Exalted: stealing Aspects from Spirit of the Century

[Nifft]

I like Aspects from Spirit of the Century. Help me think of how to incorporate them into Exalted 2e. What I've got so far:

Aspects replace Intimacies. (Rather, an Intimacy is just a specific case of an Aspect.) PCs get some fixed number of them rather than a number related to their Compassion. I'm thinking 5-7.

Each Aspect is tied to one of your four Virtues.

Examples:

• Honor and Protect Lily Hoarsdotter, a Maiden of Whitewall -- probably Compassion
• Thwart and destroy Seven-Eyed Bloodblossom of the Fair Folk -- probably Valor
• Disseminate Truth -- probably Conviction
• Lead by Example -- probably Temperance

To use an Aspect, spend a point of Willpower. If it's a dice action, gain dice equal to the relevant Virtue on this action. If it's not a dice action, you simply succeed. (If success would normally be impossible, you get a dice action instead.)

(The fun part): the GM can use an Aspect against you. This is like a mini-Limit Break. If you go along with it, you regain 1 Willpower and reduce your Limit by 1*. If you suppress the aspect, you lose 1 Willpower and gain 1 Limit.

Now, what are some good Aspects for Exalted? And on the other side, what kind of things would be appropriate for SotC, but terrible in the hands of Creation's God-Kings?

Thanks, -- N

*) "... reduce your limit by 1". That's pretty freakin' strong right there. I'm tempted to give the Willpower free but use a roll to reduce Limit. Perhaps: roll the relevant Virtue (difficulty 2), success = reduce your Limit by 1.

 

[coyote6]

Hmm, regaining Limit by rolling against a Virtue will tend to mean you get Limit back by rolling against your best Virtue, which is the source of your Virtue Flaw. That makes your Virtue Flaw kind of self-regulating, which might or might not be a good thing -- it seems like it will make Limit Breaks a lot rarer.

Would this replace normal Virtue channeling? Or would this be in addition to that? (In which case, you'd use an Aspect in order to regain Willpower or Limit.) Would invoking an Aspect use up a Virtue channel?

As for Aspects that wouldn't work in this system for Exalted, but do work in SotC -- any Aspect that you can't easily tie to a Virtue would be hard to fit. "Luck of the Irish Haltan*" doesn't seem to have any clear corresponding Virtue, for example. Slogan-type Aspects ("I've got a bad feeling about this") seem like they'd often be hard to link to a specific Virtue. Object-based Aspects, too (e.g., "Black Blade of Disaster" or "Jet Pack") -- you might be able to tie some to a Virtue (weapons to Valor, for example), but what Virtue would "Jet Pack" (or the magitech equivalent) link to?

*(Okay, I can't think of any stereotypically lucky nationalities from Creation)

 

[Nifft]

Yeah, the idea is that Aspects would replace normal Virtue channeling, either mostly or totally -- and they'd act as mini Limit Breaks, because you'd lose control of your PC more often, but in (hopefully) more interestingly in-character ways.

Rolling against strongest virtue: yeah... hmm. I guess if we want less than one Limit point recovered per GM Aspect invocation, we could just say "roll one die, on success you lose a point of Limit, 10 isn't doubled".

"Lucky" could certainly be an Exalted aspect, and as a GM I could see using that against a PC. He could feel compelled to take part in a game of chance. Fate is woven with threads of Essence, so a lucky Exalt isn't impossible.

"Jet Pack": Exalted isn't a game of steampunk pipedreams, so that's inappropriate, but Exalted is a game of magitech pipedreams, so there's presumably a bit of Old Realm tech that works about the same. ISTR an oricalcum chevron that allows its owner to fly by standing on it.

Movie quote slogans do seem poor, but that's okay. They're a bit of a gimmick.

Thanks, -- N

 

[Wordman]

I have played with stealing aspects for Exalted before, though using a very different concept (based around the stunting system).

See Exalted Aspects - DivNull RPG

 

[Nifft]

I have played with stealing aspects for Exalted before, though using a very different concept (based around the stunting system).

See Exalted Aspects - DivNull RPG

Cool stuff.

I do like the "Scene Mood is an Environment" thing a lot. I'm going to be stealing that so as to encourage thematic roleplaying.

Playing off other PC's Aspects as environmental effects: also very nice.

IMHO that's not enough, though. One thing I really want to accomplish with the Aspect system is tying it to Limit, because it seems to me that Limit is the "loss of control" stat for every PC, and when the GM uses one of your Aspects against you, it is certainly a loss of control (albeit in a way you asked for).

Thanks, -- N

 

[Wordman]

I chose not to use Limit because I added these rules for a long-running First Edition game. In 1E, only solars and lunars had Limit. Also, in 2E, I'm not really convinced that the limit mechanics work for all the exalted types.

Also, I think the whole limit mechanic is philosophically backwards. It (and other Exalted subsystems, like virtues) are based on the notion of, in a sense, punishing you for acting out of character. Aspects in SotC, on the other hand, instead follow of philosophy of rewarding you for acting in character. Their way is better.

In any case, there does need to be a little more "teeth" to the system I describe. It feels (and functions in play) as more of a "secondary" system. That's to be expected, I suppose. Aspects in SotC are the central mechanic of the whole game, while it is tough to wedge them into the center of Exalted. Still, could use some more oomph.

 

[coyote6]

FWIW, I see Limit not as punishing you for acting out of character, but as a mechanic that enforces the curse on your character is that will eventually cause your PC to fall into destructive madness. It's part of the setting.

 

[Nifft]

FWIW, I see Limit not as punishing you for acting out of character, but as a mechanic that enforces the curse on your character is that will eventually cause your PC to fall into destructive madness. It's part of the setting.

I don't think anyone called Limit "acting out of character", but rather a loss of control over your character -- the jerk you are forced to act like may be "in character", but you have no choice about acting like a jerk.

Similarly, I'd like to see Aspects be even more "in character", and even more temporary, loss of control. So you'd pick what kind of thing you're known for, and you'd excel at that kind of thing, but it would also be your weakness.

I chose not to use Limit because I added these rules for a long-running First Edition game. In 1E, only solars and lunars had Limit. Also, in 2E, I'm not really convinced that the limit mechanics work for all the exalted types.

Also, I think the whole limit mechanic is philosophically backwards. It (and other Exalted subsystems, like virtues) are based on the notion of, in a sense, punishing you for acting out of character. Aspects in SotC, on the other hand, instead follow of philosophy of rewarding you for acting in character. Their way is better.

In any case, there does need to be a little more "teeth" to the system I describe. It feels (and functions in play) as more of a "secondary" system. That's to be expected, I suppose. Aspects in SotC are the central mechanic of the whole game, while it is tough to wedge them into the center of Exalted. Still, could use some more oomph.

Yeah, if you don't use Limit for all PCs, or you downplay (or just don't like) Limit, then I can totally see why you wouldn't want to tie Aspects to Limit.

I'm running a Solars 2e game, and Limit hasn't come up much yet, so I don't have any reason to hate it yet. But I don't like how central it is, yet how infrequent its consequences are. We know it can happen, but it's distant to the point of abstraction, and abstract to the point of being largely ignorable -- and that's bad. Central mechanics should be known quantities.

IMHO Limit is the "loss of character control" stat, and the GM invoking an Aspect on a PC is a (minor) loss of character control, so to me it's a sensible relationship.

Cheers, -- N