Embers House Rules

We use a few minor house rules, some inspired or drawn from unofficial Genesys Foundry supplements.

New Players: You don't need to worry about this stuff. It's already incorporated into any rules info you're given.

Earning XP

The XP awarded each session is based on players highlighting their character Motivations. See Embers XP And Advancement for details.

Fear Checks

We've added some Expanded Fear Guidelines results. The pairing of "dice result" to "narrative result" is a suggestion only, especially if Despair or Triumph is rolled. Fear results are fluid, so if the GM feels that a different positive or negative result fits the specific situation, then that's what happens. In particular, if fleeing would be clearly worse than freezing, the GM should swap those two results.

Failure with lots of Threat (or Despair): Frozen in Terror. Immobilized and staggered until next turn.
Failure with some Threat (or Despair): Flee in Terror. Next turn do nothing but move away from the source of fear.
Failure: Aversion. Disoriented for the rest of the encounter.
Success with Threat or Failure with Advantage: Adrenaline Rush. Suffer 3 Strain but add a Boost die to your next check.
Success: Steady Nerves. No special effect.
Success with some Advantage (or Triumph): Stand With Me. Allies making a fear check from the same source add a Boost die.
Success with lots of Advantage (or Triumph): Aggressive. Take any Maneuver for free now.
Success with Triumph: These two options can be triggered only by Triumph.
- Fearless: The character automatically passes future fear checks from this source. Write this down on their character sheet! This result never applies to someone's Fear Motivation.
- Focus: The character adds a Boost die to all checks involving the source of fear for the rest of the encouhnter.

Grappling

As a reminder, unarmed strikes are Dmg +0, Crit 5, Knockdown, optional Stun Damage. As a house rule, grappling replaces "Knockdown" with "Ensnare 1", only usable if the foe's Silhouette is within ±1 Silhouette of your own. With GM permission, you can grapple smaller foes for +1 Advantage per Silhouette smaller or +2 Advantage per Silhouette larger.

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