please refer to Kiths for an overview of the mechanics for all kiths and to each individual kith category page for detailed information and rule clarifications pertaining to those mechanics. Custom kiths have theme write-ups on their category pages.

If any of the rules seem unclear or the documentation is inconsistent, please file a +request with staff so that we may fix the issue.

Dual Kith

See the House Rules/Merits page for details.

Wyrd Evolution

See below on this page for details.

Mantle

Autumn: Rather than getting a +2 to occult based contract rolls, we have changed it to a blanket +1 on all occult rolls.

Mantle vs. Mantle

Since this has come up a few times, we're writing it up here. These are the general assumptions staff is operating on, so there can be no questions.

Seasonals & Solar

Seasonals, Sun and Moon operate under the same rules.

• If your Mantle is lower than someone else's, theirs overwhelms yours. This is a matter of degree.

If you're a Mantle 1 and you're being flattened by a Mantle 5, yeah, yours is probably gone entirely.

Mantle 4 vs. Mantle 5 is more of a struggle, but the elements of the 5 are still winning out.

e.g. Spring 4 vs. Summer 5, the Spring's pretty flowers are visibly wilting in the Summer's heat, etc., and can't keep up to grow fast enough to survive.

• If your Mantle is equal to someone else's, they duke it out, but neither wins. Pose the "epic" warring of the dead Autumn leaves and pretty Spring flowers!

Transitionals

Dawn and Dusk operate slightly differently.

Unlike Seasonal/Solar Courts, they affect the Mantles of others even if the other Mantle equals theirs.

Dawn vs. Dusk

Dusk negates. Dawn changes.

What do they do when they clash?

Staff is establishing this as The Way To RP This, to preserve the themes of both, seeing as both Dusk and Dawn are written as "we do our stuff to EVERYTHING!" (rather indiscriminate of them, really, tsk tsk, such hussies)

• Dusk vs. Dawn - the Dawn's Mantle is patchy, or loses some aspect of itself when faced with Dusk's negation, but does not disappear entirely.

e.g. a Dawn whose mantle was a soft glow and the sound of tinkling frost on a winter's morning might lose the soundtrack but keep the glow.

What happens when both Dawn and Dusk affect any other type of Mantle?

The poor sod in the middle gets an existential crisis, that's what.

Donnie Dusk and Dawnie Dawn sit down on either side of Suzy Spring.

On Suzy's left, all of a sudden, she has no Mantle at all.

On Suzy's right, all of a sudden, her butterflies and buttercups are springing up in red, red roses and blood-dripping thorns, one of many paths she COULD have taken, but didn't. Mantles show things about YOU, remember. They aren't random.

In the middle... poor Suzy. Her butterflies are suddenly missing entirely, or end up missing a wing, or perhaps the leaves all disappear from her buttercups even as they make the switch to roses and blood.

This could go a lot of ways. Be creative!

Mien Guidelines

See the Mien Guidelines page.

Pilgrims of the Endless Road (Entitlement)

When selecting this entitlement, please tell staff which kith you are gaining as its benefit.

Remember that this kith MUST flesh out a type of bonus your other kiths do not touch. If you are a very heavy combat-focused character, for instance, your Pilgrim kith might be Flowering or Chatelaine, for the social bonuses. The point is to round yourself out.

This will be set on your +sheet as the 'Pilgrim Kith' merit.

PKs

Player-Killing is possible.

Staff is not thrilled by it, and given that the game owner has characters elseMU* going on 12 RL years old, staff wholly understands NOT wanting characters to be killed.

However... ICA=ICC (In Character Actions = In Character Consequences).

Please see the PK page. This is also referenced on the Policies page.

Pledges

All pledge-related information is located on the Pledges page.

This contains information on how to build them, and how to end them early if necessary. RL trumps game.

Fealty Task

By the book, you can break a Freehold's fealty pledge with impunity unless someone happens to notice you.

Staff thinks that is silly and athematic, and poopoos the writers.

Staff consequently declares the following:

• The Monarch, due to the nature of a fealty pledge's investiture (i.e. all of their vassals' oaths are invested in a DOT of the Monarch's own Willpower), will immediately feel an unpleasant snap of awareness when the oath is broken, along with the oathbreaker's identity.

Mortal Blessing

We are applying the blessings for Mortals as more potent across the board, rather than only for 'new' merits and will be reflected as follows: Lesser Blessing: Choose between a +1 or a +2 to a new or existing merit. Medial Blessing: Choose between a +3 or a +4 to a new or existing merit. Greater Blessing: Choose a lvl 5 merit.

Greater Adroitness

We have added a 3-point method of getting +1 bonuses to Attributes to the original 1-point method of getting +1 to skills.

Thematically/fluffily, this appears as bursts of inspiration or unexpectedly clever application of leverage. An Adroitness is a bit like being best buddies with your dice. It doesn't mean you're actually better at something. It means that you get lucky or are otherwise just magically a teensy smidge better than you should be, because the universe is a bit more on your side. You're shiny. You have 3/10ths more of a chance to succeed at something than you did before.

Adroitnesses stack. If you have an "Adroitness, Greater (+3): Strength" as well as an "Adroitness (+1): Weaponry" on your pledge list somewhere, attacks using Strength and Weaponry would get +1 +1 on top of any Specialty you had (Weaponry:Swords or whatnot).

It is worth noting, twinkasauruses, that this will NOT add to your derived stats. ;)

Getting a +1 to Resolve will not give you an extra Willpower point to spend. It will just mean that your Resolve + Composure rolls get a +1. Same for health, speed, etc.

Shared Hollows

See the Holdings page for details.

In summary, the dots you contributed to a Hollow disappear when you do. If you freeze, your friend(s) are going to need to re-describe their Hollow.

Tokens

• Check the House_Rules/Merits page for the Token merit.
• Check Tokens and Token-Making for our stances and house rules on Tokens and Token-Crafting.

Our token-making rules are based on the writeup for the Token Maker merit on RoS p.150. We have adjusted them to allow for somewhat shorter creation times.

True Fae

• Please see the True Fae page for staff's stance on portraying or becoming True Fae in this game.

If you are looking for a list of staff- and player-created Keepers to choose from, please check the Gentry page.

Wyrd

You can only raise Wyrd one level at a time, and there must be a minimum of a month between raises. Further, raising your Wyrd to 6 or higher requires justification as well.

This is less because staff wants to give you more paperwork (trust me, less work for us would be lovely :P) and more that we want to be 100% you understand the thematic force involved. Hitting Wyrd 6 is officially kissing goodbye to a lot of your humanity; you're now 6/10ths fae. Your emotions are stronger, more vivid, and might be off-putting/oddly intense to people around you.

Wyrd 6 is also the point where you are unavoidably addicted to Glamour, and will die without it.

(I.e. you will suffer damage (depending upon Wyrd level) if you do not harvest enough of it, and you will eventually die as your body consumes itself to satisfy its alien hungers.)

This should be having a SIGNIFICANT and perceptible effect upon your day to day RP. If you have never been an addict in RL, read some memoirs. It's not easy to "get over" or resist. Further, starting at Wyrd 6, each level of Wyrd you gain, you do also gain a frailty.

Valid justifications will include some combination of:

• Examples of how your life has been focusing more and more on faerie matters and less and less on human ones.

e.g. you used to have a mortal job at the library, but it was interfering with your hobgoblin bestiary and you decided to pledge for money and quit your job to spend more time out in the Hedge researching new beasties.

• Examples of spending significant, regular time in the Hedge.
• Examples of increasing reliance on Glamour, increasing addiction to the rush of absorbing the power of human emotions.
• Examples of distance from humanity, of shifting attitudes reflecting this.

Do you feel guilt for terrifying your friends to get a 'hit' of your favourite drug..?

• Examples of using Tokens instead of mundane means to get things done.
• Examples of using Contracts daily, bleeding Glamour like it's water (or cleverly arranging your entire life around using catches...).

Wyrd Evolution

When you hit Wyrd 5 and, later, Wyrd 9, you have the option to gain another kith (for 10xp and 15xp, respectively).

You may do this by typing:

+xps merit/wyrd evolution:YOUR KITH's NAME to 1 for 10=Because I'm totally a YOUR KITH's NAME!      (at or above Wyrd 5)

+xps merit/wyrd evolution:YOUR KITH's NAME to 2 for 15=Because I'm totally a YOUR KITH's NAME!      (at or above Wyrd 9)

The 'for 10'/'for 15' is necessary, because staff has entered Wyrd Evolution into the system as a merit for convenience's sake, and it does not have the same costs as regular merits.

(Buying Wyrd Evolution will always create a +myjob. If for some reason you manage to find a borked spot in the code and it doesn't, please +bug to report it!)

How Many Kiths Can I Have?

This 'merit' is the only way most characters can get another kith, if they already have the Dual Kith merit (see House Rules/Merits). The exception would be if you are in The Pilgrims of the Endless Road Entitlement (fondly referred to by staff as The Pilgrims of the Extra Kith...).

Ordinarily, you would have:

1. Primary Kith
2. Dual Kith
3. Wyrd Evolution @ 5
4. Wyrd Evolution @ 9

For an example showing the absolute maximum number of kiths you could possibly have:

1. You start out as a Fireheart.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 (which is what the Pilgrim kith should do).
5. 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.

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.

Merits

See House_Rules/Merits for the full list of house rules pertaining to merits, including custom merits.

If a merit on the Merits list has (HR) after its name, it was created for Fate's Harvest, and is not found in any book.

Swimming & Underwater Combat

Everyone swims at half of their normal Speed, rounded up. Swim Speed is calculated before applying any bonuses, penalties or other modifiers.

Where one is racing another, or dealing with a challenge to one's capacity to swim, including melee attacks underwater, roll Strength + Athletics [+Equipment] to determine success (or failure).

In the case of an attack, if your swimming roll fails, you are unable to apply sufficient force to cause more than half-damage, rounded up.

The following Changeling kiths do not need to roll for swimming:

• Swimmerskin
• Waterborn

They can swim at full speed as their passive ability, so they are not affected by the limitation of land-dwellers.

BOUNTY: Lucky is the lucky winner! At least, he's the poor sap who went through every book to confirm that it is never pointed out as an explicit rule.

His findings:

"...most people have reverse engineered swimming from the Aquatic aspect in Changing Breeds, which implies that land-and-water movement speeds are reversed and says, "In water, his Movement trait reflects swimming, not walking; in fact, his land-based Move may be half of the normal trait." CB 74

But at least one other source presents swimming as a Str + Athletics + Equipment roll, and doesn't factor speed into account at all, much like climbing, which measures distance as a calculation of successes. This would seem to be a more logical thing, as natural swimmers would be able to forego this roll and move at their full speed, as they're naturally accustomed to it. Swimming as a skill check like climbing is presented in Mysterious Places, pg 21, under the Swimming Hole section."

Traps

The rules for traps and trap-making are located in the Armory books. They are minimal, and not built for GMC. Not even our GMC-lite.

Please use the mechanics below for any traps you or your character may intend to create. For examples of pre-approved mechanics and ready-made trap designs, please see the House Rules/Traps page.

Unless a trap is using extremely sophisticated or expensive materials, it won't count toward your monthly Resource spends.

NOTE: If you intend to set up long-term/permanent traps, please send in a +request to staff. Staff has final say on whether or not your suggested trap will be approved. All rolls for long-term trap creation MUST be done to a +job, and all long-term traps MUST be written as a staff-approved +note on a room you (or an amenable player) own.

Mundane Traps

A mundane trap is, as one may have guessed, a non-magical, totally ordinary sort of trap just out to do its job with a minimum of fuss.

Trap Mechanics Cheat Sheet
Detecting a trap	Roll Wits + Composure - trapmaker's Stealth successes
Studying a trap	Roll Intelligence/Wits + Investigation with any applicable specialties. Survival may also be used.
Disarming a trap	Varies. May include Dexterity + Larceny or Dexterity + Crafts rolls, among others.
Creating a Trap	Roll extended Dexterity + Crafts or Dexterity + Survival according to the nature of the trap. Simple trap: 5 successes Middling trap: 10 successes Complex trap: 15 successes
Concealing a Trap	Roll Dexterity + Stealth and note successes. These are deducted from searchers' rolls to locate it.

Trap Anatomy

All traps require the same three things to be defined: their trigger, their effects, and how to disarm them.

Trigger
Ex: tripwire, pressure plate, concealed hole, light beam interruption, manual activation

How does your trap know when it should go off?

The examples above are the most common, but you are welcome to get creative.

Creating a trap with improvised tools incurs a -2 penalty on each roll.

Effect
Ex: giant rolling ball of doom, swinging scythe, pitfall (stationary spikes), poisonous gas, explosion, poisoned needle, entangling, net-swoop

What happens when your trap DOES go off?

These effects can deal Bashing, Lethal or Aggravated damage, depending upon exactly what you choose during creation. All weapons and weapon-like attacks, however, must do Lethal or above, per GMC rulings.

Disarming Mechanism
Ex: breaking the needle in the keyhole, placing an equally heavy object on a pressure plate

Frankly, in a lot of cases, simply knowing what the trap is and how to avoid it is better than trying to disarm it. If you can spot the trip wire ahead of time, you can trigger the poisoned hail of needles BEFORE you go through the hallway and possibly need to make a hasty, less careful escape.

Magical Traps

A magical trap is, therefore, a trap which has either one or all of its components replaced by magic of some variety. Given that our game is Changeling only in terms of player supernaturals, staff expects creative use of goblin fruit, tokens and hedgespun to be the most likely options here.

Magical traps require the same three basic components as their mundane counterparts: trigger, effect, disarming mechanism.

NOTE: All magical traps require staff pre-approval unless they are derived directly from the list in House Rules/Traps.