The game's current posting rate is a minimum of one post per thread every other day.

Please post in third person present. I like to post what characters are doing as they're doing it, not tell a story of what they already did.

Inform us (use the OOC thread) if you cannot play for some period of time. Either arrange for your character to be away for a time or allow me to take over your character.

Dice rolls and related discussion will always be done through PMs inserted into the relevant post. You may do your own rolls, unless you ask me to (in that case, inform me of Charms, temporary Willpower or Virtues you want to use.) If you want stunt arbitration, mention that to me in embedded PM before you roll. I usually do it on my own, but if you want to be sure I give you stunt dice, ask.

If you have a problem with a ruling of mine or behavior of another player, please deal with it OOC and through private messages.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:25, Mon 30 Nov 2009.

Disregard the rule that the standard training times (i.e. in the corebook, p. 274) only apply if you have a tutor.

If you DO have a tutor (either a fellow PC or a Mentor), you can instead halve the normal training times. The tutor must spend the full training time with you, though, so if it's a PC, you both must have 8 hours a day / 6 days a week to spend on training.

This also means that if you have a PC tutor, but can only spend a minimum 4 hours a day / 3 days a week on training, the tutor bonus and the time penalty cancel out so you pay normal training times.

Martial Arts

For this game, you need only have at least ONE Charm in a Martial Art in order to train yourself in that Style thereafter. Of course, you still need to have the required experience points and training time.

There are various ways you can learn that first Charm:
- Chargen: The easiest way. Just get at least one Charm in the MA(s) you want at character generation.
- Combat: Defeat a practitioner of the Martial Art Style you are interested in, and you can start spending experience on learning the Style yourself. However, for this to count, the opponent must have employed that Style's Form Charm for a significant part of the battle.
- Mentor/Sifu/Tutor: You may meet NPCs during the game who can help you learn a new Style. You may also learn Martial Arts that other PCs know, if they are willing to be your tutor for the required training time.

Sidereal Martial Arts is currently not allowed but this may change during the course of the game.

Sorcery

As mentioned in the RTJ info, you cannot start with any spells in Five Coils. You will be able to learn them, but you must be initiated in Terrestrial and/or Celestial Sorcery (knowing the required Sorcery Charm(s) at chargen counts as initiation) before you can do so.

Along with having the required experience points and training time, one of the below must also be true in order to learn a spell.

- Spell Research: You've spent the equivelant of a day of training time in a library of sorcerous knowledge researching an existing Terrestrial spell you wish to learn. (This is different than actually creating a custom spell during the course of the game. If anyone ever wants to, we'll figure out those rules as we go.)
- Spell Identification: Someone else you've observed, whether a PC or an enemy, casts a Terrestrial spell and you succeed at an Intelligence+Occult roll of difficulty 3 to identify it. Identifying a spell counts as a miscellaneous action (full or partial concentration on the task is your choice).
- Existing Notation: You already possess a scroll or book denoting the rituals and symbols required in casting the spell.

Solar Circle Sorcery is currently not allowed but this may change during the course of the game.

Knacks

These work pretty straightforwardly. Normally it's 2 weeks training for a knack. With a mentor, it's 1 week.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:11, Tue 09 Dec 2008.

Speed may not be reduced below 3. For each point that an effect would have reduced Speed below 3, the user instead gains +1 Rate.

In certain cases, I'll allow you to learn a dot of ability, specialty or potentially a Charm or Combo in a flash of inspiration. This can be accomplished with a particularly good and detailed post: for example, an exceptionally written stunt in a desperate situation, or a long post for an extended action that's creative and detailed.

If you wish to attempt this, you should state in your OOC that you are attempting to stunt-learn, and what it is you want to learn. You may only attempt to stunt-learn once per scene, and I reserve the right to judge whether the post works for such learning. Also note that you must still have the experience in reserve in order to stunt-learn anything.

Here is the list of what you can attempt to stunt-learn.
- Abilities: ONE dot at a time.
- Specialties: ONE specialty dot at a time.
- Charms: ONE charm at a time, and you must already have the prerequisites for it.
- Combos: ONE combo, with charms you already know. It cannot have more Charms in it than your current Essence.
- Spells or Knacks: ONE Spell or Knack you have already studied, observed or had demonstrated to you in the past. Like Charms, you must already have the prerequisites. (This has been altered from the original rules which did not allow stunt-learning of Spells or Knacks.)

People who abuse stunt-learning (i.e. using it too often, rather than in times when their character has a pressing need to learn) may be barred from using it in the future.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:13, Mon 11 May 2009.

Attributes and Essence take longer to train than other traits (well, maybe not as much for Lunar Caste/Favored Attributes, but still). And they ought to, as they give you more bang for the buck.

However, in a game where you'll very likely be hiding or on the run, you won't have so much time for training such traits. Instead, I will try to place a few scenarios during the escape from Five Coils in which you may have an opportunity to train a particular Attribute or Attributes as part of the plot/action.

Of course, if the PCs do end up having an extended rest period for whatever reason that actually gives you enough time to train an Attribute normally, go ahead and do so.

As for Essence - Opportunities to raise Essence above 3 will purely be plot-triggered. There will be at least one opportunity for anyone who hasn't gotten Essence 4 to gain it before leaving Five Coils. Above 4... well, we'll see about that. ;)
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:41, Thu 30 Oct 2008.

Remember that you can attune artifacts not of your magical material type at normal attunement cost, you just won't benefit from the material bonus. If you DO want the bonus, attune at double cost and succeed at a Wits+Lore roll diff 3. Failing inflicts 1L unsoakable lethal damage and shatters any hearthstone socketed in the artifact; botching may damage or destroy the artifact entirely. (Slave collars are a special case, you MUST attune double and succeed at the Lore roll to use them at all.)

If you encounter an artifact and you QUICKLY want to attune to it, rather than taking 20 minutes to attune, you may do so at double attunement cost. Then revert to normal cost when you have at least 20 minutes of spare time. You cannot quick-attune to gain out-of-type magical material bonuses.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:15, Mon 11 May 2009.

Now that you've got Hive Irix Chilomena as allies, I figured I should give some stats for crafting. (You may have noticed that they are based on the builder bugs in Wonders of the Lost Age. But the Irix bugs are much more advanced, and altogether would probably count as equivalent to an Artifact or Familiar N/A. So the PCs have stumbled upon something pretty special.)

Assistants

Using Hive Irix's Sapphire Artisan class as crafting assistants is equivalent to getting aid from a first circle demon or a Dragon-blood. That means, +1 success per pair of insect Artisans assisting, with a maximum bonus of double the Artifact rating you're attempting. As Celestials you're pretty much guaranteed to have the aid of as many Sapphires as you need.

Asking assistance from Princesses or Elder Artisans would require actually asking permission of Queen Chilomena herself, but each one of those could provide +4 successes, to a maximum of +20, much like getting help from a Celestial Exalt assistant (if you ask a PC, remember they must have the required Craft/Lore/Occult ratings). That depends of course on how many of these rare and talented crafters the Queen would wish to spare.

The Queen herself gives a +6 bonus. There's only one of her, though, and it would take an artifact of truly wondrous and epic power for her to deign to assist personally.

It's possible to mix these different levels of assistance, as well. Ask the ST if you're unsure.

Workshops

The Hive's workshops are all Flawless Workshops, which give +2 successes to Craft rolls.

Should you gain control of Fire District you'll have access to Ideal workshops, which give +4 successes.

Crafting Intervals

For Artifacts:

Crafting times, normal
1 roll - 1 season

Crafting times, working double time (-1 external penalty for fatigue)
1 roll - 6 weeks
2 rolls - 1 season

Crafting times w/Craftsman Needs No Tools
1 roll - 9 days
3 rolls - 1 month
6 rolls - 2 months
9 rolls - 1 season

Crafting times w/CNNT and double time (-1 external penalty for fatigue)
1 roll - 5 days
3 rolls - 2 weeks
6 rolls - 1 month
12 rolls - 2 months
18 rolls - 1 season

For non-Artifacts: The interval basically depends on the item and its complexity, but usually I'll make it a base 1 week. 1 month for something particularly large or complex. 1 day or less for simpler items. 1 hour could apply to a small, simple item (like for example the badges made to work with Third's security network virus) that you already have a design for and are mass-producing.

Crafting Successes

For Artifacts: See Oadenol's Codex p. 19 for the complete chart.

Artifact 1 (required Craft/Lore/Occult 3) - Difficulty 3, 10 successes total
Artifact 2 (required Craft/Lore/Occult 3) - Difficulty 4, 30 successes total
Artifact 3 (required Craft/Lore/Occult 3) - Difficulty 5, 60 successes total
Artifact 4 (required Craft/Lore/Occult 6) - Difficulty 6, 100 successes total
Artifact 5 (required Craft/Lore/Occult 7) - Difficulty 7, 250 successes total

Just to let you know, under the Dragon-blooded, Artifact 4s are being produced in Coils. But they're rarer. 5s are exceedingly rare but possible. How they're managing this is something you'll eventually find out.

For non-Artifacts: Base difficulty is equal to the Resources cost If you succeed at that difficulty you have an average item.

+3 net successes, you have a Fine quality item.
+5 net successes, you have an Exceptional quality item.

If ever you get a total of 10+ successes, the ST may rule you have a Perfect quality item. This will also depend on quality of material, workshop, etc. used.

Whatever you're crafting (Artifact or not), you can increase chances of success by increasing the amount of time. I allow you to carry successes between crafting rolls. The only time you won't be able to do that is if you botch a roll, which pretty much ruins the project.

Required Resources

We'll work this out on a case to case basis. Usually it's as simple as asking the ST what resources are available.

Generally you can assume Hive Irix Chilomena has scavenged sufficient amount of Jade and/or small-scale magitech components for personal projects of Artifact 3 or below. You can ask the Hive for use of these, but for other Magical Materials you'll have to depend on finding sources during play.

Metal, stone and cloth fiber are also pretty common in the Hive, but good wood is going to be hard to find until you reach Wood District.

Alchemy reagents, you can assume you can find most of those required for Initiate level procedures or below, unless it's something very specific (i.e. specific poisions for Venom Allaying Draught).

For anything else, including such rarities as precious gems or exotic materials, ask first.

Existing Plans

Hive Irix Chilomena has an extensive library of basic artifacts. So you can always ask if they would have complete plans for any artifact you're wishing to create, as having complete plans cuts the total number of successes needed to create the artifact by half!

Custom artifacts building upon existing plans will add a number of successes to the Craft roll depending on ST judgment.

Fun house rules for training Familiars. Because Familiars should not be useless, or static.

This is currently being playtested (as Kilani is the first character to have a familiar.)

Familiars has their own XP track. They earn half the XP the owner gets for any scene they participate in (it must be accompanied by the owner.) The owner can thereafter decide where to spend the familiar's XP, which it spends as if a mortal (or an essence awakened mortal if it gains spirit charms).

Note there may be XPs given in bigger chunks than per scene, as I've not always given XP once per scene. I'll do the math, and do my best to keep up the Familiar's XP total as well. (If I don't, kindly prod me about it!)

It has been pointed out to me (indirectly) that I forgot to post my Combo houserules.

First of all, I think it is lame you have to buy a Combo from scratch if all you're doing is adding a Charm to an existing one.

So if you have a charm with 3 Combos, and then want the same Combo but with one more Charm in it, just pay the experience cost (Min Ability for Caste/Favored, Min Ability+Min Ess for Non-Caste/Favored, I believe) for the new Charm you're adding.

And yes. I will allow you to still know the old version that DOESN'T have the added Charm. Again, it seems lame to me that you'd suddenly lose that knowledge.

This leads to the idea of having Combo Templates, more or less. You take the closest Combo you have to what you want, then add whatever Charms you want added to it, and pay only the cost of the new Charms being integrated into the existing Combo. (If you drop a Charm in the Combo before adding the new ones, you DON'T get extra points back for it, though.)

That said... if I start finding my Celestial players are getting bogged down with having to pay for Combos in order to survive, I may have more radical solutions to propose. But we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. :)

Having fiddled extensively with the base Mass Combat rules while creating units for the game, I have run into issues I believe need to be addressed. With that in mind, these are the tentative houserules I will be using, with adjustments according to player input and assessment of results in game.

Fortunately for you, I will be doing the majority of calculations for this (and providing unit stats when need be), so my posting this here is mostly for knowledge's sake. The "Unit leader" and "Solo unit" sections will apply most to a PC.

Base rules

All attack rolls and DV values are based on the unit leader's Int + appropriate ability capped by War, with bonuses conveyed by the unit's Close/Ranged Combat Rating (also capped), Might or Drill.

Damage, Soak and Health Levels are based on averages. Damage/Soak are increased by Magnitude. The reason for this is that I found it very flawed to have Damage/Soak with a base of the leader's values, since the leader could have equipment with large discrepancy in stats (this came up when I was creating an Earth Immaculate leader - with grand goremaul and Strength 4, giving a 20L base damage - leading troops with a Close Combat Damage of 3 or less.)

If the unit leader is participating in the attack, his/her stats should be included in all averages. This was not done with White Wolf stats so there could be discrepancies here should one be converting a pre-made unit to use with these mods.

Endurance will only see significant use during lengthy, large-scale battles. Shorter battles between units of Magnitude 2 or less will rarely last long enough for these to apply.

Formations and various maneuvers as described in the corebook may be used both by PCs and NPCs. It is not required you use them explicitly, though I may assume you do in appropriate cases (i.e. if your unit is back attacked, I'll assume you are using the Turn maneuver to face the enemy, and if your unit is surrounding an enemy - the Mass Combat equivalent of a clinch - I will assume you are using the Enveloping maneuver). I will assume all units to be using Relaxed formation unless otherwise informed, or if Drill is <1, in which case the default is Unordered.

Morale will not apply for units formed entirely of PCs, but will apply for NPC units they may command.

When dividing, round up for Exalts and divine beings, round down for mortals whether heroic or otherwise. If a unit is mixed, use the rule that applies to the majority of beings in the unit.

Unit stats

Magnitude - see box on corebook p. 159, we're using same values.

Might - see box on corebook p. 161, again, we're using same values.

Drill - see box on corebook p. 160. For units comprised solely of PCs, use the average of the PCs' War, minimum 1.

Endurance - For NPC units, use (Drill + Stamina). For units comprised solely of PCs, use the average of the PCs' (Stamina + Resistance).

Close Combat Rating - Calculate average Dex + Martial Arts or Melee of all applicable attackers, then halve. Do not include weapon Accuracy unless the entire unit uses the same weapon (and Style, if MA).

Ranged Combat Rating - Calculate average Dex + Archery or Thrown accuracy of all applicable attackers, then halve. Martial Arts may also apply here should the unit's Martial Arts style use a ranged weapon. Do not include weapon Accuracy unless the entire unit uses the same weapon (and Style, if MA).

Close Combat Damage* - Calculate average Martial Arts or Melee damage of all applicable attackers, then add Magnitude.

Ranged Combat Damage* - Calculate average Archery or Thrown damage of all applicable attackers, then add Magnitude. Again, Martial Arts may also apply here should the unit's Martial Arts style use a ranged weapon.

Armor* - Calculate average lethal soak of all in the unit (+ leader if participating directly), then add Magnitude.

Health Levels** - Calculate average health levels of all in the unit. This is the number of HLs that must be inflicted on the unit to reduce it by one Magnitude.

Morale - Calculate average Valor of all in the unit. Compare with Valor of the commander. Choose the lower.

* If using White Wolf stats, you will have to subtract 1 from the given value if the unit is primarily mortal, then multiply the value by 3 before adding Magnitude.

** If using White Wolf stats this would normally be equal to the number of HLs of the leader. Therefore one may need to extrapolate the average HLs of the unit based on stats of the individuals making up the unit.

Unit leader

When initiating combat the unit leader rolls Join War, which is (Wits + War - unit Magnitude).

Attack rolls are based on leader's attack, but the speed is 5 long ticks. Accuracy roll is Cha or Int + (lower of War or attack ability). Add to this roll a number of successes equal to Close/Ranged Combat Rating (whichever is applicable), capped by the leader's War. After this cap is applied, adjust the bonus successes with Formation, if applicable. Finally add the unit's Might in successes, and apply Magnitude Difference (Attacker - Defender, limit -3/+3).

DVs should be calculated similarly. For Parrying, halve Cha or Int + (lower of War and parry ability) + Close Combat Rating (capped by War) + Might. If Dodging, halve Int + (lower of War and Dodge) + Might + Drill. Bonuses for shields or cover add to this only if they apply to the ENTIRE unit.

The raw damage of the attack equals the extra successes from attack roll + Close/Ranged Combat Damage, as calculated above. The minimum damage rolled is equal to Magnitude.

The raw soak of the attack equals Armor rating, again as calculated above.

Health Levels inflicted are on the separate unit track. Should unit HLs be reduced to 0, the unit reduces Magnitude by 1, and the HLs are refreshed to their previous maximum. Once unit is at Magnitude 0, all troops have been slain or routed, and the commander thereafter functions as a solo unit.

Charms: Leader may use any War or Attribute charms that would apply in Mass Combat, including Excellencies. ANY other Charm only affects unit stats if the entire unit has the same Charm (ex. an entire Immaculate unit using the same Form charm).

Leader Protected by Unit: This may be necessary if the leader is a sorcerer or is taking a non-War action that requires full attention. In this case, attacks cannot be made and DVs are not affected by the leader's stats. Instead DV is (Close Combat Rating + Might)/2. Armor and HLs remain the same.

Solo unit

A leader, special character and/or PC may wish to attack as a solo unit (Magnitude 0). In single combat, War is no longer used -- instead, the solo unit may use their usual Abilities, Charms, etc. However, all Speed values will be considered as long ticks (this prevents a sorcerer from casting over and over, or an Invincible Sword Princess from spamming EA attacks, while an enemy unit does a slow maneuver.)

The rest depends on whether the solo unit engages another solo unit, or against a group.

Solo vs. Solo: Resolve as normal combat. In Mass Combat this would typically signify a duel between Mass Combat leaders, between a leader and an enemy champion, etc.

Solo vs. Group: Solo unit uses normal combat stats/rules, while the group uses Mass Combat stats/rules. Minimum damage is still equal to Magnitude, or 1 for Magnitude 0. This means a solo unit will have to be able to significantly overcome the group's DV and Soak in order to do more than minimal damage (quite possible with a powerful Celestial solo combatant against a Mass Combat unit of mortals, for example). This can also be quite dangerous for the solo unit should the Magnitude of the group be high, so one should be confident in one's Charms, DVs, Soak and Health Levels before trying this.

The single exception to the Magnitude min damage rule above is if the solo combatant is using a Charm, Spell, or weapon with an Area of Effect that would encompass the entire, or at least a significant part of the group (ST's discretion). In this special case, the normal Essence min damage can be used.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:48, Wed 14 Oct 2009.

http://download.white-wolf.com...oad.php?file_id=1259

We are using these Exalted 2e Errata, current as of November 11, 2009. I may later on decide portions of it do not apply, after playtesting, but for now, assume they are being used unless another post in this rules thread contradicts the errata. If so, my houserules take precedence.