From waging a campaign to spreading a mercantile Guild to infiltrating and converting a spy network, to building a grand Manse, sometimes the Exalted want to do long-reaching, large-scale endeavors that are best handled through a broad-stroking brush.
Projects represent what happens during downtime to explain what characters are doing when the heat of action is not fully upon them. As such, performing Projects should typically happen only during points of time skips, or between Stories.
A scene of Projects will often follow a montage structure—Choose a Player, let them describe what they are spending their points on, then ask for a couple of small images of what happens during the project, leading up to the inevitable Obstruction that will need to be dealt with.
Example Projects:
Arming Militia
Repairing a burned down village
Establishing a spy network
Repairing a manse
Establishing trade
Creating a manse
Projects require a certain number of Resources (RES) to complete. This resource is a generalized representation of everything from labor, physical materials, knowledge, and the like that can be applied to the Project. Once applied to the project, RES is permanently consumed—while the labor force may still be there, perhaps payment toward them ran dry, or they can no longer delay tending to their crops.
Much like XP, The Storyteller should periodically award RES to the players. However, unlike XP, RES should be more based on events within the campaign, such as recovering materials from a lost manse, gaining the workforce of a thankful village, etc.
1 Resource is roughly equivalent to:
A highly-successful Merchant route.
An entire village’s worth of manpower for a month.
A favor from a very powerful person.
Due to the generalized nature of Projects, the source of Resource does not always match the application of them. It is simply assumed that conversion of Resources to their applicable form is handled “off-screen”: recovered gems could grease the pockets of a noble, allowing for backroom deals that allow military training of civilians, for example. In general, this is all assumed to have happened, and does not need attention drawn to it.
Players may freely transfer and give RES to other characters, should they so choose, but only one character will gain the benefits of the Project.
Larger and more ambitious projects will require certain Keystone to complete. This can range from needing a General to command an army to requiring a significant amount of magical materials, such as Orichalcum or Moonsilver.
Keystone Resources are things that Players must seek out. Typically, this is done by dropping out of the “montage” section of Projects, and embracing a full scene involving the Exalt seeking out, resolving, and interacting with their desired Keystone.
Using Keystones as Story Generation Keystones are an excellent way to gauge what Players care about, and what they feel is central to care about—you never need a Keystone for a minor change to the world or minor merit for the character. Therefore, it’s not unreasonable to ask players early what sort of Keystone they are seeking, and then make it a plot of a Story, giving them the requested Keystone when certain criteria have been met—when they have recruited their General, changed the geomancy of an area, or introduced their assassin network into a new location. However, if this takes more than a Session, you should let the Player spend their resources and use their merit/change upon the world while searching for the Keystone—though perhaps at a bit of a disadvantage. |
When you start a project, you will need to detail which Primary Ability will be used in the Project. Any Project using the Natural Abilities should follow rules of common sense: If you are training troops to be archers, you should be using Archery or Command. If you are creating a Spy network, use Subterfuge.
Projects can be a way for characters to gain or improve Merits. For example, the character might decide to recruit Followers, establish a network of Contacts, or make an Artifact.
The level of the Merit Improved is equal to the Scale of the Project.
If a character is improving a Merit to a higher rating, they pay the difference in RES, Keystones, and time between the ratings. For example, improving Contacts from Rating 1 to Rating 2 would be one Resource.
From raising walls to creating vast trade networks, Projects can be used to alter the world around the Exalt to their will (and benefit.)
The Magnitude of the change determines the base Resource and Keystone cost: as determined by the population and/or terrain size affected.
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| Scale | Project Affects Population/Terrain |
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When making a change on the world, sometimes the world and its inhabitants pushes back. If you are attempting to muster a great army while in the middle of hostile territory, it certainly will take much greater care and effort to do so!
If the change is Unnatural, or Significantly opposed, increase the Scale by +1. This would encompass such oddities such as advanced technology that is self-maintained or changing a ragtag set of farmers with no military knowledge into an organized army within a month. Or trying to establish a Spy network in a network loyal to an Exalt without them knowing, or attempting to reclaim land from hostile places such as the Wyld.
If the change is clearly Supernatural in nature or Overwhelmingly opposed, such as making a well that perpetually draws fresh water from the middle of the desert, increase the Scale of the project by (+2). Resistance of this magnitude would be opposed by extreme forces, such as Gods, or networks of Exalts, such as the Bronze Faction of Sidereals.
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Some Projects focus on altering an existing aspect of the world—such as repairing a great Manse or taking an existing network of people and converting them to work for you, or completely eradicating it altogether.
Since much of the work has been done already, these types of Projects will be reduced in scale, depending on the severity of the repairs or changes needed to be made.
Destruction of a Projects focuses more on doing so safely, and in a controlled manner.
Minor (-2 to Scale). The repairs and/or changes needed to be made are significant enough to warrant attention, but will not consume the Character endlessly.
Major (-1 to Scale). There is significant damage or resistance to your changes.
Monumental (-0 to Scale). It would be the same amount of effort to repair and or alter the Project as it would be to create a new one from the ground up.
This cannot decrease the Scale below 1.
Altering Owned Projects You can’t alter a Project if someone else currently owns it. You would first have to depose the current leader of a Spy Network and then take over the leaderless network as your own. |
There’s a Size 3 Assassin network the Eclipse Caste has recently become the leader of. Being a pacifist, he wants them to stop killing and convert into simply a network of Spys. There is enough internal resistance to this command that he must make a Minor Alteration Project (Base 3, -2) and so it becomes a Scale 1 Project.
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All projects of Scale 1+, will have an Obstruction Roll, to represent any sort of random events and/or problems that will inevitably show up during the course of your Project.
The Obstruction Roll is a Luck Die (1d10), to which they add their (Ability) Score to. Then, they subtract the Project Scale to get the final result of the roll:
1d10 + (Ability Rating) - (Scale/Merit Level)
Once the Player knows the scale of their Obstruction, they should describe what the result is, and how their character deals with the results.
If desired, the Player may request ideas from the Storyteller or other players.
Obstructions should never prevent the Player from completing a project—even a Major Problem. The Resources and Keystones have been spent. However, they can certainly inconvenience the Character, change the outcome unexpectedly, or make the character question if they are on the right path.
Multiple Projects If a character has multiple projects proceeding, only roll for Obstructions for the two most impactful Projects of that character, to speed things up. |
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Oddities are events that, while unexpected, are not directly harmful to the completion of the project. They could potentially be a boon, even, but require direct attention of the Exalt to resolve.
Beastmen have heard of your militia, and wish to join. Current members are uneasy and do not wish them to without your input.
Your cult desires a clarification on one of your rules: currently one of the members is in violation of the technical aspects of the law, but not the spirit. What is the precedent that you wish to set?
The magical materials to create your artifact were slightly flawed, leading to a variance in essence flow. It might lead to a new and unintended strange power.
Problems, if not dealt with, would set back the Project.
A spy has not returned on time. You know they are not simply late.
Loss of a minor cache of resources. A spirit has started to disrupt the village.
An explosion rocked your campsite.
Supply lines are being disrupted.
Rumors of the Wyld hunt are near your border, but are unproven.
A Major Problem will derail the entire project if not dealt with.
Your workers have split into two different groups, on the brink of a civil war.
There seems to be an element inside your organization actively and effectively disrupting your society.
One of the magical materials was corrupted with Vitriol, and has started to speak the demon-tongue of Malfeas.