Codes of the Soul

And another retro set of house rules from Warp & Weft/Dreams of Flesh and Spirit. Alternate Experience Rules This rule is from the booklet from the Jovian Chronicles GM's screen. In order to improve a skill, the character must have spent a number of Emergency Dice on the skill equal to the next skill level squared. This greatly slows down skill improvement. Alternately, to speed up skill improvement, the Weaver can count each Emergency Die spent on a skill roll as XP towards the improvement of that skill.  These are guidelines I have used in a modified form in Cyberpunk 2020 and Mekton II. They are written with the intent of applying experience gained directly to skills. They shouldn't be used with the Emergency Dice guidelines above, and are probably best suited for Cycles where the Weaver gives out 4-6 Experience Points per session. It does involve a little more record-keeping. The first time a character uses a skill during a session, the player should place a mark next to the skill on the character sheet. If the skill is used again later in the session, another mark is not made unless the player rolls sixes. One extra check mark is made for each six rolled. Example: A Magdalite Siren uses Seduction, getting one mark on the character sheet. Later, she uses Seduction again and rolls 5,6,6. She will get two more marks. At the end of the session, an Experience Test is rolled using 2 dice for each mark next to each skill. The dice are read normally (i.e., take the highest number, add +1 if a second six is rolled). If the result is above the character's skill level, one Experience Point is gained in that skill. Using this system, characters should still receive "free floating" Experience Points that can be spent on any skill the player chooses or Emergency Dice. These Experience Points should be allowed to be spent on skills that have gained Experience from an Experience Test during the session. Weavers should discourage players from pointlessly using skills just to get Experience Checks, but encourage creative use of little used skills that contributes to the game with an extra check every so often.  Perks And Flaws Common Sense (Innate, 4 points) The character always "looks before she leaps". This translates into the Weaver giving the player a warning when she is about to have the character do something foolish, even if there are no perceptible clues as to the danger. The Weaver does not have to specify the danger or give any details. Common sense has no downside. Double Jointed (Innate, 3 points) The character's entire body can contort and flex in seemingly impossible angles. This is significantly more than her just being able to bend her fingers back. The character can fit into spaces half the size of what regular people can, as well as being able to easily slip out of restraints unless special precautions are taken. The downside is that the character's joints are easily dislocated, intentionally or not. Immunity (Acquired, 1 point) The character is immune to one, and only one, specific drug, poison, substance or disease. This Perk can be acquired because it is possible to build an immunity to toxins or diseases. The downside to Immunity is that the character cannot gain any positive benefits from a substance if there are any. Intuition (Innate, 4 points) The character gets uncanny hunches and bursts of inspiration, and the Weaver can allow her to make CRE rolls whenever she thinks the character might get one, even if there are no obvious clues present. Fumbled CRE rolls for Intuition result in extremely poor guesses, and are Intuition's only downside. Longevity (Innate, 3 points) The character's lifespan is effectively twice that of a normal person's - she will effectively always look and feel like someone half of her age. Longevity's only downside is the envy of others and outliving relatives, friends and loved-ones. Perfect Pitch (Innate, 4 points) The character always knows if something is in tune and gains a +1 bonus to any musically related task. Sense of Time (Innate, 2 points) The character always knows what time it is and always know how much time has passed from any one event to another.