Character Submissions Close Soon!
We’d also like to flag up that the deadline for submitting new characters is 23.59pm, Sunday 31st March. We encourage folks to get this done as soon as possible, in order to workshop ideas and ensure that your character is suitable for the game- Submitting a character does not guarantee approval. Any queries about new characters can be sent to info@fiveoaths.com.
Insurance Dates
We’d like to flag up that if you require insurance, our cutoff date for insurance payments is March 29th! We cannot guarantee that our insurance provider will be able to process payments after this point ahead of game 1. If you’re unsure as to whether you need insurance or not after reading this post, just ask at info@fiveoaths.com
Now, onto the main event…
You can also view this post as a PDF, along with the newest version of our Rulebook here.
2024 Rules Update
Before we begin our games this year we are making a number of changes to the rulebook. Some of these updates are small quality of life changes, others are more substantial. These changes, updates, and additions are based on player feedback, our experience running the game this last year, and our goals for the game in the future. Thank you to everyone who provides feedback to help us in continuing to develop and improve the game, particularly those who have participated in player review groups. The incoming changes and our rationale for making them are described below.
Several of these updates make changes to or remove existing feats. If your character has a feat removed as a result of this, your XP will be refunded. All characters with feats affected by this update will be unlocked for editing on the database and if you wish to respec your character in light of these changes, you may do so directly on the database.
Inflation
For some time we have observed that the Pingin has lacked granularity. This has led to unintended artificial floors on the prices of ingredients and items, as well as making it difficult to spend small amounts of money on small things, or on games and wagers. To counteract this, we are multiplying all pingin values by 5. We believe that this increase is sufficient to create the extra value space we’re looking for without requiring a rework of the physical currency denominations.
All pingin in all characters’ inventories will be multiplied by 5. If you have pingin stored outside the system, we will be able to multiply it for you at the next event.
Tour Guides
Travelling around Tirneach is not always safe or easy. Even in the more civilised areas where banditry is kept to a minimum, the threat of the Gwyllt looms ever present. The difficulties and danger involved in making journeys between settlements and realms is one of the reasons that characters must rely on their knowledge of familiar locations while travelling. Knowing the lay of the land and being prepared for local threats can make the difference of life and death when travelling without the support of the band.
Sometimes however, you need to go somewhere new but you don’t want to go all in on picking up Five Realms Lore. For this situation we’re adding a new pair of downtime actions: Teach and Learn Location. To use these actions you will need one or more characters who want to know a new location and a character who already knows it. Once they are all starting in the same place, the knowledgeable character can spend a downtime action leading the learners to the new location, the learners also need to spend a downtime action to follow them. Teachers and Learners will both arrive at the new location as though they had travelled there and the location will be permanently added to the Learners’ list of Known Locations.
Burning the Midnight Oil
We are making several changes to Crafting Feats. Perhaps most notably, we are removing Crafting Lores. We have found over the last two years that the Crafting Lores don’t fit well with the other Lores and are disproportionately difficult to support in the same way. We are also making some changes to how we handle the other Lores and found that this only increased the disparity. To resolve this, the permissions previously granted by Crafting Lores will now be unlocked as you gain crafting feats:
Student Crafters will be able to generate the Identify effect targeting relevant items.
Apprentice Crafters will be able to ask Research questions relevant to their area of expertise.
Journeyman Crafters will be able to use the Analyse action to learn recipes.
Master Crafters may gain access to additional information as it becomes relevant during a game.
Any player character that currently has Smithing or Alchemy Lore will have their XP refunded. All characters with Smithing Lore, Alchemy Lore, Magic Lore, or a Crafting Feat will have their characters unlocked for respeccing.
As part of an effort to add more uptime utility to crafting feats, and because it makes sense, Blacksmiths will now have the ability to repair armour. Light Armour may be repaired by Apprentice Blacksmiths, and Heavy Armour may be repaired by Journeyman Blacksmiths.
Finally, we are adding the feat “Tireless Crafting” to the game. This feat is intended to allow consumables crafters to be more responsive to events in the field and will allow the creation of consumable items overnight. Crafting in this way is more expensive than downtime crafting however, costing one extra ingredient per item, per level.
Improved Stability
We are removing the Strikedown effect from the game. Over the last year we have observed that this effect is not working as intended. It is extremely common for it to be unsafe or undesirable for a player to fall flat on their back and forcing a player to take a knee both doesn’t have the same tactical impact and often places their head and face in an unsafe position in the middle of a melee. Feats and spells referencing this effect will be removed. The Bracing Brew potion will have the duration of its Protection against Push increased to compensate.
Any character that currently has the Tripping Blows or Mighty Blows feats will have their XP refunded. Characters with spells that reference Strikedown will need to make a new spell choice. All characters affected will have their characters unlocked for respeccing.
Sneaky Changes
We are making several changes to the Way of Shadowed Blades. Most of these are tweaks to existing feats but we are also combining the Escape Restraints and Quickened Searching feats into a single new feat called “Skulduggery”. We’ve observed that both of these two feats are a bit too situational to be worth a full feat by themselves but think the effects make a good package deal.
Any character that currently has the Escape Restraints or Quickened Searching feats will have their XP refunded.
Last year we changed Throwing Weapons to make them more useful to the people bringing them to the fight than the people they were throwing them at. We’re now adding the Throwing Weapons Expert feat to reward specialisation into Throwing Weapons and create a bigger disparity between a dedicated Throwing Weapons Expert and someone who just picked something up off the ground. Characters with this feat will have access to 10s Repair when targeting Thrown Weapons.
Last year’s changes to Throwing Weapons also made it so that the Volatile Substances and Petrifying Potion feats could be used less easily and frequently. To offset this, the cost of Volatile Substances is being reduced to 1 Vigour, and the cost of Petrifying Potion is being reduced to 2 Vigour. We also noticed that the cost of the Internal Damage Feat was out of line with its effect and so it will be reduced from 3 Vigour to 2 Vigour.
In order to make its effect more impactful than we’re currently seeing, the duration of the Mute effect generated by the Cutthroat feat will be increased from 10s to 30s. In line with this, its Vigour cost will increase from 1 Vigour to 2 Vigour. The duration of the additional effect granted by the Silencing Strikes Feat will also be increased from 10s to 30s.
Bedside Manner
To improve the flow of information and experience of using the feat, we’re changing the wording of Diagnose so that the source of the effect can ask questions about the target’s current state rather than receiving an initial dump of information.
We are also adding another new feat, “Spiritual Healer”. This feat will allow players to specialise into treating Afflictions and allow them to read and open them even if they would not otherwise meet the requirements. In future this feat may be required to address particularly advanced or dangerous afflictions.
Warm Swappable
To limit the “hot swapping” of magical items we are modifying the rules for Attunement. Attuning to items now requires Concentration. Additionally, attuning durable magic items will now take 10 seconds. Consumable items can be attuned instantly as before.
Additionally we are rewording the rules for magical foci. “Touching” a magical foci now requires contact with the user’s palm. The “casting hand” must still be empty or hold only the foci for the duration of the spell.
Clarifications
Alongside the changes listed above we have also made a number of smaller changes to the rulebook to improve clarity or to carry through consequences of the larger changes.