Rules, Rulings, and other Nifty Stuff
Listed herein are links to the most updated Nexus Avatar System rulebook, a number of rulings made by Gamemasters during the course of the game, and a collection of nifty gimicks that players have devised to make the system run more smoothly in practice.
Rules
The complete Avatar System rulebook. This is the most recent update, linked directly from the DE website. The current revision number is 2.6.
Coming soon: the complete Nexus Avatar Rulebook, in PDF format. The same rulebook distributed by Double Exposure in hardcopy format at Nexus conventions. Also coming soon: Avatar rules for your PalmOS handheld!
Rulings
This is background information about the Nexus Proper, the central axis of life in the Nexus. Written by John Paine / Lysander, Nexus GM and resident Territory guru.
Rituals and Their Applications
This is an in-depth analysis of rituals in the Nexus, penned by Caias Ward / The Ferryman and approved by Avonelle Wing, Double Exposure's head GM.
1) What does the caster hope to gain?
What is the effect? Temporary use of a power? Information?
2) What will the caster give up?
Be it destruction of Nexus Credits, items, a quest, to xp, all the way to AP loss (ritual suicide, for example).
3) what are you invoking?
Case in point: the Ferryman world's involves an almost sentient land. It could be bargained with to grant powers. In his world, the Ferryman was effectively an avatar (small "a") of his world. His territory is the same way.
4) what is the mechanism and symbolism?
Laying out Stonehenge? Building a hundred mainframe network to calculate the odds on something? Delving into the underworld to bind the sentient force of Oblivion into yourself? Like attracts like. You want to preserve something, freeze it in effigy. A voodoo doll. Stick a pin in a doll's head to give the target a headache.
Case in point: During Awakenings, the Ferryman kept his territory free of Soul-Eaters by a ritual. He gathered all the inhabitant Ferrymen, built a huge fire and cast a forge in it. A SoulForge. With it, they could remove the souls of people and smelt out the taint of SoulEaters. Fire, to purge souls as well as metal. I dumped 15 xp into it. No SoulEaters.
There has to be a desired effect, a cost, a method, and a logic behind it (consistant with the frame of reference the ritual comes from).
Toxic Cloud/Storm Ruling
At LoviCon 5, the application of the Fantasy powers Toxic Storm and Toxic Cloud came into question. Vinny himself, creator of the Nexus Avatar System, offers these rulings and clarifications.
1) Under no circumstances will Toxic Cloud be invisible, in other words someone who is coming off an elevator will always see it before they step into it.
2) Each round of combat, each person who is in the combat has a chance to take damage from the cloud, and that damage is calculated separately for each person by card pulls. Just because one person doesn't take damage for one round does not mean that everyone else won't, nor does it mean that he cannot take damage during the next round.
The Ace Rules
Shortly before LoviCon 5, questions were asked regarding the logic behind the Ace Pull rule. Previously, drawing an Ace on any AC pick nullified the calculation to 0. After debate, Vinny made these alterations to the rules. They were also distributed in hardcopy format at LoviCon 5.
1) All Offensive draws, whether they be powers, skills or natural attacks, will stay exactly the same. An Ace nullifies the entire Offensive Calculation.
2) Anytime a non-power related Defensive draw is required, an Ace will no longer nullify the entire Defensive Calculation. Instead, it will force an exclusive single card draw, which will then be SUBTRACTED from all other defensive numbers to come up with a final Defensive Calculation. For the purposes of this calculation, two special rules apply:
A) The Ace will remain out of the deck for this special draw ONLY and will be placed back into the deck as soon as the draw is finished, for the continuation of the round as per normal rules.
B) Any 10 drawn in this special draw will count as 0.
As per the normal rules, any card drawn during this special draw is removed from the deck for the remainder of the round.
3) All power-related Defensive Calculations will remain the same, with ONE exception: Any Power or Item which is specifically meant to defend the player against a specific type of Power, will no longer be negated by the draw of the Ace (although the Ace will still make the result of the AC Pick 0). For example, if a player has a Ring of Fire Resistance +5, it can still be subtracted from the total damage done by a fireball, even if the defensive AC Pick is an Ace. Please note that Items should be PHYSICALLY MODIFIED to reflect this and avoid confusion. Bring such Items to the next Avatar gathering and we will MODIFY the Item for you.
I will also go through the powers and make sure than any such defensive powers are clearly marked as excluded from the total negation rule.
Examples:
Player A (we'll call him Fred) attacks Player B (we'll also call him Fred) with a sword. Fred has armor, valued at 10 (15). Fred's attack is 10 + his AC Pick of 9 for a total of 19. Fred makes his Defensive Draw, and pulls a 5. The calculation would be 19 vs. 15, and would do 4 points of damage.
Instead, let's assume Fred draws a Ace on his Defensive Draw. Under the old rules, the calculation would read: 19 vs. 0, and Fred would take 19 points of damage and his armor would break. With the new rule, Fred would instead make a draw of one card (let's say he draws a 4). This card would be subtracted from his remaining modifiers, for a total Defensive Calculation of 6. The final calculation would be 19 vs. 6, for a total of 13 points of damage, and the armor would be saved.
It should be obvious that the higher the numbers go, the more drastic the change is - for example, recent battles have netted results of 70 vs. 60, where the Ace would have been instant death. Now the Ace would probably lower it to 70 vs. 45 or so.
The basic concept of this rule change is absolute - but I'd like feedback on any special circumstances that I've missed or exceptions I should make, etc. And no, I will not make anything retroactive - what was, was, and this rule goes into effect on December 1, 1999 going forward.
(Webmaster's Note: The following is a clarification on the Ace Rule written later, by Vinny.)
Any time an Ace is chosen in a non-power related Defensive Draw, it will force an exclusive single card draw, which will then be SUBTRACTED from all other defensive numbers to come up with a final Defensive Calculation. For the purposes of this calculation, two special rules apply: A) The Ace will remain out of the deck for this special draw ONLY and will be placed back into the deck as soon as the draw is finished, for the continuation of the round as per normal rules (to follow). B) Any 10 drawn in this special draw will count as 0. If there are no cards left in the AC Deck for this draw, the entire Defensive Calculation will become 0 automatically, just like any other situation.
Research Rulings
Research is a House Delphi Power. In a nutshell, with a little work, it allows Delphinians to recieve the answer to a question thrugh meditation, scientific endeavour, divination, or other means. These rulings were determined by John Paine / Lysander and are the accepted norms.
The Research skill works out of events as well as in events.
The minimum is 2 days per item researched (game rule). In the case of questions directed to John Paine, a maximum of one answer per week can be expected.
John recommends care in choosing the GM to whom the question is asked:
"Again, other GM's are also available, though I admit that you would probably want to choose your source carefully (OOC: make sure you're asking a GM that's running that plotline)."
John also requests that e-mail based answers from other GMs be forwarded to him at Lysander@nyc.rr.com
"Just so we can keep things consistent. There is a tendency for different GM's to come up with divergent answers to the same question simultaneously, so it would be worthwhile for me to know what answers are being dispensed. If you happen to remember to do so, ofcourse."
The History Books
As most of the current Avatar population at the time of this writing is aware, we are living in a future Nexus relative to our original frame of reference. Three hundred cycles ago, a time traveler, Bishop (who currently serves as the Head of House Delphi), appeared in the Nexus to rescue us. She stated that the Nexus would become uninhabitable for a period of 150 cycles. She further informed us that this would happen 150 cycles from that point. She opened a time portal and transported any Avatar wishing to go to this place; the new Nexus, 300 cycles hence.
The travel, as some have noted, had certain side effects. The one that will be discussed here is records from 300 cycles ago. This ruling was made by John Paine / Lysander.
Most records from 300 cycles ago were destroyed when the previous Nexus ended. Only a few books from the period survived, including a few tomes from the collection at Banana U., and these only through special efforts. The exception to this is records kept in territories that have now become Journeyworlds would have survived.
Moreover, books carried through the portal by Avatars would not contain history from the 150 cycles between the closing of the portal and the end of the former Nexus, since they were here with us and not back then. Territories that came forward with Avatars carry a similar effect; since they skipped forward with us, they weren't around to experience 300 to 150 cycles ago.
Territories and Regency
For the basic Territory and Regency regulations, check out GM John Paine's Official Territory Rules
RP/Mechanics Ruling
The following is a revision/ruling on certain Powers as they affect RP, made by Vinny:
Alf (Webmaster's Note: Alf Cunha/Valeria Kane) brought up at MACROCIDE that there is difficulty justifying Elemental Effect when we assertained that an Avatar can basically produce anything so long as it does not affect game mechanics. I agreed that it was not clear, and promised to clarifiy it for the rules with a simple sentence change, as
follows:
--
The basic concept of the Nexus is that you can do whatever you want while role playing, as long as you do not affect anything mechanic-related. And furthermore, you can achieve any effect you want as long as it is accepted and not challenged, AND you can come up with a good in-character reason why you would be able to produce that effect - for example, although meaningless to other characters, a Terran Avatar would NOT be able to just freeze ice for a drink, while a Fantasy Avatar with Elemental Effect would be able to do just that.
--
The basic difference then, is that Elemental Effect CAN be used to affect game mechanics while simple role playing cannot. If four Avatars were on a quest and they were surrounded by water, a GM would not let any of them light a torch without a match, but would allow a Fantasy Avatar with Elemental Effect do it. Insignificant, yes, but the power only costs 2 points and allows an Avatar a wide range of REASON why he would be able to DO certain things - the key sentence in the above rule change.
DE GMs, Guest GMs, etc.
With the Nexus in full swing, DE is opening its doors to players who want to host events, such as the upcoming DOBACon gathering hosted by yours truly, Ted Mantuano, Shawn Meadows, Ken Ewig, and Mike 'Animal' DeTaranto. Avonelle Wing has prepared these DE guidelines for GMs and Guest GMs:
Given the nature of the Nexus, there is never any guarantee that a plot
line will involve every single player. Because each person establishes
his character's own priorities, goals and motivations, it is outside the
role of any GM to dictate to a player that he or she must be involved in
a plot line. (though a gentle reminder that it might be of interest to
their character may be in order) In general, at events where another
group is providing the primary plot, the group must take this into
account and understand that there may be in-character circumstances that
far out rank the importance of the event plot in the mind of the players
and their characters.
If Double Exposure has Avatar GM staff at the event, they will gladly
handle plotlines involving interaction in Proper that is outside of any
event plotline. However, if there isn't DE staff available, the Avatars
are just as likely to further their plots on their own as to follow the
event plot instead.
We have no intentions of suspending, through artificial means, the plots
that are in motion prior to an event run by an outside group. Metaplot
of the type that is likely to guarantee IC suspension of the various
plots will ordinarily be reserved for DE run and organized events.
However, we are willing to work with the group providing the plot to
involve as many players as possible in as many directions as possible.
The more closely the group providing plot works with the DE staff, the
more likely it is that IC motivations will be in place prior to the
event to provide player interest in the plot.
MetaPlots are plots that can be likened to "Acts of God." They are the
world-altering, life shattering events that happen every so often and
usually are beyond the control of even the "normal" GM's. These plots
are generally large enough in scope to involve the majority of the
player base simply on the merits of the plot; often there is potential
long term impact that causes characters to care. These plots generally
pay no more attention to what is happening in the Nexus than a flood
pays to day to day life in Texas before it hits.
GM plots are those things that GMs introduce either for an event or for
a longer period of time. They co-exist with other GM plots and the
character development storylines that happen constantly in the Nexus.
They don't usually deliberately supercede anything, though player
interest may cause a shift in priority to make a GM plot the primary
focus of that player for a time. These plot lines have the potential of
redefining or explaining Metaphysics and basic truths of the system
through a variety of devices.
An outside group, and their GMs, are expected to work within the known
boundaries of the system. For example, it is known that if you leave
the Nexus in your physical manifestation, you cannot return. You may
journey indefinitely, but you may not *leave* and then re-enter. If
they attempt something that is outside of the known realm of the system
without the prior, explicit approval of the DE GM staff as a whole, and
what they claim is happening would not happen in the Nexus, a GM can and
will step in and redirect the plot rather than attempt later to undo any
in character effects caused by the situation. The outside group is
responsible for ensuring that their GMs understand that they may not
redefine, reroute or ignore Nexal truths for the convenience of plot,
nor may they "kidnap" the Nexus by insisting that players drop whatever
they may be doing IC to participate in the plot. The character interest
must be there for the plot to work, and any GM with the outside group is
expected to keep that in mind.
When attendance at an event signifies participation in a plot, ie:
attending a gala in somebody's territory, participating in a journey,
etc, it is assumed that the attendees will know this prior to making the
decision to attend, and if a significant number of players decide not to
attend based on that merit, DE may decide not to spondor that event or
may ask the group providing plot to reconsider their plot, leaving room
for pursuit of other concerns.
Nifty Stuff
There are a large number of Skills and Powers available to characters. Ted Mantuano / Kagato of Renaissance made these cards in color PDF format with the intent of being printed, cut out, and used as a fast-reference for combat and character update situations. Simply print, cut along the solid lines, fold along the dotted lines, and there you go. I highly recommend
laminating them, if you have the resources to do so.
Note: Since the update to rules version 2.2, some of these cards are
now inaccurate. I have already contacted Ted on the subject.
This is a fast-reference device of my own devising. This file, available for download in plain text format, is a simple, condensed version of all the vital calculaitons and charts used on the Nexus; from level advencement to combat. This is by no means a comprehensive, end-all short-list of the system. Actually, unless you read the rulebook, most of it won't even make sense. But once you're familiar witht he acronyms and the logic, I believe you'll find this resource a valuable time-saver. I recommend downloading the file, editing the spacing as you see fit, and making laminated cards out of it similar to the ones made by Ted as mentioned above.
Note: Due to the rules change, this card may be inaccurate. I haven't checked yet. I plan to look at it once I get a hardcopy rulebook at the next event.
Coming soon: PalmOS versions of the Avatar Maintennance Engine and Skills and Powers Cards!
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