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General Exalted Thread

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Tossing this out as Food for Thought-

The Order Conferring Trade Pattern should primarily be a Sidereal plothook and element of the setting that they contend with. Oh, sage elder Lunars know about it and likely ignore it for practical or political reasons, and I'm sure Scavenger Lords and Solars finding lost ruins will see mentions of it and its effect on Creation. But it's time as a true 'fact of daily life' for Creation is long passed.

Except for the Sidereals. They're the ones who have access to the knowledge and infrastructure to make any use of the old system, but even then there is only so much they can do. It is fortunate that the Realm hits upon its own mercantile imperialism as EarthScorpion points out, because that suits the Sidereals and the Trade Pattern just fine. Maybe the Sidereals help out with astrology or other destiny-weaving over the years, but sometimes serendipity happens.

In a lot of ways, the Pattern is probably something invoked as pragmatic design- developing a new trade or economic network, a new settlement, all that, could have been folded under the Pattern as a guideline- and obviously the Second Age can't do it like the First Age, so the modern Sidereals have to shore up the shortcomings- sounds like something you hand off to newbie Sidereals.

"Agent, you are required to ensure this new farming village outputs a crop of freshwater clams."
"But it's in the southern desert."
"Fresh. Water. Clams."

Agree/disagree, I'm not picky.
 
Shyft said:
Which iirc requires Essence 4 if not 5~! I hope you have some serious credit with a higher ranking Sidereal!
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Well, it's such a useful charm that it's worth getting early. There's almost nothing it can't do!
  • Love troubles? Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme will fix up your long-distance relationship!
  • Rival business? Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme can have them operating out of Rathess in no time flat!
  • Rabid dinosaur infestation? Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme has your back; just shift their nest to the next town over!
  • Struggling to get to work on time? Pop your house right next door with Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme!
  • Annoyed at the walk to the shops? Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme will make them far more convenient for you!
Honestly, I'm not sure why you'd ever need any other Charm. Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme is enough for any occasion.
 
Neighborhood-Relocation Scheme is hilarious in its over-the-top nature, but it won't make your ST hate you nearly as much as Wise Choice.
 
Accelerator said:
On a subject of essence 4 and 5, is there any guide on how old those with essence 3/4/5/6 should be?
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Basically PCs are exceptional, which is why they get XP. NPCs don't get/use XP really. You MUST be 100 years old to attain Essence 6, unless a god or other being has endowed you beforehand. So when in doubt, assume that most Exalted are E3, and that E4-5 is increasingly rare. Sidereals are also unique in that they have more surviving Elders than Lunars and Solars.
 
Shyft said:
Basically PCs are exceptional, which is why they get XP. NPCs don't get/use XP really. You MUST be 100 years old to attain Essence 6, unless a god or other being has endowed you beforehand. So when in doubt, assume that most Exalted are E3, and that E4-5 is increasingly rare. Sidereals are also unique in that they have more surviving Elders than Lunars and Solars.
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Ah, thanks for the clarification.

I thought that you needed to be 100 years old to get essence 4
 
Imrix said:
Occasion: I am on the verge of unconsciousness from over-using Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme to solve other problems.
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Use Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme to move bed and breakfast locations closer to all your primary workplaces, then nap and eat breakfast in bed in between solving problems with Neighborhood Relocation Scheme.
 
EarthScorpion said:
Notice that the day-to-day trade in the Realm is carried out in jade scrip, which despite the derogatory name is actually a perfectly functional fiat currency (in theory it's backed by the Empress' purse, but it's practically fiat) which is bluntly a better currency than jade or silver.
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Unless I am misremembering or this has varied between editions, jade scrip is denominated in units of jade and is supposed to be redeemable at par. Unless the Empire regularly revalues the scrip or lets the scrip float against physical jade (to more than a minor degree representing storage and transport costs) this is a commodity standard not a fiat currency.

edit: I just looked it up in Manacle and Coin, and the ledger talent is fixed at a 12:8 rate with a raw talent of jade (but that's just an issue of mass; a ledger talent is still worth its own weight in jade). And scrip is exchangeable at par with jade coins, which are exchangeable at par with bars and ledger talents, so scrip is still at a fixed rate against jade.

edit2: actually there was a sidebar I missed and they do vary the rate at which scrip is redeemed, although not frequently
 
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Broken25 said:
If i remember correctly, is even illegal for most people to trade with jade, so honestly i don't see how they could redeem their scrip at all.
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It's not illegal per se, it's just that there are certain things you can buy only using jade (high-quality armor and weapons) and there are things you can buy only with scrip (rice and some other staples).

Jade can be redeemed for 1.5 its face value in scrip, to encourage people to turn over jade. And IIRC the rate is unfavorable for trying to redeem scrip for jade, because then you get less than the actual face value.
 
Kuciwalker said:
Unless I am misremembering or this has varied between editions, jade scrip is denominated in units of jade and is supposed to be redeemable at par. Unless the Empire regularly revalues the scrip or lets the scrip float against physical jade (to more than a minor degree representing storage and transport costs) this is a commodity standard not a fiat currency.

edit: I just looked it up in Manacle and Coin, and the ledger talent is fixed at a 12:8 rate with a raw talent of jade (but that's just an issue of mass; a ledger talent is still worth its own weight in jade). And scrip is exchangeable at par with jade coins, which are exchangeable at par with bars and ledger talents, so scrip is still at a fixed rate against jade.

edit2: actually there was a sidebar I missed and they do vary the rate at which scrip is redeemed, although not frequently
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Ah, yes, rereading the section in the back of 2e (that's basically transcribed from Manacle and Coin), I had internalised the cynical reading that there is absolutely nothing stopping the Empress from printing more jade scrip than she actually has backing it. At a soft limit she can print three times as much jade scrip as she has actual jade in her bank and still be able to exchange it because of the 3:1 exchange rate when buying jade with jade scrip...

... except most jade scrip will never be redeemed, and that basically removes that softcap and turns it into a true fiat currency. Oh, certainly, the Empress can declare it has a certain value, but that's all it is - a fiat declaration and there's nothing stopping her printing more money than she can honour. After all, if it's never going to be redeemed for jade, that value is just a fiat statement of trust.

However, that's not explicitly stated in the book. It's just a pattern of behaviour that basically every single currency in history has displayed once the currency become abstracted from being made of shiny stuff, and so I assume will hold true.

(Of course, given Grabowkski was a libertarian goldbug, he'd probably consider that a villainous thing for the Realm to do - printing more money than they can honour)
 
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EarthScorpion said:
Ah, yes, rereading the section in the back of 2e (that's basically transcribed from Manacle and Coin), I had internalised the cynical reading that there is absolutely nothing stopping the Empress from printing more jade scrip than she actually has backing it. At a soft limit she can print three times as much jade scrip as she has actual jade in her bank and still be able to exchange it because of the 3:1 exchange rate when buying jade with jade scrip...

... except most jade scrip will never be redeemed, and that basically removes that softcap and turns it into a true fiat currency. Oh, certainly, the Empress can declare it has a certain value, but that's all it is - a fiat declaration and there's nothing stopping her printing more money than she can honour. After all, if it's never going to be redeemed for jade, that value is just a fiat statement of trust.

However, that's not explicitly stated in the book. It's just a pattern of behaviour that basically every single currency in history has displayed once the currency become abstracted from being made of shiny stuff, and so I assume will hold true.

(Of course, given Grabowkski was a libertarian goldbug, he'd probably consider that a villainous thing for the Realm to do - printing more money than they can honour)
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Aren't there considerable problems (or at least challenges) to fiat currency in pre-modern times? I know that the Chinese examples often struggled to stick around, and that it was tried quite a few times before it finally managed to stick/the circumstances became right that it was the best option.
 
The Laurent said:
Aren't there considerable problems (or at least challenges) to fiat currency in pre-modern times? I know that the Chinese examples often struggled to stick around, and that it was tried quite a few times before it finally managed to stick/the circumstances became right that it was the best option.
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The problem with fiat money usually is inflationary, which occurs when the governing body prints too much of the fiat currency and people retreat to other currencies as they can't hold faith in the value of the fiat money.

I'm totally down with the Realm having had peasant rebellions in the past caused by inflationary pressures because of the Scarlet printing extra jade scrip to avoid having to ask the Deliberative for more taxes when they're trying to campaign, though. It's good for the setting to have peasant rebellions to be caused by the second-hand effects of the monetary policy of a monarch who's trying to use other means than taking it from the nobility.
 
EarthScorpion said:
The problem with fiat money usually is inflationary, which occurs when the governing body prints too much of the fiat currency and people retreat to other currencies as they can't hold faith in the value of the fiat money.

I'm totally down with the Realm having had peasant rebellions in the past caused by inflationary pressures because of the Scarlet printing extra jade scrip to avoid having to ask the Deliberative for more taxes when they're trying to campaign, though. It's good for the setting to have peasant rebellions to be caused by the second-hand effects of the monetary policy of a monarch who's trying to use other means than taking it from the nobility.
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You'd still get problems with the nobility, as the monyed class would generally be the ones loaning money and thus be hurt by inflation. Which means now you can have a game where the players are all board members of the Royal Bank dealing with the dual mandate of keeping the nobles happy and the realm peaceful. "My house is too big to fail!"
 
Mutton said:
You'd still get problems with the nobility, as the monyed class would generally be the ones loaning money and thus be hurt by inflation. Which means now you can have a game where the players are all board members of the Royal Bank dealing with the dual mandate of keeping the nobles happy and the realm peaceful. "My house is too big to fail!"
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;~;7

Dragons grace to those poor brave bastards reviewing House Cynis's receipts
 
Estro said:
How large is a Yeddim? Bigger or smaller than an elephant?
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They're a fair bit bigger than elephants:
Exalted 3e said:
Huge, shaggy, and amiably stupid, the yeddim is domesticated throughout the world as a beast of burden. Standing eighteen feet tall at the shoulders and weighing fifteen tons, they have vast endurance and need very little feed or water, making them ideal for hauling caravans or carrying hundreds of pounds of goods or gear.
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EarthScorpion said:
Ah, yes, rereading the section in the back of 2e (that's basically transcribed from Manacle and Coin), I had internalised the cynical reading that there is absolutely nothing stopping the Empress from printing more jade scrip than she actually has backing it. At a soft limit she can print three times as much jade scrip as she has actual jade in her bank and still be able to exchange it because of the 3:1 exchange rate when buying jade with jade scrip...

... except most jade scrip will never be redeemed, and that basically removes that softcap and turns it into a true fiat currency. Oh, certainly, the Empress can declare it has a certain value, but that's all it is - a fiat declaration and there's nothing stopping her printing more money than she can honour. After all, if it's never going to be redeemed for jade, that value is just a fiat statement of trust.

However, that's not explicitly stated in the book. It's just a pattern of behaviour that basically every single currency in history has displayed once the currency become abstracted from being made of shiny stuff, and so I assume will hold true.

(Of course, given Grabowkski was a libertarian goldbug, he'd probably consider that a villainous thing for the Realm to do - printing more money than they can honour)
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A commodity standard with occasional revaluations is still a commodity standard; in the real world, the gold standard is generally considered to have ended (finally), not with the introduction of paper currency, but with the end of Bretton Woods and gold convertibility of USD. Most importantly, the real value of Realm scrip will be primarily driven by the value of jade. Since revaluations are infrequent and done more to maintain the integrity of the Treasury than for economic stabilization, the Realm ought to experience the sort of severe economic cycles that characterized the gold standard. The lender-of-last resort function of the Treasury (since no Imperial Bank is mentioned that I recall) will be more important. Even during periods where convertibility is suspended or restricted, people will expect an eventual return to the jade standard and value will be driven by the expected future (jade) price.

There are subtler but more important consequences of commodity-backed paper currency than the potential for abuse of seignorage => inflation.

(Plausibly, the economic cycles could be much more severe since jade, unlike gold, has a lot of industrial applications.)
 
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Crumplepunch said:
Well, I disagree. An effect that can potentially benefit any Archery attack is as broadly useful as you can get in an Ability which is 100% based around Archery attacks.
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Yeah, I know. I'm not saying it's not broadly useful, I'm saying I think it's a bad way to do broad usefulness.

Crumplepunch said:
There are an intentionally limited number of these conditionally activated effects applicable with each Ability so it doesn't get that complicated.
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That helps, at least.

Crumplepunch said:
The Charm has roughly a 15-35% chance of triggering depending on your dice pool (that's on 14-21 dice, if you're curious, I did run the numbers). Given that archery attacks are something you are almost always going to be doing, I expect the benefit to come up in combat a fair bit.
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Yeah, I ran the numbers too. I started at 6 dice, though, since it's the basic Archery Charm for people with Archery 1.

It is useful, just not to the people who it should be for. In other words, the problem (beyond it being flavourless and fiddly) is that...

Crumplepunch said:
...it scales more with Essence as the rerolls themselves become more potent.
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