Rulings/Awakened

Banned Awakened Content

Banned Qualities

Positive Qualities

• Apt Pupil (Forbidden Arcana, Page 32)
• Archivist (Forbidden Arcana, Page 32)
• Blood Crystal qualities (Forbidden Arcana, Page 132) are restricted to NPCs only
• Elemental Focus (Hard Targets, Page 191)
• Illusionist (Forbidden Arcana, Page 37)
• Puppet Master (Forbidden Arcana, Page 39)
• Stalwart Ally (Forbidden Arcana, Page 42)

Negative Qualities

• Wildcard Chimera (Dark Terrors, Page 163-164)

Banned Spells

Everything involving Blood, Bug, and Toxic Magic is restricted to NPCs.

The following spells are banned.

• Calling
• Convert Blood to Ichor
• Convince (Page 189, Stolen Souls)
• Dark Ally
• Growth (Page 49, Forbidden Arcana)
• Inflict Disease
• Multiply Food (Page 50, Forbidden Arcana)
• Rot
• Pollution and Radiation spell, adept powers, etc.
• Shape [Material] (Page 118, Street Grimoire)
• Turn to Goo
• Petrify
• False Impression
• Manascape

Banned Alchemical Preps

• Lightning Blade (Page 199, Forbidden Arcana)

Banned Adept Powers for player characters

• Plague Cloud
• Pollution and Radiation spell, adept powers, etc.

Banned Mentor Spirits for player characters

• Planar Entity
• Doom
• Pollution
• Disease
• Mutation

Banned Traditions

• Necro Magic (Page 82, Forbidden Arcana)

• Draconic Tradition (Page 76, Forbidden Arcana) - Draconic Tradition is only permitted for the use by Drakes, which makes it de facto banned on the ShadowHaven.

• Tarot (Page 91, Forbidden Arcana)

• Hybrid Traditions (Page 101, Forbidden Arcana)

• All Custom Traditions

Banned Metamagics

• Paradigm Shift: Insect Shaman (Page 43, Forbidden Arcana)

• Paradigm Shift: Toxic (Page 44, Forbidden Arcana)

• Spirit Expansion: Shedim (Page 44, Forbidden Arcana)

• Predator Feast (Page 131, Forbidden Arcana)

• Soul Tether (Page 131, Forbidden Arcana)

• Spiritual Sacrifice (Page 131, Forbidden Arcana)

• Tarot Summoning (Page 45, Forbidden Arcana)

• Quickening (Page 326, Core Rulebook)

• Sacrifice (Page 90, Street Grimoire)

Banned Arts

• Geomancy (Page 143, Street Grimoire)

Banned Mechanics

• Fettering (Page 192, Street Grimoire)
• Updated Raw Reagents (pg. 188, Forbidden Arcana)
• Refined Reagents Uses (pg. 188, Forbidden Arcana)
  • Street Grimoire uses still allowed
• Radical Reagent Uses (pg. 188, Forbidden Arcana)
  • Street Grimoire uses still allowed
• Spirit Leashing (Page 182, Forbidden Arcana)

Altered Awakened Content and Rulings

Spells

• Numinous Perception is effective against sustained spells.
• Drain and damage resistance tests are not penalized by sustaining penalties.
• each fetish is limited to a single spell. You must have a separate fetish for each limited spell.
• Any PCs, as well as any non-Grunt NPCs the GM deems fit, shall be excepted from the normal penalty to resist ongoing Mental Manipulation spells. All grunts are affected.
• You cannot teamwork test Spellcasting.
• Casting an indirect, touch range combat spell is a touch Unarmed attack (receiving the usual +2 dice pool bonus as well as succeeding on a tie) versus normal melee defense, followed by a Spellcasting + Magic test as appropriate for the spell as part of the same action. There is no defense test against the Spellcasting test, but you still receive normal damage resistance (soak) against the spell. Casting a touch spell of any other category is a touch Unarmed attack in the same fashion, followed by the normal Spellcasting + Magic test versus the spell's appropriate resistance roll. Typically, a touch Unarmed attack is a complex action and thus the whole spellcasting is a complex action in the above cases. In cases where the GM has ruled that you already have contact, you may recklessly cast if you desire, but remember that you can only make one offensive action per action phase without splitting your pool through the Multiple Attacks free action.
• Touch spells can only be delivered via a fully rewound grapple hand.
• Only Spellcasting and Ritual Spellcasting can make use of Fetishes and Limited Spells.

Counterspelling

• Counterspelling will turn Indirect AOE spells into an Opposed Threshold 3 test against the number of counterspelling dice spent. In effect, you roll your counterspelling dice against the spellcasting test, with each of your hits reducing their hits by one. This will reduce their damage, introduce the potential to scatter where it may not have existed before, and if you cause them to get zero hits, the spell will not go off at all, though they will still suffer the drain.

Direct Elemental Spells

• While Direct spells ignore armor for the purposes of how they deal damage, the elemental effects still suffer the full resistance of armor.

Looking Glass

• The Looking Glass spell permits UV light through just the same as regular light, and thus sunlight passing through would trigger Sunlight allergies.
• Laser weapons are capable of firing through Looking Glass-affected material. Incidentally, this is why Firewatch uses lasers.
• The looking glass spell affects things traditionally considered light, so Visible, Infrared, and Ultraviolet light.

Levitate

• When casting Levitate, one treats it as a full stop. That is to say, they immediately take the damage of any distance they have already fallen, if appropriate. You may choose to cast it at any point during the falling distance you are passing through for that turn. In no case will you take damage from falling that exceeds 200 DV, matching with falling normally (as the most you can fall in a combat turn is 200 meters. (This is not to be exploited)
• Whether the frame of reference of Levitate on a given target is the Gaiasphere or the vehicle they are in is subject to game master discretion. This does not have to be consistent at a table, however, if asked, they must answer honestly,
• "Dropping a Fiat on someone's head is subject to GM Fiat."

Mindlink/Net

• For the purposes of Mindlink and Mindnet, only metahumans and metasapients (including Shapeshifters) may both be considered willing and be considered subjects.

Manabind/Net

• Mana Bind and Mana Net are defended against by Willpower + Charisma for the initial defense. This is an assumption made from the text and thus is an extended interpretation of the rules, rather than strict RAW.

Spell Blades

• When using Manablade on the astral, the attack roll is Astral Combat + Willpower [Force]. The base DV is Force. As with all astral combat, you may choose to do physical or stun.
• You can utilize all martial arts that would be legal with a reach 1 blades weapon with Powerblade. You can utilize only those martial arts explicitly permitted by your GM with manablade.

[Sense] Cryptesthesia

• [Sense] Cryptesthesia works only on eyeware and earware that do not grant bonus dice and do not have a rating.

Shapechange and Critter Form

• The Shapechange and Critter Form spells use the current Body score, including all augmentations to it. You can only become a mundane animal, not a paracritter or a technocritter.
• The Shapechange and Critter Form spells subsume ware, but do not eject it. You cannot generally benefit from ware while under the effects of Shapechange or Critter Form, but it remains a part of you for when the spell ends.

Augury and Sortilege

• Adepts and Mystic Adepts without the Magician's Way, as well as any Aspected Conjurers or Aspected Enchanters may still use the Augury and Sortilege ritual, completing the ritual with a straight Magic check (rolling their Magic attribute only in d6) instead of Ritual Spellcasting + Magic, and interpreting the answer to the Question with an Arcana + Logic check.
• Mystic Adepts who are not locked out of Sorcery and who are following the Magician's Way, and any Magician or Aspected Sorcerer, will use Ritual Spellcasting to complete the ritual as per the usual rules.
• If a character who does not have Ritual Spellcasting is no longer following Oracle, they may not make use of these rules in order to utilize Augury and Sortilege. They are only available to those who stick with Oracle's Gifts.

Spell Targeting

• Environmental modifiers affect all spells targeted through LoS.

Fix

• The Fix spell functions in a similar manner to the Heal spell, but for objects. The stipulation that an object can only be affected by Fix once applies to any one source of damage; in other words, each time the object is damaged, there is a new "wound" that may be "healed" with the Fix spell. Per our houserule, a repair job to heal all remaining boxes of damage on a vehicle is 5% of the vehicle's cost; this cost does not change, regardless of how many boxes are left.

Alchemy

• Only the person who created a preparation or compound may activate it.
• A lynchpin requires an item with no extant aura. As a result, cyberlimb components (even those paid for with capacity), which possess the aura of the person they are installed in, do not qualify to become lynchpins.
• Imbued item effects do not require a focus to be active and are not shut down by background counts.
• Magical compounds may be used by mundanes.
• The mask is visible when you make an alchemical preparation. It's also visible in the physical vicinity of the effect for the duration of the effect. The enchanter's mask does not appear on their person when the prep is activated, however. Per our current ruling on mentor's mask and sustained spells, spells sustained may be detected with Numinous Perception if the sorcerer who cast them has a mentor's mask. This occurs in the vicinity of the target on which the spell is sustained, as this is where the magic effect happens.

Summoning and Spirits

• Watchers, homunculi and spirits shall have a minimum attribute at summoning or creation of 1 in each attribute they possess.

Edge

The summoner/creator may use their own edge for their spirits and other creation (watchers etc). If desired, they may even burn edge for their sprites.

Possession and Channeling

• Cyberlimbs are considered active for the purposes of Possession.
• Spirits utilizing the Possession power may only move in the ways that their host entity could ordinarily move.
• The alteration to physical stats by Channeling and Possession are limited by the augmented max of +4.
• Channeling may only be used on spirits that are being summoned as part of the Channeling.
• When using the Great Form Possession metamagic, you are not channeling the spirit - you are summoning it and it is possessing you. It does require Channeling as a prerequisite, but that does not make the possession into channeling.
• Traditions other than Vodou may use Great Form Possession, even if they don't have normal access to Loa/Orisha.
• As all the Channeling entry has to say on the matter is that the magician can use the powers of the spirit for the cost of a service, using powers that are ordinarily passive will cost a single service, but no action, to take effect for an entire combat turn.

Blind People and Spirits

• A blind individual may or may not be able to see a spirit or mage who is Manifesting. It likely depends on the source of their blindness, and whether or not they have a visual cortex. However, they would still be capable in any case of detecting them through other means, such as sound. Cybereyes can see them as usual.

Spirit Index

• Gaining spirit index due to disrupting a spirit will typically only trigger for the person who delivers the final blow, however, at a GM's discretion, they may award it to other integral combatants.

Spell Sustaining

• In order to pass off a spell to a spirit to be sustained, the spirit must be within line of sight and closer than Remote Service range. In order to continue sustaining a spell of any variety on their summoner or any other target, they must remain closer than Remote Service range of that target, though line of sight is not an ongoing requirement.

Aid Alchemy/Sorcery

• Aid Alchemy/Sorcery requires the spirit to be on the same plane as the summoner, closer than remote service range and within LOS.

Ally Spirits

• Ally spirits are distinct from ordinary spirits and may not be made Great Form. Ally spirits are bound and thus may not be channeled.
• An ally spirit may not be both a ritual participant and support the ritual via Aid Sorcery. While Aid Sorcery does not have an action cost per se, it is still an act other than Ritual Spellcasting.

Movement

• The Movement Power shall add Force to or subtract Force from the Agility or Speed attributes for the sole purposes of determining movement rate, rather than serving as a multiplier or divisor. The minimum Agility or Speed score shall be 0, but even with a score of 0 for determining movement rate, a character or vehicle shall be able to move at a walking rate of 1 meter and a running rate of 2 meters. Additionally, the clause about ""only functioning in terrain the creature controls"" shall be stricken, allowing it to function without having to juggle interpretations of what your spirit controls.

Adepts

• You make apply a spec for "Ritual Casting" to skills that work with adept rituals.

Elemental Body

• The Elemental Body adept power replaces your unarmed DV, rather than adding to it.
• The damage from the Elemental Body will apply to someone grappling you, and to you grappling someone, but not to both.

Supernatural Prowess

• Supernatural Prowess does apply strictly to actions, and thus does not affect reflexive tests such as damage resistance or defense.

Barrage

• The Barrage enhancement for adepts will not function with grenades or other explosives

Adepts and Mentor's Masks

• For adepts who do not have a mentor's mask, their powers, with the sole exceptions of Adept Spell and Adept Accident, do not trigger Numinous Perception. Note that this does not necessarily mean that they are not obvious either during or immediately after their effects.
• Adept Spell triggers Numinous Perception as usual for Spellcasting.
• Adept Accident triggers Numinous Perception at a threshold of 6-Adept's MAG score.
• For adepts who do have a mentor's mask, utilize the lowest threshold applicable per RAW.

Nerve Strike

• Nerve Strike is not a touch attack and may be not be substituted, included with, or otherwise altered by a touch attack or the touch-only attack rules. You do still contact your opponent in the same fashion as any other unarmed attack.
• Nerve strike applies its penalty evenly to all limbs and the body. Apply the malus to each of your five "limbs" and then choose the action you wish to perform. Compute the appropriate average for the action being used. If your new average is greater than zero perform the action using the adjusted values, if the average is 0 or less you are unable to take that action. Not that this may mean that in some cases portions of your mody may be paralized while others are not. Assume that you are compensating for your bad limb(s) with the others involved. Under no circumstance will Nerve Strike apply to specific limbs only.

Heightened Concern

• Heightened Concern allows one to take a Complex action to ignore a single penalty from the table from p. 176, CRB, on a single future, near-concurrent action, assuming that penalty does not exceed half their Magic score. Negating any penalties not on this table requires explicit GM approval.

Social Powers and the Matrix

• Cool Resolve, Authoritative Tone and Improved Ability oon social skills shall apply to commlink/trideo calls, but shall not apply to written, typed, recorded or otherwise non-real-time tests against a target.

Magic Sense

Treat the Magic Sense adept power as a Complex action activatable power, deactivated with a Free Action. When activated, it behaves equivalently to a sustained spell, but does not impose a -2 sustaining penalty. Roll Spellcasting and Magic as normal upon activation, with the GM rolling the opposing tests as they come up. You may default on this test. You may be punished for repeatable deactivating and re-activating this power in order to attain a higher number of successes, please don't do this.

Elemental Weapon

• Elemental weapon (water) power will function as follows. The weapon will have no effect on condition monitors. The DV will substitute for Force, the area around the target within DV/2 meters becomes slippery for 10 minutes. Unshielded targets have to make their test. What constitutes an unshielded device is subject to GM fiat.

Smashing Blow

The smashing blow power can apply to attacks made with Spurs. The base DV for smashing blow is the DV of the attack not including net hits.

Body Sculpt

• The activation time of this power is 1 minute, meaning you have to focus on using the power for 1 minute before it begins to take effect. Once the activation time has passed, the changes will begin to take shape, finishing after 1 hour has passed.

Traditions

Druids

• Druidic Traditionalists are the only people who can create Sacred Circles at this time.

Islamic Alchemist

• The Islamic Alchemist, when required to take Quickening, instead gains no metamagic for that initiation. When required to take Anchoring, they instead gain no metamagic for that initiation. This sounds awful, but is de facto RAW, since they, as you say, cannot use Spellcasting or Ritual Spellcasting.

Mentor Spirits

Spider (alt)

• Alternate Spider, as listed on FA 100 will be given one rank of Hang Time (SG 171) and one rank of Spirit Claw (SG 174), instead of the listed benefits.

Oracle

• Adepts, Magicians, Aspected Magicians, and Mysads following Oracle both may and must take the Divination art and the Augury and Sortilege ritual for the next initiation if they do not already possess it.

Metamagics

Ally Spirit Summoning

• In order to summon an ally spirit, you must have a formula (which can be made by rolling out Arcana or by a run to go on a metaplanar quest for it.) You must then perform the ritual, with a force equal to the force of the ally you are trying to summon. Lacking a timespan, assume it takes 1 hour per point of force. After you successfully complete the ritual, you must summon the spirit, rolling the normal rolls for such. Spirit Whisperer does not come into play, for sanity's sake. Then, finally, you must bind the spirit (or give up and try again another day.)
• It is not possible to substitute the final part of getting an ally spirit (conjuring and binding the ally spirit. PG 201 SG) to instead undertake a metaplaner quest (initiation run).
• In order to alter a spirit, you must acquire the new formula or alter the old one, as detailed in the book. Then, you must perform the Ritual Change at the force of the ally spirit (the desired force, if upgrading it.) You must then bind the spirit again, though you do not have to summon it. Upon successful completion, you may spend the karma to induce any changes you designed into the formula. If you fail, you suffer drain and lose the resources expended, but do not lost the karma you would have spent and may try again.
• If your spirit's loyalty minus your Astral Reputation is less than 2, it will try to break free as described under "Losing an Ally", whenever it is presented with a chance.

Harmonious Defense

• Harmonious Defense forces one to be perceiving astrally and trumps Dual-Natured Defender - thus, they cannot both be active at the same time.
• A bound astral perception QI focus is sufficient to qualify for Harmonious Defense.

Critter Powers

• Critter powers can be perceived with numinous perception, in the same manner as magic spells. The force is equal to the magic of the originating critter. In the absence of a magic score or effective magic score, utilize essence instead.

Immunity to Normal Weapons

• Immunity to Normal Weapons will not apply to Biofeedback damage.
• Immunity to Normal Weapons no longer counts as hardened armor, merely regular armor, against melee weapons or unarmed attacks.

Paralyzing Howl

• A select sound filter set up to filter out a Paralyzing Howl provides bonus dice equal to the rating of the select sound filter on your defense test against the power. It does not provide immunity.
• Character who cannot hear are automatically immune to Paralyzing Howl.

Movement

• For the purposes of the Movement Power, ignore the line about "domain" when used by a metahuman.

Regeneration

• Biofeedback, being damage directly to the brainpan, cannot be healed by regeneration.

Energy Aura

• The AP of an Energy Aura augmented attack replaces any existing AP

Qualities

Dedicated Qualities and Mysads

• Mysads must select sorcery as as an available skill group to take dedicated conjurer.
• Mysads must select conjuring as an available skill group to take dedicated spellslinger.

Withness my Hate

• Witness My Hate will be permissible for mystic adepts with or without the Magician's Way.

Death Dealer

• Mystic Adepts receive both benefits of Death Dealer, however, they may only purchase the first rank.

Null Wizard

• Null Wizards shall be prohibited from using the Summoning skill.

Other

• The "Respect" imbuement shall only apply to social penalties listed on the table on page 140, CRB.

Burned Out

• You are completely burned out when you have 0 current magic post gen. Temporary magic reductions do not count for this.

Auras and Signatures

• Items worn by an individual are almost always considered to be within their aura and are able to be perceived through when using astral perception.
• Biofiber pockets are a detectible aura, however, they generally do not extend outside of the clothing they are within unless someone sticks their head into your pants. This means they are pretty easy to not detect. It will, however, still mask foci within from being seen from outside them. Protection, unless someone is sticking their head into your pants.
• Astral signatures may not be described to another mage. Alas, the intricacies of a sixth sense are even trickier than, say, describing the color red to someone. This holds equally true to summoned spirits through the Spirit-Summoner link (a very low-bandwidth link, incidentally), making the Quicksilver Camera the only way to spread astral signatures around.

Astral Actions

• Assensing + Intuition [Astral] against Sneaking + Agility [Physical] (if the sneaker is dual-natured or only on the meat) or Sneaking + Logic [Astral] (if the sneaker is wholly astral) is the test for stealth on the astral.
• A creature with the Natural Weapons critter power may use them against astral targets per their rules whenever they are dual natured from any source. They do not need to be permanently dual natured.

Foci

• You cannot apply a weapon focus to yourself. While a focus has your signature, it does not have your aura. Therefore, artificing foci yourself does not get around the previous restrictions on valid foci. Bioware, similarly, cannot be foci.
• All non-weapon foci may be made into tattoos via tattoo magic. Note that doing so may not always be beneficial.
• The custom foci rules are in effect exactly as written in "Street Grimoire". Additionally, it is expected that the player inform their GMs when they have such a focus. The GM may decide when the mentor is displeased, the focus turning off (any time you succeed the composure check to resist the disadvantage of the mentor and don't give in to the compulsion), and when it may be turned back on.

Reagents

• harvesting reagents will only be permissable at-table, in-run.