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Pretty much the first thing I plan on doing with Exalted 3e is to immediately rebuild the first campaign character I ever played in it, a Solar Twilight called Killroy. I played him in 1st Edition and I honestly don't remember all that many concrete details about him even though he's continued to show up played by the Storyteller in several different campaigns to date. I'm not sure how 3E is going to run, and I've been following designer statements with a pretty good amount of interest, but I'm largely just waiting for the release. I don't get much out of debating it online and I get even less out of speculation, so it's just as well. I want to like 3rd Edition and the money's been paid out for a really long time now, so it's easiest to assume they'll do an okay job and make a new, fun game with a new, fun rules set.
I never built the character in 2nd Ed, though. In fact, I realized I've never built or played a Solar Exalted character in 2nd Ed. "Weird." I thought. I wondered what he'd look like if I built him today, knowing what I know about how the system operates. For a bit of fun, I got started but realized that I didn't know what I expected from the character - when I was done, I'd have a character I could play - but would I build him like an NPC, or would I build him like a PC?
Most veteran players of White Wolf games across the board know that there's an experience point trap after initial character creation that seriously incentivices hyper-specialization at creation. I've talked at length about it in the distant past, but it's been a while, so I'll reprise; point costs for high-end abilities and especially the power stat in any given game are terrific and experience payouts for games are piddling as written or handed out kind of arbitrarily. Given the option to start with a two dot skill and a three dot skill, then buying dots 4 and 5 with in game exp. or starting with 0 and 5, then buying 1 and 2 for the less critical skill results (in this one instance) in a difference of 18 exp. (3 for dot 1, 6 for dot 2 - non-specialized, 12 for dot 4, 15 for dot 5, non-specialized skills - less of a gap for non-specialized/specialized or specialized/specialized, if that's an option, but you get the idea). If you're getting 4 exp a game, that's 5 games. That's real time you can't get back and your friends, who maybe already did figure that shit out or maybe just got lucky, are performing better, doing more fun things, and you literally can't ever catch up.
That's fundimentally poor design. It started as an accident, but continued to replicate itself through the gameline. Games that used Bonus Points at character creation are even worse.
When you create a pretty static NPC where you arbitraily assign dots as they grow (if you're the ST, nobody's really there to stop you), you might tend to build well-rounded characters or characters with abilities and powers that make sense to their role in the narrative. It makes perfect sense to start with 2/3 if they're not going to be the best. You don't really care what the point gap is. If you're a PC and you want to perform pretty well (because falling weeks behind - sometimes months if you've had the misfortune to make that mistake more than once across your character sheet), often times you'll acknowledge that it doesn't make perfect sense to start with several 5's on your sheet, and that you're lacking in some places where you really want more skills or powers and everyone understands that you'll just kind of, well, catch up. Grow into the character. Even better if the person running the game doesn't tend to make you roll some abilities and they just never come up - skip those, despite how you role-play your character.
There is a few fixes, though. One is doing away with assigned dots at character creation at all. Just give the player a bucket of experience points in every pool. Alternatively, assign flat costs for purchases - this is already the case for Charms in Exalted. The first power in a tree costs as much as the last. (I understand this might not be the case with 3E, but it's an example.) Look at general abilities, 3 to open, 3x current rating to buy the next rating. Add the cost of what it would be to purchase up to 5 (3+6+9+12+15)/5 = 9 per dot. Seems a little high, though. Drop it by a few points, then - not every skill will be bought to four or five but the few ranks that do, consider those whole skill lots purchased at something of a discount.
I feel this will create much more diverse characters at creation because people aren't really going to want to spend 7-9 points on a 1 or 2 dot skill, but don't feel bad about spending 7-9 on levels 3-5.
I never built the character in 2nd Ed, though. In fact, I realized I've never built or played a Solar Exalted character in 2nd Ed. "Weird." I thought. I wondered what he'd look like if I built him today, knowing what I know about how the system operates. For a bit of fun, I got started but realized that I didn't know what I expected from the character - when I was done, I'd have a character I could play - but would I build him like an NPC, or would I build him like a PC?
Most veteran players of White Wolf games across the board know that there's an experience point trap after initial character creation that seriously incentivices hyper-specialization at creation. I've talked at length about it in the distant past, but it's been a while, so I'll reprise; point costs for high-end abilities and especially the power stat in any given game are terrific and experience payouts for games are piddling as written or handed out kind of arbitrarily. Given the option to start with a two dot skill and a three dot skill, then buying dots 4 and 5 with in game exp. or starting with 0 and 5, then buying 1 and 2 for the less critical skill results (in this one instance) in a difference of 18 exp. (3 for dot 1, 6 for dot 2 - non-specialized, 12 for dot 4, 15 for dot 5, non-specialized skills - less of a gap for non-specialized/specialized or specialized/specialized, if that's an option, but you get the idea). If you're getting 4 exp a game, that's 5 games. That's real time you can't get back and your friends, who maybe already did figure that shit out or maybe just got lucky, are performing better, doing more fun things, and you literally can't ever catch up.
That's fundimentally poor design. It started as an accident, but continued to replicate itself through the gameline. Games that used Bonus Points at character creation are even worse.
When you create a pretty static NPC where you arbitraily assign dots as they grow (if you're the ST, nobody's really there to stop you), you might tend to build well-rounded characters or characters with abilities and powers that make sense to their role in the narrative. It makes perfect sense to start with 2/3 if they're not going to be the best. You don't really care what the point gap is. If you're a PC and you want to perform pretty well (because falling weeks behind - sometimes months if you've had the misfortune to make that mistake more than once across your character sheet), often times you'll acknowledge that it doesn't make perfect sense to start with several 5's on your sheet, and that you're lacking in some places where you really want more skills or powers and everyone understands that you'll just kind of, well, catch up. Grow into the character. Even better if the person running the game doesn't tend to make you roll some abilities and they just never come up - skip those, despite how you role-play your character.
There is a few fixes, though. One is doing away with assigned dots at character creation at all. Just give the player a bucket of experience points in every pool. Alternatively, assign flat costs for purchases - this is already the case for Charms in Exalted. The first power in a tree costs as much as the last. (I understand this might not be the case with 3E, but it's an example.) Look at general abilities, 3 to open, 3x current rating to buy the next rating. Add the cost of what it would be to purchase up to 5 (3+6+9+12+15)/5 = 9 per dot. Seems a little high, though. Drop it by a few points, then - not every skill will be bought to four or five but the few ranks that do, consider those whole skill lots purchased at something of a discount.
I feel this will create much more diverse characters at creation because people aren't really going to want to spend 7-9 points on a 1 or 2 dot skill, but don't feel bad about spending 7-9 on levels 3-5.