I like DW, although I feel some of the changes away from the base AW aren't necessarily for the best.  That said, I don't think it does really handle power tiers all that well, and I think that's kind of intentional.  It's a game where a Dragon is potentially just as valid an encounter for a starting group as it is for a level 6+ group.

You gain moves and some stat bonuses with levels, but you don't drastically change in power level, and 'tough' monsters don't generally have massively more hit points than middling ones, just scarier moves.  I think it works better for the average D&D game, but not as well for an Exalted in which you want to play up the Celestial types (Exalted and Divine) towering over the inhabitants, which is what I want for Myth World.

I'm not going for full-on gonzo straight off, but I'm more interested in including the high end than in supporting low-level activity.  Games like AW and even DW are good for that, I want to explore something a bit higher tier.

The basic move intent is to create tiers of power, and to represent that if you make a move against someone on a lower tier than you you will be much more effective.  I lifted the acting at an Advantage/Disadvantage from Monsterhearts to give some method of increasing your effectiveness fairly substantially without just making it more likely for you to hit your moves.

If you're not familiar with it, acting against an NPC who is at a Disadvantage will mean that your action will cost them resources/face/position in the fiction in addition to any other effects.

The list of consequences for making the move are to show that you have to display some supernatural power to use it, either making yourself more visible to potential enemies, or incurring some kind of cost on yourself from exerting yourself.

Does that clarify some of it, or are there specific portions you'd want explained more?

Okay, I finally have my Solar Playbooks all written up and I feel like I have the player side of things more or less ready to go.  I still want to do more on how to establish fronts for Myth World, but I'd like to get some feedback on what I have.

My new version of 'Reveal your Power' is intended to be a bit more general and simplified and to lift some of the acting at an advantage/disadvantage system from Monsterhearts, since I like the look of that.


++ Solars

Solar Exalted begin with Manifest Essence and are considered 1st Circle of power by default.

++ Manifest Essence

When you engage in a conflict with and individual or confront and obstacle of a lesser Circle of power than yourself, you put an NPC at a Disadvantage for each Circle you exceed them by and PCs must Act Under Fire where the Fire is your greater potency.  These apply even if you miss on move, as even in failure you are more potent than your opponent.  You must also choose one of the following consequences for exercising your full strength:
* Take +1 to Anima and Flare Anima
* You tire yourself in your exertions and take -1 forward
* The scope of your power comes with consequences beyond what you intended
* The MC gains 1 Limit on you, if they are not already holding the maximum amount

NPCs with sufficient supernatural power can use this move too, acting at an Advantage for each Circle they exceed the power of the Exalt by.  If the character wishes to mitigate the effects they can Manifest Essence themselves and take the relevant consequences to reduce the disparity in Circle of power.

Just so you know, I ran the 33 scenario for a few friends last night, one BSG fan and to who didn't know it.  It went great and the 33 min timer running really helped keep people on track and the tension ramped up.  Kudos on the gorgeous hack and the scenario setup.

Okay, finally getting back to this after a long hiatus (although still without the chance to have playtested it yet, sadly).  Finally have my initial set of playbooks drafted, and I'm now going through special moves, general Exalted moves and other surrounding system stuff.

I've more or less settled on how I want to use Virtues and Limit for now, and have starting Virtue options written up for the playbooks, a la the Hx entries for AW.

Virtues:

When you help or hinder another's action, roll +Virtue if you are acting in accordance with a Virtue, or -Virtue of you are acting against the Virtue.

At the start of the session, pass your character to the player whose character most exemplifies your highest Virtue.  They highlight one of your stats, and then pass it to the ST to highlight your other stat.

At the end of the session, pick the player who you feel has act most in accordance with or against one of the Virtues and tell them to mark + or - Virtue accordingly.  If this takes you to +4 or -4, reset the Virtue to +1 or -1, mark XP and the ST holds one Limit against you, max of 3.
The ST can spend Limit to make you act wildly for or against one of your Virtues.  If you do so, take +1 forward on those actions, if you refuse you are Acting Under Fire, where the fire is the madness of the Great Curse gripping you.

I like the idea of being able to roll your Virtue to help yourself, as if it were another character assissting you, giving you the +1 if it succeeds.  That lets players invoke it when they feel they need to, and with the 'cost' of doing so being the exposure to fire, danger, retribution or cost that you get on a 7-9 hit for a help roll.  Similarly, the MC could rool the Virtue to interfere with actions that would grossly conflict with a Virtue.

So, if Scarlet Wing Dancer wants to Read a Sitch to get past some callous slavers to rescue captives trapped in their pens as they burn down, she can roll +(Compassion) to help herself do so, as her empathy for their suffering renders her sensitive to the slightest clue.  If she later captures the leader of the slavers and wants to Go Aggro on him to torture him for information about his employers, she gets her own +(Compassion) rolled against her as intereference, as her conscience shies away from the brutal act.

The question is how to handle the cost for the virtue on 7-9 hit.  In the case of the Virtue helping it should give some cost to the PC, but in the case of the Virtue interfering, that doesn't make so much sense.

One idea is that on a helping 7-9 hit the MC gets to hold one against the PC for the Virtue, and spend it later in the session to have the PC act in some Virtuous way and either mark experience if they agree (carrot) or act under fire if they refuse (stick) at the MC's discretion.

On an interfering 7-9 hit the PC could either choose to take the -2, or only take -1 but give the Virtue another 1 hold over them.  This wouldn't be an option for a 10+ hit on the interfering Virtue.  You might even be able to implement a Limit mechanic of sorts around this, where the MC gets the option to spend 3 hold, if the Virtue ever accumulates that much, to pull a Limit Break Move on the PC

So, I've been running Exalted for a while now and love the game, but am acutely aware of the system getting in the way of people's fun.  I have also recently gotten into playing Apocalypse World and been enthralled by the system and mechanisms of the game, and how they enhance the play experience.  So, I'm working on a hack to run Exalted under an AW-system.  There are some big, big differences between the setting of Creation and Apocalypse World, but I think the actual ideals of play are actually closer than I realised at first.  To make thinds easier for myself I'm going to work it out for the Solars first, and then think about adding in playbooks for all the other Exalt types.

In Exalted, the characters are special, Heroic (although not necessarily nice), mighty and likely to shape the world around them.  They are able to swat aside many threats with casual ease and are unlikely to ever end up hungry, sick or destitute.  However, they are getting caught up in charged situations and having to deal with the consequences of their choices and power.  There are no sacred cows in setting (well, actually there are, but only literally) and even the King of the Gods can end up in the crosshairs, in theory.  One Apocalypse (or Usurpation) has come and gone, and another one may well be on the way if the PCs or someone like them don't do something about it.  They haye have more trappings of wealth and power than the average Chopper or Hardholder but their world is just as precarious.

I want to see the fiction be more like that of the Epic Heroes of myth, like Odysseus, Gligamesh and the like.  In an animistic world like Creation the local scenery can easily be a Front, as rain gods Unionise and go on strike or a forest is warped by the energies at the edge of Creation into a single predatory organism.  Rather than apocalyptica, Creation is a world of wonders and horrors.  There is the mundane, brutal or beautiful as it may be, but also the works of ancient god-kings alongside day to day Gods and being from before or outside the world.  All of these forces have a face, an agenda and possibly an axe to grind.  With enough dedication almost anything is possible in this world, for better or for worse.

So, that's my initial thoughts and motivations.  I'll add some more detail on what I expect to change or keep the same in subsequent posts, and what new stuff I've come up with.  Hopefully I'll get to playtest it some time soon too :)

DISCLAIMER: Exalted is the property of White Wolf and CCP Games, as is all the intellectual property relating to it.  This work is purely intended to build on and make use of their existing material in a new light and is not intended to infringe on anything of theirs.  Should any complaints or concerns about this arise on their part I will be more than happy to remove any offending material.