Telgar/Sidereals

Telgar’s Sidereal House Rules

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Setting

Yu Shan is not the center of the universe. That honor falls to Creation, where the action takes place, where the characters and their foes live, where everything important happens. Yu Shan is just a bunch of bureaucrats arguing about what to file the important happenings under and if they should be filed on parchment or silk.

The upshot of this view of Creation is this: Yu Shan has little actual importance. It’s where you go to meet other Sidereals or Gods. For help in fixing problems in Creation. You live, work, eat and sleep in Creation. The bureaucracy of Yu Shan has little to do with actual events in Creation bar a few bureaus like the bureau of Weather and so on. Mostly these Gods just enforce natural patterns built into the world by the Primordials, they are caretakers and custodians with power over the affairs they watch. They are not required for the affairs to exist.

The Courts of Creation are the most relevant spiritual body to any Exalted, the Censors are the least corrupt of their kind and the most feared. They have, however, adapted to the current state of affairs and simply citing gods for interfering in mortal affairs is no longer enough of a charge to get more then a slap on the wrist, no matter how flagrant the violation. Outright misconduct such a random slaughters and attacks on other Gods or Celestial Exalted are what will get you in trouble. Other then the lessened corruption, Censors function much as they do in canon and the rules they abide by are much the same. You are unlikely to need to go to a higher authority then a Censor, since the only higher authorities that have actual power are the Incarna and their direct servants.

Sidereals themselves are much less secret masters and troubleshooters and far more mystics, seers, savants and secret agents. They, like the other Exalted, do what they do for their own reasons. They are not part of the Celestial Bureaucracy unless they choose to be part of it for their own reasons. Your characters are Exalted. They’re heroes, masters of the world. They aren’t bellhops for giant slugs in top hats. That’s for Vampires.

System

Arcane Fate does not exist

The Sidereals have 30 abilities to distribute and have the requirements listed below.

Lore 2, Occult 2, Linguistics 1 (Old Realm). These come from the training given to the Sidereals in their first years of post-Exaltation. The Sidereals have potent rituals to find new Exalted and they track their own scions down and teach them how to survive in the world. Generally this is done by a single elder Sidereal, who acts as the character’s mentor and teacher for some years before leaving the student to act on their own.

The changes in the setting dictate changes in backgrounds. Sidereals have 12 background dots. They may not take Celestial Manse or Salary unless they have decided to be part of the Celestial Bureaucracy. If they choose to do so, they must meet all ability requirements of their specific department, not the general requirements.

Sidereal characters get 21 freebies, 5 virtues and 12 starting charms.

Astrology

Astrology is an innate power of the Sidereals, gained by altering the courses of the stars above. They can also call down the influence of the stars to shelter themselves, with Resplendent Destinies. Because of the vast different between actual Astrology and a Resplendent Destiny, they are treated as two separate powers. Destinies will be covered later.

Astrology uses the College system presented in Sidereals, however Colleges are priced as Abilities and you are considered to Favor the Colleges of your Caste. The rest of this system functions just as it does in Sidereals with the exception of Paradox. Paradox is not the bite of the Pattern Spiders, as Pattern Spiders do not exist. Instead, paradox is caused by overextending your talents. An astrologer using more successes on an Astrology attempt then the average of his Essence and College scores must roll 1 Paradox die per extra success.

Resplendent Destinies

The construction of a Destiny is greatly simplified by these rules. The only roll required is Essence + College at difficulty 3. Charms, artifacts, stunts and virtues add normally to this roll. Each success gives the Destiny two points which can be applied to length or effect pools as the character wishes.

Charms

Sidereals can create their own custom Charms. However, by doing so they forever forfiet the change to learn some other Charm. A player may opt to swap out his custom charm, approved by the ST, for a Charm he feels does not suit his concept. This change is permanent for him. Custom Charms may be *added* to Trees or new trees created with specific ST intervention before play or if the tree in question has not come up in play or some other reason presents itself. DarkCharms can be learned with the right effort.