Revision as of 06:08, 13 July 2011

Deathlord Book

• Essence 6 Excellency charm that allows reflexives of that ability to be used without a combo, provided you would still meet the Essence and Ability pre-reqs if they were increased by 5.
• Essence 9 charms should start to merge abilities together, requiring charms from multiple ability trees.

The Contest

The Maidens each pick a champion and give them a specific artifact related to their purview, then set some goal for the champions. The champions don't know what the goal is.

• Present as articles describing the artifacts before describing the contest.
• Examples of contests
• Side moves between the Maidens as an adjunct the the Games of Divinity. Perhaps the artifacts are addictive?

Improvisational Magic

Game-altering house rule (or maybe an Occult tree of permanents that allow it?) that allows exalts to use charm effects without actually knowing the charm.

• Only usable on instants.
• Must meet charm prereqs for Ability, Attribute, Virtue and/or Essence.
• Occult score must be two dots greater than the minimum Essence for the charm.
• Mote cost multiplied by (1 + 0.5 * charm's minimum Essence requirement). That is, 1.5 for Essence 1 charms, 2 for Essence 2 charms, 2.5 for Essence 3, etc.
• One willpower must be spent the first time improvisational magic is used in a scene.

Disarming Style

The style was developed to use the weapons of an opponent against him. The few that have fought against this style know this, and most realize that the best defense against it is not to use a weapon at all. Few of its charms can be used against unarmed opponents, and for this reason the style is not particularly popular. Even its masters usually consider it a secondary style used to augment more general techniques.

A martial arts style that is really based on disarming. The disarming mechanics are very funky and could be played with in cool ways.

Disarming (-2 or -4): Knocking a weapon out of someone’s hand has a -2 external penalty with a close combat attack or -4 using ranged. If the attack hits, it inflicts no damage, but the victim’s player must reflexively roll (Wits + the appropriate wielding Ability) against a difficulty of the net successes on the attack roll. For every success by which the victim fails to meet the difficulty, her weapon fl ies one foot away from her grasp. Retrieving a dropped weapon is a difficulty 1 (Dexterity + wielding Ability) roll and is only possible if a character can feasibly do so. Duels fought over looming chasms or aboard a ship might not afford such a luxury. Note that characters cannot be disarmed of their natural weapons (fists, feet, claws, fangs, etc.), nor can they have weapons taken from them that are actually strapped to the body such as a cestus or tiger claws. If players regularly take advantage of disarming as a prelude to executing a helpless victim (instead of using the maneuver for dramatic purposes), the Storyteller should feel free to raise the penalty imposed by the technique. With a flurry, it is possible for an attacker to disarm and then use a retrieval action to take the weapon for himself, provided he has hands free to take it. Doing so almost always involves a stunt.
C = Clinch Enhancer Must be used for clinching wielded through Martial Arts.
D = Disarming Adds additional +2 Accuracy when used to disarm an opponent.

• Need to see if one of these exists already. Probably does.
• Can use any weapon (to allow use of captured weapons), but some charms only work with disarming weapons (or, perhaps, sai explicitly).
• Charms that always use disarming, but in ways that allow more standard mechanical MA effects (such as soak enhancement, counterattacks, clinch effects, etc.)
• Something that turns successful parries into disarms (Resplendent Sash Grapple as example)
• Ranged disarm augmenter.
• Something that deals bashing in addition to disarm.
• Form eliminates roll to resist disarms, or perhaps allows the artist to give the target a DV bonus in order to reduce successes on disarm resist?
• Charms that play with weapon recovery

• At least one charm useful against unarmed attacks (maybe one that uses sai as clinch enhancers).
• Charms progressively more "magical". Ultimately something like call the blade in reverse (i.e.
• If wounded by a weapon, a connection is created allowing the weapon to be more easily disarmed, and to wield it even if artifact attuned to someone else.
• Something that allows increased movement based on grabbing tossed weapons during a disarm and moving with them?
• A metaphysical "disarm": deattuning target artifact weapon

An Anti-Demon Style

A celestial martial arts style that a solar might have made to fight demons, using a much different approach than MartialArts/VermillionSentinelStyle. Uses the imagery of the various templates for summoning demons against them (four charms, one for each virtue, but can be learned multiple times, one for each template -- idea should be that demons use twisted versions of Virtues, and the charms "un-twist" them back to normal). Mechanics to interact with the rules that use them somehow. Possibly manipulating Limit of the demon, etc. Possibly manipulating or using virtues as well.

Perhaps contains one charm slot that is filled with a different charm, depending on caste, harnessing the particulars of the caste in a specific way vs. demons (the zenith one, for example, could be a supplement allowing channeling of their anima ability through a form weapon, maybe wood aspects turn blood of the demon against it as poison). Maybe the second charm in the tree. The first gives a generic demon-fighting perspective, the second teaches how to personalize opposition to demons.

Somewhere along the line (maybe the pinnacle), allows permanent destruction of demons, perhaps similar to SolarOccult/Dorchadas.

1. A 1 die demon specialty in every ability? Every favored and caste ability? Would need to be expensive, maybe committing willpower.
2. Charm(s) based on Compassion templates. Only need to learn one.
   1. Ecstatic: love
   2. Functionary: obsession
3. Charm(s) based on Conviction templates. Only need to lean one.
   1. Horror: delusion
   2. Hunter: restlessness
   3. Vizer: desire to own
4. Charm(s) based on Temperance templates. Only need to learn one.
   1. Courtesan: degradation
   2. Slave: emptiness
5. Charm(s) based on Valor templates. Only need to lean one.
   1. Killer: lust
   2. Warden: Possessiveness
6. Form: Add Virtues to various traits when fighting demons. Add Essence dice to resist demon effects. Completely useless against non-demons (or perhaps choose a single one of the Virtue effects to count against all targets at activation).
7. Effect that channels anima, so changes based on the type of exalt.
8. Something that messes with demon Limit.
9. Permanent demon destruction.

NPCs

• Recipe for Disaster: abyssal
• Icily Cool Breath: alchemical

The Harvest

A campaign based around a group of sidereals who suddenly launch a series of "purges", bringing spirits who have been slacking to trial, and manipulating unexpectedly harsh sentences. Many get cast down and turned to starmetal, which the sidereals have "coincidentally" arranged to have discovered and brought to them. Why?

Lytek's Cabinet

Lytek's Cabinet adapts the ruleset of Spirit of the Century (also known as FATE 3.0) for use in the setting of Exalted. Spirit's interlocking character structure, aspects and much of its pulp sensibility work well for Exalted-like games, though their flavor is somewhat different that canonical Exalted gaming.

Rather than calling this adaptation "Spirit of Exalted" or something similar, the name of this system was taken from the setting's actual "spirit of exaltation": Lytek.

Sources

A number of other attempts have been made to meld Exalted and Spirit of the Century, all of which had some influence on this adaptation. Sources include:

• The FATE 3.0 SRD
• The Exalted setting
• Spirit of the Exalted
• Conversion to Spirit of the Century
• Spirt of the Unconquered Sun
• Wheel of Exalted Fate
• Aspects instead of stunts
• Exalted PDQ conversion

Goals

This variation has the following goals:

• Stick to the basic FATE 3.0 system as much as possible.
• Use as little of the Exalted mechanics as possible.
• Tune FATE 3.0 to handle the higher power level of the Exalted storyline without breaking it.
• Allow longer campaigns than those typical for Spirit of the Century. As a practical matter, this means thinking more about character advancement.
• Make martial arts at least as important as it is in Exalted, preferably with more focus on their dramatic aspects (feuds over styles, student/sifu relations, etc.)
• Handle sorcery-level effects elegantly.
• Avoid essence bean-counting.
• Handle mass combat.

Basics

Character Creation

1. Memories of the First Age - each has to involve another player's character, and while the PC had that memory, the other PC didn't, at least not initially
2. Memories of the First Age - each has to involve another player's character, and while the PC had that memory, the other PC didn't, at least not initially
3. Youth
4. Exaltation - possibly a required aspect here related to caste. Could be that anima flares could be how you gain fate points with such aspects.
5. Since Exaltation

Aspects

Skills

Stunts

Excellencies

When using an aspect with a given skill add +3 instead of +2? Must learn for each skill.

Enhancement

One for each skill; can grant self an aspect related to the skill for the scene?

Astrology Based Aspects

Character can claim the influence of a sign.

Secret Techniques

Characters can get along just fine using aspects and stunts as normal; however Lytek's Cabinet offers an additional choice for characters that mix the two together in the form of secret techniques. Each technique is typically centered around a philosophy or teacher (an aspect) that provides access to a group of special effects (stunts) more cheaply that usual, but at the cost of obligation, philosophical restrictions, feuds, and other drama related to the technique.

The most common secret techniques are martial arts styles, but other types exist as well. Martial arts play a larger role in Lytek's Cabinet than even in Exalted, but have a different flavor, focusing more on the drama of competing styles and schools, making the teacher more important and so on.

Learning Secret Techniques

Every secret technique is linked to exactly one skill. In order to begin training in the technique, a character's rating in that skill must be Good or better.

Characters must gain some type of narrative access to the technique. That is, no one can begin to train in a secret technique until the story allows them to do so. Perhaps the character finds a secret book of wisdom, or joins a particular religious sect, or meets a mysterious teacher. Even the stories created as part of character creation can provide this, but some rationale for why the character can learn the technique must exist.

To start training in the technique, the character buys an aspect related in some way to the technique (referred to here as the technique aspect). This can be done using an aspect gained a character creation, or any other time the character is allowed to choose a new aspect. The technique aspect cannot be learned via a shuffle (see "Improvement", below).

How to invoke the technique aspect depends on the technique, but should be fairly obvious. Like all aspects, however, the technique aspect should be chosen such that it can be compelled as well. Some typical ways to do this include:

• The technique implies some kind of stricture that must be followed that may sometimes be inconvenient. This might be a philosophy, religious rules, a code of conduct or even a general expectation like "tiger warriors never back down from a fight". If this is enough to complicate the story, the aspect can be compelled.
• The aspect is related to a specific teacher, and it can be compelled like any other aspect relating to a person.
• The aspect is related to a school or other organization that has a reputation, political obligations or conflicts with other organizations. For example, maybe the Order of the Gold Mantis has a blood feud with the Snake Fang Guild. This might color interactions between members of these two schools in ways complicated enough to act as compels.
• The technique may contain a known weakness that makes certain tasks more difficult. For example, a technique based on aggressive, loud attacks might have trouble being subtle or stealthy. Or, a technique might leave a "signature" that would lead back to the character, and so on.

Note that those who know of the character's technique aspect can often use many of these same reasons to tag it. (A Snake Fang Guild member, for example, might call out a known Gold Mantis member, or use the tenants of her order against her.)

To complete training in a secret technique, the character must spend a stunt advancement on it (see "Improvement", below). This "technique stunt" allows the character to gain the benefit of two standard stunts (specific to the technique). This "two for one" stunting is the primary benefit of secret techniques. Some techniques may also allow the "technique stunt" to be expanded with further advancements. The "technique stunt", however, always counts as only one stunt for the purposes of the maximum number of stunts allowed to a character, no matter how many benefits it provides.

Martial Arts

Terrestrial Martial Arts

Terrestrial martial arts tend to be based on a applying a lesson from nature to combat. They typically teach being like something: the bending of a tree, the fall of leaves, the stance of an animal. These arts must be based on either Fists, Athletics, Bow or Weapon. Terrestrial arts tend to be the most formalized and nearly always have some kind of weakness. The stunt provided by a terrestrial style always provides two benefits based on combat or athletic stunts. In rare cases, other types of of stunts might be used (such as a terrestrial style based on horse-mounted combat), but such styles are the exception, not the rule.

Any character can learn terrestrial martial arts, but those without access to magic (e.g. mortals) must put up with much more narrative restriction, usually involving a formal school or other strict organization.

Celestial Martial Arts

Celestial martial arts tend to be based on emulating something in combat. They typically teach becoming something: an animal, an ideal. These styles work as terrestrial styles do, but after the technique stunt is purchased (providing the standard two effects), the character can later spend an enhancement to expand the technique stunt to include another effect (again, specific to the style).

Only the exalted and more powerful spirits can learn celestial martial arts. Terrestrial exalts will typically need to deal with more narrative restriction in order to use such techniques.

Sidereal Martial Arts

Sidereal martial arts tend to be based on changing the world using a metaphor. They typically teach wielding something abstract: a symbol, a concept. These styles work like celestial martial arts do, except they have no limits on which skill the technique is based or what types of stunts can be included in a given style. That is, the technique stunt of a sidereal style will always contain the same benefits, but those benefits can be based on any skill at all.

Only celestial exalts and very powerful beings can learn sidereal martial arts. Celestials that are not sidereals must put up with much more narrative restriction, almost always involving sidreals in some way.

Social Techniques

Astrology

Anyone can use. Sidereals gains some free aspect for astrology, easier learning.

Based on constellation. Can throw an aspect onto someone. Or can allow you to "see the future" enough to gain some bonus when someone else uses a particular aspect?

Shapeshifting

Lunar war form

Aspect includes concept of "tell".

Assumption

Mutation

Sorcery

Can invoke aspect for knowledge purposes, reputation, etc.

• Terrestrial: put aspect on yourself
• Celestial: put aspect on environment or others
• Solar: put aspect on players or story as a whole

Artifacts

Improvement

Each session gains either two shuffles or an advance. Shuffles are:

• Swap out an Average (lowest rung) skill for another not currently in the pyramid
• Change the places of two skills in the pyramid that are not more than one rung apart from each other.
• Swap out one aspect for another
• Drop a stunt that hasn’t seen much use, and pick up a new one.

Advances are:

• Advancing a skill one rank of the skill pyramid (or raise a Mediocre one into the Average level). At any given time, the "width" of any given level of the pyramid cannot be greater than one more than the starting width. Can't make the pyramid higher.
• If the "width" of every layer of the skill pyramid has been increased, advance one skill on each level up a rung (and pull one up from Mediocre to Average). This does raise the height of the pyramid, and represents a "quantum leap" in power level. This is roughly equivalent to raising Essence in Exalted, and should require the same sort of narrative.
• Gain a new aspect.
• Gain a new stunt, provided your total number of stunts don't exceed half your number of aspects (rounded up)

Zodiac

A listing, with full stats, for the 25 gods of the constellations. Each entry should follow some type of pattern, like a rise-fall-recover story maybe. One twist might be to posit them as the original Incarnae who were ousted by the current Incarnae, and the current backstory of Exalted is revisionist history. Maybe like a "competing pantheon". Maybe make use of the constellation/ability pairings.

Or, perhaps they are disjoint from Heaven in some mysterious way. Maybe someone tried to sanction them and it didn't work.

Needs to tie to the loom in some way.

Use resplendent effects of sign with motes for Endurance and Willpower for Paradox.

Important that they are the god of the constellation, not the concept itself.

The House of Journeys

The Captain

Sail

The Gull

Thrown

The Mast

Resistance

The Messenger

Ride

The Ship’s Wheel

Survival

The House of Serenity

The Ewer

Dodge

The Lovers

Socialize

The Musician

Performance

The Peacock

Craft

The Pillar

Linguistics

The House of Battles

The Banner

Athletics

The Gauntlet

Presence

The Quiver

Archery

The Shield

War

The Spear

Melee

The House of Secrets

The Guardians

Larceny

The Key

Investigation

The Mask

Stealth

The Sorcerer

Occult

The Treasure Trove

Lore

The House of Endings

The Corpse

Medicine

The Crow

Awareness

The Haywain

Bureaucracy

The Rising Smoke

Integrity

The Sword

Martial Arts

Exalted 2.5

A list of the edits I'd make to the core book to make it more consistent and generally better.

Pick a defense philosophy.

Embrace and extend keywords for charms. Expand the sections for the rules for each keyword, so that the same text need not be repeated in every single charm.

Create an explicit section for interpreting rules. Charm text -> keyword rules -> general rules.

Name general rules somewhat like charms.

Terminology changes.

Fix timing, clinching etc.

Goal for charms should be to have text say as little as possible.

Paths

A rewrite of exalted from the ground up, using "paths" that characters follow in a way that provide incentives for players to make them behave a certain way. That is, mechanics award players for making solars do things that would make the Unconquered Sun proud, making terrestrials walk the path of the Dragons and so on.

Paths would largely represent phiolosophies. There would be lots of them. Anyone could follow any path (but some get more out of particular paths than others). Paths would provide mechanical advantages not only for investing in the path, but embracing the code of conduct the path finds admirable.

Characters would have an affinity for one particular path of their choice. This would be loosely analogous to 'caste' in most cases. Some characters (noble fair folk, for example) might have multiple affinities, but these would be rare.

Paths would be collected into groups. For example, paths of Dawn, Zenith, Night, Twilight and Eclipse might exist in an Unconquered Sun path group. (Maybe this is a bad idea).

Some paths would provide more to people with affinities to paths in the same group. For example, anyone might walk the Dawn path, but someone with an affinity to a path in the same group (i.e. a solar exalt) would get more benefit from the Dawn path than someone with an affinity in the Terrestrial path group.

Path and path groups can be loosely conceptualized as if they were major arcana tarot cards. That is, as more of an archetypal ideal or concept. Some path groups:

• Racial paths (must have exactly one)
  • The Man
  • The Dragon King
  • The God
  • The Elemental
  • The Ghost
  • The Raksha
  • The Unconquered Sun
  • solar caste-like paths
• The Moon
  • lunar caste-like paths
  • chimera
• The Maidens
  • sidereal caste-like paths
• Gaia
  • the elemental dragons
  • dragon king-like paths
• Oblivion
  • abyssal caste-like paths
  • ghosts?
• Nemesis
  • infernal caste-like paths
  • demon template-like paths
• The Great Maker
  • caste-like paths
  • paths for First Age-like sciences
• The Wyld
  • fair folk graces
• The Celestial Bureaucracy
  • paths for virtues
  • spirit paths?
• The Religious Man?
  • something for the Immaculate Order?
• The Sky
  • paths for the constellations
• The Lotus Root
  • philosophy of terrestrial-like styles
• The Lotus Bulb
  • philosophy of celestial-like styles
• The Lotus Blossom
  • philosophy of sidereal-like styles
• The Primordial
  • sorcery
  • necromancy
  • weaving
  • shaping
  • shapeshifting?
• The Thaumaturge
  • mortal magic-like paths? Or, maybe start with these, and expand them into sorcery, sort of like schools

Exalted Prime

Exalted Prime (aka X′) hacks Christian Griffen's Anima Prime rules into the Exalted® setting.

Introduction

Licence

Because Anima Prime is released under a Creative Commons licence, hacks to it can be released under the same license, making use of the original text as the hacker sees fit. Unfortunately, that is not an option for this hack, because the hack is also based on intellectual property of White Wolf's parent company (CCP hf), and the author is not authorized to released said property under a Creative Commons licence. Consequently, this work will reference material from Exalted and Anima Prime as much as is possible, rather than duplicate it.

Any use of CCP hf’s or Berengrad Games intellectual property, copyrighted material or trademarks in this work should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. Exalted is ©1990-2011 CCP hf.

Sources

This work assumes the reader is familiar with:

• The main Anima Prime rules.
• The main Exalted rules.
• The concepts of the various "splats" of Exalted.
• The faction rules available from the Anima Prime website.

What is the Same?

Exalted Prime uses most of Anima Prime exactly as written. Unless this document says otherwise, follow the main Anima Prime rules. Few to none of the rules from Exalted itself are used, just its setting elements and some conceptual ideas.

What is Different

A quick summary of the changes:

• Switch to using d10 instead of d6 (probability changes a bit, but remains fairly close to Anima Prime's).
• Generation of charge dice now influenced by passive powers and takes advantage of using d10s.
• Eidolons expanded to emulate powers that Exalted builds complex subsystems to handle (e.g. sorcery, shapeshifting, shaping, astrology, hellforging, etc.)
• Powers specific to Anima Prime's default setting are removed or altered.
• A few new powers are added.
• The list of passions is reworked.
• The list of conditions is expanded.
• Marks play a slightly more active role in the mechanics.
• Character types (solar, fair folk, etc.) are given a small number of specific rules, and suggested limitations.
• Some non-character concepts from Exalted, such as manses and warstriders, take advantage of Anima Prime's more abstract character representation to be treated as characters in X′.
• Warstriders have a much different origin, but serve the same purpose.

Enlightenment and using d10s

In the standard Anima Prime maneuver roll, all charcaters generate charge dice the same way, on any dice that come up 6. For any given die, this happens 16.6% of the time:

X′ adds a number of conditions (Enlightened, Celestial and Transcendant) that change the odds of gaining charge dice. In order for this to work without totally breaking the system, the dice need to be a bit more granular. For example, if you could double the "resolution" of the system by using d12s instead and awarding charge dice on 11 or 12, and this would provide exactly the same probabilities as the existing system. The difference would be that you can tweak the result in "half-steps" compared to the original system (e.g. suppose someone got charge dice on a 10 as well).

Alas, Exalted players are more likely to have huge buckets of d10s lying around, so X′ will use them instead. Since ten and six have few common divisors, using d10s changes the odds:

At the Celestial level used by most characters odds are fairly close to those of Anima Prime. Failure is a bit more common, but so is the creation of charge dice. This seems in keeping with the Exalted aesthetic, where it is really your powers that steal the show and mortals get screwed.

Some new powers are also added that turn fours into successes in certain situations. When such powers are in effect, failure becomes slightly less likely than in Anima Prime.

Organization

This work is presented in an atypical order, with the more important changes to the Anima Prime system (and Exalted's setting) coming first. More pedestrian (and predictible) changes follow. You'll find the following sections:

• A chapter briefly describes changes and additions to the conditions available in X′.
• The Eidolons chapter details the main changes to the summoning system, and how it is used to fill out some of the more specialized flavor of Exalted.
• A chapter which suggests a different set of passions for use in the setting.
• The Powers chapter details which powers from Anima Prime are removed or changed, as well as a few new powers.
• A chapter which gives describes how Marks function in X′
• Character Creation translates the various types of character in Exalted into the system.

Conditions

All conditions used in Anima Prime remain. The following are added:

Aerobatic
The character can move through the air with effortless grace. At the start of her turn, she can add one of the following until the start of her next turn: 1 bonus dice to her maneuvers, 1 bonus dice to her strikes, 1 point to her defense. This bonus does not apply to other characters with the Aerobatic condition. If the Aerobatic condition is removed, this bonus immediately vanishes. Note: not everything that flies necessarily has the aerobatic condition. A ghost, for example, might float above the ground, but this is not sufficient to gain the bonuses provided by the condition. That is, it is possible to narrate something as flying, but it only gets mechanical bonuses for doing so if it has this condition.

Celestial
The character connects more deeply to magic than the merely Enlightened. On a maneuver roll, the character gains a charge die for each 9 and 10 rolled.

Enlightened
The character has the ability to use magic intrinsically. On a maneuver roll, the character gains a charge die for each 10 rolled. Characters who lack this condition cannot gain charge dice through maneuvers (though may gain them through their Passion), and typically can work magic only through complex ritual, if at all. Some powers may function differently if used against a character with this condition.

Immaterial
The character exists out of phase with the world and cannot be seen, heard or otherwise detected by characters in the material world. The character also cannot directly act against anything in the real world, though they can perceive it. Characters with this condition may act normally against other characters with this condition.

Profane
The character is tainted with the energies of the Underworld or Malfeas. While this condition carries no mechanical effect of its own, certain powers are more effective against profane targets.

Transcendent
The character has transcended celestial magic. On a maneuver roll, the character gains a charge die for each 8, 9 and 10 rolled.

Wyld
The chaos of the Wyld dominates the character, making the character immune to the mutating effects of the Wyld. Certain powers are more effective against wyld targets.

Eidolons

The eidolons presented in Anima Prime come in many forms, but are conceived as one "type" of thing. This changes in X′, which makes use of several families of eidolon. Each family of eidolon uses variant rules, detailed below, and roughly correspond to specific types of power wielded in Exalted. These are:

• Conjurations most closely map to the eidolons presented in Anima Prime: summoned creatures that act on behalf of the summoner. These include the elementals and demons summoned by sorcery, the behemoths shaped by the Fae, necromantic engines, even Autochthonian machine-spirits.
• Invocations are flexible, but very short lived eidolons that represent the will of the summoner. These are the spells of various circles of sorcery and necromancy and the protocols of weaving.
• Skins, when summoned, wrap around the summoner, giving the impression that the summoner has changed his or her own form.
• Influences, the most subtle of eidolon, are rarely noticed, scattering their enduring effect over a wide area. These are the signs of astrology and the glamours of the fae.

Eiodolon Powers

The powers available to eiodolons remain roughly the same. Assume eiodolon powers work as writen, with the following tweaks:

Passive powers

Only thing changed here might be the resistances list. Might need to add stuff to match changes to conditions or elemental types.

Persistent
The eidolon stays in the world longer than usual (though not as long as one summoned as a companion). If a conflict involving the eidolon concludes with the eidolon completely unwounded, it remains in the world. Further, the eidolon may be summoned during a character scene, provided the summoner uses the scene specifically for that purpose and forgoes any other scene benefit for that scene. Outside of conflict scenes, any wounds cause the eidolon to disappear. This means, in order to summon the eidolon outside of a conflict, it must first be fully healed. It may be summoned while wounded during a conflict, but returns once the conflict ends, unless healed.

Tradable
A character with an Open Bond to the eidolon may trade the eidolon to a character who also has an Open Bond to an eidolon with this power, if both characters agree to the exchange. This breaks the Open Bonds of both characters, and replaces them with an Open Bond to the eidolon each receives. This power may only be taken by certain types of eidolon, such as behemoths.

Thematic Form
The eidolon may appear in any of several related forms when summoned, chosen by the summoner. When the power is chosen, select a theme that unites the form variations. The eidolon may appear in any form related to that theme. This power most often appears in skins, where it can supply, for example, several different animal forms, but can be used by other eidolons as well (though, it is useless to Invocations, as they change their form every time they are cast anyway). For example, a theme of "jungle creatures" might allow a skin to take the shape of an individual gorilla, a squad of frogs, a swarm of mosquitoes, and so on. A "super predator" theme could appear as a tiger, velociraptor, saika, etc. Other themes might include: beasts of burden, beautiful people, stuff of nightmares, birds, rotting decay, elusive mirage, authority figures, welcoming friendship, confusing to the senses, brilliant light, etc. An eidolon can take this power one additional time for each Level (so Level 5 eidolons can take it up to 6 times), choosing a different theme at each level.

Charge powers

Eidolons can select any of the charge powers and use them exactly the same way that PCs do, keeping in mind the changes detailed in the Powers section, below. In a departure from Anima Prime, some powerful eidolons (particularly demons) may be able to use the Soulbound Weapons and various summoning powers, subject to GM approval and keeping with the theme of the eidolon. It is suggested that those rare eidolons who can do their own summoning never be allowed to summon eidolons more powerful than themselves.

Weaknesses

Any of the weakness listed in Anima Prime may be selected. You may choose one of these instead:

Flawed
Imperfections mar the eidolon's magic. The moment it its summoned, a "banish flawed eidolon" goal is created, with a difficulty equal to 4 + the eidolon's level. If this goal is achieved, the eidolon disappears with all of its wound circles marked, even if it has the Unbreakable Bond power. The story surrounding this goal often involves some known susceptibility to a special material. For example, many creations of the Raksha can be unmade by the touch of cold-forged iron. Achieving the goal, then, often represents knowing of this flaw, having the right materials on hand, and using them correctly.

Fragile
The eidolon is easier to hurt than usual: any fours rolled as part of a strike on the eidolon count as successes.

Predictable
The eidolon is either easy to fool or set in its ways: any fours rolled to maneuver against the eidolon count as successes, generating strike dice. While I love this idea, it sort of doesn't make sense, as maneuvers are not opposed. Maybe it should make eidolon's maneuvers harder.

Rogue
The eidolon breaks from the control of the summoner as soon as it arrives. It may act independently from the summoner, receiving its own action each turn, but it follows its own motivation and is controlled by the GM. Most rogue eidolons hold ill feelings toward their summoner.

Summoning Powers

X′ uses the standard set of summoning powers in Anima Prime. Technically, the Summoning power may be used to summon any family of eidolon; however, a given character type will usually stick with a certain family. For example, lunar exalted will almost always bond to skins and, perhaps, to invocations if they are more sorcerously inclined, but won't bind to the others. Keeping "true to type" like this is not enforced, but strongly encouraged. Some GMs may wish to enforce it more strictly.

Conjurations

Conjurations behave the most like the eidolons in Anima Prime, and follow the rules therein. There are several genera of conjurations, differentiated mostly by their origin and the trappings needed to call them.

• Elementals are called by those who consider themselves thaumaturges, sorcerers or weavers. Elementals always have a favored material, either a typical Creation element (earth, air, fire, water, wood) or a more esoteric element (crystal , lightning, metal, oil, smoke, steam, etc.). This will usually translate to some type of elemental resistance, a vulnerability to some "opposite" element, and often powers that project elemental effects.
• Sorcerers with claim to ancient surrender agreements with the Primordials, or those with some other connection to hell, can call demons. Demons are the most variable of the conjurations. Demons always have the Profane condition, in addition to any other vulnerabilities.
• Those with a strong connection to the Underworld can create/summon necrotech, undead constructs or spirits animated by death energy. All necrotech must select the Body Resistance and Soul Resistance powers. Most will also have the Persistant power. Necrotech eidolons always have the Profane condition, in addition to any other vulnerabilities.
• Fair Folk and others used to shaping the Wyld can call on behemoths. All behemoths must select the Tradable power. Behemoths are far more likely to have the Crazy vulnerability than other eidolons.
• Weavers with a strong connection to Autochthon can summon golems, machine spirits representing some aspect of the Great Maker. Golems usually have at least one level of Resilience and Toughness, and appear biomechanical.

Invocations

Invocations express themselves differently each time they are called, reacting and adapting to the desires of the summoner. These are the spells of sorcery and necromancy, and the protocols of weaving. Some say they are not true eidolons at all, but rather constructs of the summoner's will. Even so, they function like eidolons, except in the following ways:

• Level 0 invocations start with Enlightenment I and two other powers. They gain two more powers for each additional level.
• When binding to an invocation, only half of the powers of that eidolon are determined.
• Each time the character summons a bound invocation, the player may select the eidolon's remaining powers, which last for the duration of that particular summoning. The summoner may "sacrifice" any or all of these powers to provide dice for the eidolon. Each power sacrificed provides either 2 strike dice or 1 charge die, though any dice that would exceed the eidolon's pool limits are wasted.
• While the invocation is summoned, the summoner must spend her action to give the eidolon an action of its own. If the summoner cannot act, or uses her action herself, the summoning ends immediately.
• The type of the eidolon (individual, squad, swarm) is selected by the summoner at the time of the summoning.
• The eidolon's skill is chosen at the time of summoning, but only has a rating of 3.
• As part of the summoning, the summoner's player must describe the appearance of the eidolon, using
• A weakness is not selected for invocations. Instead, invocations only remain for a limited time, working on a countdown. At the end of the invocation's action, it automatically takes a wound, disappearing as soon as its wound circles are filled, as normal. Any wounds taken like this are automatically healed when the invocation disappears (though any other wounds remain).
• When a character earns a level of Empower Eidolon, they may break Open Bonds with any invocations and replace them with bonds to new invocations. Bonus powers provide by Empower Eidolon are not selected immediately, but are chosen during summoning.

Example: The jade alchemical Asymmetrically Growing Crystal is a master of god-machine protocols. Among her powers are Summoning, Warfare Summoning, Empower Eidolon III and an Open Bond. Her powers allow her to summon Level 3 eidolons, but she has chosen to bond with a level 2 invocation, as they are cheaper to summon.

The invocation starts with two powers, and gains two for each level, for a total of six. Half of these must be selected when she makes the bond. She selects two levels of Toughness (to keep the protocol going longer) and another level of Enlightenment (because spells can often use charge dice). The rest wait until she summons it.

Example: During a conflict, Asymmetrically Growing Crystal gets surrounded, and needs some quick defense to hold out until her friends arrive. She spends her action summoning her bound invocation, spending three charge dice to do so. Based on its level, it has three additional powers that can be selected during the summoning. Plus, Empower Eidolon III provides a bonus power to the Level 2 eidolon. She selects Auto Guard (so the attackers have to go after the eidolon), another level of Toughness (taking the total to the max of three), and two levels of Resilience. She wants to make her attackers think twice so chooses Intimidate as the invocation's skill, and decides to summon it as a swarm. The eidolon arrives with a defense of 3, an Intimidate skill of 3, an full action pool of two dice and four wound circles. The player describes gears of all sizes, materializing around her by the hundreds, and whirling around her with a rhythmic, menacing humming.

Because of Warfare summoning, the invocation can act immediately (and has two strike dice as well). Crystal is more interested in having the invocation just suck damage for her, but she must make it act. She decides she might as well have it maneuver. She describes some of the gears as spinning further away from her, then back, at random, sort of pulsing against her attackers, warning them to stay back. The maneuver uses the eidolon's Presence skill, so starts with three dice. She uses one die from the eidolon's action pool, but saves her own action dice. The maneuver roll comes up 4, 7, 8, 8, for three successes, all of which become strike dice. Even added to the two strike dice already in the pool (from Warfare Summoning), these don't exceed the eidolon's limit of six, so it keeps all of them. Its action is now over, so it immediately takes a wound from its countdown. The round continues, and several opponents attack the eidolon. One even manages to wound it, leaving it with two empty wound circles.

On Crystal's next action, her options are limited, as she has to give her action to the eidolon, or it will vanish. She has it attack, using all of its strike dice. She figures a lucky hit might just take out an attacker, so adds one of her own strike dice to this pool. The eidolon has no charge powers to help the attack, so rolls the six dice. All of them succeed and manage to take out an attacker. Its action is now over, so it immediately takes a wound from its countdown, leaving it with one empty circle.

As the round continues, the opponents manage to give the eidolon another wound, taking it out of the conflict. The wounds caused by the countdown immediately heal, but the other two remain. Crystal could use her next action to summon the eidolon again, but it would appear with these two wounds, so she would need to buy enough Toughness to handle that, otherwise the eidolon would disappear as soon as it arrived.

Example: Later on, after healing her invocation, Asymmetrically Growing Crystal gets ambushed by a swarm of twiglings. Knowing their wooden bodies are vulnerable to fire, she again summons her invocation. As before, she has four powers to select. This time, she chooses Firestorm and another level of Enlightenment as its only additional powers. The other two she sacrifices to buy four strike dice. She makes the eidolon an individual, with a Craft skill of 3. It arrives looking like an odd metallic whirligig, spewing fire from numerous nozzles. It has defense of 1, a full action pool of two dice, six dice in its strike pool, no die in its charge pool and three wound circles.

The eidolon may act immediately, thanks to Warfare summoning. It uses all its strike dice to attack. It activates the Firestorm power, using three dice from Crystal's charge pool. The power provides four bonus dice for strikes against swarms. The twiglings are also vulnerable to fire, which provides three more dice, for a total of 13 dice. The nine successes wind up dealing two wounds to the swarm. Good, but these are tough little buggers. Since the eidolon's action is now over, it takes a wound from countdown.

The twigling swarm goes after Crystal on its action, leaving the eidolon untouched. Crystal again gives her action to the eidolon, using it to make a maneuver. The whirligig wades into the swarm, picking up the burning remains of the previously incinerated twiglings, and shoving them into an opening in its head, stoking its internal fires even higher. It uses its Craft skill, and all of its action pool, rolling four successes: 4, 6, 8, 8, 9. Since the eidolon has three levels of Enlightenment, three of these successes become charge dice, one becomes strike dice. Since the eidolon's action is now over, it takes a wound from countdown.

The twigling swarm goes after the eidolon on its turn, but fail to wound it. Crystal again gives her action to the eidolon, using it to strike. She adds two of her own strike dice to the strike die the eidolon just earned. The eidolon spends its three new charge dice to activate Firestorm again. Since the eidolon's last wound will be filled at the end of this attack (doubly so: the eidolon takes a wound for acting without any dice in its action pool, but if it did have dice, countdown would give it another), Crystal's player describes the whirligig as closing all of its fire nozzles, then quickly overloading, exploding in massive ball of flame that engulfs the surrounding twiglings. The resulting conflagration finishes off the twiglings.

Skins

When summoned, skins wrap around the summoner, becoming part of her. The summoner and the summoned become one. To an outsider, this often looks very much like the summoner is changing her shape or, perhaps, being possessed. Skins are used most heavily by lunar exalted, fair folk and some gods, though other types of characters can also use them. Like conjurations, several genera of skins exist, divided on a mostly thematic level. Gamemasters may wish to restrict which types of characters can bond to a given genus of skin, which include:

• Animal forms are, by far, the most common type of skin. These tend to be low level eidolons, often with one or more levels of the Thematic Form power. These are often taken as Companions, so that they can maintain the form out of conflict scenes.
• Lunars are most strongly associated with monster forms, though fair folk, gods and infernal exalted are known to use them as well.
• Some, particularly fair folk, can wrap themselves in disguises. These tend to be level 0, as their main point is to conceal the user's appearance, rather than enhance power. These almost always either have the Persistant power or are taken as Companions.
• Striders more often give the impression of being worn, as you might wear armor. Such skins most commonly appear as metallic (called warstriders), but some appear as other materials (woodstriders, bonestriders, hellstriders, etc.). These are usually quite potent (level 3 or more) and often have the Tradable and/or Persistant powers.

Skins function as typical eidolons, except in the following ways:

• All skins must take the Auto Guard power, representing their ability to "wrap around" the summoner. When the skin is in play, the summoner's statistics effectively disappear, and the summoner interacts with the world through the skins stats.
• All skins must take the Skill Set power. If the summoner has a mark on a skill, and the eidolon happens to have that same skill, the summoner may transfer the mark to the eidolon when it is summoned.
• All of the eidolon's pools are empty when summoned (except for dice provided by the summoner's summoning powers). The summoner must transfer her own pools to the eidolon. Dice that would exceed the eidolon's pool limit are retained by the summoner, but cannot be used to enhance the eidolon's actions.
• When the eidolon is defeated, dismissed or banished, it's Action Pool flows back into the summoner, but it's other pools are lost. Any dice that would exceed the summoner's pool limits are lost, as well, as are any marks the eidolon has on skills.
• The summoner can never act for herself while the skin is summoned. Her normal action must be given to the eidolon, and any additional actions (from Awesome Tokens, for example) must be taken by the eidolon.
• All of the summoner's passive powers affect the eidolon, without the eidolon needing to buy them itself. Similar powers stack, but may not exceed higher of their limits. For example, if both the summoner and the eidolon have the Resilience power, the combined defense bonus can't exceed three (the limit of the summoner's version of the power), or the eidolon's level (the limit of eidolon's version of the power), whichever is higher.
• When the eidolon is summoned, the summoner may transfer any and all wounds she has to the eidolon. When the eidolon is dismissed, the summoner may transfer any and all wounds the eidolon has to herself.
• When the eidolon is summoned, the eidolon gains all conditions the apply to the summoner. When the eidolon is dismissed, the summoner's conditions are replaced by those on the eidolon at the time.
• The eidolon may use the summoner's soulbound weapon powers, but cannot have any of its own.
• The eidolon may use the summoner's summoning powers, but cannot have any of its own and may not to summon another skin.
• The eidolon may not use the summoner's charge powers, nor may the summoner use her charge powers on the eidolon.
• The summoner may still unmark one of their own traits to reroll failed dice when the eidolon is acting.
• The skin may be a leader in a combined maneuver or combined achievement.

Example: Daybreak caste abyssal Vexes at a Distance has embraced the whole "creepy vampire" vibe. To cover the shapeshifting parts of a classical vampire, he takes Summoning and an Open Bond to a level 0 skin. The skin has four powers, two of which must be Auto Guard and Skill Set (choosing Acrobatics 4, Stealth 3 and Brawl 2). He also chooses Thematic Form, selecting the theme of "creatures of the night" so that he might become individual wolf, a squad of bats, a swarm of rats, and so on. To give himself a chance at keeping the animal form up outside of conflicts, he also picks the Persistent power.

During a conflict, Vexes gets trapped and wants to turn into a squad of bats to make his escape. He summons his skin. He has three action dice, two strike dice and one charge die. He spends the charge die to power the summoning, and his body explodes into a cloud of bats. His pools transfer to the skin. Vexes is already wounded, but to give his escape a better chance of success, he elects not to transfer them to the skin.

His opponents go after the bats. Unfortunately for Vexes, his Profane condition is transfered to the bats, and one of his opponents hits him with a Righteous Strike, dealing a wound. Fortunately, the bat squad gains the benefit of Vexes' Toughness power, so it has one wound left. On Vexes' action, he must make the skin act. With escape on his mind, Vexes' player asks the GM to create a goal for getting away. Vexes' has the skin use its Acrobatics skill and strike dice in an Achievement action, and succeeds in the goal, ending the conflict.

As per the Persistent power, since the skin is wounded, once the conflict ends, the skin automatically disappears, and Vexes returns to normal. The skin never had use for the action dice, so they all get transfered back to Vexes. Other dice would be lost, but the skin used them all anyway. As the skin vanishes, Vexes takes the opportunity to transfer its wound onto himself. This makes him even more wounded, but fully heals the skin.

Example: No moon lunar Poison Vault considers the albino bat to be her totem. Her powers include Summoning, Battlefield Summoning, Empower Eidolon IV, Strike Boost, and two levels of Resilience. She has an Open Bond with a Level 4 skin, a formidable albino bat beastman. The skin has 16 powers:

• Two of these must be Auto Guard and Skill Set.
• It buys three levels of Resilience. These stack with Poison Vault's two levels. The total of five hits the limit for a Level 4 eidolon.
• It buys two levels of Strike Boost. These stack with Poison Vault's own Strike Boost, but the character version and the eidolon version of these powers are not the same; however, they both have a maximum increase of four. Combination of the powers hits this limit.
• In order to match the size of its action pool to that of its summoner, it takes the Stamina power four times. This is under the limit for the eidolon version of the power.
• Toughness. This would stack with Poison Vault's own Toughness levels, but she doesn't have any.
• Living up to her name, she selects Poison.
• She wants to a good flyer, so chooses Warflight.
• Shadow Strike, to hit in the dark.
• Darksight, because, hey... bat.

Influences

Not sure how this will work. Basic idea is to tell a lie, and the eidolon punishes those who act like it is not true, or rewards those that do. Maybe this should create goals. Or maybe the eidolon gets to use free charge powers on those that violate the taboo. Maybe when this happens the summoner gets a charge die. These should definitely not have strike powers. Probably should never be able to take actions on their own (except free ones from the trigger). Maybe they have to spend an action die when the to use a power on the trigger. The lie should stay the same for the bond, but it should be easy to swap out bonds to new lies (maybe requiring a character scene).

Like other families of eidolons, several genera of influences exist, divided on a mostly thematic level. Gamemasters may wish to restrict which types of characters can bond to a given genus of influence, which include:

• Those with close ties to heaven use astrological signs to make their own fate. The lies told by signs are usually those that the summoner wants to make true.
• Masters of deceit, raksha and others connected to the Wyld create glamours. The lies told by glamours are usually those a fair folk wants to make others believe, or at least act like they do.

Powers that allow people to force a self-summoning influence on someone?

Powers

Changes to Existing Powers

Passive Powers

Need a "magical link" power to represent character link to other characters, particularly manses. What does it do?

Ritual? Lets you use a character scene to activate a charge power? Or maybe gain charge dice? Maybe not.

Warflight: gives Aerobatic condition.

Enlightenment
The character gains the Enlightened condition. When a die in an maneuver roll comes up 10, the character gains a charge die instead of a strike die. This power can be taken up to five times. Each time it is taken, the number which provides a charge die decreases by one. So, a character with Enlightenment III gains charge dice when a maneuver die comes up 8, 9 or 10. Gamemasters may wish to place a cap on how many times PC's can select this power. Characters with Enlightenment III or higher should be rare.

Charge Powers

Banishment should only affect conjurations.

Counterspell is like banishment for invocations. Should be cheaper.

Reality Hammer, like banishment for influences. Should be more expensive.

A maneuver power that treats 4's as successes.

A strike power that treats 4's as successes.

Righteous Strike, effective against Profane.

Ambition
Type: Achievement
Cost: 1 Charge Dice
Effect: On this achievement roll, fours are treated as successes.

Vigor
Type: Strike
Cost: 1 Charge Dice
Effect: On this strike roll, fours are treated as successes.

Zeal
Type: Maneuver
Cost: 1 Charge Dice
Effect: On this maneuver roll, fours are treated as successes, earning strike dice.

Summoning Powers

Character Creation

Creating a character in X′ follows much the same path as detailed in Anima Prime:

1. Pick a name and concept
2. Pick a passion from those listed in the Passions section, below
3. Pick three character traits
4. Choose three skills, following the advice in the Skills section, below
5. Choose a template, listed in the Templates section, below.
6. Record basic stats, as instructed by the template.
7. Select powers nine powers. Some gamemasters may wish to limit the powers available to certain templates.
8. Pick backgrounds and links
9. Plant a character seed

All of this follows the rules in Anima Prime, except where indicated in the following sections.

Passions

The list of passions (Anima Prime, pg. 25) available to characters is replaced by the following:

Bloodlust
The character revels in dealing out pain.
Trigger: Gain 1 charge die for every wound you inflict on an opponent.

Compassion
The character cares deeply about other people. She puts them first, even if that places her in danger.
Trigger: Gain 1 charge die every time one of your fellow PCs takes 1 or more wounds from a strike. You still gain this bonus if you took a wound that another PC would have suffered (using Awesome Tokens or Guard, for example).

Conviction
The character is dedicated to her goal and will not be denied.
Trigger: Whenever you spend charge dice on charge powers for a Strike or Achievement, and that strike or achievement fails (after using traits, if any), you get to keep those charge dice rather than discarding them.

Cunning
The character takes pride in cleverness and achievement.
Trigger: Whenever you single-handedly achieve a goal, gain a number of charge dice equal to half the goal's difficulty.

Fear
The character is driven by fear. She is afraid of getting hurt and tries to avoid being a target, but the more she gets cornered, the more she will lash out.
Trigger: At the beginning of a conflict (or at the beginning of any of your later turns if you forgot to do this), determine the enemy you’re most afraid of. Gain 1 charge die every time this enemy either earns an Awesome Token with a maneuver or makes a strike roll against you or any of your allies.

Harmony
The character admires coordination and unity, aiming to work in connection allies.
Trigger: Whenever you gift dice to someone else's action, and that action succeeds, gain 1 charge die.

Glory
This character revels in victory and achievements.
Trigger: Gain 2 charge dice each time you inflict a defeating wound on an opponent. In addition, if you are the one who inflicts the defeating wound on the last enemy in a conflict, you get to keep all of your charge dice instead of just half (including the 2 you just earned). You do not gain these benefits for your eidolons’ actions, if you have any.

Leadership
The character likes to be in charge, and takes pleasure in helping her allies succeed.
Trigger: Gain 1 charge die if a combined maneuver or achievement you lead succeeds. If you gift dice to another character's action, and that action generates an Awesome Token, gain 1 charge die.

Love
This passion is aimed at a particular other person. It can be a romantic interest, a family member, or someone else who is very close to the character (but it must be a PC). The love does not have to be requited.
Trigger: Gain 1 charge die every time an opponent makes a strike roll against your loved one, and another charge die for every wound that that character receives. You still gain this bonus if you took wounds or were the target of strikes that your loved one would have suffered (using Awesome Tokens or Guard, for example).

Mettle
The character takes pride in enduring hardship and overcoming adversity.
Trigger: Gain 1 charge die every time an opponent makes a strike roll against you, whether it’s successful or not, and every time an opponent inflicts one or more conditions on you.

Self-Loathing The character hates some part of herself, but doesn’t necessarily have a death wish. She purposely puts herself in dangerous situations and revels in pain. Trigger: Gain 2 charge dice for each wound that you take.

Succor
The character reveres teamwork, and strives to be a good teammate.
Trigger: Gain 1 charge die if a combined maneuver or achievement you take part in, but do not lead, succeeds. If you gift dice to another character's action, and that action generates an Awesome Token, gain 1 charge die.

Style
The character favors style over substance, and favors style generating substance even more.
Trigger: Gain 2 charge dice any time you are awarded an Awesome Token. If awarded this Token for a manever before even rolling your dice, gain an additional charge die.

Temperance
The character shuns impulsive actions strives to maintain self-control.
Trigger: Gain 1 charge die any time you have multiple strike dice in your pool, but use your action to manever instead.

Vengeance
The character has been wronged by someone and seeks revenge. You need to name a specific NPC against whom you’ve sworn vengeance (your nemesis), and the faction to whom he or she belongs (such as Kanissian Guard, Loyalists, Enendian Rebels, Hidden Blade Crime Syndicate). This is a powerful drive forward for the character.
Trigger: You gain 1 charge die at the beginning of any conflict and 1 charge die for every wound that you take. If one or more of the enemies you face belong to your nemesis’ faction, your gain instead is 2 charge dice at the beginning of the conflict and 2 charge dice for every wound that you take (this includes fighting your nemesis with other PCs on your side). If you face your nemesis all by yourself, you gain 3 charge dice at the beginning of the conflict and 3 charge dice for every wound that you take.

Valor
The character admires courage, and strives to demonstrate it when facing danger.
Trigger: You gain 1 charge die at the beginning of any conflict, 2 if outnumbered (counting squads and swarms as single opponents). Whenever you spend charge dice on charge powers for an achievement on your own, you retain 1 charge die for each success rolled (up to the number of charge dice spent), whether the roll succeeded or not.

Skills

Skills in Anima Prime are used only during conflicts (for maneuvers and achievements). Consequently the (already sub-optimal) skill list in Exalted doesn't map particularly well into the system. Since, as the rules mention, "you might have to come up with various uses of the skill a couple of times every conflict", X′ functions better with a different skill system. But, the on in Anima Prime isn't ideal either. It is suggested that groups follow a more freeform skill concept where possible. If you really need a list of skills, this one might do (presented with minimal explanation):

• Athletics: running and jumping and lifting
• Audacity: boldness, guts, recklessness, temerity, balls, gall
• Control: riding horses, taming animals, steering vehicles, mastering puppets
• Craft: making things, dismantling things, analyzing construction, tool use
• Deception: double talk, cheating, dirty tricks, feinting, deviousness, guile
• Force: raw physical power, the direct approach, breaking things, intimidation
• Endurance: grit, tenacity, determination, integrity, will
• Grace: balance, flowing motion, elegance, poise
• Lore: armed with facts, well-briefed, knows just what to do
• Luck: improbable acts, coincidence, right place at the right time
• Manipulation: persuading, convincing, taunting, empathizing
• Martial Arts: fighting unarmed or with hand weapons
• Occult: applied magic, magical tricks, magic items & tools
• Ordnance: heavy weapons, destructive devices, war machines
• Perception: spacial awareness, finding weaknesses, noticing patterns
• Presence: battlefield command, morale building, inspiration
• Quickness: raw speed, getting there first, outrunning, impulsiveness
• Ranged: shooting, throwing, judging distance
• Stealth: sneaking, spying, hiding, ambushing, concealing
• Subtlety: delicacy, the indirect approach, minimal effort, slight of hand

Marks

All characters who use charge powers are marked in some way; however, in X′, the intensity of the mark reflects how many dice are in the character's charge pool. As dice are added to the charge pool, the mark becomes more and more noticeable. Once activated, marks remain intense for a little while, slowly fading over the next hour or two. The intensity works like a "high water mark", ratcheting up only when the total dice in the pool reach a level not seen before in the scene. Note that marks only activate or increase when new charge dice are earned during conflict scenes, not retained or spent.

Some marks are more intense than others, and some may grant characters a passive power when they reach a certain intensity. While this varies for each template (see below), these power activates when the charge pool first reaches as certain size, then remains until the end of the conflict. The power stacks with the charcater's powers, if appropriate. Importantly, the mark power may exceed limits when stacking. If the character already has the power provided by the mark, and no stacking can be done, the mark power has no effect.

Templates

Every character in X′ must choose a template. The template defines three things for the character:

• Basic stats. In most cases, these will be "standard": 3 wound circles, an Action Pool with a maximum of 10 action dice, an empty Charge Pool with a maximum of 6 charge dice, and a defense of 2. A few templates, however, use different basic stats.
• Templates receive some free powers, in addition to the nine powers they select themselves.
• Some templates apply permanent Conditions to the character.
• A template's Mark describes how marks work for the character. This will include the mark's style, mark power (if any), and how the mark power is activated. The character should still customize the mark, with the confines of the template.

Abyssal Exalted

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened, Celestial, Profane
Free powers: Life Drain, Vampiric Strike
Mark: A caste symbol on the forehead begins to bleed at 2 charge dice. At 3 dice, the character gains an anima banner with sickly colors, which intensify as the pool increases. At 6 dice, the anima becomes iconic, and the mark power activates. The mark power depends on caste, chosen at the time the template is selected:

• Dusk: Maneuver Boost
• Midnight: Achievement Boost
• Daybreak: Resilience
• Day: No mark power; however, their mark does not activate at all until their charge pool reaches five dice.
• Moonshadow: Squad Tactics

Alchemical Exalted

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened
Free powers: Soulbound Weapon, Improved Grip, Soulsmith
Mark: Alchemicals have a soulgem, and usually have obviously artificial parts in their bodies (their soulbound weapon). Arcs of essence crackle around the soul gem at 2 charge dice. At 3 dice, the character glows with electrical colors, which intensify as the pool increases. At 6 dice, the anima becomes iconic, and the mark power activates. The mark power allows the alchemical's soulbound weapon to act as if it had one or more additional effects:

• Orichalcum: Shock Aura, Shining
• Moonsilver: Haste
• Jade: Protection, Toxin Immunity
• Starmetal: Area Strike, Multi Strike
• Soulsteel: Weakening
• Adamant: Elemental Force, Protection

Automaton

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened
Free powers: Body Resistance, Soul Resistance
Mark: Automaton are obviously magitech constructs. They have no mark power.

Dragon King

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened
Free powers: Force Attack
Mark: The lizard-like features of the dragon kings are unmistakable. Their mark power is constantly active, based on their breed:

• Anklok: Toughness
• Mosok: Resilience
• Pterok: Warflight
• Raptok: Strike Boost

Fair Folk Commoner

Fair Folk Noble

Ghost

God

Hero

Basic stats: 3 wound circles, an Action Pool with a maximum of 8 action dice, an empty Charge Pool with a maximum of 4 charge dice, and a defense of 1.
Conditions: none
Free powers: none
Mark: none

Infernal Exalted

Lunar Exalted

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened, Celestial
Free powers: Open Bond (must be to a skin), Summoning
Mark: A caste symbol on the forehead begins to shine at 2 charge dice. At 3 dice, the character gains an anima banner with silvery colors, which intensify as the pool increases. At 6 dice, the anima becomes iconic, and the mark power activates. The mark power depends on caste, chosen at the time the template is selected:

• Full Moon: Strike Boost
• Changing Moon: Maneuver Boost
• No Moon: Achievement Boost

Manse

Mortal

Basic stats: 2 wound circles, an Action Pool with a maximum of 6 action dice, an empty Charge Pool with a maximum of 2 charge dice, and a defense of 1.
Conditions: none
Free powers: none
Mark: none

Mountain Folk

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened
Free powers: Soulbound Weapon, Multisoul
Mark: The fae-like features of the jadeborn are unmistakable. They have no mark power.

Sidereal Exalted

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened, Celestial
Free powers: Zeal, Quicken
Mark: A caste symbol on the forehead begins to shine at 3 charge dice. At 4 dice, the character gains a subtle anima banner and and the mark power activates. The celestial colors of the anima intensify slightly as the pool increases, growing bright enough to read by at 6 dice. The mark power depends on caste, chosen at the time the template is selected:

• Journeys: Squad Tactics
• Serenity: Body Resistance
• Battle: Leadership
• Secrets: Soul Resistance
• Endings: Tactical Maneuvering

Solar Exalted

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened, Celestial
Free powers: Ambition, Heroics
Mark: A caste symbol on the forehead begins to shine at 2 charge dice. At 3 dice, the character gains an anima banner with brilliant colors, which intensify as the pool increases. At 6 dice, the anima becomes iconic, and the mark power activates. The mark power depends on caste, chosen at the time the template is selected:

• Dawn: Maneuver Boost
• Zenith: Achievement Boost
• Twilight: Resilience
• Night: No mark power; however, their mark does not activate at all until their charge pool reaches five dice.
• Eclipse: Squad Tactics

Terrestrial Exalted

Basic stats: Standard
Conditions: Enlightened
Free powers: Elemental Surge, Super Combo Strike
Mark: Skin tone may reflect elemental heritage. As charge dice are earned, the character's element radiates out in increasing intensity. At 2 charge dice, the mark power activates.

• Air: Resistance to Frost
• Earth: Resilience
• Fire: Resistance to Fire
• Water: Maneuver Boost
• Wood: Body Resistance

Unshaped

Basic stats: 3 wound circles, an Action Pool with a maximum of 8 action dice, an empty Charge Pool with a maximum of 8 charge dice, and a defense of 3.
Conditions: Enlightened, Celestial, Transcendant, Wyld
Free powers: Summoning
Mark:

Soulbound

Something about hellforged stuff?

Stuff for flying

Surviving in the Wyld.

Over Complicated Crap

Eidolons

The eidolons presented in Anima Prime come in many forms, but are conceived as one "type" of thing. This changes in X′, which makes use of several genera of eidolon. Instead of one main Summoning power, each genus of eiodolon requires its own summoning power and often has restrictions on what type of character can learn it. These genera are:

• Invocations are summoned using thaumaturgy and sorcery, with the resulting eidolons called elementals, demons or spells.
• Banes are summoned using thaumaturgy and necromancy, with the resulting eidolons called necrotech or curses.
• Skins, when summoned, wrap around the summoner, giving the impression that the summoner has changed his or her own form.
• Signs, the most subtle of eidolon, are summoned with astrology.
• Scourges are summoned by masters of vitriol.
• Protocols connect to the machine realm of the Great Maker, with summoned eidolons called machine spirits, golems, elementals or patterns.
• Graces are summoned from dreams using shaping, and take the form of behemoths, adjurations or glamours.

With the exception of the power used, summoning and controlling an eiodolon works as per the Anima Prime rules. Similarly, customizing eiodolons works as standard. Some methods of summoning may modify the standard rules, which will be noted below.

Eiodolon Powers

The powers available to eiodolons remain roughly the same. Assume eiodolon powers work as writen, with the following tweaks:

Passive Powers

Only thing changed here might be the resistances list. Might need to add stuff to match changes to conditions or elemental types.

Charge Powers

Eidolons can select any of the charge powers and use them exactly the same way that PCs do, keeping in mind the changes detailed in the Powers section, below. In a departure from Anima Prime, some powerful eidolons (particularly demons) may be able to use the Soulbound Weapons and various summoning powers, subject to GM approval and keeping with the theme of the eidolon. It is suggested that those rare eidolons who can do their own summoning never be allowed to summon eidolons more powerful than themselves.

Weaknesses

Any of the weakness listed in Anima Prime may be selected. You may choose one of these instead:

Rogue
The eidolon breaks from the control of the summoner as soon as it arrives. It may act independently from the summoner, receiving its own action each turn, but it follows its own motivation and is controlled by the GM. Most rogue eidolons hold ill feelings toward their summoner.

Summoning Powers

The list of summoning powers (Anima Prime, pp. 118-119) is altered as follows:

• The Summoning power becomes three different powers: Thaumaturgy, Shaping and Weaving. These all work as per the Summoning power, but only summon certain genera of eiodolon, and may have limits on what types of characters can learn it. Some of these powers work on more than one genera of eidolon, and some do not. In particular:
  • Thaumaturgy allows the summoning of Level 0 Invocations, Banes and Signs.
  • Shaping allows the summoning of Level 0 Graces, Skins and Scourges.
  • Weaving allows the summoning of Level 0 Protocols.
• The mechanics of the Empower Eidolon power remain the same; however, each genus of eiodolon requires learning this power separately. Each genus gives is own set of names to these powers.
• The Open Bond power works as described, but may be given a name more appropriate to its purpose. For example, a lunar might call her version of this power "War Form".
• All other summoning powers (e.g. Charged Summoning, Companion, etc.) work as written, and may be applied to any summoning the character does. For example, one purchase of Warfare Summoning would apply to both banes and signs, if the summoner knew how to summon both.

Thaumaturgy

Type: Action
Cost: 1+Eidolon Level Charge Dice
Limits: Any sentient being can learn thaumaturgy.
Effect: The summoner conjures an invocation, bane or sign with which she has a bond (i.e., the power is useless without a bonded eidolon). The eidolon appears instantaneously. She can only have 1 eidolon summoned at any one time. The eidolon only acts when the summoner orders it to, which uses up the summoner’s action.

If this power is used by someone without the Enlightened condition, roll a d10 and add the number of wounds the summoner has. On a 1-5, the eidolon arrives as planned. On a 6-8, the eidolon refuses the summons and the action is wasted. On a 9 or more, the eidolon arrives, but with any weakness it has replaced by Rogue (see above).

Empower Invocation

This set of powers works as the Empower Eidolon power set (Anima Prime, pg. 119), except that it only takes effect when summoning invocations. The five levels of this power have their own names and limitations:

1. Sorcerous Initiation: May only be learned by those with the Enlightened condition.
2. Terrestrial Circle Sorcery: May only be learned by those with the Enlightened condition.
3. Celestial Circle Sorcery: May only be learned by those with the Celestial condition.
4. Solar Circle Sorcery: May only be learned by solar exalted, infernal exalted and some very powerful gods.
5. Master Sorcerer: May only be learned by solar exalted, infernal exalted and some very powerful gods.

Empower Bane

This set of powers works as the Empower Eidolon power set (Anima Prime, pg. 119), except that it only takes effect when summoning banes. The five levels of this power have their own names and limitations:

1. Necromantic Initiation: May only be learned by those with the Enlightened condition.
2. Shadowlands Circle Necromancy: May only be learned by those with the Celestial condition and ghosts.
3. Labyrinth Circle Necromancy: May only be learned by those with the Celestial condition and powerful ghosts.
4. Void Circle Necromancy: May only be learned by abyssal exalted and some very powerful ghosts.
5. Master Necromancer: May only be learned by abyssal exalted and some very powerful ghosts.

Empower Sign

This set of powers works as the Empower Eidolon power set (Anima Prime, pg. 119), except that it only takes effect when summoning signs. The five levels of this power have their own names and limitations:

1. Kyu Calligraphy: May only be learned by sidereal exalts and gods with the Celestial condition.
2. Jun Shodan Calligraphy: May only be learned by sidereal exalts and gods with the Celestial condition.
3. Shodan Calligraphy: May only be learned by sidereal exalts and very powerful gods with the Celestial condition.
4. Dan Calligraphy: May only be learned by sidereal exalts.
5. Shihan Calligraphy: May only be learned by sidereal exalts.

Shaping

Type: Action
Cost: 1+Eidolon Level Charge Dice
Limits: Fair folk, gods and those with the Celestial condition only.
Effect: The summoner conjures an grace, scourge or skin with which she has a bond (i.e., the power is useless without a bonded eidolon). The eidolon appears instantaneously. She can only have 1 eidolon summoned at any one time. The eidolon only acts when the summoner orders it to, which uses up the summoner’s action.

Empower Grace

This set of powers works as the Empower Eidolon power set (Anima Prime, pg. 119), except that it only takes effect when summoning graces. The five levels of this power have their own names and limitations:

1. Waking Circle Shaping: May only be learned by fair folk, gods with the Celestial condition, solar exalted and lunar exalted.
2. Dreaming Circle Shaping: May only be learned by fair folk and lunar exalted.
3. Desire Circle Shaping: May only be learned by fair folk.
4. Samadhi Circle Shaping: May only be learned by folk nobles.
5. Shinma Circle Shaping: May only be learned by folk nobles.

Empower Scourge

This set of powers works as the Empower Eidolon power set (Anima Prime, pg. 119), except that it only takes effect when summoning scourges. The five levels of this power have their own names and limitations:

1. Vitriolic Initiation: May only be learned by demons and infernal exalted.
2. First Circle Hellforging: May only be learned by demons and infernal exalted.
3. Second Circle Hellforging: May only be learned by demons and infernal exalted.
4. Third Circle Hellforging: May only be learned by demons and infernal exalted.
5. Master Hellforger: May only be learned by demons and infernal exalted.

Empower Skin

This set of powers works as the Empower Eidolon power set (Anima Prime, pg. 119), except that it only takes effect when summoning skins. The five levels of this power have their own names and limitations:

1. Samhara Shifting: May only be learned by fair folk, gods with the Celestial condition, infernal exalted and lunar exalted.
2. Sthiti Shifting: May only be learned by fair folk and lunar exalted.
3. Anugraha Shifting: May only be learned by fair folk nobles and lunar exalted.
4. Tirobhava Shifting: May only be learned by lunar exalted.
5. Srishti Shifting: May only be learned by lunar exalted.

Weaving

Type: Action
Cost: 1+Eidolon Level Charge Dice
Limits: Alchemical exalted only.
Effect: The summoner conjures a protocol with which she has a bond (i.e., the power is useless without a bonded eidolon). The eidolon appears instantaneously. She can only have 1 eidolon summoned at any one time. The eidolon only acts when the summoner orders it to, which uses up the summoner’s action.

Empower Protocol

This set of powers works as the Empower Eidolon power set (Anima Prime, pg. 119), except that it only takes effect when summoning skins. The five levels of this power have their own names and limitations:

1. Allocation Protocol: May only be learned by alchemical exalted.
2. Initialization Protocol: May only be learned by alchemical exalted.
3. Man-Machine Protocol: May only be learned by alchemical exalted.
4. God-Machine Protocol: May only be learned by alchemical exalted.
5. Autochthonian Protocol: May only be learned by alchemical exalted.