XerExaltedNations/System

Exalted Nations: System

Every Character has six traits, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Wood, and Essence.

The elemental traits govern all tests, and are generally fairly straightforward. Building something? Roll Earth. Killing something? Fire. Sneaking? Air. Commanding an army? Water. Farming? Wood.

These intentionally blend together. Actual physical combat may use any of the Elements - Fire is merely the greatest tendancy. An extended play where the combatants try to wear eachother out instead would be Earth. Water generally governs tactics, and is often used when the 'Character' is actually a city or army. Air would be an ambush, striking from the shadows. Wood would be the explicit abuse of terrain - fighting in the thick of the jungle, or leading your opponent through traps.

The genericness of the traits is to allow the strategy of this system to not interfere with the roleplaying. Someone does something to make an attack, and the defender may attempt to respond. Perhaps a sculpture must be made of solid flame, and the raw Fire of only one being in Creation can shape it.

The Dice

All Traits have sides to them - the sides of the dice rolled. This ranges from 0 to infinity, though most mortals are limited to 4, and only the greatest of them reach 6. Elder Dragon-Blooded and beings of similar power might individually hold scores as high as 8. The Celestial Exalted and other similarly amazing beings may reach and pass 20 in time.

Essence is similar, though often less. Most creatures have an effective 0 - as they have not awakened their Essence. Those with more than 3 are rare, and individuals with Essence greater than 5 are usually known across Creation.

The second component to Traits is the number of dice rolled. The have the same limits that sides to. In no case, however, may a Character roll more dice than they have sides in a Trait.

Uncontested Rolls

These can be rare, especially if the Storyteller decides that a Craft roll is about whipping Earth spirits into shape. Regardless, Uncontested Rolls typically are projects that aren't a clear conflict. The ST chooses the length of time the roll takes (from a minute to a week) and extrapolates the result.

TNs from these range:

• 1 is simple. Swing a sword without hurting yourself and so on.
• 5 is difficult. Only the most talented of mortals achieve this regularly or consider this easy.
• 10 is challenging. A feat uncertain, even for the greatest of mortals.
• 15 is legendary. The greatest of mortals rarely perform such feats.

Note that the above is an individual. A team can accomplish with great ease what is impossible for a single person.

Contested Rolls

Conflict!

The first thing determined is the type of conflict, based on the Element involved. This is typically chosen by the 'attacker', however, the Storyteller is free to overrule sillyness.

Next, a timescale is assigned. Physical combat often involves minutes, but infiltration attempts might cover a day or a week for a single roll.

Now comes for the important part. The attacker chooses a number of dice in a given element to make her attack with (up to the sides she has in her Trait), and rolls.

The defender may assign a number of dice up to her limit to defend against the attack, rolling suchly. The defender uses the same Trait her attacker does.

Whoever loses (ties are no effect) takes a Wound to the contested Trait. A Wound reduces the effective dice available from that Trait by one, though this may not have much effect if the Character has a large dice pool or a high Versatility.

Regardless, if a Character has a number of Wounds in any Elemental Trait equal to their Dice in that trait, they 'lose'.

If the Character was a group, the group may split up so that the individual members may still fight with 2 Wounds to all Traits. This will mean that they are at -3 or -4 dice from the group's original Trait, so they may already be defeated.

Multiple Attacks and Defenses

A Character may choose to attack (or defend against) multiple Elements at the same time, splitting their die pool. This has two limitations:

• No Character may make more than one Element Test in a Turn
• The total number of dice rolled cannot exceed the full dice available from her highest Trait.
  • Effectively, any dice used in a single attack or defense count as a penalty towards dice available to other elements.

Each of these are resolved normally. It is thus possible for a Character to receive or inflict a Wound on multiple Traits in a turn, though never more than one to any given Trait.

Multiple Characters may choose to focus on a single Trait when facing one Character. This can be advantagious, as it can result in a very quick victory. However, the defender only needs to make one roll, which is compared to each of her attacker's rolls individually, and Wounds assigned as normal for each attack. This is the disadvantage - giving five Wounds means risking taking five, albeit spread out.

Essence and Versatility

All Characters have Essence and Versatility scores, even if they are zero. Some situations may call for Essence to be rolled, in which case Versatility is the dice and Essence is the sides.

Outside of splitting your die pool, no effect outside of actually 'losing' can reduce your die pool in any Trait below your Versatility.

Essence has additional functions. Including standard Essence checks (which are rare, though they may be called for), every Character has a pool of Essence points equal to their Essence score. These may be spent for effects:

• Avoid taking a Wound to a single Trait
• Reroll a Trait Test.
• Add your Versatility in Dice that you may roll during the Turn. These may be added to a single roll or divided between several Traits.

Other effects may apply. Regardless, no single effect may be activated more than once per Turn.

Essence is regained through stunting - vibrant, cool descriptions of the Turn's activities (IE, a 3-die stunt), and through resting. A night's rest restores one point of Essence.

The Seventh Trait

The Seventh Trait represents Perfection, and is called such. Characters that have it add its raw value to every die they roll.

Like Essence, it grants those with it a temporary pool. Unlike Essence, it is far more potent, though its scope may be limited - a Lunar must be able to apply her Shapeshifting, an Abyssal must actually be trying to make someone else fail, a Sidereal must be applying his knowledge of Destiny. A Solar must be facing a challenge - though, granted, this won't come into play until it matters.

A temporary Perfection point may be spent:

• To avoid all Wounds taken in a Turn
• To draw out Supernal perfection of skill. All of the character's Trait dice for the Turn explode - if they roll above (sides - Perfection) on a die, they roll it again and add the result to the total - rolling yet again if necessary. No matter how 'Perfect' the Character, however, a 1 is never rerolled.

Perfection points can be applied in the same Turn Essence points are. They are regained by resting (one per day), and by achieving things appropriate to the Character type - Victories for Solars, and so on.

The Meaning of Defeat

Is intentionally vague, for obvious reasons.

Some measures of success are, however, more potent than others. These is handled by the 'victor' of a Turn opting not to inflict a Wound, instead causing a different effect.

For example, escaping, at the simplest level, is often a contested Air roll. The person who is trying to flee, instead of inflicted a Wound, merely escapes the conflict.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is converting another Character to one's cause. In this fashion, the Character doing the converting must 'defeat' each of her opponent's Traits - including Essence, without actually doing a Wound. While this is difficult, the effect is still considered a type of damage, healed normally, at least until they are 'beaten'.

Characters that are actually converted in such a manner are harder to convert back, obviously. The simplest way to represent this is to state that they have learned from the experience - becoming better for it and thus, gain points through the event.

Recovery

Most Characters recover one Wound or one point of Essence per day of rest, assuming they were not defeated in such a way as to be maimed.

Supernals recover a great deal faster. Each Trait of theirs recovers at the rate of one per day - including Essence and Perfection.

• This is using the assumption that a Turn is taking one minute. Obviously, if Turns are taking longer, Essence and Wounds will take longer to recover from, though this matters more for high-Scale conflicts. As a rule of thumb, do not more than double healing times for each extra rank of Scale a Character has. For example, a city of 3,000 people is Scale 5, so, in general, they would not take more than 30 days to heal from a Wound.

Scale Dependancy

A Character's Scale - whether they are made from one person, five, or a million, should be kept in mind for various effects - especially those that may only target so many people.