Barf Forth Apocalyptica

barf forth apocalyptica => brainstorming & development => Topic started by: spigot on July 18, 2014, 11:02:17 PM

Title: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on July 18, 2014, 11:02:17 PM
Hey everyone,

I've been working on my hack Creation for around half a year now. It's far from complete but I think it's finally reached the point where I can ask for feedback. Here's some features:

• A totally new system for combat! Modelled off Kung Fu movies. Pick big, flashy moves every time you Clash and use them to inflict conditions and bypass special defences. There's no real wounds system outside combat so battles with Worthy Opponents are the only way your PC can die.
• Intimacies! Like Strings crossed with Aspects from Fate. Unleash your world-shaping passions!
• Companies! Rules for running huge organisations. Carry out the Creation-Ruling Mandate!
• Resplendencies! Player-run reverse-Fronts. Tell tales of your victory in advance!

Here it is:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u6myAFd-GBbYyl-1S58WbFJdiq6isw2PaP2RFRNtQiM/edit?usp=sharing

I'd love to hear what you all think! Criticism is much appreciated.
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: Riovanes on July 25, 2014, 02:34:59 PM
Not super familiar with Exalted, but I can say this looks pretty fun for playing out large-scale Kung Foo. I like the idea of playing those movies where one guy fights ten thousand warriors. Love the split between "Dispose of Unworthy Opponents" and "Clash", fits the setting perfectly, but there's a few contradictions - in the Unworthy Opponents move you say "this is the move to roll when you charge through an army," but later you say an army always counts as a worthy opponent. Is this just the difference between charging through the army and charging at the army?

The Intimacies and Channels system is cool for players who want in-depth emotional and political stuff, but it's maybe too complicated for players who just want to beat the crap out of stuff. Maybe you could have a simplified version of the system that's more like History, Bonds, or Strings, where there's just a single number to keep track of for each character. Groups who choose to use the more complex system can do so.

When I read the Limit Break rule, I hoped it would function something like a super-powered Darkest Self; reading the character profiles, it looks like this is what you're going for, which is excellent.

So overall I'd say that I'd definitely play this for some kung fu RPGing; however, as much as some players would love the in-depth rules for relationships, emotional dependacies, army policies, and finances, me and my group would probably skip over them, and I, the GM, would say "You guys are a kung fu team, there's bad guys, do something about them!"
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on July 26, 2014, 07:38:35 AM
Thanks so much! Here's my answers to your questions:

On charging through and charging at an army: Yes, that's absolutely right! The way I see it, every scene is made up of goals and obstacles. The goal is the point of the scene and the obstacle is everything that gets in the way. That's what I was going for with "How do I know which move to use?" but I'll rework it and make that more explicit.

Anyway, let's say the goal is rescuing someone who's been captured by the army. In this case, the army is an obstacle between you and the goal, so you Dispose of Unworthy Opponents. You're getting them out of the way, but you're not actually dealing them significant harm - you're not reducing their Magnitude or inflicting a Condition on them. Mechanically, murdering thousands of soldiers is identical to shoving someone out of the way and running past. Dispose of Unworthy Opponents is about getting things out of the way.

So an Unworthy Opponent is what's between you and the goal, and a Worthy Opponent is the goal, the whole point of the scene. In the former case, Dispose of Unworthy Opponents. In the latter case, Clash! I'll clarify that in the document and revise the bit which says an army is always a Worthy Opponent.

On Intimacies, Channels and your last paragraph there: Yeah, I've been wondering whether to simplify that down. I think I've written two games which I need to separate out here - a kung fu fights game and a political manoeuvres game.

Exalted is basically something I can get into a dialogue with and try out new mechanics for - I'm not sure this will be the game I finish, but it's a great testing ground for new ideas. I'm planning on coming up with an original setting for the system at some point in the distant future.

On Limit Break: Yeah, it's basically your big !Forbidden Technique! panic button. It's great! You could even do Limit Breaks with purely physical effects. I'm thinking of stuff like Sing at the end of Kung Fu Hustle if you've seen that - that's what Limit Break is for.
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on August 30, 2014, 11:43:13 PM
I finally finished the first draft of my Basic Moves! Thanks a lot to Riovanes for their input on the combat moves. Here they are, with stats:

===

The stats are:
Dawn, For acting in your capacity as Warmaker - the field of physical conflict. War and personal combat.
Zenith, For acting in your capacity as Demagogue and God-Sovereign - leading, and surviving great hardships unconquered - physical and mental endurance.
Twilight, For acting in your capacity as Scholar and Artisan - the acquisition, application and dissemination of knowledge.
Night, For acting in your capacity as Spy and Criminal - infiltration, disguise and trickery.
Eclipse, For acting in your capacity as Diplomat and Broker - travelling, schmoozing and doing deals.

The moves are:
Dispose of Unworthy Opponents
When you dispose of unworthy opponents, roll+Dawn. On a 7+, they’re taken care of - you can move past them. On a 7-9, there’s a problem - pick 1.

On a 12+, unworthy opponent will get out of your way for the rest of the scene.

When I say “you can move past them”, that means they’re dead, unconscious, enraptured by the impossible beauty of your martial arts - they’ve served their narrative purpose and they’re no longer a meaningful obstacle. Dispose of Unworthy Opponents is about getting things out of the way.

Let's say your goal in the scene is rescuing someone who's been captured by a horde of Fair Folk. In this case, the horde is an obstacle between you and the goal, so you Dispose of Unworthy Opponents. You're getting them out of the way, but you're not actually dealing them mechanically significant harm - you're not reducing their Magnitude or inflicting a Condition on them. Mechanically, murdering thousands of soldiers is identical to shoving someone out of the way and running past.

So an Unworthy Opponent is what's between you and the goal, and a Worthy Opponent is the goal, the whole point of the scene. In the former case, Dispose of Unworthy Opponents. In the latter, Clash!

Clash!
When you clash with a worthy opponent, roll+Dawn and select a style. On a 7+, you deal a wound and trigger your style. On a 7-9, you suffer a wound and your opponent makes a move.

Clash is still under construction! Styles are special moves triggered by this move which can inflict conditions on your opponent, enhance your abilities and more.

Defend Other
When you leap to something’s defense, roll+Dawn. On a 10+, it suffers no harm and you’re put in a spot. On a 7–9, you suffer the harm in its place - the MC will give you a condition.

On a 12+, it suffers no harm and you act at an advantage to neutralise whatever threat you defended it from.

Press On
When you press on in the face of adversity, roll+Zenith. On a 10+, you endure - if you would have taken a condition, you don't. On a 7-9, you flinch, falter or hesitate.

On a 12+, onlookers are inspired by your heroic resolve and act at an advantage against that same hardship for the rest of the scene.

Inspire
When you inspire an audience with your shining charisma, roll+Zenith. On a 7+, their passions are inflamed, pick one: Instill an Emotion in your audience; Bestow or upgrade a single intimacy and fill its channel if appropriate. On a 7-9, the MC can shift the tenor of their passions in a small but significant way - a love of hard work becomes a love of money, a love of country becomes a hatred of foreigners.

When you Inspire a PC, they can always reject the effects of this move.

If you encounter a contradictory Intimacy, this move will instead weaken it by a single grade.

In order to upgrade an Intimacy from Minor to Major, you need a supporting Minor Intimacy.
In order to upgrade an Intimacy from Major to Core, you need a supporting Major Intimacy.

Sacred Lore
When you consult your accumulated knowledge, roll+Twilight. On a 7+, the MC will tell you something interesting and relevant to the problem at hand, and they might ask you a question or two - answer them. On a 7-9, your knowledge is vague and incomplete - the GM will reveal a single missing detail at their discretion later in the scene.

On a 12+, you experience an impossible burst of insight - you can veto or modify a single element of the MC’s answer.

Notice Details
When you take stock of your surroundings, roll+Twilight. On a 10+, ask the MC three of the following. On a 7-9, ask one of the following. Take +1 Forward when you act on the answers.

On a 12+, you can ask any three questions you like, not limited to the list.

Feat of Athleticism
When you perform a heroic feat of athleticism, roll+Night. On a 10+, you pull it off without any trouble - you lift the burning beam, scale the mountain or vault the gate. On a 7-9, you pull it off, but there’s a hitch - the MC will offer you a partial success, success at a cost, or an ugly choice.

On a 12+, you transcend the obstacle completely. Whatever the aim of your action - to escape a threat, to rescue a friend - consider it done. Nothing will pose a threat to that aim for the rest of the scene.

Deceive
When you attempt to do something without anyone noticing, roll+Night. On a 7+, your targets see what you want them to see, whether that’s something else, or nothing at all. On a 7-9, pick one:

On a 12+, no one will ever find out what you did, unless you tell them.

Discern Intent
When you observe or interact with someone, you can roll+Eclipse at any time. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend this hold 1-for-1 to ask their player one of the following questions. They must answer truthfully.

On a 12+, you can spend your hold 1-for-1 to ask any question you like, not limited to the list.

“Interact” is deliberately broad - you could roll this move in the middle of a swordfight or a game of checkers.

Manipulate
When you manipulate someone, tell them what you want, tag the appropriate Intimacies and roll+Eclipse. For NPCs: On a 10+, you make the connection - the character is willing and able to do what you want. On a 7-9, the MC picks one:
For PCs: On a 10+, both. On a 7-9, pick one:

"Tagging an Intimacy" means relating your demands to their Intimacies - "Hide me from the Satrap's police because I'm your best friend" for instance. Intimacies provide leverage as follows:

On a 12+, for NPCs: They’ll go the extra mile - anything up to a grade higher than the intimacy you tagged. The MC will give you a boon resulting from their action - you'll get more out of them and, if appropriate, you'll get it faster than you expected. This could mean engaging special resources and calling in favours from their own friends. For PCs, they also gain an extra channel to distribute freely if they do it.

If your demands contradict their Intimacies, check the grade of your tagged Intimacies against the grade of their contradictory Intimacies. If the grade’s equal, you check against the number. That means Major Intimacies beats Minor, 2 Major beats 1 Major, and 1 Major + 1 Minor beats 1 Major.

===

And that's all for now! I'm still refining mass combat, but Vincent's previews for Dark Ages have given me a lot of ideas. Clash! is also under construction but I like where it's headed. As always, comments are very welcome.
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on September 10, 2014, 06:25:53 AM
This is a very small update - I've revised the 12+ moves for Notice Details and Discern Intent. The first iteration was ripped straight from Apocalypse World and it just wasn't working, so here's the new ones:

Notice Details
When you take stock of your surroundings, roll+Twilight. On a 10+, ask the MC three of the following. On a 7-9, ask one of the following. Take +1 Forward when you act on the answers.
On a 12+, you can ask any three questions whose answer your senses could reveal, not limited to the list.

Discern Intent
When you observe or interact with someone, you can roll+Eclipse at any time. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend this hold 1-for-1 to ask their player one of the following questions. They must answer truthfully.
On a 12+, you can ask these questions of your target freely for the rest of the scene. Additionally, the MC will tell you when they display an Intimacy.

These rewrites were prompted by the question of what it means to be able to ask any question - there's so many crazy questions you could ask that . Could I ask what the lice on a guy's eyebrows are doing if I was looking at him from a kilometer away? I had to clarify what was possible firstly because when it comes to asking questions, constraint is productive. Secondly because it opens up a whole new design space in terms of the questions you can ask. You can have moves to expand your sensory capacity, allow new questions, change and enhance the 12+ results - all sorts of things!

Look at the Brainer's 'Deep Brain Scan' for instance. You can't say the move is useless because you could just ask those questions with a 12+ on Read A Person - firstly because the move gives you more reliable access to those questions (ie. On a 7+ instead of a 12+), and secondly because it gives you that access earlier than you'd get it with the Ungiven Future advances, which come way late. In Creation, you start with a Caste Mythos Exultant, which gives you access to your Caste's advanced moves from the word go.

This all goes back to Intimacy Channels, which are something I haven't gone into yet. Channels are sort of like strings from Monsterhearts crossed with Aspects from Fate. Normally, channelling an intimacy will get you an advantage on your roll - +1 Forward. With Mythos Exultant however, spending Channels on your advanced Caste moves upshifts the result of your roll by one category instead of giving you an advantage - for instance, a 10+ would become 12+.

So taking all this into account, it's quite easy for someone to get a 12+ on their Caste moves if they want to. They've got the +1 from their Caste Stat, possibly an advantage granting another +1, and they can channel an Intimacy to upgrade their roll result. If all this lines up, they've got a ~40 chance of hitting the 12+. As a result, the nature of these 12+ moves had to be changed and constrained a little. Please let me know what you think!
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on September 28, 2014, 03:30:34 AM
So I'm taking my system and making an original setting for it: FOURTH WORLD - THE WORLD THAT TIME FORGOT

Part of it's White Wolf cosmology all mashed up and repurposed - playbooks are Scions of weird and powerful entities, Gods and Titans. The world is structured according to the Triat (http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Triat) of old World of Darkness cosmology, but I want it to be flexible. I want the setting painted in broad strokes, in the same way as Apocalypse World presupposes an Apocalypse and a Psychic Maelstrom but leaves the specifics aside. What I'm presupposing is these three cosmic forces - the Triat - and a Titanomachy which shattered Creation, a war between the Gods of the Celestial Bureacracy and the Titans who made Creation and the Gods to oversee it.

There's four worlds: The Wyld, a place of pure chaos and dynamism; Heaven, home of the Celestial Bureaucracy, whose job it is to ensure the stability of Creation; Malfeas, prison-tomb of the Titans; and Creation itself, in which all of these forces are supposed to come together in harmony, but which is suffering a terrible imbalance of all of them. Parts of it are saturated with Wyld energies after the Titanomachy shredded reality's fabric, other parts are stifled under the unchecked tyranny of the Celestial Bureaucracy, and still other parts are falling into the hells and underworlds of Malfeas.

The players enter into all of this in a position to make change. They each have the power to shape Creation and they must learn how to cope with this. Although they are powerful, the Scions are flawed and imperfect as anyone - maybe moreso. Either way, they are in a position to inflict their flaws on the whole of Creation.

I want to explore what it is to have power. I don't want this to be a boring power fantasy which ignores its consequences - I want to explore those consequences in depth, and what it means to be powerful and still be imperfect, still make mistakes.

Lastly, the stats have been reworked and now there's only 4 of them, distributed like Monsterhearts - Wicked, Wyrd, Glorious and Mighty. This is all up in the air but I think I've got a solid foundation here!
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on September 29, 2014, 10:39:14 PM
More stuff - here's how I'm allocating stats and moves:

• Wicked means tricksy, duplicitous, frivolous, fun, selfish, mean, bewitching.
? Deceive
? Manipulate
• Wyrd means mysterious, secretive, sagely, shamanic, insightful, inscrutable, knowing.
? Sacred Lore
? Discern Intent
? Discern Realities
• Glorious means radiant, noble, unbroken, terrible, beautiful, awe-inspiring, larger than life.
? Inspire
? Press On
• Mighty means potent, athletic, world-shaking, muscular, tough, agile, enduring.
? Feat of Athletics
? Clash!
? Dispose of Unworthy Opponents

I'm happy with how Mighty and Glorious are allocated - I've removed Defend Other from the basic moves - but I've got some issues with Wicked and Wyrd. Firstly, I'm wondering whether to fuse Discern Intent with Manipulate, sort of like Win Someone Over in AW:DA. I don't think I'm going to do that though because sometimes you want to know stuff about someone without manipulating them. Here they are for reference (I rewrote Manipulate a little):

Manipulate
When you manipulate someone, tell them what you want and roll+Wicked once you've got enough leverage.
For NPCs: On a 10+, you make the connection - the character is willing and able to do what you want. On a 7-9, the MC picks one:
• They’re willing, but they're not able - they’ll tell you what trouble is stopping them.
• They’re able, but they're not completely willing. - they’ll tell you what it’ll take to get them to do it.
For PCs: On a 10+, both. On a 7-9, pick one:
• If they do it, they restore a channel in whichever Passions (New name for Intimacies) were invoked.
• If they refuse, they’re facing adversity.

Discern Intent
When you observe or interact with someone, you can roll+Wyrd. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend this hold 1-for-1 to ask their player one of the following questions. They must answer truthfully.
• How’s your character feeling?
• What does your character want from me?
• What’s an Passion your character’s displayed this scene?
• Is your character lying? (Considering changing this to "What's your character hiding?")

Secondly I'm wondering whether to stick Notice Details (Now Discern Realities) in Wyrd or get rid of it altogether. Here it is for reference:

Discern Realities
When you take stock of your surroundings, roll+Wyrd. On a 10+, ask the MC three of the following. On a 7-9, ask one of the following. Take an Advantage when you act on the answers.
• What here is not as it seems?
• What has happened here recently?
• What is about to happen here?
• What here is threatening to me?
• What here is valuable to me?

Lastly I came up with a 12+ for Clash!:

"When you clash with a worthy opponent, roll+Mighty and select a style. On a 7+, you deal a wound and trigger your style. On a 7-9, you suffer a wound and your opponent makes a move.

On a 12+, the next time you Clash your opponent reveals what they plan to do before you declare your action.

The Clash is a dedicated exchange of blows with a Worthy Opponent. Once the scene is over, the Wound track is reset. Conditions are retained as usual."

More on Clash later!

===

Stats and moves aside I've resurrected something from an early draft of Creation: Scale. Quoting from my document here:

"For the purposes of playtesting, Scale is a GUIDELINE - the vast majority of effects of each scale will fall into the ranges described here, but if something feels too small or too big for the scale in question, go with your gut and change it.

Some moves scale more than others. For instance, Manipulate and Discern Intent don’t really scale at all while Feat of Athletics scales very noticeably - the stuff you can lift at Titanic far exceeds the stuff you can lift at Legendary. Looking more at Feat of Athletics, the lower limit is the heaviest stuff you can lift without effort and the upper is the stuff you can lift with specialised moves.

The issues faced at each scale differ qualitatively (in ways I’ll investigate more through playtesting). We know there’s a difference between starting fights and starting wars - one’s not just the other but bigger or smaller. We know there’s a difference between leaping a hurdle and leaping a house, building a house and building a city. It’s like water - water doesn’t just get hotter or colder, it changes states, turns to ice, vapour and plasma. Quantity has qualities all its own - every scale is unique.

• Scale
1. Grade association: What your scaled moves can achieve at this scale - the things you can summon, the Passions you can evoke, the Delusions and Compulsions you can inflict.
2. Magnitude association: How many things your scaled moves can affect at this scale.
3. Size: The physical scale of your action - a lower limit and an upper limit. The lower limit covers what you can do with your basic moves, the upper covers what you can do when you specialise.

• Legendary
1. Minor
2. Magnitude 0-3 (Ones to Thousands, a village)
3. A person, a fully loaded cart.

• Mythic
1. Major
2. Magnitude 4-6 (Ten-Thousands to Millions, a city)
3. A house, a palace.

• Titanic
1. Ruling (Formerly Core)
2. Magnitude 7-9 (Ten-Millions to Billions, an entire region)
3. A mountain, the Moon.

• THE ABSOLUTE HUGEST
1. Beyond the Minor-Major-Ruling scale
2. Magnitude 10 (Ten-Billions, all the things in a single world)
3. Creation, Reality itself.

More on that 4th scale - you can't really play there because the rules and the themes break down here. It's more for imagining the scale at which all the impossibly huge entities are acting. That's Ishvara, Incarnae and Titans for the Wyld, the Celestial Bureaucracy and Malfeas respectively.
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on September 30, 2014, 09:59:47 PM
More stuff! Here's what I've been doing with Conditions and Forward, which I've replaced with a system of advantage and disadvantage. Due credit to Monsterhearts for most of this - it's the base I was working off. Comments are always appreciated!

Conditions
PCs pick up conditions over the course of the game. Briefly, conditions are persistent states describing how a PC’s circumstances are out of the ordinary - this means broken limbs, being on fire, turning to stone, being poisoned and so on.

Conditions are stubborn - they won’t go away until you take specific action to alleviate them. If you’re On Fire, you'd need to jump in a lake or roll around on the ground before you could erase the condition. What constitutes appropriate action is up to the MC and the player in question. Some special moves can help you remove conditions or ignore them entirely.

Conditions function prescriptively and descriptively. This means if someone gives you the condition, it becomes true, and if it’s true, you’ve got the condition. So if someone inflicted the condition ‘Broken Arm’ on you, that would mean they broke your arm. If you broke your arm in a fall, you’d gain the condition ‘Broken Arm’. Likewise, if something fixes your broken arm, you erase the condition; if something erases the condition, your arm's fixed.

You can’t get the same condition twice - if you would, it intensifies the one you’ve got. Broken legs are severed and pulverised, diseases fester. Sometimes this won’t make sense - there’s only so many eyes you can lose! - and in cases like that your condition won’t change.

Advantage & Disadvantage
PCs take advantages and disadvantages to their rolls depending on their circumstances. When you’ve got more advantages than disadvantages, you’re acting at an advantage and you add 1 to your roll. When you’ve got more disadvantages than advantages, you’re acting at a disadvantage and you take 1 off your roll. If your advantages equal your disadvantages, nothing happens.

PCs take an advantage when:
• They take advantage of someone’s condition while acting against them.
• They channel a Passion towards their move.
• A move, condition or special rule says they do.
PCs take a disadvantage when:
• A condition would interfere directly with their action.
• A move, condition or special rule says they do.

PCs can rack up any number of advantages and disadvantages - if you had 3 conditions interfering with your action, you’d take 3 disadvantages. If you spent 3 Channels on an action, you’d take 3 advantages. Advantages and disadvantages are used up once they’re applied to a roll - for instance, those 3 Channels I spent would only grant those advantages to the roll they were channelled towards - but special moves and conditions can provide a steady source of them.

In order to take an advantage mechanically, you need to take it fictionally first. Describe how you’re taking advantage of a condition - are you forcing someone with a broken leg to fight on uneven ground, are you simply running away from them? The same goes for disadvantages. Remember: Rules follow fiction! There is no mechanical effect without a fictional effect.

Questions for playtesting:
• Is it hard to keep track of all your advantages and disadvantages?
? Some way to keep track of them visually? Tally, tokens?
• Does it take too long to tally them up when you’re making moves?
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on October 02, 2014, 07:02:55 AM
More thoughts - I think I might get rid of the Triat thing, or at least reduce its significance and change the setting to an Ancient World kind of thing. For the core I'm defiinitely changing the nature of the playbooks (Now Legends) - they're not scions of pre-existing powers, they're humans and almost-humans who through sheer force of will have grasped some cosmic principle which they now embody. Here's some sketches of Legends:

The Adversary (Wicked and Glorious.) (Still figuring out name - The Outcast, The Lion?)
Opposes all the powers that be, refines all around her through constant trial and challenge. Demands the best.

The Artisan (Wyrd and Glorious.)
Merchant of wonders, purveyor of Wisdom. Wonders can be produced and distributed en masse? Maybe not, but the intent is that the things you invent will definitely change the way people live.

The Beast (Wyrd and Mighty.)
Semi-human beast at the peripheries of society. Struggling to cope with being neither human nor animal - has a unique relationship with both. Still figuring this out.

The Conqueror (Glorious and Mighty.)
Leading crusades, claiming bloodied thrones - expanding forever.

The Messiah (Wyrd and Glorious.)
Wield judgement. I've actually got some old stuff from Creation which I've dug up and used for it. Stuff in brackets is stuff I'm tossing up whether to include.

Pure in word.
Blessed are the Meek
For they shall inherit the Earth
Limit Break
#1: You are a paragon of light and virtue, the Highest of Holies. You are incapable of looking past the infinite faults and foibles of those around you, and from them you demand perfection. You maintain an ascetic devotion to your virtues, embodying them to the fullest extent possible. You escape Limit Break when your insatiable demand for perfection alienates you from the people you love.

? Impossibly Righteous Judgement
When you denounce some practice which contradicts your Principles, so do your worshippers - they gain the Principle in question at a grade equal to your own. You can only do this once for each Principle. If a worshipper witnesses you acting against that Principle (and they will hold you to the highest standard), it transforms into a negative Tie towards you.
? Triumphant Demagogue’s Manoeuvre
Roll+Glorious instead of +Wicked to manipulate anyone who has worshipped you.
? Majestic Radiant Presence
All who perceive you (or hold your image in their mind) will feel no fear, nor sadness, nor anything but radiant warmth.
? Unbreakable Fascination Method
So long as you speak, all who hear your words are compelled to listen, (and to leave aside their prejudices,) and none will interrupt you unless you allow it.
? Temple Self Apotheosis
When you are worshipped, your worshippers are overcome with a sensation of reverence - they suffer a Minor Delusion that you are perfect, just and holy, and are incapable of perceiving evidence to the contrary.

The Shaman (Wicked and Wyrd.)
Bargain with otherworldly creatures. Not much juice in this idea - might scrap it.

The Trickster (Wicked and Wyrd.)
I feel a lot of overlap with the Adversary here - isn't that interesting! I wonder what the ideas have in common? The Trickster is more about exposing the powerful as clowns and robbing them of their respect.

The Witch-King (Wyrd and Glorious)
Rules through fear and pacts with otherworldly beings, insatiable demands.

I can't think of a way to put Wicked and Mighty together right now. I'll think of something!
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on October 18, 2014, 01:07:35 AM
Well! I've almost finished my system for Passions - here it is:

===

Passions
Passions are the urges and drives which spur the Legends to impossible feats of heroism. The Passions of the Legends are the axes of history - they are the creeds on which Empires are founded, the faces that launch a thousand ships. Passions fall into one of two categories - Ties and Principles.

Ties are the relationships that define your character, whether that’s venomous hatred towards an ally who deserted you in a moment of need, or a simple love of your homeland and its people. Ties are rendered as an object followed by the tenor of the Passion in brackets. For instance, “Thousand Scars Veteran (Bitter hatred)” or “The Carpathian Highlands (Love)”.

You can only have one tie per object, but the tenor can be as complicated as you like - try to keep it short though. You can also have to individuals and the peoples of which they’re a part - for instance, you could hate a faith and love its prophet.

Principles are the creeds, ideals, and drives that define your character. They could be wholly committed to the principles of nonviolence, or they might never turn down a challenge. Principles are rendered as statements - for instance, “I am cold and distant.”, “Life is all about fun - enjoyment and excitement!”, or “I’m going to be famous!”

Nothing prevents you from holding conflicting Passions - conversely, nothing encourages you to hold them. It’s a matter of choice: If you want to focus on your character’s internal conflicts, take some conflicting Passions! If you want to focus on their external conflicts, keep conflicting Passions to a minimum. That said, I recommend a mixture of both - let your personal struggles spice up your worldly ones, and vice-versa.

Intensity
Passions are also categorised according to their intensity - the depth of their feeling, the degree to which they influence your action and define who you are. Each of these categories doubles as a move. For instance, if you made a serious, long-term commitment in the name of a Minor Passion, it would be elevated to a Major Passion. Conversely, if you hold a Major Passion, you’re expected to make serious, long-term commitments in its name when the opportunity presents itself.

Passions are categorised as follows:

Minor: When it’s a part of who you are - when you’d go out of your way to fulfil it, but you wouldn’t risk anything significant, it’s a Minor Passion.
Minor Passions can hold 1 channel.
Major: When it’s an important part of who you are - when it’s a real and continual influence on your life, something which would compel you to make long-term commitments with lasting consequences, it’s a Major Passion.
Major Passions can hold 2 channels.
Ruling: When it’s an inviolable part of who you are - when you would give your life, burn all your bridges, do anything in the name of your passion, it’s a Ruling Passion.
Ruling Passions can hold 3 channels.

Your character can hold a maximum of 2 Ruling Passions, 3 Major Passions and 4 Minor Passions.

Swap or Drop
When something compels you to move one of your Passions to a tier which is already full, pick one:
• Swap it with a Passion from that tier. eg. A Major Passion becomes Ruling, a Ruling Passion becomes Major.
• Drop a Passion from that tier by one tier.

Forming Passions
When something touches your heart - a thought, an encounter, mark it down as a new Minor Passion. If this would take you above your limit, replace a Minor Passion which has become less relevant.

For the first session:
When you encounter something and you’ve got room in your heart (A free Passion slot), you can declare you already held a Passion towards it. Have a think about what drove you to feel that way and expand on it later.

Channelling Passions
Channels are the reserves of effort, the psychic energies held by each of your Passions. Channelling a Passion means digging deep and tapping into your heart’s urge - it means unleashing something.

You can spend channels 1-for-1 to take advantages equal to the number spent. They can only be spent on actions in line with your Passions. For instance, depending on the tenor of your love, you could channel it towards rescuing your lover, attacking them, or manipulating them into doing what you think is best.

And remember: Fiction first! You can’t spend channels unless you’re genuinely impassioned, and if you spend your channels, that means you’re genuinely impassioned - why? What specifically has set you off, and how does it figure into your Passion?

(Lastly, moves will sometimes require you to spend channels in order to activate them. For instance… example here.)

Restoring Channels
When you go out of your way to indulge your Passion, restore a channel to the Passion in question. Indulging your Passion means inviting significant hardship by acting in line with it - essentially, inviting a hard move from the MC.

The MC will offer you opportunities to indulge your Passions, and you can always ask them to present you an opportunity if they’re not coming up as often as you’d like.

Faced with your subordinate’s offer of personal sacrifice, you reject him and charge headfirst into battle, alone. Met with the compassion of an elderly man tending your wounds, you sneak away in the night and take care of yourself, forever remaining cold and aloof. You might host a night of feast and debauchery and wake up in the ashes of your palace, or go to war over a slander on the name of the prince across the mountains, with whom you’re madly in love.

Compulsions, Delusions, Emotions
Compulsions and Delusions are a special kind of condition. They work a little like Passions in that they’re graded the same way and they provide channels when they cause you hardship, but they can’t hold channels themselves.

Put simply, Compulsions force you to do something, while Delusions force you to believe something. When you’re presented an opportunity to act in line with a Compulsion or a Delusion, pick one:
• Do it, and if it causes a hardship, restore a channel to a Passion of your choice
• Channel your Passions towards breaking it.
Minor Compulsions and Delusions take 1 channel to break, Major ones take 2 and Ruling ones take 3. If you’re out of channels, Limit Break is always an option.

Emotions are conditions describing an emotional state. You can only have one at a time - same with NPCs. When you act in line with your Emotion, take an advantage. When you act against your Emotion, take a disadvantage - your condition is interfering with your action. Emotions disappear at the end of the scene.

===

With that, here's my newest version of Inspire

Inspire
When you inspire an audience, roll+Glorious. On a 7+, their passions are inflamed - pick one:
• Instill an Emotion in your audience and, if applicable, pick a target for it (For PCs: They fill both channels if they accept the Emotion);
• Bestow or intensify a single Passion (For PCs: They fill their new channel);
• Weaken or destroy a single Passion. (For PCs: They get a channel to put anywhere they want)
On a 7-9, their player (For NPCs: This means the MC) can shift their passions in a small but significant way - a love of hard work becomes a love of money, a love of country becomes a hatred of foreigners, calm becomes sadness.

PCs can always reject the effects of the move, but if they accept it they get the benefits given in brackets.

You can instill and destroy Minor Passions freely, but you need a supporting Passion of an equal or higher grade to intensify a Passion past Minor.

[Quote: “Then Enkidu called out, ‘O Gilgamesh, remember now your boasts in Uruk. Forward, attack, son of Uruk, there is nothing to fear.'”]

===

Next: Peoples, the system replacing Companies from my last draft. I've also got some stuff on Passions and NPCs if anyone's interested!
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on October 18, 2014, 05:21:30 PM
So I was thinking - given the way I've got these Intensities figured out, I'm going to adjust the mechanic for restoring channels so you get a different number of channels depending on the magnitude of your hardship - 1 for an inconvenience, 2 for a significant risk, 3 for a life-changing decision. You get the channels the moment you make whichever decision would invite the hardship, and maybe you get some XP for taking the huge decisions - 3-channel hardships and maybe 2-channel ones too.

By the way, is there some way I can change the title of this thread?
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on November 01, 2014, 03:11:36 AM
So I finished my first draft of a playbook that's not adapted from anything and I'm really proud of it! The Warrior is all about being brash and headstrong and fighting for a cause, whether by violence or passionate outbursts.

===

The Warrior
Heavenly Guardian, Soldier of Fate,
Wandering Swordswoman, Peregrine Knight:
Keeper or breaker of peace?
Stats
Wicked -1, Wyrd -1, Glorious +1, Mighty +1
Passions
You start with:
• A Ruling Principle of devotion to yours and your peoples’ freedom.
• A Major Tie of love & respect forged in battle for one of your Circle - were they with you or against you when it happened?
...in addition to the Passions that you choose for yourself.
Limit Break
You know no fear. You need to charge head first into whatever’s set you off and crash up against it until you get what you want. You can never retreat, and you can never use less than the maximum possible force. You escape Limit Break when your actions hurt someone you really care about.
Moves
Pick 2 of the following:
? Claiming Bloodied Thrones
When you triumph over a Worthy Opponent, roll+Mighty. On a 7+, you assume leadership of their Peoples immediately, no questions asked. On a 7-9, the MC picks 1:
• An insurgency resists your rule - constitute them as a people with 1 less Magnitude than the most numerous People you’re assuming control of and a Ruling Tie of hatred towards you.
• You get more than you bargained for - their peoples are facing an imminent threat which only you can prevent.
? Battle-Forged Foe Understanding
When you meet an opponent in open conflict, Discern Intent with Mighty instead of Wyrd. Additionally, using the move in this way informs you of any Ties they hold towards you, free of charge.
? Death-Devouring Oni Countenance
You can steep yourself in a transcendent aura of violence-to-come. When you do, inflict an Emotion of sheer terror on any who see you or hear you. Anyone who has beaten this fear and faced you head on is immune to this move forevermore.
? Tiger Warrior Legion
When you spend a season training a people in the art of war, constitute them as an army (+1) with a Ruling Passion of your choice, determined at the end of the season. (Your average army is =0, +1 is like an elite guard that's devo soldiering.)
? Against The World
When you meet an army in battle, alone, you can take on thousands without breaking a sweat - give yourself the Army +3 tag. (Basically means you fight as an army of thousands, like the Gunlugger's NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH turning them into a small gang. I'm also tossing up whether to say this gives you a bonus to arguing in front of a hostile crowd or turning that into its own move.)
? Heavenly Guardian Defence
When you fight to defend something you care about, by word or by sword, take advantages equal to the grade of the Passion.
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on December 01, 2014, 09:07:51 PM
Alright, I'm finally moving towards a playable draft and I want to put this together as a PDF, but I've got no idea how! Could someone who's had experience doing it tell me how?
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: As If on December 04, 2014, 08:48:30 PM
Layup is usually done in one program and then the document is converted to PDF format.  There are PDF converters available for all popular word processing and layup programs, and many of them can print or export to PDF right off the "File" menu.  If you work in Microsoft WORD (for instance) you can search for "WORD to PDF converter" online.  Some are even free.  I use one that cost about $25 and installs as a printer on my machine.
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on December 04, 2014, 09:10:50 PM
Thanks a lot - I'll lay it up soon and post a PDF with a new thread - it sucks I can't change the title of this one!

On Fourth World (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yO4JYaYP99k7Z77UW62rX8X96Rq8nkNcNRhRTicoMWA/edit?usp=sharing) itself, I've been working on three more playbooks - The Prince, The Trickster and the Witch-King. The former two are actually developed , the latter is basically two moves and an idea about dealing with terrible alien spirits which I've yet to flesh out. The Prince is about having worldly riches, social smarts and an unquenchable will to power, and the Trickster is about messing with people, refining them through conflict and cheating the consequences of your actions. I've also tossed a couple moves on the Messiah and the Warrior, culled some old moves and revised some others. I'm chugging along!

In that vein I've made progress on the sheet more broadly - playbooks will have starting Passions, some of which are worked up already, as well as a section on your Apotheosis - the moment in which you merged with the wellspring of wyrd and became a destiny unto yourself, a Legend. I've also figured out how to do names, but this is all in the document - check it out!
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: NoahTheDuke on April 30, 2015, 06:46:11 PM
Is this still being worked on?
Title: Re: Creation! An Exalted Hack
Post by: spigot on May 02, 2015, 09:05:37 PM
Absolutely! And I do intend on finishing it - I haven't been able to work on it much since I left home in January and I've been a lot busier since then.

Could I ask you though, what interests you about the game? Which elements would you like to see expanded? And which other PBTA games have you thought looked interesting? I've been out of the loop on this shit for so long that I'm not really thinking about it any more, and I'd like to get back into things.

Edit: Basically, what has had the most psychic energy for you? What images linger?