GregLink/JediExalted
So what is Exalted? In my opinion, the mechanics of dramatic conflict, augmented with coolness. People have extended it to ExMod, and to other things. Why not go whole-hog, and just call the Beam Klaive for what it truly is? To that end, I present thoughts, musings, and notes.
Disclaimer: If you don't think this should be done, I'm not interested in hearing from you. I'm writing this in total submission of my fanboydom, and while it may be geeky, it's still valid work, weird or not.
Really, to me, the Jedi are quite simple. To make life easier, I'll represent them at first as Solar Exalted (because everyone's more familiar with that) and because Jedi seem to have access to scene-long reflexives. Right off the bat, eliminate the anima banner, and caste mark. Next, redo the caste system, as follows: (Using the upcoming ExaltedSecond ability list, for future-proofing sake)
Guardian (the guys with blue lightsabers): Melee, Athletics, Ride, Tactics, Survival Consular (the guys with green lightsabers): Awareness, Presence, Lore, Craft, Socialize Sentinel (the guys with yellow lightsabers - rarely seen in films): Stealth, Investigation, Resistance, Larceny, Integrity Mace Windu (the guy with the purple lightsaber): Any goddam thing he wants, muthafugga!
Not necessarily the best list ever, but it's a start.
I've got alternative ways to view sabers, so I'll put them both down:
1)
- When dealing damage, the lightsaber first halves all relevant soak, then applies the piercing effect. Against living targets, assume all damage dice are automatic successes. Against inanimate targets, double the raw damage dice before calculating damage. Does roughly Str+10L damage per strike.
2)
- The lightsaber totally ignores soak, of all sorts, and does damage dice equal to the user's Essence per strike - ignoring strength. Extra successes from the attack roll are doubled when calculating the number of damage dice done.
Mechanically, they're both around Artifact 4-5, which makes sense, as they're monstrous weapons. I'd most likely include some more stuff from the Alchemical's "Beam Klaive", but really, the hardest part is getting something that will cut through a 45L soak wall, without incinerating a living target. The problem is not figuring out how exactly Luke can get his hand chopped off (Vader is an Abyssal, which we'll get to in a minute), but how Obi-Wan totally reams Anakin without killing him. More to the point, Sabers seem to do umpty damage to objects, but reasonable damage to people. More accurately, Sabers do damage, just don't care what your soak is - hence the soak ignorance on the above designs. One is more of a raw-damage thing, the other requires accuracy. Not sure which better fits, as you've got to consider Qui-Gon just splitting his dice pool 6 ways and melting the heck out of that locked blast door, and you've got to consider Luke slicing anything he wants.
As for charms, this is the fun part. Jedi have access to a large majority of Solar charms. They're especially known for Summoning the loyal steel, FFBS, the Presence charms, Monkey Leap Technique, et cetera. What they're not known for is the Performance tree, the Larceny tree, the concept of Sorcery at all, and a few others.
We can fix these inconsistencies with two setting modifications. The first is that we assume that 99+% of useful Force-users are Jedi or Sith of a sort. We can arrange that by noting that learning new charms requires a teacher, or a /really/ freaking long time. By being Jedi or Sith, you're immediately limited to the charm set that they deem useful. At that point, in a game setting, the ST can simply say "ah, no, no one has yet figured out the charm 'Corona of Radiance'". It keeps out of setting charms out of player's hands, and forces (and allows) them to create in-setting charms. The second is that Sorcery and little spirits don't exist, at all. There's no Occult to speak of, whatsoever. Artifact construction is limited to purely Lore+Craft rolls.
Next up is lifespan. Even though they're playing Solars, we'll note that their lifespan isn't extended, unless they pick up charms for it.
The big setting clincher, however, is the Limit. All Jedi-trained force users get the same virtue flaw, which activates on any virtue of 3 or higher, meaning a truly high virtue Jedi has real issues to worry about, or he better set to righting the world. That flaw is "Deliberate Cruelty". Anytime they limit break, the spend the next time period going absolutely batshit nuts. The first time you limit break, it's (Essence) minutes. The second time, it's (Essence) hours - then (Essence) days. Each time you limit break, you also gain a permanent point of limit, making it more likely you'll go psycho again. It is possible to lower your limit, by acting in ways accordant with the Jedi teachings, which is a good thing. You can eliminate that permanent limit (and lower the timer-counter) by acting in a way that would eliminate 10 temporary limit points. It usually means making tough decisions though, such as "I'm going to let my wife die" and "I'm going to forgo true love" and stuff like that.
All characters can learn abyssal charms of 1 Essence higher than they actually have, implying that an Essence 4 Jedi can learn Abyssal charms with an Essence 5 requirement. Using any Abyssal charm grants a point of temporary limit.
Comments
"Is the Dark Side stronger?" -- Luke
"No! No... quicker, easier, more seductive!" -- Yoda
Based on this principle, I think that rather than allowing people to have "dark" charms of 1 Essence higher than usual, the "dark" charms should be allowed at the usual Essence requirement, but a lower XP cost than the "light" charms. - IanPrice
- Yeah, I hadn't finished this yet, which is why I've been keeping it off of the 'recent changes' list. I'm working on some more details (such as what you describe) to add to the lure of the dark side, and how once you turn, it stops being as nice to you.
My friend and I actually pondered this at length for a while... to the extent of working out this much. (This was before Autocthonians came out) http://rooster.is-a-geek.net:8000/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?StarWarsRPG
I'd just replace Occult with Science, and have Lore be historical or academical and spiritual stuff. Actually, I don't see the concept of little gods as too farfetched--just make them Messengers of the Force (like the one that takes Vader's form when Luke is training with Yoda). Make them extremely rare.
