Game House Rules

[Dracos]

I've never seen a game where they haven't come up.  Pre-emptively topic creating.

[JusticeFishy]

House Rule List:

Dual Wielding

When dual wielding a melee weapon, add half the defense bonus (rounded up) of the second weapon to the defense total before calculating Parry DV.

Example

Let's say Kaguya the Solar is a martial artist using Baneclaws which normally have a defense of 5. She has a dexterity and martial arts skill of 5 as well.  Her parry DV would normally be a 8 (5+5+5)/2, but because she dual wields the baneclaws she adds half the amount to her parry DV, so (8+5+5)/2 for a DV of 9.


Buying New Attribute Points

The maximum possible attribute points you can buy in a stat after start is 5+essence-3 (with a minimum of 5).  Solars are powerful demigods, it only makes sense that their attributes reflect that.

Example

Let's use Kaguya the Solar again, her current essence is 3 and dexterity 5.  When she raises it to 4, she would be able to have a maximum dexterity of 6 if she decides to pay the XP cost.

Botches

It depends. If you get a botch, bad stuff happens, simple as that. Depending on how bad the botch is (# of 1's) I might make it worse, but for now we'll see.

XP

Players should expect a bit higher than usual XP in the game, as well as numerous opportunities to gain it. I'm using the standard 4 XP (base) per session, with anywhere up to 3 XP extra for excellent RPing, 3 die stunts, or amazingly funny stuff. XP is also given at GM discretion for pictures/drawings of the party/characters/enemies, fanfiction (backstories, experiences while traveling and the like), and 1 XP is given per session to any character that journals up at least 2 pages of IC impressions of the previous session. Fiction is your friend, and, in the case of those that aren't great writers, art is too.

Death

The Final Frontier! <.< >.> in the event of character death, well, make a new one! That simple. We'll run a new prelude and everything. There will be XP parity, so, you won't be starting out as an essence 2 weakling while everyone else has essence 5 and artifacts up the wazoo. There will be some penalty, of course, but we'll get to that as the time comes. I don't plan on too much character death (maybe), but, it's always a good idea to have at least 1 other character concept handy.

Specialties

Buying them is normal for non-favored/caste attributes. For favored and caste attributes they cost 2 XP per rank.

Limits

I've always disliked the current Limit Break system. It's a little too much crazy for my tastes.  Looking around the net I found a really good example of a system, one that I think I'll be using.  Without further ado, here it is!:

The Great Curse manifests itself most strongly when a Solar's passions are out of balance. Each time that you wish to override the result of a Virtue roll, you must make a Limit roll. A Limit roll is a Willpower roll, with a difficulty equal to the difference between your highest and your lowest Virtue. You suffer a -1 penalty to the roll for every point of Limit you have. You always roll at least one die, regardless of total penalties.

If you succeed at the Limit roll, you do not gain a point of Limit. If you fail at this roll, you gain a point of Limit.

Note that it always costs you a point of temporary Willpower to override a Virtue. The Limit roll is to determine if you also gain a point of Limit.

Extremely provocative situations may, at the ST's discretion, impose further penalties on your roll; among other things, this increases the probability of a botch. The exact consequences of a botch are left unspecified, but could include:

   * Gaining two points of Limit instead of one, if you choose to override your Virtue;
   * Immediate Limit Break (if applicable);
   * Taking a -2 penalty to all rolls for the scene, as you struggle to retain control.

It's possible for the difficulty of the roll to be zero, if all your Virtues are equal. In this case, roll anyway, because you might still botch the result (but in this case, a botch should not be treated as any more severe than a normal failed roll).

For example, Azure Sky has Compassion 3, Conviction 1, Temperance 2, Valor 4, Willpower 6, and the Virtue Flaw Berserk Anger. He has no Limit points accumulated. He passes a group of thugs on the street, who make pointed comments about his parentage. Azure Sky makes a Valor roll to see if he feels the urge to confront them, and rolls 2 successes: his blood begins to boil. However, he also has an urgent mission to complete and doesn't want to waste time, so he spends a point of Willpower to keep his temper in check. To avoid gaining Limit as well as spending Willpower, he must now roll 6 dice (his Willpower rating) against a difficulty of 3 (his highest Virtue rating of 4, less his lowest rating of 1). The dice come up 9, 7, 6, 3, 2, 1: that's only 2 successes, so he gains a point of Limit.

When you reach 10 Limit points, you are in danger of a Limit Break. A Limit Break occurs at a time chosen by the ST, possibly in consultation with you. Until such time, you take a -2 penalty to all dice rolls, as your suppressed passions constantly distract you from outside stimuli. Ideally, a Limit Break occurs when

   * You are confronted by a situation that plays to your Virtue Flaw;
   * The act of Breaking is reasonable in the context of any ongoing storyline;
   * It is unlikely to cause undue inconvenience to the players (as opposed to their characters).

A Limit Break sets your Limit points to zero, as per the core rules. You may also reduce your Limit points, without Breaking, by acting in a way that ameliorates your Virtue Flaw. For example, if you have the Flaw Heart of Tears, giving the proceeds of your latest jewel heist to the poor might reduce your Limit — the ST is the final arbiter of what actions count towards this purpose. You may reduce your Limit by up to two points per story, independent of any Breaks you may suffer.

(From http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?Hong/Limit , all credit given to Hong)

[Dracos]

Workshops, Resources, and Mass Production:

Workshops come in a variety of types, pretty similar to the existing workshop rules.  The default 0 shift either way is: A blacksmith with normal tools, a good fire, and enough space to work.  Additional helpers may add between 1-4 dice, ranging from generic dirty faced lads handling bellows to Celestials and 3rd circle devils, with a sensible max of 4.  Poor tools assess a 2 to 4 point penalty and other abnormal conditions can assess similar penalties.  A crafter cannot work without any tools without using a charm.  Naturally, craftsman need no tools, as poorly named as it is, does not fix this.  Words as a workshop does.  Stunts may possibly offset these negative dice by gm decision ( E.g. as suitable to dramtically epic feats of crafting).

Resources for any normal craft cost 1-2 resource (Timber, granite, raw steel/iron easy to come by, not valuable) with extra valuable resources adding to the value of the final product (a 3 resource diamond won't increase the difficulty, but should increase the price tag of jewelry significantly). Jade is buyable at resource 3, but all other magical materials are only avaliable in this game via quest or wyld.
Mass production defined as repeatedly making the same thing provides a 2 success bonus and a 20 percent time and resource drop (rounding down to the nearest whole, min of one).

Basic Crafting (The five elements):

Basic crafting (the five elements stuff) is done in one scene.  The difficult of a craft is equal to its value in resources, with a time value equal to its difficulty squared in hours.  Poor materials add an additional 1 difficulty and truly inappropriate materials add 2 difficulty (One may make jewelry out of garbage, but it is a real feat to make it look fantastic).  Similarly each step above normal costs one difficulty.  The roll made is dex+craft(relevant).  A botch wastes the material.  A failure either produces something unusable (but recoverable) or of poor make (Opposite effect of fine make), but does not waste materials.  Assume eight or so hours of work to the day.

Examples:
Heroic mortal Sword crafter, fire 3, dex 3.  Attempts to create resource 2 longsword with workshop.  rolls 6 dice against difficulty 2.  Takes 4 hours if he succeeds.
Heroic mortal gem crafter: air 1, dex 3.  Attempts to create a resource 1 piece of jewlery.  Rolls 4 dice against difficulty 1.  Takes 1 hour if he succeeds.
Heroic mortal sword crafter: fire 5, dex 5, attempts to create a resource 5 longsword, perfect without workshop.  Rolls 6 dice against difficulty 8.  Each attempt takes 144 hours.  Effectively impossible for such a character to do in such circumstances.
Exalted sword crafter: fire 5, dex 5, attempts to create a resource 5 longsword, perfect using crafting excellency 1 and craftsman needs no tools without workshop, channeling conviction of 4.  Rolls 20 dice against difficulty 8 (5 for weapon, 3 for perfect).  Takes 48 hours.  Sensible for about the hardest task that can be done.

Advanced Crafting (Special Req shit like Magitek):

Advanced crafting is done in two scenes.  Design and crafting.

The first scene is is inspiration/design/studying.  In interest of simplicity, whether creating the design yourself or learning a new design off of someone elses work, let's use (Per+Int)/2 + lore+occult, so it is a combination of intelligence and insight to do the design phase.  The design phase may require research and experimentation, but given the settings tendancy for rarity of items, the entire normal chain seems retarded here, so this is more lore reading, finding the flows, etc.  It costs time rather than resources.  The difficulty is equal to the artifact resource value times 3, round up and the time cost is that times 4 in days.  So researching/inspiring an artifact 1 is difficulty 3 and takes 12 days, while researching and inspiring an artifact 5 is difficulty 15 and takes 60 days.  A botch results in a design that while seems plausible, is merely a waste of resources.  A fail results in merely time being wasted.  A success results in a the character being prepared to craft the artifact.  Craftsman needs no tools can apply to this.

After this step, the actual creation process is rather quick by comparison, taking place in hours instead of days but it does risk the resources involved in creation.  The difficulty of a craft is equal to its artifact value x3.5 (round up) with +2 for not using your favored materials and +5 for being mortal.  Time is difficulty squared in hours again.  

Examples
Mortal craftsman 3 craft, 3 dex, attempts to craft an artifact 1 out of anything with nice workshop/helpers(4 dice bonus), rolls 10 dice against 9 difficulty.  Any artifact is nearly an impossible feat for even a well resourced mortal.
Solar craftsman 3 craft, 3 dex, attempts to craft an artifact 1 out of ori with normal workshop uses excellency, rolls 12 dice against 4 difficulty.  Sounds about right, a middling craftsman of artifacts using a charm should have no difficulty producing a tiny artifact.  Without the charm, at 6 dice to 4 diff, he has a good chance of producing it.
Solar craftsman 5 craft, 5 dex, attempts to craft an artifact 3 out of ori with a normal workshop using excellency, rolls 20 dice against 11 difficulty.  Sounds a little worse than average.  Better with good workshop or by spending willpower, but that's also often about as good a craftsman as they get and only striking against the middle of the range.
Coal, Dex 5, Craft 5, working with craftsman needs no tools, excellency, no workshop, channeling conviction and using a 3 dice stunt to build his artifact 4 armor on the mountain.  He rolls 19 dice + 4 successes versus a difficulty 14.  Pushing his limits and doing a 3 dice stunt, he's still not very likely to succeed in such extreme circumstances but it is possible.
Solar craftsman 5 craft, 5 dex attempts to craft an artifact 5 out of ori with a good workshop/helpers(+4 dice) using excellency and channels 4 valor, rolls 24 + 4 successes against 18 difficulty.  Doable with good luck, but at the peak of their ability using every advantage they can normally get and frankly effectively one can expect them to fail that roll.
Essence 5 solar craftsman,7 dex,7 craft, attempts to create an artifact 5 out of jade with nice workshop/helpers(+4 dice) and using full amount of craft charms and channels 4 temperance.  Rolls 32 dice +4 successes against 20 difficulty.  A difficult task even for such a ridiculously epic craftsman.  Frankly at this point he should be able to spin out a warstrider by himself, so it might be a bit too difficult for the fact that a truly epic high powered solar needs help producing such an artifact.


Crafting stuff from Wyld:
*To be continued*

[Dracos]

Added Charms:

Embrace of the Earth's Heart
Cost: 4m; Mins: Craft 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Special)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Object Strengthening Touch
Special: Must be wearing orichalcum armor with a soak of over +8B/+8L

The Solars are the rightful rulers of creation.  This is a fact so elemental that even the bounty of the earth knows it.  Draped in the metal closest to them, the Solar may activate this charm, providing them with a perfect defense against a single attack, his armor strengthening to negate any damage or ill effects.  This charm may be activated at either step 2 or at step 8 of combat.  This charm suffers from one of the 4 flaws of invulnerability.

Battle Blessing
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Craft: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Object-Strengthening Touch

With this charm the Craftsman brings some of his knowledge of materials and crafting to alter a weapon (making it faster, stronger, sharper) or suit of armour (making it tougher and stronger). If altering a weapon, he receives a number of dots equal to his crafts rating to spread among the weapons speed, accuracy, damage and defense (and rate and range for a ranged weapon - each dot is worth 50 yards for a bow and 10 yards for a thrown weapon). The Solar can increase any one rating by no more than his or her essence. If altering armour, the Solar receives a number of points equal to his craft rating. Each point spent will increase bashing soak by 1. For 2 points, the mobility or fatigue penalty can be reduced by 1 or the Lethal soak can be increased by 1. No single category can have more points spent on it than the Solar's Essence. This charm cannot be applied to a single item more than once.

Tool Breaking Technique
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Craft: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Shattering Grasp

This charm supplements an attack made by the Solar, which is normally aimed at the target's weapon or armour, but can be used against any other tool. The charm can be conveyed through any form of close attack (you can use a sword to deliver it, but not a bow). The attack is at difficulty 3 versus a wielded weapon and difficulty 2 against armour, against other tools the ST should assign a difficulty based on how tough it is to hit the object. If the attack succeeds and the object is non magical then it is broken. If the object is magical then the Solar must roll his Strength + Crafts against a difficulty of 4. If the roll succeeds then the item is broken. Broken items can offer no further help for the current combat but can be repaired by any reasonably competent craftsman.
(Both of the above from the Exalted Wiki)

Dance of Wondrous Grace
Cost: 4m, 1wp   Mins: Performance 4, Presence 3, Essence 3  Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene-Length
Prerequisite Charms: Heart Compelling Method, Any Presence Excellency
 
The Solar moves with inhuman grace, and even those who hate them most hesitate to strike a blow - or perhaps Creation itself hesitates to let a blow mar such wonder.  The Exalt adds half of their Performance to their DVs for the rest of the scene.  Furthermore, the Exalt is able to make social attacks as combat actions for the duration of the scene, with a speed equivalent in short ticks as their normal time in long ticks.

Dance of Wondrous Grace
Cost: 3m, 1wp   Mins: Performance 4, Presence 3, Essence 2  Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene-Length
Prerequisite Charms: Heart Compelling Method
 
The Solar moves with inhuman grace, and even those who hate them most hesitate to strike a blow - or perhaps Creation itself hesitates to let a blow mar such wonder.  The Exalt adds half of their Performance to their DVs for the rest of the scene.  
 
Furthermore, the Exalt is able to make social attacks as combat actions for the duration of the scene, with a speed equivalent in short ticks as their normal time in long ticks.


Perfect Majesty    
Cost: -    Mins: Perforamnce 5, Presence 4, Essence 3  Type: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Dance of Wonderous Grace
 
People weep to raise a hand against the Sun's Chosen.  This enhances the Solar's Dance of Wondrous Grace to add her full Performance to her DVs, as well as reducing all DV penalties by one.

[Dracos]

Things Read is thinking about =P:
Hearthstones not requiring owning a manse to avoid manse swarming.
Wyld creation not costing xp.
http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?SolarCraft/Ikselam allowing the first charm here, sans prereq or with a replacament one as I have no idea where that prereq is.