Alchemicals, Attributes, and Municipal Charms

[Kyeudo]

I've been thinking about Alchemicals and Municipal Charms, trying to think of how they should work, and I keep coming to a few odd problems.


First, an Alchemical that has attained city status probably has a fairly high Dexterity and possibly a fairly high Strength. What does that Dexterity and Strength mean when he is a largely immobile city?


What about Perception? Is an Alchemical City able to see everything that happens inside of itself? Or is the city limited in what it can see in some way?


Second, Alchemicals are known for their modularity. If an Alchemical is having trouble with some particular problem, he swaps out his Charm loadout for one specialized in dealing with the problem. Municipal Charms, on the other hand, represent whole buildings or clusters of buildings. How does an Alchemical trade one of those out over the course of four hours? Can he even trade them out at all?

 

[Plague of Hats]

First, an Alchemical that has attained city status probably has a fairly high Dexterity and possibly a fairly high Strength. What does that Dexterity and Strength mean when he is a largely immobile city?

Sideways growth of Attributes into somewhat conceptual spaces. Dexterity Municipal effects? Transport systems: Moving sidewalks, fast-transit subways, exceptional modularity in city layout. Strength? Greater support with lesser materials (wafer-thin floors that hold up entire office spaces), buildings that hang from the ceiling, burrowing city-appendages.

What about Perception? Is an Alchemical City able to see everything that happens inside of itself? Or is the city limited in what it can see in some way?

Omniscience in the city kills too many potential stories, and so automatically disqualifies itself. pursuant from my answer to the following paragraph, specific apparatuses must be built into the city to allow the Alchemical to perceive installed parts as a normal character would.

Second, Alchemicals are known for their modularity. If an Alchemical is having trouble with some particular problem, he swaps out his Charm loadout for one specialized in dealing with the problem. Municipal Charms, on the other hand, represent whole buildings or clusters of buildings. How does an Alchemical trade one of those out over the course of four hours? Can he even trade them out at all?

Do not treat Municipal Charms as wholly a part of the Alchemical. Instead, the Alchemical's armored core encompasses the most of what he is as a being. All else is an extension from that which does not necessarily carry the full traits of being a part of a character. The Exalt's spiritual extrusions that connect him to the Municipal projects act as a power grid. Uninstalling the Autonomic Defensive network isn't like removing a Charm physically, it's like powering down a building that draws energy from a modern power grid. They can be broken down to reclaim resources like anything that is built, but they are not disassembled as a matter of course.
In my Random Exalted Stuff PDF I have the groundwork for this take on Municipal Charms, basing it on the framework of manse construction.

 

[Kyeudo]

Sideways growth of Attributes into somewhat conceptual spaces. Dexterity Municipal effects? Transport systems: Moving sidewalks' date=' fast-transit subways, exceptional modularity in city layout. Strength? Greater support with lesser materials (wafer-thin floors that hold up entire office spaces), buildings that hang from the ceiling, burrowing city-appendages.[/quote']
I'm not talking about what sounds like alot of Charm effects, I'm talking about the Alchemical himself. He's got Dexterity and Strength, so what does he roll them for now that he's a city? Why does he buy Dexterity 10?


All the other abilities still pull their weight at Esssence 10, so Strength and Stamina should do so as well.

 

[Plague of Hats]

The Attributes are not precisely balanced to begin with.


/shrug

 

[Brickwall]

No kidding! That's an understatement if I ever heard one.

 

[Arrghus]

Couldn't Strength be the amount of city you could support (presumably measured in population), and Stamina be your ability to resist natural disasters and stuff (roof falling in, oil tsunamis, Mog, Smoke waves, etc.)? Dexterity is probably how well-oiled your infrastructure is, and the rest is largely obvious.

 

[Kyeudo]

I guess what I am asking is: "When a city rolls Dexterity, what is it attempting to accomplish?"

 

[Plague of Hats]

I guess what I am asking is: "When a city rolls Dexterity, what is it attempting to accomplish?"

Probably something specifically facilitated by a Charm, even if that something is normally just any old action for standard characters. Perhaps a mobile metropolis rolls Dexterity + Athletics to overcome difficult terrain as it grinds its way through Autochthon's insides, similar to a more standard character.

 

[Virjigorm]

Automated defense systems would need Dex to roll attacks. Strength and Stamina are more ambiguous for a huge city, but in line with the good ideas already posted, there could be some municipal charms based on those abilities that alter static properties of the city itself. Your walls and essence shields could calculate soak and hardness based on your Stamina. The size of factories and tenements may be limited by Strength. These attributes might just become more passively useful than actively rolled, but they will still be useful and necessary for reaching the higher-essence charms.


On a related topic, I have been encountering an issue in my game lately that raises some questions. When Solars ally with Alchemicals and lend their crafting genius to city planning and artifact construction, should training times for municipal charms be reduced by the Solar's efforts to speed up the construction process? Can a Solar help the Alchemical integrate the new charm with their Essence faster? Reduce materials cost in these instances? I have considered a custom Craft charm with the Training keyword, but this seems too specific to make an entire charm or charm tree for. Any rules I'm missing or ideas on the issue?

 

[Plague of Hats]

What kind of rules are you using for Municipal Charms in the first place?


If you use the rules I came up with, a Solar can certainly enhance the construction of a Municipal Charm with his own Charms just as he could with any building project.

 

[Virjigorm]

As there are no Alchemical PCs, I have not needed to get specific with municipal charm rules yet. This is the first real collision between what the characters are doing and what has not been detailed in canon for their Alchemical allies. I would allow it without worry except for balance issues arising from Alchemical cities that can expand and improve 20 times faster than they were ever meant to. The dilemma I'm facing is weather to deal with the possible power level problems that might be encountered if the process of expansion were sped up by Solar charms and the Solars' nation-building were enhanced by sentient mega-cities. Or do I allow it and take the story into exploring the possible challenges of the enterprise? Honestly I have trouble finding any real problems for story fodder.

 

[Plague of Hats]

except for balance issues arising from Alchemical cities that can expand and improve 20 times faster than they were ever meant to.

While Solars can singly fulfill the roles of scores of laborers, and can incalculably improve the efficiency of conceptual work such as that in a bureaucracy, I tend to think that improving teams that perform physical labor is not going to improve thanks to the Solar at a pace that matches his personal improvement.

Honestly I have trouble finding any real problems for story fodder.

Resource acquisition, issues of entitlement ("It is for the better of all the people, Lawgiver! How can you object?"), disagreement about what and how to develop, degrees of personal control, degrees of popular freedom, cultural friction internally and externally, friction with local and world-wide deities.