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View Full Version : Steampunk Exalted Conversion.



urkthegurk
2009-11-19, 12:27 AM
I understand this Text is unwieldy, and takes a long time to read. Feel free to just comment on one section, if more than one section take off, I'll split it into different threads.


Part One: the project.I've been running a homebrewed mix of 4th and 3.5 rules for my high fantasy steampunk campaign. Recently, I came into possession of the core Exalted sourcebook, and I've decided that, while I love D&D, this system is better for the story I want to tell. Therefore, I will now attempt to convert my campaign to use the Storytelling System.

The end result is what's important. I want this to be able to run a paranormal detective agency game, and a noir-superheroes vs. foul deities. Without feeling like call of cthulhu, which is too preoccupied with the horror.

Part Two: How to help. I would love to get some advice from anyone who is familiar with the system, especially if they also know lots about D&D. One of my first questions is how much the different other settings such as World of Darkness overlap with the rules structures of Exalted. Are they basically the same, but at different power levels and in separate cosmologies? Would it be worth it to swap ideas between the two, so that I can have as many options as possible for my homebrew? Let's get that cleared up first.

A few notes on the world: Its a fairly gritty world, but not in the low powered sense. In noir sense, that people can die. Its also a little horror, but while the villains borrow mostly of HP Lovecraft, the heroes run more along the lines of modern-day conans. They face eternal and cosmic evils, but they do so with a sword in their hand. Or a gun. Whatever.


Part Three: Specific Projects:

I have a few characters with unique abilities I'd like to convert. One player plays a Warlock, who I've decided basically has been Exalted as an Abyssal, although the death-gods that exalted her are not truly evil. They are spider brother gods based on the Popul Vuh's Hero Twins, with a bit of influence from Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. But I digress.
So this Warlock. She doesn't have very many powers yet, but the ones she does have mirror D&D warlock abilities. I will need help on making them. The first, and most important, is the teleporting. It's very short-ranged, so it shouldn't be unbalanced. I just don't know what it should cost to activate. I'm thinking maybe 2 motes and one willpower, with the willpower requirement being waived if a creature has died in her presence. Eldritch Blast should be fairly simple, but I'd like to make it cooler. She can also run and climb along walls, kinda spider-like, but more uncanny-vampire.
The second one is a Wizard, the the ley-line tracing rune-decoding ancient-book-finding oldschool type. She does cast spells, but she's no Exalt. Its convenient though, because I've established that noble houses often produce powerful elementalists. Hey-O dragon Blooded! In any case, her Exaltation will come unexpectedly to her. She's been learning sorcery as a mortal basically up 'till now.
I have Oadenol's Codex, so that's my starting reference for mortal-level spells. The selection in it is rather limited, though. I need some fire-and-ice slinging evocation magic for her before she even becomes exalted, and for some reason terrestrial circle magic doesn't seem to do that. What am I missing?
Also, I've been toying with the idea of leaving the wizard as a mortal. I know that it says right in the core rules not to do that, but since the progression for the exalted characters is going to be slow, I was hoping that I could pull it off, or at least delay her exaltation a little bit to make it seem a bit more natural. I don't absolutely have to do this, but what do you think? Could I perhaps give her some big whammy stuff to balance her with the exalts?

That's all for now, but I'll have more for you if this thread takes off. I'll need to build stats for some villains, for starter, so you can critique them. Tantalizing, I know.