Presenting a video overview of Cadwallon: City of Thieves

Welcome to Cadwallon, a city of vagabonds and outlaws of every kind. The Duke and his brave militia struggle to maintain order, but it is the mighty guilds and wealthy merchants who rule the city... and the most feared of these is the shadowy Guild of Thieves...

Cadwallon is a wondrous city, full of adventure and...

Charles Roberts, the founder of the Avalon Hill gaming company, died on Aug. 20 at the age of 80 from complications of emphysema and pneumonia . Roberts was a Baltimore native, so the Baltimore Sun has a full story on his life and his passing.

Blood of Martyrs, a supplement for Dark Heresy, is coming this fall

The light of the God-Emperor stands between humanity and destruction. Against myriad enemies, the Ecclesiarchy defends the faith with bolt, chain, and flame.

Blood of Martyrs, a supplement for Dark Heresy first...

Announcing the Bearded Brave expansion for BattleLore

The first large contingent of Dwarves came to France in late autumn of the year 1419. Supplemented from time to time with volunteers, these troops became an integral part of the French army and the war against the English. By 1420, the “Army of Scotland” was a distinct force in the French royal...

The Emperor Protects, an adventure for Deathwatch, is coming soon

The Emperor Protects, an adventure book for the Deathwatch roleplaying game, is coming this fall!

On the savage Feral World of Aurum, a proud colony of warriors resists the pull of the Imperium, and their assistance is vital in...

A Call of Cthulhu Card of the Week by guest writer Marius Hartland

After the first shock of the certain revelation, we had to pause a while to recuperate, and it was fully three o'clock before we got started on our actual tour of systematic research. The sculptures in the building we entered were of relatively late date - perhaps two million years ago-as checked up by geological, biological, and astronomical...

Here are comics published by Dark Horse scheduled to ship during November 2010. See More

Here are comics published by DC scheduled to ship during November 2010. See More

Here are comics published by IDW scheduled to ship during November 2010. See More

Here are comics published by Image scheduled to ship during November 2010. See More

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Malyanna has worked in secret, killing and researching in pursuit of the Key of Stars.

Check out this month's cover. Can you say, "Larry Elmore?" I knew you could.

What if there was a book like Home Fun for wannabe wizards? Thus: How to Trap a a Zombie...

Curses are a traditional element of fantasy, and they can shape the fate of heroes.

From schoolgirls to horrific circus troupes to secret forces serving mankind - these are the things today's new reviews are made of.

The Dragon Age RPG Set 1 was enthusiastically received. Old hands and new tabletop roleplayers leapt at the chance to tell exciting stories of their own in Thedas.

We at Green Ronin hoped to follow Set 1, which covers PC levels 1-5, with the speedy release of Set 2, containing rules for heroes of level 6-10. We're sorry that Set 2 is not out yet, because we know that many Dragon Age players have hit level 5 and are anxiously waiting for the rules that will take them further.

If we could publish Set 2 tomorrow, we'd do it. Because we can't, we're going to do what we hope is the next best thing. In mid-September, we're going to open a public beta test of most of the game-mechanical aspects of Set 2, including rules for advancing Player Characters through levels 6-10.

We hope to kill two birds with one stone, giving the Dragon Age RPG's fans the chance to resume their campaigns right away while also strengthening the Set 2 rules with the whole Internet's playtest notes.

When they're ready, the free beta playtest materials will be available at greenronin.com. Anyone who wants to download them will be able to. More details about how to submit your playtest reports—if you choose to do so—will be posted along with the playtest package.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to the fans who've adventured in Thedas since Set 1 came out, who've told us how much they like the game, and who've patiently awaited Set 2.

We'll see you on the forums!

Robots, Vampires and Catholic High School!

Dragona Lore Smith tries to keep his secret. He also tries to keep his friends.

As he makes one small mistake after another, his world starts to unravel.

Originally four 20-page issues, Lore #9-12 have been reprinted in the form of two 40-page comics. DriveThruComics.com now has electronic versions in watermarked PDF format. These digital editions present Lore at 200dpi — nearly twice the resolution of the free web comic.

Readers can instantly download the 13MB files for $0.99 each.

"Unearthed Arcana" returns! It's our way of bringing you something completely different.

Looking to spread your gaming knowledge, or just tell some stories that might help other gamers? We might have need of you. Send your column pitch to us at columns (at) RPG (dot) net, and you could end up joining the ranks of RPGnet's columnists.

Flames Rising has a sneak peek at the upcoming Munchkin Zombies game from Steve Jackson Games:

First Look at Munchkin Zombies

Included in this preview is a playtest card drawn by artist John Kovalic.

Flames Rising
Horror & Dark Fantasy Webzine
www.flamesrising.com

And here's the second and final part. The rest of the Dawn Solution will be contained in the next Scroll of Errata update, where you get your shiny new anima power.

—John Mørke
—Holden Shearer

Resistance

Charm Concept: Overdrive

Overdrive Charms which have a mote-regain limit imposed in the Charm's text expand this cap to meet the total size of the character's Overdrive pool based on their collective Overdrive Charms, up to a cap of 25 motes. For example, a character with a 25-mote collective Overdrive pool may use Essence-Gathering Temper to stock 25 motes in this pool, even though Essence-Gathering Temper itself only produces a ten-mote Overdrive pool. The same is true of Certain Victory Formulation and other Overdrive Charms.

Essence-Gathering Temper

Cost: —; Mins: Resistance 1, Essence 1; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Dawn, Native, Overdrive

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: None

The more terrible the enemies and adversities they face, the greater the power of a Solar’s spirit. This Charm grants the character an additional ten-mote peripheral Essence pool in accordance with the Overdrive Keyword. Whenever the Lawgiver is injured, she gains motes which are used to refill this pool: one mote for being struck by an attack without taking damage, two motes per point of bashing damage, or three motes per point of lethal or aggravated damage suffered.

Essence-Gathering Temper will only provide motes when the Solar is injured against her will; she may no more order a bound demon to assault her in order to obtain motes than she may gain them from stabbing herself. Health lost in order to pay the activation cost of a Charm likewise never produces motes.

At Essence 3+ the Solar may also refill her Overdrive pool when she perceives her allies being injured, at the same rate as though she were taking damage herself. In order to gain motes in this fashion, the Solar must directly perceive the character being injured at the moment the injury occurs, and must have a positive Intimacy toward that individual (the character’s Lunar mate also always qualifies). Finally, the injuries may not be self-inflicted, as outlined above, and may not be inflicted by the Solar herself.

On Essence-Gathering Temper

    “Due to uncertainty about when the Scroll of Errata will be updated next, this forms a particular exception to the policy of not doing errata on Ink Monkeys. As you can see, Essence-Gathering Temper is a whole new Charm. EGT is one of the most important Charms I ever designed. I came up with the concept for it in the wake of Dreams of the First Age, after designing the Ruin-Abasing Shrug + Rising Sun Renewal + Inner Fire Unleashed build. I knew that Essence-Gathering Temper would need a nerf, and early suggestions from trusted sources strongly urged me to limit EGT to a single mote kickback in the form of a Permanent Charm. Knowing the history of EGT and its importance to players, such a huge regression just did not feel right to me, so I began to look for alternate ways to make Essence-Gathering Temper shine. I wanted to avoid the defensive mote slog, encourage offense, and increase the use of Supplemental attack Charms, and these imperatives all seemed to fall right in line with the thematic of getting really pissed off when someone hits you. As a particular bonus, I also decided that a Solar should feel this empowering rage when he sees someone he cares for come under attack. Thus the mechanic of temporary offensive motes was born. From it sprang the Overdrive Keyword and a number of great new Charms.” —Ø

Unabating Fury Focus

Cost: —; Mins: Resistance 3, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Native

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Essence-Gathering Temper

The righteous ardor of the Solar Exalted drives them to the ends of the world in pursuit of their enemies. Unabating Fury Focus ensures the Lawgiver’s potency is not diminished by the chase. This Charm permanently enhances the character, allowing him to retain offensive motes stored in his Overdrive pool until he sleeps.

Surging Essence Reactor

Cost: —; Mins: Resistance 5, Essence 4; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Native

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Essence-Gathering Temper

Like the sun they emulate, the Solar Exalted draw unlimited power by their very existence. This Charm creates an interaction between all Charms possessing the keywords Overdrive and Reactor. A character who has Surging Essence Reactor as well as Overdrive and Reactor Charms gains the following benefits: whenever the character generates more than twenty motes by use of a Reactor effect, the overflow motes go instantly into the character’s Overdrive mote pool; additionally, if the Solar’s regular mote pools are full upon using a Reactor effect, overflow motes go into her Overdrive mote pool.

Martial Arts

Break the Storm

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Knockout Blow

A Solar’s intercepting fist may even split a bolt of lightning. By paying five motes, the Solar may interrupt an attack made against him with one of his own. This Charm must be activated in step 2. The character rolls a standard unarmed Martial Arts counterattack in Step 6, subtracting her successes from any remaining successes the attacker may have accumulated after comparing his attack to the Solar’s DV. If this reduces the attacker’s strike to 0 successes, the attack misses. The Solar then applies the rolled counterattack to her opponent in Step 9, doing damage as normal if it lands successfully. This counterattack may be used to respond to lethal and ranged attacks, but may not strike an opponent who is out of range, nor may it be used to respond to an unblockable or unexpected attack. An attack negated with this Charm is considered to have been stopped by the Solar’s Parry DV.

On Break the Storm

    “Expanding Solar Hero to encompass more than just brawl concepts begins by giving the style a riff on the greatest martial artist of our time. The intercepting fist seen here will also be repeated in the errata of Crimson Palm Counterstrike, which will subsequently be moved to Throne Shadow Style in the future, along with the other refugees from Sidereal Brawl.” —Ø

Chained Thunder Strike

Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Break the Storm

Even in chains a Solar may bring an enemy to his knees. This Charm is identical to Break the Storm, but for the following exceptions: the character may only activate this Charm when he is in a clinch he does not control; this attack is unexpected, and may only be made against opponents who are attempting to attack the Lawgiver while he is being grappled. This Charm guarantees the primacy of this strike; even if all his limbs are bound, the Solar will get a limb momentarily free, or otherwise land a crushing headbutt. This attack does not allow him to escape the clinch; he remains under the control of the clinching opponent until he can win control of the grapple. This Charm has a special interaction with Heaven Thunder Hammer. If the target uses a perfect soak effect to block the damage from a combo in which Chained Thunder Strike and Heaven Thunder Hammer have been triggered simultaneously, the force of the Solar’s attack is redirected back through his body at the opponent who is holding him, applying its raw damage to the controlling clincher. If this unexpected attack does damage, both the Lawgiver and the foe clinching him are hurled backwards per the effects of Heaven Thunder Hammer. If they collide with a solid surface, only the Solar’s opponent takes any damage from the collision. Chained Thunder Strike is incompatible with Lightning Strikes Twice.

Stunning Deathblow Evasion

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: One action

Prerequisite Charms: Dragon Coil Technique

As the Yozis well know, the Lawgivers have a way of turning certain death into a crushing victory. When in a clinch, the Solar may use this Charm in response to an attack being made against her from outside the grapple. Doing so forces the clinching opponent to suffer all incoming attacks for the rest of the action as though those attacks had been directed at him. This Charm may manifest in a number of ways: the Lawgiver is seen to twist out of the path of a daiklave at the last instant, causing it to shear through her captor; the Exalt exerts superior leverage to drag her opponent into a volley of arrows, using him as a shield. In any case, the Solar clearly demonstrates to her foes why they should not touch what they cannot hold.

If used in response to an area-of-effect attack encompassing the Solar and the one grappling her, such as Death of Obsidian Butterflies or a supernatural ice storm, the Solar reduces the effect’s raw damage by half (round up) and adds this amount to the raw damage inflicted on the character clinching her.

This Charm offers no benefits if the Solar is not in a clinch.

Titan-Straightening Method

Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Dragon Coil Technique

To be caught in the grip of an enraged Solar is a terrifying prospect, for their mighty hands may rend even the makers of the universe. The Solar may activate this Charm to enhance a crush action when she has control of a clinch. No matter how large the opponent, the Lawgiver’s strain pulls her foe into the air over her head, where she may shake it violently, causing its bones, organs, limbs—or souls—to smash together, colliding repeatedly as the Solar thrashes her victim like a ragdoll. The Solar re-applies steps 7-10 of attack resolution (Essence + 1) times, repeatedly damaging her victim.

If the target is warstrider-sized or larger, double the raw damage from these attacks. If the target is a landscape-scale or larger (such as Mount Mostath), multiply the raw damage by five. Used against such enormous targets, the Charm becomes Obvious.

On Titan-Straightening Method

    “Wring that non-Euclidean nonsense of a Yozi into a less incomprehensible shape.” —Ø

Teahouse-Shattering Symphony

Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 3; Type: Extra Action

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Hammer on Iron Technique

To provoke the ire of a Lawgiver is to bring down the thunder. Upon paying the activation cost of this Charm, the Solar may make up to (Dexterity x 2) attacks against a single opponent or (Dexterity / 2, round up) attacks against all opponents within (Dexterity) yards, contingent on the following factors: the Solar must make each attack with a different improvised weapon; the Solar  seizes and swings a different object with each attack; each improvised weapon may not be reused during the tick these attacks occur on; the Solar may only use objects within (Dexterity) yards; and only objects the Storyteller deems the Solar can lift and swing may be employed. Upon a successful hit, every character struck with this Charm must roll (Dexterity + Athletics) at difficulty 2 or suffer knockdown. In addition, suitably large objects (such as banquet hall tables, wooden beams, or temple pillars, subject to the Storyteller’s discretion) may be used to strike all opponents within (Dexterity) yards, even when the character has chosen only one target for this Charm; if he has chosen multiple targets, this attack does not reduce the number of attacks he may make against each target singly. Lastly, if the Storyteller deems there are no objects for the Solar to wield, this Charm may not be used, and if the Solar runs out of appropriate props to attack with, the Charm ends prematurely. All objects wielded with this Charm are considered to have accuracy +1 in spite of their improvised status. The first unwitting victim of this Charm was a Lunar stalker who offended a Solar in an emporium of musical instruments.

On Teahouse-Shattering Symphony

    “This Charm has been sitting in my notes for almost a year now. Mostly it was just the line about the Solar, the Lunar, and the music emporium. Don’t cry, Inugami—the Lunar got a date with her eventually.” —Ø

Shadow Foot Trap

Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Martial, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Dragon Coil Technique

Before the Solar Exalted, light could only chase shadow; due to the Lawgivers, it may capture it as well. This Charm may enhance a Martial Arts attack. The character lashes out at his target’s shadow, pinning it to the ground, a wall, a tree or other immobile scenery; this attack is unblockable and undodgeable without the use of magic. When pinned in such a way, the victim is trapped within a yard of his shadow until he is able to pull it free, a feat requiring a miscellaneous (Strength + Athletics) roll at a difficulty of the Solar’s (Martial Arts rating x 2). The successes gained on multiple attempts to pull free are added together cumulatively, but the target may make only one such attempt per action. While rooted, the target may not be moved by knockback effects; if knocked back, such as by Heaven Thunder Hammer, the target is considered to strike a hard surface after traveling only one yard.

Martial: Archery, Melee, Thrown

On Shadow Foot Trap

    “You might think that this Charm is manifestly better with Archery and Thrown, and you’d be right, but then you’d still be thinking like a non-Dawn. A Dawn would pin his opponent’s shadow with a dirk and then run up and hit him with a combo of the Hammer on Iron Technique and Heaven Thunder Hammer. As of the errata, HTH has a special interaction with Shadow Foot Trap that will blow you away.” —Ø

Dome-Shattering Smite

Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: None

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Heaven Thunder Hammer

The Solar’s might is such as to knock a star from the sky or place one into orbit. This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite, adding an additional (Essence x 5) yards to the distance a target can be launched on a successful hit, as well as allowing the character to use Heaven Thunder Hammer to launch a foe straight up. The rules for targets impacting with solid objects as a result of this Charm remain otherwise unchanged, though it is worth noting that what goes up must come down; it is entirely possible an opponent might be smashed into a high ceiling and then have to contend with falling damage.

On Dome-Shattering Smite

    “Though I sketched concepts for dozens of Charms, this is the first I ever tried to write. Seems pretty sad that I needed Holden’s advice on how it should work, given how simple it is. I’ve come a long way since then.” —Ø

Lightning Strikes Twice

Cost: — (2m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 4; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Martial, Native, Obvious

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Dome-Shattering Smite

This Charm offers a permanent upgrade to Heaven Thunder Hammer and Crashing Wave Throw. On a successful knockback or throw using either of those Charms, while the target is still hurtling towards its doom but before they have collided with a solid object, the Solar may pay two motes and one Willpower, activating Lightning Strikes Twice to make a second attack against his opponent. Doing so cancels the collision effect of those Charms, but allows the Solar to make an unexpected attack against the target, taking advantage of its helpless flight. The Solar flashes instantly across the distance from the ground to his hurtling foe, appearing alongside his opponent to make this attack, automatically intercepting his target on the last instant before any collision with scenery or natural termination of the target’s flight could possibly occur. When using Archery or Thrown to make this unexpected attack, the Solar need not personally follow the target. Instead, his ranged attack flashes into position beside the target before completing the attack, ignoring the weapon’s Range value. Lightning Strikes Twice may not be triggered more than once on a single tick against a single target.

Martial: Archery, Melee, Thrown

On Lightning Strikes Twice

    “This is the first Charm I wrote without any assistance. I drew on my history as a fighting gamer for the inspiration for this Charm. It and the Charms which follow allow you to pull off an aerial rave. This is the first Charm technology of its kind in Exalted, and I think it will be important for future Charm design. I call this technology a Jeopardy Offense because if you get hit by the first Charm you may have to contend with the effects of a second more dangerous attack.” —Ø

Split the Chase

Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Native, Obvious

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Lightning Strikes Twice

This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite. Upon an activation of Lightning Strikes Twice, the Solar’s Charm use for that action is reset. That is, he still makes an unexpected attack, but he may choose to activate a new Charm or Combo to enhance that unexpected attack in order to further devastate his target. Split the Chase also expressly allows the Solar to activate Lightning Strikes Twice a second time against a single target on a single tick, provided he uses the chase effect of Lightning Strikes Twice to make a second Martial Arts attack, as opposed to an attack using another combat Ability. Split the Chase may not be triggered more than one time on a single tick against a single target.

Flicker-Fade Recursion

Cost: — (+2m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Native, Obvious

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Split the Chase

Save for its activation cost, this Charm is identical to Split the Chase, permitting the Solar to  pay two motes to reset his Charm use again during his second Lightning Strikes Twice, and follow it up with a third Lightning Strikes Twice if Martial Arts is used to make an unexpected attack. Flicker-Fade Recursion may not be triggered more than one time on a single tick against a single target.

On Flicker-Fade Recursion

    “Heaven Thunder Hammer is my favorite Charm in the whole corebook. It’s now also the number one Charm you do not want to let a Solar hit you with.” —H

Solar Combination

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Extra Action

Keywords: Combo-OK, Stackable

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Hammer on Iron Technique

Moving with incomparable speed, the Solar may snap out multiple strikes in a single motion, defying all notions of having any peer. Though Solar Combination is an Extra Action Charm, the Solar makes only a single Martial Arts attack roll. On a successful strike, the Solar is seen to strike his foe (Essence) times. For each of these blows, the target suffers a -1 internal penalty until the Solar's next action. This attack ignores armor and natural soak, but may be soaked with magic. While the target only takes damage from a single attack roll, any Charms used in conjunction with Solar Combination which cause stunning (see Exalted, p. 153) have their effects applied to each strike incurred by this Charm. The character pays the activation cost of such Charms only once to benefit from Solar Combination's modifier, as if they were applying it to a single attack, rather than an Extra Action effect. At Essence 7+ Solar Combination may be used as a Supplemental Charm.

Hewer-Sharpened Fist

Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK, Martial-ready, Mirror (Agony’s Crucible Strike)

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Fists of Iron Technique

The idea that he can be harmed exhilarates the Solar Hero, honing his attacks with renewed will to win. This Charm may enhance a Martial Arts attack, adding the Solar’s current wound penalty in dice to the attack’s Accuracy rating. This bonus does not count as dice added by a Charm. If Solar Hero Form is active, Hewer-Sharpened Fist does not count as a Charm activation.

Martial-ready: Archery, Melee, Thrown.

New Abyssal Charm: Agony’s Crucible Strike (Prerequisite: Ravaging Blow). The Abyssal Exalted are eager to share their agony with the world. This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart.

Bloodied King Rebuke

Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK, Martial-ready, Mirror (Ragged Shade’s Revenge)

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Hewer-Sharpened Fist

The idea that he might actually die invigorates the Solar Hero, turning his fading life into renewed strength with which to strike down his enemies. This Charm supplements a Martial Arts attack, adding twice the Solar’s current wound penalty to the attack’s raw damage. If Solar Hero Form is active, Bloodied King Rebuke does not count as a Charm activation.

Martial-ready: Archery, Melee, Thrown.

New Abyssal Charm: Ragged Shade’s Revenge (Prerequisite: Agony’s Crucible Strike). A deathknight who remembers the pain of life is most suited to inflict it on others. This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart.

Hero’s Fatal Resolve

Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Native, Overdrive

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Solar Hero Form

The Solar Hero’s lot is to stand against the forces of evil. All of them. Often a Solar cannot pick where or when these battles must be fought. This Charm creates a new Essence pool capable of storing up to ten motes of Peripheral Essence for the Solar, in accordance with the Overdrive Keyword. Whenever an opponent rolls Join Battle, the Solar experiences a surge of adrenaline which adds a number of motes equal to (half the opponent’s Essence, rounded up) to this temporary pool.

On Hero’s Fatal Resolve

    “I wrote the idea and a few lines of the description for this Charm a good eight or so months ago. Back then I hadn’t invented Overdrive yet, so this Charm was going to just give you regular motes. Because we have enough Reactor Charms, I was going to leave this one in my notes forever. After I came up with the new design for Essence-Gathering Temper, I got interested in HFR again, and retooled it to match the new EGT. Once I realized the technology from EGT was viable design space, it began to make its way into more Charm concepts, warranting the invention of the Overdrive Keyword. In an odd twist, I almost forgot to put the Keyword on this Charm, as it was the first of the bunch to be written, but its invention predated Overdrive’s codification into the Dawn Solution.” —Ø

One With the Wave

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Crashing Wave Throw

In a moment of pristine stillness, the Solar’s inner eye opens. Caught between calm and storm, she becomes the channel through which all forces flow, and that which would tear her asunder is cast aside. When the character is struck by a close-range attack, she may activate this Charm to make an unarmed Martial Arts counterattack against her opponent—specifically, a clinch attempt. If successful, the Lawgiver melds the course of her opponent’s attack into a throw to the ground or a solid surface within up to (Martial Arts x 5) yards, inflicting the pre-soak damage of the attack which triggered this Charm upon the unlucky opponent.

Alternately, the Lawgiver may choose to hurl her victim at another foe within range of the throw. This is modeled as a second (Dexterity + Martial Arts) attack with a base damage equal to the raw damage of the attack which triggered One With the Wave.

At Essence 4+, the Solar may use One With the Wave to respond to successful ranged attacks using physical projectiles. In this case she appears to be scathed by the missile, curling along the angle of the shot to pluck it from the air and whip it back at her opponent. This (Dexterity + Martial Arts) counterattack has a range of the Solar’s line of sight and a base damage equal to the attack’s raw damage against her. At Essence 5+, the Solar may use One With the Wave to answer energy-based attacks, channeling them directly through her body and back at her enemies.

Daunting the False Savior

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: One action

Prerequisite Charms: Solar Hero Form

Solars of the Dawn Caste are the greatest of all warriors, capable of feeling the truth of a foe’s conviction in the spirit of his attacks. A hand that lies has no strength over the Lawgiver, and only the truest salvos may strike the Solar Hero. A character activating this Charm modifies his opponent’s attacks. For one action, all attacks against the Exalt suffer an internal penalty equal to the difference between the Ability being used and the lowest of the attacker’s Archery, Martial Arts, Melee and Thrown ratings. Daunting the False Savior must be activated while the character is using a Form-type Charm and may expressly enhance any Form-type Charm the character knows. The Sidereal Exalted employ an identical Charm called Eyes Toward an Ending, whose prerequisite is Throne Shadow Form.

Sun-Suffusing Slag

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Martial, Obvious, Stackable

Duration: One action

Prerequisite Charms: Solar Hero Form

It is within the skill of the Solar Exalted to sear the souls of their lessers with a taste of true power. Those so enlightened are rarely ever the same again. This Charm supplements all Martial Arts attacks the Solar makes while it is active. On a successful strike, the character’s anima irradiates the target, suffusing her Essence pathways with a constricting flow of overwhelming Solar Essence. Every time the target is struck with this Charm, the activation cost of her next Charm rises by two motes to a maximum surcharge of the Solar’s Essence rating. In addition, the next Charm with a Flaw of Invulnerability that the target wishes to activate costs an additional one Willpower. If two or more Solars strike the same target with Sun-Suffusing Slag, the mote surcharge on her Charms may only be increased to the rating of the highest-Essence Solar to strike her; individual lower-Essence Solars may not exceed their own Essence maximums for the purpose of stacking this surcharge. Furthermore, the Willpower surcharge to Charms possessing a Flaw of Invulnerability incurred by this Charm is never stackable. Exalts other than Solar Exalted who are continually struck with Sun-Suffusing Slag begin to exhibit Solar anima bleeding through their own anima displays as they continue to expend Essence in order to expel the Solar’s irradiating influence.

Martial: Archery, Melee, Thrown

On Sun-Suffusing Slag

    “I wrote this Charm while working on Dreams. I had just codified the Martial and Martial-ready Keywords. As such, this was the first Charm to receive the Martial Keyword. For that precise reason it did not make it into Dreams of the First Age; it would have taken up too much space to explain the Keyword, and would have tipped my hand on the Dawn Solution.” —Ø

World-Rupturing Blow

Cost: — (1m per yard); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Obvious

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Heaven Thunder Hammer

The Solar’s might is like a black hole, having gravity sufficient to crush worlds with his fist. This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite. On a successful strike with Heaven Thunder Hammer, the character may choose to spend up to his Strength rating in motes for the purpose of subtracting yards from the distance his target would have flown, to a minimum of zero yards. This creates a well of force which sucks the victim in, preventing him from being launched away as the Solar visibly strains against his own might, gathering a terrible force which spills out into the surrounding landscape, shattering scenery and fracturing air at the motonic level. This moment of devastating collision cannot last. A blast tears through his victim as the Solar completes his attack. The target is ripped away with the force of a hurricane and hurled across the landscape. Multiply the number of reduced yards by three and convert them into automatic damage. Add (Essence) to the number of yards which remain from the effects of Heaven Thunder Hammer for calculating the total distance the target will fly after breaking the Solar’s inertia. These extra yards are treated exactly as those accumulated by this Charm’s prerequisite. The target suffers any impact with scenery as per the rules of Heaven Thunder Hammer.

Break Through the World

Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Native, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Sledgehammer Fist Punch

The loftiest works of men, gods, and Primordials alike are as dust before the fury of the Solar Exalted. This Charm supplements an unarmed Martial Arts attack directed against a nonmagical structure. The Solar ignores the structure’s soak, hardness, and health levels, and automatically destroys a volume of the structure encompassing (Essence x 10) yards from the point of the attack’s impact, distributed as the player sees fit. At Martial Arts 6+, Essence 6+ this Charm may be activated for a cost of ten motes, one Willpower to encompass a volume of (Essence x 50) yards. This tends to cause palaces to collapse, city walls to crumble, and the sides of mountains to cave in. At Martial Arts 7+, Essence 7+ this Charm may also be applied to non-imperishable magical structures.

Cancel the Apocalypse

Cost: — (+5m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Crashing Wave Throw

This Charm offers a permanent upgrade to Crashing Wave Throw, allowing the Charm to throw victims an additional (Martial Arts x 10) yards upward and (Martial Arts x 20) yards horizontally.

In addition to this benefit, by paying an additional five motes upon activating Crashing Wave Throw, the character may further enhance the effect of the Charm. The Solar violently swings his victim through the air until they blaze like the aura of a re-entry. Charged by the Solar’s wrathful judgment, the victim is turned into a missile upon release, and may be aimed at further targets of the Lawgiver’s animosity. In addition to the normal effects of Crashing Wave Throw, where the victim lands, the blazing Essence of the Solar’s wrath detonates like a bomb: the victim and all other unfortunates within (Solar’s Essence x 2) yards are subjected to a one-time environmental damage effect with Damage 10L, Trauma 3. This damage is multiplied by five against objects and structures. The Solar’s killing intent fuels this Charm’s explosive effect, and so it may not be used to turn willing allies with perfect soak effects into impromptu artillery, nor may it be used on objects or inanimate corpses. It also may not be used on extras.

On Cancel the Apocalypse

    “If you came this far into Solar Hero Style, you are obviously the most bad-assed character ever in Exalted. Unfortunately, Solars don’t hurl thunderbolts. Fortunately they don’t have to. Express your disapproval of a Deathlord’s machinations by turning his favorite deathknight into a starbolt and hurling him through the Deathlord’s front door.”—Ø

Cast Down Stars Condemnation

Cost: — (+10m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Cancel the Apocalypse

A Lawgiver who suffers the works of the wicked is not patient, only busy. Cast Down Stars Condemnation makes a Solar’s feelings known—in the form of absolute destruction unleashed. This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite; upon activating it, the Solar may pay an additional ten motes, one Willpower for the following benefits: First, double the raw damage the target suffers from colliding with an object. Next, increase the base environmental damage produced by the victim’s impact detonation to 20L. Finally, upon impact the victim plows through scenery like a falling star, shattering the landscape and creating a massive explosion while his body digs a gigantic trench in the earth or bowls through towers, devastating a skyline. In addition to the enhanced base damage of Cancel the Apocalypse, all non-artifact scenery within (Solar’s Essence x 100) yards of the victim’s point of impact takes an arbitrary amount of damage sufficient to destroy it. The Storyteller may describe this destruction as multiple explosions that level a city, massive shockwaves that flatten a forest, terrifying implosions that leave a mountainside a smoking crater, and so forth. This Charm may not be used if the hurled opponent’s Essence rating is lower than 4.

On Cast Down Stars Condemnation

    “If smashing an Infernal through the middle of downtown Chiaroscuro is wrong, I don’t want to be right. If the neighbors complain, launch him at their house next.” —H

Sky Breaker Throw

Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Horizon-Hurling Tactic, One With the Wave

For the most part, the Solar Hero is a picture of gentility. However, the ill-timed flailing of an assassin or a Yozi with poor table manners may catch a Lawgiver in the worst of moods. The Solar may activate this Charm to make an unarmed Martial Arts counterattack in response to a successful close range attack. On a successful counterattack, rather than inflicting damage, the Solar automatically throws his opponent 100 yards for every die of pre-soak damage on the attack that triggered Sky Breaker Throw, inflicting appropriate falling damage on impact. If the attack exceeds 20 pre-soak dice, Sky Breaker Throw hurls the opponent ten miles. If the Solar uses Sky Breaker Throw to respond to an attack inflicting 30+ pre-soak damage, the Solar may fling his opponent from his position half the distance across Creation.

Against an attack of 50+ raw damage, the range of the throw becomes infinite, allowing the character to designate a fitting location for his foe to touch down. For example, the Solar may choose to bounce his victim off the tip of the Imperial Mountain, in which case the target is catapulted to one of the far ends of Creation. Alternately, the character may express his displeasure by hurling his victim into the heart of the sun. If the Solar is particularly wroth however, he may fling his foe out into the stars, where his victim smashes through an unseen layer of Creation and comes screaming down over the brass skyline of Malfeas to leave a crater in the street. Any impact triggered by a throw of 20 or more pre-soak dice carries a penalty of arbitrarily high damage, sufficient to kill on impact. Due to a peculiarity in the distance between Creation and the Demon City, if the Lawgiver’s victim survives being slammed into Malfeas, he will be unable to move from his crater of impact for five days, until time has caught up with him. Being targeted with a social or physical attack causes time to catch up with the character, allowing him to rise and act as normal. The player and Storyteller may work together to come up with additional interesting results for a throw of this magnitude. Note that Sky Breaker Throw requires that the victim be hurled into a specific location; the player may not choose to throw his victim into a limitless vacuum of empty space or send them infinitely sailing across the Wyld.

When used in realms other than Creation, Sky Breaker Throw may not be used to throw opponents into Creation save through stable passage points (such as a shadowland during the day, or an open portal between Creation and Autochthonia; under no circumstances may a Yozi be hurled out of Malfeas). Players should work with their Storyteller to define new and interesting parameters for a victim’s landing inside of their current realm. Possibilities include, while fighting in the Underworld, banking the First and Forsaken Lion off the well of Stygia and into the maw of Oblivion; or while in Malfeas, throwing Ligier down Isidoros’s throat.

This Charm’s magic will not function without the Solar channeling his retributive fury into it; as such, it may never be used for the purpose of intentionally facilitating rapid transportation, rather than acting as a weapon.

By now the story is an old one.

The Solar Exalted were brought into existence to fulfill a purpose. They were the ultimate weapons of the gods, built to overpower and even slay the titans. They were forged first and foremost for this purpose.

Telling then, that in a set of five Castes, one amongst them would embody all the principles of combat.

Above and beyond the rest of the Lawgivers, Solars of the Dawn Caste were made for one thing: war. Combat is their imperative, conflict is their instinct, and killing is their birthright. In all the universe there has never been a more perfect or efficient martial design.

Some may see the Dawn Caste as being more limited than the other Castes of the Sun’s Chosen.

A Night or Zenith can easily take up a daiklave or lead an army, while trusting in his own native abilities to be the judgmental eye of the Unconquered Sun, or the spiritual pharos of Creation’s people. Similarly, a Twilight can expect to become a master sorcerer, or a genius forging wonders from the raw potential of his illimitable imagination, while an Eclipse may travel the world, enforcing order on lawless lands. For all the Castes, it would seem that being a master warrior was a given, and so the Dawn Caste suffered under a premise which any Caste of Lawgiver could accomplish out of hand.

But this view is mistaken.

For it is the Dawns alone who exemplify all the tenets of combat fusion—the principles of fighting which make the Solar Exalted supreme. Where at a glance one might see five redundant theatres of combat ability, the Solars see one cohesive military form: a single, merged combat ability which creates the ultimate fighter.

Solars of the Dawn Caste do not approach Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown, or even War as five separate forms of combat. Rather they experience them as one flowing, interconnected martial form which they may master. This mastery is not beyond the scope of the other Lawgivers, but it is the Bronze Tigers who most easily, quickly, and readily move through the five martial abilities, blending every aspect into a fighting style which makes them the premiere slayers amongst the Solar Exalted.

Solars of the Dawn Caste are relentless. The enemies of Creation do not sleep and are without number, but the Swords of Heaven do not quail. They thrive on conflict. They live in strife. For them there is no other way.

Yet, as the Caste which is more heavily driven in a single direction than any other, the Dawn Caste may still seem limited. It is for this reason that they were made to exemplify all tenets of combat—even the ones which exceed their own native abilities—so that they might vary in form and function, extending into principle abilities which were not centered around the act of war. The Dawn emphasis on combat knows no Caste lines. It knows no difference in abilities. It seeks only to extend into that which creates the perfect battle form.

This is the heart and soul of the Dawn Solution.

—Ø 8/31/10

New Keywords

Keyword: Martial: Charms with this Keyword may also be used with or applied to the listed Abilities when the Solar’s rating in those Abilities meets the Charm’s minimum Ability rating.

Keyword: Martial-ready: This Keyword replicates all the effects of the Martial keyword. In addition, the Solar may use the Charm with or apply its benefits to any of the listed Abilities that he has as a Caste or Favored Ability, even if their ratings are lower than the Charm’s minimum Ability requirement.

Keyword: Merged: Charms with this Keyword exist in more than one Ability. Buying this Charm in any of the Abilities it exists in means the character also has that Charm in all other Abilities it exists in.

Keyword: Enhanced: This Charm denotes ‘hero style’ Charms which grant an enhanced benefit when used by the Exalt type they belong to (for example, Solar Hero style Charms used by a Solar).

Keyword: Overdrive: Charms with this Keyword create a temporary pool of Peripheral Essence, which can only be filled by terms outlined in the text of the Charm. Motes in these pools may only be used to activate offensive Charms with a duration of One action or less. Charms whose mote cost are paid for entirely from a character’s Overdrive pool do not count as Charm activations. Other restrictions may be present in the text of the Charm. Motes gathered into the pools created by Overdrive Charms dissipate at the end of the scene, barring additional Charms to prolong their existence. Temporary mote pools created by the Overdrive keyword share their motes and stack together to determine the storage capacity of the overall pool. This Overdrive pool may store no more than 25 motes, regardless of the size of the pool generated by individual Charms with the Overdrive keyword.

Keyword: Dawn: Solars of the Dawn Caste may buy Charms with this Keyword for eight experience points, even if they do not Favor the Ability the Charm is located in.

New Charms

War

Dawn King’s Strife

Cost: —; Mins: War 4, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Mirror (Ash Child's Requiem), Native

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Elegant Dance of Bow and Blade

Locked away in the insane prison of their King’s body, the Yozis dream, and their sleep is troubled with nightmares of the Bronze Tigers. All too well, they remember the futility of opposing the blades of the Unconquered Sun, and they know that there is nothing—in Creation or beyond—that is not a weapon in the hands of the Dawn Caste. The character may cross-apply his Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown and War Excellencies. For example, the Solar might use his First War Excellency to organize a coordinated attack upon an Abyssal Exalt, and then in the very next tick use that Excellency to boost his Melee Parry DV against the deathknight’s attack. This benefit also applies to the character’s Infinite (Ability) Mastery, (Ability) Essence Flow, and Supreme Perfection of (Ability) Charms for the aforementioned Abilities. It is specifically incompatible with Divine Transcendence of (Ability).

New Abyssal Charm: Ash Child’s Requiem (Prerequisite: Ever-Ready Killer's Tools). This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart, save that it is incompatible with Apocalyptic Evolution of (Ability).

On Dawn King's Strife

    “This is one of the earliest Charms written for this segment, devised by Holden. I consider it to be the pinnacle Charm of the Dawn Solution, exemplifying the principle of combat fusion. Naming it was one of the hardest things to do. I eventually settled on Dawn King's Strife because when you say it aloud it sounds like Don King's Strife. You can't put a price tag on that kind of a bizarre revelation.” —Ø

    “One of the biggest problems plaguing the Dawn Caste has been Infinite Mastery. Infinite Mastery is a lynchpin of Solar power in second edition, but it requires a tremendous Essence investment and carries a significant activation risk. Until now, this has strongly discouraged any sort of multi-ability fighting style: once you put Infinite Mastery up, it would be foolish to use any other combat ability unless forced to. Dawn King’s Strife not only solves this problem, but it helps make multi-discipline fighting economically practical for Dawns by getting rid of the need to purchase Excellency suites in four different Abilities.” —H

Elegant Dance of Bow and Blade

Cost: —; Mins: War 3, Essence 2; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Mirror (Ever-Ready Killer’s Tools)

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: None

There is no such thing as an unprepared Solar warrior. Effortlessly changing tactics to suit the shifting battlefield, the Lawgiver easily keeps pace with the desperate stratagems of his opponents. The Solar may reflexively change which weapon he has readied without the need of a miscellaneous Draw/Ready Weapon action. For example, the Lawgiver could hurl a readied throwing knife into one opponent, reflexively ready his bow, shoot a second opponent, and then pay one mote to reflexively switch to a slashing sword to finish off a third opponent, all in the span of a single flurry. Each shift per action after the first costs one mote.

New Abyssal Charm: Ever-Ready Killer’s Tools. (Prerequisite: None). This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart.

On Elegant Dance of Bow and Blade

    “Send a guy reeling backwards with Heaven Thunder Hammer, make his chest sprout a few blades with Thrown, and then pull out a bow and shoot him before he hits the ground. As you can see, I’m really serious about making you use all your Dawn abilities. See: Perfected Battle Array under Melee.” —Ø

    “Another issue that has plagued Dawns is that they are the most equipment-dependent Caste, and changing between the tools of the trade has always been stiff and awkward due to the necessities of Draw/Ready miscellaneous actions. Battlefields are now much less safe if a Dawn is on them; you cannot assume that just because your opponent is carrying a daiklave, he doesn’t have a brace of knives concealed under his cloak and won’t plant them in you in the blink of an eye. This Charm, along with its buddies Supreme Martial Instinct and Dawn King’s Strife, allow the Dawns to truly benefit from multi-ability combat investment in a direct manner, rather than just leveraging synergy from Martial and Martial-ready Charms into the one combat ability they actually fight with.” —H

Supreme Martial Instinct

Cost: — (1m, 1wp); Mins: War 4, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Mirror (Manifold Murder Arts), Native

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Elegant Dance of Bow and Blade

Solars of the Dawn Caste are the ultimate warriors, allowing an uncanny instinct for battle to inform their every action. Infusing his battle arts with Essence, the Solar’s comprehension of combat becomes holistic; his knowledge of an arrow’s proper trajectory may guide the path of his sword, and the instinct that turns his fist into a deadly weapon will continue to serve him when guiding knives into the vitals of his enemies. By paying one mote and one Willpower, the Solar raises his ratings in Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown and War to the value of the highest rating among any of those five Abilities until his DV refreshes. This is considered a natural increase—for example, if the Solar had Dexterity 5, Melee 5, and Archery 1, he would be considered to have Archery 5, and would be able to add up to ten dice to his Dexterity + Archery dice pools. Moreover, the Solar may use the First, Second, or Third Excellencies of his highest-rated Ability to enhance any of those five Abilities until his DV refreshes.

New Abyssal Charm: Manifold Murder Arts (Prerequisite: Ever-Ready Killer’s Tools). This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart.

On Supreme Martial Instinct

    “I developed this Charm around the same time Holden came up with the concept for Dawn King’s Strife. This is a less impressive Charm than DKS, but it was important to me to include it to further demonstrate the principles of combat fusion. This Charm models the inherent interconnection of the five combat abilities, allowing the character to—if only for a few seconds—flow between interchangeable battle forms. It also serves as a good example of how the definition of the War ability is expanding to depict a comprehensive understanding of combat.” —Ø

    “The price tag and short duration of Supreme Martial Instinct keeps Dawns from losing the signature feel and distinction of their Caste abilities while still enabling some pretty nasty tricks. Using your Archery skills to set up a coordinated attack or your Melee mastery to fight out of a clinch are my two favorites.” —H

Certain Victory Formulation

Cost: 0m, 1wp; Mins: War 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Native, Overdrive

Duration: Two actions

Prerequisite Charms: Heroism-Encouraging Presence

In the heat of battle, giving a Solar time to consider his strategy may be a fatal error. As the Lawgiver formulates a method by which his opponent may be dispatched, he experiences a surge of Essence to compensate his battle strategy. This Charm grants the character a ten-mote Overdrive pool. An activation of this Charm allows the character to gather one offensive mote per tick, to a maximum of ten motes, with which to fill this pool. If the Solar takes any damage to his health track or uses a Charm with one of the Four Flaws of Invulnerability (see Exalted, p. 194) during this time, his concentration is interrupted; the mote gain ceases and the character must repay the activation cost of the Charm if he wishes to resume the effect. The Solar must be in combat and inside a hostile enemy’s engagement range in order to use Certain Victory Formulation.

Charm Concept: Engagement Range

A character's engagement range is equal to (the maximum Range of the highest-Range weapon the character has used during the scene + the distance she may travel during her action with a Dash), as modified by any Charms or other magic with a duration greater than One action. In short, any opponent she could dash toward and attack on her next action are within her engagement range.

Cover Shrouding Movement

Cost: 3m or 3m, 1wp; Mins: War 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, War

Duration: One action

Prerequisite Charms: None

During the Primordial War, Solar generals often found themselves marching armies against foes whose very shoulders buffeted the skies. From such a vantage, all manner of horrors might be hurled on the heads of the Lawgivers’ forces. Only the peerless tactics of the Solar Exalted saved the Celestial Host from such a fate. By paying three motes and activating this Charm, the Solar becomes impossible to target for all opponents outside of his engagement range. Alternately, the Solar may pay an additional one Willpower when activating this Charm to protect a complementary unit he leads.

This Charm is accomplished by use of terrain; the character uses brilliant combat maneuvers to position himself in a locus of absolute tactical advantage. For one action, the Solar may continue to move himself and his army toward or away from his foe without reprisal. However, any opponent in combat who moves into the Solar’s engagement range may target and attack the Exalt. Cover-Shrouding Movement may not be used if the Storyteller determines that there is no possible cover for the Solar to employ. Note, however, that possible does not necessarily mean reasonable—a famous Solar general hid his army in the shadow of Mardukth as he moved his forces in for the kill.

Vanishing March Maneuver

Cost: 5m or 5m, 1wp; Mins: War 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, War

Duration: One tick

Prerequisite Charms: Cover Shrouding Movement

The Solars used this Charm to sow confusion amongst enemy forces and control the tenor of battle. Upon paying five motes to activate this Charm, the Solar makes a critical combat maneuver which completely obscures him to all opponents in combat, rendering him impossible to target. By paying an additional point of Willpower, the Lawgiver may extend this benefit to a complementary unit he leads. The effect of this maneuver is perfect: it does not require cover. At the beginning of the next tick, when the Solar emerges from cover, all opponents within (Essence x 20) yards are considered to have made a Join Battle roll. Vanishing March Maneuver may not be activated if there are any opponents within 30 yards of the Solar, nor may it be re-used after activation until the character's DV has refreshed five times.

Strife-Drawing Tactic

Cost: 6m; Mins: War 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: One scene

Prerequisite Charms: Elegant Dance of Bow and Blade

The Bronze Tigers are cued to the very Essence of combat. Using a preternatural comprehension of all the modes and methods of battle, a Solar may force his opponent into a fatal showdown. A character who activates this Charm is so attuned with the movements of combat that he becomes difficult to attack from a distance. To compensate for this strain, all opponents in combat outside the character’s engagement range must pay an extra one mote surcharge on any offensive Charms they wish to launch against the Solar. In addition, all attacks made against the Lawgiver from outside his engagement range suffer a -1 external penalty.

On Strife-Drawing Tactic

    “This Charm was the beginning of a very serious effort to bring Solars with a solid ground game up to the level of opponents who preferred to fight at range. It led me to invent engagement range as a concept for helping opponents deal with the nigh unassailable efficiency of certain ranged builds. It spawned all the other engagement range Charms which you see here.” —Ø

    “In real combat, the best advantage a fighter can enjoy is reach. If you can hit your opponent and he can’t hit you back, the only thing that can make you lose the fight is screwing up and letting him get close to you. Range is a similarly dominant advantage in Exalted, and as a result, Solar Archery in combination with Solar Athletics has always been the game’s undisputed top dog battle build. While we didn’t want to pull Archery’s fangs, we did want to give short-ranged fighters some tools to help deal with long-ranged fighters, so that they didn’t ‘lose at the select screen,’ as it were. We also wanted to reduce the necessity for all Dawns to favor Athletics, to mitigate the Caste’s ‘one true build’ issues. Engagement range as a system concept was codified to help solve these problems.” —H

Thrown

Angle-Tracing Edge

Cost: —; Mins: Thrown 3, Essence 2; Type: Permanent (Reflexive [Step 2])

Keywords: Mirror (Stalking the Striker’s Hand)

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: None

A Solar may learn to master all angles, trajectories, and speeds of attack—even those of his enemy. This Charm takes effect when the Solar is targeted by an attack, telling him the exact range and position of the character that made the attack. This does not allow the Solar to see his opponent; instead, his superior throwing skills allow him to calculate the angle of attack, making a perfect estimation of his assailant’s position. At Essence 3+, the Solar gains a taste for the Essence signature of his attacker; when faced with more than one opponent whom he cannot see, the Exalt may tell the difference between them, even if they are constantly changing positions. This does not confer information about the identity of his attackers; he simply knows them by their attacks, making it possible to hone in on a particular opponent under changing conditions.

New Abyssal Charm: Stalking the Striker’s Hand (Prerequisites: None). Abyssals are able to keenly sense killing intent when directed at them. This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart.

Whale-Marking Attack

Cost: 1m; Mins: Thrown 4, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Martial-ready

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Call the Blade

Even should his prey dive below the waves or tunnel underground, the Solar may track its progress. This Charm supplements a Thrown-based attack. If the attack inflicts damage, the projectile sticks in the victim, rendering the weapon inapplicable for any Charms which summon weaponry. So long as the Solar’s weapon remains embedded in his victim, the Lawgiver feels its presence calling out to him, and may track the movements of his opponent up to (Essence x 100) yards. The Solar enjoys three automatic successes on all Awareness rolls to detect marked enemies within this range. The Lawgiver must own the weapon used to make this attack (see Exalted, p. 238), and it may not be an artifact (missile weapons form an exception; for example, a sling of deadly prowess may be used so long as the Solar is hurling mundane bullets) or part of the character’s body. Any attempts to remove the weapon cause it to break off in the wound, destroying the weapon. This does not terminate the Charm’s effects. Removing this fragment requires a (Dexterity + Medicine) roll at difficulty 4.

Martial-ready: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee

Flashing Draw Mastery

Cost: —; Mins: Thrown 3, Essence 2; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Martial-ready

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: None

When challenged, the breathtaking speed with which a Lawgiver calls blade to hand is often the last miracle her opponent witnesses. This Charm represents the unhesitating, blinding speed of a Solar’s genius hands, honed by a lifetime of practice. Add one success to the character’s Join Battle rolls. In addition to this benefit, the character may also reflexively draw or ready a Thrown weapon upon rolling Join Battle, without the need for a miscellaneous action. Finally, all Thrown attacks made during the first tick on which the character acts after rolling Join Battle have a Speed of three.

Martial-ready: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee

On Flashing Draw Mastery

     “This may be the Charm that started it all. Before I ever came up with the Martial Keyword, I knew that I was going to need to fuse the combat abilities together to make them worthwhile. This was one of the first Charms conceptualized: a ‘lightning draw’ Charm in Thrown that would apply to all your different combat abilities. A character with Flashing Draw Mastery may use Thrown—the art of fast eyes and faster hands—to improve his weapon drawing techniques in other combat abilities, signifying the linked nature of combat abilities and the way in which buying up Charms in one combat ability teaches you martial techniques and martial logic which carries over to your other fighting techniques to create a kind of snowball effect, thereby making purchases in any Dawn Caste ability apply toward your total character concept. Because of this design—which is demonstrated in the rest of the Charms you see here, as well as throughout the errata—all of the Dawn abilities may be seen as important and valuable to making your character the ultimate combatant, in the way that other Castes’ abilities all help to facilitate the standard character concepts of those particular Castes. This Charm also marked the beginning of my interest in making Join Battle an important and active part of your combat strategy, as evinced by several other Charms.” —Ø

    “Join Battle has always been a bit of a tricky issue in Second Edition. There are plenty of Charms out there to help you win it, but if you play the ‘Join Battle Game’ and lose, the penalty tends to be things like death via Kill Combo. A lot of players are willing to simply sit out Join Battle, accept whatever their base dice pool gives them, and keep their Charm selection free rather than taking a gamble they might lose. The Flashing Draw series ups the stakes on Join Battle, granting rewards for winning—and penalties for losing—that make opting out a dicey proposition. Dawns should play to win at combat, from the very beginning.” —H

Swarm-Culling Instinct

Cost: —; Mins: Thrown 4, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Martial-ready

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Flashing Draw Mastery

Sometimes outgunned, rarely outdrawn, a Lawgiver answers the call of battle with a swarm of deadly steel. This Charm permanently enhances the Lawgiver’s ability to manage greater numbers of opponents. Upon rolling Join Battle for the first time in a scene, the character may make a reflexive Thrown attack against any opponent whose Join Battle result is less than her own. Additionally, where others would grow desperate at the sight of enemy reinforcements, the Lawgiver is invigorated. For the duration of combat, the character may make a Thrown attack against all opponents who roll Join Battle after the initial Join Battle roll that began the fight, unless that character is doing so because they have cast a spell (generally representing new characters appearing and entering the fray). This Charm will only allow the Solar to make attacks against opponents whose engagement range she is within.

Martial-ready: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee

Shrike Saving Discretion

Cost: —; Mins: Thrown 5, Essence 4; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Martial-ready, Native

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Swarm-Culling Instinct

A Lawgiver may grow to become an old hand at killing. When greatly outnumbered, it may not do to break his cover at the first opportunity. This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite. The Solar may opt to withhold free reflexive attacks accrued against opponents as outlined by the rules of Swarm-Culling Instinct, choosing instead to stock these attacks until a tactical opportunity presents itself. Free reflexive attacks stocked in this fashion vanish at the end of the scene. Until then, the Solar may unleash as many attacks as he has stocked on targets of his choice. For example, a character with five stocked attacks may choose to unleash five attacks on one target, or he may launch a single attack against five different targets, or he may attack one target three times and withdraw, retaining two free reflexive attacks until the scene ends. A Solar may stock up to (Dexterity + 3) attacks in this fashion.

Martial-ready: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee

On Shrike Saving Discretion

    “Thanks to this Charm, the fastest guy in a five man Wyld Hunt is going to be the first one to eat an eight hit zantetsuken when your Solar steps out from behind a tree after using Vanishing March Manuever. The War Charms listed above, and those written in Dreams of the First Age, were devised to help players conceptualize War as a vital part of a Dawn’s combat array, but it is Charms like Shrike Saving Discretion which really drive the point—and your daiklave—home. See also: Hero’s Fatal Resolve. It’s under Martial Arts.” —Ø

Steel Fang Rebuke

Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Thrown 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Martial

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Swarm-Culling Instinct

The enemies of the Solar Exalted soon learn to kiss the ground. Prudence suggests that they stay there. When an opponent attempts to rise from a prone position, the Solar may activate this Charm to reflexively make a standard Thrown attack against the target. This attack is automatically unexpected.

Martial: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee

Melee

Perfected Battle Array

Cost: —; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Mirror (Blades Well-Blooded), Native

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: None

Capable of mastering all forms of combat, a Solar need not limit herself to a single weapon. This Charm represents the Lawgiver’s mastery of and kinship with all forms of tactile artifact weaponry. When attuning multiple artifact weapons, the Solar commits Essence to the weapon with the highest attunement cost. All additional artifact weapons cost only a single mote to attune. The Solar may attune artifacts up to double the mote cost of the initial attunement. For example, she pays an attunement cost of five motes to attune a daiklave, and may now attune five additional weapons, each for a single mote, provided each weapon has a commitment cost equal to or less than five motes. If she attempts to add a weapon to her array which has a higher commitment cost than the most expensive of her current weapons, the original highest-cost weapon in her current panoply of attuned weapons transfers all but one mote to the new highest-cost weapon and the Solar attunes the new weapon by paying the difference.

The Lawgiver may expressly use this Charm to reduce the attunement cost of artifact weapons for use with combat abilities other than Melee, however it does not reduce the cost to attune armor, N/A-rated artifacts or non-weapon artifacts.

At Essence 4+, once the Solar has attuned enough weapons to double the commitment cost of the highest-cost weapon in her array, all additional artifact weapons have an attunement cost of zero motes. At Essence 5+, the power of her attunement expands further: the Lawgiver may reach the threshold of zero mote attunement after increasing her total commitment by only 50%, rounded up. For example, at Essence 5+ the Solar attunes a daiklave for five motes. The next three weapons she attunes will each cost a single mote, and all weapons beyond that will cost zero motes.

New Abyssal Charm: Blades Well-Blooded (Prerequisites: None). This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart, permitting Abyssals to easily carry the tools of their grim trade forth into Creation.

On Perfected Battle Array

    “The notes for this Charm have been sitting in my Dawn case file (now closed and solved) for a good eight months. I really wanted to give it to you in Dreams, but I didn’t want it to be a high-Essence Charm, and I didn’t want to tip my hand on the direction I was going with the Dawn Solution. In any case, it wouldn’t be nearly as useful to blend all your combat abilities if you could not attune multiple artifact weapons economically. Now you can. Enjoy.” —Ø

Perfect Blade Aegis

Cost: —; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Martial-ready, Mirror (Death Well-Remembered), Native

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Bulwark Stance

Like a diamond that knows its edges, the Solar is aware of all angles which affect the symmetry of perfect form. A Lawgiver with this Charm has honed his defensive skills to a superhuman degree; he knows the limits and reach of his weapons as if they were but extensions of his will. The character's Melee-derived Parry DV is permanently raised by 2; this bonus counts as dice added by a Charm.

Martial-ready: Martial Arts

New Abyssal Charm: Death Well-Remembered (Prerequisites: Elegant Flowing Deflection, Five-Shadow Feint). Having stood at death’s doorway once before, the Abyssal Exalted are well acquainted with all paths which lead there, and may easily avoid them. This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart.

Blade Lair Discipline

Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Mirror (Coiled Shadow Attitude), Native

Duration: One scene

Prerequisite Charms: Perfect Blade Aegis

The Solar Exalted are living weapons; as they evolve into this role, they begin to manifest the very threat they pose to their enemies, until no angle of attack seems safe. Attacking a Lawgiver with this Charm is dangerous at best, for her very gestures, mannerisms, and glances carry all the import and possibility of a daiklave’s edge. This Charm imposes a -1 external penalty on all attacks made against the Solar.

New Abyssal Charm: Coiled Shadow Attitude (Prerequisite: Death Well-Remembered). This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart.

Inexorable Swordsman Spirit

Cost: —; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Martial-ready, Mirror (Entropic Blade Nature), Native

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Blade Lair Discipline

The terrifying battle prowess of the Solar Exalted leads their foes to contemplate extinction. A Solar with this Charm bleeds her unmitigated talent for killing into the air, making her killer’s nature known. The Lawgiver’s attacks render her targets hopeless to defend against them, reducing targeted DVs by two on all attacks the Solar makes with her Melee dice pool.

Martial-Ready: Archery, Martial Arts, Thrown

New Abyssal Charm: Entropic Blade Nature (Prerequisites: Coiled Shadow Attitude). The hands of the Abyssal are steeped in the Essence of destruction; against them, even the mightiest defense may only delay the inevitable. This Charm is identical to its Solar counterpart.

Sun-Sword Concentration

Cost: —; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Mirror (All Blades Cry for Blood)

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Solar Saber

An exhausting regimen of training and meditation allows the Solar to distill that part of her spirit which responds to the sun-metal orichalcum, radiating its power into every weapon she ever wields. Any weapon wielded by the Solar using her Melee Ability enjoys a +1 bonus to its Accuracy, Defense and Rate. This bonus stacks with standard magical material bonuses.

New Abyssal Charm: All Blades Cry for Blood (Prerequisite: Resplendent Shadow Blade). An Abyssal who has learned this Charm fills her hands with a constant cold yearning for life. Any weapon she wields using her Melee Ability enjoys a +2 bonus to its Accuracy, and drains a number of motes equal to the Abyssal’s Essence whenever it hits a target and inflicts at least one health level of damage. The Abyssal does not gain these motes; they simply vanish from the world. This Charm’s Accuracy bonus stacks with standard magical material bonuses, save that its mote-drain does not double the yield granted by soulsteel weapons; instead it adds one to the number of motes drained.

On Sun-Sword Concentration

    “Does this look like One Weapon, Two Blows? Because One Weapon, Two Blows no longer does.” —Ø

Molten Sun-Blade

Cost: —; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: None

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Solar Saber, Hungry Tiger Technique

This Charm permanently enhances all of the weapons the character is capable of creating with Glorious Solar Saber. When striking with such a weapon, the Solar may use Hungry Tiger Technique without it being considered a Charm activation.

Blind Impulse Strike

Cost: 5m; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Martial-ready

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Iron Raptor Technique, Solar Counterattack

Sensing the pulse of Essence along which an attack was fired, a Lawgiver may send a strike back at his opponent with perfect form and blazing speed. This Charm allows the Solar to respond to an attack with a Melee attack of his own. This attack has infinite range, ignores cover, and may be made even if the Solar is unable to see his target. If assailed by a ranged weapon, the source of the attack is rent by a razor-edged heat shimmer of Essence at his location. At Essence 6+ the Solar may use Blind Impulse Strike in response to social attacks he is aware of, so long as they occur within the same realm of existence. At Essence 7+ the Solar may use this Charm to respond to all social attacks, regardless of where the perpetrator is. Blind Impulse Strike may only be activated once in response to a written social attack, no matter how many times the Solar re-reads it.

Martial-ready: Martial Arts

On Blind Impulse Strike

    “When Jon Chung shoots you through a ray of sunlight from deep inside his bunker with an implosion bow pointed at the door, kill him. Failing that, destroy his favorite chair. You win the moral victory.” —Ø

Flawless Mirror Trance

Cost: 5m; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 7, DV -0)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Martial-ready

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Ready in Eight Directions Stance

In every battle there is a perfect moment to strike; in the stillness of inaction-becoming-action, a fight may be decided by a mere speck in time: a choice to move or not move. The Solar knows these moments like brothers and summons them to hand like hawks, making all her choices perfect. Until her next action, a character under the effects of Flawless Mirror Trance gains the following benefits: she adds her Essence to her Melee-derived Parry DV; whenever she uses her Melee-derived Parry DV against an attack, she may make a Melee-based counterattack with (Essence) dice added to her regular attack pool in step 9; and she may use her Melee-based parry DV to parry unblockable attacks.

Martial-ready: Martial Arts

On Flawless Mirror Trance

    “I designed this Charm to be used in combination with another Charm already mentioned, but I won’t tell you which. I’m sure one of you will figure it out within 24 hours of this post. In case you were wondering, the clear / tranquil principles laid forth by Musashi were the inspiration for this Charm’s description.” —Ø

Guardian Sunfire Catechism

Cost: — (+3m or +3m, 1wp); Mins: Melee 5, Essence 4; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Mirror (Death’s Knight Stance)

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Heavenly Guardian Defense

A Lawgiver’s skill in combat evolves into an unshakeable truth with all the conviction of a religion. When her resolve is challenged, her holy blade becomes the answer to all her enemy’s questions. This Charm enhances its prerequisite. The Solar may opt to pay a three mote surcharge when activating Heavenly Guardian Defense, extending its duration to One tick. Solars with Essence 5+ may extend the duration of Heavenly Guardian Defense to One action by paying a three mote, one Willpower surcharge. The Exalt’s weapon is seen to leave burning golden-orange streaks in the air as it flashes out to meet all attacks. When using this Charm in conjunction with Defend Other, the Solar must activate this Charm multiple times to cover multiple allies, paying the Charm’s activation cost and surcharge separately for each target she wishes to defend for One tick or One action. This Charm may not enhance activations of Heavenly Guardian Defense pre-loaded through Protection of Celestial Bliss.

New Abyssal Charm: Death’s Knight Stance (Prerequisite: Death-Deflecting Technique). Save for the shadowy afterimages that trail the Abyssal’s weapon, this Charm is identical to Guardian Sunfire Catechism.

Edge of Morning Sunlight

Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -0)

Keywords: Combo-Basic, Crippling, Holy, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Iron Raptor Technique

With a flash from his blade, the Solar sears a burning image into the mind of his enemy. A character who activates this Charm unleashes a glint of perfect light, caught in the motion of his weapon.

This Charm creates a ranged Melee attack against a single target up to (Essence x 10) yards away. A flash of light, accompanied by a hollow, glassy pop, stuns the victim. This attack is guaranteed to land; it will strike the target with a threshold of at least zero successes. However, Edge of Morning Sunlight does not inflict health level damage. Instead it blinds and dazes the target, inflicting a -1 internal penalty to the target’s combat actions for every health level of damage it would have inflicted. This debilitating condition lasts for (Essence x 2) ticks. When placed in a Combo, any attack which includes Edge of Morning Sunlight inflicts no damage. Finally, Edge of Morning Sunlight is not Stackable, and may only be used against the same target once every five actions.

If used to target a creature of darkness, the Solar adds his Essence to the attack’s accuracy.

Corona of Radiance

Cost: — (5m, 1wp); Mins: Melee 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent (Reflexive [Step 1])

Keywords: Holy, Obvious

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Blazing Solar Bolt, Edge of Morning Sunlight

The holy wrath of an enraged Lawgiver is a thing to behold. Channeling his martial skill into a burning aura of killing force that blazes bright red in his anima, the Solar increases the power of this Charm’s prerequisites. The Solar may pay an additional five motes, one Willpower when using either of those Charms to activate Corona of Radiance. Doing so repeats the damage application (Step 10) of those Charms (Essence +3) times against a single target. Alternately, the Solar may use this Charm to launch Blazing Solar Bolt or Edge of Morning Sunlight against (Essence + 3) opponents simultaneously (making a different roll against each target). A repurchase of this Charm at Essence 7+ allows the Solar to pay a seven mote, one Willpower surcharge to split this attack against (Essence + 3) opponents and resolve damage against each of them (Essence + 3) times.

When enhanced by Corona of Radiance, Edge of Morning Sunlight gains the Stackable Keyword.

Peony Blossom Attack

Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV -1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: One Weapon, Two Blows

The Lawgiver moves as smoothly and rapidly as ice on hot metal, his weapon flashing in a dazzling golden arc to strike all those around him. The Solar makes a standard Melee attack at his full dice pool, and applies it to all enemies within three yards; each target resolves defense and damage separately.

On Peony Blossom Attack

    “’What?!’ Yes, this is the new Peony Blossom Attack (and its Abyssal counterpart has been similarly changed). Peony Blossom is one of the holdover concepts from early first edition, when Charm trees were often designed as a series of speedbumps: you’d start with a weak version of a concept, followed by a stronger Charm which completely obviated its prerequisite by being better in all regards, so that you never used the old Charm again. Peony Blossom Attack was one of those Charms. As best I was able to determine, the only thing people used it for was to get low-impact, cheap three-hit extra actions once Invincible Fury of the Dawn locked onto it. Now it performs a new, useful function as a ‘circle-slash’ technique, useful for clearing out bodyguards or creating some breathing room in a press.” —H

Grass-Cutting Strike

Cost: — (+4m); Mins: Melee 4, Essence 4; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Obvious

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Iron Raptor Technique, Peony Blossom Attack

The wind blows, the grass sways; a shadow passes over the sun. In a moment frozen in time, the Solar calls weapon to hand, birthing a gale to silence a legion. Grass-Cutting Strike upgrades the Solar’s Peony Blossom Attack, permitting the character to pay a four mote surcharge to apply its attack to all enemies within (Melee x 8) yards.

Archery

Thrust Shot Evasion

Cost: 3m; Mins: Archery 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Forceful Arrow

A Solar’s mastery of archery extends beyond bow and string and arrow, making her entire body part of the momentum of the shot and the art of the kill. This Charm permits the character to channel her shot’s momentum into her own body. It may only be activated on a tick during which the Solar makes an Archery attack; at the end of the tick, the Solar flits up to (Archery x 3) yards backwards relative to the direction she fired her last shot during that tick.

On Thrust Shot Evasion

    “Move and fire! This new Charm won’t give you a home-grown flurry breaker, but it will help you stay away from that nasty guy with the daiklave in the first place. For those wondering why Archery only gets one new Charm—it doesn’t, if you’re a Dawn, thanks to the joys of Martial and Martial-ready.” —H

Yes, spies and an organization keeping apocalypse at bay are the subjects of today's new reviews.

The sad truth is that all races will never be represented in games unless we start changing how it is discussed in the public forum. Jamin Brophy-Warren is tired of wondering if too much criticism in favor of more diversity in games is "too much."

From Prince of Persia to the recent Medal of Honor news of playable Taliban, the depiction of Muslims in videogames hasn't been any more even-handed than American TV or movies. Saladin Ahmed is one Muslim gamer who'd like to see that change.

The facial features of many anime characters can appear ethnically Western, a process that is spreading to Japanese-made videogame plots and content. Fintan Monaghan does not believe that this is a healthy development.

Why do we need more non-white characters when so many games allow you to create an avatar that looks like any race or color? Chuck Wendig experiments with some modern character creators and finds out that isn't exactly true.

http://eddyfate.podbean.com/2010/08/31/episode-45-post-gencon-roundtable/

Episode #45 - Post-GenCon Roundtable

Ethan, Rich and I talk about our GenCon experience.

It's Not Just a Show, It's a Happening

As any artist will tell you, the art scene can be brutal, especially in a high-octane setting like Manhattan. There are plenty of horror stories to go around—but none of them can touch what’s about to go down at the Guggenheim.

In this Mission, Shadowrun players will find themselves in the middle of an art opening unlike any other, with chaos and screaming and dancing statues. Unless they keep their wits about them, the latest masterpiece in the museum will be painted in blood—and to make things worse, if they can’t defuse the situation, they might not get paid.

Something Completely Different is the latest Manhattan Mission, giving Missions players a chance to learn more about the creative spirit behind some of the city’s artistic masterworks while also giving them the opportunity to shore up their alliances with powerful megacorps.

Get all of the Shadowrun Missions at DriveThruRPG.com.

Today's Fifth Imperium should be interesting - it's Genre-ic Plot Seeds, Part Three: The Wacky Ones. I expect space monkeys and a big nosed guy named Larry. Just a hunch.

Chapter seven is one of the most helpful chapters of any hardback release—the Storytelling chapter. It’s also one of the sections with the least wordcount allocated to it. Because there are always more good ideas for your Exalted series than room to write them up, we’re proud to present a new Ink Monkeys feature: Chapter Seven.

Chapter Seven articles will feature essays and advice for Storytellers and players alike, as well as new options and directions to take your series in, if you’re looking to head off the beaten path a bit. Our first article in this series offers new options for Abyssal games beyond the classic loyalist/renegade paradigm. We hope you enjoy!

—Holden

Abyssals Revisited

Blood runs down the jagged bars of a soulsteel cage. A Solar’s screams echo through the depths of a haunted citadel. Soon he will break, and a new monster will be born.

A young genius dies in the muddy street of a plague-town, body ravaged by disease. To live another day—to live until the end of days—he casts away his name, and rises as something dark and glorious.

A lone swordsman laments what he has become. He sets his blade against his former master and walks the night alone, for as long as he can. Perhaps he will find the light again—or perhaps his defiance only serves the will of dead gods.

These are the stories of the Abyssal Exalted, as laid out in the Storytelling chapter of The Manual of Exalted Power—The Abyssals. They’re fine stories, representative of the majority of deathknights, but they are only the tip of the iceberg.

Champions of the Dead: Independent Abyssals

The Deathlords gain their servants from two sources. Most are hand-picked for Exaltation at the moment of death. A few are converted Solars, tortured or duped into becoming agents of the Neverborn.

There is a third origin for the Abyssal Exalted. There shouldn’t be. The Deathlords and the Neverborn never intended for it to happen. But it does.

Abyssals have been abroad in Creation and the Underworld for five years. Some of them have already broken faith with the Deathlords, and these renegades sometimes let the shattered wreckage of their Monstrance announce their departure. Sometimes these wayward deathknights perish. Their erstwhile master’s rebuke may prove fatal, or the renegade Abyssal may meet his end in an unrelated manner. In other cases, Deathlords attempt to sabotage the Monstrances of their rivals’ deathknights, so that they might seduce the Abyssals into their own service without fear of necromantic reprisal.

In any event, Abyssals have died without a Monstrance for their Exaltation to return to. Recapturing a loose Exaltation is difficult, expensive and time-consuming (see The Manual of Exalted Power—The Abyssals, p. 117)—and Deathlords do not always have the luxury of time. A loose Exaltation hurries across Creation on a dogleg course, attempting to act according to its original nature, yet hampered by the modifications the Deathlords have inflicted upon it. The sun’s clean light sears the Exaltation, burning off the dross of Abyssal memories, and so it hides away in corpses through the day. By night it seeks a host, a hero, a character worthy of Solar Exaltation… but it may not bond with her. The Abyssal Exaltation is a thing of death, and only at death’s doorway may it bestow its dark blessing.

And yet many Solar Exalts draw the Second Breath in life-threatening or even impossible circumstances: making a suicide charge to protect their village, in the midst of a pirate raid, or while navigating the death-traps of a First Age ruin. Without Exaltation’s sudden might to help them carry the day, they may instead arrive at a heroic but untimely death.

This is when the Abyssal Exaltation acts. Inarticulate compared to a Deathlord, it makes no elegant speeches, presents no phantasmal visions. It communicates its offer urgently, subliminally: cast aside name and destiny, embrace death as its immortal champion, and gain the power of Exaltation.

To save those they love, to destroy those they hate, many would accept.

To Walk Alone in Darkness

An Abyssal who draws the Last Breath courtesy of a free Exaltation does so without any guidance. The Deathlords are unable to sense her Exaltation; the Neverborn may howl silently in their tombs, but if she can hear them at all, it’s only as whispers at the back of her mind, or in her dreams. She knows only that she can feel the living Essence of the world reject her, that she senses the Essence of death and craves its trappings. Her path may eventually lead her to the shadowlands, and from there into the Underworld.

The Deathlords may learn of her at this point. If they take her to be the agent of another Deathlord, they are likely to react with guarded or open hostility. If they realize what she is, their first priority will be to try to recruit her.

For converted Solars, the Deathlords are figures of tremendous power and authority—either the Solar was a willing servant of one of those ancient ghosts, or their will was broken utterly by a Deathlord’s necromantic torture. Traditional Abyssals all owe their continued existence to a Deathlord—their first meeting is likely the moment when the Deathlord steps in and prevents the Exalt’s certain death. Deathlords loom large in the minds of both sorts of Abyssals. They are sources of power and authority, the cause for the deathknight’s present condition.

Independent deathknights may feel differently. For an independent Abyssal who grew up in a shadowland, the local Deathlord is a probably distant figure of dread and terror (unless they have taken some pains to cultivate good relations with the living, as the Silver Prince has). Or an independent may walk into the Underworld with no knowledge of the Deathlords, encountering them first as whispered rumors and dire tales.

In general, ghosts have little good to say about the Deathlords. The necromantic kings and queens of the Underworld are cruel and terrifying. They deal with the mad things of the Labyrinth. They enslave and destroy ancient ghostly kingdoms at will. They forge ghosts into soulsteel and corrupt the ancestor cult for their own twisted purposes. They are, in short, regarded as terrible villains. An independent Abyssal may be on guard by the time a Deathlord discovers her, prepared for tempting lies and nihilistic sermons.

If she will not bend knee, an expedient Deathlord may try to slay the young rogue and capture her Exaltation. This is, of course, easier said than done. Trained or not, the independent is Exalted.

A Matter of Memories

The Celestial Exalted have excess memories pruned back between lives by Lytek, the god of Exaltation. Abyssal Exaltations never return to Heaven and are never handled by Lytek. Instead, the dross of their memories is torn free as the Exaltation enters and leaves its Monstrance of Celestial Portion, squeezing through the artifact’s jagged bars and roosting in its barbed trap.

But a free Abyssal Exaltation does not return to a Monstrance between lives. It is still subject to burning by the sun, and this may serve to sufficiently cleanse residual memories; but it is possible the Exaltation may travel primarily through the Underworld, or may be exceptionally successful in avoiding the light of the sun. If the Storyteller wishes, she may permit the players of free Abyssals to purchase the Past Lives Background (see The Manual of Exalted Power—The Infernals, pp. 77-78) to represent this lack of memory-cleansing, though certainly to no higher than one dot; the Abyssals are very new, and only the mightiest among them have had the opportunity to leave strong impressions on their Exaltations.

Things to Do in the Underworld When You’re Not Dead

While the Deathlords are forces to be reckoned with, they are no more central to an independent Abyssal’s life than, say, the Wyld Hunt is to an independent Solar. Independents pursue their own motivations, in Creation and the land of the dead.

Creation feels wrong to an independent Abyssal. The sun is too bright, the air thin. She must surround herself with the trappings of death or feel the constant weight of the living world’s rejection. She cannot easily replenish her Essence in Creation without victimizing the living, and her rapidly changing appearance—into an alabaster beauty or rotten horror—makes her stand out. The shadowlands are better, but many are already claimed by the Deathlords and their agents. The Underworld beckons to independent Abyssals: vast, open, alluring. It feels disturbingly like home.

The Underworld is not as Creation is. It is a place of extremes: dark and bright, still and swift, elegant and terrible. It has little room for the median or the mediocre. The waters of the Underworld are a flat and perfect black, or an eerie silver. Its sands are the white of bone or chalk. Its sky is a leaden curtain by day; by night the clouds roll back, exposing a jet sheet adorned with scattered diamonds. The ornaments of the dead are spectacular: glittering blood-rubies shout out their color, demanding the eye’s attention; silver crowns gleam in the pale blue light of torches that never consume themselves; ivory masks show only what their owners wish to display. Fine food weighs down the banquet tables of the dead. Grain grows straight and high like rows of spears in the Underworld’s fields.

Exploration reveals that the Underworld contains countless cultures forgotten by the living world, the echoes of ancient treasures of the First Age, and the blasphemous secrets of the slain Primordials.

And in some ways, the Underworld is kinder than Creation. An Abyssal may observe an old man creaking his way down the streets of Nexus, frail of body, weak of constitution, squinting at the world through gathering cataract-clouds. A year later, the deathknight encounters the same man in the Underworld as a ghost. The ghost wears an elder’s snowy beard and his eyes gleam with years of accumulated wisdom, but his step is swift and sure, his limbs strong, his gaze keen with the clarity of the dead. He will keep this visage and this strength forever. He may be reunited with his own father, and with his father’s father. These are the blessings of death.

But the Underworld is a troubled place. Mortwights and Nephwracks gather in the mad tunnels of the Labyrinth. Hekatonkhires stalk remote wastes. The empires of the dead war upon one another, each demanding eternal authority over the same small patch of land. Immaculate monks and greedy gods attack the ancestor cult, cutting the dead off from living relatives. Necromancers enslave or destroy unlucky ghosts. The Deathlords spread their nihilistic dogma across the Underworld’s kingdoms, corrupt its cultures, and soulforge its people.

The Underworld is beautiful. It is a place of deep passions, of cherished memories, of worship and veneration. It is a place where love and hate hold sway. It labors under the tread of tyrants and the schemes of dead titans. The dead cry out for heroes. The Abyssal Exalted may be the ones to answer.

Resonance

Independent Abyssals have never made a personal covenant with the Neverborn. Regardless, they quickly discover that the dead Primordials consider all Abyssals beholden to them, and are disinterested in the independent’s opinion. Worse, they have some capability to express this would-be ownership.

This marks the Neverborn as an independent’s enemies, not his masters. If he is to stay free and alive for long, he must discover some way to deal with the doom that comes along with his Exaltation.

Some independents learn through painful trial and error how to exercise their dark power without rousing the ire of the Neverborn. This pleases the dead and dreaming titans, to the extent that they may be pleased; so long as the independent blazes a path of murder across Creation, he serves their purpose, whether he slays the righteous or the wicked.

But the Neverborn are distant, mad, slumbering things. They communicate only in sudden manifestations of Dark Fate, and in incoherent whispers. Their vision of the world beyond their tombs is myopic, at best. Playing their game is unsatisfying, and so some independents learn to change the rules. Using Charms such as Faithful Killer’s Reprieve and Keeper of the Old Laws (see The Manual of Exalted Power—The Abyssals, p. 140), these deathknights find ways to fool or placate the Neverborn without directly advancing their agenda. This allows them to oppose the Deathlords, avoid the chains that bind their brethren, and act as champions of the dead.

Three Stories for Independent Abyssals

• Restoring the Ancestor Cult: A small principality in the frigid North, located atop ancient First Age ruins, is itself caught between the Realm and the Haslanti League. Both seek to expand into the region, eager to claim any ancient wonders that might be hidden in the frozen earth. Both attempt to entice the people to side with them without resorting to war, flooding the region with missionaries. Immaculate monks decry the principality’s traditional ancestor cult, preaching the virtues of favorable reincarnation and the rightness of the Immaculate Philosophy. Spies and propagandists of the Haslanti League extol the virtues of the Haslanti gods, interpret dreams (with a bias toward joining the League), and demonstrate the power of Haslanti technology.

Things are dire in the Underworld. The prayers of the living slow to a trickle. The dead of the region are wealthy, but not mighty, and have long paid tribute to the mighty Icewalker ghost tribes, who only tolerate their presence because they can be harvested for burnt offerings again and again. With the stream of offerings and grave goods drying up, the dead fear they’ll be driven away from their living descendents altogether, swept out of the region by Icewalker dead with no further reason to tolerate them.

• To Rule Among the Dead: One hundred years ago in the far East, the mighty Priest-King Xhan Zu was buried in the tomb he labored his whole life to prepare. Hundreds of wood-and-horn soldiers line the parapets of that mighty ziggurat, and their effigies serve as his army in the Underworld. He has waged war since the day of his death, conquering a vast swath of territory south of Karroth Vlan. It’s not enough. Xhan Zu believes it’s his destiny to unite the whole of the Underworld under his banner. Then he will forge all of the dead into a single army with which to overthrow Heaven, and all worship in the world of the living and the dead will be directed to him. He fills his court with astrologers willing to tell him the stars of the Underworld confirm this destiny.

The size of Xhan Zu’s army and the power of his grave goods make him a terrible threat to his neighbors, a series of cyclical monarchies and tribal dynasties. These disparate groups have recently banded together in a coalition called the Black Trees Alliance, intent on opposing the mad tyrant. It may be too little, too late; rumor has it the Priest-King sups with the Walker in Darkness, and is forging terms for a military alliance. If this is true, the Black Trees Alliance is surely doomed unless they can produce a champion of their own.

• The Ghost’s Daughter: Influential ghosts vanish, one after another, from the necropolis of Fallen Lotus (see The Compass of Celestial Directions, vol. IV—The Underworld, pp. 80-82). Ahwa, leader of the necropolis’s “peacekeepers,” seeks allies to help get to the bottom of the disappearances. But some preliminary investigation reveals the culprit to be, not an Abyssal, but a ghost-blooded youth named Samitra. She claims to be searching for her father, whose name she does not know; her mother said only that he was a wealthy and ancient ghost of Fallen Lotus. Samitra has been passing the summoned ghosts to her mentor for interrogation: a crooked thing in body-concealing robes known as Final Memory. She is surprised to learn that the ghosts have not been heard from since. What sort of creature is Final Memory? Why did it teach the girl necromancy, rather than using its own magic? And what is it doing with the ghosts of Fallen Lotus?

Four Abyssal Characters You Don’t See Every Day

The necrosurgeon hums as he selects the right bonesaw for the task, trying to tune out the screams coming from the dissection table. It’s irritating, and undignified. She should be honored to be raw material for the masterpiece he will forge. Besides, he hasn’t even started cutting.

There are a series of audible hisses, eight of them, as the black arms of the swordsman’s Caste mark appear upon his brow. His grand daiklave sweeps through the mass of panicking soldiers, scattering limbs and torsos in a grotesque tangle. The master’s hungry ghosts howl at his back, but they’ll go unsatisfied tonight. Can he kill everyone before they claim a single victim? He makes a game of it.

The pale man retrieves his arrows from the bandits’ corpses. The folk of the caravan hang back, afraid to thank him, afraid his business with them is not finished. He mounts his ghostly stallion, rides off without a word. It’s better this way. He’s not doing it for their thanks. He made a terrible mistake that must be set right. It’s nothing to do with them.

These are the characters Exalted players and Storytellers think of when they hear the word “Abyssal.” Here are four you might not have seen before:

The Speaker for the Dead

He lives in a cave high on the mountain, overlooking the shadowland. One day every week he meditates in the graveyard, watching the living venerate the dead. Those whose offerings are meager he investigates. If he finds them misers, he makes them into the paupers their offerings suggest them to be. If they are too poor to properly venerate their ancestors, he helps increase their fortunes in the world as best he can.

When Immaculate monks came to ward shut the shadowland with prayers and salt and road-shrines to greedy gods, he scattered them with his fists. When he found a child wandering lost on the north road, he led her home. When an agent of the Deathlords arrived, preaching the doctrine of Oblivion, he sent that man to experience his black apotheosis firsthand.

He walks among the dead by night, settling disputes among households top-heavy with elders. He distills the wisdom of the ancestors into words that ring true to those too young or alive to heed those who came before. He punishes those ghosts that grow fat on worship without guiding or assisting the living.

He wears a mask of beautiful ivory and robes of the finest silk. No one has ever seen his face. Maggots writhe in his footprints. He speaks for the dead. Pity those who will not listen.

The Wrath of Heaven

The Lunar cast auguries for her mate and found the stars silent. But she didn’t give up. She finally found him on the road leading away from Chiaroscuro, riding a black horse, devoid of purpose, another ghost blowing across the desert.

Now their love gives them both meaning. She is Chosen of the Argent Madonna, the clever eyes and fingers of Heaven. He is her blade. Descending into the Underworld, they destroyed a column of the Legion Sanguinary. Returning to the living world, they laid siege to a blasphemous ziggurat amidst silver sands. When the Wyld Hunt sent its assassins, he stood strong and protected her. When her mentor told her this was not as her mate should be, she laughed.

They go up and down the length of the desert, the black rider and the little bat flying ahead of him. Their legend spreads. The wicked fear their coming. The just doubt they are real. The dead search for them both. Ten thousand terrible things lurk among the sands of two worlds. None of them are safe.

The Pale Evangelist

To all suffering, he says, there is an answer.

All who’ve seen the pale evangelist remember him. His lips are red as blood. His skin is alabaster. He wears carnations in his hair. He is finer and more beautiful than the world through which he moves. He awes the dead and disquiets the living.

The evangelist walks the lands of the living to spread the good news of the grave. There is a joy in him as he describes the beauty of the Underworld, the passion of the dead, the magnificence of eternity. A paper shirt burned in honor of the dead, he says, will become a fine silk tunic, a tiny wooden sword a mighty blade. The dead do not starve. They do not freeze. So long as the living honor them, they want for nothing.

Ancestor cults spring up in his wake. He assists suicides, smiling as he guides those with the courage to heed his words into a new existence, free of the indignities of flesh. The pale evangelist believes it is better to be dead than to be alive, and many find his testimony convincing.

Of course, preaching anything inconvenient to the powers of the world has its dangers. The Wyld Hunt seeks his whereabouts. Gods confront him, incensed by his accusations of venal extortion. At these times he summons up the corpses of the departed to fight on his behalf; it amuses him to make the detritus of life serve the cause of death.

The Blade of Vengeance

The dead have grievances. She settles them.

She frequently targets the Guild, leading some to believe she took the Last Breath in chains. Her blades strike down tyrannical ghosts, reunite murderers with their victims, permanently still the tongues of necromancers.

She shrouds herself in dark winding-cloth and carries a short daiklave on each hip. Rumor has it she is beautiful beneath her shrouds, but no one can claim to have seen anything but her red eyes. She rarely speaks, and then only to set terms and demand payment. Her prices vary: five thousand obols to slay a wicked king; a relic dagger to burn down a Guildsman’s manor; a gold brooch to slay a father who drowned his five daughters.

She will not act as the agent of those with power enough to take their own revenge. Those who attempt to deceive her regret it—briefly. She believes Creation unjust and the Underworld a house of suffering. Whenever she helps a ghost pass on to Lethe, its business fulfilled, she feels the rage burning in her own heart cool ever so slightly. Perhaps that fire will never go out. It matters little. The Underworld is vast.

Atlas Games is 20 years old this month, and founder John Nephew has put out the word that they’re celebrating. If you’re lucky, you may still have time to get a free birthday gift box of Atlas Games stuff – the first 250 folks to order it and pay for their own shipping will get [...]

Happy Monday, folks. New reviews?

This Week's Tips and Features:
Top 100 City Encounters and Plots - Part 1

Game Master Tips & Tricks:
Links To Laws
Obstacle Course Ideas
Extra XP For The Trailer
Link: Play By Forum Games
Link: Virtual Gametable Software

RPG Reviews:
Agents Of The Crown
Wrack & Rune
High Valor


Campaign Mastery Blog

Recent reviews at Flames Rising include:

Deathwatch (Warhammer RPG) - Fantasy Flight Games
The Last Remnant - Square-Enix
Dark Sun Campaign Setting - Wizards of the Coast
Tracker #4 - Top Cow Productions
Our Ladies of Sorrow - Miskatonic River Press
Cthulhu Tales Vol 1 - Boom Studios
Curse of the Yellow Sign II - John Wick
Cthulhu's Reign - Darrell Schweitzer (Editor)

Flames Rising also has a new interview with author and editor Kim Paffenroth.

Flames Rising
Horror & Dark Fantasy Webzine
www.flamesrising.com

Our latest new reviews come from Demian, who has tried his hand at a pair of recent card games – several hands, actually. First he describes Minion Games’ Nile, an agriculturally themed game done in a classic style. Then Demian holds no punches in his review of the wild western brawl card game, Knock Down, [...]

Yo! Awhile back I (John Mørke, aka hatewheel) started a lively discussion on the forums about the possibility of bicycles existing in Creation. The inevitability of what was to occur should surprise no one. Arguments were made. Theories were decried. Elaborate stunts were described. I posited Mnemon riding away from the destruction of the Versino on a velocipede and someone drew it.

Big huge shout out and thank you to mr_mercutio and Path—this is just way way too awesome! YES! BEHOLD THE HATEWHEEL!

“I shouldn't be as amused by my own work as I am, but I do love the Emerald Thurible flying out behind her, trailing green smoke as she flies away.” —mr_mercutio

The Thurible is what sells it!

See the original, uncolored image by mr_mercutio:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/hatewheel/wahahahaha.jpg

See the original, colored, unsigned, by Path:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/hatewheel/mwahahaha.jpg

See some recolors by guys on the forums:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/hatewheel/wahahahahacolor-1.jpg by Zironic

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/hatewheel/wahahahahapink.jpg also by Zironic

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/hatewheel/wahahahaha-color.jpg by Demetrius7997

View the original pictures by mr_mercutio drawn in April:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/hatewheel/mnemonbike1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v410/hatewheel/mnemonbike2.jpg

If any of you artistically inclined Ink Monkeys readers want to recolor our lovely cyclist Mnemon or have any other art you’d like to send our way, hit us up at inkmonkeys@hotmail.com with the subject “Exalted Fan Art!”

As always, keep on loving / playing / dreaming / drawing Exalted, and stay tuned to Ink Monkeys for more awesome Exalted content!

—Ø

With well over a dozen books and more on the way, the Wild Cards fiction series has a cast of characters too large to be covered in just one book. Aces & Jokers fills out the roster from the Wild Cards Campaign Setting with biographical and game information on dozens of aces, jokers, and nats from the series, everything you need to fill out the ranks in your own Mutants & Masterminds game.

As a bonus, you can use the character stats in this book for other settings as well, providing you with ready-made villains, heroes, and other characters. Get ready to double up with Aces & Jokers!

Available now at DriveThruComics.com.

Aces and Jokers, a Wild Cards supplement for the second edition of Mutants & Masterminds, is now available for pre-order in our Green Ronin Online Store or from participating GR Pre-Order Plus brick-and-mortar stores. If you pre-order through our online store, you'll be offered the Aces & Jokers PDF for just $5 during checkout. If you pre-order through a GR Pre-Order Plus retailer, they'll offer you a coupon code for the same PDF deal.

Pre-Order Wild Cards: Aces and Jokers

We've posted a free web enhancement PDF, which provides True20 game stats for all the characters found in Cults of Freeport.

Cults of Freeport True20 Web Enhancement

In Infocom's text-adventure Planetfall, Floyd is the damnedest little annoying robot: He runs, he hums, and he asks you to play Chase-and-Tag. Chuck Wendig pens his paean to Floyd because he makes you feel.

Freeport Companion: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Edition is now available for pre-ordering from our Green Ronin Online Store. When you pre-order this book in our online store, you'll be offered the PDF for just $5 during checkout. If you pre-order the book through a game, book, or comicbook store that's participating in our GR Pre-Order Plus program, they'll give you a coupon code that will get you the same great $5 deal on the PDF version of the book. Ask your favorite retailer if they've signed up yet.

Pre-Order Freeport Companion: Pathfinder RPG Edition

Monday morning, and we’re off to war – specifically, Daron’s review of the brand new Memoir ’44 expansion Disaster at Dieppe. This set provides new map options for the streamlined war/board game, new unit types, and a bunch of new scenarios. See what Daron thought of the latest set, or look through our review archive [...]

Blood in Ferelden, providing three complete Dragon Age RPG adventures and three adventure outlines, is now available for pre-ordering. Place your pre-order in our Green Ronin Online Store and you'll be offered the PDF of this book for just $5 during checkout. Pre-order from one of the growing number of GR Pre-Order Plus brick-and-mortar retailers, and they'll give you a coupon code which will also get you the PDF for just $5. Ask your favorite retailer if they've signed up for the program yet.

Pre-Order Blood in Ferelden today!

Looking forward to the inevitable late-night recap episode, but here are our notes for the supposed last TJI of the year, with guests Monte Cook, Robin Laws, and Eddy Webb. The White Wolf party apparently exceeded expectations. Again with the Iron Tyrants! The 5-2-1 rule, expert mode for the 3-2-1 rule. True Dungeon finally gets [...]

This Week's Tips and Features:
Turning Coal Into Diamonds - How To Mine Backstories To Create Killer Campaigns
For Your Game: 30 Brigands

Game Master Tips & Tricks:
Low-Level Encounter Ideas
Pinpoint Time And Location For Easier GMing
More WW2 Supers Campaign Ideas
Image Resources For Character Inspiration
Obstacle Course Request
City Inspiration: Thieves World For Your Summer Reading

RPG Reviews:
Wu Xing - The Ninja Crusade
Hounds of G.O.D.
Genius Guide to the Armiger (Pathfinder RPG)


Campaign Mastery Blog

This Week's Tips and Features:
Romance In RPGs - 5 Ways To Minimize Your Discomfort At The Game Table
Car Chase Tips
For Your Game: 10 City Encounter Hooks


Campaign Mastery Blog

This Week's Tips and Features:
5 Things Driving Across the Country Taught Me About DMing
For Your Game: 10 Bottles of Wine
WWII Supers Campaign Ideas - Reader Tips


Campaign Mastery Blog

This Week's Tips and Features:
How To Run Ripping City Encounters - 3 Tips
For Your Game: 10 Pick Pockets Contents


Campaign Mastery Blog

Like many kids, my early experiences with RPGs took place underground -- in a basement. In Michigan, basements are common, and excellent places to spend the (relatively) hot summer days.

The Chronicles of Future Earth A new BRP setting book for Fall 2010.

Yes, you know we're going to be at PAX Prime this weekend. And our obvious activity will be "running demos." But what else will we be doing?

As you may have guessed by our repeated gushing, we're big fans of PAX, both Prime and East. You may not know, however, about Omegathon.

Devil's Gulch BRP release for October 2010.

Masks of Nyarlathotep Our epic campaign returns Summer 2010.

Just in case you missed the announcement, the numerous Twitter mentions, and the sounds of gleeful squealing coming from our office, Zombie Dice is now on the iPhone. It'll work on the iPad too (although there are rumors of an upcoming version optimized for the larger screen).

Cthulhu Invictus Adventure Contest Write an adventure, win some swag!

Cthulhu's Dark Cults Call of Cthulhu Fiction Anthology Available Now!