Orpheus Houserules

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04-14-2011, 12:12 PM

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Aug 2004and bullets are too

slow7,117

[Orpheus] Houserules

So I'm starting a new campaign of White Wolf's Orpheus in a few months, and I'm hammering out some houserules. The characterswill also have access to the expanded Backgrounds from Shades of Gray and the newer Stains from Shadow Games, as well as most

Merits & Flaws (a couple, like "Natural Aptitude" apparently sided with Justin Achilli in the Experience Wars, and others like "Bright

Hue" completely miss the point of a Merit or Flaw).

Take a look, comment, discuss, suggest new houserules!

Character Generation

Ghosts cannot take Personal Trainer, Shield or Health Insurance (though beneficiaries may profit enormously from a change in

Lament). Living agents cannot take Memorial or Reincarnate. Resources are minimum 1 for living agents, representing a small

savings Orpheus pays agents an average starting salary of 60k a year, with benefits largely covered by the Health Insurance

Background.

Hues may instead access all of their Stains for a cost of two Vitality, rather than per Stain (for a net cost of six Vitality).

Starting characters get +1 to any Attribute, +2 dots to Abilities, +3 to Backgrounds and +1 to Willpower (an equivalent of 15 extra

bonus points). Keep in mind, you may also take on up to two extra Stains, gaining one bonus point for each (as per core rules).

Actual PlayAll extra action effects primarily, Juggernauts Dexterity additions are removed from play. Each point invested into Dexterity

for Juggernaut instead adds to initiative, as well as a die for dodge pools and an increase to your speed with a multiplier of (Vitality

+ 1).

Example: Chet is battling a swarm of Lost Boys. Desperate to escape, he energizes his ghostly flesh with Vitality, spending 3 Vitality

to activate Juggernaut. He moves up three rounds in the initiative order (having rolled 4 for initiative, he now has a 7), and he has

three extra dice for all dodge rolls. His speed is now four times (1x + 3x Vitality) faster. He zips through the swarm, easily avoiding

the now-slow attacks of the Spectres.

Spite - and Spites relation to Stains and Starting Vitality - is changed to an absolute scale based on the Spite rating. Effects are

cumulative; someone with a Spite rating of 7 suffers the 5 and 6 rating penalties.

Spite 1-3: The character has no intentional access to Stains (unless they are a hue).

Spite 4: Can bring out Stains intentionally.

Spite 5: The anger within the character rises to the point where violent instincts are almost a second personality. The character is

almost literally of two minds on most every subject. Whenever a characters Stains manifest or they tap Spite in a scene, they suffer

an increased difficulty of 1 on all non-violent, nonreflexive rolls.

Spite 6: The character begins hearing the buzz, the discordant strains of music and emotion that comprise the Spectral hive-mind.The first time in a scene they encounter a Spectre whenever they are using Stains, they must make a Willpower roll, at a difficulty

of the character's Spite rating. Failure distracts them with the Spectre's individual humming mind-signature, increasing the difficulty

of all actions against that particular Spectre by two.

Spite 7: All the character's Stains manifest.

Spite 8: The character gains an extra Stain, and all Stains manifest. Each extra stain imposes +1 difficulty to social rolls.

Spite 9: The character gains two extra Stains (for a minimum of five and a maximum of seven), and all Stains manifest. If the

character uses two or more Stains, or taps three or more temporary Spite in a scene, the local Spectres flock in and try to carry

them away.

Spite 10: The characters burgeoning dual personality erupts violently. If the character is a spirit, they meet their Spectral twin

face-to-face and willingly merge. If a sleeper or a hue, the character simply becomes a Spectre. If a skimmer accumulates 10 Spite,

their body dies, the Spite shredding the silver cord connecting body to soul. The body shines with malignant energy, beckoning to

nearby Spectres for possession. The former skimmer - now spirit or hue, as normal - now has a Spite rating of (Nature + Shade +

1). If a sleepers body dies from shunting Spite, the character also becomes a ghost, with a similarly increased Spite rating.

#1

Because I gotta kill fastValidated User

The Red Baron

Forum

heus] Houserules http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?571098-Orpheus-H

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04-14-2011, 12:27 PM

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Jun 20054,117

Re: [Orpheus] Houserules

Thoughts or solutions to those character backgrounds that will result in 0 Spite?

Also there is a question on infinitely tapping Spite for Vitality. Now doing so repeatedly would be the short road to spectrehood, butit seems to me it's very difficult to actually destroy any ghost so long as they have any Spite rating at all (and possibly enough

self-awareness/Willpower be able). Do you think that needs to be addressed or should becoming a spectre trump the fear of

destruction/death?

#2

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Wolfgar

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04-14-2011, 12:35 PM

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slow7,117


I'm tempted to say they start with five temporary Spite.

I might be tempted to acknowledge it as a viable - if short-sighted - tactic for PCs, and simply disallow NPC ghosts from being able to

use that tactic. Things get dicier when the option to steal Spite comes up.

#3


The Red Baron

Originally Posted by Wolfgar

Thoughts or solutions to those character backgrounds that will result in 0 Spite?

Also there is a quest ion on infinitely tapping Spite for Vita lity. Now doing so repeatedly would be the short road to spectrehood, but itseems to me it's very difficult to actually destroy any ghost so long as they have any Spite rating at all (and possibly enoughself-awareness/Willpower be able). Do you think that needs to be addressed or should becoming a spectre trump the fear ofdestruction/death?

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04-14-2011, 12:37 PM

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slow7,117


I'm also looking at the Stains from Shadow Games, and they're pretty powerful - far more so than the corebook. I'm given to

understand this is intentional, since the power level ramps up considerably in Shadow Games.

So, perhaps characters are able to select a maximum ofone Stain from Shadow Games, out of their starting 3-5. And Stains that

develop from high Spite may be chosen freely.

#4


The Red Baron

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04-15-2011, 09:01 AM

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slow7,117


bump!

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The Red Baron

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06-18-2012, 02:32 PM #6


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7,117


So, a year later, and this campaign is finally getting off the ground. Here's what I've got with a month to go before the proceedings:

Character Generation, General Rules and Clarifications

Starting characters receive Backgrounds of 4 Standard + 4 Orpheus (rather than 2 for each, see below). Additionally, they receive

either +1 to an Attribute of their choice or +1 to Vitality (which is still capped at 7 for hues). If a characters Nature and Shade do

not make them Mirage-class (Vitality 6+), they must put this +1 bonus into Vitality. Hues may access all of their Stains simultaneously for a cost of two Vitality, rather than per Stain.

Spirits with a Spectral evil twin within a five-block radius see their twin summoned with any Vitality expenditure, rather than

just large expenditures. The stronger the characters Spite rating, the stronger the evil twin.

Merits & Flaws may be bought at character creation only. Flaws may be bought-off in play at a rate of (bonus points x 2)

experience per point of Flaw. Crucible Merits & Flaws are an exception, and my be purchased at the same rate later (representing

the crucibles evolving spirtual matrix).

As a clarification, Starting Vitality is simply your characters permanent Vitality rating. If this rating is raised via experience or

Nature change, your characters Starting Vitality changes.

In general, it is not possible to use Horrors while in the meat. That is, characters who are not projecting may not use Horrors. Of

course, one Horror in particular (Forbode) doesnt always play by the rules...

Dead-Eyes is not always on, but may be activated while in the meat with a Perception + Awareness roll, difficulty 8. A single

success activates the ability for the scene. Failure on this roll doesnt render you unable to see ghosts, but you may be subjected

to...other things...and they might know youre watching them.

Linguistics is covered by a Merit, rather than a Talent.

Language (1pt. Merit): You know a language in addition to your native one. You can take this Merit multiple times, each reflecting a

different language.

Specialties are still free for traits of 4+, but do not provide exploding dice; instead, any 10s rolled on specialty situations provide

two successes. If a dice pool involves two specialities, then any 9s or 10s rolled provide two successes (even on a task of Difficulty

10, heaven forbid).

Due to their higher power level, starting Stains taken from the Shadow Games list are at the Storytellers discretion.

If a sleepers body dies from shunting Spite, the character becomes a ghost, with an increased Spite rating as if they had died from

reaching Spite 10.

Characters start with two temporary Spite. Characters may only tap a number of points per turn equal to their Spite rating;

tapping a full Spite rating is still equivalent to 10 Spite points.

Horror Houserules

Spending two or more Vitality points on Wail allows the character to use this Horror to physically wound one or more people

directly in front of her, and within ten yards of her (roughly in a cone). If attacking a group of people, she may not distinguish

between them; everyone in the group risks taking damage, since they are all within range of her scream of fury. Victims may roll

Stamina to soak damage, with an appropriate soak roll at a difficulty of (Vitality expended + 3). If they fail, the targets suffer lethal

damage equal to the number of successes scored by the character.

All extra action effects primarily, Juggernauts Dexterity additions are removed from play. Each point invested into Dexterity

for Juggernaut instead adds to initiative, as well as a die for dodge pools and an increase to your speed with a multiplier of (Vitality

spent + 1).Example: Chet is battling a swarm of Lost Boys. Desperate to escape, he energizes his ghostly flesh with Vitality, spending 3 Vitality

to activate Juggernaut. He moves up three rounds in the initiative order (having rolled 4 for initiative, he now has a 7), and he has

three extra dice for all dodge rolls. His speed is now four times (1x + 3x Vitality) faster. He zips through the swarm, easily avoiding

the now-slow attacks of the Spectres.

Backgrounds

Standard Backgrounds represent links to the wider world, may be taken by anyone (who qualifies), and often are. They include

Allies, Anchor, Arsenal, Contacts, Destiny, Fame, Fast Reflexes, Haunt, Influence, Library, Mentor, Memorial, Patron, Reincarnate,

and Resources.

Orpheus Backgrounds represent links to the organization itself, or specialist training only available from the premier ghostbusting

corporation. They include Detective License, Health Insurance, Ghost Insight, Passion, Personal Trainer, Shield, Status, Veil, and

Visage.

Ghosts cannot take Anchor, Health Insurance (though beneficiaries may profit enormously from a change in Lament), Personal

Trainer, Resources, or Shield. Living agents cannot take Haunt, Memorial, or Reincarnate. Resources are usually minimum 1 for

living agents, representing a small savings Orpheus pays agents an average starting salary of 60k a year, with benefits largely

covered by the Health Insurance Background. Ghosts see their salary paid to recipients or charities of their choosing, along with

DVD Nights in the companys employee lounge (ghost movies are considered to be in poor taste).

Its difficult to qualify for new Backgrounds if youre dead. Detective Licenses cant be granted to those with a legal status of

deceased. However, characters with Detective License, Fame, Library who die during the course of gameplay may retain the benefits

of these Backgrounds after death, provided they keep their demise a secret and roleplay their efforts to maintain a link to their

breathing days.

The following Backgrounds were made available in the Shades of Gray book. Projector-only Backgrounds are restricted to living

operatives, while ghost-only Backgrounds are restricted to dead ones.

Anchor Physical links to your past that hold a repository of Vitality. Anchor is projector-only.

Fame A degree of acclaim and household recognition. More varied (but less useful) than Status.

Fast Reflexes A measure of your quickened reaction time.

Ghost Insight Innate understanding of the motivations and psychology of spirits.


The Red Baron


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Orpheus Houserules