House Rules

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House Rules
RAtC House Rules and Other Rule Clarifications

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Table of Contents^*

Ability Specialization	Item Cards and Item Validation	Quickdraw Ability
Abilities Over 5	Kailindo	Rage Actions, Declaration of
Adding Abilities to Challenges	Klaiviskar	Raging Back
Balefire	Learning from Others in Downtime	Resources Explanation
Blindfighting Ability	Linguistics	Social Challenges and Persuasion
Damage Soaking	Lores, Starting	Specific Gift Rulings

Disciplinary Process	[Lores, Triatic	Spirit Challenges and Retests
Fetish and Talen Creation	Losing the Wolf	Spirit Speech
Gifts	Martial Arts	SPLAT! Rule
Gnosis, Uses of	Numen and Charms	Talith
Harano	OOC and Soft RP	Talking in Combat
Influence, Uses of	Online Scene Rules	Tempers (Rage, Gnosis, Willpower)
Iskakku	Pregnant Characters and Pregnancy	Totems
Proxy Sheet Rule

Ability Specialization
In order to purchase a specialization within a particular Ability, your character must already possess at least x4 in that Ability.  For example, it would not be possible to purchase "Criminal" as a specialization of the Law Ability, until the character has reached at least Law x4.

Abilities Over 5
Abilities above 5 may be purchased at double cost as per Laws of the Wild ONLY if the character is packed under a Totem that increases that Ability above 5 for them, and then only up to the level granted by the Totem. They may retain this benefit after parting with the Totem on good terms.

Adding Abilities to Challenges
Characters may add their level of an Ability to their total Traits in Challenges where the Ability is an appropriate retest - for example, a character attacking with a sword can add their Melee rating to their Physical Traits for the purposes of comparing on ties. This does not apply to Static Challenges (such as many Gift activations) or other Challenges wherein the other party cannot also add an Ability. For non-Static Gift Challenges with no listed retest that have a house-ruled retest, the house-ruled retest Ability should be added.

Balefire
Whether created by the Black Spiral Dancer Gift: Balefire or another means, Balefire at Rage Across the Cape functions like normal fire (and is affected by Gifts that affect fire), except for two key differences. A character damaged by Balefire must make a Simple Test for each Health Level (not Armor) of damage taken; failure means that the character gains a mutation. These mutations may not be healed until the character is cleansed, through a Rite of Cleansing or other means. A character that would receive a Battle Scar as a result of Balefire damage instead receives two Battle Scars. A character with the Merit: Resistant to Wyrm Emanations takes half damage from Balefire, rounded down, and is at no risk for mutations or extra Battle Scars.

Blindfighting Ability
In RAtC, the Blindfighting Ability works as follows:

• As a defense against Surprise, Blindfighting allows a chop for the target to have an innate awareness of an incoming attack, prior to the attack landing.  It also allows use of Dodge in complete darkness/blindness situations, up to your permanent Blindfighting rating.
• Offensively, Blindfighting allows a chop for the attacker to sense where the target is.  It also allows use of Melee, Brawl, etc. in complete darkness/blindness situations, up to your permanent Blindfighting rating.
• Additionally, Specialized Fighting Style (SFS) Maneuvers may be used in complete darkness/blindness situations, that are of a level equal to or lower than your permanent Blindfighting rating.  For example, a character with Klaiviskar x4 maneuvers, but Blindfighting x2, may only use Klaiviskar x2 maneuvers and lower.

NOTE:  Normally, without the Blindfighting Ability, any complete darkness/blindness situation would result in an automatic fail, per the related description of the Blind Flaw on page 93 of Laws of the Wild:

"You are robbed of the blessings of vision.  You lose all ties where sight is involved (such as manual dexterity) and automatically lose all challenges where sight is required [such as dodging or landing an attack]."

Complete darkness/blindness can be overcome only through the use of Blindfighting, or some such similar Ability or Gift (e.g. the Gift: Heightened Senses).

Damage, Soaking
You may attempt to "soak" damage by bidding a Stamina-related Physical Trait in lieu of Dodging, or by taking an offensive action (which would result in a contested challenge).

For example: "I'm tough enough to take it."

If you lose the challenge, you can either take the damage, or retest with the ability: Survival.

For example:  "I really am tough enough to take it."

Remember, your opponent can still cancel with the appropriate ability (e.g., Brawl). There is no additional retest, except the Merit: Luck, or something similar, where you gain a retest for situations where one would not normally be permitted.

Remember that Garou characters (except for homids and lupus in breed form) cannot soak damage from silver, unless they have the Merit: Silver Tolerance.

Disciplinary Process
The disciplinary process in OWbN relies first on an internal, chronicle-level mechanism, then second, on a OWbN-level mechanism for censure and punishment.  At the OWbN level, punishments proposals are put before Council, ranging from OWbN Censures, to Strikes (three, and you're out of the Org), to Bans (amounts to three strikes at once).  Proposals are voted on by Council and the results impact the punished player or game effectively across the Org.

At the Chronicle level, the process we have in place is a close mirror to the OWbN process, save that the final decision on punishments comes down to the discretion of the HST (though often the entire staff and/or player base may also be polled to aid in the decision making).  Censures, Strikes or Bans at the chronicle-level would only apply to RAtC. If through the chronicle-level process, the HST and/or the staff feel an issue is severe enough, a proposal may be brought to Council by RAtC, initiating the OWbN-level process.

At any time, if a player feels that an issue is not being handled effectively (or to their satisfaction) by the RAtC staff, the issue may be brought to the OWbN Executive Team, who will work toward correcting/finding a solution to the issue at their discretion.  Often, the Executive Team will act as a mediator between the "plaintiffs", "defendants" and individual chronicles.  This process should be treated as a last resort, however, as there are typically more effective ways to handle such things through the chronicle-level process, or through the usual OWbN-level process.

Fetish and Talen Creation
For one-spirit, one-power fetishes, a fetish will take two weeks per Gnosis level of the fetish to create. Any general Fetish listed in Laws of the Wild or any Fetish appropriate to a character's Tribe can be created by a character with Rite of the Fetish. Attempts to create rarer Fetishes or Fetishes of other Tribes will require at least a scene, and possibly Challenges to locate and bind the appropriate spirits.

Adding powers or adding spirits makes the fetish extremely difficult to create and only the more skilled theurges attempt this.  These attempts can take several months to complete and will be treated on a case by case basis.

Talens are much easier to create, but some are rarer than others. Any character who knows the Rite of Binding is assumed to know how to create all Talens listed in Laws of the Wild, as well as the Gaia's Breath Talen. Recipes for additional Talens may be learned from other characters and will be listed on a character's sheet. Players may begin each session with a number of Talens whose recipes they know equal to their Gnosis + Rank. Theurges may begin each session with twice this number of Talens.

Gifts
Out-of-Breed/Tribe/Auspice Gifts:  Out-of-B/T/A Gifts may be learned, however chiminage and a scene are always required unless dictated otherwise by the staff.  Spirits generally do not care how a character uses an out-of-B/T/A Gift, though if the Gift is abused, the Spirits will take notice.  For example, using a Gift against the brood of spirit who taught it to you is probably not a good idea. Non-Theurge characters would be well-served by enlisting the assistance of a Theurge.  Disrespect to the spirits, dependent on severity, can result in Spirit Notoriety.

W20 Gifts: Gifts from the Werewolf 20th Anniversary supplement may be learned by RAtC characters following normal rules - that is, Gifts that are in B/T/A for the character may be learned without a scene for the normal amount of XP. Players should talk with Staff to find an appropriate MET conversion for Gifts that require conversion.

Perception of Gift Use: When one character uses a Gift against another, the target does not automatically know that a Gift has been used against her.  If your character does not have the Awareness Ability, then there is no chance for her to know.  Such Gifts as Sense Magic may detect the use of a Gift by another, though an In-Character reason must exist to justify checking for magic usage.  You must have the level of Awareness to match the gift's user's rank modifier.  One dot of Awareness for Cliath Gifts, two for Fostern Gifts, three for Adren, four for Athro, five for Elder, and so on. 

Example: If a Cliath uses Persuasion on a Garou with Awareness 1, the target gets a chance to detect the Gift use.  If an Athro uses Invisibility, a Garou must have Awareness 4 to detect its use.

Gnosis, Uses of
Use of Gnosis to temporarily reshape the penumbra is not allowed in RAtC.

Gnosis may be offered to spirits as payment or tribute in exchange for aid.

Harano
Harano is a serious topic which touches on difficult real-world issues such as clinical depression and suicidal ideation, and is not a plot to be entered into lightly. A character must be at least two years old to be susceptible to Harano. Players interested in experiencing a Harano plot should talk to Staff about their goals and interests for such a plot. If Staff approves the plot, it is the player’s responsibility to disclose that they are considering a Harano plot and give other players the chance to opt out. If a player opts out, the player of the character with Harano is obligated to respect this boundary and not bring Harano-related roleplaying into scenes with players who have opted out. Anyone can opt out at any time by saying so. Failure to respect these boundaries will result in disciplinary action. These guidelines are also useful for topics like sexual assault and serious mental illness.
Otherwise, Harano follows the rules in Laws of the Wild.

Influence, Uses of
Possessing and using Influence: You cannot manage more Influence than the sum of your permanent Physical, Social and Mental Traits. This limit counts against all of your total Influence — your combined levels cannot exceed this total. After all, there are only so many things you can do in a day. When you exercise Influence, you expend temporary Influence Traits. The tables for various Influence areas detail what you can do with a specific number of Traits. An action requires a number of Traits equal to the level of the action. Therefore, with high levels of Influence, you can perform many small actions or a few significant ones. To perform the new Influence endeavors presented here (such as Attack, Grow and Watch), you must spend Traits just as you would for endeavors on the traditional charts. Certain levels of Influence gift you with items, money or aides. Unlike the Resources Background, money and equipment garnered with Influence does not come automatically each month. If you want a steady income from Influence, you must direct your Influence in that direction continually, and this income does not come with any associated trappings of wealth (buy a house and car separately, for instance). Aides garnered with Influence generally help for only one specific task, and they usually have the equivalent of only one level of Ability in their area of skill. For more competent and readily available help, take the Allies Background. Most cities have only a set amount of Influence in various areas. Once all of the Influence of a given type is used up, the only way to get more is to use existing Influence to grow that area of society (making new projects or sponsoring investment) or to destroy someone else’s Influence and free up those resources. Also, each city may have different reflections of the Influences listed here. A city with a thriving independent film community is going to have a different picture of Media or High Society Influence than a city in which the arts are being literally starved out due to budget cuts.

Influence Actions and Modifiers In addition to the actions listed on the Influence charts in the various MET source books, characters may perform the additional endeavors listed here. It is important to note that Influence can generally only affect other Influences of the same type. A character can use his Street Influence to aggress another player’s Street Influence, but he would have a hard time getting it to interact with a player’s High Society Influence successfully.

Attack You can Attack another’s Influence with your own, provided you have previously Traced the target Influence. To Attack, you assign a number of Influence Traits, and that number becomes the level of the Attack endeavor. If the level exceeds the victim’s Influence level, the victim drops a level of her Influence at the end of the month. Traits banked for Growth are lost as well, even if they would have given the victim a new, higher level Influence at the beginning of the next month. Mechanics Example: Patrick and Michael both have Media Influence, at levels five and two respectively. Patrick Traced Michael’s Influence successfully last month, and he desires to make an Attack upon it this month. He spends four Traits on the endeavor, meaning that the Attack’s level is four. Since the level of Patrick’s Attack is greater than the level of Michael’s Media Influence, Michael will only have a level-one Media to work with next month. If Michael had been spending Traits for Growth, and had accumulated three or more, he would immediately apply three of them to bring it back to level two. Descriptive Example: When Patrick made his character, he decided that his Media Influence would be represented by his business contacts in local news channels. To Attack Michael’s Influence, Patrick performed the necessary prerequisite of succeeding in a Trace on it. Having done so, Patrick discovered that Michael’s Media Influence was represented by his well-regarded movie review blog. When writing an explanation of the Attack endeavor for the Storyteller, Patrick describes influencing his media mogul contacts to have their networks broadcast a television news story about Michael’s blog, dragging it through the mud and dismissing his opinions as "irrelevant." When the Storyteller looks at the Influence numbers and decides that Patrick’s Attack is successful, he informs both Patrick and Michael of the resulting decline in the blog's readership, which represents Michael’s Media Influence dropping to level one at the beginning of the next month.

Block You can use your Influence to prevent Influence endeavors from taking place for that month. Any action from the other sourcebooks may be blocked, provided that your Influence level is at least equal to the endeavor’s level on the chart. The Block’s effective level is the total number actions spent toward it. A Block will affect all attempts at the selected endeavor during that month; anyone attempting the Blocked action in the city will not succeed unless they have added enough levels of Boost to the endeavor. Multiple Blocks against the same endeavor type are not cumulative in effect. If more than one Block is put in place on the same endeavor, use only the highest level when calculating the success of those attempting the endeavor. Mechanics Example: Mick has four levels of Legal Influence. Because he is capable of arranging a parole, he is therefore able to put a Block on that endeavor type as well. He decides to spend two of his Legal Influence Traits to create a level two Block. Anyone wishing to arrange a parole in the city that month must spend two or more additional Influence Traits into Boost in order to be successful.

Boost Boost is simply a term used to describe spending additional unneeded Influence Traits to perform an endeavor, just in case someone has put up a Block that needs to be overcome. If the Traits spent into Boost equal the level of the Block, the action is successful. The Block does not go away if one action beats it, though. It can still be effective against any additional attempts at that endeavor in that month.
Combine Combine allows you to aid the Influence endeavor of another character. No action can be attempted by a character who doesn’t have the required Influence level according to that chart. For every two Traits that you spend on Combine, the character you are helping gains one action to use toward his endeavor. Influence borrowed through the Allies and Mentor Backgrounds are also subject to this rule. A character can spend no more than 20 Traits toward a single endeavor in any given month, including all actions spent for modifications such as Combine. Mechanics Example: Alexander has four levels of Political Influence. He wants to enact some minor legislation in the city, which would cost him all four of his Political Influence Traits for the month. Alexander has already used a Political Influence Trait this month, so he doesn’t have enough. He asks a friend to Combine Political Influence with his. Carter has only two levels, but he loans them both to Alexander. Since the number of Traits loaned is effectively halved when using Combine, Alexander nets only one extra Political Influence Trait for the month, but that’s all he needs to enact the minor legislation. Descriptive Example: Alexander's Political Influence comes from being a cousin of the Nantucket mayor's major electoral donor. Since he’d already had the mayor ask the city council for a small favor this month, he knows that getting him to push for the minor legislation would be straining the mayor’s authority. Alexander asks his ally Carter to help him with the endeavor, using Combine. Carter provides regular legal advice for a council member, and has this council member propose the minor legislation. With the issue on the table, the mayor can throw his full support into it without burdening his relationship with the council.

Conceal Conceal can be used to hide your Influence from uses of Trace. The number of actions spent toward Conceal generates that month’s Conceal level, which you pit against attempts to Trace it. Mechanics Example: Jess has heard a rumor that Tim is going to Trace his University Influence. He spends all four of his University Traits to generate a level four Conceal over them. For three months in a row, he continues to spend his four Traits on Conceal. On the fourth month, Jess hopes that Tim has lost interest in his University Influence, and goes back to using it for Growth.

Defend You use the Defend endeavor when you fear that someone is going to Attack your Influence. To employ this special endeavor, assign a number of Traits as the level of the defense. The level of any Attacks directed at that Influence must exceed the Defend level plus the level of your Influence in order to be successful. Mechanics Example: Jerry fears that someone is going to attack his Street Influence this month, so he puts up a defense to protect it. He assigns three of his four Street Traits to the defense. An incoming Attack must now be level eight or higher to affect his Influence.

Follow If you want to keep an eye on what someone is doing with his Influence, you can attempt to Follow them with your own. Follow is similar to Watch, except that it only keeps a lookout for actions performed by a single Influence. To Follow someone’s Influence, you must have a successful Trace on it already. To use Follow, assign a number of Traits to establish the level of the endeavor. The Follow endeavor will reveal all activities performed by the targeted Influence, less any activities hidden with an equal or higher level of Stealth. Mechanics Example: Jean successfully used her level-three Occult Influence to perform a Trace on Toby’s Occult Influence several months ago. This month, Jean is curious as to what Toby is up to, so she spends all three Traits of Occult Influence to Follow Toby’s Occult activities. She finds out that Toby attempted to acquire a minor magical item. If Toby had put three or more levels of Stealth on that endeavor, Jean would not have been able to detect it.

Growth To raise one of your Influences to the next level, you must spend a number of Traits equal to three times your current level. In general, you can gain a new level in an Influence once every three months, provided you are using your Influence for nothing else. Unlike other endeavors, Traits spent for Growth can be banked from month to month. When you bank Traits thus, they accumulate until you reach the number required for an increase. If you meet the number of Traits required to increase to the next level, the Influence level improves by one at the end of the month. Mechanics Example: Jerry has three levels of Street Influence, meaning he would need nine Traits spent to get to level four. In one month, he spends two of his three Traits on Growth (two banked). In the next month, he spends two more Traits on Growth (four banked). In the month following that, he spends all three Traits on Growth (seven banked). In the fourth month, Jerry spends two more Traits on Growth, meeting the requirement to achieve level four. At the end of the month, his Street Influence improves by one. Jerry could have grown her Street Influence a little faster if he had spent all of his actions on Growth each month. Descriptive Example: Jerry's Street Influence is represented by the Black Dogs, a local New Bedford gang, as well as homeless people he helps shelter and feed. When writing a description of his Growth activities for the Storyteller, Jerry describes encouraging his contacts in the Dogs to push for mergers with other gangs across the city. The next month, he describes organizing the homeless people into small “communities” for safer living, which draws more homeless people into the area to spy for him. The month following, Jerry describes giving a Cleansed former Wyrm den to the Dogs as a new base of operations. In the fourth month, he throws a big cookout for all the homeless folks he knows. Now that Jerry has strengthened his contacts enough to warrant an increase in his Influence, the Storyteller agrees to raise his Street to level four at the end of the month.

Stealth Stealth is added to endeavors to counter the use of Follow and Watch. If the number of Traits spent to add Stealth to an endeavor equals or exceeds the level of the Follow or Watch, the endeavor is remains undetected. Stealth can be applied to any of the actions on the charts, as well as to Attack, Block, Follow, Growth or Watch. Mechanics Example: Mick wishes to use his Finance Influence to raise the capital to purchase a small business. Doing so would normally only require two of his five Finance Influence Traits, but because Mick doesn’t want anyone else to know what he’s up to, he throws in the other three Traits for Stealth. If someone had instituted a Watch of level three or less to notice that activity in the city, she would not detect Mick’s sneaky acquisition of the capital. If the observer had put up a Watch of level four or higher, Mick’s Stealth would not have hidden him from her prying eyes.

Trace You can use this endeavor to establish the identity of a character whose Influence you have come into contact with. You cannot simply guess that a character has an Influence in a particular category and then attempt to Trace it. You must first have come into contact with it in one of the several ways. This can be accomplished by suffering an Attack from the target’s Influence, by noticing one of the target’s endeavors with the use of Watch, by stopping one of the target’s endeavors with a Block, or by having one your own endeavors stopped by the target’s use of Block. Additionally, if someone ever loans you Influence Traits with Combine, you can Trace them. Finally, if the target ever tells you in great detail about his Influence (i.e., agrees to let you Trace it), you can perform the Trace. The total actions spent on the Trace define its level. If the level of this Trace exceeds the highest level of Conceal or Stealth put up to guard the Influence that month, the Trace is successful. Success tells you the Influence owner’s identity, and whether their Influence level is higher than your own or not. It also gives you a general description of the Influence and the ability to spend Traits to Attack it. If you have succeeded in a Trace on an Influence, you may not simply relay that information to someone else for their Influence to make an Attack on. The information is too complex for them to relay to their own Influence contacts without them actually performing a Trace themselves. If you have performed a successful Trace, you can relay enough information for someone else to perform a Trace with his or her own Influence. Mechanics Example: Arianna has a level-four Police Influence. Recently her attempt to access confiscated weapons was stopped by Carl’s level-two Block. Having established contact, Arianna decides to Trace the influence. The next month, she spends all four Traits to Trace. Carl, who has level-five Police Influence, is spending two Traits to Block again this month, and because he fears others will Trace him, he puts his remaining three Traits into Conceal. As the level of Arianna’s Trace more than equals the level of Carl’s Conceal, Arianna discovers that the Influence that blocked her endeavor last month belongs to Carl. She discovers its general description (defined by Carl when he created his character) and that its level is higher than hers.

Watch You use Watch when you want to notice a certain Influence action in a city from the chart listed in the sourcebooks. Your Influence must be of sufficient level to perform that action before you can Watch it. A Watch will let you know when and how often the action is attempted in the city for that month, and you will even discover uses of the action that occurred earlier in the same month before the Watch was instituted. The total number of Traits spent on the Watch define its level. You can also use Watch to look for the following endeavors: Attack, Block, Follow (only those targeted at you), Growth and Watch. Mechanics Example: Jerry decides to spend one of his five Church Influence Traits into a Watch this month. He decides to Watch for individuals attempting to contact church-associated hunter groups. Because Jerry is paranoid, he decides to put up a level-two Watch on the Watch activity to see if anyone else is doing the same thing. Jerry’s Watch for individuals attempting to contact church-associated hunter groups doesn’t get him anything. His second Watch (the one on the Watch endeavor) notices his own Watch of course, and discovers that someone has put up a Watch to notice anyone attempting to peruse general church records.

WHEN TO RESOLVE ACTIONS For the purpose of these rules, Influence Traits spent on endeavors return at the beginning of the month after they are spent. The Storyteller may desire to extend this time for large games that run less often than once a month. Either way, this period of time should remain constant, giving all of the players the same opportunity to employ their Influences on a regular basis. Attack, Follow, Growth, Trace and Watch endeavors should only be resolved at the end of the month. This limit gives everyone a chance to put up levels of Conceal, Defense and Watch, and it lets the Storyteller take everyone’s Influence actions into account so that they can produce better descriptive results of each person’s endeavors.

THE SCOPE OF INFLUENCES As stated previously, an Influence can only affect Influence from the same category. In very rare circumstances, the Storyteller may allow Influences from one category to assist endeavors in another, but only in the same city. In this case, each action is spent as though it was only half of an action.

Iskakku
As per the Child of Gaia Tribe Book, Revised [2002], pages 81-83. For additional information regarding Specialized Fighting Styles in general, please see the House Rule on Specialized Fighting Styles.  Maneuvers for Iskakku are per the book.

Item Cards and Item Validation

• In order to "have" an item in-character, you must either have an Item Card for said item, signed/stamped by an ST of RAtC, or the item must be listed on your character sheet under equipment/notes, including any applicable mechanics.
• For the purposes of this rule, an "item" includes, but is not limited to: talens, fetishes, and weapons (both mundane and supernatural), as well as any equipment.  Basically, anything of importance that your character may call upon.  If you come into possession of an item through the course of a scene online or at game, be sure to ask the staff to provide you with an item card for it, or you will not be considered to actually have it.
• Item cards for items procured by your character at other OWbN chronicles are acceptable, but must be reviewed and signed by an ST of RAtC (in addition to the staff of the game from which it originates), in order to be admitted into the game.
• Items expressed under equipment/notes on your character sheet must be marked-off when used (as with any other expendable aspect of your sheet).  If an item is documented via Item Card, and it is "used up" during play, expect the staff to take the card from you - it is gone.  In some cases, you may receive the card back at the end of game, for future re-use, if it falls into the category of regular equipment covered in your downtime activities (for example, spirit brews).

There will be plenty of time during game warm-up/wind-down (soft roleplay time) to work out any item card issues with the STs.  If you need any item cards or have any questions, please ask.

Kailindo
As per the Players Guide to Garou [2003], pages 181, 220-223.  Players are discouraged from beginning the game with Kailindo at character creation.  The task to have it taught to you is almost a whole chronicle in itself, so why shortcut it instead of playing it out?  If it is your intention to start your character with Kailindo, you must work closely with the staff and present a very well-thought out and compelling backstory for how and why the character possesses this skill.  Maneuvers for Kailindo are per the book.

Klaiviskar
As per the Players Guide to Garou [2003], pages 181, 218-220.  Maneuvers for Klaiviskar are per the book.

Learning from Others During Downtime
If your character is learning from another character over downtime, it is important to remember that you MUST obtain IC permission to learn from that character, be it for an Ability, Rite, etc.

For example, if Patrick is looking to learn Stealth x4 from Thoth during downtime, it should be noted in the player's XP spending that Patrick is learning this Ability from Thoth.

In addition to the notation in Downtime/XP that Patrick is learning from Thoth, the staff will also be looking for a scene, or at the very least, an indication in the other player's downtime that Thoth is teaching Patrick Stealth x4.  If there is no scene, or the teacher/student downtimes to not match up in this respect, the new Ability, Rite, etc, will not be tabulated on your sheet.

If you are learning from a character outside of RAtC, it is imperative that you have the player of the teaching character contact the RAtC staff to verify what they are teaching you.  This can be done by emailing ratcstaff@googlegroups.com.  It is the learning player's responsibility to have the teaching player contact the RAtC staff.  The RAtC staff will reserve the right to investigate further if need be.  Learning for which no confirmation is received from the teaching player will not be processed.

Linguistics
The Linguistics Ability is representative of both the number of languages known, as well as the depth and breadth of a character's general linguistic knowledge.

As new languages are learned, a character becomes more acutely aware of of the general characteristics and nuances of language from a world view.

Each character in RAtC is awarded one Trait in Linguistics at character creation, in her native tongue.

Additional Traits in Linguistics may be purchased, up to a maximum of five (x5), with each new Trait representing a new language.

Additional languages may be purchased at the same cost, though no additional Traits may be purchased beyond five (x5).

Learning times for each new Trait in Linguistics (each new language), vary based on a number of factors including, but not limited to: the student, the teacher (or means by which a character is learning), existing linguistic proficiency, and complexity of the language.  When attempting to learn a new language, be sure to speak with a member of the staff to determine an appropriate learning time.

Lores, Starting
Each Cliath character in RAtC receives one Trait each in both Garou Lore and her Tribal Lore at character creation. The cost for these traits will be subtracted from the up-to-60 bonus starting XP.
Cubs will not start with these Traits, but may learn them though play, or will be awarded them upon completing a Rite of Passage and becoming Cliath, assuming they have the unspent XP to pay for them.

Lores, Triatic
Learning the Triatic Lores (Weaver Lore, Wyld Lore, Wyrm Lore) can be hazardous. There is a risk of becoming tainted by the forces as one molds one’s mind to better understand them. There is no risk from learning the first dot of a Triatic lore, but learning lores higher than 3 becomes more and more risky for the student, requiring a Willpower test to avoid becoming tainted. The FOURTH dot requires a test against ten traits and the FIFTH dot requires a test against twelve traits. The Iron Will merit gives a one-trait bonus on these tests. The Resistant to Wyrm Emanations merit gives a four-trait bonus on these tests for Wyrm Lore only.

Losing the Wolf
Werewolf: the Apocalypse (tabletop) says that a Garou "loses the wolf" when they are completely out of temporary Rage and Willpower.  Laws of the Wild Revised says that a Garou "loses the wolf" when they are completely out of temporary Rage.  The Rage Across the Cape staff believe that the Laws of the Wild Revised text is a typo, and chooses to use the tabletop interpretation.

Martial Arts
As per Laws of the East, pages 85-88, save for the modifications that follow.

• Hard/Soft/Weapon Styles may only be performed in Homid or Glabro forms.
• When Martial Arts: Hard/Soft styles are used in forms other than Homid or Glabro, the Martial Arts traits may be used as traditional Brawl retests/cancels, as a general reflection of unarmed talent, though the usual Martial Arts bonuses are not received.
• Only one Martial Arts: Hard style, or one Martial Arts: Soft style are permitted per character.
• When picking up a new Martial Arts: Hard/Soft style, Brawl must be eliminated from the sheet by converting the Traits to Martial Arts via the conversion system outlined below.
• When picking up a new Martial Arts: Weapon style, Melee Traits may (at player discretion) be converted to Martial Arts via the conversion system outlined below.  The player may opt not to convert existing Melee to Martial Arts, keeping those Traits exclusively in traditional Melee.

Conversions: Players with existing characters who wish to switch from Brawl (or Melee, in the case of those learning weapon styles) to Martial Arts must divide their permanent Trait rating in Brawl/Melee in half and round up.  The result is their new Martial Arts rating.  In the case of weapon styles, the character may distribute the result between Martial Arts Traits in her chosen weapon style and traditional Melee Traits.

Numen and Charms
Garou with the Numen Background may borrow Charms from their Numen, but each Charm can only be borrowed once in a given scene, and expenditures to power such Charms are capped at 3.

Online Scene Rules
Basic Rules
RAtC Plays in a real-life/real-time setting.
Numerous scenes are started daily that expand over numerous days.
RAtC players are allowed to NOT have to play the time game.
It requires far too much time and effort to regulate who is in what scene and who is in another.
We will not be implementing time regulation into the game.

• Any posts in an IC area that are OOC will be deleted by the staff.  This is non-negotiable, (with the exception of clarifications for IC purposes).  There is way too much confusion over what is IC and what is not IC.  We have an OOC area and the ability to include links.  If there needs to be an OOC discussion related to an IC thread, then do so in the OOC area.
• Staff-Adjudicated combat is generally reserved for in-person game events.  Exceptions to this include staff-run scenes that involve visiting or otherwise "online only" characters, or specific one-on-one scenes that would be staff intensive if resolved at game.  Outside of these cases, combat (or any time your character must chop against another individual in a player-initiated scene) may only play out if adjudicated between the players involved.  The staff will not get involved in such combats.  If combat is initiated, and the players involved are unable to resolve the conflict honestly and on their own, then the scene will be paused by the staff, to be continued at the next game.  This will also place a time-freeze on the characters involved until the scene is played-out at game (one of the very few times we will initiate a time-freeze).
• If you you have your PC have a thought process,  it is readable in your body language and expressions.  In most cases, this excludes conversations explicitly marked as "Pack Link" or "Mind Link."
• Private Scenes:  Private scenes are just that - private.  For example, any scene marked private, or any scene in a private location like a PC's home, business, pack lands, or anything of the sort.  The Scene must be marked "Private" or be in the correct location on the forums in order to be Private.  If the scene is not marked as such then it is open to any player to interact with.
• If you are unsure of whether or not a particular scene is considered private, please check with a member of the staff.  Ignorance, or "I thought it was public" are not acceptable answers.
• If you are not included in a scene that is considered "Private" in one form or another, the assistance of a staff member will be required in order to enter the scene.  Remember, "entering the scene" may consist of "spying on the scene anonymously" however this will need to be handled by the staff, as the participants of the scene may have the opportunity to find you spying.
• Casual browsing of online scenes for in-character information is strictly prohibited.  In all cases, the only way to "know" what happened in a given scene (public or private) is to be told in-character, or to have participated in the scene first-hand.
• Metagaming is a serious concern, and all instances of misconduct will be thoroughly investigated by the staff of RAtC and reacted to appropriately.
• Scenes that take place off the forums over AIM, Private Chat, etc. (not including scenes that take place on other game's forums), must be posted to the RAtC forums in order to be considered to have actually transpired.  RAtC players should consider posting these scenes (copy and past out of AIM or your chat program) as threads in your Private Character Area.  Scenes may be posted in public forum sections, but this is at the discretion of the players involved.
• When scenes take place over email that involve characters from multiple chronicles, at least one Storyteller from each chronicle represented should be CC'd on all correspondence for oversight.  To include the RAtC Staff on your correspondence, please include RAtCStaff@googlegroups.com in the CC.  Contact information for other chronicles' staffs are typically posted on the games' forums and/or websites.
• All scenes started on the forums will be said to begin on the date and time of the first post in the thread, unless otherwise specified in the initial post.  All scenes progress in "real time" even though "forum time" may be much slower.  While there are no hard and fast rules on how many scenes you can participate in simultaneously, if you aren't careful with scene overlaps, you could get yourself into some trouble both IC and OOC.  Remember that it is impossible to be everywhere at once, or to do two things at the same time.
• Calm down and just play.  This is a game.  Play, have fun and interact.

Editing/Deleting Posts:

• Editing or Deleting of one's own posts is highly discouraged, and if called into question, may be considered metagaming by the staff.  Remember, that even the appearance of metagaming is still a strike-worthy offense in OWbN.
• Please take the extra time to make sure that all of your posts are well thought-out before clicking the "Post" button ("Preview" is a wonderful tool, use it!)
• IC posts may ONLY be edited when you are instructed to do so by the staff running the scene in question, or when expending Etiquette to "undo" an undesirable character action.  In the case of the expenditure of Etiquette, your edited post must reflect in an OOC comment that Etiquette was spent to correct an action.  The specific information that was edited or changed must also be noted.  The simplest way to accomplish this, is by formatting the "removed" text as "strike-through" (using the S" button in the formatting bar) so that it remains visible.  Your "removed" text will appear as below when using strike-through:

                         Without Strike-through: "This is the stupid thing I said IC."
                         With Strike-through: "This is the stupid thing I said IC."

• Please keep in mind that Storytellers have the ability to review any and all posts that are deleted on the forums.  The staff reserves the right to impose physical limitations on player ability to edit/delete posts in the future, should this rule not be effective enough in curtailing suspicious edits/deletes.

Inner Monologues
Inner Monologues, while fun and amazing for roleplaying potential, typically annoy other players because they deprive them of their ability to react.  This has been a common nuisance for boards play for many years.
Due to this fact, the Staff of RAtC have determined that Inner Monologues give you away.  Emotions, body language and expressions all give the game away if you choose to post an inner monologue.

Example One:
Brody says to Patrick, "You're doing a great job!" but then posts an inner monologue, "A 5 year old could do better in tooth and claw."
In this instance, Patrick knows Brody is being sarcastic.

Example Two:
Brody eyes Pebe from across the room and starts thinking about how he is a jerk.
Pebe notices Brody's look and knows that Brody is not holding him in the best of light.

Please keep in mind that this excludes conversations and exchanges in public forums that are explicitly marked as "Pack Link," Mind Link," or some similar such mental connection.  It is assumed that characters speaking over any such mental connection are able to stay their expressions and body language, in order to not give away what they are saying.

Action Declarations for Online Scenes
Remember, Staff-adjudicated combat is only permitted on the forums for visiting or otherwise online-only characters in Staff-run scenes (see the topic "Basic Rules" above).  In an attempt to clear up confusion involving Online scenes that turn into rounds, RAtC has the following system in place.  If you attempt to use a Gift, Rite, Physical, Social, or Mental action against another player or NPC (basically, against any entity you do not control) you must submit an Action Declaration to the ST Staff conforming to the following guidelines.  The preparation for such an action can be described in your roleplay, but you must not post the actual action until the scene has been adjudicated by an ST or Narrator.  After describing the lead up, please type [ACTION].

Just to make things a little easier, when posting your [ACTION] placeholder, include if you can, a brief description of what you are trying to do and to whom (if it is something that would be readily apparent to others in the scene).  For example: [ACTION - Patrick attempts to claw across Brody's chest].  This way, the player of Brody will know that he needs to submit an Action Declaration Form for his defensive action/retests, without the staff having to contact him separately, or post in the scene that a defensive action is needed from him.  Remember to include the description of what you are doing in your Action Declaration form as well.

Be sure to include ALL staff members on the PM of your Action Declaration Form.  If a staff member's PC is the target or initiator of a challenge, the exclude that staff member from receiving the Action Declaration.

The staff will not be responsible for "missed" retests or cancels.  If you don't put it in your declaration, you don't use it.

Action Declaration Form:

Character:
Initiative:
Action:
Against:

Traits:
Main Chop:
Restest Type/name:
Retest Chop:
(repeat for every retest you may have for this action)
Traits Spent:
Description of what would happen if you succeed:

The ST team then will request a return action from the person this action is being used against as necessary.  After receiving both Action Declarations the ST will replace the [ACTION] in the post with the actual action as a result of the chops.

For Example:

Scene:  (( Brody looks at Julie with an Evil Eye, he takes up his Klaive and [ACTION - Slice attack against Julie] ))

The player of Brody sends the staff a PM with the following declaration:

Character: Brody
Initiative: 26
Action: Slice attack with Klaive
Against: Julie Darkfire

Traits: 26
Main Chop: Rock
Restest Type/name: Klaiviskar
Retest Chop: Paper
Restest Type/name: Might
Retest Chop: Bomb
Traits Spent: Not Applicable
Description of what would happen if you succeed:  Brody swings his klaive at Julie with anger slicing across her chest.

The player of Julie sends in her form:

Character: Darkfire
Initiative: 1000
Action: Dodge his weak attempt
Against: Brody

Traits: 10000
Main Chop: Paper
Restest Type/name: Dodge
Retest Chop: Scissors
Restest Type/name: Might
Retest Chop: Scissors
Traits Spent: Not Applicable
Description of what would happen if you succeed:  Julie easily dodges Brody's weak attempt while laughing at his weakness.

After receiving both declarations the ST replaces [ACTION] in the scene above with the result:
(( Brody looks at Julie with an Evil Eye, he takes up his Klaive and swings at Julie with Anger.  Julie easily dodges his swing and laughs at his weakness. ))

Out-of-character Conversations and Soft RP
While we understand the urge to make the occasional OOC joke or reference during play, we ask that players strive to remain in-character once game on is called. Those wishing to chat with their friends OOC after such a time should use one of the side rooms for that purpose, so as not to disrupt gameplay for other players.

We encourage soft RP before, during, and after game time. Please keep your ST staff in the loop! You don't need our permission to have soft RP, but we like knowing what player characters are up to. If your scene has the potential for timey-wimey shenanigans (e.g., it is backdated, or contingent on another scene that has not yet resolved), please do notify the ST staff before starting the scene to help minimize the necessity of retconning, redlining, and other confusing processes.

Pregnant Characters and Pregnancy
There is a base 30% chance for a character to get pregnant. Once pregnant the breakdown is as follows:
Trueborn: 10% base chance to be Trueborn. This goes up by 5% per dot of kinfolk parent + 1% chance per dot of Garou parent for a Garou and kinfolk parent. For two kinfolk parents, still 10% base but it goes up 1% per purebreed of each kinfolk parent.

Child's Purebreed : The child's purebreed will be the average of the parents purebreed, rounded up if needed.

Pregnant Garou at Rage Across the Cape may shift and fight without hindrance or penalty throughout their entire pregnancies. Fetuses are at no unusual risk from outside influences affecting the parent, including the attack, unless the acting entity is specifically targeting the fetus.

Proxy Sheet Rule
Having your sheet proxied by another player is permissible.
You and the player proxying your sheet must notify the RAtC staff of the intent to proxy.
No player may portray more than one character by proxy in a single game session.

Understand that you are putting the life of your character in the hands (chops) of that player so choose wisely.
Character death is always a possibility while proxied, just as when you play the character yourself.

Quickdraw Ability
Possessing the Quickdraw Ability puts the challenger up two traits for the purposes of initiative.  In some cases, this may serve as a tie-breaker for other "I go first" situations like multiple characters tied with the Gift: Spirit of the Fray.

Spending a dot of Quickdraw also allows the challenger to draw/switch weapons as a free action during combat.  Normally, without the use of Quickdraw, drawing/switching weapons after combat begins would be a static Physical test against 7 Traits, with failure taking up the character's whole action to switch weapons. Drawing/switching weapons is always a free action outside of combat rounds.

By taking a specialization in Quickdraw, for example, "Quickdraw x3 (Pistols)", the challenger will be considered one additional Trait up, as normal, for the purposes of initiative when the weapon of specialization is being used.

Rage Actions, Declaration of
In forums play, rage action declarations are not publicly known, as in reality they would not be.

Declaring rage expenditures in live play is a side-effect of LARP-ing in a group.  Typically, it is just easier for a group of players to call out their rage expenditures out-loud, with the rest of the players ignoring the OOC information.

It is the players' responsibility to not metagame and make rage expenditure decisions based upon the rage expenditures of other characters.

It is perfectly acceptable, in live play, to make your rage expenditures privately to the ST running the scene, so others do not know.

In live play, rage expenditures must be declared when the staff running the scene calls for them, and are not allowed to be made after-the-fact (i.e. during or after "Free Actions" begin).

On the forums, rage expenditures must be declared in the first "Action Declaration" you submit for the "Free Actions" at the start of the round.  See the House Rules topic: Rules for Online Scenes for more information on Action Declarations on the forums.  Though the actual action need not be specified until any previous actions have completed, expenditure of Rage must be made known at that point.

Raging Back
The procedure for Raging Back in RAtC follows that outlined on page 108-109 of Laws of the Wild.  When a character takes a number of Damage that puts her below Incapacitated, she is dead, with the opportunity to spend a Rage trait, and make a Rage Challenge with the staff (Simple Test, Retest: Rage, by default).  Upon success, Health levels through Wounded are regained and the character is in Frenzy, with the type of Frenzy to be determined by the applicable staff.  Successfully Raging Back will also result in a permanent Battle Scar that is appropriate to the Damage taken.  Remember, the SPLAT! Rule also applies here, for scenarios where too much damage is taken too quickly to make Raging Back a viable option. When successfully Raging back, the scene is stopped momentarily and the character who has Raged back is awarded their battlescar in scene.

Resources Explanation
Divesting Traits:  Divesting permanent Resources works as follows:  Someone with Resources x4 has access to $10k of monthly income.  By divesting one point, you will immediately have access to 10 times $10k, or $100k as stated above, reducing you to Resources x3.  If you choose to divest another trait, either at the same time or down the road, you are now divesting your third resources trait, which would give you immediate access to 10 times $3k, or $30k and so on.  In addition, when you divest a permanent trait to receive 10 times the normal allotment, this is in place of, not in addition to your normal allotment.  Divesting a trait later in the month will result in you having access to 10 times your normal allotment, less any spending month-to-date.  Also, it will not be as simple as re-purchasing divested Resources traits each month with XP.  Resources must be built up again, this takes time and roleplay.

Saving:  It is possible to save money from month-to-month, however this is an action that must be specified in your Downtime/XP Spending post and in-time for the monthly Downtime/XP Spending deadline.  This information will be documented in the Notes section of your character sheet, for reference purposes.  No more than 60% of your monthly Resources allotment may be "banked."  The more money you save, the less you will have to burn over the course of that month.  Subsequently, depending on how much you save, you will not be living quite the way you're used to for that month; money will be tight.

Social Challenges and Persuasion
The Gift: Persuasion (LotW, Pg 118) serves only one purpose:  to boost your Social traits in order to better your odds of winning a Social Challenge.  In the end, it just comes down to Social traits vs. Social traits. Winning a Social Challenge (with or without a boost from the gift) does not necessarily make your words definitive and 100% convincing.  Winning the Social Challenge is a function of how good your character is at being convincing, but is not a pass to make someone do whatever you want.

In particular, Social Challenges cannot force a player character to do something their player doesn’t want them to do, even if the Gift: Persuasion is involved. Social Challenges for Gifts that explicitly and directly control the actions of others (e.g., Mastery, Obedience) are an exception to this. However, Social Challenges (with or without Persuasion) CAN make the losing character look foolish, unnecessarily stubborn, and generally asinine for ignoring or refusing a reasonable and polite argument, which may affect Renown. Players are always encouraged to roll with successful Social Challenges made against their characters, but in the end, the choice of what to do is always in the player's hands. Willpower cannot be spent to ignore Social Challenges.

Example: Damien is preparing to do a Rite of Summoning when he realizes that he left his ritual pouch in the Ritemaster's Glen. He asks Jerry if Jerry could go grab the pouch for him. Jerry just ran across the island to help Damien in case the summoning went wrong and doesn't feel like running all the way back to grab a bag, so he refuses. Damien initiates a Social Challenge, saying "I'm Diplomatic enough that this doesn't seem like an unreasonable request to you." The players throw chops, and Damien's player wins. Jerry's player is really not feeling like being an errand boy for the sept today, and still refuses. Nearby characters begin to glance at each other and mutter "What's wrong with Jerry today?" and "What a jerk, after Damien asked nicely and everything..." Jerry may lose a small amount of Honor Renown in the coming month.

Specific Gift Rulings

The Gift: Calm can give a Garou in frenzy an immediate test to end the frenzy, as though there were no targets left.

The Gift: Spirit Ward and similar Gifts which impose Trait bonuses or penalties do not stack with themselves, even if different Garou are using them. Different Gifts (e.g. Spirit Ward, Odious Aroma, and Distractions) DO stack with each other.

The Gift: Electroshock deals 2 Aggravated damage per point of Rage spent on its activation, and not more than 3 Rage can be spent per activation of the Gift.

The Gift: Truth of Gaia must be activated for each statement wanted for the truth. It is not active for the whole scene/interrogation.

The Gift: Pain Chain can be used after the talen Death Dust has been used on a corpse within the time frame of the talen's limitations.

Continuation of Specific Gift Rulings and other house rules in the following post

[Matt (HST)]

Specific Gift Rulings Continued

The Gift: Sense Magic works as written in Laws of the Wild, Revised pg 147. Sense Magic can also detect “spiritual”, “otherwordly”, and “changeling” magics in line with detecting the difference between “Gaian” and “blood magic” as stated on pg 147.

The Gift: Sense the Unnatural works as follows: Sense the Unnatural can detect both active magical effects and the presence of supernatural creatures. Spending no traits gives only a vague sensory impression - old blood, stale air, etc. Spending one Mental Trait gives more data. You must spend two Mental Traits to identify a specific creature type (vampire, Wyrm-spirit, True Mage, etc.) and to 'confirm' that the thing you are sensing is a thing you've previously sensed. Note that this Gift STILL does not differentiate between, say, a Wraith, a place that is haunted by Wraiths, and a Wraith's Consort - all will just smell 'like Wraith.'

The Gift: Call of the Wyrm works as follows: Call of the Wyrm can be used either as means to lure out all Wyrm creatures or target a specifically known Wyrm-creature by spending Socials after successfully finding the creature in question


Spirit Challenges and Retests

The rules given in Laws of the Wild state that spirits use their Willpower for Physical Challenges, and determine damage by their Rage. In practice, this means that no spirit can ever bid more than 10 Traits in a Physical Challenge, which makes the most powerful spirits only slightly better than a vanilla mortal in a fight. This seems to go against the genre of Werewolf in particular, where battles against powerful evil spirits are intended to be trying ordeals and a major part of the struggle against the Wyrm, and not something that a cub with 3 Physical Traits can probably handle on their own by shifting to Crinos.

To that end, spirits in RAtC will resolve Physical, Social, and Mental Challenges by using their Essence to compare on ties. A spirit's "initial" Essence rating is the sum of its Rage, Gnosis, and Willpower. Spirits that are particularly powerful, old, large, tough, etc. receive ad hoc bonus Essence to reflect this power. The Huntsman of the Wild Hunt, a powerful Jaggling, gets 15 bonus Essence according to Laws of the Wild. Incarna avatars and larger spirits may get even more.

Spirits have the ability to retest Essence one time per challenge.  Additionally, some spirits may utilize an Essence for addition retests in the same challenge in place of Rage, Gnosis, Willpower etc, where an Essence is spent in place of one of the aforementioned. At staff discretion, certain powerful spirits (for example Incarnae spirits), may retest Essence more than once in  a single challenge. In practice, this means that spirits will tend to come out of the gate very strong, and will become much easier as the expend their Essence in the fight and take damage.

Challenges that target a Temper will still be resolved by comparing to the spirit’s Temper (Rage, Gnosis or Willpower).

Spirit Speech
"Spirit Speech" is not a language. The Gift: Spirit Speech makes a Garou’s words understandable to spirits, but everyone else hears whatever language the Garou is communicating in. Garou with Spirit Speech can understand the communication of spirits, which to others may sound like growls, electrical buzzing, or even a human language that they do not know. Someone listening to a Garou speaking to a spirit using Spirit Speech hears the Garou's words in whatever language the Garou is speaking, usually a human language, wolf-speech, or the Garou Tongue.

SPLAT! Rule
Garou are amazingly tough creatures, but there are some things (leaping out of an airplane without a parachute, being teleported into the actual heart of a star, etc.) that even they could never survive. If a character takes enough damage at once, they are reduced to chunky salsa, totally vaporized, or otherwise completely beyond all hope of healing or survival.

If a character takes Health Levels of damage in a single instance equal to 2x(their maximum Health Levels + their maximum Rage), that character is SPLAT!, and no Raging Back or similar survival test will be allowed.

Talith
As per the appropriate sourcebook. For additional information regarding Specialized Fighting Styles in general, please see the House Rule on Specialized Fighting Styles.  Maneuvers for Talith are per the book.

Talking in Combat
In order to keep combat flowing smoothly, players are advised to limit how much time they spend IC discussing tactics and exchanging information. A character is allowed three words on their turn spoken aloud in addition to normal actions. If all a character is doing is talking, up to 15 words can be said. A character communicating through packlink or other mental communication is allowed a full sentence each turn, but should not be holding talk-and-response conversations during a single combat round.

Tempers (Rage, Gnosis, Willpower)
For challenges involving Tempers, the Temper in question is usually the appropriate retest unless specified otherwise. For challenges that pit a Temper against Physical, Social, or Mental Traits (e.g., True Fear), the Temper should be doubled for the purposes of comparison on a tie.

Totems
Totem granted benefits can be used by all pack members simultaneously unless otherwise specified by Staff (e.g., Black Unicorn’s three extra Health Levels).

[Matt (HST)]

New House Rules as of 6/2016:

-Characters may add their level of an Ability to Challenges where the Ability is an appropriate retest. This does not apply to Static Challenges or other Challenges wherein the other party cannot also add an Ability.
-When characters are comparing Traits to Tempers in a Challenge, the Temper is doubled for the purposes of comparison.
-Abilities above 5 may be purchased at double cost as per Laws of the Wild ONLY if the character is packed under a Totem that increases that Ability above 5 for them, and then only up to the level granted by the Totem. They may retain this benefit after parting with the Totem on good terms.
-Totem granted benefits can be used by all pack members simultaneously unless otherwise specified by Staff (such as Black Unicorn’s extra Health Levels)
-Harano is a serious topic, and not a plot to be entered into lightly. A character must be at least two years old to be susceptible to Harano. Players interested in experiencing a Harano plot should talk to Staff about their goals and interests for such a plot. If Staff approves the plot, it is the player’s responsibility to disclose that they are considering a Harano plot and give other players the chance to opt out. If a player opts out, the player of the character with Harano is obligated to respect this boundary and not bring Harano-related roleplaying into scenes with players who have opted out. Anyone can opt out at any time by saying so. Failure to respect these boundaries will result in disciplinary action. These guidelines are also useful for topics like sexual assault and serious mental illness.
Otherwise, Harano follows the rules in Laws of the Wild.
-Social Challenges cannot force a player character to do something their player doesn’t want them to do, even if the Gift: Persuasion is involved. Social Challenges for Gifts that explicitly and directly control the actions of others (e.g., Mastery) are an exception to this. However, they CAN make the losing character look foolish, unnecessarily stubborn, and generally asinine for ignoring or refusing a reasonable and polite argument, which may affect Renown. Willpower cannot be spent to ignore Social Challenges.
-Charms can be borrowed from Numen, but each Charm can only be borrowed once in a given scene, and expenditures to power such Charms are capped at 3.
-The Gift: Electroshock deals 2 Aggravated damage per point of Rage spent on its activation, and not more than 3 Rage can be spent per activation of the Gift.
-Pregnant Garou may shift and fight without hindrance or penalty throughout their entire pregnancies. Fetuses are at no unusual risk from outside influences affecting the parent, including the attack, unless the acting entity is specifically targeting the fetus.
-Spirit Speech makes a Garou’s words understandable to spirits, but everyone else hears whatever language the Garou is communicating in. Garou with Spirit Speech can understand the communication of spirits, but other people with Spirit Speech can’t necessarily understand the things that Garou say to spirits unless they understand the actual language the Garou is speaking in.
-Cubs can accrue Renown normally. The timing of Rites of Passage are at the Cub player’s discretion, regardless of accrued Renown. After the Rite of Passage, the Cub’s Renown will be increased to the minimum required for Cliath, and any extra is kept.
-The cap for Cub Tempers is 5. If a Cub joins a Tribe with 4 Willpower, XP spent to increase Willpower will be refunded.
-If you want to have more than one language, you must buy Linguistics. Each dot of this Ability confers one additional language understood.
- The first dots of Garou Lore and Tribal Lore will be subtracted from starting XP.
-A character may spend a point of the Ability Quickdraw to ready a weapon instantly.
-Frenzy rules are as stated in Laws of the Wild, except that successful use of the Gift: Calm on a Frenzying Garou allows that Garou a Willpower Challenge to end their Frenzy.

- Characters who know the Rite of Binding automatically know how to create all talens in Laws of the Wild. Additional talen recipes can be learned from other characters as though they were Rites, i.e., with no XP cost but an entry required in downtime. Characters who know the Rite of Binding may start each session with a number of talens equal to their permanent Gnosis rating + their Rank. Theurges may have twice this number of talents.

- Learning Triatic Lores (Weaver Lore, Wyld Lore, and Wyrm Lore) can be hazardous. There is a risk of becoming tainted by the forces as one molds one's mind to better understand them. There is no risk from learning the first dot of a Triatic Lore, but learning each successive dot becomes more and more risky for the student, requiring a Willpower test to avoid becoming tainted. The SECOND dot requires a chop against a difficulty of six traits, the THIRD dot requires a chop against eight traits, the FOURTH dot requires a chop against ten traits, and the FIFTH dot requires a chop against twelve traits. The Iron Will merit gives a one-trait bonus on these tests. The Resistant to Wyrm Emanations merit gives a four-trait bonus on these tests for Wyrm Lore only.