Capric/Randomthoughts

This is place I can put up random crap for use between computers.

Firstly, on the problem of "meta-charms"

Meta-charms are those that affect people's ability to use charms. They are very problematic, to say the least. Effects which grant willpower, essence, or charm activations or nullify other people's use thereof are all basically meta-charms. Meta-charms are strong against other essence users, which makes them the strongest charms in general--non-essence users in Exalted are only worth considering on very large scale.

So what's the problem? The problem is that when various meta-charms interact, they do so very haphazardly. Physical combat is very well defined, with lots of modifiers to take into account. Social combat is also well defined (in 2e, anyway). But essence combat is not; the closest I've seen was FF's shaping rules... and even that wasn't really essence combat.

There needs to be some sort of framework for meta-charms, and how essence effects interact. And it needs to be interesting.

So, question: are there existing hints on how this interaction should be modeled?

Well, yes. The most common type of metacharms in 1st ed canon material are those that grant the user the ability to use MORE charms or effects. Most exalt types have a way to get more will and more essence quickly. How this happens is arguably the most defining thing about an exalt type, as it truly defines their in-combat behaivor.

Unfortunately, this was not very well thought-out in 1st ed (and less so--maybe--in 2nd), and these sorts of effects are granted very early, and have very few amusing restrictions on them. For a consistent and sensical treatment, this would need to be changed. Stunting is the generic way that all exalt types may regen essence and willpower. And this is a good thing, as stunting is good.

As far as affecting others go, the typical approach taken now is to make them "tag" effects, in that they just automatically happen when you hit someone. This has the advantage of using existing combat mechnics (which, are, again, well-defined). It his the disadvantage of creating "instant win" attacks that end combat on sucessful hit. This removes a lot the sliding scale from combat, especially high-essence.

Hm, perhaps an expansion of the intimicies to something like essence effects could be useful. That would make essence effects less "absolute", which I think is a good thing. After all, if characters can break the reality of the loom easily, why shouldn't they be able to break the magic of another?

This implies another ability that deals with magic resistance.

Hm, another thing to think about is keeping the dice sane. Social combat has the benefit of being totally seperate from physical combat. Essence stuff either needs to be very, very dice-light or somehow be seperated from other types of combat. I do not want to have to be rolling or checking 5 things every time an attack is rolled.

Associated ideas: Weapons of the Gods! Astrology! Intimicies! Status Effects!

Need to re-read exalted 2 core, I think. The "shaping" keyword is probably significant, and an expansion of that keyword is probably the basis for a lot of this.

Hm, after further consideration, perhaps this is not so much of an issue in 2e after all. 2e had the foresight to provide mechanics for otherwise undefined charm-vs-charm interactions: it comes down to a roll-off. Several 2e charms already have explicit modifiers to this roll. Knowing this, perhaps metacharms are not necessarily that bad.

Metacharms alter the rate and applicability of normal charms. They therefore change the power scaling of exalts drastically.

Let's think about the implication of developed metacharms to scaling. Power scaling in exalted comes from:

• charm power
• equipment power
• tactical application
• strategic application
• charm synergy
• equipment synergy

Application effects are up to the player, natch, and don't really bear examination, other than they must exist as important factors. Equipment power and synergy.... probably need consideration, but not right now. Metacharms, however, drastically affect charm power and synergy. Hm.

2 other thoughts: metacharms ARE the critical factor in high essence conflict, and modifiers to the charm-vs-charm roll need to be very, very carefully monitored. and should probably be the general weak point of high essence MA. Sids suck, after all.