Falcon/HouseRules

I don't like poking around with the rules of the game too much - I favour simplicity. But here are some reflections.

On Solars, And Their Relative Power Level
There's a lot of debate about Solar power level versus... well, pretty much everything else. I'll say this quick: this is not the place for more.

The way I see it, the true power of Solars is not raw power - although they are rawly powerful - it is the fact that they can become powerful faster than anyone else. It is easier for a Solar to learn new charms and gain Essence than it is for anyone else, and they have a bigger essence pool to spend on such wonders.

At least, that's the theory. It's borne out in practice to an extent. Let's take Solars as a base...

• Dragon Bloods have to spend more XP to raise their Essence or learn charms than Solars do. They also have a much smaller essence pool, which is telling even with the generally lower cost of their charms.
  
• Lunars have to spend slightly more XP to raise their Essence, but vastly more to learn charms. Their essence pool works out about the same as Solars, but proportionally much more of it is peripheral, which has several effects in gameplay, especially when you take into account the Tell and the way heavy expenditure of peripheral essence can deny Lunars their primary advantage of shapeshifting.
  
• Abyssals are a whole other kettle of (zombie) fish. I'm not going into that here, because this is not a forum for discussion.
  
• Sidereals gain Essence at the same speed as Solars. And learn normal martial arts charms at the same speed, and other charms slightly slower. Their essence pool is about the same size (slightly lesser), similarly proportioned, and their anima banner is much more subtle. This... isn't right.

My proposed fixes run as follows:

• Lunars should pay a lot less for their charms than they do. I would suggest 11 XP for a non-favoured and 9 XP for a favoured charm, the same as Sidereals and only slightly more than Solars. They also need their charm tree fixed - and they need it badly - but that's well beyond my scope right now. I think there's a project on it on this wiki somewhere.
  
• Sidereals should pay the same for martial arts charms as they do for other charms. They should pay a higher rate to gain Essence than they do - I would suggest (current rating x 9) XP. That would put them in line with Lunars, the other Celestial Exalt.

Sorcery and Necromancy
If you take one of the six sorcery or necromancy charms, you get a single spell for free along with it. The single spell is to be chosen in conference with the GM. (Lifted from Moxiane.)

Backgrounds
Starting characters cannot have five-dot artefacts or hearthstones. They can have five dots of artefacts or hearthstones, but the maximum power of a starting toy is four dots.

On Starmetal
Starmetal is so rare that there really isn't enough to make big honking artefacts like grand daiklaves. All starmetal weapons and armour cost an additional • of Artefact at character creation.