The Rulings Page

Simply to make things freakin' easier than even going to the ENTIRE SECTION IN THE FORUMS, here's a collection of rulings FROM THE ENTIRE SECTION OF THE GODDAMNED FORUMS!!!!

Enjoy.


Minor New Rulings Thread 11/21/10

Ranged Attack Skill

As it has been pointed out, there IS no "official" ranged attack skill. This is usually because "dex modifier" is the one used, but it doesn't match the flavor (i.e. - HOW CAN I HOLD ALL THESE NUMBERS?!) of the game, so we're instituting two new skills and changing a past written ruling.

Ranged Attack (Focus: To Hit)
Ranged Attack (Focus: Damage)

Much like the other combat skills, these do not use ability modifiers to increase, only straight ranks, and at the usual three skill points per rank. As usual, To Hit goes onto your attack roll, and Damage simply adds to direct damage.

Now, because of this new skill, I have to screw with the Ranged Attack skills ruling (Gun Combat, archery, etc.). From now on, the ruling is as follows -

Those under this table will be presented under a special "accuracy" program when tallying focused, concentrated sniping attempts. So long as you are unseen, unnoticed, or simply attacking from behind, then you may apply the ranks (halved) in the specific skill towards your crit modifier. I.E. - if you have 10 ranks of Gun Combat, and are attempting to snipe, you may increase your crit attack by 5. You may only go up to 10 in any of these specific ranks, and each rank still costs 3 skill points.

Gun Combat
Archery
Heavy Weapons
Thrown Weapons

Iaijutsu, Iaijutsu Focus, and the General Ability itself

Available as of now to samurai, kensai, and appropriate jobs (ask the GM), are the Iaijutsu general ability. It reads as follows:

Iaijutsu Strike - during the first round action of combat, you may instead of drawing your weapon perform a Iaijutsu attack. First you must focus (at the cost of 25 ep), then you use your Iaijutsu Focus instead of making an attack roll. All crits are at 18-20, nonstackable with crit improving feats or abilities, and will always crit at x3. Any points over 20 from Iaijutsu Focus are added on as direct damage, added in before the crit count. Iaijutsu (after focusing) completely ignores AC of any kind, and opponent is always considered flat-footed (even in situations where they are not). Cannot be stacked with backstab attacks, and opponent must know you're there.

Note: instead of simply focusing for the crit, you may attempt to roll the dice AND add your Iaijutsu Focus value to attempt a Double Crit (hit 40 with dice roll + skill value). If so, crit modifier is improved to x5 for a grand total of x10.

Further notation: While you CAN Iaijutsu through just about anything, it should be noted that it is still at the GM's discretion whether or not you can. Gnosis is still a point, as well as the sheer power of it's defenses. If it's a simple Plate Mail + Mage Armor, you can Iaijutsu through it like a hot knife through butter. If it's Absolute Perfection, you're shit outta luck. Also you can only use Iaijutsu at the START of the battle, it costs the entire round and, above all, you can only use it once per battle. Upon being unsheathed, a katana cannot Iaijutsu again until the next battle. Mind you, there MUST be at least five minutes cooldown between battles to qualify as a "next battle," i.e. - if your battlesense tells you that you're still in combat, and "end of combat" has not occurred, then you cannot Iaijutsu again.

Iaijutsu Focus Skill - improved by Charisma ability modifier, this is the skill used to determine whether or not the Iaijutsu is performed properly. It is used in place of Attack Roll + Base Attack Bonus, or (later on) it can be used to determine a Double Crit after it's made available in Chapter 7. Iaijutsu Focus Skill is ONLY available to jobs able to use a Iaijutsu Strike.

General DM bullshittery

So anyway, have you written out your digital player character profile? Even after you get the new Neo-Tokyo RP character sheets, you should still type it out and post it up on the forums for a co-GM or the GM to post on the wiki. Also keep it updated on the forum, or should you lose your hard-copy character sheet, you WILL find yourself rebooted from the last posted online profile. I will no longer update character sheets to current should you lose your sheet (at least if there is a two-level difference), and you will simply have to bear the brunt of playing with a lower-levelled character.

Also, we're getting to the point where certain characters are gaining the ability to roll tons of attacks per round. Yes, yes, Sly, I know: don't worry, you and I have already discussed this. I'm addressing this for general purposes though, and to make it official (after all, this IS one of the reasons why I pulled Afro Kamen, for now…) and other non-such…so, without further ado, here it is.

If you are able to perform 10 attacks or more per round, you are expected to do it as quickly, cleanly, and efficiently as possible.

Continue to say aloud your attacks and what you're doing (after all, your own flavor text is what makes this game so much fun, yah?), but don't do it for EACH FREAKING ATTACK! Come to either myself or Sly for advice on how to do this, since there are more than enough acceptable ways to legally roll the dice for, say, 50+ attacks in one round and yet not take ten minutes doing so.

Also, magic-users: keep it up! Go into battle knowing what you want to cast, and able to be flexible to change to different spells when the need arises. Be flexible yet know what you're going to do, that's the magic word!

Expect a new Fresh Off The Lilypad come Chapter 7, as well as quite a bit of storyline to get updated with!

VAT A TWEEST and all that rot.

Official New Rulings Thread 8/10/2010

A whole new slew of rulings? Let's get ready…

The Dreaded 1
First, foremost, and the most punny is the ruling on rolling a 1. This does NOT kill you (normally - I reserve that right depending on action), and it does NOT stop you from performing the entire action string. This DOES, on the other hand, mean you botched…and hard. On an attack roll, this means you failed hard and the enemy defended immediately. On a defense roll, this means you not only failed defense but the enemy found a weak spot and gains an immediate x2 "crit improvement." See the next section to cover Crit Improvement ruling.

Now, on a crit defense (defending and rolling either a 20 or the Magic Number), what can you do? After Chapter 6, I'll be initiating a "20 Disrupt" general ability wherein the defender, upon crit defending, can attempt to "disrupt" an action string with a counter if you know one. In order to fully disrupt though, you must perform the attack (whatever the damage your counter can do), and then re-roll the d20. If you roll another 20, your counter immediately ends battle phase for the Disrupted target and the next person on the list of initiative gets to go.

Crit Improvement
We've done this before: you guys roll a crit, I roll a crit fail defense. I immediately apply a x2 "crit improvement" to your overall crit score. What does this mean?
This means if you normally crit x4 and I crit fail defend, your crit is now increased from x4 to x6. Quite simple really, yeah? Of course this also means the same damn thing vice versa.

Tentacles, Tentacles, Tentacles, CHAINS!
SO, there are a few on the team…and, after Chapter 6/7, quite a few enemies who can perform something like 50-100 attacks PER ROUND. How ARE we gonna deal with this, eh?

Multiplication.

I am going to grant this option to those who have more than 20 attacks in a round: instead of rolling all 20-100+ attacks in the round, THEN FREAKING ROLLING DAMAGE, I am going to allow you to shorten the numbers you need to roll, then multiply them by whatever factor you chose to roll them.

So instead of rolling 20d20 to see if your attacks even land, you can instead roll 1d20 and choose to use that number 20 times…or roll 5d20 and each dice counts for four attacks…etc. etc. etc. Keep in mind though, you MUST declare how this goes down BEFORE you roll, otherwise you'll be penalized.

Keep in mind my saying, "I don't care about each fucking damage dice, just tell me the end damage result." This is to increase the flow and pace of combat, since stalling out WILL start to piss everyone off…especially in the middle of truly heated combat.

For the record, Sly: no this isn't about you. On the other hand, I named this section after you. Mazel tov, mah braugh.

The Defense Roll
After Chapter 6 starting Chapter 7, due to certain reasons all of you will begin to have to figure out how many defenses you get per round…and, if you're not doing it already, get to utilize the Defense Roll. This is the powerful ability to roll 1d20 and add the number to your AC and, up until Chapter 7, none of you have had the proper Elan to do this (though freakin' Miss Lay is freakin' close). Despite that, you STILL cannot use this ability until Chapter 7. You may now groan for me: your misery is music to my ears.

Official: Starting Chapter 7, at Gnosis 100 you gain this ability.

Once Chapter 7 hits, you'll begin to face enemies who hit more times per round rather then UBER FUCKING HARD all the goddamned time. For that reason, I am going to ask you all to ensure that you know how many times you can defend in a single round at the end of Chapter 6 and before Chapter 7.

Now, have I forgotten anything? If so, lemme know and I'll update this segment…otherwise, there yar go!

Also, be prepared: once Chapter 7 hits, this world is gonna get rocked…I got TONS of updates and stuff for you guys, but not so much that you'll get swamped. Just enough that if you wish to dive deeper into the mechanics of this world, you now can.

You'll see.

Re: Official New Rulings Thread 8/10/2010

BAH, forgot to add: while I'm willing to talk about these rulings, they are NOT up for debate.

Co-GM's, see me if these conflict with past rulings (that I haven't over-ruled) or if there's something I simply don't see m'self.

Re: Official New Rulings Thread 8/10/2010

Added 8/12/10

On Breath Weapons and Volley

SOOOOOOO, here's the quick and hard of it. In b4 "I LOVE it quick and hard!"

If your gun weapon has a "breath weapon" ability, upon using it you lose the ability to volley.

Upon using breath weapon, or ANY consecutively-fired weapon (such as Shade's beloved flammenwerfer, "Fluffy"), you can roll once and apply that successful roll for all shots up to the end of your action string. So it's like this: upon successful roll, you can now roll damage as if you've successfully hit all the way up to the end of your action string.

Note: this ruling also affects breath weapons used during combat. Give up your round to perform the breath weapon upon successful roll up until the end of your action string.

Special Attacks versus Special Attacks versus Special Attacks

OKAY, so…there are four types of Special Attacks, and rulings specific thereof. Well, really only two…but anyway, here's the thing about it.

  1. Firstly, there are Special Attacks from Big Eyes Small Mouth d20. These fall under the specific ruling of being used only once per round/action string.
  1. Secondus, there are Special Attacks gained from levelling up in classes, especially the Homebrews. These also can be done once per round/action string…UNLESS specified elsewhere, either from a splatbook or the description of the special attack itself/job itself.
  1. Tertius, there are personalized or Faith Table Special Attacks. These are inherently granted due to storyline reasons or some such, and THESE can be made as many times as you have actions, so long as you can pay the cost each time.

For the record, "personalizing" Special Attacks are specific missions found within the storyline that allows you to screw with the special attack/item/spell itself, making it inherently yours and unlike any others used by anyone else. All who attempt to use the special attack/item/spell that is personalized always suffers a -5 penalty just for the attempt, and there might be even worse blonuses and penalties granted upon successfully using it/them.

  1. Lastly, there are Martial Arts Special Attacks, where you can use as many times as you can pay the cost each use within a single round/whole action string.

Official New Rulings Thread (6/16/10)

Attack Skills

Soooooo, we got quite a crapton of deliberation concerning the Attack Skills section…especially the Unarmed Attack Skill.

First and foremost, let it be declared: ALL the books, splat and official and homebrew, all say one thing and one thing only.

In the name of fun, screw the rules!

Now, some of you DO live by the rules…while the rest of you understand the two main rules of Neo-Tokyo: the Rule of Cool and the Rule of Badass.

With THAT said, we need to nip this thing in the bud. BESM has a semi-vague (apparently contradictory) definition of how the hell the Unarmed Combat Skill is utilized. So much so that in the beginning I made a ruling about it…and apparently made a second ruling with no one (myself included) remembering the first.

SO, here you go:

The skill points for these can be used for EITHER attack roll or damage bonus. How?

From now on you guys will have new skills to utilize: Combat Focus Skills.

Unarmed Attack (Focus: Attack Roll)
Unarmed Attack (Focus: Damage)
Special Ranged Attack (Focus: Attack Roll)
Special Ranged Attack (Focus: Damage)
Melee Attack (Focus: Attack Roll)
Melee Attack (Focus: Damage)

In this way you guys can CHOOSE which one it goes into. Because of this, though, > I am going to grant each of you a ONE TIME ONLY re-distribution of these <Liam> particular set of skills </Liam> so that it will better represent what you want…or keep 'em the way you want. Your choice, but DO MAKE IT BEFORE THE NEXT GROUP SESSION!

Now, here's somethin' a lil' bit that you're going to have to understand…the normal stat limits are that you can't put in more then three points in rank beyond your level number. For THESE beauties though, it's the combined ranks. So if you're a level 6, then you can have 9 in one, none in the other, or 5 in one and 4 in the other.

Don't ask me why I used these numbers! You can see the goddamned things. Anyway, there you have it.

<Charles Barkley> You're welcome. </Charles Barkley>

Those under this table will be presented under a special "accuracy" program. 1-10 will determine how masterful you are with them, with one being the weakest and ten being the strongest. Anything beyond ten is considered that nothing but outside influences will ever screw with your aim and ability.

Gun Combat
Archery
Heavy Weapons
Thrown Weapons

Would you like extra AC? Sure, here, have some. These guys are being defined to give bonuses to your AC as either a "dex bonus" or "misc bonus"…your choice, and must be chosen upon putting points in. In this case the final maths are as follows: take your current skill score, ranks + modifier + misc, then halve the goddamned thing.

Because of the nature of the beast, these all three represent "situational modifiers," and are only effective depending on which form of combat you are currently engaged in.

Melee Defense - defense with weapons in your hands.
Unarmed Defense - defense with nothing in your hands.
Ranged Defense - defense against ranged attacks.

New Stuff for Style Points

From now on, Style Points can be traded in for experience points!!

Now, before the fanfare, here comes the other shoe: you can "fluff" your experience points this way…up until 10% of your full level capacity.

That is A) you'll NEVER level this way, but you'll constantly be NEAR to levellin', and B) it's a good way to get rid of style points that are simply molding in your storage.

Basically, it's like this: it takes 1000 points to get from level 1 to level 2, right?

Well then, using this method you can pump yourself up from 0 to 900 using style points. See? If you need help with the maths, ask the GM or the Co-GM's.

Now, until told otherwise, here's my official ruling.

30 style points = Da Gigaton (no matter WHAT your level or where in the experience chain you are, you'll always go up to 99% of your current level.)
10 style points = 5000 experience points
1 style point = 500 experience points
1/2 style point = 200 experience points

So, what does this mean? Simple, really…if you utilize this method to attempt to level, you'll lose experience points per style point spent, BUT you WILL get closer to levelling. Also, let's look at that Level 1 to Level 2 example again:

It takes 1000 experience points (from 0 to 1000) to go from level 1 to level 2. You use one style points, and now you have 500 experience points, with only 500 to go until you level! Now, here's where things get tricky depending on your outlook…

  • If you put in another style point, you'll only get 400 points. "Wait…only 400 points?!" Yes, jackschmuck, only 400 points. Remember the absolute rule concerning this: you can only pump it up to 90% of your experience needed to level, NEVER 100%. So if you put in a second style point, you will only receive enough of those points to reach the maximum amount allowable…and lose 100 points in the process.
  • If you put in a 1/2 point, followed by a 1/2 point, then you get 900 points exactly, no waste, no mess, no muss, this troll is dust!

So, why the distinction? Because some people are naturally affected by such things, and mere mathematics can bring a person down. SO, whether you're a "glass is half full" or a "glass is half empty" kinda person, you'll figure out one way or another to utilize this to help ya!

A Clearing of the Air Concerning Hellbladers

The "Trick" ability is a movement-based special attack…or defense…or mobility. The whole emphasis is placed on movement, never forget that. A drive-by attack, a wall-ride that ends up in a whirlwind attack, etc. etc.

The "Kick" ability is considered to be a "free attack" done with the Hellblades AFTER at least ONE of your attacks connects. Mind you, this is one of your base attack bonus-defined actions, NOT natural weapons or extra attacks. If NONE of them connect, then you do not get your free kick attacks.

Unless otherwise modified, all kicks involved this way does 1d6 damage per kick.

Also, while the user does not have to do an attack roll (it's a "take 20" event so long as one hit has landed on the enemy), the target MUST make defense rolls to see if they can block/evade or perform some other action against the kicks. Roll a defense roll per kick.

A few past rulings to keep in mind

So yeah, lessee…

  • No, you can't start with Tech Genius AND Dynamic Sorcerer. Choose one or the other.
  • Even though you have only one base attack bonus score to start with, you still get two actions (at the lowest base attack bonus score) until you DO have a second action due to base attack bonus.
  • Magic-users, should they choose it, can cast one more spell (at the lowest base attack bonus score) than their maximum allowable actions per round during combat. This is called "Full Spell Mode."
  • Magic-users are allowed to add "Spellcraft" to attack roll to determine hit.
  • Maximum hit points granted from Damn Healthy! feat or levelling, so no need to roll to see how much you get.
  • Maximum energy granted (once again, no need to roll dice) for Dynamic Sorcerers or any other job.
  • Energy points gained per level are 2, unless notified by that job.

More to come as we can remember 'em, yah?

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