Szilard/ExaltedLite

I'd been saying, for awhile now, how I'd have made Exalted a much simpler game than it is now if I'd written it. Then Xeriar started up his ExaltedLite project. I realized that I had some stuff to say on the topic, so I thought to write it down.

Here are my goals:

• Simplify, but allow flexibility.
• Make the game playable as an Exalt. It need not be playable as mortals. The problems I have with the game are primarily that it is unnecessarily complicated for playing PCs who are Exalted.
• Simplify, but keep changes as minimal as possible

This is far from a total rewrite. What I am trying to do here is get rid of some of what I find the most egregious sticking points - where Exalted was massaged to fit the Storyteller System as opposed to vice versa.

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Attributes: Three abilities are eliminated. All are rated from 1 to 5.

• Physical:
  • Might (combines Strength and Stamina)
  • Grace (Dexterity)
• Social:
  • Bearing (Charisma)
  • Manipulation
• Mental:
  • Intelligence (includes Perception where concentration is required)
  • Wits (includes Perception where quick uptake is key)

Abilities: There are far fewer distinct abilities. Abilities themselves are not favored by Caste or Aspect (Charms, however, are). They are rated from 1 to 5.

• Combat

incorporates all former Dawn abilities and Dodge vs non-ranged attacks

• Craft

incorporates Craft, Sail, some Occult (Enchanting, Alchemy, practical Geomancy), practical Medicine, most practical Survival (shelter building, foraging), some Larceny (lockpicking)

• Lore

incorporates Lore, most Occult, Linguistics, Investigation, theoretical Medicine, theoretical Survival (wilderness knowledge)

• Prowess

incorporates Athletics, Endurance, Resistance, Ride, Dodge vs ranged attacks, most Stealth, some Larceny (pickpocketing), some Survival (tracking), a bit of Performance (mostly dancing and such)

• Socialize

incorporates Socialize, Presence, most Performance, Bureaucracy, some Larceny (streewise)

Specialties:

Specialties play a larger role. Abilities cover the most general and common skills in each category. Specialties cover specifics. While the Ability will be rolled for more specific tasks, many of these tasks will simply not be possible unless an appropriate specialty is possessed.

Specialties can also reflect non-skill related perks. "Incredible Beauty" or "Hypnotic Voice" could be specialties that would apply to many social tasks. These specialties can more-than-verge on the supernatural with Storyteller approval.

• No single specialty can exceed +3
• Multiple specialties (a number of separate specialties up to a character's Essence) can apply to a single roll. (thus if a character has Essence 2, two specialties - up to a total bonus of +6 - can be applied to a single roll, assuming both are appropriate to that roll.)

Charms:

Charms generally stay as-is. Ability prerequisites are gone. (Yes, you can have a Combat of one and Fivefold Bulwark Stance.) Charms will, however, have Caste associations. These will rougly line up with their original Abilities/Caste associations. There are no longer favored abilities - charms are favored or unfavored.

Charms that previously converted dice to sucesses now work by first converting rolled dice to successes and then by subtracting dice from the success pool and replacing them with outright successes. You may need to read the next bit to understand the previous sentence.

Die rolling: Here is the big change, I guess.

• Dice actually rolled are limited in number to a character's Attribute+Ability with the exception of channelled virtues. Note that this limit applies whether or not the character is, in fact, rolling Attribute+Ability or not (such as in the case of buying up a reflexive defense from zero). Also, this makes channelling virtues rather more important. Rolls of 10 count as two successes, as normal.
• Additional dice above those rolled (from Specialties, Charms, Weapons, Essence when appropriate, etc) are put into a 'success pool.' The success pool is never rolled.
• Essentially, if you can make a good argument as to why an Ability or Specialty would apply to your roll, then it does so - with the limitation that only one Attribute and one Ability may apply to any one roll.
• No dice are gained from stunts. Instead, stunts provide other benefits (below).
• If the dice rolled indicate a failure, and at least one of these dice resulted in a roll of a 1, then the roll is considered botched. However, if the player has a success pool greater than the number of rolled dice in this case, that player may spend one willpower point to convert that botch to a normal failure.
• If your roll succeeds, you gain additional successes from your success pool. How many is based upon whether or not you stunted, and, if so, how well. The basic system is: No stunt - 25% of success pool in successes, Lvl 1 stunt - 50% of success pool in successes, Lvl 2 stunt - 75% of success pool in successes, Lvl 3 stunt - entire success pool in successes. This can be seen at a glance on the following chart, which can be conveniently placed on a character sheet:

http://szilard.freeshell.org/exalted/chart2.gif

• Damage rolls work essentially the same way as normal rolls, but the number of dice actually rolled is limited in number to Base Damage of Weapon + Might. Additional dice (from extra successes on the attack, Charms, or whatever) add to the success pool. Soak is subtracted from this number (first from the success pool and then from dice rolled). Stunts on attacks carry over to damage, but damage rolls themselves can be stunted independently (stunts don't stack, though - simply take the better of the two).

Weapons: more freeform than a strict list.

• All weapons (including artifacts) have a Base Damage rating of 1 to 5 and a Rate that likewise goes from 1 to 5.
• In addition, weapons often have Specialties (1 to 3). These may be in Accuracy, Defense, Disarming, or other things.
• Typically, weapons will have six points to divide between Damage and Rate. In addition, they will have 3 points worth of Specialties for each dot of Resources they cost. "Armor-piercing" is now a specialty that adds to damage against armored foes. Armor-piercing charms, however, work as normal. Artifact weapons often have several additional Specialties. Another specialty of note is "Dual Wielded" which is used to offset multiple-action penalties when two such weapons are used. Two points of specialty may be used to add one to either Damage or Rate.
• Weapons do not have Speed bonuses to Initiative.
• Magical material bonuses count as Specialties. In addition, all weapons made of magical materials gain the Specialty: Resilient +3 for free to reflect their unbreakable nature.

Combat:

Initiative rating = Wits + Combat + 1d10 + bonus from Charms

Combat proceeds from highest to lowest initiative as normal with the exceptions noted below:

• Multiple actions: Multiple actions are handled as normal, except that no more than one non-defensive action may occur at the same initiative number. Thus, if a character makes three attacks and the first one occurs at Initiative 14, the latter two can occur no earlier than 13 and 12. Extra Attack Charms are exempt from this and occur simultaneously.
• Characters may delay their actions to a lower initiative number. No actions may occur at a lower initiative than 1. Thus, if a character delays until one and has multiple non-defensive actions, all but one of those will be lost.
• Characters may abort to a full dodge or parry as normal.

comments and inklings

Szilard/ExaltedLiteOldComments

I am also tempted to eliminate Manipulation, but I am worried that would put too much onto Wits... any thoughts? -szilard

Okay... the other thing that I would do if I were utterly rewrite the game would be to revise how health levels and damage works rather extensively. The limited health levels and wound penalties in Exalted just seem... unheroic and small to me. So here is a vague revision that tries not to change too much:

Damage dice and the effect of soak are determined as above. Damage is then rolled and the success pool is added to it as appropriate. If the number of Damage successes is equal or less than the character's Might, there is a minor wound. If the number of Damage successes is greater than their Might, but less than or equal to their Might + Soak, there is a major wound. If the number of Damage successes is greater than their Might + Soak, then there is a mortal wound.

All wounds render the recipient dazed and they receive a difficulty penalty of +1 on all actions for the remainder of the round in which those wounds are received. Minor wounds carry no other penalty. Major wounds require a Willpower roll at a difficulty equal to the number of Major wounds previously sustained. Failure on this roll means that all future actions of that character in the scene are at -1 die per major wound suffered. Mortal wounds require a Willpower roll each round (difficulty equal to the number of mortal wounds sustained) to act at all.

Bashing damage does not shift between Minor - Major - Mortal Wounds, and - unless a character suffers a number of Bashing Mortal Wounds equal to his Might, he is not in immediate danger of death (but can still be incapacitated).

Lethal damage accumulates. If a character gains a number of Lethal wounds in a single category that is greater than his Essence, a number of those wounds equal to his Essence are erased, and he gains a single wound one category up. Ex: An Essence 2 Dragonblood has 2 minor wounds and gains a third (all from lethal damage). He now has one minor wound and one major wound. If he gains two more minor wounds, he would have 2 major wounds and a minor wound.

Okay. Does that all make sense? It doesn't quite do everything that I want, but it strikes me as more... organic than the current system, and potentially more heroic. (Consider the channelling of virtues on the Willpower rolls). Also, Extra rules flow out of this pretty naturally. -szilard

Hmmm... another realization of a problem: if there are only dice rolled and no success pool, then stunts don't make any difference under the system here. What to do about that? -szilard

One possible solution is to modify what I have here so that: (1) Stunts add dice as normal - whether that's to the rolled pool or success pool (or split between them) will depend on how many total dice you have. (2) Success pools add half their value in successes to successful rolls. (3) A three die stunt will allow you the option of (instead of regaining Essence or Willpower on a success) adding your entire success pool in successes on a success. (4) Charms that previously converted dice to sucesses work by first subtracting dice from the success pool and replacing them with outright successes and then conveting rolled dice to successes. (5) If you are acting in accordance with a virtue, you may - on a successful roll - take up to your appropriate virtue score in dice out of your success pool and convert them to full successes before halving the remainder of your success pool. You may do this a number of times per session equal to your Essence. -szilard

grr. The Attribute + Ability cap gets wonky with Lunars. This is getting more complicated. I must simplify. - szilard