ExMod/Discussion

Wow! I'll go ahead and add the Abilities I've decided to use, and their corrollaries. See top. Also, I love the few Computer Charms I was able to read, Darius! Good stuff. As I've said on my area of the UserPages, I do have an acting PDF of the ExMod sheet my group uses, just no place to host it! Any ideas? - Balthasar

Mm. Try free.prohosting.com - it used to be one of the better providers of free webhosting, but I've no idea if it still exists.

Or try making friends with a college student- most of us have access to a fair bit of free web space :) How big is this PDF anywho? - DariusSolluman

Okay, I'll check it out. Or perhaps just beg Dave to host it. And, it's a little over 800kb. - Balthasar Addendum: Prohosting is a no-go; it clips the PDF file, and turns it into a itty bitty Adobe Acrobat error message window.

Try zipping the file and having it be downloaded from the sight, rather than displaying it inline. - DariusSolluman

Good idea! And, it worked! See the top page. Thanks, man. - Balthasar

Just wanted to say this interests me, so if you want any help, I'm up for tossing out ideas. - haren

OOH! Had a thought!

Replace Occult with Science, with Sorcery turning into... I dunno a good word for it, but a mad scientist skill.

Mm. OTOH, that weakens some of the magic of Exalted... - DariusSolluman

I like it! It all really depends on what flavor of ExMod you like. But I think Twilight and Eclipse castes are modified enough that a modular Caste Ability system could be useful (so if you like your Eclipses to be hackers, replace one of their archaic Abilities with the Modern Debateable Ability). After all, I'm not the Dictator of How ExMod Will Be For Everyone.  :-D

There's no need to mess with any of the Firearms pages - I've already devised 26 other Charms in addition to the eight Solar Charms I've added today. I just have to flavor-text 'em, format 'em, and slap 'em down here. Is there anyone out there willing to playtest these Charms? I'd love some game-based feedback on them. Also, a few Firearms complications are on the way, but mostly, I've left ranged combat alone with one new addition: area.

And, Haren, I would love your help. I like pretty much all of your ideas! You know where to find me on IRC, and my e-mail is now esmevane@yahoo.com - Balthasar

I'm not sure that Drive and Pilot would be sufficiently different to allow for two different skills; you might be better off fusing the two into one, leaving an available slot for Computer. - Quendalon

I understand what you mean. But, I do think they are sufficiently different to allow people the option of including Pilot. I'm not trying to dictate anything here, just collect notes and share ideas. If you think dogfighting or helicopter combat is significant enough for an ExMod game to include the Ability, you may want some Charms for it, too.  ;) - Balthasar

That reminds me- something else I mean to steal from Spycraft; Chase rules. I've heard that the old 007 RPG has a really good set of chase rules too- does anyone have it, and how adaptable to Storyteller is it? - DariusSolluman

Sidenote- Er. Am I borrowing too much from Spycraft? It's the only crunchy cinematicy modern game I've really liked... :)

Just wanted to say, this is a really cool project. Keep up the awesome work! - FourWillowsWeeping

Thanks, Willow! I appreciate it.

Yes. The way I see it, vehicles in general need development. This is actually a part of ExMod I've done no work on whatsoever, but the way I see it, we need vehicle rules for both combat and pursuit, aerial and ground. I would prefer it if these were simple, but for such a complex topic it may not be possible! And no, I don't think you're drawing too much from Spycraft - take the worthwhile stuff from any game you like, if it helps.

BTW, Darius, I was thinking about our different takes on Firearms (and maybe in the future, vehicles), and I came to a conclusion: Maybe we could section off the appropriate areas of the page, and offer a few different rules sets for every "new" modern topic? I.E., although our Firearms concepts are nearly identical, yours is a bit more detail-involved, and so we can present the systems as two optional modes - a 'bare bones' mechanic and an 'involved' one, and make both available to a budding ExMod ST. I certainly know I like to read everyone's take on things, so maybe we can get diversity and authority all in one package. :-D - Balthasar

I was actually thinking on similiar lines- but the whole 'at work' thing slows me down a bit :) - DariusSolluman

Me too. Actually, I generally don't post to or check the Wiki at home, instead choosing to play Final Fantasy XI (mmmm...) - er, anyway. What can I say? I'm most creative when I'm on the payroll. (Hear that, White Wolf?) - Balthasar

Wow, this is totally awesome! I've always thought about what it might be like if Exalted were set in the modern world... now I see you guys have already got rockin' Charms and character sheets and everything! Is there a current cosmology or story, or is that still waiting to happen? If I come up with any ideas (or free time), I'd love to help out, if needed. ~~Gorol

There's kinda two Exalted Modern Cosmologies. In one, you just take the basic ideas of Exalted's setting (Dragonblooded rule the world, Sidereal lurk in shadow and the Solars are just returning at a time of crisis). Mix in Hong Kong cinemia, serve, enjoy :) In the other- well, I'm not sure, but Balth has intimated that he's cranking up and down a few of the default setting assumptions.

As for stuff what needs doing- I'd dearly love to see the new Lunar Firearms Charms. I just don't know/understand the Lunars well enough to write them myself- and keep getting brain blocks when I try to write Solar Firearms Charms.

- DariusSolluman

Well, I'm not real good at Lunars, myself. The problem is, even in the Second Age, Lunar ranged Charms pretty much suck. Lunars are all about their natural talents, not learned skills like marksmanship. Now, don't get me wrong, one of the greatest archery warriors I ever saw was a Lunar, but that's becuase her Strength and Dexterity were both 8 in DBT, not really becuase of any Charms. ~~Gorol

Lunar book's the only fatsplat I haven't read, so I can't comment :). Question though. Is Pilot supposed to take in both boats and planes? (And gliders, presumably. Rockets? Submarines?) -- Senji

I'll look into Lunar Firearms, I think... there's probably some cool thing to do with it. - FourWillowsWeeping.

Lunar Firearms has baffled me for months. You'll see by looking at what I've posted already that I'm reaching for inspiration. The only ideas I was able to slap together eventually led to Autocybernetic Lunars (the idea that a Lunar can achieve circuit-pattern intricacy with shapechanging).

Senji, you're more or less right on with Pilot. It's for the heavy duty vehicles that either have a three-dimensional environment to move in, or are controlled with operating panels that consist of insanely complex controls that take a lot of foreknowledge to operate (you know, in the cinematic sense).

You know, anyone who likes is very invited to write their own content. Other things I'm still putting together are Computer Charms (I'd hoped to wait long enough to make DariusSolluman do all of these :-D ), Pilot Charms and Systems, Lunar Charms (a class of their own apart from the Ability-user Charms), and Hyperscience (I really want to do something similar to Adventure! science). Also, I might have to clean up the front page a bit more ;-) - Balthasar

Are you going to put up any more of the setting. I read the bit in Hyperscience, and was most intrigued but I can't find anything else?

One thing you may consider on the computer/hacking side is ripping off of the Matrix of Shadowrun a bit. You could have Exalts capable of projecting their Essence into the networks and computers to battle it out. If you were running a Dragonblood in charge thing than it is not impossible to assume that most of the important assets were protected by an Exalt, and the greatest would include whole teams of flash hackers to stop your players. You could easily do an entire campaign.

One other thing that may be interesting is making each caste get a modern ability that helps them out with computers. Dawn could be experts at crashing, Night would be not getting caught, Eclipse getting in, Twilight programming and coding, with Zenith. Hm. Oh yeah, Zenith could be better at virus and virus defense. One of the ideas off of the deckers in shadowrun is that viruses are basically the weapons deckers use against eachother. Just some thoughts. -Jaelra

I personally really, really, really don't like the 'virtual reality' hacking metaphor in gaming. It either totally deprives the Runner of screen time, or comes to dominate the game. Hacking works best, IMO, when it's a useful skill that's not a whole seperate subsystem to master. DS

Yeah, I think Shadowrun's Matrix idea is OK, but one can do better. Unless they're a huge part of your game, I would consider making Computers a part of the "Science" skill.

I wrote a bunch of other thoughts on ablity trees, but they take up enough room that I'm putting them on a seperate page: ExMod/MeisAblityThoughts.

Just a thought: the collusion of Linguistics with Computers could be termed the Communication skill...DeathBySurfeit

I'm working on campaign material for an upcoming sequel game, including specific example of people I feel are good candidates for Celestial Exaltation in the modern world (both real and fictional people are included). The page is at BillGarrett/FallOfEdenSources.

I agree with DS; hacking should be nothing more than a speciality of Computers or even Sience (if Computers falls under it) or something. This might be my opinion, because I want to make ExMod a modern version of Exalted and not a futuristic. Another thing I am thinking about is switching some of the new Abilities to better fit the Castes. I think that Firearms should belong to the Fire Dragonblooded and not to the Dragonblooded of Wood... with Drive, it's the same. I had the idea of making the Melee Ability earth-aspected (melee weapons are forged from the earths ressources), the Firearms Ability fire-aspected (it fits to Fire, however) and making the Martial Arts Ability wood-aspected (as the martial arts initiation reminds me of wood, somehow). Then, I'd have to switch Drive and Socialize (cars are fire-driven vehicles, while people do not longer sit around a fire, but meet in beautiful gardens, relaxing from the stress of the city). It fits all well, I think... Another question is about the background of ExMod. What did happen on Creation so far? I'd like to take the current background and history of Exalted and give it a modern twist - Imperial City as Neo Tokyo and Nexus as Midgar and the like. I think we should discuss about that... Jiba

I would like to see you guys who are interested in modern exalted settings create some "Modern" martial art styles. I just created a solaresque style integrating guns into hand to hand combat (link -> Flowing Gun Kata). I just would like to hear your thoughts and maybe see your own creations. ~ Insanewizard

To be honest, I've thought about it, but never gotten down to doing it. I did have a character in a very short lived ExMod game that it would have worked for. Balthasar hasn't been around in a while, but when I see him, I'll mention it. - haren

I still think the biggest problem with ability swap is that it limits potential ideas for characters. What if I want Lore and Computers? What if I hack into a corrupt thaumaturge's database for occult secrets to apply to scientific principles for my new technomagical creations? I think something other than ability swapping needs to be figured out. - Jaelra

Adding an ability for each caste might help... like, Dawn could get Firearms, Zenith... something, Twilight Electronics, Night Security, Eclipse Computers/Networking? - sssssz

I'm currently developing an Exalted Modern setting of my own (completely different and separate from the ExMod setting), and a lot of the ideas here have helped me along. For instance, I've folded Thrown into Brawl, folded Archery into Firearms, added Warfare/Tactics as a Dawn Ability, added Academics as a basic knowledge of various areas of study (math, literature, English, history, geography, science, etc.), folded the "First Age" side of Lore into Occult, made Crafts an Ability involving three separate subsets: Construction (farming, mining, carpentry, metalworking, plumbing, etc.), Personal (painting, drawing, weaving, domestic, culinary, etc.), and Technology (electrical appliances, automotive, gadgeteering, computers (including programming/hacking), etc.), made riding animals a function of Athletics, switched Ride for Drive, and switched Sail for Pilot. Linguistics is now the ability to use language to create meaning, steer conversations, copy words, etc. and languages can be taken as additional Specialties. I'm currently working on redoing pretty much all the Solar Charm trees and creating the cosmology/story part of the setting. - Arcanus Dicere

Tell me 'bout your concept, Arcanus. Sounds interessting. [Jiba]