Miscellaneous House Rules


Spellcasting rate

Normal caster may cast (at most) one spell per round.

Hasted caster may cast (at most) two spells, provided that at least one of the spells cast is "instantaneous."


Fumble interpretation

A character who is "juggling" a weapon as a result of a fumble can choose to simply drop the weapon and not use it for the duration of the fumble result, thus freeing himself to draw a different weapon or take other action.

It is not possible to parry with a weapon that is being "juggled".


Adrenal Defense limits

Any physical shield larger than a target shield makes adrenal defense unusable.  Armour that "wears as" AT5 or higher also nulls out any adrenal defense.

Just because a particular suit of magic armour may have no quickness or maneuver penalties associated with its use does not necessarily mean it "wears as" AT1.  If one still has to train in the armour type to wear it effectively, then it does not "wear as" AT1.


Bonus criticals

By house rule, unless explicitly stated otherwise in the magic item description, extra criticals effected by magic weapons (e.g. heat, cold, impact, etc.) are resolved by an additional, independent roll of the dice from the initial (slash, crush, puncture) critical.  (This is in contrast to campaigns that use the same roll for both critical tables).  This greatly increases the probability of effecting lethal wounds from such weapons, but weapons with this characteristic were a rarity in the Campaign.

Extra criticals effected by using weapons "kata" (weapons in conjunction with martial arts sweeps or strikes) are resolved normally as per Arms Law rules, i.e. the same roll applied to both critical tables.


Level bonuses for Secondary Skills

Level bonuses are as described in Character Law, with the additional provision that any Secondary with development cost of 1 / N receives at least a +1 / lvl bonus (max 20) and any Secondary with development cost of 1 / 2 receives at least a +2 / lvl bonus (max 40).


Stun Relief interpretation

The effects of Stun Relief are assumed to also mitigate "must parry", "no parry", and "loss of initiative" critical effects generally associated with stun results.


Spells and concentrating

By house rule, a spellcaster is permitted to parry -- albeit at -50 -- while concentrating on a spell.  Concentration is broken if the spellcaster receives a critical hit.


Multipliers and adders

By house rule, a character may benefit from a spell multiplier and a spell adder at the same time (though multipliers are never cumulative with multipliers and adders are never cumulative with adders).  Therefore, a character with the following items:

Amulet - x4 Essence, x2 Mentalism and Channeling
Circlet - x3 Mentalism
Ring - +3 Channeling adder

would have total benefit of Essense x4, Mentalism x3, and Channeling x2 and +3.

This house rule was advocated by Mueller and opposed by Palmer.  Palmer's primary objection was that adders were never cumulative with adders and multipliers never cumulative with multipliers, thus an implied presumption that the items not act cumulatively with one another.  A non-cumulative ruling would have also had the (possibly desirable) effect to spread spell enhancement items more widely among allied non-player characters.


Off-hand weapons attacks

Characters are assumed to have a "handedness" trait where one hand is dominant over the other.  While characters are permitted to train in weapons using the "off-hand", such attacks are at -20 penalty.  The only mitigations for this penalty are to be found in magic items or extraordinary AG picks.


Conveyance cancellation

If a Conveyance spell is Cancelled or Dispelled by another caster while the Conveyance user is out-of-body, treat this as though the spell duration has been exhausted (caster must make saving throws every round until the caster returns to his body).


Invisibility cancellation

As described in Spell Law, if an Invisible target is physically struck, the target becomes visible.  In the context of being struck by spells, this is interpreted to mean "struck and damaged by an elemental spell".

Targets struck and/or affected by a non-elemental Force spell do not become visible.  Which is to say, an Invisible subject who is Teleported does not become visible.


Plant & Animal control

The Animist Plant Control and Animal Control spells are base attack spells.  Targets get a resistance roll based on their level in Creatures and Treasures (C&T).  Zero-level targets can be controlled automatically.  For large groups (with a radius effect), roll a generalized RR for the group.  If that RR succeeds, another roll is made to determine what percentage of the targets are controlled.


Symbol creation

It is assumed that the caster of the Symbol spell must be the same individual who casts the spell being emplaced in the Symbol.


Substance addiction

The Campaign mostly follows Character Law guidelines, which specify an addiction factor (AF) for performance enhancing herbs / substances.  Substances can be used once a week without risk.  On the second use in a week, character must roll open-ended versus the AF (character's CO bonus is added to the roll).  Total roll must exceed the AF to avoid addiction.  Each subsequent use within the seven-day week bumps up the effective AF by one multiple (after third use must roll versus 2xAF, after fourth use must roll versus 3xAF, etc.).

Effects of addiction and recovery are left up to the whim of the GM, which itself is scarier than most things that actually appear in the rulebooks.


Magic rings

Campaign adheres to the traditional rule that characters can benefit from, at most, the effects from two magical rings (one on each of two hands).


Disillusion and Displacement

Campaign house rule states that characters operating with the benefits of Disillusion are not affected by a foe's Displacement magic.  Similarly, "dragonsight" (the vision of drakes, dragons, and rare magic items granting the equivalent) is also not fooled by Displacement magic.


Willpower

Contrary to the definition in RMCI, Willpower rating for a character is defined as stat and racial bonuses for all mental stats (including Memory) plus an additional 3 per character level.


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