- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
General Exalted Thread
vicky_molokh
Posthuman spidery thingy.
- Location
- Kyïv, Ukraine
That . . . actually doesn't sound optimistic IMHO. That's the problem I saw with 1e's Scavenger Sons: it does have hints of plot hooks, but it tells almost nothing about what is life like for a person living in this or that area, what does a citizen of X care about that is different from a citizen of Y. The stuff that actually matters to the characters one plays.
I'm curious (as a non-backer). What would would you describe as actively obfuscatively written? And what examples of it being bizarre are there too?
Hmm. The much-argued-about triremes. You know, at this point I'm even more convinced that Exalted runs on the RuleOfCool and doesn't care about plausibility. Not because of bad editing, but because the collective doesn't care about it in the first place.
"Oh. Right. It's teh Interwebz."
Though I do have to note that hinting that people just complain always, no matter what, detracts from the perceived value of complaints.
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AmineHsu
A worm, not a man, scorned and despised.
- Location
- NoVA
I do agree with the others that despite it's faults, Ex3 is a good system and way way more playable than Ex2 on a base level. There is a lot of cool setting (especially The Dreaming Sea), Sorcery is an amazing improvement, combat looks fun, Familiars and familiar charms are awesome and even the Craft system I think might be fun (though I can certainly see why a lot of people dislike it and I still am not sure how it would actually feel to actually play it).
There is a number of things I dislike and am unsure about. Social Influence while vastly superior to the Ex2 Social Combat feels a bit unbalanced and while the various social abilities get a lot of powerful tools to influence people, Integrity's social 'defense' feels rather lacking in comparison (The various seduction charms in particular feel a bit overly powerful, Yes, The Red Rule, but that's etiquette, not balance). The way limit works now feels like a newbie trap to destroy games and friendships and even if it was an experience ST I trusted, I'm not sure I'd ever play in a game it wasn't houserule'd into a different form. Evocations are, in my opinion, an amazing innovation and the system presented in the leak was a bit overbearing, yes, but felt so interesting with so much possibility. The final form is alright, but the special activation rules, especially the ones that give the charm for free feel like they undermine the concept and potential of Evocations and present an utter nightmare for homebrewing, something you pretty much will have to do.
Still, I feel Ex3 is a massive improvement from Ex2. I still have issues with it and I don't really feel like all the issues I have are just my taste. I do think it's a vastly better base to build from than Ex2 ever was. I look forward to the future of the line with some excitement and some hesitation.
There is a number of things I dislike and am unsure about. Social Influence while vastly superior to the Ex2 Social Combat feels a bit unbalanced and while the various social abilities get a lot of powerful tools to influence people, Integrity's social 'defense' feels rather lacking in comparison (The various seduction charms in particular feel a bit overly powerful, Yes, The Red Rule, but that's etiquette, not balance). The way limit works now feels like a newbie trap to destroy games and friendships and even if it was an experience ST I trusted, I'm not sure I'd ever play in a game it wasn't houserule'd into a different form. Evocations are, in my opinion, an amazing innovation and the system presented in the leak was a bit overbearing, yes, but felt so interesting with so much possibility. The final form is alright, but the special activation rules, especially the ones that give the charm for free feel like they undermine the concept and potential of Evocations and present an utter nightmare for homebrewing, something you pretty much will have to do.
Still, I feel Ex3 is a massive improvement from Ex2. I still have issues with it and I don't really feel like all the issues I have are just my taste. I do think it's a vastly better base to build from than Ex2 ever was. I look forward to the future of the line with some excitement and some hesitation.
Jon Chung
=][=
The triremes are a case of a mistake being enshrined as holy writ for some inexplicable reason. The Realm's Inner Sea, at one point, was supposed to be closer to the Mediterranean than the Atlantic Ocean before the map was massively scaled up in 1E pre-release, and triremes work just fine for the Mediterranean. When the map was scaled up, the Realm's ships were not changed from Mediterranean-appropriate to Atlantic Ocean-appropriate.
And now for some insane reason people refuse to correct the error and give them, I dunno, those nine-masted Imperial Chinese treasure-ships instead, or something along those lines. Which is simultaneously a) appropriate, b) correct and c) probably cooler.
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samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
This actually could be fine in certain circumstances, but WW/OP tend to try and go for Narrativism>Simulationism>Gamism. I know I've brought up the game Legend before, but in the forward to Legend, the Devs say they built the game as a game first and added cool flavor text, resulting in Gamism>>>Narrativism=Simulationism. When the rules in Legend produce what might be nonsensical results e.g. melee range of 15 feet+ for a sword in the hands of an experienced fighter, it is the game working as intended, but those results were anticipated and accounted for.
When the rules in Exalted produce nonsensical results, e.g. the trained war-rat, the response ranges from admitting those results are nonsensical and trying to avoid the situation that produces them, slapping members of the group with the core book, or trying to come up with a system hack or patch.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh by the way, have some Ex3 homebrew by Yours Truly. Who doesn't love Western gods?
Long ago, when the world was so young the waves of the sea had not yet grown their first foam, there came a mighty demon who flew over the oceans of Creation for five days and five nights working the errands of its master; and on the fifth night the demon grew tired, and wished to rest. But wherever he laid his eyes, he found nothing but blue waves. And so the demon reached out with his hand and bid the earth rise through the sea; and the earth obeyed, though the sea growled in anger and beat its storms against the earth. This was the first reef; and upon it the demon descended to rest.
But to his surprise he found the reef already inhabited; a blue-skinned maiden clad in flowing waters, who spoke with a voice like the rumbling of the waves.
"You have created earth within the waters, my lord, and earth that obeys neither to the laws of the shore nor to those of the sea; and as all things under Heaven must have a guardian, I came to be, keeper of this new piece of Creation. Yet I am but a young goddess, and I fear the great and wild gods of the sea may swallow me whole. And so I ask three boons of you. For though you be a mighty lord of demons, you stand now weary in my own domain, and you must accept my demands or fly away and fall into the sea before you reach the land."
The demon was outraged that such a newborn god, created by his own actions no less, would make demands of him; and yet he had no choice. And so in exchange for a night of rest he granted the newborn goddess three boons: a name which would ward off all who tried to take what was hers, a title which would lay claim to all fool enough to come upon her reefs, and a ship which would carry her through all the reefs in the world. This done, the demon slept soundly; and upon waking he looked at the arrogant smile of the young goddess and smiled in turn.
"You were clever indeed, but not clever enough; for you claimed three boons but no promise of safety. And so now that I no longer need your services, I offer you a curse for each boon you asked: caught between sea and land you will never belong to any court nor find acceptance in the eyes of the gods; all that will fall into your domain will do so by way of disaster and destruction; and your ship will carry you between all reefs of Creation for none of them will be your home."
And on this day, from three boons and three curses, was born Ashigure, She-Who-Walks-In-Flotsam.
Blue-skinned and bald, clad in a robe of foam and her brow set with a crown of rotten wood and and rusted iron, Ashigure rules over all the reefs of Creation. Gods of the sea loathe her and gods of the land ignore her, for her domain is neither of the land nor the water, and she is jealous indeed of its borders; they hate her all the more that an ancient pronouncement prevents any god of land or sea from crossing into her domains or laying a hand on her save in retaliation for the same. Every ship that wrecks against her reefs and every sailor who finds himself stranded on them belong to her by ancient law. A fickle mistress, she sometimes takes these sailors under the waves to attend her in her coral palaces as servants, lovers or soldiers, sometimes drowns them to show her displeasure at their trespassing, and rarely sends them back out onto the wave with her blessing shielding them from the dangers of the sea. Sailors know they can improve their chances by waxing poetic about her beauty, strength and fickle nature, and so many shanties have been written on this very subject.
The treasures Ashigure finds in the holds of wreckages, she hoards in her palaces; but lately she has been spending them liberally to secure her new position. In the centuries that followed the chaos of the Contagion, Ashigure managed to find friends among the gods of the sky, affected by neither her curse nor her blessing; and through them her treasures reached the gods of Yu-Shan, and decades of politicking and bribes allowed her to claim a new position, whose god had fallen: that of Mistress of Safe Harbors. Now hidden coves and pleasant beaches, provided they have not seen any man-made construct, come under her domain. Smugglers worship her to a man, for it is by their will that they may navigate dangerous reefs and reach such perfect places to unload their forbidden cargo.
Ashigure has no Sanctum, and it is in pursuit of one in defiance of her curse that she has tried to expand her domain; so far this has failed. Without a safe harbor of her own, the goddess sails the Western seas endlessly, going from reef to reef, residing in her undersea palaces of coral or limestone, never staying more than a few seasons in one.
Sailors do not pray to Ashigure, for that is considered to draw her attention - which could lead to her drawing a ship upon her reefs, drowning the entire crew so she could take the one man who drew her eye. It is the families of sailor left ashore who pray to her: the accepted method is to burn a prayer strip with samphire incense in a hooded paper lantern, and to float it out to sea by night. It is not rare, in cities that rely massively on sea trade, to see hundreds or even thousands of people gather by night and send a fleet of immense proportions into the horizon. Ashigure feasts on such days, and is content; she makes the currents around her reefs softer, her harbors more welcoming, and pulls her attention away from the sailors to focus on her grand designs to expand her domain.
When intruders trespass upon her domain in defiance of her first boon, Ashigure takes on her Storm Aspect: her hands and forearms grow a shell of limestone, she grows a second pair of arms, her jaw distorts as her teeth turn to jagged spines of stone, and lightning erupts from her eyes. In this form, she draws upon her infinite treasury and the prayers of all families of sailors, hoarded precisely for such an occasion.
Essence: 6; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 9 dice
Personal Motes: 110
Health Levels: -0/-1x8/-2x8/-4x4/Incap.
Sample Intimacies
• Defining Principle: "I stand alone between sea and land."
• Major Principle: "If I am not loved, I will be respected. If I am not respected, I will be owed. If I am not owed, I will be feared."
• Major Tie: Gods of the Sea (Age-Old Feud)
• Minor Tie: Sailor Poets (Affection)
Actions: Substract two dice from all these actions (including combat, but excepting Sailing) if Ashigure is not within her domain or aboard her ship.
Sailing: 12 dice; Feats of Strength: 10 dice (may attempt Strength 5 feats); Senses: 10 dice; Social Influence: 8 dice (Intimidation: 10 dice); Appearance 3 (when in her Storm Aspect, consider her as Appearance 5 with the Hideous Merit); Command: 5 dice; Resolve 4, Guile 3
Combat
Attack (Artifact Trident): 12 dice (Damage 21, minimum 5), Piercing tag
Attack (Stone Claws): 14 dice (Damage 17, minimum 4)
Combat Movement: 8 dice (special: can walk on water and walk up sheer stony surfaces)
Evasion 2, Parry 5
Soak/Hardness: 18/10 (coral shell armor)
Merits
Cult 4: Ashigure receives prayer from all over the West, from the families of sailors who wish to avoid their relative perishing on her reefs. She receives special, dedicated worship from smugglers.
Offensive Charms
Her Eyes The Fire of The Storm (12m, 1wp; Simple; Instant): Channeling the power of the storm in her gaze, Ashigure stares down one opponent and strikes them down with lightning and a flurry of cold wind. This is a decisive attack up to short range with a pool of 10 dice, which adds one automatic success if Ashigure is in her domain or aboard her ship, if her opponent is standing out in the open, or if her opponent is at least a quarter immersed in water. These bonuses are cumulative; if all three apply, extra successes from the attack roll are added to the damage roll. Once per scene unless reset by intimidating an opponent into attempting to escape the fight.
Her Spear The Rushing of The Tide (8m, 3i; Reflexive; Instant): propelled forward with all the fury of the tide crashing against the rocks, Ashigure slams into her opponent. This Charm may be used at the end of a successful rush action which brought Ashigure in close range of her opponent; it allows her to immediately deliver a withering attack with her spear, adding dice equal to the extra successes by which she beat her opponent's roll in the rush. A successful attack knocks the opponent back one range band. If the current range band is occupied by reefs, ignore this effect: Ashigure instead gains double 8s on her withering damage roll as the opponent is battered against the rocks. Once per scene, unless reset by slaying a significant opponent.
Her Dominion The Endless Corals (20m, 2i, 1wp; Simple; One scene): Opening wide her four arms, She-Who-Walks-In-Flotsam summons her submarine dominion. Twisted branches of coral erupt from the sea in a great arborescence, with such speed and such jagged edges and piercing ends that they actually represent a significant danger to all opponents. This Charm's first activation is a withering attack against all opponents out to medium range with a dice pool of 10, but it may not inflict more than 6 Initiative damage (Ashigure's Essence). From then on, the entire area affected counts both as reefs and as Ashigure's domain. This Charm may only be used at sea, and only once per scene.
Defensive Charms
Her Arms The Teeth of The Ocean (4m, 1i; Reflexive; Instant): Raising one of her limestone-shelled arms in defense, Ashigure weathers the storm of her opponent's attack to her breaking point. This Charm adds 4 to Ashigure's parry and 3 to her soak against a single attack; afterwards the stone shell of one of her arms shatter. This means she can use it up to four times, past which she no longer has access to her "stone claw" attack. The shells will be regenerated the next time she enters her Storm Aspect (after at least one day).
Movement Charms
Her Walkway A Spine of Stone (12m; Simple; One scene): This Charm may only be activated at sea. Touching her foot to the ground and gently raising her heel, Ashigure summons jagged reefs from beneath the waves to support her. Wherever she walks, spines of stone erupt to provide her footing. Under the influence of this Charm, the goddess enjoys perfect balance, and her rush and disengage attempts enjoy double 8s, whereas all opponents attempting to rush or disengage her are considered to be in difficult terrain.
Miscellaneous Charms
Her Kingdom The Ill Fate of Sailors (1+m; Reflexive; Instant): Ashigure may add up to six dice to any action at one mote per die as long as she stands within her territory.
Her Treasury The Hoard of A Thousand Wrecks (-; Reflexive; Instant): None can tell how many ships have broken up against Ashigure's reefs over the millennia. Though she keeps a log of records - an item of unimaginable value if it could be obtained - she shares its secrets with no one. Ships dating back to before the rise of the Exalted, before even the age of man lie at the bottom of her jagged undersea peaks. With but a thought and a gesture of her hand, Ashigure may summon any relic contained within her hoards. Though powerful Artifacts are among this number, she lacks the familiarity and skill to wield them properly in battle. She most often uses this Charm to procure bribes for those she wants something from, or gifts for those who have gained her favor. Once per story, if she has need for an artifact with specific powers, or if someone wishes to procure one from her, she may roll her Essence against that artifact's rating. Success allows her to find it amid her hoard; failure turns up an artifact of similar function, but whose rating is only equal to her successes on the roll. "Simple" wealth, such as chests of silver coins from long-forgotten empires or jars of centuries-old magical wine, may be obtained at will - but keep in mind that Ashigure's reserves are not actually infinite.
Her Nectar The Prayers of Our Families (1wp; Reflexive; Instant): Once per story, Ashigure may call upon the power of the prayers sent every season by the families of sailors who wish to avoid her fickle attention; she rolls her (Essence+Cult) with double 8s and immediately regains that much Initiative. This Charm may allow her to escape Crash.
Her Caress The Blessing of Safe Shores (10m, 1wp; Simple; Indefinite): By touching any creature that is not a god of sea or land upon the brow, Ashigure may bestow it with her Mark, which carries a spark of her name, and thus, her first boon. The creature so blessed will enjoy safe travel through the sea, protection from animals and spirits of the sea, provided they make all haste to join a safe harbor. This Charm does not provide supernatural movement, but it allows the blessed one to swim without exhaustion and to never drown. The Charm ends as soon as the subject finds a safe shore - any safe shore. If the subject is not diligent enough in its effort, or if he deliberately passes an opportunity of safe shore in hope of finding a better one elsewhere, the Charm also ends (though the subject is given a chance to correct his course of action in the form of a foreboding presentiment and an urge to find safety).
Her True Face For No Man To See (-; Reflexive; Instant): This Charm is the pinnacle of Ashigure's power, and she has never used it, nor does she ever intend to if she can help it. In fact, Ashigure will not use this Charm unless she is absolutely certain that the only alternative is death - she will prefer surrender and abject humiliation. Upon making the fatal decision, her entire treasure of stored prayers, secretly congealed in the form of corals in all her palaces, combusts into pale blue fire - and the work of millennia is gone in an instant. With a terrifying shriek, her robe of foam turns into a swirling maelstrom, her skin grows translucent as lightning flows through her, her flesh turns to stone and coral and she grows to twice her size. She immediately rolls an intimidate action against all present, her Appearance being treated as 8 for the purposes of the Hideous Merit; a successful roll instills (or reinforces, if it already exists) a Minor Tie of Terrified Awe in the victim. More importantly, she regains half of her lost Health Levels, rolls Join Battle with double 7s, and regains twenty motes of Essence and one point of Willpower. She gains the benefits of the Legendary Size Merit, her effective Essence becomes seven (raising her dice cap), she adds three dice to the raw damage of all her withering and decisive attacks, and one non-Charm die to all combat actions. This Charm may be reset by spending two thousand years carefully accumulating prayers and regrowing her coral fields.
Ashigure
She-Who-Walks-In-Flotsam, Goddess of Reefs and Safe Harbors, Patron to Smugglers and Mistress of Derelicts
"I am the shore and the cresting wave; come break upon me."
She-Who-Walks-In-Flotsam, Goddess of Reefs and Safe Harbors, Patron to Smugglers and Mistress of Derelicts
"I am the shore and the cresting wave; come break upon me."
Long ago, when the world was so young the waves of the sea had not yet grown their first foam, there came a mighty demon who flew over the oceans of Creation for five days and five nights working the errands of its master; and on the fifth night the demon grew tired, and wished to rest. But wherever he laid his eyes, he found nothing but blue waves. And so the demon reached out with his hand and bid the earth rise through the sea; and the earth obeyed, though the sea growled in anger and beat its storms against the earth. This was the first reef; and upon it the demon descended to rest.
But to his surprise he found the reef already inhabited; a blue-skinned maiden clad in flowing waters, who spoke with a voice like the rumbling of the waves.
"You have created earth within the waters, my lord, and earth that obeys neither to the laws of the shore nor to those of the sea; and as all things under Heaven must have a guardian, I came to be, keeper of this new piece of Creation. Yet I am but a young goddess, and I fear the great and wild gods of the sea may swallow me whole. And so I ask three boons of you. For though you be a mighty lord of demons, you stand now weary in my own domain, and you must accept my demands or fly away and fall into the sea before you reach the land."
The demon was outraged that such a newborn god, created by his own actions no less, would make demands of him; and yet he had no choice. And so in exchange for a night of rest he granted the newborn goddess three boons: a name which would ward off all who tried to take what was hers, a title which would lay claim to all fool enough to come upon her reefs, and a ship which would carry her through all the reefs in the world. This done, the demon slept soundly; and upon waking he looked at the arrogant smile of the young goddess and smiled in turn.
"You were clever indeed, but not clever enough; for you claimed three boons but no promise of safety. And so now that I no longer need your services, I offer you a curse for each boon you asked: caught between sea and land you will never belong to any court nor find acceptance in the eyes of the gods; all that will fall into your domain will do so by way of disaster and destruction; and your ship will carry you between all reefs of Creation for none of them will be your home."
And on this day, from three boons and three curses, was born Ashigure, She-Who-Walks-In-Flotsam.
Blue-skinned and bald, clad in a robe of foam and her brow set with a crown of rotten wood and and rusted iron, Ashigure rules over all the reefs of Creation. Gods of the sea loathe her and gods of the land ignore her, for her domain is neither of the land nor the water, and she is jealous indeed of its borders; they hate her all the more that an ancient pronouncement prevents any god of land or sea from crossing into her domains or laying a hand on her save in retaliation for the same. Every ship that wrecks against her reefs and every sailor who finds himself stranded on them belong to her by ancient law. A fickle mistress, she sometimes takes these sailors under the waves to attend her in her coral palaces as servants, lovers or soldiers, sometimes drowns them to show her displeasure at their trespassing, and rarely sends them back out onto the wave with her blessing shielding them from the dangers of the sea. Sailors know they can improve their chances by waxing poetic about her beauty, strength and fickle nature, and so many shanties have been written on this very subject.
The treasures Ashigure finds in the holds of wreckages, she hoards in her palaces; but lately she has been spending them liberally to secure her new position. In the centuries that followed the chaos of the Contagion, Ashigure managed to find friends among the gods of the sky, affected by neither her curse nor her blessing; and through them her treasures reached the gods of Yu-Shan, and decades of politicking and bribes allowed her to claim a new position, whose god had fallen: that of Mistress of Safe Harbors. Now hidden coves and pleasant beaches, provided they have not seen any man-made construct, come under her domain. Smugglers worship her to a man, for it is by their will that they may navigate dangerous reefs and reach such perfect places to unload their forbidden cargo.
Ashigure has no Sanctum, and it is in pursuit of one in defiance of her curse that she has tried to expand her domain; so far this has failed. Without a safe harbor of her own, the goddess sails the Western seas endlessly, going from reef to reef, residing in her undersea palaces of coral or limestone, never staying more than a few seasons in one.
Sailors do not pray to Ashigure, for that is considered to draw her attention - which could lead to her drawing a ship upon her reefs, drowning the entire crew so she could take the one man who drew her eye. It is the families of sailor left ashore who pray to her: the accepted method is to burn a prayer strip with samphire incense in a hooded paper lantern, and to float it out to sea by night. It is not rare, in cities that rely massively on sea trade, to see hundreds or even thousands of people gather by night and send a fleet of immense proportions into the horizon. Ashigure feasts on such days, and is content; she makes the currents around her reefs softer, her harbors more welcoming, and pulls her attention away from the sailors to focus on her grand designs to expand her domain.
When intruders trespass upon her domain in defiance of her first boon, Ashigure takes on her Storm Aspect: her hands and forearms grow a shell of limestone, she grows a second pair of arms, her jaw distorts as her teeth turn to jagged spines of stone, and lightning erupts from her eyes. In this form, she draws upon her infinite treasury and the prayers of all families of sailors, hoarded precisely for such an occasion.
Essence: 6; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 9 dice
Personal Motes: 110
Health Levels: -0/-1x8/-2x8/-4x4/Incap.
Sample Intimacies
• Defining Principle: "I stand alone between sea and land."
• Major Principle: "If I am not loved, I will be respected. If I am not respected, I will be owed. If I am not owed, I will be feared."
• Major Tie: Gods of the Sea (Age-Old Feud)
• Minor Tie: Sailor Poets (Affection)
Actions: Substract two dice from all these actions (including combat, but excepting Sailing) if Ashigure is not within her domain or aboard her ship.
Sailing: 12 dice; Feats of Strength: 10 dice (may attempt Strength 5 feats); Senses: 10 dice; Social Influence: 8 dice (Intimidation: 10 dice); Appearance 3 (when in her Storm Aspect, consider her as Appearance 5 with the Hideous Merit); Command: 5 dice; Resolve 4, Guile 3
Combat
Attack (Artifact Trident): 12 dice (Damage 21, minimum 5), Piercing tag
Attack (Stone Claws): 14 dice (Damage 17, minimum 4)
Combat Movement: 8 dice (special: can walk on water and walk up sheer stony surfaces)
Evasion 2, Parry 5
Soak/Hardness: 18/10 (coral shell armor)
Merits
Cult 4: Ashigure receives prayer from all over the West, from the families of sailors who wish to avoid their relative perishing on her reefs. She receives special, dedicated worship from smugglers.
Offensive Charms
Her Eyes The Fire of The Storm (12m, 1wp; Simple; Instant): Channeling the power of the storm in her gaze, Ashigure stares down one opponent and strikes them down with lightning and a flurry of cold wind. This is a decisive attack up to short range with a pool of 10 dice, which adds one automatic success if Ashigure is in her domain or aboard her ship, if her opponent is standing out in the open, or if her opponent is at least a quarter immersed in water. These bonuses are cumulative; if all three apply, extra successes from the attack roll are added to the damage roll. Once per scene unless reset by intimidating an opponent into attempting to escape the fight.
Her Spear The Rushing of The Tide (8m, 3i; Reflexive; Instant): propelled forward with all the fury of the tide crashing against the rocks, Ashigure slams into her opponent. This Charm may be used at the end of a successful rush action which brought Ashigure in close range of her opponent; it allows her to immediately deliver a withering attack with her spear, adding dice equal to the extra successes by which she beat her opponent's roll in the rush. A successful attack knocks the opponent back one range band. If the current range band is occupied by reefs, ignore this effect: Ashigure instead gains double 8s on her withering damage roll as the opponent is battered against the rocks. Once per scene, unless reset by slaying a significant opponent.
Her Dominion The Endless Corals (20m, 2i, 1wp; Simple; One scene): Opening wide her four arms, She-Who-Walks-In-Flotsam summons her submarine dominion. Twisted branches of coral erupt from the sea in a great arborescence, with such speed and such jagged edges and piercing ends that they actually represent a significant danger to all opponents. This Charm's first activation is a withering attack against all opponents out to medium range with a dice pool of 10, but it may not inflict more than 6 Initiative damage (Ashigure's Essence). From then on, the entire area affected counts both as reefs and as Ashigure's domain. This Charm may only be used at sea, and only once per scene.
Defensive Charms
Her Arms The Teeth of The Ocean (4m, 1i; Reflexive; Instant): Raising one of her limestone-shelled arms in defense, Ashigure weathers the storm of her opponent's attack to her breaking point. This Charm adds 4 to Ashigure's parry and 3 to her soak against a single attack; afterwards the stone shell of one of her arms shatter. This means she can use it up to four times, past which she no longer has access to her "stone claw" attack. The shells will be regenerated the next time she enters her Storm Aspect (after at least one day).
Movement Charms
Her Walkway A Spine of Stone (12m; Simple; One scene): This Charm may only be activated at sea. Touching her foot to the ground and gently raising her heel, Ashigure summons jagged reefs from beneath the waves to support her. Wherever she walks, spines of stone erupt to provide her footing. Under the influence of this Charm, the goddess enjoys perfect balance, and her rush and disengage attempts enjoy double 8s, whereas all opponents attempting to rush or disengage her are considered to be in difficult terrain.
Miscellaneous Charms
Her Kingdom The Ill Fate of Sailors (1+m; Reflexive; Instant): Ashigure may add up to six dice to any action at one mote per die as long as she stands within her territory.
Her Treasury The Hoard of A Thousand Wrecks (-; Reflexive; Instant): None can tell how many ships have broken up against Ashigure's reefs over the millennia. Though she keeps a log of records - an item of unimaginable value if it could be obtained - she shares its secrets with no one. Ships dating back to before the rise of the Exalted, before even the age of man lie at the bottom of her jagged undersea peaks. With but a thought and a gesture of her hand, Ashigure may summon any relic contained within her hoards. Though powerful Artifacts are among this number, she lacks the familiarity and skill to wield them properly in battle. She most often uses this Charm to procure bribes for those she wants something from, or gifts for those who have gained her favor. Once per story, if she has need for an artifact with specific powers, or if someone wishes to procure one from her, she may roll her Essence against that artifact's rating. Success allows her to find it amid her hoard; failure turns up an artifact of similar function, but whose rating is only equal to her successes on the roll. "Simple" wealth, such as chests of silver coins from long-forgotten empires or jars of centuries-old magical wine, may be obtained at will - but keep in mind that Ashigure's reserves are not actually infinite.
Her Nectar The Prayers of Our Families (1wp; Reflexive; Instant): Once per story, Ashigure may call upon the power of the prayers sent every season by the families of sailors who wish to avoid her fickle attention; she rolls her (Essence+Cult) with double 8s and immediately regains that much Initiative. This Charm may allow her to escape Crash.
Her Caress The Blessing of Safe Shores (10m, 1wp; Simple; Indefinite): By touching any creature that is not a god of sea or land upon the brow, Ashigure may bestow it with her Mark, which carries a spark of her name, and thus, her first boon. The creature so blessed will enjoy safe travel through the sea, protection from animals and spirits of the sea, provided they make all haste to join a safe harbor. This Charm does not provide supernatural movement, but it allows the blessed one to swim without exhaustion and to never drown. The Charm ends as soon as the subject finds a safe shore - any safe shore. If the subject is not diligent enough in its effort, or if he deliberately passes an opportunity of safe shore in hope of finding a better one elsewhere, the Charm also ends (though the subject is given a chance to correct his course of action in the form of a foreboding presentiment and an urge to find safety).
Her True Face For No Man To See (-; Reflexive; Instant): This Charm is the pinnacle of Ashigure's power, and she has never used it, nor does she ever intend to if she can help it. In fact, Ashigure will not use this Charm unless she is absolutely certain that the only alternative is death - she will prefer surrender and abject humiliation. Upon making the fatal decision, her entire treasure of stored prayers, secretly congealed in the form of corals in all her palaces, combusts into pale blue fire - and the work of millennia is gone in an instant. With a terrifying shriek, her robe of foam turns into a swirling maelstrom, her skin grows translucent as lightning flows through her, her flesh turns to stone and coral and she grows to twice her size. She immediately rolls an intimidate action against all present, her Appearance being treated as 8 for the purposes of the Hideous Merit; a successful roll instills (or reinforces, if it already exists) a Minor Tie of Terrified Awe in the victim. More importantly, she regains half of her lost Health Levels, rolls Join Battle with double 7s, and regains twenty motes of Essence and one point of Willpower. She gains the benefits of the Legendary Size Merit, her effective Essence becomes seven (raising her dice cap), she adds three dice to the raw damage of all her withering and decisive attacks, and one non-Charm die to all combat actions. This Charm may be reset by spending two thousand years carefully accumulating prayers and regrowing her coral fields.
Sucal
The Devil’s Cut
- Location
- Bottom of the barrel
Oh.
Thats sad.
The mice of the sun aren't in the corebook anymore (they were in the leak).
Whats worse, they apparently cut out at least one entire page (as in they seemingly deleted an entire page between 501 and 502 that has the rest of the Fog Sharks profile and the beginning of Mists
Thats sad.
The mice of the sun aren't in the corebook anymore (they were in the leak).
Whats worse, they apparently cut out at least one entire page (as in they seemingly deleted an entire page between 501 and 502 that has the rest of the Fog Sharks profile and the beginning of Mists
Sucal
The Devil’s Cut
- Location
- Bottom of the barrel
I figured it was, just got sad when I went to see if the Mice had any new art there.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Things like Arrow Storm Technique's flavour text declaring, "Seething with remonstrative ire, the Solar palms a storm of Essence and fills the sky with demonstrative fire." and being too busy trying to be a cute little poem to describe what actually happens - for all I know the Solar summons a literal firestorm out sheer irritation, which, yeah, that's kinda cool in a gonzo fashion but probably shouldn't be Solar Archery. Or Dogstar Ruminations talking about ancient sage-kings breaking stone tables under the weight of their beards, which, yeah, I know they're going for the image of the old kings under the mountain with overgrown beards, but that's still a jarringly odd turn of phrase. Or basically all of Inviolable Essence-Merging's flavour, because why does the "I am Me and you can't change that" Ability offer the power to let go of yourself to that point that you subsume yourself into the fabric of the universe?
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vicky_molokh
Posthuman spidery thingy.
- Location
- Kyïv, Ukraine
I had the impression that they're more narrativism>gamism>simulationism, given the amount of handwaves they seem to accept in favour of epic pathos of epicness and maintenance of other tropes (like corrupt evil empires and world-spanning merchant-conspiracies and triremeness of antiquity and others), combined with a certain collectible-card-game-ness of Charm combos, trumping and counters. At least when it comes to Exalted. nWoD doesn't feel particularly good as a world-simulator either. (I'm assuming the more natural-language meanings of those words are in use, not the more technical meanings of GNS theory.)
Anyway, that last post was about setting info, not rules. Just saying.
I guess it's a matter of subjectivity: what would be probably cooler is an opinion that varies between people, and WW/OPP think of it the way they have chosen to write it. (Though I wonder if you or someone else has a different explanation why otherwise this small choice would end up ascending all the way to third edition.)
Yea, liquid ire is an interesting archery image. But does the Charm have a game-mechanical effect at all, or is it 100% eccentric fluff?
Hmm. The whole name 'Dogstar Ruminations' sounds kinda wrong and un-Solar. More like Lunar, Metagaosan or maybe at least . . . no, probably not quite Kimberian.
I'm not sure what the latter Charm is supposed to be, but maybe this is some Buddhistic undertone?
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Honestly the greatest obstacle to Exalt getting new blood isn't the mechanical complexity, it's the community and their baggage, see the discussion in this thread for a major example.
That's not to say I hold it explicitly at fault, but to a newcomer it would be pretty annoying to have to read 2 editions of books, learn what part of what book will be absolutely ignored, and learn the community consensus that is only really written in each person's head and differs a fair amount for the smallest idea to actually be addressed.
For a more byzantine system of time wasters to exist it would need to be engineered.
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
As I understand it, Gamism is more concerned with balance and making sure different options are equally viable. Simulationism is what gives us paranoia combat and Solaroids being the best splats and Dragonblooded getting their charms gutted so that some of them just automagically fail against Solars, even though they can't in order for the Usurpation to happen. Gamism would take one look at paranoia combat and regard that as a failure state, because there is now One True Build.
As for charms being discrete things, solars aren't likely to realize that at all. For Alchemicals, charms are actually a discrete thing that they can point to and say "This is my Personality Override Spike" or "This is my Hyperdexterous Tentacle Apparatus" or "This is my Man-Machine Weaving Engine" or even "This is my Fourth Excellency". Sidereals have the advantage of formal training and an unbroken chain of documentation since after the Primordial War, but for them it's more like "This is how I deliberately move my essence to get a particular effect, and this method is called Avoidance Kata". Dragonblooded are sort of like Sidereals, but their documentation is more fragmented and instruction is often less formal, and they can't go to the source to ask about things like the Sidereals can.
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- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Sidereals also have the closed charmset, so they can pick up Blessings of the Maiden of Serenity, written in the first age, flip to the chapter titled The Ewer, and have a list of all the things they can do with Dodge. No messing around and coming up with a new essence trick Teacher hasn't seen before. Given that, it just makes sense for them to start thinking of their charms as part of the list of discrete Sidereal powers.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Solar's being stronger then Dragonsblooded isn't an issue for Gamism, because it's completely intentional on a Gamism and Narrativism level. You can have unequal games - see Evolve. Narratively, three hundred some-odd surprised Solars vs more dragonsblooded then are alive today + all of the Sidereal Exalted was a basically even match, where the later barely won and it easily could have gone the other way. Simulationism doesn't care about balance at all.
Roadie
A plate full of blins and a cat nearby.
Nothing about paranoia combat was really intentional, unless you want to say that Jenna Moran was being a big jerk when she wrote most of the Charm mechanics for 2e. It's not "simulationism", it's "nothavingenoughplaytestingandrulestestingism".
I've never really heard a version of the usurpation where it was a near thing. Like, even the core book presents it as something where the Solar's were overwhelmed.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The 1e Caste Books had some pretty interesting depictions of the Usurpation, though they touched on individual people rather than the broad picture. And it was... pretty awful for the Solars. From music boxes of doom that set them on fire, warstrider ambushes to horrors from the deep Wyld unleashed while they were in bed, there were few heroic last stands.
dash931
Conil
Technically, wouldn't that be "Solars, Lunars, and Terrestrial Loyalists, all taken off guard" vs. "Planned strike from the Sidereals and the majority of the Terrestrial Host"?
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TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Lots of places talk about how close reality itself came to ending during the fighting, about individual Solar's holding off armies, about how it was all barely enough.
It wasn't suppose to be an easy or certain victory. That's why they took so many measures. Poisoning the strongest and mightiest, ambushing them, and still dying in such numbers that the underworld filled with ghosts.
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Note, however, that all the intense fighting happened in Meru and Meru was reduced from "the largest, most populated city in existence, a literal mountain five hundred miles tall covered bottom to peak in city and filled inside with all the city they could cram into it" to "a mountain covered in ruins".
Everything in Meru was destroyed. Everything.
So it wasn't Primordial War scale, but it was pretty intense.
Everything in Meru was destroyed. Everything.
So it wasn't Primordial War scale, but it was pretty intense.
- Location
- The end of all things
According to the core book there were decades of cataclysmic warfare before the last survivors were finally slain. So while it may not have been a near thing, it was by no means easy or quick.
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
I was under the impression that Meru (the city) only covered the lower slopes of Meru (the mountain).
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
To add to the confusion, I thought the top was the only bit fully citified, with smaller cities down its slopes but but nearly to the same extent.