Character Creation: Exalted 2nd Ed

Rare is the day that I have literally nothing demanding my time and attention, but today is such a day, so I shall take advantage of that to make a character for a more complicated game. To wit:

The Game: Exalted 2nd Ed
The Publisher: White Wolf Publishing, back before the sales and mergers and Onyx Path and so on
Degree of Familiarity: None with this edition. I played 1st edition for a good long while
Books Required: Just the one, and I don't have any sourcebooks or anything anyway. I only have this PDF because it was in a bundle on DT

 
Exalted and I have something of a fraught history, less to do with the game itself and more to do with things going on in my life when I was playing it (and, on one terrible occasion, writing for it). All of my at-the-table experience is with the first edition, and I know that this edition gets a lot of flak, but it gets that flak from people with personal stakes in hating it, which, like, I'm so fucking done with this bullshit. Just play the games you like.

No soapboxes today, I promise. Let's get to it.

I've made two Exalted characters for this project, a Solar (1st Ed) and a Lunar (also 1st Ed). Oh, and I have an editable character sheet, thank the maker.

OK, so having skimmed through the Setting chapter and refreshed myself on what's basically happening with Creation, it strikes me that Exalted isn't so very different from a lot of long-winded fantasy games I've read. Starts with a lot of history, continues with a basic outline of the world, and so on. What makes the difference is that a) it's fairly well-written, so the eyes don't glaze over as easily and b) while the history is there, the focus is generally on what's happening now and how it's interesting and useful to the table, which means it's less "10,000 years ago, two gods arm-wrestled!"

In any case, the character creation process outlines six principles to keep in mind, most of which are pretty obvious to experienced players, but there are a couple (namely, your character is just starting out as an Exalt, but your character is a fucking demigod with all the epic potential that implies) that I'm really glad they included.

Anyway, Step One is, as usual, Concept, which I don't really have. I usually find it fun to think about where the character is from, and I'd like to do something different. I've played characters from the east (my Haltan Eclipse caste), the west (my sorcerer from the islands), and south (the zenith caste from Gem that I made for this project...10 fucking years ago). Never made a character from the north, and I've never made one from the Scavenger Lands, so maybe I'll read those sections real quick and see if anything inspires me.

Reading through the section on Great Forks, I kinda like the idea of playing someone who had his world completely upended by the Exaltation. Great Forks is interesting; it's described as one of the most enlightened cities in Creation, but its economy runs on slavery and drugs. I think my character ran a "pleasure parlor" call the Beehive - it's where you go to get honey, honey. He was the proprietor, made sure everyone was happy and drugged and that the slaves were tending to people (not that way, there are employees for that), and he never really thought much about the concept of people-as-property, and then he Exalted and suddenly he was "Anathema" rather than a person, and that shook him up.

That's a pretty good start for a concept. I like the idea of being on the run either in or from Great Forks, but that's something I'd have to deal with more with a group. What's next? Oh, caste, probably. Hmm. Well, not Dawn or Zenith, definitely. I feel like Twilight doesn't quite fit, either. I think I'll go with Night. I can see this guy being spy-like and sneaky (which, yes, is on-brand for how I like to make characters, so I'll be on the lookout for something interesting).

Next thing is Motivation (which I think must be something that was added for this edition because I don't recall it in 1st). It's meant to be something epic, and one of the examples they give is "end slavery in Creation." That actually makes a lot of sense for this guy, considering his history, so I think I'll co-opt that one.

OK, then, Step Two: Attributes. Standard Physical/Mental/Social distribution, 8/6/4 (although nowhere in the "allocate Attributes" section character creation are the digits written, so I had to read the paragraph looking for the words "eight" and "six" like some kinda weirdo).

Well, based on my guy's background I think I gotta go with Social/Mental/Physical. I'll put four into Charisma and just max it out, and split the other four evenly in Manipulation and Appearance (ugh). For Mental, I'll put two into Perception, three into Wits, and the last one into Intelligence (this guy got by on charm and cleverness more than learning and problem-solving). Finally, four dots in Physical. Y'know, there's really no point in doing anything other than putting two into Dexterity and splitting the other two between Strength and Stamina, since Dex is very much the uber-trait here.

Step Three: Abilities. These really should be called "Skills", but it's an OWoD holdover. Anyway, I get five Caste Abilities (Athletics, Awareness, Dodge, Larceny, and Stealth) and then I get to pick five more to be Favored Abilities. Cool.

OK, well, I need a combat Ability, and the best way to make this decision, I've found, is to think about what kind of fights one's character will look amazing and magical in. I actually don't want to do Thrown, shocker, I know. I see this guy as doing kung-fu like stuff, very fast and fluid snake-style, so I'll take Martial Arts as a Favored. I want the social stuff, so I'll take Presence and Socialize, and then I figure with this guy's background in drugs and sex, Medicine isn't a bad idea. One more. Hmm.

I'm tempted by Bureaucracy and War, for similar reasons. You figure that, to accomplish his goal of ending slavery, he's eventually going to have to see a battle or war for the freedom and change the law of the land(s). So the question is, which approach is he going to take? I think I'll go with War, actually, as the fugitive former sex/drug palace proprietor becomes a general (someday, far in the future).

OK, now I get 10 dots to throw into Favored or Caste Abilities, and a further 18 dots to spend anywhere. I can't go over 3 dots right now (though I can and probably will with freebies).

Let's start with the obvious stuff: three each into Martial Arts, Dodge, and Socialize, and then one into Stealth and that takes care of my first 10. For the rest, I'll put three into Presence, three into Athletics (you're stupid if you don't!), two more into Stealth, two into War, two into Medicine, two into Integrity, one each into Bureaucracy, Awareness, Larceny, and Linguistics. That'll do it for now, but I'm sure I'm putting some bonus points in here.

Step Four: Advantages. Here's where the complicated shit happens. First off, I get 7 dots in Backgrounds, but again, I can't go over 3 dots right now. I want this guy to be on the run with basically just the clothes on his back, so let's see what that'll get me.

Wow, a lot of these aren't really appropriate. OK, let's do this. I'll take a Familiar at 3 dots. Great Forks is full of small gods and spirits and so on. I'll hold off on deciding exactly what my Familiar is until I've spent my bonus points, in case I decide to raise the rating. I'll put three into Contacts - not everyone that my guy knew is itching to have him executed, and he has dirt on a bunch of them.

One more. OK, y'know what, I'm gonna say this guy is still in Great Forks. He's hiding, he's lost the Beehive, but he discovered a demesne in a secret, underground grotto. I'll put my last dot into Manse, giving me a level-2 demesne.

Charms! I get 10, half of which need to come from Favored or Caste Abilities. And of course they have pre-reqs, which means I may need to bump shit up with bonus points. Let's check it out!

Oh, lord, they complicated the actual hell out of this system, and it wasn't simple to begin with. Like, I'm sure it all works fine in play, but man, I don't think I could assemble a five-player group of people I know that could get into this.

OK, we start off with Excellencies, which are just Charms that you can buy for any Ability that allow you to add dice, add successes, or reroll failed dice. Why would you bother with the one that adds dice when you could use the one that adds successes? Ah, because it's cheap to buy dice. Hmm.

Well, I'll buy Second Dodge Excellency because I want to be able to purchase successes to get the hell out of the way. I'll buy First Martial Arts Excellency to make myself more awesomer at Martial Arts in a simple way. Now let's get on to the good stuff.

Martial Arts! Snake Style is included in the book, so shit, let's do that. I start with Striking Cobra Technique, and I don't want to go too deep into the tree, but I want a couple more. Well, I'll just take Serpentine Evasion for now. I kinda want Snake Form, but it'll involve raising my Essence and I want to look at other Charms.

The War ones are cool, but I don't see them as appropriate for this guy yet. What the shit is up with the Presence ones? They're all Essence two or more. That's ass. I'm supposed to buy Ox-Body Technique, but as I mentioned when I did a 1st Ed character, if a character isn't viable without a trait, it should come standard (plus I don't have any Resistance anyway).

OK, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that I'm gonna need to boost my Essence. Blah. Fine. 7 bonus points to do that gives me 8 remaining. Feh.

I want Flawless Diagnosis Technique and Ailment Rectifying Method; I see this guy as getting the other Medicine Charms someday, but start off with the basics. I also want to save some slots for Night stuff.

And here we go! Athletics! My favorite! Graceful Crane Stance, most definitely. Feather Foot Style seems appropriate (means I have to bump up my Athletics, but I was gonna do that anyway, so I'll spend a bonus point and go to Athletics 5).

This character sheet has nine Charm slots in a column. Could we really not fit 10? Weird. Anyway, two more.

Ooh, I like Flawless Impenetrable Disguise, but I need an Excellency for it. Fine, I'll take Third Larceny Excellency so I can take Flawless etc etc. Oh, shit, I only have Larceny 1. I'll spend 2 bonus to bump it to 4, and take my Stealth to 4 while I'm at it.

That's all my Charms, though I could in theory buy another one with bonus points. What's next? Virtues! I get 5 points to divvy up.

Well, I'm thinking Compassion might be this guy's big one. If I spread these out more or less evenly, I get Compassion 3 and everything else at 2. I'll say that Compassion is the root of his Limit Break. His Limit Break is...let's see. I think Compassionate Martyrdom works nicely.

And now I'm at Step Five: Finishing Touches! Whee! I get 5 Willpower, that's easy enough. I get as many as three Intimacies - just things I care about. I'll take the Beehive as one, and my Familiar as another. I'll leave the third one unspecified, and it doesn't matter anyway because there's no slot on the sheet for these (bad design!).

Essence - oh, wait, shit! I start with 2, not one! Callooh-callay! That gives me 7 bonus points back. Nice. I start with 11 Personal Essence and 28 Peripheral (unless I raise something). Health levels, I get the standard 7, because I don't have Ox-Body, which might stupid but I don't care.

OK, so, gotta do bonus points and then finalize a bunch of stuff. Cool. I now have 12 bonus points left. Let's do Abilities first. I'll bump 5 in there and raise a bunch of shit (I like having 5s in my important Abilities; I'm a goddamn demigod). That leaves me 7 left. I'll take Easily Overlooked Presence Method (4 points) as a Charm. That leaves me 3. Hmm. I'll spend them and bump my Compassion to 4. That give me more Essence, and ups my Willpower to 6.

That's all my points, so let's do the fun stuff. My character's name used to be Suhu, the Beekeeper, but he's lost his hive. Now he goes by Harsh (but with a slight roll to the r), and lives in the shadows and back alleys of Great Forks. His Familiar is a mospid (a raptor) named Feek, and because it's not a huge thing like a goddamn tiger, it's about as smart as a child and grants me Essence.

So let's think about Harsh's Exaltation. He was at the Beehive one night, glad-handing the regulars and making sure that everyone was taken care of, when he saw a slave crying. She wasn't hurt (physically), but Harsh realized that he had never seen a slave cry before - or if he had, he'd never really thought about what that meant. He took her aside and asked her what was wrong, and she told him that one of the cooks at the Beehive was being cruel, tormenting the slaves and keeping their rations back.

Harsh went to confront the cook, but the cook pointed out that the rules of the house (which Harsh himself had set) gave him the right to allocate food to the slaves. In any case, as long as they had enough to keep going, it was fine. And the master wanted them keep slim.

Every light in the place went out, and Harsh stood there with his Night-caste Anima blazing, a storm of whirling motes of shadow around a white-hot core. The cook cowered in fear, and Harsh told all the slaves they were free.

But they weren't. You can't just free a slave, you have to pay their manumission, and Harsh couldn't afford that (even if he weren't losing everything for being Anathema). Harsh lost everything, but his way is clear - people are not things. Great Forks first, then the rest of Creation, will be free.

Physically, Harsh is tall and thin, long fingers, long nose, white hair and icy blue eyes (his family might be Northern, I think). He dresses in simple brown clothing, the kind of thing anyone on the street might wear. Feek rides on his shoulder sometimes, but other times perches on rooftops so that Harsh can hear and see what's coming. Harsh is working on finding sympathetic ears to his cause (which would be where other PCs come in).

And that's it!