Age of Sorrrows hack?

Howdy y'all.

One thing that's been swirling around in the back of my head - Exalted as an apocalypse world hack :)

The "Age of Sorrows" as per the Exalted story is a world that has gone through a number of apocalypses - the high mighty First age empires were destroyed, later a plague wiped out 90% of all living things, and then an invasion of wyld creatures wanting to destroy all reality...

The Bits of the game that sing to me are - the idea that a hero is somone who embodies the virtues, and that their "heroic actions" will cause them problems. Also the idea that the cycle of violence - violence begets violence, and the constant rebellion of the underdogs who then become corrupt and overturned by their own servants :)

This is the first time i've written this down, so it'll be very rough for the moment.

Anyway. The stats would be:
Compassion - allow you to understand others
Temperance - keep control from temptation and not get distracted
Conviction - The ability to impose your will
Valor - putting yourself into danger
Essense - the ability to use magic to enhance your abilities.

Do something under fire - Conviction
Go Aggro - Valor
Sieze by Force - Valor
Seduce or Manipulate - Compassion
Read a situation - Temperance
Read a person - Compassion
Open your brain - Essense.

The Exalts (essense enhanced heroes) would have special moves that let them make a move as +essence rather than +virtue.

I would need to do a special move for the virtues - where when a situation comes up that goes with a virtue the player needs to roll..

eg - When someone is in danger or asks for help, roll+compassion.
10+ You put yourself in danger to help them (earn experience if you save them)
7-9 take -1 forward until you can no longer see them
2-6: can act normally.

or - When someone threatens you or your name, roll+valor
10+ you must fight them (earn experience if you kill them)
7-9 take -1 forward until you restore your name
2-6 you can act normally.

Still need to think about this some more, but the "big damn heroes" that get into trouble because they follow their emotions too much appeals to me :)

This is cool.

Maybe everyone starts at Essence +1, and has moves that add their Essence to their Virtue for a specific roll?  (Warrior Kings being good at Taking By Force, since they already get high Valor.)

Everyone gets a +1 Essence move on their advancement list, and +1 Essence is also listed as an advanced option, to end up with a total of + 3.

Just to put an idea out there, since I've thought and talked about Exalted hacks a lot.

I think the Scope rules in Ron Edwards's Trollbabe are a perfect fit for an Exalted game, growing from a small hero to one who has the fate of the world in her hand.

You could have Essence as a stat like Hx that could grow and when it hit a limit, reset and but your Scope increases. So you're back to Essence +1 or 0 but now when you go aggro, instead of going aggro on one person you can do it to a whole gang, or a whole town.

I'd be kind of tempted, if doing this myself, of stealing a page from the exalted quickstart, and having your stats be Dawn, Zenith, Twilight, Night, and Eclipse. The Virtues might make interesting countdown clocks leading to the triggering of your Great Curse, maybe? And maybe you can "spend" the virtue for relevant activities, but it gets you closer to that whole thing going down? Actually, Essence as a pool you could spend would be interesting (maybe +1 to any roll, +2 if it's your caste attribute?)

Quick idea:

Sorcery: Say what you want to accomplish, then roll +twilight. On a 10+, choose 2, on a 7-9, choose 1:

* Cheaply. If this isn't chosen, the GM will tell you what costs you need to pay to cast the spell.
* Quickly. If this isn't chosen, the GM will tell you how long it will take to cast the spell.
* Masterfully. If this isn't chosen, the GM will tell you what unintended side-effects will result from casting the spell, in addition to achieving your basic objective.

Any use of Sorcery instantly sets your Anima to +3.

(Sample costs: Essence/willpower/virtue channels, expensive material components, exotic material components requiring a quest to obtain, a deed of symbolic significance, the permission of a god with a relevant portfolio.)

That sorcery move is naice.

"Seduce or Manipulate - Compassion"

This is very, very funny to me.

That sorcery move is naice.

Yeah, if I ever do decide to bite Tony Dowler's style and do my own "Dungeon World" hack I may steal it from myself for arcane magic. (Divine magic will, hypothetically, just be the ability to use 'read a person' and 'seduce or manipulate' on your god. "What does my god wish I'd do?" "Your god will do what you want in exchange for your promise, but it need concrete assurances, now." Etc.)

"Seduce or Manipulate - Compassion"

This is very, very funny to me.

I suppose its my weird view of how  things work - compassion is all about putting yourself in another person's shoes. Understanding them - Of course, once you understand someone else you know what buttons to press :)

The sorcery move above is pretty slick, but I wanted to avoid the "dawn, twilight, etc" as stats. Every exalted game i've played has had multiple exalt types (solar, dragon, sidereal, etc). My preference is to stick to the "being heroes", not "being solar" if that makes sense,

The Apoc World (as written, no hacks) seems to be about how the group can survive against a pretty damn hostile world.

Exalted in the Age of Sorrows (to me anyway) is at its core about the price of power and power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Mortals have no power, and basically have no effect. The Solars were made to be the destroyers of the ultimate Gods of the setting - once they did that they then became (over time) the most corrupt and decadent monsters - because they feared no one. The Dragon Blooded were the loyal soldiers and servants of the Solars - upholders of the laws. But when they rebelled and stopped the madness of the Solars, they then became the ultimate power, and (over time) became the most corrupt and decadent monsters who built a religion to say "we are the best and most perfect, worship us".

A good hack/simplicifaction of Exalted needs to push that button - hey, you have all this awesome power and can push around people, what are ya gonna do about it? The theme behind the game is that awesome power can destroy and change things - but it always ends up a ruined wreck. All the problems of the world will not be fixed by the use of power - only changed into different problems (although it will be an EPIC and STYLISH use of power).

The basic moves should be for anyone (any exalt type etc) and be based around the virtues - (and you are right, manipulating others should be conviction based - you are enforcing your will on another person, need to figure out some moved for compassion) The use of Essence (the raw power of the setting) should be powerful, and should have some serious repercussions as well.

I really like the "add essence" for rolls. But I really think it needs to be a special move, say one archtype is the warrior - there special move is to use essense to enhance valor rolls at choice.
something like
When you choose to use essence to help sieze by force, roll + essence.
10+ pick 3
7+ pick 1
You use essence efficiently and dont draw attention.
You succeed awesomely at your chosen task
You do not have adverse side effects (destroy the scenery, etc)
You still have plenty of essence to burn.

on a fail you get the opposite of all 4.
you glow with power and are seen as an exalt.
You barely succeed at your task (equiv to 10+ on roll you are replacing)
You have adverse side effects - blow things up,
You are running low on essence, -1 forward on essence rolls until you rest.

<i>The sorcery move above is pretty slick, but I wanted to avoid the "dawn, twilight, etc" as stats. Every exalted game i've played has had multiple exalt types (solar, dragon, sidereal, etc). My preference is to stick to the "being heroes", not "being solar" if that makes sense,</i>

Well, in my hypothetical Age Of Sorrows AW hack, the Dragon-blooded characters would get Earth, Air, Wood, Fire, and Water as stats, Sidereal characters would have Journeys, Battles, Secrets, Endings, and Serenity as stats, and so on.

I was working on a Tarot-based Exalted-themed hack about a year ago (before the dice system changed and everything!). It's here. Sorry it's formatted for printing into characterbooks! If it's interesting at all I'll put some time into resetting it linearly so it's easier to read.

Goddamn. I forgot how awesome Set Apart is. Can we please play this sometime?