Keeping in mind that visible for miles doesn't mean as much when deep in the wilderness...and what exactly costs so much anyway?
General Exalted Thread
- Location
- Singapore
Eh.. not much.
I just want an excuse for a place to go mad with biotech.
I've been re-reading the 3e core after a while and I'm trying to wrap my head around 3e's social influence. The social attributes seem to be differentiated by the approach you use when using them, with Charisma being straightforward, Appearance being focused on first impressions and emotions, and Manipulation being focused on being circumspect. However, Appearance has the ability to give non-charm dice if it's higher than an opponent's resolve. Manipulation's ability is that it is used to calculate Guile. Charisma doesn't get anything.
It feels like you just choose one to use as your primary, except Manipulation feels like the best choice because it's used defensively as well as offensively. The other social influence score, Resolve, is calculated with a Mental attribute instead of a social attribute.
It doesn't help that the social abilities can all do the Instill, Inspire, Persuade, Threaten, and Bargain actions, but the Read Intentions action is explicitly limited to Socialize barring charms. Socialize is also the other half of the Guile calculation pool.
Performance is worth getting as a secondary social ability, as it can make inspire actions to crowds with the usual -3 penalty, but Presence seems ill-defined. It's mini-fiction actually uses oration to inspire a crowd immediately after Performance is mentioned to include oration to crowds.
Linguistics is weird, because the rules for written social influence aren't in the social influence sections, but are instead put in a sidebar in the charms section.
It feels like you're being asked to pay multiple times for very similar things.
It feels like you could have one Persuasion attribute and then have:
It feels like you just choose one to use as your primary, except Manipulation feels like the best choice because it's used defensively as well as offensively. The other social influence score, Resolve, is calculated with a Mental attribute instead of a social attribute.
It doesn't help that the social abilities can all do the Instill, Inspire, Persuade, Threaten, and Bargain actions, but the Read Intentions action is explicitly limited to Socialize barring charms. Socialize is also the other half of the Guile calculation pool.
Performance is worth getting as a secondary social ability, as it can make inspire actions to crowds with the usual -3 penalty, but Presence seems ill-defined. It's mini-fiction actually uses oration to inspire a crowd immediately after Performance is mentioned to include oration to crowds.
Linguistics is weird, because the rules for written social influence aren't in the social influence sections, but are instead put in a sidebar in the charms section.
It feels like you're being asked to pay multiple times for very similar things.
It feels like you could have one Persuasion attribute and then have:
- The Presence skill for force of personality and sincerely held beliefs
- The Performance skill for overwhelming presence, artfully using your looks, and first impressions
- The Socialize skill for being circumspect, hiding your true feelings, and deception.
- A contextual Striking Looks merit to being extra scary or attractive.
- Location
- Virginia
The social influence system doesn't really care much which attributes or abilities you are using; focus on what's written in Chapter 5. In context it's usually pretty clear which you want to use, especially since you will probably have relevant charms. If it's still not clear refer directly to the traits in Chapter 4.
- Location
- Earth Prime
Depending on the terrain, "visible for miles" can vary by orders of magnitude in how many miles.
"A hundred miles away" is quite possible on a relatively flat plain, when your anima is towering to dozens of feet and glows with the light of the Unconquered Sun.
Outside of influence, Charisma's main use is largely for mass combat actions, and also for use in specific charms that key only off of charisma, most in Performance.
Also, unlike round planet Earth, Creation is flat.
I've said this earlier in the thread, but to me the difference is less about deception vs not deception but more that Charisma is that shonen protagonist 'Oh my god how are you yelling that shit about friendship with a straight face' style and Manipulation is based on making logical arguments, honest or not.
Appearance is Jojo posing.
For one thing, air clarity affects visibility.
For another, Dragonbloods have auras too. So do some other supernaturals iirc.
At anything other than single digit miles or less, you're going to have issues telling the difference between a Solar anima flare, and that of a Fire Aspect.
Only if the difference isn't supernaturally Obvious, and given that it's an anima flare -- about as personal a display of power as these things get -- I wouldn't count on it.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Here we are with Sunlit Sands Session 40! Big props as usual to @Aleph for running. Next week baring some clearing of the storm, we will not be running, so we'll see how that shakes out. It's a minor milestone, having hit our 40th session!
Session 40 log
I may add to this later with another post, but nothing jumps to mind. With that, session 40 concludes!
Session 40 log
So this is our first major kickoff into the Conquest of El-Galabi, which is a much more minor, loose-ends session than you might expect. By my count, Session 40 occurs somewhere between Ascending Air 28th and Resplendent Air 1st. This'll be important for later date/action tracking as the arc goes on.
As far as overall sessions go, I was off my game today. Hard to really say why. I misread a bunch of cues that should've been obvious, and I failed to do a whole lot of diagnostic rolls when I should have. I have no excuse other than 'some days aren't good days'.
That being said, I still had fun!
For starters, an outline of the session goals:
1. Check in with Bidaha (the Neomah) and her daughter Simya, who were captives of Hinna the Assayer-Sorcerer, and later entrusted to Inks after she made a deal with Rankar about their safety.
2. Check in with Trasti Gion, who had been abusing Inks's hospitality over the past several months.
3. Lay claim to Hinna's Lab.
4. Seek Training from Elemi Piercing Sun.
For good or ill, we didn't get to all of these, and a lot of that was on me for faffing about and not making really good role playing choices. I'll explain why as we get in.
The opening scene was pretty straight forward- picking up from last session almost immediately, with Pipera greatly enjoying the baths. Bidaha and Simya however, were nowhere to be found.
Now, I had recently re-read the Hinna arc, and it was in the forefront of my mind that lingering plot threads can be pulled as... not punishment, so much as Reminder of consequences. So I was suspicious and on edge the whole session about my dependents being in peril. In hindsight, I should not have thought so.
One of the classic control levers (and blunders) of classic TTRPG including DnD, is attacking dependents like family members. It's why murder-hobos with 'MY PARENTS ARE DEAAAAD' backstories became so common- a character with no connections to the world cannot be distracted from what they're Actually Here To Do.
I think that's a very important point to underline. If the storyteller and players are not 100% on board with what each other wants to do, or willing to compromise so they both have fun. Like, if hypothetical player said to their GM "I'm here to loot dungeons and swim in my piles of gold. I'm not interested in some far of sweeping political intrigue plot."
GM then goes back. "Well... I wanted to do a sweeping political intrigue plot. Is there any way we can make this work for both of us?"
And if you start talking it out, y ou get solutions. Things like the GM not shoving politics in front of looting dungeons, of not distracting from the core experience the PC wants to enjoy.
Now, here's where Aleph did not distract. I already went into this session knowing I wanted to figure out what was going on with Bidaha and Simya. That was my goal, my intended scenes. Aleph built a scene out of that box, and in fact overlapped it with another scene, which is generally good narrative structure and dramatic policy- by combining Sun's scenes with the other, we got More Done in Less Time.
Or we would have, if I wasn't faffing and failing at playing today.
So, we chat with Pipera, Ajjim, get things settled at home... and Inks realizes Bidaha and Simya aren't around. The first and smartest decision I made this whole session, was asking straight out what Carsa knew, and she expotited most admirably.
Armed with that information, I had the worst misgivings- that Piercing Sun would have banished Bidaha and done awful things to her daughter- which was exacerbated by having Sun on Inks's sheet as an Ally. I was caught between this mechanical incentive to feel comfortable in employing Piercing Sun, and being struck by the fact that he might actually be difficult or even impossible to manage.
In the back of my mind, I was wondering if that was in the spirit of the Ally background, or if one would be better suited to representing their relationship. Aleph clarified things after the fact though.
So I went in with a bad assumption, fearing the worst, and was a lot more cagey than Inks usually is as a result. Hence the dancing around of questions instead of being forthright like she usual tends to be. This in turn slowed the scenes down.
Fundamentally, I forgot or failed to internalize that for all of Sun's jingoistic fervor, he's still a soldier and a pragmatist. His views are extreme but rational within that framework, and Aleph wasn't going to jerk the rug out from under me for trying to get to the bottom of the situation with a nominal ally.
or, short-version. I shouldn't have assumed the worst and instead been much friendlier and warmer overall.
Along the way, Aleph was tutorializing Sun's armor, to underline her greater emphasis on Creation as a scavenger world of improvised assets as opposed to the... unified glitz and glam a lot of other games take with the setting- finding unspoiled caches of HFA artifice, for example, or gear that fits 'perfectly' with a character's aesthetic. Instead she showed Inks and us all that Sun's magical armor is a patchwork assembly of loosely related parts that work half as well as they could- and that Sun himself as an Exalt can afford to compensate for its weaknesses in exchange for its strengths.
Depending on how Aleph rules repairing it... well, Sun would be a very happy man.
But now, the highlight of the session, Bidaha.
For those who don't remember, Bidaha was a Neomah captured but not bound by Hinna, and prevented from raising her tower long enough that it crippled her, and changed her nature. That change is now in full effect, underlined by how Bidaha is now the Sexiest Teacher Ever. Aleph explains the mechanics in the logs.
For all Inks's great intelligence, her Occult is merely 3 dots. Just enough to qualify for Emerald Circle Sorcery. So Bidaha was dropping Inks's MDV down by at least two points on sight.
I had a lot of fun being on the other side of the high Appearance Wall.
It had to be clarified after the session, but Sun basically wanted a first-hand accounting of Inks vs Hinna, and sought out someone who could tell her what. I have no idea why he decided to ask after she left for Coxati, but in asking Simya (the weak link in this case), he got an opportunity to really learn about Inks.
So between Simya and Bidaha, Sun now had a much clearer picture of Inks's skillset if not her character... and this is where I misunderstood Sun for most of this session. Sun is not Inks's project- not yet. Inks is his.
Of course, there was a certain mutual desire there to become his project, knowing El Galabi was coming up. But it's an important distinction. Sun may not want another Him, per se, but he is a patriot of Gem, and Inks is... well she really doesn't like Gem as a nation state, but isn't in a position to change what she doesn't like about it yet.
Sun, meanwhile, is seeing another opportunity to add a giant ICBM to Gem's arsenal for saber rattling and potential smiting. He's very much a 'War is diplomacy by other means' sort. his characterization is also that of a career soldier and drill sergeant, which we discussed more at end of log.
The following scene was in-character, but it underlined how badly I was playing today- Inks's knowitall streak was on full display, and it did not play well with Simya- who like Inks has high Conviction. If I were less... Whatever I was today, I would've used more Investigation or Socialize before speaking up.
Simya's craft itself is interesting, and I see Aleph signposting Simya as a means to Inks's potential goals in creating super-bees, super-roses and other not-quite genesis projects.
Really that's the summary of today's session- I should've done a lot more diagnostic things than I ended up doing, and I paid for it with embarrassment and frayed tempers. Things I can deal with, but mildly frustrating as a player.
As far as overall sessions go, I was off my game today. Hard to really say why. I misread a bunch of cues that should've been obvious, and I failed to do a whole lot of diagnostic rolls when I should have. I have no excuse other than 'some days aren't good days'.
That being said, I still had fun!
For starters, an outline of the session goals:
1. Check in with Bidaha (the Neomah) and her daughter Simya, who were captives of Hinna the Assayer-Sorcerer, and later entrusted to Inks after she made a deal with Rankar about their safety.
2. Check in with Trasti Gion, who had been abusing Inks's hospitality over the past several months.
3. Lay claim to Hinna's Lab.
4. Seek Training from Elemi Piercing Sun.
For good or ill, we didn't get to all of these, and a lot of that was on me for faffing about and not making really good role playing choices. I'll explain why as we get in.
The opening scene was pretty straight forward- picking up from last session almost immediately, with Pipera greatly enjoying the baths. Bidaha and Simya however, were nowhere to be found.
Now, I had recently re-read the Hinna arc, and it was in the forefront of my mind that lingering plot threads can be pulled as... not punishment, so much as Reminder of consequences. So I was suspicious and on edge the whole session about my dependents being in peril. In hindsight, I should not have thought so.
One of the classic control levers (and blunders) of classic TTRPG including DnD, is attacking dependents like family members. It's why murder-hobos with 'MY PARENTS ARE DEAAAAD' backstories became so common- a character with no connections to the world cannot be distracted from what they're Actually Here To Do.
I think that's a very important point to underline. If the storyteller and players are not 100% on board with what each other wants to do, or willing to compromise so they both have fun. Like, if hypothetical player said to their GM "I'm here to loot dungeons and swim in my piles of gold. I'm not interested in some far of sweeping political intrigue plot."
GM then goes back. "Well... I wanted to do a sweeping political intrigue plot. Is there any way we can make this work for both of us?"
And if you start talking it out, y ou get solutions. Things like the GM not shoving politics in front of looting dungeons, of not distracting from the core experience the PC wants to enjoy.
Now, here's where Aleph did not distract. I already went into this session knowing I wanted to figure out what was going on with Bidaha and Simya. That was my goal, my intended scenes. Aleph built a scene out of that box, and in fact overlapped it with another scene, which is generally good narrative structure and dramatic policy- by combining Sun's scenes with the other, we got More Done in Less Time.
Or we would have, if I wasn't faffing and failing at playing today.
So, we chat with Pipera, Ajjim, get things settled at home... and Inks realizes Bidaha and Simya aren't around. The first and smartest decision I made this whole session, was asking straight out what Carsa knew, and she expotited most admirably.
Armed with that information, I had the worst misgivings- that Piercing Sun would have banished Bidaha and done awful things to her daughter- which was exacerbated by having Sun on Inks's sheet as an Ally. I was caught between this mechanical incentive to feel comfortable in employing Piercing Sun, and being struck by the fact that he might actually be difficult or even impossible to manage.
In the back of my mind, I was wondering if that was in the spirit of the Ally background, or if one would be better suited to representing their relationship. Aleph clarified things after the fact though.
So I went in with a bad assumption, fearing the worst, and was a lot more cagey than Inks usually is as a result. Hence the dancing around of questions instead of being forthright like she usual tends to be. This in turn slowed the scenes down.
Fundamentally, I forgot or failed to internalize that for all of Sun's jingoistic fervor, he's still a soldier and a pragmatist. His views are extreme but rational within that framework, and Aleph wasn't going to jerk the rug out from under me for trying to get to the bottom of the situation with a nominal ally.
or, short-version. I shouldn't have assumed the worst and instead been much friendlier and warmer overall.
Along the way, Aleph was tutorializing Sun's armor, to underline her greater emphasis on Creation as a scavenger world of improvised assets as opposed to the... unified glitz and glam a lot of other games take with the setting- finding unspoiled caches of HFA artifice, for example, or gear that fits 'perfectly' with a character's aesthetic. Instead she showed Inks and us all that Sun's magical armor is a patchwork assembly of loosely related parts that work half as well as they could- and that Sun himself as an Exalt can afford to compensate for its weaknesses in exchange for its strengths.
Depending on how Aleph rules repairing it... well, Sun would be a very happy man.
But now, the highlight of the session, Bidaha.
For those who don't remember, Bidaha was a Neomah captured but not bound by Hinna, and prevented from raising her tower long enough that it crippled her, and changed her nature. That change is now in full effect, underlined by how Bidaha is now the Sexiest Teacher Ever. Aleph explains the mechanics in the logs.
For all Inks's great intelligence, her Occult is merely 3 dots. Just enough to qualify for Emerald Circle Sorcery. So Bidaha was dropping Inks's MDV down by at least two points on sight.
I had a lot of fun being on the other side of the high Appearance Wall.
It had to be clarified after the session, but Sun basically wanted a first-hand accounting of Inks vs Hinna, and sought out someone who could tell her what. I have no idea why he decided to ask after she left for Coxati, but in asking Simya (the weak link in this case), he got an opportunity to really learn about Inks.
So between Simya and Bidaha, Sun now had a much clearer picture of Inks's skillset if not her character... and this is where I misunderstood Sun for most of this session. Sun is not Inks's project- not yet. Inks is his.
Of course, there was a certain mutual desire there to become his project, knowing El Galabi was coming up. But it's an important distinction. Sun may not want another Him, per se, but he is a patriot of Gem, and Inks is... well she really doesn't like Gem as a nation state, but isn't in a position to change what she doesn't like about it yet.
Sun, meanwhile, is seeing another opportunity to add a giant ICBM to Gem's arsenal for saber rattling and potential smiting. He's very much a 'War is diplomacy by other means' sort. his characterization is also that of a career soldier and drill sergeant, which we discussed more at end of log.
The following scene was in-character, but it underlined how badly I was playing today- Inks's knowitall streak was on full display, and it did not play well with Simya- who like Inks has high Conviction. If I were less... Whatever I was today, I would've used more Investigation or Socialize before speaking up.
Simya's craft itself is interesting, and I see Aleph signposting Simya as a means to Inks's potential goals in creating super-bees, super-roses and other not-quite genesis projects.
Really that's the summary of today's session- I should've done a lot more diagnostic things than I ended up doing, and I paid for it with embarrassment and frayed tempers. Things I can deal with, but mildly frustrating as a player.
That's not what Obvious means, it just means that it's obvious that what is going on is magical/supernatural/essencey.
On the other hand Terrestrial Animas never go Totemic, and so never produce miles-tall images.
... You know, somehow I thought you could get other Obvious things. Certainly I've internalized the concept, because making some non-obvious detail supernaturally Obvious is just a really cool idea.
I can't remember an actual cite, so I might be wrong about canon -- though in this particular case I think I'll argue "who cares, it makes Creation way cooler if you have Obvious aspects."
There are, but they are explicitly called out as such.... You know, somehow I thought you could get other Obvious things. Certainly I've internalized the concept, because making some non-obvious detail supernaturally Obvious is just a really cool idea.
I can't remember an actual cite, so I might be wrong about canon -- though in this particular case I think I'll argue "who cares, it makes Creation way cooler if you have Obvious aspects."
Like that one Charm that makes it Obvious if you are being controlled or influenced by an outside force( including the Great Curse).
Azrael
Sakura Saber
- Location
- Throne of Heroes
...I don't know about 3e, but Terrestrials have totemic images in 2e. Sidereals are the only Exalted who don't.
- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
3E doesn't use the word Totemic, but DBs do get the miles-visible light show.
Generally speaking, visible for miles basically means "don't do this within sight of a major settlement". Creation's population density is pretty erratic, especially outside the urban core of the Realm
Though the question remains that what the heck outside of combat demands so many motes at once and cannot be spaced out over a few hours.
Though the question remains that what the heck outside of combat demands so many motes at once and cannot be spaced out over a few hours.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
the 'Visible for Miles' concept actually was something I misunderstood for years as well- it's visible for miles the same way something on the horizon is visible for miles, not 'Towering beacon X miles high'.
If you've ever gone camping and seen some distant point of light, that's what they mean by 'visible for miles.'
If you've ever gone camping and seen some distant point of light, that's what they mean by 'visible for miles.'
- Location
- Quezon City, Philippines
I'd like to point out the human eye can see a candle light in the middle of the night for miles. It might just be a star like pinprick or a flickering light, but it's still perceptible. That's not counting the theoretical absolute thresholds of human sensation. By this metric, the flares of sunlight caused by an Exalt in the middle of the night at would be visible far on the horizon the same way a metropolis or a giant religious bonfire does.
Yep. Though significant tree cover(which should be true for most non-desert/tundra/ocean zones?) would cut your ability to actually get a fix on it without a watchtower. Generally speaking its not a good habit to get into, but if you go totemic fighting a Yidak in an ancient tomb, you're probably going to get away with it if you lay low for a few days and the rumor dissolves in the background.
- Location
- Singapore
SUMMONING THE BEASTS
~ TERRESTRIAL CIRCLE SPELL
The sorcerer whispers the words sighed by the world as the first beast was laid upon it by Gaia, and summons it into his surroundings. A pack of beasts or animals of whatever his choosing then appears beside him, in numbers of (magnitude Essence + 1), within 100 meters. Whether in flash of light, to rise out of the earth, or arrive on a dust devil, the beasts appear in the next action. The animals can range from mice, to cows, to tyrant lizards. The beasts are, considered, for all purposes to be natural and ordinary. Upon death, they leave corpses, and they act like they would be if they were never tamed.
If you do summon something along the lines of a tyrant lizard or a great-terror, do keep yourself in a safe and inaccessible place.
A/n: Inspired when magicians pull rabbits out of a hat. And when Conan talks about magic.
~ TERRESTRIAL CIRCLE SPELL
The sorcerer whispers the words sighed by the world as the first beast was laid upon it by Gaia, and summons it into his surroundings. A pack of beasts or animals of whatever his choosing then appears beside him, in numbers of (magnitude Essence + 1), within 100 meters. Whether in flash of light, to rise out of the earth, or arrive on a dust devil, the beasts appear in the next action. The animals can range from mice, to cows, to tyrant lizards. The beasts are, considered, for all purposes to be natural and ordinary. Upon death, they leave corpses, and they act like they would be if they were never tamed.
If you do summon something along the lines of a tyrant lizard or a great-terror, do keep yourself in a safe and inaccessible place.
A/n: Inspired when magicians pull rabbits out of a hat. And when Conan talks about magic.
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Interestingly utilitarian attitude the old warhawk has towards a demon.
Then again, if he is a war sorcerer.......amusing how he and the Despot tacitly ignore each other as much as possible.
If he's dragging Inks through a training montage a la Mulan *whistles Be A Man*what are the odds Pipera will manage to avoid getting dragged in?
That's Gunzosha that Elemi is wearing isn't it?
My first thought was Dragon Armor, and I was wondering where he would have scavenged that from. But Inks would have recognized magical materials. Ergo, gunzosha or sentinel armor. Maybe ashigaru.
Nevertheless, it's appearance here,as well as the dam, and the semifunctional cache of industry that Moto acquired, suggests this was something of a major tech node in the High First Age/Shogunate period.
Which means there's probably more stuff lying about.
Lol at the Hot Teacher Aura.
Inks should be lucky noone else was there to see that happen.
That little exchange about the assassins provenance raised more questions than it answered to be honest.
Moto being one of the potential suspects.....dunno. It does seem plausible, but I would have expected a repeat.
Is it possible that Tatters old master pulled a string or two to burn a favor?
Thanks to you and Aleph for sharing.
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I would actually like to see the analysis that got cut off here, if you don't mind.