Rules8

= WARNING: OBSOLETE. Use the Revised Rules Files instead =

Contents of file: general.rules
This can be left in the legacy NEWS files. We don't need anything from this file.

=
======================================

These files are DRAFT files containing proposed house rules for change to 5th edition

& help - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- The RULES files contain rules for character creation, combat resolution, skills use, etc. Champions MUSH 2.0 (CM 2.0) utilizes Hero System 5th Edition rules.

Conception        - How to get started creating a character. Characteristics   - What are the characteristics of a character in CM 2.0 Skills		  - What skills are available for a character? Perks		  - What perks are available for a character? Talents		  - What talents are available for a character? Powers		  - What powers are available for a character? Disadvantages     - What disadvantages are available for a character? Advantages	  - Types of advantages for a power. Limitations	  - Types of limitations available for a power. Maneuvers	  - Combat Maneuvers and explanations Rulebook	  - Rules covering combat and adventuring. House Rules       - House Rules that pertain to CM 2.0

To look at a topic just type RULES. eg. Type RULES POWERS to look at files on powers in Champions MUSH 2.0

& conception & character conception - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- GETTING STARTED The most important thing you need to create your character is NOT a balanced set of points and a clear understanding of the game mechanics.

Rather, what you need is a good conceptual understanding of the motivations, powers, weaknesses, failings, loves, losses, etc, of your character. Is he a hero or mercenary, or someone who walks that fine line in between? Is he a lover or a fighter? Brash or thoughtful?

If you have THOSE, then it's easy to translate them into game terms.

Don't let all of the game mechanics intimidate you. Any of the admins can help you quickly and successfully translate your vision of your character into game terms.

For more information see RULES CONCEPTION 2

& conception 2 - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- There are 6 steps to creating a character:

1. Character Conception (see RULES CONCEPTION)

2. Purchase Characteristics that fit your conception. (See RULES CHA)

3. Purchase Skills (RULES SKILLS), Powers (RULES POWERS), Talents (RULES TALENTS), and Perks (RULES PERKS) that fit your conception.

4. Purchase Disadvantages that fit your conception (RULES DISADVANTAGES)

5. Balancing: Make sure all your points add up and you don't violate maxima (RULES CHA MAXIMUMS) or balance rules (RULES BALANCE)

6. Staff Approval: At least two (2) members of the approval reviewers must approve you for game-play in the MUSH.

See RULES CREATING for more details on how to create a character. --

& points & creating a character - [CM 2.0 Rules] - You use Character Points to purchase your character's abilities (Powers, Characteristics, Talents, Skills, etc.). There are three ways to obtain Character Points:

1. Base Points are given to every character to get them started. Each CM2 PC has 250 Base Points to spend when first created. NPCs can be  built on different base points.

2. Disadvantage Points are earned by taking Disadvantages. If your character has some flaw that makes life difficult in some way, you earn Character Points for that. Different disadvantages are worth different numbers of points. Every PC should have 100 Disadvantage Points.

3. Experience Points are earned by roleplay and participating in plots.

The total cost of your character's abilities cannot exceed the total of these three sources of points. Different abilities cost different numbers of points.

See RULES POINTS 2 for more information.

& points 2 - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- You spend Character Points to purchase Characteristics, Powers, Skills, and Talents as described below.

1. Buying Characteristics (See RULES CHARACTERISTICS for a description of Characteristics.)

Let's look at the first 3 Characteristics of a starting Character.

Value   Cha         Base   Cost   Points 10      STR.........10     x1     0 10      DEX.........10     x3     0 10      CON.........10     x2     0 ...

The "Base" column lists how much of each Characteristic you start with. This is the same for all characters: for example, you have 10 STR, 10 DEX, and 10 CON before spending any Character Points. The "Cost" column tells you how many Points it costs to raise the value of the Characteristic by 1. STR costs 1 point, DEX costs 3, CON costs 2.

The "Value" column lists how much of the Characteristic you have. This is the Base value plus whatever you've paid for.

The "Points" (Points) column tells you how many Character Points you've spent.

So, since 0 Character Points have been spent on STR, the STR value is the base value, which is 10.

For more information type RULES POINTS 3.

& points 3 - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- 1. Buying Characteristics, continued.

Suppose you want your character to be four times stronger than normal. Roughly speaking, effective STR doubles for every 5 points of STR, so you want STR = 20. Base STR is 10 so you want to buy +10 STR. Each point of STR costs 1 Character Point, so +10 STR costs 10 CP.

You now have:

Val   Cha         Base   Cost   Pts 20    STR.........10     x 1    10 10    DEX.........10     x 3    0 10    CON.........10     x 2    0

Suppose you want DEX = 24. Base DEX is 10 so you want +14 DEX. Each point of DEX costs 3 Character Points, so +14 DEX costs 42 CP. You now have:

Val   Cha         Base   Cost   Pts 20    STR.........10     x 1    10 24    DEX.........10     x 3    42 10    CON.........10     x 2    0

Incidentally, note that sometimes people talk about having "24 points of DEX" in this case. This can get confusing, since some things depend on the DEX value (24 in this case) and other things depend on the Character Points spent (42 in this case). It's best to use "points" to mean Character Points and talk about having "a DEX of 24".

You now have a 20 STR and a 24 DEX and have expended a total of 10 + 42 = 52 Character Points on these two Characteristics.

For more information type RULES POINTS 4

& points 4 - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- 2. Buying Powers. (See RULES POWERS for a description of Powers.)

Suppose you want your character to be able to shoot beams of fire. You define this as Energy Blast (EB) which you call "Fire Bolt".

EB costs 5 points per d6 of power (the more d6, the more powerful). You want Fire Bolt to be really powerful, so you decide to buy 10d6 EB. This costs (10 x 5=) 50 Character Points.

You now have:

Cost Power			         END -- --- 50   10D6 EB (Fire Bolt)                  5

(Ignore the END column for now).

Suppose you also want your character to be able to fly, propelled by a rocket-like burst of flame. You define this as Flight ("Fire Rocket").

Continued in RULES POINTS 5

& points 5 - [CM 2.0 Rules] - Flight costs 2 points for every 1". A normal human can run at 6", and you want to fly much faster than that, so you decide to buy 20" of Flight, which costs (20 x 2=) 40 CP.

You now have:

Cost Power			         END -- --- 50   10D6 EB (Fire Bolt)                  5 40  20" Flight (Fire Rocket)             4

You've spent a total of 40 + 50 = 90 Character Points on Powers. Along with the 52 points on Characteristics that's 132 CP.

For more information see RULES POINTS 6

& points 6 - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- 3. Buying Skills. (See RULES SKILLS for a description of Skills.)

You want your character to be able to do aerial acrobatics, so you buy Acrobatics Skill. This costs 3 points for a base skill roll of 9 + DEX/5. Since you have a 24 DEX, your DEX/5 is 4.8, which rounds to 5. Therefore, by spending 3 Character Points on Acrobatics, you have an Acrobatics Skill at 9 + 5 = 14.

Cost Skill -- 3    Acrobatics (DEX) 14-

The 14- means you succeed when you roll 14 or less on 3d6. This happens about 90% of the time (see RULES CHART PERCENT), which is pretty good. But suppose you want to improve that to a 98% chance (16-)... you want to raise the roll by 2.

Acrobatics can be improved at +1 to the roll per 2 points. So +2 to the roll costs 4 Character Points, for a total of 7 points.

You've spent a total of 90 CP on Powers, 52 CP on Characteristics, and 7 CP on skills, for a total of 149 CP.

For more information, type RULES POINTS 7.

& points 7 - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- 3. Taking Disadvantages. (See RULES DISADVANTAGES for descriptions.)

Suppose you continue to buy Characteristics, Powers, Skills and Talents until you've spent 350 Character Points. You pay for this with 250 Base Points, which leaves you with 100 Character Points to earn with Disadvantages.

Your character is fire-based, so a weakness to cold makes sense. Cold attacks are uncommon, and you decide to take twice the normal STUN from them, so you buy Vulnerability to Cold (uncommon, 2xSTUN). This is worth 10 points.

Your character is a superhero, so an overwhelming unwillingness to kill makes sense. You buy Psychological Limitation: Code Against Killing (common, total), which is worth 20 points. So you have:

Disadvantages                                     Pts --                        ---  Vuln: cold (uncommon, 2x STUN)		     10 PsychLim: Code Against Killing (common, total)    20

...and have earned 30 of your 100 Disad points. You need another 70 points of disads.

& power modifiers - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- Power Modifiers are designed to help players fine-tune their Powers to make the Power specifically fit within the conception of the character. For example: suppose you want your character to have a gun that shoots blaster rays. Now, that sounds like an Energy Blast. With Limitations, you could make the gun have only a certain number of uses (charges) and make it possible to have the gun dropped or taken from you (using the Focus limitation).

There are three classes of Power Modifiers: Power Advantages, Power Limitations, and Power Frameworks. Power Advantages (Advantages for short) make a Power cost more in points but also make it more effective. Power Limitations (Limitations for short) restrict the usefulness of a Power but also make it cost less in points. Power Frameworks affect the way the character groups his Powers together. You can combine Powers, Power Modifiers and Special Effects to create the exact Power or effect you envision.

ADVANTAGES        Explanation of how Advantages work in general ADVANTAGE LIST    List of every Advantage allowed in our game ADV        Displays the file on the Power Advantage LIMITATIONS       Explanation of how Limitations work in general LIMITATION LIST   List of every Limitation allowed in our Game LIM        Displays the file on the Power Limitation FRAMEWORKS        Explanation of the three Power Frameworks

For more information see RULES. Example: RULES ADVANTAGE LIST

& powerups - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- I have XP, and I want to spend it. What do I do?

Set a &powerup attribute with your powerup request, making sure to include the XP cost and the EXACT writeup of how the powerup would appear on your character sheet. If an existing entry is altered, show the alteration. Include the total XP cost if there are multiple entries. A short explanation of the how/why of the powerup should follow.

Example: (3 XP) 43 STR (from 40) (2 XP) PS: Automobile Salvage 11- (2 XP) Mechanics 12- (+1 to roll) (7 XP total)

Junkyard Dog's job at Mickey's Salvage Yard has taught him how to help people fix cars, and he spends most of his days hauling around cars with his great strength.

Continued in RULES HR POWERUPS 2.

& powerups 2 - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- Once you have the powerup to your liking, go into the Character Finishing Room and use the POWERUP command. You are free to continue to RP while your powerup request is reviewed. Requests will be checked by approval reviewers similar to initial applications; you can use +APPCHECK to check the status of your powerup.

After your powerup is approved, a second admin will set you unapproved to make the changes. Once the changes are complete, and you use SPEND XP, you will receive a second powerup approval that will set you approved for play once again.

Continued in RULES HR POWERUPS 3

& powerups 3 - [CM 2.0 Rules] --- Questions frequently asked about XP spending:

Q) How many XP do I have to do a powerup? How long do I have to wait? A) Any number of XP is allowed, though it usually works out best when the powerup is 5-10 XP. At present there is no official time limit between powerups. Q) How much and how fast can I improve my powers? A) The starting AP cap goes up by 1 for every 10 XP spent, generally at the end of the 10 XP. See RULES BALANCE ACTIVE POINTS

Q) Can I sell back parts of powers, improved figured CHA, or other points in a powerup? A) Only under very limited situations. You can sell back any secondary characteristic that increased due to the powerup. You cannot sell back other powers or characteristics. Powerups are for increases only.

Q) What's a radiation accident? A) Named after causes of people gaining superpowers, this also applies to major changes in a character. These are usually major XP expenditures that change major portions of a character's abilities. This requires a TinyPlot to justify, and going through the full approval process in some cases.

Q) Can I go over the initial Balance Restrictions in RULES BALANCE? A) Yes you can. You can increase the categories so that you may have more than two HIGHs and no lows. However the basis for approval depends on the RP that you have done and how the character concept works out. You can't just increase things for no reason or just because it is more effective in battle. You will never be allowed to have all categories with HIGH ratings though. --