RedMegaman/ExaltedSterich

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RedMegaman/SterichExaltedTemplates - Character templates for the game.
RedMegaman/SterichExaltedIdeas - Ideas for the game in various stages of completeness.

Sterich: The Next Generation

Make new characters, the party should include the following concepts:

A junior priest of the Sueloise pantheon (Henrik).
A junior thaumaturge, protege of a member of the Royal Order of Slerotin.
A junior Reeperknight, reeperherald or Grunschnabel.
Maybe a junior SADO monk.

Any other new PCs should belong to a division of Reeperbahnden, the Royal Order of Slerotin or the United Sueloise Church.

Character Generation Rules

Assign 14 points of Attribute dots, the first dot is free, the fifth costs 2 points. (01112)
Choose three favoured abilities. The character's patron deity determines two of them, while the third if freely chosen.
Assign 25 points of Abilitiy dots, the fourth dot costs 2 points, the fifth 4 points. (11124)
Assign three speciality dots (111).
Assign language dots. Native language 2 dots. Assign a number of points equal to the character's intelligence score to language dots. The third dot costs 2 points. (112)
Assign 5 points of Virtue dots, the first is free, the 4th and 5th dots cost 2 points each. (01122)
Assign 9 points of Background dots, the fourth dot costs 3 points, the fifth costs 5 points. (11135)
Record Permanent Essence, one dot.
Record Willpower as the sum of the two highest virtues.
Record Essence pool as 7*Essence + 2*WP + the sum of the Virtues.
Choose 3 charms from favoured abilities only.

Altered Experience Rules

Most of these rule changes are made to either simulate certain aspects of D&D or to manipulate advancement rates. None of these changes are fixed at this point.

Experience Thresholds

Exalted Sterich characters gain special powers as they gain more XP. This is a fun way to keep the "level up"-aspect of D&D.

|]50 XP:|[New favoured ability|| |]100 XP:|[Able to learn non-favoured charms for 12 XP each|| |||[New favoured ability|| |]150 XP:|[Able to develop and use Combos|| |||[New favoured ability|| |]200 XP:|[Able to learn charms without a tutor|| |||[New favoured ability|| |]300 XP:|[Able to use Reflexive Charms as Dragonblooded|| |||[New favoured ability|| |]400 XP:|[Able to powerstunt Combos for 2 WP and double mote cost|| |||[New favoured ability|| |]500 XP:|[New favoured ability||

XP Awards

Inspired by CrownedSun/DetailedXP

||||||Every Game>|| |[Base XP*:||3||Everyone gets this awards regardless.|| |[Showing up:||2||Everyone who shows gets this award.|| |[Diary:||1||Those who write synopses from the game gets this one.|| |[Work on the setting:||1-2||Players who contribute to the setting with work I can use gets this one.|| |[Spare the bad guy:||1||Only one PC gets this one, and only if the bad guy gets away and is alive and well at the end of the session.|| |[Heroism:||1||Did the characters behave like the heroes they are?|| |[Discovery:||1||Did the characters learn anything worthwhile during the game?||

||||||||Occasionally|| |[Story award*:|| var ||||Depends on how much they got done, usually between 2-4 XP per session gathered and given as a lump sum at the end of the story. Use CrownedSun's check list.|| |[ || ||||Was the session a totally awesome climax?|| |[ || ||||Were sideplots resolved and character's developed?|| |[ || ||||Did the character's accomplish their goals?|| |[ || ||||ALL of their goals; i.e., was it a total victory?|| |[ || ||||Were the bad guys sent packing, with wailing and gnashing of teeth?|| |[ || ||||Do you (mostly) understand (almost) everything that happened in the story?|| |[ || ||Yes to everything:|[#sessions*4 XP|| |[ || ||Four or more:|[#sessions*3 XP|| |[ || ||One to three:|[#sessions*2 XP|| |[ || ||None:|[#sessions*1 XP|| |[Seasonal XP*:||1||||The characters get one XP one the first of each resplendent month.||

An asterisk (*) indicates basic XP awards. All other awards are bonus XP.

If a character dies and the player makes a new one, the new character starts with a number of XP equal to the dead character's bonus XP.

Training

A character cannot teach himself charms without a tutor. In special cases the need for tuition can be replaced by a text describing the charms. Mostly in the cases of sorcery and martial arts.

|[Attributes|[CR months|| |[Abilities|[CR days|| |[Specialities|[3 weeks|| |[Essence|[CR months|| |[Charms w/tutor|[1 week + min essence + min abilities|| |[Charms from text|[Double the above|| |[Spells|[2 weeks||

Increasing Attributes, Virtues and Willpower

||||XP costs|| |[Attributes:|[CR x4 (minimum 8xp/dot)|| |[Virtues:|[CR x5 (minimum 10xp/dot)||

The result is that the most cost efficient score to buy at character creation is 2 or 3 dots (8:1 / 10:1). The fourth dot is 6:1 / 15:2 and the fifth dot is 16:3 (5.333) / 10:1.

Willpower is ALWAYS the sum of the character's two highest virtues. Raising a virtue is the only way to raise Willpower.

Increasing Divine Favour (Essence)

Increasing Divine Favour from one to two dots can be done almost subconsciously, thus even heroes who deny their patron deity can increase his standing to this level. The month of training may be a period of rest and subconscious pondering rather than meditation.

Increasing it to level three requires a certain acknowledgement of the deity which can be represented by the character's performing actions pleasing to his patron. The character may still deny his patron and rationalise his actions in other ways, but his subconsciousness requires him to act according to his patron deity's wishes. The two months of training should be spent in seclusion or on a pilgrimage and while performing the patron's work.

Increasing Divine Favour beyond three dots requires the character to consciously and explicitly acknowledge his patron deity and acting in accordance with his faith's tenets. The months of training requires seclusion and meditation on the glory and teachings of the god.

Recovery

Regaining Willpower

Each morning after a night's rest a character rolls his highest virtue to regain willpower. As opposed to the official rule of rolling Conviction. Don't remember where I got this idea, but it's a good one.

Damage in Combat

Heroes use a modified infection and bleeding rule.

After every combat, each combattant who has suffered injuries must roll one STA+Resistance at normal diff to avoid any infections, certain wounds and creatures cause the difficulty to increase. He must also bind his wounds to avoid bleeding to death. Roll PER+Medicine with a difficulty equal to his current wound penalty to staunch the bleeding. An application of any charm which converts health levels of damage or cures lethal or aggravated damage automatically stops any bleeding.

Altered Attributes

Inspired by a post on RPG.net. The modifications are made to fix the overwhelming usefulness of Dexterity over the two other physical Attributes. The reason for removing Appearance is that I don't have a use for it.

Strength

Attack and parry rolls for Close Combat Abilities are now modified by Strength rather than Dexterity. This has the added bonus of conforming to the D&D convention of modifying attack rolls by Strength.

Stamina

All characters start with 5 Health Levels, -0, -1, -2, -4, Incap. Each dot of Stamina increases this number by adding first one -2 HL, then one -1 HL, then another -2 HL and so on. A Stamina 2 character will end up with the normal spread of HLs while a Stamina 5 character will have the equivalent of a solar Ox-Body Technique for free. This has the added bonus of conforming to the D&D convention of modifying the Hit Point total by Constitution.

Charisma and Appearance

Appearance no longer exists. All aspects of Appearance will be subsumed under Charisma. A character can be as pretty or ugly as its player desires. How well the character uses his looks is goverend by his score in the Presence Ability.

Perception

Attack rolls for Ranged Combat Abilities are now modified by Perception rather than Dexterity.

Altered Abilities

I'm not the only one who is fiddeling around with the abilities in Exalted ;-)

Crafts

All crafts fall into one of the four broad categories below. Mortals skilled in crafts must specialise in more narrow fields, e.g. Craft: Pottery, Craft: Blacksmithing, Craft: marine construction.

Craft: Arcane - Anything related to arcane or occult fields.
Craft: Construction - Building anything from fortifications to ships. Mostly when working with masonry or wood.
Craft: Metals - Weapons, armour and anything else made from metals.
Craft: Peasant - Pottery, sewing, tanning, carpentry et c.

Occult and Prayer

The Occult ability is renamed Ritual while a few aspects are relocated to the Performance ability. Ritual is the ability for constructing protection circles, summoning and binding spirits, ghosts and demons through coercion, manipulating essence flows, researching artifacts and casting spells. Ritual is also used to perform astrology and other forms of divination.

Prayer is the skill of beseeching the gods for aid, for supplicating spirits for aid without coercion. This skill is subsumed into the Performance ability.

Performance and Presence

Some Charms will have to be moved from Performance to Presence. See Szilard/IdeasInDevelopment for his ideas on rearranging the Solar Performance and Presence Charms. A lot of the stuff on that page is useful. Performance will generally be modified by Charisma and only rarely by Manipulation, while Presence will be modified by both about equally.

Lores

All lore falls into one of the three broad categories below. Mortals skilled in lore must specialise in more narrow fields, e.g. Lore: Botany, Lore: Mathematics, Lore: Siegecraft, Lore: Battlefield planning, Lore: Nature spirits.

Arcane Lore - Anything related to arcane or occult fields.
Academic Lore - Any mundane field of academic pursuit, including religious lore, but excluding specific ritual effects.
Military Lore - All intellectual skills involved in running a military organisation, military campaigns as well as sabotage, intelligence gathering and espionage et c.

Very mundane pieces of lore may be known by rolling Int + (Appropriate ability). E.g. To know the name of an influential courtier, roll Int + Socialise.

Linguistics

Linguistics as an ability disappears. It is replaced by a number of languages, each with a score between 1 and 3.

|[X|[No knowledge of the language.|| |[•|[Basic speaking skills.|| |[••|[Normal skills, basic fluency. Implies reading and writing skills if the character also has a score in a Lore.|| |[•••|[Mastery of the language and full understanding of its grammar, idiomatic usage and knowledge of its literary tradition. This level of mastery allows the character to compose works of art in the language using his Performance ability.||

All characters receive two dots in their native language free of charge.

Each language dot costs one XP. Training times are as follows:

|[•|[One week of exposure or two weeks of tuition.|| |[••|[One month of exposure or two months of tuition.|| |[•••|[Six months of tuition or a year of study.||

The Linguistics charm tree is moved to Military Lore.

Athletics, Dodge and Might

The Athletics and Dodge abilities are merged together. All Dodge charms are included in the Athletics ability.

Charms for strength and jumping and swimming feats are moved to the new ability Might. Other movement charms are still part of Athletics.

Should it be possible to combo Athletics and Dodge charms? It would probably not hurt and would seriously strengthen Athletics' defensive capabilities. This is a good thing considering Melee's combined defensive and offensive capabilities.

Altered Backgrounds

The Family background is central to my Greyhawk game. The Treasure Background is just an experiment for now.

Family Background

All families and lineages have a family god, usually a rather minor spirit which resides in the home of the pater familias. Some few important families have powerful family spirits such as Alandra, the spirit of the House of Kalinistra and its branches the families Kormer, Kestrin and others.

The Family Background represents not only how powerful the character's family is and how well connected he is within his family, but also how powerful the family spirit is.

A character's score in the Family Background is the weighted average of his family's power (0-5), his influence and connections within his own family (0-5) and the strength of the family's tradition and history (0-5).

|| |[History and Tradition|[Power|| ||X|[Founded this generation, rest of the family and its history may have been completely wiped out by disease or war.|[Slaves, indentured labourers.|| ||1|[Founded one generation ago. Stories of parents' minor exploits are told by the fireside.|[Well thought of in the local area.|| ||2|[Founded seven generations ago. Legends of the exploits of the ancestors are handed down from grandparents to the children. The family is well known in the region and members are found in most of the villages in the area.|[The family has a seat on the local governing body.|| ||3|[Founded 14 generations ago. Traditions, heraldry, titles, deeds are recorded in writing. Notes on the family can be found in the chronicles of the realm. Even if it is powerless now, it is bound to once have been a pillar of the realm.|[Minor nobility.|| ||4|[Founded 21 generations ago. A legendary family, probably granted hereditary titles generations ago. The bards tell stories of the deeds of your ancestors.|[Major nobility.|| ||5|[Founded during an ancient empire. Even if the family is now scorned, its members have ruled empires, defeated demons, dragons and dread sorcerers and influenced the history of the world. The family history is part of the folk lore of many nearby kingdoms.|[Royalty.||

The essence of the family spirit is usually the weighted average of the family's power (x2) and history (x1), rounded down. Treat a result of 0 as a dormant essence 1 spirit.

E.g. A royal family (power 5) founded 5-6 generations ago (history 2) would have a family spirit of essence 4 ((5x2+2)/3). Conversely an ancient family (history 5) fallen on hard times (power 1) would have a family spirit of essence 2 ((1x2+5)/3). Only the most ancient and powerful royal families have essence 5 family spirits, and most family spirits are essence 1.

Artifacts' Script Immunity

When a PC buys, finds or otherwise gets an artifact it is given a Script Immunity rating of 1. If the PC gives it a name or otherwise tries to anchor it in the setting, its Script Immunity rating increases to 2. The cooler the PC makes the weapon by referring to it by name, telling stories of it et c. the higher the script immunity rises to a maximum of 5.

If the PC botches a roll involving the artifact, a number of dice equal to the number of ones are rolled versus a difficulty of the artifact's Script Immunity. Tens count as two successes. A success means the artifact is destroyed.

The difficulty to repair a broken artifact is (6 - SI). Repair takes a number of days equal to 10 - SI + Artifact rating and requires a proper workshop. After having been repaired the artifact's stats decrease by (3 - SI) points, min 0. Repair takes a number of weeks equal to Artifact rating.

Treasure as Resources

Any treasure will have a Resources value. Splitting a treasure less than ten ways will yield a number of treasures with values equal to the original value minus one. Each split treasure keeps the original value if the original treasure is taken to a town (minimum town size depends on the treasure value) and one of the players gets a success on a Bureaucracy roll at difficulty equal to the number of ways the treasure is split. Only one character can have custody over the treasure until it is split.

E.g. if a party of five heroes finds a Treasure with a value of 4, they might load it on a cart and ship it back to town (a pretty good sized town), if they manage to get five successes on a bureacracy roll they manage to divide the treasure up into five piles, each with a value of 4. If the roll fails, the split still yields five treasures, but each has a value of 3.

A treasure may be used for purchase or invested.

If used for purchase, the treasure is spent after making one purchase which Resources value equals the Treasure value. The Treasure value is reduces by one after ten purchases of Resources values equal to one less than Treasure value. Unlimited purchases of Treasure-2 Resources can be made from a treasure. Uninvested treasure decreases in value by one point each year due to expenses, high living, taxes, leeching et c.

Only Treasures with values greater then the character's Resources rating may be invested. If invested, the character must make a Bureaucracy roll of difficulty equal to Resources * 2 - Treasure, but not less than one. If he succeeds the treasure is gone, but his Resources rating increases by one, if he fails, the treasure is just gone. Investment work takes a number of weeks equal to Resources * 4. Each additional success decreases this number by one.

A character cannot possess more than one treasure at a time. If a character acquires a second treasure, his Treasure rating becomes the greater of the two treasure values.

When away from his home base, a character's Resources become unavailable and he can only draw on his Treasure. At any time he has access to his Resources, a character can attempt to create a (Resources - 1) value Treasure which he can carry with him. To do so he must spend one week and make a Bureaucracy roll. Each success on the roll reduces the number of days required by one. No successes indicates that the character was unable to liquidate any resources while a botch means that the character's resources are reduced by one for the next month due to strict investment limits.

Comments

Does anyone have a link to a comprehensive description of how these WikiTables work? They've been driving me crazy. Is it possible to force the Wiki to accept html code? It would be a lot easier to write these tables in HTML.
--RedMegaman

Random thought: If you are going to allow PCs to buy into different abilities, why not allow them to buy into charmsets as well (thus eliminating the need for you to rewrite things). Put down a cost for access to each of the five DB elemental Charmset of five abilities. Once they've bought into all of them, allow them to purchase access to Solar Charms as well. (Or, alternately, allow them to buy into Solar Charms ability-by-ability once they have access to the DB Charms of that ability). Does that make sense? - szilard

It does make sense, and it is a good idea. I'm trying to design things so that the players will start buying solar level charms around 50-100 XP. With a little calibration of costs of charm sets and/or abilities it will probably work well. Thanks! -- RedMegaman