Monday, December 6, 2010

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.