Stepping Sideways:
The Gauntlet has hardened throughout history, as humanity has spread the Weaver’s influence over the world. The catastrophes of the world has taken their toll upon Gaia. Due to this the following is in effect:

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The increased global temperature caused by climate change is not just a physical phenomenon, it is Gaia’s fever manifest in the physical world. Sick and close to death, She distances herself from the world to protect herself, slipping into a comatose state as she does. Her dreams and nightmares make caerns and other places close to the spirit world more dangerous to be in, but they are the only places the Garou can cross. The Wyrm, by contrast, can only lash out at places of particular corruption: sites of environmental disasters, industrial ‘accidents,’ great oppression and injustice.

For Garou, increase the Gauntlet rating (W20, p.310) of all places by 4. The Garou cannot step sideways at any place with a Gauntlet higher than 9. Spending five minutes getting into the appropriate mindset reduces the difficulty of stepping sideways by 1, but still does not allow crossing at a place with a Gauntlet higher than 9.
 

Due to Garou healing automatically at the end of every round by one bashing or one lethal, the following gift has been changed.

​Gift Combat Healing:
The player spends one point of Rage and rolls Stamina + Primal-Urge against difficulty 8. The werewolf regenerates two health levels per turn for a number of turns equal to the successes rolled, or may trade in two successes and one turn of normal healing to heal one level of aggravated damage instead, so long as silver did not inflict that damage.

​

Shifting while Pregnant (from Changing Ways):
While a female Garou can change shape right up until the final days before she delivers if pregnant with human or wolf children, things are different when a Garou is pregnant with a metis. This is not a big problem during the first trimester; the expectant mother is a bit more ungainly and the shapeshifting is a bit more painful, but this is a matter for roleplaying and has no mechanical effect.

During the second and third trimester, the effects of a normal pregnancy are magnified whenever the mother is not in Crinos, and changing shape becomes more difficult; not just because of the increased pain, but also because the Garou body is fighting to remain in the correct shape for the birth.

The pregnant Garou increases the difficulty of rolls to change shapes except Crinos by +1, but changing to Crinos is at -1 difficulty. During the third trimester, she suffers three levels of aggravated damage from the strain to her body when shifting
into any form other than Crinos. During the second and third trimesters, a werewolf carrying a metis can resist changing out
of Crinos, either because of falling unconscious, or due to a supernatural effect. This is a survival instinct, designed to protect the mother as much as possible. Resisting is a Stamina + Primal-Urge roll (difficulty 5).

Linguistics
Linguistics is an ability once again. It goes from 1 to 5 and every dot in linguistics allows for you to know 1 additional language beyond your native tongue. Those capable of learning abilities beyond level 5 will be able to learn an additional language per dot of Linguistics. So a 7th generation vampire could have Linguistics of 6 and know a total of 7 languages.

The merit Natural Linguist allows for you to double this amount and should you encounter linguistic anomalies or enigmas you may add 3 dice to your dice pool.

Merit: Ritual Master (2 pt Mental Merit)
You have become so attuned to the rites and rituals of your people that they come easier to you. The language of rituals and your affinity for rite and ceremony is deeply ingrained. You have a natural flair for the rites of your people, or perhaps it is extreme training. Whatever the case, all Rituals are rolled at -1 Difficulty and each dot purchases in the Background: Rites allows you to take one additional level of rites.

 

Merit: Ability Aptitude (2 pt Mental Merit)
Pick a single skill, talent, or knowledge: you're a whiz at whatever this is. -2 to difficulties relating to this ability. You may only take this merit once.

Merit: Exceptional Equipment (1-2 pt Merit)
You may start the game possessing an item of exceptional quality. The one point version grants an “Expert Crafted” item where the two point version allows for a “Master Crafted” item. This item may be a weapon, armour, special equipment, or generally anything that will fall under the crafting rules. Items of this nature should have a story all their own. Be sure to expand on the origin of this item and why it exists. You must explain what the item is, and what special traits it possesses in your character template under “Equipment”.

Splitting Dice Pools

x20 Rules have simplified Multiple Actions and Splitting Dice Pools. This is here more as a clarification than a House Rule.

First you will declare how many actions you will attempt for the turn, and determine which action has the smallest dice pool. You may then allocate those dice among the actions as you see fit. The maximum number of actions you may use in a turn, is limited to your wits score. The STer may rule that some actions will be counter productive if attempted at the same time. The STer may also rule some actions will take too long to be split or even to be completed in one turn. Please respect the STer's call and do not argue a ruling in the middle of an event.

• Example: Bobby the Brujah wants to hit Sammy the Setite three times and doesn't want to use celerity to do it. Bobby has a dexterity of 4 and a melee of 4 this gives him a dice pool of 8 to smack people with his bat. Bobby decides to use 2 dice for the first attack 3 dice for the second attack and 3 die for the third attack.

• Sammy decides that he's going to try and dodge two of Bobby's attacks and counter attack with a kick. Sammy has a dexterity score of 3, an athletics score of 5, (He must have played college football!) but a brawl of only 2. Because of his low brawl score his pool will only be 5. Sammy declares 2 dice for the first dodge, 2 dice for the second dodge, and only 1 die to his attack.

• Since World of Darkness dice work off a system of successes and penalties, every success that Sammy gets on his dodge rolls, subtracts 1 success from Bobby's rolls. So, if Sammy gets 2 successes on his first roll and none on his second roll this would mean that Bobby would need 3 successes on his first roll to have a chance of hitting, which with 2 dice is almost impossible, (without a specialization to add another success for rolling a 10) he would need 1 success for his second and third roll. But then Sammy gets to try and hit Bobby back with his 1 renaming die.

Splitting dice pools can offer a greater opportunity for actions and possible damage, but as you can see, if someone else splits their dice pool this can significantly hamper your efforts.

• Recap

• Your maximum actions per round is equal to your Wits.

• Your dice pool will be the smallest value among each of the actions you will attempt.

• Each action must have at least one die dedicated to it.

• STer has final say on what actions may or may not be used for multiple actions.

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Hacking
Bro! Do you even hack, bro?!
So you want to be a computer hacker. Lots of people like the idea of being the rebel computer wiz able to strike fear into the hearts of internet users everywhere. Well, if that person is you, then I will post the system you need to follow in order to effectively hack a computer/network. It should be noted that while some of you are computer wizards in real life, not all of us are. This system is meant to represent a mechanically sound method for computer hacking in the World of Darkness.

System for Hacking
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Computer + (equipment) versus Intelligence + Computer + (equipment)
Difficulty: 7 OR *Variable
Action: Extended and contested (5-10+ successes; each roll represents 20 minutes of active hacking).

Gaining root access to a network requires talent, creativity and patience, and often results in a battle of the minds with the system's administrator(s). Before the hacking attempt begins, the Storyteller determines the network's level of security. If there is a system administrator on duty, the hacking attempt is an extended and contested action. If the network has specialized hardware and software for fighting off intrusions and the like then it will count as if you are in a contested roll against a sysadmin. If the network is protected by basic security software alone, the task is simply an extended action.

In a contested and extended action between hacker and sysadmin, roll Intelligence + Computer + any equipment modifiers for both participants. The winner is the first to accumulate the required number of successes.

• The hacker needs to accumulate a number of successes equal to the network's basic security setup. This can be anywhere from five to 10 based on the sophistication of the network.

• The sysadmin needs to accumulate a number of successes equal to the hacker's Intelligence + Computer.

• If the hacker wins, he gains unfettered access to the network.

• If the sysadmin wins, he kicks the hacker out of the network and can block any further attempts from that invader that day.

• If the network is protected by basic security software alone, the hacker needs to accumulate a number of successes equal to the network's basic security setup, as above.

 

Roll Results

• Botch: A botch on the part of the hacker indicates that he's been kicked out of the network and can't access it again for 24 hours. Worse, if a sysadmin contests the task, make an Intelligence + Computer roll to determine if the admin manages to gain the IP address of the hacker. A botch on the part of the sysadmin indicates that the hacker brushes aside his efforts and penetrates the network automatically.

• Failure: Your character does not succeed in making any headway in his effort.

• Success: Your character makes progress in his effort.

• Exceptional Success: Your character has found a vulnerability he can exploit against his opponent, giving him a substantial advantage (as reflected in the number of successes you achieve in one roll).

 

Suggested Equipment:

• High-performance computer (+1 to +3), broadband Internet access (+1), disk of scripts (+2), system passwords (+3).

Possible Penalties:

• Outdated computer system (-2), slow Internet connection (-3).

It should be noted that the penalties and bonuses listed above represent needing either more or less successes during the course of the contested roll and not a reduction or addition to the difficulty of the roll itself.

​

Part of Hacking, often includes trying to get information from someone else or some -where- else. But, sometimes you just need to be a jerk and at those times you wish to make a virus and infect someone with it.

Normally, you would use already accepted versions of malicious code out there to do something like this, which would grant you various equipment bonuses on your hacking rolls. But, if you are enterprising and there doesn't appear to be a piece of virus software out there to suit your needs then it stands to reason that you'll need to make it yourself. To that end I have created a system which you may use in order to create said computer virus.

• Dice Pool: Intelligence + Computers
  Difficulty: Variable
  Roll Type: Extended

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Viruses will have statistics of their own and they are as follows:

• Encryption: This stat measures the virus’s ability to remain hidden within files and programs, escape detection from a piece of anti-virus software or a system admin who is checking over the network for any issues.

• Potency: This stat measures the efficacy of your virus. Is it a Resident Virus meant to live in system memory watching for various programs and then interrupting, overcoming or even interrupting system operations? This stat would determine how strongly it can do these things.

• Speed: This stat measures the speed in which the virus can propagate itself. Is it a Direct action virus meant to spread and replicate itself and then act when executed? This stat measures how quickly it can do this.

• Intelligence: This stat measure just how adaptable the virus you’ve created is. While a piece of software is meant only to perform as it is programmed to, there are contingencies for a virus, will it have the code necessary to infect RAM memory? Will it simply hang out in a file folder or will it spread through the registry? Can it infect something other than a windows machine? And lastly this stat represents its defense against being neutralized when a system admin or anti-viral program is on the lookout.

• Countermeasures: This stat works in tandem with Intelligence, together these work as attribute and ability in checks against a system admin or AV software. The higher the ability the more chance it will have to get around the heuristics check for this virus or even to replicate itself, change file name and directory.

Each one of these stats will have a number representative of their power from 1 to 5. These numbers will help to determine the difficulty of the programming rolls and how long your programming will take to create this virus.

So, as an example let’s say Mr. Pastry wants to build his own Virus and he wants it’s stats to be as follows: Encryption 5, Potency 3, Speed 5, Intelligence 4, Counter measures 2. Your base difficulty is determined by the highest stat, so in this case that is a 5. So we remove the first 5 as we’ve used that as our base, now we look at the rest of the numbers for every stat at 3 or higher it adds +1 to the difficulty for each point and for every stat at 2 or less will subtract 1 point from the difficulty. We’ve already removed the first 5 and made that our base difficulty, this leaves us with a 3, 5, 4, and 2 so our difficulty modifiers are 3 (+1), 5 (+3), 4 (+2), and 2 (-1) for a total difficulty of 5+1+3+2-1 = 10 but we will be using the Threshold rule for this so that means our final difficulty will be 9 + 1.

Threshold: If your difficulty goes above a 9 then each increase above 9 will add another required success.

Merits can lower this difficulty such as computer aptitude which will take 2 off of the threshold difficulty, in our example the difficulty of your rolls would be difficulty 7 instead of 9.

• ​

• Equipment can help to lower the amount of successes you need, are you running on a state of the art machine (-1)?

• Location can help lower successes needed as well, are you in a specific test environment (-2)?

• Friends can also help lower the needed successes, Do you have people helping you write the code (-1 difficulty per person)

• Modifiers will be on a case by case determination.

 

The next question is how many successes do you need in order to pull this off in your extended roll? Well that’s a little easier to determine, it is the sum total of the stats of the virus. So in this example our virus has stats of the following 5,3,5,4,2 you add those all together and get 19. So without any further modifiers you have a difficulty 9 virus that needs 20 successes to create during your programming. (Remember the +1 required success due to threshold)

Will this take time? Yes it will. Will you likely experience failures during this extended roll? Yes, you will. Is it possible to botch? Yes, it is.

Consequences
So, what are the consequences of this? A failed roll is just that, a failure you make any progress on the roll and to have wasted an hour of programming time, normally the rules for failure during a roll would increase your difficulty by +1, so we will use the threshold system here as well if your difficulty is already at a 9. This means each failed roll will add another required success necessary to achieve the end result.

On the plus side that means your difficulty will never be above a 9 but on the downside you might be working on this virus for weeks! But then, that’s just how programming works and the pitfalls of being human.

Botching
Now, if you botch this roll, thanks to the wonders of modern computers, backing up your data and having surge protection/UPS it’s very unlikely you will lose all of your work, but it IS possible that you can corrupt what you’re working on so if you botch you will lose a number of accumulated successes equal to double the botch amount. If you double botch you will lose 4 accumulated successes, triple botch is 6 and so on and so on.

Resting
Everyone regardless of who you happen to be must rest at some point. So it should be noted that if you sit down to write code you will need to take occasional breaks, the time needed for and between breaks is represented by your stamina, intelligence, and willpower score. In other words you will need a break after a number of hours working on code equal to your stamina + Intelligence and will need to rest a number of hours equal to the sum difference in your current willpower vs Stamina + Intelligence. As an example if Mr. Pastry has an Intelligence of 3, stamina of 2, and a current willpower of 4 he can work on code for 5 hours straight but will need to rest for 1 hour in order to get his head back into the game (Int 3 + stam 2 – willpower 4 = 1). As a follow-up, you can only work a number of hours on this code equal to 3 times your willpower score. So, if your willpower is a 4, you could work on code for 12 hours (excepting breaks) but every hour after that without taking the rest of the night off is going to incur a +1 to the difficulty of your rolls as your head begins to fog over.

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Resources in Tainted Web
Resources have taken quite the turn in this post-apocalyptic world. Paper money doesn’t really help you survive any longer, so much as food, water, and tools. While credit is a thing, paying someone back or not, can be a much bigger problem than simply not getting a car loan in the future. With law breaking down and government as well as economies folding, resources are now a system of barter and trade.

With each dot of resources you will have a space size in which you will be able to fit various items into. These items can be almost anything depending on how creative you get. But, that level of space is all you get. Do you have a small cache of MRE’s and clean water? Good on you. They will likely fetch you some good stuff for trade, like a thick coat, maybe a trip to the Doctor, or even a roof over your head better than you currently have. It will be assumed that you take the time to scrounge, barter, and trade in order to maintain your resources, but gaining more “space” to store things is going to be hard to come by, and expensive. It should be noted that if you have resources then you likely have a place to call home. Whether that place is a box, a shipping container or maybe just a corner in your own shop, you’ve always got some place to go to lock your door and bunk down for the night. Just keep in mind that
people have a habit of not appreciating the “have’s” in a world of “have not’s” and be very selective about those who know of your

stashes and those who don’t. Be creative and be cautious this is the world of darkness.

Resource Breakdown:
O - You have a small storage lockers worth of goods, these items can be anything you can think of but they must fit within this small space, approximately a 5x3x3 box, locker, or safe the key point here is that it has sturdy locks and you can keep it safe. Imagine a shipping crate for old military goods, or a high school locker. Your housing is likely some warm blankets under a cardboard lean-to, maybe a sturdy box or perhaps you sleep in shifts in the local community shipping container. You definitely aren’t the most
well to do but you find a way to manage and aren’t the other guy having to live off the kindness of strangers, of which there isn’t much, kindness that is.

 

OO – You have the equivalent of a small shed or self-storage lot, approximately 100 square feet. There’s enough room here for you to store most goods and even build up a bit of a cache, you’ve got actual locks on the doors and maybe even a real bed. How clean things happen to be is questionable but that isn’t your biggest concern these days. It’s very likely that you share a shipping container with someone else, sort of like a duplex or maybe you run a small trading depot, who knows. In either case you’ve got a safe, dry, lockable place to store your stuff and you’ve always got a choice on what’s for dinner.

OOO – You have a much larger place to call your own. Likely you can afford to have your very own shipping container home with locks and sturdy door bars. For most, breaking into your place is more trouble than it’s worth, usually taking a blow torch or hammers to, and would likely bring too much notice to make it worth their while. You can safely store about 300 square feet worth of items and at this level you have the option of opting for smaller places of living and branching out with hidden caches or other locations which can serve as a backup place to crash complete with supplies. You likely have some of the last vestiges of “fresh” food, perhaps a tomato plant or some beans. Just keep in mind that the more you have, the more noticeable you become, depending on your manner of roleplay this may impact your relations with your peers or those who are “beneath” your level of income.

OOOO – You’ve made it to the big time! Maybe you’re a wealthy tradesman, or you have a skill that’s hard to come by. Whatever the case may be you’ve found your niche and you’ve made the most of it. You likely own multiple homes, and have various caches around in safe locations. Perhaps you found a hidden cache after the bombs fell and took it over. Whatever the case may be, you will not go without for a very long time and if your rather secure shipping container home is ever broken into and your guards taken down, meh, you’ve got another one and the means to keep more guards hired. You also likely own a working vehicle, it may not be pretty but it sure beats walking, especially when the acid rain starts to fall. At this level you begin to hear things from other communities around the region and likely trade with them in order to bring in goods not otherwise found by folks where you are. You have become a man or woman of means and this means people watch you more closely, they’re always looking for a way to move up in the world and the rich are often the first to be targeted. You have about 1,000 square feet of space to store things in divided as you wish.

OOOOO – You have managed to overcome the usual stigma that comes with a post-apocalyptic world. Perhaps you were a prepper and you’ve got your own underground bunker, complete with supplies, fresh water, and weapons to keep you safe. You likely own several generators, have a supply of fuel or know the people who can get it to you. You more than likely own more than one working vehicle and in some cases even trucks which help you haul things. Almost nothing is out of your reach. You have enough space to store 10,000 square feet of supplies. Unless you work to keep your reputation as a person who has “the life” under tight wraps, you likely are watched by many and considered as a target by the less savory sorts. One thing of note is that you may have one of the only sources of actual electricity left in the country, whether it’s through geo-thermal power, wind, or plain ‘ole hydro you’ve got the power, the running water, the HOT water and you can sustain yourself and up to ten other people indefinitely. Just take care, the world is a harsh place and a slip of the tongue can cost you more than your comfortable lifestyle.