Moxiane/RandomThoughts

Random Thoughts

A place where I keep various Exalted-related rants, screeds, theses and thoughts, as well as fragmentary crunch-based ruminations. - Moxiane

Index

• [##Ramblings Ramblings of a Disturbed Mind]
  • [##NewSiderealCharms On the Sidereal Exalted and New Charms]
  • [##UberMartialArts On the Überness of Martial Arts]
  • [##LunarTruth On the Lunar Exalted and the Truth of Their Breaking]
• [##Products Products of Twisted Genius]
  • [##SwordAndCrown Sword & Crown]
  • [##SpookyOldHouse That Spooky Old House]
  • [##Essence Essence in Extremis]
• [##Comments Comments]

[#Ramblings]

Ramblings of a Disturbed Mind

[#NewSiderealCharms]

On the Sidereal Exalted and New Charms

The Sidereal Exalted have, ever since the core book, been “peerless martial artists”. This, together with the structure of their Charm trees and their MartialArts, has led me to believe that all Sidereal Charms are Martial Arts. The Charms of each Ability all converge on a single, pinnacle Charm – which often-times has a much more powerful effect than one would otherwise expect for a Charm of its prerequisites. Also, in a Sidereal Exalted-only benefit, each Ability comes with a cryptic sutra, as does each separate MA style.

With this in mind it seems eminently possible that the Charms presented in Exalted: the Sidereals are not the only ones available, they are simply the most common ones, the ones that have the most generally-applicable uses. The other trees (the “Lost Charms”) would be structured similarly, a number of Charms (usually less than 10) all aiming towards a single, powerful Charm, with a cryptically applicable sutra linked to the Charms themselves.

Developing new Charms should be a drawn-out and arduous process for the Exalted, similar to the rules for creating a new Martial Arts style as presented in the Exalted Player’s Guide, together with writing a new sutra. I would also suggest that once a Sidereal has started along a Charm tree for any single Ability then he cannot learn Charms from a second tree of that Ability until he has completed the current tree. The Charms of the Sidereal Exalted were granted to them by the Maidens themselves, and much like a Dragon-blood learning CelestialMartialArts, there is a price to pay for the power of their Charms.

[#UberMartialArts]

On the Überness of Martial Arts

Martial Arts in the world of Exalted can do everything. Do you want to fight? Learn MA. Do you want to climb a wall? Learn MA. Do you want to bake a cake, perform surgery, or dance? Learn MA, learn MA, learn MA. Exalted is a kung-fu movie, and therefore your fu should be a measure of how powerful you are.

Not everyone wants to learn Martial Arts, of course. They may want to slice their foes in two with a sword without first spending the morning contemplating the patterns of folded metal in the blade. They may just want to climb the wall, not first spend a moment centering their Essence and then placing their hands and feet in precisely defined patterns. It is for these people that the remaining 24 Abilities exist. But, if MA can do everything, then why should anyone bother learning anything else?

Quite simply, while you can do everything with MA that doesn’t necessarily mean that MA is the best way to do everything. Particularly for the Exalted, MA Charms are generally somewhat cost-inefficient in comparison to those of the appropriate Ability – and this lack of efficiency often manifests itself in the cost in motes and the cost in experience.

There is a place in Creation for meleeists, archers and brawlers, as well as for cooks, craftsmen, and courtesans. Not everyone everywhere is a master of their own personal martial art. In the end, the Martial Arts fall under the old saying, “Jack-of-all-trades, master of none.”

[#LunarTruth]

On the Lunar Exalted and the Truth of their Breaking

The story in Exalted: the Lunars is that after the Usurpation the Lunar Exalted fled to the edges of the world, there to chew on the bitter taste left from their complicity in the betrayal of their mates. While there, the Wyld began to affect them, twisting their bodies and minds, and eventually breaking their soul-shards, the pieces of Luna herself that make them the Exalted.

This is a lie.

After the Usurpation, the Lunars did flee to the edges of Creation, and there they realised what a horrible mistake they had just made. But although they were powerful, the Dragon-blooded outnumbered them thousands-to-one, and they also had the Sidereal Exalted’s mastery of MartialArts on their side. The No Moons, the seers and shamans of the Lunars, decided to try and alter the very nature of their Exaltations, to try and alter some of the basic abilities of their kind. In this new age, they felt that puissance of sorcery was more important than anything and so, over the course of years, they learned the deepest secrets of their third souls, to try and change them to better suit their will.

And then things went wrong.

The change took, but other things happened too. The control of form and function that was the hallmark of the Lunar Exalted began to slip away. Chimera, long the bogeyman of new Lunars, began to form as the tinkering of the No Moons spread throughout their kind. Eventually, the tattoos were discovered, their careful patterns and swirls forming an occult cage to lock the body of the Lunar into whatever form the mind of the Exalted desired, but these were an ungainly fix. Abilities that had been the birthright of the Lunar Exalted now had to be learned and this learning was hard.

The No Moons aghast at what they had done, and the damage that they had inflicted on their kind, were afraid of the wrath that they would face should the truth be known. And so the tale was told of the effects of the Wyld, breaking down the barriers of their bodies, and forcing them to live within cages of silver or as a mass of protean flesh.

[#Products]

Products of Twisted Genius

[#SwordAndCrown]

Sword & Crown

Running kingdoms (duchies, countries, etc...) for Exalted. Stats and turns. Ideas:

• Each turn represents a season.
  • During any given turn the character can perform three actions - one Physical (Strength, Dexterity or Stamina) one Mental (Intelligence, Perception or Wits) and one Social (Appearance, Charisma or Manipulation).
  • Map the nine Attributes onto basic actions that countries can take - possibly use character's Attribute + country's Ability to determine success or failure.
  • Each season grants a bonus to some types of action, and penalties to others.
• Wealth (or similar) represents number of Resources ••••• purchases ruler can make per turn from treasury.
  • Different sources (trade, resources, conquering) - how or if to represent.
• Force (or similar) represents total military might (c. 1k troops per dot^2).
• Loyalty represents how much hassle populace will put up with.

Other things as they come to me [#SpookyOldHouse]

That Spooky Old House

Manses need more SFX. Give "points" equal to rating of Demesne plus points unused by the Manse (ie: 2D-M)for such things as defences, incidental effects, general wierdness. Possibly create wierd interactions where Manse & Demesne do not share aspect. [#Essence]

Essence in Extremis

What do you do when your Exalted character has burned all of his Essence and needs more? Well, it depends on the type of Exalted you are:

The Solars

Add one point of Limit, gain a number of motes equal to the new Limit score.

The Sidereals

Gain motes equal to twice the character's current Paradox score, and add another point of Paradox. Paradox gained in this fashion can only be removed by suffering Pattern Bite, as the Sidereal is spending motes he does not yet have.

The Lunars

As Solars.

[#Comments]

Comments

If you wanted to handle the Sword and Crown stuff in a manner similar to Mail and Steel, you could have the stats of a kingdom be related to the stats of its ruler. In particular, virtues would work well - Valor could relate to military might, Compassion could relate to the welfare of the populace, Conviction could relate to the loyalty of the populace, and Temperance could relate to unsquandered/available resources - Szilard

That could work. At present it's just a germ of an idea, though - so I noted it down here to not forget it. Also to see if anyone else will spark off it. So it's working already. :) - Moxiane