Neo-Exalted Theme

[Persell]

For quite some time I've been working on a project very similar to the Modernis Mundi setting for Exalted; something modern and gritty that has a tinge of the World of Darkness feel to it.


While some play testing has been done we've found difficulty keeping the main theme (Exalts and their Castes...) in line with a gritty modern setting.  What we (my girlfriend and I have been compiling the setting for quite some time) eventually decided on was to eliminate the Exalts from the picture and grant the ability to channel essence to all mortals like we see in just about every single anime every produced (ordinary people doing some really impossible things through extensive training or mystical strength).


What we were able to compromise on was to assume that most mortals (those of the 'Hero' caste) were the equivalent of Half-Caste mortals whose blood-line traced back to one of the mighty god kings of yester-year whose mention is heard in ancient tales and legends.  This helps us define what sort of abilities the character may possess (charm selection, etc)


Thus far this plan is really working out well, after a bit of adjustments to the cascades to help balance the DB charms in line with the rest of the Half-Castes (granting them a less expensive extra action charm for example).


We do have a snag however that thus far we are unsure how to handle: calculating Essence pools.  As the characters grow in strength (most starting 'Heroes' are able to channel Essence as a standard mortal but with full access to their pool) we would like for them to gain the ability to access higher reserves of Essence.  The most obvious way was to grant them an Essence pool from one of the chosen Exalts and each time the gain strength they are granted access to the next higher up in power (Mortal, Half-Caste, God-Blooded, Terrestrial, Lunar, Sidereal, Solar, etc... in ascending order of their Essence potential).


The first thought was to incorporate the Merit Essence Mastery and each time it is purchased in sends the characters' essence pool up to the next tier of ability.  The problem I've ran into however is that obviously it should cost progressively more EXP each time it is purchased but how much?  I don't want the prospect of a grand Essence pool to be out of reach but I also don’t want to hand it to the characters.


Here is a simple concept I've started with:


Mortal - Starting PC.  Although the character has the blood of an Exalt in their veins, it is deluded through time and they must strive to reclaim their mastery of the forces of creation.


Half-Caste - Cost 20 EXP, must have Essence 3.  The PC now channels Essence as a true Half-Caste, she begins to understand how life and society has pathetically severed it's ties with the natural order of Creation.


God-Blooded - Cost 40 EXP.


Terrestrial - Cost 60 EXP, must have Essence 4.


Lunar - Cost 80 EXP.  At this point the character has gained such power in channeling the flow of Essence that she/he gains the "Aura of Power" flaw.


Sidereal - Cost 100 EXP.


Solar - 120 EXP.  Must have Essence 5.


So thus far, that's what we have... it needs work I know, but that's what I'm posting this for, assistance.


Oh one last thing, we've also been looking to add 'Solar' and 'Abyssal' to the Dragon-Graced Weapon charm (since Solars and Abyssal do not exist, they are considered the 'Radiant' (light) and 'Shadow' (darkness) Aspects, respectively, with thier own venerated dragons to back them up.)  Any have any ideas on how these effects could work?


Radiantly Graced Weapon - Flash burst that blind opponents, inflicts +4L damage against creatures of shadow.


Shadow Graced Weapon - Entropy envelops the target, lowering their bashing and lethal soak by 4 for (Attacker's Essence x 3 ticks).


Criticism is welcome, thanks in advance.

 

[The zombie cat]

Dragon graced weapon is more universally useful than your radiantly graced weapon.


Your shadow graced weapon needs to explicitly not stack with itself of it becomes to powerful,


Edward

 

[Jeppe]

Wow, this approach really alters some things from canon.


Okay. I think that the whole tier system with lining Exalt types under each other like that, is flawed. By what measure is Sidereals a "better" type Exalt overall, than Lunars? What I think you should do with this approach, is branch it out.


Mortal - Starting Character. Can choose to branch into one of the following:


- Terrestrial Half-caste (15 xp)


- Celestial Half-caste (25 xp)


- Solar Half-caste (40xp)


From then on, they could pay for the next level, thus becoming a full-blooded Exalt of the chosen type. In this way you solve some unanswered questions in your post, like what happens with charms? What does a Mortal spend Essence on? What happens when you go from Lunar to Stellar? Do you keep your Lunar charms? Exchange them into Siddie charms? Start from scratch?


Something that I think is problem, is the xp costs for raising your Exalt type. It costs 420 xp, plus whatever xp it takes to raise your Essence (btw, what xp cost table do you use? Solar/Lunar/DB/Mortal?), so you are in the 500+ xp range, before you become Solar, and that's even before having spent a single xp on charms. I, as a player, would have a problem with that. It takes forever to scrape together that much xp. If I wanna play a character who is weak compared to the world he lives in, I'd prefer to play a mortal in a canon Exalted game (in whatever setting - fantasy or sci-fi - doesn't matter). If I wanna have kick-ass powers, I'd like to play an Exalt from the beginning. Power level isn't really about what type of Exalt you are, is a relative measure between how powerful you are, and how powerful your opponents are. If you want a gritty game, just boost the antagonists by 50% a piece, have twice as many of them, and lower the xp the players earn after each session to max. 2. My storyteller very rarely gives us more than 3 xp, and we feel constantly underpowered.


I think that what I'm trying to say is, that you're making the conversion harder than it could be. There's a whole big difference in work load betweem changing the setting, and changing both the setting and the system. But enough of my preaching. I've ranted long enough as it is

 

[Sheridan Boyce]

It seemed to me that you were running the PCs as half-caste, and I think you should just stick to that.  They're obviously more special than mortals for whatever reason, so I say you should just build them as half-caste and give them full access to whatever Essence they may have.  Half-caste still pay a lot for their charms, so they won't get too powerful too fast, yet they still have access to a wide bae of charms (based on the type of exalt they chose to be a half-caste of).


If you still want the game to be heroic, then the PCs should start out better than mortals and just get better, it's not as if they can't still get gunned down by a thug with a semi-automatic weapon or whatever.

 

[Persell]

Wow, this approach really alters some things from canon.

Um, well, yeah… it’s a custom setting, they usually aren’t canon… gunklaves, Kevlar armor, and hover bikes aren’t exatly canon either.

Okay. I think that the whole tier system with lining Exalt types under each other like that, is flawed.

Several things are flawed about it, that’s why I’m collecting input… resolving some the balance issues has been the difficult part of the project.

By what measure is Sidereals a "better" type Exalt overall, than Lunars?

Not better overall, just higher Essence pool potential.  120 compared to the Lunar’s pool of 110.


Lunar Exalted


Personal Pool: Essence + (Willpower x 2)


Peripheral Pool: (Essence x 4) + (Willpower x 2) + (highest Virtue x 4)


Maximum Possible Pool: 110


Sidereal Exalted


Personal Pool: (Essence x 2) + Willpower


Peripheral Pool: (Essence x 6) + Willpower + (sum of Virtues)


Maximum Possible Pool: 120

What I think you should do with this approach, is branch it out.
Mortal - Starting Character. Can choose to branch into one of the following:


- Terrestrial Half-caste (15 xp)


- Celestial Half-caste (25 xp)


- Solar Half-caste (40xp)

Okay, this is good, something like this could work well.  Thanks, I’ll see if this will mesh well in the write-ups.

It seemed to me that you were running the PCs as half-caste, and I think you should just stick to that.

Not really Half-Anything… the terms are generally only used to determine what sort of essence pools a character has access to.  Average Joe has Mortal Essence… while an old Grand Master of a Shao-Lin Temple (who is still only mortal) would have an essence pool higher than Joe (Terretrial or even Sidereal) to reflect his life time of rigorous training and education of how Essence flows through the world.  He could use his power more often, and not tire as easily as Average Joe.


Like any Anime you may have ever seen the people are just that: people.


“How did Joe Ninja jump 50 feet??â€

 

[Vanman]

You might want to take a look at Scion, also reviewed here by our own inestimable Wordman and, later, Safim. Lots of what you're talking about seem to be covered here in this game, including the escalating power scale. No need to reinvent the wheel unless you really want to.....


:-)

 

[Jakk Bey]

Yeah. One of the things about the Modernis setting is that I wanted to give background more than altering the power structure.


The reworks to Abilities are things I tweaked in my usual game--Warcraft and altering Martial Arts to Fight.


I dunno. If it works for you, have at it though. But, I think that you can easily make Exalted, any Exalted game, more gritty just by being a little more hard assed. It's a thematic element, not really rules wise that has be upped.