Using Hero System for Exalted

[phoenix240]

Has anyone done or seen any work on converting the material for Onyx Path's Exalted setting to Hero System? A point by point, power by power conversion doesn't seem feasible or much fun really but getting the feel of the character types and abilities seems quite possible. 

[Lord Liaden]

Well, there was a fair amount posted to these forums, and other locations, for converting Exalted to Fifth Edition Hero, if you'd be interested in that. Most of the Hero forum stuff seems to have been lost, or just obscured, by the forum revisions over the years; but I dragged up what I could out of archived pages.

 

HERO writeup for Harmonious Jade:

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationsrpg/EXjade.html

General conversion notes (post #3):
http://web.archive.org/web/20070328063412/http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15917

More conversion notes, plus Solar Disadvantages and some magic weapon writeups:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070328063158/http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7482

More specific conversion notes (starting as of post #10):
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=148203

Converting the "Safety Among Enemies" charm:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070328063522/http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19604

Skill-related charms, particularly as affecting bureaucracy:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050427102505/http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16682

 

[NuSoardGraphite]

I have some specific suggestions, but I am at work now. I will formulate a detailed post later tonight.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Okay. This post and the following posts are likely to ramble aimlessly as I will be formulating my thoughts as I post them.

 

The main question you have to ask yourself is this: are you just trying to translate the flavor of Exalted into Hero, or are you trying to bring over some of the unique mechanics to Hero?

 

Exalted is one of those games where its mechanics are part of what gives it its feel. The ability to throw truckloads of dice to demolish mountains is something Exalted and Hero both have in common. So thats a good start.

 

Unfortunately, thats where their similarities end.

 

Characteristic conversion.

 

In general, 5pts of a Hero characteristic equals 1 dot in Exalted. But since Hero is more granular here, it should break down like this:

 

Exalted/Hero

1 dot/1-7

2 dots/8-12

3 dots/13-17

4 dots/18-22

5 dots/23-27

So on and so forth

 

The reason I broke it down this way is because characteristic rolls of 9+CHAR/5 should correspond to thenappropriate dots. Characteristic breakpoints are used in this case. And each +1 to a skill in Hero is equal to 1 dot in an Ability in Exalted. The combination of Attribute + Ability in Exalted equals the Basic Characteristic roll + Skill bonus in Hero.

 

Thus an Exalted character like Harmonious Jade with a Dex of 5 and a Stealth of 5 dots would have a Dex of 23+ and a Stealth of +5 (13pts worth) for a total Stealth roll of 19 or less; the equivalent to 10 dice in Exalted.

 

In general Hero and Exalted characteristics are easy to correllate. Stamina should be Con in Hero. Body should be derived from Health Levels. In general 1 health level in Exalted should be about 2 Body in Hero. Thus, unimportant characters have a Body of 6-7. (3 HL) heroic characters have a Body of 14-15 (7 HL). Exalted can have much higher due to the Ox Body charm.....as much as 30 Body (15 HL)

 

INT is an average of Intelligence and Perception. Ego is Wits. PRE is Charisma and Manipulation. COM or Striking appearance is App (of course)

 

Some characters can have very high Attributes due to Charms and magic. Most especially Lunar Exalted. Such a character could easily have a Strength of 10 (48-52 in Hero!) In general translate straight up, but be reasonable for Dex and Con etc. (In 6th, this is not a big deal, but in 5th or earlier versions, DEX higher than 30 begins to become problematic)

 

However, aside from Lunat Deadly Beastman Transformation, gaining high stats outside of Excellency boosting is time comsuming and expensive xp wise.

 

Next up; ABILITIES/SKILLS

[phoenix240]

Lunars might be the toughest adaptation. Being able to jack your characteristics (particularly Strength, Dex and Int) sky high is going to function so much differently between Hero and ST systems. It won't be such a big deal if we end up with only Solar (or other attribute driven) PCs. Otherwise characteristic boosting ala Lunar charms might have to go by the wayside in translation or be represented differently to maintain more balance. 

[NuSoardGraphite]

Abilities/Skills

 

As I mentioned earlier, each dot of an ability in Exalted should correlate to a +1 to the equivalent skill in Hero. The dots of Attribute plus the dots of Abillity is analogous to [9+(char/5)]+skill bonus. So a 10 dice skill roll.....5 Att + 5 ability is equal to [9+(25/5)]+5 skill, or 19 or less roll.

 

Excellencies can boost this roll considerably. In Exalted, the Solars can double their base dice pool. Dice pools of 20 or rarely more dice are possible in this fashion. In Hero, this potentially translates to skill rolls of 29 or less! However this will be covered with the subject of Charms and may change somewhat depending on the method one uses for Excellencies.

 

Ability categories in Exalted are quite different from Hero, but are pretty easy to correlate. One has to decide if they are using Hero skills as is, or if they will be adopting a structure similar to Exalted to maintain the feel of the setting and to allow for easier integration of Charms in the system.

 

For example, in Exalted there is an Ability known as Athletics, but in Hero this is no less than three seperate skills: Acrobatics, Breakfall and Climbing.

 

It would be my recommendation that one simply use the Ability structure in Exalted and fold in all the appropriate skills into those categories. Use an Athletics skill in place of Acrobatics and Climbing. Performance in place of Acting. Occult in place of a Knowledge Skill, or Power Skill. This will streamline the skill structure.

 

On the interaction of Abilities and Attributes:

 

In Exalted, Abilitis and Attributes ar tracked seperately and can be mixed and matched as necessary to navigate a problem in the setting. For example, a character has an Athletics ability of 3. They can use that with different attributes depending on the situation. If they need to lift something heavy, they match Athletics and Strength. If they need to leap across a canyon, its Athletica and Dexterity. If they need to remember which Terrestrial warrior won the semi-annual Dragon Blooded games last summer, its Athletics + Intelligence.

Hero doesnt do this. In order to maintain the feel of the setting, I would suggest you adopt this mechanic. It merely requires tracking the Characteristic roll and the skill bonus seperately. Then as needed, the GM will ask for a Characteristic plus skill roll ("give me a Dex plus Stealth roll!") Then just add the appropriate skill bonus to the base characteristic roll then apply modifiers and you are good to go.