High-level Arrows of Indra.

Quote from: Marvelous_Metal_Man;840309At present, I'm using a houseruled Mutants and Masterminds 3e to run Exalted and it's worked pretty well so far.  Setting wise, my players and I worked out what we liked the most and either axed or changed the stuff we didn't.  The end result would probably infuriate most Exalted fans, but as long as everyone is having fun, I could care less.

I'd like to hear about your setting changes. If you don't feel its on topic or right for the thread feel free to PM me.

Quote from: Nexus;840862I'd like to hear about your setting changes. If you don't feel its on topic or right for the thread feel free to PM me.

Discussing Exalted-your-way is totally ok in this thread.
As i said in the OP, i am interested in both, mechanical changes/replacements AND Setting changes/replacements.

So how about it, Nexus? How does your Exalted look like? Ruleswise and settingwise.

System:  I would use Mutants and Masterminds 3rd edition; I've used it for a Naruto style game, so I'm familiar with it and have it seen work for high powered characters who can chew scenery.  Exalted characters would have a substantial starting package, one which when utilized in game would put them on a level with the very best the mortal world has to offer. A Banner or aura or some such would be appropriate, something that marks their nature to everyone else.  I think I'd use hero points pretty much as written, this would be an appropriate sort of game to give players a slice of narrative authority.

Lots of points would be provided on top of the starting package (up to PL 10-12ish I'm guessing), with direction to the players that they should pick a thematic direction for the character and buy stuff that will make that theme immediately obvious to anyone who observes them act.  I would remind them that I run combat heavy games, and that while the starting package will see them through initial encounters I will pull no punches when they become known or start shit.

I'm not sure how much "mote economy", if any, would really be appropriate.  There's a good argument for the idea that humans who've been jumped up, should be humans wearing that upgrade in a way.. that they should have limited resources with which they can achieve vast things, but only as long as they play their cards right.  On the flip side, economy breeds OOC optimizations to account for economy, takes game time and mindspace, and can sometimes make things feel gamey and dumb when they're supposed to feel epic.

I'd retain the limits on teleportation and movement abilities from Exalted in some form, it's sloppy but I'd want at least minor mechanical incentives to care about whatever locale they're presently stomping through.  In the long run I would probably have to let these slide, but at least at the start there should be an attachment to the current location.

Story:  I know lots of anime, some western mythology, and little eastern mythology, so the fluff would slant that way.  I think I would retain the theme of rebellion-->rebellion-->rebellion.  A Great Curse of some sort would be appropriate but I'm not sure what form it would take; limit breaks might better be replaced with some sort of long term cumulative bonus to actions when acting in a specific damaged fashion, to provide incentive to players to find ways to leverage that bonus.

There would be gobs of uninhabited land, much of it previously settled at some point in history; I would retain the idea of Ages having come and gone.  The majority of settlements would be clusters of civilization where natural resources are located (rather than being evenly distributed).  It wouldn't feel right without a Realm or Roman Empire of some sort, but the game would start far away from it, to give the players space to decide on what terms they engage with it.

Heavenly forces, in whatever form they took, would be some combination of preoccupied with themselves, and wedged in a bad peace where nobody can meet their obligations because they fear conflict more than whatever the consequences are of things hitting the ground.  There would be places in the world where fundamental parts of nature are damaged in hilarious and horrifying ways on account of this.  I think I'd almost have to go with an A!MG technomagic feel to them.  Rather than being first generation usurpers, they might be merely the latest in a long line of creatures to gain dominion.  They would also provide some of the justification for the "Elminsters" of the setting not coming down from their towers every time the orcs come out of the mountains; they would be entangled in Heavenly politics and beholden to their masters in these matters.

On the whole, I would try to make the game less about beating specific encounters or obstacles, and more about the consequences of which conflicts the players choose and which they do not choose.  There would be a lot more fights for them to take than they would have hours in the day, which they could work around by building civilizations capable of functioning without them.  The downsides would be all the downsides of civilization I've seen demonstrated.

Quote from: Nexus;840862I'd like to hear about your setting changes. If you don't feel its on topic or right for the thread feel free to PM me.

I butched the something fierce.  Basically I completely removed the story of how Creation was made from the equation.  Here's the early draft I had concerning the history of the world:

"Before everything, there was the Wyld; it was strange and wonderful, and it was all things, and it was none of them. There was no time, and all time, and it was good.

And then it changed; a brief pinprick of light shone forth, and kindled the Sun. He was great, and beautiful, and he was called Unconquered, for his brow was bright, and no stratagem of war could overcome him. He strode forth, driving back the Wyld whither he went; but he wept, for he had no place to call home.

He visited the Mad Sage, all argent glory and shadowed wisdom, who held the secret of names; but she could not aid him. "Let me walk with you for a time", she said, and so they strode forth.

He visited the Maiden Who Was One and Five, and asked of her, "Do you know my home?"

"No," said she, "but I shall walk the journey with you." And so the Sage named her the Lady of Roads, and it was good.

They walked for a time, until they found a vast place, a den of monsters and wild spirits; it was of the Wyld, and not of the Wyld, and it was beautiful. And the Sun Unconquered asked, "Are you my home, preordained and wondrous?"

And that place answered with a voice sweet as milk and honey, "I am not; but if you will, you may rest here." And so the travellers, road-weary, entered that place. And the Maiden did weep that such a place, lovely and fair, could exist in the all-wastes of the Wyld; and so for her joy the Sage named her the Lady of Grace, and it was good.

Long tales could be told of the traveller's warring with the great beasts of that place, when the Maiden was named Lady of War; much could be said of the time when they took the place, and hid it from the demon-folk, when the Maiden was named Lady of Silence. Much could be said of their revelry, when the Sage and the Sun did love one another and wed.

But at long last, they stood, looking down upon the world they had made safe, and it asked Luna, "do you know me?" And the Sage did grin, and declared, "but of course, you are our Home." And it was good. And the Maiden wept a second time, for their journey had come to an end; and for that, she received her last name, that of the Lady of Finality.

And they ascended into the heavens, and placed themselves amongst the stars to rest."

Such is the tale that the wise men tell of the discovery of Home, when they have time for stories. But they seldom do; in their world of monsters and wonders, there is little time for stories.

I later established the Yozi up as weird god monsters who found Home about the same time as the Incarnae and got into a big fight with them and the natives of Home, spirits and mortals.  Eventually a truce was reached between the three: the Incarnae would receive dominion over the skies, spirits/mortals over the land and seas, and the Yozi and their spawn over the Lands Beneath (the underdark/hollow earth).  We settled on having the Incarnae and Yozi being unable to directly interfere in matters of the surface world without being summoned as part of the truce.  The Yozi are alien and barbaric, but not evil or uniformly malicious towards spirits and mortals.  We wanted Yozi to a viable faction to side with without being insane, evil, and/or hopelessly gullible.  In this setting, the title of "god" is strictly reserved for the Yozi and Incarnae, mostly to reflect the tastes of me and my players.

The Underworld is still a thing in setting, albeit completely reworked to better fit the revised backstory.  The Underworld is one of the many things left over from the times before Home was discovered by the Gods and no one's entirely certain of how it came to be.  Not even the eldest ghosts in the Underworld can say where it comes from.  The Underworld is a metaphysical sinkhole full of corrupted magic that allows mortals to linger on beyond their death and causes unconsecrated corpses to rise as feral undead.  Opting to linger on as a ghost has drawbacks: if you're not willed enough, the magic of the Underworld will make you crazy and either way, you won't be able to easily leave the realm.  On the upside, if you pull it off, you become immortal and gain access to some pretty potent magics.  In this model, Deathlords are just powerful ghosts who command entire kingdoms in the Underworld, each with their own motivations, agendas, and moral outlooks.

Exalted are still mortals who have been infused with divine power.  Dragonblooded still work the same way.  I set them up as being kin to the mightiest of the spirits, the Elemental Dragons.  My players and I actually kind of liked the idea of Exigents, but we all felt like they were redundant in the face of god-bloods.  We opted to have god bloods as the "design your own exalt" exalt, with the explanation for why there aren't more of them being that only a select few spirits are strong enough to actually sire them.  Celestial and Infernal Exalts are mortals who have earned the favor of the Yozi or Incarnae.  They tend to be regarded with suspicion and distrust as they are viewed as being living loopholes in the truce between gods and spirits, and in some cases, these suspicions are not unfounded.  The Gods can't hijack the wills, mess with the minds of their Champions, or revoke their gift as that would violate the truce, so instead they rely on more mundane means of manipulation when they wish to meddle in the affairs of spirits and men, assuming if that's what they want.  There are times when the gods are honestly impressed enough with a mortal that they grant them their blessing as a reward for being awesome.  

Abyssal Exalts are champions of the Underworld and walk the line between life and death.  We're still trying to work out the exact metaphysics of how they work.  How they are viewed tends to depend on what kind of relationship people have with the Underworld and those who reside there.  

Fair Folk are still around.  I'm portraying them as purely unsympathetic monsters because that's how I like my creepy soulless faeries.  Besides, it's not too different from their canon portrayal no matter how people try to spin them.

Dragon and god bloods have lifespans of 3 to 4 hundred years.  Celestial, Infernal, and Abyssal can live an average of 7 to 8 hundred years.  The shorter lifespans solves the issue of elder exalts and coming up with reasons why a bunch of demigods haven't accomplished anything in 3000 years.  If a situation where an elder exalt is needed, we can easily handwave it away using sorcery.

We decided to keep the Realm because everyone liked it as an antagonistic entity.  It required very little effort to adapt considering empires lionizing their gods and champions while demonizing those of their enemies is just something that empires do.  

We also decided to drastically downplay the anime, wuxia, and magitech elements and emphasize the sword and sorcery aspects; this was more a matter of personal tastes than anything else.

And that's it.  I basically gutted Exalted for some terms and ideas and made my own setting from them.  I can't honestly call it Exalted anymore, but me and my players are having loads of fun with it, so I don't care.

One idea I had was to use 3.5/Pathfinder D&D with 15th level  Gestalt Characters, some bodged rules for tomb raider/parkour/assassins creed type action and a base system that covers the bonuses given by magic items.

I figured if every normal person in the world capped at L6 and heroes at L8  it would feel like Exalted in play with absurd skills, amazing powers beyond the ken of mortals and so on.

It wouldn't be too hard to give the feel of Exalted player side  with the right make, take say a Shifter (from Ebberon) Gestalt him with War Blade (From Tome of Battle) and I dunno Druid or Witch or something and you'd have something that feels like a Lunar Exalted in play. An Abyssal could be I dunno a Tiefling Fighter/Dread Necromancer oer whatever

This set up would also have the advantage of ease of use and familiarity for most groups and a system more to my liking as I do not care for dice pools.

I don't know it it would be a "done right" version though but it would be easy to set up and play which improves things on the mechanical end and of course all that D20 crud is available for support

As an added bonus things that are broken in normal D&D are fine here since all the PC's are OP

 If memory serves I called it Exemplars but never went far with it as my players had no interest.  

Instead the concept got moved to  Inuyasha inspired GURPS game which while short was pretty fun.

Quote from: Marvelous_Metal_Man;842779And that's it.  I basically gutted Exalted for some terms and ideas and made my own setting from them.  I can't honestly call it Exalted anymore, but me and my players are having loads of fun with it, so I don't care.

Very interesting change and you've really maintained the mythic elements of the original in what seems more coherent and less, frankly crapsack, the "World of Darkness" with a bigger sfx bud.

Lords of Olympus?

D&D 4E

No, no, hear me out before the lynch mob.  I've done this before.  What's the primary complaint people have about 4E?  Okay, ignoring theory crap (dissociated mechanics, metagaming, whatever the fuck that all means), that it feels like "fantasy superheroes".  That's fairly legit.  No one is dying to a goblin with a rock in 4E.

And that's a GREAT tone for Exalted!  If your Exalted are dying to mooks, you're doing it wrong.  Plus it solves all the whining about "why can my fighter only do X once a fight?"  Hell, let them flare their anima to reuse a daily power, that's pretty fucking awesome.  

Limit the caster classes since exalted is heavily focused on physical combat (also because magic sucks donkey balls in Exalted) any you're practically set.  Start everyone at level 11, and bam, you're off.

Plus my fucking god was I tired of running an Exalted game.  It's sincerely a tiring affair.

4e? Get a rope.

Actually I'm with Kiero. The powerlevel of Exalted, as a conceit of the game, is essentially Supers. That's where it needs to scale down from. I've thought about FASERIP'ing Exalted... but I have way too many irons in the fire to even start.

MM3e (as said upthread) is a good idea too.

How is M&M 3E?  I've glanced over one of the editions (maybe 1E) and it was interesting, but nothing that novel.  And I was burned out on the D20 everything craze.

I'm considering using Hero System.

Quote from: Nexus;843898I'm considering using Hero System.

I think the biggest problem with using Hero System (or GURPS for that matter) would be that there are some absolute abilities in Exalted that Hero wouldn't handle elegantly.  You'd have to be wiling to accept that, say, "Perfect Defense" isn't perfect.

It's certainly not insurmountable but I think it's an issue that at least has to be considered.  Of course, it's not like this sort of thing doesn't rear its head in Champions at times either.

Quote from: Kiero;840452I think it's actually pretty easy: start with a functional supers system. Work out what you need from there.

Yeah. Sounds like your best bet.

I'd probably go with GURPS outta old habit allthough it's probably not the best suited for The job. Some heavily modified D&D/OSRgame could probably work too. Or HERO for that matter.

Quote from: ThatChrisGuy;843902I think the biggest problem with using Hero System (or GURPS for that matter) would be that there are some absolute abilities in Exalted that Hero wouldn't handle elegantly.  You'd have to be wiling to accept that, say, "Perfect Defense" isn't perfect.

It's certainly not insurmountable but I think it's an issue that at least has to be considered.  Of course, it's not like this sort of thing doesn't rear its head in Champions at times either.

Quite true.  Unfortunately it also ends up being hard to resolve in Exalted.

Basically you need a mechanic to simulate that sort of absolutism while still giving competing characters means to either escalate or go around each other's absolutes.

So I actually agree with Pundit.  Use Lords of Olympus.  Or Amber, which is of course the same thing.

JG