AppleDog/LunarsRedux

Long story short, I have Exalted: the Lunars, and I've never been too enthused about it, so instead of complaining, I'm going to make my own. So ha! Anyway, I like the basic idea of Wyld-tainted insane singing shapechanging society-forging tattooed trickster berserker shaman hunters, but I'd like it to be a bit more flamboyant, more exotic, more surreal than they are as presented in their fatsplat. I'd really like to give them the flavor of some of the newer material, like Sidereals and the Raksha.

Lunars Redux

• AppleDog/LunarTraits
• AppleDog/LunarShapeshifting
• AppleDog/LunarCharacterGeneration
• Lunar Redux Charms
  • AppleDog/LunarShintai
    • Full Moon Shintai
      • Strength
      • Dexterity
      • Stamina
    • Changing Moon Shintai
      • Charisma
      • Manipulation
        • /StarOceanLanternfish
      • Appearance
    • No Moon Shintai
      • Perception
      • Intelligence
      • Wits
  • AppleDog/LunarTattoos

Concepts

• As for the basic design of Lunars, I'd like to see them as ever-changing, fluid, mercurian creatures, flowing into conflict and constantly changing/adapting themselves to their surroundings and adversaries. The Lunars are, or at least once were, masters of their selves. After centuries of adapting to the Wyld, they're more fluid than ever, but less in control of themselves than before the Usurpation. Lunar charms should be focused on changing the body, mind, and soul of the Lunar based on outside influences, as opposed to changing others; in a way the opposite of many Sidereal and Raksha charms. Should have lax restrictions when it comes to combos, no/little limitation on cross attribute/ability/tree/whatever combos.
• Most likely keep the same base mechanics for Lunar charms with attribute being the cap for die adders, and auto-sux buyers.
• One of the ideas I have at the moment are the Lunars being able to invoke the aspects of certain mythical/iconic creatures/spirits through Shintai (godbody) charm trees, inspired partly by the resplendant destinies of the Sidereals. Each tree would be reasonably small, along the lines of 3-6 charms. At higher essence, Shintai would take on the forms of more and more abstract/encompassing creatures. Each tree would have a situation or opposition that would have to be met before the charms could be used (generally fairly easy things to come across, I don't want the charms to be useless or anything). Each Shintai tree would be fairly swiss army knife in approach, with two or three different focuses for charms. The final charm in each tree would be the Shintai charm, a (scene-length) charm which would act something like a DBT form or a martial arts form charm, based on the theme/creature of the tree. Need to think about stackability of these, as I'd like to have Lunars be able to run a couple at the same time, turning into odd chimeric forms, but being able to have unlimited forms running concurrently would most likely be overpowering. However... if they can only be used when certain prerequisites have been met, it would most likely be fairly challenging to have more than a couple up at a time anyway. Eh, I'll have to wait until I've written them, to see what kind of power level I'm looking at here.
  • Star Ocean Lanternfish - Manipulation. Invoked only in darkness? Based on luring targets, adapting to darkness, interacting with water elementals.
    • Lantern Dangling Ritual
    • Star in Ocean's Sky Convocation
    • Luminous Antagonism Effort
    • Scintillant Heavens Address
    • Star-Eye Lure Offensive
    • Star Ocean Lanternfish Shintai
  • Brass Lion Hero - Strength. Taking on aspects of the noble hunter? Must protect/provide for his people? Useable only when leading a group? Valor based charms.
    • Savannah Breaking Stride
  • Painted Eyes Flourish Peacock Courtier - Appearance.
  • Wise Crane Scholar - Intelligence.
  • Unbreakable Hulking Yeddim - Stamina. When making a long journey?
  • Thrashing Cloud Serpent
  • Looming Mountain Spider
  • First and Father Wolf - Charisma.
  • Thundering Monster Lizard - Strength. Charms focusing on turning the Lunar into a towering, city-wrecking kaiju. Character needs significant opposition to use? Or perhaps a large enough target to rampage through?
    • Scenery Razing Ductia
  • Ferocious Devil Tiger
  • Black Lead Centipede
  • Dust Leopard Scavenger
  • Ochre Nine-Tail Spirit Fox - Wits.
  • Wicked Toad Goblin
  • Lightning Asp Coiling - Dexterity.
  • Pallid Lord of Flies and Worms
  • Hungry Waters Tooth and Steel - Triggered by bloodshed? Shark-like ferocity, constant motion, tearing enemies to shreds?
  • Harmony With All Mother Bear
  • Moon-Wing Eagle
  • Brother Crow of Four Winds - Wits.
  • Mist Venom Viper
  • White Monkey King
  • Lascivious Ecru Hare - Appearance. Invoked while being pursued in some manner? Breeding charms, raw sex appeal?
  • Middle Azure Carp - Manipulation. Fate-attracting charms, makes the Lunar a focal point for luck (not good or bad specifically).
  • Hermaphroditic Spiral Snail - Appearance.
  • Opium Shag Caterpillar - Perception. Invoked while heavily drugged. Perceiving/manipulating essence flow/unmaterialized creatures, extra actions.
• Gotta have tattoo charms, too. Either make them permanent duration charms that add abilities but permanently commit essence, as the ritually prepared tattoo-charms carve new and exotic essence channels through the Lunar's skin, or charms that can be activated through said ritually prepared tattoos. The tattoos ARE the charms? Tattoos alter the fundamentals of the Lunar's essence? Ritualistic scarification of the soul? Essentially with these charms, I want the Lunar to be able to write on his own essence, reading over his soul and going, "Hmm.. this could use a change <scribble scribble>.. and I don't like how this here works <scribble>... oh, and wouldn't it be great if I could do this? <scribble>..." Except, you know, etching runes into his flesh with magic materials, human ashes, fire from the southern elemental pole, etc.
  • Ash Orchid Visage
  • Blood Licks Bone
  • Milk and Petal Armor
  • Smoke Whispers Sweetly
  • Heavenly Son and Daughter Scripture
  • Madness in Song and Form
• Need to keep the Raksha in mind when designing the Lunars, as they should be adept at handling the Wyld and Raksha, after surviving in the Wyld for such a long period of time.
• I'm currently going over the old Lunar shapechanging rules to see what needs to be changed. I'm thinking that while at lower essence, Lunar should still be able to change into animals and people they have consumed the heart's blood of, higher essence characters should be able to take the form of ghosts, spirits, elementals, etc. Hell, once you hit really high essence levels, perhaps the Lunar could shapeshift into elements, inanimate objects, concepts... that he has destroyed and consumed... I'll have to think about that a little more. Also, esoteric shapeshifting with charms/tattoos, or innate ability?

More to come as it enters my mind.

Comments

"Hell, once you hit really high essence levels, perhaps the Lunar could shapeshift into elements, inanimate objects, concepts... that he has destroyed and consumed." - you know, this could be a really good motivation for why some Lunars want to destroy civilization - in order to replace it with themselves... - szilard

Cool, I was thinking along those lines, but never really took the full step there. That would mesh well with the grand scale "make love to my godess, break and become society" Oedipus complex that Lunars seem to have already. Hmm... that could be a good seed as for how the Great Curse affected the Lunars, something more vague and up to the players than the current Lunar system, more along the lines of the Sidereal curse. Something along the lines of a constant urge to internalize what they love/hate. Or something. I don't know, I'm really tired. ~ AppleDog