Dust-Shrouded Sun

Here are a few notes on the Dust-Shrouded Sun game for Exalted.

Background

There's enough Exalted knoweldge in the club for people to tap into. Basically, in the glorious First Age, the gods imbued selected mortals with great power, and they became Exalted. The most powerful were the Solar Exalted, followers of the Unconquered Sun. There were other, lesser Exalted types (Siderial, Lunar, etc), and the lowest were the Terrestial Exalted, the Dragon-blooded. Only in the Terrestial Exalted did Exaltation run in families; for the other types, the Essence was too powerful to be held in a human germline. Instead, mortals that showed great prowess were chosen by the Gods to become Exalted. The same essence came down into many bodies over time, and the new vessels retained some memories of the essence's previous lives.

However, the Solar Exalted became tyrannical and eventually the Dragonblooded rose up and slayed the Solar Exalted. But Solars continued to Exalt, so they created the Wyld Hunt, who found and slay them before they could become a threat. The state religion branded Solar Exalted as Anathema, violent and capricious beings to be killed on sight. Things went on generally tickety-boo for a millennium or two under the benign rule of the Dragonblooded Realm, until the immortal Scarlet Empress died. In the confusion, the Realm's hold on its satellite states became weak. The elite members of the Wyld Hunt returned to the Blessed Isle to vie for power. And the rate of Solar Exaltation increased immensely.

Previously...

Your PCs are all Solar Exalted. That means you're on the run from just about everyone. All the PCs were members of the same Circle in the First Age, so you now all know and trust each other. You know that there are other Circlemates out there, too, but you don't know where.

You know your Circle was based in the desert lands of the far south, so you're travelling there to find answers to all the questions you have. You're also hoping to find the tombs and manses of your First Age selves, to gain the artefacts and power there.

You've also heard rumours that a powerful group of Solar Exalted has declared themselves openly, and are ruling a small kingdom in the south. Perhaps you can reach them to defend them (and you) from the Realm's inevitable response.

Style and Tone

Exalted is a high-action game, inspired by martial-arts films, anime, and the like.

The game is going to be based around the premise that 'character is action'. In other words, there will be a lot of action scenes in the game. I'll try to have at least one per session. They won't all be combat (though many will), so you'll need to generate characters that are able to hold their own in an Exalted-on-Exalted fight. There will also be chase scenes, acrobatic escapades, raids and break-ins, and whatever else my fevered imagination can come up with.

The other aspect of the game I'd like to explore is the Virtue system. PCs with high Virtues will be looked on favourably, and I'll do my best to exploit Virtues to generate plot hooks. This will also tie in with my desire to address the question of what you'd do with immense power, and what is your place in the world?

As I said in the game proposal, I'll be using the core rulebook only, mainly because I don't have any of the other books!

Characters

If you're thinking about characters, some background options (such as allies, manses, etc) may not be too useful as you'll all be out-of-towners from far away.

Solar Charm Cards are available from the While Wolf website. They're very useful as a quick reference for all your character's charms. The list of downloads is at http://www.white-wolf.com/downloads.php?category_id=8 , while the Solar Charm cards themselves are at http://download.white-wolf.com/download/download.php?file_id=201 .

Actual Play

Characters

Eternal Sailor/Parviz (Richard)

Night caste ranger

Lolindir (Adam)

Night caste assassin

Suriah (Louisa)

Eclipse caste demagogue/sorceress

Wren (Peter)

Dawn caste warrior monk

Game writeups

Suriah's Diaries

1. Something Like An Introduction
2. Start As You Mean To Go On
3. Conversations and Alienations

XP spending

Trait Increase Costs

• Attribute: current rating x 4
• Favored or Caste Ability: (current rating x 2) - 1
• Ability: current rating x 2
• Essence: current rating x 8
• Virtue: current rating x 3 (does not increase Willpower.)
• Willpower: current rating x 2

New Trait Costs

• New Ability: 3
• New Specialty (max. three per Ability): 3
• New Charm: 10 (8 if in Favored or Caste Ability)
• New Spell: 10 (8 if Occult is a Caste or Favored Ability)
• Spirit Charm/Charm of Another Type of Exalted (Eclipse Caste only): 20
• Combo: Sum of minimum ability level of all charms