[SS] Adapting Exalted
d.anderson:
Hey! I've been running Exalted, using Solar System, over google wave. I used the overflow concept for Essence, but most superpowers can use Pool or Essence (loosely approximating the personal/peripheral thing), put together Exalt Caste and Anima-related Secrets as needed, a basic set of Excellencies, with other 'Charm' Secrets expanding leverage or scope or color. My players and I talked over the things that engaged us in the setting and its situations, so I didn't focus on mapping Virtues and Great Curse/Limit Break stuff (each Exalt type gets XP for certain thematic things, which is close enough for the players).
To be honest, I'm not a fan of the setting or original game, but it's easy to get people to play.
Mmm..., here's something specific; someone's a Sidereal of Journeys:
Sidereal Exalted gain 1XP for dealing with Sidereal Faction issues, for investigating and addressing snarls of Fate, and for protecting Creation from threats outside of Fate. For 1 Essence (or, automatically when Anima is at 7+), they may know the time and date, or sense a nearby gate to Yu-Shan or Malfeas. Sidereals are under an Arcane Fate that makes it very difficult to record their doings or remember anything about them - most individuals have to make an Integrity check to remember interacting with them, and other works that would normally record their activity in Creation will have to make an appropriate test if they might be used to recall the Sidereal; this can be mitigated by negotiating with the Pattern Spiders to create a Resplendent Destiny, a sort of false identity - most Sidereals will have one or two that they can call up to interact more normally with Creation.
The Chosen of Mercury also gain 1XP for fostering great journeys or changes. For 1 Essence (or, automatically when Anima is at 7+), they triple normal overland movement when on foot or mounted, for themselves and nearby allies, for a scene.
The subtext here is that the player and I will read the source material, and I'll approximate pain-in-the-ass things like Sidereal Astrology as needed if they'll accept that the crunchy nuances informing the original game might not translate well. Admittedly, it's easier at the pace of wave gaming, but Solar System really facilitates that kind of 'what do you want to focus on' finagling anyway - hacking out Secrets take moments if you have a clear vision of what's to be achieved with them (my experience).
Dave, I'm interested to find out how you approach this, and I'd be happy to show anything else you're interested in, or make something up to help out.
Klaus_Welten:
What about having only the Essence pool and making it Exalted-only? Charms would be Secrets that allow the use of an Ability on a higher scale or with supernatural effects. This would fit the idea of Ability-realted magic powers from the original game, since having an Essence pool fundamentally allows a character to alter reality with some of his Abilities, while the non-illuminated are stuck with "mundane" practice of their arts. As for cultural crunch, it could be included as well: SS mechanics allow it to be balanced with Charms. Take an hypothetic Secret of Hot Blood, only available to Southern people, that gives a bonus die against all kind of intimidation, fear and moral threats: thanks to the Leverage rules, it would be useful for an Exalt to face a Deathlord, while a mortal with it would still pee in his pants in the same situation, because the supernatural threat would have Superior Leverage against him, but not against the Chosen. That bonus die is as useful for the Exalt as for the mortal - the characters are on a different level of the scale of power, but the Secret is the same. Also, since all the characters are Exalted, they can buy bonus dice while their mortal opponents cannot, therefore making them paragon members of their cultures: anyone can, in an emergency, sail a boath on a river, but only the Western know the secrets of oceanic navigation, and a Western Chosen is Creation's Odysseus, Columbus and Magellan all toghether.
Hope I was clear enough. :-)
dindenver:
Hi guys,
Two things:
1) My group did not buy into playing Exalted setting with SS rules.
2) The love my idea for an Inselberg campaign.
Also, overflow dice as Essence is insanely brilliant.
dindenver:
Also, I was thinking of doing Castes as Keys. I mean, if the Exalted type gets its own secret, it does not make much sense to stack even more secrets on a starting character.
Also, the last version of Pools I was thinking were:
Tactical
Strategic
Willpower
Virtue
Essence
I guess the reason I keep trying to slip in mortal-level pools is for the Dragon Blooded. Their schtick is making mundane skills awesome through essence and teamwork. Like one of the DB Dodge Charms lets one DB make a Dodge roll for another. and it just seems like if I don't give them enough crunch to pin their secrets on, then all the DBs will end up being the same...
I don't know. I guess if I can get a group to bite, I'll circle back and make it make sense...
d.anderson:
Wow! Very sorry to hear that. Yeah, the overflow thing seemed very natural, between 'first excellency' (aka secret of training), 'stunting' (aka gift dice), and specializations, the Essence kick-back is intuitive both in the Exalted context and the SS context. Also, you'll note that there are XP intrinsic to the Type/Caste Secrets I write, exemplified in the Sidereal Secret (everybody gets their type/caste free...). I really can't buy into the Pool set-up you got there, but I use the Vigor-Instinct-Reason set anyway; with overflow Essence, something like 'willpower' (as used in the white wolf games) is comprehensively subsumed in really game-functional structures that already exist. If I were to change the Pool, I would use something even more abstracted, like the Heroics-Influence-Exposition thing I do for other SS adventure games, not try to map over Exalted idiosyncrasies.
Maybe another time!
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