[Exalted-China] So what is this?

[Lev Lafayette]

This is a mailing list for "Exalted-China", a story in mythic China based
on the four extraordinary books, using the Exalted game system. I'm not
*quite* ready to run it yet, but it's on its way. Give me about a month or
so to get ready :)


"Journey to the Far West: An Exalted Setting for Mythic China"


About Exalted
=============

The Exalted RPG is a high-powered high-fantasy game by White Wolf
Publishing; it has gone through three editions, and . It claims to be
inspired by various world mythologies and fantasy anime. This said, it has
its own gameworld, where the player characters are chosen by a deity and
given powers (hence "exalted"). There is a lot of elaboration from this
basic principle.

Ignore everything about the setting. This Exalted story will be primarily
a re-telling of mythological 'Journey To The West' with its memorable
re-telling in the Japanese TV series 'Monkey', but also with elements,
characters, and plot devices from the rest of the Four Great Masterworks
(sì dà qíshū; literally: "four extraordinary books"), i.e., 'Water
Margin', 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms', 'Journey to the West', and
'Dream of the Red Chamber'.

The setting for the story is the start of the Five Dynasties and Ten
Kingdoms Period of China, between the collapse of the Tang Dynasty and the
rise of the Song Dynasty (c905-960 CE), a period of substantial political
upheaval, and follows persecution of Buddhism, especially by Emperor
Wuzong (840-846 CE) and the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution. The driving
plot is the journey to Khotan to recover the Sanghata Sutra which contains
esoteric knowledge to rejoin the fractured people and kingdoms.

A useful sourcebook that will probably help is GURPS China.

As per Exalted's expression of time, the series is 'Journey to the Far
West', which consists of multiple 'Stories' which will consist of 2-3
'Episodes', each of which will consist of several 'Scenes' each.


Character Generation
====================

1. Character Concept

As per Exalted, the characters are humans who have been given powers from
one of the many Chinese gods. The character concept can be a few sentences
which elaborates the character's past as a human (rather than an Exalted
Immortal), what that they did that caused a god to choose them, and how
they ended up being Exalted.

Character Caste in Exalted is the equivalent of character class or
profession on other fantasy RPGs. The titles are solar-based, Dawn
(Warriors), Zenith (Priests), Night (Rogues), Twilight (Wizards) and
Eclipse (Leaders). Pick one; and it is strongly recommended that you don't
double up with other PCs until all Castes are full. Non-Exalted
characters, i.e., ordinary humans, have no Caste. Players must select an
epic motivation for their characters. The motivation answers the question:
"Why will the character become a legend?".

The four-page editable character sheet is probable the best to use.

https://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/pdf/Exalted/Exalted2ndED4-Page_Editable.pdf

2. Attributes and Abilities

The first step in determing Attributes is to prioritise the categories;
physical (Strength, Dexterity, Stamina), social (Charisma, Manipulation,
Appearance), and mental (Perception, Intelligence, Wits). All characters
have a score of 1 in each Attribute by default, and may distribute 8, 6,
or 4 points across the Attributes according to the priority.

Abilities represent training in skills and knowledges and are categorised
by Caste. Select an additional 5 abilities outside the character's Caste
Abilities. These are the character's Favoured Abilities. Assign 10 points
to Caste and Favoured Abilities. Favoured Abilities must receive at least
1 point. Then assign 18 points to any Ability (including Caste and
Favoured), however no Ability may be rated more than 3.

Specialities in Abilities can be purchased with bonus or experience points.

3. Advantages

Characters receive 7 points to distribute among the 11 Backgrounds. The
Backgrounds are: Allies, Artifacts, Backing (by an organisation),
Contacts, Cult, (Anima) Familiar, Followers, Influence, Manse (pure items
of an element Essense), Mentor, and Resources.

Characters also receive 10 points of Charms, of which 5 must be from Caste
or Favoured abilities. For want of a better word, Charms are like magical
feats or spells. There's a lot of them in the core rules, and many come
with various prerequisites. Fortunately the Internet provides from the
White Wolf Wiki for a list and description, and an astounding 160-page
tome outlining the tree for the prerequisites.

http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Solar_Exalted_Charms

https://thor.divnull.com/pub/exalted/charmtrees-2e-20080624.pdf

Five points may be added to the four Virtues (Compassion, Conviction,
Temperance, and Valour). No Virtue may start at above 4 without spending
bonus points. Choose one Virtue as the root of the character's Virtue
Flaw; this must be a Virtue rated 3 or more.

4. Finishing Touches

A character's Willpower equals their two highest Virtue ratings. Temporary
expenditure of a Willpower point can create an automatic success.
Characters start with a number of Intimacies (proper, collective, or
abstract nouns) equal to their Compassion. An Exalted character's Essence
starts at 2 and may be increased with bonus points. Their Personal Essence
pool is equal to their (Essence*3)+Willpower and their Peripheral Essence
(Essence*7)+Willpower+Virtues.

Characters also start with 15 bonus points. An increase in Attribute costs
4 points, an Ability 2 (or 1 if Caste or Favoured), a Background is 1, or
2 if already 3+, a speciality costs 1 (or 2 per 1 if Caste or Favoured), a
Virtue costs 3, Willpower costs 2, Intimacies 3 to increase to Willpower +
Compassion, Essence costs 7, and Charms cost 5 (4 if Favoured or Caste).

System
======

In any division, Exalted characters always round up, whereas Mortals round
down. It's good to have the Gods on your side.

Willpower: Characters may use a point of temporary Willpower for an
automatic success, or activate a Virtue for an extra die (limited by the
Virtue rating per story). As the character's Willpower declines they
become increasingly under control of the Virtues, rather than the player's
direction. Willpower is regained as the character significantly advances
their motivation, develops a significant plot point etc. Expect a few
recovery points per session.

Limit Break: Characters will find that certain circumstances challenge
their Virtues, requiring a check. Each Virtue Flaw also has specific limit
condition that, when met, forces the character to roll that Virtue and
gain limit equal to that amount. Suppressing successes on the Virtue to
engage in a preferred course of action adds to Limit Break. When this
value reaches 10, the character becomes dominated by their Flaw in a
self-destructive course of action.

Dice Pools: Most actions are determined by a check against a d10
Attribute+Ability dice pool, which a target number of 7 for success. The
degree of difficulty is determined by the number of successes required
('1' being standard, '5+' being legendary), the margin of success by the
excess number of successes above the threshold. A roll of ten equates to 2
successes. For repeat checks a penalty of -1 success is usually applied.
If there is zero successes and at least 1 result of '1' on the die poll,
then a Botch has occured, which is the worst possible outcome.


Combat
======

Combat advances with "ticks" representing a single-second. Surprise is
determined by a contested skill of Dexterity+Stealith vs Wits+Awareness.
Under such conditions Dodge and Parry have a DV (defensive value) of 0. A
Join Battle (Wits+Awareness) check is required for initial initiative. The
character with the highest count goes first on second 0, and everyone else
starts after that based on the difference on their roll and the highest
count (with a maximum of 6).

When a character's 'tick' is reached, they must choose an action. Speed is
a tick counter; after a character's action, they must wait a number of
ticks equal to the Speed of their action before they can act again. The
Defence Penalty is a penalty applied to your defences for taking the
action. The penalty lasts until their next action. Actions include aim,
attack, dash, flurry, guard, and move.

To attack, a character rolls their Accuracy pool; Dexterity + Relevant
Ability + Weapon's Accuracy. A Defense Value is subracted from the number
of attack successes. Defense is typically either Dodge or Parry. Dodge DV
is equal to half the character's Dexterity + Dodge - Armour Mobility
Penalty. Parry DV is equal to half of the character's Dexterity + Ability
+ their weapon's Defence. Shields and cover provide a DV bonus. Receiving
multiple attacks on the same tick reduces DV. There are special rules for
grappling, called shots, and mass combat.

If there are more attack successes than defense value, a hit has been
scored. Damage is equal to the Damage rating of the weapon + character's
Strength + excess successes. Damage is differentiated between "bashing"
(blunt trauma), "lethal" (edged, piercing), and "aggravated"
(supernatural). "Lethal" is the most common. If a character received more
base damage than their Stamina + Resistance, they may suffer Knockdown,
requiring a reflexive (Dexterity or Stamina) + (Athletics or Resistance)
check with a difficulty 2.

The base damage is compared to the defending character's Soak value of the
same type. Soak is based on the character's Stamina and Armour against the
different damage types; mere mortals cannot Soak lethal damage with their
stamina, Exalted can. Armour has an aggravated Soak equal to its lethal
soak. Natural armour does not have aggravated Soak. A common weapon bonus,
armour piercing, halves the Soak of armour. The minimum damage caused is
the Permanent Essence of the attacker (typically 2 for stating Exalted or
1 for Mortals), or the minimum damage rating of the weapon, whichever is
higher.

The final damage value is rolled with a number of successes (ignoring
botches and 10s) equal to a number of wounds, marked on the character
sheet as /, X, or * (to represent bashing, lethal, and aggravated wounds).
Wound penalties apply on the degree of damage. A character who suffers
more health levels of damage in a blow than their Stamina may be stunned.
The character is required to make a reflexive Stamina + Resistance roll
versus a difficulty of (damage - Stamina). Failure means a -2 dice penalty
on all non-reflexive actions until their attacker's next action. Mortals
also suffer the joy that if they received 4 or more wounds in a single
blow, they have suffered a disabling wound.

Rule change: Rather than rolling for damage, simply halve the final damage
value to indicate the number of wounds. Quicker, and makes combat slightly
(10%) more deadly.

Rule change: Rather than having the effects of being Stunned dependent on
the attacker's speed, make it equal to four ticks per multiple of Stamina.

Rule change: Rather than a flat 4 wounds for poor Mortals for a disabling
wound, it is every multiple of 2*Stamina. Weak mortals go down even
quicker!

Any character who has taken lethal or aggravated injuries will bleed. A
bleeding character will suffer an unsoakable lethal health level of damage
every (Stamina) in minutes. Stopping bleeding requires a Wits + Medicine
action for each wound, at a difficulty of the number of health levels
inflicted in the wound. Plus, Any wound will also risk infection.

If a character is struck by a Social attack they may either accept the
results, or pay a Willpower to avoid them. If it goes against the
character's motivation, they must spend the Willpower. Additional
successes of the attack have no effect on the Willpower required. Social
charms have a variety of effects such as building or eroding intimacies,
compelling behaviour, etc. There are also rules for social attacks between
units of organisation (applied through the leader).

Rule change: One Willpower needs to be spend per multiple of attack
success compared to defense.

Charms & Sorcery
================

Charms are the basic magic tricks; all Exalted and supernatural creatures
have Charms. Each Charm requires Essence to be channelled. Charms
generally supplement an action, and cost Motes, derived from the Essence
score or Willpower. Usually only one can be used per action. Notably, some
Charms can be used as mental or social influence (e.g., compulsions,
illusions, servitude etc). Every Ability has three Charms known as
Excellencies (thus, Archery Charms, Intergity Charms, Craft Charms,
Athletic Charms, Bureaucracy Charms etc). Characters may one, two, or
three of these Charms for each Ability. However there is not an equal
distribution of Charms; Melee, for example, has 19, while Stealth has only
4. In addition Exalted have two Charms to to enhance their Excellencies.

Charms, like weapons and actions, have a Speed rating. Unless otherwise
noted they have a Speed of 6 and a DV of -1. Charms have a cost on Motes;
small units of Essence. Each Exalt three Mote pools; personal Motes are
easily spent without inviting unwanted attention, peripheral Motes are
those the use of which flares the Exalted anima. Finally, there are
committed motes. Whenever a mote is spent on an ongoing effect, move motes
from one of the other two pools to the Committed pool. Motes cannot be
regained whilst Committed. Spending Motes from the peripheral Essence pool
cause the Anima of an Exalted to appear. Peripheral Essence is regained by
rest, through an attuned Manse, by a Hearthstone, or with an active Cult.
A Charm is limited in the bonus it can give to a dice pool by the relevant
Attribute plus Ability, or half that for static ratings. Only one Charm
may be used per action, however "Combos" may be used which compound Charm
effects with the expenditure of Willpower; these are time-consuming and
difficult to learn.

Whilst Charms are available to all Exalted, Sorcery is somewhat more
difficult to learn, "more transcendentally powerful and difficult" as the
rulebook says. It involves a five-part initiation trial based on virtues
(humility, tutelage, journey, courage, sacrifice), and requires in
game-terms, learning the sorcery Charms. Each spell must be individually
learned as well, and the spells are separated into different circles
(terrestial, celestial, solar). All this said, only a handful of sorcery
spells are provided in the core rules. Sorcery spells tend to take a while
to cast compared to Charms (ten combat rounds) and are expensive in Motes.




-- 
Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech
Mngmnt) (Chifley)
mobile:  0432 255 208
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