Of all the systems in core Exalted, Virtues were the most ambitious and the greatest failure.
Intended to be a mechanical definition of a character's heroic nature, because they relied on the GM calling characters out on counter-virtuous behavior, they were rarely used, except to allow a character to get a larger Essence pool or a more effective way to spend Temporary Willpower to boost their stats. Players would play to the level of virtuousness they felt their character should have, no matter what their stat sheet said.
One of the handful of posts I put in this blog before starting the Exalted Rework was about rules and how they encourage behavior. The behavior the Virtue rules encouraged was, assuredly unintentionally, for players to ignore them. Part of the reason for this is the volume of numbers involved. A GM who is supposed to be keeping an eye on players' actions for virtue content must consider first whether any given declared action by a player would be considered counter to any of the four virtues, then try to remember if the character taking the action has any of those virtues rated 3 or higher. In a group of 4 players, that is 12 numbers to remember for essentially every action declared. It's simply too much work, isn't it.
However, the Virtue system is a good idea, and is far too worked into Exalted's world for it to simply be excised, so I have instead adapted it to the Resonant Virtue system. Rather than keeping track of numbers, characters and GMs only need to know a simple binary: is it resonant or not. Furthermore, because both Essence Recovery and +1 bonuses to Conflicts are granted by virtuous action in concordance with a Resonant Virtue, players are encouraged to remind their GM of their Resonant Virtues with some regularity. This doesn't wholly eliminate the problems, but it mitigates them.
The other big problem with Virtues in canon Exalted was how poorly they were defined. Each virtue was given less than half a page, mostly a quick list of examples of things it aided in and things you had to fail a check to do. I think the biggest mistake of the Virtue system was to frame the Virtues as advantages rather than disadvantages with advantageous uses.
Virtue is not easy, indeed, Virtue is what makes heroes heroic. A character with no Resonant Virtues is not a hero, not even a dark hero. All things in Creation are defined by Virtue, even the Primordials had and obeyed the calls of the four virtues, save one: the Ebon Dragon, who is, instead, defined by his utter lack of virtue. The four Virtues derive from four of the Shinma, the god-concepts which were necessary for the Primordials and the Raksha both to come into being.
Compassion is the virtue of kindness, it opposes suffering. Compassion is a judgmental virtue: when the Compassionate sees others causing suffering (thus breaching Compassion themselves), they are moved to stop them. Compassion does not mean a belief in equality, freedom or any of the ideals of modern earth, it simply cannot stand to see others suffer, physically or emotionally. Compassion is not cerebral: even should a compassionate person know that killing someone might save hundreds of lives, Compassion forbids sending them to the Underworld. Heroic Acts of Compassion are usually self-sacrificing: giving of oneself that others might not suffer, or opposing those who cause suffering. Compassion is probably the rarest of the Four Virtues in Creation.
Conviction is the virtue of commitment, it opposes doubt. Conviction is a proud virtue: it only governs a character's own actions and thoughts, and cares nothing for the actions of others. Conviction's unwavering certainty is a two-edged sword: while it makes the character certain in their actions and beliefs, it also weakens their ability to change or accept new information; Conviction is the virtue of zealots and fundamentalists. Conviction is stubbornness: it is a violation of Conviction to back down from a goal, relationship or belief. In particular, it is a violation of Conviction to apologize or admit that one was wrong, even if they failed. Heroic Acts of Conviction are acts of great risk taken in the name of a sworn goal, especially those choices that others might hesitate to make or would back down from as unnecessary. Conviction, as the font of Motivation, is the most common of the Four Virtues in Creation.
Temperance is the virtue of restraint, it opposes corruption. Temperance is a judgemental virtue, like Compassion, it is a violation of Temperance to allow others to be corrupt. Temperance is about self-imposed restrictions. It is Temperance that leads a monk to a life of chastity, and Temperance that causes him to judge his brother who breaks his vows harshly. It is not a violation of Temperance to allow a friend to break a restriction they have not placed on themselves, but it is to allow them to break a restriction they have. Temperance considers the basic principles of interaction: honesty, fairness, justice and moderation to be restrictions that all have placed on them. Heroic Acts of Temperance revolve around keeping one's word or adhering to one's code despite great challenges, or opposing deep-rooted corruption. Resisting the offer of the mate of your dreams, your heart's desire or a criminal act that you'd never be caught doing because the option violated your principles would be heroic acts of Temperance. Temperance is a rare virtue in Creation, comparable to Compassion.
Valor is the virtue of hope, it opposes retreat. Like Conviction, Valor is a proud virtue, the valorous are not compelled to punish the cowardly for their weakness. Valor is, in many ways, the simplest virtue, it simply demands that one never back down. This is separate from opposing surrender (which is more a matter of Conviction), a Valorous character can accept when they are beaten, but will not let themselves give up until exactly that point, nor turn down a challenge, even if that challenge is worded as an insult. Valor inspires us to be brave and push ourselves to be greater than we are and demands we prove to those who doubt us that we are great. Valor is by no means a strictly physical virtue, either: speaking up before a king with the power to command you be executed with one missed word requires as much valor as hurling oneself into the teeth of a beastman army. Heroic Acts of Valor include risking one's life, reputation or hopes on a mission against strong or terrifying enemies. Valor is less common than Conviction in Creation, but much more common than either Temperance or Compassion.
Once again thanks for reading, tomorrow I'll talk about the Dragon-Blooded and some of the design questions I'm asking myself about them, including the purpose of the elemental aspects and how mechanic-less charms will work for the Terrestrial Host.
Please feel free to leave questions or comments below!
Monday, April 21, 2014
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Exalted Rework Part 9: Sorcery and Martial Arts
Exalted's Sorcery and Martial Arts are, mechanically unique elements of the game. From a flavor perspective, in combination they spell out much of the game's mixed fantasy flavor: Sorcery is extremely powerful but highly specific in its effects, Martial Arts is an extraordinarily broad field with near limitless effects but requires practitioners to decide what they wish to focus on and build from there. Sorcery is a primarily mental discipline, Martial Arts are a primarily physical discipline. Both concepts are hard-coded into the nature of the Essence of Creation. Removing or discouraging players from involvement with either of them would dramatically weaken the setting.
So I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to make two extremely mechanically detailed systems work in a game with much less of the system to support them. Both have entire sourcebooks dedicated entirely to their premise and a couple hundred little chunks of them (either spells or charms).
Let's hit Sorcery first. The first Exalted character I played for any length of time was a Twilight Caste and I eventually learned Sorcery, though the only spells I ever made heavy use of were Infallible Messenger and Stormwind Rider (I should note that the other Terrestrial spell that I think is extremely powerful, Demon of the First Circle, wasn't made available to me). For the most part, combat Spells simply didn't do enough for their high costs and were at best inefficient or at worst ineffective against Exalted opponents. Combine this with the fact that I was constantly thinking "... or I could spend that experience on more Charms," and I felt that Sorcery was actually dramatically underpowered for its opportunity costs. In later games I ran I reduced the experience cost of Spells by half and this more or less ameliorated the opportunity cost problem, though not the combat potency problem. In truth, Sorcerers who aren't binding hordes of demons to their will just aren't that much more dangerous than they would be if they were just Exalts. The exception is to mortals: even Terrestrial Circle Sorcerers will totally wreck your mortal buddies. Between Death of Obsidian Butterflies, Flying Guillotine, Corrupted Words and Droning Suggestion, Sorcerers can pretty reliably physically or socially destroy mortals. This is, I'm pretty sure, deliberate. If you're playing an Exalt, getting just tooled around by Sorcery is kind of BS, but Mortals are kind of intended to be the putty in the hands of the Exalted.
Mechanically, each level of Sorcerous Initiation is an Asset. Spells must be learned from teachers or spellbooks, but have no further cost. Spells cost no less than 1 Essence per Circle and usually require Improbable Stunts to avoid (for Terrestrial circle spells) or Impossible Stunts to avoid (for Celestial and Solar circle spells), assuming avoidance is possible at all. In addition to the actual effects of the spell, which occur narratively, if the spell aids in a Conflict the Sorcerer is involved in, they gain +1 to their Skill per Circle of the spell. This can be stacked with Complications and Excellencies. Note that the spell must directly and narratively contribute to the Conflict. While Death of Obsidian Butterflies might win you an argument, it isn't actually actually adding to your side in the conflict, though Stormwind Rider would aid in a chase and Curse of Slavish Humility would aid in intimidation.
Due to the Demon Summoning spells' power, I've added a clause to them as well. Since 'battles of will' aren't actually particularly fun to narrate (they're mostly squinting and grunting) and we don't really have the stats for them, that part of these spells is changed to the following: Whenever you summon a demon with equal or lesser Essence, you must defeat the demon in a Conflict to prove your superiority. The conflict must be of a sort appropriate to the demon summoned.
Martial Arts, by contrast, are a bit better balanced in core. With a few glaring examples of poorly thought-through charms, the styles are mostly very interesting and coherent. The challenge in adapting these is that they were, in core, highly mechanical, being basically just open charm trees that anyone could buy into. Since our Assets are bigger than Charms, and charms are much less crunchy in their use, we need another way of incentivising players to use specific flavors of combat. There's another factor that always bothered me about Martial Arts in Exalted, and that's the complete extraneousness of Terrestrial Martial Arts in a Celestial-scale game.
My intent with Martial Arts mechanically is to make each Style a single Asset. They will generally have the overall format "While you fight with X weapons in Y style, you gain Z benefits." These benefits will usually not be mechanical, but rather replace Combat Charms, allowing Improbable or Impossible stunts. Martial Arts will also never require one's Anima Banner be up, though I may create Hero-Style expansion charms that do.
Terrestrial Martial Arts will usually allow for Improbable stunts or very specific Impossible stunts. Celestial Martial Arts will have a harsher style restriction, rather than just saying 'fight like this' they will say 'you can't fight like this', but will provide broad-strokes Impossible Stunts that can be performed. Sidereal Martial Arts will not only define weapon and movement styles, but will define mindsets and intentions that the character must match in order to make full use of the style's absurdly potent Impossible Stunts.
Terrestrial Martial Arts will usually have Essence Requirements of 1. Celestial Martial Arts will usually have Essence Requirements of 3, Sidereal Martial Arts will have Essence Requirements of 5 or higher. This should also make Terrestrial martial arts more appealing to starting Celestial Characters, especially ones not looking to invest in multiple combat charms and willing to limit themselves to a specific combat style.
I don't have any good examples up for you guys (despite having pretty much everything in the Core Book reworked), but I'll try to get to some soon. I also want to talk about Virtues a bit, which will be a bit less of reworking and a bit more of clarifying on my own interpretations. A bit less novel, but important for comprehending my interpretation of Virtues as Exalted's version of Disadvantages.
I'll also start working through the Dragon-Blooded book, trying to get a feel for what a game where Impossible Stunts are much more restrictive, as well what Charms look like when they're elementally aspected, I may be performing slightly more dramatic surgery on their Charm trees to make them more elementally aspected but cross-skill or less elementally aspected and skill-specific.
As always thanks for reading and feel free to leave questions or comments!
So I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to make two extremely mechanically detailed systems work in a game with much less of the system to support them. Both have entire sourcebooks dedicated entirely to their premise and a couple hundred little chunks of them (either spells or charms).
Let's hit Sorcery first. The first Exalted character I played for any length of time was a Twilight Caste and I eventually learned Sorcery, though the only spells I ever made heavy use of were Infallible Messenger and Stormwind Rider (I should note that the other Terrestrial spell that I think is extremely powerful, Demon of the First Circle, wasn't made available to me). For the most part, combat Spells simply didn't do enough for their high costs and were at best inefficient or at worst ineffective against Exalted opponents. Combine this with the fact that I was constantly thinking "... or I could spend that experience on more Charms," and I felt that Sorcery was actually dramatically underpowered for its opportunity costs. In later games I ran I reduced the experience cost of Spells by half and this more or less ameliorated the opportunity cost problem, though not the combat potency problem. In truth, Sorcerers who aren't binding hordes of demons to their will just aren't that much more dangerous than they would be if they were just Exalts. The exception is to mortals: even Terrestrial Circle Sorcerers will totally wreck your mortal buddies. Between Death of Obsidian Butterflies, Flying Guillotine, Corrupted Words and Droning Suggestion, Sorcerers can pretty reliably physically or socially destroy mortals. This is, I'm pretty sure, deliberate. If you're playing an Exalt, getting just tooled around by Sorcery is kind of BS, but Mortals are kind of intended to be the putty in the hands of the Exalted.
Mechanically, each level of Sorcerous Initiation is an Asset. Spells must be learned from teachers or spellbooks, but have no further cost. Spells cost no less than 1 Essence per Circle and usually require Improbable Stunts to avoid (for Terrestrial circle spells) or Impossible Stunts to avoid (for Celestial and Solar circle spells), assuming avoidance is possible at all. In addition to the actual effects of the spell, which occur narratively, if the spell aids in a Conflict the Sorcerer is involved in, they gain +1 to their Skill per Circle of the spell. This can be stacked with Complications and Excellencies. Note that the spell must directly and narratively contribute to the Conflict. While Death of Obsidian Butterflies might win you an argument, it isn't actually actually adding to your side in the conflict, though Stormwind Rider would aid in a chase and Curse of Slavish Humility would aid in intimidation.
Due to the Demon Summoning spells' power, I've added a clause to them as well. Since 'battles of will' aren't actually particularly fun to narrate (they're mostly squinting and grunting) and we don't really have the stats for them, that part of these spells is changed to the following: Whenever you summon a demon with equal or lesser Essence, you must defeat the demon in a Conflict to prove your superiority. The conflict must be of a sort appropriate to the demon summoned.
Martial Arts, by contrast, are a bit better balanced in core. With a few glaring examples of poorly thought-through charms, the styles are mostly very interesting and coherent. The challenge in adapting these is that they were, in core, highly mechanical, being basically just open charm trees that anyone could buy into. Since our Assets are bigger than Charms, and charms are much less crunchy in their use, we need another way of incentivising players to use specific flavors of combat. There's another factor that always bothered me about Martial Arts in Exalted, and that's the complete extraneousness of Terrestrial Martial Arts in a Celestial-scale game.
My intent with Martial Arts mechanically is to make each Style a single Asset. They will generally have the overall format "While you fight with X weapons in Y style, you gain Z benefits." These benefits will usually not be mechanical, but rather replace Combat Charms, allowing Improbable or Impossible stunts. Martial Arts will also never require one's Anima Banner be up, though I may create Hero-Style expansion charms that do.
Terrestrial Martial Arts will usually allow for Improbable stunts or very specific Impossible stunts. Celestial Martial Arts will have a harsher style restriction, rather than just saying 'fight like this' they will say 'you can't fight like this', but will provide broad-strokes Impossible Stunts that can be performed. Sidereal Martial Arts will not only define weapon and movement styles, but will define mindsets and intentions that the character must match in order to make full use of the style's absurdly potent Impossible Stunts.
Terrestrial Martial Arts will usually have Essence Requirements of 1. Celestial Martial Arts will usually have Essence Requirements of 3, Sidereal Martial Arts will have Essence Requirements of 5 or higher. This should also make Terrestrial martial arts more appealing to starting Celestial Characters, especially ones not looking to invest in multiple combat charms and willing to limit themselves to a specific combat style.
I don't have any good examples up for you guys (despite having pretty much everything in the Core Book reworked), but I'll try to get to some soon. I also want to talk about Virtues a bit, which will be a bit less of reworking and a bit more of clarifying on my own interpretations. A bit less novel, but important for comprehending my interpretation of Virtues as Exalted's version of Disadvantages.
I'll also start working through the Dragon-Blooded book, trying to get a feel for what a game where Impossible Stunts are much more restrictive, as well what Charms look like when they're elementally aspected, I may be performing slightly more dramatic surgery on their Charm trees to make them more elementally aspected but cross-skill or less elementally aspected and skill-specific.
As always thanks for reading and feel free to leave questions or comments!
Saturday, April 19, 2014
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.
That was pretty easy. Let's do Inori from yesterday's example real quick too.
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.
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.
Friday, April 18, 2014
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!
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!
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Exalted Rework Part 6: Exaltation
One thing that always bugged me about Exalted was the number of inherent, natural abilities that the Exalted had that, to even know they had, you had to dig through the depths of the book to find. Things like stopping your own bleeding, soaking lethal damage with stamina (whatever that actually means from a role-play sense), resistance to diseases, things like that.
As part of the ongoing effort to make the game easier to pick up (which itself may be pointless because Exalted has reached a level of popularity where most people who would be interested in it already know it but don't discourage me too much), when a player decides what king of Exalt they will play, I have written out a short list of the supernatural abilities they get for that. I call these Exaltation Powers, and the intent is to have them be the building blocks that Charms grow out of, much like how Knacks and Shapeshifting did for Lunars, a system I found to be quite elegant.
Here then, is my first-pass on the Solar Exalted. Note that this is for being any Solar Exalt, not for having a specific Caste. Castes also have Exaltation powers, but I'll explain some of those in a bit.
Solar Exaltation Powers:
Fortitude of Heaven: Solar Exalted are immune to nonmagical diseases, aging, infection and blood loss. Solar Exalted heal rapidly, and will recover from minor injuries overnight, severe injuries in a few days and from death’s door in a week.
Solar Anima: The character has an Anima Banner which they may ignite at will. It fades at the end of the scene, or after fifteen minutes. While ignited, the character’s divine power and Exalted nature is unmistakable to any who look on them.
Puissance of the Sun: Solar Exalted may take Improbable Stunts while their Anima Banner is ignited.
Limit Break: One of your Resonant Virtues is Flawed by the Great Curse. Determine what happens when this limit breaks and the conditions that cause it. It should be self-destructive, harmful to the character’s motivation or the things they care about. Solar Limits usually involve either taking the virtue too far, twisting it in some way, or reversing one’s attachment to it completely. You gain limit whenever you act against your Flawed Virtue or your Limit Condition occurs. You may also choose to gain Limit to throw off supernatural mental effects.
Yes, that is a dramatically improved rate of healing, because I felt the original-game charm "Body-Mending Meditation" was too good to not take, and therefore that I would just assume every Solar had it. I said a lot about Limit Breaks, which could probably stand to be more concise, and requires some understanding of the Virtue System, so I'll work on the wording there, but I think I hit the points that describe the benefits and detriments (mostly detriments) of having a Limit Break.
While it's more unfinished, because Lunars will be project #3 after Solars and Dragon-Blooded, here's an early version of their Exaltation Powers:
Lunar Exaltation Powers:
Fortitude of the Wild: Lunar Exalted are immune to natural diseases, aging, infection and blood loss, and they heal rapidly, and will recover from minor injuries overnight, severe injuries in a few days and from death’s door in a week.
Lunar Anima: The character has an Anima Banner which they may ignite at will. It fades at the end of the scene, or after fifteen minutes. While ignited, the character’s moon-graced power and Exalted nature is unmistakable to any who look on them.
Mutable Form: All Lunar Exalted have two True Forms: their human form and a Totem Animal form, and changing between them can be performed reflexively. Lunar Exalted may also take the form of any animal or mortal human they have hunted, slain and consumed alone, changing to these forms requires a moment’s concentration. Lunars revert to one of their True Forms of their choice when their Anima Banner is ignited and may not shapeshift to any others while it remains ignited.
Limit Break: One of your Resonant Virtues is inherently Flawed by the Great Curse. Determine what happens when this limit breaks and the conditions that cause it. It should self-destructive, harmful to the character’s motivation or the things they care about. Lunar Limits usually involve an atavistic regression to instincts, an animalistic corruption of Virtuous behavior. You gain Limit when you act against your Flawed Virtue or when your Limit Condition occurs. You may also voluntarily gain Limit to shake off supernatural mental effects.
While Fortitude of Heaven and Fortitude of the Wild are essentially identical, I prefer having them listed for a character who selects the Exalted type of their choice so that they can be written down in a place where players will remember even these most innate of powers.
For Caste powers, I wanted to provide, in addition to the traditional Anima Powers, an ability which reflected the old Caste Abilities, which were thrown out when the Skill system changed. The Solar Castes therefore all have two powers granted by their Caste, a 'Glory power', which is the Anima Power, and one named for their '___ of Heaven' sobriquet which grants them extra power in the area their Exaltation was designed to shine. A couple castes have additional abilities based on the unique 'extra effects' of certain Anima Powers. Here are the Caste Exaltation Powers as written so far:
Dawn Caste:
Glory of the Dawn: When the Dawn Caste’s anima banner is ignited, they appear mighty and terrifying. All characters of lower Essence opposing them them suffer -1 to all combat Skills unless Valor is their Resonant Virtue.
Sword of Heaven: Dawn Caste Solars win ties during Conflicts involving combat or war.
Zenith Caste:
Glory of the Zenith: When a Zenith Caste’s anima banner is ignited, they are empowered with holy light. All extra Creatures of Darkness must flee before them or be burned away, greater Creatures of Darkness suffer -1 to the rating of all Complications they make in conflicts opposing the Zenith Caste.
Hammer of Heaven: Zenith Caste Solars win ties during Conflicts involving their physical, mental or spiritual fortitude or in conflicts involving overt social influence.
Fallen But Unconquered: Zenith Caste Solars may, while their animas are on display, burn the bodies of the fallen with holy fire, preventing the corpse from rising as undead or the spirit from becoming a hungry ghost.
Twilight Caste:
Glory of the Twilight: When a Twilight Caste’s Anima Banner is ignited, they become able to see flows and pools of essence. While they cannot see a character’s essence score directly, they can identify and, with knowledge and skill, analyze Artifacts, Spirits, Sorcery and active Charms that are not masked by other magic, or were not designed with subtlety in mind.
Arrow of Heaven: Twilight Caste Solars win ties in conflicts of knowledge, craftsmanship, sorcerous skill, investigation, research or learning.
Night Caste:
Glory of the Night: When Night Caste’s Anima Banner is Ignited, they may choose to have it completely mask their identity.
Dagger of Heaven: Night Caste Solars win ties in Conflicts of stealth, movement, spatial perception, criminal activities and avoidance of danger.
A Subtle Brilliance: When a Night Caste Solar spends a point of Essence they may declare it is not readily apparent, unless the point they are spending is their last point of Essence. This will not make a supernatural effect appear less supernatural.
Eclipse Caste:
Glory of the Eclipse: When an Eclipse Caste is party to an oath sanctified by the grasping of hands, the Eclipse may sanctify the Oath if their Anima Banner is ignited, or they may reflexively ignite it when they sanctify the oath. They must either be one of the parties shaking hands or must touch the hands of those making the oath to sanctify it. Oathbreakers will have a modified Skill of 0 for a number of critical Conflicts they are part of equal to the Eclipse’s Essence at the time of sanctification. These critical botches will appear to be caused by bad luck.
Quill of Heaven: Eclipse Caste Solars win ties in Conflicts of social perception, travel, subtle social influence and organization.
Divine Ambassador: Any party traveling with an Eclipse Caste Solar on legitimate business must be treated by the proper laws of hospitality by any Demons, Gods, Elementals or Fair Folk. The laws of hospitality include nonagression, providing food and lodging and ensuring safety. They are nullified if any hostile action is taken by the Eclipse or their party.
So let's talk about these briefly. I'm actually pretty content with the Dawn Caste, though the mechanical crunch of just 'Opponents with lower essence take -1 to Combat stats and I win ties' is pretty brutal, but since it only really works on people the Dawn should be better than anyway, I don't think it's too far. While I like the way Glory of the Zenith works (basically, Creatures of Darkness take extra damage and have trouble opposing you) I'm not happy with how I currently have "Hammer of Heaven" worded, I want to create a distinction between the Zenith's overt majesty and social 'force' compared to the Eclipse's subtlety but I'm not quite sure how to describe that distinction clearly.
Readers who recall the original Twilight Anima Power will notice that I have gone for a slightly different one instead. Not only was the old 'magic shield' exceptionally powerful at higher Essence ratings, but it is essentially meaningless with the new Conflict System, so I've given them a lesser form of Essence Sight instead. This feels more Twilight-y and will likely provide them more reason to raise their Banner in times when it might be a complication to do so. The same readers who noticed the Twilight change will also probably note that the Night Caste Anima Power lost the ability to mask passage, this is because that particular effect never really made sense to me, in addition to being very mechanical. If you want to know where it went, consider it to have been folded into Dagger of Heaven.
Today was a pretty crunchy update, talking a bit about what the reworked game will actually look like on character sheets. Tomorrow we'll do some example Conflicts and maybe try to put together a starting character. Thanks for reading, feel free to leave questions or comments below!
As part of the ongoing effort to make the game easier to pick up (which itself may be pointless because Exalted has reached a level of popularity where most people who would be interested in it already know it but don't discourage me too much), when a player decides what king of Exalt they will play, I have written out a short list of the supernatural abilities they get for that. I call these Exaltation Powers, and the intent is to have them be the building blocks that Charms grow out of, much like how Knacks and Shapeshifting did for Lunars, a system I found to be quite elegant.
Here then, is my first-pass on the Solar Exalted. Note that this is for being any Solar Exalt, not for having a specific Caste. Castes also have Exaltation powers, but I'll explain some of those in a bit.
Solar Exaltation Powers:
Fortitude of Heaven: Solar Exalted are immune to nonmagical diseases, aging, infection and blood loss. Solar Exalted heal rapidly, and will recover from minor injuries overnight, severe injuries in a few days and from death’s door in a week.
Solar Anima: The character has an Anima Banner which they may ignite at will. It fades at the end of the scene, or after fifteen minutes. While ignited, the character’s divine power and Exalted nature is unmistakable to any who look on them.
Puissance of the Sun: Solar Exalted may take Improbable Stunts while their Anima Banner is ignited.
Limit Break: One of your Resonant Virtues is Flawed by the Great Curse. Determine what happens when this limit breaks and the conditions that cause it. It should be self-destructive, harmful to the character’s motivation or the things they care about. Solar Limits usually involve either taking the virtue too far, twisting it in some way, or reversing one’s attachment to it completely. You gain limit whenever you act against your Flawed Virtue or your Limit Condition occurs. You may also choose to gain Limit to throw off supernatural mental effects.
Yes, that is a dramatically improved rate of healing, because I felt the original-game charm "Body-Mending Meditation" was too good to not take, and therefore that I would just assume every Solar had it. I said a lot about Limit Breaks, which could probably stand to be more concise, and requires some understanding of the Virtue System, so I'll work on the wording there, but I think I hit the points that describe the benefits and detriments (mostly detriments) of having a Limit Break.
While it's more unfinished, because Lunars will be project #3 after Solars and Dragon-Blooded, here's an early version of their Exaltation Powers:
Lunar Exaltation Powers:
Fortitude of the Wild: Lunar Exalted are immune to natural diseases, aging, infection and blood loss, and they heal rapidly, and will recover from minor injuries overnight, severe injuries in a few days and from death’s door in a week.
Lunar Anima: The character has an Anima Banner which they may ignite at will. It fades at the end of the scene, or after fifteen minutes. While ignited, the character’s moon-graced power and Exalted nature is unmistakable to any who look on them.
Mutable Form: All Lunar Exalted have two True Forms: their human form and a Totem Animal form, and changing between them can be performed reflexively. Lunar Exalted may also take the form of any animal or mortal human they have hunted, slain and consumed alone, changing to these forms requires a moment’s concentration. Lunars revert to one of their True Forms of their choice when their Anima Banner is ignited and may not shapeshift to any others while it remains ignited.
Limit Break: One of your Resonant Virtues is inherently Flawed by the Great Curse. Determine what happens when this limit breaks and the conditions that cause it. It should self-destructive, harmful to the character’s motivation or the things they care about. Lunar Limits usually involve an atavistic regression to instincts, an animalistic corruption of Virtuous behavior. You gain Limit when you act against your Flawed Virtue or when your Limit Condition occurs. You may also voluntarily gain Limit to shake off supernatural mental effects.
While Fortitude of Heaven and Fortitude of the Wild are essentially identical, I prefer having them listed for a character who selects the Exalted type of their choice so that they can be written down in a place where players will remember even these most innate of powers.
For Caste powers, I wanted to provide, in addition to the traditional Anima Powers, an ability which reflected the old Caste Abilities, which were thrown out when the Skill system changed. The Solar Castes therefore all have two powers granted by their Caste, a 'Glory power', which is the Anima Power, and one named for their '___ of Heaven' sobriquet which grants them extra power in the area their Exaltation was designed to shine. A couple castes have additional abilities based on the unique 'extra effects' of certain Anima Powers. Here are the Caste Exaltation Powers as written so far:
Dawn Caste:
Glory of the Dawn: When the Dawn Caste’s anima banner is ignited, they appear mighty and terrifying. All characters of lower Essence opposing them them suffer -1 to all combat Skills unless Valor is their Resonant Virtue.
Sword of Heaven: Dawn Caste Solars win ties during Conflicts involving combat or war.
Zenith Caste:
Glory of the Zenith: When a Zenith Caste’s anima banner is ignited, they are empowered with holy light. All extra Creatures of Darkness must flee before them or be burned away, greater Creatures of Darkness suffer -1 to the rating of all Complications they make in conflicts opposing the Zenith Caste.
Hammer of Heaven: Zenith Caste Solars win ties during Conflicts involving their physical, mental or spiritual fortitude or in conflicts involving overt social influence.
Fallen But Unconquered: Zenith Caste Solars may, while their animas are on display, burn the bodies of the fallen with holy fire, preventing the corpse from rising as undead or the spirit from becoming a hungry ghost.
Twilight Caste:
Glory of the Twilight: When a Twilight Caste’s Anima Banner is ignited, they become able to see flows and pools of essence. While they cannot see a character’s essence score directly, they can identify and, with knowledge and skill, analyze Artifacts, Spirits, Sorcery and active Charms that are not masked by other magic, or were not designed with subtlety in mind.
Arrow of Heaven: Twilight Caste Solars win ties in conflicts of knowledge, craftsmanship, sorcerous skill, investigation, research or learning.
Night Caste:
Glory of the Night: When Night Caste’s Anima Banner is Ignited, they may choose to have it completely mask their identity.
Dagger of Heaven: Night Caste Solars win ties in Conflicts of stealth, movement, spatial perception, criminal activities and avoidance of danger.
A Subtle Brilliance: When a Night Caste Solar spends a point of Essence they may declare it is not readily apparent, unless the point they are spending is their last point of Essence. This will not make a supernatural effect appear less supernatural.
Eclipse Caste:
Glory of the Eclipse: When an Eclipse Caste is party to an oath sanctified by the grasping of hands, the Eclipse may sanctify the Oath if their Anima Banner is ignited, or they may reflexively ignite it when they sanctify the oath. They must either be one of the parties shaking hands or must touch the hands of those making the oath to sanctify it. Oathbreakers will have a modified Skill of 0 for a number of critical Conflicts they are part of equal to the Eclipse’s Essence at the time of sanctification. These critical botches will appear to be caused by bad luck.
Quill of Heaven: Eclipse Caste Solars win ties in Conflicts of social perception, travel, subtle social influence and organization.
Divine Ambassador: Any party traveling with an Eclipse Caste Solar on legitimate business must be treated by the proper laws of hospitality by any Demons, Gods, Elementals or Fair Folk. The laws of hospitality include nonagression, providing food and lodging and ensuring safety. They are nullified if any hostile action is taken by the Eclipse or their party.
So let's talk about these briefly. I'm actually pretty content with the Dawn Caste, though the mechanical crunch of just 'Opponents with lower essence take -1 to Combat stats and I win ties' is pretty brutal, but since it only really works on people the Dawn should be better than anyway, I don't think it's too far. While I like the way Glory of the Zenith works (basically, Creatures of Darkness take extra damage and have trouble opposing you) I'm not happy with how I currently have "Hammer of Heaven" worded, I want to create a distinction between the Zenith's overt majesty and social 'force' compared to the Eclipse's subtlety but I'm not quite sure how to describe that distinction clearly.
Readers who recall the original Twilight Anima Power will notice that I have gone for a slightly different one instead. Not only was the old 'magic shield' exceptionally powerful at higher Essence ratings, but it is essentially meaningless with the new Conflict System, so I've given them a lesser form of Essence Sight instead. This feels more Twilight-y and will likely provide them more reason to raise their Banner in times when it might be a complication to do so. The same readers who noticed the Twilight change will also probably note that the Night Caste Anima Power lost the ability to mask passage, this is because that particular effect never really made sense to me, in addition to being very mechanical. If you want to know where it went, consider it to have been folded into Dagger of Heaven.
Today was a pretty crunchy update, talking a bit about what the reworked game will actually look like on character sheets. Tomorrow we'll do some example Conflicts and maybe try to put together a starting character. Thanks for reading, feel free to leave questions or comments below!
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Exalted Rework Part 5: Charms
Charms are really where the fun part of Exalted happens. They're the powers you get that let you do all the over the top, insane things that you get to do. They're a big part of what makes Exalted Exalted, and so any redesign must do its best to preserve as much of the flavor of them as possible while trying to remove the problematic elements of them.
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.
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.
Exalted Rework Part 4: Essence
I keep doing these kind of late at night, I should start doing them first thing in the morning so I'm not so tired when I do them.
Today we're talking about the much more coherent Essence System, as well as Anima Banners. For readers who are unaware, in original Exalted, the equation for figuring out a character's Essence Pools were very mathy, ex: (Essence x 3 + Willpower) + (Essence x 7 + Willpower + Sum of all Virtues). Essence was also split into "Personal Essence" and "Peripheral Essence". Personal Essence was 'invisible', allowing Exalted to use their powers without fear of detection, where Peripheral Essence raised a character's Anima Banner, a glorious and terrifying expression of their supernatural might.
After playing Exalted several times, I've come to believe that the existence of Personal Essence and Peripheral Essence creates a very inappropriate expectation in players: namely, "So long as I restrict myself to only Personal Essence, I am safe from people knowing I am an Exalt." The problems with this are threefold. One, Exalted is not a game of self-restriction, it is one of doing what must be done. Two, by allowing one to act magically without showing one's Anima Banner, it made showing one's banner a primarily negative thing, and therefore something that GMs would use to keep their players under control. Finally, by creating an expectation that raising one's anima banner was a negative act, they downplayed the strong element of their own mechanic.
Our changes to Essence are, therefore, aimed at eliminating the twin problem of heavy math and inappropriate expectations of the in-character visibility of characters. The former problem is simple, we decrease the size of a bite of essence from one 'mote', a very small amount, to a 'point', which for our purposes is approximately equal to 12-15 motes and probably Willpower as well. Characters will have a number of points equal to their Essence Rating, with more traditional methods of essence regeneration providing the ability to regain Points of Essence when they run empty.
Anima Banners require a slightly more thorough reworking of the system. The original game had a sliding scale of how brightly glowing the anima was, we will dispense with this necessary sliding scale. Instead, Anima Banners have two states: 'down', in which they are invisible, and 'ignited', in which case the character is unmistakably an Exalt. The exact level of the banner's flare can be left up to whatever is attractive to the story, the point is that nobody will mistake the character for an Exalted. Spending Points of Essence will always ignite one's banner, but all Exalts can also ignite their banners as a reflexive action. Like in canon, Ignited banners cannot be 'switched off', but they will usually go away at the end of a scene.
Now that we know the general states that Banners occur in, let's talk a little bit about why one would want to risk igniting theirs. Since there is no longer such thing as 'tiny' essence expenditures, like one or two motes, any such expenditure is essentially now free. This dramatically opens up Exalts' freedom to use their supernatural abilities. In order to provide a sense of character growth, there must limiting factors. I choose subtlety, in the form of lowered anima banners, to be one of these.
In short, characters with their Anima Banners ignited will often gain both stunting and mechanical benefits. The Anima Banner, for our purposes, is your game face, taking off the training weights of appearing mortal, explaining that you weren't left handed. An Exalted who wants to disguise their power can still do so and be effective, but in order to act at their maximum potential, they must reveal themselves in all their terrible glory, inviting the world to see them for what they are.
Intelligent GMs will adapt to this change by taking the more common route from late second edition Exalted that the Wyld Hunt is mostly powerless, and that most people outside the Realm and the near Threshold care more about the sincerity of the help being offered than who is offering the help. Insisting on 100% perfect secrecy at all times means you're not really playing Exalted, anyway.
Next time we'll FINALLY get to talking about a few basic Charms, like the Excellencies, as well as the Core Powers of the Solar Exalted.
As always, feel free to leave questions or comments. Thanks for reading!
Today we're talking about the much more coherent Essence System, as well as Anima Banners. For readers who are unaware, in original Exalted, the equation for figuring out a character's Essence Pools were very mathy, ex: (Essence x 3 + Willpower) + (Essence x 7 + Willpower + Sum of all Virtues). Essence was also split into "Personal Essence" and "Peripheral Essence". Personal Essence was 'invisible', allowing Exalted to use their powers without fear of detection, where Peripheral Essence raised a character's Anima Banner, a glorious and terrifying expression of their supernatural might.
After playing Exalted several times, I've come to believe that the existence of Personal Essence and Peripheral Essence creates a very inappropriate expectation in players: namely, "So long as I restrict myself to only Personal Essence, I am safe from people knowing I am an Exalt." The problems with this are threefold. One, Exalted is not a game of self-restriction, it is one of doing what must be done. Two, by allowing one to act magically without showing one's Anima Banner, it made showing one's banner a primarily negative thing, and therefore something that GMs would use to keep their players under control. Finally, by creating an expectation that raising one's anima banner was a negative act, they downplayed the strong element of their own mechanic.
Our changes to Essence are, therefore, aimed at eliminating the twin problem of heavy math and inappropriate expectations of the in-character visibility of characters. The former problem is simple, we decrease the size of a bite of essence from one 'mote', a very small amount, to a 'point', which for our purposes is approximately equal to 12-15 motes and probably Willpower as well. Characters will have a number of points equal to their Essence Rating, with more traditional methods of essence regeneration providing the ability to regain Points of Essence when they run empty.
Anima Banners require a slightly more thorough reworking of the system. The original game had a sliding scale of how brightly glowing the anima was, we will dispense with this necessary sliding scale. Instead, Anima Banners have two states: 'down', in which they are invisible, and 'ignited', in which case the character is unmistakably an Exalt. The exact level of the banner's flare can be left up to whatever is attractive to the story, the point is that nobody will mistake the character for an Exalted. Spending Points of Essence will always ignite one's banner, but all Exalts can also ignite their banners as a reflexive action. Like in canon, Ignited banners cannot be 'switched off', but they will usually go away at the end of a scene.
Now that we know the general states that Banners occur in, let's talk a little bit about why one would want to risk igniting theirs. Since there is no longer such thing as 'tiny' essence expenditures, like one or two motes, any such expenditure is essentially now free. This dramatically opens up Exalts' freedom to use their supernatural abilities. In order to provide a sense of character growth, there must limiting factors. I choose subtlety, in the form of lowered anima banners, to be one of these.
In short, characters with their Anima Banners ignited will often gain both stunting and mechanical benefits. The Anima Banner, for our purposes, is your game face, taking off the training weights of appearing mortal, explaining that you weren't left handed. An Exalted who wants to disguise their power can still do so and be effective, but in order to act at their maximum potential, they must reveal themselves in all their terrible glory, inviting the world to see them for what they are.
Intelligent GMs will adapt to this change by taking the more common route from late second edition Exalted that the Wyld Hunt is mostly powerless, and that most people outside the Realm and the near Threshold care more about the sincerity of the help being offered than who is offering the help. Insisting on 100% perfect secrecy at all times means you're not really playing Exalted, anyway.
Next time we'll FINALLY get to talking about a few basic Charms, like the Excellencies, as well as the Core Powers of the Solar Exalted.
As always, feel free to leave questions or comments. Thanks for reading!
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