Game/Rules

Game-Wide House Rules & Character Policies

Allies

Allies may be purchased for a group, not for an individual. If you want to have influence with or the help of a Setting NPC, you must purchase the Mentor or merit, which require staff approval.

Alternate Identity

While the Alternate Identity merit doesn't require justification, a system is now in place for someone who is repairing a damaged Alternate Identity.

The roll is Manipulation+Politics, extended. 5 successes are required for basic IDs--this is for people getting Alternate Identity 1-2, and for the Lost who have no IDs at all, and just want their base one made official. If you're creating an Alternate Identity 3, the target is 10 successes.

This process requires Allies (Legal), and will draw upon them. PCs can create ID per dot of Allies (Legal) per week. Getting an Alternate Identification 3 level ID will take 2 Allies dots per week, however. So you can get 2 basic IDs done (at max Alt ID 2) a week, or one Alt ID 3 a week.

Changelings who are getting their first identification will have it covered by the Freehold, they don't have to pay anything. For any changelings getting further IDs, or for people outside of the Freehold, getting basic IDs (up to Alt ID 2) is Availability 2 and Alt ID 3 is Availability 3. These Availability costs can be lowered with the Fixer merit as per usual.

The Freehold will pay for anyone who is getting their IDs fixed/replaced after the Gentrification plot.

Armor Stacking

A character can benefit from one mundane and one supernatural source of armor at a time, per the rules in the God Machine Rules Update p. 206. If you have more than one mundane or supernatural source of armor, you can choose which one applies for the scene but can't change it for the duration of the scene without removing the chosen armor.

"Intrinsic" armor, like the Iron Skin merit or armor from a Life spell, or anything of that sort is either mundane or supernatural armor depending on its source. Iron Skin would be a mundane armor source, and skin toughened by Life magic would be a supernatural one.

All of this, of course, is subject to the fact that specific rules outweigh general ones. If a source of armor says that it stacks in a way that contradicts this HR, then follow the text of the source (merit, power, etc).

Character Age

Your character must be, look, and in all ways act 18+. You may not mention that your character 'looks underage', state or imply your character is childlike or underage mentally. This is grounds for immediate banning.

Clash of Wills

Please see Changeling Clash Of Wills for information on how to handle the instances of Clash of Wills which either require a House Rule or were written in an unclear fashion.

Conditions

The Madness Condition is now called "Overwhelmed" on this game, in order to eliminate ableist language and more accurately describe the Condition in question. If you have this Condition on your sheet, please put in a ticket so staff can update it.

Crafting System

From Dusk Till Jawn uses a modified crafting system similar to what you will find in the Chronicles of Darkness core book and in the Hurt Locker supplement. You can find the details here.

Creating Works of Art

From Dusk Till Jawn uses a modified art crafting system similar to what you will find in the Chronicles of Darkness core book and in the Hurt Locker supplement. You can find the details here.

Custom Conditions & Tilts

We accept pitches for custom Conditions either written by the player or adapted from forum posts. You can find those Conditions & Tilts here. Clarity Conditions have their own listing.

Custom Fighting Styles

We have a very small selection of custom fighting styles designed to flesh out some shortcomings in 2e, primarily on the heavy weapons and heavy armor end of spectrum. We do accept custom pitches for merit trees, but reserve the right to decline custom content pitches.

Equipment Houserules

The Bomb Suit provides coverage to the legs, arms, and torso. Head coverage requires a helmet, with the usual -1 to defense and -1 to perception rolls for sight and sound. This is a change from how it is listed in the books, and is done to bring it in line with the rest of the armor.
Because 2.0 presently lacks stats for watercraft and aircraft, or availability for land vehicles, please feel free to use the following tables:

Aircraft
Vehicle	Dice Modifier	Size	Durability/Structure	Speed	Occupants	Availability
Light Aircraft
Single-Engine	-2	18	2/20	180	1+3
Twin-Engine	-2	21	2/23	370	2+14
Stunt Plane	0	15	3/18	220	1+1
Glider	0	15	1/16	160	1+1
Commercial Aircraft
Business Jet	-2	25	2/27	660	2+10
Airliner	-4	35	2/37	700	3+180
Light Transport	-3	30	2/32	270	2+6
Heavy Transport	-5	40	3/43	700	3+9
Helicopters
Observation	-1	17	2/19	180	2
Service	0	20	3/23	210	2+8
Transport	-1	25	3/28	160	2+2

Watercraft
Vehicle	Dice Modifier	Size	Durability/Structure	Speed	Occupants	Availability
Small Craft
Canoe	-2	7	1/8	Str+Stam	3
Kayak	-1	6	1/7	Str+Stam	1
Jet Ski	+2	6	2/8	50	1+1
Inflatable Boat	0	8	1/9	25	1+7
Motorboats
Fishing Boat	0	9	2/11	15	1+3
Motorboat	-4	10	2/12	60	1+5
Racing Boat	+2	18	2/20	120	3+2
Houseboat	-3	18	2/20	20	1+7
Sailboats
Day Sailer	-2	8	1/9	Wind Speed	1+2
Yacht	-1	20	2/22	Wind Speed / 15	2+8
Racing Yacht	0	25	3/28	Wind Speed	6+6

Land Vehicles
Vehicle	Dice Modifier	Size	Durability/Structure	Speed	Occupants	Availability
Motorcycle	-1	7	2/9	100	1+1
Compact Car	-2	8	3/11	90	1+4
Family Car	-3	12	3/15	80	1+4
Sports Car	-1	10	2/12	140	1+3
Limousine	-4	20	3/18	60	1+8
Van	-3	18	3/21	80	1+7
Pickup Truck	-2	15	4/19	80	1+3
SUV	-2	15	4/19	100	1+5

Exceptional Successes on 3

Any time you have a 'three successes means exceptional' roll and you are comparing successes, you count that as having 2 higher, but not in any situation where you are just getting Exceptional and not comparing successes with a contesting roll.

Example: Alice and Clarice are rolling for a contested roll in which Alice's Kith blessing applies. Alice rolls 3 and Clarice rolls 4. This is counted as though Alice had rolled 5 successes. Later, Clarice is rolling a non-contested roll to which her Kith blessing applies. She achieves 3 successes and receives the benefits of an exceptional success, but doesn't count it as 5 for any purposes in which successes count (damage levels done or wound levels healed, for example).

Familiar Creation Rules/Guidelines

Step 1: Concept

These questions help determine what kind of entity will be your familiar, how it'll behave and what kind of powers and influence it has.
1. Is it a Ghost, a Spirit or a Goetia?
What is your familiar's name?
1. Spirits and Goetia tend to have names that fit their concepts.
2. Ghosts usually have human names.
What was your familiar's purpose before it became your character's familiar?
1. What kind of Spirit is it?
2. Who was the ghost in life?
3. What kind of idea or personification is the Goetia?

Step 2: Attributes & Advantage

Distribute dots between Power, Finesse, Resistance.
1. Unlike PC stats, there is no 'free first dot.'
2. 2-dot Familiars receive 5 dots to distribute with a trait limit of 5.
3. 4-dot Familiars receive 9 dots to distribute with a trait limit of 7.
Essence: 2-dot Familiars receive 10, 4-dot Familiars receive 15.
Calculate Defense: Power or Finesse (2-dot Familiars pick the higher of the 2, 4 dot familiar pick the lower - this is not a House Rule, please see MtAw p. 255)
Calculate Initiative: Finesse + Resistance
Calculate Willpower: Resistance + Finesse (Max 10)
Calculate Speed: Power + Finesse + Species Factor
1. Adult ghosts & humanoids: 5
2. Cheetah: 15
3. Child ghosts & humanoids: 3
4. Deer: 10
5. Dog/Wolf: 8
6. Horse: 12
7. Inanimate objects: 0
8. Rat: 2
9. Turtle: 1
Language/Communication:
1. Ghost Familiars communicate as they did during their lifetime, often utilizing the same language and speech patterns.
2. Spirit Familiars speak Spirit tongue and may communicate in other ways depending on their concept: a Cat spirit can communicate with other cats and can respond to effects that would allow someone to communicate with mundane cats for example.
3. Goetic Familiars speak human languages appropriate to their origins.

Step 3: Numens and Influences

Select Numina: A 2-dot Familiar gets 2 Numina and a 4 dot Familiar gets 4 Numina.
1. List may be found on Mage: the Awakening p. 261
2. Selecting Numina marked rare is subject to approval.
3. A numen may be exchanged on a one-for-one basis for a dot of Influence or an extra Manifestation.
4. Each influence is capped at the spirit's Rank.
  1. A Rank 2 fire spirit cannot have Fire 3, but might instead select Fire 2 and Fear 1.
Select Influences: 2 dot familiars get 1 dot of Influence, 4 dots familiar gets 2.
1. Mage: the Awakening pp. 256-257 explains Influences.
2. Ghost can only Influence their Anchors.
3. Spirit and Goetia Influence things directly related to their concept.
  1. A Goetia representing the concept of bullying might have Fear as an influence, a Fire spirit could have Fear, Fire, or Heat.

Step 4: Ban and Banes

Choose one Ban and one Bane.
These should connect to the concept and idea of the Familiar in question, similarly to Changeling Frailties.
1. When in doubt, ask for help in the Character Creation channel!
2-dots Familiars pick a simple, straightforward ban:
1. A Cat must chase yarn balls.
2. A Fire spirit must burn unattended papers.
3. A Ghost murdered by someone wearing red will not approach red objects.
4-dot Familiars pick a moderate and somewhat complex ban:
1. The example ghost above might be forced back into Twilight and unable to manifest in the presence of bloodied clothes.
2. The Cat might lose all Willpower if it doesn't attempt to trip someone who carries more than one thing in their hands.
2-dots Familiar pick a common bane:
1. Contact with salt will harm the ghost.
2. The Fire and Cat spirits might lose corpus from contact with water.
4-dot Familiars pick a Bane natural to their being but more arcane and difficult to obtain:
1. The bully goetic familiar may recoil from a folded leather belt wielded by a man.
2. A ghost might be harmed by the exact same model of knife which killed her.

Step 5: Rank

As mentioned in the Familiar merit, 2-dot Familiars are a Rank 1 entities while 4-dot entities are Rank 2.

Step 6: Manifestations

All Familiars (including Goetia) get the Familiar Manifestation condition.
Unlike other Manifestation conditions, the Familiar Manifestation condition does not stop them from using any of their other Manifestations. See Mage: the Awakening p. 260
Manifestations are how the Familiar interacts with the physical world.
1. The conditions referred to in most of the list on MtAw p. 259 are created using the Familiar's Influence or by encountering a situation in which the proper 'vibe' is created in the area.
2. Spirit, Death and Mind magic may create those conditions or force Manifestations.
3. Goetia do not possess manifestation naturally. They require the assistance of Spirit or Death spells to achieve physical Manifestation or may Possess victims through Mind magic.
Spirit and Ghost Familiars begin play with the Twilight Form Manifestation and 1 more per Rank.
1. Thus, 1 additional Manifestation for 2-dot Familiars and 2 for 4-dot Familiars.

Fighting Style Damage

Fighting styles that say that you can inflict extra bashing damage in certain circumstances, like when someone in reach rises from prone, always do bashing damage regardless of the normal damage that your character may do. This includes, but isn't limited to:

Boxing 2 (Defensive Jab)
Chain Weapons 1 & 2
Close Quarters Combat 5
Grappling 2 (Small Joint Manipulation OR Takedown), 3 (Joint Lock) and 5 (Positional Dominance)
Kino Mutai 2
Kung Fu 3
Street Fighting 3 & 4
Trunk Squeeze
Unarmed Defense 4
Weapon and Shield 1

Group Merits

Any merit which refers to a group, such as Hobbyist Clique, Mystery Cult Initiation, cadre/coterie/motley merits, etc. requires a minimum of three Player Characters from three different players.

Mentor

The merit Mentor may be purchased for Setting NPCs, that is, any NPCs within the From Dusk Till Jawn IC hierarchy, with staff approval. We do not permit the purchase of True Friend for Setting NPCs, and Allies are for a group, not an individual.

You may not purchase one of the Crowns, an Order Head, the Sakima, or other 'head of the city' NPCs as a Mentor at Character Generation. They must be earned in play.

Mystery Cult Initiation

MCIs may not grant merits to templates that would not ordinarily be eligible to receive them. For example, Vampires can't take Mage merits, and Werewolves can't take Changeling merits, full-template supernaturals can't take Mortal+-only supernatural merits. This also applies to Gift Facets, Disciplines, Contracts, etc.
MCIs merits may ignore other prerequisites such as Skills and Attributes. If the MCI grants points in a Style or a scaling Merit, you may not purchase beyond what the MCI grants unless you meet the ordinary prerequisites of the merit.
MCIs must have a minimum of three player character members at founding, played by three unique players.

Owning A Business

We encourage PCs to build businesses and IC locations for roleplay purposes. The following are the basic guidelines for doing so:

Create a sheet for that location just like you would any other Safe Place/Hollow/Haven/etc. even if it isn't a Haven, etc. This allows staff to easily reference what stats you have (or that you have none!)
1. Select a neighborhood/location for the business; this should be listed on the sheet as with any other location. If you need help picking a Philly neighborhood, please ask on the 'character creation assistance' channel. Spider (and others!) are happy to help!
Purchase Safe Place for any private locations if you wish to have it counted as a Safe Place.
If you wish to have the location open/accessible when your PC is not present in a scene (or your PCs for a business owned by 2+ PCs, as the case may be), you must purchase Staff or Retainers to run the business. Without that stat, the business isn't open if you're not there, because you have no employees. It's okay if that's how you choose to run the IC business. Lots of small businesses IRL are only run by one or two people.
Please create a wikipage for your business if applicable -- this allows other players to engage with your location. List any applicable stats which other players would be able to see (such as Staff) on that page. Maddy's Wafflehouse's page is a good example of a location page.
Once all of this is complete, if you'd like to have us add this as a permanent room on the server for RP, please do so, and we'll add it for you, provided that you have purchased Staff or Retainers, and other PCs can access it when your PC isn't there. For locations which are only open if your PC is there, we ask you to use a Public or Closed Room as appropriate, so that we can keep dedicated RP rooms only to those which are generally accessible without a specific PC required.
Instances of Staff are separate merits for each location, and under these circumstances you may purchase Staff multiple times, and should. Example: Bob owns a coffee shop and a gun range. He purchases Staff (coffee shop) at 2 and Staff (gun range) at 3. If you have 2 separate businesses and want them to both stay open when you are not there, you will require two instances of Staff.

Professional Training

We do not use the Professional Training merit.

Prosthetics

Using a prosthetic allows you to temporarily replace the condition with the rules of the prosthetic. It does not relieve the condition per se, but replaces one set of rules with another. Your character then reverts to the condition once they are no longer wearing the prosthetic.

Relenting

Unless a power or action specifically says you can't relent and must resist or contest an action, you may relent to someone else's power, action, or roll.

Safe Place

In reviewing Safe Place rules and the version from Hunter 2e, which is the most recent version, we have decided that we are going to transition over to Hunter 2e Safe Place rules with the following changes:

The rule that you cannot be surprised in your Safe Place regardless of Home Security dots present or disabled is maintained and extended to Sanctum, Haven, and Hollow.
The available features for mundane Safe Places are as follows: Arsenal, Concealed, Escape Hatch, Infirmary and Home Security.
Anathema is not an available Feature. This Feature is intended especially for Hunters and we have no intention of including it now or ever.
Concealed and Infirmary are altered so that they match Home Security, providing not a flat bonus but a tiered bonus dependent on dots purchased.
1. That is, if you have 2 dots of the Infirmary feature, you get +2, and if you have 3 dots of the Concealed feature, someone trying to get information on who owns your property will suffer a -3 penalty.
2. This means you'll get a slightly lower bonus at the first dot but can have a greater overall bonus.
You select features relevant to your Safe Place up to the dots in the merit.
1. Additional Features (above 5) cost two XP per Feature. This is not a change, just a clarification.
2. You will be able to purchase an Additional Feature (that is, Features above 5 dots) once per month on a given Safe Place.
If you have more than 5 members, you still have to have everyone buy a 'dot' of Safe Place to be able to independently access it.
1. This does not grant additional Features.
2. Example: the members of Direct Action all buy 1 dot of Safe Place, so they can all access their new warehouse or whatever.
3. Individual members may also spend 2 xp per Feature dot above 5 they want to contribute.
You may not buy multiple instances of the same Feature for the same Safe Place.
In addition, we will be allowing Motleys to use the Feature purchase system to purchase additional Features dots for their Hollows!
1. This is in addition to any Features you get for purchasing dots of Hollow and for having 5 dots of Stable Trod, which gives you a 6th Feature dot.
2. This is subject to the same 'buy up to 5 dots of Features right now without waiting' offer during changeover.

Features

Arsenal still grants +2 to cleaning, fixing, repairing, modifying, or upgrading equipment.
1. This applies to mundane and supernatural equipment.
Concealed provides -1 per dot to any rolls to determine the Safe Place's location which are focused on the location itself.
1. This would apply to attempts to look up property records, for example, but would not apply to rolls using Space to try to locate someone, or attempts to track an individual by scent or tail them in a car.
Characters may not be surprised within their Safe Place. An Escape Hatch allows them to flee the premises after a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll without suffering environmental damage in the event of an explosion, fire, or other event.
1. This does not prevent assailants from following them. An Escape Hatch is not necessarily a 'get out of capture free' card.
A Safe Place with an Infirmary counts as a hospital for healing purposes & grants +1 to Medicine rolls per dot of Infirmary, provided that the character utilizing it has at least one dot of Medicine.
1. Hospitals in CofD require at least one medically-trained person (that is, at least one dot of Medicine) other than the patient to supervise recovery for their healing acceleration to come into play.
Home Security levies a -1 penalty to all attempts to break in per dot.
1. This applies to both mundane and supernatural break-in attempts.
2. We don't require an exhaustive writeup, but please note one type of security per dot just for ST sanity.
3. If Hot Doug has a Safe Place with 3 dots of Home Security, he might note that security as 'exterior cameras,' 'interior cameras,' and 'exterior motion detector.'
4. Home Security dots may be negated by loss of power, Contracts, Forces, Industrial Key, or Dread Powers.

Sexual Assault

Sexual assault in backgrounds is permissible; that is an unfortunate reality and also can be a part of CtL theme. This must happen off-camera. Mentioning that your character was assaulted at seventeen = okay. Writing it out in detail so staff has to read it when staff reviews your background = WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT, don't.

Sexual assault committed by STs in a plotline, or by PCs on either NPCs or other PCs, regardless of OOC consent, is grounds for immediately being permanently banned from From Dusk Till Jawn.

It's one thing if you want to, say, hunt rapists for sport outside a bar at close, but no actual assault can occur as part of RP in any way, including plots, on-screen Durances, etc.

Addendum/Clarification: Vampiric feeding requires OOC consent under our Sexual Assault House Rule, and we prefer IC consent, though understand there may be times when a vampire ICly hides feeding from a Mortal PC, etc. However, if other players or staff are required to deal with Blood Rape Drama after the fact, that's a Problem(tm).

A vampire feeding their blood to another PC of any splat always requires IC and OOC consent, and failure to obtain IC and OOC consent will be considered a violation of our Sexual Assault policy. The often-sexualized nature of blood bonds/blood addiction and the issues of PC agency around these acts makes consent necessary; "I consented OOC but not IC and now everyone else has to deal with weeks of unenjoyable drama and seeking vengeance/justice" is just not a plotline the staff of FDTJ want to deal with under any circumstance.

Shared Merits

Any group may take shared mundane merits (Resources, Contacts, Allies, Safe Place, etc.) even if their core book does not specify that they are able to do so, with the following restrictions:

The group has three or more members.
The group has a linking merit such as Mystery Cult or Hobbyist Clique, or a sphere-specific family group such as a coterie.
1. Only members who possess the above merit(s) or are in the group and have contributed to the merit in question can directly access it.
2. For groups who natively are able to share merits, the contribution rule applies, too. If Bob, Clarice and Alice are in a motley, and Bob and Clarice have both purchased Resources 2 and declared it shared, and Alice has purchased no Resources or has decided not to share her Resources (see below), then only Bob and Clarice can purchase things directly with the shared Resources. Bob can, however, buy a car for Alice and give it to her.
The group has a single shared Resources pool for purchases; when that Resources pool is spent for the month, it's spent for everyone. You don't get to make 3 Resources 5 purchases if you have a group of 3 with Resources that add up to 5. Once the merit is shared, the Resources pool is treated the same way as if it was a Resources pool for an individual, e.g. the group has one pool totaling the number of dots that they have; the individuals no longer have separate Resources pools.
Regardless of the number of members, shared merits cannot ever go above 5 in effect unless specifically written in the book that it can go above 5.
1. This may mean in a group of six or more, that some members do not have access to the shared Resources pool. You may purchase dots above five for access purposes only, that is, if you have seven people in a group, and each has Resources 1 (shared), you still only have Resources 5, but everyone has access to it directly.
2. Members may choose to maintain their own Resources or if joining an existing group, may choose to invoke Sanctity of Merits and use those dots for something else, or may keep dots for access purposes.
  1. Example: Seven Changelings, each with Resources 2, create a motley. They may choose to split their Resources pool, having 1 (shared) and 1 (mine), or Sanctity that second dot, or keep it, but that would honestly be a waste.
3. An existing group may have only one shared Resources pool. You cannot have ten members and have two Resources 5 (shared) pools.
Characters may choose to share some, all, or none of their share-able merits. It is up to a character to determine, when the group is formed or when stats are purchased, whether that stat is shared. You may change your mind later. Staff may decline to let you change your mind a bunch if you keep saying 'yes it's shared,' 'no it isn't.'
1. The obvious exception to this is things like Safe Place, Hollow, etc. If Bob buys Hollow dots for the Shiny Things Hollow, and Alice also buys dots for the Shiny Things Hollow, those are shared by default, since they're for the same physical location.
When players leave the game, their dots donated to shared merits (such as chapterhouses, motley Houses, Safe Places, etc.) are considered to be permanently donated.
1. If a PC is retired by a player who remains on the game and the player does not actively specify that they are removing their donated dots, the dots are considered to be permanently donated.
2. Should a player leave and later return, it will fall under the latter policy, so, like, if you leave, those dots belong to wherever you donated them to.
3. This is for staff sanity and a modicum of fairness to other players; if you donate a bunch of dots to your Court's library or whatever and then peace out, leaving others to scramble to cover those dots kinda sucks.
If a member of the sphere-specific group (such as a Motley) joins from outside that group (say, a Mage or Sin-Eater) utilizing the rules that the group has for allowing external members in, this does not give them access to any merits they could not purchase on their own.
1. Example: Cliff the Sin-Eater joins a motley with Jane, Rita, and Larry, who are all Changelings. Jane, Rita and Larry have shared Resources and a shared Hollow, the Doom Manor. Cliff has access to the shared Resources once he contributes his Resources 1 from his previous career as a race car driver, but he cannot have independent access to the Hollow, since he couldn't buy it himself.

Sleepwalker Merit

We do not allow any M+ characters which would otherwise not be Sleepwalkers. Therefore, the Sleepwalker merit is useless on this game and has no mechanical benefit. We do not use the Sleepwalker merit. Any characters which purchased Sleepwalker previously should put in a ticket for Sanctity of Merits.

Specialties

Per Chronicles of Darkness p. 73, Specialties function as a bonus to rolls made where the Specialty is applicable; they do not increase the base stat. That means that Specialties don't factor into anything where a roll isn't being made, including stats like Defense.

You may take a specialty in a single supernatural power, such as Medicine (Gift of Warm Blood), but not Medicine (Spring Contracts).

Status

At character creation you may have one status as high as 3, a second status as high as 2, and any additional statuses no higher than 1.
Status may be used like Resources for aquiring equipment related to the status concerned. Someone with Education Status 3 might be able to acquire lab equipment using their status alone, but would be hard pressed to justify a firearms purchase. Similarly, someone with Philly Mob status 3 could easily justify acquiring a hand gun, but lab equipment would be a stretch. This may be done once per story. (Once per month.)
Status may be added as a bonus to social roles for actions where that status is pertinent. The people at the country club might be impressed by your Politics status, but may not think too highly of your Union status. Similarly, the guys in that alley you're trying to talk out of mugging you are probably more likely to think twice about your mob status than they would about your tenure at Drexel.

Status Actions

We have a system in place for using your status to effect change within the game. You can read about it here.

Timekeeping

For purposes of our game, we define many of the terms used in the books for periods of time in an ongoing game in the following ways:

Scene = Scene
Session = Day
Chapter = Week
Story = Month
Chronicle = A year and a day

Tiebreakers

If there's a contested roll (like Stealth vs Perception, or contested power activations) that results in a tie, the both parties reroll the same number of dice as on their original roll until one or the other is the winner. For determining how many successes were achieved on the roll, look only at the first roll.

For example: Bob is trying to sneak past Sam and rolls 3 successes on his Dexterity 2 + Stealth 3. Sam rolls Wits 3 + Composure 3 and spends a willpower for 3 more dice, for a total of 9, and gets 3 successes on their roll.

Since this is a tie with 3 successes each, Bob rolls his 5 dice and Sam rolls their 9 again for a tiebreaker. This doesn't cost Sam another point of willpower, even though willpower was spent on the initial roll, since they both roll the same pool as their original roll. Both of them get 2 successes on their reroll.

Because they were still tied, they both roll the same number of dice again: Bob rolls 5 and Sam rolls 9. This time Bob gets really lucky and gets 6 successes, while Sam once more gets 3. While this would be an exceptional success for Bob normally, the only roll that counts for determining his actual successes on the roll is the first one, which had 3 successes, so it's not an exceptional success in this case -- the roll with 6 successes serves only as a tiebreaker.

True Friend

The merit True Friend may not be purchased for any Setting NPCs (that is, any NPCs within the From Dusk Till Jawn IC hierarchy). The merit Mentor may be purchased with staff approval.

Weapon Damage: Mundane vs Magical

If something specifies that it works with weapons that have a damage rating above or below a certain threshold, like the Light Weapons fighting style which only works with weapons whose damage rating is 2 or lower, this is based on its mundane, non-magical damage rating. If something magical increases its damage rating later. If you have a switchblade and you make it sharper magically, but it's still the same weapon, it stands to reason that the same techniques still work with it.

Workshops,Tools, & Instruments

Workshops are static locations containing tools and equipment geared towards a specific purpose. They provide a +1 to +3 equipment bonus to rolls to create, repair, jury-rig, or modify items within their specific area of focus. They breakdown as follows:

+1 Workshop. Availability 1. Size: A small room.
+2 Workshop. Availability 3. Size: A single room.
+3 Workshop. Availability 5. Size: A garage or large room.

Tools are portable equipment containing tools geared towards a specific purpose. They provide a +1 or +2 equipment bonus to rolls to create, repair, jury-rid, or modify items within their specific area of focus. They breakdown as follows:

+1 Tools. Availability 2. Size: 2
+2 Tools. Availability 4. Size: 3

Musical Instruments vary in quality from a 0 bonus to a +3 bonus. This bonus only applies to performances made while playing the instrument, and potentially to social rolls made while holding it at the ST's discretion.

+1 Instrument. Availability 1.
+2 Instrument. Availability 3.
+3 Instrument. Availability 5.

Appropriate descriptions for tools and workshops include: Archaic Weapons, Firearms, Armor, Sewing, Leatherworking, Painting, Electrical, Automotive, Bowyer & Fletcher, etc.