Rules Updates for May 14th, 2009

A new section has been added to the Online Rulebook, titled " Areas and Items ."  This codifies the rules on any area that does not have area notes, the rules on area notes themselves, and the storage of IG and OOG items in areas.  Please read this - while most of it is familiar, some parts are new, such as repairing doors and storing items OOG for characters you are not playing at the moment.

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Master Lockpick, Master Disguise Kit, and Trap Kit are designated as trinkets, for the purposes of storage.

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The definition of the skill Smash Door is now:

“This skill is a physical strike that forces open on a normal-sized wooden door. To use this skill, touch the target door with your hand and call the skill. Locks securing the door are bypassed but not broken by this skill.”

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The following three phrases have been added to their appropriate sections:

"Altars are defined by Item Cards. Altars of third rank or greater must be placed in an IG location at the start of an event and cannot be moved for the rest of that event; the item card for the altar should note this limitation when it is written."

"Fonts are defined by Item Cards. Fonts of third rank or greater must be placed in an IG location at the start of an event and cannot be moved for the rest of that event; the item card for the font should note this limitation when it is written."

"Forges are defined by Item Cards. Forges of third rank or greater must be placed in an IG location at the start of an event and cannot be moved for the rest of that event; the item card for the forge should note this limitation when it is written."

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The rules for Ironwood and Wytchwood have been revised, as follows:

Ironwood: This material grants a periodic use of "Natural Protect Item" for itself. It can be used to forge armaments and items that require units of wood.

Wytchwood: An armament or item comprised of at least fifteen units of Wytchwood grants its bearer one use of the skill Magic Resistance each period; the item must be wielded in hand to invoke the Magic Resistance.  If a Wytchwood item is broken, the pieces will re-bond after five uninterrupted minutes of being held together.  It can be used to forge armaments and items that require units of wood.

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All of the above will be entered into the Online Rulebook tonight.  Over the weekend, existing sections of the rules may be shuffled around a bit (but not changed) to place them in a more logical location, given the new rules (i.e. - the rules on entering a cabin will be moved from the Rogue section to the Areas & Items section).

One additional ruling James snuck in while I was posting the above:

Stacking Armor:
A character may wear up to two layers of armor on a given location.  One layer must be Metal (such as Chain or Scale mail), the other can be Leather, Metal, or Plate.  The character benefits from both pieces full AP values and other special effects, if any, but not Soak - if both pieces confer a Soak, only one value (player's choice) is allowed.

For example, Armored Adam is wearing a layer of Pro-grade Chain Mail on his upper & lower torso (28 AP, Soak of 2), and a layer of Costume-grade Fire Drake scales over the same areas (20 AP, soak of 1, 4 against fire).  Adam can choose to take the soak of 2 against normal damage, or 4 against fire-based attacks, but not both.  He will still benefit from all 48 AP.

So, costume-grade armor does get the specialized soaks?

This was answered in the other thread - Pro/Costume grade distinctions and subsequent benefits have no bearing on the IG properties confered by special materials.  These are two different categories that do not effect on another. 

It just gets more if it's pro-grade - only works for fire drake, Mithril;  Tamaril Hide gets a AP add
I was thrown too by that
- Jay

If one of the layers has to be "metal," does that mean the "metal" category under smithing (ie, anything made of metal that isn't plate), or does it mean anything made of metal (including plate)? Can you layer leather under plate and get the AP for both? I've found thin leather bracers that would fit under plate ones and provide some much-needed cushioning between the plate and my arms.

Question regarding pick-pocketing:

If a pouch contains both coin/other IG wealth and cards representing components or trinkets, the IG money will fall to the bottom of the pouch and the cards will remain above them, obstructing access to the coins in the bottom.  This is purely a factor of the size and weight of cards, not the items they represent IG.  Thus, a rules marshal reaches into a pouch and has a much greater chance of pulling out my 20g component than they do a sliver piece.  Obviously, it isn't random this way.

Will there be any means to keep the pick-pocketing process inherently random? 

Metal is the class of armor, so a chain shirt under a breastplate would be typical (as it normally was).  We're trying to keep it simple, while also preventing abuse by layering plate on plate, etc.

Pickpockets - the RM should be looking at the contents of the pouch and determining randomly based on the contents, not grab-bagging it, for that very reason.