![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Exalted : Conceptual Space Martial Arts (And Inevitable Sidereal Technique)
A lot of this talking may eventually roll over to a place like RPG.net for the wider public's opinion, when it's coherent enough. The mechanical posts - the stuff about Martial Arts or Crafts as a Merit (and Crafts isn't something I've totally hashed out yet) is likely stuff we're going to see modified in 3 because they've been problems forever. I try to take it one segment or concept at a time, but obviously those segments are even smaller then just "Martial Arts" or "abilities as Merits".
I can't get over what a problem Martial Arts causes for the game line, and when it comes right down to it, maybe it should have been excised. I mean, we've got Burn Legend, now, if we want it. Weapon of the Gods kind of does this, or so I hear. I think we're stuck with it, for better or worse, though. And it is fun. So, if we've got it as a merit or we don't, I still think the following is relevant. I think the tricks are twofold - make martial arts styles mechanically coherent and make everything else as fun as martial arts.
As far as coherency goes, I think the mechanical breakdown kind of looks like most skills have Charm trees for splats that are skill based. So, Brawl for Martial Arts. Craft (Primary Element), Lore (for Occult, which I don't think I've talked about here). Brent and I talked about Craft for kind of a long time, and my opinion is really that many things can be broken down by relevant skill - people good at Melee can make swords, for example. People good at Archery can make bows. But too much is left ungoverned by that. I think it's up in the air about how to divide Crafting, but I honestly like the primary elements. I guess maybe I'll talk more about that later.
Martial Arts creates a conceptual problem - namely, why does the Brawl tree of all things get such an exceptional number of trees cross-splat when other viable and entertaining styles like Melee or Archery don't? Why is it acceptable for someone to blow their Charms up to the Form to get a ranged attack without buying Archery or Thrown? (And, to be fair, the errata works to curb this approach, but nothing stops most people from just being miserable until they understand the Form Charm and suddenly being amazing.) Canon Exalted basically describes it as being the master project of Sidereals, who couldn't expand their own Charm trees except for Martial Arts and that things that are not normally affected by Fate are still susceptible to being repeatedly punched. I wanted to flesh that out, some.
The splats the gain the most from martial arts as a separate ability are probably the Dragon Blooded and the Sidereals. For the DBs, they're a chance to punch above their weight class, and their an expansion on their relatively narrow scope. For DBs, then, they're something of a hack. That goes doubly so for the Sidereals. The Maidens, for whatever reason, supposedly shut down the Sidereal ability to make custom Charms. All they get are what the Incarna built for them. Now, personally, I think that may be a combination of propaganda (the Maidens don't particularly want new Charms running around in their servants) and that it's legitimately difficult to build a Sidereal Charm for whatever reason. Let's just say that it's difficult enough that by the time most Sidereals realize they could, there's not much reason that they would. In any case, new astrology effects and Charms are difficult enough to be not present in the setting except for PCs.
When the Salinian Working went big, the Sidereals realized that they might have had an easy out instead of a really difficult path. By working that same Solar Charm, people might be able to learn new martial styles by observing nature as well. That would explain all of the animal styles at the Celestial level and all of the conceptual styles at the Supern- ahem. The Sidereal level. Lunars are already almost infinitely flexible, Solars already have fairly straightforward but incredibly potent abilities, but Sidereals are more or less left at Essence 5. Martial Arts were their hax - how to get above Essence 5 effect without resulting to potent, willpower-destroying astronomy effects or trying to get an Incarna to sign off on new powers. They neatly sidestepped that problem by making Martial Arts 'for everyone'. I'm sure the Maidens were as chagrined as they were impressed. Well, if they were, nobody could tell. It was possibly all according to their plan - by building a dam across the path to easy power, they've widened the abilities available to everyone by engaging with Creation itself. Who knows, though.
Writers have been hinting all along that there were other works besides the Salinian Working that were done, and it sets itself up neatly enough, so I wonder if this is already canon. If it is, though, I haven't read it. In any case, it explains why MA exists on as broad a scope as it does - if a Sidereal of relatively young age wants to build themselves some new abilities, they decide what they need, go find something in Creation that mimics those capacities, and builds themselves a martial art as a roundabout, martial way of getting it. And, in a larger way, it expands the role of the Chosen as warriors - the Exalted were always basically just designed to be super weapons, and they don't go away. It's no surprise that one of the capacities that is built for them by their concentration on Creation is primarily an exotic way to murder the hell out of things and driven by punching people.
I can't get over what a problem Martial Arts causes for the game line, and when it comes right down to it, maybe it should have been excised. I mean, we've got Burn Legend, now, if we want it. Weapon of the Gods kind of does this, or so I hear. I think we're stuck with it, for better or worse, though. And it is fun. So, if we've got it as a merit or we don't, I still think the following is relevant. I think the tricks are twofold - make martial arts styles mechanically coherent and make everything else as fun as martial arts.
As far as coherency goes, I think the mechanical breakdown kind of looks like most skills have Charm trees for splats that are skill based. So, Brawl for Martial Arts. Craft (Primary Element), Lore (for Occult, which I don't think I've talked about here). Brent and I talked about Craft for kind of a long time, and my opinion is really that many things can be broken down by relevant skill - people good at Melee can make swords, for example. People good at Archery can make bows. But too much is left ungoverned by that. I think it's up in the air about how to divide Crafting, but I honestly like the primary elements. I guess maybe I'll talk more about that later.
Martial Arts creates a conceptual problem - namely, why does the Brawl tree of all things get such an exceptional number of trees cross-splat when other viable and entertaining styles like Melee or Archery don't? Why is it acceptable for someone to blow their Charms up to the Form to get a ranged attack without buying Archery or Thrown? (And, to be fair, the errata works to curb this approach, but nothing stops most people from just being miserable until they understand the Form Charm and suddenly being amazing.) Canon Exalted basically describes it as being the master project of Sidereals, who couldn't expand their own Charm trees except for Martial Arts and that things that are not normally affected by Fate are still susceptible to being repeatedly punched. I wanted to flesh that out, some.
The splats the gain the most from martial arts as a separate ability are probably the Dragon Blooded and the Sidereals. For the DBs, they're a chance to punch above their weight class, and their an expansion on their relatively narrow scope. For DBs, then, they're something of a hack. That goes doubly so for the Sidereals. The Maidens, for whatever reason, supposedly shut down the Sidereal ability to make custom Charms. All they get are what the Incarna built for them. Now, personally, I think that may be a combination of propaganda (the Maidens don't particularly want new Charms running around in their servants) and that it's legitimately difficult to build a Sidereal Charm for whatever reason. Let's just say that it's difficult enough that by the time most Sidereals realize they could, there's not much reason that they would. In any case, new astrology effects and Charms are difficult enough to be not present in the setting except for PCs.
When the Salinian Working went big, the Sidereals realized that they might have had an easy out instead of a really difficult path. By working that same Solar Charm, people might be able to learn new martial styles by observing nature as well. That would explain all of the animal styles at the Celestial level and all of the conceptual styles at the Supern- ahem. The Sidereal level. Lunars are already almost infinitely flexible, Solars already have fairly straightforward but incredibly potent abilities, but Sidereals are more or less left at Essence 5. Martial Arts were their hax - how to get above Essence 5 effect without resulting to potent, willpower-destroying astronomy effects or trying to get an Incarna to sign off on new powers. They neatly sidestepped that problem by making Martial Arts 'for everyone'. I'm sure the Maidens were as chagrined as they were impressed. Well, if they were, nobody could tell. It was possibly all according to their plan - by building a dam across the path to easy power, they've widened the abilities available to everyone by engaging with Creation itself. Who knows, though.
Writers have been hinting all along that there were other works besides the Salinian Working that were done, and it sets itself up neatly enough, so I wonder if this is already canon. If it is, though, I haven't read it. In any case, it explains why MA exists on as broad a scope as it does - if a Sidereal of relatively young age wants to build themselves some new abilities, they decide what they need, go find something in Creation that mimics those capacities, and builds themselves a martial art as a roundabout, martial way of getting it. And, in a larger way, it expands the role of the Chosen as warriors - the Exalted were always basically just designed to be super weapons, and they don't go away. It's no surprise that one of the capacities that is built for them by their concentration on Creation is primarily an exotic way to murder the hell out of things and driven by punching people.