What are the problematic elements? Well, number one, the sheer volume of them. Nearly every sourcebook had new charms in it, and the Manuals of Exalted Power had literally hundreds. If a new player wanted to make an effective character, they had to read through all of them, understand what they all did and remember which ones they wanted when they came out the other side of that. The other major problem was imbalance. I don't propose that I can eliminate mechanical imbalance, in fact, due to the comparative lack of system, charms will likely be equally unbalanced in terms of how much power they give in step 2 of Conflicts.
There are, broadly, two types of charms in Exalted. The type of charm that makes you better at things you can do naturally and the type of charm that gives you entirely new miraculous abilities. While the former type were usually more effective, the latter type were the fun ones. Due to the relative lack of system that we have, there is comparatively less we can do with the former type, and due to the strong narrative focus of the game, I feel that focusing on the second type is a better idea.
Let me quickly sidestep into Stunts because they will be necessary to discuss a major element of new charm design. In core Exalted, Stunts were a great idea with very poor execution. First of all, they provided dice bonuses for descriptions, which unfortunately made them into an extremely subjective popularity-contest kind of mechanic. Second, they required description before success or failure was established, meaning you often described yourself being inhumanly awesome before just doing nothing. Our new Conflict system eliminates both of these problems by, rather than having them provide mechanical benefit, instead being the point of the game, and being described after we know who wins.
Stunts in our new game are simply the expression of what our characters are doing, both in and out of Conflicts. Unlike before, players are directly limited from performing certain stunts if they lack the charms or power to perform them. Stunts are now divided into three broad categories: Skillful Stunts, Improbable Stunts and Impossible Stunts. All characters can perform Skillful stunts, defined as acts of awesome that a sufficiently skilled human could reasonably expect to regularly perform. Improbable Stunts are more limited, and are the kind of things that even a skilled human could not expect to happen with regularity. Impossible Stunts require magic and blatantly break physics, biology or logic.
In general, our Charms and Powers provide either a mechanical benefit, specific Impossible Stunts (such as wall-running or the ability to maintain one's balance on anything wider than a human hair) or general access to Improbable (or Impossible) stunts within a category, such as offensive speed and accuracy.
I should add, since I don't think I'll get to Exaltation Powers this post, Solar Exalted with ignited Anima Banners can perform Improbable Stunts as an natural part of their inherent perfection.
Here's a short list of charms I've reworked so far (All Solar Charms, I'm going to try to make Solars playable first before I work on Dragon-Blooded or Lunars):
General Charms: (You may take these charms multiple times, each time you do, pick a different category the Excellency can be used with. Example Categories: Combat, Physical Prowess, Social Perception, Social Influence, Applied Knowledge, Sorcerous Power)
First Solar Excellency - Essence Overwhelming: (Essence 1) Active: Pick a general category of endeavor. When you engage in Conflicts of that category, you may spend 1 Essence to add +2 to your Skill.
Second Solar Excellency - Essence Triumphant: (Essence 1) Active: Pick a general category of endeavor. When you engage in Conflicts of that category, you may spend 1 Essence to guarantee that your goal occurs, even should you lose the Conflict. You may not do this if your Goal is Overpowering (ie. killing or overwhelming Motivation).
These are first drafts of the Excellencies, general charms that provide highly mechanical benefits. I'm not completely sold on the design of the Second Excellency, both balance wise and general utility wise.
Combat Charms:
Sandstorm-Wind Attack: (Essence 2) Passive: While your Anima Banner is ignited, you never run out of ammunition and your weapons never break. You can create bolts or arcs of energy (with any sort of cosmetic effect you desire) with your weapons rather than striking normally, and you may throw melee weapons and have them return to your hand.
Flashing Vengeance Draw: (Essence 2) Passive: Your attack speed and precision is not restricted by reason, you may perform Improbable stunts of this type even when your Anima Banner is not ignited, and you may perform Impossible stunts when it is. You can strike opponents on opposite sides of you simultaneously with a single weapon, or carve your initials in an your opponent’s flesh before he has time to bleed, or strike your opponent five times while he’s mid-blink, returning your sword to its sheath before he opens his eyes.
Iron Whirlwind Attack: (Essence 3, Flashing Vengeance Draw) Active: You may spend 1 Essence to defeat all Extras with any reasonable chance of engaging you in combat, in addition to forcing a Moderate Injury Complication on all Exalted or Heroic enemies in the area.
These show the general intent of modern charms. Note how only one of them has any mechanical power, the others simply allow a character to further define their combat style. Aside from the Excellencies, mechanically beneficial charms will usually require these power-description charms as prerequisites.
Physical Charms:
Graceful Crane Stance: (Essence 2) Passive: You are supernaturally graceful and can leap great distances. Your gymnastic agility is no longer limited by reason. You may now perform Improbable acts of agility while your Anima Banner is down and Impossible Acts while it is ignited. You can walk tightropes on your hands, gracefully flip out of a wagon rattling down a mountainside land on your feet or roll smoothly back to your feet after being thrown by an ogre. Additionally, your jumps carry you great distances, approximately five times your normal jumping distance.
Lightning Speed: (Essence 2) Passive: Your mobility and agility surpasses the speed of mortal eyes. You can move Improbably fast with your Anima Banner down and Impossibly fast with it up. You can move so quickly as to appear to teleport, and you may travel at great speeds over modest distances.
Feather-Foot Style: (Essence 2) Passive: Your effective weight and traction are no longer limited by reason. You may perform Improbable Stunts of this type with your Anima Banner down and Impossible stunts with it up. You can walk or run surely on snowflakes, falling raindrops, water, lava or a floor of writhing maggots as well as run on vertical surfaces or upside-down (though you cannot stand still on them, movement is key). You are also capable of gaining traction on thin air, though only long enough to jump.
Racing Hare Method: (Essence 3, Graceful Crane Stance or Feather-Foot Style or Lightning Speed) Passive: You can travel long distances quickly under your own power (how the travel occurs is up to the player, but it is not impeded by any obstacle short of the Great River). Doing so is tiring, requiring a night’s rest after the travel is complete unless you spend 1 Essence.
The Athletics charm tree is near and dear to my heart, and I considered the original versions of Monkey Leap Technique and Graceful Crane Stance to be essentially must-pick charms. I have tried to split these into very clearly different categories of physical agility and speed.
Thanks for reading once again, tomorrow we'll talk about Exaltation Powers and maybe try to write out an example Conflict.
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