Thoons Ctech Houserules

Barring EXP and certain decisions, I like Ctech, it fits a niche of mine like nothing else, but it has flaws, mechanical, based solely on poor explanation, and that simply don't feel as fitting to that niche. This is an attempt at fixing them. In addition to optional traits for Tager-chan

  • There is no 'limit' on drawbacks, take what you can justify and think fits your character, though you should limit this to only a rank or two extra, preferably. This does not mean exploit the system, I will arbitrarily decide what I think is exploiting, but things like lots of little, irrelevant drawbacks for 20 points will have me speak to you beforehand. Also be sure to think twice about drawbacks, as I promise you, I will have fun with them all.
  • Chronic Pain, Depressive, Manic cannot be eternally staved off: You may make the save, but every session they pass, the test you must make goes up by one, this resets to the default when you fail a save or provoke it during play. This supports the idea of intentionally damaging or indulging yourself to increase chances of being okay when something critical is expected to soon happen.
  • Parapsychic powers have no intelligence requirement. It's a classic trope for the crazed person without the intelligence to appreciate their gifts. In addition the tenacity requirements are lowered by 2 for all powers to encourage stat diversification.
  • Spending drama points on fear tests: If you have Coward, you cannot spend drama points to save against fear. If you have Fearless, you always can, if you have neither, normally you can, but exceptions will apply for especially horrific scenes.
  • As of the start of a campaign, every session is an 'episode', which regenerates drama points. At an arbitrary point in the distant future, an 'episode' will only end with appropriate circumstances that provide closure, game direction changes and the like, even if that take multiple sessions. Generally, this will be for the duration of a 'mission' or the like. I will give advanced warning of when this point is achieved, and when each episode ends so they regenerate.

Tagers

  • Tager Limit weapons require no tenacity check and cannot miss the target, you still roll attack and they still roll dodge, but its only to determine how many bonus dice you do. The exception to this is moves that last multiple rounds, such as frenzy, which attack as normal (with all the bonuses) and if you roll poorly, they can miss.
  • The Phantoms' limit weapon effect is determined by a contested strength check between the victim and the tager, instead of an easily avoidable set DC.
  • The skilled and prepared mind of a member of the Eldritch Society can guide their symbiont to grow over their clothes without problem. A child has a more difficult time, and requires a little practice.
  • Tager's human regeneration cannot be truly reduced below 1/hour, the human may become on deaths door and faint in the middle of the battlefield, but as long as nothing new happens to the vulnerable host, the tager can overcome the ambient battle for damage control and pull its host together, for critical states though, it may require the tager avoid activity more stressful then talking, computer use and other nonphysically stressing tasks, lest they 'rip out their stitches.'
  • Spectres do not need silly random icy touches, they can make minor attempts at phasing their hands into and ripping the organs of opponents without injury for the same statistical effect. You can still use the ice RP if you really prefer though.
  • The Echo can use its ink spray on land with a standard no damage marksman vs. dodge attack to temporarily blind someone, imposing a -4 penalty on anything involving sight, taking a turn to clean can reduce this to partial obscurement at -2, another round or modest water completely removes it. Obvious exceptions apply for things that don't need/have eyes.
  • Tagers may pick to use either default or new Limit Weapons for their limit attack at will.
  • Alternate Limit Weapons:
  • Mystic Blast:
    • Numen Shooter: The Nightmare becomes a font of ranged murder. Its blast is increased to 3 shots for half a D10 rounds, it still suffers multiple action penalties and attacks can miss.
  • Tentacle Sheath:
    • Tendril Barrage: +3 The Phantom explodes in a storm of tentacles in many directions at the cost of its eating, dealing the same damage, but within a 15 foot sphere instead of a 30 foot cone, and no one is devoured.
  • Multiport:
    • Cloak the Gathering: The Shadow can create a 10 foot bubble of its invisibility, giving everyone it desires that same mystical cloak and all its positives for 2D10 rounds, foolish actions can drop it for someone like the normal cloak (and you can reestablish it one round later) but it only reveals the individual, not the group.
  • Razor Wing:
    • Celerity: The Tager 'overclocks' its senses and maneuverability giving it knowledge of every incoming attack and inhuman reflexes to react to them, for 1D10 rounds, its speed and armor are doubled and it gains a specialty in dodging ranged attacks and can take one more action per a round without suffering multiple action penalties.
  • Frenzy:
    • Hunters Devotion: Instead of offering its body to its internal rage, the Echo offers its mind. For 1d10 rounds it may freely ignore wound penalties as if it was unhurt no matter what status it goes in or is struck with, The Echo takes damage as normal however, and may still die. Once this state ends, depending on changes to its HP, it immediately suffers the appropriate penalties once again.
  • Multiplicity:
    • Disbelief Aspect: The Mirage curses a single target to instead see phantasms of everything, giving everyone it would attack the effects of displacement for 1D10 rounds.
  • Phasing:
    • Breaker: +1 The Spectre attacks with its mastery of phasing or ice, making an 'normal' attack with all the limit weapon features, but also destroying armor, removing 2 armor points from both melee and range. On clothing, this is permanent, on living things, until it spends a long time healing.
  • Bloodbath:
    • Feast: +0 The Vampire proves itself true to its nature and bites a person, given its size, possibly in half, then proceeds to viscerally eat the person hopefully alive. This does its base damage, then if they survive each round held inflicts 1d10 damage and heals the Vampire by that much on top of regeneration, and even if the target dies from the initial bite or feeding, one last round can be spent 'cleaning up.' things can attempt to escape with opposed strength tests.

Assets:

  • Permission (2):

Due to parents, job, family or the like, you're given more lenience in some location, let somewhere that children (or even normal people) are not allowed, or with much more ease. There are certain, obvious areas you still may not be allowed, and during things like official inspections, it will be strict, but in general you're given more far more room to roam where you couldn't normally go.

  • Valued Friendship (2):

Pick a close friend of yours, you value them more then you do most other friends. You receive two free drama points that can only be spent in ways that 'help' your target, this can include anything from preparing food to aiding or saving them in combat. If they die you cannot pick a new target.

  • Pet (1-2):

Despite being heavily encouraged against in an Arcology, You are lucky enough to have a effectively personal pet, in addition to a loving friend and a good method of learning responsibility, pets make a great, if abstract method of detecting the unnatural, and pets will react markedly different in front of things modern technology will miss. For 2 points, while probably not able to do much on its own, you have a pet that's able and willing to fight such influences, if allowed.

  • Gamer (2): (Maybe 1)

Games teach weird things, pick a fairly specific genre of video (or even table top) games, if you can make a direct connection between your choice and current events, you gain a +1 bonus on various knowledge related tests. You may take this multiple times for a wider selection of genres.

examples of skills:

Fantasy RPGs: Metallurgy, mythology, history, occult, literacy.
Mecha/War games: Military, battlefields, weaponry, history, mecha.

  • Moe (1):

Due to a certain intangible quality, you strike people as being less then threatening. You gain a +1 test onus to dealing with adults when it comes to avoiding blame, not getting in trouble and otherwise getting the benefit of the doubt. However, you suffer a -1 to intimidate because of this same nonthreatening charm. You may purchase this asset more up to three times, gaining its benefit and penalty again each time.

  • Beautiful Terror (1-3):

You are especially skilled and gifted at overwhelming or manipulating in ways that make some real monsters jealous. For every rank you purchase, you cancel the penalties to intimidate from assets such as Alluring, Sexy Voice and Moe by that amount.

  • Communed (3)

Requires Engel Synthesis Interface and surviving your Engel going out of control while you were in the cockpit.
You've experienced the profound feeling of your 'synthorg' being freed of any restraints, communicating more deeply and profoundly with no words then anyone else could ever understand. You have a +2 to any tests that involve your Engel, be it fighting, manipulating or even maintenance so long as you're the one doing it, 1 additional drama point that may spend on anything within the Engel and even when out of the cockpit, no matter the distance, you have a strange gut feeling that seems to tell you its general status. Should your dearest partner be destroyed, you lose this. It only applies to your current Engel, not the model, but your specific Engel.

  • Font of death (3)

Requires Tager or Exceptional Tager.
You have gained an even deeper connection to your tager then most, you may spend three Drama Points to regain use of your limit weapon an additional time a day. You may do this multiple times as long as you have drama points to spare.

Drawback:

  • Unpopular (1):

Probably due to some event in the past you did, or had done to you, or possibly due to being the first Nazzadi/Xenomixed in the class, you're unpopular within the school. Other students tend to take measures to not have to interact with you and you probably have very few classmate friends. This is different from Misfit (which might in fact get positive attention in some cases) and less alienating then Disgraced.

  • Natural Purity (4):

A very small amount of people are born with a certain connection to the concept of human defined reality, and while that bubble was burst a long time ago, it still has presence in people occasionally, or perhaps it's merely a strange form of outsider taint or parapsychic ability, its too rare to really study. Whenever someone with this drawback gets within proximity of something unambiguously unnatural they suffer the effects of an attack using the creatures presence or tenacity feat, whichever is higher, opposed by the defenders presence or tenacity, whichever is higher, physical armors don't reduce this. This happens only once per a general encounter, and if multiple creatures are around, only the 'strongest' of them 'attacks', it happens instantly and the attacking being has no knowledge of its assault, and this only requires proximity to trigger it, not awareness, hiding or disguised monsters can be found out by this. The damage of this varies depending on damage and attacker, weak things produce small nosebleeds, an integrity scale creature may cause bones to attempt to leave the victims body. in theory, this does not prevent someone from becoming a Tager, Engel Pilot or other things, but Tagers (only in tager form), Engels and Dhohanoids (in either form) provoke it and can cause obvious problems. Parapsychics, (non summoning/god contacting) sorcery and terrestrial creatures like the Megalodon do not as they are relatively human-centric.

  • Injury (1-5):

Only available to civilians, children, the poor, outsider tainted, criminals or others that do not have access to common orthodox biological/arcane healthcare options.

Your character suffers some sort of healing complication, it could be old and healed over, or caused in the events that start the game, but due to their circumstances, they cannot get it fixed by normal means. They suffer the effects of a healing complication for as long as they live, and are doubtless looked down upon, as their injury is a blatant flag that they are at least too poor to afford what's now fairly basic surgery.

The worst of this applies to major injuries, socialized medicine applies for life threatening and high priority things such as limb removal, suggesting more imaginative reasons why these have not been treated, none of which are positive.

Some injuries can be replicated by taking drawbacks as specified in Vade Mecum, and should be done so if those are desired, and you cannot feasibly play a character with Brain Damage: Major.

The cost depends on the injury:

1: Loss of digits, Compound Fracture (Limb), Strength Compromised, Nerve Damage (Major)
2: Joint Injury, Loss of Limb, Compound Fracture (Ribcage), Loss of eye
3: Organ Damage: Major
4: Paraplegic, Loss of both eyes
5: Quadriplegic, Brain Damage: Minor

Obviously some forethought is required, a quadriplegic who also has no legs only gains 5 points, not 9.

You may take this drawback multiple times, to the limit of what you have to give up.

Tager-Chan Skill Threshold Suggestions

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