BogModAlternateSidereals

One thing that has allways bothered me about the Sidereals is the no custom charms aside from martial arts thing. For a group of advisors and wise men ultimately they are all effectively just Dawns or Full Moons. Their thing is to fight. The Sidereal book talks about how only the Maiden's can design charms that work with the Loom of Fate without horribly snarling things and I accept this. Personally, the idea that the Exalted were designed to basically ruin the world through the use of their powers comes across very...ugh. So yeah, this is a decoupling of their abilities from the Maidens/Loom. Treating Fate more like a great fundamental aspect of existance like the 5 Elements.

Sidereal's are ability based but not in the same way as Solars or Dragonblooded. Where Solars shine with perfection and rulership and the might of the Unconquered Sun and Dragonblooded flavor their acts with the elements Sidereals have the constellations to draw themes from. Charms draw their strength from three things. First of all there is the ability in question. Putting essence into mundane talents allows for extraordinary things. Second of all there is a college for reach ability and themes can be drawn from that. Finally there is the Maiden in question who each ability resonates with.

I am introducing a new Keyword called College. To go with this Keyword is a new background called House. This House background will replace the College trait from normal sidereals. The House background goes from one to five dots. There is one House background for each of the 5 Houses of Colleges. This single background effectively counts as having that many dots in each College of that House. So a Sidereal with the background House of Secrets 4 for purposes of Astrology and such they count as having 4 in all of the Colleges of that House. Charms with the College Keyword will require dots in the appropriate House. In this way it is similiar to Purity or Avatar Keyword charms. This should be applied to charms that draw on the Astrological themes of each ability rather than charms which have a more mundane build off of an ability. Note my initial use of it was somewhat inconsistent and I have not gone through them all to edit yet. Settings which incorporate astrology and constellations in some form for the Underworld and other realms should consider Sidereals being able to pick up such techniques and gain appropriate 'House' backgrounds if they delve into it.

Another change is happening to the Sidereal Dice Cap. It is now set at Essence + Ability. The Fateful Ability Excellency is Combo-Ok, but is not comboable with other excellencies. Their Third Excellency costs 4m now and their Second Excellency works just like a Solar or Lunar or DB second Excellency.

These new charms will not have Fate, Prayer Strip or Maiden keyword charms. They do not interact with the Loom but instead with fundamental principals and traits relating to fate that were built into existance when the Primordials designed Creation and have rippled outward to touch all parts of existance. Like a Dragonbloodeds elemental power or a Solars perfection these traits exist as part of the Sidereal and work anywhere at full effectiveness. Also, Prayer Strip charms are really weird as a charm idea, being how they require you to have a specific component to do them its really more like sorcery then anything.

Glories seems to have gone halfway to giving the player base what they want in terms of new sid charms. Astrology charms are pretty much exactly what the books say would happen if the Sidereals could make new charms. Giant fuckups across the Loom. Wrong direction I still think and it still makes Sidereals so oddly relient on something outside of themselves. Still I like this sort of approach to things. Its become clear that there is an idea of fate beyond merely the loom in Samsara, cosmic principals and all that so these shouldn't be too impossible to think about.

New idea for Prayer Strip charms. Sidereal charms with that keyword will have enhanced effects when used with a prayer strip but can be used even without. Like how some charms with the Wyld keyword are except these will always be useable.

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I'd just like to say that the canon implementation of the Sidereals is about the worst thing in the Exalted game, in my opinion. The totally uncustomizable charm trees being one of the biggest problems, as in short order, all 'mysterious masters' quickly become the same thing - and quite unmysterious. I applaud your effort, and wish you well. - GreenLantern

Thanks. For the moment I am just working on the charm concepts for them. Once I can get all that worked out then I can worry about the mechanics. One of the things about them that annoyed me isn't that they are wise its just they use the Loom to make doing certain things easier. Which mechanically is what, making a few dice rolls easier. Its not like the charms of other exalts don't make things easier too. They really are worse off at being advisors then a Lunar would be with their advanced intelligence charms. -BogMod

Complete! Anyone care to read and comment? -BogMod

I'll definately read it when I have more time, im really really interested in this! -Nkolos

Responded to some comments. -BogMod

Crap, missed the 5 Hero Styles. Well working on those now. But read the other stuff in the meanwhile please. -BogMod

Ok, 5 hero styles all done. -BogMod

Does this mean that at least some of the "standard" Sidereal Charms still exist, they can just also learn and make new charms as well? Or is this list meant to completely replace any existing Sidereal Charm. Also are the 3 Failures in this list? -StarJaunter

When I originally wrote it I went with the impression that the original charmlist still existed. However I feel that this could very easily be done as a complete replace and is how I am currently playtesting it. Alas no, the 3 failures are not at the moment as they are more a story idea than anything else. -BogMod

I really liked all of your ideas and am likely going to implement them with my Sidereal NPCs in my tabletop game. My only question is: Since the idea of Resplendent Destinies is still pretty much covered by the House ratings, how are you treating Arcane Fate and its effects? -Isane

Arcane Fate and its effects still work the same. Turning the Colleges into background makes them cheaper and easier to be good at as well as allowing nice connection into the charm structure. -BogMod

BogModAlternateSidereals

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