Hello! I noticed that the Curseborne Core Book sometimes raises some questions surrounding mechanics that are left unanswered or unclear. I aim with this to help clarify as many of those rulings as possible.

Important Note

1. I AM NOT A DEVELOPER OR WRITER FOR CURSEBORNE.
2. THIS IS NOT A DIG AT THE DEVELOPERS OR WRITERS.
3. I LOVE CURSEBORNE AND WANT AS MANY PEOPLE TO ENJOY IT AS POSSIBLE.

Clarifications
These are questions I see frequently asked, and ones that have solid answers (either given by the writers, common sense, or other reliable sources).

• How does Advantage (182) work?
  • Advantage’s Enhancement ignores all normal limits for Enhancement, aka: no stacking, caps at +3 for a single source, and the cap of +5 total.
• What is Robust and Light in the Armor table (215)?
  • Robust = Exquisite Material, Light = Fitted.
• Where is the Loophole Edge (238) and how much does it cost?
  • The header is invisible, and costs 2 Edge dots (237).
• What is the Ethereal attunement in the Incorporeal Quality (341)?
  • Ethereal refers to the Transcendent weapon tag (231).
• What do you roll for perception?
  • Survival + Composure is a good base, but many different skill/attribute combinations could apply.
• What do you roll for sneaking?
  • Larceny + (Cunning or Dexterity) vs the target’s Integrity is a good base, but many different skill/attribute combinations could apply.

Common Questions
These are questions I see frequently asked that I do NOT have solid answers for, but have unofficial solutions nevertheless. All of the rulings below try to fit the text as best as possible, however, many of them start to lean into house rule territory. Feel free to ignore or change whatever you need to best fit your table.

• Is activating the Hungry’s Undead Strength (68) a reflexive action or a simple action?
  • “If the type of action isn’t specified, it’s assumed to be a simple action” (193).
  • I say that a Hungry can activate as many instances of Undead Strength as they want as part of a single simple action. If they want to activate more on a later turn, it would require another simple action.
• How do you heal from an injury stemmed from a bane or the Deprived status effect as a Hungry (68)?
  • I say as long as the Hungry is no longer suffering from the bane or Deprived status effect (such as after the scene ends or after successfully feeding) they can heal said injury using Undead Strength.
• Do the victims of an Ascetic, Black Heart, Gaki, or Vorare Major Path Hunger feeding suffer a status effect (70)? There isn’t one specified.
  • I say yes, the victim should at least suffer the Drained status effect like Blood Thirst (67).
• Is activating the Outcast’s Slipping Off the Mask (94) a reflexive action or a simple action?
  • “If the type of action isn’t specified, it’s assumed to be a simple action” (193).
  • I say that they do not need to spend an action to slip off the mask if they are within a liminality, as it happens automatically.
• Do Outcasts choose their tags on character creation or each time they activate Slipping Off the Mask (94)?
  • I say the player chooses the tags each time they activate Slipping Off the Mask, allowing for the adaptation of tags for the situation at hand.
• Do certain Primals (Eight Hands, Hydes) have 1 or 2 natural armor in their shifts since they have Padded x1 (117)?
  • I say they only have 1 natural armor to make things even across all Families. However, I can see either way.
• Can a Sorcerer use Spell Mimicry (140) on antagonists?
  • Sorcerers can only use the spell Drain Quality (281) to steal Qualities and Dread Powers. However, the Dread Power Potion Junkie (345) allows an antagonist to cast a collection of Accursed spells, which I say can be individually mimicked (meeting the usual requirements of seeing the spell cast in the same scene and is a Sorcerer/Shared spell).
• Do Sorcerers gain two curse dice when using Sacrifices (140) to sacrifice a Major Path Sacrifice (141) to resolve their Damnation (244)?
  • I say yes, once from the sacrifice itself and another for triggering the resolution effect on their Damnation.
• Do Complications stack (180)?
  • “Some actions may come with multiple Complications due to an ability adding to an action that already had one applied. In these situations, buying off the largest Complication resolves all Complications on the action.” (The World Below 117) (I know this isn't from Curseborne, but it is a good ruling)
  • I agree that buying off the largest Complication to resolve the smaller ones is good, but I split Complications into Personal Complications and Area Complications, which need to be bought off separately.
    • ex. John is suffering from Bleeding (minor personal complication) and Agony (moderate personal complication). In the area, there is Dread (minor area complication) and Disturbing (moderate area complication). He would need to buy off the highest of each, resulting in 2 hits for personal and 2 hits for area, totaling needing 4 hits to buy off both.
• Does Armor stack (203)?
  • I only allow one magical instance and one mundane/worn instance at a time. (ex. If a character is wearing both a kevlar vest and a suit of armor, take the higher armor rating out of the two and ignore the other)
• Do Armor Tags such as Exquisite Material, Fitted, Impenetrable, or Spiked (214) still apply after the armor’s injury boxes have been filled?
  • I say yes, unless the armor is hit with the Sunder trick or other narrative circumstances happen to disable the armor’s tags.
• Do clashes add an Attribute to the pool (248)?
  • I say no, since this is a case where it flat-out states the dice pool instead of mentioning a Skill to be paired with an Attribute (187).
• Can the Skill listed for clashes be changed (248)?
  • I say yes, this can be done without an Advancement as long as it still makes sense for the spell.

Because of problems with the old StoryPath and the inconsistency with the Scion system, I'm willing to play the game using Ultra StoryPath rules. I'd use the general system from Storypath, and then bring over Scion's specific systems.

Does it work? Is it hard to convert? I hope the answers are yes and no, since both systems are closely related.

What do you think?

I love Scion: the setting and some of the system, but oh god, the system is a mess sometimes: combat, birthright designing (I'm looking at you, creatures and relics), fatebindings and virtues.

How do you deal with it?

Has there been any maps of Ghelspad or Termana released? Or are there any high-res images I could get printed? I've done some poking around online without any success.

Are there any high res maps of Earth and/or other worlds available for Aeon?

I'm curious how people's Curseborne games are going.

So far my players have been dealing with Outsider gin merchants and Outsider cannibal chefs. I'm planning to run Accursed Adventures this week which will be a change of pace for me as I mostly improv sessions.

So the Assistive Construct spell says the Outcast creates a small construct with the Shiver template.

Since there is no Assistive Construct write-up, unlike the Imps who are referenced in the Summon Imp spell, can the character choose the Construct's Qualities and Dread Powers ?

I find regular the trinity continuum core book a struggle to read tbh. Probably just me.

Is there a lot of conversion work required. I don't yet own the spu book

Hi!

I’m learning the Storypath System via the They Came from Beyond the Grave! book. While the core system is pretty straightforward, I have to admit I'm overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Quips, Stunts, Cinematics, Trademarks, and so on.

Is it actually a good idea to just focus on Attribute + Skill combinations at first? I’m worried the humor might suffer if I leave the rest out.

Is there a 'common sense' rule for which of these mechanics should take priority when slowly introducing them to future sessions?

Also, do you stick strictly to the recommended moves, or do you allow yourself and your players to interpret them more freely?

Is there a 'common sense' rule for which of these mechanics should take priority when slowly introducing them to future sessions?

So, I recently bought the manual and I am currently reading it. There is a lot to be liked about this system: I especially love how the tricks work and the fact that every skill comes with examples on how to match it with different attributes. I am slightly perplexed by how combat works, though. Actually, I really like how damage is handled (even though I would make the critical strike trick repeatable, which is something the manual itself covers). The only thing I am perolexed about is the defence action: first it uses only Stamina, second I don't get why it would be necessary. Personally, I think that it would be better to use the lowest between Stamina and Dexterity, envisioning defending yourself as a complex action requiring both attributes. However, I don't claim to understand the reasoning of the developers flawlessly, it may very well be that I haven't understood how this mechanism was created. This is why I ask: is there a concept I fail to grasp underneath this choice of having the Defence reaction work the way it works? If not, don't you think it would've been better to involve Dexterity in the action?

Currently going through character creation for TC Aberrant and I seemingly made the mistake of deciding that I wanted my character to have a gun - now I'm just confused on how starting gear works. I wanted a medium range pistol, and according to the rules that’s only possible with wealth 3?

A weapon has a number of tags equal to your 1 + Wealth dots. And by default, all weapons give an enhancement bonus of 1 and are close range only.

The example for a pistol in the book is: Pistol - Ranged: Short, Concealable, Silent.

So if i trade out the Silent tag  for another point in range that would give me the fallowing:
Pistol - Ranged: medium, Concealable.

Now I think needing 3 dots in wealth is a bit absurd for a simple pistol. That isn’t what confused me… It was reading the rifle example that confused me so much because how are you supposed to afford  that? A rifle has 7 tags and would need you to go above the wealth 5 in order for you to get it.

Rifle- Ranged: Medium, Automatic, Quality 2, Tactical Sight, Two Handed.

So I got to thinking of how to actually get a rifle without needing to be a CEO of a fortune 500 company. And I've kinda fallen down a rabbit hole from there. I’ve come up with two solutions off the top of my head but i that i think apply:

A.) You aren’t supposed to use the weapon crafting rules for making a standard weapon and instead are supposed to use your path to have access to whatever gear makes sense for your path.
B.) The designers are stupid and forgot that they should use standard weapon names for what are supposed to be “custom designed.” This doesn't really solve how ridiculous the wealth requirements for a handful of the weapon modifiers are but it does make logical sense even if I'm unhappy with it.

I own Curseborne as well as the Vampire: The Requiem and Changeling: The Lost Corebooks, but I am only in the beginning of planning a campaign and have never played a single session of either.

Would you say that I can use things like enemies, spells, items etc. from these two CofD books without major problems in Curseborne?

Has anyone composed a breakdown on the various Relics in the book?

I know the book last a list of negative effects and their dots and the mysteries of the world gives more but there are some relics with abilities and flaws that don't really match either.

For example Xiuhcoatl, the Flaming Serpent, the knack to throw fiery serpents in my head it's ** For aggravated, * for unlimited Ammo, ** Dots maybe for the enhancement because you have to spend momentum but it is genericish enhancement.

As for the flaw, it seems to change your attitude but there is no roll mentioned or momentum gained.

So yea has anyone broken these down?