Qwixalted is Finished!

At long last, the BEAST is free.

For all of you that contributed, advised, and inspired... THANK YOU!

For all of you that will play, read, or otherwise enjoy... You're Welcome.

And especially for Matt... Thanks buddy.

Qwixalted - Official Wiki Launched!

My playtests continue to go famously and the RPGnet discussion has developed some very different design goals and desires for the project. Therefore... the Qwixalted Wiki was born!

My own rules are, naturally, still in the works, but Matt (Daiklave on RPGnet) has already posted his own, completely playable and very awesome, rule set. Several tweaks, add-ons and hacks will probably find there way to the wiki in the near future as well!

Come by for a visit!

Playtest in the West - Mass Combat

Last week, we actually got to use the Qwixalted mass combat rules a bit. Unfortunately, the unit stats were a little too much Exalted 2E and not enough Quickstart.

Rethinking a bit, I'll try something more like this next time...

Unit Stats

Leaders fight normally, with additional bonuses granted by their units.

Drill: The unit's combat effectiveness, adds Damage successes.

Drill = 1 for poor troops, 2/average, 3/good, 4/great

+1 for Essence Wielders (Ghosts, God-Blooded, etc)

+1 for Artifact Weapons

Morale: The unit's fighting spirit, adds to PDV.

Morale = Half the Leader's Presence

Armor: The unit's Armor rating, adds to Soak.

Size: The unit's size, adds to Health, and Size difference grants bonuses. Solo units are Size 0.

1. 5 / Fang
2. 25+ / Scale
3. 125+ / Talon,
4. 250+ / Wing
5. 500+ / Dragon
6. 2500+ / Legion

Each point of Size adds +6 bonus Health to the Leader. Larger units add (Size Difference) as Damage successes. Smaller units add (Size Difference) as Initiative and Move successes.

Example: A compliment of Skullstone's Zombie Marines

• Drill: 3 (+3 Damage successes)
• Morale: 3 (morale for undead should probably be maxed at 3, +3 PDV)
• Armor: 1 (+1 Soak)
• Size: 2 (80 zombies can pack into a ship's hull)

Mass Combat will play out almost exactly like regular combat, but the leader uses War to attack and adds bonuses from the Unit.

Qwixalted - The Basic Rules

*This is the first in a series of previews directly from the Qwixalted rules as I write them. I've gotten a LOT of questions along the lines of "When will the game be done?!". In response, I've decided to post sections of the text as they are completed, allowing those interested to follow my progress as well as giving access to the most current implementations of the rules. With further playtesting, the game may change a bit before release. But aside from minor issues, the final text should simply be a compilation of these posts.*

TAKING ACTION – The Basic Rules

Chosen by the gods of Creation, Exalted will accomplish most tasks without rolling at all. Exalts roll only when Complications make a task more difficult and failure is just as interesting, cool, or fun as success.

Dice Pool: Pick the most appropriate Ability for the task and grab dice equal to its parent Trait.

Survival tasks are covered by Zenith for Solars, No Moon for Lunars, Wood for Dragon-Blooded, etc.

Bonus Dice: Usually, you’ll grab some bonus dice to add to your pool.

Charm, Spell, Stunting, Background, Artifact, Virtue, Help Dice, etc.

Difficulty: The difficulty is the number of dice subtracted from your pool. Usually, -1 per Complication (-5 Max) stated by the GM.

Heavy Rain, Darkness, Unfamiliar Language, Long Range, Missing Pages, etc.

Penalties: Other penalties, such as wounds or an opponent’s defenses, may subtract further dice, but have their own rules.

Minimum: No matter the difficulty, Exalts always roll at least 1 die.

Successes: After a roll, 4s and 5s are successes. 6s are 2 successes each!

Exceptional: 1 success accomplishes the task, but 5+ successes marks an Exceptional Success and, outside of combat, brings additional benefits.

Crafting Unbreakable Items, Learning Additional Facts, Resisting Toxins Permanently, etc.

Dice Pool = Ability + Bonus Dice – Complications – Penalties

Playtest in the West - Dark Fates from Mountain Witch

For a long time I'd been pondering a con scenario for Exalted based on the incredible, can't say enough good things about, Mountain Witch rpg.

In Mountain Witch, six disgraced ronin team up to climb Mount Fuji and slay the Mountain Witch. Yet each of them volunteered for a dark reason, the revelation of which would turn their companions against them. Bringing those dark fates to an Exalted scenario involving six dynasts on a Wyld Hunt was too enticing a proposition to pass up. It worked great!

The actual mechanics themselves continue to work wonderfully with very few hiccups. A minor issue came up when a player asked about creating a poison for his arrows, but it was satisfactorily house ruled in a flash.

It did make me wonder about crafting rules and poison though. So now I'll think about on how/if they should be included.

Playtest in the West - Skipped a Week

We had a player out so we decided to skip game on Sunday. I always hate that, but sometimes it's better than finagling the story to account for absences.

This week I'm preparing another playtest adventure for the local Game Day. It will be a bunch of pre-generated Dragon-Blooded forming a Wyld Hunt to hunt down an Anathema. I'll use the dark fates from Mountain Witch and play the story out like a Mountain Witch game using Qwixalted characters and mechanics. It should be a total blast!

On the Qwixalted Development Front, the week has had a few news worthy moments.

• Aprogressivist, a very helpful RPGnetter, has taken the initiative to start up a PbP game over the RPGnet wiki. As far as I know, he's still taking new players and you can find all the details here.
• A little Googling turned up a Portuguese forum discussing what games should be taken to a local con, Qwixalted came up!
• Chronicler, another awesome RPGnetter, not only donated to the effort by actually sending me a gift, but he also swiped qwixalted.blogspot.com for himself! The blog's brand new, but may be worth watching if you're a fan of the project.

Playtest in the West - Intro

Yesterdays playtest was short (late players) but sweet.

I got our zany group of unlikely Celestial buddies together using the old standby of The Common Enemy. The PCs were taking in a play when some Dragon-Bloods showed up and a crafty Air-aspected investigator spotted some Anathema. Here's hoping I can turn their partnership of convenience into a serious (or at least semi-believable) team up.

We ran into a couple minor mechanical questions regarding the Multiple charm and Countermagic, but they've since been resolved. That's exactly what playtests are for, right?!

Highlights

Supernatural+Paced+Craft allowed our unarmed Sidereal to instantly fashion a giant maul made of the audience's laughter. Perfect for his signature Fighting Style!