•• Home Ground
Annunaku are well known for the ease with which they act under conditions other Kindred find difficult. Students of Tenure never seem to trip on roots and stones, slip on ice or lose their prey in darkness, fog or clutter. Their enemies, on the other hand, may suffer such impediments to an uncanny degree. A vampire runs down a hall after an Annunaku, and the carpet slips underfoot; the vampire tries to hide in shrubbery, and a stray beam of light picks him out. Wise Kindred know not to challenge an Annunaku on his home turf, where this effect seems strongest and most omnipresent, but Annunaku can show this uncanny mastery of their surroundings almost anywhere.
Effect
Dramatic Failure: For the rest of the scene, the character suffers a –3 penalty on every Physical action he attempts, if there is any way his surroundings could impede him. Storytellers are encouraged to be generous in devising environmental penalties. For instance, slippery floors, smoke or fog, rain, burnt-out bulbs and other such penalties can come into play almost anywhere.
Failure: Nothing happens. All actions for the next scene receive normal dice pools, with whatever modifiers the Storyteller has already defined for the environment.
Success: Each success rolled reduces an environmental penalty to the Annunaku’s actions by one. For instance, trying to run on wet ice might call for a Dexterity + Athletics roll with a –3 penalty. A player who scored two successes on her activation roll could spend successes to cancel out some of that penalty, reducing it to –1.
Alternately, the player can also increase environment-based modifiers that favor her character. For instance, a clump of shrubbery might normally grant a +2 bonus to attempts to hide. The player could raise this to +4 for her Tenure-using character, or even increase her chances of spotting another character hidden behind similar shrubbery.
Modifiers from Home Ground apply to just one action, such as running through a garbage-packed alley, finding a concealed person, terrorizing someone in a park or making an attack. Applying Home Ground to another action requires the power to be activated again. Note that this power does not have to be activated for each roll in an extended action.
This power cannot generate any effect without environmental factors to interact with. A featureless room, for example, gives the Annunaku little to work with.
Exceptional Success: Per a normal success, though the character has a remarkable ability to act despite the environment. For instance, with five or more successes, a character might be able to accurately fire a gun in a hurricane.
Failure: Nothing happens. All actions for the next scene receive normal dice pools, with whatever modifiers the Storyteller has already defined for the environment.
Success: Each success rolled reduces an environmental penalty to the Annunaku’s actions by one. For instance, trying to run on wet ice might call for a Dexterity + Athletics roll with a –3 penalty. A player who scored two successes on her activation roll could spend successes to cancel out some of that penalty, reducing it to –1.
Alternately, the player can also increase environment-based modifiers that favor her character. For instance, a clump of shrubbery might normally grant a +2 bonus to attempts to hide. The player could raise this to +4 for her Tenure-using character, or even increase her chances of spotting another character hidden behind similar shrubbery.
Modifiers from Home Ground apply to just one action, such as running through a garbage-packed alley, finding a concealed person, terrorizing someone in a park or making an attack. Applying Home Ground to another action requires the power to be activated again. Note that this power does not have to be activated for each roll in an extended action.
This power cannot generate any effect without environmental factors to interact with. A featureless room, for example, gives the Annunaku little to work with.
Exceptional Success: Per a normal success, though the character has a remarkable ability to act despite the environment. For instance, with five or more successes, a character might be able to accurately fire a gun in a hurricane.
Material Components
Cost: Home Ground does not cost Vitae if used within a character’s haven. If used within his Demesne, the special territory he claims and rules (see sidebar), Home Ground costs 1 Vitae.
Gestures & Ritual
Dice Pool: Wits + Survival + Tenure
Related Discipline
Effect Duration
The effects of this power last for a scene.
Effect Casting Time
Instant
Level
2
Applied Restriction
The environment itself can make Home Ground more difficult, by giving the power less to work with. Simple or empty surroundings just don’t supply many factors that could affect a task. For instance, an empty basketball court offers little or nothing suitable for taking cover. If the Storyteller thinks an environment is simply too bare or empty to help or hinder a particular task, he can impose up to a –5 dice penalty on the Home Ground roll or just decide the power cannot work at all. Players should be encouraged, however, to suggest ways a location could offer a Home Ground advantage to characters.
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