Sz/PMEAbilities

To Attack Something With a Starstrider, Roll Hot-Bloodedness + Dramatic Backdrop Against the Opponent's Plot Armor Value

Obviously, in a world with motorbikes and jet fighters, Abilities such as Ride and Sail won't be of much use. On the other hand, with the new emphasis on knowledge and technology, Abilities such as Lore and Craft would become (even more) inflated. So maybe something needs to be done?

= On Combat Abilities

I reckon that Abilities regarding direct combat in canon are: Archery, Dodge, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown and War. Archery covers shooting things with bows, Dodge covers not getting hit or shot at, Martial Arts covers applying esoteric combat disciplines, Melee covers hitting things with a weapon, Thrown covers hitting things with a thrown object, and War covers strategy, training, and other tasks related to making war.

With the invention of firearms and Manskewers, traditional ranged weapons such as bows, javelins and throwing knives became rather unpopular. Exalted still carried Powerbows and Vajras and whatnot around regardless, since they expressed the Exalt's personality better. It's that the world changed so much such weapons became too obscure to deserve their own Abilities.

Also, as the world become really large, things that are really large were invented and emphasized. These really large things include: Warstriders, airships, Starstriders, starcrafts, and so on. Warstriders, Starstriders and certain starcrafts were invented and employed for the explicit purpose of destroying other really large things and/or inflicting really large destruction on things that aren't really large. Operating these things aren't really covered by Sail, Ride or Pilot, though they do become relevant. Fighting with these things require a specific knowledge.

To address the change in the ways battles are fought and wars are made, Postmodern Exalted uses these five Abilities to represent one's aptitude in the arts of fighting: Martial Arts, Melee, Ranged Combat, Ordnance (I still find this name troublesome but it's better than "Stride", I guess. >_>) and War. Martial Arts, Melee and War largely remain unchanged from canon. Regardless of the technological change, people still invade one another, hit one another with sharp things and unleash viciuos kung fu on one another. Archery and Thrown, however, are rolled into Ranged Combat, which is an Ability that covers ranged weapons in general, including bows, slings, beer bottles, crossbows and guns. I do realize that shooting a bow is entirely different from throwing a knife or firing a gun, but swinging a sword is also different from swinging an axe or a baton, isn't it? :p Now, the tentatively named Ability Stride covers operation of large-scale weapons of war. These include weapons such as Warstriders, battlecruisers, Hekatonkhires enhanced with necrosurgery and Starstriders. These things are so large, you need to know how to operate various mechanisms, programmings and procedures to make them move.

What happened to Dodge? Um, it got absorbed into Athletics because I had too many Abilities. I'll explain this later.

On Abilities that Deal with Knowing Stuff

On this part, I'll address Abilties such as Linguistics, Investigation, Lore, Medicine and Occult. Now, just as much as the ways of fighting have changed, the ways of knowledge and application have changed as well. Unlike in canon, people are being educated now. Nearly 95% of the world's entire population can read and write, a good half receive at least up to secondary educaion, and finally, a considerable percentage of the world have access to a Creation-wide information sphere, somewhat like the Internet (except like srsly better because it's, like, from the First Age and stuff.) So these Abilities regarding learning and knowing should change to accomodate to this shift in attitude.

Linguistics remains as is. Though, linguistics, the academic discipline, is covered by Academics. I'd rather change the name of Linguistics into Languages, but I don't feel comfortable with making changes that aren't absolutely necessary. Oh well.

Let's look at Lore for a moment. Lore is being renamed as Academics. Academics covers knowledge in general that other Abilties do not explicitly cover, such as cosmology and spirit court etiquette for Occult and anatomy and pharmacology for Medicine. Largely, Academics include knowing things that a university would have a course on, such as mathematics, history, linguistics, chemistry and so on. However, in this modern world, the emphasis on such acadmic knowledge has increased manifold. In canon, a scholar or a wise man could reasonably be proficient in each of those fields. That would be silly in a modern world like PME. People now make professions and careers out of these individual disciplines, and the Ability Academics represents this increase focus by requiring a Specialty to be chosen when Academics is purchased, in a manner similar to how Craft is handled. I have yet to decide how these Specialties should be. Maybe they can be divided as: Anthropology, Mathematics, Natural Science, Social Science and... something else? It'd be neat if I could categorize them after the Five Maidens. :|

Then there's Occult and Medicine. They are largely untouched, because I believe that matters regarding the supernatural and health are just as important as they used to be in canon Creation.

Investigation gets changed somewhat. Well, not really. Investigation is now a Night Ability and not a Twilight Ability. I believe that, for a Twilight's purpose, searching new knowledge and finding new information should be handled with relevant learning Ability. And since Nights are now Dirty Harries, they should, like, totally get Investigation. No lie.

And then something entirely new needs to be invented. No Ability in canon would be appropriate for handling computer science, hacking and cracking, programming and so on. Since making viruses that detonate computers upon infection and overtaking a starship's command by hacking it with sheer willpower is totally and absurdly cool, Exalts should be able to do them. For matters regarding computer science, technology and IT, the Ability Technology would be the most appropriate.

On Abilites that Make Stuff

Which would be, at least in canon, Craft. From the 1E, Craft was a really big Ability with a disproportionate scope. Rules regarding Craft have changed in 2E somewhat, which is good. However, if the canon definition of Craft is translated onto PME without change, the Ability once again becomes silly huge. Not only are people making nifty swords and jewels, they are making spaceships, satellate combat platforms and artificial moons. Making a spaceship involves using metals, so should this be Craft (Fire)? I don't think so. Craft (Earth) because it's huge? Eh. Craft (Magitech) because none of mortal Crafts fit the bill? Well, a small spaceship is neither Magitech nor supernatural. And so on. On top of this, do note that Creation is really large now. This resulted in the increased emphasis on really large weapons. It's not unreasonable that making really large things deserves its own Ability.

PME uses a new Ability named Engineering. Unlike Craft, which covers creation of things on a personal level, Engineering covers creation of things on a massive scale. Engineering covers tasks such as architecture, shipbuilding and projects of interplanetary scale. Making a badass Manskewer involves Craft. Making a badass satellite Deathray platform requires Engineering. The rule of thumb is that, if the project is smaller than a car, it's probably made with Craft. Otherwise, probably Engineering.

I'm resisting temptations to replace Craft (Genesis) and Craft (Fate) into Engineering. Someone help me.

Abilities that Deal with Physical Activities without Killing Anyone (Usually)

They would be Abilities like Resistance, Athletics, Larceny, Ride, Sail, etc. I'll only talk about Abilities that are explicitly changed in PME.

Athletics now covers both Athletics and Dodge Abilities. Something tells me that an Olympian should be able to control their body well enough they can avoid getting slashed or shot at without having to train themselves in a new field of expertise.

Stealth largely remains as is, though the matter of security systems and surveilance do get brought up in PME. Depending on the approach, such matters could be dealt with Stealth, Larceny or Technology. Solid Snake would probaly have Stealth (Surveilance Systems).

And then there's Ride and Sail. Now, in PME, not many people ride horses or sail ships. There is an overwhelming number of people who drive cars and pilot planes, though. In PME, a single Ability covers all tasks related with moving from Point A to Point B with something other than your own body, which is Pilot. I'm sure that riding a simhata and operating a nuclear submarine would require different knowledges, but hey, I think that an Exalted horserider should be badass enough to jump into a nuclear submarine (through the hull) and get onto overtaking the control without making a fool of himself. Well, though, if you think that is too absurd and unrealistic, you could employ a system somewhat like Craft, requiring the character to pick a Specialty. I still think that's rly cool though, I'd give it +3 stunt dice.

Abilities Regarding People and Peoples

Not much changed. :D Except for Bureaucracy, except not really, except maybe. Bureaucracy now covers tasks such as corporation management and stuff. I'm not really Social Combat savvy, but I'd say a corporation be handled as its own goverment for the purpose of SC and Charms and so on.

Abilities that Did Not Get Mentioned Earlier So I'd Feel As If I've Addressed All 25 Abilities On This Page

Nothing worth mentioning happened to them. Well, at least not yet. Maybe such a thing happened and I just haven't realized it yet. I dunno. D:

Abilities Summary

Because we are so used to seeing them as Caste Abilities, I'll try to list all 25 Abilities as Solar Caste Abilities.

Dawn: Martial Arts, Melee, Ordnance, Ranged Combat, War
Zenith: Integrity, Performance, Presence, Resistance, Survival
Twilight: Academics, Craft, Engineering, Medicine, Occult
Night: Athletics, Awareness, Investigation, Larceny, Stealth
Eclipse: Bureaucracy, Linguistics, Pilot, Socialize, Technology

Abilities that have been removed: Archery, Dodge, Lore, Ride, Sail, Thrown
Abilities that have been created: Engineering, Ordnance, Pilot, Ranged Combat, Technology
Change in Abilities by association: Archery and Thrown became Ranged Combat, Athletics and Dodge became Athletics, Craft became Craft and Engineering, Lore became Academics, Ride and Sail became Pilot

Comments D:

I think a lot of Solar magic is made with an emphasis on FEEL over SENSE. Concept over specialities. So if ride is the control of a beast or thing made for transport, then a Solar with ride 5 will instinctively control this thing at a superhuman level. Likewise, why thrown is used to fire weapons like Essence cannon now, or melee is used for all weapons. Specialities are for all special circumstances you speak of, or to imply a particular affinity.. but much like Bond can drive any sports car, truck, jeep, and some planes, a Solar can probably pilot a warstrider, ride a horse, and fly a Starstrider because he knows how to RIDE. This concept is ingrained in his selfhood by the HAND OF THE UNCONQUERED SUN. Insert primal screaming here. - Paincake