Exalted vs the World of Darkness, Powered by the Apocalypse [Newbie Friendly]

[AndyZ]

This is starting out as more of an interest check before I guarantee to run it.

So, for newbies who aren't familiar: the World of Darkness is an urban fantasy system, similar in style to Interview with the Vampire, the Dresden Files, and so many other stories where vampires and other supernatural creatures exist in secret within the modern day world.

Exalted, created by the same company, is much more fantasy.  Once-ordinary people are suddenly granted godlike power based on celestial bodies like the sun, moon, and planets.

So one of the old writers came up with a free, unofficial book series wherein the Exalted suddenly started appearing in the World of Darkness.  Then another book was put out, Powered by the Apocalypse, which has a much more simplified rules system.

You can get it for free here: https://holdenshearer.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/exvwod-apocalypse-edition.pdf  It's being offered at no cost; this isn't a pirated version or anything like that.

What I'm thinking of doing is running a game for a full circle of the Solar Exalted, meaning one of each of the Solars and not having the rest of the types as PCs.  In effect, you'll be playing an ordinary human character who is suddenly granted godlike power and becomes aware of the supernatural world.  I may consider Lunars if we get five Solars.

People who are familiar with Exalted are free to have their characters remember past lives but with no mechanical benefit therein.  I also have plans for a few house rules.


House Rules:

As written, players can ask for a botch once per session to gain XP.  Those of you familiar with the Powered by the Apocalypse system may be used to gaining XP whenever you roll 6 or less.  I plan to give out XP to the entire party when a botch occurs just to make sure the players are all making the same amount of XP; games are less fun when people are all different power levels.

The PDF also talks about passing the sheet to the left to give people the opportunity for more XP.  I’ll just give out a decent amount of XP and not do this.

As written, you can only ever gain two Advancements to your attributes.  I plan to allow two Advancements per attribute, for a maximum of ten Advancements.

As written, a Night caste whose anima flares will forget the identity of the Night caste unless they have an Edge on them or you want them to remember.  As a rule, your circle (the other PCs) will not forget who the Night is, regardless of if the other PCs have an Edge on the Night.

I'm considering instituting rules of the Veil for Exalts.  Nearly every supernatural creature in the World of Darkness can show themselves to ordinary humans and those humans will undergo bouts of temporary insanity rather than remember, say, a werewolf in its hybrid form.  "It was just a bear."  I'll discuss it with the group, and if it is used, players will be able to lift the Veil from ordinary human NPCs using various methods that they can voluntarily employ.  What it effectively means is that you'll be able to do all kinds of fun supernatural stuff in broad daylight, and around 98% of the mortal populace won't even remember even if they see it, with the other 2% waved off as crackpots.

I'm also considering significant changes to the World of Darkness as well.  I'm somewhat of an expert on the system, but people may have more fun if I reworked things so that nobody OOC knows for sure if, for example, vampires are harmed by garlic until you try it.

As written, the basic move Manipulate Someone is alternately listed as shadowy or worldly.  I’m ruling that it’s worldly.

I reserve the right to change a few other things if I think it'd make a better game experience.


Now, one thing I'm going to require is Discord.  One issue I often have when running forum games is how people just up and vanish, and how I never know if I'm waiting for people or not.  I want fast powers for this; you don't have to be able to do every single day, but I'd expect at least five posts a week if everyone else was able to keep up, and responses within twenty-four hours.

Because things can come up, and not everyone will be up for posting every time, I plan to have a "Pass" channel in the Discord where people can just say "Pass" if they don't have anything to contribute in posting.  It's my quiet hope that this idea will catch on to other games, but for now, we can see how it goes.

Edit: As a point of clarification, I’ll be happy with five interactions per week, with both posts and passes counting as interactions.  Not everyone will have something to say all the time.

Finally, those of you who get to work making characters early, don't worry about putting in the Edges yet unless people want to start out with their characters knowing each other.  I won't have a hard time bringing the group together, and I'm planning on running everyone's Exaltation scenes if this does start up.

So, is there enough of an interest to get the game going?

[RedKnight]

@AndyZ,

Perfect timing. I had cut my games/stories back to a minimal level (three) and most of the IRL drama has abated. I like the concept of WoD, but the rules are IMO too complex. Additionally, I’m a big fan of PbtA style games. I’m fascinated by  the idea of Exalted ported to PbtA.

[AndyZ]

Would you rather a canon version of World of Darkness or can I mix things up some?  Same question goes for anyone interested in joining.

[RedKnight]

Would you rather a canon version of World of Darkness or can I mix things up some?  Same question goes for anyone interested in joining.

GM's discretion.

I have only the fuzziest idea about WoD. I created one Vampiric character and one other (Demonic ?) character. However, the rules and lore were so complex, that neither game was started.

[AndyZ]

There’s a game Exalted Essence that just came out that’s a much more simplified version of Exalted 3E that you may want to check into as well.

[ShadowFox89]

You've still got my interest of course. I still have my night caste.

[AndyZ]

It’s a different system but playing more or less the same character should be feasible.  I will admit I can’t remember a darn thing about the old characters when I was trying to run this with the WoD system.

[AndyZ]

Okay, Shadow, reading through stuff, I have a better memory of what I was planning with your character.  My question to you also: are you good with my changing a bunch of traditional WoD lore?  It'd mean that your best bet for your Background Move would be taking either Connections or Influence, whichever you feel would be better served, rather than having your character cutting ties with the initial organization.

[AndyZ]

And it doesn’t look like there’s enough interest, but I feel better at least knowing that rather than letting the idea percolate.

[Red Stella]

I’m late to the conversation, but it sounds very interesting to me.  If you decide to give it a shot, let me know.

Red Stella
     💋

[Saric]

I'm interested as well. I've made characters in both settings but none of the games actually ever started so most of what I know of WoD is from the Vampire the Masquerade video game. So I wouldn't even notice if you changed something.

[Greenthorn]

I'm going to set my potential interest here. I'm a total newb with system games, but decided to just jump in on some and I'm having a good time. I would need some patience because I'll probably ask questions and sometimes the same question more than once, but I am an eager learner and the posting rate is fine with me.

So, if you decide to go forward and run something, and I have enough time to gather my pool of "helpers" who can help me create a character and such, I'm totally in.

[AndyZ]

Dang, now I feel bad.  There's a lot of interest now, but I'm running a game outside of Elliquiy and I'd never be able to manage two right now.  Sorry.

[Arianhro]

In case you change your mind in future, I'm just gonna lurk here since they are two of my three favourite RPGs....