General System Structure

Systems and Conflict: Glossary | General Structure | Combat | Complications | Battle Groups | Social Influence | Disease | Crafting

Creation is an enormous, diverse place where almost anything might happen—and need to be resolved by the players and Storyteller. Although Exalted has many rules, they almost all refer back to a simple resolution system, explained below.

Time

Exalted has five general measurements to describe the division of time within the game, progressing from the largest to the smallest unit:

• Chronicle—A complete game focusing on a continuous series of characters or events. Similar to the full run of a television series of cycle of books.
• Story—A discrete portion of narrative that often takes several sessions to play out. Stories generally have an overall goal or framework, such as "Overthrow the satrap," "Find the ancient ruins of Lost Zarlath," or "Escape from the Wyld Hunt after being ambushed and trapped in the city."
• Session—A single evening of gaming, generally encompassing several scenes.
• Scene—A segment of action and roleplaying that takes place without a cut in time and location, like a scene in a film. A scene takes as few or as many rounds as are necessary to resolve events—in-setting, a scene might be as short as a few minutes or as long as a few hours.
• Round—A unit of time used to measure combat scenes, considered long enough to take one action. A round normally lasts about three seconds in combat situations, but could potentially represent more time during fights involving large battle groups. The point during a round when you declare your character’s action is called your turn.

Existing outside of this scale of progression, there is also: Downtime—Time between scenes or sessions that pass without roleplaying, which is narrated in an abstract fashion—"Three weeks later, you finally arrive in Nexus," or "My character spends the remaining days before the festival rigorously practicing martial arts on the mountaintop."

Dice

The Exalted Storyteller system uses 10-sided dice; each player should have at least 10 dice of her own, though dice can be shared in a pinch. 10-sided dice can be purchased at most hobby outlets, or from online retailers; alternately, countless free virtual dice-rolling applications are available online.

Traits

Rather than generating dice pools, characters occasionally generate static values—fixed ratings which are recorded on the character sheet. These are normally used to determine the difficulty for hostile individuals to act on the character—for example, a character's Defense rating determines the difficulty of attempts to attack her. Exalted has the following static values: Evasion, Parry, Defense (which is equal to the higher of Evasion or Parry), Resolve, and Guile.

Characters possess a variety of traits describing their innate capabilities, trained skills, and other measurable qualities, such as their Strength, Intelligence, and Stealth ratings. Most traits are rated in dots (•) ranging from 1 to 5, much like the "five-star" system critics use to rate movies, wherein • is a low or poor rating, •• is average, and ••••• denotes superlative excellence at the outer edge of human potential.

See also:

• Abilities
• Attributes
• Traits (Category)

Dice Pools

When a character takes an action in Exalted, her chance of success is represented by her dice pool, which is normally formed by combining the most logically applicable Attribute and Ability that pertain to the task. For example, a character attempting to pick a lock (a task requiring nimble hands and criminal expertise) would combine her Dexterity rating with her Larceny rating. Assuming she has Dexterity 3 and Larceny 2, she then has a dice pool of 5 dice.

Which Attribute and Ability should be combined to attempt an action is generally up to the best judgment of the Storyteller.

Determining Difficulty

Having determined what dice pool to use, the Storyteller then considers the task the player wants his character to attempt and assigns it a difficulty rating.

As great heroes, Exalted characters are assumed to possess abundant confidence and competence. Tasks which run-of-the-mill individuals in Creation would consider challenging (such as picking a lock or removing a patient's appendix without killing him) are ordinary fare for heroes. Such tasks are appropriate for difficulty 1.

Performing challenging tasks under significant duress (such as picking a lock or removing an appendix in the dead of night, without sufficient light, in the midst of a howling storm) is appropriate for difficulty 2.

Tasks which might daunt even heroes, by contrast, are appropriate for difficulty 3. Examples might include plucking a gem from a nest of writhing serpents without being bitten, or breaking a man-eating horse born in the depths of the Wyld so it accepts the hero as its rider. Performing such tasks under significant duress (such as plucking the aforementioned gem while the temple collapses around the intrepid thief, or breaking the man-eating horse in the midst of a raging forest fire) are appropriate for difficulty 4.

Near-impossible feats, even by heroic standards, are appropriate for difficulty 5. Examples might include reading a letter in pitch blackness by feeling the texture of ink on the paper, leaping over the rail of a sorcerer's flying chariot to land safely in a hay cart hundreds of feet below, or running for three consecutive days and nights without succumbing to exhaustion.

Rolling the Dice

Automatic Actions and Difficulty 0

Many actions that a character takes aren't dramatic at all, and aren't worth breaking out the dice for. A character can generally lace up her boots, navigate stairs, and cook breakfast without needing to roll to determine success—she's simply assumed to be competent at things she does on a regular basis, and the story moves on.

Sometimes, however, thanks to magic, penalties suffered by enemies, or very low static values, characters may occasionally find themselves attempting a rolled action with at difficulty 0. Treat this as a difficulty 1 action which cannot be botched. The most common sources of difficulty 0 are low-Defense combatants suffering penalties due to armor or magic.

Now that you know what to roll and how to determine the difficulty of an action, here's how to read the results.

Roll a number of dice equal to your dice pool. Each die that shows a 7, 8, 9 or 10 is considered a success. In fact, each die showing a 10 usually counts as two successes (this is known as the Double 10s rule). For an action to succeed, the player must accumulate a number of successes equal to or greater than the action's difficulty rating.

Success: To return to our earlier example of the lockpicking hero: Let's say she's picking the lock at twilight in the midst of a storm. The lighting is poor and the rumble of thunder masks the sounds of the tumblers turning. The Storyteller determines that the action is difficulty 2. Since the character possesses Dexterity 3 and Larceny 2, the player rolls five dice against difficulty 2, garnering results of 1, 3, 6, 7, and 10—three successes. The door opens.

Successes in excess of the number required are known as threshold successes. In the above example, the thief succeeded with one threshold success. Threshold successes are relevant to certain actions detailed later in this chapter, such as combat.

Failure: If the roll generates no successes, or generates fewer successes than the difficulty set by the Storyteller, then the action has failed. Depending on whether it makes sense, the character might or might not be allowed to attempt the action again. In the example of the thief, the Storyteller might rule that the character may attempt to pick the lock again, but now hears a guard approaching—if she doesn't succeed this time, she won't have time to hide before the guard comes into view.

Botch: If the roll generates no successes and one or more dice come up showing a result of 1, the action has botched. A botch means that the action has failed in such a way that it dramatically complicates the story—perhaps the thief's attempts to pick the lock have caused her picks to break off inside, jamming the lock so it cannot be opened at all! The character will have to find another way to reach her objective.

Stunts

Stunt Examples

NOT A STUNT: I attack the archer by the tree.
STUNT: Ducking under another arrow, I race up to the archer and swing my daiklave across his torso, slamming him into the tree. Blood stipples the falling leaves that rain down around us.

NOT A STUNT: I release him from the grapple by throwing him.
STUNT: I hoist the Exigent into the air and slam him down through the table with a ringing crash.

NOT A STUNT: I parry the soldiers' attacks.
STUNT: I swing my daiklave left-to-right, scattering the soldiers' spears like toys.

NOT A STUNT: I climb up onto the roof.
STUNT: I run halfway up the wall, leap, grab the edge of the roof, and flip myself up to land easily on the red shingles.

NOT A STUNT: I try to bribe the clerk to let me in without an appointment.
STUNT: I walk up to the clerk's desk. "I'm here to see Magistrate Chen—promptly." I let the coins in my hand ring audibly against the surface of his desk to punctuate my words.

NOT A STUNT: I cast Invulnerable Skin of Bronze.
STUNT: A storm of whirling Essence coalesces into a scrawl of Old Realm characters printed upon my skin, which then spread and harden into an invulnerable shell of living bronze.

Exalted is a game of cinematic action and mighty heroes who go crashing through the world and look cool doing it. Characters needn't choose between doing the sensible thing or the stylish thing—the coolest course of action is also the optimal one. Such actions are known as stunts.

For an action to qualify as a stunt, it must fulfill two criteria, as approved by the Storyteller:

• The action must be cooler than a basic declaration of intent (see right for examples).
• The action cannot be boring. This is not meant to act as a harsh quality bar players must strive to jump over—mostly it means repetitive stunts stop qualifying as stunts, as they're no longer entertaining. This also means any stunt so long and overwrought that it bores rather than excites isn't a stunt.

Stunts may be used as often as desired—and to be clear, the average player can and should use a stunt to enhance almost every action her character takes. Storytellers are encouraged to err in the player's favor when deciding what is or isn't a stunt.

• One-Point Stunts: The benefits of stunting are simple: any rolled action enhanced by a stunt gains two extra dice. If the stunted action is the application of a static value (such as using Defense to block an opponent's leaping sword slash), then that static value rises by 1. Players should be able to use a one-point stunt on almost every action.
• Two-Point Stunts: A two-point stunt stands above and beyond other stunts. These are intended to be less common than one-point stunts; to be a two-point stunt, the action needs to stand out memorably as a highlight of the scene.

Exceptional stunts on rolled actions are rewarded with two extra dice and one automatic success. Exceptional stunts on static value applications raise the static value by 2. A player might get two or three of these in an evening of play. Whenever a player describes a two-point stunt, her character gains a point of Willpower, up to a maximum of her permanent Willpower rating.

• Three-Point Stunts: These are stunts so cool that everyone at the table is impressed. These stunts are intended to be rare and memorable; to be a three-point stunt, the action needs to stand out as probably the coolest thing that's going to happen during the entire session. Threepoint stunts on rolled actions are rewarded with two extra dice and two automatic successes.

Three-point stunts on static value applications raise the static value by 3. A player probably won't manage a three-point stunt in every session—it's rare to see more than one out of the entire group in the course of a night of play.

Whenever a player describes a three-point stunt, her character gains two points of Willpower, which may take her above her permanent Willpower rating.

Finally, when a character performs an unnecessarily dangerous stunt (such as leaping over a roaring bonfire to strike at her opponent, or hurling herself off a tall building in an attempt to grapple a flying enemy), the Storyteller is urged not to level devastating consequences should the stunt fail. In the above examples, the character might have an opportunity to beat out the flames kindling on her clothing before suffering any damage, or should be provided a roll to grab onto a ledge or other surface to keep from plummeting to a messy death. Exalted players shouldn't avoid reckless heroism for fear of the obvious danger.

Action Complicatons

The rules above detail a normal dice roll. They're used to resolve the vast majority of all actions and circumstances in Exalted—but not all. What if another character is trying to stop your action from succeeding? What if your action is merely one step in a long and complex series of action intended to produce a specific outcome? What if you have magic helping you out—or hindering you?

Bonuses and Penalties

Your dice pools may be changed by modifiers—bonuses or penalties that increase or decrease a character's likelihood of success by adding or subtracting dice from her dice pool. The most common sources of modifiers in Exalted are situational penalties (penalties based on the circumstances in which the action is attempted), equipment modifiers (bonuses or penalties based on tools used to assist or hamper the action), and Charm modifiers (bonuses or penalties based on the use of magic to assist or impede the action). Bonuses or penalties add to or subtract from the character's relevant dice pool by the number indicated. For example, a character suffering under a divine curse that levels a -2 penalty to all attempts to transgress the laws of the city Great Forks would lose two dice from her dice pool every time she attempted an action that broke the city's laws.

Bonuses and penalties also occasionally affect a character's static values. In these situations, the static value is simply raised or lowered by the amount specified. Equipment and Charm modifiers are generally pre-set, depending on the magic or equipment being employed. Situational penalties, on the other hand, are set by the Storyteller whenever it seems appropriate to do so (see below).

Penalties cannot reduce a character's dice pools or static values below 0. Charm bonuses are subject to some special limitations—see pages 251-252 in the next chapter.

When and How to Use Situational Penalties

Most of the time, advantageous or disadvantageous environmental factors will simply determine the difficulty of an action, rather than producing penalties or bonuses. A character navigating his ship into a narrow cove with a favorable wind and a calm sea would be facing a difficulty 1 action—no bonus is necessary. If the waters are choppy and the wind seems to want to carry the ship into danger, this would produce a difficulty 2 action rather than a penalty.

Penalties are applied when the difficulty of an action is already pre-set—usually by a static value possessed by another character. For example, an attempt to shoot another character with an arrow always has a difficulty equal to the target's Defense. But what if the Night Caste hero Harmonious Jade attempts to shoot a marauding Abyssal in the middle of a cloudy night, with a high wind blowing? In this case, the difficulty of the action remains unchanged, but the archer suffers a penalty to her dice pool.

Penalties may also be applied when there is no difficulty, as in the case of opposed rolls. For example, if one character is rolling (Dexterity + Stealth) to hide, and another is rolling (Perception + Awareness) to find the first character, there's no difficulty.

A list of example penalties follows, demonstrating how characters might be hampered by certain factors:

Example Martial Penalties

-1: Character fights in poor lighting, or attempts a ranged attack in high wind. Character attacks on poor footing, such as slick rocks.

-3: Character attacks while standing on perilous terrain such as a narrow tree limb or balancing on a rope. Character suffers multiple minor complications, such as fog and high wind. Character is trying to fight while blind, and must rely on other senses.

-5: Character is fighting in the sweltering haze of a burning building, choking on smoke and avoiding nearby flames. Character is fighting blind in an environment full of noise or other factors that make her other senses unreliable.

Example Social Penalties

-1: Character's requests or actions represent an unknowing social faux pas in the culture he's dealing with.

-3: Character's bearing is inappropriate for the circumstances (showing up to a royal court in stained traveling clothes and smelling of sweat and horses).

-5: Character's bearing is wildly inappropriate for the circumstances (showing up to a royal court naked and covered in blood).

Example Opposed Roll Penalties

-1: Character engages in a riddle contest, but the riddles draw on cultural idioms and symbolism alien to the character.

-3: Character runs a foot race against an opponent across harsh terrain such as deep snow or heavy underbrush.

-5: Character attempts to notice an assassin sneaking up on him, but the assassin is perfectly, supernaturally silent and concealed in shadows.

Extended Actions

Sometimes whether a character can do something isn't as important as how fast. Extended rolls exist to measure such situations—how long does it take to scale the side of a manse while under fire from archers? In a foot race, who can reach the finish line first?

An extended roll has a dice pool and a difficulty just like a normal roll, but also has a goal number, an interval, and sometimes a terminus.

An extended roll's goal number is a number set by the Storyteller. When a character takes an extended action, the player rolls her dice pool not once, but repeatedly, until she accumulates a number of successes equal to the action's goal number. Difficulty determines how difficult it is to make any advancement at all in the action, while the goal number describes how much work it will take to complete the task. When determining a character's current success total, count only those successes that meet or exceed the action's difficulty. For example, a player attempting an extended action with difficulty 3 who rolled four successes would accumulate two cumulative successes toward her goal number.

An extended action's interval measures how much time elapses in-game between rolls. For two characters climbing up a tree to retrieve a goddess's golden arrow, an interval of one turn might be appropriate. For two ship captains racing across the Great Western Ocean to follow directions to an island lost since the First Age, their navigation rolls might be made at intervals of one week.

If a character fails a roll on an extended action, her effort isn't for naught—she simply doesn't make any appreciable progress during that interval. A botch on an extended roll ruins the entire effort, however, and forces the character to start over.

Finally, some extended rolls also have a terminus—a limit (usually time-based) on how much effort the character can put into the roll before overall success or failure is determined. An extended roll's terminus is the number of rolls the character can make before the extended roll is finished. An extended action with a terminus of 4, for example, would automatically fail if the character hadn't met her goal nmber after four rolls.

Opposed Actions

Sometimes, two characters attempt to act and there can only be one winner. Whether it's tug-of-war or two rival singers attempting to impress a god with their skills, such contests are decided through opposed rolls. Opposed rolls are simple—they work just like normal rolls, except they don't have a difficulty. Instead, it's a straight competition to see which player's action generates more successes.

In the event of a tie, the Storyteller awards victory to the player with the best stunt.

Reflexive Actions

Most of the time, you can only take one action in a round, on your turn. Some rolled actions, however, happen automatically or by reflex. These are called reflexive actions, and a character can take them at any time they'd be appropriate. Rolling (Perception + Awareness) to spot another character attempting to hide from you is one example of a reflexive action—you're constantly perceiving your environment whether you're trying to or not. Another might be rolling (Stamina + Resistance) to fight off an illness. You don't need to concentrate to do that—your body does it automatically. The most common reflexive action in the Exalted system is the basic movement action, which carries a character across a range band.