- Location
- Ottawa
Exalted also doesn't have a robust GM advice section.
Anyway, I just had a couple of related ideas for Bureaucracy system bits. I think they both play nicely with the paradigm I outlined a few pages back.
How do we make people feel the value of their Bureaucracy pool without creating a minigame? Reward good bureaucrats with good help, and punish bad ones with bad help.
Quality Subordinates (Intelligence or Charisma + Bureaucracy)
A great leader finds, nurtures, and cultivates great subordinates. A poor leader fails to do so, and ends up with poor subordinates.
Whenever you have to rely on a nameless NPC who works for you, roll (Intelligence or Charisma + Bureaucracy). The number of successes determines roughly how wise you were to employ this person. Zero successes yield an incompetent or lazy underling who does nothing useful. One success yields an indifferent minion, not incompetent but thoroughly mediocre. Two successes yield a good subordinate, who does their job well. Three successes yield an excellent employee, whose competence and loyalty are beyond reproach. Four successes yield an exceptional deputy, who is significantly more capable and dedicated than their role requires. Five or more successes yield really remarkable people, who often excel in completely unexpected ways.
Botching a subordinate quality roll leads to being betrayed or otherwise spectacularly let down by your underling.
Getting Help (Intelligence or Charisma + Bureaucracy)
A great leader often hires the people they need before those people are needed. And when they don't, they can correct that lack quite efficiently. A poor leader doesn't and can't.
When you're looking for someone with specific qualities, you may attempt to declare that a given pool of nameless NPCs contains such a person. Roll (Intelligence or Charisma + Bureaucracy) against a difficulty set by the Storyteller; if you succeed, you find someone with the qualities you asked for. The difficulty should be 1-2 if the qualities you're asking for are relatively common in the pool, 3-4 if they're rare, and 5+ if you wouldn't expect them to be there at all.
Beyond the qualities you specify, the nature of the person you find depends on your net successes and the nature of the group you're drawing from. If you're getting help from among those who already work for you, you can expect the person you find to be reasonably loyal; if you're getting help from strangers, you can expect them to give you a fair hearing when you try to recruit them. Additional successes beyond the difficulty set by the Storyteller lead to finding better people; exactly how they're better depends on the Storyteller's whims, but unusual competence and loyalty are the go-to options.
Botching a roll to get help leads to enlisting the help of a two-faced scoundrel or a total incompetent, and not realizing that one has done so until they've done real damage.
Anyway, I just had a couple of related ideas for Bureaucracy system bits. I think they both play nicely with the paradigm I outlined a few pages back.
How do we make people feel the value of their Bureaucracy pool without creating a minigame? Reward good bureaucrats with good help, and punish bad ones with bad help.
Quality Subordinates (Intelligence or Charisma + Bureaucracy)
A great leader finds, nurtures, and cultivates great subordinates. A poor leader fails to do so, and ends up with poor subordinates.
Whenever you have to rely on a nameless NPC who works for you, roll (Intelligence or Charisma + Bureaucracy). The number of successes determines roughly how wise you were to employ this person. Zero successes yield an incompetent or lazy underling who does nothing useful. One success yields an indifferent minion, not incompetent but thoroughly mediocre. Two successes yield a good subordinate, who does their job well. Three successes yield an excellent employee, whose competence and loyalty are beyond reproach. Four successes yield an exceptional deputy, who is significantly more capable and dedicated than their role requires. Five or more successes yield really remarkable people, who often excel in completely unexpected ways.
Botching a subordinate quality roll leads to being betrayed or otherwise spectacularly let down by your underling.
Getting Help (Intelligence or Charisma + Bureaucracy)
A great leader often hires the people they need before those people are needed. And when they don't, they can correct that lack quite efficiently. A poor leader doesn't and can't.
When you're looking for someone with specific qualities, you may attempt to declare that a given pool of nameless NPCs contains such a person. Roll (Intelligence or Charisma + Bureaucracy) against a difficulty set by the Storyteller; if you succeed, you find someone with the qualities you asked for. The difficulty should be 1-2 if the qualities you're asking for are relatively common in the pool, 3-4 if they're rare, and 5+ if you wouldn't expect them to be there at all.
Beyond the qualities you specify, the nature of the person you find depends on your net successes and the nature of the group you're drawing from. If you're getting help from among those who already work for you, you can expect the person you find to be reasonably loyal; if you're getting help from strangers, you can expect them to give you a fair hearing when you try to recruit them. Additional successes beyond the difficulty set by the Storyteller lead to finding better people; exactly how they're better depends on the Storyteller's whims, but unusual competence and loyalty are the go-to options.
Botching a roll to get help leads to enlisting the help of a two-faced scoundrel or a total incompetent, and not realizing that one has done so until they've done real damage.
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