Graceful Charm Methodology

Or: Trimming The Onyx Path

I greatly enjoyed reading through the pre-print edition of the X3E book. The setting is now at least 20% cooler, look and feel bleed through in every page and paragraph, social combat is really quite exciting, and there are interesting new frameworks for crafting and rulership.

I was not so thrilled by the Charm trees: they seem to do little in some places, seven things at once in others, and use a cacophony of different mechanics. It would take me a very long time to remember a character’s worth of effects, let alone that for the whole group – and any time spent looking up rules is time spent away from play.

I realised that it would actually be quicker to overhaul the Charm trees to a format that I and my players would easily remember. This is not intended to be a ‘better’ version of the Charm trees (YMMV), nor is it intended to be a directly balanced translation of everything within them – this would not be practical. However, they have been uploaded here in case you should have use of them.

Principles

A Charm is Graceful if it:

Does one or two things.
Can be summarised in one or two sentences.
Cannot be represented by a normal skill check with bonus dice.
Does not use a new mechanic where an existing one would suffice.
Does not require the ST to improvise a mechanic.

A Charm Tree is Graceful if:

Low-level Charms are weak but flexible.
High-level Charms are powerful but specialised.
The number of Charms available to support an action reflect its probable volume of use.
Charms are no more than 1 Essence higher than their prerequisites.

Splat Excellencies

To streamline this work, each Exalt type has an additional Excellency unlocked at Essence 2, 3, 4 and 5. These are acquired automatically for any Ability that they would have the First Excellency for. This allows us to play with exponential returns, without clogging things up to much.

Supporting Changes

Some of the Charm trees use other amendments to make them more practicable. These are:

Solars

Solar Excellencies

The Second Solar Excellency is Supplemental, and costs 3m. The roll counts all 9s as 10s. In addition, every 9 or 10 is rerolled, potentially getting additional successes and additional rerolls. Stop rolling when 9s and 10s no longer appear.