Exalted Rework Part 15: The Last Solar Charms

After today I'll run out of Solar charms.  I may also be back to working on a real project, and if so then updates here will be a bit more sparse.  Dragon-Blooded Charms are now on the way, though writing out 40+ charm descriptions gets a little bit tedious, so I've also been poking at the Lunars, conceptually.  I don't know what their First Excellency gets that Solar/Terrestrial doesn't, yet, but I think that Lunars are going to have to lose attribute excellencies, since we don't have attributes any more.  Fortunately we can also eliminate the knack/charm distinction (though I liked the knack system) because charms no longer have timing rules.  Anyway, Solar Charms.

Stealth & Deception Charms:

Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise: (Essence 2) Passive: You may, with a few minutes work, disguise yourself as literally anyone. You can change your height, skin texture, hair color, eye color, apparent gender, apparent age, height, voice scent and speaking style. Mortal human senses cannot penetrate this disguise, though certain animals can. At Essence 4, you may alter your apparent Essence Score (up to half or double) and can mimick supernatural appearances, allowing the character to pass as a demon, god, ghost or elemental. At this Essence you can also perfectly imitate anyone you are at least passingly familiar with, though you do not gain the imitated character’s powers, knowledge or skills.
Stealing from Plain Sight Spirit: (Essence 2) Passive: Your pickpocketing, sleight of hand and casual robbery skills are not limited by reason. You can steal objects without touching them (though they must be reachable) and without being noticed, provided there was an instant that the object was unguarded or unobserved. You can also steal things from out of the hands of extras, they will not notice the item has been stolen until it becomes obvious or until another character points it out to them. This charm never works on attuned artifacts or constructs made of a persons’ essence.
Door-Evading Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: Your breaking and entering skills are not limited by reason. You can pick mortal locks without tools and pass through any portal you are capable of opening without opening it. You are capable of picking locks that should not be pickable (such as supernaturally secured locks or first age Essence-attunement locks), but this may require a Conflict with the lock.
Mental Invisibility Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: Your Stealth is not limited by reason. So long as you are not engaged in combat or otherwise have direct attention or are being actively sought, you can vanish from the minds of all onlookers. Extras will never notice you and forget you were ever there. Heroic characters must have their suspicions raised enough to declare that they are searching for someone. They must either beat you in a Conflict or pay 1 Limit to overcome the supernatural mental effect that commands them to ignore you.
Invisible Statue Spirit: (Essence 2) Passive: When you are still, you become completely imperceptible to all senses besides touch. Unlike Mental Invisibility Technique, this charm is genuine non-existence from those senses, not merely a trick of the mind, and so can be used when people are on alert for you. The invisibility fades immediately if you move from your position or take any offensive action, and fades a few seconds after you are touched or bumped into.
Mist On Water Attack: (Essence 3) Passive: When you initiate a Combat Conflict by making an attack against a target who is completely unaware of your presence, if you win, you can declare that the victim does not know who attacked them or from where, as the surprise attack takes them out of the fight immediately. If you lose, you can inflict a single Significant Injury complication on them. If the target is an Extra, you can kill or knock them unconscious them, silently and imperceptibly, without their allies even knowing.

A major design intent with these charms was to allow characters with them to do a lot of stuff but to not ruin plots with them.  I felt it necessary to remove the obnoxiousness that was Disappearing from the Mind's Eye, so a lesser version (that only works on Normals and Extras) was folded into Mental Invisibility.  Mental Invisibility and Invisible Statue combine to make very effective stealth, but that's two charms worth of commitment.  Mist On Water Attack was kind of meant to take the entire Thrown tree, which was built around assassination, and put it where it belonged, which was not combat charms.  I  just don't agree with silent assassinations of key enemies, it's not a very satisfying end to a big epic story.

Travel Charms:

Flashing Thunderbolt Steed: (Essence 2) Passive: Any natural, unowned animal that you know how to ride instinctively submits to you. Your mount never tires nor panics and is never at any risk of harm from natural terrain or roads. You will never fall from your mount, even when unconscious or asleep, only when slain. If your Anima Banner is up, your mount travels at quadruple its normal speed and can run all-out on unstable terrain or liquid. This charm only functions on your mount so long as you are one of its riders (or are nearby it with intent to return soon, for instance if you’ve temporarily leapt off to climb onto a behemoth to slay a Fair Folk Cataphract).
Worthy Mount Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: While your Anima Banner is ignited, you are capable of impossible feats of horsemanship, while it is down you are merely capable of improbable feats. No matter the mount, they are impossible agile, graceful, strong and confident, a willing extension of your will and prowess. Your horse might leap from tree branch to tree branch chasing down your foes as you stand in the saddle prepared to leap off, fight for a moment in midair and land on the horse’s back.
Invincible Admiral Method: (Essence 2) Passive: You and any who sail under your command are guarded from the dangers of the high seas. Any who consider you their commanding officer will not be swept overboard, even during storms, nor suffer scurvy, sunstroke or other afflictions, nor will their ships be at risk of sinking from wear or weather. This protection always applies to your ship and spreads to others so long as they remain at a distance where the other ships could see your ship given smooth seas. When you navigate a ship and prepare its course, it travels perfectly on that course at maximum speed, avoiding any and all hazards that you are aware of on the way, regardless of wind or doldrums. Other ships under your command can follow your course safely as well. Ships under the influence of this charm can still be harmed by deliberate action or unknown threats: Storm Mothers, mutinies or running aground of reefs they were unaware of, but otherwise this is perfect protection.
Ship-Claiming Stance: (Essence 2) Passive: Your ship is an extension of yourself. While your Anima Banner is up, you can perform Impossible feats of naval skill, while it is down you can still perform Improbable ones. This charm, additionally, allows you to supernaturally claim any ship that has reason to recognize you as its owner. Your ship will hold together against catastrophic damage (long enough to see you to the nearest island), and you can literally turn it around on nothing, no matter sea or conditions, and it travels at approximately triple the speed it 'should'. You are even capable of running your ship with no crew besides yourself and other such unreasonable feats.

So Travel Powers aren't that useful in a lot of RPGs.  When we can sideline several months of travel into ten, fifteen seconds of gameplay, we don't care a lot that it takes forever.  So sometimes GMs imply that if you don't get there right now something bad is going to happen.  Also, Exalted more than most games has a habit of characters getting too big for the party and running off to do their own things before rejoining the party when they deal with something big, and for things like that it's good to have a personal travel power.  Thus, these charms.  I won't be shy about saying how terrible Ride Charms were in core Exalted, so I've dramatically reduced the requirements to actually get an effective travel power out of them.  Sail was always a bit better but only useful on land, so it took a little bit less effort to adapt.

Social Perception Charms:

Judge’s Ear Technique: (Essence 2): Passive: This charm permits you to to know the immediate goals of a character you are dealing with, in person or in writing. This also will inform you if their dealings with you are honest, dishonest or somewhere in between, though it will not identify specific lies. It will also inform you if their goals suddenly shift.
Know the Soul’s Price: (Essence 3, Judge’s Ear Technique): Passive: After getting to know a person, you know their ‘price,’ what it is they will do anything in exchange for. While this does not directly identify the character’s Motivation, it likely comes close to it. This Charm can also be used to guarantee someone’s loyalty for no less than a Season, should you provide their Price to them.
Courtier’s Eye Technique: (Essence 2): Passive: Studying the currents of relationships and body language, you immediately understand social dynamics of situations you enter. This will not necessarily provide perfect details (you would know that two people are close, but might not be sure if that was because they were friends or if they were having an affair), but you will immediately understand who has power over whom, who likes whom and who dislikes whom when you walk into a room or hear them talk about others. This charm also allows you to smooth over minor faux pas and breaches of etiquette you make perfectly, you will never give offense unless you deliberately intend to.

Social Perception is powerful stuff in Exalted, Judge's Ear Technique was known for a while as 'The Charm' in my group because I ruined several plots with it on my social-tertiary character.  For this version I've actually toned it back a bit and made it more like Insightful Buyer Technique (I think it was), which is still very effective but no longer perfect-lie-detector status.  Know the Soul's Price was always a cool charm that was never really worth taking, I felt, so I tried to make it easier to use.  Courtier's Eye, finally, also contains Mastery of Small Manners as well as its original incarnation, allowing you to chat a few people up and immediately know the score.

Organization Charms:

Fury-Inciting Presence: (Essence 2): Passive: You possess an aura of command, inspiration or charisma. When you call upon people who share at least one intimacy with you to follow you or to stand down, they will do so, and they will treat you as their leader and trust you implicitly: their morale will be far stronger than their rag-tag origins would imply.
Commanding the Ideal Celestial Army: (Essence 3): Passive: All who who consider you their commanding officer are your hands and eyes. All soldiers who consider you to be superior to them on the chain of command resist disease, starvation, exhaustion and dehydration so long as they receive any food, water and rest and remain within 1 hours’ communication with you. In battle, you are aware of the location and condition of all your subordinates, and orders you convey reach them instantly.
Deft Official’s Way: (Essence 2): Passive: You may, after spending a few hours working with or as part of a bureaucracy, speed up or slow down its overall efficiency or only one piece of legislation or paperwork by a factor of three. This charm lasts so long as you spend fifteen minutes a day interacting with the bureaucracy and wear off one week after your final contact. Your influence is subtle and it will not be apparent that the cause of the speed up or slow down is you. If you work with the bureaucracy for an extended period, you may more permanently affect its functioning.
Tiger-Warrior Training Technique: (Essence 3) Active: Spend 1 Essence when taking a week-long dramatic action to train 100 or less soldier extras who share an intimacy with your or have an intimacy for you. These soldiers need not initially be warriors, the might be peasants or bandits. After each week’s training (which requires no less 2 hours of your time per day), they are braver, stronger, more skilled and more loyal. After a month, even the greenest troops become Tiger Warriors, elite soldiers brave and skilled enough to dive into the teeth of Hell, the Underworld or the armies of the Wyld.
Legendary Scholar Curriculum: (Essence 3) Active: Spend 1 Essence when taking a week-long dramatic action to teach 100 or less students who share an intimacy with you or have an intimacy for you. Pick a non-combat skill that you have rated at 3+ that you wish to teach. Teaching fresh students to become mortal masters of this discipline takes one month, but they improve dramatically with each week.
Wise-Eyed Courtier Method: (Essence 2) Passive: After spending several days work with or among a discrete social group (an organization, household, occupational group or ruling class, but not an entire city or nation), you can create a single belief, emotion, taboo or fad among them. Your work will be subtle and tracking its origin back to you is impossible for a mortal to achieve. Note that the belief occurs within the group, not within individuals within it, it is very likely that no members of a group would believe that they were all animals transformed into humans, but they would all think that everyone else in the group, possibly everyone who they didn't personally think was an idiot, believed it.

Organization Charms were a bit of an oddball category for me that I realized I needed to put in because those Eclipse Charms were actually really cool, if you could use them, and I didn't have space for a lot of War or Training Charms either.  They mostly work they way they did in core, though Wise-Eyed Courtier now covers all three of the original charms it did.

And that's all our Solar Charms.  I think that so long as characters gain them more slowly than they did in canon (though I don't have any sort of experience system worked out) that that's enough.  Depending on how Dragon-Blooded are looking tomorrow I may either post about Custom Charms, a subject I think is woefully lacking in discussion in Core Exalted, or give some examples of how the Dragon-Blooded have come out.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave questions or comments!

Exalted Rework Part 14: More Solar Charms

Dragon-Blooded Charms finally have a general format: provides X benefits, if you are a Y Aspect, you can also do Z.  Sometimes there are multiple combinations of Y and Z  Annoyingly I'm having to either make up a lot of charm names or repurpose them because the canon ones are all super direct and literal.  Also I'm noticing that the Dragon-Blooded really don't have a lot in the way of Social Charms, which I think I'm okay with, it helps make their internecine rivalries more slap-fighty.  Finally, I'm creating 'bending' charms so that you can be a character from Avatar the Last Airbender.  Because it's good source material and I really don't see why such charms shouldn't exist.

Anyway Solar Charms!

Essence Manipulation Charms:

Chaos-Repelling Pattern: (Essence 2) Passive/Active: While your Anima Banner is ignited, a large area around you functions as if it were In Creation. Unless directly tampered with by a hostile entity of equal or greater essence than you, it is not inimical to you or any other natives of creation (though it may be strange and terrifying). Also, you have the ability to shatter permanent Shaping Effects on others with a touch, including Wyld Mutations, Fair Folk Graces and Sidereal Astrology. Doing so costs 1 Essence per target. You may need to win a Conflict in order to touch the target if they resist.
Wyld Cauldron Technology: (Essence 3, Chaos-Repelling Pattern) Active: While in areas of the Deep Wyld, you may shape the raw chaos into forms of your liking. You may craft land, people, wealth, artifacts, or anything else to your liking, as well as stabilizing any such areas as being part of Creation.  This takes a lot of time, usually in the order of weeks.  At Essence 4, you may perform such acts on Bordermarches and Middlemarches, transforming more stable areas to suit your whims and altering its flora, fauna and population to suit your desires. Before Essence 5, all things you change and create lack an internal Reality, and will dissolve back into the Wyld if they do not interact with the things of Creation more than once per season. After Essence 5, your will and work keeps them stable. Know that the Raksha hate this charm and those who use it, for it is inimical to them and all they stand for.
Spirit-Cutting Attack: (Essence 2) Passive: You may perceive and physically interact with dematerialized spirits, including Ghosts, Demons, Gods and Elementals. You can also perceive the entrances to spirits’ Sanctums, though you may not necessarily gain entrance to them.
Ghost-Eating Technique: (Essence 3, Spirit-Cutting Attack) Passive: When you slay a creature, you may declare you are terminating that creature’s existence, consuming their essence. You gain nothing from this, but the creature slain is ended utterly. It cannot reincarnate, reform, rise as a ghost, or be remade by the being it is a component of. This is the charm the Solars used to slay the Primordials at the Gods’ behest, creating Oblivion and the Neverborn, for the Primordials existence was such that even this magic was not enough to completely extinguish them.
All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight: (Essence 3, Spirit-Cutting Attack) Passive: Similar to Glory of the Twilight but in all ways greater, while the character’s Anima Banner is ignited, the character is perfectly aware of the essence around her, able to immediately identify any creature’s Essence Score (anything with a 4+ is obviously supernatural) and easily analyze the function of any artifact or charm that they are aware of. Invisible and dematerialized creatures are not only visible, but identifiable. Stealth still functions against a character with charm active. While a Twilight Caste’s anima banner is not ignited, they gain the benefits of Glory of the Twilight.
Sun’s Wrathful Rays: (Essence 2) Passive: You are armed with the light of the sun. While your Anima Banner is up, you may strike out with sorcerous blasts of holy light, leaving you never unarmed.

These are a combination of what were originally Lore and Occult Charms.  Wyld Cauldron Technology gained significant power due to the removal of having to roll, so I added the much slower rate.  Spirit-Cutting Attack provides the basic means to interact with and fight Spirits, Ghost-Eating Technique lets you obliterate them.  All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight is a very useful charm for anyone, even more for Twilights now that it replaces their Anima Banner and provides them with their Anima Banner power while their anima is down.  Sun's Wrathful Rays is a completely custom charm (thus why it's marked in Red), but doesn't feel inappropriate to certain character concepts.

Healing Charms:

Flawless Diagnosis Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: The secret ways of the body are no longer secret to you. After a few minutes with the victim of any malady (poison, disease, infection, madness, curses or sorcery) you know exactly how to cure it, as well as any possible methods of alleviating symptoms, prolonging the patient’s lifespan or reducing their suffering.
Wound-Mending Care Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: You do not need simple medicines or tools to heal injuries, your Essence is both balm and bandage. You also eliminate any risk of complications from uncertain medical procedures you perform: while the treatment might not be successful, a patient will never be worse off than before you helped them. That you do not need instruments reduces preparation times, but not the actual time required to provide care. Also note that this does not allow you to speed a patient’s recovery time, nor allow you to perform procedures you do not know how to do. This charm does not allow you to substitute it for the effects of any uncommon medical ingredient.
Body-Purifying Admonitions: (Essence 3, Wound-Mending Care Technique) Active: Spend 1 Essence while treating a willing patient. You may utterly banish a single malady affecting the target, no matter its origin. Depending on the harshness of the malady, treatment may take as long as several days. This charm can be used to regrow lost limbs, eyes, or other traditionally impossible injuries.
Instant Treatment Methodology: (Essence 3, Flawless Diagnosis Technique) Active: Pay 1 Essence when taking any action to treat or heal heal. This reduces the required time for the action (even a major disruptive surgery or Body-Purifying Admonitions to restore a lost limb or eye) to 5 seconds. It does not speed the recovery time of the patient.
Anointment of Miraculous Health: (Essence 4) Active: Pay 1 Essence when taking any action to treat or heal. Their recovery time is immediate upon the treatment being administered, whatever ailments were healed are gone instantly and the patient is returned to the picture of vitality.

Medicine Charms are extremely powerful, even in a game with no direct damage system.  The ability to save allies and mortals is among the most miraculous things the Exalted can do.  Which is why there's actually a substantial tree of Medicine Charms rather than just a single 'bink you're better' charm.  I feel like creating the lines between these charms also lets you define what sort of supernatural healing you provide: do you simply know how to cure them, no matter what?  Do you lay hands and heal?  How far does your healing power extend?  There should probably be some Craft: Genesis charms here too, but I think those can be custom charms (which really every Essence 5+ charm should kind of be).

Physical Prowess Charms:

Increasing Strength Exercise: (Essence 2) Passive: You are superhumanly strong. This is literal physical power, not the general destructive ability of Heaven Thunder Hammer. This allows you to engage in Improbable acts of might with your Anima Banner down and Impossible acts with it ignited, such as lifting up a burning building to save those trapped within, moving a great caravan or pushing open an impossibly massive but indestructible door.
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, Monkey Leap Technique 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 significantly 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.
Eagle-Wing Style: (Essence 4, any 2 of Graceful Crane Stance, Lightning Speed and Feather-Foot Style) Passive: While your Anima Banner is ignited, you can fly and glide, though not as fast as you would travel on foot. You treat 20 feet above the ground as the 'equilibrium' you drift down to.  You can rise higher than that temporarily, however.
Creation-Crossing Comet Style: (Essence 5, Racing Hare Method) Passive: If you use Racing Hare Method while your Anima Banner is ignited you can fly at around 500 feet altitude. This movement mode is never tiring.

I mentioned early on that Athletics charms are dear to my heart, here are the final versions of them.  I'm pretty happy with Increasing Strength, Graceful Crane, Lightning Speed and Feather-Foot, Racing Hare is designed to be a very simple personalized Travel Charm (subsuming Mountain-Crossing Leap Technique, which in Core was simply a rather inferior Travel Charm), Eagle-Wing Style is a greater expression of mobility, and Creation-Crossing Comet Style is a custom charm that builds on Racing Hare Method.

Physical Perception Charms:

Crafty Observation Method: (Essence 2) Passive: When investigating an area, you gather information quickly and without a trace. You can perform the equivalent of 15 minutes of searching a specific area you can see without interacting with it.  This search takes a few seconds. You will not gain information you could not have accessed without taking substantial actions, but you will gain all other action. For instance, when searching a room, you would immediately know everything in a large chest of drawers, but not the contents of a locked chest (though if you were a skilled locksmith, you would know how to pick the lock). If you were at a murder scene and a victim was lying face-down, you would know what form the wounds on their front took, as well as the exact posture they were laying at. This charm does not provide the means to analyze information, only the information.
Keen Sense Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: While your Anima Banner is ignited, your natural senses increase to impossible levels, while it is down they are merely preternaturally sharp. With your Anima Banner down, you can focus your senses become about 10 times as sharp as a human's: you can read a book from across a room, hear whispers clearly from twenty feet away, and identify familiar people by scent before they enter a room.  With your Anima banner ignited your senses are approximately 100 times as sharp as a normal human’s: you can track by scent, clearly hear conversations through thick stone walls, recognize the faces of people 500 yards away at night, and identify a subtle poison in a meal of extravagant spices (in addition to identifying all of the spices). You never suffer from the use of these heightened senses (you would not be deafened by a scream next to you while listening through a stone wall or blinded by a sudden explosion while staring into the night). You also will not notice things with your heightened senses unless you are deliberately seeking them.
Unsurpassed Sense Discipline: (Essence 4, Keen Sense Technique) Passive: Your Keen Sense Technique is enhanced, with Keen Senses being active when your Anima Banner is not ignited and the following-level senses (approximately 10,000 times sharper than a normal human’s) being available while it is: You can read by touch, gauge a stranger’s mood by scent, read lips from several miles away and eavesdrop on conversations several blocks away on a busy street. Like Keen Sense Technique, you will not necessarily notice things with your heightened senses unless you are deliberately seeking them.
Surprise Anticipation Method: (Essence 3) Passive: You have a sense for danger. You become aware of a potentially harmful situation you were not aware of with just enough time to attempt to avoid it if you act immediately. You can only become aware of potentially harmful situations if you have the senses to become aware of them, though you need not be awake for this charm to function. For instance, if you were asleep and an assassin fired an arrow at you from a window, the charm would wake you up with enough time to react. If you were shopping in a bazaar and a dematerialized spirit attacked you, the charm would not function, unless you had some way of being aware of a dematerialized spirit. If a harmful effect is subtle enough that you might miss it, such as an invisible arrow being fired at night, you become aware that something harmful is approaching you but not necessarily what it is or where it is coming from.
Eye of the Unconquered Sun: (Essence 5) Passive: While your Anima Banner is up, you are immune to deliberate deception, including but not limited to: lies, Gossamer illusions, sorcerous illusions, stealth of any sort, mundane disguises, invisibility, shapeshifting, Sidereal Astrological disguises, Supernatural compulsions or compelled beliefs that force them to deny reality. You are aware of the effects that are attempting to deceive you, but you may ignore them. If any effect attempts to overcome this effect, you passively add +3 to your Conflict Score to contest their deception.

Today we end with Perception Charms, notably drawing from both Investigation and Awareness charms.  Crafty Observation Method is a valuable tool for both infiltrators and investigators, Keen Sense Technique contains all three of the original Awareness charm versions, though at limited forms unless your Banner is up.  Unsurpassed Sense makes you absurdly perceptive, though both of the enhanced senses charms require that you be deliberately looking for things, to prevent the problem of 'Why didn't I hear him sneaking up on me?'  As much as this somewhat reduces the effectiveness of these charms, it helps preserve narratives.  Anyway, if you don't want to be snuck up on take Surprise Anticipation Method, which is greatly improved by not being treated as a charm use.  Eye of the Unconquered Sun is mostly an example of how insane Solar Perception gets at high levels, though it notably is both a Social and Physical Perception charms.

Tomorrow I'll finish up the list of Solar charms with Stealth and Deception, Social Perception, Travel and Organization Charms.  I may toss in Solar Hero Form and Snake Form as freebies, too.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave questions or comments as always.

Exalted Rework Part 13: Solar Charms

So I haven't got any rants for today, so I figured I'd just post a good third of the Solar Charms I've written with a little bit of commentary between sections while I try to figure out how to categorize Dragon-Blooded Charms.

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).
Third Solar Excellency - Essence Resurgent: (Essence 2) Active: Pick a general category of endeavor. When you engage in Conflicts of that category and you lose, you may spend 1 Essence to not lose any Sacrifices you bid in order to succeed. This charm cannot be used to affect Conflicts which you win.
Infinite Solar Mastery: (Essence 4) Passive: Pick a general category of endeavor. When you use the First Solar Excellency relating to this endeavor, you may spend more than 1 Essence. Each essence spent after the first adds an additional +1 to the skill.
Solar Essence Flow: (Essence 5) Passive: Pick a general category of endeavor. You now win ties in that endeavor. If this ability is contested by another ability that grants winning ties, you tie normally, but instead gain +1 to those Skill Rolls.


The First Excellency really is meant to be your go-to Excellency. The Second and Third are nice supplements, but unlike Core are really their own things, not just stylistic choices. Infinite Mastery and Essence Flow are basic mechanical enhancements.

Combat Charms:

Summoning Loyal Steel: (Essence 2) Passive: You may hide your weapons and armor Elsewhere, even Artifacts, allowing you to appear unarmed and making it impossible to steal your weapons. This charm also prevents you from being disarmed.
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.
Heaven Thunder Hammer: (Essence 2) Passive: Your offensive force is not limited by reason, and 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 smash through walls with bare-handed punches, cut down ancient trees with a single swing or create massive craters with swings of a hammer.
Blazing Solar Bolt: (Essence 3, Heaven Thunder Hammer) Active: You may spend 1 Essence when engaged in combat against against Creatures of Darkness. In addition to any other effects of the Conflict, the Creatures of Darkness will suffer a significant wound or death, at the GM’s discretion.
Fivefold Bulwark Stance: (Essence 2) Passive: Your blocks and parries are no longer limited by reason, you may perform Improbable stunts of this type while your Anima Banner is down and Impossible stunts while it is ignited. For example, you may parry nonphysical attacks, block massive explosions with a shield, knock away falling buildings with the flat of a sword, and straight block swords swung by colossi (the ground beneath you might buckle, but neither you nor your weapon will budge).
Heavenly Guardian Defense: (Essence 2, Fivefold Bulwark Stance) Active: You may spend 1 Essence when you lose a Combat-type Conflict to cancel an injury or death caused by an opponent’s Overpowering Goal. This does not prevent damage from your own Complications, nor will it prevent negative effects which do not pertain to physical harm. You still lose the conflict, but you are merely defeated. You may not activate this Charm if the Conflict in question did not support your Motivation.
Iron Skin Concentration: (Essence 2) Passive: You can parry blades and arrows with your bare skin, and your toughness is not limited by reason. You may perform Improbable stunts of this type while your Anima Banner is down and Impossible Stunts while it is ignited. You can still be injured, but can manifest moments of flawless invulnerability.
Adamant Skin Technique: (Essence 2, Iron Skin Concentration) Active: You may spend 1 Essence when you lose a Combat-type Conflict to cancel an injury or death caused by an opponent’s Overpowering Goal. This does not prevent damage from your own Sacrifices, nor will it prevent negative effects which do not pertain to physical harm. You still lose the conflict, but you are merely defeated. You may not activate this Charm if the Conflict in question did not support your Motivation.
Shadow over Water: (Essence 2) Passive: Your defensive agility is no longer limited by reason. You may perform Improbable stunts of this type while your Anima Banner is down and Impossible Stunts while it is ignited. You can dodge so swiftly that opponents don’t even know where you’ve gone, flitting through hails of arrows or sprays of acid untouched, appearing behind your enemies even they are certain their blows are landing.
Reflex Sidestep Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: You are reflexively aware of Combat Conflicts that other characters attempt to enhance with the Subtlety Complication. The subtlety automatically fails and you may declare a goal and complications as normal.
Seven Shadow Evasion: (Essence 2, Shadow over Water) Active: You may spend 1 Essence when you lose a Combat-type Conflict to cancel an injury or death caused by an opponent’s Overpowering Goal. This does not prevent damage from your own Sacrifices, nor will it prevent negative effects which do not pertain to physical harm. You still lose the conflict, but you are merely defeated. You may not activate this Charm if the Conflict in question did not support your Motivation.
Heart’s Blade Perfection: (Essence 3) Passive: Choose a weapon-based combat style. While your Anima Banner is ignited, you can form these weapons out of raw Essence. While fighting with non-Artifact weapons of this type, you gain +1 to your Combat Skill.

So, each of the five 'shrubs', Speed, Power, Parry, Dodge and Soak has a tier 1 which gives you stunts and a tier 2 that gives you a nifty active ability. Perfect Defenses are partially intended to get players away from thinking about killing opponents and more thinking about beating the situation, because I firmly believe that killing a villain shouldn't be the most effective way to stop them. The entire Overpowering Goal system is designed to prevent that. Heart's Blade Perfection is a stylistic charm designed for characters who don't want to get an Artifact weapon or don't have a good narrative way to get an Artifact weapon.

Social Influence Charms:

Respect-Commanding Attitude: (Essence 2) Passive: You may perform Improbable Stunts of public speaking and performance (judged based on the responses of your audience) while your Anima Banner is down and Impossible ones while it is up. In particular, non-Heroic entities will always listen to what you have to say and will agree with you unless it directly conflicts with their Motivations or Intimacies. Note that this is not mind control and does not hypnotize or override the will, this is simply extraordinary charisma and beauty of performance or oration.
Heart-Compelling Method: (Essence 2) Passive: When speaking or performing, you can inspire others to feel certain emotions. That your words (or performance) is the source of these emotions is obvious, but that these emotions are supernaturally compelled is not. You may single out individuals to feel these emotions or apply them to all who experience your work, but you cannot disguise the emotions you put forward: a speech that evokes unthinkable rage in a given individual will be recognizable to any observer as a speech that might be upsetting, even if only one person was supernaturally compelled. Heroic and Exalted targets can avoid the emotion by exiting the area, gaining Limit or engaging in Conflict with you. The emotion is supernaturally compelled for a scene, but might last longer.
Hypnotic Tongue Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: You may give irresistible but reasonable orders to extras and other weak-minded individuals. They will obey to the best of their ability and never question why they did so. Reasonable orders include favors, information and aid but not putting themselves in danger, even possible danger (such as giving the Solar their weapons while they are alone together). Heroic individuals are immune to this Charm. This Charm need not be subtle: shouting “CEASE!” at a rioting street would also be effective.
Memory-Reweaving Discipline: (Essence 3) Active: When speaking or performing, you may spend 1 Essence to instill a permanent belief in your audience (such as "You love me," or "The Realm is Evil"). If you have an Intimacy (or Motivation) in agreement with that belief, then your audience gains an Intimacy for it as well. That you are the one who has convinced them of this belief is obvious to all who watch or listen, or who ask afterwards. These beliefs may be untrue ("Mnemon is a demon disguised as a Dragon-Blood"), and if presented with undeniable evidence to the contrary, your audience will grudgingly abandon them, though if there is any doubt they will hold fast. Non-heroic entities will always accept these new beliefs, where Heroic targets can avoid falling under your spell by leaving the area, gaining Limit or engaging in Conflict with you.
Majestic Radiant Presence: (Essence 3) Passive: While your Anima Banner is ignited, extras are in utter awe of you, whether this be worshipful or terrified will depend on your actions. When engaged in Conflicts of social influence, while your Anima Banner is ignited, your majesty must be respected: other characters are incapable of dismissing or ignoring your words, limiting their stunts (and perhaps encouraging certain Complications).

Here I display my intent toward Social Combat. Social Conflicts are a thing, played out through debates and shouting matches and arguments, and sometimes through direct combat as well. Here we also see that you can voluntarily gain Limit to avoid supernatural mental effects. Finally, of course, while social charms just plain work on non-Heroic individuals, anyone Heroic can either flee the area (possibly facing social consequences) or directly challenging the Solar using the charm, either to a physical or social Conflict, some way of refuting the statement being made.

Fortitude Charms:

Integrity-Protecting Prana: (Essence 2) Passive: While the character’s Anima Banner is ignited, this charm renders the character completely immune to all forms of harmful Shaping that directly alters their mind, body or spirit, including Wyld Energy, Sorcerous Transmogrification, Primordial Magic or certain Shaping-based charms. Note that this is superior to the Lunar Exalted’s tattoos in that it permits harmless or beneficial Shaping effects (beneficial from the Solar’s point of view, this charm is defined by the Solar’s internal idea of their own strength), and provides protection against mind and soul-affecting. This does not protect against attacks enhanced by Shaping or created by Shaped constructs, it simply prevents the character from being straight-up turned into a newt or a rock or a cloud of butterflies.
Righteous Lion Defense: (Essence 2) Passive: Define an ideal, based on the character’s Motivation or an Intimacy. The character’s dedication to this ideal is absolute, no matter what charms, supernatural influence or enemy Goals are applied, the Solar will never forsake or betray it. This charm may be purchased twice. Should the Solar ever achieve their ideal, this Charm accepts a new one at the beginning of the next story.
Temptation-Resisting Stance: (Essence 2) Active: Pay 1 Essence after you have lost a Conflict where your opponent's Goal involved you betraying your Motivation. Your opponent’s goal is negated. Any Complications are played out as normal. You may also use this charm to spend Essence instead of Limit when resisting supernatural mental influence.
Transcendent Hero’s Meditation: (Essence 3) Active: Pay 1 Essence. You break any and all externally imposed restraints on your mind with an echoing shout, restoring you to full mental clarity. Any sort of illusion, mind control, enforced emotion or unnatural servitude is shattered, allowing the Exalt to make their own decisions about their actions. This Charm has no effect on Limit Break.
Immunity to Everything Technique: (Essence 3) Passive: While all Solars are naturally resistant to harm, you are completely immune to environmental dangers to your body. Poison, acid, suffocation, starvation, dehydration and extreme temperatures and supernatural weather are all harmless to you, unless inflicted directly and deliberately by a being of equal or higher Essence. This grants no immunity to any direct attack of any sort, though it may allow you to resist secondary effects of the attack.
Trackless Region Navigation: (Essence 2) Passive: Your wilderness survival abilities are no longer restricted by reason. Groups that you lead travel swiftly and safely through the harshest of conditions. You can feed yourself off of the land’s bounty, no matter how improbable, and can lead others to find food as well, making long treks through dangerous lands with no supplies reasonable and possible. Your can also track and pursue quarry through the wilderness with only the barest hints of a trail.
Friendship With Animals Approach: (Essence 2) Passive: You can communicate with animals, and they with you. This does not make normal animals intelligent enough to understand the full range of human concepts, and many animals (especially wild animals) lack patience or self-control. Animals will only ever attack you when driven to near-insanity with hunger, fear or anger or if trained to do so. If you raise and train animals, you can supernaturally enhance them, making them larger, stronger, smarter and braver.

I have combined Integrity and Resistance into a single Skill called Fortitude because I think that in general they tend to go together (upon reflection I think Sidereals split them up? Mercury gets Resistance and Saturn gets Integrity, but they're together for both Earth Aspects and Zenith/Midnight/Malefactor so that's enough for me). There's also a few Survival charms in there because this feels like the appropriate place for them. In general these charms are defensive or stunt-based, so there's not a lot to say.

Crafting Charms:

Chaos-Resistance Preparation: (Essence 2) Passive: Things you create are dramatically tougher than they have any right to be, requiring absurd efforts to destroy or forcefully dismantle when outside your possession and being completely indestructible while in your possession. In addition, such objects resist the twisting touch of the Wyld and other Shaping effects, being completely immune to them so long as it is in your possession (or you are inside it, if the object is a structure such as a castle or building). Should you abandon the things you have created or gift them to others, they require ten times the effort to affect with Shaping than they would normally, but may be affected.
Shattering Grasp: (Essence 2) Passive: With this charm, you may undo any work of physical craftsmanship. Disassembling or destroying any crafted object is a specific Impossible Stunt you may take. This requires your Anima Banner be ignited. The only restriction is that large constructions take significant time to demolish, and anything crafted of the Magical Materials will take you no less than an hour’s uninterrupted work and may take much longer. Lesser objects, such as swords, armor, shields, doors, windows or clothing may be disassembled or destroyed with a touch.
Craftsman Needs No Tools: (Essence 3) Passive: So long as your Anima Banner is up, you can use it to shape and modify raw materials into the things you craft, and you do so at blinding speed. You need neither forge nor smelter, hammers nor saws, chisel nor grindstone, cauldron nor fire, though such things don’t hurt. Reduce the time needed to craft any object you make by a factor of 5, by 10 if you have the proper tools. The exception to this is the Magical Materials, which you work at 5 times the normal rate, but still require the proper tools. You can also repair anything you understand the creation of, flawlessly, sealing over cracks and repairing broken parts to be as if they were new, including things which could not otherwise be repaired, such as broken glass or fragments a burnt letter.
Mastery of the Maker’s Art: (Essence 4) Passive: Pick Magitech, Genesis or Wyld. You may now perform crafts of that discipline. Magitech is the craft of animating intelligence, microfilaments, advanced automata and cybernetics. Genesis is the craft of living creatures, mutations and artificial evolution. Wyld is the craft of Shinmaic resonance, Reality stabilization, chaos mechanics and of making the impossible exist within Creation. You may take this charm multiple times, each time unlocking a different advanced Crafting Discipline.

We end today with Craft Charms. I went over the existing craft charms and came up with these, most of which are combinations of several charms. These are primarily stunt charms. In general, crafting will probably not require Conflicts, rather requiring quests to go and gather unusual materials. Mastery of the Maker's Art is intended to replace the old 'multiple crafts' system because that kind of got out of hand, and really while you can teach Magitech and Shinmaic Resonance to Heroic Mortals, they're not going to truly internalize it because they don't really have the ability to access it. Mortals, by this scope, and maybe even Dragon-Blooded, aren't really craftsmen, they're technicians.

Tomorrow, more charms. I'm still trying to grind my gears to get DB charms flowing. They've got to be scaled down a step or two from Solars, while still being valuable in their context.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave questions or comments, as always.

Exalted Rework Part 8: Character Creation

So after a week, I've got a pretty solid idea for what a character sheet looks like. Let's go over it real quickly and talk about the elements I haven't had a chance to really clarify.


Name/Title
Concept
Motivation
Type/Caste
Anima Banner
Essence: I was tempted to say that characters start at Essence 2 and that's that, but I realized that doing so completely eliminates the prospect of characters starting out with Sorcery. As such, the Sorcerer's Option is possible to buy up your Essence to 3 by sacrificing 2 of your Asset slots. While this dramatically decreases your initial flexibility, the additional power provided by this may be worth it to some, especially those who wish to learn the strange and powerful ways of essence-shaping.
Intimacies: I considered whether or not to use Intimacies, I realized that they are an excellent character design shorthand that the original game simply did a poor job discussing. Characters should have between 3 and 5 Intimacies, little secondary motivations to care for, strive for or oppose. Intimacies are always nouns, and should always have a vector, written in parentheses, describing in two or three words the character's feelings for the noun, such as "Creation (Protective)" or "The Realm (Unrestrained Hate)" or "His Wife (Cautious Lust)". Such things help tell the story.
Skills: I noticed early on in my design that in character generation, since Skill rank is the primary deciding factor of conflict that the opportunity cost of higher Skill rank must be higher than it was in the original game, where your first 3 ranks all cost the same amount and the fourth and fifth ranks cost slightly higher. Ultimately, to cut down on the math I chose to do it for players. Celestial Exalted (who have access to Skills at 5) have a number of possible starting Skill Arrays, such as 53221, meaning One skill at 5, one skill at 3, two skills at 2 and one skill at 1. Terrestrial Exalted cannot have skills at 5, and so are more limited, and Heroic Mortals' Arrays are smaller still. (The math behind the arrays is triangular numbers. Starting with 28 points, a number I picked because it felt about right and happened to be the number of points characters got in 2nd Edition, each rank in each skill must be bought, so a Skill at 5 costs 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 of your 'points'. I further limited Arrays by necessitating that characters have no less than 5 Skills.)
Assets: Solars begin the game with 6 Assets. It 3 of these must be Charms, and probably 5 of them should be. If you use 2 of your Charm Slots to buy Essence 3, 2 of your remaining 2 Assets must be Charms.
Resonant Virtues: Heroic Characters (including all Exalted) have at least one Resonant Virtue. You may have up to 4. Resonant Virtues provide you with restrictions on your behavior that, if you break, you will suffer penalties until you can redeem yourself with heroic virtuous deeds. However, they also allow you to regain Essence and gain bonuses.

... and that's it. That's all that goes on your character sheet. Let's do a quick test run, we'll do Ryoka, from yesterday's examples.

• Name and Title: Ryoka, the Phoenix Knight (Titles are always a little presumptuous. This one is based on her Anima.)
• Concept: Warrior-Judge
• Motivation: Protect the mortals of Creation from Supernatural Threats (An unachievable Motivation, but one that clearly defines circumstances that will spur her to action)
• Type/Caste: Dawn Caste Solar
• Anima Banner: A gold and red Phoenix spreading its wings and rising
• Essence: 2
• Intimacies: Vakarin (her homeland) (Gratitude), Justice (Zealous Pursuit), Martial Perfection (Calm Desire) (Nothing really exciting here, Ryoka is the sort of character, like many, who will build Intimacies to characters and causes as a game goes on. That's fine since her motivation so clearly attaches her to the world.)
• Skills: Iaido & Chanbara (Combat) 4, CSI: Creation (Physical Perception) 3, Honor Unto Insanity (Fortitude) 3, Walks Among the Mighty (Social Graces) 2, "Just the Facts, Miss" (Social Perception) 2. (Ryoka uses a 43322 Array, demonstrating deep commitment to a relatively limited number of skills.)
• Assets: Fortitude of Heaven, Solar Anima, Puissance of the Sun, The Great Curse Upon the Solars, Glory of the Dawn, Sword of Heaven, First Solar Excellency (Combat), Flashing Vengeance Draw, Fivefold Bulwark Stance, Spirit-Cutting Attack, Courtier's Eye Technique, Crafty Observation Method (Ryoka has opted to just take 6 Charms, focusing, logically for a Dawn Caste, on Combat, with some perception charms as well as Spirit-Cutting Attack, which makes achieving her Motivation much less frustrating).
• Resonant Virtues: Temperance, Valor (Ryoka is tight-laced and proud, but self-controlled and fearless)
• Virtue Flaw: Honor of the Duel (Valor). Condition: Whenever Ryoka is insulted or her combat prowess is reasonably called into question. Limit Break: Ryoka challenges the offender to a duel to the death, immediately, no matter the circumstances or poor timing, and she will not permit an offender to back down. Anyone who attempts to stop or delay the duel will be challenged as well. She may be convinced not to kill someone if they are close to her or if someone who is makes a compelling argument, but will never let anyone off with anything less than beating them into unconsciousness after demonstrating her superiority: she will never hold back anything. Lasts until all challengers have been dealt with or Ryoka is beaten into unconsciousness. (Like any good Virtue Flaw this stands to harm both her allies and her reputation, as well as get her killed if she chooses the wrong opponent, though circumstances might also permit her to get away with killing someone who needed to die anyway. In any case, it makes her look irrationally vain and proud when it activates, which are good heroic flaws.)

That was pretty easy. Let's do Inori from yesterday's example real quick too.

• Name and Title: Inori, the Loving Priestess
• Concept: Prophet of Hope
• Motivation: Restore the Celestial Order (That's a pretty big one)
• Type/Caste: Zenith Caste Solar
• Anima Banner: Five golden pillars fanned out behind her, inscribed with the laws of Heaven in Old Realm script
• Essence: 2
• Intimacies: Simple Folk (Fond Caring), Corrupt Gods (Severe Disappointment), Music (Joyous Adoration), The First Age (Wistful Yearning)
• Skills: Voice of Radiance (Social Influence) 4, Unflinching Kindness (Fortitude) 3, Fist of the Righteous (Combat) 3, Beloved of Gods and Men (Social Graces) 2, Raised by a Witch (Medicine) 1, Love Sees Through (Social Perception) 1, Strength of Virtue (Physical Prowess) 1 (Inori uses a 4332111 Array, very similar to Ryoka's but with more skills on the lower end)
• Assets: Fortitude of Heaven, Solar Anima, Puissance of the Sun, The Great Curse Upon the Solars, Glory of the Zenith, Hammer of Heaven, Fallen but Unconquered, Past Life Memories, Enchanting, Respect-Commanding Attitude, Iron Skin Concentration, Spirit-Cutting Attack, Flawless Diagnosis Technique (Inori has chosen two Assets which fall into the old 'Merits' category. Past Life Memories gives her limited recollection of the truths of the First Age, in addition to reflexive familiarity with devices from that time and some idea of how they function. Enchanting represents her extraordinary beauty and singing voice, which is a natural but outstanding quality.)
• Resonant Virtues: Compassion
• Virtue Flaw: Love for All Things (Compassion): Condition: Inori or her allies are threatened by strangers, or her allies threaten strangers. Limit Break: Inori becomes unable to see the evil in anything. She will do her very best (including the use of mind-affecting charms) to convince everyone present that peace and unity can be achieved, treating friend and foe equally. She will respond to any violence against anyone present with violence, but only to incapacitate, she will also respond violently to attempts to remove her from negotiations. She is utterly blind to manipulation and possible betrayal. Lasts for several hours.

So this is around about what Solars will look like in the new system. Substantially shorter and less number-heavy statblocks than before, though looking over these I think we'll want to leave space on the character sheet to write out a quick description of each Asset, because as much as I love Exalted Charm names they're not always useful in determining what the charm does.

Tomorrow I'll talk about my plans for Martial Arts and Sorcery, two major but universal systems that really need their flavor preserved but a lot of their mechanics ripped out.

Exalted Rework Part 7: Examples

So I've talked a lot about my vision for how the game 'could work,' I mean that's pretty much been what I've focused on doing is saying 'I think it should go like this,' and while that's more or less the job I set forth for myself, it's really about time I sat down to the somewhat challenging thought experiments of 'what do I imagine this will look like in practice?'

So today's update will be a couple of examples of Conflicts.  This is how I imagine players would use the tools I've made to play the game.  I'll have to use characters I created for former games and stories with made-up numbers because I haven't finalized character creation rules yet, but I think that'll be fine.

Example 1, a full Combat Conflict:

Korin Sun-Chaser is an Elk Totem Full Moon Lunar whose Motivation is to find, love and protect his Solar Mate.  Due to the whims of plot and story, however, Korin cannot recognize his mate on sight, instead he is simply trying to make friends with Solars.  Being a Full Moon, he's not incredibly subtle about it.  Ryoka is a Dawn Caste Solar justicar, trying to keep a low profile while she protects mortal cities from supernatural threats (this is her Motivation).  Korin has been chasing rumors of the Golden Children, and finally caught up with one, and, being kind of a meathead, has approached her on a bridge near sunset to ask her if she's the Demon of Vakarin, the title which she is known by for her purging of the corrupt leadership of her home city.
Ryoka responds by drawing her sword.
Out of Character, Ryoka's player says "I'm starting Conflict.  My Goal is to put you at my mercy in case you prove to be dangerous."
Korin and Ryoka's players both know that they're PCs and that in the end they'll be in the same party together, but this is their meeting and so it's far better to make it interesting.  Korin's player says, "Okay, I'll engage, my Goal is to have you listen to me.  They're not really contradictory Goals, are you sure we need to fight this out?"
Ryoka's player glances over her character's stats briefly.  "Ryoka resonates with Valor, if you're fighting back at all she's going to keep going until she wins or you do."  The GM leans back and smiles, not really having anything to do besides watch his players make a scene.
Korin's player nods.  "Okay, my Combat skill is 3."
Ryoka's player responds, "Mine's a 4 and I win ties 'cause of Sword of Heaven.  You get first Complication."
Korin's player nods.  "My first Complication is to allow your goal, putting me at 5.  I'll end up at your mercy, but you have to listen to me."
Ryoka's player looks to the GM, "Do I actually lose anything for having a lower total?"
The GM shakes his head.  "Nope, you both get your Goals, Korin's just making sure his gets through by accepting yours."
Ryoka's player nods and looks back to Korin's player.  "Okay, no more complications from me, so the fight's going to end with me listening to you while you talk with my sword at your throat?"
The GM cuts in, "Don't get ahead of yourselves, play it out."
Back In Character, Korin barely gets his sword halfway out of its sheath to parry the sudden wide draw-cut.  "No, wait, I just want to talk!" Ryoka pays his words no mind, pushing the barbarian back with a flurry of lightning-fast strikes.  His own counter attack is a heavy vertical swing, taking a chunk out of the boards of the bridge and sending splinters flying as the Dawn Caste rolls to the right out of the way.
"Messengers don't come bearing swords," the Solar hisses slamming her shoulder into the broad-shouldered barbarian, hoping to topple him over.  Korin is far too strong and stable for anything like that to work, even from a superior swordswoman.  He grabs her right wrist while she's close, hoping to prevent her from attacking further.
"We do when we're on the run, too!  Stop this, I'm not your enemy."  Ryoka, not that easily beaten, kicks the Lunar on the inside of the leg before slamming the heel of her free hand into his chin.  Korin stumbles back, slightly stunned, and has to roll backwards off the bridge onto the riverbank below to avoid the next arcing slash.  He lands heavily on his back with an 'oof' but rolls to his feet quickly.
Out of Character, the player of Inori, another Solar, is enjoying the scene but asks the GM if she can join in, too.  Inori is a Zenith Caste martial artist and faithful priestess of the Unconquered Sun with substantial memories from her past lives.  She has been traveling with Ryoka for a little while and still doesn't know her very well.  The GM shrugs, "You have to ask them, it's their Conflict.  I don't see why you can't be present for it, though."
Korin's player grins, "Save me from your violent circlemate?"
Ryoka's player laughs.  "Don't steal my thunder, I wanna finish beating him up."
Inori's player nods.  "Okay.  Korin, can you use some little, non-anima shapeshifting so I can recognize you as a Lunar with my First Age memories?"
Korin's player nods, "Yeah, sure, I'll do it right now, I think we ought to finish this soon."
Ryoka leaps down from the bridge, the impact of her attack cracking the earth where Korin stood a moment ago.  He had quickly dodged under the shadow of the bridge, where he could use some slightly more obvious powers without fear of being noticed.
Inori, wandering along the street above, slides down the steepness of the riverbank next to her circle-sister.  "What's going on?"
Ryoka replies, "Trouble," and throws herself at Korin once again.
Korin, exasperated, shouts back, "I'm not trouble!" and, manifesting fur and hide on his forearms, blocks the sharpened sword with his forearm, deflecting it and shoving his shoulder into the Dawn Caste to bowl her over.  Inori has enough time to see the shapeshifting and gasp.  The shoulder check work, but before she goes down, Ryoka grabs his arm and expertly twists in midair so that he is the one who impacts on the ground heavily, the Dawn Caste ending straddling him with her sword at his throat.  Korin lets his sword go and opens his hands in submission as Inori rushes over, eyes sparkling.
"Did you just shapeshift?"  The exciteable Zenith looks back and forth, to make sure they won't be overheard.  "Are you a Lunar?"  Korin finally has them listening to him, at least...

Example 2:  The Conflict System Avoids Conflict

Later on, Inori, Korin and Ryoka are dealing with a Mountain God who is withholding the snowmelt from a rivers, because the people of the village at his base have had no sons this year to gift to him.  Inori's motivation is to restore the Celestial Order, and so she cannot overlook such a blatant misuse of power.  Having marched up the tall, snow-capped peak, avoiding avalanches, rockslides and a few lesser god guards that Ryoka and Korin dispatched effortlessly they come to the Mountain God's throne at the summit.
His court consists of Echo Spirits, snowflake children, boulders and a single river goddess, chained to the side of his throne.  "Forgotten rulers," he says.  "I would have thought guards and travails sent to bar your way would have made it clear you are not welcome in my lands."  The chorus of Echo Spirits, in the shifting forms of beautiful, androgynous beings, repeat his words, My lands, my lands.
Inori, incensed, ignites her Anima Banner, and five golden pillars inscribed with the laws of Heaven in old realm script fan out behind her.  "Your lands?  By what right do you claim rulership?  It is the duty of Gods like yourselves to serve the land, not to rule."  The Echo Spirits repeat Inori's words as well, Not to rule, not to rule.
Out of Character the GM asks, "Inori, are you going to just try to argue him into submission?"
Inori's player smiles and nods.  "It's what I do best!"
The GM says, "Okay, Conflict.  His Goal is to retain his position as ruler of his court."
Inori's player raises an eyebrow.  "I don't care if he leads the court, I just want him to stop being a jerk to the mortals and acting like he owns the place."
The GM hmms.  "Well, Ryoka and Korin have done a good enough job kicking the asses of all his toughest warriors that he clearly doesn't really want to fight you... hm, let's keep playing it out."  Inori's player nods.
The Mountain God rises from his throne of stone, wrathful.  "You have been gone fifteen hundred years!  You abandoned us to the tyranny of the Dragon-Blooded, and then to the depredations of the Fair Folk!  My only recompense for that suffering, following an Age of loyal service, has been these past seven centuries, when I have cared for and protected your subjects in my domain.  Is the fault mine, if they chose to turn to me for protection in your absence?"  Absence, absence, sing the Echo Spirits.
Inori smiles gently.  "No.  I do not know by what power or for what reason we vanished, but we are returned, and I am grateful for your caring for of our people in the mean time.  When we retake our thrones, you and all those like you who serve honestly will be remembered."  She crosses her arms.  "But, there is still the matter of the river that the people depend on.  Is that loyal service, to punish them for being unable to provide a gift given in sincere thanks?  Is this how you mean to imitate our justice?"  Justice, justice.
The Mountain God is unable to meet the Zenith's accusation, and looks away.  "I do not have your strength of will, my lady.  I grew accustomed to the company of the sweet songs of the boys of the village, to the company of mortals.  The waters will flow once again."
The priestess bows.  "Then you are forgiven.  Care for the people of the village.  Tell your subjects, and those spirits who visit your court: the Lawgivers have returned, and we will not punish those who obey the old laws and show contrition for their failings.
Out of Character, the GM wonders for a moment if the entire outing, finding the village, scaling the mountain, talking down the Mountain God, would have felt more like a challenge if the players had been forced into Conflict more often, but decides that since they gave full credit to the threats presented to them that rewarding them sacrificing wasn't really necessary. Korin and Ryoka's fights with the boulder guardsmen left them battered, but victorious, by their own descriptions, and Inori acknowledged the Mountain God's points and debated with him fairly rather than pressuring him into breaking his intimacies or motivations.  Had the Mountain God been intended to be a truly corrupt individual, this likely would have involved the Solars defeating him and replacing him with one of his court, probably the River Goddess, but the GM decided that not all spirits or opponents worth facing should be unforgivable.

Okay that actually took me a long time to write so we'll get to example characters tomorrow.  Hopefully this gives a good sense of what the flow of the new system actually looks like, or what it looks like ideally in my head.

As always, questions and comments are completely welcome!