House Rules

A list of house rules that have been applied to the Sagehollow Saga.

''Note that these may be amended, revised or redacted in the future, given troupe approval.

Stress and Simple Die Rolls
Unless a situation explicitly involves a significant amount of opportunity for luck (such as combat, galloping headlong through a forest, or rapidly finding a suitable place to hide), rolls are assumed to be made with Simple Dice. If a player wishes to make rolls using a Stress Die, they may do so; providing they get approval from the storyguide before they make the roll. Note that if players wish to use stress die, this too should usually be allowed, except when the situation inherently involves next to no luck at all, such as competing in a swimming race, helping to lift a wagon, or lighting a campfire.

Adventure Experience
Adventure XP may be raised to 11 or even 12 if the adventure is both especially long (as a rule of thumb, four or more sessions) and dangerous. This is not the norm, and should only be implemented in exceptional circumstances.

Extra Adventuring Seasons
Characters can go on more adventures than their annual allowance, but they can still only gain their usual number of adventures for xp purposes, with the remainder still being exposure only. Note that this should only be done if thier skillset is particularly called for, and is subject to troupe approval.

Teaching
The Teaching skill is broken up into fields of study; Regional, Academic and Arcane.

Regional: Area Lores, Living Languages Academic: Academic Abilities Arcane: Arcane Abilities

General Abilities cannot be learned via teaching; they are learned via Adventure, Exposure, Practice, or Training. Note that exceptions may be made with troupe approval.

Characters can only gain up to 30xp in Academic and Arcane abilities via Teaching.

Teaching is capped at 10xp per season of study - the Good Teacher and Apt Student Virtues can increase this limit by up to 3xp each. This cap does not affect apprentices or mage-level characters.

Teaching seasons must be announced to the covenant, and all covenfolk who desire to attend are welcome to - special dispensation may be granted for one-to-one mentoring, but the case must be made for it.

Language Barriers
When the teacher or student have a skill of less than four in the language being used during teaching, each point below that number (each) is applied as a penalty to the source quality. For example, if a teacher had an English skill of 3 and the student had an English skill of 2, then 3 would be deducted from the xp gained for the student.

Training
The Training skill is capped at 10xp per season of study - the Good Teacher and Apt Student Virtues can increase this limit by up to 3xp each.

Specialisations
Specialisations, as the name implies, should apply to situations which are somewhat uncommon. Players should endeavour to avoid specialisations that are applicable more than half of the time. Note that exceptions may be made by troupe approval, such as with Martial Abilities, Languages, and Ride.

Characteristic Specialisations
As an experimental rule, characters gain specialisations for their characteristics. These cannot be specialisations of commonly-rolled skills such as Perception (Awareness) or Presence (Charm). Physical characteristics (Strength, Stamina, Dexterity and Quickness) must have a specialty relating to physical capability, and cannot be for combat or casting totals, such as Dexterity (Combat) or Stamina (Casting Spells). This is meant to be entirely thematic - players should always avoid using specialisations such as Communication (Writing Books) or Intelligence (Lab Work), and instead choose flavourful specialisations such as Communication (Debates) or Intelligence (Recalling Trivia). Note that this rule in particular is highly experimental, and may be reversed at a later date.

The Gift
Mages who are not Gently Gifted may specify how their Gift comes across to others; it may be that they are regarded with suspicion or contempt, or that their presence engenders unease and anxiety. The storyguide may employ a modifier to rolls such as Charm, Guile or Leadership, depending on the nature - and severity - of the character's Gift.

Standard Cost Weapons and Armour
Characters are, by default, assumed to only have inexpensive equipment when they come to the covenant, unless they can argue for a reason why they may have standard. For example, a character with Privileged Upbringing may have a shortsword passed down to him by his father, or a successful viking may have taken a set of metal scale armour as loot. Note that simply being a warrior often would not confer standard weapons and armour, seeing as such things were often the property of their lord or mercenary company, and thus returned to them when the character left their service. This House Rule was enacted in Summer 1193 - characters introduced before that point were not subject to it.

Peasant Weapons
This is a General Ability covering the use of weapons commonly wielded by peasants, including slings, quarterstaffs, sickles and thrown stones.

Altered Virtues & Flaws
Figurine Magic: Figurines cannot grant any permanent benefits; thus, you cannot take xp-granting virtues such as Warrior or Apt Student. Note: Haeddi can continue to gain xp virtues from her figurines until she gains a skill of 3 in Rune Magic Theory.

Mild Ageing: Change the text to the following: "You start making aging rolls at the age of fifty, rather than the normal 35, and get -3 to Aging Rolls, in addition to whatever his social standing normally offers him (ArM5, page 170). He may be dedicated to living a healthy life, or else have been blessed by some supernatural being. This Virtue is not compatible with bloodline Virtues, such as Faerie or Magic Blood."

Noncombatant: Change the text to the following: "You are fundamentally opposed to combat. This may be due to your morals, to the point where you take issue with others engaging in violence when not explicitly in self-defence, or you react illogically to combat happening around you - you may stand there, frozen and hyperventilating, or you may curl up into the foetal position and cry."

Judged Unfairly: General Flaw, rather than Personality. Night Terrors: Major Flaw, rather than Minor. Nocturnal: General Flaw, rather than Personality. Tenens Occultorum: Social and Story Flaw, rather than Social Virtue. Vow: Personality or Story Flaw, subject to troupe approval.

Blessed by God
Major Supernatural Virtue The divine has a strong and innate connection to you, due to being a creature of True Faith. This grants you several abilities. First, you gain the Strong-Willed Virtue. Second, you gain the Frightful Presence Virtue. Third, you gain the Sense Holiness and Unholiness Virtue. Fourth, you gain access to Dominion Lore. Finally, you gain +1 Presence. Your Divine blessing may visually manifest in any number of ways, such as having golden eyes, a faint halo surrounding your head, or having mildly luminous skin in the dark. This Virtue can only be gained if you a True Faith Score of 2, and the Heroic Personality Flaw.

Knife Fighter
Minor General Virtue You are naturally adept at wielding short blades as deadly weapons, perhaps honed by a life with a circus troupe or a rough life in a town. You gain +3 to Brawl rolls to use daggers and knives, and can throw the latter using the Brawl skill instead of Thrown Weapon.

Strong Magical Blood
Major Supernatural Virtue The blood of a magical creature is strong in you. Perhaps one of your parents was one such creature, or maybe you were conceived or born in a place of great magical power. This ancestry grants you several abilities. First, you have natural longevity. You start making ageing rolls at the age of fifty, rather than the normal 35, and get -3 to Ageing Rolls, cumulative with any other bonuses. Second, you gain a Supernatural Ability appropriate to your specific heritage (subject to troupe approval), and you gain either the Unaffected by the Gift or the Personal Vis Source Virtues - that source being your own blood. Third, you may learn Magic Lore during character generation. Finally, one characteristic increases by 1 (to a maximum of +3), as appropriate to your specific heritage. This heritage is also visible. Choose a physical quirk, such as small horns, blue blood, or eyes without irises and pupils, as appropriate. You may not have both Magical Blood and Faerie Blood or Strong Faerie Blood. This is a Supernatural Virtue, and you cannot lose it when being trained as a magus (see page 106). If your master cannot preserve the ability, you cannot be trained.

Squirrel up a Tree
Minor General Virtue Using a mixture of acrobatics, climbing and dodging, this character can run through wooded areas as if unobstructed. This gives a substantial advantage in opposed Athletics rolls, which represent being chased.

Devoted Lord/Boss
Major Story Flaw Persons in your employ (staff, villagers and retainers) often come to you for help in overcoming their difficulties. Out of a sense of duty, or a meddlesome nature you feel compelled to assist in these endeavours. You also find it difficult to trust others with important tasks, and have a tendency to micro-manage projects, involving yourself in activities better left to others. Note that you should have a Social Status representing just why you have people in your employ, such as Gentleman, Factor or Guild Master.

Devoted Ward
Minor General Flaw The character feels a lack of purpose and direction when away from their warden. Whenever they are separated from this warden for more than a day, they gain -1 to all rolls until they are reunited.

Raised in the Manor
Minor General Flaw This character was raised almost exclusively amongst upper class society. They are able to use her social abilities normally with those of the middle and upper classes, but don’t know how to act amongst their “lessers.” When using Charm, Etiquette or Guile, it is obvious that they're from the fancy part of town, and their tone makes convincing lower-class people to do what they want harder (-3 on rolls).

Specialised (Ability)
Minor General Flaw Though you are perfectly capable of operating within the bounds of your niche, you either have absolutely no training, experience or ability in other areas, regardless of transferable skills. The chosen ability can only be rolled upon if its specialty is being utilised - otherwise, you count as untrained. This Ability should be one that is important to the character, or the troupe may veto the choice of this Flaw.