Hello Super Storytellers,
I've got another preivew for you today, snippets of the first half of Chapter 2, which will be available for backers to download tomorrow. As a reminder, we'll be previewing the entire approved draft manuscript in five pieces coming to backers every Tuesday. By the time we're finishing up the campaign, backers will be able to read the entire draft manuscript - before any pledges are processed or payments collected.
So, if you're sitting on the fence, it's pretty safe to jump in and read the text and you'll get a pretty good idea if the book is right for you.
Before we get to today's preview material, just a reminder about our second Stretch Goal. We're closing in and will hopefully unlock this before the end of the week!
At $50,000 in Funding - Adventures on the Blessed Isle
Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Supplement - Adventures on the Blessed Isle - A set of plot hooks, scenario ideas, and perhaps story outlines set in and around the Blessed Isle will be added to the Exalted Essence Storyteller's supplement being built by Stretch Goal achievements.
Backers receiving the
Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Guide PDF will automatically have this Storyteller's Supplement PDF added to their list of digital rewards.
Backers pledged to receive either of the
Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Guide hardcover editions will also receive a code to order the Print-on-Demand version at a discounted price.
Cut a Bloody Swath: Optional and Alternate Combat Rules
The following section presents a broad array of optional and alternate rules that modify the combat system presented in Exalted: Essence. These are deliberately presented as a broad menu of separate changes, some of them incompatible: The goal is to provide a broad view of the many ways in which the base system can be altered to better fit your table and its needs, from which you can pick and choose which ones you like, as well as draw inspiration from for your own houserules. Later on, we provide a specific combat overhaul which combines multiple rules changes to create a complete alternative experience.
Attacks, Defenses, and the Tools of Violence
These rules present options for modifying the basic flow of combat operates, modifying the tempo established by the core rules.
Alternate Withering Attack: Hero’s Trick
The following rule is an alternative option giving withering attacks more flexibility, originally published in Pillars of Creation.
After succeeding on a withering attack, the character may immediately apply Power earned on the attack to enact a gambit on Step 5. If the gambit requires additional successes (such as reveal weakness or distract) the character may spend Power earned past the gambit’s cost one for one to increase its effectiveness. This does not override any immunities to gambits, such as a character who cannot be knocked down.
Wearing Down Foes
When running combat between powerful opponents with high Soak values and players lacking explosive offensive power, you may find that combat becomes sluggish, trading hits that only do minimal damage. The Wearing Down Foe rules change the way concentrated attacks (Exalted: Essence, p.140) work:
- When a character is hit by a withering attack, or a decisive attack which fails to deal damage, their Soak and Hardness are reduced by 1 + the attacks Damage on Step 5 for withering attacks and Step 7 for decisive attacks. This is cumulative, to a minimum of 0. Upon suffering damage from a decisive attack, Soak and Hardness reset to their normal value.
Broken Foes
This optional rule works in combination with Wearing Down Foes. A character whose Hardness and Soak have both been set to 0 is Broken, putting them in a position of high vulnerability. The player who brought them to this state may halve the target’s soak (round down), or select a single Quality (if the character is an antagonist) or ongoing Charm effect (if a player character) they benefit from, whose benefits are suppressed while the character is broken.
Characters recover from being broken at the end of the turn on which their Soak and Hardness reset.
Wounds and Injuries
These rules modify the effects of harm done characters, both in the thick of combat and its aftermath.
Painful Injuries
The rules for recovering from injuries presented in Exalted: Essence focus on ease of play and cinematic experience, ensuring that as long as characters can take a short rest and interact with one another, each battle can be approached as its own scenario. For certain games, particularly those using the Creation as Threat model, or when running scenarios where attrition matters such as a Solar Circle actively pursued by the Wyld Hunt, players may prefer more emphasis on the growing toll of injuries and recovery taking time, such that even winnable fights ask the question, “is it really worth it to get into this?” and Medicine-focused characters have a bigger part to play. In this case, consider the following adjustments:
- Each recovery scene only heals injuries of the highest level of wound penalty the character suffers from. If a character has lost all Bruised and Injured health levels and one Critical health level, her first recovery scene will only heal that Critical health level, and the next one only her Injured health levels.
- Recovery scenes cannot directly follow one another. After a recovery scene, character must engage in action and face risks of some kind before they receive another opportunity to heal.
- Dramatic injuries to Attributes do not heal on their own. After receiving a minor milestone, a character must dedicate a recovery scene to receiving care specific to their type of injury. Magic such as Wellness-Restoring Meditation can bypass this.
- Apply the rules for irrecoverable injuries covered below.
Irrecoverable Injuries
Dramatic injuries in Exalted: Essence give players an option to avoid defeat at a cost that must be recovered later, but dramatic injuries are by design a push-and-pull mechanic in which characters are temporarily hindered only to bounce back to their full strength after time has passed. Players may instead desire the option for lasting, character-changing damage to reflect moments of dramatic downturn that force a change in their character’s approach to life, at their own initiative. This is where irrecoverable injuries come in.
When a character would take enough damage to become Incapacitated, their player may instead ask to take an irrecoverable injury: Their arm is cut off, they are blinded in both eyes, or the like. The normal damage from the attack is negated, replaced by this special injury. Now or after the current scene, the player and Storyteller agree on a specific set of actions that suffer a –2 penalty going forward. For the rest of this scene, however, the character waives all wound penalties and generates 1 Power per round as their soul and body are pushed to their brink and respond with desperate power. After the scene ends, they must contend with their new, diminished state, as a candle that’s burned too brightly.
An irrecoverable injury’s penalties need not be strictly assigned to what’s physically normal for humans. If the Storyteller and player are in agreement, a swordswoman who’s lost her eyesight might find that she suffers the penalty to her sensory rolls and ability to decipher writing, but that her peerless sword skills are undiminished as she adapts to her new condition and develops her other senses.
For their name, irrecoverable injuries are not entirely permanent. Rather, healing an irrecoverable injury always requires powerful magic and a personal quest: A character might craft a new arm out of sorcerous wood she has grown over a season with her own blood, or purchase a demon’s silvered tongue from the Demon Lord Makarios at a tremendous price. These are not mere obstacles, but the opportunity to be a story of their own: Healing an irrecoverable injury is
about your character and their personal journey.
Incapacitation as Escalation
Exalted: Essence rules allow for characters to recover from Incapacitation during battle but leaves them vulnerable, while keeping the possibility death a consensus-based choice for the party. Incapacitation as Escalation instead simplifies the ability to come back from Incapacitation, making it a single surge of strength offering a second chance, while leaving death as an individual choice. Replace the Incapacitated rules (Exalted: Essence, p.144) with the following:
When a character reaches the Incapacitated health level, she has had the fight knocked out of her. She may or may not be unconscious, but is unable to take actions or express more than a few words. She’ll survive the scene, but may find herself in dire straits: Friends may need to extract her and give her medical attention, foes may capture her for interrogation, or she may fall off the top of a conveniently-placed cliff and find herself lost in the wilderness, depending on the outcome of the scene.
A character can choose to recover from incapacitation once per story. In doing so, she rolls to Build Power at Difficulty 0 as a reflexive action, and regains Health Levels equal to the Power gained. From this moment on, death is on the line for her. If she is Incapacitated again, she will perish. This fate can only be averted by powerful, dedicated magic, and she will retain some kind of lasting injury or change.
Injuries as Impairments
Tables who want to give more focus the specifics of how a character gets hindered and recovers from setbacks in combat may consider injuries as Impairments, which function like combat-relevant Intimacies. These replace the dramatic injury system.
When a character takes damage, they may elect to take an Impairment, which is either Minor or Major. Impairments are not necessarily injuries but are always relevant to the danger at hand. The player of the injured character and the Storyteller must agree on an Impairment that is relevant to the circumstances: A hammer blow might break a nose, but it’s unlikely to slice the straps on one’s gauntlet.
- A Minor Impairment is an inconvenience that can be resolved easily: “Blood in my eyes,” “Slipped in mud,” “Lost breath,” “Deafened by explosion,” “Loosened armor.” They could also represent “Embarrassed in front of my lover” or “Used a penalized move” if these are relevant to the circumstances why this fight is taking place, such as a duel of honor or a martial arts competition. Taking a Minor Impairment negates two damage from the triggering attack.
- A Major Impairment represents a significant (but not permanent) injury or setback: “Sprained ankle,” “Splintered shield,” “Broken nose,” “Bleeding injury.” They could also represent “Revealed a forbidden technique” while fighting in front of their master or “Broken mask” when fighting under a concealed identity, as long as both represent significant narrative or personal consequences for the character. Taking a Major Impairment negates four damage from the triggering attack.
Again, these are just snippets - just little sections take from material that will be shared in the first half of Chapter 2 coming tomorrow! Stay tuned for more Exalted: Essence tricks and tips and options and alternates, and let's keep at it! Remember to invite others to join in and spread the word about our campaign - every backer who joins in gets us closer to unlocking bonus rewards for all that participate, so the more the merrier!
I'll be back tomorrow with our next manuscript section!
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