Back to Social Resolution System
These rules focus overwhelmingly on the person making the appeal, but there are a number of options that a character subjected to an appeal can use to increase his chances of not being swayed or convinced by another.
In general, the stunting rules in Exalted are well known and can be used as-is in this system. However, the rules for defensive stunting are slightly changed. Instead of gaining bonus dice, the stunt bonus goes to the threshold of success that the character has to meet in order to successfully make his appeal.
A character can thus, effectively, gain a free reflexive parry against any appeal that automatically nets him one to three successes. The guidelines for awarding stunts for social appeals are provided in the following table.
| Stunt Rating | Requirements |
| +1 | The character provides a convincing reason why he is not swayed by the appeal. |
| +2 | The character convincingly roleplays out his characters reactions to the appeal, his thought process, and how he deals with his opponents arguements. |
| +3 | The character's roleplays out a badass reaction to the appeal that leaves everyone at the table discussing the implications and reactions of the appeal and how it might unfold and that generally makes the discussion awesome and epic. |
The following notes are technically optional, but are highly recommended.
It should be noted that in the abscence of certain Solar and Abyssal charms, participation in the social process is entirely optional. If you don't like what your hearing then you can always quit paying attention, leave the venue, or even actively attempt to prevent the conversation from taking place at all. The rules for this act are found in Chapter Five of the Corebook, in the Dawn Section.
Attention is one of the most fundamental defenses against an appeal. If you refuse to pay attention to someone, you aren't going to be as affected by their arguements. This raises difficulty of an appeal by 1. In general, getting someone to talk to you is Magnitude 1 and if they don't want to listen that's Opposition 1 as well. Of course, if his Opposition is above 3 then expect him to do a little Opposition Swapping if your storyteller is allowing such.
A much safer and more sure defense is just leaving the venue, which provides even greater or even complete immunity to appeals. If you stay for most of the appeal (required time one space lower on the chart), then your difficulty will go up by +3. If you don't even stay that long then no appeal was made at all.
Lastly, of course, one needs no social defense against a dead opponent.
The main form of defense against appeals is the simple Rebuttle. This represents an active attempt to tear down the main structures of the appeal, or simply noting vehemently how it is not important to you. A Rebuttle relies on a quick mind that can react to the changing circumstances of the appeal, and is thus based on the characters Wits attribute. The other half of the rebuttle is one of the characters Virtues, the exact one chosen depending on the nature of the characters counter-arguement.
A character must spend a willpower point to make an effective rebuttle. The rebuttle operates as an active defense, giving the character his Wits + Virtue roll with each success eliminating one success from the appeals roll. In addition, if the characters opponent makes the required difficulty, you are treated as having already ignored it without having to spend another point of willpower. Stunts on the rebuttle should be handled as normal, raising the threshold of success instead of adding dice.
A rebuttle, however, is not without risk. If your arguements prove inferior, you provide an opening that your opponent can use against you! If your opponent makes his appeal regardless of your rebuttle, you roll the targeted virtue as normal. If you get even a single success on the virtue roll, the threshold of success if is reduced by your rating in the virtue. Even if you fail the virtue roll, the threshold still drops by one.
These drawbacks are only present if the character makes an actual mechanical rebuttle, which a character is not required to do. If the character gets emotionally involved enough in the discussion to make an actual rebuttle, he becomes vulnerable should his arguement prove lacking in the face of his opponent.
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