Rules Questions

jrnmariano:

Can unBound folks perceive and pick-up a deathmask?

Yes, but without deathsight they won't automatically detect what's so special about it.

I'm sure that a Mage with their own "Death SIght" Would have lots of fun with All the Geist-Related items.

ZDracolis:

I'm sure that a Mage with their own "Death Sight" Would have lots of fun with All the Geist-Related items.

Once again we're back to the "Mages can do anything."

DragonDragon:

Once again we're back to the "Mages can do anything."

This is a case of either my player or myself being completely off base.  I know I'm usually hasty in reading through the books, but I'm pretty sure I have a descent at least, understanding of the rules, but here’s the case.

One of my players is latching rather hard to the idea that Keys are physical objects, and thus can be shared between Sin-Eaters. His main point of contention is in his purchasing of a Deathmask through Merit Dots at character creation, he believes that the Memento itself provides a Key to the sin eater, as well as the bonus to manifestation rolls. I've tried to go over the fact that a Deathmask is a decayed keystone of an obliterated Geist, and thus does the same thing as a Keystone, just less potent.

It's my understanding that a Keystone and the Sin-Eater can have different Keys and different Thresholds ("Sin-Eaters that enact a manifestation that share a key with their Keystone gain a +3 bonus to the roll" p.193) and that a Deathmask acts in the same way, and that it doesn't give a new key to the Sin-Eater as long as he/she holds it. ("A Deathmask loses one of it's Keys upon the destruction of the Geist (reducing it to one), ... and reduces the bonus to +2 for corresponding Manifestations." p.205) but does give the sin eater the ability to manifest cosmetic effects of the Lost Key from the original Keystone (Deathmasks retain the memory of the Key lost during its transition from Keystone to Deathmask, giving it the ability to manifest a ghost power related to that Key"

The main problem is my player only accepts what is Literally written in the book, where I'm trying to draw inferences from the vague portions and definitions from what has been stated elsewhere in the book. In the end, we both agreed to ask all of you what you think, and we'll use that as our rules.

Sorry about the long post, but if I'm going to run a good Chronicle, my players and I can't be bickering about the rules at every turn. To summarize, my questions are: Are Keys something Sin-Eaters can share between their Krewe? And do Deathmasks grant the Sin-Eater who wears it a new Key to use while he's wearing it, or just the +2 bonus to using the Key associated with the Deathmask?

Thank you for your patience and Help.

 

No, they are not, any more than Arcana or Disciplines are.
No, just the bonus.

TenYaiba:

One of my players is latching rather hard to the idea that Keys are physical objects, and thus can be shared between Sin-Eaters.

Thank you sir. That's what I thought.

Mine that got waylaid a few pages back:

Supposedly, invoking your Archetype and your Virtue (or Vice) refills plasm AND willpower to full (or just adds 1.)
Isn't this horribly unbalanced? I have Psyche 2, only just begun, plasm of 6 currently. Should invoking my archetype and virtue jack me all the way up to 18? Because that is 'full'.

As I understand it, the restriction on a Virtue is that you have to consistently pursue it throughout the chapter (i.e., game session) in order to gather the reward.  So you never regain Willpower from a Virtue in the middle of a game session; only at the end of it.  More generally, a Virtue requires you to demonstrate consistency over the course of several challenges to its values; fail to live up to its standards even once during the chapter, and you don't get the Willpower reward at the end. 

Bringing the Archetype into play makes matters even harder, as you have two sets of standards for which you must show consistent support: that of your Virtue, and that of your Archetype.  If they ever come into conflict, you cannot choose one or the other and still expect to get your plasm refreshed at the end of the chapter; you have to find a way to resolve the conflict so that you continue to uphold both.  And you have to do this every time the Virtue and the Archetype conflict, or else you don't get the plasm. 

The more difficult the task, the greater the rewards for completing it.  Consistently pursuing your Virtue and your Archetype over the course of several scenes (i.e., a full game session) is a much more difficult task than doing either one alone, and deserves greater rewards: fully refreshing both Willpower and plasm does that.