House Rules

Character Creation

I am far too nice to my players, far far too nice! Not that they would agree of course, but as proof I offer the adjustments I made to character generation.

Base Points – 130
Speak Castillian for free (so they all had one common language)
Free draw on the appropriate destiny spread (because everyone should have one)
Free background of their choice for 1, 2, or 3 points (their choice)

Experience Points
I really don’t like the current experience system. Awarding XP for unspent drama dice encourages players not to spend them. It also penalises those with low attributes as well. So I award 1XP per session. This is quite low, but lets me award odd XP to players as they do something clever. Anything that impresses me or collapses the whole group into laughter earns an XP.

Damage
I’ve decided you can explode on damage rolls, even when crippled. It works both ways after all!

Retrospective Raises
My group are always failing to declare a raise, which makes it a shame that a brilliant roll goes unrewarded if the player chose not to raise. So a player gets a raise for each 10 points they score for each point that is ten points above the difficulty level after the dice a rolled.

So, if the difficulty is 15 and you roll 37 you score 1 raise.
Ten points beyond 15 is 25. 37-25 is 12. 1 raise for each ten clear points.
So it is still better to call a raise before the dice, but you can still reap the benefits of a great roll.

Reputation and Scoundrels
I allow the scoundrel advantage to apply to a character no matter what their reputation. If they have it they are always considered a bit of a scoundrel, no matter how high their reputation. If they want to loose this ‘scoundreldom’ they must gain 15 reputation points after declaring their intention to the GM. This represents their attempt to build a purer reputation.

I also insist my players keep track of their highest and lowest reputation scores, as their bad deeds do not vanish under the heights of their better natures. Their final reputation is based on the difference between the two (ignoring the positive/negative maths). However, certain times (such as intimidation) use their bad reputation unmodified by their good half.

Drama Dice
I’ve made these a lot more potent, allowing the player to double their dice pool when spending one. However, you must spend the point before the dice are rolled. I also occasionally disallow the use of a Drama point if the situation is not dramatic enough to warrant its use, such as a standard wound check or the like.
Also, this means we rarely give out Drama dice in the game, as they are so powerful. Unfortunately that doesn't help the sorcerers who sometimes need to save them up and spend large amounts on things like Sorte spreads. So the second ruling is that you can buy a Drama point for 1xp at any time. These are not Drama Dice, but can be used in their place when doing things that require spending one. Think of them as Glamour dice that everyone can use.

Retrospective Raises
My group often fails to declare a Raise, which is a shame because it means that a brilliant roll goes unrewarded. If a player beats their difficulty by 10 points, they get a raise for every 10 points beyond that they roll:

On a DC 15, you roll 37 which scores 1 raise (15+10 =25, so raises start at 25. 37 – 25 = 12 rounded down to 10 = 1)
It is still better to call a Raise before the dice, but at least you can still reap the benefits of a great roll. If you raised anyway, you can still retroactively raise. So if a player has a difficulty of 10 and decides to raise twice the difficulty becomes 20. If they then roll 40 they get three raises. 2 they raised before the dice rolled, and from 30 retroactive raises can be added. At 40 they therefore gain one additional raise.

I know, lots of maths, but my group seem to have got the hang of it!

Pregnancy & Childbirth
When a couple decides to attempt to have a child, they must each make a Resolve roll (DC 10). If they both succeed they are both fertile enough to procreate. There is a base 10% chance of a pregnancy resulting.
• Add 1% for each point greater than 10 the woman rolled for her Resolve check.
• Add 1% for each 2 points greater than 20 the man rolled for his Resolve check.

If the woman (female character) rolls under the resulting percentage, a pregnancy has resulted. To carry the baby to term, the woman must make five resolve rolls over the course of the pregnancy. It is up to her when she makes the rolls, but at least one must be done in each trimester. Failure in any of the rolls results in a miscarriage and a dramatic wound for the mother. The difficulty depends on the stage of the pregnancy and a miscarriage during the third trimester will result in a still birth.

First Trimester (Months 1-3) 15
Second Trimester (Months 4-6) 10
Third Trimester (Months 7-9) 5*

*In the third Trimester the baby must begin making Resolve checks to survive the process. Assume it has a Resolve of 2 unless it will have more as a character. The difficulty is 10 and two rolls must be made any time during the third trimester.

The difficulty of all resolve rolls can be modified depending on the health and well being of the mother. The difficulties above assume the mother is adventuring, but taking care of herself. Reduce difficulties by 5 if she is at home getting rest with a doctor on hand. Increase the difficulties by five if she is fighting duels every day and constantly injured. The GM may rule that any time she is crippled, the mother must make an additional resolve check to see if her injuries result in a miscarriage.

In the last month, each week (or 3 days if you fancy the bookkeeping) the GM makes a birth roll. On an exploding D10, if you roll 15 the birth will occur immediately. For each failed roll, add 1 to the result of the next roll.

If a birth occurs the mother must make a Resolve roll (DC 10 + 2d10 (+5 if it is her first child). If she fails the roll, she and the baby both take 1 Dramatic Wound each and roll again. Too many such rolls and either could die in childbirth. When crippled, as usual, no dice explode.

Sorcery

Sorte Tracking
Fate Witches may use Sorte to track. If they can find the strand which links two people they can follow it to locate either person. However, it is often guesswork, and the GM is the final arbiter of where (and to whom) the strand leads. Just because a girl is in love, her strongest cups strand may not be to her lover. The only exception to this is when a Fate Witch is trying to use her own strands to locate a friend, for instance, because she is very aware of where her own strands lead. Following a strand requires a Wits + Sorte knack roll each hour (DC 15). If she fails, the Witch loses lost the strand.

Killing with Sorte
There seem many instances in 7th Sea fiction where a Strega has killed someone using her Sorte magic. Unfortunately there are no rules for doing this in the game, so here is my version.

Effectively, the Fate Witch slices her opponent up with the tattered ends of their own strands. By tearing apart her opponent’s strands she intentionally produces fate lashes she uses to tear her victim apart. Needless to say, this is extremely dangerous, and can result in the Fate Witch getting cut to ribbons herself. The GM may also rule that this sort of attack plays heavily on the practitioner’s mind so any Witch who uses this method of attack needs to make a Wits check to determine the effect on her sanity. (DC and results are left up to the GM.)
The Fate Witch must be in range to attempt to manipulate strands, and be capable of doing something that will provoke a lash (such as twisting or cutting) which means this an option only for Adepts and Masters. As usual, each lash is produced from an active Sorte manipulation from any roll yielding a result of 20 or more, as specified in the Player’s Guide.
Now it gets dangerous. To avoid taking the damage herself the witch must direct the lash at her target, who must be the one she was manipulating the strands of. She must make a Finesse roll, adding the appropriate Sorte knack in unkept dice. If this roll beats a difficulty of 20, she avoids the lash and it lacerates her target instead, doing the same damage it would do normally to the witch. If the witch generates more than one fate lash, she may use all of them to attack her victim. However, she cannot throw them at anyone other than the person whose strands she was pulling at the time, and the difficulty for avoiding them all becomes 25, rolling for each lash.

Needless to say, this kind of manipulation is very risky and very dangerous. The GM may allow Witches to use this roll when a Fate lash appears normally, but add 10 to all difficulties. After all, here she is consciously trying to generate lashes! When they occur during the usual manipulation of strands the Fate Witch is concentrating on the strands a lot more and thus is not expecting a lash. Remember that even if she avoids it, her target cannot. No fun if she was manipulating a friend.
Anyone -- witch or target -- who is hit by a strand takes the usual damage from a lash. They can’t avoid the blow with Footwork or the like because they can’t see it coming. If the target is another Fate Witch, the GM may allow her to redirect the attack against her opponent, adding 5 to the difficulty each time the lash is thrown from one witch to another. Although when two witches attack each other using this power, the flailing strands are bound to slice both of them to ribbons.

Porte ‘Sending’
I have allowed Porte sorcerers a form of sending. They can reach out to a blooded object and drop something there rather than pull it towards themselves. This allows them to place an object in a blooded box, or perhaps even place poison in a blooded cup.

Costs for Porté Sorcery
Every now and again the players have wanted to engage the services of a Porté mage. So I had to decide on a few basic costs. It may seem expensive, but remember this is a service only really reserved for the nobility.

All prices in Guilders, and all negotiable. For instance, a Porté journey to the midnight archipelago may cost a lot more. Not because it costs the sorcerer anymore, but because he is still cheaper and more convenient that a ship journey and can up the price.

Half Blooded Sorcerers and Adepthood.

I thought it seemed a shame that half blooded mages got so little of the power available to a full blooded ones. With them only ever able to achieve 3 levels in any knack, they can never become adepts. This doesn’t seem too bad, as full bloods should be a lot more potent, but it did seem a little unfair.

So I allow any half blooded sorcerer to spend the same xp as usual and buy a fourth point in any four of their knacks. However, this fourth point only ever counts towards mastery level. Their effective knack rating can only ever be 3 for the purposes of any other roll. So they can become adepts, but need to spend 32 xp (the cost to bring 4 knacks from 3 to 4) for the privilege. This is especially true for a Glamour sorcerer who seems to never need to use their knack levels for anything other than determining mastery.

This rule only applies to ‘great heroes’ in Théah. Most half bloods never rise to adepthood, only those with rather potent blood can gain that sort of power.