Prax

The Tome of the Black Orchid

Welcome to my little corner of the vast elsewhere. You can call me Prax and I am the Keeper of the Tome and Chief Storyteller for the Black Orchid Roleplaying Society. Here you will find a collection of the house rules and various other resources I've come up with.

For the curious, the Black Orchid server can be found on OpenRPG, Tuesday nights from roughly 6pm PST to 12am PST most nights. The current Chronicle is a Dragon-Blooded Chronicle titled Solid Jade that takes place in the Hundred Kingdoms. Further information possibly forthcoming.

Other Pages

Wyld Mutations - This page contains a full list of new and revised Wyld Mutations mostly meant for improving a Lunar's War Form, but they can be used for portraying other Wyld Mutants as well.

Martial Arts - Contains my New and Revised Martial Arts Styles.

Lunars - Contains new Knacks, Charms and Resources for Lunar characters.

Solid Jade - Details about the Dragon-Blooded Chronicle I'm running on OpenRPG.

Isle of Jade - A future OpenRPG Chronicle of the Black Orchid Roleplaying Society, this one being set up by Yeled.

On the Rules of the House

General Rules

Jumping - I use a weakened rule for determining jumping distance as I'm not a fan of Anime-Leaping without the use of Charms. As a result without the aid of Charms all characters have a vertical leap equal to their Strength + Athletics in feet and a Horizontal leap equal to their Strength + Athletics in yards.

On Duel-Wielding and Rate - To be perfectly explicit a character uses the lowest Rate among all Attacks he makes in a Flurry to determine the maximum number of attacks he may make in that Flurry regardless of the number of weapons he is holding. That is, a character that is Duel-Wielding gains no special advantages whatsoever beyond stunt potential.

Minimum Speed - The Minimum Speed for any action is 3, regardless of what Charms or Magic a character is using.

Moonsilver Armor - In addition to lacking a Mobility penalty Moonsilver Armor also gains a +1 Bonus to both the armor's Bashing and Lethal Hardness as it flows and shapes itself to reduce the number of weak points in the armor.

Jade Armor - In addition to lacking a Fatigue penalty Jade Armor adds its Hardness rating to a character's Stamina for the purpose of resisting and soaking Environmental Damage.

Craft (pg. 107, Exalted Core) - Treat the Craft ability like the Linguistics Ability, each dot confers knowledge of one of the Craft Types. Characters must have a minimum of Lore 3 and Occult 3 to possess Craft(Magitech). Lore 3 and Medicine 3 are required for a character to possess Craft(Genesis). The effective rating Craft(Magitech) and Craft(Genesis) are capped by the lowest rating a character possesses among all three abilities associated with that Craft.

Weapons

Short Swords - Short Swords have an Accuracy of +1 rather then +2 (pg. 366, Exalted Core)

Straight Swords - Straight Swords have a Damage of +4L rather then +3L (pg. 366, Exalted Core)

Seven-Section Staff - Add the 2-Handed Tag to this weapon (pg. 370, Exalted Core)

Serpent-Sting Staff - Add the 2-Handed Tag to this weapon (pg. 388, Exalted Core)

Solar Charms

Fivefold Bulwark Stance (pg. 194, Exalted Core) - This Charm has a Speed of 4 and a DV of -0.

Lightning Speed (pg. 224, Exalted Core) - At Essence 3 Lightning Speed reduces the DV penalty of the Dash Action to -1. At Essence 4 the DV penalty is further reduced to 0.

Monkey Leap Technique (pg. 223, Exalted Core) - To clarify: this Charm only allows a Reflexive Jump Action during ticks on which your character actually acts, not every tick.

Flow Like Blood (pg. 227, Exalted Core) - While active this Charm negates the DV penalty of each Action the Exalt takes by 1 to a minimum of 0. This Charm also has a Speed of 4 and a DV of -0.

Excellent Emissary's Tongue (pg. 233 - 234) - This Charm allows a character to automatically speak fluently all dialects of a language he already knows in addition to its stated effect. In addition the difficulty to activate this Charm is reduced to 5 for languages that the Solar has only heard or read a few words of, 4 for languages that the Solar has had a scene of exposure to and 3 for languages that the Solar has had several days exposure to.

Solar Hero Form (pg. 242) - This Charm has a Speed of 4 and a DV penalty of -1.

Dragon-Blooded

Dragon-Blooded Animas (pg. 122, MoEP: The Dragonblooded) - All Dragon-Blooded anima powers activate automatically at the 11+ mote level. I roll damage once per Dragon-Blooded an apply that result to everyone within the area of influence who can be affected by it.

Wood Aspect Anima (pg. 121, MoEP: The Dragon-Blooded) - The Wood Aspect poison inflicts the Wood Aspect's Essence in lethal damage per Action has no Tolerance and inflicts a penalty equal to half the Wood Aspect's Essence, rounding up, for the duration.

Fire Aspect Anima (pg, 117, MoEP: The Dragon-Blooded - The additional damage inflicted by Fire Aspect's in close combat is considered Environmental Damage with a Trauma equal to the Dragon-Blood's Essence. As a result the damage ignores armor and can only be reduced by natural soak.

Dragon-Blooded First Excellencies - This Charm works exactly like all other First Excellencies. Each success rolled with the purchased dice adds +2 to a character's Abilities for the purpose of increasing the value of Static Ratings.

Favored Excellencies - A Dragon-Blooded may use the Excellency Charms of their Favored abilities as if she were of the appropriate aspect. In other words, she does not have to pay the out-of-aspect surcharge for activating her Favored Excellencies. This benefit only applies to the character's Favored Excellencies not any other Charms associated with those abilities.

Elemental Charms - Charms with the Elemental Keyword may be used by any Dragon-Blooded as if they were Charms aligned with her Aspect as long as she is using the version of the Charm appropriate to her element. This benefit does not affect the experience cost required to learn that Charm.

Fire Graced Attacks - Fire Graced attacks now inflict 4 Health Levels of Lethal Environmental Damage with a Trauma equal to the Dragon-Blood's Essence. As a result, this damage ignores armor and can only be reduced by natural soak.

Water Graced Attacks - The effect of the Water-Graced attack can only be applied once per tick and the effects do not stack, instead only the most recent application of the effect is applied.

Wood Graced Attacks - The penalties inflicted by Wood Graced attacks stack. If the penalties ever exceed twice a target's Stamina the victim falls unconscious for the rest of the scene as his body were overwhelmed by the effects of the poison. The penalty is considered a Poison effect not a Crippling effect. Also use this effect for Dragon-Graced Arrow rather then the stated +2 Damage bonus listed in the book.

Dragon Vortex Attack (pg. 151, MoEP: The Dragon-Blooded) - The Damage inflicted by this Charm is considered Environmental Damage with a Trauma equal to the user's Essence. Otherwise all effects remain the same, with one success on the roll reducing the damage from Health Levels to Dice, two successes reducing it to Bashing Damage and three successes resisting the damage completely. If multiple Dragon-Blooded are using this Charm use the highest Essence among all participants to determine Trauma and then add +1 for each participant beyond the first.

Water Dragon Form (pg. 208, MoEP: The Dragon-Blooded) - Water Dragon Form adds a dice bonus to all Martial Arts rolls equal to the Dragon-Blood's Essence it does not actually increase his Martial Arts Ability as the Charm text states.

Death Pattern Sensing Attitude (pg. 212, MoEP: The Dragon-Blooded) - The minimum Essence required for this Charm is now 3. The cost of this Charm is now 3 motes, 1 Willpower. In addition to the stated effect of the Charm within the radius of the Charm's influence it now also has the effect of making the Dragon-Blooded automatically aware of all attacks made against her by targets with spirits as well as all Essence based attacks. She may also ignore all penalties for fighting blind as she can sense her opponent's spirits and has no need to actually see them.

Lunar Exalted

Hybrid Body Rearrangement (pg. 135, MoEP: Lunars) - This Knack allows the Lunar to invoke Mutations at a cost of one Mutation per mote spent spent on the activation of this Knack. To be explicit, this counts as a Miscellaneous Shapeshifting Action, though the character may activate as many Mutations at a single time as she wishes. At no extra cost all Lunars who learn this Knack may automatically use this Knack to suppress Mutations while in their War-Form and provide themselves with hands and opposable thumbs in animal forms.

Flawless (Attribute) Focus (pg. 141, MoEP: Lunars) - Attribute Specialties increase the Lunar's dice-cap limitations under appropriate circumstances just as Ability Specialties do for Dragon-Blooded once this Charm is learned.

Wind-Wings Carry Technique (pg. 142, MoEP: Lunars) - For Ranged Attacks every mote spent on this Charm increases the Range of a single attack by 2 yards for Thrown and Flame Weapons and 5 yards for Bows. For Melee and Martial Arts Attacks every 2 motes spent on this Charm increases the effective Range of a single attack by 1 yard.

Shell-Crushing Atemi (pg. 145, MoEP: Lunars) - When used with Relentless Lunar Fury this Charm allows all of the Lunar's Attacks to ignore Hardness for the duration.

Might-Bolstering Blow (pg. 158, MoEP: Lunars) - When used with Relentless Lunar Fury all of the Lunar's Attacks automatically allow the Lunar to regain 1 mote of Essence for each Health Level of Damage inflicted by her attacks.

Breath-Drinking Executioner Attack (pg. 158, MoEP: Lunars) - When used with Relentless Lunar Fury this Charm allows the Lunar to automatically regain 2 motes of Essence each time she kills a target in combat.

Halting the Scarlet Flow (pg. 158, MoEP: Lunars) - This Charm is now Fury-Ok as well as a Gift Charm. When activated with Relentless Lunar Fury the Lunar automatically heals one level of Lethal Damage per action for the duration of effect. This effect does not stack with deliberate activation of the Charm for greater healing. While in her war-form the Lunar may use Halting the Scarlet Flow as an innate power rather then as a Charm.

Scorpion and Toad Mastery (pg. 162, MoEP: Lunars) - Treat the mote cost to generate poisons as equal to the substance's Toxicity.

Adder Fang Method (pg. 162, MoEP: Lunars) - Use a flat cost of 3 motes as the cost to use the effects of this Charm. Closing Eye Toxin should have no Tolerance and a Penalty of -4. This Charm is also Fury-Ok, when activated in combination with Relentless Lunar Fury the Lunar's attacks gain the benefit of a single poison effect for the duration of the Fury.

Instinctive Essence Prediction (pg. 179, MoEP: Lunars) - When activated with Relentless Lunar Fury the Lunar gains the full benefits of this Charm for the duration of the Fury.

Terrible Wolverine Onslaught (pg. 196, MoEP: Lunars) - This Charm now has a Cost of 6m and 1wp and lasts for a number of actions equal to the character's Essence. During this time the character's movement is tripled and she gains an Attack Bonus on all of her Martial Arts attacks equal to the lower of her Dexterity or Essence. Each action the character must make a Flurry of three Martial Arts attacks. For the duration of this Charm the character may ignore the normal Rate of her Martial Arts Attacks and may not attempt any Clinches. Finally count attack successes twice for the purpose of determining the raw damage inflicted by the character's attacks. This Charm is Fury-Ok, but it counts as the activation of two Fury-OK Charms rather then one. This also increases the cost of the Charm to 4 motes rather then 2 motes to activate in conjunction with Relentless Lunar Fury. In all other respects the Charm remains the same when activated with Relentless Lunar Fury except that its effects last for the duration of the Fury.

Wyld Mutations - This page contains a full list of new and revised Wyld Mutations for building a Lunar's war-form.

Wonders of the Lost Age

War-Strider Artifact Weapons (pg. 160, Wonders of the Lost Age) - To determine the Attunement Cost for a War-Strider Artifact weapon, double the Attunement Cost of the normal version of that weapon and ignore the costs listed in the Chart on page 160.

Using Shock-Rams for Ranged Attacks (pg. 159, Wonders of the Lost Age) - Ignore the listed traits on the Chart. Instead, use the traits for a normal Smashfist attack, but add +2 to the Accuracy of the weapon.

Scroll of the Monk

Tonfa, (pg. 156, Scroll of the Monk) - Tonfa have a Damage of +4B not +4L.

Vajra, (pg. 160, Scroll of the Monk) - In Melee combat Vajra have Speed 5, Accuracy +2, Damage +6L/10L, Defense +2, Rate 2 and the 2, L and R tags.

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