Monday, April 1, 2024

2024 Rules Changelog

The OEC has finished work on the 2024 rule updates following the EHC, and for the second year running has put together a changelog to clearly communicate changes in one place. As always, the Omnibus and Standing Policies on RealmsNet are the official source for the rules we play by!


Changes approved February 17, 2024,

effective April 1, 2024

Safety & Marshaling

  • Firearms are now included in the list of "real steel" items disallowed from combat or potential combat situations.

  • Updated the last sentence under “Playing Dead” to clarify weapon use when ensuring suspected-living bodies are dead.

  • Under “Realms Thieves” a clarification was added to remove “magic or silver weapons” from the game. Instead, anything can be declared “Stealable or Event-Stealable” by whoever is currently pointing at them. 

  • Magic Marshals may now benefit from their events in the form of bribes worth no more than 50 gold. 

Combat

  • Increased maximum arrow length from 28” to 69”.

Magic

  • Instructions for spellcaster characters are unified under Spellcaster Basics for easier reference. There remains a small "Being a Spellcaster" section in "Creating a Character" that provides a bit of information before linking to the new full section.

  • If spellbook conversion differs from the Omnibus-default procedure for a given year, the overriding rule will be found in Standing Policies.

  • Unified similar but different Active Components for the spells Aura of Protection, Garmored Cloak, Protection from Missile, Purity, and Resist Death to “Kneel with no weapons or shields in hands, or lie on back”. Except for Purity, which also includes the alternative option of climbing a tree.

  • Defined what occurs when a spell is reset, and that by default when a player receives a spell reset it resets all their spells.

  • Added text to both Animal Companion and Familiar to explicitly allow these spells to use the same prop. Additionally at any event site that allows animals, you may use your pet in place of your prop.

  • Reduced the alchemy point cost of the following potions: Acid, Mending, Seance, Combat Raise Dead. Changed Potion of Cure Disease to Potion of Purity. Increased alchemy points gained from a 6th circle slot.

  • Reintroduced ‘clipping’ through the game world, upon combination of certain spells. 

Spells

Animal Companion

  • Can now use the same MC as Familiar. Can use real animals at pet-friendly sites. 

Aura of Protection

  • AC and related spell text changed to “Kneel with no weapons or shields in hands, or lie on back”.

Circle of Healing

  • Removed the disposable MC related text within the spell.

  • Now requires the rope to be "pink with blue dots" for marshaling clarity.

Cure Disease

  • Removed the disposable MC and added an AC to touch the recipient.

Create Poison

  • Clarified that only Sleep and Truth poisons can be resisted by Protect the Soul. Death poison, alcohol, and mold can still be resisted by Resist Death and calls of Knight and Mage. 

Familiar

  • Can now use the same MC as Animal Companion. Can use real animals at pet-friendly sites.

Garmored Cloak

  • Armored Cloak changed to Garmored Cloak to more accurately reflect the spell's role as ‘garb armor’. AC changed to “Kneel with no weapons or shields in hands, or lie on back”.

Gentle Repose

  • Added the spell Gentle Repose, a first circle spell that protects the target dead body temporarily as per the spell Protect the Soul until the target is returned to life.

Immunity to Poison

  • Removed the disposable MC and related spell text and added an AC to touch the recipient.

Magic Missile

  • Increases the Magic Missile props to 13 rather than 2. (The proposal advanced to the EHC as increasing to 3, but then Bright and Cecil convinced everyone we might as well add another 1 to the number.)

Merge Self Into Something Else/Transmute Self

  • Changed the name of the spell “Transmute Self” to “Merge Self Into Something Else” for clarity.

  • Moved Merge Self Into Something Else from 4th circle to 3rd.

  • The spellcaster no longer needs to have their eyes closed or remain “perfectly” still.

  • The spellcaster is able to Merge Self Into Something Else with trees, stone, earth, plastic, linoleum, plywood, and black tarps, choosing one each time they cast the spell.

Mystic Forge

  • Increased to 2 uses per learning.

Prophecy

  • Added that players may ask a follow up question every two hours to the EH or MM related to the initial question. The EH or MM will reward extra ‘seer points’ to anyone who uses their follow up questions to ask ‘why’. 

Protection from Missile

  • AC and related spell text changed to “Kneel with no weapons or shields in hands, or lie on back”.

Purity/Purity to Disease/Purity to Poison

  • AC changed to “Kneel with no weapons or shields in hands, climb a tree, or lie on back”.

  • Combined Purity to Disease and Purity to Poison into one spell. The spellcaster may choose persistent immunity to either disease or poison when casting the spell.

Reanimate Limb

  • Reintroduced the spell Reanimate Limb.

Regrow Limb

  • Reintroduced the spell Regrow Limb.

Rejoin Limb

  • Reintroduced the spell Rejoin Limb.

Remove Limb

  • Reintroduced the spell Remove Limb.

Retry Limb

  • Reintroduced the spell Retry Limb.

Reduce Reuse Recycle Limb

  • Reintroduced the spell Reduce Reuse Recycle Limb.

Repair Armor

  • Removed the disposable MC related text within the spell.

Resist Death

  • AC changed to “Kneel with no weapons or shields in hands, or lie on back”.

Seed of Life

  • Clarifies that the spell fails if the target is soulless.

  • Changed uses from Unlimited to 3.

Strange Brew

  • Added 4 more options to Strange Brew. 

    • Poison Potion is two points and creates a Death, Sleep, or Truth Poison as per Create poison.

    • Weapon Oil is four points and when applied to a weapon for 60 seconds with a spell sash, the weapon swings Silver or Magic.

    • Potion of Resistance is five points and allows the user to gain one call of Resist Magic as per the spell.

    • Potion of Intervention is six points and allows the user to either gain essentially no benefit or solve the entire quest, depending on how nice the marshals are.

Transformation

  • Allows for kneeling while regenerating armor.

  • Increased uses from 2 to 3.

  • Additionally allows the spellcaster to perform dot products as an unlimited effect.

Transmute Weapon

  • Added the new Transmute Weapon spell, a first circle spell that gives the spellcaster the ability to modify the shape and properties of a melee weapon temporarily. The spellcaster can choose from “Axe”, “Mace”, “Hammer”, “Spear”, “Dagger”, “Fireball”, “Boulder”, or “Final Strike”. The next three swings with this weapon use the specified call, whether or not there was a successful hit. 

Administrative

  • Added the Facebook Moderation Team into sections 9.1 and 9.7 with the other elected positions and removed the related expiring Standing Policy.

  • Removed the reference to “Realms of Wonder” from the Omnibus.

  • Updated the year to “2024” in all relevant locations. 

  • Updated the responsibilities of Administrative Meeting Organizers to include being the sole organizers of Player Meeting and Event Holder Council micro-transactions. 

  • Added the new Standing Policy (ongoing) encouraging that the Event Holders Council meeting has a hybrid virtual option going forward.

  • Added the new Standing Policy (expiring next year) that proposals may only advance to the Players' Meeting with the registered support of at least 30 players eligible to vote at that Players' Meeting. Any proposals with exactly 29 supporters can never be proposed again but must instead be vocally complained about being "able to single-handedly address all problems with the Realms rules if only there'd been one more supporter" on an annual basis for the rest of time.

  • Added the new Standing Policy that the OEC may make any changes to the Omnibus that they see fit. 

  • Updated the COVID-19 Standing Policy to allow negative tests to permit event attendance after positive test results.

  • Removed ongoing Standing Policies that did not get renewal approval. 

  • Added a Standing Policy to reflect the 2024 Spellbook Conversion policy. Why learn spells when they can just drop into your head once a year?






April Fools! We hope you've enjoyed this slightly-unhinged edition of the changelog for the year. You can find the real changelog on RealmsNet!