Main Change
Experience checks are no longer used as per the normal rules. Instead, at certain points in the game deemed appropriate, the players will be given a certain number of skills that may be rolled for increase. Outstanding, extraordinary, and other situations involving specific skill use that are deemed to be good role-playing will be rewarded with skill checks beyond the allotment granted to everyone else. Note: only one check per skill and a POW check counts as a check. Critical use of skill or a fantastic result gains an extra check even for non-check skills.

The rest of the House Rules are divided into three sections: New Skills, Magic, Skills, and Combat.

New Skills
Brew [Potion]: (Knowledge) Potions are Animal, Mineral, and/or Plant based, therefore use the lower of the appropriate base or the specific brew skill to determine POT of potions. POT=lowest skill divided by five, round down. Time to brew potions or making items is one week, up to three potions can be brewed in that time and up to two items can be made. Higher potency ingredients can be used to brew lower potency potions. Antidotes of the wrong type have half effectiveness.

Forced March: (Manipulation) The total distance increase of a marching group is equal to the the lowest Forced March skill. Ex. 20 soldiers all with Forced March can go 16% farther in a day if the lowest Forced March skill in the group is 16%. Average marching distance for footmen is 20 km a day, depending on terrain and familiarity.

Leadership: (Communications) Used to get troops to do what you want during a battle and to rally them. Limited by lesser of orate or double human lore (or other appropriate lore for race of troops.) One-half skill with troops that leader has not interacted with/lead for at least a month.

Quickdraw: (Manipulation) a successful use allows a sword wielder to draw a sword and attack with it without the normal +3SR penalty. The same roll for drawing is used for the attack and if the draw is unsuccessful, the attack occurs 3 SR later.

Research (Alchemy, Spell, Magic, Martial): (Knowledge) For someone to create new alchemical skills or abilities, sorcery spells (not enchants), or magic (enchant spells) they need the Research skills. The referee and the player work together to determine the base research time. Base research time is 10 weeks (500 hours), halved for research closely associated to what the researcher already knows and doubled or more for research the researcher has little associated knowledge of. Using half the time, the caster can use half their skill and using double time their skill have be increased by half-again. At the end of the time the researcher rolls and if making the research roll, the research was successful. Failed research requires a three month (12 week) gap until similar research can be conducted again by the disenheartened researcher. Very difficult research tasks should be spread over many months with research and adventures into related information in order to lower overall time and difficulty. See Follower Rules for usefulness of apprentices and more specific rules for Research.

Strategy (Knowledge) Used to make troop formations more effective in battle and superiour positioning to defeat the enemy with fewer casualties. strategy comes in many levels, such as Strategy 1 (units of 10, total of about 200), Strategy 2 (units of 50, total about 1000), Strategy 3 (units of 100, total of about 2000), Strategy 4 (units of 250, total about 5000), Strategy 5 (units of 500, total about 10,000), and so on. Strategy of the wrong level can work at half skill to adjacent levels, and quarter to two levels away. Example Strategy 1 at 60 could be used as Strategy 2 at 30 and Strategy 3 at 15.

Tactics: (Knowledge) Used to make individual troops more effective in battle and to maintain good fighting order during battle. Limited by double human lore (or other appropriate lore for race of troops.) One-half skill with troops that leader has not interacted with/trained for at least a month.

Magic
1. Natural Healing
D3 points per week to each location and d6 to total HP.

2. POW gain rolls for player characters is from 21, or normal if higher. The roll for points is as per RQII: d100, 1-10=3 POW, 11-40=2 POW, and 41-00=1 POW.

3. Heal 6 required to mend limbs functionally incapacitated (double negative.)

4. Three SRs are required to begin spell-casting only if the focus is not available.

5. MP and/or Total HP may be used to power spells. When Total HP are used for this purpose, HP per location do not go down. Therefore using Total HP to power spells is very dangerous if one were to get in combat: any blow might be fatal. Also note that Heal does not heal Total HP damage.

6. Spirits Possessing a being, regardless of if dominant or not, must be forced out first before that being can be possessed. If a cult Spirit of Possession is lost in this way, it can be regained with a successful Ceremony roll at a temple (not a site or shrine) and as long as the cultist is in good standing with the cult.

7. Special Metals: Iron weapons do extra damage. This varies on their craftsmanship, meaning more damage for sharper or denser weapons. Steel or other exotic weapons work the same way. Note: blunt Iron or Steel weapons do not do double damage to armored Trolls because the metal must touch skin (Note: critical hits do touch the skin and cause full double damage). Examples are +1 for average Iron and +10 for excellent Truestone (+20 for legendary Truestone).

8. Conditions on Enchantments: The cost to put user or target conditions on a magic item is free if done during creation and only one POW for both if done after creation.

9. Binding Enchantment is a single spell used for creation of binding enchantments. Each enchantment is species specific, but there is only one spell to create all types of binding enchantments.

10. Beings in an enchantments are released about ten rounds after the caster of the current Control, etc. spell dies. If someone else (other that the current caster) does not want to release a spirit from an enchantment upon using it, the new person must cast a new Control, etc. spell. Shamen have better control over spirits and the spirits under their Control spells will not leave until a day after their spirits leave their body.

11. Healing Spirits can sacrifice MPs to heal damage (location HP only).

12. Lunar magic and Sorcery skills limit the number of magic points that can power a spell. The total MPs used in a spell cannot be greater than the skill in the spell divided by five. Each special spell skill divided by five also limits the MPs that can be expended for that special spell skill.

13. The maximum points of a spirit spell that can be learned is POW/3. Only rare exceptions are made to this rule via divine intervention. (The process is not normal DI but does cost POW: one POW per point over current max.)

14. Spirit magic for cultists is limited to the spells listed under the cult. Additional spells may be gained from a friendly Shaman, but these are rare. Note that some temples have Shamen that are receptive to students from the cult and they will teach other spells, but this is even rarer.

15. Reuseable-type magic acquired and used as an Initiate is regained when the person becomes an Acolyte, Lord, or Priest. Reuseable rune magic is usable one per year instead of being one-use.

16. During sacred time, Initiates regain divine magic that is normally reusable.

17. Damage Boost does 1d6 damage extra per 5 intensity.

18. The divine magic spell Heal Body heals all location and total HP damage, including poison, fire, and similar damage but not including acid or damage that completely destroys the location.

19. New spirit spell effects: Befuddle is ended if the victim is attacked. Coordination adds two points of DEX per point. Glamour adds three points of APP per point. Repair permanently mend full HP of objects as long as they have HP/AP remaining. Silence subtracts 15% per point.

20. Shapechanging and Diminish/Enhance SIZ spells effect the equipment the target is carrying. For shapechanging, if the items are less than one ENC then they are subsumed in the transformation and armor (other than 1 AP padding) does damage equal to the AP to total HPs. Armor and equipment temporarily shrinks and enlarges during Diminish/Enhance SIZ spells.

21. Multispell: The sorcery skill Multispell has many confusing rules. Ignor all those and substitute the following. The same or several spells may be cast at one or multiple targets in one round as long as the total manipulations are less than Free INT and less than the Multispell skill. Manipulations from enchantments do not count against the Free INT limit, but still must be covered by the Multispell skill. The time to cast the spells are equal to the MP used by the largest spell and all come off at the same time.

22. Tap spells: a fumbled casting roll caused the Tap spell to affect the caster and not the target. The spell must still overcome the caster's MP (usually 50% chance.) This fact is not known, except occassional rumors among Tap users.

23. Magic Point Matrix Enchant: Same as normal version, but MP storage per POW is different. The normal divine spell version makes 2d6 MP storage per POW. The normal spirit or sorcery version makes 2d4 storage per POW. Note: one God, Enikal, has a special version that provides 2d8 MP storage per POW.

24. Learning Spirit Magic: Non-shamen may learn spirit magic no greater than their POW divided by three (round down.) For example, a person with a POW of 13-15 may learn up to five point spells. Shamen (and high level cultists) can learn spells up to their own POW divided by 2 round up. Note that it is theoretically possible for a shaman to know a spell spirit with a spell they cannot learn.

25. Up to 5 MP for one action in round. Non-ritual, non-ceremonied spells take a maximum of two rounds to cast.

26. Vis: between POW and mana, and it is lost and regained annually. Each sorcerer character gets an amount equal to their POW during sacred time each year. Characters lose any accumulated Vis just before sacred time each year. Possible uses of Vis (each use costs one Vis): raise a magical skill (or spell) by 3% (must be above zero, max once per skill between sacred times, underline the skill), cast a spell for no MP cost, prevent a spell from counting against spell maintenance, increase Free INT by one (one max, duration one spell casting.) Vis is useful by shaman in order to act as if they are level higher than normal for a week on the spirit plane (+5 personal POW, in effect.) Vis can also be used by shaman in shamanic rituals.

27. All enchantments have the user condition of limited to the creator or their familiar, unless and extra point of POW is spent to make the enchantment usable by a broader group. MP Matrices are the only exception in that they are usable by anyone when created, but could have free user conditions put on them at the time of creation.

28. POW gain rolls are from 25. Each time a roll is missed, the referee will notate that and add 20% to the person's chance next time.

29. Free POW check every 6 months.

30. 14. Spells that are being maintained for an over one day duration get free checks (roll at least every month.)

Skills
1. Subsequent attempts by the same person or other people in the same group to Track, Devise, etc. are -20% for each new Attempt. Subsequent attempts by the same person requires and idea roll (INT x 5.)

2. Communication skills are limited to the double lower of lore or language skill. Ex. Human Lore 23, Sartarite 24, Fast Talk 54. Fast Talk would be limited to 46 for human Sartarites.

3. No skill limits on any type of person or occupation

4. No such thing as a High Priest-Lord exists, note that no one is limited in skills and therefore the distinction is moot.

5. All cult obligations must be met unless one is willing to be Excommunicated. Therefore, Initiates in multiple cults will owe time and money to all. Note that unfriendly cults may try to cause the follower to leave the other cult(s).

6. The base chance for an arbelest is 25%, the same as other crossbows.

7. A person can train a number of people equal to their skill divided by 10 (rnd nml) at a time. The time required for each session is equal to the highest skill of the participants.

8. Training someone or using a book with training ability makes each gain worth 3% per training session, normal self-training is 2% per session.

9. Writing a book about training a specific skill takes 10 x skill in hours to write the current skill in a book. A successful write must be made to create the document and read must be made each time to use the book.

10. It takes one week (50 hours) to learn a new sorcery spell up to 5%. A read roll must be successful. Doubling the time to two weeks (100 hours) add half-again to the reader's skill. If the roll is missed, six weeks must pass before another attempt can be made.

11. A book can only be used by one person at a time. A listed % means that up to the number, the book can teach a reader. A person using one of these training manuals must be able to read the language at 50% minimum.

12. The maximum intensity of spells with more than a day duration is limited to Free INT x 5. This does not affect Free INT in any way. See spell maintenance matrix below.

13. It takes two weeks (100 hours) to write a spell from memory into a book or scroll. A successful write roll is also required. Making a spell that is also a training manual required the additonal time as listed in 3. above, requiring an additional write roll.

14. Lost Characteristics: Characteristics can be recovered at the rate of one point per two weeks (100 hours) of practice or one point per season with no extra study.

Combat
1. Special combat techniques: Break, Disarm, Entangle, Standoff, and others. A user must know the technique and have the specific weapon required for the technique. These and others are the type discovered by the Research Martial skill.

Break can be used to break opponent's weapon. A hit must be secured and then a STR vs. weapon AP must be successful. Can only be used with special weapons: swordbreaker, sai, main gauche, and some others.

Disarm can be used to take weapons from an opponent. A hit must be secured and a STR vs. STR must be successful. Can only be used with special weapons: chain and hook, whip, swordbreaker, sai, main gauche, net, and some others.

Entangle can be used to grab a limb to prevent its use. If a hit is secured, the target must make a STR vs. entangling weapon AP to become unentangled. Can also be used to swing across areas using by chain and hook or whip.

Standoff can be used to keep opponent(s) at bay. A successful skill roll must be made and if successful, no opponents may attack the user that round if they have less skill than the user. Cannot be used in consecutive rounds. Counts as two actions.

2. Stun: If a blow causes damage greater than 1/2 hit points, then the target is stunned for one round for every point over 1/2 HPs.

3. Weapon damage rules for special hits:
Slashing weapons roll weapon damage twice with normal STR damage.
Crushing weapons do normal weapon and STR bonus damage plus maximum STR bonus damage.
Impaling weapons do maximum weapon damage plus normal rolled weapon and STR bonus damage.
Criticals ignore armor or do double rolled (normal) damage, whatever has greater effect.
Supercriticals are one-hundreth of skill level and have the effect of a special hit and also a critical that ignores any armor (even critical resistant armor). A person must have at least a 100% chance to even have a 1% chance of Supercriticaling.
Hypercriticals are 1/400th of skill and the effect is whatever is desired.A person must have at least a 400% chance to even have a 1% chance of Hypercriticaling.

4. Attack effects are escalated in certain situations. If the target is Befuddled, unconscious, unaware, or surrendering (applies also to some Demoralized foes) the level of success goes up. Fumbles remain the same, but misses become normal hits, a normal becomes a special, a special becomes a critical, and a critical becomes a supercritical. Note: critical resulting from escalation do not qualify for the free check for a critical.

5. New weapon effects: rapiers impaling do 3d6+3 damage plus STR bonus and naginatas do not impale (they slash).

6. Armor Layering: no armor can be worn underneath another except for padding (no additional ENC, +1 AP.)

7. Armor Customizing: armor can be customized for a particular individual and their fighting style. All customizing weighs nothing extra, but use clothing weight to determine cost. Normal customizing adds 1 AP and costs 100 per ENC. Iron customizing adds 2 AP and costs 500 per ENC. Steel customizing adds 4 AP and costs 1000 per ENC.

8. Casting spells
Casting heal is automatic
When casting spells on self, no need to overcome magical defenses
This includes allied spirits, bound magic spirits, etc. all are inside.

9. Actions
A combat round lasts 10 seconds. In it, a character may perform two "actions". Sometimes these actions are sequential (e.g., casting two spells); sometimes they are intermingled (e.g. attacking and parrying). The following are actions:
* Attack
* Parry
* Dodge
* Throw or Fire a missile
* Cast a spell, as long as total mp spent this round is <= 4
* Move: move x 1/2 (15m/action)
* drawing a weapon on one's back, or readying a shield.
* Attacking in Spirit Combat
* Defending in Spirit Combat (otherwise defense halved)
* Look around carefully (use Scan at full)
The following take two actions :
* All-out Attack. Last SR: +3 damage or Attack x 1.5
* Casting a spell requiring over 4 mps
* Running: move x 2 (60m/round, unencumbered.)
Costs double fatigue to run. Also roll DEX x 5 - ENC or fall.
In addition, one "minor action" is permitted free. These include :
* drawing a belt weapon;
* switching hands with a weapon;
* loading a bow or sling;
* moving MV / 4 meters;
* backing up a pace or two;
* opening a door;
* scanning at half skill.

10. Statements of intent
No conditional statements of intent
All statements of intent by default include: "I heal myself"
Aborts still allowed
Short and specific statements are the only ones allowed to avoid a Reserve statement
Reserve Statement of Intent: Parry or Dodge, Conditional Heal, Observe Action

11. Attacks and Parrys
* Option 1: For every multiple of 100%, a player can split their skill to at least 100% and others. Only one of the multiples can be less than 100%. Example a 325% Attack could split to 3 x 100 and 1 x 25, etc.
* Option 2: Skill over 100 can be used to reduce the enemy's chance of success, attack or parry. This means that against tough opponents, players will need to say how much they hit by.
* Option 3: Combination of the two. Example a 325 Attack could be split to 2 x 100 and a 125, the 125 reducing the enemy's chance to parry by 25%.

12. ENC Rules
ENC rules are based on percentage of personal ENC used. There are two types of fatigue loss, long and short term. Compare current fatigue to total fatigue to detemine starting fatigue level.

Fatigue Table

Lvl	Amount	Effect
1	< 25%	+5% on all skills
2	< 50%	None
3	< 75%	Move -2
4	< 100%	Move -4, -5% on all skills, +1 to all rolls
5	< 125%	Move -6, -10% on all skills, +2 to all rolls
6	< 150%	Move -10, -20% on all skills, +3 to all rolls
7	< 175%	Move -15, -30% on all skills, +4 to all rolls
8	< 200%	Move -20, -50% on all skills, +5 to all rolls
9	< 225%	Move -25, -75% on all skills, +6 to all rolls
10	< 250%	Move -30, -100% on all skills, +7 to all rolls

Move is based on move per round
If move is reduced to zero or negative, Move = 3m/action
Movement loss also applies to one's mount
Additions to rolls increases chance to fumble

13. Fatigue Rules
Long Term Fatigue Losses
Increase one level
* Three hours of marching
* Six hours of riding
* Location goes double negative
* Total HP goes to negative
* No food for 3 days
* No water for 12 hours
Decrease one level
* Two hours of sleep
Short Term Fatigue Losses
Increase one level
* Every four rounds of normal action
* Location HP goes to zero or less
* Total HP goes to one or less
Decrease one level
* No action at all for a round
No change
* One action per round instead of two
* Unconsious

14. Damage and Death
* If a non-chest or abdomen takes 2 x location HP with one blow, it is severed if hit with a slashing weapon, crushed if hit with a blunt weapon. Impaling and crushing weapons have no extra effect.
* Chest and abdomen require 3 x location HP in one blow for the same effect.
* Going double negative in a vital does not kill someone.
* Death occurs at double negative Total HP.
* Each round at least one location is still negative from the round before, Total HP decrease by one.
* One cannot heal or first aid oneself if negative in head, chest, or abdomen.
* Impales must do hp damage > location to be stuck
* No actions are permitted when one is at zero or less Total HP, exception: successful CON x 1

Hit Point Chart

Total HP	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10
Leg	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	3	4
ABD	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	3	4
CH	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	4	4	4
Arm	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	3
Head	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	3	4

Total HP	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Leg	4	4	5	5	5	6	6	6	7	7
ABD	4	4	5	5	5	6	6	6	7	7
CH	5	5	6	6	6	7	7	8	8	8
Arm	3	3	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5
Head	4	4	5	5	5	6	6	6	7	7

Total HP	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Leg	7	8	8	8	9	9	9	10	10	10
ABD	7	8	8	8	9	9	9	10	10	10
CH	9	9	10	10	10	11	11	12	12	12
Arm	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	7	8	8
Head	7	8	8	8	9	9	9	10	10	10

Total HP	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40
Leg	11	11	11	12	12	12	13	13	13	14
ABD	11	11	11	12	12	12	13	13	13	14
CH	13	13	14	14	14	15	15	16	16	16
Arm	8	8	9	9	9	9	10	10	10	10
Head	11	11	11	12	12	12	13	13	13	14