Syranian House Rules

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House Rules

FYIA Tokens

What They Do

FYIA tokens ("F*ck You, I'm Awesome") are pre-granted permission for a player to override the GM and declare the scene as they like.

Example of FYIA tokens being used:

• The pilot of the airship flies inside the ring of a larger airship where normally it would be far too precise a maneuver (requiring a monstrous skill check), or the other ring simply too small.
• The grappler pilot uses the ship's clumsy grappler arms to catch a small, falling body.
• A PC auto-hits on a daily power.
• The player of the mage declares that a chandelier is over the heads of the two thugs threatening the mage, and the mage auto-hits the chandelier's supporting rope.
• The fighter jumps out of a hole in the wall and slams, shield-first, into a thug below and auto-succeeds on the attack roll.
• A PC auto-succeeds on an otherwise difficult air-jump to get onto an enemy vessel.

In short, a FYIA token makes the impossible possible (within the bounds of believability), changes the world to fit the player's whim, and can cause an auto-success on a dice roll.

How to Use Them

Every PC starts with one FYIA token. They do not expire, but they do not auto-replenish. They are single-use awards.

The PC declares that they are using a FYIA token and briefly describes what they want to happen. Declaring the use of a token by declaring out loud, "F*ck You, I'm Awesome!" is not required but is encouraged. After getting GM input on the finer details, if needed, the player then simply narrates the results of the token-altered event as they like, including the results of the auto-success of whatever roll they would have otherwise needed to make.

Afterwards, the player erases that token from their sheet.

Gaining More Tokens

The GM, at his sole discretion, may award a FYIA token for any action that a PC takes that is deemed wicked cool and/or awesome. Though they are awarded on the basis of GM fiat, they are not intended as a means of punishment or inhibition; they are an incentive to invent actions and story elements that add to the enjoyment of all participants by virtue of being awesome.

The same action caused by a FYIA token may lead to the awarding of another FYIA token.

Examples:

• An airship flying through another ship's ring is awesome on its own, and warrants a FYIA token
• A PC auto-hitting on a daily power is not awesome in itself, but merely a way to gain an advantage. No new token.
• Moving the ship's grappler arms to catch a body is awesome if the body is a falling PC or key NPC. If the arms are being moved to catch a dead body carrying good loot, that is simple greed. Not bad, but not awesome.

A player may attempt an action that is deemed 'awesome', even without using a FYIA token first. This usually means a skill check must be attempted. For example, if a PC requests that the GM place a rug underneath two thugs, the GM will probably agree, and the PC may attempt to pull the rug from under them with a strength check against reflex. If it succeeds, the result is wicked cool, and a new FYIA token will be awarded.

If the attempted action is audacious and inspiring enough, the GM may award a token simply for the attempt. Sometimes this can be used immediately to guarantee the success of the attempt, or the skill roll can be attempted normally and the FYIA token saved for later. Sometimes the GM may declare that the attempt auto-succeeds anyway based simply on the merit (defined as "wicked cool and/or awesome"-ness) of the action, in effect awarding a token and immediately auto-using it.

When in doubt, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, "Would this look really neat in an action movie?" If the answer is yes, try it.

Air Jumps

Within Syranian manifest zones, the law of gravity can be bent or ignored. Most of the time it requires magic, albeit simple, to accomplish this. Other times, the power of the mortal mind can overcome simple physics.

To those who know the trick, it is possible to jump incredible distances by moving one's body just so and mentally suspending the influence of gravity on one's own body.

To attempt an air-jump, the PC spends two move actions (usually sacrificing a standard action for this purpose). If PC makes a DC 20 athletics check, the PC may jump up to four times his speed, whether horizontally or vertically. For every 5 points he exceeds the minimum DC, he may add his speed to his maximum distance jumped. For example, a speed 6 individual with a check of 30 could jump as far as 36 squares.

At the landing point, the PC may land anywhere within a burst 2 area around the desired landing point, determined randomly by the GM. A DC 15 acrobatics check reduces the possible landing area to burst 1. This DC increases by 5 for each speed increment past the basic x4 that the PC jumps. For example, the PC with an athletics check of 30, above, if he chose to jump 34 squares, he would face an acrobatics DC of 25 to reduce his possible landing zone and therefore land more accurately.

A failure on the initial athletics check results in a failure to 'free your mind', and the PC may choose to finish the jump using the normal jumping rules in the PHB, or simply not move at all and lose both move actions. For example, if the DC to air-jump across 24 squares is 20 and the PC rolls a 14, the PC may either remain stationary or jump two squares (14 divided by 5, as per the PHB).

Bluchips and Money

The basic adventuring gear and services lists on page 222 of the PHB, or similar 'mundane' goods and services, may be purchased with gold or equivalent. All other purchaseable items, from weapons to enchantments, from ritual scrolls to magic cloaks, are purchased using bluchips. If it's something related to being personally effective as an adventurer, it's probably priced in bluchips. All magic items from page 223 to 255 in the PHB, along with all items in the Adventurer's Vault, along with all similar items in current and future supplements, are house-ruled to have their list prices changed from amounts of 'gp' to 'blu'.

Items purchasable with blu may not be purchased with gp, and vice versa. The economies for these goods and services are too different to be compatible, and there is no gp/blu exchange rate accessible to PCs. The 'adventuring economy', more formally known as the 'high-magic economy', is on a different scale and moves in different markets than the 'mundane' or 'low-magic economy'. Though a lightning rail is built with gold, albeit lots of it, a lightning sword is purchased with bluchips. Though the alchemicals that make an airship run are magic in nature, they are low-magic compared to the high-potency alchemicals that an adventurer may carry in a flask at their hip.