Craft and Construction - Artifacts, Manses, and other wonders

• Artifact Design and Construction House Rules
• Manse Design and Construction House Rules
• Necrotech Design and Construction House Rules

   

   

Weapons of Mass Destruction

We have yet to determine a clearly defined limit for what constitutes a WMD, but this is how we rule on their deployment.  Some things are obvious, others are less so.  ST discretion as always takes precidence, and a PC can always consent to wave the chance at Investigation if they wish (or are complicit!).

Any PC who has a WMD (whatever that is) used against them (or against nations they steward) is entitled to some sort of investigation roll to be able to deduce a method of acting against it, even if this means just miraculously anticipating the use of the weapon with 'L' level deductive abilities and somehow predicting when, where and who deploys it. Plucking information out of thin air should have a difficulty of ten, stopping the great big glowing orb that spins for 3 days screaming and flashing with skull signs is difficulty 1.  Any player subjected to this kind of attack is entitled to this kind of roll.

Yes, this means that if you are an Empire builder, you probably want to have some sort of Investigation-specced intelligence agent to help you. Twilights are very good at this. If you don't have a person who is good at this working for you, you are wide open.

Yes, this means that if you are a determined terrorist who wishes to use WMDs to destroy the assets of other players, you probably want some sort of Larceny-specced intelligence agent to help you. Nights are very good at this. If you don't have a person who is good at this working for you, you are terrible at terrorism and your plans will get you caught.

The reason for this is primarily OOC in nature.  It is more "in theme" for the two respective Exalted (attacker and defender) to have interaction and possible conflict situations evolving, rather than the simple 'press the button' analogies for modern war. This will hopefully encourage this and keep Exalted heroics at the forefront of WMD conflicts rather than the WMDs taking center stage themselves.

It is recognized that this kinda sucks for people that wanted to be able to bomb with a more 'realistic' approach to how difficult it would be to catch them, but tough luck.  This is Creation where every leaf and grain of sand is occupied by a (semi sentient) potenital informant not 21st century Earth.   While some of our STs do like analogies for the horror of modern nuclear weapons too, it has been decided that ultimately, it is more in theme for Holmes to locate the bomb than it is to reflect the horrific reality that these things would be exceptionally difficult to counter.