General Exalted Thread
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
That Feeling When Raksi/Filial Wisdom shippers were not wrong...A Dawn's job is to both beat up the enemy and his teammate when they want to practice not-cannibalism.
Raski's problem is not having a Dawn to punch her whenever she wants to nom babies.
EDIT: Rechecked, he's a Zenith... I was wrong. There's TWO missing Dawns to perform percussive maintenance. Unless one is both a member of FW's Circle AND Raksi's mate.
EDIT: rechecked again, other sources call him a Dawn still... Gotta dig into books now.
EDIT: Final check from Compass of Terrestrial Directions - The East makes him a Dawn.
I reiterate, TFW Raksi/Filial Wisdom shippers were not wrong...
Last edited:
Kalzky
The Patron Saint Of Thowing Stuff In The Sun
- Location
- MI
urge to write rom-com of a morally decent Dawn and Raski..rising.
grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
I am somehow imagining a comedic version of Sierra Lee's Crimson Gray.
One of my groups has basically decided that Raksi and her Solar Mate are Misuzu and Tomo from Tomo-chan is a Girl!
Of course, this version of Raksi is actually serving carefully disguised shaved monkeys as her character test, but...
...Wow, that works surprisingly well.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Ooh boy! It took weeks to do thanks to scheduling issues- and I got sick this week so I was recovering from a nasty cold in fact, but boom, here we are with Session 45 of Sunlit Sands! Big props again to @Aleph for running, and setting aside two days in a row to cap off this session!
Finally- a combat scene Inks couldn't talk her way out of!
Session 45 Log
So that concludes Sunlit Sands Sesssion 45!
Finally- a combat scene Inks couldn't talk her way out of!
Session 45 Log
So this postmortem may be a little more disjointed, as it's covering one session that was spread out over several weeks. So I may not remember the exact permutation of events as I go through them. It's also a lot more OOC heavy that normal, due to invoking unfamiliar mechanics and establishing conventions.
We pick up on Session 44's cliffhanger, and in a lot of ways this is a bittersweet nostalgic feeling, because most of my pre-Sunlit Sands games had this kind of thing happen Constantly. Not so much the cliffhanger as 'Session ends on a fight starting, the fight is next week' due to how combat was difficult to run for a lot of people.
Here it made sense though, because cliffhangers and episodic storytelling techniques lend themselves well to Exalted's genres, usually. Like all things, moderation is key.
Now mechanically there were some hurdles to tackle- and for notes, we're using a houseruled Magnitude scale that's more like Mag 1 = 1 person , mag 2 = 10, and so on. Secondly, Aleph I think was planning on modeling them as 'Tough Extras', which will come up a bit later.
But, in terms of engagement design, this is a drastic, stratospheric improvement from the Dehya mugging back in Chazor. Firstly the opponents have clear signaling as to their capabilities, and Aleph even spelled it out in OOC text- slow but solid. This had the great counterpoint that it meant one of Inks's greatest weaknesses (Mobility) was not being unduly taken advantage of. My team were all faster than these soldiers, but not to the point of being able to run rings around them.
Their high armor and varried equipment (something most STs don't bother with due to how fragile most opponents are) made them a great tactical and strategic challenge, on top of their division into two spear groups on the sides, and one archer group at the bottom of the grand hallway.
Further, I have as a player a much better grasp of Inks's capabiltiies and that of Vahti and Pipera, meaning I could more readily use them in the battle. On the downside though, The spirit charms availible to Vahti actually are a lot more limited than one might expect- very few Elementals get to make their Element Ex Nihilo, so a lot of the several-day session is grappling with that- but in a fun way.
Lastly, the room itself. While it is a large rectangle, 30 by 60 yards, it was simultaneously both too big and too small for anyone. My team couldn't project threats out at range, and what ranged options I did have were either almost too big or outright too big- you'll see what I mean later.
The pillars in the room were a nice touch, as was the table, but I think a chamber with more room for props would have been ideal- now of course I could have stunted things like hanging silk draperies or whatnot, but I was in a sort of 'the scene is sacrosanct' mood, a habit I might have to break.
Before I get to the blow-by-blow of the fight itself, part of why this session stands out to me is that it's as much an ideological battle- and it really hews right to the core of what I feel is the Exalted experience- punctuating conflicting methods and ideologies with epic superpowered kung fu duels!
The Combat Game!
So in the opening moves, before Join Battle Inks is in the middle of the room with Pipera and Vahti, Maji is still in her tattoo. Aleph makes a point of asking me my strategy, and some OOC conversations prior to this reminded us both that this is one of the Lowest Deepest parts of Iblan's domain... and they're one of the biggest mining interests in Gem, meaning likely, access to a mine from Somewhere is possible and Inks can get out that way instead of escaping through the actual 'urban' complex into underground Gem.
Something I tried experimenting with is being more OOC-transparent with my intended actions before I stunt; normally I like to preserve the 'surprise' of what I'm doing, but I think Aleph can handle it and me better if I'm more clear up front about things, with the stunt more informing the Aesthetics.
Which is why I laid out Move, Join Battle, Maji Deployed' before actually writing the stunt.
Now, part of why Aleph modeled the Soldiers the way she did was to keep the total number of combatants down, which was a Good Move. The downside though is that Exalted 2e doesn't model 'squads' that well, and tends to assume for good or ill that even Extras will be in the tick count in some form or another. Extras are very squishy, waiving about half of combat resolution for expediency.
So in practical terms, Inks and co were fighting against 3 'people' who happened to take the form of 10 heavily armored guards. Was there a better way to do this? Maybe. Lesson learned, and it's not like Inks needed any more of a handicap.
On this note, Aleph and I, I think we both agree that Inks should be 'allowed' to have dematerialized demon bodyguards, with the expectation that she doesn't summon a billion of them- simply to keep combat tracking down. But having more dudes on my side might've helped. In hindisght I should have, even pre-session, called Tatters in and had her infiltrate along with us.
(we haven't been using demon bodyguards mostly so Aleph can ease into running combat).
So everybody stunts and rolls Join Battle.
Tick 0: Inks and Maji; Tick 1: Empty; Tick 2: Vahti and Group Right Side (Now R); Tick 3: Empty; Tick 4: Pipera; Tick 5: Group Left Side (now L); Tick 6: Group Door, now D (the archers);
In older games, I would label units like 1 2 3 or A B C, but I think abbreivating their Locations was a better idea, so props to Aleph for thinking of that.
Join Battle, like a lot of mechanics, is clunky and has deleterious problems at high level play like the Tick 6 Clusterfuck- but at the same time, it creates wonderful emergent moments like how Aleph characterized the sentries's reactions as 'they can't get ready fast enough!'
Now, off camera I had I think figured out what to do in my opening sequence of actions which was to flip the table to use as cover, which in my opinion is top shelf stunting technique. We're still on Tick 0- that's a quirk of how Join Battle Works, it technically has a variable speed of 0 to 6, so 'Join Battle' is essentially deciding what you end up doing Right There. It's a Misc Action as well, so it Can be flurried to ready weapon or anything.
This means that Inks and Maji both essentially took a speed 0 action, their DVs refreshed (for charm use if you follow those rules), and then can act again. Since I already 'moved' join-battle tick, Inks was in position.
After discussing the pros and cons of Loom Stride- the advantage being that it counts as an automatic surprise attack effect- that is to say the roll to 'make' the stride is contested by wits+aware to see if you can react in time- but unfortunately Maji was not close enough.
I want you to picture this though. A big bronze tiger that comes up to just below Inks's chest and Inks is like 6'1" in her preferred heels. That tiger vanishing, and then reappearing behind his target for a swipe/bite. It would have been mechanically spectacular.
Instead I temporarily broke Aleph with the jump rules.
So implictly, Exalted runs under the idea that an actor can only do [actor] things. If a creature can't jump, it doesn't matter how big it's str+ath is. The problem is it depends on a certain amount of common sense to arbitrate this. So we'll see how things shake out. I argue that giant bronze tigers should be able to leaping pounces.
Now in terms of ticks and combat, this was a complex tick- two actors (both controlled by me) were attempting a flurry and a single action respectively, and evaluating all of that was a trip, but we handled it beautifuly imo.
Unfortunately, the Iblan guards, armed with tall shields, were able to defend themselves agaisnt Maji's clawswipe. Inks however, had more muscle than a bass guitar and lifted the obsidian table to tilt it over and make cover!
So now secure behind +3 ranged cover, Inks and Pipera were 'safe' from the crossbowmen at the far end of the hall- that left Group R unaddressed, and Tick 1 passed with only Movement, no Actions. At a system/design level, Exalted 2e would have greatly benefited from dividing things into On Tick and Off Tick actions, or something to that effect- better phrasing. That is, if you ended up keeping the tick system in general.
Anyway, so Tick 0 passed, Tick 1 passed, and now Tick 2; Vahti and Group R! Aleph had to bow out for the day, so we agreed to end the session after discussing Element [Fire] Control and how Vahti could not generate fire Ex Nihilo. So I had her roll valor, because Vahti is influenced by Inks and Maji, and she is Pissed- and the Iblan nobility were right there...
The following week, we picked up on Tick 2. Vahti charged towards the Iblan nobles, including Bana- her Dexterity is 4, so her movement per tick was Great- and she caught up easily to their Dex of 1-2. Of course they're old and decrepit too, so it's not exactly fair.
Btw, Valor does not mean Nice.
So Vahti gets into Punch range (her sword was largely ceremonial), and rolled... 10 sux, with a called shot penalty for targeting someone not Joined in Battle. So she hit them by 8 +3 strength for 11 bashing. We agreed to abstract it across the 3 nobles, but suffice to say Vahti Smash. 'Fortunately' she only rolled 2 damage successes, but that was still likely a thurough thrashing for them.
Fortunately, Inks was also able to easily reign her in after this.
Of course, I forgot that Group R was also acting on Tick 2. You'll note that I handled most of the tick tracking this session, mostly to help Aleph. I generally advocate that players help the ST as much as possible, in order to keep things moving- especially in a variable heavy game like Exalted.
Now, to Aleph's credit and she continues to do this more and more as the fight goes on, she does not model the guards as perfectly rational actors- so a lot of what I was Expecting them to do didn't happen, interpreting them as Game Pieces more than people. So in that regard she treated the guards 'better' than I was as a player, even though in-character, Inks was largely not trying to Kill anyone.
With that in mind, we examine the situation- Vahti has assaulted the nobles, these guards are now Angry, upset, filled with a righteous fury- so they charge. Now I think if they had actualy Charged with their spears that would have not ended well for anyone but flamepieces are great.
So these mortals had to do a 3 action flurry, and as Aleph discovered, a Misc Action still 'takes dice' from a pool as you go. So switching from spear/shield to flamepiece really hurt them.
Now, since Inks hadn't moved yet this tick 2, she could move the 2 yards to put herself between Pipera and the attackers- not that Exalted models 'intervening damage' by default. Better safe than sorry though! What followed set the foundation for some of the coolest moments of this fight coming up.
Now for Pipera- I had to look up Wind-Carried Words, but I had this in mind the whole time; The question is, who to call for help? Tatters, Rankar, Sun? I had sun on my mind because I think a socio-military solution was the best, but Tatters might've gotten their Sooner with an immediate response. The downside of Tatters is that she'd likely start killing everyone for attacking her crush.
I like Rankar as a character, but I don't think invoking him as 'help' in this dispute was a good idea- he'll find out eventually though...
Anyway, so this hopefully will put Piercing Sun on a path towards pressuring Iblan to let us go. Hopefully.
Tick 5- Inks and Maji had both performed Misc Actions (well, a flurry in Maji's case), and I admit in hindsight now that Maji's claw swipe is Speed 6, so I'll remember that for next time. I erred in favor of Consistency instead of trying to explain it in the session. Mistakes like this happen a lot in Exalted, and it's better to accept and move on than hew fastidiously to the rules- the spirit of the rules is usually more important in the long run.
So on Tick 5, Aleph had a stroke of genius and started using Group R to show more about the room itself and reveal more detail, to give me hints and lead me towards opportunities- I wasn't in a position to do more diagnoistic rolls like per+aware or per+craft.
Now Maji is using one of his Other Heroic Familiar spirit Charms- Subtle Whisper. I sort of grokked the borgstromancy of this Charm like, two seconds after I used it- it's not super-ventriloquism, it's supposed to be the magical equivilent of emotional reactions to scenery or events. Not necessarily the Emotion Keyword, but it's flexible for the god in question. So essentially Maji can do a remote social influence of YOU NOW FEEL FEAR.
On that note, I also tired invoking the Morale rules for general combat on corebook page 156- which a lot of people seem to gloss over for various reasons. I'm not sure if we used them correctly, but we had a lot of fun with them.
For starters, it helped Aleph justify that these men were handpicked for fighting against a sorcerer-demonologist, they were the bravest, most loyal guards Iblan had. I just remembered also that for this whole fight, those guards were deafened by wax in their ears- which was a cool detail that didn't amount to much in the end, but was fun!
So for morale purposes, they had Valor 4, with a pretty good idea of what they're fighting. Maji's intimidation roll basically forced them to roll and roll harder to not break- because this morale table actually does state Difficulty, not 'do you pass/fail the roll at all'. A -2 penalty for a mortal is a Big Deal.
On Tick 7, Group R is still shepherding the Iblan Nobles away... into a hidden staircase? Good to know! From here the crossbowmen attack, and oh boy do I love cover bonuses! After the fact I had to roll a sorcery stability check because of applying my DV (a reflexive action), but all was well!
And so we come to Vahti, sessions in the making. She has one barrel of fire left over from the flamepieces. She needs more fire. What does she do?
She sets her cloak on fire. Aleph's reaction had me grinning so hard my cheeks hurt. We ruled it as a Misc Action, because the Charm itself Element [Fire] Control is a Simple Scenelong... but we only really think it makes sense a 'you activate this Charm, and now yo ucan do all this stuff as your Action'. We might want to write something else for Vahti later.
Tick 10 is where I sort of drop the ball on tracking, because even though Group R was 'guarding', they could have unguarded any tick and started Acting again. So this combat could've gone Far differently if I hadn't made that mistake. It worked out well though and everybody had fun!
That aside, we move to Maji on Tick 11, attacking Group L who have decided not to risk another attack. I'm sure there was more I could've done tactically here, but I didn't want to overcomplicate things further, so I just stuck to a simple strategy for a learning experience.
The lesson? Onslaught is a serious thing.
Finally, Also on Tick 11, Inks gets to Cast- using the not-spell Gathering of Essence, which creates an Ess x4 one-interval envirohazard boom that's sorta like what happens when you counterspell something. She put 12 motes into it, targeting the archers. I had the basic idea for this stunt a week in advance. Sadly there was nothing to 'roll' for it, so I didn't get any stunt bonus.
Unfortunately, my big boom was a damp squib, sad trombone noises. I rolled 1 damage on 9 dice. Fortunately though I did inflict oodles of knockdown- that they resisted, barely!
But I also prompted VALOR ROLLS. Gods I love valor rolls.
We get most of the way through Tick 11 before having to call it again that night, but we pick it up again the following morning!
We had a bit of a communication stumble with who was going first/writing first, but once that was sorted we carried on!
As I mentioned earlier, after Vahti invoked the fiers and burning, that these guards were Brave and Loyal, not perfectly intelligent. They were however, smart enough not to use flame pieces while on Fire/In Fire. So after all of the above, 12 ticks or so, Inks and co managed to mission-kill every Iblan unit, with no injuries on her side and arguably minor ones (we hope) on their side.
It's about this time that we agreed independently of each other that combat timing was at an end. Now in 'concrete' terms, this whole battle took something like 18 seconds. You can argue it might've been longer for any given action, ticks aren't super-stuck on being a second long, but even so that was very fast.
Having charged for the last pillar, we go inside, and even with just that hint of what's below, I'm already looking forward to/dreading what we'll find inside- and Aleph is doing a great job of chaining setpiece elements together logically.
What's really pleasing me, is that this is almost in line with what I was going to do in El Galabi anyway. So I already have most of the spells learned to, if not negate the potential challenges, ease them up greatly.
We pick up on Session 44's cliffhanger, and in a lot of ways this is a bittersweet nostalgic feeling, because most of my pre-Sunlit Sands games had this kind of thing happen Constantly. Not so much the cliffhanger as 'Session ends on a fight starting, the fight is next week' due to how combat was difficult to run for a lot of people.
Here it made sense though, because cliffhangers and episodic storytelling techniques lend themselves well to Exalted's genres, usually. Like all things, moderation is key.
Now mechanically there were some hurdles to tackle- and for notes, we're using a houseruled Magnitude scale that's more like Mag 1 = 1 person , mag 2 = 10, and so on. Secondly, Aleph I think was planning on modeling them as 'Tough Extras', which will come up a bit later.
But, in terms of engagement design, this is a drastic, stratospheric improvement from the Dehya mugging back in Chazor. Firstly the opponents have clear signaling as to their capabilities, and Aleph even spelled it out in OOC text- slow but solid. This had the great counterpoint that it meant one of Inks's greatest weaknesses (Mobility) was not being unduly taken advantage of. My team were all faster than these soldiers, but not to the point of being able to run rings around them.
Their high armor and varried equipment (something most STs don't bother with due to how fragile most opponents are) made them a great tactical and strategic challenge, on top of their division into two spear groups on the sides, and one archer group at the bottom of the grand hallway.
Further, I have as a player a much better grasp of Inks's capabiltiies and that of Vahti and Pipera, meaning I could more readily use them in the battle. On the downside though, The spirit charms availible to Vahti actually are a lot more limited than one might expect- very few Elementals get to make their Element Ex Nihilo, so a lot of the several-day session is grappling with that- but in a fun way.
Lastly, the room itself. While it is a large rectangle, 30 by 60 yards, it was simultaneously both too big and too small for anyone. My team couldn't project threats out at range, and what ranged options I did have were either almost too big or outright too big- you'll see what I mean later.
The pillars in the room were a nice touch, as was the table, but I think a chamber with more room for props would have been ideal- now of course I could have stunted things like hanging silk draperies or whatnot, but I was in a sort of 'the scene is sacrosanct' mood, a habit I might have to break.
Before I get to the blow-by-blow of the fight itself, part of why this session stands out to me is that it's as much an ideological battle- and it really hews right to the core of what I feel is the Exalted experience- punctuating conflicting methods and ideologies with epic superpowered kung fu duels!
The Combat Game!
So in the opening moves, before Join Battle Inks is in the middle of the room with Pipera and Vahti, Maji is still in her tattoo. Aleph makes a point of asking me my strategy, and some OOC conversations prior to this reminded us both that this is one of the Lowest Deepest parts of Iblan's domain... and they're one of the biggest mining interests in Gem, meaning likely, access to a mine from Somewhere is possible and Inks can get out that way instead of escaping through the actual 'urban' complex into underground Gem.
Something I tried experimenting with is being more OOC-transparent with my intended actions before I stunt; normally I like to preserve the 'surprise' of what I'm doing, but I think Aleph can handle it and me better if I'm more clear up front about things, with the stunt more informing the Aesthetics.
Which is why I laid out Move, Join Battle, Maji Deployed' before actually writing the stunt.
Now, part of why Aleph modeled the Soldiers the way she did was to keep the total number of combatants down, which was a Good Move. The downside though is that Exalted 2e doesn't model 'squads' that well, and tends to assume for good or ill that even Extras will be in the tick count in some form or another. Extras are very squishy, waiving about half of combat resolution for expediency.
So in practical terms, Inks and co were fighting against 3 'people' who happened to take the form of 10 heavily armored guards. Was there a better way to do this? Maybe. Lesson learned, and it's not like Inks needed any more of a handicap.
On this note, Aleph and I, I think we both agree that Inks should be 'allowed' to have dematerialized demon bodyguards, with the expectation that she doesn't summon a billion of them- simply to keep combat tracking down. But having more dudes on my side might've helped. In hindisght I should have, even pre-session, called Tatters in and had her infiltrate along with us.
(we haven't been using demon bodyguards mostly so Aleph can ease into running combat).
So everybody stunts and rolls Join Battle.
Tick 0: Inks and Maji; Tick 1: Empty; Tick 2: Vahti and Group Right Side (Now R); Tick 3: Empty; Tick 4: Pipera; Tick 5: Group Left Side (now L); Tick 6: Group Door, now D (the archers);
In older games, I would label units like 1 2 3 or A B C, but I think abbreivating their Locations was a better idea, so props to Aleph for thinking of that.
Join Battle, like a lot of mechanics, is clunky and has deleterious problems at high level play like the Tick 6 Clusterfuck- but at the same time, it creates wonderful emergent moments like how Aleph characterized the sentries's reactions as 'they can't get ready fast enough!'
Now, off camera I had I think figured out what to do in my opening sequence of actions which was to flip the table to use as cover, which in my opinion is top shelf stunting technique. We're still on Tick 0- that's a quirk of how Join Battle Works, it technically has a variable speed of 0 to 6, so 'Join Battle' is essentially deciding what you end up doing Right There. It's a Misc Action as well, so it Can be flurried to ready weapon or anything.
This means that Inks and Maji both essentially took a speed 0 action, their DVs refreshed (for charm use if you follow those rules), and then can act again. Since I already 'moved' join-battle tick, Inks was in position.
After discussing the pros and cons of Loom Stride- the advantage being that it counts as an automatic surprise attack effect- that is to say the roll to 'make' the stride is contested by wits+aware to see if you can react in time- but unfortunately Maji was not close enough.
I want you to picture this though. A big bronze tiger that comes up to just below Inks's chest and Inks is like 6'1" in her preferred heels. That tiger vanishing, and then reappearing behind his target for a swipe/bite. It would have been mechanically spectacular.
Instead I temporarily broke Aleph with the jump rules.
So implictly, Exalted runs under the idea that an actor can only do [actor] things. If a creature can't jump, it doesn't matter how big it's str+ath is. The problem is it depends on a certain amount of common sense to arbitrate this. So we'll see how things shake out. I argue that giant bronze tigers should be able to leaping pounces.
Now in terms of ticks and combat, this was a complex tick- two actors (both controlled by me) were attempting a flurry and a single action respectively, and evaluating all of that was a trip, but we handled it beautifuly imo.
Unfortunately, the Iblan guards, armed with tall shields, were able to defend themselves agaisnt Maji's clawswipe. Inks however, had more muscle than a bass guitar and lifted the obsidian table to tilt it over and make cover!
So now secure behind +3 ranged cover, Inks and Pipera were 'safe' from the crossbowmen at the far end of the hall- that left Group R unaddressed, and Tick 1 passed with only Movement, no Actions. At a system/design level, Exalted 2e would have greatly benefited from dividing things into On Tick and Off Tick actions, or something to that effect- better phrasing. That is, if you ended up keeping the tick system in general.
Anyway, so Tick 0 passed, Tick 1 passed, and now Tick 2; Vahti and Group R! Aleph had to bow out for the day, so we agreed to end the session after discussing Element [Fire] Control and how Vahti could not generate fire Ex Nihilo. So I had her roll valor, because Vahti is influenced by Inks and Maji, and she is Pissed- and the Iblan nobility were right there...
The following week, we picked up on Tick 2. Vahti charged towards the Iblan nobles, including Bana- her Dexterity is 4, so her movement per tick was Great- and she caught up easily to their Dex of 1-2. Of course they're old and decrepit too, so it's not exactly fair.
Btw, Valor does not mean Nice.
So Vahti gets into Punch range (her sword was largely ceremonial), and rolled... 10 sux, with a called shot penalty for targeting someone not Joined in Battle. So she hit them by 8 +3 strength for 11 bashing. We agreed to abstract it across the 3 nobles, but suffice to say Vahti Smash. 'Fortunately' she only rolled 2 damage successes, but that was still likely a thurough thrashing for them.
Fortunately, Inks was also able to easily reign her in after this.
Of course, I forgot that Group R was also acting on Tick 2. You'll note that I handled most of the tick tracking this session, mostly to help Aleph. I generally advocate that players help the ST as much as possible, in order to keep things moving- especially in a variable heavy game like Exalted.
Now, to Aleph's credit and she continues to do this more and more as the fight goes on, she does not model the guards as perfectly rational actors- so a lot of what I was Expecting them to do didn't happen, interpreting them as Game Pieces more than people. So in that regard she treated the guards 'better' than I was as a player, even though in-character, Inks was largely not trying to Kill anyone.
With that in mind, we examine the situation- Vahti has assaulted the nobles, these guards are now Angry, upset, filled with a righteous fury- so they charge. Now I think if they had actualy Charged with their spears that would have not ended well for anyone but flamepieces are great.
So these mortals had to do a 3 action flurry, and as Aleph discovered, a Misc Action still 'takes dice' from a pool as you go. So switching from spear/shield to flamepiece really hurt them.
Now, since Inks hadn't moved yet this tick 2, she could move the 2 yards to put herself between Pipera and the attackers- not that Exalted models 'intervening damage' by default. Better safe than sorry though! What followed set the foundation for some of the coolest moments of this fight coming up.
Now for Pipera- I had to look up Wind-Carried Words, but I had this in mind the whole time; The question is, who to call for help? Tatters, Rankar, Sun? I had sun on my mind because I think a socio-military solution was the best, but Tatters might've gotten their Sooner with an immediate response. The downside of Tatters is that she'd likely start killing everyone for attacking her crush.
I like Rankar as a character, but I don't think invoking him as 'help' in this dispute was a good idea- he'll find out eventually though...
Anyway, so this hopefully will put Piercing Sun on a path towards pressuring Iblan to let us go. Hopefully.
Tick 5- Inks and Maji had both performed Misc Actions (well, a flurry in Maji's case), and I admit in hindsight now that Maji's claw swipe is Speed 6, so I'll remember that for next time. I erred in favor of Consistency instead of trying to explain it in the session. Mistakes like this happen a lot in Exalted, and it's better to accept and move on than hew fastidiously to the rules- the spirit of the rules is usually more important in the long run.
So on Tick 5, Aleph had a stroke of genius and started using Group R to show more about the room itself and reveal more detail, to give me hints and lead me towards opportunities- I wasn't in a position to do more diagnoistic rolls like per+aware or per+craft.
Now Maji is using one of his Other Heroic Familiar spirit Charms- Subtle Whisper. I sort of grokked the borgstromancy of this Charm like, two seconds after I used it- it's not super-ventriloquism, it's supposed to be the magical equivilent of emotional reactions to scenery or events. Not necessarily the Emotion Keyword, but it's flexible for the god in question. So essentially Maji can do a remote social influence of YOU NOW FEEL FEAR.
On that note, I also tired invoking the Morale rules for general combat on corebook page 156- which a lot of people seem to gloss over for various reasons. I'm not sure if we used them correctly, but we had a lot of fun with them.
For starters, it helped Aleph justify that these men were handpicked for fighting against a sorcerer-demonologist, they were the bravest, most loyal guards Iblan had. I just remembered also that for this whole fight, those guards were deafened by wax in their ears- which was a cool detail that didn't amount to much in the end, but was fun!
So for morale purposes, they had Valor 4, with a pretty good idea of what they're fighting. Maji's intimidation roll basically forced them to roll and roll harder to not break- because this morale table actually does state Difficulty, not 'do you pass/fail the roll at all'. A -2 penalty for a mortal is a Big Deal.
On Tick 7, Group R is still shepherding the Iblan Nobles away... into a hidden staircase? Good to know! From here the crossbowmen attack, and oh boy do I love cover bonuses! After the fact I had to roll a sorcery stability check because of applying my DV (a reflexive action), but all was well!
And so we come to Vahti, sessions in the making. She has one barrel of fire left over from the flamepieces. She needs more fire. What does she do?
She sets her cloak on fire. Aleph's reaction had me grinning so hard my cheeks hurt. We ruled it as a Misc Action, because the Charm itself Element [Fire] Control is a Simple Scenelong... but we only really think it makes sense a 'you activate this Charm, and now yo ucan do all this stuff as your Action'. We might want to write something else for Vahti later.
Tick 10 is where I sort of drop the ball on tracking, because even though Group R was 'guarding', they could have unguarded any tick and started Acting again. So this combat could've gone Far differently if I hadn't made that mistake. It worked out well though and everybody had fun!
That aside, we move to Maji on Tick 11, attacking Group L who have decided not to risk another attack. I'm sure there was more I could've done tactically here, but I didn't want to overcomplicate things further, so I just stuck to a simple strategy for a learning experience.
The lesson? Onslaught is a serious thing.
Finally, Also on Tick 11, Inks gets to Cast- using the not-spell Gathering of Essence, which creates an Ess x4 one-interval envirohazard boom that's sorta like what happens when you counterspell something. She put 12 motes into it, targeting the archers. I had the basic idea for this stunt a week in advance. Sadly there was nothing to 'roll' for it, so I didn't get any stunt bonus.
Unfortunately, my big boom was a damp squib, sad trombone noises. I rolled 1 damage on 9 dice. Fortunately though I did inflict oodles of knockdown- that they resisted, barely!
But I also prompted VALOR ROLLS. Gods I love valor rolls.
We get most of the way through Tick 11 before having to call it again that night, but we pick it up again the following morning!
We had a bit of a communication stumble with who was going first/writing first, but once that was sorted we carried on!
As I mentioned earlier, after Vahti invoked the fiers and burning, that these guards were Brave and Loyal, not perfectly intelligent. They were however, smart enough not to use flame pieces while on Fire/In Fire. So after all of the above, 12 ticks or so, Inks and co managed to mission-kill every Iblan unit, with no injuries on her side and arguably minor ones (we hope) on their side.
It's about this time that we agreed independently of each other that combat timing was at an end. Now in 'concrete' terms, this whole battle took something like 18 seconds. You can argue it might've been longer for any given action, ticks aren't super-stuck on being a second long, but even so that was very fast.
Having charged for the last pillar, we go inside, and even with just that hint of what's below, I'm already looking forward to/dreading what we'll find inside- and Aleph is doing a great job of chaining setpiece elements together logically.
What's really pleasing me, is that this is almost in line with what I was going to do in El Galabi anyway. So I already have most of the spells learned to, if not negate the potential challenges, ease them up greatly.
So that concludes Sunlit Sands Sesssion 45!
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
Someone raised an interesting idea for a TAW charm, to go in the Contract set. The idea was that it's a charm that allows the Lunar to grant power (i.e. enlightened Essence, maybe some spirit charms or possibly initiation into Terrestrial srocery) to a mortal, giving them a 'devil's kiss' in the process - the fact that a Lunar can easily take on the role of familiar is just the cherry on top. Faith-Bribe Partnership seems like a workable prerequisite, but beyond that I've no idea how to actually write this thing up, so any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
That was me~
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Afraid not, I'm not that savvy on mechanics.
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
Well, Power-Awarding Prana seems like a good base to work from. I'm torn on allowing the beneficiary to learn Lunar charms, though - much as it would be fitting for gifting witchy power, I feel like spirit charms might be better in terms of balance.
Also, a name. A good charm name is important. The first one which comes to mind is Moon-Devil's Deal, but that's rather obvious - which is probably why it came first.
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Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Yo.
There's also Argent Stranger Transformation in the PDF of the previous version of the project, but that one didn't make the cut because, well, I like Skinners more.
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QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
Thanks!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well that's both awesome and absolutely terrifying.
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
Hmm. Now I'm imagining a Lunar doing a Poor Unfortunate Souls routine:
I mean, I know that's Cecelyne's schtick, but...
I mean, I know that's Cecelyne's schtick, but...
Hi,
I was excited for the concept of differentiating weapons through the use of tags instead of different amounts of damage when it was introduced in the Exalted 3e Kickstarter, but I was disappointed in the execution in the final product. Not only were there not a lot of tags to use to differentiate weapons, but some weapons were just better than others because they had more tags.
When Scion 2e introduced the idea of 3 point tag budgets, I loved it. Each weapon was equivalent in that they had the same point budget, but the different tags meant that different weapons were better in different situations. Scion 2e is more abstract than Exalted 3e in terms of weapons, but I've rewritten and added to the system.
Here is the link to the rewrite:
Exalted 3e Weapon Rewrite
I was excited for the concept of differentiating weapons through the use of tags instead of different amounts of damage when it was introduced in the Exalted 3e Kickstarter, but I was disappointed in the execution in the final product. Not only were there not a lot of tags to use to differentiate weapons, but some weapons were just better than others because they had more tags.
When Scion 2e introduced the idea of 3 point tag budgets, I loved it. Each weapon was equivalent in that they had the same point budget, but the different tags meant that different weapons were better in different situations. Scion 2e is more abstract than Exalted 3e in terms of weapons, but I've rewritten and added to the system.
Here is the link to the rewrite:
Exalted 3e Weapon Rewrite
pantherasapiens
you were always my best friend
- Location
- somewhere over your shoulder
He always looks so happy doing it!
- Location
- Singapore
I got an idea for a demon. A creature, like a hippo/ crocodile/ frog, with a giant mouth. You can fit stuff inside, and then it'll close its mouth, then chew.
And then by chewing, I mean that it takes the things, and mixes up their properties. Put in a giant warhammer and a tiny dagger? You get a giant warhammer that's insanely light and can be used one-handed, a dagger that gives insane levels of damage, or maybe you can make it so that with the expenditure of willpower, you can switch between them? Like... bargain basement daiklave?
Its not all that awesome for Exalts, what with their excellencies and charsm and artifact weapons. But heaven-sent for mortals.
If you want visualization, think of Chevalier from worm, or Wapol from one piece.
Chevalier
And then by chewing, I mean that it takes the things, and mixes up their properties. Put in a giant warhammer and a tiny dagger? You get a giant warhammer that's insanely light and can be used one-handed, a dagger that gives insane levels of damage, or maybe you can make it so that with the expenditure of willpower, you can switch between them? Like... bargain basement daiklave?
Its not all that awesome for Exalts, what with their excellencies and charsm and artifact weapons. But heaven-sent for mortals.
If you want visualization, think of Chevalier from worm, or Wapol from one piece.
Chevalier
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Okay, so what kind of creature is this? What role does it serve for a game? Are there any costs to using it? How does it behave?
(Also please put that reddit thread behind a spoiler, it's pretty long.)
(Also please put that reddit thread behind a spoiler, it's pretty long.)
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Is this comic supposed to read from right to left?I call this combo "Have You Bow Before The Sun Today?"
The Zenith mainly uses this on people who hate to PRAISE THE SUN!
Yep, it starts with a knockdown and ends with a giant energy ball.