Dice: 1s
While there's dramatic weight in failing at something when success was right in your grasp or taking risks against the odds, that sort of drama should be something crafted by a storyteller and the players, not something that needs to be imposed by a frustrating, unfair, nonsensical dice mechanic.
In Denver WtA, 1s will no longer subtract from a roll's successes. It is still possible to botch: if you roll 1s and no successes, the action is botched.
Dice: Iskakku
Isten Kima Ummante (One as an Army)
This usage of Iskakku is one attack, and can be used for each split of a character's main action in combat. For example, take a PC using Isten Kima Ummante in crinos, with a dice pool is 8. If the main action is split 2 ways, then the declare would be as follows:
1a. One as an Army | -2 for split / 6 dice split into attacks of 3 dice and 3 dice
1b. One as an Army | -3 for split / 5 dice split into attacks of 3 dice and 2 dice
This turns 1 action into 4 attacks, which must all be dodged, blocked, or soaked for if damage is done. That seems like a lot, but like all Iskakku, this maneuver does only Bashing damage, and Isten Kima Ummante also comes with a -1 to all four damage rolls (which essentially negates the +1 to damage from the staff itself).
Dice: Split Actions
WtA20 provides multiple, contradictory rulings on "splitting" actions within a turn. Due to this inconsistency, this is what we're going with, and I think it will be familiar to most of you.
When splitting actions, each action, including the first, takes a dice penalty. Your first action takes a penalty equal to the total number of actions within the split. Each action taken after that loses an addition die.
For example, if you split two ways, then 1a is at -2 and 1b is at -3. If you split three ways, then 1a is -3, 1b is -4, and 1c is -5. You may only take as many total actions per turn as your current Wits or Dexterity score (whichever is lower).
Dice: Split Actions + Rage Actions
In both WtA Revised and WtA20, this isn't allowed. On Denver WtA, it is. I gave this decision a lot of thought, welcomed player input, and in the end, I want to make the decision that I think will be the most fun for the greatest number of players the majority of the time. In this case, and at this time, that means allowing players to both split their main action and take Rage actions in the same turn.
Moreover, I think this simply makes logical sense: if we determine that regular actions are things your character can do within a discrete time period, and that your dice pool is lowered when you split actions is because you're trying to do more things within that same time period, then adding Rage actions on top of your regular action is not affected by whether you split that regular action or not.
Other standard rules apply: you may only take as many total actions per turn as your current Wits or Dexterity score (whichever is lower) and you may not take more Rage actions in a turn than 1/2 your permanent Rage (rounded up), and Rage actions may not be split.
Dice: Specialty Rolls
In WtA20, the rules for making a roll for a trait that your character has a specialty in were changed. Instead of re-rolling 10s, 10s would be counted twice. Mechanically, this makes the most difference when taking actions where the difficulty is higher than usual; a re-rolled 10 that comes up as 6 isn't another success when the difficulty is 8.
Denver WtA ignores the WtA20 change in this case. When your character has a specialty in a trait, you will still re-roll the 10 rather than doubling it. The reasoning behind this is that the chance of failure or only limited success on very difficult actions is still present even when your character is highly talented, skilled, or knowledgeable. On actions with a very high difficulty, the fact that your character has a decent shot at succeeding at all is proof of their specialty, but they will not necessarily still kick ass the way they do on actions with normal or low difficulty.
Flaws: One Eye
The rules in WtA 20 for this flaw impose a +2 difficulty for all sight-related Perception checks with an additional +1 during ranged combat for a total of +3 to the difficulty. For Denver WtA, there will only be a +1 difficulty for sight-related Perception checks and an additional +1 difficulty for ranged combat.
General: Raging Back from Death
Due to the rule on WoD: Denver of 1s not canceling successes, and the ability to spend Willpower on the role to 'rage back' from death, it is impossible to fail that roll... unless you're out of Willpower when it comes time to make it.
And really, I'm okay with that. I've weighed the excitement that comes from the threat of death against the investment of time and energy we put into our characters against my belief that not allowing 1s to cancel successes was the right decision for the site, and frankly: I feel just fine about every Garou living to fight another day.
The threat is still there. You can be taken past Incap twice in a scene, and you're only allowed to roll rage to come back once. You may have to spend all of your Willpower before you get to that point, and then it'll still be a nail-biter. Kinfolk are still at the disadvantage they've always been at: dead is dead. I don't think this will negatively impact the thrill of combat at all.
I could rule that you can't spend Willpower on that roll, but I think that would be pretty curmudgeonly and ridiculous; speaking from a narrative standpoint, the rage-back roll is part spirit, and it makes sense to me for a character's 'will to live' to be just as powerful as their rage. Any player can choose not to spend that Willpower if they enjoy the risk or don't think their character's will to live is very strong in that moment, and that's okay, too.
So, for the very few of you who may not have already figured out that Denver WtA has a Get Out Of Death Free card built in, hopefully this is welcome news. To those of you who had figured that out and were just keeping mum, don't worry, it's completely sanctioned. If anyone disagrees with this ruling, please send me an email to discuss your thoughts on it and I'll be happy to hear you out.
General: Recognizing Pure Breed
All Garou can sense Pure Breed and determine what tribe it belongs to. Kinfolk and humans are unaffected by Pure Breed (including immunity to Pure Breed's effect on Social rolls) except in the sense that the pure-bred character has a certain je ne sais quoi that they can't necessarily place.
Pure Breed does not indicate to Garou whether the person they're dealing with is Kinfolk or Garou (see the table under Merits: Recognize Garou). Pure Breed does not indicate what tribe the character may have been adopted by (if not the tribe of their birth/breeding). Pure Breed does not indicate any level or lack of Wyrm taint.
Merits: Recognize Garou
This merit, in WtA20, is only described as lowering by 2 the difficulty of any roll to perceive that a character is garou. What that roll is and what the base difficulty should be is not detailed. Nor are any other modifications for high rage, which is commonly used in player narratives to describe the relative 'obviousness' (or lack thereof) of a character's nature.
For Denver WtA, we'll be using the following system: mortal NPCs (whether antagonists or allies) who have reason to know of or believe in the existence of werewolves may roll Perception + Occult with a base difficulty of 10. Fomori, or other NPCs who have some supernatural bent of their own, also roll Perception + Occult with a base difficulty of 9. Kinfolk and other garou use Perception + Primal Urge with a base difficulty of 8 and 6, respectively. Kinfolk with the Recognize Garou merit are, thereby, put on equal footing with garou in this respect.
The intensity of a werewolf's rage also plays a part. Garou with rage between 3 and 4 are a little easier to notice, garou with rage 5 and 6 are much easier to sense, and garou with rage 7 and above may as well just wear a sign. Please note that between temporary and permanent rage, the higher is always used to determine the difficulty of this roll. Also note that the difficulty of this roll may never go below 3.
| | Non-Garou / Rage 1 - 2 | Rage 3 - 4 | Rage 5 - 6 | Rage 7 + |
| Mortal NPCs: Perception + Occult | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
| Supernatural NPCs: Perception + Occult | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 |
| Kinfolk: Perception + Primal Urge | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
| Garou: Perception + Primal Urge | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
Skills: Drive
This skill represents particular, trained ability with vehicle operation. To simply operate a standard or automatic transmission automobile or motorcycle, you do not need to purchase a dot in Drive. Attempting to operate specialty (such as commercial, construction, or mass transit) vehicles or drive a common vehicle under duress, using maneuvering tactics, or at extremely high speeds while holding 0 dots in Drive will incur the usual +1 difficulty for being untrained in a Skill.
Totems: Renown
Totems which grant a renown award to pack members will be limited to 0.3 total points of renown.
XP Spending: Backgrounds
In WtA20, Backgrounds cannot be raised with XP, only raised or lowered by the ST. Given the differences between a large online game vs. a tabletop chronicle, Denver WtA will use a custom system for increasing Backgrounds.
Backgrounds cost 1XP per dot and all increases must be justified through roleplay, with the exception of Totem, which can be raised with or without justification. All Backgrounds are limited to 5 for all characters, with a few exceptions:
Totem is limited to 10 for all characters.
Rites is limited to 15 for Cliaths and unlimited for Fosterns and above.
Some more powerful Backgrounds, such as Fetish, may not be approved at higher levels.
Some more powerful Rites may not be approved.
XP Spending: Flaws
Some Flaws can be 'bought off' with XP. This requires significant justification proportionate to the cost of the the Flaw, and costs 2XP per dot. Scaleable Flaws (such as Phobia) can be decreased to a less severe level at the same cost. Certain Flaws cannot be bought off or lowered at all, and allowing or disallowing a character to shed their Flaw(s) ultimately falls under Administrator discretion.