- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Uhmm... Well, Artifacts in general are poorly balanced and actually don't have a lot of borgstromancy in their actual powers. Like, Oadenol's basically says 'Find the nearest Solar Charm or Spell of the appropriate circle, crib as needed'.
So I could do an analysis, but I'm not really gearing up for it right now. I'm not even sure where I'd start...
Anyway, Instead I wanted to do something else! You just tagged me at an opportune time!
New Charm Keyword: Procedure
A Procedure is a form of instruction or meaingful information, which can be invoked repeatedly, like a formula, map or blueprint. Charms which grant Procedures are always Training Effects, and if a procedure becomes outdated due to later events, the player is refunded the experience cost.
So long as they are recorded and their information both accurate and relevant, procedures can be taught outside of the effect that creates them. Procedures in and of themselves cannot convey any form of mental influence- though other Charms may imbue the written or spoken word with that power anyway.
AN: You'll wonder why I used the word Procedure, which is shared with 2e's Thaumaturgy. The answer is simple: They both occupy the same general design space of 'Repeatable instruction or action'. I included the XP refund as boilerplate, I admit- I would prefer that it not be necessary, but we really really love our XP. What I mean is, people are conditioned to accept that XP is a fungible resource? It can always be recycled, never consumed. You HAVE to have max XP at all times... so things that COST XP that aren't Permanent are ignored.
Shining Path Proclamation
Cost: 5m
Minimums: Survival 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple (One Hour)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Procedure, Training
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Trackless Region Navigation
With mastery of the wild and attention to detail, the Solar leads others to greatness.
Armed with quality information- defined as a circumstance bonus of two or more dice from local guides, recent experience or good quality charts- the Solar can roll [Intelligence + Survival] to plot a route through the wilderness between two or more points. The difficulty of this roll is 1, and it increases with the treacherousness of the region or the extra advantages the Solar desires- a fast route through a war zone in the middle of winter is no easy feat.
If the Solar used Trackless Region Navigation to traverse any given distance in the current scene, she automatically succeeds on the above roll regardless of difficulty. The result of this roll is a Procedure which describes the route and terrain, which can be drawn as a map or otherwise recorded. As long as this information is accurate, the Solar may activate Trackless Region Navigation to travel that route for 1 mote.
Additionally, with accurate recordings, this procedure can be taught to a character other than the Solar as a Training Effect. This instruction requires one hour and costs 1xp. As long as a character knows and follows the procedure, they or a unit they lead enjoys the benefit of Trackless Region Navigation, using their own traits where appropriate.
The procedure generated by this charm is refunded if the route changes as to require a new roll, or otherwise becomes impassible, such as a mountain range collapsing, or a new river forming".
AN:So what the hell am I up to this time?
I've no idea. I just had this pop into my brain and it feels like a cool thing to do. This is a bit more complicated than I normally like, but at the same time I feel like the Procedure concept is fairly elegant. I wanted to take some of Thaumaturgy's mechanics and pull them out of Occult and into actionable game area.
I also generally don't like the idea of Exalted charms handwaving thaumaturgy itself- no Charm to just say 'I can do all Thaum Ever!', but at the same time, allowing a little crossover is fine.
As far as the Charm itself goes- it's actually quite powerful, and competes for design space with Power-Awarding Prana. In general, giving anyone access to Solar Charms directly is a huge challenge. The thematic place of Path Proclamation is to serve the idea of a legendary field guide or solar woodsman who teaches disciples. I think, Power Awarding Prana suffers from being such an old 2e charm, that other better implementations exist. Also- Glorious Solar Song Lines.
Now, if you want, you could reign in this Charm with any number of extra clauses like 'Only those loyal to the solar get the benefit' or 'commit 1m per procedure in the field, so only trusted types get to use it'.
So anyway- now I have two Solar Charm Babies to think about- Procedure Tech and Intimacy Tech... Why Procedures? Because Solars are Human, and humans TEACH/PLAN/RECORD.
Not to say other splats can't get procedure keyword charms.
Edit: added a description of 'info becoming innacurate'.
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