Widening Gyre: House Rules

Widening Gyre - Main Page

General Rules

• Be courteous one to another. Take your turns, and be patient. Also, have fun.
• No player killing unless it's a plot point (and both discussed with and approved of by both the DM and the player of the character in question). No exceptions.
• Training time works as follows: you put in the training time first, and then you are eligible to spend the XP. Training may take many forms, depending on the stat in question, and there are as many ways to train as you can think of. Raising your strength might be represented by long months of weight lifting, but it might also be represented by working for months as a miner, or engaging in some other long activity that requires strength. Raising your dexterity might involve months of doing nothing but learning how to juggle, or it could involve working as an acrobat or other circus performer for a few months, and so on. All that to say, there are many ways to justify raising attributes in character. Be creative. Obviously, it will be easier to justify raising attributes that your character makes extensive use of in his or her every day life, on screen and in character, as it requires less 'downtime.'

Limit Break

• The Great Curse works differently than in a standard game of Exalted. The DM believes that his players are fully capable of achieving previously unheard of heights of hubris and abuse of power without any need for a rules-enforced system to make them do so. Rather, the rules will *encourage* them to do so. Limit therefore works as follows: a player may choose for his or her character to act in a manner which plays into his or her expression of the Great Curse, and will gain bonus dice to his or her action in proportion to the severity of this act. Note that you are never required to invoke the Curse: you can commit any of these offenses without doing so. You as a player must CHOOSE to invoke it to gain any benefit.
• Dice gained via the deliberate invocation of limit stack with stunt bonuses (up to a maximum of six, with a three die stunt combining with an act of pure hubris), and offer the same potential benefits. Regardless of the severity of the offense, the act of invoking the Curse for your benefit raises your limit by one, with limit break functioning as normal at ten. On the other hand, those who consistently choose to take the high road will be rewarded at the end of each story arc (NOT chapter) with a significant xp reward. Choose, but choose wisely.

Specific offenses vary according to the Exalt's virtue flaw, but the general guidelines are as follows:

Minor Offenses

Minor offenses are worth one die. Examples of a minor offense include the following:

• Being a dirty old man who turns his perversion into extra dice (and moves him towards limit break).
• Being deliberately cruel to others in order to gain an advantage over them.
• Letting your wrath guide your tongue rather than your good sense.

Significant Offenses

Significant offenses are worth two dice. Examples of significant offenses include the following:

• Being so outraged by an act of cruelty that you murder the perpetrator on the spot, regardless of the potential consequences
• "I beat up my own sister in order to get my hands on the armor of Mars."
• Releasing your hatred to cut off your dad's hand with a lightsaber.

Acts of Pure Hubris

Acts of pure hubris are worth three dice. The first time you engage in an act of pure hubris during a game session, you may choose to either receive the normal motes/willpower reward, OR you may choose to gain a single bonus experience point. Examples of acts of pure hubris include the following:

• "I let my wrath at a personal snub nearly thwart my country's entire war effort and almost give the victory at Troy to the Trojans."
• "I use my satellites to nuke half your corporation off the map so you'll give me what I want."
• "I cast aside the heart-broken clone of my daughter (who shares my daughter's memories) that I've been using to accomplish my goals as so much trash in the face of my potential victory and my actual daughter's potential resurrection.
• "A couple of friends and I get together to steal the secrets of Oblivion from the slumbering Neverborn."
• "I stab my true love through the heart in order to break through that damn solar's defense and hopefully win this fight."

Ox Body House Rule

• You may no longer buy Ox Body Technique as a charm. The charm itself does not exist as such. If you possess the charm, you are refunded the BP and/or XP you spent on it. You may re-spend that XP or BP immediately, ignoring training times. Everyone with an Essence rating above 1 now gets a number of 'Ox Body Techniques' equal to their Essence rating as a natural side-effect of their Exalted status.

Skill Related Rules

• 'High Realm' and 'Low Realm' work differently than they do in the base setting. Rather than being two separate languages, they are within this game two dialects of the same language.

Abyssal Rules

• The Abyssal Charm, 'Void Avatar Prana' does not exist.

Lunar Rules

• The Lunar knack, 'Twin-Faced Hero' does not exist. Its effects are fully subsumed into the 'Changing Plumage Mastery' knack: if you have 'Changing Plumage Mastery,' you can do anything that 'Twin-Faced Hero' would have otherwise let you do.