Darxalted

A Cthulhu Dark rules hack for Exalted

v 1.1 Nov 2011

Character Creation

Choose a name and caste. Choose a primary virtue. Describe your Solar. Take some dice:

3 white dice.
1 red Essence Die.
1 blue Limit Die.
1 black Harm Die.

For a newly-exalted character, these will be D6s.

Choose some charms.
Essence starts at 6.
Limit starts at 1.
Harm starts at 1.
If Limit reaches 6, you limit break. If Harm reaches 6, you are incapacitated or dead.
You can write these down on your character sheet (an index card should provide plenty of
space for all the information you'll need to record about your character) or you can simply leave
these dice showing the face that represents the current figure.

Doing things

Add a die to your pool for each of the following conditions (up to a maximum of 3) and roll:

The task is possible for your order of being (human, spirit, elemental, etc).
The task is within your caste role.
You are acting in accord with your virtue.
You are stunting.

If the highest single die on the roll matches or exceeds the GM's target number, you succeed.
Example: Youre trying to evade the Wild Hunt by slipping into the catacombs below Nexus. The GM sets a target

of 4 for a bare success, or 5 for a comfortable one.

On a 1, you trip and dislodge a foundation stone holding up a crumbling wall, attracting the attention of everyone
around. On a 4, you squeeze between the bars of an ancient sewer inlet and slip away, but leave traces for
pursuers to follow. On a 6, you steal away silently, and all of your pursuers are left following a false lead.

If the task you're attempting is not possible for your order of being, you can only succeed if
using a charm or spending Essence.

Die types and charms

2 to 6 is the range for mundane tasks, the sort of thing any sufficiently talented mortal could
accomplish. Exalts can go beyond that range using charms. Activating a charm is free.
Yes, free. It costs nothing. A charm is a condition that allows two things: a specific normallyimpossible task can now be attempted, and the character can now spend Essence to perform at
superhuman levels.
For each mote you pay, you can raise the dice in your pool by one size. Pay a mote, replace
your D6s with D8s. Pay two to roll D10s. Pay three and they're D12s. The upper limit is set by
the size of your Essence Die. Unless you hold an artefact, the dice you roll can never be larger
than your Essence Die.
Your Essence Die represents your current pool of available Essence, the maximum number of
motes you can hold at your power level, and the upper limit your skills can be boosted to.
Maximum Essence Die:
D4

Ordinary mortal

D6

Heroic/Essence-awakened mortal, newly Exalted

D8

Godblooded, Dragonblooded

D10

Sidereal, Lunar

D12

Solar, Abyssal

D20

Celestial Incarnae, Behemoth, Deathlord, Primordial

Task difficulty range:

2-6

Mundane

Chop down a tree, build a house, write a symphony

7 - 12

Supernatural

Fire an arrow a dozen miles, breathe water, leap a mountain

13 - 20

Titanic

Create Exaltations, build a world

Example: A Night-caste Solar activates Spider-Foot Style to reach a clifftop. Without spending Essence he rolls
a D6 and gets a 5. He reaches the top eventually, panting with the effort and showering dust and small stones on
anything below.
Spending a mote to roll D8s he gets a 7, showing a measure of grace and rising at a jog, only dislodging the
occasional loose rock.
Spending two motes for D10s, he rolls a 9 and sprints up the cliff face, treating every irregularity as a shortcut to
bounce him higher, swinging over the edge as silently as a breeze.

Basic charms:
1st Excellency

Roll three dice, regardless of any penalties that apply.

2nd Excellency

Add Essence Die/2 as a bonus to the highest die.

3rd Excellency

Repeat the roll, use whichever result is higher. May only be used once
per task.

4th Excellency

Each mote spent reduces the cost of raising dice type by one. Scene
length.

5th Excellency

First four excellencies can be used with other charms without learning a
combo.

Regaining Essence
Exalts regenerate their Essence entirely whenever they have a chance to rest for a reasonable
length of time. Additionally, they regain a point at the beginning of each scene and each time
there's a change of activity, they can make an Essence roll.
To make an Essence roll, roll your Essence Die and regain a point if the result is higher than
your current number of motes.
Example: a Solar general can roll to regain Essence when he finishes reading reports and gets up to tour his
encampment, but not when he finishes the intelligence reports and goes on to read the quartermaster's manifest.

A Hearthstone adds Essence according to its rating at the beginning of each scene.
A character who performs a stunt during an action and succeeds regains the Essence spent on
the action.
Heroic and Essence-awakened mortals regenerate Essence at a rate of one mote per day. They
can make an additional Essence roll once per day.

Co-operation and competition

To co-operate: everyone who is co-operating rolls their dice. The highest die, rolled by anyone,
determines the outcome.
To compete: everyone who is competing rolls their dice. Whoever gets highest wins. If its a
tie, the character with the highest Essence Die wins. If their Essence Dice are equal, highest
current Essence pool wins. If Essence is tied, re-roll.
Acting as a group
A group's Essence Die is equal to the highest single die in the group. When buying dice raises,
players can raise them to equal the highest available die.
Example: A group of four Sidereals join forces to combat a Solar. One is Essence D6, two are Essence D8 and
one is Essence D10. The Essence Die for the group is D10.

A group's Essence Die is counted as one step above the highest size if the number of
characters in the group is equal to that die size.
Example: 19 first-age Solars form a squad to fight a Primordial. Their leader is Essence D12, making the group's
Essence Die D12. They are joined by another, bringing their numbers up to equal the next highest die, so now
they are a D20 group -- a match for the Primordial's power.

Combat

A round of combat is treated as a competing roll. The difference between the winner's and
loser's result is added to the loser's Harm. If Harm reaches maximum, the character is either
dead or incapacitated, depending on the situation.
In group combat, all members of the losing group take equal Harm.

Healing

For Exalts, Harm fades naturally at a rate of one point per day. Characters may reduce
additional Harm by rolling their Harm Die at the end of each scene, and reduce Harm by one
point if the result is less than the current total.
Harm to mortals fades naturally at a rate of one point per week. They may roll their Harm Die at
the end of each day.
When a character makes a successful medicine roll, have the target make an immediate Harm
reduction roll, plus an additional reduction roll for each point the character performing medicine
exceeded the target number by. If the result of the medicine roll is double the target or higher,
heal all of the patient's Harm.

Essence banner effects

You can activate your banner at any time with no Essence cost in order to:

Tell the time of day

Make your caste mark glow, or otherwise identify yourself as a Solar Exalt
Generate enough light to see by
Activate your anima power

Your banner automatically flares when half of your Essence pool has been spent.
Anima powers
You can activate your anima at any time with no Essence cost in order to:

Tell the time of day

Make your caste mark glow, or otherwise identify yourself as an Exalt
Generate enough light to see by
Activate your banner effect

Your banner automatically flares when half of your Essence pool has been spent.
Essence banner effects
Dawn: Sentient creatures must roll vs your Essence Die/2 at a 1-die penalty to take action
against you. If they miss the target number by their own Essence Die/2 they are forced to flee.
The effect ends if you attack.
Zenith: When you succeed in a combat roll against a creature of darkness, re-roll your dice and
use whichever result is higher when calculating the amount of Harm you do.
You can also spend a mote in order to burn Essence Die/2 bodies to ash to prevent them rising
as hungry ghosts.
Twilight: When unsuccessful in a combat roll, re-roll your dice and use whichever result is
higher when calculating the amount of Harm you suffer. (This does not harm your opponent
if your second result is higher than the attacker's. It just means that you take no damage from
their attack.)
Night: You can will your Essence banner to remain invisible.
When you make an effort to go unnoticed while your anima power is in effect, anyone
attempting to spot you must roll vs your Essence Die/2, at a 1-die penalty. This effect is in
addition to the effect of any concealment charms you activate. Furthermore, anyone who does
notice you will have to repeat the test in order to remember any of your distinguishing features
later.

Eclipse: You can sanctify an oath taken in front of you. If the oath-taker breaks his word, he
will automatically fail your Essence Die/2 dice rolls or experience the same number of bad-luck
incidents in the attempt.

Artifacts

When an artifact is used for its intended purpose, it raises your dice by one step per dot, at no
cost. For example, a battleaxe does not raise the character's dice when used to chop down
trees. It does raise their dice when used to smash through an opponent's shield. It might raise
when used to cut through a door GM's choice.
The number of dots of artifacts you attune cannot exceed your Essence Die. Eg. a D6 exalt can
attune 3 2-dot artifacts, or 2 3-dot artifacts or any combination that does not exceed 6 dots.

Limit

When acting against your virtue, roll a single D6 vs your Essence Die/2. If you match or beat
the target, the act has no consequences for you. If you fail, gain a point of Limit. The more
powerful you become, the more likely you are to gain limit by opposing your virtue.
If your Limit Die reaches 6, you limit break.

Advancement

When a character's Essence Die increases, the Harm Die gains in size to match. Limit stays a
D6. Solars don't become less likely to limit break as they gain in power.

Optional rules

Darxalted is a very light adaptation of Exalted, and keeping it simple enough for a pickup
session means glossing over or ignoring elements of the game which couldn't be represented
with simple mechanics. The following rules can add a bit more depth.

Charms
Creating charms:
If you don't want to spend time passing the manual around looking up lists of charms, you can
create them on the fly by adding keywords to caste skills. For example, you might have a charm
for Archery: Accuracy, another for Archery: Range and a third for Archery: Damage.
Dawn

Zenith

Twilight

Night

Eclipse

Archery
Martial arts
Melee
Thrown
War

Integrity
Performance
Presence
Resistance
Survival

Craft
Investigation
Lore
Medicine
Occult

Athletics
Awareness
Dodge
Larceny
Stealth

Bureaucracy
Linguistics
Ride
Sail
Socialise

Maintaining charm costs:

If you want to use charms from the manual and pay the associated costs rather than using the
free charms rule, calculate essence like this Essence-using mortals:
Essence pool = number of charms or spells known, or Essence Die x 2 (whichever is smaller)
Exalts:
Personal = Essence Die x 2
Peripheral = Essence Die x 3 + number of charms or spells known
Handling charms this way, the Essence Die is no longer how many motes a character's pool
holds, it's how much Essence a character can spend in one action. If you use this option, then
paying Essence to increase die size becomes the First Excellency charm. Multiply the figures
for regaining Essence by 5.

Carrying successes
If a character exceeds the target number on a roll, either return a point of Essence for each
multiple of the target, or award a free dice advancement on the next roll.
Likewise, a roll where the highest die shows half the target number or less can be treated as a
complicating failure.

Bonus and penalty dice

Rather than varying target numbers to take a character's circumstances into account, you can
add bonus or penalty conditions. If a character's situation gives them an advantage (they have
top-quality equipment, have taken the high ground in a sword fight, arriving re-enforcements
give them a morale boost), you can give them a free raise on the first die they roll when making
a test.
Alternatively, if visibility is bad, the character is overburdened, or there's a compelling
distraction, a penalty can be inflicted. The nature of a keep-highest system means than stepping
a die down makes very little difference mechanically, so a penalty can be applied by removing a
die from the pool or making the player discard the highest die from the roll.

Stunts as justification
If a player wants to take an action that pushes the boundaries of the rules, have them justify it

by being too cool to fail. "Can I use my banner effect to soak for the entire group?" "Yes, but
only if you describe it in a way that makes us believe you can."

Advancement
Advancing with XP:
Give each character 1 XP per session. New charms cost 2 XP each. Combos cost 2 XP per
charm included. Raising the Essence Die costs 1 XP per side on the new die.
Story-based advancement:
Each character should have a short-term goal, which can be accomplished in the space of two
or three sessions, and a medium-term goal which could realistically be reached in the time it
takes to play out a campaign arc. These goals can be related to what the characters are doing
in the game, or purely personal.
Each time a short-term goal is achieved, altered by circumstances, or becomes impossible, the
character has the opportunity to learn a new charm or combo. Each time a campaign goal is
reached, changed or becomes impossible the character's Essence Die increases.

If you try the ruleset, please drop me a line and let me know how it went.
chrisouteast@gmail.com