Sucal
The Devil’s Cut
- Location
- Bottom of the barrel
Tea Cup Ninja's punching them into a Duck
General Exalted Thread
- Location
- United States
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Weird thought I had is that this game gets a ton of word count going in forum posts over it over whether Fluff Point X is coherent or needs to be changed, what can be added to Exalted based off historical and anthropological studies, how to optimize your background/merit gain and output, when ultimately Exalted is just a fun RPG setting that some dude typed up in his apartment while blasting Limp Bizkit on his boombox, and that you're meant to play in it. Like, the write-ups about cultures in Exalted and what they are inspired by are fun, don't get me wrong, but also how on Earth am I going to adapt that nuance and depth to a game I play for four hours every Saturday where my players play robots wielding the unholy fusion of the Buster Sword and a lightsaber?
- Pronouns
- He
In the two Exalted games I've been in, only one character ever did much of anything with their past life as a First Age Solar and even that wasn't very prominent, beyond calling up an embarrassing memory of the Mask of Winters to mock him with when we met him. In fact, I don't think my own Solar ever had any hint of their past lives at all. She was entirely a creature of the present age.
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- Pronouns
- They/them
Yeah, my experience is that most people just want to show up every couple weeks and watch their entertaining trainwreck characters bounce off of each other and the environment for a few hours, then go home. Unless said entertaining trainwrecks actually rely on stuff like internally consistent fluff or cool concepts the player yoinked from historical and anthropological studies (which, in all fairness, does happen sometimes!), you can easily get away with not doing anything fancy.
The Sidereals kickstarter is wrapping up in an hour, and I thought it was looking like it wasn't going to hit Flying Guillotine as the last stretch goal, but it ticked up just enough overnight to get there. At $220k, it beat the Exigents campaign, but I think that makes it the lowest of the Ex3 'main' splats so far, which I hope only means that sids have a smaller fanbase?
The way the publishing schedule for this edition has been cursed always makes me worried it's gonna putter out before it finishes. >.<
The way the publishing schedule for this edition has been cursed always makes me worried it's gonna putter out before it finishes. >.<
- Location
- United States
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I'd argue the bigger factor is that they launched it over the holiday season. Not much spare cash when everyone has spent it on Christmas gifts.
- Location
- Wingmaiden's Reach, the Near Roofs, Town
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I can confirm that that's why I didn't back it. I do feel this was very badly timed, because I'd have happily backed it a month earlier or later.
The backer numbers are fine; they're in line with the DB and Lunar Kickstarters, in the 2300-2400 range. It looks like the proportion of PDF-only backers to print backers is reasonably close to the others, so that's probably not causing the disparity.
A big factor in Sids coming out lower is likely to be because shipping isn't included in the pledges, where it was for the others, and to a lesser degree because there was no physical map available to buy (it's a thing for some backers).
I really liked what I saw in the Kickstarter, but I only backed it at the $5 level because the exchange rate for CDN$ to US$ meant that I'd be paying almost $40 for the pdf tier, and that was a bit much for me so close to Christmas.
Exalted was originally made by a group of Econ and History majors who were the sorts of people to get into extended fights about exactly how cool triremes are, and also who wanted a setting where imperialism and the drug trade were handled realistically and seriously, while also allowing people to play Cloud Strife.
It was a complicated thing from day 1, basically, and the fact that it cares about humans acting like humans and portraying cultures realistically means it keeps drawing in ultranerds who really care about the fine details.
tl;dr exalted contains multitudes and is explicitly supposed to enable complex politicking and final fantasying both.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Also like- for my part, having that layer of grittiness and attempted realism serves to give the high drama weight and substance. Demigods duelling among the clouds stands out more, and thus is more fun, in media that includes the contrast of regular soldiers wrestling among the blood-churned mud, than in a work where the big SFX duel is all there is.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
This is genuinely important to me. An Exalt is superhuman, but an Exalt is still, ultimately, very human. The more any given take on the setting goes to "they're untouchable incarnate gods, no mortal can hold a candle to an Exalt", the less interested I am. Exalts are mighty, but a large mob of mortals is a dire threat to most Exalts. People matter. The world is old and deep enough that entrenched power structures known how to handle a single champion, no matter how mighty, who gets in their way.
And, yes, sometimes this still does lead to brightly-colored heroes with swords bigger than tower shields dueling a demon lord in the skies while the sorcerer scours the demon lord's armies with a gargantuan kamehameha.
HalfTangible
Only half sane (it's less cringe)
- Location
- Valkyrie, Primus
The first Super Saiyan transformation doesn't work because it's cool and flashy
It works because Freeza just murdered Goku's best friend.
It works because Freeza just murdered Goku's best friend.
Blaque
Resident Catblob
- Location
- SLC UT
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I actually put this in Excel out of curiousty and found this out:
| Dragon-Blooded | Lunars | Essence | Exigents | Sidereals | |
| Total | $321,669 | $288,526 | $349,238 | $163,559 | $223,142 |
| Pledges | 2,321 | 2,379 | 4,086 | 1,726 | 2.334 |
| Avg. Pledge | $143 | $121 | $85 | $95 | $96 |
Dragon-Blooded had in its potential add-ons:
- Intenrational shipping costs
- 1e Aspect Books and 1e books
- Map of the Blessed Isle
- The base PDF cost was $30
- Heirs to the Shoguante wasn't included in the PDF cost. You had to add it via an Add-On or use one of the higher tiers.
- The Realm was an add-on and higher tiers included it as well.
- There were limited copies of the 3e Corebook's special edition that sold-out.
For Lunars, the add-ons included:
- Again, Many-Faced Strangers wasn't in the additional materials thing.
- There was a bundle for some 1e books from 1e and 2e.
- There was a map available.
For Essence you had these different:
- Starting cost of $25 v. 30 for the PDF
- PDF came with the companion (Pillars of Creation)
- There was a lower-cost physical add-on ($65).
- I think the aformentioend internatinal shipping changes started here with Exalted at least.
- Had some "All of 1e" and "all of 2e" bundle PDFs.
- LImited copies of Lunars and Dragon-Blooded for folks hwo missed htose.
Exigents we have:
- Starts at $25, comes with companion (MIracles of the Divine Flame)
- Only add-ons besides the standard screen were the fiction, corebook, and music suite. So not a lot ot add to it.
And for Sidereals to round-out to compare a bit:
- Started at $25, came with the companion ala prior two.
- Only physical extra was Exigents or screen
- PDFs of rest of 3e books, fiction, and music
So honestly Sidereals in all of this having the same number of peldges, but hte lower total number, kind of adds-up. On average its' more than Essenc,e which had a lower phyiscal floor, but close to Exigents since at the end fo the the day, the buy-in for everything was easier ($25 for book + companion v. $40 for Lunars and DBs there), and there was just more you could staple to your order.
WHich isn't bad mind. Accessablity and such is fun. But it does sadly kind of constrain what you can put in the Companion I think due to how stable it seems the actual buyer population be. Though in that regard, I think so far what we got in the Sidereal and Exigent companions are hoenslty pretty complete. The only thing missed to me that feels kind of critical was the Torchbearers in Exigents....and someone used their Design Seed reward tier to get that anyways so it worked out. The only one I think I would have been sad we almost missed for Sidereals was Flying Guillotine, but we did get that, so all is good.
The_Reptile_
Jolly Good
- Location
- THE PITS OF HELL. Also known as Connecticut.
Another thing about the whole 'How do you thread the needle' question regarding juggling the socio-political stuff with the more over the top final-fantasyness of the game is... sometimes You don't. Despite whatever some folks may be led to believe there is no Exalted Police who will break into your house and put a gun to your head to force you to play Exalted The Right Way. I certainly enjoy engaging in those societal stuff the books put on display, but sometimes you just wanna go and have your party go daiklave a giant monster in the face and there's nothing actually stopping you from doing that.
HalfTangible
Only half sane (it's less cringe)
- Location
- Valkyrie, Primus
TTRPGs are like that, yeah. You can play it however you like.
Sometimes you want to navigate the socio-political stresses of pre-invasion Thorns, looking into the horrific murders of its highest lords and ladies, uncovering corruption and conspiracy, trying to strengthen the city for a war you know they cannot win...
...and sometimes you just want to fight a giant armored undead kraken with plasma cannons.
I have done both of these things in two separate Thorns games and they were both a lot of fun =3
grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
I mean, from where I'm sitting, having both of those things happen in one game sounds completely legit
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah, so I was reading something the other day and one of the antagonists in it inspired me and then a couple of other antagonists from other things I've read got involved and long story short have a Third Circle demon. She's nice!
🌻😃
Drosera, the Smiling Sundew
Demon of the Third Circle
Second Soul of Metagaos
Drosera is friendly. Drosera is sweet. Drosera treats all alike, whether prince or pauper. She judges no-one by their station or nature, gives herself no airs, demands no special treatment. Drosera's gentle smile and heartfelt compliments have brought joy to many in their final, peaceful moments.
Such are the lies of the Thousand-Toothed Blossom's secondborn soul.
The Smiling Sundew smiles, always. She bares her teeth at the world, so charmingly that none notice they are sharp until too late. She makes no judgements by rank or birth; all creatures are but meat to her, one carcass no different from the next. She is affable, informal and easy-natured, for she knows that pretty-petalled behaviour lures fresh victims into her razor jaws. She is earnest, sweet and complimentary, for it is polite to congratulate one's food on its delectable flavour.
The writings of the old Deliberative name Drosera a monster even among other demons; a cannibal flower with an endless hunger. In form she resembles a sunflower, though botanists recognise her petals as the sticky, beaded leaves of a sundew. Her only human features are her grey eyes and her ever-present crescent smile, but she can use vines and leaves as prehensile limbs in seemingly endless supply. Though she can shrink to the height of grass or loom as high as the tallest trees, she prefers to stand at human height - flavour is better savoured bite by bite than in a single gulp. Sometimes she weaves her vines and stalks together to become a great serpentine beast with a flowerbloom head and a thousand-fanged maw, and in this guise she can devour an army in moments.
In Hell, she makes her home in a great field on the outskirts of the Hungry Swamp where brightly-coloured flowers blossom in the dull grey boggy soil, each a carnivore that twines its roots around countless bones. These blossoms are her children, and though she will sacrifice them if need be, she is a proud mother who delights in sharing the merits and virtues of anything floral. That plants are superior to beasts and men is self-evident in her eyes, and she is greatly pleased when creatures of flesh and blood agree with her. Often, no more than sweet flattery and promises of devoted care are needed to coax her into yielding whatever rare flower or exotic tree a petitioner might wish for, grown from the corpse of some small game or slaughtered cow. Transforming fauna into flora is within her power, but she considers this a precious gift she only grants to those who impress her greatly.
Drosera's appetite for meat knows no limits. She sallies forth often from her fields to glut herself on Malfean battlefields, and would devour her fellow Unquestionable if she could, even her own brothers and sisters. Nothing will ever sate her, and in the grip of her bloodthirsty urges she knows no loyalty and holds nothing sacred. Those who entreat with her thus know, if they are wise, to bring easy food to sate her while they bargain. She will take an easy platter over difficult prey, and is wise enough to value a returning source of food over a single meal. Her cunning echoes the manner of roots that seek any crack in stone to break it apart, and she excels in finding loopholes and weaknesses in an enemy's defences. Some ask her to advise them in their strategems and accept the occasional subordinate going missing as they bargain; victims claimed in moments of vulnerability.
The Smiling Sundew's world is one where plants and beasts are ever at odds. She considered Sextes Jylis her favourite child in a bygone age, and never truly accepted his treachery. Even to this day, she hopes for reconciliation like an estranged, possessive mother, and favours Wood Aspects and elementals as honorary plants and beloved grandchildren. Gifts of green jade or hearthstones of Wood delight her enough to earn her favour, and though a treacherous grandchild will rouse her to terrible ire, she will always offer them repentence in her service before dealing a killing blow.
Notes and abilities: Despite her monstrousness and the warnings in old Deliberative texts, sorcerers find many reasons to call upon the demon flower Drosera. Her command over plantlife is without peer, and if fed blood and bone her children can grow instantly into any form she asks. Ten cattle - or a single human sacrifice - can raise a crop field even on barren stone that will feed a hundred for a year. She can command stone-shattering roots to bore tunnels and wells, till rocky ground into fertile fields, and even raise castles or fortifications of living wood that devour any who assault them. Her children must be fed in proportion to their deeds, but many is the king who would consider this cost acceptable.
If not for infrastructure, Drosera can be summoned for war. When turned loose to sate her appetite on an enemy, her sweet smile expands into a jagged crescent of slavering fangs. Jaws open at the tip of every writhing vine and folding leaf, and the plants and flowers around her bay for blood. Her sticky fronds wrap up her prey in inescapable gluey coils, digesting them in moments before unfurling for more. Such is her ravenous power, and so freely will she submit to binding if offered a large enough meal, that a cold-blooded sorcerer may not care about the grisly toll her actions reap. Fire finds no purchase on her leaves, but boiling water pains her terribly when it scalds her roots, and she will not fight on volcanic ground for fear of geothermal springs. Any who discover this weakness die; even her grandchildren are no exceptions to her willingness to keep her secret safe.
Her Greater Self's hunger clutches Drosera tightly, and her roots are always starving. Though she cannot turn against her summoner, she cannot be bound to refrain from sating her appetite, and though she can be ordered to abstain from human flesh, such commands last only as long as her stomach remains full. She gains a point of Limit for each hour she goes unfed on meat or blood. So close does the Swamp's hunger clutch her that it is difficult for her to escape Hell's confines. Nonetheless, there are places in Creation, flower fields whose roots twine around the bones of a thousand slaughtered men and women, that serve as weak points she can grow through. Though she can show her face in such places only for as long as human blood falls upon the flowers, this is usually long enough to eat her fill - and plant another carcass in the soil.
🌻😃
Drosera, the Smiling Sundew
Demon of the Third Circle
Second Soul of Metagaos
Drosera is friendly. Drosera is sweet. Drosera treats all alike, whether prince or pauper. She judges no-one by their station or nature, gives herself no airs, demands no special treatment. Drosera's gentle smile and heartfelt compliments have brought joy to many in their final, peaceful moments.
Such are the lies of the Thousand-Toothed Blossom's secondborn soul.
The Smiling Sundew smiles, always. She bares her teeth at the world, so charmingly that none notice they are sharp until too late. She makes no judgements by rank or birth; all creatures are but meat to her, one carcass no different from the next. She is affable, informal and easy-natured, for she knows that pretty-petalled behaviour lures fresh victims into her razor jaws. She is earnest, sweet and complimentary, for it is polite to congratulate one's food on its delectable flavour.
The writings of the old Deliberative name Drosera a monster even among other demons; a cannibal flower with an endless hunger. In form she resembles a sunflower, though botanists recognise her petals as the sticky, beaded leaves of a sundew. Her only human features are her grey eyes and her ever-present crescent smile, but she can use vines and leaves as prehensile limbs in seemingly endless supply. Though she can shrink to the height of grass or loom as high as the tallest trees, she prefers to stand at human height - flavour is better savoured bite by bite than in a single gulp. Sometimes she weaves her vines and stalks together to become a great serpentine beast with a flowerbloom head and a thousand-fanged maw, and in this guise she can devour an army in moments.
In Hell, she makes her home in a great field on the outskirts of the Hungry Swamp where brightly-coloured flowers blossom in the dull grey boggy soil, each a carnivore that twines its roots around countless bones. These blossoms are her children, and though she will sacrifice them if need be, she is a proud mother who delights in sharing the merits and virtues of anything floral. That plants are superior to beasts and men is self-evident in her eyes, and she is greatly pleased when creatures of flesh and blood agree with her. Often, no more than sweet flattery and promises of devoted care are needed to coax her into yielding whatever rare flower or exotic tree a petitioner might wish for, grown from the corpse of some small game or slaughtered cow. Transforming fauna into flora is within her power, but she considers this a precious gift she only grants to those who impress her greatly.
Drosera's appetite for meat knows no limits. She sallies forth often from her fields to glut herself on Malfean battlefields, and would devour her fellow Unquestionable if she could, even her own brothers and sisters. Nothing will ever sate her, and in the grip of her bloodthirsty urges she knows no loyalty and holds nothing sacred. Those who entreat with her thus know, if they are wise, to bring easy food to sate her while they bargain. She will take an easy platter over difficult prey, and is wise enough to value a returning source of food over a single meal. Her cunning echoes the manner of roots that seek any crack in stone to break it apart, and she excels in finding loopholes and weaknesses in an enemy's defences. Some ask her to advise them in their strategems and accept the occasional subordinate going missing as they bargain; victims claimed in moments of vulnerability.
The Smiling Sundew's world is one where plants and beasts are ever at odds. She considered Sextes Jylis her favourite child in a bygone age, and never truly accepted his treachery. Even to this day, she hopes for reconciliation like an estranged, possessive mother, and favours Wood Aspects and elementals as honorary plants and beloved grandchildren. Gifts of green jade or hearthstones of Wood delight her enough to earn her favour, and though a treacherous grandchild will rouse her to terrible ire, she will always offer them repentence in her service before dealing a killing blow.
Notes and abilities: Despite her monstrousness and the warnings in old Deliberative texts, sorcerers find many reasons to call upon the demon flower Drosera. Her command over plantlife is without peer, and if fed blood and bone her children can grow instantly into any form she asks. Ten cattle - or a single human sacrifice - can raise a crop field even on barren stone that will feed a hundred for a year. She can command stone-shattering roots to bore tunnels and wells, till rocky ground into fertile fields, and even raise castles or fortifications of living wood that devour any who assault them. Her children must be fed in proportion to their deeds, but many is the king who would consider this cost acceptable.
If not for infrastructure, Drosera can be summoned for war. When turned loose to sate her appetite on an enemy, her sweet smile expands into a jagged crescent of slavering fangs. Jaws open at the tip of every writhing vine and folding leaf, and the plants and flowers around her bay for blood. Her sticky fronds wrap up her prey in inescapable gluey coils, digesting them in moments before unfurling for more. Such is her ravenous power, and so freely will she submit to binding if offered a large enough meal, that a cold-blooded sorcerer may not care about the grisly toll her actions reap. Fire finds no purchase on her leaves, but boiling water pains her terribly when it scalds her roots, and she will not fight on volcanic ground for fear of geothermal springs. Any who discover this weakness die; even her grandchildren are no exceptions to her willingness to keep her secret safe.
Her Greater Self's hunger clutches Drosera tightly, and her roots are always starving. Though she cannot turn against her summoner, she cannot be bound to refrain from sating her appetite, and though she can be ordered to abstain from human flesh, such commands last only as long as her stomach remains full. She gains a point of Limit for each hour she goes unfed on meat or blood. So close does the Swamp's hunger clutch her that it is difficult for her to escape Hell's confines. Nonetheless, there are places in Creation, flower fields whose roots twine around the bones of a thousand slaughtered men and women, that serve as weak points she can grow through. Though she can show her face in such places only for as long as human blood falls upon the flowers, this is usually long enough to eat her fill - and plant another carcass in the soil.
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HalfTangible
Only half sane (it's less cringe)
- Location
- Valkyrie, Primus
Yeah but they didn't xDI mean, from where I'm sitting, having both of those things happen in one game sounds completely legit
Unfortunately
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Fully agreed, but it's also that like- it's not really about the power differential, to me. I like that Exalted aren't untouchable incarnate gods whom no mortal can hold a candle to, but I kind of think I could jam with it if they were, so long as the game put in the work to sell the sense of what it means to be an untouchable incarnate god in a world of regular people. It's the contrast that matters to me, that there's enough legwork done to sketch out what the world is like for regular people that statements about how differently it works for the Exalted stand out.
It's... Okay, this is going to come out of left field, but the comparison that I keep coming back to is Red Alert 2 vs Red Alert 3. Yes, the C&C RTS games, I'm serious.
The thing is, I think RA3 is the better game. It came out 8 years later and it shows; the balance is better and the gameplay is considerably more developed, not just polished but with a lot more moving parts and widgets to work with. But for me at least, RA2 has the better atmosphere by a a wide margin, because it creates a relatively grounded first impression.
In RA3 it's all absurd, all the time. Your first units are built to do things like fire War Bears from their Man Cannons to paradrop into enemy territory - and as a result, the absurdity feels less impactful for lack of contrast. When everything's gonzo, nothing feels over the top or out-there, because that's just how the game is. It's why RA3's best campaign is the Rising Sun one, because George Takei seems to be only actor in the bunch making the least attempt to take the role seriously.
In RA2 your starting units are things like Main Battle Tank and Soldier With Rifle, while the cutscenes try (in a fairly campy, FMV video game cutscene-y way) to sell the sense of a military story with professional characters, and because of that, when the game starts throwing jetpack troops and lightning towers and time travel teleportation and mind controlled giant squid and tanks holo-disguising themselves as trees at you, it pops and feels absurd and energetic and engaging.
Exalted benefits from a similar feel, I think. By all means, have the anime demigods duelling among the clouds! Shit's rad, yo! But in having that acknowledgement of what life is like for the regular people, it illustrates the gulf of experience between them and those anime demigods, and so the duel among the clouds feels more momentous for the contrast. Stormwind Rider ferrying you around at 100 MPH is, by itself, just a number. Stormwind Rider ferrying you around at 100 MPH, when you have that sidebar that an elaborate horse relay of a sort employed by a monarch for sending urgent messages might cover 10 or 15 miles in an hour? That stands out more.
funking rad o.o
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- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...
.......
.............
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
yeah that stood out to me too but given aleph mentioned it started from something she read i assumed there must've been something else behind it. although this was almost certainly involved too....
.......
.............
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It was something else I read, but that something may have been inspired by Flowey, and some of Flowey definitely got involved with her in the creation process either way. Any comments on her? I tried to make her usable in games beyond just being a monster, even if the cannibal flower is, fundamentally, what you will always end up dealing with if you mess around with her for long enough.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Would 100% fight her in a badass volcanic showdown where someone used Magma Kraken or Volcano Cutter to turn the environment against her and give my kung fu Exalt a chance to defeat her in personal combat, which is my highest stamp of approval
(I'm really the wrong audience for that kind of 'it's evil and destructive but you have the tools to bind and direct it to suit your purpose' creature design, I tend to find those distasteful to resort to, but very satisfying to fight)
(I'm really the wrong audience for that kind of 'it's evil and destructive but you have the tools to bind and direct it to suit your purpose' creature design, I tend to find those distasteful to resort to, but very satisfying to fight)
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Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Would 100% find some way of sorcerously summoning up infinite meat to bind her to me and assume that means I can let the binding expire, only to be eventually betrayed when she grows disgruntled at the lack of flavour and turns on me anyway.