Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

You will hit Essence 3 in 1 Arc if you focus on more ruler type actions otherwise 2-3 Arcs. After that Essence Four will take a while yet probably though it will depend on how the story goes.
That seems very arbitrary and lacks transparency. It also has the problem of forcing players to act in "X" manner to TRY and unlock "cool stuff". I get what you are going for but it inhibits player agency as we are forced to act in "X" manner if we THINK that is what we need to do to unlock "X" stuff.

Regarding Essence in particular, the ruling essentially invalidates the Essence Purchase vote we did a while back. The whole point of the vote was that we would not need to purchase Essence and instead spend xp on "cool stuff" to level up Essence naturally. If the process is arbitrary, then the vote is rendered irrelevant. It also interferes with Player agency again over control of the Character.

Again, I get what you are going for IC, but the OCC components have also to be taken into account. The point of controlling Molly as a Character is that we make decisions and face the consequences. That would would act and react to certain things. The process you described very much is rail roading as to "Level up" we have to take "X" kind of decisions.

It also interferes with the freedom to buy stuff for our character sheet. I get that certain charms can be problematic and gated behind Essence requirements but completely baring the charm behind arbitrary requirements that are not communicated to the players, especially one that has been much sought after as the King and Kingdom is not a good idea. To give perspective, we have two King and Kingdom descriptions and many others have also made theirs even if it has not been posted.

This may seem like a rant (Probably kinda is) but none of this was communicated to us, especially given how we voted on both Essence level ups and GSNF.
 
That seems very arbitrary and lacks transparency. It also has the problem of forcing players to act in "X" manner to TRY and unlock "cool stuff". I get what you are going for but it inhibits player agency as we are forced to act in "X" manner if we THINK that is what we need to do to unlock "X" stuff.

Regarding Essence in particular, the ruling essentially invalidates the Essence Purchase vote we did a while back. The whole point of the vote was that we would not need to purchase Essence and instead spend xp on "cool stuff" to level up Essence naturally. If the process is arbitrary, then the vote is rendered irrelevant. It also interferes with Player agency again over control of the Character.

Again, I get what you are going for IC, but the OCC components have also to be taken into account. The point of controlling Molly as a Character is that we make decisions and face the consequences. That would would act and react to certain things. The process you described very much is rail roading as to "Level up" we have to take "X" kind of decisions.

It also interferes with the freedom to buy stuff for our character sheet. I get that certain charms can be problematic and gated behind Essence requirements but completely baring the charm behind arbitrary requirements that are not communicated to the players, especially one that has been much sought after as the King and Kingdom is not a good idea. To give perspective, we have two King and Kingdom descriptions and many others have also made theirs even if it has not been posted.

This may seem like a rant (Probably kinda is) but none of this was communicated to us, especially given how we voted on both Essence level ups and GSNF.

That's fair and for what it's worth thank you for putting it down. It was never my intent to invalidate player agency. It's just that I am not the biggest fan of adding mathematical complexity and I thought I could get away with less numbers. Still given all the points you have made I'll come up with a system and work out how much XP you guys have spent soon.
 
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Also keep in mind that we have had 6 arks and have yet to hit E3.

We did have the experience for it after the end of the last arc actually if I remember correctly, it's just that DragonParadox decided it was too fast, leading to the narrative decisions you saw explained, well, originally, it was just supposed to be a slightly bigger EXP number, so I do agree that springing the narrative actions to do on us is a little against the idea of the vote, as you pointed out.

we have two King and Kingdom descriptions and many others have also made theirs even if it has not been posted.

I am pretty sure there were at least three proposed kingdoms, just that some have been posted so early we haven't kept track of them.

Which does points out that the Kingdom is very anticipated mind.
 
Winning Vote
Adhoc vote count started by LightLan on May 10, 2023 at 11:47 AM, finished with 129 posts and 30 votes.

  • [X] Keep the current patch: Green Sun Nimbus Flare is soakable by things that can soak Aggravated Damage. At Essence 4 that is no longer the case
    [X] Charm adds damage dice not straight damage until Essence 4
    [X] Spend some time with your family, you have prepared enough already
    [X] Craft a gift for Mab, nothing arcane or which demands great recompense of hers, but a hint that your powers are subtle as well as overt and that you are as valuable as an ally as you would be troublesome as a foe
    -[X] A car with not a singe atom of iron in it
    [X] Replace Green Sun Nimbus Flare with By Agony Empowered, making Molly less vulnerable to being overwhelmed by mundane damage
    [X] Meet with one of Mab's daughters and try to gain their support
    -[X] Meave the Winter Lady, your Malk neighbors should know where to find her and she would be the least suspicious to engage with
    [X] Craft a gift for Mab, nothing arcane or which demands great recompense of hers, but a hint that your powers are subtle as well as overt and that you are as valuable as an ally as you would be troublesome as a foe
    -[X] A car with not a singe atom of iron in it
    --[X] Use full suit of enchantments to work on the project - work while wet to trigger Boiling Sea Mastery in a locked freezer to trigger Cracked Cell Circumvention and Without Honor Without Hope and try and trigger Transcendent Lord of Flies when working on the chassis and environmental controls of the car
    --[X] Use Cyberdevils to help with the design, and Lydia if she is interested in helping on such a project
    --[X] STUNT: As you watch delivery vans leaving, their loads of titainium, molybdenum, aluminum, carbon and other materials removed and lying before you, ready to be carried into the depths of your territory, you idly wonder what their drivers think about having to transport and unload the fairly high tech materials into what can, at best, be called a "post industrial wasteland", full of rusted machinery and decrepit building. Once the mortals are safely out of sight, an effort of will brings forth a motorized forklift, with a fork looking more suited to skewer sinners in hell, than industrial palletts, yet still perfectly functional. Whistling innocently, you drive towards the building, where the actual assembly is going to take place, a heavy rusted-looking lock on its door keeping the invigorating chill in.
    [X] Craft a gift for Mab, nothing arcane or which demands great recompense of hers, but a hint that your powers are subtle as well as overt and that you are as valuable as an ally as you would be troublesome as a foe
    -[X] A car with not a single atom of iron in it
 
Arc 7 Post 2: Building Up
Building Up

27th of October 2006 A.D.

"Soo... dad you know how I have to meet with someone on Tuesday?" Since your dad was currently serving as the preferred seat of a sleepy Hope watching reruns of Pokemon with the stated intention of teaching him what all the names meant, you do not mention Queen Mab by name. Let her thing uncanny things are all goofy and cure, locked behind the electronic looking glass of the TV screen.

He nods seriously over your sister's pigtail adorned head.

"Well I'm thinking of making something for her and I could use some help with the logistics of it if you have the time."

Judging from his expression dad expects something dire, enough so that he is briefly befuddled when you lead him up to your room, the laptop you had just acquired humming on its own against the pillow as CAD drawings and specifications, order forms for everything from titanium, molybdenum, aluminum and carbon to circuit boards and fuses to the green-empaneled innards of computer systems for the dashboard.

"I'm thinking of making Queen Mab a car."

"What is a pretty tall order," he finally manages.

"I know, what do you think I asked you here for? To order stuff for the build," you giggle. Truth be told you could have asked Thomas to do it through Chicago Synthetics, but dad has done quite a lot of work on cars, mostly on interiors, but when it comes to the family van and pickup, even your own Beige Wagon that included engine and even body work. As the years went by you had moved up from handing him tools, to handing him the right tools, to learning how to change the oil, switch out a flat tire to eventually the more advanced stuff like replacing a broken valve and last year you even helped fix a broken radiator... at least sixty percent on your own.

"Looking to show your work?" his lips twitch upwards into a warm smile that make his eyes light up not unlike that time you had put that cap on backwards 'because it looked cooler', embarrassing as it is to remember from hindsight six years on.

"Yup," you admit, though adding: "I do need to know some local suppliers for this stuff. I'm going to need about twenty work hours to pull it off working flat out so that's gotta be two days so I'm going to need this to arrive as soon as possible..." You frown in thought trying to come up with the minimal possible timeline for each of the materials, something Clippy and company couldn't do since they do not have access to, nor fully understand the tools of the Wicked City at your fingertips.

Your dad looks down the slowly scowling screen thoughtfully, taps gingerly on the mouse to stop it.

"Details may be provided at spoken request or mouse input as desired," comes the instruction in Clippy's clear near-human voice.

"What are you hoping to get out of this?" your father asks, in that careful-not-to-imply-that-you're-being-silly tone that you used to hate when you were in middle school, but which you had come back around to accepting as just a thing parents did.

"Brownie points,' you shrug. "Not that I want the services of an actual brownie, you know the hearth keeper fey, but the better the mood I can get Mab into the better the chances we will part on if not warm terms than at least terms that are not cryogenicly frozen."

Dad huffs almost a laugh, but that does not put him off asking the real hard question: "Is that all you want, or do you want to know what she promised at the museum? Does she already have a temptation hanging over your head?"

You open your mouth to say something glib, maybe 'I'll see what the going price on secrets is', but that is not really true. As much as you would have hated walking up Harry's basement stairs without everything Bob knew about Mab so too you would hate to leave Mab's own company with less than all the insights she has about your power. The reasons for this are legion, it is yours, bound to your soul. It might be dangerous to be ignorant of something so powerful. What if a foe should know something about the nature of your change and thereby win a battle, but that is not the whole story. You want to know, you need to know, like you need air or water, like you soon won't need sleep. Is that the catch, for all this power, becoming some kind of infovore like those that ply the junk drowned datanets of the Wicked City?

Not questions that should be asked of dad between Pokemon and car-construction. Instead you settle for: "I'd like to know."

"Just be mindful of that and I'm sure you'll be alright." He is not, but you appreciate the faith just the same. For now you have a gift to craft for the most wicked of all fairy godmothers and thank God she isn't yours.

What kind of car do you want to make for Queen Mab

[] Write in (Pictures can be included if you wish)

OOC: Some father daughter bonding, next up will be the car proper
 
What kind of car do you want to make for Queen Mab

[] Write in (Pictures can be included if you wish)

OOC: Some father daughter bonding, next up will be the car proper
Gonna be honest here, this feels like pointless filler.
It won't matter, unless you arbitrarily decide that a specific suggestion happens to hit Mab's taste in cars, which we can't know about.
 
Gonna be honest here, this feels like pointless filler.
It won't matter, unless you arbitrarily decide that a specific suggestion happens to hit Mab's taste in cars, which we can't know about.

I have two reasons for breaking this here:
  1. Like with a stunt this could help me get a sense for what you guys want to do with the gift
  2. In the next update someone is going to talk to you as a direct consequence of the fact that you said that you would be meeting Mab in Mac's Pub, in public and that meeting would add quite a lot to an update that also includes talking to Michael and building the car. Molly is not the only person moving here.
 
[X] Car: A sleek convertible, white and pale ice-blue so that Mab can be seen while she goes cruising in her ride, and wield a longsword if the fancy strikes her.
- [x] If possible, we should try to make the car more off-road capable then a mortal equivilent. No roads in Winter.
 
So are we going for an inconspicuous car that they can drive though a mortal city without problems or a grandiose car for diving though the never-never in. Keep in mind that the second option needs to be very all terrain.

[X] A Monster Truck for diving though the Never-Never
 
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What I really wonder is if it would be appropiate to install a permanent Cyberdemon in the car, an whether we can sincerely order him to be loyal to Mab only.
 
So are we going for an inconspicuous car that they can drive though a mortal city without problems or a grandiose car for diving though the never-never in. Keep in mind that the second option needs to be very all terrain.
It would be difficult to make an all-terrain car that can handle the NeverNever better or more confortably than any mount that Mab already has.
Unless we built a flying car.
 
What I really wonder is if it would be appropiate to install a permanent Cyberdemon in the car, an whether we can sincerely order him to be loyal to Mab only.
Probably better not to.
So are we going for an inconspicuous car that they can drive though a mortal city without problems or a grandiose car for diving though the never-never in. Keep in mind that the second option needs to be very all terrain.
So a soccer mom SUV?
 
What I really wonder is if it would be appropiate to install a permanent Cyberdemon in the car, an whether we can sincerely order him to be loyal to Mab only.

Not a good idea, but this does allow me to explain something about their loyalty so it's a good question. Beings like Clippy and Black Rider are not loyal because the Exaltation forces them, they are loyal because Hollow Mind Possession gives them a choice, the first true choice they ever gotten:

Do you want to leave?

In answering yes one of the nameless formless demons of the Wicked City, least of that breed, becomes something subtly different, they become demons loyal to Molly. Worth keeping in mind these are not mortals so will and nature are one, they have practically speaking 'Fallen' into the service of Molly Carpenter, Infernal Exalted. Given that any turning point that would make them loyal to someone else over them would have to be just as momentous and that Molly herself cannot engineer.
 
Ideally the car would be equally functional and fashionable in the Nevernever and a mortal setting.

I know there are one-off offroad super cars but I'm not terribly car savvy so they may be irredeemable piles of junk.
 
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