Decided not posting it here was a bit silly.
I am working on Exalted Reincarnated, a complete top-to-bottom rewrite of the Exalted System. Essentially, what I would do if I was writing 4th edition. I'm breaking everything down everything and rebuilding it, taking what is good about the system, learning from what is good about other systems, and rebuilding. I'm not really changing any lore or setting material unless it directly touches mechanics.
Currently, I am a good chunk of the way through writing the Solar and Universal Charms, while I have also jotted down my ideas and notes for the other Exalts--mainly hyper-specific charms made for my playtest group.
There are many aspects still unfinished, (notably the Antagonists section), there are many "todo's" scattered around, and I still have to go through the document to comb through and make sure everything is up to date, but I believe it should at least show you a great deal of how the system handles, and what it is all about.
You can see my complaints about 3e and why I'm doing what I'm doing on the About Page. But it's easy to get trapped in negativity, so I'm just trying to build up a new system.
Overview
Pretty much everything in the system has been changed. I was focused on making sure that, as a whole, everything is understandable and you don't need to constantly reference the book to play the game, without turning it into a true "lite" system.
One thing I want to stress in playing Exalted is that there are Players at the table, all playing the same game. I want people who show up at the table to have things to do, even if they aren't the star of the scene. Socialites in combat, tinkerer's in a court scene, etc. To do this, I have added quite a bit of base-level competence to players, which relies heavily on abilities and narrative roleplay. The power to shine comes often from charm selection, but you can still do quite a lot without them.
Charms are condensed, and focus less on dice tricks. There's still mechanical effects on many of the charms, but I do want each charm to make you feel like you're "doing" something in the world, rather than messing with numbers. It's a fine line to tread sometimes, especially with the more Martial of abilities. There's also very few prerequisites charms for other charms, and they should have largely independent powers. You know how to build your character more than I do.
Strifes, Drawbacks, and Limit.
The core backbone of the rules tells you what you can and can't do, providing limitations that are necessary to good roleplay. Strifes allow you to break those limitations, both allowing you to narratively change the scene, as well as mechanically give you advantages when needed. This all comes at the cost of drawbacks and Limit, where you pay a price for exerting yourself. It sets up a balance of great power, but sometimes at great cost.
Projects
A unified system to explain what your characters are doing in downtime, as well as how you can make world-changing events. Gather spy networks, create an artifact, establish a great reputation in the land, etc.
Encounters
A System to represent non-combat scenes, like a "Picard Speech", or a courtroom scene. It is far more of a framework than the other systems. I've used it to have an impromptu "Vogue-off" with my playtest group against a bunch of vain Fae, of all things.
Martial Arts
Martial Arts is how your character interacts with combat. There are the standard styles, yes, but I also want to make sure the weird and wild ones all had a chance to shine.
Supernatural Abilities
I want each Exalt to have a set number of "Supernatural" abilities. For example, the control over Fire for Dragonbloods, or Shapeshifting for Lunars. This is a nice way to encapsulate their special abilities into a place that allows for charms to descended from them.
Anticipated Questions
How is this Different from Essence?
Our design goals are different. They want to make a "lite" system from 3e, I want to make a lighter system that is a new edition.
As for specifics, I haven't been keeping up with Essence, so I'm not really sure what is the same or different. I did take the idea of the "Navigation" Ability from them, but that's about it for direct crossover. I suspect there's going to be a lot of convergence since we're dealing with a lot of the same material.
Why did you get rid of/rename Ability X?
I reorganized and condensed the abilities. Some of them are just renames, in an attempt to make sure that their purpose and identity was clear. There are a few discards I got rid of just for the sake of "I'm one person writing this thing." Maybe I will re-introduce some abilities as I get the core set down.
Honestly there are a thousand ways to cut and rearrange the nature of humanity, which is why I mention that you can make new abilities that fit your character. (I still need to write the example for that. So much to do.)
Why is it on this website?
Google Docs died on me. I'm still fighting with the formatting sometimes on the website. :/
I am working on Exalted Reincarnated, a complete top-to-bottom rewrite of the Exalted System. Essentially, what I would do if I was writing 4th edition. I'm breaking everything down everything and rebuilding it, taking what is good about the system, learning from what is good about other systems, and rebuilding. I'm not really changing any lore or setting material unless it directly touches mechanics.
Currently, I am a good chunk of the way through writing the Solar and Universal Charms, while I have also jotted down my ideas and notes for the other Exalts--mainly hyper-specific charms made for my playtest group.
There are many aspects still unfinished, (notably the Antagonists section), there are many "todo's" scattered around, and I still have to go through the document to comb through and make sure everything is up to date, but I believe it should at least show you a great deal of how the system handles, and what it is all about.
You can see my complaints about 3e and why I'm doing what I'm doing on the About Page. But it's easy to get trapped in negativity, so I'm just trying to build up a new system.
Overview
Pretty much everything in the system has been changed. I was focused on making sure that, as a whole, everything is understandable and you don't need to constantly reference the book to play the game, without turning it into a true "lite" system.
One thing I want to stress in playing Exalted is that there are Players at the table, all playing the same game. I want people who show up at the table to have things to do, even if they aren't the star of the scene. Socialites in combat, tinkerer's in a court scene, etc. To do this, I have added quite a bit of base-level competence to players, which relies heavily on abilities and narrative roleplay. The power to shine comes often from charm selection, but you can still do quite a lot without them.
Charms are condensed, and focus less on dice tricks. There's still mechanical effects on many of the charms, but I do want each charm to make you feel like you're "doing" something in the world, rather than messing with numbers. It's a fine line to tread sometimes, especially with the more Martial of abilities. There's also very few prerequisites charms for other charms, and they should have largely independent powers. You know how to build your character more than I do.
Strifes, Drawbacks, and Limit.
The core backbone of the rules tells you what you can and can't do, providing limitations that are necessary to good roleplay. Strifes allow you to break those limitations, both allowing you to narratively change the scene, as well as mechanically give you advantages when needed. This all comes at the cost of drawbacks and Limit, where you pay a price for exerting yourself. It sets up a balance of great power, but sometimes at great cost.
Projects
A unified system to explain what your characters are doing in downtime, as well as how you can make world-changing events. Gather spy networks, create an artifact, establish a great reputation in the land, etc.
Encounters
A System to represent non-combat scenes, like a "Picard Speech", or a courtroom scene. It is far more of a framework than the other systems. I've used it to have an impromptu "Vogue-off" with my playtest group against a bunch of vain Fae, of all things.
Martial Arts
Martial Arts is how your character interacts with combat. There are the standard styles, yes, but I also want to make sure the weird and wild ones all had a chance to shine.
Supernatural Abilities
I want each Exalt to have a set number of "Supernatural" abilities. For example, the control over Fire for Dragonbloods, or Shapeshifting for Lunars. This is a nice way to encapsulate their special abilities into a place that allows for charms to descended from them.
Anticipated Questions
How is this Different from Essence?
Our design goals are different. They want to make a "lite" system from 3e, I want to make a lighter system that is a new edition.
As for specifics, I haven't been keeping up with Essence, so I'm not really sure what is the same or different. I did take the idea of the "Navigation" Ability from them, but that's about it for direct crossover. I suspect there's going to be a lot of convergence since we're dealing with a lot of the same material.
Why did you get rid of/rename Ability X?
I reorganized and condensed the abilities. Some of them are just renames, in an attempt to make sure that their purpose and identity was clear. There are a few discards I got rid of just for the sake of "I'm one person writing this thing." Maybe I will re-introduce some abilities as I get the core set down.
Honestly there are a thousand ways to cut and rearrange the nature of humanity, which is why I mention that you can make new abilities that fit your character. (I still need to write the example for that. So much to do.)
Why is it on this website?
Google Docs died on me. I'm still fighting with the formatting sometimes on the website. :/
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