General Rules

• The Storytelling (ST) Staff reserves the right to make any ruling they see fit to any scene, as necessary.
  • For anything not presented here, please check with the ST Staff for either OWbN Documents (i.e. OWbN Clan Genre Guides, By-Laws, etc.) or ST rulings.
  • The House Rules is a living document and items not listed will be up to the discretion of the ST Staff as to the ruling of said item (whether it be a scene or discrepancy on how a power is used, or whatever the case may be).

• Powers and Abilities (Merits, Disciplines, Rituals, etc.) not presented in Laws of the Night (Revised Ed.) (LotN:R) or The Sabbat Guide (SG) must be written down on either an item card or within the notes section of the player’s character sheet, with citation (book/document source, page number) and mechanics.
  • These powers will be at the discretion of the ST Staff as to whether or not they will be allowed in Kings of New York (KONY).
  • Any player who has a question about whether or not something will be (or should be) allowed in-game should see a member of the ST Staff for clarifications.

• All players (visitors and home) must physically sign-in to the game to play at Kings of New York. This is mostly for records purposes in our sign in area on discord. Any character that interacts in the territory of Kings of New York is automatically considered to be signed into the game. This is per OWBN Admin Bylaws.

• All players (visitors and home) must treat both the ST Staff and other players with respect. Those who do not will be asked to step out of game until the ST Staff believes the player has composed his or herself satisfactorily.

• A PC may not use more than ONE out-of-clan Advanced discipline until he has mastered all of his In-Clan disciplines to Advanced level. After such time, they may use as many Out-of-Clan Advanced disciplines as they may possess.

• Players in the same pack may teach other pack members their in-clan disciplines only up to the advanced only. This only applies to Player Characters of the same pack.

• You must declare all Merits or Status you may be using in a challenge, just like you bid a trait.

• All Other Games lines besides Vampire the Masquerade will use the Vampire the Masquerade system as its base. We Do not do “Cross Genre”

• All Teleportation related powers require minimum one full action to use if they do not state otherwise

• Custom Content: Any and all Custom Content must be reviewed by staff and approved before being allowed into play in Kings of New York.

• Powers, Merits etc from other game lines may not be used or taken in Kings of New York unless a vampire the masquerade book specifically states they can be.

• Merits: Merits do not Stack in Kings of New York.

• All PVP must be brought to the staff’s attention before any challenges are thrown or fully engaged in with the intent to kill another character. This must be approved by the staff.

• All online scenes that may result in PVP are required to have the disclaimer that a character is signed into the Chronicle Kings of New York and they must agree to do so.

• All scenes in Kings of New York have a hard R rating. This means all scenes shall not portray or display any acts above that which you should see in an R Rated film. Scenes that wish to partake above this R rating may be done in private between two consulting adults.

• A character can take a “Help” Action as their normal action to assist another character. If they do the character they are assisting gain 1 free retest on the challenge they are being assisted with.

• Per OWBN Bylaws; any and all scenes or character actions that take place in Kings of New York territory represent you signing your character into Kings of New York and is under our jurisdiction as a game until such time as the scene/action ends as dictated by a member of staff.

• Clan Advantages: Any Clan Advantage listed that gives Abilities to characters; we allow those abilities to go over a characters normal generational maximum allowed amount.

• Ritae Effects: A character may only ever gain a number of the mechanical benefits of ritae equal to their pack priests Morality Rating at a single time, with a Maximum of 5. This is regardless of who casts the Ritae. For Example: If your pack priest has a morality rating or 3, you could benefit from a Fire Dance, A War Party and Martial Ritus for a scene but no others.

• Frenzy Tests: Willpower may be spent to ignore Frenzy for 15 minutes. If the stimulus is still present at the end of this time, the Player Character (PC) will frenzy. There is no test. Willpower must be spent before the check for Frenzy is made.

• Traits: All Vampire PCs may bid only a max of 30 traits. This does not affect how many max traits you have, only the maximum you may bid. Max traits are still based on a PC’s Generation.

• Abilities: A characters Ability Rating is added as Bonus Traits to all challenges that use that Ability as a retest. This does not allow a character to surpass the 30 Trait Max bid rule.

• Expending Traits (Maximum): If a power does not state otherwise in regards to trait expenditures of any kind, the maximum amount of traits you may spend is 3.

• Chronicle NPCs in Kings of New York who are designed to be fought by the Player characters do not have normal character sheets and abilities. Each is customized to the needs of the story. Largely they are simplified versions of sheets as the storytellers require them. However these Antagonistic NPCs do not have Aegis. They will have a large number of Health levels instead. This is allow for Damage attacks to matter in combat and help players of all size contribute. This is something to keep in mind when combating KoNY NPCs designed for this.

• Kings of New York recognizes it is part of a larger LARP organization. As such, we will approve our characters for items we ourselves do not allow in our game. The purposes of this is to not put our players at a disadvantage when traveling to other games within the organization. All such items, if approved, will remain nonfunctional when playing within Kings of New York.

• Bad Things Happen: In any scene run by a Storyteller they may call for a “Bad Things Happen” challenge. This is two simple tests thrown. Their outcome determines the randomness of the World of Darkness in New York and what bad things your character may just run into.

• Memento Mori: A Memento Mori is a downtime scene run superficially for one player/character. The player/character may request a Memento Mori scene from staff; these scenes are never forced. Once this occurs the storytellers will put a call out for other players who wish to join this downtime scene. During the scene the chosen player/character are run through a part of the back story of their character (regardless of IC time period, think of it like a flash back sequence in a show.). The other players who have volunteered will be given NPCs to play for this scene to help tell this specific story. New secrets and plot points for the individual character can be revealed through the scene itself, if the player desires it. The Storytellers will build these scene and set the times and dates. They will additionally put a call out to the KoNY player base for volunteers to help run these scenes.

• All Characters and NPCs regardless of what Game Line they come from will use Laws of the Night Revised as their Base Mechanics. Any visitors from another “genre” must work with staff to convert their sheet into using these mechanics and not those of their own base game line. An exception to this is and will be made for any scene run in Kings of New York that has no impact or is separate from any interaction with the Vampire side of Kings of New York. On occasion their might be a separate special event for other game lines to interact with New York City. These special events will allow PCs to use their normal game line sheets but will be separate from the greater Kings of New York Sabbat game and not allowed to cross over.

• OWBN and Kings of New York use a 10 Scale for Morality and not 5. The difficulty for all Conscience/Conviction Challenges when a character violates a path sin is equal to half the path sin level rounded up. Any Discipline, Combination Discipline or Power that grants bonus traits equal to their character’s Morality is instead equal to half their current morality rating rounded up. All Vampire/Ghoul/Revenant Characters with True Faith must maintain a morality rating of 9 or above to keep their True Faith.

• Armor Piercing: The Armor Piercing ability of a weapon only ignores the Base Health levels of Armor. It will not ignore anything more then the base health levels (1 to 3 Health Levels). This ability has no effect on Armor Health levels granted by supernatural powers or enhancements.

• All Scenes in Kings of New York run by Staff for out plots will have a Color associated with them. This Color will allow players to know on an out of character level the danger threat level of character death in a particular scene. Below is an explanation of the colors and their meaning.