Sometimes your character is faced with an obstacle requiring a skill he doesn’t have an add for. In this case, the character acts unskilled.
When performing an unskilled action, use the base attribute for that skill as the skill value; in addition, a character performing an unskilled action loses the roll again on 20 benefit (see “The Die Roll”). This limits his chance of gaining great success or performing really difficult feats.
Example: Quin needs to pick a lock. He does not have the lockpicking skill, but he has a Dexterity of 11. His lockpicking value is 11, and he does not get to roll again on a 20.
Some actions may not be taken by unskilled characters. The skill descriptions (Gamemaster Chapter Three) specify which actions may not be attempted unskilled. For example, Quin would fail any attempt at surgery as medicine may not be used unskilled.
If a skill is printed on your character’s template, your character can learn the skill. If it is not, your character may not begin the game with an add in that skill; she may be able to learn it later, after she has gained some knowledge of the world. For example, a character whose home cosm is the Living Land cannot start with air vehicles skill, but it is possible that the character may later learn the skill.
No. The only time you add an arcane knowledge to a magic skill is to determine if you can learn the spell and during the spell design process. When casting a spell you use just the appropriate magic skill value.
While you are in a pure zone of any kind you are for all intents and purposes a person from that cosm. You can do anything that is supported by the cosm even if your own reality won't support it because you are no longer part of your home cosm (unless you put up a reality bubble, in which case you can preform actions contrary to the reality you happen to be in).
No. Since the tool is no longer physically connected to the character the realm supports the existence of the tool. It is only when the realm the character is in doesn't support the tool that a long-range contradiction check is necessary. Note though that the character may still disconnect when using the tool.
No. Spells remain connected to their caster through the pattern of the spell so there is no need to support the effect of the spell at a distance.
Yes. While disconnected you cannot gain any new possibilities but you can still spend them. Note though that any character who possesses the Martial Arts style of Ninjitsu is prohibited from spending Possibilities on any use of the Reality skill, including reconnection. Also note that disconnected people cannot create Reality Bubbles.
The official ruling from WEG is that a character who disconnects in combat or when the party is engaged in some form of action requiring dice rolling can attempt to reconnect every round. If he hasn't reconnected by the end of combat (or whatever) or disconnects in between dice rolling events (such as at the beginning of a scene due to contradictory equipment) the character is allowed one attempt per scene to reconnect. If a scene happens to last for more than one day, the character is allowed one attempt per day to reconnect. This also applies if the character has not reconnected by the end of the adventure (once per day).
For a tool or ability that does not require a dice action to be used a contradiction check is made at the beginning of the Scene to see if it causes disconnection or not. A contradiction check may be made for each seperate item or for the sake of expediency similar items (such as clothing) could be grouped together and checked with one die roll.
WEG's official answer is that it "temporarily transforms" into something more appropriate to the local Tech axiom (for example, kevlar becomes plate armor in Aysle) but this raises several disturbing questions about the transformation of all items a character may be carrying while disconnected so most of the people on the list/newsgroup do not agree with this ruling. The solution I use is as follows:
the armor simply doesn't work at all while the character is disconnected. The rationale behind this approach is that other items do not function at a reduced level while the user is disconnected (a Colt .45 doesn't have a reduced DV in Orrorsh) so armor should not be treated any differently.
Officially a disconnected undead creature doesn't stop moving or become a corpse. It does lose any special powers that it might have possessed but is still capable of movement and whatever amount of thought it was capable of before. A disconnected vampyre still has its very high attributes and skills but is no longer especially invulnerable to attacks or able to drain the life force from a character. But, the undead creature also loses any of its special weaknesses so that vampyre is no longer bothered by garlic, holy symbols, or whatnot. Unofficially, some GMs may have all disconnected creatures (not just undead) conform to the attribute limits of the reality in which the creature disconnects. Another possibility is that like disconnected elves, giants and Tharkoldu an undead creature that disconnects in a reality with a low Magic axiom may start dying (or in this case, cease to function).
An answer has not been decided upon by the list. One opinion is that a spellcaster doesn't take any backlash damage because the disconnection cuts off the magical energies to the spellcaster before he fries his brain. Another opinion is that the backlash occurs first and then the spellcaster is disconnected. Yet another opinion is that the backlash energies will 'wait' for the spellcaster to reconnect and will then flow in and fly his brain. Of course, if the spellcaster disconnects but still would have overcome the backlash value (a mondo spellcaster and/or a wimpy spell) then there's no problem.... WEG's answer on the subject was that spellcasters will always take backlash damage from failed spells but their answer gave the impression (to me anyway) that they had not even considered how disconnection might figure into it.
No. According to WEG disconnection is a powerful enough event that there is no way to avoid it.
Yes. However, they cannot create long-range contradictions of any kind. Of course, only ords who have not disconnected can create contradictions.
Yes - according to the section of the rules concerning reality bubbles you can still create contradictions in a reality bubble but they will all be four-case contradictions (like creating a contradiction in a dominant zone of your home reality.)
Despite the name there is no area of effect for a reality bubble, only the character who created the bubble is affected by it.
The formula that WEG used (most of the time) is as follows:
To determine the difficulty for a character from realm A to reconnect in realm B, first find the largest difference in axioms where A is greater than B.
Take that difference and then add +1 for every other axiom in realm A that is higher than realm B.
Next you add in a "fudge factor" based on the current value of the difference: if the value is 0-5, add +3; if the value is 6-10, add +2; if the value is 11-15, add +1; and if the value is greater than 15, leave it unchanged.
Basically, that's it. However, WEG has often fudged the value even further to reflect world laws and other intangibles not reflected in the axioms.
No. A possibility-rated person can only be transformed as the result of a reality storm (natural or invoked), even if the character has no Possibilities. Only Ords and equipment can be transformed by long-term exposure to an alien realm's reality. (Equipment carried by stormers is safe from transformation as long as the stormer has not disconnected.)
When a character is in his home realm he must abide by his world laws; there's no way of getting around it. It's when a character enters an alien realm that things can get complicated. Characters that leave their home realm carry their world laws with them as long as they remain connected to their reality and are not in an alien pure zone. If the character should disconnect or enter an alien pure zone he loses his world laws. Stormers who have erected a Reality Bubble may of course use their native world laws in an alien pure zone for the duration of the Bubble. The use of native world laws while in an alien realm is a 1-case contradiction (unless in a reality bubble of course.)
Some world laws are always affecting the character (such as the Nile Empire's Law of Morality) and the GM should roll at the beginning of each scene to determine if this causes the character to disconnect (as per the rules for passive use of items, like armor). Other world laws will affect a character whenever he attempts a certain type of action (like the Cyberpapacy's Law of Heretical Magic) and the die roll the character makes is used to determine if he disconnects, even if the realm he is in supports the action(such as Cyberpapal Witch casting a spell in Aysle). The last kind of world law is one that the player can voluntarily decide whether or not to use (like the Nile and Land Below's Law of Action). Again, the die roll the character makes is used to determine if the character disconnects or not. Note that some World Laws (like the Deep Mist in the Living Land) do not create effects a character can use or will be subject to outside of his realm, so there is no need to make contradiction checks for these World Laws.
Characters in an alien realm are also subject to the world laws of that realm. The only way a character can avoid being subjected to the alien world laws is to put up a Reality Bubble (ords are just out of luck). Part of the alienness of being in another realm is that the character finds himself acting in a different manner and has no control over this (being deceitful in Nippon, suspicious in the Cyberpapacy, purely Good or Evil in the Nile, etc). Being affected by an alien world law is a one-case contradiction because the character's reality doesn't support that world law. As a result, GMs and players may have to check for contradictions every scene that a character is in an alien realm (such as a Core Earth character in Nippon Tech being affected by the Law of Profit), whenever a character does something prohibited by a world law (a Core Earth character in the Nile performing a Grey act) or whenever a character does something affected by a world law (an Ayslish priest performing a miracle in the Cyberpapacy.)
WEG has said on GEnie that this was not their original intention for world laws but a strict reading of the rules does support this interpretation. What they had intended was that while in a realm you could use those World Laws without contradiction but using your own World Laws in an alien realm would still be a contradiction. If a GM wishes to run things this way, WEG said it was all right with them. Note that if you run world laws the official way (alien world laws cause a contridiction), WEG has pointed out that the Akashan Law of Acceptance will allow a character from that realm to use alien world laws without it causing a contradicion unless it is a world law that is in conflict with Akashan world laws (like the Law of the One True God in the Cyberpapacy; see the Space Gods sourcebook for more information). And of course, the Akashan Law of Acceptance will let visitors to the Space Gods realm use their world laws and the Akashan world laws without creating a contradiction. Note that the Orrorshan Power of Fear is a special exception to the normal rules concerning world laws, as it can affect characters in Reality Bubbles and Orrorshan Horrors can use the Power of Fear against other people outside of Orrorsh (such a use does require a contradiction check however).
No. While the Aysle sourcebook does seem to suggest that you can buy adds in these special skills, it also says that you may not buy adds. The ruling from WEG is that you cannot buy adds with Possibilities; they must all be earned though honorable or corrupt actions (during character creation some characters can buy Honor or Corruption adds with their skill points, which is what the Aysle SB is talking about when it says you can buy adds.)
If it is an Ayslish character, then he can use whatever benefits he receives as a one-case contradiction outside of Aysle. If it is a non-Ayslish character who has earned Honor/Corruption while in Aysle, WEG's official answer is that the character can use those benefits as a four-case contradiction. However, WEGs statement is that this is allowable since Honor/Corruption is a skill, but it is not a normal skill, it is an effect of a world law and non-Ayslish characters should not be able to take the Ayslish world law with them when they leave Aysle, so some sections of the list/newsgroup do not agree with WEG's ruling on this matter.
The last ruling from WEG was that anyone who is on the scene and aware of what is occuring can negate the possibility. So if a group of heroes is confronting a Possibility-rated enemy and the enemy spends a Possibility on an action any one of the heroes that is involved in what is going on (ie, not unconscious or off in a different room or something similar) can negate that Possibility.
Yes, it is the same as negating a Possibility.
Yes. The only time this might be a problem is if the character is from a reality like the Living Land which has a Spirit axiom high enough that only one mythos is accepted and all others are a contradiction. The character can still purchase Faith in another religion if he wishes but because it is a contradictory skill the first add will cost twice as much as it would normally cost and whenever he uses his Faith skill he will have to make a contradiction check.
According to WEG werewolves and other Horrors do not possess any special innate ability to inflict damage on other Horrors. However, it is possible that the creature may be aware of the other's weaknesses (such as being hurt by silver) and can use that against him (such as the'silver claws' used by the weretiger that Kurst fought in the third Torg novel). There is also a special power that Orrorshan Horrors may possess that will allow them to hurt other Horrors that are resistant to normal forms of attack.
Yes. To review, spending a Possibility to negate damage will enable you to remove three of the following four things and you can double (or triple) up on what you remove:
Note that you cannot take multiple Knockdowns or Knockouts in a single attack so the only thing you can buy off multiples of are wounds and 'shock packets' (three points per packet). Also note that in the Space Gods realm, this rule is modified by the World Laws of that realm. (See the Space Gods soucebook for the details.)
Some GMs have ruled (and WEG runs it this way in Masterbook) that a KO condition is really two Knockout conditions, not one, and so it would use up two packets to negate a KO result.
No. Damage must be negated immediately after it is taken. If you are being attacked by three opponents you cannot wait until after each one has hit you and then remove damage based off of the final total; you would have to remove the damage done by each opponent right after the GM tells you how much damage you take from each one.
Stunning damage is caused by "non-lethal" attack forms. Examples are blows from clubs, rubber bullets, fistfights, and knockout gas. While it is still possible to be killed by these non-lethal attacks it is less likely to happen. Shock points and KO results are taken as normal, but a Knockdown result is ignored, a Wound is reduced to a Knockdown, and successive Wound levels are reduced by one (two wounds become one, three wounds become two, etc).
Some GMs have come up with house rules to make some knockout attacks less lethal and more likely to make people unconscious. For example, a knockout gas may not do any wound damage at all, each wound result is treated as extra shock damage instead. This way characters can be rendered unconscious long enough to be captured rather than waking up before much time has elapsed.
In the module "No Quarter Given" a knockout poison uses the following mechanic - the subject makes a Toughness roll against the strength of the poison; failure means the victim passes out. When the victim awakens, to simulate the aftereffects of the poison he has a small amount of shock damage and a K result.
According to the rules an O result will only last for one minute. A K result lasts for thirty minutes. The implication is that a character will only be KO'd for one minute and then wake up (unless the shock damage keeps the character unconscious.)
You cannot have multiple stymies. The stymie will last until your next reroll opportunity has passed; Until you spend a possibility to negate it (which can be countered by opposing forces); The character recieves an Up; The character plays a Hero or Drama card (which can be countered by opposing forces).
No. The adds that a shield gives you are added to your defensive value if (and only if) you are actively defending (an Aggressive Defense counts). The shield bonus is added to the bonus value before you apply it to the defense value (and then if it is less than +1 you increase it to that minimum value). If the attack overcomes the modified defense value you get hit. If the attack fails but by less than the amount of the shield bonus then the shield is hit and takes damage (figure damage normally using the Toughness value given in the equipment description for the shield.)
An Aggressive Defense allows the character to actively defend and attack at the same time. Only one bonus value is generated and is added to both the attack and defense value. Basically it is a normal Multi-Action with defending automatically assumed to be the first action. Because the first action is an active defense the minimum bonus to the defense skill that you can get from the roll is a +1, but because of the -2 multi-action penalty this is actually a minimum bonus of -1. The rolled bonus value is also applied to the appropriate attack skill, but with a -4 penalty.
That is the official WEG ruling on how Aggressive Defense works; some GMs feel that an active defense should always have a minimum +1 bonus modifier. The -2 multi-action penalty is applied to the rolled bonus value and THEN if the bonus value is less than +1 it is bumped up to a +1.
No. Dodge can only be used against Fire Combat, Energy Weapons, and Missle Weapons attacks.
On a related note, Melee Weapons skill can be used to defend against Unarmed Combat if the defender is using a melee weapon. Unarmed Combat can be used to defend against Melee Weapons attacks if the skill represents a martial art form. (This is different from the actual skill Martial Arts though, which is a philosophy as well as a combat skill.)
Also somewhat related, an unskilled person cannot actively defend with the Melee Weapons skill. All other defensive skills can be actively defended with even if the character doesn't have the skill
No, the maximum damage value given for melee weapons is the maximum _base_ damage that the weapon can do. Any bonus to damage gained through cards or die rolls are not considered when figuring the maximum damage value of a weapon. For example, if a weapon is listed as being +3/17 (where 17 is the maximum damage value) any character who has a Strength of 15 or greater will have a base damage value of 17, but if he were to roll a bonus value of +4 the damage he does would be 21, not 17. And a character with a Strength of 9 who uses cards and/or a good die roll to get a bonus of +7 has a damage value of 19, he doesn't stop at 17.
They are hidden in the description of the Climbing skill on page 52 of the rulebook. The falling damage value is found by adding the character's weight value (60 kg = value 9, etc) to the value of the height the character fell from (60m = value 9, etc) with a fall from a height greater than a value of 14 treated as a value of 14 (due to terminal velocity). A bonus value is generated by the GM and the damage value is applied to the fallen character.
Some GMs have decided that a fall should always have a minimum bonus value of +1 (much like Point Blank range) since the ground "always hits", but this is not actually stated in the rules anywhere. If a character falls and for some reason or another gravity is not the only force acting upon him (for example, flying due to a Pulp Power or magic spell into the ground, being thrown at the ground by someone, etc) the speed value is used instead of distance to determine damage.
It has been pointed out that weight and mass are not the same thing and that since the value table gives the mass value of a character, gravitational acceleration must be accounted for to find the weight of the character. This is done by adding five to the mass value. Not everyone agrees that this is necessary or correct however so it is up to the GM to determine if he wishes to use this or not.
The card you gain from an Approved Action can be the one that you put into your card pool for that round of action. Quoting from the rulebook, "If your character succeeds at an Approved Action, you draw a card from the drama deck; you can then add a card from your hand to the character's pool as usual." (p23)
According to the rulebook (it's buried in a sidebar in the skills chapter), if there is no appropriate skill then P-Rateds get to reroll on both 10's and 20's when making attribute checks.
Word has it WEG said it occurs instantaneously but the reference is missing. If it doesn't occur immediately, it should not take no more than one second.
There's a limit on how many impressed spells a mage can have at one time but I don't think there's any stated limit on how many can be released in a round. If it does take one second to release an impressed spell then that would limit a mage to ten per round but that's the only possible restriction to my knowledge.
You just use the skill adds - the arcane knowledge adds only come into it when you're determining if a pre-written spell can be cast, and when you create your own spells.
An Honorable Ayslish knight enters Nippon Tech ; he's under the influence of both Ayslish and Nippon world laws unless he disconnects or creates a Reality Bubble.
Ayslish laws require him to face his opponents and to avoid trickery and deceit, lest he gain Corruption. But Nippon world laws reward intrigue and deception; if the knight chooses to face his enemies, they'll just have him assassinated and be done with it.
By voluntarily disconnecting he is no longer subject to Ayslish world laws, and can act as required in Nippon to be successful without gaining Corruption.
Just like a stormer, the ord is constrained to operate under the restrictions placed on him by the local reality. In some cases the local reality may not actually restrict the person in some ways of course (for example, a Core Earther firing a laser rifle in the Cyberpapacy who disconnects can still fire the rifle because he's now fully under CP reality).
The difference between ords and stormers is what happens after the disconnection. A stormer can attempt to reconnect, an ord cannot.What is the poor ord to do ?
A disconnected ord has not lost his small amount of Possibility Energy, just his connection with the Everlaw of Two (and through it, his home reality). This means a disconnected ord is in no greater danger from transformation than he was before.
The rulesbook is very vague on this (ie, it says nothing). It is very easy for stormers to reconnect to their native reality when they are in it, but it is not automatic - it still requires the use the Reality skill.(Yes, the Difficulty is zero and you do not need the tool that disconnected you,but unless the Reality skill is 12 or higher there is still a chance offailure.)
That being the case, it would suggest that ords will not automatically reconnect just by returning to their native realm. I would say that over a period of time the ord will become reconnected naturally.This would be a function of the Everlaw of Two and the minute amounts of Possibility Energy still in the ord.
The amount of time in between reconnection attempts for stormers (during out of round action) is one day, so the time necessary for an ord to reconnect should be longer than that, probably much longer.Not that anyone will probably ever use this idea, but how about having the ord generate a Spirit total against a DV of 5; the result points are subtracted from 38 (time value of one year) to determine how long it takes the ord to reconnect, with a minimum time of one day.(Getting it down to one day would take 13 result points, which just happens to be the number of result points necessary to get a transform result in a reality storm; I like thesynchronicity.)
This rule could also be used for stormers, but in most cases a stormer should be able to reconnect quicker with his Reality skill.
He doesn't get to pick. Basically mixed zones are weird and unpredictable; one minute you may be in reality #1, the next minute you may be in reality #2, the next minute you may be a combination of the two. It's basically up to the GM to determine what is going on in a mixed zone (except for the peaceful Akashan mixed zones, which are always a combination of the two realities.)
Because disconnection also removes your ability to create any and all contradictions. You're stuck at whatever the local reality allows and that's it. So anyone who has disconnected in Terra would be unable to perform 'normal' magic, since it's a contradiction to do so.
No, a failed contradiction, normal or long-range, does not automatically transform the involved tool. It is theoretically possible but the odds of anything instantly transforming are extremely low so it should not happen. Of course, the odds increase over time.
Ords can only transform to another reality once. If for some reason an Ord is forced to transform a second time he/she may explode because of the Possibilities washing over the land. Though this can be abated through Glories and Stories.
Stormers are different they are able to retain what skills they had from the other reality but if they do not mesh with the new reality can cause disconnection. There is also a chance that the Stormers possessions may transform as well (Pistols turn into sticks or worse). So the answer is yes to Ords but no to Stormers.
Unless it was a physical transformation, yes. In 95% of transformations only the character's reality changes, skills and tools remain unchanged. This does mean that the character might end up being "a walking four-case contradiction" depending on what he has or knows, which can be crippling to an Ord since after transformation they cannot create any kind of contradictions (rulebook p101) but for Possibility-Rated characters it's less of a problem.
So the devices and skills would be there and the high-tech skills should remain the same. The player may disconnect while using the skill (disconnection in the home realm means that the player is now treated like an Ord and cannot use things from other realities (guns, skills, magic, miracles).
The other 5% are "physical" transformations and the character is remade to fit entirely within the limits of his new reality. Because the Everlaw of One is lazy it will change things as little as possible to make the character fit, so skills and tools should change into something appropriate for the new reality rather than be entirely lost. The character might even gain new skills or abilities from the transformation.
So on a physical transformation, at least all the gear would be transformed as well (cyberlegs to wooden legs, etc.). The cyber probably wouldn't go as far as wooden legs. The Eo1 is more concerned with function than form, and tries to match up transformations by what they do, not what they are. Enhancing cyber would likely transform as Enhancement Packages, or Focused Spells or Miracles.
Note that cyberware is equipment, and unliving. So a cyberleg won't transform back to normal flesh. The one constant when dealing with transformations is that living becomes living, and unliving becomes unliving.
Yes. Check the Nile Empire Sourcebook. Horses can be possibility rated, and have inclinations as well.
Yes, the player can play the 2 Glory cards in his critical action. But he has to play three *separate* glory cards to get the three time bonus (p. 104). So the player traded away a chance at glory at some future time for the extra 6 PP.
If the GM has already announced the Damage Value (or the result value if he is the one who looks up the damage taken) then its too late for the character to play a card. However, it is not uncommon for players in my game to throw an Adrenalin on their Toughness when they get hit by something that they suspect is going to hurt a lot before I announce the damage.
A pulp power is the result of a specific law within the Nile Empire. Outside of the Nile, there are no laws to support the use of a power, therefore, the power will cause a contradiction. The same also applies to cybertech worn by Papacy agents.
You look at the tech level of the appropriate power in a gadget, as shown in the Nile sourcebook, and that is the weird science axiom level required to avoid contradictions, and that is also the technological axiom level required to avoid contradiction. i.e. if spaceships are possible in a particular non-terran cosm, then it doesn't matter whether a particular spaceship is made with weird science or normal tech, it will work.
Yes, you can't raise a skill in one form and have it carry over to the other form.
The character is stuck in his were-form until he can reconnect and attempt to transform again.
Since max DV is based on material strength and cutting edge quality, the answer is YES, slashers have a max, but due to the tech level (space age materials and machining) this level is quite high. Best guess is around max armor at that tech + 12 ("max" TOU) and yes, this is just for game balance. At the time, I don't remember seeing a max damage anywhere but I would probably use values similar to melee weapons of the same size.For example, +3 slashers would have a max DV similar to that for a dagger, maybe a point or two higher.