Essence Addiction and "Crank"

[memesis]

Inspired by "Crank", I thought of a twist for the players in my Fall of Eden campaign.  The rule in FoE is that Essence is low in the world, so there is no natural respiration recovery.  The only way to regain Essence is via stunts.


The twist is that their enemies (the Alchemicals) will somehow infect them with a condition that makes them physically dependent on Essence.  They must expend 1 mote per day, or lose a Health Level of damage.  If they run dry of Essence, they end up taking the damage.  The damage won't heal itself until they expend more Essence, at which point it heals normally.


The net effect (if I predict correctly) is that the players will need to begin stunting their actions.  Every.  Single.  Day.  I'll go day by day through their presumed efforts to cure themselves, and hopefully it'll kick them into high gear.


Opinions?

 

[Persell]

Unless you've giving fewer motes per stunt or are strict on what you award stunts for I'd make the essence loss faster. One mote per day is pretty easy to overcome.

 

[Vanman]

That sounds really cool. An idea I may have to yoink. I guess the question to ask is how liberal are you with stunt dice? And how often do you plan on doing this? Because if I had to stunt every single action, that would start to get a little tedious. I wake up. I double somersault out of bed, back handspring to my pack, hook the strap with my foot, kick it into the air and, as my toothbrush falls out of the pack, hit the tube of toothpaste with my fist, shooting a glob of toothpaste into the air, which nicely intersects with the falling toothbrush and, whilst standing on my hands, I catch the toothbrush in my teeth.


Now, before everyone starts yelling at me, I realize there are no toothbrushes and/or toothpaste in Exalted. I'm just giving an example of having to stunt every single action. As I said, it gets mighty tedious. Then it becomes a struggle to find ways to stunt rather than roleplaying and letting the stunts come from the roleplaying.


If you're generous with the stunt dice, it may not be a problem. I'm just saying that if I had to stunt everything during the day, it would start to get a bit old. And the stunts I do in combat or other situations would lose some of their specialty because all I'm doing is stunting.

 

[Jukashi]

The question this also raises is about deliberately gaining essence through stunting in the regular setting. Are you allowed stunt when there's not even a dice roll involved? Are the characters actually aware that pulling a few fancy moves will let them use their cool superpowers more?

 

[memesis]

The question this also raises is about deliberately gaining essence through stunting in the regular setting. Are you allowed stunt when there's not even a dice roll involved? Are the characters actually aware that pulling a few fancy moves will let them use their cool superpowers more?

Yes and yes.

 

[memesis]

how liberal are you with stunt dice? And how often do you plan on doing this? Because if I had to stunt every single action, that would start to get a little tedious.

I'll give em when I feel the players worked for em.  I've given out scant few +3s, but those were earned.


The effect happens daily, it's not a matter of "you must stunt everything".  It's more "you must stunt to get at least 1 mote per day in order to live, and more than that if you ever use Essence for anything else".

Now, before everyone starts yelling at me, I realize there are no toothbrushes and/or toothpaste in Exalted.

FoE is actually set on modern Earth so you're good to go.

 

[Gustav]

First a compliment: this is a great idea.  I think you might want to explore other venues than stunts because it has the slight undertone that you're just wanting your characters to be more epic in their approach to the game.  Which, of course, is totally fine; I just am sharing my initial reaction.


Second a bit of a tangent:  


Your idea reminds me of an old Rifts game I ran (remember Rifts?  Ah, good times) where the different planets/planes had different amounts of magical energy.  My rules for character creation were simply that the character had to be from the Palladium universe and I'd work with whatever they created and threw at me.  I had some pretty interesting characters, but the one that reminds me of your plot idea was a super-hero from the Heroes Unlimited setting.  


The hero was a total boyscout Superman-ish guy.  Flight.  Limited invulnerability.  Righting wrongs.  Principled (remember the alignment system? classic).


So (to make a long story somewhat shorter) the paradigm of the world was such that he was a badass superhero on his own planet but when he got to the world where the primary plot took place, he wouldn't realize that the planet was short on magical energy ("Essence").  I was planning on not letting the character know that his powers would quickly drain within a day or so, but once he was in the presence of a person who died--and thereby released their "Essence"--he would recharge.  


It was set up to be a moral quandary where a really super Spiderman good guy had to be around dying people (the healthier the better) to fuel his powers.

 

[memesis]

I think you might want to explore other venues than stunts because it has the slight undertone that you're just wanting your characters to be more epic in their approach to the game.  Which, of course, is totally fine; I just am sharing my initial reaction.

There are no ways to regain Essence on Earth aside from stunts.  This is deliberate and part of the setting; getting the characters to feel some urgency is the intended goal, so it sounds like I'll succeed.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

I really, really dig this idea. Hmm, gives me ideas leading off of it...

 

[Zaramis]

What is the in-game explanation for the Essence regain? A stunt somehow re-aligns them with a low but natural essence flow? Or do they somehow get it from themselves?


In other words, how would another character ( NPC ) in the world explain the phenomenon to the player characters, so they would understand why they need to push their limits to do cool things?

 

[memesis]

What is the in-game explanation for the Essence regain? A stunt somehow re-aligns them with a low but natural essence flow? Or do they somehow get it from themselves?
In other words, how would another character ( NPC ) in the world explain the phenomenon to the player characters, so they would understand why they need to push their limits to do cool things?

When Helios spoke to the newly-Exalted Newton Benford, world-renowned physicist, he told him the two fundamental axioms of Essence science:  "Essence emerges from the will", and "Essence gives rise to all things that are".  The will to do, to be, to succeed, to live, is the true source of all Essence; stunts are simply a manifestation of that principle.

 

[Heaven's Thunder Hammer]

What is the in-game explanation for the Essence regain? A stunt somehow re-aligns them with a low but natural essence flow? Or do they somehow get it from themselves?
In other words, how would another character ( NPC ) in the world explain the phenomenon to the player characters, so they would understand why they need to push their limits to do cool things?

When Helios spoke to the newly-Exalted Newton Benford, world-renowned physicist, he told him the two fundamental axioms of Essence science:  "Essence emerges from the will", and "Essence gives rise to all things that are".  The will to do, to be, to succeed, to live, is the true source of all Essence; stunts are simply a manifestation of that principle.

? I'm guessing you're making this up?

 

[Persell]

Well, it is a custom setting, of course he is making it up... that kinda is the point.

 

[memesis]

? I'm guessing you're making this up?

Yes.  It's as good an explanation as any.

 

[Kremlin KOA]

Now, before everyone starts yelling at me, I realize there are no toothbrushes and/or toothpaste in Exalted.

well next on the list of things for my Twilight to invent

 

[Vanman]

Now, before everyone starts yelling at me, I realize there are no toothbrushes and/or toothpaste in Exalted.

well next on the list of things for my Twilight to invent

Would Exalts be prone to tooth decay? I don't think they would, what with their resistance to disease and injury and all. So you're going to invent those things for the uncleaned masses? Subvert and then overthrow the Realm through a program of good dental hygiene?


;-)

 

[Gustav]

I know our Solars are always asked about our 401(k) when we recruit the mooks, er, I mean, mortals, so it'd definitely help the sales pitch to say "no, but we have dental!"

 

[Kremlin KOA]

well using the teeth of my fallen soldiers to make power armor is easier when they have really pearly teeth