Post by thrythlind on Apr 25, 2015 2:02:26 GMT
Facilities
Facilities are places that are set up with tools and spaces designed to make specific tasks easier to perform. An artist's studio might be set up with a wide open space to place subjects or models, plenty of supplies related to their craft and possibly a television or sound system to produce whatever sort of preferred white noise the artist uses to concentrate. A scientific laboratory would likely have one or more computers and several other specialized pieces of equipment as well as a catalog of samples or past experiments. A human shaper's ritual space would likely have a permanently inscribed circle along with several quartz crystals, other such tools and instructions on various rituals. The exact details of what makes up the facility is up to the player or GM describing it.
Note that a Facility does not necessarily require its own building. The same building can have several different facilities within it as long as it makes sense for their to be enough room. Likewise, the characters can choose to place all their Facilities in the same building if they desire.
Every character starts with one Facility for free with a Rating equal to the character's Resources. If the Facility is a specialized one then the Rating of this free Facility is equal to the character's Resources +1. This Rating is added to the rolls of any task appropriate to the Facility taken within it.
Freddy Lopez is a Half-Demon shaper with Resources of 3. He has a Facility for helping perform shaping rituals. It has a Rating of 3. When he performs rituals within his ritual space he has an extra +3 to his roll. If he decided to specialize the space toward creating curses then he would have a specialized Facility and it would have been a Rating 4.
Purchasing Facilities
Further Facilities can be acquired making a Resources roll against Difficulty based on the following chart. Costs for Shards are included.
Type of Facility Cost
One-Sided Seal Rating x 2
Obstacle Facility Rating x Rating, Minimum 2
Specialized Non-Psychic Facility Rating +1 x Rating
Specialized Psychic Facility General Purpose Non-Psychic Facility
Rating +2 x Rating General Purpose Psychic Facility
Rating +1 x Rating +1 Shard (Size+2 x Size+2) + Vitality+2
Feng Shui Affected Area Size+2 x Size+2
How much time it takes to put the Facility together is entirely up to the GM but the following table can be used for benchmarks. However, this chart is assuming the purchasing and acquiring power of one person. If you have a character who is a billionaire, genius, philanthropist playboy then they might just have an Organization on hand who can put together a Facility much, much quicker and with less Difficulty.
The purchasing of major Facilities could represent a Scenario in and of itself.
Facility Rating Time to Acquire
+1 Hours
+2 Days
+3 Weeks
+4 Months
+5 Seasons
+6 Years
Crafting Facilities
For crafting a Facility, handle it like crafting a piece of equipment as described before but use the following changes.
Base the Difficulty on the Cost described above. Minimum 3.
Reduce the Difficulty by 3 for each roll besides the first in the Craft Challenge. Minimum 3
Use the Time to Acquire table to determine how long each roll represents.
Fatigue still occurs, but it is more lingering and building than it is immediately apparent.
Fate Points can be spent to extend construction to the next time period. Next week for rolls taking days, for example.
Maneuvers can still be performed.
As stated earlier, Units and Organizations can complete the same task in less time and with less Difficulty.
Yes, this can end up taking a long time and having a high Difficulty, but that’s because these rules assume a single person putting the Facility together. Consider that it took a certain nocturnal animal themed vigilante years to build up his subterranean Facility to its peak effectiveness because he couldn’t just order his company to truck some equipment and set it up. It started as a hole in the ground with a computer, some equipment lockers and a garage. He could, and did, order the creation of similarly specialized and effective Facilities to be created almost overnight for the research branch of his corporation.
Upgraded Facilities
The act of upgrading a Facility to a higher Rating is fairly simple. Take the difference between its current Rating and the desired new Rating and double that. Use this as the effective Rating for
determining Cost. Then roll Resources or perform a Challenge as normal depending on whether your character is building the Facility himself or is hiring someone else to do it for him.
The time taken should be based on the current Rating of the Facility, not the new Rating.
The Half-Demon Shaper, Freddy, has a Library specialized in knowledge on countering and creating curses. The current Library has a Rating of 2, but he wants to improve that Rating to 3. The difference between the current Rating and the Desired Rating is 1. Double that is 2, this is a specialized Library related to psychic phenomena so the Cost would be 8 to upgrade it. He decides just roll his Resources and, with the expenditure of some Fate Points, barely manages to beat the 8. His Library is now a Rating 3 Facility adding to Knowledge rolls related to Curses. This takes him a few days to get the necessary books.
If Freddy later wants to upgrade his Library all the way to a Rating 5, then the difference between the current Rating of 3 and the desired Rating of 5 would be 2. Double 2 is 4 and a specialized psychic Facility means that the Cost would be 24. He decides to improve his library himself by including his own notes and observances from past experiences. He’s going to roll Craft, Knowledge and Reasoning for this and the GM approves. Since he’s making two additional rolls, he reduces the Difficulty to 18 for each of the rolls and, after some headaches, Freddy successfully upgrades his Facility to a library with a Rating of 5.
Facilities Acquired via XP
Facilities can also be acquired via AP and XP via the Headquarters Expert Advantage and the Exceptional Facility Heroic Advantage. In this case, you are assumed to have succeeded in either your Resources roll or the crafting Challenge automatically. GMs should consider making Facilities as part of the reward for some Scenarios.
Rating Example Facility
0 No real Facility.
1 Casual Hobbyists
2 Small schools, Serious Hobbyists
3 Average schools, small businesses
4 Larger schools, local businesses
5 Universities, Major companies
6 Government labs, International Corporations
Facilities as Obstacles
An alternate way to use Facilities is to use them as obstacles for other people. For example, a Facility geared toward Security would be used as a Difficulty for breaking into a place. Likewise, you could use the Facility Rating to set the Difficulty for finding a safehouse or hidden cache. If a player chooses this as their free Facility, then it's Rating is equal to their Resources +2. Purchasing or crafting a Facility as an Obstacle is to be handled as normal.
James is a bit paranoid, so his home is a smallish house hidden on the outer edge Edinburgh in some hills. He takes a Facility for it relating to how difficult it is for people to find his house. Since his Resources are 1, his house has a Facility Rating of 3 acting as a Difficulty for people to find it.
Feng Shui
Feng shui is the practice of altering the surrounding environment in order to enhance some purpose or another. If that arrangement is maintained and adapted as the situation changes, then it can easily be represented as a bonus of some sort.
A business wants to attract more customers and hires a feng shui shih to arrange their circumstances to more easily attract attention. This is a matter of altering the flow of residual Life-Force to leak out into the surrounding area and pique the interest of people walking past by triggering their innate empathic senses. This works as a Facility providing a bonus to Persuasion rolls related to drawing people into the business. Of course, if customer service is poor, the product is defective or something else is wrong, all that’s going to happen is it’ll expose more people to your bad service and spread the word that much faster.
Someone else hires a feng shui shih to arrange their home in a way to insure comfort, productivity and privacy. This represents three facilities. The first is a Facility providing a bonus to Mental Recovery rolls, the second is a Facility providing a bonus to Craft rolls and the third is an obstacle making it hard to find the place.
Within their own home, a feng shui shih arranges matters to make it easier to use their other psychic abilities such as channeling or the like. This is a Facility providing a bonus to Channeling or the use of a Talent. They might also apply their feng shui expertise to a ritual space creating a Facility which provides a bonus to their Shaping or Low Magic practices.
One thing to note is that all feng shui arrangements also require a second Facility setting the size of the area to be affected by the Facility.
The feng shui arrangement around a single building is about a Size 3 for a small house, or 4 for a large house. An arrangement encompassing an entire neighborhood would be Size 5. A small city like Vohlstahl would require a Size 7 Facility. A city like Washington DC would require a Size 8 Facility.
Feng shui arrangements do not automatically apply their bonus. The person using them has to know about the arrangement and how to tap into it to make proper use of the capabilities. Lacking the proper awareness and training, the feng shui arrangement can only be used like any other Aspect.
Washington DC is one of the largest feng shui arrangements in the world, however, it’s been more than a hundred years since someone in the government has had the training necessary to make full use of it. It is still Invoked as a City Designed to Impress for a reroll or a +2 to related rolls, however the full force of its design has not been used for a long time.
Significant changes to the area affected by the feng shui Facility will result in someone needing to adjust the arrangement or else a degradation of its rating. Significant is a relative term. A new person coming to live in a small house is a significant change. A new person coming to live in a city is usually an unnoticeable change. There aren’t any real mechanics for determining when this occurs, but it can
make for a short scenario or scene where a character attempts to address changes in the environment of their home ground.
When first designed, the arrangement of Washington DC was a Facility 7 aimed at impressing people with the grandeur and might of the United States. However, since then, thousands upon thousands of people have come to live the city and various gifts and monuments have been raised. Some of these were created or granted with the goal of enhancing the feng shui of the city, but overall, the rating of the Facility has degraded to a Facility 4.
Crafting a feng shui arrangement requires the Feng Shui Heroic Advantage and the challenge should require the Sensitive Psychic Ability in addition to the normal Abilities of Knowledge, Craft and Resources.
Circles
Temporary circles are the result of a maneuver, usually breakdown after a scene has passed and rarely if ever last longer than a day. More permanent circles are carved into solid surfaces or created using inlays of various materials some of which will likely be the material that most resonates with the creator species. For example, most circles use carved stone or inscribed metal for the basic structure, but humans will often embed quartz crystals at key points throughout a circle they intend to use. Permanent circles represent a Facility that is used to enhance the performance of a particular psychic skill or Talent.
Crafting a circle does not require the use of the Psychic Abilities, but they can be used to perform Maneuvers to make the crafting challenge easier.
A therianthrope shaper is creating a circle to make it easier to perform shapechangers within it. He decides to perform a Maneuver placing Test Run on the Circle before making the final Craft roll. Standing in the circle he uses his Talent to change into his animal form as a way of seeing if the residual Life-Force drawn by the circle is flowing into and reinforcing his own in the proper way. The GM sets a Difficulty of 4 and he rolls a +2 for a total of 5, giving him a single Tag on the Test Run Aspect to use when he makes the Final Craft roll and finishes the circle.
Note that circles, like feng shui arrangements, require the person using them to have the appropriate training and be able to discern the trigger points of the circle. Just knowing a circle exists does not make it any easier to use. Also, if multiple circles are interlinked then a single circle within it cannot be invoked without invoking the entire circle. They are essentially part of a circuit and trying to isolate them would have disastrous results, which might be exactly what the intention is, of course. Skilled shapers protect against the possibility of such deliberate sabotage of course, but that might be a separate Facility.
A Twelve-Point Circle is essentially an overlay of six Two-Point Circles, four Three-Point Circles and three Four-Point Circles. However, they are all integrated and a random psychic can’t just Invoke a Three-Point Circle for power, it would produce a potentially dangerous feedback. He would have to first perform a Knowledge Overcome to understand how to utilize this particular circle, at which point he would be able to use the Twelve-Point Circle as a Facility providing a flat bonus to his roll. He could also then perform Maneuvers relating to the circle in order to get more benefit out of it.
Likewise, if that Twelve-Point Circle is, itself, part of a larger network of circles, then someone would have to be able to understand the entirety of the circle network in order to safely use it. If they’re trying to short circuit the arrangement they might have to get past an obstacle Facility.
Multiple Facilities in one Location
It is very much possible to have multiple Facilities in one location, but each Facility should represent a bonus to one particular task. If that one task is being improved in multiple ways, that still represents a single Facility. Also, use your common sense in considering how much space a Facility would take up and consider if it is possible for a single set of equipment to serve double duty.
Freddy Lopez’s home has a ritual space that includes a library full of records of different curses and their remedies, a circle designed specifically to make clairvoyance rituals easier to perform and he has arranged the feng shui of the room to make it a calmer and less chaotic environment so he can more easily manipulate the Life-Force around him. He builds these as three Facilities of Rating 3. A library Facility providing a +3 Bonus to rolls made to create or remove curses, a circle Facility providing a +3 Bonus to scrying attempts, and a feng shui Facility providing a +3 bonus to shaping.
In this case, Freddy would gain a +3 bonus to shaping a clairvoyance ritual from the feng shui Facility. Then he would gain a +3 bonus to using the clairvoyance ability from the circle. Finally he would have a +3 bonus to performing any curses on targets found through the clairvoyance, assuming it was created with the capability of using psychic skills and Talents through it.
If Freddy had instead decided to define all three as Rating 3 Facilities providing a bonus to Shaping rituals, the GM would have said no and declared it as a single Facility of Rating 9 instead. Aware that creating a Rating 9 Facility is a bit outside of his ability, Freddy instead opts to create a Facility Rating 6 for Shaping instead.
In this case, Freddy would have a +6 Bonus to Activate any power created through a Shaping ritual, but not the actual use of it. This would make scrying very easy and make the curse relatively Stress free, but wouldn’t provide any bonus to actually attacking and placing the curse.
Facilities and Maneuvers
Most Facilities are not explicitly stated as Aspects, but the use of Maneuvers can easily make them into Aspects for the space of a scene, just like any other situation in the game can be described as an Aspect.
A laboratory represents a Facility of Rating 3 for the analysis of biological phenomena. A particular scientist might be able to perform a Maneuver to place an Aspect of This is My Laboratory. They would then be able to Invoke any Tags placed on that Aspect and use a Fate Point to Invoke it again. For example, if the Aspect in question had two free Tags, the scientist using the Facility would be able to Invoke both of those Tags, spend a Fate Point for another Invoke for a total bonus of +6 and then, after all of that, gain the Facility Rating Bonus of +3 equating to a total bonus of +9 to their roll before their Abilities, Advantages and Personal Aspects are involved.
Why Circles and Feng Shui?
So, if circles and feng shui both do mechanically the same thing and can’t be stacked on the same task, then why include them both? The reason is flavor. Most things in Fate, and thus these Divine Blood rules, use the same mechanics, after all. In addition, it is possible to be an expert in the use of circles but not feng shui, most Gods and Demons don’t take feng shui seriously, for example. Though it is much rarer for a feng shui shih to not understand circles, since they usually have Advantages or Aspects related to shaping as well as feng shui, it is still possible for someone to be a feng shui shih that doesn’t understand circles and their use. In these cases, the GM should reduce the rating of any Facility
that is composed of both circles and feng shui arrangements when used by someone that only understands one of the two.
Freddy Lopez is a feng-shui shih and a sorcerer. His Demonic father, Ravana, however, has never studied feng shui. Freddy Lopez has created a circuit of interlinked circles fed by the residual Life-Force via a feng shui arrangement. This all equates to a Facility of +4 for him to use his channeling while at home, in case of attack. If Ravana were to perform a Maneuver to understand the use of the circles in his son’s home, he’d both get the free Tags from the Maneuver but the GM rules he’d only get a Facility bonus of +2 since he’s not aware of how the feng shui works.
Shards
Shards are extradimensional spaces within the cosmology of the Earth. They are relatively common tools among shapers and sorcerers and have been for thousands of years. They usually have some sort of physical anchor to Earth usually referred to as a seal or a gate. The variety of shards include the following:
Storage Containers – Specifically geared toward storing items. These often appear as bags of some sort which has led to tongue in cheek references to signature items from a certain well-known tabletop game.
Sealed Space – These shards are often larger and used as workshops or sometimes even living areas. These usually have gates in the form of statues or other such objects. Unlike storage items, they are rarely carried along with the owner. A large number of these have been abandoned over time. Those that were created as life-supporting have often grown wild. These are useful since a gate that is not actively open does not have affect the ambient Life Force and are often difficult to identify.
Integrated Shards – These shards are anchored to the Earth via doorways and other landscape features often making it hard to tell where the Earth ends and the shard begins. This often creates an impression that the inside of a shaper's or sorcerer's domicile is bigger on the inside. Individuals with the Understanding have a sense when they are crossing the dimensional borders and these shards are especially easy for those with high levels of Life Force Sight to notice. A shaping ritual will also detect the presence of these sorts of shards.
Prison Seals – These are exactly what they sound like: a created prison meant to hold something. There are quite a few seals that were created in ancient times to hold Nameless Things. Likewise, Gods and Demons often use these to seal each other away rather than kill each other.
Body Seals – There are some sorcerers and shapers that have taken up the practice of turning parts of their bodies into gates for a storage space.
Storage containers and seals are handled under the equipment section. There are two primary characteristics possessed by shards:
Size – How big the shard is, based on the same Size chart found under the rules for basic lifting capacity.
Vitality – This shows how well the shard is able the support life. Vitality cannot be higher than the Size.
Vitality Rating Effect
0 No support of life, good only for storage
1 Can contain a limited amount of oxygen relative to its Size
2 Assuming regular connection to Earth, can sustain some plant life.
3 With a lot of work, or constant connection to Earth, can maintain an ecosystem.
4 Possesses a very minimal, but self-sustaining ecosystem
5 Stable ecosystem. Maintains itself fairly easily.
6 Verdant ecosystem. No need for intelligent maintenance.
7 Exceptionally vibrant, often grows beyond the creator's intentions.
The basic Cost of a shard is listed on the chart in the section on purchasing Facilities.
In addition to the basic Facilities of Size and Vitality, a shard can have some optional Facilities representing obstacles.
Seal – A seal Facility represents the Difficulty someone would have opening the gate to the Shard. Another shaper would need to beat this Rating with a Sensitive roll in order to get into, or out of the Shard.
One sided seals are an option. These are seals meant to only block either entry to or exit from the shard. .
Concealment – While inactive gates don't affect the residual Life-Force, there's often some flaw or quirk to the structure that reveals the fact that they were basically materialized out of either Life-Force or else the matter that exists within the cosmology. Shapers and experts in authenticity can identify these quirks. This Facility represents the difficulty an expert would have identifying a particular item as a gate, or at least not a normally created item. The Cost would be the Rating of the Concealment Facility.
Integration – This is similar to concealment but for integrated shards. This represents how skillfully the extradimensional space is integrated with Earth space and thus how obvious it is that space is not normal within the area. The Cost would be the Rating of the Integration Facility.
Structure Markers – This is an almost uniquely human Facility. Gods and Demons are still mostly unsold on the practical use of residual Life-Force and consider feng shui little more than a parlor trick. Gargoyles likewise have not developed this due to not perceiving a need to upgrade shards when they can create new ones. The Rating of this Facility is used to add to procedure involving the feng shui of the shard. It is also used to add to any attempt made to upgrade the shard.
Finally, a shard can carry other Facilities such as workshops, laboratories, laboratories and the like. These would be purchased normally like the same sort of Facility on Earth.
Starting with a Shard
Aside from the use of the Hidden Compartment Advantage or the purchase of a storage container shard, it's possible to start with a full-sized shard such as an extradimensional workshop or hidden shelter. For determining the Rating of a Facility at character creation see the lists below:
Size and Vitality.
o Starting Facility – Size + Vitality is equal to the character's Resources.
o Headquarters Expert Advantage – Size + Vitality is equal to the character's Resources +1.
o Exceptional Facility Heroic Advantage – Size + Vitality is equal to the character's Resources +3.
Optional Facilities: Seal, Concealment, Integration
o Starting Facility – The Rating of any one of these options is equal to the character's Resources +2. However, they must have a shard to attach this Facility to.
o Headquarters Expert Advantage – The Rating of any one of these options is equal to the character's Resources +3.
o Exceptional Facility Heroic Advantage – The Rating of any one of these options is equal to the character's Resources +5.
Workshops, libraries, laboratories and the like are purchased as normal.
Unanchored Shards
Nirvana and Yomi are not anchored to Earth. There is no gate that can be opened by a highly knowledgeable scholar which will take someone to the realm of either the Gods or the Demons. Once upon a time, there were independent shards linking them, creating several stories of places on Earth which could lead to either heaven or hell, but in these days, there is no such thing. The problem is that the cosmology of extra-dimensional space is not static.
Shards drift within the space around Earth. Without an anchor, they could easily drift off into the deepest parts of the cosmology and be lost forever. This is especially true since shards tend to repel each other gently so that they rarely if ever collide. As such, most shards are built with an anchor and that anchor acts as the primary gate from Earth, or the other shard, to the new shard. Given the aeons of time spent by Gods, Demons, humans and others creating shards and either dying without handing them over or simply abandoning them, this means that there is a vast collection of inhabitable land orbiting Earth at all times. All of it is anchored through their gates either to Earth or to other shards.
Yomi and Nirvana have no such anchors. This was a deliberate choice made with regard to safety. When the Demons fled Earth, they didn't want to risk the disaster they were escaping bursting through the gate and into their shelters, so they created shards with no gate and used Dimensional Bursting or shaping rituals to travel between them. Likewise, the Gods created no gate for their shards in order to make it very difficult for the Demons to invade their homes.
The down side is that the position of Nirvana and Yomi must be maintained lest they should float back into the deeper cosmology and be lost again. As such, several 1st Tier Gods and Demons work in shifts to focus on keeping the shards in a more or less stable orbit. Still, Yomi is the size of a major city and Nirvana is the size of some small countries or American states. For smaller shards, it is conceivable that an unanchored, gateless shard can be maintained in place.
Still the problems out way the benefits. If the builder is not a God or a Demon, they likely don't have nearly enough power or energy to manifest a teleportation ability so the only way in and out of the shard is by performing a full shaping ritual to bridge a portal to or from the target shard every time someone wants to enter or leave. Also, while it doesn't require near as much focus or power to maintain
the orbit of a small shard as it does to maintain the orbit of Yomi or Nirvana, it must still have someone on hand to maintain its orbit every day.
Gates provide an easy way in and out of the shard and also a tether to the Earth so that the shard will not drift away. As such, most people prefer to conceal their gates rather than just not having a gate, and thus anchor, at all.
Crafting a Shard
Crafting a shard works the same as crafting any other Facility as described above. Anyone with the Sealing Power Advantage, Shaper Rituals or the Shard Crafter Expert Advantage may attempt to create a Shard. Manipulative will be required in the Challenge to create the shard.
Upgrading a Shard
If upgrading a shard were easy, Yomi would have done it a long time ago and they wouldn't be living crammed into the edges around the fields built to feed Orochi. It is not a process without risk, and that risk is substantially greater in shards where people actually live.
Once a shard is finished, trying to upgrade it requires first undoing the finishing touches of the shard, destabilizing it enough that it can be changed. This is a Challenge using the same sort of Abilities as used for crafting a shard. The Difficulty of this is equal to double the shard's Size + Vitality. Failures in this attempt could mean that the shaper or team of shapers have failed to destabilize the shard or it could mean that they've destabilized it too much, resulting in a time limit where the upgrade must be finished before it falls apart completely. Or it could be any of a number of other such serious costs.
Once destabilized, the shapers can attempt to increase the Ratings of the shard's Facilities by rolling Challenges against a Difficulties equal to double of what it took to create the shard in the first place. Failures here, like with failures in the step of destabilizing the shard, could result in the shard's destruction, or it could result in the introduction of serious flaws.
Humans actually excel at upgrading shards via their understanding of the principles of feng shui. The largest human created shard, Shangri-La, is actually composed of a multitude of smaller shards that have been progressively tacked onto each other creating a massive maze of various styles and terrains. They often leave marks in their created shards indicating the methods that were used to create the basic structure. This allows for a feng shui shih or shaper to more effectively use the residual energy that will build up in some shards, but it also allows for an easier time taking it apart and altering it.
Also, integrated shards can be easily “upgraded” by the addition of a new integrated shard within the same general area. For example, the first integrated shard created a large bathroom with a heated “tub” that could double as a wading pool. A later integrated shard creates a theater-sized living room for the entertainment of guests, and a still later integrated shard creates a labyrinth between the front door and the living quarters of the building. These are all technically separate shards, but the result is that the affected house grows continually larger.
Alternative Method of Crafting Facilities
Instead of running the crafting of the Facility as a simple challenge, you can change it into an entire scenario and break it up into a multitude of open-ended scenes that the characters can work on as a whole. In this case, there’s no specific mechanics to follow, use your own judgment and common sense to craft the Challenges, Contests and Conflicts that would result. This is most useful when dealing with the creation of major Facilities such as large Shards or world-class laboratories. You might set it up as a serious of tasks starting with a smaller Facility and continually upgrading until it reaches the desired point.
Facilities are places that are set up with tools and spaces designed to make specific tasks easier to perform. An artist's studio might be set up with a wide open space to place subjects or models, plenty of supplies related to their craft and possibly a television or sound system to produce whatever sort of preferred white noise the artist uses to concentrate. A scientific laboratory would likely have one or more computers and several other specialized pieces of equipment as well as a catalog of samples or past experiments. A human shaper's ritual space would likely have a permanently inscribed circle along with several quartz crystals, other such tools and instructions on various rituals. The exact details of what makes up the facility is up to the player or GM describing it.
Note that a Facility does not necessarily require its own building. The same building can have several different facilities within it as long as it makes sense for their to be enough room. Likewise, the characters can choose to place all their Facilities in the same building if they desire.
Every character starts with one Facility for free with a Rating equal to the character's Resources. If the Facility is a specialized one then the Rating of this free Facility is equal to the character's Resources +1. This Rating is added to the rolls of any task appropriate to the Facility taken within it.
Freddy Lopez is a Half-Demon shaper with Resources of 3. He has a Facility for helping perform shaping rituals. It has a Rating of 3. When he performs rituals within his ritual space he has an extra +3 to his roll. If he decided to specialize the space toward creating curses then he would have a specialized Facility and it would have been a Rating 4.
Purchasing Facilities
Further Facilities can be acquired making a Resources roll against Difficulty based on the following chart. Costs for Shards are included.
Type of Facility Cost
One-Sided Seal Rating x 2
Obstacle Facility Rating x Rating, Minimum 2
Specialized Non-Psychic Facility Rating +1 x Rating
Specialized Psychic Facility General Purpose Non-Psychic Facility
Rating +2 x Rating General Purpose Psychic Facility
Rating +1 x Rating +1 Shard (Size+2 x Size+2) + Vitality+2
Feng Shui Affected Area Size+2 x Size+2
How much time it takes to put the Facility together is entirely up to the GM but the following table can be used for benchmarks. However, this chart is assuming the purchasing and acquiring power of one person. If you have a character who is a billionaire, genius, philanthropist playboy then they might just have an Organization on hand who can put together a Facility much, much quicker and with less Difficulty.
The purchasing of major Facilities could represent a Scenario in and of itself.
Facility Rating Time to Acquire
+1 Hours
+2 Days
+3 Weeks
+4 Months
+5 Seasons
+6 Years
Crafting Facilities
For crafting a Facility, handle it like crafting a piece of equipment as described before but use the following changes.
Base the Difficulty on the Cost described above. Minimum 3.
Reduce the Difficulty by 3 for each roll besides the first in the Craft Challenge. Minimum 3
Use the Time to Acquire table to determine how long each roll represents.
Fatigue still occurs, but it is more lingering and building than it is immediately apparent.
Fate Points can be spent to extend construction to the next time period. Next week for rolls taking days, for example.
Maneuvers can still be performed.
As stated earlier, Units and Organizations can complete the same task in less time and with less Difficulty.
Yes, this can end up taking a long time and having a high Difficulty, but that’s because these rules assume a single person putting the Facility together. Consider that it took a certain nocturnal animal themed vigilante years to build up his subterranean Facility to its peak effectiveness because he couldn’t just order his company to truck some equipment and set it up. It started as a hole in the ground with a computer, some equipment lockers and a garage. He could, and did, order the creation of similarly specialized and effective Facilities to be created almost overnight for the research branch of his corporation.
Upgraded Facilities
The act of upgrading a Facility to a higher Rating is fairly simple. Take the difference between its current Rating and the desired new Rating and double that. Use this as the effective Rating for
determining Cost. Then roll Resources or perform a Challenge as normal depending on whether your character is building the Facility himself or is hiring someone else to do it for him.
The time taken should be based on the current Rating of the Facility, not the new Rating.
The Half-Demon Shaper, Freddy, has a Library specialized in knowledge on countering and creating curses. The current Library has a Rating of 2, but he wants to improve that Rating to 3. The difference between the current Rating and the Desired Rating is 1. Double that is 2, this is a specialized Library related to psychic phenomena so the Cost would be 8 to upgrade it. He decides just roll his Resources and, with the expenditure of some Fate Points, barely manages to beat the 8. His Library is now a Rating 3 Facility adding to Knowledge rolls related to Curses. This takes him a few days to get the necessary books.
If Freddy later wants to upgrade his Library all the way to a Rating 5, then the difference between the current Rating of 3 and the desired Rating of 5 would be 2. Double 2 is 4 and a specialized psychic Facility means that the Cost would be 24. He decides to improve his library himself by including his own notes and observances from past experiences. He’s going to roll Craft, Knowledge and Reasoning for this and the GM approves. Since he’s making two additional rolls, he reduces the Difficulty to 18 for each of the rolls and, after some headaches, Freddy successfully upgrades his Facility to a library with a Rating of 5.
Facilities Acquired via XP
Facilities can also be acquired via AP and XP via the Headquarters Expert Advantage and the Exceptional Facility Heroic Advantage. In this case, you are assumed to have succeeded in either your Resources roll or the crafting Challenge automatically. GMs should consider making Facilities as part of the reward for some Scenarios.
Rating Example Facility
0 No real Facility.
1 Casual Hobbyists
2 Small schools, Serious Hobbyists
3 Average schools, small businesses
4 Larger schools, local businesses
5 Universities, Major companies
6 Government labs, International Corporations
Facilities as Obstacles
An alternate way to use Facilities is to use them as obstacles for other people. For example, a Facility geared toward Security would be used as a Difficulty for breaking into a place. Likewise, you could use the Facility Rating to set the Difficulty for finding a safehouse or hidden cache. If a player chooses this as their free Facility, then it's Rating is equal to their Resources +2. Purchasing or crafting a Facility as an Obstacle is to be handled as normal.
James is a bit paranoid, so his home is a smallish house hidden on the outer edge Edinburgh in some hills. He takes a Facility for it relating to how difficult it is for people to find his house. Since his Resources are 1, his house has a Facility Rating of 3 acting as a Difficulty for people to find it.
Feng Shui
Feng shui is the practice of altering the surrounding environment in order to enhance some purpose or another. If that arrangement is maintained and adapted as the situation changes, then it can easily be represented as a bonus of some sort.
A business wants to attract more customers and hires a feng shui shih to arrange their circumstances to more easily attract attention. This is a matter of altering the flow of residual Life-Force to leak out into the surrounding area and pique the interest of people walking past by triggering their innate empathic senses. This works as a Facility providing a bonus to Persuasion rolls related to drawing people into the business. Of course, if customer service is poor, the product is defective or something else is wrong, all that’s going to happen is it’ll expose more people to your bad service and spread the word that much faster.
Someone else hires a feng shui shih to arrange their home in a way to insure comfort, productivity and privacy. This represents three facilities. The first is a Facility providing a bonus to Mental Recovery rolls, the second is a Facility providing a bonus to Craft rolls and the third is an obstacle making it hard to find the place.
Within their own home, a feng shui shih arranges matters to make it easier to use their other psychic abilities such as channeling or the like. This is a Facility providing a bonus to Channeling or the use of a Talent. They might also apply their feng shui expertise to a ritual space creating a Facility which provides a bonus to their Shaping or Low Magic practices.
One thing to note is that all feng shui arrangements also require a second Facility setting the size of the area to be affected by the Facility.
The feng shui arrangement around a single building is about a Size 3 for a small house, or 4 for a large house. An arrangement encompassing an entire neighborhood would be Size 5. A small city like Vohlstahl would require a Size 7 Facility. A city like Washington DC would require a Size 8 Facility.
Feng shui arrangements do not automatically apply their bonus. The person using them has to know about the arrangement and how to tap into it to make proper use of the capabilities. Lacking the proper awareness and training, the feng shui arrangement can only be used like any other Aspect.
Washington DC is one of the largest feng shui arrangements in the world, however, it’s been more than a hundred years since someone in the government has had the training necessary to make full use of it. It is still Invoked as a City Designed to Impress for a reroll or a +2 to related rolls, however the full force of its design has not been used for a long time.
Significant changes to the area affected by the feng shui Facility will result in someone needing to adjust the arrangement or else a degradation of its rating. Significant is a relative term. A new person coming to live in a small house is a significant change. A new person coming to live in a city is usually an unnoticeable change. There aren’t any real mechanics for determining when this occurs, but it can
make for a short scenario or scene where a character attempts to address changes in the environment of their home ground.
When first designed, the arrangement of Washington DC was a Facility 7 aimed at impressing people with the grandeur and might of the United States. However, since then, thousands upon thousands of people have come to live the city and various gifts and monuments have been raised. Some of these were created or granted with the goal of enhancing the feng shui of the city, but overall, the rating of the Facility has degraded to a Facility 4.
Crafting a feng shui arrangement requires the Feng Shui Heroic Advantage and the challenge should require the Sensitive Psychic Ability in addition to the normal Abilities of Knowledge, Craft and Resources.
Circles
Temporary circles are the result of a maneuver, usually breakdown after a scene has passed and rarely if ever last longer than a day. More permanent circles are carved into solid surfaces or created using inlays of various materials some of which will likely be the material that most resonates with the creator species. For example, most circles use carved stone or inscribed metal for the basic structure, but humans will often embed quartz crystals at key points throughout a circle they intend to use. Permanent circles represent a Facility that is used to enhance the performance of a particular psychic skill or Talent.
Crafting a circle does not require the use of the Psychic Abilities, but they can be used to perform Maneuvers to make the crafting challenge easier.
A therianthrope shaper is creating a circle to make it easier to perform shapechangers within it. He decides to perform a Maneuver placing Test Run on the Circle before making the final Craft roll. Standing in the circle he uses his Talent to change into his animal form as a way of seeing if the residual Life-Force drawn by the circle is flowing into and reinforcing his own in the proper way. The GM sets a Difficulty of 4 and he rolls a +2 for a total of 5, giving him a single Tag on the Test Run Aspect to use when he makes the Final Craft roll and finishes the circle.
Note that circles, like feng shui arrangements, require the person using them to have the appropriate training and be able to discern the trigger points of the circle. Just knowing a circle exists does not make it any easier to use. Also, if multiple circles are interlinked then a single circle within it cannot be invoked without invoking the entire circle. They are essentially part of a circuit and trying to isolate them would have disastrous results, which might be exactly what the intention is, of course. Skilled shapers protect against the possibility of such deliberate sabotage of course, but that might be a separate Facility.
A Twelve-Point Circle is essentially an overlay of six Two-Point Circles, four Three-Point Circles and three Four-Point Circles. However, they are all integrated and a random psychic can’t just Invoke a Three-Point Circle for power, it would produce a potentially dangerous feedback. He would have to first perform a Knowledge Overcome to understand how to utilize this particular circle, at which point he would be able to use the Twelve-Point Circle as a Facility providing a flat bonus to his roll. He could also then perform Maneuvers relating to the circle in order to get more benefit out of it.
Likewise, if that Twelve-Point Circle is, itself, part of a larger network of circles, then someone would have to be able to understand the entirety of the circle network in order to safely use it. If they’re trying to short circuit the arrangement they might have to get past an obstacle Facility.
Multiple Facilities in one Location
It is very much possible to have multiple Facilities in one location, but each Facility should represent a bonus to one particular task. If that one task is being improved in multiple ways, that still represents a single Facility. Also, use your common sense in considering how much space a Facility would take up and consider if it is possible for a single set of equipment to serve double duty.
Freddy Lopez’s home has a ritual space that includes a library full of records of different curses and their remedies, a circle designed specifically to make clairvoyance rituals easier to perform and he has arranged the feng shui of the room to make it a calmer and less chaotic environment so he can more easily manipulate the Life-Force around him. He builds these as three Facilities of Rating 3. A library Facility providing a +3 Bonus to rolls made to create or remove curses, a circle Facility providing a +3 Bonus to scrying attempts, and a feng shui Facility providing a +3 bonus to shaping.
In this case, Freddy would gain a +3 bonus to shaping a clairvoyance ritual from the feng shui Facility. Then he would gain a +3 bonus to using the clairvoyance ability from the circle. Finally he would have a +3 bonus to performing any curses on targets found through the clairvoyance, assuming it was created with the capability of using psychic skills and Talents through it.
If Freddy had instead decided to define all three as Rating 3 Facilities providing a bonus to Shaping rituals, the GM would have said no and declared it as a single Facility of Rating 9 instead. Aware that creating a Rating 9 Facility is a bit outside of his ability, Freddy instead opts to create a Facility Rating 6 for Shaping instead.
In this case, Freddy would have a +6 Bonus to Activate any power created through a Shaping ritual, but not the actual use of it. This would make scrying very easy and make the curse relatively Stress free, but wouldn’t provide any bonus to actually attacking and placing the curse.
Facilities and Maneuvers
Most Facilities are not explicitly stated as Aspects, but the use of Maneuvers can easily make them into Aspects for the space of a scene, just like any other situation in the game can be described as an Aspect.
A laboratory represents a Facility of Rating 3 for the analysis of biological phenomena. A particular scientist might be able to perform a Maneuver to place an Aspect of This is My Laboratory. They would then be able to Invoke any Tags placed on that Aspect and use a Fate Point to Invoke it again. For example, if the Aspect in question had two free Tags, the scientist using the Facility would be able to Invoke both of those Tags, spend a Fate Point for another Invoke for a total bonus of +6 and then, after all of that, gain the Facility Rating Bonus of +3 equating to a total bonus of +9 to their roll before their Abilities, Advantages and Personal Aspects are involved.
Why Circles and Feng Shui?
So, if circles and feng shui both do mechanically the same thing and can’t be stacked on the same task, then why include them both? The reason is flavor. Most things in Fate, and thus these Divine Blood rules, use the same mechanics, after all. In addition, it is possible to be an expert in the use of circles but not feng shui, most Gods and Demons don’t take feng shui seriously, for example. Though it is much rarer for a feng shui shih to not understand circles, since they usually have Advantages or Aspects related to shaping as well as feng shui, it is still possible for someone to be a feng shui shih that doesn’t understand circles and their use. In these cases, the GM should reduce the rating of any Facility
that is composed of both circles and feng shui arrangements when used by someone that only understands one of the two.
Freddy Lopez is a feng-shui shih and a sorcerer. His Demonic father, Ravana, however, has never studied feng shui. Freddy Lopez has created a circuit of interlinked circles fed by the residual Life-Force via a feng shui arrangement. This all equates to a Facility of +4 for him to use his channeling while at home, in case of attack. If Ravana were to perform a Maneuver to understand the use of the circles in his son’s home, he’d both get the free Tags from the Maneuver but the GM rules he’d only get a Facility bonus of +2 since he’s not aware of how the feng shui works.
Shards
Shards are extradimensional spaces within the cosmology of the Earth. They are relatively common tools among shapers and sorcerers and have been for thousands of years. They usually have some sort of physical anchor to Earth usually referred to as a seal or a gate. The variety of shards include the following:
Storage Containers – Specifically geared toward storing items. These often appear as bags of some sort which has led to tongue in cheek references to signature items from a certain well-known tabletop game.
Sealed Space – These shards are often larger and used as workshops or sometimes even living areas. These usually have gates in the form of statues or other such objects. Unlike storage items, they are rarely carried along with the owner. A large number of these have been abandoned over time. Those that were created as life-supporting have often grown wild. These are useful since a gate that is not actively open does not have affect the ambient Life Force and are often difficult to identify.
Integrated Shards – These shards are anchored to the Earth via doorways and other landscape features often making it hard to tell where the Earth ends and the shard begins. This often creates an impression that the inside of a shaper's or sorcerer's domicile is bigger on the inside. Individuals with the Understanding have a sense when they are crossing the dimensional borders and these shards are especially easy for those with high levels of Life Force Sight to notice. A shaping ritual will also detect the presence of these sorts of shards.
Prison Seals – These are exactly what they sound like: a created prison meant to hold something. There are quite a few seals that were created in ancient times to hold Nameless Things. Likewise, Gods and Demons often use these to seal each other away rather than kill each other.
Body Seals – There are some sorcerers and shapers that have taken up the practice of turning parts of their bodies into gates for a storage space.
Storage containers and seals are handled under the equipment section. There are two primary characteristics possessed by shards:
Size – How big the shard is, based on the same Size chart found under the rules for basic lifting capacity.
Vitality – This shows how well the shard is able the support life. Vitality cannot be higher than the Size.
Vitality Rating Effect
0 No support of life, good only for storage
1 Can contain a limited amount of oxygen relative to its Size
2 Assuming regular connection to Earth, can sustain some plant life.
3 With a lot of work, or constant connection to Earth, can maintain an ecosystem.
4 Possesses a very minimal, but self-sustaining ecosystem
5 Stable ecosystem. Maintains itself fairly easily.
6 Verdant ecosystem. No need for intelligent maintenance.
7 Exceptionally vibrant, often grows beyond the creator's intentions.
The basic Cost of a shard is listed on the chart in the section on purchasing Facilities.
In addition to the basic Facilities of Size and Vitality, a shard can have some optional Facilities representing obstacles.
Seal – A seal Facility represents the Difficulty someone would have opening the gate to the Shard. Another shaper would need to beat this Rating with a Sensitive roll in order to get into, or out of the Shard.
One sided seals are an option. These are seals meant to only block either entry to or exit from the shard. .
Concealment – While inactive gates don't affect the residual Life-Force, there's often some flaw or quirk to the structure that reveals the fact that they were basically materialized out of either Life-Force or else the matter that exists within the cosmology. Shapers and experts in authenticity can identify these quirks. This Facility represents the difficulty an expert would have identifying a particular item as a gate, or at least not a normally created item. The Cost would be the Rating of the Concealment Facility.
Integration – This is similar to concealment but for integrated shards. This represents how skillfully the extradimensional space is integrated with Earth space and thus how obvious it is that space is not normal within the area. The Cost would be the Rating of the Integration Facility.
Structure Markers – This is an almost uniquely human Facility. Gods and Demons are still mostly unsold on the practical use of residual Life-Force and consider feng shui little more than a parlor trick. Gargoyles likewise have not developed this due to not perceiving a need to upgrade shards when they can create new ones. The Rating of this Facility is used to add to procedure involving the feng shui of the shard. It is also used to add to any attempt made to upgrade the shard.
Finally, a shard can carry other Facilities such as workshops, laboratories, laboratories and the like. These would be purchased normally like the same sort of Facility on Earth.
Starting with a Shard
Aside from the use of the Hidden Compartment Advantage or the purchase of a storage container shard, it's possible to start with a full-sized shard such as an extradimensional workshop or hidden shelter. For determining the Rating of a Facility at character creation see the lists below:
Size and Vitality.
o Starting Facility – Size + Vitality is equal to the character's Resources.
o Headquarters Expert Advantage – Size + Vitality is equal to the character's Resources +1.
o Exceptional Facility Heroic Advantage – Size + Vitality is equal to the character's Resources +3.
Optional Facilities: Seal, Concealment, Integration
o Starting Facility – The Rating of any one of these options is equal to the character's Resources +2. However, they must have a shard to attach this Facility to.
o Headquarters Expert Advantage – The Rating of any one of these options is equal to the character's Resources +3.
o Exceptional Facility Heroic Advantage – The Rating of any one of these options is equal to the character's Resources +5.
Workshops, libraries, laboratories and the like are purchased as normal.
Unanchored Shards
Nirvana and Yomi are not anchored to Earth. There is no gate that can be opened by a highly knowledgeable scholar which will take someone to the realm of either the Gods or the Demons. Once upon a time, there were independent shards linking them, creating several stories of places on Earth which could lead to either heaven or hell, but in these days, there is no such thing. The problem is that the cosmology of extra-dimensional space is not static.
Shards drift within the space around Earth. Without an anchor, they could easily drift off into the deepest parts of the cosmology and be lost forever. This is especially true since shards tend to repel each other gently so that they rarely if ever collide. As such, most shards are built with an anchor and that anchor acts as the primary gate from Earth, or the other shard, to the new shard. Given the aeons of time spent by Gods, Demons, humans and others creating shards and either dying without handing them over or simply abandoning them, this means that there is a vast collection of inhabitable land orbiting Earth at all times. All of it is anchored through their gates either to Earth or to other shards.
Yomi and Nirvana have no such anchors. This was a deliberate choice made with regard to safety. When the Demons fled Earth, they didn't want to risk the disaster they were escaping bursting through the gate and into their shelters, so they created shards with no gate and used Dimensional Bursting or shaping rituals to travel between them. Likewise, the Gods created no gate for their shards in order to make it very difficult for the Demons to invade their homes.
The down side is that the position of Nirvana and Yomi must be maintained lest they should float back into the deeper cosmology and be lost again. As such, several 1st Tier Gods and Demons work in shifts to focus on keeping the shards in a more or less stable orbit. Still, Yomi is the size of a major city and Nirvana is the size of some small countries or American states. For smaller shards, it is conceivable that an unanchored, gateless shard can be maintained in place.
Still the problems out way the benefits. If the builder is not a God or a Demon, they likely don't have nearly enough power or energy to manifest a teleportation ability so the only way in and out of the shard is by performing a full shaping ritual to bridge a portal to or from the target shard every time someone wants to enter or leave. Also, while it doesn't require near as much focus or power to maintain
the orbit of a small shard as it does to maintain the orbit of Yomi or Nirvana, it must still have someone on hand to maintain its orbit every day.
Gates provide an easy way in and out of the shard and also a tether to the Earth so that the shard will not drift away. As such, most people prefer to conceal their gates rather than just not having a gate, and thus anchor, at all.
Crafting a Shard
Crafting a shard works the same as crafting any other Facility as described above. Anyone with the Sealing Power Advantage, Shaper Rituals or the Shard Crafter Expert Advantage may attempt to create a Shard. Manipulative will be required in the Challenge to create the shard.
Upgrading a Shard
If upgrading a shard were easy, Yomi would have done it a long time ago and they wouldn't be living crammed into the edges around the fields built to feed Orochi. It is not a process without risk, and that risk is substantially greater in shards where people actually live.
Once a shard is finished, trying to upgrade it requires first undoing the finishing touches of the shard, destabilizing it enough that it can be changed. This is a Challenge using the same sort of Abilities as used for crafting a shard. The Difficulty of this is equal to double the shard's Size + Vitality. Failures in this attempt could mean that the shaper or team of shapers have failed to destabilize the shard or it could mean that they've destabilized it too much, resulting in a time limit where the upgrade must be finished before it falls apart completely. Or it could be any of a number of other such serious costs.
Once destabilized, the shapers can attempt to increase the Ratings of the shard's Facilities by rolling Challenges against a Difficulties equal to double of what it took to create the shard in the first place. Failures here, like with failures in the step of destabilizing the shard, could result in the shard's destruction, or it could result in the introduction of serious flaws.
Humans actually excel at upgrading shards via their understanding of the principles of feng shui. The largest human created shard, Shangri-La, is actually composed of a multitude of smaller shards that have been progressively tacked onto each other creating a massive maze of various styles and terrains. They often leave marks in their created shards indicating the methods that were used to create the basic structure. This allows for a feng shui shih or shaper to more effectively use the residual energy that will build up in some shards, but it also allows for an easier time taking it apart and altering it.
Also, integrated shards can be easily “upgraded” by the addition of a new integrated shard within the same general area. For example, the first integrated shard created a large bathroom with a heated “tub” that could double as a wading pool. A later integrated shard creates a theater-sized living room for the entertainment of guests, and a still later integrated shard creates a labyrinth between the front door and the living quarters of the building. These are all technically separate shards, but the result is that the affected house grows continually larger.
Alternative Method of Crafting Facilities
Instead of running the crafting of the Facility as a simple challenge, you can change it into an entire scenario and break it up into a multitude of open-ended scenes that the characters can work on as a whole. In this case, there’s no specific mechanics to follow, use your own judgment and common sense to craft the Challenges, Contests and Conflicts that would result. This is most useful when dealing with the creation of major Facilities such as large Shards or world-class laboratories. You might set it up as a serious of tasks starting with a smaller Facility and continually upgrading until it reaches the desired point.