Rules:Arkham

From Heroes of the Great Tree

Mokole (Homo sapiens sauris)

"Everyone knows the public facts. In 2052, a second round of mass goblinizations occured. This time, though, instead of Orks or Trolls, one out of every hundred people became Mokoli, a humanoid lizard race. I'm one out of a hundred. Lucky me. Every once and a while, some hairball human tells me they know how I feel. Bullshit.Tell me that you know what its like to feel your jaw elongate into a beak while all your teeth fall out. Tell me you know what its like to scream in agony as your middle finger and your ring finger merge together to form a single digit. Tell me you know what its like to feel your spinal chord painfully elongate to twice its length so that a tail can form. Yeah, chummer, go ahead, tell me how much you know how I feel.... I didn't think you could."
- From Primal Thoughts by Jack Bestyr

Identification

The average Mokole is 1.7 meters tall and weighs 200 pounds. It is important to note that nearly 40 pounds of a Mokole's weight comes from the tail, which also adds another 1.8 meters of length to the body. Coloration ranges highly variable, ranging from dark green to green-blue to brown, with the occasional aqua-blue or fire-red variant. The females have 2 mammae and all Mokole have 70 teeth. Sauris is similar in build to sapiens, though the added balance of the tail makes them more agile. Sauris is the ethnic group most varied from sapiens, appearing at first to be more reptilian than mammilian. The Mokole head is elongated, with the mouth and nose forming a single beak-like structure. A crest or fin rises from the middle of the head, terminating at the base of the skull. The hand has three fingers and an opposable thumb and there are an equal number of digits on the foot. Mokole have no body hair. The eyes are set in the sides of the head and are slightly almond in shape. The ears have a calliflower shape.

Habitat

Mokole prefer roofed structures. They are especially fond of waterfront locations.

Habits

Most Mokole prefer daytime activity. Their diet is omnivorous, though there is a strong preference for fish and strong spices. Average lifespan is still unknown and no Mokole have reproduced.

Young

Unknown as of yet. However, Mokole biology suggests they are egg laying creatures.

Commentary

Mokole have an instinctive ability to use their tail defensively as well as to swim. All members of the species have a strong desire to immerse themselves in water and become irritable if they are unable to do so on a regular basis.

Character Creation

+1 Body, +1 Quickness, +1 Charisma, Tail Attack [(Str+2)M Stun]

New Equipment

Biotech Catalog

Chameleon's Delight

Be on the cutting edge of fashion coutre! Chameleon's Delight comes equipped with several thousand reactive units just beneath the surface. An input slot, placed in the location of your choice, stands ready to receive one of our custom chips. Just plug one in and your skin is any color, or pattern you want it to be. We even include a set of chips as part of the installation package. Chameleon's Delight comes standard with chips for red, blue, green, black, white, and zebra striped.
Effect: Skin color change. Using a pattern that matches the environment raises the difficulty of detection by +2.
Essence Loss: .025 per 25% of skin replaced.
Cost: 2000 Nuyen per 25% of skin replaced.
Chip Cost: 100 nuyen for most patterns, 200 nuyen for glow patterns.

Sharkskin

Why should it only be Mother Nature who gets the ultimate in natural defenses? Sharkskin can replace your ordinary skin with an extraordinary hide coated in diamond shaped scales. When activated, these scales rise up slightly, damaging anyone who scrapes against you. Perfect for self-defense, or that just plain fierce look!
Effect: STR(L) damage.
Essence Loss: .025 per 25% of skin replaced.
Cost: 5000 nuyen per 25% of skin replaced.

Naga-Hyde

Now you, too, can have that slick and leathery look. No more having to worry about getting soaking wet in the rain. Water will bead up and roll right off your skin. It also provides great armor! Available in green, black, and flesh tone.
Effect: +0 Ballistic/+2 Impact.
Essence Loss: .025 per 25% of skin replaced.
Cost: 2000 nuyen per 25% of skin replaced.

Real Fur

For the exotically minded, here's a little gift! RealFur adds a coat of thick, luxurious fur in your choice of color and style to your skin. No one will be able to tell this fur isn't real by touch alone!
Effect: Adds fur to skin.
Essence Loss: .025 per 25% of skin replaced.
Cost: 2000 nuyen per 25% of skin replaced.

SensaSkin

Do you want to fel just a little more when your lover touches you? Or really enjoy that cool breeze on your skin? Now you can! SensaSkin comes equipped with special censors which enhance your sense of touch. And if you get sensory overload? A push of a button on the back of your wrist will turn them off.
Effect: -2 to difficulty of Touch perception tests.
Essence Loss: .025 per 25% of skin replaced.
Cost: 5000 nuyen per 25% of skin replaced.

Additional Cyberwear

Smartlink Processor

Normally, the brain can only process one smartlink connection at a time. What if you want to be a two-gun kid, though? This little piece of headwear outputs info to and accepts info from two individual smartlinks.
Effect: Allows using a smartlink with two pistols shot at the same time.
Essense Loss: .2
Cost: 1000 nuyen

House Rules

Lifestyle

Some things to keep in mind about lifestyle:

Unless you have a SIN, you can't have a lifestyle higher than low (10 points).
In order to have a full workshop you need at least a Middle necessities. In order to set up a full facility, you need at least a High necessities.
High lifestyle (20 points) covers the costs of leasing a motorcycle, car, or basic van.
Luxury lifestyle (30+ points) covers the costs of leasing two vehicles and paying the salary of a driver.

Fashion

The necessities section of your lifestyle dictates what clothing you have for free (you don't have to buy with nuyen separate from your lifestyle). If you want an outfit beyond your lifestyle, you need to buy it with nuyen separate from your lifestyle. In situations where you might need an outfit that is within your means but outside your normal wardrobe (if, for example, you need a nurse's uniform for a run) you pay the listed price in the book. If your Necessities category is:

Street, Squatter, Low: You have a collection of ordinary clothing. Obviously, the lower your level, the more threadbare, out of fashion, and limited your choices are.
Middle: You have a collection of ordinary clothing and one or two fine clothing outfits.
High: You have a full collection of ordinary clothing and fine clothing.
Luxury: For you, fine clothing *is* ordinary clothing. You also have several tres chic outfits.

Affordability

Certain expenses such as movie tickets, a meal at a fine dining establishment, or a snack down at the local Stuffit Shack might be included as part of your lifestyle. If your Entertainment category is:

Street, Squatter: You have to pay for all expenses. Even a candy bar is a luxury.
Low: Your lifestyle absorbs costs up to 5 nuyen (a snack, a beer, etc).
Middle: Your lifestyle absorbs costs up to 10 nuyen (movie tickets, a fast food meal, etc).
High: Your lifestyle absorbs costs up to 50 nuyen (a nice meal, theater tickets, etc).
Luxury: Your lifestyle absorbs costs up to 100 nuyen (a fine meal, opera tickets, etc).

Movement

The following rules apply to movement as an action.

Free action: Movement = Quickness rating in units.
Simple action: Movement = Quickness rating * 2 in units.
Complex action: Movement = Quickness rating * 3 in units.
You may split a movement action but that imposes a +2 penalty to all checks taken during that combat phase.
If you are moving through a square partially occupied by something else (an office chair, for example, or a corner) that counts as rough terrain. Moving through the square costs two movement units, not one.

Additional Pools

There are two additional pools used in this campaign. Unlike normal pools, they refresh only once per 24 game hours.

Athletics Pool.
Social Pool.

Combat

Wounds and Major Damage

The following rules replace the Permanent Damage rules in the main book.

When a character's condition monitor reaches Deadly, he gains a single wound point.
He gains another wound point for each separate injury the character takes beyond Deadly. This only applies to actual injuries, not boxes of damage gained due to not being stable. (ex. Night Eyes, who has a Body of 4, has been shot multiple times, raising her condition monitor to Deadly. She receives 1 wound point. Four turns later, she isn't yet stable, so she takes an additional box of overflow damage. This doesn't give her a wound point. A round later, a grenade explodes too close to where she was laying and she receives three boxes of overflow damage. This nets her a second wound point, for a total of 2.)
At the end of combat, assuming the character has survived, he makes a Body (3) roll with a positive modifier equal to the number of wounds he has taken.
- - 0 successes: Major organ or limb damage.
  - 1 success: Temporary attribute damage.
  - 2 successes: Cybernetic part damage.
  - 3 successes or more: No major damage.
- Major organ/limb damage (roll 1d6)
  - 1: Small organ destroyed (determined by GM).
  - 2: Lose arm (roll 1d6. 1-3 right, 4-6 left).
  - 3: Lose leg (roll 1d6. 1-3 right, 4-6 left).
  - 4: Lose ear (roll 1d6. 1-3 right, 4-6 left).
  - 5: Lose eye (roll 1d6. 1-3 right, 4-6 left).
  - 6: Large organ destroyed (determined by GM).
- Temporary attribute damage (roll 1d6)
  - 1: Lose 1 point of Body.
  - 2: Lose 1 point of Strength.
  - 3: Lose 1 point of Quickness.
  - 4: Lose 1 point of Intelligence.
  - 5: Lose 1 point of Willpower.
  - 6: Lose 1 point of Reaction.
- Cybernetic part damage: Cyberwear is assigned an essence slot based upon its essence loss rating. 1d6 is rolled to determine which slot is affected and, if needed, an additional 1d6 is rolled to determine which item in the slot is damaged.

Armor Damage

Whenever a character suffers a deadly stun wound due to a physical attack, his armor's impact rating is reduced by 1.
Whenever a character suffers a deadly physical wound, his armor's ballistic rating is reduced by 1.

Attacking to Knockdown

This can only be done with a hand-to-hand or blunt melee attack. The attack is rolled as normal, with the number of stages up to damage counted.
The opponents make opposed strength (4) checks. The number of times damage was staged up is added to the successes of the initial attack test.
If the attacker has more successes than the defender, the defender is knocked down.

Attacking from Cover

It is possible to attack from cover without giving up cover (essentially popping up, firing, and popping back). However, it does raise the attack difficulty by a modifier equal to 1/2 the cover modifier because of the lack of ability to properly sight the target.

Small Unit Tactics Skill

The small unit tactics skill is a special active skill that allows one character to help others in combat through military leadership. Only one small unit tactics roll may be made per combat turn. Leadership may be used in place of Small Unit Tactics but suffers from the standard +2 difficulty modifier caused by defaulting to another skill.

To use the skill, the character conveys an analysis of the combat situation on his last action of a combat turn.
- Using the small unit tactics skill is a Complex action.
The difficulty depends on the level of communication between the skill user and his team. Different members of the team may have different difficulties:
- Characters in direct contact (face-to-face or LOS within hearing range): 4.
- Characters in radio communication: 6.
- Characters in direct contact but using gestures instead of words: 8.
  - Characters linked to skill user via BattleTac cyberlink: -2.
  - Characters linked to skill user via BattleTac receiver component: -1.
  - Wound penalties of the skill user apply to the difficulty.
  - Perception modifiers of the team members being directed may apply to the difficulty.
For every two successes achieved against the target number, the team member may gain:
- +1 bonus to Initiative during the next combat turn. This bonus may not exceed the character's Reaction.
- +1 to combat pool for the next combat turn.

Throwing Back Grenades

Grenades explode on the next action of the thrower. A character who has an action before that time may attempt to pick up the grenade and throw it.

For normal grenades, the character must achieve at least 1 success on a Quickness (6) test. This is due to the fact that the grenade is technically still skittering and bouncing.
For mini-grenades, the character must achieve at least 1 success on a Quickness (8) test. This is due to the fact that the grenade is technically still skittering and bouncing.
If the character fails the Quickness test, his action ends and he is considered at range 0 when the grenade explodes.

Example: One of the mercs Steel is facing threw a grenade on phase 15 during the first combat pass. The grenade will not explode until 5 on the second combat pass. Steel, fortunately, acts on 10 in the second combat pass. He rushes forward and attempts to scoop up the grenade. He makes a Quickness (6) test and rolls a 4 5 3 4 1 6. One success. He picks up the grenade and can now make a throwing attack to either toss it away or toss it back at the mercs. If he had rolled a 4 5 3 4 1 2 he would have not picked up the grenade and been standing right next to it when it went boom.

Skill Improvement

Follow these costs when using XP to improve skills, not the costs in the book:

Base Skills

New skill rating is...

<= Attribute Rating: 1 x new rating (.5 for knowledge/language skills)
<= 2 x Attribute Rating: 1.5 x new rating (1 for knowledge/language skills)
> 2 x Attribute Rating: 2 x new rating (1.5 for knowledge/language skills)

Specializations