Editing Exalted (section)

==System==
The basic mechanic is a modified [[Storyteller System]]. Pools of d10s are rolled; 7,8,9 count as one success, 10 counts as two successes. Successes are scaled against target numbers at a set difficulty against non PCs/NPCs. If no successes are rolled and at least one die comes up with a 1, then the roll is a botch (catastrophe ensues). 

There are a few exceptions to these rules of success, however. Some Fate-based or Shaping-based effects can reduce the number needed to get a single success from a die. These won't come up unless you pull out the relevant splatbook, though.

'''Stunting''': A way to mechanically allow players to use Rule of Cool as a game mechanic. How does it work? A player describes how their PC does an action. Depending on the degree of description, a 1 to 3 dice bonus is given to the roll. (1 dice bonus is incredibly common, 3 dice bonuses almost never given).  

*+1 Bonus - Make an effort, try to do something cool. Be brief.
*+2 Bonus - Make a cool description that fleshes out the scenery a bit. Be brief.
*+3 Bonus - Make everyone at the table give you a standing ovation. Be brief.

Did we mention that you should be brief? Well, you should.

Stunts can pretty much be done on any action, and don't necessarily have to follow the laws of physics. A good example of an athletics stunt would be the wallrunning in Prince of Persia games, while a combo in a fighting game might be a good example of a flurry stunt. But above all, make it short, snappy, and keep the flow of the game going.

Just if you're curious - The reason why they hand out bonus dice is two fold - Firstly, newly made characters tend to be a bit handicapped, being baller at the things they were made to do and pretty much not at the other stuff. So, stunting gives new characters the chance to succeed at almost anything as long as the player thinks of a pretty cool way to do it, and it teaches new players that as long as you make it feel cool your character can do ''anything''. Secondly, prior to Second Edition, the way multiple actions were handled was by splitting dice pools, so you needed to succeed at two different (generally fairly hard) tasks with half the dice you would otherwise. Stunting helped offset that, offering you the chance to succeed at complicated things that you otherwise wouldn't be able to just because they were epic. Second Edition works a little differently, applying flat penalties to your dice pools based on the number of actions you're taking, (take two actions, first action's on -2 and second is -3; three actions, -3, -4, -5, and so on) but stunts still help to offset that somewhat.

It's a kickass system all told, that helps to bridge between the role playing and the crunch, with a real benefit for staying in character while you splat things. It takes a lot of heat off the ST to make the dice rolling seem interesting because the characters are always trying (maybe not always succeeding) to be cool, so the ST doesn't have to come up with a million different ways to say 'you punch a guy and he falls down'.

Stunts also have rewards besides dice, namely motes and Willpower; a stunt is worth twice its die value in motes, or you can take a point of Willpower for a two- or three-die stunt. Generally, (there are exceptions) motes fuel magic stuff, while Willpower fuels more mundane stuff. (meaning things that anyone can do) Running out of either one can be a death sentence, even in Exalted 2.5; stunts help keep that from happening. If a character does a stunt that also counts towards achieving their Motivation (what they want to do most of all) counts as one stunt higher, except if it is already a three dot stunt, then the character should be allowed an experience point.

Earlier editions suffered tremendously from problems of [[Linear Build Quadratic EXP]], and the character-creation system was often mockingly regarded as a Byzantine "mini-game" in and of itself.  Third edition is in development right now, and promises to be markedly different from both previous editions - by different we mean BETTER.  It redid the combat engine and fixed the persistent bugbears that plagued the first and second ed, and is giving much-need attention to Lunars and a few other splats.  It was also supposed to have its second and third book out three fucking years ago.  Fans have taken to calling it Exalted: the Waiting.  It conspicuously refuses to fix the Xp problem (with one of the devs infamously imperiously declaring, and this is a direct quote, [https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?768985-Exalted-Why-is-Everyone-Praising-3e&p=19548177#post19548177| "We have a policy not to give people bad rules just because they think they want them."]  [[Troll| Holy shit.]] 

Fortunately, while the problem's still ''there'', a number of core gameplay and pricing tweaks have at least made the problem less severe.