House Rules & Errata

The following house rules and errata are used within Steel Horizons. These rules supersede the rules in the books, and are intended to reinforce the setting, assist with online play, and make things easier for both players and storytellers.

Approved Book List

Setting Rules

We are not using the following setting rules:

• SWADE: Arcane Devices
• Sprawlrunners: Astral Perception, Astral Space, Drain/Backlash^†, Logistics Points, Contacts, Hacking^††
• Street Wolves: Conviction, Hacking^††, Love & Romance, Professions, Skill Specializations, Skill: Demolitions, Skill: Tradecraft, Vapor

^†Drain/Backlash: See SWADE: Core - Backlash p. 151.
^††Hacking: See Hacking.

Optional Rules

We are using the following optional rules.

Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition

• No Power Points: Spells do not cost power points to activate, but instead have a penalty. See below under Custom Rules.
• Fast Healing: Natural healing rolls are once per day instead of once per week.
• More Skill Points: As a modern setting, you get 15 skill points at character creation instead of 12.
• Wound Cap: Characters can never suffer more than 4 wounds in a single hit, nor need to soak more.
• Gritty Damage: Missions on the Nightmare difficulty may use the Gritty Damage rule.
• Starting Funds: All new characters start with 750 credits in starting funds.

Sprawlrunners

• Dumpshock: You get fatigue from being ejected from cyberspace or vehicles/drones.
• Hacking: See Hacking.
• Implant Points: Cybernetics use Implant Points instead of Strain.
• Lifestyle: See the Lifestyle article for more information.

Lifestyle: Players start with a Moderate Lifestyle with an equivalent RealID or Fake ID of the appropriate rank. Buying Edges or Hindrances can change this.

Street Wolves

• Drive: The struggle against the worst in the world.
• Relationships: See Missions
• Leave: See Downtime Guide

Custom Rules

The following custom rules are in addition to the listed rules. Custom Rules override core or optional rules.

Discord Initiative

Because we're not sitting around a table and we're in multiple time zones and countries with many real life distractions, it takes an enormous amount of time and energy to handle initiative in the normal fashion. To make things smoother, initiative is changed to the following:

• At the beginning of the round, the storyteller will draw cards for each player and tell them what their initiative is.
• If a player has a mechanic that lets them pull multiple cards, they will let the ST know which card they choose with their action.
• Players choose their action.
• Once all players have stated their action, the storyteller will resolve the round.
• Any wounds or other effects are rolled immediately and apply to the upcoming round.
• If an effect says it ends at the end of your next turn, it resolves at the end of the round it is applied on.
• A player may declare a "Hold" action prior to the storyteller resolving the round to attempt to interrupt one of the storyteller's resolved actions.
• If the player does not wish to take their action, they may declare when they are going the next round, and before the next round starts.

Example

Dramatic Tasks

Action cards can be a bit unwieldy for Dramatic Tasks in an online game. To make things a little bit more streamlined, a Complication (as per page 123 in SWADE) occurs when a 1 is rolled on a Wild Die. When this happens, you are at a -2 on your roll, and failing the task can cause the Dramatic task to fail catastrophically at the storyteller's discretion. As long as it is not a Critical Failure, a Chip can be spent to reroll both dice.

Drones

The range of a Remote Control Deck in Sprawlrunners is listed at 5km. While this works for that setting, drones in our setting have a more limited range. The storyteller is the final arbiter for how much interference there is, and can adjust the interference for story purposes.

• No interference (Rural, line of sight): 5km
• Mild Interference (Suburban): 1km
• Moderate interference (Urban): 100m or 40"
• Heavy Interference (In a building): 20m or 5 floors or 8"

Equipment

Equipment and prices are inconsistent between our three core books. For this campaign, please use this equipment list.

Fear

Use the Fear Table from Street Wolves, not Savage Worlds. On a result of 20+, you do not lose Relationship points.

No Power Points

We've found that the No Power Points rule, as written, makes casting spells very difficult for Novice characters, and have modified the calculation for the penalty based on Power Point cost. The New Power Point penalty formula is adjusted to

1/2 Power Point Cost (Round Down) , minimum of 0.

Power Points	Cost
1	0
2	1
3	1
4	2
5	2
6	3
7	3
8	4
9	4
10	5

  Example:

Joe is casting Bolt. For 1 power point, he could cast the spell with 0 penalty. If Joe adds a +2 modifier for increased damage, the Casting Penalty is now 1.

Natalie is casting Protection. For 1 power point, she could cast the spell on herself with 0 penalty. She can add one other person for free, but 2 people would have a Casting Penalty of 1.

Oswald is casting Havoc for 2 Power Points. He can cast the spell for 1 penalty, but making it Strong (+1) with a Large Blast Area (+1) would have a Casting Penalty of 2.

Wounds and Incapacitation

The Injury Table has been modified:

• Rolling a 2 on the Injury Table is the same as rolling a 12.
• Rolling a 3-4 results in the One Arm Hindrance.

Astral Space and Spirits

In Sprawlrunners, Mages, Shaman, and some Chi Adepts have the ability to see into Astral Space, where Spirits exist in their natural form. They also have Astral Perception that allows them to look into this Astral Space to read auras, detect magical signatures, perceive the magical skill of a target, or find the location of cyberware.
  In Steel Horizons, there are no alternate dimensions, including Astral Space. All Spirits and magical effects exist fully in the natural world. Astral Perception does not exist, and while some Spirits and magical effects may be invisible to the casual observer, a magic user can detect them with powers such as Detect/Conceal Arcana and Object Reading, or skills such as Healing and Notice.
  Spirits are created as an extra that has been summoned with the Summon Ally power as it is presented in Sprawlrunners with a few notable changes.

• Magic users cannot see spirits before they have been summoned.
• Spirits are creatures of magic drawn from the natural world.
• Spirits cannot move between Astral Space and the physical world.
• When a Spirit is summoned, it is created in the physical world.
• No spirit has the Extraplanar attribute.
• No spirit has the Astral Perception attribute.
• You may change the trappings or what kind of a spirit it is, but not the mechanics.
• For example, a Lesser Fire Spirit may be changed into a Lesser Electricity Spirit or a Lesser Ice Spirit, but the powers and abilities remain the same.

For more information on Spirits, see The Nature of Spirits.

Character Creation

Character creation follows the rules set forth in the Sprawlrunners, Street Wolves, and Core books.

Ancestries

We are using the Ancestries from Sprawlrunners, but have modified the flavor text. See Ancestries for more information.

Hindrances

Hindrances may come from any approved books.

Removed Hindrances

• SWADE: Bloodthirsty, Doubting Thomas, Heroic, Mean, Obese, Young
• Sprawlrunners: Elf Poser / Orc Poser
• Street Wolves: Network of Shadows Conditioning, Hard to Love, Overbearing Relationship, Unlucky in Love, Vapor Poisoned, High Score Royalty

Changed Hindrances

Hindrance	Location	Change
Code of Honor (Minor)	SWADE	This is a minor Hindrance. Players should work with their storyteller to come up with what they consider their Code of Honor to be.
Greedy	SWADE	Only the minor version of this Hindrance may be chosen.
Jealous	SWADE	Only the minor version of this Hindrance may be chosen.
Vengeful	SWADE	Only the minor version of this Hindrance may be chosen. This Hindrance may not be used versus players.
Computer Illiterate	Street Wolves	Use the Sprawlrunners version of this Hindrance.
Obligation	SWADE	Minor: -1 Downtime. Major: -2 Downtimes. See the Downtime Guide.
Outsider	SWADE	Minor only. At discretion of background.
Rookie	Street Wolves	Replace Tradecraft with Survival.
Ruthless	SWADE	Minor only
N00b	Street Wolves	The nOOb is horrible at every electronic skill they try. A nOOb’s first quarter in an arcade lasts only seconds, they can barely turn on an Atari. The nOOb receives a -2 penalty to Common Knowledge or Smarts checks involving computers and other every day tech

Edges

Edges may come from any approved books.

Removed Edges

• SWADE^†: Artificer, Channeling, Extra Effort, Gadgeteer, Linguist, Mentalist, Power Points, Power Surge, Rapid Recharge, Improved Rapid Recharge, Soul Drain, Wizard
• Sprawlrunners^††: Good Comrades, Flexible Signature, Masking, Cyberspace Ninja, Cyberspace Warrior, False Alarm, Overclocker, Customizer, Parallel Thinking, Rich, Filthy Rich
• Street Wolves: Timberwolf Veteran, Turncoat, Amped, Day Warrior, Mutated, Arcane Background (Vapor Enhanced)

^†Many of the SWADE Power Edges depend upon Power Points to work, and are not compatible with No Power Points rule.
^††Many of the Cyberspace Edges are part of the Slow Burn Hacking rules, and are not compatible with Fast Lane hacking.
 

Changed Edges

Edge	Location	Change
Arcane Background (All)	SWADE	Use the Sprawlrunners version of this Edge.
Connections	SWADE	Connections can be purchased once for each Relationship. You get a free 1 point favor per mission, OR -1 to the cost of a more expensive favor per mission.
Disarm Expert	Street Wolves	Weapons with the Disarm feature are not required.
Explosive Improviser	Street Wolves	Remove Demolitions skill requirement and replace it with the McGuyver Edge.
Face in the Crowd	Street Wolves	Remove Tradecraft skill requirement.
Fast Healer	SWADE	Only gives +2 to Vigor rolls for natural healing due to Fast Healing setting rule.

Cyberware and Magic

As per Sprawlrunners p.21 and p.24, and due to the interaction between LOStech and magic in the setting, the Implanted, Chromed, Man and Machine, and More Machine than Man edges reduce your ability to cast magic or use chi powers. For every Edge used to gain implant points, Mages and Shamans suffer a -1 to Spellcasting rolls, and Adepts lose 2 power points. If the penalty sums up to -3 or more, or an Adept's points reach 0 or less, the magic user loses their Arcane Background permanently.

Powers

Powers and trappings may come from all approved books.

Removed Powers

• SWADE: Banish, Drain Power Points, Resurrection

Banish is removed because there are no alternate dimensions.
Drain Power Points is removed because of the No Power Points rule.
Resurrection removed because death is (mostly) permanent. See Benefits & Rewards

Changed Powers

Power	Location	Change
Shape Change	SWADE	Must be a mundane animal. Cannot gain edges of the animal. Cannot be a Horror or Spirit "Common Powers" are the Special Abilities of the animal.

Skills and Traits

Skills are used to perform actions in Savage Worlds, and our setting uses a modified list of skills.

Added Skills

• Street Wolves: Animal Handling (Smarts)

Removed Skills

• SWADE: Boating, Faith, Focus^†, Psionics, Weird Science
• Street Wolves: Tradecraft, Demolitions

^†Focus is not used by players, but may sometimes be used by NPCs. Treat as Spellcasting using the Spirit attribute.

Changed Skills

Skill	Location	Change
Languages	SWADE	The languages skill is used to represent knowledge of Ancient languages, and not the one that's used modernly in Olympia. This does not need to be purchased for each Ancient language.†
Piloting	SWADE	This skill is used for watercraft as well as aircraft.

^†Sign language is not considered an Ancient language and may be learned as part of your background if appropriate or in game through downtimes.

Experience Points and Progression

Advances	Rank	Adv. Cost Per
0-3	Novice	5xp
4-7	Seasoned	10xp
8-11	Veteran	15xp
12-15	Heroic	20xp
16+	Legendary	25xp

Experience Systems

Characters earn experience from actively playing in missions run by a member of our staff, not just by role playing. Once a character has earned enough experience, their player may purchase an "Advance", which is a "level up" point for the character. Only the character active in that mission earns the Experience (it cannot be transferred to another character), and a player may only have one character active in a mission.
  For each mission, you have the following opportunities to earn experience, each of which earns one experience point.

• Activity: Active participation during most of the mission
• Hindrances: Actively leaning into and playing your hindrances
• Discovery: Characters discovered some element of ancient history, LOStech, mysteries, setting information, plot arc clue, etc.
• Success: Characters completed the task without undue complications.
• Danger: The characters survived against higher than usual risks (powerful antagonists, difficult mechanics, etc). This is noted when the plot is announced.

Experience is capped at 5 experience per month per character. While characters will always earn the automatic point for activity, they should only expect to earn 2-3 points, and not all 5 points, in a single mission.

Character Doom, Demise, and Death

Should a character critically fail their Incapacitation roll ends with a result per RAW that results in the character's death, that character may “burn” one advance in order to remain alive, albeit with grievous injury.
  This means that the next advance the character would earn is locked to ‘healing’ from the catastrophic damage and does not count for advancement in Rank nor can the character spend the Advance as normal. This karmic debt has no mechanical effect besides eating the next advance, although it can absolutely be used as character motivations for long term wounds, losing a limb and needing it replaced by cyberware, etc.
  Once they have paid off their karmic debt, they may earn experience and advances per normal.
  Should a character already in karmic debt critically fail their incapacitation test, they will die - they’ve pushed their luck too far for the last time.