Performance Charms
Memorable Performance Technique
Cost: 1 mote per two dice
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Performance: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Exalt can call upon her own
Essence to draw truly outstanding performances from within. Whether the
performance is music, theater or another performing art, the character enhances
her talent with this Charm. The character can add two dice to her Performance
dice pool for every mote of Essence spent. She can no
more than double her Performance Ability with this Charm, and if she wishes to
add just a single die (for example, if she has an odd Performance score) she
must spend a full mote to get it.
Talented Improvisation
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Performance: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Memorable
Performance Technique
The character with Talented
Improvisation can catch herself in a misstep in any
performance and work her way out of it. Whether turning a bad note into an unexpected
chord or moving from a forgotten line into an unforgettable soliloquy, the
character is never in serious danger when performing onstage. If the player
spends the necessary Essence immediately upon making a Performance roll, she
can reroll it at once. This must be done before the
Storyteller describes the general success or failure of her attempt. She must
take the second result, no matter what it is. If this Charm is part of a Combo,
the other Charms in the Combo must be paid for a second time when Talented
Improvisation is used, but if they require dice rolls, those rolls cannot be
remade.
Dance Of
Flashing Swords
Cost: 2 motes, 1 Willpower, +1 mote per extra enemy
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Performance: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Talented
Improvisation
Occasionally, a Dragon-Blooded
warrior has no choice but to engage in combat in a crowded area or finds
himself in another situation in which he does not what to be seen fighting:
Perhaps an ally’s mind has been subverted by an evil sorcerer, and the Exalt
must subdue the ally without letting political enemies know of his circle’s
internal strife. Regardless of the reason, this Charm lets a combatant hide his
actions and those of a foe within what appears to be stage combat. Simply spend
the necessary Essence to activate this Charm, and most observers will not
realize that the ongoing battle is not for show alone, no matter how
implausible the circumstances seem. If the Exalted faces many enemies
simultaneously, he can extend this cover to include them so long as they are
extras: He spends one additional mote per extra. He cannot extend such cover
over a group of characters that are not extras, nor can he extend his cover to
protect any allies of his that show up. This Charm will not fool characters
with Essences higher than the character using the Charm.
Enchanting Performance
Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Performance: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Memorable
Performance Technique
At this level of mastery, the
Dragon-Blood’s performances become so awe-inspiring, so staggeringly beautiful,
that she can insinuate minor suggestions into audience members who behold them.
If the suggestions violate individual audience members’ Natures, then those
viewers will not obey them; more generally, the suggestions must be the sorts
of things that won’t bring the audience to any real harm. They might find
themselves more willing to travel to a particular part of town at a particular
time or to buy their goods from a particular merchant or to trust a particular
leader more than they would otherwise. Only one sort of performance can violate
the rule against bringing audience members to obvious harm, and that is a
performance designed to incite a riot. Perhaps obviously, this is just as
dangerous to the Exalt as it is to the audience members and should not be
attempted lightly.
The player must spend the
necessary Essence and Willpower to enact this Charm, and she must also roll
Charisma + Performance. With a basic success, the character can instill a
simple suggestion into a small crowd; the group will remember where they got
the idea. For each additional success, the crowd can be somewhat larger: Three
successes implies a crowd of hundreds and five a crowd of thousands.
Additionally, if the character sacrifices one success, the crowd will not
remember where they received the suggestion that spurred their mass activity.
Protective Performance
Cost: 8 motes
Duration: Until performance ends
Type: Simple
Minimum Performance: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Enchanting
Performance
This performance lends a bit of
defensive magic to an entire crowd of viewers. This magic can be used to
protect the crowd from hostile or mind-affecting sorcery or from impersonal
ranged attacks such as volleyed arrow fire. The Charm provides no protection
against hand-to-hand attacks. To activate the Charm, the character must spend
the necessary Essence. All those watching the performance in question receive
the following benefits so long as the performance continues:
• Treat their Essence as being
one higher than it is for the purposes of withstanding mind-affecting powers.
• Add two additional soak, both
lethal and bashing, against ranged attacks.
Tireless
Footfalls Cadence
Cost: 2 motes per fang
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Performance: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Memorable Performance Technique
The songs of the Dragon-Blooded can inspire even the most
slovenly unit to incredible feats of endurance. As her unit sets out upon the
road (the song must be started with the march), the Terrestrial raises her
voice in song, singing tales of the unit’s glory, the prodigious feats it has
accomplished and the justified vengeance it is going to wreak upon the enemy
when it arrives. As she sings, her soldiers find their loads lightened, their
resolve stiffened and the journey less onerous.
So long as she continues singing, her unit gains a number
of automatic successes equal to her Permanent Essence - 2 (minimum 1) on all
fatigue checks, and its rate of travel is doubled. This feat can only be
performed for infantry units, and a single Dragon-Blooded can only affect a
number of fangs equal to her permanent Essence + 2, but the Charm is
synergistic. Motes spent on this Charm are committed — a Dragon-Blood can keep
the Charm working for a number of hours equal to her permanent Essence +
Stamina.
Flawless
Training Execution
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower, plus 1 mote and 1 committed mote
per fang trained
Duration: Two months
Type: Simple
Minimum Performance: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
This Charm allows the Dragon-Blooded to execute a
training plan developed by Charms higher in this tree. With the Charm in
effect, the Exalt can flawlessly lead drills, impart knowledge and teach
classes without error. A single Dragon-Blooded can train a number of fangs
equal to his Permanent Essence, but this Charm is synergistic — groups of
Terrestrials working in concert can train large units of troops quickly. Each
use of this Charm requires a training program or protocol developed with the
Peerless Training Method Protocols or other Charms — a Dragon-Blooded can memorize
a number of training programs at one time equal to his permanent Essence. While
this Charm is in use, 1 mote of Essence per fang trained is committed to its
continued operation — these motes are released when the program is complete.
Peerless
Training Method Protocols
Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One month per dot of permanent Essence, or until training
program is used
Type: Simple
Minimum Performance: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Flawless Training Execution
During the First Age, the Dragon-Blooded relied on the
Celestial Exalted and their superior training methods to bring knowledge to the
people and acted as facilitators, rather than designers, of training programs.
When the Usurpation was being planned, the Terrestrial Exalted developed this
family of Charms as a way to secretly train commandos and soldiers for their
war, and the Dragon-Bloods have continued to refine the process ever since.
Like the Sense-Destroying Methods, this Charm is actually
a family of Charms that work in an identical fashion — five examples of the
Charms available are listed in the Protocols sidebar on this page, but others
are known, and more can be developed as needed. Using one of these Charms, a
skilled Dragon-Blood can develop a training program to improve those undergoing
the program in specific areas — she can teach civilians how to be soldiers,
teach disaster recovery techniques or impart the fundamentals of nearly any
task.
To use these Charms, the Terrestrial develops a training
program — this requires one week, minus one day for each dot of permanent
Essence over 2 (so a Dragon-Blooded with Essence 4 can develop a training
program in five days). At the end of this time, the Charm’s user commits the
plan to record on paper, and his player rolls the character’s Intelligence +
Performance, against a difficulty of 4. If the Charm is successful, the plan
will raise one Ability listed to 3, two Abilities to 2 and the remaining
Abilities to 1 each, add one dot to an Attribute
listed and raise one of the Virtues listed by one. Extra successes can be used
to buy specialties for the Abilities raised — each extra success equals one
specialty. No more than two specialties can be gained in this fashion. A failed
roll indicates a training plan that simply will not work — the time and Essence
spent is lost. A botched roll indicates a training plan that is subtly flawed
in some fashion — it cannot work, but this will not become evident until it is
implemented in the field by being used by someone with the Flawless Training
Execution Charm. This will typically be noticeable within the first week of
training, but particularly bad botches may take weeks to become evident.
The Abilities gained by this Charm are not additive — if a character has more dots in that Ability than
the training program would provide, she gains no benefit (though she may still
gain any attached specialties, if she has less than three). These Charms cannot
raise Attributes above 3, Virtues above 2 or Willpower above 8 (these stats can
be raised later through experience). A given character can only benefit from a
single Charm in this tree once but can be the recipient of multiple different
Charms (so a character could receive the Combat Drill Protocol and then the
Officer Readiness Training Protocol). This Charm has no effect whatsoever on
individuals with an Essence higher than 1.
Each training program is unique and can only be used once
— if a developer wants to hand a training program to two subordinates, he must
use this Charm twice and develop two different programs. A Dragon-Blooded can
develop as many training programs as he likes, but each requires 2 committed
motes of Essence to remain viable — these motes are returned when someone with
the Flawless Training Execution Charm uses the training program.
Hidden
Petal Aria Method
Cost: 2 motes per subject
Duration: Special
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Performance: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Memorable Performance Technique
In the courts of the Dragon-Blooded, the love of musical
and theatrical performances is commonplace. A character skilled in the use of
this Charm can manipulate the nuance and subtext of his performance to
communicate secretly with audience members of his choice.
During the course of a performance, a Dragon-Blood may
use this Charm, expending 2 motes for each audience member he wishes to
communicate with secretly. For the duration of the performance, he may pass
information to these audience members as if he was delivering a slowly spoken
monologue. Some types of specialized or technical information may not be
communicated through the use of this Charm, but general topics of conversation
can be transmitted. The Charm only facilitates communication from the performer
to the audience member or members.
Blossom
Hides Thorns
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Performance: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Dance of Flashing Swords
The Dragon-Blooded are social creatures, enamored with
culture and art, but they are also creatures of violence, passion and cunning artifice.
It is upon the ground where these two spheres of interest meet that this Charm
is most useful. With a graceful dance step or an artful flourish, a
Dragon-Blood skilled in this technique may mask an attack as part of a
performance, taking her foe unawares. Treat this attack as an ambush attempt unless
the ambushed character employs a Charm that makes him aware of attacks against
his person. Players of such ambushed characters must make the normal Wits + Awareness
roll for their characters to react to the ambush, but they must add the
permanent Essence of the character using Blossom Hides Thorns to their difficulty.
This Charm may not be used once combat has begun.