SRNissen/SrN Virtues01

Okay, here's how it works, the short, and dirty version.

At the beginning of the game, each player has a number of virtues. Due to the way you select these, you cannot start without at least one at 3 or higher, unless you take some crazy flaws or something.

Each virtue has some upsides and downsides. If you have a high valor, you are effective in combat, but will often refuse to give ground and are easily insulted. If you have a high temperance, you do not give in to temptation, but might occasionally be too slow to act.

The way this is represented is simple: Each time you are presented with a virtue-relevant stimuli, and if you have that virtue at 3+ dots, you must roll that virtue. If you score any successes, you must either act in the appropriate way, or pay a willpower point.

Example: YOU ARE A MORTAL. A HUMAN. You have Valor 5. You ride down the street and see some thugs assaulting some old guy. Initially, you were going to ignore them, but then one of the thugs turns around and says "Leave this place or you'll get some of what this guy's having, you crazy son of a bitch."

That's both a personal challenge (duh!) and an implied insult (You don't have the guts to save him, so why even try? Also, he referred to your mother as a dog)

You roll your godly valor and score 4 successes. You can do one of two things:

1) Pay a point of willpower and ignore them or
2) Wade into combat.

And that's it. Once you're in combat, you can also pay a willpower point to get +Valor to a single roll. This is because Valor assists in fights. In addition to this, Compassion can be when you are helping others, so if you had a high compassion, you could also channel compassion to help the old guy escape. Conviction resists drugs and torture, and Temperance avoids temptation. All the virtues assist in some more stuff, but that's the basics.

Notice that you can have contradictions in your virtues.

Say you have Valor 5 and compassion 5. Some kid of 9 who wants to prove to the other kids that he's not chicken walks up and slaps you. Immediately you roll Valor and score 4 successes. Pay willpower or beat the kid. However, before you beat the kid, roll compassion. If you score any successes, you have to pay willpower if you want to beat the kid. Yeah, it's a tough life, trying to be a good guy and not have your honour fall in tatters around you. If you read the old myths, you'll see that basically the greek and norse would have just killed the kid, because their religions weren't big on Compassion but they were pretty damn big on personal honour.

The Great Curse! Oooohhh Spoooky! O_o

The Great Curse affects all exalts differently, but here's how it works for Solars.

Some things earn you Limit. Once you reach a limit of 10, you Break. What happens when you break depends on your Virtue Flaw.

There are basically two ways to earn limit: Being stressed, or meeting your Limit Condition.

Being stressed is represented in repressing your personality. Each time your virtues say you should do A, but you know B is the better course, you can choose to pay Willpower and do B. However, each time you don't follow your virtues, you earn a point of limit. It's gained at exactly the moment you pay a point of Willpower to suppress a virtue.

Limit Conditions are different for different characters, and are based on your virtue flaw.

Virtue Flaws:

At character creation, If you have a "highest" virtue, that is the virtue you get your Virtue Flaw from. Select one. If you don't like those in the book, speak with your ST, there's nothing preventing you from making new ones. (Seriously. It says right there in the book that those presented are examples.)

If you have more than one "Highest Virtue" (two virtues at 3, for example), you just pick a virtue flaw (that will fit your character) from amongst your highest virtues.

Your virtue flaw can change, if you rise in a virtue you don't have a flaw in. Say you start with Temperance 3, Conviction 3. You chose the virtue flaw known as Ascetic Drive, based on Temperance. Later in the game, you use XP to rise in Conviction. Now suddenly your Conviction is higher than your Temperance, so you need loose Ascetic Virtue and must select a new one, based on Conviction. Notice that you do NOT loose the already-accrued limit points. Those stay until you break.

Each virtue flaw has a Limit Condition. This Limit Condition specifies conditions in which you gain more Limit Points than you would if you simply stuck to the other rules. The way they work is thus: Each time you meet your Limit Condition, you must roll the virtue your virtue flaw is based on. Each success translates directly into a point of limit. If your limit condition is something that you would usually roll a virtue for (A character with Beserk Anger being insulted), just use the roll you just made.

Example: YOU ARE A MIGHTY SOLAR. You have Valor 5 and suffer from Beserk Anger. You ride down the street and see some thugs assaulting some old guy. Initially, you were going to ignore them, but then one of the thugs turns around and says "Leave this place or you'll get some of what this guy's having, you crazy son of a bitch."

That's an insult. Just like a mortal would, you roll your Valor to see if you're insulted. You score 2 successes. A mortal in this situation would be exactly like the previous example. However, the Great Curse makes your situation slightly different in 2 ways:

1) If you choose to ignore the insult and ride away, not only must you pay a point of willpower (like mortals do), you will also gain a point of limit.
2) Because Beserk Anger has "your character is insulted" as a Limit Condition, you gain as much Limit as those successes you rolled on your initial valor, no but's, if's or why's.

Well okay, there is a why: Because your arrogant forebears rose up to slay the creators of the world, and this is their idea of vengeance.

The final, and most important part is this: Don't look on Limit as a penalty.

Some players I've had would always play low-compassion characters because that way I couldn't "Force" them to be good by threatening them with limit for ignoring their compassion. This, I have never understood. My own ST has never "threatened" me with limit, in fact I look forward to it.

My personal character, al Haqim ibn Said ibn Asai ibn Haqim has a Compassion and Valor that are both at 3, and has Beserk Anger as his limit flaw. It's great fun. I get to be play the tragic hero who suffers every time he must be evil for the good of the rest of the world. He slowly gains limit each time he sacrifices somebody "for the greater good." Also, every time he's insulted, of course, because that's part of Beserk Anger. I've had 2 limit breaks with this character. The first occured in combat with a great enemy (Oh Noes! Now I'm in combat with him and also ANGRY! What ever shall I do? I think I'll HIT HIM), the second was deliberately set off by a Sidereal I were fighting in a great library. A great library that belonged to one of my characters allies. Notice use of the past tense in the sentence before this. It was funny, knocking over bookshelves to trap my opponent, and then lighting the whole thing on fire when the battle was done.

In conclusion: Limit isn't a penalty, it's a reward for putting up with a rail-roady ST, and it's great fun once it finally breaks. You get to say stuff like "But that's what my character would do!" and actually mean it, right after you've killed your best friends lover.

Commentary

- Yeah, so this is what it looks like. A step-for-step analysis of how the Virtue rules interact with the Great Curse. Good stuff. - SRNissen