House Rules

[arcanus]

So for Chapter II - I've incorporated some house rules taken from SJ Games Pyramid Magazine.

They make more use of the characters Abilities, Advantages, Disadvantages, backgrounds etc

Replacment of Hit Points with Wounds.
Each character (& NPC) now has a Wound Threshold (WT) instead of Hit Points, this links to the Physical Resilience Stat (PR).

System is very simple - Base attribute for both is HT divided by 4 (rounded up) so an average person has a WT and PR of 3.
Wound Threshold is the number of Wounds a person can take, Physical Resilence is the amount of points if damage a person takes before they incur a wound.

So quite simply a normal person has a PR of 3 and a WT of 3, so every 3 points of damage they take inflicts a wound and they can take 3 Wounds before dying (so 1 point below the old Hit Point system).

A range of Advantages improve this so toughness now adds to your PR, so normal person above with Toughness 2 now has a PR of 5 and WT of 3, they can now take 5 points of damage before taking a wound, but 3 wounds and they're dead.

Hard to Kill Increases your WT so the above normal person with a PR 3 but Hard to Kill 5 takes a wound every 3 points of damage but can survive 8 Wounds (or 24 damage).

KO Rating is how many wounds you take before you risk passing out this is 50% and 75% of your WT, at each KO level you make a HT roll - Current Wounds to see if you pass out, Hard to Subdue reduces the - modifier for the rolls.

Per Wound Taken provides a -1 modifier to rolls (reduced by advantages such as High pain Threshold and skills such as Body Control).
So the above average person takes a -2 to all rolls before keeling over.

Example: Otto has extensive cybernetics (Full Body rebuild, dermal armour, Hard to Kill and Hard to Subdue 5)
His WT is 10(due to his Cybernetics and Hard to Kill), his PR is 8, KO Levels 5/8.
So he take 8 points of damage before he incurs a Wound and can take 10 wounds before death, effectively he can take up to 80 points of damage before dying, can take up to a -9 modifier to rolls whilst wounded, rolls to avoid passing out at 5 wounds and 8 wounds with a -5 to the modifier to his HT roll. (so if hes rolling at 8 wounds (modifer of 8-5 = -3 to his rolls, so pretty likely to remain concious).

[arcanus]

Impaling Weapons: In addition to their base damage Impaling (Imp) weapons inflict an an automatic Wound on a successful strike.

[arcanus]

Success Rolls: As a reminder success rolls work as follows -

As we know lower is better, the Attribute, Skill etc receives a modifier according to its difficulty, so minused from the attribute or skill success requiring a roll beneath the modified number.

Difficulty Modifiers
-1 Unfavourable
-2 to -3 Very Unfavourable
-4 to -5 Hard Task
-6 to -7 Very Hard Task.
-8 or -9 Dangerous or Extreme Tasks.
-10 to -11 Improbable
-12 to -13 Impossible
-14 to -15 World Defying

Example: Raz is attempting a leap across the gap between two buildings, his Jump skill is 15 its a Very Hard task which has a -7 modifier which leaves him with an Effective skill of 8.

To make the Jump he must roll an 8 or less.

[arcanus]

Physical Defence (Evasiveness): PD is an Gurps Third Edition Rule that I've reintroduced.

Effectively some characters (NPCs, creatures) are more difficult to hit or target, everyone has a base PD of 1 to reflect the posibility they might move unexpectantly whilst being targeted. Some characters are naturally more evasive due to high dexterity, martial training, or natural waryness.

High Dex: Dexterity over 15 grants a further +1 PD, over 20 +2 PD, over 25 +3 PD and over 30 +4 PD.

The Evasion Advantage - comes in two standard levels and one exceptional (requires Unusual Background)

• Level 1 (5 Points) adds 1/4 of the characters Dex attribute to their natural PD

• Level 2 (15 Points) adds 1/3 of the characters Dex attribute to their natural PD

• Level 3 (30 Points) adds 1/2 of the characters Dex attribute to their natural PD

Other advantages: Danger Sense add a bonus +1 to PD.

Physical Defence is a passive ability it is how hard someone is to hit with a physical attack (no effect on Magic, Psionics or non-physical powers) and acts as a minus modifier to the attackers skill roll to hit. If the attacker suceeds in hitting the target they may still attempt to Dodge or Parry the attack. (if it can be Dodged).

Example: Due to his natural dexterity and training His Lordship is evasive, he has a base PD of 1 with +1 for Dex over 15, plus Level 1 Evasion for a further +3 giving him a PD of 5. An opponent trying to hit Lord Reynolds has a -5 modifier to strike him.

[arcanus]

Quintessence: Is the sum of a persons spiritual resistance and power, instead of a purely magical trait every person has levels of Quintessence.
Everybody begins with a Quintessence of 7 with an upper level of 14 (equal to Will Power) and an exceptional maximum of 20 (Unusual Background Required), it costs 10 CPs per level to increase.

Defence Against the Supernatural: Anybody can use Quintessence to protect themselves from supernatural attack or influence.
The Quintessence Score replaces the original attribute to resist supernatural effects or attacks (Chi, Psionics, Magic, Supernatural powers etc)

If the character possesses specialist skills of defence such as Mindblock the character can instead use their Quintessence Points to boost their defences against 1 attack per expenditure.

Quintessence Points: Are equal to the Quintessence Score and are used to fuel supernatural abilities, additional points can be purchased at 3 CPs per point.

Quintessence Points are expended instead of FP for Chi, Magic, Sorcery, Psionics and FP based Superpowers, for Standard and Ritual Path Magic (the latter it can be added for Energy Accumulation).