First Edition House Rules

Here are some house rules I'll be using:

Drama Dice

At the beginning of each Story, players start with 3 Drama Dice, rather than a number equal to their lowest attribute. As the party begins to reach Journeyman/Adept levels, they will begin with 4 Drama Dice; when the party reaches Master levels, they will begin with 5. If a player's character does not have a Major Advantage (Swordsman Schools, Sorcery, Dracheneisen, etc.) they begin with an additional Drama Die.

Drama Dice no longer turn into XP.

Players can nominate other players for Drama Dice.

GMs continue to receive Drama Dice as normal.

Complications

At any time, if you miss a roll by 5 or less, you can declare a "Complication" and receive a Free Raise to your roll - that is to say, you succeed. The complication may be any sort of thing - in combat, often losing a weapon or being manuevered into an unfortunate place - and usually is worth an Action or roughly 2 Raises.

Brute Squads

The Villain's Kit gives rules for "national" brute squads. I'll be generalizing those rules as a way to make "experienced" brutes more difficult; instead of being tied to a nation, each nation's rules represents a trait an "experienced" brute squad might have. It's possible that a particularly tough squad might have more than one of these traits, though that's very unlikely - and most squads will have no special traits. Reprinted here are the rules from the Villain's Kit, with the nation listed in parentheses.

• Lucky Brutes (Avalon) -- Brute Squads receive one re-roll per scene.
• Skilled Brutes (Castille) -- Brute Squads roll and keep one extra die.
• Tough Brutes (Eisen) -- Brute Squads require two hits before going down.
• Quick Brutes (Montaigne) -- Brute Squads receive one extra Action Die each round.
• Nimble Brutes (Pirates) -- Brute Squads do not need to take an action to move up one level in combat.
• Extra Brutes (Ussura) -- Brute Squads are made up of eight rather than six men.
• Strong Brutes (Vestenmannavnjar) -- Brute Squads double all damage.
• Resourceful Brutes (Vodacce) -- Vodacce always roll at least 3 dice.

Flesh Wounds & First Aid

At present, the First Aid knack - which heals Flesh Wounds - is largely useless, as Flesh Wounds heal at the end of any combat. This also causes a problem with Flesh Wounds gained from traps, poison, et cetera. To solve this, Flesh Wounds last until a character has a chance to rest between Scenes. If several Scenes string together without a chance to rest, Flesh Wounds do not heal.

Swordsman Schools and Swordsman's Guild

Because of the different role the Swordsman's Guild plays in the campaign, Swordsman Schools do not automatically grant the Swordsman's Guild (or in the case of some schools, a Free Rank in a knack.) Instead, Swordsman Schools usually grant the Academy advantage for free; in the case of the Rogers school, characters receive the Old Salt advantage (see below) for free.

Purchasing Swordsman Schools in Play

Swordsman Schools cost 50 XP to purchase in play, but they can be bought gradually in the following order:

1.) School Basics -- 10 XP The basics of a school's style cost 10 XP, though they provide no mechanical benefit.

2.) Swordsman Knacks -- 3 @ 10 XP each The three substantive (non-Exploit Weakness) knacks of a school cost 10 XP each and are acquired at Rank 1.

3.) Apprentice Ability -- 10 XP The character is now an Apprentice, and receives Exploit Weakness 1 for free as a consequence.

Characters who already possess some of a school's knacks or the Apprentice ability of a school (as in the case of Desaix and Valroux) do not have to purchase those parts of the school. In that case, they receive their Apprentice level and their free rank in Exploit Weakness when they purchase their last portion of the school.

As per the rules in the Player's Guide, a character must already have both skills in the school's curriculum before beginning to learn the school.

Learning out of nation schools is more expensive; the School Basics cost 20 XP (instead of 10), and then Knacks and Apprentice Ability cost 15 XP each.

Characters learning a school are considered to have a Mastery level of 0, and all Exploit Weakness attempts against them are at +1 unkept dice.

At character generation, characters can buy partial Swordsman Schools; for 5 points, you receive School Basics and the core curriculum skills. Each additional 5 points purchases one rank in a Swordsman Knack.

Exploit Weakness Knack

While you receive one free rank in Exploit Weakness (Your School) when you purchase a Swordsman School, Exploit Weakness is no longer required as a knack for raising your school. Instead, the Attack knack associated with your school's primary weapon needs to be raised to 4 for Journeyman and 5 for Master. You also receive a free rank in Exploit Weakness when you reach Journeyman and again when you reach Master, though the Knack can never be raised above 5.

Characters can also learn Exploit Weakness for other schools. Ranks 1 and 2 can only be gained after Stories in which the character defeated an Apprentice of that other school in a duel or some other form of single combat; Rank 3 can be only be purchased after a Story in which a Journeyman was defeated. Rank 4 requires defeating a Master, and Rank 5 requires defeating a Grandmaster, several Masters at once or a similar extraordinary feat.

Literacy

Instead of charging literacy per language, I'll be charging literacy per alphabet. The alphabets are:

• Thean Alphabet: Thean, Montaigne, Castillian, Vodacce, Eisen*, High Eisen*, Avalon*, Vendel*
• Teodoran Alphabet: Ussuran, Teodoran
• Crescent Alphabet: Crescent**

* Eisen, Avalon, and Vendel are not Thean-descended languages, but they have adopted the Thean alphabet. This sometimes causes difficulty for characters who are not native speakers or who have not spent a lot of time reading works in the non-Thean languages, and vice versa. Characters with southern languages can read things written in northern languages, but differences in spelling and punctuation conventions make going slow. Similarly, characters with northern languages can read things written in southern languages, but the same differences make reading difficult. Familiarity with the other group's literature can be bought off with 1 HP or familiarity can be gained in play.

** Some Crescent dialects are also written in the Teodoran script.

New Advantage: Old Salt

5 points, 4 points if Avalon or Castille

Receive the Sailor skill for free. All Sailor Advanced Knacks are treated as Basic Knacks at character generation, but the character cannot begin with the Captain skill.

Reputation

Rather than one Reputation points scale which runs from 130 to -130, we will be using three, interrelated types of Reputation:

• Hero Reputation -- Characters earn Hero Reputation for doing honorable and heroic deeds, largely according to the rules for earning Reputation in the core books, and spend Hero Reputation Dice accordingly.
• Villain Reputation -- Characters earn Villain Reputation for doing dishonorably and evil deeds that reflect a malignant heart, largely according to the rules for earning Negative Reputation in the core books, and spend Villain Reputation Dice accordingly.
• Scoundrel Reputation -- Characters earn Scoundrel Reputation for doing disreputable deeds towards good (or at least ambiguous) ends but with an "ends-justify-the-means" attitude. It is an easy slide from Scoundrel Reputation to Villain Reputation, however: every time a Scoundrel earns Villain Reputation, an equal number of Scoundrel points turn to Villain Reputation, representing people's bad suspicions being confirmed. Scoundrel Reputation Dice can be spent on shady ends just short of villainy.

Example: Jean-Petit, with Scoundrel Reputation 10, Villain 0 and Hero 0 receives 3 Villain Reputation points after he lets the villainous Major Montrere have the farmer's daughter. In addition to earning 3 Villain points, 3 of Jean-Petit's Scoundrel points turn to Villain points, so that he now has Villain 6, Scoundrel 7, Hero 0.

Characters can have no more than 130 total points amongst all three types of Reputation. If the 130 limit has been reached but a character has several types of reputation, they can continue to increase one type by decreasing another type. Recognition rolls and similar tests of notoriety are made with total Reputation Dice based off the sum of all three types of Reputation.

When determining the number of Reputation dice available to a character in a given situation, different types of Reputation may subtract from each other as follows:

• Villain Reputation always subtracts from Hero Reputation
• Hero Reputation usually subtracts from Villain Reputation
• Scoundrel Reputation sometimes subtracts from Hero Reputation
• Hero Reputation rarely subtracts from Scoundrel Reputation
• Scoundrel Reputation rarely subtracts from Villain Reputation
• Villain Reputation rarely subtracts from Scoundrel Reputation

Additionally, sometimes two types of Reputation will add together - generally Scoundrel and Villain Reputation, though rarely Scoundrel and Hero Reputation. Villain and Hero Reputation never add.

Finally, some events described in the core rules as subtracting Reputation (failing important missions, certain kinds of cowardice and the like) do not add to Villain Points but instead just decrease Reputation overall, as losers rarely have a place in history.

Drawing Weapons

This is less a house rule than a clarification; the rule set forth here is referenced or strongly implied in a variety of books, but is never succinctly stated.

Drawing a weapon or other item takes a single Action. If a character would like to draw a weapon while doing something else (e.g., drawing their sword while they club someone with their just-fired pistol), they must make a single Raise (+5 TN). If a character would like to draw a weapon and attack with that same weapon, they must make two Raises (+10 TN).

In most cases, a character can draw two items (one with each hand) under these rules, unless the weapons are large, awkward, or there is some other special consideration.

NB: At present, this rule allows a character to draw a brace of pistols with a single Action, or draw and fire a brace of pistols with two Raises. This is the only situation in which I can presently envision abuse - if drawing and firing braces proves to be too powerful, I may restrict that use.