Having earned some favor with the local Ragged, Inks is ushered in to meet someone 'in the know', and it's more firmly thrust in her face that there is a dire inequity in Gem, beyond even the slavery culture. It's notable that in Gem, part of why institutionalized slavery works, is that anyone can be enslaved, and be freed on the whims of fortune. That's really true of Creation in general, where slavery is an economic force, largely without racial justification. (Not to say racism doesn't exist, but it's just... not thematically releavnt here).
Anyway, that tangent aside, Inks is introduced to an interesting character, clad in figure-hiding robes and wielding a ringed staff like asian exorcists. I'm not sure of the significance in Creation, but it's cool and Aleph likes to be specific with those kinds of details.
The following discussion is tense to say the least, and despite my initial awesome successess, things quickly escalate and then explode in both our faces.
Later on post-session, we discuss the impact of this scene on our game and the 'fun' we had or lack there of. I did enjoy myself, but as I point out, I was not in control for the majority of the scene. And players abhor the lack of control much like nature a vacuum.
The crux of the escalation was Aleph not quite being prepared for the extent of my initial successes, which is par for the course, and then she invoked Maji, without my prompting. Now, Familiar is an oft ignored and maligned background, because a given PC's animal companion is either going to be an obnoxious meme or a one-scene wonder. Maji occupies a critical space in Sunlit Sands as Inks's primary sounding board- despite largely being ignorant of human matters like economics, industry and murder, he exists so that the scenes are not empty, beyond his obvious utility as Inks's strong right arm or anchor for Invulnerable Skin of Bronze.
My experience as a player is best summarized as 'backgrounds are ignored until invoked', not through any malice on part of the ST, but more lack of attention and ability to utilize the trait in a meaningful way. We've all heard stories of 'attack the PC's parents/wives/children' as a means to affect them, and that's not untrue of Exalted or its Backgrounds. As I mention in-log, Backgrounds are often Done To, not Doing.
Anyway, part of why the scene felt out of control was due in part to how it was the PC being put between two NPCs. When I was running SNG or other games, I called this situation 'playing with myself', and when handled badly by myself or others, masturbation. This is not a criticsm against Aleph, but that glib description is intentional. It's a hard thing to remember, that most often, the most important characters in a game are the PCs.
Taken too far one way, you get 'chump' NPCs despite their obvious prowess or power. Taken too far the other, the PCs are a captive audience for whatever drama the ST wishes to unfold. Aleph here did not do that, because she relied on the dice to guage where things went, and was just as surprised and unprepared as I was.
so Maji, acting exactly as I intended but in an inopportune time and place. And he rolled VERY well for what actually happened... just too well.
It was pointed out to me that as I was writing this, the whole scene was mechanized in a very adversarial sense- nearly every roll was in some way trying to get one character to do or not do something. All couched in 'attack/defense' pairs with very little in the way of an intuitive 'counter' mechanic to prevent action.
Now, as things came to a head, Aleph was great in invoking more rolls to give me more information like the medicine roll to determine the Exorcist's nature.
From here, a brief and foregone conclusion chase ensued. Inks is, despite how i've often drawn her, not actually as in shape as she might want to be. Dex 2 Athletics 1 meant that the contested roll to chase the Exorcist down was... not successful.
However, Aleph succeeded here at something fundamental that I am going to bold for emphasis:
Inks was not left with a dead end after the scene derailed itself.
Specifically, she reminded me as a player that the exorcist fled her workroom, leaving tons of evidience behind- spilt blood, papers which we later determined were complex spirit wards and enhancements, and her staff itself. All of which will come in hand.
There's a phrase in RPG communities called 'fail forward', which is tough to summarize here, but I trust you all can search for it yourself, regardless, despite the Obvious Setback, I as a player am armed with the resources I need to proceed.
Now, due to scheduling issues and how long the above scene took, the last chunk of the session was much more rapid and possibly less fleshed out than preferred. I still think Aleph did a fantastic job despite the miscalcualtions. Inks finally got a chance to really enjoy her bath after a stressful day, and poor, poor Carsa. Your employer is App 5 and unconcerned with things like nudity. And made a point to build her baths on the bottom floor, open-air courtyard of her townhouse.
Since it was getting late, we were both in the mode of 'tying off some loose ends' and leaving the session on a fun note, if not a high note. Despite the project intervals, Inks's main issue isn't 'downtime', it's screentime. You'll have heard mention of a 'Pepper' every so often, which is the current side-goal. Inks needs a competent assistant who can take over for certain projects, or take their own Trivial Actions while Inks is doing something else on-camera. In that regard, Inks needs a force-multiplier.
===
So Post session, some further disscussion lead to a few interesting observations.
As far as Exalted 2e is concerned, there is an implicit mechanical difference between 'listening' and 'social attack'. The former is 'MDV is effectively waived, and actions are resolved at Difficulty'. The latter is the more traditinoal social attack, and as I mentioned earlier, the above scene was very adversarial.
Now, Maji has a character, he IS a character, with desires and drives. He has to have a character, or he would be relagated to mere 'tool', as Aleph observes, could have happened.
Beyond that, in hindsight we all recognized that Maji logically should have had Intimacy modifiers for Inks and loyalty to her, and his own high Valor competed to make his MDV beat Inks's attempt to contain him.
This is not a mistake on anyone's part, just best described as "Playing With Toys usurped everyones goals for the scene, and the mechanics got the both of you thinking along linear paths of resolution, not 'wait, stop, what is the Story saying here.'"
One of the critical metrics I feel of running a game, especially one like Exalted that is contingent on progress, towards goals or objectives, is feeling like your time was not wasted as a player. My lack of control certainly worried me, but Aleph continued to show her commitment to providing an engaging experience. I may not have made the progress I wanted or expected, but I certainly don't feel like this session was a frustrating setback or time spent spinning my wheels.
Succinctly, I had fun.
