THE BARRIER

 

GAUNTLET /VEIL/ SHROUD/ WALL 

 

Known as the Gauntlet to mages, The wall to Kuei-jin, The Shroud to Wraiths and The Veil to Werewolves. The Barrier is the magic membrane between the worlds.

 

When a roll to beat the difficulty is required, check below. The exact stat's for crossing the barrier vary species to species and even location has some barring on what stats are rolled, but the difficulty for such rolls is consistent.

​

THE BARRIER AND BANALITY

Banality is not really connected to the presence of the Barrier, but rather human consensus which strengthens both banality and the barrier. Fortunately the rating of the barrier is coincidentally the same as the banality of an area. Most area's are so tolerable to a changelings banality threshold we see no reason for a separate chart. Just use the Barrier rating instead, especially if dealing with chimera and the  like.

​

​

THE ROLL:

All creatures use their current location difficulty to cross the barrier. If they are coming back they roll the difficulty for the desired location.

NOTE: If your species is not listed as being able to enter or exit a certain place, then you can't enter it.

NOTE II: The Astral Plane and Shadowlands ARE separate, but spirits (and wraith) Occupy, therefore can meet spiritually in this space as can Garou in the penumbra.

NOTE III: Penumbra exists in all of nocturne, entry to it is as on the chart below. UNDERWORLD, THE DREAMING, THE SPIRIT WILDS are skybox based and have their own entry requirements.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

          

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

WEREWOLVES FOLLOW THE LEADER RULE:

Pack members can choose one among them to lead them into the Umbra; this leader makes the roll for all of them (thus, it is usually the pack member with the highest Gnosis). Pack members may choose to enter individually, but they risk entering at different times or even losing one another. If the leader's roll succeeds, all the pack members arrive at the same time. If the roll botches, the entire pack becomes "caught" together  All the members of the pack must be able to step sideways,  (Meaning they must have unspent gnosis) and they all must be willing to follow the pack member leading them.

​

SPIRIT VS BODY

When you enter in spirit , you use a spirit PROFILE (See combat in astral plane)

YOUR BODY IS WHERE YOU LEFT IT VULNERABLE!

​

​

 

• NOTES: ASTRAL PLANE/ SHADOWLANDS/ PENUMBRA

The Astral plane is known by many different species as the Penumbra. This is an area that is neither umbra or real world, it is a realm of thought or spirit and is much like our world, It is a thin veneer and with practice one can spy on the real world from within it. However

• Werewolves Stepping Sideways to go from one real world location to another, pass through the astral plane.

• Vampires Astral Projecting.

• Wraith in the shadowlands.

All the above takes place in the astral plane/shadowlands/penumbra

​

• SPYING FROM THE ASTRAL PLANE/ SHADOWLANDS/ PENUMBRA

A character in the astral plane can peer into the physical world, but it’s not easy, and it’s not without risk. Wraith have no such difficulty.

ROLL: Gnosis, Auspex, Chi, Arete,  Vs Barrier Difficulty

If the attempt succeeds, the character  sees a shadowy, monochromatic version of the physical world. Seeing fine details is difficult (although it’s possible to read newsprint, a computer monitor, or facial expressions with five successes). Noises from the other side have distortion or echoes.

​

• COMBAT IN THE ASTRAL PLANE /SHADOWLANDS/ PENUMBRA

Wraith use their standard statistics and are better suited and better practised at ghostly combat. Every none wraith character in astral realm uses the following. INTELLIGENCE: for attacks   WITS: for defence   WILLPOWER: as health.

​

SOURCES:

• Vampire The Masquerade clearly states that astral projection will find the vampire encountering wraith and garou in the astral plane.

• Orpheus (the source for projectors) clearly states that a projector is astral projecting in the same way as a vampire, but ends up in the shadowlands.

• Werewolf the Apocalypse describes werewolves ability to perceive the world when side stepping as identical to that of other projected entities, even though the werewolf is -physically- in the penumbra.  

We can conclude the penumbra/astral plane/ shadowlands are the same location, While however they appear physically different depending on the particular species traveling into them. A wraith and projector expects it to -look- like the shadowlands do, a garou expects it to look how it does to a garou, a vampire expects it to look at is does. The penumbra is -not- the underworld, the spirit wilds or the dreaming. Those are locations in the deeper umbra(s) beyond this -buffer- zone. (Think of it like a gaming lobby, before you join your specific server)

​

​

NOTE: THE UNDERWORLD OF WRAITH & THE DREAMING OF CHANGELINGS HAVE THEIR OWN SPECIAL RULES DEDICATED TO THEIR REALMS. YOU WILL FIND THE INFORMATION ON THE RELEVENT SPLAT PAGES! THE ABOVE DEALS WITH PENUMBRA ONLY!

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

THE DIGITAL WEB

The Digital Web is part of the umbra that is accessible to all, however most characters just skim the surface of what the digital web has to offer.

Unlike other areas of the umbra there is no -barrier- to navigate. Instead access is restricted by access type.

NOTE: Consequence and the Digital Web, There is NONE. The digital web has become survival of the 1337est. No reason is required to attack a character on the digital web. This does make it dangerous for those Immersed via Astral or Holistic Means, However Astral and Holistically immersed characters have a greater array of damage they can cause and far more health than the average netizen. Don't forget, if you don't like something, or behaviours on the digital web, you can always "Log off of it" 

​

NOTE: The Digital Web skybox represents a "Grid" players should conduct all -online- activities within this box. The representation -may- or -may not- look as it is presented to the player character... they could for example say it looks like  a normal street, instead of the wireframe and mesh we have.

​

SENSORY IMMERSION: (Access via an interface)

The quick and easy way to enter the Web involves simply strapping on the right gear and logging in. Any Sleeper can do this, although most mortals figure that what they’re seeing is cool graphics, not actual reality. In the old days, sensory visitation required bulky VR gear. Now all it demands is a pair of high-end net-access sunglasses, maybe with a pair of sleek VR gloves for tactile contact. Certain gaming platforms provide a limited interface for sensory visitation through screens, keyboards, and other related devices. Sure, this virtual reality looks like state-of-the-art graphics… and it is. Still, there’s more to that World of Woecraft game than most people think. Why else would it be so addictive? Story-wise, sensory visitation projects the traveller’s visual, audio, and – to a limited degree – tactile senses into the Web. Through the interface, her mind visits the Web even though her physical body remains at home. Although her contact with that online world holds certain limitations, she sends a part of her consciousness into that space.

• Almost anyone can access the digital web this way. Characters require an internet connection and a computer.​

• Characters visiting the digital web via smart phone suffer  +3 difficulty to all actions performed within the digital web.

• Characters visiting the digital web via laptop/desktop suffer +2 difficulty to all actions performed within the digital web.

• Characters visiting the digital web via via VR gear only suffer +1 difficulty to all actions performed within the digital web

• Characters immersed in this way use INTELLIGENCE  for Attack, WITS for defence. HEALTH has a default value of 3 for sensory immersion.

• No damage suffered in NETSPACE transfers to MEATSPACE.

• No supernatural powers can be used when using Sensory Immersion.

• Sensory Immersed characters can only deal bashing damage.

• Sensory Immersed characters reduced to zero health via Basing damage suffer soft de-rez

• Sensory Immersed characters reduced to zero health via Lethal damage suffer a hard de-rez

• Sensory Immersed characters reduced to zero health via aggravated damage suffer Icon death.

• Humans, Ghouls, Kinfolk, Werewolves (Exception is Glass Walkers), Vampires, Kuei-Jin, Changelings, Mummies & Kinain can ONLY use this method to access digital web.

• Nosferatu vampires Suffer +2 difficulty on smart phones and + 1 difficulty using laptop/desk top and no difficulty via VR gear. The Nosferatu spend a greater deal of time online than many other beings, though can only ever immerse using sensory immersion. 

• Virtual Adept Mages. Suffer no difficulties online at all, so long as they are using trinary computers, however they cannot work effects via sensory immersion alone. (no spellcasting possible via sensory immersion, however those with hacking abilities can still hack the digital web as normal, see -hacking feats-)

​

ASTRAL IMMERSION: (mind immersion)

NOTE: While many entities are capable of Astral Travel, Only mages are capable of Astral Travel on the Digital Web.

At the next level of Web access, a traveller immerses herself into the Web through a limited form of astral projection, this trick involves projecting your senses – and by extension, your sense of reality – into the Web. Thanks to a combination of good gear, a ready mind, and the skill to go where the visitor wants to go in the way she wants to go there, the average netizen can reach the deeper level of digital reality without actually downloading herself into the Web. In game terms, astral immersion requires good VR equipment . On both game and story levels, the astrally immersed character is vulnerable in Meatspace; her entire concentration remains focused on the Digital Web environment, leaving her body in a deep trance. Smart travellers leave alarms, guards, or allies, and other levels of security on their bodies; after all, if anything happens to the meat back home, that visit may become a one-way trip. On the positive end, they can drop out immediately if need be. Although the experience of going from one reality to another can be disorienting for a minute or so, the benefits of being able to ditch out on a bad situation kinda make up for the inconvenience of building a new icon when you return.

• Mages require VR gear and roll Arete + Correspondence Difficulty 14+ •• with 2 successes required. OR Arete + Data •• with just one success required.

• Astrally Immersed characters suffer no difficulty penalties for using the web this way.

• Astrally Immersed characters can use any non physical supernatural abilities while immersed.

• Astrally Immersed characters Use INTELLIGENCE for Attacks, WITS for defence and their HEALTH = their composure + resolve.

• Astrally Immersed characters can only inflict Bashing damage

• Astrally Immersed characters convert Bashing, Lethal and Aggravated damage into Bashing damage onto their real  body.

• Astrally Immersed characters also suffer Soft De-Rez, Hard De-rez and Icon death in the same manner as sensory immersed characters but take the bashing damage to their real bodies in addition.

​

​

HOLISITIC IMMERSION: (full body immersion)

Maximum access involves projecting one’s own self into the Digital Web. Downloading the body as information, a high-end Trinary computer system disassembles the traveler’s physical data and jacks it into a different level of reality. Although the necessary gear has been refined since the 1990s, this is still one hell of a stunt, requiring tremendous processing power and Enlightened technology. Story-wise, the traveler becomes pure information; this requires at least seconds of processing time with the appropriate gear. Although rumors speculate that portable HI Devices exist, few people are crazy enough to trust their molecules to a glorified iPad, so such Devices might or might not exist.  Downloading yourself into a computer is, of course, extremely vulgar in all locations on Earth, so that backlash can be very, very nasty. A holistically immersed character uses all of his usual Traits in all of the usual ways. For better and worse, he is in the Web.

• Wraith with the Arcanoi, Inhabit ••, "Ride the electron Highway" can holistically immerse themselves in the Digital Web.

• Demons and Thralls with Digital Reliquaries may holistically immerse themselves.

• Glass walker level ••• gift "Universal Interface" and one point of Gnosis allows a glass walker to Holistically immerse itself in the digital web.

• Mages require a Trinary Computer and roll Arete + Life  •••• + Forces •• + Correspondence ••  Difficulty 18+ with 8 successes required, if Data sphere is used then only 7 successes are required. NOTE: Only certain traditions or conventions own Trinary computers!

• Holistically immersed characters have full access to their full range of supernatural powers.

• Holistically immersed characters may deal any damage type their character is capable of.

• Holistically immersed characters use their regular statistics 

• Holistically immersed characters take 1 for 1 and type for type damage.

• If a holistically immersed character suffers icon death it dies for real.

• If a holistically immersed character is reduced to zero health via bashing or lethal damage it suffers soft or hard de-rezes, as well as taking the damage for real. (They will be unconscious suffering the damage they suffered in the digital web)

​

SOFT DE-REZ (Icon Health Reduced to zero by Bashing Damage)

• Character is booted to another sector and must spend 5 turns (minus wits) to respawn

HARD DE-REZ (Icon Health Reduced to zero by Lethal Damage)

• Character is booted offline and may not access the digital web for 1 day.

ICON DEATH (Icon Health Reduced to zero by aggravated  Damage)

• Character is booted offline, their icon is destroyed and they must create another avatar for use in the digital web. NOTE: For Holistically Immersed characters an Icon Death is a Final Death. It's not a representation that is destroyed, but themselves. 

​

ICONS

Awakened visitors have vivid icons with voices and behaviors that seem almost human. Astral immersion provides the most flexible experience, whereas holistic immersion and Web-climbing provide the most solid icons. Sensory visitation creates a hazy icon that’s still more tangible than a Sleeper icon from the Grid. It sometimes takes a moment or two, but Awakened folks can often recognize each other’s nature, if not identity, in the Web. Identity is an elusive concept in this space. As I mentioned earlier, folks project aspects of their Earthly selves here, but those aspects can be deceptive. An icon might look nothing whatsoever like that person’s physical self. Skilled netizens can appear in whatever form they choose. More often than not, you can guess a lot about a person in Meatspace by the way they behave. After all, appearances aren’t everything. In the Digital Web, however, identity is fluid and often unpredictable. For bleaters and Awakened netizens alike, this Zone provides potent lessons about the tricky nature of reality.

• Icon is another name for Avatars as we in the western world refer to our digital representations online. The reason they are named "ICONS" instead of Avatars is to remove confusion between a mages Avatar and a mages Icon.

• Sensory Immersed characters Icons appear shadowy or poorly made, Even the best Icon is dull compared to the astrally or holistically immersed character. If one is striving for realistic representation, put on a NOOB avatar.

• Astrally Immersed characters appear vibrant and just look better in general, its the difference between mesh and non mesh and then some.

• Holistically immersed characters appear to be using a different graphics engine to everyone else. They really stand out.

​

WEAPONS

• Holistically immersed characters can use what they bring with them

• Astrally immersed characters can follow the sensory immersed character rules, otherwise no weapons travel with them.

• Sensory immersed characters may be permitted weapons if the "Zone" is a combat zone. Any weapon may be chosen freely from the weapons pages, however these weapons ONLY apply in Netspace and cannot be taken to Meatspace. These digital weapons only grant half the attack or defence bonuses of their real world counterparts because they are designed to be used on Icons with only 3 health.

​

DECIDING THE ZONE RULES.

This is a matter of etiquette that works on a first come first serve basis. The first person in the skybox decides it's constraints (No Damage, No Combat, No Weapons, PG content etc) However if that person leaves the zone, the netizen who has been there the longest decides.. Once you leave a zone, you can no longer command the constraints...

​

MAGIC IN THE DIGITAL WEB

All magic in the digital web is considered coincidental with the following exceptions.

• Magick that comes from nowhere. Being technological in origin, the Web demands technological origins from the so-called magick cast within its dimension. Mages who cast spells by will alone are essentially performing vulgar magick without witnesses.

• Spells cast inside a Restricted sector that come from outsiders to that area. Netizens set up Restricted sectors to keep other people out. If and when undesirable visitors show up, the spells or Procedures they employ are automatically vulgar with witnesses because the folks who established that area set the local physics to reject trespassers. A Restricted area established by cyber-shamans, for example, would dropkick a Black Suit’s obvious Procedures. By the same token, a shaman dropping by to raise some hell in a Technocratic SRVR is in for a nasty surprise…

• Effects that violate a sector’s Constraint protocols. Along the same lines, C-sectors are configured with reality physics that accept certain things while rejecting others. A sector built around medieval fantasy, for example, would render guns or jetpacks vulgar with witnesses, no matter who’s trying to use them.

• Any magick cast within the Corrupted web. The localized physics are fucked, and so is anyone who tries to mess with reality there. Any and all Effects in such areas are considered vulgar with witnesses, so just don’t even try.

• Great Big Magicks™. Large-scale spells throw around a lot of energy. And like a data-hog program on a computer, a massive expenditure of energy risks slowing or freezing the localized reality. For all its size, the Digital Web Zone is still just a few decades old. Unlike the Earth, which  has had eons to adjust its physics, the Web remains structurally unstable; radical power fluctuations disrupt its integrity, often leading to a Whiteout.

• Forces or Prime Effects that score more than five successes. For the same reason, Effects that generate a lot of power risk triggering a Whiteout. In this case, the spell itself may be rolled as if it were coincidental; if the player scores five successes or more, however, then each success rolled inflicts one Paradox point on the caster. (Six successes, then, would inflict six points of Paradox.) This rule, however, does not apply in Warzone sectors, which have been configured to handle massive surges of energy.

• Effects or gates that jump between sectors or that attempt to bridge the Web with other areas of the Otherworlds. With the exception of hot links – which have been specifically designed to pop folks back and forth between locations – an Effect that tries to open new passages from one sector to another, or from the Digital Web into some other Realm or Umbra, is considered vulgar with witnesses… the witness in question being the Web itself.

• Effects that jump from Netspace to Meatspace… because it’s one thing to watch something morph onscreen, and another thing entirely to watch your computer turn into an asparagus.

​

There are some other rules regarding the digital web such as whiteout, but that is explained on the mage paradox page.

​

​

​

​

​

​

MOON PHASES

The time is vague in RP and this does not mean to be a format to dictate it. It simply gives garou more chances to act out full moon than once per OOC month. Moon Cycles in Nocturne follow  a two week pattern, meaning it is not a monthly cycle but a fortnightly one.

The current cycle is based on the OOC date of the month. It does not -alternate- month to month as the real moon does.

The symbols represent the waning and waxing periods but also serve to allow you to work out how long the current moon state lasts.

Full, half and new moons last only one night. Crescent and gibbous moons last around three days as illustrated by out phase list.

​

🌑 New - 1st 

🌙 Crescent  2nd, 3rd, 4th,

🌓  Half - 5th 

🌔 Gibbous - 6th, 7th, 8th, 

🌕 Full - 9th,  

🌖Gibbous  10th, 11th, 12th, 

🌗 Half  13th, 

🌘 Crescent 14th, 15th, 16th

🌑 New 17th

🌙 Crescent 18th, 19th, 20th

🌓 Half 21st,

🌔 Gibbous  22nd, 23rd, 

🌕 Full 24th

🌖 Gibbous 25th, 26th

🌗 Half 27th

🌘 Crescent 28th ,29th, and 30th (31st if there is one)

​

NOTE: Moon phases are useful for all supernatural not just garou (but they definitely need it)  some rituals depend on the phase of the moon, and some mundane mortal serial killers may even use it to time their killings.

​

​

​