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General Exalted Thread

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Cornuthaum said:
One success on 23 dice on a critical negotiation roll there will be blood and vengeance and-

The game's a lot of fun, but I would most strongly encourage you to keep in mind that we are a the representatives of an imperialistic, hegemonic power working with the intent to claim as much of Thirty Years War x Persia OTP Taira for ourselves, our House and the Realm as we can, and if you aren't ok with the themes inherent in that, this is probably not for you.
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Well, it should be mentioned that at least Isra and Kwi-Nam are both pretty tasteful takes on this subject, given that neither of us make no illusions how much imperialism benefits the people being imperialized, or what costs are associated with it. But yes, if you want to play a noble freedom fighter, this is probably not the game for you. :V
 
Yeah, I'll reflect what the other players have said so far. The dicebot is fucking biased, and we're not really playing the good guys in this game...

But it's still really fun.
 
horngeek said:
Yeah, I'll reflect what the other players have said so far. The dicebot is fucking biased, and we're not really playing the good guys in this game...
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I will not hear you slander @Firnagzen's daughter like so! She is a good and virtuous lady who wishes only our best and no, my literal mountain of Performance dice tricks have no influence on this at all. :mad:
 
Maugan Ra said:
Right then! Hello everyone, I am @Maugan Ra and for the last several months I have been running a Dragon-Blooded game for Exalted 3rd Edition using @Crumplepunch's wonderful Clutch of Dragons homebrew. You can find the game on our Discord server, which has a record of all the previous sessions:

Lords of Silk and Stone

The reason I'm talking about this now is because I'm looking to recruit a number of new players to the group. We have five at the moment, but due to time-zones, working hours and various other commitments it's rather rare for everyone to be present at once, so we sometimes end up without enough players to run a session. I would like to change that, so I'm hereby accepting applications for new characters over the next week or so. They should be created with 100 experience points and 80 terrestrial experience points in order to match our existing PCs, and should be members of the Cadet House of Jades, which is currently expanding into the war-torn lands of Taira.

We currently play every week between noon and 4pm GMT on Saturdays, but this could potentially be changed and there's always the option of mini-sessions run at other times throughout the week.

If you want to be considered for a spot, come up with a character sheet and background in Googledocs or some other easily referenced format, then post a link to it in the general channel while tagging me to make it easier to find.

I will now invite my existing players to share their thoughts and opinions on the game thus far: @Stormwhite, @Omicron, @Cornuthaum, @horngeek, @ManusDomine.

EDIT: It is important to note that we use flat xp costs, which can be found pinned in the General channel.
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I would be interested, but I live in Adelaide so your session times are from 1:30AM to 5:30AM, so that sucks.
 
ManusDomine said:
We were quite literally too toxic; all the way back in first edition before the old White Wolf forum. He was so tired of the sheer toxicity of the Exalted fanbase that he quit until 3e brought him back on the project, and now we're here.
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Ah, I thought you mean SV specifically.

ManusDomine said:
Sometimes, I wonder why we do so love Exalted; @EarthScorpion has spent more words than War and Peace to fix it, @Shyft has turned his mind to divining the alien will of his prophet Jenna Moran, I act like a misanthropical cynic and the regular pastime of literally every edition's fanbase has been to complain about developers and new iterations of terrible rules.

Yet we still love it. We invest time, effort and dedication into it to a degree that we simply don't do many other RPGs, hell I've been holding on to a dream-version of this wreck of a game for over a decade. It's kind of amazing, I wonder why.
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Eh, it's still only my second-favourite RPG.

But seriously, the fandom is self-reinforcing. I'm here because you're all here, and you're all here because we're all here.

Leetsepeak said:
Separate from that, this place is utterly unexceptional as far as Exalted fandom goes. My favorite posts are the ones where actual content gets posted...
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Thinking about this a bit more, it's been too long since I posted anything new.

Exalted has never had good rules for destinies, as I recall, so I'll take a crack at fixing that.

Untested first-draft stuff, so please feel free to rip it to shreds. In my next post, for the sake of tidiness.
 
Everything in Creation has a destiny. But most destinies don't mean much; they're just vague things, half plan and half prediction, easily denied. Wherever the Exalted walk, they change those small destinies en masse.

But some destinies have weight. Some destinies make themselves true. Some destinies represent the sincere desires of mighty gods, or the brutal necessities of the Loom of Fate. Others are woven by the Sidereal Exalted, key pieces of their plans inscribed into the night sky so that they will enact themselves.

Powerful destinies are rated in dots, like artifacts. A character who benefits from a destiny should take it as a Merit at character creation. Bear in mind that destinies are inherently story-warping, and so require the Storyteller's approval. All destinies are under the Storyteller's control, even if attached to or created by a player character, and they have an unfortunate tendency to come true in unexpected ways. This tendency does have one positive implication for player characters; even a seemingly-negative destiny like "you will drown" can be a worthy Merit. After all, someone who's destined to drown has a measure of protection from swords and arrows...

Destinies have no effect on things that are Outside of Fate.

Destiny (• to •••••) - Story

The character's destiny, or a part of it, is woven tightly. The world bends to make it happen, with effects determined by its rating as follows.

• - The destiny has little ability to enforce itself. However, it's visible to Heaven, and gods who take their job seriously will usually try to make it happen. If the destiny is in danger of being broken, it may cause a minor intervention on its own. Or not.

•• - The destiny has a noticeable effect on the working of the world. It will generally cause a minor intervention each story, and may be able to manage a moderate intervention to save itself. Gods will hesitate before acting against the destiny.

••• - The destiny represents the will of Heaven, and even corrupt gods will generally comply with it for fear of Paradox or Sidereal intervention. It can cause a moderate intervention or several minor interventions each story.

•••• - The destiny is a thing of tremendous power. A minor god exists whose sole role is to see it through. Even without the help of its god the destiny can cause one moderate intervention and a fair number of minor interventions each story. If it is at risk of being broken, a major intervention may occur.

••••• - The destiny is among the most powerful in Creation. An office of gods is dedicated to it, and the Sidereal Exalted have no intention of letting them fail in their task. The destiny itself can produce a major intervention or several moderate interventions every story, and has an almost unlimited supply of minor interventions.

Interventions

Minor interventions

-Raise or lower a target number by 1 for one roll.
-Arrange a convenient coincidence that could easily have happened on its own.
-Have someone weak-willed do something they might've done anyway.

Moderate interventions

-Raise or lower a target number by 3 for one roll.
-Have something unlikely, but not implausible, happen.
-Have a weak-willed person or a small group of them do something in-character that they normally wouldn't, nudge the actions of someone stronger.

Major interventions

-Automatic success or failure for one roll, possibly an extended roll.
-A coincidence of unlimited scope.
-Make people act out their roles in the destiny even if it's out of character. Partially effective against the strong-willed; it's reasonable for the ST to ask a player to play out their role in a destiny, but a player is always entitled to refuse.

Perceiving Destinies

All destinies rated 1 or higher are obvious to any Sidereal who looks at their subject. Gods with appropriate purviews can see them as well. Even mortal astrologers generally find them easy to discover when drawing up a horoscope.

There are exceptions, secret destinies occluded by powerful astrology, but they are tremendously rare. It's difficult for the gods to make something happen if they don't know they're meant to do so.

Weaving Destinies

Most destinies are created naturally, by the Loom and its mysterious internal processes.

A character with the proper authorisation - that is, a Sidereal or god acting within their purview - can levy a 1-dot destiny with an hour of paperwork and prayer. Greater destinies must be crafted as though they were artifacts. EIther way, the weaver must remain in regular contact with the destiny's subject or the Loom of Fate.

Destiny-Manifesting Method and Phoenix Renewal Tactic are effective agains the imposition of unwanted destinies.

Breaking Destinies

When a destiny rated 1 or higher is rendered impossible to fulfil, Paradox ensues. Exactly where it lands is unpredictable, even to the Maidens; sensible people are wary of breaking destinies. Doing so is dangerous and makes work for the Sidereal Exalted, some of whom are completely willing to kill habitual fatebreakers just for increasing their workload.

The Paradox created by a broken destiny does not arrive all at once, and can be mitigated. Examination of the Loom of Fate often reveals strange and seemingly meaningless tasks that, if completed, will reduce the impact of a broken destiny.
 
This is probably not balanced at all and I'm more than happy to just leave it as a pun.

Twinning Edge
Artifact 3
Attune - 6m

There are many oddities and objects of conversation throughout the world of Artifice. Functional artwork or one-off creations that speak more of their makers than their intended purposes. The Twinning Edge is one such artifact.

The device itself is an artifact knife with a handle comfortable for one or two handed grips, with a heel allowing it to be used as a cleaver or short-axe, and a small serrated span at the base of the blade. Functionally this means that it can cut almost any mundane material without much trouble. It's most often used in culinary preparation however.

The blade's magic is worked into the folded metal patterns visible on both sides of the blade. The bands of differentiating Moonsilver and Starmetal were carefully arranged as such that when finally forged, the blade became a mural to the great gods and bureaus of division, separation and reconstruction.

When attuned, the blade can, given time, cut through any mundane, inanimate substance like lumber, steel, wool, bread or meat-on-bone. In the process of cutting something into two approximately equal halves, it will divide into two functionally identical instances of itself. Therefore, by cutting a sandwich in half, one instead ends up with two perfectly edible meals.

Unfortunately, the division imposed by this artifact is self-limiting; an item so divided cannot be divided again.
 
Maugan Ra said:
Right then! Hello everyone, I am @Maugan Ra and for the last several months I have been running a Dragon-Blooded game for Exalted 3rd Edition using @Crumplepunch's wonderful Clutch of Dragons homebrew. You can find the game on our Discord server, which has a record of all the previous sessions:

Lords of Silk and Stone

The reason I'm talking about this now is because I'm looking to recruit a number of new players to the group. We have five at the moment, but due to time-zones, working hours and various other commitments it's rather rare for everyone to be present at once, so we sometimes end up without enough players to run a session. I would like to change that, so I'm hereby accepting applications for new characters over the next week or so. They should be created with 100 experience points and 80 terrestrial experience points in order to match our existing PCs, and should be members of the Cadet House of Jades, which is currently expanding into the war-torn lands of Taira.

We currently play every week between noon and 4pm GMT on Saturdays, but this could potentially be changed and there's always the option of mini-sessions run at other times throughout the week.

If you want to be considered for a spot, come up with a character sheet and background in Googledocs or some other easily referenced format, then post a link to it in the general channel while tagging me to make it easier to find.

I will now invite my existing players to share their thoughts and opinions on the game thus far: @Stormwhite, @Omicron, @Cornuthaum, @horngeek, @ManusDomine.

EDIT: It is important to note that we use flat xp costs, which can be found pinned in the General channel.
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Stormwhite said:
Fuck our dicebot >:C
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Cornuthaum said:
One success on 23 dice on a critical negotiation roll there will be blood and vengeance and-

The game's a lot of fun, but I would most strongly encourage you to keep in mind that we are a the representatives of an imperialistic, hegemonic power working with the intent to claim as much of Thirty Years War x Persia OTP Taira for ourselves, our House and the Realm as we can, and if you aren't ok with the themes inherent in that, this is probably not for you.
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ManusDomine said:
Well, it should be mentioned that at least Isra and Kwi-Nam are both pretty tasteful takes on this subject, given that neither of us make no illusions how much imperialism benefits the people being imperialized, or what costs are associated with it. But yes, if you want to play a noble freedom fighter, this is probably not the game for you. :V
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horngeek said:
Yeah, I'll reflect what the other players have said so far. The dicebot is fucking biased, and we're not really playing the good guys in this game...

But it's still really fun.
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I would love to becuse it sounds like a blast and I really just want to get some experience play a game, but....
A: I don't have the 3e core book. Haven't even read the stuff that got leaked a while back.
B: I work nights, and weekends, so I really couldn't play with the group.

On another topic I have a couple of character ideas ideas I'm trying to develop. Would this be a good place to talk about them?
 
horngeek said:
We're playing open imperialists. :V
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Yeah but to turn to another page; there's plenty of people say the Technocracy of Mage the Ascension are the real heroes of the setting and the Traditions are just selfish terrorists. :VSo sounds we just need to some rephrasing to make it nicer sounding; how about "humanitarian intervention" sound? :p
 
horngeek said:
We're playing open imperialists. :V
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Yeah, but, like, Solars are basically everything bad about absolute monarchy in a nearly-impervious-to-revolution package, 3E Lunars use entire cultures as ablative armor, Infernals are working for masters who are out to ruin literally everything out of sheer spite, and let's not even go into Abyssals here.

I have more or less never been in an Exalted campaign where the ST let the players feel like the good guys, basically :p.
 
Drascin said:
Yeah, but, like, Solars are basically everything bad about absolute monarchy in a nearly-impervious-to-revolution package, 3E Lunars use entire cultures as ablative armor, Infernals are working for masters who are out to ruin literally everything out of sheer spite, and let's not even go into Abyssals here.

I have more or less never been in an Exalted campaign where the ST let the players feel like the good guys, basically :p.
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Are they, exactly?
 
No organization in Creation is the "good guys" in that sense that they are undeniably moral people. Probably every organization in Creation is the "good guy" in the sense that they are doing what they think is right. Might does make Right, even if that isn't morally satisfying to people in the real world. It's up to PCs to take that and use it for what they think would make them the good guys.

In the last session my slayer ripped out the eye of one of his guards (and left a sick brassy hand-print brand over that side of his face) who let his men get distracted while guarding the safety of another PC's wife who was his guest. Then when he got his hands on the sorcerer who attacked her, because he had been stolen away and bedeviled by a lune that was messing with the same PC for personal growth reasons, he gave him the choice of swearing loyalty to him or death. He said that his honor demands his only loyalty be to his homeland, and my slayer told him that he can respect that. Then he ripped out his tongue with a hand burning in a corona of acid green flame so he wouldn't have to worry about compromising his honor before he died soon after.

Is that good? He's punishing those who fail in their duties and he's punishing those who threaten his honor by attacking his guests. He is as merciful in doing this as he feels is possible and he respects the sorcere's sense of honor enough that he wasn't going to make him compromise it in a moment of weakness. He certainly feels he did the right thing in that situation.
 
More seriously, while Exalted does in fact not call anything good; it sure as hell judges you for doing bad stuff. It recognizes that resting on a God-King's silk cushion, borne aloft by your myriad slaves is rad as fuck but it's also kind of an asshole move.
 
The moral texture of Exalted as a setting/narrative is one of it's important parts. It's why I tend to be baffled by both yozi apologists/demon justice discussions, and UCS-is-my-daddy patterns.

To build on @ManusDomine 's point, it's entirely possible to do rad-as-fuck things and not be amoral or ethical about it. It's just harder. The real challenge for both players and storytellers is figuring out how to portray someone Walking the Walk as opposed to just talking it up.
 
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