- Location
- my house
You could say this about any prerequisites though. By the very nature some people won't like them but have to take them anyway, it's kind of the point. Heck Infernals based their whole concept of off undesired prerequisites.
General Exalted Thread
- Thread starter Aleph
- Start date
- Location
- NYC
To add onto this though, I do think there's room for quite beefy combat mechanics in a game about character drama and grappling with the consequences of power, etc.
Exalted very much takes the stance that authority ultimately comes from ability to enforce your will, and in Creation (especially for a Solar) that often means violence. Creation is a world where a lot of problems kind of do need to be solved, at least initially, by breaking heads. I do think that having an explicitly simulationist system, where you don't get to fudge results to make the story more interesting, is a valid choice and corresponding statement about the PCs role in the world. I think that a lot of Charms don't provide enough interesting decisions in play—it's often pretty clear if you should use one in a given situation or not—but the basic idea can be solid, and they do allow for interesting meta-level choices and corresponding restrictions (if you have built a hammerer, you have a strong incentive to try to find out how to make every problem a nail).
A number of mechanics, such as flaring your Anima, are already pretty reasonable emergent consequence generators if the GM is on the ball—it can create interesting decisions about to what extent you're willing to escalate a given situation. The best solutions probably aren't even mechanics, or at least mechanics the PCs engage with: they're optional guidelines or subsystems to figure out the general kind of consequence of a given set of actions.
Like, say that you want some kind of "what kind of attention are the PCs drawing based on their actions" guidelines. Maybe you have a mechanic where you tally up the PC's significant accomplishments for the session + number of times they flared Anima, rolling a die, and then using that to generate some effects into the larger world (PCs did 3 noteworthy things and flared Anima twice this session, and their total noteworthiness from previous sessions 6. Here's a table that I roll on, which says that "moderately powerful regional figure in the same Direction hears about their accomplishments and takes an interest." They're in the South, and I like the Perfect, so maybe a bunch of spies from Paragon start infiltrating their desert kingdom. Next session can be them finding one and things spiraling from there).
I do think that the gold standard should be some kind of actual downtime subsystem where PCs get to be more actively involved with the world though, because Exalted is a game about player agency and letting PCs shape things on a macro level as well as a micro level ought to be encouraged.
- Location
- Ottawa
There's a difference between prerequisites that you're not super keen on, prerequisites that you actually don't want, and prerequisites that offend your sense of how the game should be.
For proof that this is an actual problem, see this thread. Observe how unpleasant a small number of unwanted Charms in key places can be.
Infernals was doing something pretty specific, and this situation is completely different. I really don't think the two cases of unwanted prereqs are comparable at all.
PS: I decided to check the math in the Rising Sun Slash chart I posted, and things got a bit weird. First equation that came to mind fit the chart perfectly. But then I tried it on a situation where I already knew the answer - the odds of triggering RSS on 4 dice - and it gave an answer that I knew couldn't be true. I'm not totally sure what's wrong with the equation I have or what the right equation is.
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
i have never felt so attacked in my entire life
It's actually funny, we've had 6 mortal sessions and about 4 Exalted sessions, meaning that currently the prelude has actually been longer than the actual game, lol. That said, I'm very thankful for your praise, further updates will explore the near-lying town of Rusted Iron, the most insane career path ever and dead things marking ages past with nothing but their wake, leaving us not even a memory or text to interpret the decisions of the ancients.
Fun and light-hearted stuff!
Ok, this is even more Manus.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
don't lie manus, i know you too well
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
I mean, I'm mostly opposed to it because I break out in a cold sweat at the very thought of spending hours - nay, days - trawling the internet and determining exactly which dice trick Charms are mandatory and how many actually interesting Charms that get my creative juices flowing will have to be gutted and left to die on the altar of my own neuroses. Obsessive optimization has been a perennial problem of mine in tabletop gaming, and I was amazed at how much less stressed I became after moving on to systems like GODLIKE, where the main goal is "what does your character do?" and the mechanics are a malleable mesh to wrap around and express that idea - or Exalted, where I can sit down and build up an Exalt's general narrative capacities and story beats based on which Charms I pick.
"Reroll all 1s on Archery rolls" and other dice trick whatthefuckery is essentially a Lovecraftian horror made of mathematics hiding behind a mask made from old copies of TIME magazine - I gain little of value from analyzing the surface strata, but diving beneath it will destroy me.
Again, in my case it's more that I dislike it because it sets off at least three or four of my disorders and turns me into a quivering blob at the mere thought of looking at the 3E corebook. (Anxiety + OCD + Autism + ADHD) + (TTRPG + Extensive Math) = Bad Things.
I'll admit that some of your explanations in the thread have made it significantly less eldritch, but there's still the lurking paranoid horror of "what if I spend IRL months tweaking a throwaway NPC's statline again".
I promise you, I promise, you can run out of the corebook with literally no NPC tweaking, and the worst result is that your players don't feel challenged enough. I have run Ex3, and I have all of those conditions you mentioned. I had to miss class last week because I literally couldn't get out of bed, I was freaking out so bad. Exalted Third Edition is very fail-safe. It's designed from the start to make sure that, where it fails, the PCs win rather than lose.
Your Excellency is so strong in Ex3, you really don't need dice tricks unless you plan to regularly fight other Solars. You can just grab them as a prereq and ignore them if they aren't.
Excellent Strike, Dipping Swallow, Fire and Stones Strike, Durability of Oak Meditation, Ox-Bodyx2. Melee at 3, Dex at 4. This is viable. You won't win a duel against Octavian or Ahlat, but you can keep up with even relatively combat focused Dragonblooded through the strength of your mote pool and your Excellency, and rely on your Circlemates with more combat to do the big stuff while you still get hits in and influence the course of the fight. You don't even really need Durability of Oak or the second ox-body, it's just kinda cool to have. All of those Charms I listed are Essence 1, and will carry you through to fighting combat-spirits and non-Immaculate Dragonblooded solo, even. You might not win, but given you aren't playing the super combat guy, you'll probably have social charms to help with that and flurry social influence in combat.
- Location
- Ottawa
With all due respect, Kaiya, that response has nothing to do with GardenerBriareus's problem. Obsessive optimization is not driven by the fear that you won't survive without it.
Actually, it's a worse problem for the GM, who's basically immune to all consequences and has infinite resources.
Actually, it's a worse problem for the GM, who's basically immune to all consequences and has infinite resources.
He said he was concerned about having to constantly tweak NPCs in the GM position. I assumed that meant he had anxiety about TPKs because the math was too stressful to parse?
@GardenerBriareus I apologize if I've misunderstood.
UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
I used to worry, too, and then I tried running chargen Solar vs 5 bandits.
Well, she isn't slaughtered, so now I'm worried how do I run game and what story it should be, etc etc.
TLDR: whatever's the fault of Ex3 is, at least you don't have to worry it'll explode on your face.
Well, she isn't slaughtered, so now I'm worried how do I run game and what story it should be, etc etc.
TLDR: whatever's the fault of Ex3 is, at least you don't have to worry it'll explode on your face.
- Location
- Ottawa
Well, maybe I shouldn't speak for him (or her).
But I've occasionally had the same issue, and for me it had nothing to do with any consequences. Actually, it was more likely to strike when I was making characters that wouldn't be played at all.
PS: Not sure if this is relevant, but I feel like mentioning it anyway...the first fight I ran as an Ex3 GM involved a DB and some not-especially-skilled mortal minions absolutely demolishing a Solar PC. The DB used nothing except her excellency and it was still utterly one-sided.
But I've occasionally had the same issue, and for me it had nothing to do with any consequences. Actually, it was more likely to strike when I was making characters that wouldn't be played at all.
PS: Not sure if this is relevant, but I feel like mentioning it anyway...the first fight I ran as an Ex3 GM involved a DB and some not-especially-skilled mortal minions absolutely demolishing a Solar PC. The DB used nothing except her excellency and it was still utterly one-sided.
What did the Solar have? The guideline for holding your own against supernatural threats is pretty much "Any five combat charms". You can definitely build a Solar who can't one v one a Dragonblooded, but they tend to either be really unlucky or lack combat charms and Excellency.
So Lunars can Bright Slap their Solar Mates now?
I would forgive the Lunars a lot for magical smacks upside the head.
Peanut-007
Hat or Hair? America decides.
- Location
- Maryland, United States of America
Nah the bright slap isn't affectionate enough it would be more like this.
Your Solar and Lunar start to affectionately lower property values in the surrounding area.
Darmani
Cast in the name of Pod, Ye Go Ninty
- Location
- Lansing
Ornery Sheep Play
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Brawl: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisites: Heaven's Thunder Hammer,[custom charm]
Add the user's strength for the purposes of determining all rolls to induce or cause or resist knockdown to his attacks for the scene. When thrown add user's strength to subject's difficulty to maintain balance.
[Need Name]
Brawl: 2; Essence: 2;
Price: 5m;
Duration: Scene
For every five feet you move between a feat of strength or attack add 1 to your strength score until the limit of your weight (Str+Athl to lift you)
Becomes permenant at Brawl 6.
Cleaving Straight
Brawl: 3; Essence: 2;
Price: 3m;
Duration: Essence turns + varies
Reduce a point of defense, dodge, parry, soak, or exotic effects from magic (Dolorious reflection or SAE) for every yard covered inbetween an attack or jump or climb. Extra successes do not add to damage and gains are lost when jump or climb (like with arms wall running okay), descent/falling counts but 'resets' the gain when jump or climb or similar. The buildup time can be extended by committing additional 3 motes for another Essence turns, this does not count against charm usage. If you reduce the armor (or an object's) soak to zero each additional point acts as a multiplier for attack successes (for other charms/effects than adding to damage) or reduce damage from contact, like with fiery being, a porcupine, or falling damage.
(thinking about allow this to have a high essence auto upgrade to allow you to spend charms to the straight, it seems "bypass combo system for it is terrible" is the ultimate power in this game and thus enabling it with some on limited charms is a good thing)
Disaster Mastery
Brawl: 5; Essence: 4;
Price: -
Duration: Permenant
When superstrong characters do stuff as application of strenght as a trick (Hulk quakes earth, or smack hands to shockwave out stuff, and so on)
This lets you do this to target or make disasters or effects with the difficulty of the save the challenge
Basically the idea here is that this is how a solar martial artist imitates all those Elemental effects that are taken as a given when someone has super powerful martial arts. They're also meant to be a bit crude. As in obviously you can make a Maelstrom in the sea but it's not going to be equal to whatever a water aspect or a water Elemental would pull off period duration would be increased by drawing from damage as with other statistics of the effect.
It also lets you effectively increase the range and the abilities of your stunting through strength and attack. When someone meets into a natural Hazard or event they can then just attack it and then describe how their damage fixes or ameliorates what they were attacking
Gut busting ripple
Brawl: 5; Essence: 2;
Price: 4m;
Duration: instant
You know those Shockwave attacks people are always doing with their super strong? Yeah this is that for solars. Again it's based off of being skillful with her Force. The idea is that it changes depending on the medium broadly being based off of the five elements of exalted
When it strikes someone they roll Stamina plus Athletics in order to stay on their feet. may divide attack between attack and a push
Earth: range audible to a target touching adjacent solid structure. 1/2 damage. Assume default
Water: range if can locate. Full damage if touching same water. No more than movement range if outside outside/not touching same/shared body of water. May effect more than one target at a time if in strength yards of target or number of times equal strength (this is split up for the attack)
Fire: snuffs or reduces intensity of source or adds to it then induces adjusted flame effect to those in range of its heat. If the attack would snuff the fire cause a ring of explosions tthatcan be dodged may be parried with stunt or charm. This has a range of the attacks raw damage in yards but the damage is the typical damage of that fire, the solar can control who subject to the shockwave, as always
Air: this charm cannot propogate through air without Sovreign Smoke Rebuking Te but if attack an opponent in mid air has a lingering and devasting effect on the organs of balance of the target. They roll Stam+Athletics check after every move action (when stop moving or change position, or jump, or land) for the number of success of the attack parried or applied to character in turns.
Wood/Organic/ofthebody: enhances blows to anyone touching object and self
Sovreign Smoke Rebuking Te
Brawl: 5; Essence: 5;
Price: special
Duration: Permenant/indefinite
Also called the "divine art of halting air"
Solar gains unity of body and spirit with his or her artform such that no target beyond their rebuke. No matter the composition of their target or attack it is sstruck or held soundly and true or pushed aside with not more effort than normal and with the intended effect. Unlike Spirit Walking of the Immaculates this doesn't let you see the immaterial. but you can smell and feel them, albeit indistinctly as through a barrier or gloves or numbing..
Your attacks affect those of bodies as solid as tempered steel or strange as of jelly or sand with no loss of effectiveness from such nature.
The supernaturally immaterial are also effected though differently with the damage of such attacks having the effects like Ox Stunning Blow and lasting for a similar duration to the minimum of the turn and secondary effects from charms, knockback, grapples, trips, or other effects crossing over.
finally in addition to their charm use a solar may sacrifice any physical attribute to enhance the power of their attacks as well as range or other effectiveness, the solar using their movements displacing pressure to delivery their attacks
Significant Hearty Swat
(its the buddha palm for solars)
[formula goes here]
enhances
accuracy, range, defense, rate, area of effect (number of targets or actual area?) one of these auto upgrades with every attribute spent. Not sure which.
Hip checks tthigh, thigh checks hip
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: one turn
Type: reflexive
Instantly allows to break a grapple or end one pushing aside an opponent by ssstrength*2 ffeet with the effect of ornery sheep play on balance. if in control of grapple when used may do so adding to throw with the effects of heavens thunder hammer on knockback.
Salt Under-hoof Action
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Brawl: 3
Min Essence: 1
Prereqs: Sledgehammer Fist Punch
This charm can provide or enhance an attack against lower or prone target. If a target is suffering from the penalties of being prone or at least -/+2 penalty/difficulty due to position or, as a general guideline for the ST for applicability, if the Exalt's knees are above the target's head before the attack is made this charm applies.
A character rushes to strike his indisposed target. It is defended against (however the target can in their position see Prone condition pg 235) normally but due to the magic of this charm enhancing the Exalt's superior positioning and control of his weight in applying the attack add his Strength to an attack's minimum post-soak damage dice. Distance matters not and an Exalt using this charm may close it between any foe subject to this charm in an instant. Against inanimate objects, that qualify though this automatically includes the floor and even (non-animate) corpses, the charm additionally counts the Exalted's entire attack pool as automatically successful without any penalties counting toward the attack
Pugilist's Knuckled Banquet
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Brawl: 3
Min Essence: 1
Prereqs: Cock Jeers Fox
While under the effects of this charm a successfully landed blow can be as nourishing as bottle of water after a desert march.
The brawler can convert points of raw damage from an attack that hits into motes of essence. The amount can be as much as he wants but this lowers the damage of an attack on a one to one basis.
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Brawl: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisites: Heaven's Thunder Hammer,[custom charm]
Add the user's strength for the purposes of determining all rolls to induce or cause or resist knockdown to his attacks for the scene. When thrown add user's strength to subject's difficulty to maintain balance.
[Need Name]
Brawl: 2; Essence: 2;
Price: 5m;
Duration: Scene
For every five feet you move between a feat of strength or attack add 1 to your strength score until the limit of your weight (Str+Athl to lift you)
Becomes permenant at Brawl 6.
Cleaving Straight
Brawl: 3; Essence: 2;
Price: 3m;
Duration: Essence turns + varies
Reduce a point of defense, dodge, parry, soak, or exotic effects from magic (Dolorious reflection or SAE) for every yard covered inbetween an attack or jump or climb. Extra successes do not add to damage and gains are lost when jump or climb (like with arms wall running okay), descent/falling counts but 'resets' the gain when jump or climb or similar. The buildup time can be extended by committing additional 3 motes for another Essence turns, this does not count against charm usage. If you reduce the armor (or an object's) soak to zero each additional point acts as a multiplier for attack successes (for other charms/effects than adding to damage) or reduce damage from contact, like with fiery being, a porcupine, or falling damage.
(thinking about allow this to have a high essence auto upgrade to allow you to spend charms to the straight, it seems "bypass combo system for it is terrible" is the ultimate power in this game and thus enabling it with some on limited charms is a good thing)
Disaster Mastery
Brawl: 5; Essence: 4;
Price: -
Duration: Permenant
When superstrong characters do stuff as application of strenght as a trick (Hulk quakes earth, or smack hands to shockwave out stuff, and so on)
This lets you do this to target or make disasters or effects with the difficulty of the save the challenge
Basically the idea here is that this is how a solar martial artist imitates all those Elemental effects that are taken as a given when someone has super powerful martial arts. They're also meant to be a bit crude. As in obviously you can make a Maelstrom in the sea but it's not going to be equal to whatever a water aspect or a water Elemental would pull off period duration would be increased by drawing from damage as with other statistics of the effect.
It also lets you effectively increase the range and the abilities of your stunting through strength and attack. When someone meets into a natural Hazard or event they can then just attack it and then describe how their damage fixes or ameliorates what they were attacking
Gut busting ripple
Brawl: 5; Essence: 2;
Price: 4m;
Duration: instant
You know those Shockwave attacks people are always doing with their super strong? Yeah this is that for solars. Again it's based off of being skillful with her Force. The idea is that it changes depending on the medium broadly being based off of the five elements of exalted
When it strikes someone they roll Stamina plus Athletics in order to stay on their feet. may divide attack between attack and a push
Earth: range audible to a target touching adjacent solid structure. 1/2 damage. Assume default
Water: range if can locate. Full damage if touching same water. No more than movement range if outside outside/not touching same/shared body of water. May effect more than one target at a time if in strength yards of target or number of times equal strength (this is split up for the attack)
Fire: snuffs or reduces intensity of source or adds to it then induces adjusted flame effect to those in range of its heat. If the attack would snuff the fire cause a ring of explosions tthatcan be dodged may be parried with stunt or charm. This has a range of the attacks raw damage in yards but the damage is the typical damage of that fire, the solar can control who subject to the shockwave, as always
Air: this charm cannot propogate through air without Sovreign Smoke Rebuking Te but if attack an opponent in mid air has a lingering and devasting effect on the organs of balance of the target. They roll Stam+Athletics check after every move action (when stop moving or change position, or jump, or land) for the number of success of the attack parried or applied to character in turns.
Wood/Organic/ofthebody: enhances blows to anyone touching object and self
Sovreign Smoke Rebuking Te
Brawl: 5; Essence: 5;
Price: special
Duration: Permenant/indefinite
Also called the "divine art of halting air"
Solar gains unity of body and spirit with his or her artform such that no target beyond their rebuke. No matter the composition of their target or attack it is sstruck or held soundly and true or pushed aside with not more effort than normal and with the intended effect. Unlike Spirit Walking of the Immaculates this doesn't let you see the immaterial. but you can smell and feel them, albeit indistinctly as through a barrier or gloves or numbing..
Your attacks affect those of bodies as solid as tempered steel or strange as of jelly or sand with no loss of effectiveness from such nature.
The supernaturally immaterial are also effected though differently with the damage of such attacks having the effects like Ox Stunning Blow and lasting for a similar duration to the minimum of the turn and secondary effects from charms, knockback, grapples, trips, or other effects crossing over.
finally in addition to their charm use a solar may sacrifice any physical attribute to enhance the power of their attacks as well as range or other effectiveness, the solar using their movements displacing pressure to delivery their attacks
Significant Hearty Swat
(its the buddha palm for solars)
[formula goes here]
enhances
accuracy, range, defense, rate, area of effect (number of targets or actual area?) one of these auto upgrades with every attribute spent. Not sure which.
Grasping Hand Technique
Cost: 3 motes
Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Min. Brawl: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Thunderclap Rush Technique
The character reaches out as an opponent attempts to strike her, and removes her weapon. If the character is attacked by a weapon, she may make an immediate disarm attempt against its' wielder, which is resolved as normal. If the attempt succeeds, the attack fails automatically. The character may make this attempt barehanded without danger. This Charm is considered to be a parry, and may not be used with a parry, although a dodge may be attempted before or after it.
Hook Hand Approach
Cost: 2+ motes
Type: Supplemental
Duration: Instant
Min. Brawl: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Ferocious Jab
The character's hand moves in a blur, grasping an opponent's weapon. For every mote spent past the second, add one die to a disarm attempt by the character; in addition, the opponent's reflexive Wits + Melee roll is at a difficulty penalty equal to the character's Essence.
Level Field Attitude
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Type: Reflexive
Duration: One Scene
Min. Brawl: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: Grasping Hand Technique, Hook Hand Approach
No weapon may strike the character; any attempt is met with fierce retribution. As long as the character is unarmed, she may make a free disarm attempt against any weapon which attacks her for the remainder of the scene. This disarm attempt is considered to be a parry, and may not be combined with a parry
Cost: 3 motes
Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Min. Brawl: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Thunderclap Rush Technique
The character reaches out as an opponent attempts to strike her, and removes her weapon. If the character is attacked by a weapon, she may make an immediate disarm attempt against its' wielder, which is resolved as normal. If the attempt succeeds, the attack fails automatically. The character may make this attempt barehanded without danger. This Charm is considered to be a parry, and may not be used with a parry, although a dodge may be attempted before or after it.
Hook Hand Approach
Cost: 2+ motes
Type: Supplemental
Duration: Instant
Min. Brawl: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Ferocious Jab
The character's hand moves in a blur, grasping an opponent's weapon. For every mote spent past the second, add one die to a disarm attempt by the character; in addition, the opponent's reflexive Wits + Melee roll is at a difficulty penalty equal to the character's Essence.
Level Field Attitude
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Type: Reflexive
Duration: One Scene
Min. Brawl: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: Grasping Hand Technique, Hook Hand Approach
No weapon may strike the character; any attempt is met with fierce retribution. As long as the character is unarmed, she may make a free disarm attempt against any weapon which attacks her for the remainder of the scene. This disarm attempt is considered to be a parry, and may not be combined with a parry
Hip checks tthigh, thigh checks hip
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: one turn
Type: reflexive
Instantly allows to break a grapple or end one pushing aside an opponent by ssstrength*2 ffeet with the effect of ornery sheep play on balance. if in control of grapple when used may do so adding to throw with the effects of heavens thunder hammer on knockback.
Salt Under-hoof Action
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Brawl: 3
Min Essence: 1
Prereqs: Sledgehammer Fist Punch
This charm can provide or enhance an attack against lower or prone target. If a target is suffering from the penalties of being prone or at least -/+2 penalty/difficulty due to position or, as a general guideline for the ST for applicability, if the Exalt's knees are above the target's head before the attack is made this charm applies.
A character rushes to strike his indisposed target. It is defended against (however the target can in their position see Prone condition pg 235) normally but due to the magic of this charm enhancing the Exalt's superior positioning and control of his weight in applying the attack add his Strength to an attack's minimum post-soak damage dice. Distance matters not and an Exalt using this charm may close it between any foe subject to this charm in an instant. Against inanimate objects, that qualify though this automatically includes the floor and even (non-animate) corpses, the charm additionally counts the Exalted's entire attack pool as automatically successful without any penalties counting toward the attack
Pugilist's Knuckled Banquet
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Brawl: 3
Min Essence: 1
Prereqs: Cock Jeers Fox
While under the effects of this charm a successfully landed blow can be as nourishing as bottle of water after a desert march.
The brawler can convert points of raw damage from an attack that hits into motes of essence. The amount can be as much as he wants but this lowers the damage of an attack on a one to one basis.
- Location
- NYC
Recent discussions on what I consider wrong with Exalted has finally inspired me to start writing an actual (somewhat rough) port of the Horizon Break ruleset to run some kind of Exalted-esque thing that actually does the things I want. If anyone's interested in this project, especially in running a game, let me know.
For those unaware, Horizon Break is a dice management RPG built around the idea that you can be good at a lot of things, but not all at once. Each character has has a set number of dice that they put into actions over the course of a period of time—focus on your attack and your defense will suffer, choose to run really far and you'll have less attention to figure out where the ninja want. This system is designed to scale from the micro level (rounds of combat) to the macro (what you're up to during months of downtime).
If the above sounds interesting, the rough draft of basic resolution rules, characters, and Charms is below. If there's interest I'll try to have a workable set of core rules finished by the end of the week, and then start filling in subsystems and specific Charms as people are interested.
For those unaware, Horizon Break is a dice management RPG built around the idea that you can be good at a lot of things, but not all at once. Each character has has a set number of dice that they put into actions over the course of a period of time—focus on your attack and your defense will suffer, choose to run really far and you'll have less attention to figure out where the ninja want. This system is designed to scale from the micro level (rounds of combat) to the macro (what you're up to during months of downtime).
If the above sounds interesting, the rough draft of basic resolution rules, characters, and Charms is below. If there's interest I'll try to have a workable set of core rules finished by the end of the week, and then start filling in subsystems and specific Charms as people are interested.
Basic Rules said:
Well, generally, the player can expect to succeed. That's the default assumption when dicepools get this big. The only question is how hard does one succeed?
What?
Groups like DBs and Fae can impose a penalty to incoming attacks based on the amount of ones in a dice pool. Excellent strike ensures that a Solar will never roll a one, voiding a defensive mechanic that other splats rely on. This is one of the reasons that Solars are the Strongest, as has been established in the fluff since 1E.
That's really it? If it's so nightmarish then why did you play 2E, with all the stuff like Overdrive, speed modifying effects, paranoia combat, combo rules, wildly varying keywords, and god knows what else? How did you survive? Why are you even anywhere near the game line that brought you Tick Combat from 2E and Exalted Power Combat from 1E if Excellent Strike is apparently so horrifying for you? D:
I-it's just rerolling ones. The social system is also pretty intricate, but I really don't understand why you seem so intent on persuading people that this is somehow complicated or makes up the entirety of the game.
It's an important part of the game, but it's not like every other non-combat mechanic in this thing is an afterthought!
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He wasn't saying Excellent Strike is a nightmare. He was saying keeping track of the ones and twos in his opponent's attack, the rerolled 10s in his own attack, and that he's adding a point of onslaught per turn which doesn't fade and adds a point of damage to the output of a fourth Charm, making it more and more efficient, sounds nightmarish and he'd rather not bother. Different strokes, different folks and all that.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
In addition to the above; because I came into 2e about 2/3rds of the way through the publication, when I was much younger, with a lot less basis for comparison and a lot more wide-eyed idealism, and when it was well understood to be a mess which required extensive homebrewing and gentleman's agreements in order to be functional, much of the work of which was already done. I never played with the canon combo rules, for example, because literally everybody I played with took it for granted that they should be discarded long before the Ink Monkeys printed that into errata.
I could go through a similar process for 3e, but the game was sold to me on the explicit premise that I wouldn't have to.
If it helps, that four Charm combo isn't all at once. It's a thing I ping when I defend, then when I attack. Reckless Fury Discard if I see any ones or twos in the other person's roll. Falling Hammer Strike every turn because duh, it increases their onslaught. Adamant Fists of Battle for doubled rerolled when damage gets rolled. And Ferocious Jab once they have enough onslaught to make it worth adding their onslaught directly to my decisive damage. Only one of those needs to be remembered every single turn because you already paid for it. All the others are just, use 'em if you want to.
And you can totally just not, and go the Heaven Thunder Hammer route , or the Grapple route, and use Resistance Charms for your defenses instead.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I've often thought that the rules from Unknown Armies could be ported to Exalted quite well - especially for character-driven Mortal games, with the wonderful Shock Gauge, Relationships and Identities systems. Specifically, the 'Of Course I Can _____, I'm _____!' system would work wonderfully to streamline pointless 'of course I'll win it' rolls that can get in the way of the story. Like, 'Of Course I Can Get An Invitation To That Party, I'm A Dynast/Socialite/Guildsman!' or 'Of Course I Can Slip Past The Guards, I'm An Assassin!' just for examples.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
So I'll just respond with this and this and this.
Also, with a reminder that @TenfoldShields is amazing.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
I appreciate the attempt, but it doesn't help much. The heart of it is twofold, and closer to a matter of principle.
Simply by existing, dice trick charms open the door to homebrew in this kind of design space, and we all know how frequently people churn out homebrew charms. More, I've seen no implication that Vance and Minton mean to turn the mechanics of other splats away from this design space, so how many dice tricks will Dragonblooded have when What Fire Has Wrought drops? How about Lunars when Fangs at the Gate comes out? How about Exigents? How many ways will all of these interact with each other? See, it's not as simple as "don't use 'em if you want to." The game was designed with these effects, ergo it was balanced on the assumption that they would be used. "Optional" is relative - even if I don't use them, and even if I can make an effective character without them, I still have to factor them in when sizing up opponents, and I have to live with the strong possibility that they will continue to proliferate. Most Solar abilities have two or three dice tricks, melee has four, And Then There's Craft... for now.