Shoggoth/ExaltedFATE

Disclaimer

This is more a proof of concept than a full conversion so far. I have some ideas for how things should work (hint: not very much like good ol' d10 Exalted), but it is a work in progress. Comments are fully welcomed and appreciated, but flames are not. I'm glad to hear you love the default system. So do I. I'm just playing around with ideas here.

Also, very little here will make sense if you are not already familiar with the FATE rules. Familiarity with FUDGE will help lots, but there are a few differences.

How do Exalted character elements translate to FATE?

The answer is some of them not very well at all. Willpower does not exist, nor do Essence motes. As for the rest...

Attributes

In FATE static attributes don't really exist as such. Instead they become aspects, but only if it is an attribute particularly important to the character. For example, what is Strength 3 in Exalted would not even be of note in FATE. Particularly high abilities might be noted as Mighty: OO. And it would be used for narrative purposes. It wouldn't help you do more damage in combat (or it could if you used it so, this is very much in the hands of the Game Master), but you might use a box of it to win a feat of strength or smash a door to flinders.

Every attribute is a potential aspect, but they don't have to be named the same at all. For example, a Dexterity of 4 might be Swift: O or Agile: O. Alternatively, a particularly low stat might be noted as Clumsy: OO, which would give you a benefit whenever you (or the Storyteller) marks off a box.

Skills

The skills port directly over, but they are no longer grouped by caste. Other skills which might be important to the game can be added (such as Tatics), while other skills might be removed if desired (Some people like to combine Brawl and MA or Dodge and Athletics). Little more needs to be said about this save that the limit of a skill is 4 or Essence, whichever is higher. The pyramid skill structure of FATE should probably be used, but a mature player could probably be trusted to ignore it - it is more in keeping with the theme of Exalted not to limit skill placement this way.

Backgrounds

Okay, this is one of the harder conversions to do. Some of these become aspects (such as perhaps Wealthy or Mentor), while others are treated as skills. (Sidenote, in FATE every time you gain an aspect, you gain 4 related skills/abilities - this is the only way to gain them.) Contacts might simply become a skill gained with a Charismatic or a Businessman aspect. Alternatively, someone with a great number of Contacts may indeed have it as an aspect, allowing him to simply spend a box to have a contact nearby rather than forcing him to roll his Contact: Nexus ability. Another alternative would be to keep it as a skill, but allow the player to spend a box of the appropriate aspect to have a contact handy. Anything of a particularly large scale should probably be an aspect (such as Command or Influence in a generic sense), while everything of down-to-earth proportion like Contacts: Nexus or Influence: Lookshy should probably be a skill.

Essence

The Essence rating is kept and remains more or less identical to the current system. Some kind of control should be in place to prevent players from raising this aspect too quickly. Maintaining the training times or the suggestions for how long a Exalt should have lived to have attained a certain Essence help maintain balance. A beginning character starts with 2 free aspects of Essence. No skills are ever granted for Essence aspects.

Virtues and Willpower

Okay, Willpower doesn't exist. Sorry, but there are plenty of boxes on a character sheet you can check off to break the rules in cool ways. You don't need this. But if you are dead set on it, feel free to take a Strong Will aspect.

Virtues, like Attributes, are only noted when they are exceptional. Of course to maintain the flavor of Exalted, every Exalt has one aspect of Compassion, Conviction, Temperance, or Valor for free when he starts. This aspect does not grant skills, but any additional levels purchased do. Also, while this aspect cannot be used to gain poor Virtues, any additional Virtue aspects may.

A Virtue Flaw aspect related to the free Virtue is also recorded. Again, no skills are gained from this first point. The use for this will be explained when I have it all figured out. I have ideas but I need to get them straight before recording them.

Caste and Anima Powers

Caste is another free aspect that grants no skills. It is used to activate Anima abilities and to add a bonus (undetermined at this time) to skills associated with that caste. Note that rather than being limited by Essence in any way, the use of Anima powers is limited by the number of aspects of that caste the exalt has. Naturally, an Exalt may never gain aspects for any other caste (possible exception for Immaculate Monks, but probably not).

The Solar and Zenith abilities to cause fear work as a standard FATEShoggoth/ExaltedFATE/FUDGE roll for the Valor aspect. Characters without Valor just have a rating of Average. A result of at least Fair is considered a successful Valor test. A result of Poor or worse is treated as a botch. Other anima abilities will be figured out later.

Charms

Okay I'll be totally up front about this. Charms work completely differently in ExaltedFATE than they do in Exalted, but they still fulfill the same purpose and have a similar structure. Also, before I go any further, Charms are bought as aspects, but they do not come with any skills. Skills must come from more mundane aspects.

First a word about minimums. When converting a charm over, any ability minimums are changed as follows:

Exalted        Exalted FATE
  1-2              Fair
   3               Good
  4-5              Great
   6               Superb
  7-8              Epic
  9+               Legendary

Second, the Charm tree must be respected.

Finally, Charm cost. There are no motes of Essence, Charms are simply marked off when they are used. In order to maintain balance between, for example, Golden Essence Block and Heavenly Guardian Defense, my idea is that any Charm with an ability minimum of Fair gets 3 uses per aspect. A minimum of Good grants 2 uses. A minimum of Great grants a single use per aspect taken. Superb requires 2 aspects to get a single use, Epic requires 4, and Legendary requires 8. Perhaps a better solution will present itself, but that is my starting point.

Since motes are one balancing factor between types of Exalts, one problem with this system is that MA has the same cost for eacy type of Exalt. This problem currently remains unresolved (as in not so much as an idea, but then I haven't given it a lot of thought yet either).

Charms which have a willpower cost instead have a Fate cost (though I suppose a GM could allow the player of a character with a Strong Will aspect to spend that on a WP cost, but I don't want to make it seem like a mandatory aspect). Fate points are gained through stunting, and the GM invoking an aspect. I recommend ignoring the default rules for the number of Fate points characters begin each session with. At best I would start them with their Essence in Fate points.

Charm aspects refresh at a rate of 2 aspects of uses per hour of rest or one per hour of non-strenuous activity. Hearthstone aspects would add 1 per level of the highest. Additionally, a Fate point gained through stunting may be spent to refresh a charm use. Make a skill test (using whatever skill is associated with the Charm) at a difficulty equal to the ability minimum of the Charm. If it is successful, a single use is refreshed. For each level by which the test exceeded the difficulty, an additional use of that Charm is refreshed, although no more uses may be refreshed than the character has. Other possibilities are an Essence test or no test at all, but in the latter case there is no motivation at all to refresh anything less than a character's most potent Charm.

The next question is how the Charms apply to the FATE ruleset. I have come up with the following rules to maintain the balance between TerrestrialShoggoth/ExaltedFATE/Celestial/Solar Exalts.

Dice Adders

SolarsShoggoth/ExaltedFATE/Abyssals

Such a Charm allows the character to set any one of the FUDGE dice to '+' and roll the rest. (net shift +1)

Celestials

Dice adders allow the character to remove any one die that came up '-'. (net shift +.88)

Terrestrial

The character may remove any one die that came up '-' so long as he also removes a blank die. (net shift +.75)

Dice Subtractors work the same, except they are used on an enemy and any '+' or '-' is swapped with its counterpart in the text above.

Success Buyers

SolarsShoggoth/ExaltedFATE/Abyssals

The character may turn any one dice to '+'. (net shift + 1.8)

Celestials

The character may turn any die up one level. (net shift +1)

Thats all so far for now. My head hurts from the math. Expect this stuff to change.