Isles of Darkness

Universal Rules Supplement

• Rules: Forsaken Rules Supplement
• Rules: Universal Rules Supplement
• Setting: Forsaken Settings Document

This document is intended to usher Isles of Darkness away from the Camarilla Sanctioned Chronicle, providing the society with a temporary supplement with which the Storyteller may continue to run games;

Approval Levels

(1) In the Isles of Darkness Chronicle the Local Approval authority is the Venue Storyteller (VST), the Regional Approval authority is the Regional Storyteller (RST), the Genre Approval authority is the Assistant National Storyteller (ANST) of that particular genre and the Overview Approval authority is the National Storyteller (NST).

States of Play

(1) There are two states of play: Hard Roleplay and Soft Roleplay.

:(a) Hard Roleplay is defined as where a player may initiate non-mediation based resolution systems with another player, or a Storyteller.

:(b) Soft Roleplay is herein defined as where a player may not initiate non-mediation based resolution systems with another player, or a Storyteller, which includes interaction outside game time and interaction toward the end of a game.

(2) A presiding Storyteller may move a scene from ‘Soft’ to ‘Hard’ Roleplay, and from ‘Hard’ to ‘Soft’ Roleplay.

:(a) If a Storyteller moves a scene from ‘Soft’ to ‘Hard’ Roleplay during the course of downtime, the Storyteller must either arrange a mutually suitable time for players to meet to resolve any 'Hard' actions or request proxy information from the players involved.

:(b) Where a Storyteller moves a scene from ‘Soft’ to ‘Hard’ Roleplay, no character may retroactively introduce anything into the scene, which would have required a test i.e. no Obfuscated bodyguards or weapons.

(3) If a player wishes to have such items during 'Soft' roleplay, the appropriate storyteller must approve such requests, and other player characters involved must be given the opportunity to interact with such things as per normal 'Hard' rules.

(4) Where a player character initiates a combat scene and the Storyteller declares Soft Roleplay to be in effect, then the players shall be given opportunity to mutually agree on a resolution. If the players cannot agree on the description, the Storyteller will script a resolution and inform the involved players, no longer than fourteen days after the resolution of the scene.

Membership Benefits

(1) Members may create one Primary Character for use in each venue and may make as many Secondary characters as their Storytellers are willing to allow.

:(a) Primary Characters may add 30 XP plus 20 XP per MC at creation. A bonus of 40 XP is given at MC 1, MC 3, 6, 9 and 12. These XP are added after normal character creation is complete, before entering play (i.e. they cannot be spent on "creation only" merits).

:(b) Up to 10 XP can be left unspent and saved; unspent XP beyond 10 is lost when the character enters play.

:(c) When a player gains a new MC level, all their Primary characters add 20 XP per level gained (plus 40 XP gained at the MC milestones mentioned above).

:(d) Secondary characters are made with MC 1.

(2) Members may, with Regional Approval, create one Primary character for use in a venue where that member already has a primary character.

Experience Points

(1) Characters may not earn more than 10 XP per month. This does not include Overcap XP.

: (a) A character may earn 4 XP for attending their first domain game of the month. This may only be earned once per month.

:(b) A character may earn 2 XP for attending any additional Domain games within that month.

(2) A character may earn 2 XP for a downtime of reasonable length, to be determined by your local Venue Storyteller.

:(a) A character that attends a chapter game or Live Action Downtime Scene, which is presided over by a Storyteller, may earn 1 XP.

:(b) A character may earn 1 XP for proxy involvement in a local plot, and a character may earn 2 XP for proxy involvement in a regional or national plot. The ST must give this award; if they do not feel the proxy merits the XP, it is not automatically awarded.

:(c) The overall downtime award maximum is now 5. Multiple downtimes, chapter games, proxies and downtime scenes may earn you up to a total of 5XP a month.

(3) A character may, at character creation, earn a one time only downtime award of 2 XP for providing an in character biography for distribution to all players, and 5 XP for providing a background to the local Storyteller of sufficient size.

(4) The Optional Rule: Character Flaws is sanctioned for use.

:(a) A character may earn 1 XP if a Flaw provided significant challenge for them during a game session, however this may only be earned once per month.

(5) A character may earn 1 XP if they engage in good roleplay that enhances the game for other characters. This may only be earned once per month.

(6) Attendance of Regional events may earn 4 overcap XP.

(7) Attendance of National events may earn 6 overcap XP.

Venue Style Sheet Location

(1) Venue Style Sheets are Genre Approval.

:(a) All characters must be assigned to a Venue Style Sheet.

:(b) If a player for whatever reason wishes to move their character's VSS, then it is Regional notification to change VSS within a region; Genre notification to change a character's region.

Approval Limitations

(1) The following items are Genre Approval: access to non-supernatural items and mechanics from their own genre but a different character type (e.g. it is High Approval for an Iron Master to have a social Merit usually only available to Storm Lords); specialty in "off-types" in the same venue (e.g. a vampire knowing about a specific bloodline they are not part of); Occult specialization in "Spirits" for characters not in the Forsaken and Awakening venues (unless specified lower elsewhere); Rank 5 Spirits; for a spirit to possess Numina that duplicates other supernatural powers rated higher than the spirit's rank; for characters to use mundane weapons and projectiles that cause aggravated damage to a corresponding supernatural creature type (e.g fire to vampires, silver to werewolves, iron to changelings) subject to Genre specific Addendum changes; significant alteration or removal of scenes from continuity, particularly involving significant effects (e.g. Torpor, loss of limb); New Identity OOOO in all venues.

(2) The following items are Overview Approval: access to non-supernatural items and mechanics from another venue (e.g. it is Top Approval for a Daeva to possess the Storm Lord social Merit); access to Military personnel or hardware - for each instance or use; being Military personnel; access to any kind of Storyteller "hit squad" (e.g. Moroi) called in by a player character to affect another player character; specialty from different venues (e.g. a werewolf PC understanding the Free Council); rewrite for members who have played in the venue in excess of three months; Genre specific antagonist character types as player characters (e.g. a Belial's Brood vampire PC, a Pure werewolf PC, a Scelesti mage PC); Spirits Rank 6 through 10; to call, control or otherwise employ spirits or ghosts against other player characters who exist outside the Awakening or Forsaken venues; use of a dead PC as an NPC ghost; mobile places of power; places of power that grant XP benefits; usage of any unique ("named") characters or antagonists from source material; usage of any unique magic items from source material; significantly reshaping paradigm in one or more venues (e.g. wide scale destruction of the Masquerade) which must be obtained before the reshaping actions take place; permanent cross-venue participation between two venues (e.g. a Mage who regularly visits the Lost in addition to dealing with his fellow Mages); Interaction with unique (named) Storyteller characters or major historical figures, which is waived if the interaction happens as part of storyline or chronicle interaction; use of a true Deity or divine entity from any religion.

Player Characters

(1) A complete character record includes a character sheet, verification of any special approvals, and experience point (XP) log. XP logs must include how starting dots were spent at creation, how XP was spent afterwards, a list of games attended and dated XP awards.

(2) A player can choose to retire a character. Once retired, the character becomes dead or an NPC. It takes Overview Approval to bring a retired character back to sanctioned play. Dead characters may not be resurrected, nor can they be brought back into play as PC ghosts.

(3) Character sheet rewrites are Overview Approval.

:(a) New Players (i.e. within the first six months of membership) may choose, in the first three months of playing a new character, to rewrite their character's character sheet; this may be done at Low Approval, applies only to the first character in a venue and may not be done otherwise.

==Non Player Characters==

(1) Each NPC must be approved by a principal Storyteller. NPCs are created like player characters; they are subject to the same approval limitations as PCs except where stated in the Genre specific Rules supplement. NPCs can be built with XP equating to MC 10 (or the Storyteller's own MC if higher). Additional XP can be added, up to 20 XP per month since January 2005.

Systems

(1) Testing for all venues is performed using systems presented in Mind's Eye Theatre. Dice pools equate to draw bonuses (with the exception of "multi-draws" detailed below). If a tabletop source book calls for a system permutation, use the live-action version on pages 181-184 in Minds Eye Theatre: World of Darkness.

(2) Morality draws use the "multi-draw" system of pulling multiple cards found on pages 101-102 in Minds Eye Theatre: World of Darkness. Bonuses or penalties add or remove draws.

(3) Only four characters maximum may attack a target at the same time.

(4) A Willpower point adds +2 to a Resistance Attribute during a resisted test or to Defence (when the Willpower user is not making a draw). When used to bolster the spender's draw, including a contested resistance draw, it adds +3.

(5) Exceptional Successes and Dramatic Failures are not used.

(6) Mundane Social tests are valid mechanics and should be treated as such. Please refer to the section on Social Skills on page 84 in Minds Eye Theatre: World of Darkness for more details. It is recommended that STs and Narrators monitor the use of mundane Social tests and encourage players to make a reasonable effort to roleplay social encounters.

(7) The rules for tracking on page 178-179 of Werewolf: the Forsaken are sanctioned for all venues.

(8) No poison or toxin inflicts its damage all at once. A minimum of one turn passes before a toxin begins to take effect. Damage is inflicted at the rate of no faster than one per turn, minute or hour, depending on substance. A resistance draw is made each time damage would be imposed until a number of tests equal to the poison's toxicity have been made. Multiple applications of a toxin add virulence to the total number of draws made; they do not mean multiple draws at a time.

Proxy Play

(1) "Proxy" refers to sending your character sheet to a Storyteller other than your own, to portray a character without your physical presence. 48 hours must be given to the Storyteller supervising the scene, unless they give an exception. A Local Storyteller email approving a proxy to commence is sufficient. To proxy a character the player must provide a character sheet, a brief description of intentions, motivations, personality and reactions to possible situations. When proxying, a player grants the Storyteller all rights to the character for the duration of the proxy. Storytellers may modify proxy rules further in their Venue Style Sheets. Storytellers must keep players informed of proxy progress, providing updates at least on a weekly basis, and must portray proxied characters to the best of their ability and in keeping with the player's proxy instructions.

Universal Rules

(1) Storytellers require a Mid approval to use any cross-venue NPC.

(2) UK Gun law remains the same in the World of Darkness.

:(a) Possessing a Firearm or Shotgun license, permitting a character to legally own a weapon is Overview approval. Illegally possessing a Firearm is Genre Approval.

:(b) Membership of an organisation that allows you to carry a Section 1 firearm as part of your duties requires Overview approval i.e. an armed response officer requires such approval whereas a game keeper does not.

:(c) Having legal permission to hold a Section 1 firearm requires the signature of the Home Secretary, and as such is Top approval. This includes any armed private security forces, PC or NPC.

(3) Stab Vests have a rating of 1/2.

Merits

(1) All venues use the simple or graduated Merit cost described in MET p32. Simple cost merits have a single rating or an "or" separating listed ratings.

(2) The following Fighting Style Merits are approved for play: Archery, Boxing, Chain Weapons, Combat Marksmanship, Fencing, Filipino Martial Arts, Grappling, Improvised Weaponry, Kung Fu, Sniping, Sojutsu/Jukendo, Spetsnaz Knife Fighting, Staff Fighting and Two Weapons.

:(a) Sojutsu/Jukendo reduces the Defence of opponents, at a rate of one per level in the Merit, against unarmed characters and characters carrying shorter weapons. This does not apply against Firearms or Ranged weapons.

:(b) Grappling imposes a -1 penalty, per level in the Merit, to characters resisting, or attempting to break, grapples.

:(c) Archery remains as per its write up in Armory.

:(d) Chain Weapons grants +2 Defence for the first level, as noted. 2nd to 4th Level allows a character to negate one point of penalty for a targeted attack with a chain.

:(e) Combat Marksmanship provides +1 Initiative using a firearm per level of Merit to a maximum of their level in the Firearms ability.

:(f) Fencing provides that the character may sacrifice points of defence, up to the maximum of this merit; each point sacrificed may add one to their attack pool that round. If the character does not have defence to sacrifice, they may not add to their attack.

:(g) Filipino Martial Arts provides that each level the character has in this merit increases their defence by one when fighting an unarmed opponent when fighting with the appropriate weapons.

:(h) Sniping: If the character sacrifices their defence for the round, they may make an attack which reduces the penalty to hit on the attack by a number of points up to their level in the Sniping Merit.

:(i) Spetznatz Knife Fighting: Character may make an attack, which penalises the victim's defence by the dots in this merit. This attack must follow another knife attack on the same target from the character, which did not use this bonus.

:(j) Staff Fighting: Character may add a dot to their defence for every point they have in this merit, in addition to the bonus dot of defence for using a pole-arm. Dots in this Merit do not apply to ranged attacks.

:(k) Brute Force has been removed from sanctioned play. Characters who purchased this Merit should remove it from their sheet and refund it on their XP logs with Venue Storyteller Notification.

(3) The following merits from venue-specific book are Local Approval for all venues: Anonymity of the Wolf, Armory Banishers, Fence Banishers, New Identity O and OO the Lost, Parkour of the Moon, Shield-Bearer Against the Pure, Staff Ghouls, Tunnel Rat of Darkness: Chicago.

(4) Supernatural Advantages (Blood Potency, Primal Urge, Gnosis and Wyrd) 8-10 are Genre Approval.

(5) Merits from Book of Spirits and Reliquary are Genre Approval in all venues.

Additional Books

(1) The following books are sanctioned for use within the Isles of Darkness chronicle: Antagonists, Armory, Asylum, Book of Spirits, Ghost Stories, Midnight Roads, Mysterious Places, Reliquary, Second Sight, Skinchangers, World of Darkness: Shadows of the UK, World of Darkness: Shadows over Mexico.

:(a) Second Sight Templates are Genre Approval in all venues.

:(b) Skinchanger are Overview Approval in all venues.

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