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General Exalted Thread

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greensun said:
All things considered the Scavenger Lands having Helonistic leanings makes perfect sense; much the like Greek City States of old, they're a bunch of fractisous bastards who spend most of their time squabbling with each other until some bigger, more asshole-y asshole forces them to unite.
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honestly i'm just addicted to greeks man please help i struggle with this addiction a lot Yeah, that was exactly what I was thinking. sweats
 
rogthnor said:
Not really happy with this, but all the previous versions where running into some serious power creep
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My approach here would be to open up one of the ideas I've been toying with for a while - introducing non-demonic entities which nevertheless are exiled to Hell unless called forth, can be bound by the Surrender Oaths, and otherwise can be conjured and enslaved just like any common demon. Within that paradigm, the Tiger Generals could be the shattered ruins of a Primordial race's elite caste of warrior-priests, a coalition of Citizens organized and empowered to act at an Unquestionable's behest, akuma-children of the same, etc, which would let you have a little more room to implement them as the terrifying war-leaders of Hell that you seem to be aiming for.
 
So I don't like Immolating Terror Technique. Depleting your WP really feels more like a SWLIHN charm then a Malfean one. So I'm thinking about implementing the following changes:

IMMOLATING TERROR TECHNIQUE
Cost: — (+1m)
Mins: Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Emotion
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Green Sun Nimbus Flare
Those struck down by Malfeas suffer deeper injuries than physical scars. Whenever an Infernal with this Charm activates Green Sun Nimbus Flare, she may pay an additional mote to improve the attack. If the flare inflicts any levels of damage against a target, that target also gains an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards the Infernal. This intimacy cannot be destroyed or even weakened until the victim has not directly defeated the Infernal in battle.

Alternatively, I was thinking of removing ITT entirely and just making this change to Magnanimous Warning Glyph:


MAGNANIMOUS WARNING GLYPH
Cost: —
Mins: Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Sorcerous, Emotion
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Green Sun Nimbus Flare
Although Malfeas is seldom subtle, he is a universal overlord and therefore infinitely capable of long-term strategies. This Charm permanently enhances Green Sun Nimbus Flare. Whenever an attack inflicts damage and would trigger secondary burns, the Infernal may suspend the eruption of Essence instead as a Sorcerous effect. The destructive energy remains invisibly embedded in the wound, though any form of Essence sight sees the Old Realm characters for "Mandate of Heaven" writ in bubbling green fire like an incandescent scar. So long as it remains, this mark also makes its bearer a native of Malfeas unless his supernatural nature is inherently opposed to it (like a non-Infernal Exalt).
Whenever the victim next attacks (physically, socially or otherwise, at the Storyteller's discretion) the Infernal who placed the brand, intentionally or not, the scar bursts with all the deleterious effects that would have taken place originally, and the brand disappears. The victim intuitively understands that she must not oppose the Infernal when he places the brand, though without knowing the consequences.
Such knowledge creates in those marked an intimacy of Terrifed Awe towards the Infernal, which cannot be removed or even weakened as long as this mark remains.
Unless prematurely dispelled, brands inflicted by this Charm endure until the death of the Infernal or the victim. Applying a new brand to a character the Infernal has already branded removes the first one; however, Infernals may brand any number of separate victims, and victims may be unfortunate enough to be branded by multiple Exalts.



Either way, I feel that punching people so that they're terrified of you works really well for Malfeas, and I like the idea of a "social" attack which must be defended against physically.
 
GardenerBriareus said:
My approach here would be to open up one of the ideas I've been toying with for a while - introducing non-demonic entities which nevertheless are exiled to Hell unless called forth, can be bound by the Surrender Oaths, and otherwise can be conjured and enslaved just like any common demon. Within that paradigm, the Tiger Generals could be the shattered ruins of a Primordial race's elite caste of warrior-priests, a coalition of Citizens organized and empowered to act at an Unquestionable's behest, akuma-children of the same, etc, which would let you have a little more room to implement them as the terrifying war-leaders of Hell that you seem to be aiming for.
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Honestly, the biggest issue I'm running into is that I created them for an Infernal to use against my PCs as something he specifically created, and that's making it harder to write up then if I tied them into canon creation. Normally I like to talk about their history/place in hell, but that's going to vary by when in the game line this is. Where they just created or is this 100 years into the future. I also don't want to spend word count explaining my game to people who probably wouldn't care
 
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Finally realized why I feel so burned out by Exalted and its that the group I play with is so utterly passive and pragmatic that entire sessions are spent prepping for this or that instead of actually doing anything exciting. It's like, I dunno, when I was really young and played RTS games, I'd just sit around and build up constantly because the AI wasn't really good enough to break through my defenses until I could get the really cool units (ultralisks in Starcraft, the Avatar of Khaine in Dawn of War, and so on), and then when I grew up, I realized that was way too time-consuming and not really as fun as getting into multiplayer and going for early game strategies like zergling rushes. Every game of Exalted is just me sitting around on my hands since everyone I play with works in the exact same way I did playing Warcraft 3 campaign when I was 10; they expect to just sit around in our city and get all the artifacts, armies, and blessings from gods in the world so when we finally do commit to something, our force is so overwhelming that the game might as well not have its combat system.
 
SunnySprings said:
Finally realized why I feel so burned out by Exalted and its that the group I play with is so utterly passive and pragmatic that entire sessions are spent prepping for this or that instead of actually doing anything exciting. It's like, I dunno, when I was really young and played RTS games, I'd just sit around and build up constantly because the AI wasn't really good enough to break through my defenses until I could get the really cool units (ultralisks in Starcraft, the Avatar of Khaine in Dawn of War, and so on), and then when I grew up, I realized that was way too time-consuming and not really as fun as getting into multiplayer and going for early game strategies like zergling rushes. Every game of Exalted is just me sitting around on my hands since everyone I play with works in the exact same way I did playing Warcraft 3 campaign when I was 10; they expect to just sit around in our city and get all the artifacts, armies, and blessings from gods in the world so when we finally do commit to something, our force is so overwhelming that the game might as well not have its combat system.
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To be fair, I can understand why someone might want to invalidate the combat system.

Thats when you start throwing problems they can't punch to death at them.

"Oh look. Somone opened up the Eye of Seven Despairs box of toys'
 
SunnySprings said:
Finally realized why I feel so burned out by Exalted and its that the group I play with is so utterly passive and pragmatic that entire sessions are spent prepping for this or that instead of actually doing anything exciting. It's like, I dunno, when I was really young and played RTS games, I'd just sit around and build up constantly because the AI wasn't really good enough to break through my defenses until I could get the really cool units (ultralisks in Starcraft, the Avatar of Khaine in Dawn of War, and so on), and then when I grew up, I realized that was way too time-consuming and not really as fun as getting into multiplayer and going for early game strategies like zergling rushes. Every game of Exalted is just me sitting around on my hands since everyone I play with works in the exact same way I did playing Warcraft 3 campaign when I was 10; they expect to just sit around in our city and get all the artifacts, armies, and blessings from gods in the world so when we finally do commit to something, our force is so overwhelming that the game might as well not have its combat system.
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The solution to this is to make it so standing around building up isn't easy.

Give them hostile business people who try to take their resources, rampaging armies trying to take their cities and enemy nations dragging then into wars and trade disputes
 
Rewatching the Stsr Wars prequel trilogy and I kind of want to run a dragonblooded game based around it.

Not entirely certain of what direction I want to take it, but I'm thinking of making Tepet Fokuf a solar who orchestrated the Empress' disappearance so that he could bring down the Realm from the inside. My main issue is that I don't how to make him a secret solar without it coming off as an ass pull. I can't have them roll to see if he's lying everytime he talks or they will suspect something, but if I a don't give them those chances than it's not fair to them.


I am excitedt for when he gets to ask "Have you ever heard the story of the Solsr Deliberative? Its not a story the immaculate would tell you..."
 
I counteract my PaDOru pADorU image with this picture of the same Midnight from an exchange
 
SunnySprings said:
Finally realized why I feel so burned out by Exalted and its that the group I play with is so utterly passive and pragmatic that entire sessions are spent prepping for this or that instead of actually doing anything exciting. It's like, I dunno, when I was really young and played RTS games, I'd just sit around and build up constantly because the AI wasn't really good enough to break through my defenses until I could get the really cool units (ultralisks in Starcraft, the Avatar of Khaine in Dawn of War, and so on), and then when I grew up, I realized that was way too time-consuming and not really as fun as getting into multiplayer and going for early game strategies like zergling rushes. Every game of Exalted is just me sitting around on my hands since everyone I play with works in the exact same way I did playing Warcraft 3 campaign when I was 10; they expect to just sit around in our city and get all the artifacts, armies, and blessings from gods in the world so when we finally do commit to something, our force is so overwhelming that the game might as well not have its combat system.
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Ultimately this is a frustrating problem but it's also likely one that can only really be solved by sitting down and having a frank conversation with your fellow players about expectations and ideal playstyle. Blindsiding them by throwing big stuff they can't solve by passively turtling it away is a fun idea but it's more likely to just get them frustrated and asking questions like "What the fuck do you expect us to do?" or "What the fuck was that for?". It sucks but it's probably for the best by just being frank with them and it lets you - if you're the ST - drill into their heads that you aren't just going to smash them, you just want a fun game and you don't find your current activities fun. This will probably take some getting used to for them and will be a message you need to reinforce several times, but it's ultimately for the best and will create and foster a more healthy and honest environment between the playing group, one of the most valuable resources one can have.
 
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Sucal said:
To be fair, I can understand why someone might want to invalidate the combat system.

Thats when you start throwing problems they can't punch to death at them.

"Oh look. Somone opened up the Eye of Seven Despairs box of toys'
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I'm cackling at this because this group utterly destroyed Eye because somehow a small group of Dragon-blooded were able to be pals with elder Lunars, Bronze Faction Sidereals (this one isn't so out there I guess), and Ahlat.

ManusDomini said:
Ultimately this is a frustrating problem but it's also likely one that can only really be solved by sitting down and having a frank conversation with your fellow players about expectations and ideal playstyle. Blindsiding them by throwing big stuff they can't solve by passively turtling it away is a fun idea but it's more likely to just get them frustrated and asking questions like "What the fuck do you expect us to do?" or "What the fuck was that for?". It sucks but it's probably for the best by just being frank with them and it lets you - if you're the ST - drill into their heads that you aren't just going to smash them, you just want a fun game and you don't find your current activities fun. This will probably take some getting used to for them and will be a message you need to reinforce several times, but it's ultimately for the best and will create and foster a more healthy and honest environment between the playing group, one of the most valuable resources one can have.
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I'm not the ST and haven't been in a while, I'm a very impatient player. I brought this up and was promptly disagreed with, so that's that. I think I just hate city-building in general since Holden and Morke, in their infinite wisdom and ability to not give players bad rules they *think* they want, have no rules for anything close to a proper system for managing bureaucratic projects because "well gosh you're just gonna skip out on our fabulous social system, you big jerk!", and the fact that the mere existence of gods being able to bless people means these players are going to be pals with every deity in a 100 mile area.

I think maybe I'm just dead tired with the system in general and I should just wait and see if the Exalted: Essence system fixes these problems.
 
SunnySprings said:
I'm not the ST and haven't been in a while, I'm a very impatient player. I brought this up and was promptly disagreed with, so that's that. I think I just hate city-building in general since Holden and Morke, in their infinite wisdom and ability to not give players bad rules they *think* they want, have no rules for anything close to a proper system for managing bureaucratic projects because "well gosh you're just gonna skip out on our fabulous social system, you big jerk!", and the fact that the mere existence of gods being able to bless people means these players are going to be pals with every deity in a 100 mile area.

I think maybe I'm just dead tired with the system in general and I should just wait and see if the Exalted: Essence system fixes these problems.
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That sucks. I did write a loose framework for handling rulership in Exalted but I'm not that satisfied with it anymore and it does presuppose some familiarity and a certain playstyle that wouldn't really work here, especially not when the damage is already done. Anyways, if you feel bad about the game, I honestly just suggest leaving. No gaming is in fact better than bad gaming.
 
rogthnor said:
Not entirely certain of what direction I want to take it, but I'm thinking of making Tepet Fokuf a solar who orchestrated the Empress' disappearance so that he could bring down the Realm from the inside. My main issue is that I don't how to make him a secret solar without it coming off as an ass pull. I can't have them roll to see if he's lying everytime he talks or they will suspect something, but if I a don't give them those chances than it's not fair to them.
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IMO, you need to balance things out.

Drop some hints here or there for players to find that gives them a reason to be suspicious of Fokuf.

It doesn't need to be in every conversation or all in his presence. But it needs to be something they can find and will arouse their suspicions.

Other than that, you can also hide things by making your players think that whatever happened is something else. For example, bury an incident in Fokuf's past for the players to find. Something like, for example, however long ago Fokuf was kidnapped and held for ransom on some pirate ship or bandit hideout or whatever, but luckily managed to escape. Then drop have some details hidden for the players to find, like that he was found clutching a bloody sword in hand and that the pirate ship or bandit stronghold caught fire and there were no survivors. Imply that he escaped because he Exalted as a Fire-Aspect and has been keeping that information secret for one reason or another. If the players dig deeper and poke around where it happened, they might find out that, yes he was captured by pirates/bandits but they were also some flavor of Yozi or Necromantic cult and if they really dig deep might find residue of Solar Essence.

Another possibility is the player characters poking around Fokuf's manor/study/secret sex dungeon/whatever stumble over a nigh(or outright)heretical text that covers certain details about the Solar Deliberative or pre-Usurpation history that the Immaculates would prefer stay forgotten. Trying to find out where it came from might lead to the players finding out that the book came to Fokuf with a shipment of numerous other Immaculate texts that are questionable for entirely different reasons. Further investigation might lead players to the conclusion that it got sent accidentally, for example that the heretical text has a similar or identical title to some of Fokuf's usual reading materials or it might be that the shipment of books was ultimately arranged by a one of the players in the Great Houses that are pushing for an actual leader to sit on the Throne instead of a rubber stamper like Fokuf.

People have a tendency to stop looking once they find what they believe to be the answer. Exploit that.
 
SunnySprings said:
Please get the cursed Fate/Stay Night thing away from me, as it is a bad franchise both in quality and in morality.
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I'd certainly be interested in hearing more about this, given that my primary ideas on it involve leaping aboard the "summoning figures from history" thing and then running with it - Archer Willich, Caster Blackwell, Rider Zaharoff, Saber Pier - with a side business in bringing mythological & fictional figures to life in a less... Nasuverse way, so you'd have Shi Huangti as a horrifying despotic sociopath on par with any Magus rather than an anime lovedoll, Dr. Jekyll as a down-and-out Edwardian heir to a dreams/drugs-related Magus tradition who ended up under a more connected Magus' thumb and tried to use his family's arts to become "the ultimate Magus" and get vengeance upon everyone[1]​, the more interesting sorts of Aztec gods like Chen (indeterminately-gendered deity of being a gay wizard nobleperson), etc.


[1]​ To quote from the Discord brainstorming session:

I said:
Of all the Victorian-era fictional characters they dredged up for F/GO, Jekyll is the most fitting - because he's a self-righteous dickbag, and would make total sense as a Magus.

Of course there'd be a Magus who decided to rid himself of "human failings" to become an occult ubermensch, of course he'd be a Victorian-era doctor, and of course he'd have an opinion on what aspects of humanity are "failings" so warped that his efforts sent everything straight to Hell.

Like, if you've read the original book, the whole point was that Jekyll liked being released from any sort of morality or consequence via Hyde so much that he kept brewing up and chugging that elixir, despite it clearly being a failed formula because it was supposed to make him a living avatar of human virtue.
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I said:
Anyway, my personal approach to Fate-Hyde would be that he looks more like a stereotypical vampire than anything - all hard angles, tall, whipcord-thin, pale, almost waxy looking. Visually, he's the Uncanny Valley embodiment of the Victorian noble, an icy, unsettling facsimile of idealized aesthetic over something hungry and imperious and utterly unconcerned with your feelings. In terms of personality, he's basically an Ebon akuma, free of all fear, free of all bonds, only caring about what he chooses to care about in this particular moment in time, disregarding any past actions. Additionally, he's utterly contemptuous of Magi, seeing them as pathetic cowards wasting their chance in this, the last age of magic, the prelude to the long dark. What need have they of a legacy, when their successors will ever be lesser than them? They should rage, roar, laugh, cry, live with these last drops from the well of occult power!
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QS said:
So, he managed to brew a liquid equivalent of Arene?
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I said:
But yeah, pretty much, with the minor exception of him being quite capable of sentiment, even if he's equally capable of being a fickle bastard.

Summoned as a Servant... it'd get very nasty, very quickly. An ex-Magus Servant who openly laughs at the idea of maintaining the masquerade, is effectively incapable of fear, and specializes in Magecraft elixirs that alters peoples' values and personal qualities?
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I said:
The Jekyll family Magecraft centered around the idea of manipulating dreams, the mind, and other intangible elements of people through chemical means. Before it all fell apart, they had a pretty significant amount of influence among Magus society in Europe as sellers of anything from Magus-tier Nyquil and morphine to truth serums to mind-warping elixirs that could be used to turn random civilians into Manchurian candidates. If you wanted to fiddle about with the three-pound lump of jelly between a person's ears, you went to them.

However, their Magecraft was notoriously bad at affecting Magi who didn't want to be affected by it; the subtle web of magic their creations wove to ensnare mens' minds could be overwhelmed and nullified by a fairly simple "flaring" of od through the subject's Circuits. Rather predictably, the family's attempts to overcome this limitation ultimately led to their downfall.
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I said:
But yes, Jekyll ended up as a mixture of a drug pusher, a rather self-serving sort of therapist, and a minor figure in the London underworld, using the family Magecraft to peddle confidence to the cowardly and the like.

From there he moved onto getting strongarmed by a better-connected, better-established Magus who couldn't believe their good fortune in finding a piggy bank full of truth serum and wizard Nyquil.

And given that Jekyll had about as much spine as a jellyfish, he promptly caved and ended up sitting in a workshop with armed guards at the door, cranking out product for his "partner" to sell.
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I said:
However, he still hated his new patron/jailer's guts, hated the situation, hated himself for not having the pepper to actually do something about it, and hating his family's Magecraft for being so useless in this situation. Until he realized that, wait, the family Magecraft is kind of very useful in this situation, where the main impediment to him getting what he wants is his own personality and lack of willpower.

Both of which are well within the remit of Jekyll's Magecraft.

Since he was borderline paranoid about getting caught, though, he ended up slowboating that particular project to the point where it mutated from "give myself confidence" to "become the Ultimate Magus, devoid of all mortal imperfection".
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I said:
(Un?)fortunately, the excessively long development cycle, the unfamiliarity of seeking entirely novel applications of his Magecraft, and Jekyll's own flaws meant that as time went on and he kept adding and subtracting factors from the elixir, unintended elements started creeping into the design. By the time he screwed up the courage to use it on himself, its effect was more to make him capable of everything he wanted but couldn't achieve, rather than making him an Ayn Rand wet dream of well-heeled sociopathy.

Which is part of why Hyde is capable of sentiment, and even something approximating genuine affection - Jekyll let his long-suppressed desire for socialization and emotional connection to others seep into the brew. Something of a hazard when you're pushing the boundaries and deliberately not looking too hard at your work once it seems to be doing what you want it to, lest you degrade the Mystery.
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I said:
(My mental image of Magecraft research is that it's rather like jazz music, albeit with a much higher chance of horrible death.)
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I said:
Thus was born Edward Hyde, who took one look at the slow-motion entropy hell that is Magecraft in [TYPE-MOON] and decided that planning for the future was utterly pointless, so he might as well just go out and do whatever the fuck he felt like doing.
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I said:
I'm sorely tempted to shift the story a few centuries into the past, just so he can be involved in the Great Fire of London.

Especially because what I know about 1666 London is that it'd be fucking perfect as a backdrop for this particular tale.

There's just been a plague, the city's rulers are being paranoid douchebags, the city is a Gothamesque nightmare where it's standard policy for buildings to make the upper floors bigger than the lower floors, leading to a tangled urban hellscape where the buildings slope outwards over the street, looming above and obscuring whatever sunlight there was to be had.
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Aight, I was kinda unsatisfied with my initial lore writeups so I'm redoing a few. Have a northern satrapy of faintly germanic/celtic/(very faintly)korean/Elder Scrolls half-elves and half-orcs. Wall of Text Incoming.
 
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