[Exalted] Big 9

[Jokasti]

Made this cause the 16 are not compatible with Exalted.

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1. So you're running Exalted. First or Second Edition?

2. Does your game focus on a specific Exalt type? If so, which? If not, are there any restrictions to Exalt type?

3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many?

4. What's the gaming medium (OotS forums, IM, e-mail etc.)?

5. What is the characters' starting experience or bonus points?

6. Are Lunars generated by MoEP: Lunars, or by Peter Schaefer's original rules?

7. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them?

8. Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that your Players should know about? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules.
8.1 Any changes to Craft as detailed in Core?

8.2 Do the characters get a number of extra purchases of the appropriate Ox-Body Technique equivalent equal to their Stamina rating?

8.3 Does taking the Sorcery or Necromancy initiation charm automatically give the character a spell? If so, how many?

8.4 Do the characters get any free Excellencies? If so, how many?

8.5 Other.

9. Are your Players restricted to particular rulebooks and supplements, or will you be allowing access to non-standard material? What sources can Players use for their characters?

Anything I'm missing?

[Deca]

Couldn't 6, 7, 8 and 9 all be represented under 12?

[The Rose Dragon]

Couldn't 6, 7, 8 and 9 all be represented under 12?

10 too, though I don't think 9 is a house rule so much as unofficial errata. It was written by the main designer of Second Edition Lunars and was originally supposed to be the book's version, if I recall, but White Wolf meddling changed things a bit.

[Jokasti]

Okay, updated.

[The Rose Dragon]

The question about the Craft house rule needs more detail, as there are three variations of making Crafts into specialties that I'm aware of.

Might want to make it "Any house rules on Craft?", since it is usually accepted as a huge point sink, but the exact solutions vary.

[imperialspectre]

You should probably also make some kind of notation on perfect defenses, because as written they destroy Exalted's balance and make its mechanics pretty much the opposite of its fluff.

You might want to consider the amount of bonus chargen points given as a separate bullet point, since that's decided by the storyteller and significantly affects how people build their characters.

[Tavar]

How does it do that? The system alway's seemed focused on defenses as paramount, and PD's represent this.

[Jokasti]

Yes, ignoring Zeal and such PD's are an integral part of combat.

[The Rose Dragon]

Yes, ignoring Zeal and such PD's are an integral part of combat.

Zeal was removed in the errata.

[Jokasti]

Thank the Celestials. But most people take a PD if they can, because of how useful they are.

[imperialspectre]

Here's the problem with perfect defenses in a nutshell. They cost dramatically less than practically any offensive combination, which means that for two people with roughly equal mote pools, the only viable combat strategy is to fire off unaugmented autoattacks and use perfect defenses any time the other guy uses something with a mote cost.

Mechanically, this means that your mote pool is actually an extra layer of HP on top of the health levels that you normally would have. It also means that it's practically impossible to kill someone with higher Essence than yours, unless you gangbang him with a numerical advantage.

How does it do that? The system alway's seemed focused on defenses as paramount, and PD's represent this.

Mechanically, I agree with you. But that's not how Exalted is advertised. It's advertised as a system for exciting, cinematic, and relatively quick play, designed to help Storytellers tell stories.* I don't think that a set of mechanics that encourage hardcore turtling is appropriate for a system that is advertised as the above - it's like advertising a game to appeal to Starcraft players when the actual mechanics are from Civ 3.

It's basically the same issue that I have with a lot of Exalted 2e (haven't played 1e or read 1e material, so I can't speak to that). I don't really have too much against the mechanics, or against the setting, or against the system that's advertised to prospective players - I just don't think that you can actually reconcile all three into one game.

So, I would suggest nerfing the perfect defenses, either by increasing mote costs to match the costs of a strong offensive combo, or by decreasing the effectiveness of the defenses (for example, making Seven Shadow Evasion increase your Dodge and making Heavenly Guardian Defense increase your Parry, instead of making each effectively +infinity).

*I really don't like the idea of a GM as "storyteller." But, I hear that some people do. I hear that a few of those people aren't even GMs. So I'll leave it to those folks and not bother them.

[The Rose Dragon]

Here's the thing: turtling will get you killed in Exalted. Anything powerful enough to require a perfect defense will be incredibly difficult to hit and damage without using offensive Charms, which you can't use without a combo. Not to mention they probably have more motes than you have. So, if you keep spamming perfect defenses without a combo, they can just wait for you to run out of motes and drive you through with a powerful attack. And if you use a combo, good luck not running out of Willpower before your enemies run of motes to defend themselves with.

It may seem like it would turn out to be the way you describe it in theory, but that almost never happens in practice.