It's largely an issue in Sirian, but still occasionally happens in Vaxia: having to handle combat when vehicles are involved. It's important to note that "vehicle" here means anything that propels one or more characters around the battlefield, so a horse can be a vehicle as easily as a tank or a thruster backpack.

Understanding Vehicle Stats
Vehicles have four stats:

• LIF is the HP of the vehicle. At zero, it’s disabled. At negative its LIF, it's beyond repair.
• END is its armor and helps defend against outside attacks. It replaces the END might for passengers and pilot alike for any damage coming from outside the vehicle.
• STR is the power of its weapons or its ramming speed for attacking. This replaces the pilot's stat, just like the fixed STR of a handheld gun would.
• DEX is the maneuverability of the vehicle. This is the maximum might that a pilot driving/flying it can use. If the pilot's might (DEX + skill) is less than the vehicle's DEX, use the pilot's might. Else, use the vehicle's DEX. It serves as a cap.

You can see a list of standard vehicle numbers on the Sirian Vehicle Numbers or Vaxian Ships and Vehicles pages.

Vehicle Combat
When it comes to taking or dealing damage from the outside, these Stats will overlap the pilot or passengers most of the time. If the vehicle is rammed by another vehicle, it's the vehicle's END stat and pilot's DEX might (assuming it's not higher than the ship's DEX stat) that determines damage or dodge results. The passengers inside don't get to roll to dodge unless they're leaping out of the vehicle.

The pilot still uses their piloting skill and their own DEX might, capped by the vehicle's DEX - its maximum maneuverability. In combat, a pilot attacking uses the STR of the vehicle rather than her own for determining the STR might of any attacks (whether it's ramming or firing fixed-position weaponry, like the guns on a fighter jet). The piloting skill serves as a combat skill while flying, so it's:

• Pilot DEX + Pilot Skill
• Vehicle STR + Pilot Skill
• Vehicle END + Pilot Skill

There is no need to roll to fly the ship and also roll to attack - it's just one roll, and it uses DEX and STR instead of DEX and INT for non-combat piloting. All the maneuvers and skillful flying are just part of the attack or dodge.

Except in special circumstances, the only combat actions available to vehicles are Attack and Dodge. A vehicle that specifically has shield capabilities can attempt to Block, and targeting an enemy's guns should be ruled like a Parry.

Open Vehicles
Vehicles which don't contain the pilot/rider/driver, like motorcycles, thruster packs or horses, don't lend their END stat to the pilot or passengers for defensive purposes. In those cases, use the END of the pilot/passenger instead, unless the attacker is specifically targeting the vehicle (in which case, use its stats).

A passenger or pilot may attempt to dodge if they flee the vehicle (jumping off a bike or out of a shuttle, for instance), in which case they use all their own stats for the dodge attempt. Similarly, vehicles like shuttles or APCs that come with gun ports can allow passengers to use their own stats (plus whatever weapon they're firing) for combat in addition to the pilot's actions.

Non-combat piloting
Outside of combat, pilots use far more care and far less instinct for flying, represented by the fact that it becomes a Tech roll (DEX & INT) instead of a combat roll (DEX/STR/END). The same piloting skill is used, with the same vehicle cap on the DEX might.

"Non-combat" piloting just means the pilot isn't taking a combat action (attack, dodge, etc). A pipe fighter landing in the middle of a shoot-out uses DEX & INT to land, even though they're technically in combat.

Vehicle Death
When a vehicle reaches 0 LIF, it should become immobile or inoperable. Onboard systems like communications or life support may remain intact, but the ship can no longer fight, dodge, maneuver, etc. At best, it may be able to limp along at a very slow pace.

Vehicles can be repaired just like people can be healed. Someone with an appropriate vehicle repair skill repairs one point of LIF per PP on their repair roll. The moment a ship crosses back into positive LIF, it becomes operational again.

A vehicle that reaches negative it's LIF total is completely destroyed. Ships may explode or else lose all systems (comms, life support, etc), which may have dire consequences for those inside. A ship which reaches this point can no longer be repaired, though some key parts may be salvaged to help in the building of a new vehicle later.

When characters take enough damage to hit zero LIF, but not enough to hit negative their LIF score, they fall unconscious but are still alive.

If a character wishes to try and stay conscious despite crossing the zero-LIF mark, they must make a roll using against 25 + the damage they've taken past zero LIF.
For example, if a character with LIF 30 takes 45 damage and wishes to stay conscious, they will need to roll again a difficulty of 40:

25 base + 15 damage taken past LIF 0 = 40

Several characters have a skill for exactly this situation, commonly called a "hardcore" skill. The skill is added to their chosen stat might to assist with the attempt at Staying Conscious

Which stat to use can vary, however End is the most common stat to be used, however Str, Spir or Cha could also be used pending on the character's theme.

As an additional ruling, you can base how long the character can remain conscious on the PP they generate with the stay-conscious roll, often giving them PP/7 rounds of consciousness before they must roll again. If a character produces 15 PP on their initial roll, they get two rounds of consciousness before they have to roll again. Any damage they've taken in those two rounds is added to the new roll's difficulty, so it can be trickier to stay conscious the longer they keep fighting.

NOTE: Hardcore skills are deceptively dangerous. A lone combatant against a villainous foe obviously has to worry about passing out in the middle of a fight, as it leaves them defenseless. However, when fighting in a group, many combatants will ignore someone who falls unconscious in favor of others still slinging spells or throwing punches.

What that means is that falling unconscious is a bit of a safety net in more dangerous situations, since most sessions involve a group who can come to the add of a party member who drops or otherwise draw off attackers simply by still being an active combatant.

By contrast, staying in the fight when you're already past zero LIF keeps enemies engaged and makes the character a target. Allies may not even realize how close to death they are, since they're still up and fighting as if they're relatively unharmed. Be wary of characters staying conscious despite grievous injury, as it becomes much, much easier for them to reach negative their LIF score and be gone for good. Staying conscious is a gamble, and should be used with caution.

Each Round vs. Cumulative Damage
Damage listed as occurring "each round" remains at a static value that the PCs roll against once each round until they are no longer exposed to the source. For instance, in an extreme cold environment, the PCs are rolling to reduce 5 damage every round they're exposed to the frost.

Damage listed as "per round, cumulative" raises by the base value each successive round. For noxious gas, PCs must roll to reduce 5 damage the first round, 10 damage the second, 15 damage the third round, and so on. If they escape the gas for a round or more and then are exposed again, the counter resets to the base damage and increments again normally from there.

"Environmental damage" is any time a character takes damage that wasn't caused by a direct, intentional force. When a mage casts a spell at you, that's direct and intentional. If the mage's spell misses you but knocks out a load-bearing beam that drops the ceiling on you both, the falling ceiling is environmental. The same thing is true if someone falls to jump across a chasm and hits the ground below, hard. Or if someone is caught in an avalanche, or breathing the toxic air in a sealed crypt.

But what Stats do you give a falling ceiling or an avalanche to determine the damage it deals, and how do you determine what stat the PCs use to resist getting crushed, buried or suffocated?

Resisting Environmental Damage
The simplest way to calculate Environmental Damage (if you don't want to try to figure out the relative Strength stat for gravity) is to instead pick a base damage for the affected characters to roll against.

Let's take our falling ceiling example. Let's say we set the base damage for a falling ceiling at 15 PP. That's the damage a PC standing under that roof would take unless they can dodge or resist the damage.

Then, have the PC roll the appropriate stat(s) against a difficulty of 1. Any PP they produce are subtracted from the base damage, and if anything remains, that's the damage the PC takes. If they produce as many or more PP as the base damage, they avoided or resisted taking any damage at all.

This formula works with either single-trait rulings (someone rolling CON to resist the effects of toxic air in a sealed crypt, or rolling END to sump a fall from a high height) or two-trait rulings (rolling DEX and END to avoid and resist damage from our falling ceiling). In both cases, the difficulty is 1, and any PP generated subtracts from the base damage you set.

Determining Base Damage
All that remains is to set the appropriate base damage for the environmental effect.

It's important to keep in mind that, most of the time, a character will be resisting with a stat only. Most combat and magic skills aren't directly applicable to resisting environmental damage (although many mages could chose to try and conjure a shield instead rather than simply rolling END). So understand the scale you're working from.

If your average PC is bringing a stat of 25 to the situation, then 80% of the time they'll only sump 4-5 damage from an environmental effect. Even someone with a high stat and skill who brings an 80 might to the situation is only sumping 15 damage 80% of the time. Use that to gauge the best base damage to set based on the situation, so you know what to expect.

Base damage most of the time for environmental effects should be 10. Anything above 10, assume that most of your PCs will be taking the difference. In our falling ceiling example, at 15 PP, you can expect most of the characters to take 5-10 damage. Some exceptional effects (being caught in a lava avalanche, teleporting to the bottom of the ocean by mistake, etc) will go beyond that, but the majority should fall within the 5-15 range.

For specific examples, refer to our Environmental Damage Base Damage Chart

Special Cases - Falling and Space
Falling damage follows the same rules, with one exception - it scales based on how far the character is falling. Set your base damage to how many feet the character has fallen when they land (a 20-foot fall has 20 PP of base damage). That may seem extreme, but in the real world, a fall of over 30 feet is rarely survivable. In IC terms, that would only knock out most characters, if that (and if they absorbed none of the damage at all), so we're actually allowing for falls from higher heights, because it's a game :)

Additionally, we currently have exactly one environmental situation that follows separate rules than these - space. They're listed at the bottom of the Monkeys in Space wiki page.

Normally applicable only to Sirian, the space rules handle round-by-round rulings for anyone suddenly finding themselves in a vacuum. If you feel inclined, you can use similar rules for handling situations like drowning or deep ocean environments (extreme pressure, extreme cold, lack of air) or toxic environments (holding breath, dealing with corrosive effects, etc).

Armor and Environmental Damage
The damage reduction from Armor and Shields does NOT protect or absorb Environmental Damage from sources like natural fire, extreme cold, noxious gas, etc.

Once you've completed ASH Test Two, you have the power to do a great deal more than just run solo sessions (although that's probably still the biggest difference). It's good to understand what other responsibilities you might be tasked with while you work on running your five solo sessions to apply to become a full SH.

Each of these is something you won't be required to do to become an SH, but have the privilege to do if you would like to help in the meantime:

• Respond to requests in the SH Requests forums
• Help players with Recruitment Sessions for their characters to get jobs or join groups in the IC world
• Make changes to character sheets (add new skills, add Items, update Economy scores, etc)

Additionally, when it comes to sessions, you gain the ability to:

• Award XP & silver
• Create NPCs (anything with a stat or skill 70 or higher will need World approval)
• Create items (they will need approval by an evaluator)

Since all ASHs on the first phase of the SH Course are required to have an SH mentor, we wanted to jot down some good guidelines for the SHs acting as mentors to help them with the job.

The Goal
Keep in mind as you're mentoring that we're not just there to run the numbers for the ASH (although that's why we're required) - the goal is to help the ASH understand how to run a good session. That means advising on everything from narratives to managing groups of players and good session design, when you can. In the end, running the numbers may seem like the smallest part of the help you provide to the ASH you're mentoring.

Principles to Focus On
Since ASHs in Phase One (which are all the ones you'll be mentoring) aren't required to have any knowledge of the system yet, talking to them about how you're running the numbers may not be as helpful as focusing on some of the other elements they've already be trained on.

When the opportunity comes up, try to focus on talking with your mentee about the following:

• Being clear in narratives, especially during combat
• Keeping the session focused on the players and their characters' decisions
• Keeping the flow of the session going - breaking into rounds, posting mid-round with larger or slower groups, etc
• Essentially, anything under Narrative Guidelines or Running Sessions

You are more than welcome to talk with the ASH about system specifics if they're curious, but we recommend against spending too much time explaining the system, if they haven't already read ahead in the SH Course. It may slow the session down, although answering questions for them afterward is totally fine.

Logistics
With twice as many people involved, it can be tricky at times to keep up with who's responsible for what.

In technical terms, as the mentor SH, you are responsible for:

• Determining exact NPC mights*
• Setting exact difficulty numbers*
• Determining success, failure and PP generated for actions in the session
• Awarding XP and silver after the session
• Filtering and summarizing ASH Feedback given after the session (if any)

The ASH you are mentoring is responsible for:

• Determining the rough power of NPCs in the session (things like "elite bandit," "skilled assassin," "average joe")
• Determining the rough difficulty of each challenge within the session (things like "easy," "average," "difficult," "almost impossible")
• Writing up the narratives and results
• Determining what rewards and how much of what type XP to award to the players
• Posting the session report after the session

Giving Feedback
As you may have already guessed, communicating with the ASH during the session will likely require having a second window open in some way, shape or form to talk about the session without the players seeing the details.

If you and the ASH are willing to chat over IMs (AIM, ICQ, etc), many find that easiest, and most such programs have logs which can make it easy to track which difficulties or NPC numbers you set. Alternatives include the Messages system here on the site (you'll get an email with each new PM, so it can be a little spammy) or using an out-of-the-way RP room (like the Discussion Room or the Testing Grounds, if they're currently unoccupied). Again, all of those are logged in case you need to check back later and recover what numbers were talked about.

It can also be a good idea, if you and the ASH have time, to do a quick "wrap up" after the session ends (or after you post the report, depending on how late things run) to talk about their overall handling of the situation and any last improvements you might suggest.

Remember, when you're giving feedback, don't just focus on the areas where the ASH needs to improve. If they did something well, make sure they know it - it'll encourage them to keep doing it well in future sessions :) Don't shy away from pointing out things that might need improvement, just make sure you aren't ignoring the things they did right while you're at it.

You may also receive emails after the session marked "ASH Feedback." Filter these, passing only positive or constructive feedback on to the ASH. Players lashing out or complaining without clear suggestions for remedying issues they spotted in the session do not need a voice with a Phase One ASH, and forwarding that feedback along could chase otherwise good ASHs away before they get their confidence about them.

Thank you!
System would seriously like to thank all our SHs who help out mentoring ASHs! With just two co-heads, there's no way the department could do all this ourselves and keep up with a growing site, and it's hugely appreciated to have everyone pitching in.

Thank you for all your help!

At the end of a session, there are all manner of rewards you may be giving to your players for participating, succeeding and surviving. Some of them are pre-planned (the vault at the end of the dungeon), some of them are unexpected (looting the guard captain while he's unconscious), but it's important to have an idea for the scale of rewards so that you don't risk giving too much or too little, based on what you're expecting.

A session can not be used to give something in order to bypass additional requirements needed.

There are some items/conditions/enhancements which may require the player or character to have met extra criteria in order to qualify for them. Often this is in the form of reputation, HXP, or a combination of them. Those requirements must still be met with in order for the character to be given/infected.
In some cases the player may have the opportunity to do rp and such to gain the requirements in order to unlock the item/condition/enhancement. Otherwise an alternative reward/action will be worked out.

XP rewards
Almost every session leads to XP rewards, even occasionally smaller sessions only involving a single player with a short task. You can award general XP, as well as "flavored" XP to match the sort of RP the characters have been showcasing.

First, in terms of quantity, the general rule of thumb is 1 XP per hour of session. If your session takes 7 hours, 7 XP is a pretty fitting reward. You may raise or lower that total depending on the circumstances (last session in a saga, particularly exceptional RP quality, or session getting derailed for PvP halfway through, etc), but it's a good standard to start from.

The XP you award includes the flavored XP, so as a guideline, award the flavored XP first, then use general XP to fill in the remainder. If someone does a lot of swordfighting in a five-hour session, you might give them 2 PXP (physical XP) and 3 XP (general XP). If they sword-fought to protect an innocent bystander and put themselves at risk, you might instead give 2 PXP, 1 GXP (good XP) and 2 XP. Each of the different flavors is named on the Sheet tab for the character you're awarding them to, so don't worry if you don't have the letters memorized.

See Flavored XP and the Top Tens for a more in-depth explanation of the different XP types.

Reputation Rewards
Reputation follows the same rules as XP in terms of how much to award. Where XP has flavors, rep is split up based on the group, and comes in either positive or negative varieties.

The total rep you wish to award for a given session or scene is a combined total, even if there are multiple groups involved. For instance, for a five-hour session, it's recommended that you award no more than 5 rep for a given character. If multiple groups are involved, split the 5 rep as appropriate between the groups, instead of awarding 5 rep for each.

Material Rewards
Material rewards come in two flavors: silver and items. Giving silver is rarely a bad idea, since it gives characters options that their XP might not. No matter how much STR you have, you can't buy an apartment without silver. Generally speaking, it's good to give out roughly 25-50 silver per hour of session. That's about 100-200 silver for a four-hour session. Again, you can vary this amount up or down as needed, it's just a guideline for where to start.

You will need an IC reason for the gold, so having a reward system for whatever task the Cs are accomplishing, or access to coin enough to split (the vault, for instance) is a good idea.

Even if you also plan to award items, awarding silver is a good idea. Trying to pick items that you know your Cs will want and be able to use can be tricky, especially if you need them approved before you know who'll be showing up to the session. If you have a C who doesn't want any of the items you've made available, or if everyone wants the same item, having silver as an additional reward means no one leaves empty handed, and those who didn't get an item they wanted can use the silver to save up and buy something equivalent later.

Items as Silver
If you're worried about overdosing on rewards, plan on enough items for everyone, and make their sale value equal to the amount of silver you would give otherwise (refer to the Calculating Item Worth page for details on how to translate items into silver value). For a five-hour session, make all your rewards worth roughly 200-250 silver, and that way anyone who doesn't get an item they want can still sell theirs for silver immediately and have something to show for their efforts.

That measure should also help you figure out the kind of items to design to give out. A magical, flaming sword may be closer to 1500s depending on the bonuses it awards, while even a masterwork dagger may be worth only 100s. If you keep your items around the same level, you can help guarantee that you won't be awarding too much or too little.

Power versus Creativity
Because you're looking to keep your item values within the realm of equivalent silver, you may notice that you can't always give things that seem flashy and memorable, because magical power-enhancing items are also much more expensive in Vaxia (Setting) : Vaxia.

For that reason, and because it's easier to balance and often more rewarding in practice, we recommend trying to design and award creative "utility-belt" items, rather than just bigger and more powerful things.

Go for imaginative items that may not have direct applications to combat, but do something which the player can't otherwise do on their own. A statue that they can have someone touch to tell if they're lying, for instance, or a troll bone which will let them tell how close someone nearby is to death.

Neither of these has a numeric component, but it still has a narrative value and may lend a much richer, more memorable story to the item than just "the plus-30 dagger of shocking death." It'll also be more reasonable priced in terms of silver worth, making it easier to give out during regular sessions, per the guidelines above.

Scenes and Slow-post Sessions
If our estimate for how much XP or silver to give is based on time, then how do you figure out rewards for scenes and slow-post sessions that don't necessarily follow the same pace of number of posts per hour?

Any time you're dealing with a slow-post environment, you can instead do rewards by the round. In live session play, a rough roughly equates to a half-hour of real time. If we use that as our mark, then ruling a scene or session by round means awarding roughly 1 XP for every 2 rounds. For scenes where no SH is present to post a narrative, pick a character and count the number of posts. Divide it by two, that's how many rounds the scene entails. Set your rewards accordingly.

Non-session, Non-scene Rewards
Some A/SHs will be tempted to award items, silver or XP for casual RP. If you happen to run across especially good RP in the Power Search, or happen to be in it as a player, you might want to reward the other participants for high-quality RP with 1-2 XP or other rewards.

DON'T do this.

It sounds like a very nice thing, and in and of itself, it is. The problem is that there is a larger context to consider. The players whose RP you don't run across, whose RP falls outside the schedule of most SHs or whose RP is typically solo due to the preferences of the player are not nearly as likely to get this "drive by" XP as folks who just happen to be on during peak hours or whose RP is more attractive to the general SH population.

Limit your rewards to sanctioned settings like submitted scenes or sessions run to keep things fair. Otherwise, players on during peak times might get a disproportionate amount of XP and other rewards, which, while small, may add up over time and be a noticeable unfairness in the long run.

Most of the time, actions in a given round all take place at roughly the same time. If two characters attack one another, or attack the same target, the only difference in the timing of their attacks is when you mention them in their narrative.

But every once in a while, determining which action happened first will be critical to understanding the outcome of the situation.
So how do we determine the Order of Actions when it matters?

The rule of thumb is to use the PP produced by the 'speed' Stats involved. The most common 'speed' stats are INT (for magical actions) and DEX (for physical actions), though an argument could be made for others (STR when blocking is involved, for instance).

Once you've picked the speed stats involved, simply perform a Trait-vs-Trait ruling with the two and the associated rolls that the characters made for whatever action they were about to perform. Whoever produces the most PP (or has a lower failsby) goes first in that instance.

Again, most of the time the exact order doesn't matter - all the actions are essentially happening at the same time, but if you run across a situation where timing is everything, this method tends to save time and help determine what happened first.

If you've never run sessions before, it can be difficult plucking an idea out of thin air. Our Sample Session Ideas below are meant to both give you some specific stepping-off points, as well as an overall feel for the size and scope of sessions we recommend for newer ASHs and SHs.

Please do not feel limited to these - they're intended as the simpler, safer end of the scale for those worried about going too big too fast and hoping to get their feet wet before ramping up to larger-scale sessions and sagas. You're welcome to run sessions as big as you like, even as an ASH, provided you get Setting approval on the bigger things :)

NOTE: Other SHs, please feel free to add ideas to this list, but please keep in mind that it's intended for newer ASHs. Thanks for your contributions!

Sample Vaxian Session Ideas

1. A merchant caravan comes under attack by orc raiders or bandits just outside town. A surviving member of the caravan makes it into town and requests freelance help at the local tavern, promising coin for any who can save the caravan's members and its goods. The grateful caravan merchants, if saved, will happily reward the PCs for undertaking such danger on their behalf.

2. An apartment fire gets out of control in the Beth Bow The local guards request aid rescuing tenants, putting out the blaze and reinforcing the building before it collapses. Any volunteers will be in good standing with the local guards and may earn a small favor or two that they can cash in in the future.

3. A mage who's been drinking too much gets into a dispute in a bar with another patron. As the argument escalates, the mage casts a spell, but it goes haywire, opening a portal to a giant spider's lair in the tunnels far below town. Spiders spill into the bar, causing chaos. For saving the patrons and defending the bar, the PCs will receive some of the bar's choice spirits, which they can either save, savor or sell for a tidy profit.

4. A strange riddlemaster appears in a crowded place, suggesting that there are children in danger nearby before vanishing again. He leaves clues that must be unraveled in order to find the captured children before a dangerous trap is sprung. The children's parents will be very generous to anyone who saves their children from this strange villain. (NOTE: Take care with riddles, they'll need to be simple enough that you can count on a given group of players solving them, or you'll need to use the character's own Stats and rolls to give them the necessary hints to keep things moving forward)

5. A pickpocket snatches several coin-purses from a busy marketplace, possibly including those belonging to the PCs, before trying to run away down the street. The pickpocket has an item that lets them teleport a short distance, which they use to try and evade attackers, but it isn't long-range enough for them to completely get away. If the PCs catch and take down the pickpocket, they'll get their own items back, plus a reward for turning the thief in to justice.

Sample Sirian Session Ideas
NOTE: For the moment, Setting has requested that any Sirian sessions be run past Setting first, since we're carefully rebooting the setting, and Setting would like to set a consistent tone.

1. One of the many independent spaceflight efforts is having serious problems with their life support or navigation systems, and are requesting aid. The PCs mount a rescue effort to either repair the vessel or rescue its inhabitants, all the while trying not to reenter the atmosphere themselves.

2. Always in need of new materials, the Treatise Body sends a crew planet-side to a seemingly deserted area to recover valuable machine parts and other supplies. However, as they're in the act of salvaging, attackers (either Unlife or a gang of local survivor scavengers) arrive. They can either fight, or load what they can and get back into space as fast as possible.

3. Orbital satellites identify a small, independent camp about to come under siege by a The Crowned : Crowned with its own small swarm of Unlife. The PCs are sent to rescue the inhabitants, and will need to reinforce the camps automated defenses to hold off the Unlife long enough to get them all (and their crucial supplies) back up to Station Prime

In this game there is no real difference in handling of magical or psi based actions compared to physical or mundane actions. For anything one can do with a magic or psi skill someone can also achieve the same effects with a non magical skill as well.

The main difference between a magical action and a mundane action is how the player will get to describe their character trying to achieve the action, and possibly what Stats are used to roll with.

One can use a fire magic skill to hurl a fireball to do damage. However the same effect can be done with a skill that makes use of setting stuff on fire and throwing it.

Teleporting may seem to be the one exception to this, however technology type skills can replicate the exact effect, as well as teleporting is a kind of movement as well and other movement skills can achieve a similar effect, as well as use of vehicles.

Being a magic/psi skill does not give any action an inherit bonus, edge, or advantage. Those actions follow the same exact rules as mundane actions trying to achieve the same effects. Same goes for any mundane action, just because it makes more sense as a mundane action doesn't give it any advantage. The rules are universal and applied the same.