Remove ads

General Exalted Thread

Reader mode
JamesShazbond said:
That blurb reminded me, what do you guys think of the Forest Witches? Have to say, I am not a fan, especially of that whole "directed reincarnation so as to usurp our enemies by becoming their children" thing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
They're really weird, and somewhat delusional, but I like them. There's a whole lot of interesting stuff to work with, even if I wouldn't want to be one as a protagonist.
 
Aleph said:
Honestly at this point the line should probably just pony up and start calling the Shogunate the Second Age - which might remind more people that it, you know, existed - and the current Age the Third.

(Actually if you're measuring objectively we're probably on the Fourth or Fifth right now, with either Zen Mu or Primordial-ruled Creation being the first depending on whether you're counting from the waking of the Primordials as the first thing distinguished from formless chaos [1] or the establishment of linear time as, you know, the point you can started measuring "Ages", but the Exalted Host of the First Age were strangely reluctant to write those parts into the history books.)

[1] Raksha don't get to count as an Age of their own.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
How about this? Every time there's a crisis severe enough that the calendar needs to be reset, it's a new Age. Every Age has an Ascending phase where somebody conquers or otherwise firmly unites Creation, a Resplendent phase where wonders are built within that societal framework, a crisis where flaws present at the foundation (and slowly escalating ever since) finally explode, a Descending phase where unity progressively breaks down, and finally a cataclysm which could have been prevented if only coordinated action on the appropriate scale were still possible.

Zeroth Age
Ascending: Theion challengers Mardukth for leadership of the tribe of dreamers
Resplendent: Time of Glory
Crisis: incarnae try to unionize
Descending: Primordial War
creation of Underworld and Demon Realm

First Age
Ascending: Exalted Host subjugate everything they can find
Resplendent: industrial mass-production of artifacts
Crisis: Facet Raven dies of old age
Descending: Thousand Struggles Era
Time of Cascading Years

Second Age
Ascending: Deliberative re-founded, fundamental forces examined
Resplendent: industrial mass-production of abstract concepts
Crisis: Great Prophecy, Usurpation
Descending: Shogunate
Balorian Crusade and Great Contagion

Third Age
Ascending: Scarlet Empress owns the Blessed Isle
Resplendent: Dynasts and Immaculates leave their marks on the rest
Crisis: Jade Prison breaks, Big Red vanishes
Descending: default "time of tumult" setting, consult your GM for further details
Cataclysm: whichever of the Thousand Dooms the PCs forgot until it was too late (far too late for now, anyway)

Then the long game is ultimately about determining the shape of the Fourth Age.
 
strange_person said:
[snip]
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

In so much as the canonical Age structure is a result of in-setting historiography, that seems like a system that could organically arise. Though political considerations might produce some alterations, such as the Solars lopping off your proposed zeroth age to avoid legitimizing the Primordial rule even implicitly or the Shogunate considering the Usurpation the cataclysm that started their own age.
 
And then, of course, the dragonblooded mashing usurpation and primordial war together, counting the Scarlet Realm as the second age, and then the current third age starting.
 
You are ignoring content by this member.
Sanctaphrax said:
That can be resolved the same way you resolve all similar Craft-related aesthetic conflicts; have people make things that reflect their own lineage of craftsmanship.

Modern artificers make golems and not little whirring flying disks for the same reason that Realm artificers make dragon-headed goremauls that roar and not skull-headed goremauls that scream. Or if you'd prefer a less magical example, for the same reason that Creation's tailors don't make clothes that look like the ones we wear in the real world.

If you want something "heavier" than that, definitely don't use the RAW. It basically amounts to a heavy mechanical penalty for picking the wrong aesthetic, and actually makes the First Age seem kinda stupid for doing everything the needlessly hard way.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm not really sold on it being entirely an aesthetic choice, as so much as the First Age stuff displayed tends to go beyond normal limitations. A beamklaive, for instance, wouldn't be considered First Age artifice in 3e since it's ultimately just another type of daiklave once you get past it looking like a lightsaber; you still need to be Exalted to wield it, it doesn't do anything much different than a red jade daiklave could, and each one is a custom piece. Stuff like gunzosha armor, however, is hard First Age artifice since it both needed specialized infrastructure to mass produce gunzosha suits and it's one of the few ways that a mortal is ever going to get to have access to heavy artifact armor.
 
Last edited:
Sometimes you've just got to go for the style.

For example, in planning for a new Exalted Modern game, I have this artifact for my Lunar union boss. (She's a shark).


Auspicious Eight Piece Suit ⏺⏺⏺
This suit of clothes - made up of a jacket, waistcoat, shirt and pants woven of black and blue silk threads and two shoes of mirror-polished harborhead leather (the other two items of clothing are, er, under these) - incorporates thousands of tiny sutras in its stitching. The shoes never lose their grip, even on the most slippery surface, and they are just as comfortable as perfect boots. All but impervious to penetration, the clothes provide a +8L/4B armor soak (due to the precise fit, these do not prevent the use of martial arts) and a +3 dice bonus to socialize and performance rolls.
 
RE: First Age Artifice

I believe it was the position of 3E that aesthetics mean exactly nothing as far as power or sophistication of artifacts go. Autochthonian or Jadeborn chainsawklaves or handheld steam cannons are mechanically identical to regular daiklaves and artifact flame pieces, differing only in their evocations.

A lot of the discussion on what should be FAA seems to be some sort of infrastructure. For example: Gates of Auspicious Passage, IAM-analog region/Creation spanning telecom networks, and factories that can produce things like Gunzosha armor or Clockwork Soldiers en mass.
 
Those things are rated N/A anyway, so there's really no reason to add an extra hoop to jump through.

If the FAA rules were not in place, anyone suggesting that they be added would be treated like a crazy person.
 
Sanctaphrax said:
Those things are rated N/A anyway, so there's really no reason to add an extra hoop to jump through.

If the FAA rules were not in place, anyone suggesting that they be added would be treated like a crazy person.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't think that is quite true. There does seem to be an intuitive distinction between what a self-taught Twilight in an age of bronze and iron can accomplish vs what a unified Exalted Host could produce after an age in which they they had enjoyed the unrivaled dominion of the earth. Similarly, blending workings and artifice seems like it should produce something "more" than either alone (especially given how difficult being good at artifice is in terms of XP investment).

1E was less shy about establishing special rules for individual relics to reflect the difficult and eclectic knowledge required to repair and operate them. 2E just lumped it all under Magitech. 3E appears to be using FAA to fill that thematic/mechanical role though it doesn't seem to be doing it well.
 
Exthalion said:
I don't think that is quite true. There does seem to be an intuitive distinction between what a self-taught Twilight in an age of bronze and iron can accomplish vs what a unified Exalted Host could produce after an age in which they they had enjoyed the unrivaled dominion of the earth.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's what artifact ratings are for. In particular, that's what the N/A rating is for.

Or should be for. Wonder-Forging Genius can go to hell.

PS: Workings shouldn't be necessary for people using non-Occult abilities to reach the apex of their potential. Sorcery does enough without horning in on other fields.
 
Sanctaphrax said:
That's what artifact ratings are for. In particular, that's what the N/A rating is for.

Or should be for. Wonder-Forging Genius can go to hell.

PS: Workings shouldn't be necessary for people using non-Occult abilities to reach the apex of their potential. Sorcery does enough without horning in on other fields.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Crafting artifacts already requires occult though? They're magic swords and shields, they don't shoot fire without a little occult nonsense. Besides, just having things rated higher doesn't capture the smaller, simple things that need delicate tools lost to time. Workings are a part of the more complicated stuff.
 
Artifacts require a touch of Occult, it's true. But there's a big difference between requiring a few dots of an Ability and requiring you to do Sorcery.

Anyway. The whole point of Artifact ratings is to summarize all the multitudinous differences between greater and lesser artifacts. Small, large, simple, complex, whatever. Wrap it up in a number, make it game-able.

Letting Sorcery eat the niches of other Abilities is really not a good idea. It's even worse than letting, say, Linguistics eat niches. Sorcery is weird and somewhat character-defining; many characters won't want to be Sorcerers, and that shouldn't ban them from reaching the pinnacle of their non-sorcerous niches.

But even if the proposal was to require Bureaucracy Charms for the strongest Artifacts, which would be far more sensible than requiring Sorcery, I'd be against it. The Craft Charmset should give you all the Charms you need to use Craft.
 
Regarding the previous discussion on Martial Arts gods, we do have the precedent of Mara getting Mastery for Black Claw Style, though that same paragraph does say that such is a rarity, even for demons of her power or greater.
 
You are ignoring content by this member.
It is confusing to me how, even when content gets released for 3e, no one talks about it and instead starts talking about shit that is like, the least consequential stuff imaginable. I'm thinking about that time when the Lunars kickstarter was going on and people were in here rambling about whether or not Linguistics can do cryptography.
 
SunnySprings said:
It is confusing to me how, even when content gets released for 3e, no one talks about it and instead starts talking about shit that is like, the least consequential stuff imaginable. I'm thinking about that time when the Lunars kickstarter was going on and people were in here rambling about whether or not Linguistics can do cryptography.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
3e is unpopular here - for a variety of reasons.

Which can be a shame, since 3e Lunars are the best they've ever been, even with their flaws and the core system's issues.
 
Yeah, they dropped the ball pretty hard with the core system, and while they've been improving as the line went on, fucking up your core is never a good look.

Personally? I like a lot of what third edition is trying to do in theory, but admit that second edition's setting is a bit more fleshed out (Even if it's more prone to two dimensional NPC villains).
 
You are ignoring content by this member.
greensun said:
3e is unpopular here - for a variety of reasons.

Which can be a shame, since 3e Lunars are the best they've ever been, even with their flaws and the core system's issues.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, I'm just surprised that like, not even the fluff gets talked about. We're having chats equivalent to medieval monks that argued with each other on whether angels are sexed or sexless.
 
greensun said:
3e is unpopular here - for a variety of reasons.

Which can be a shame, since 3e Lunars are the best they've ever been, even with their flaws and the core system's issues.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's weird 'cause I have no real opinion on the mechanics (them being as impenetrable as ever tbh), but I legitimately really, really love how 3e presents the setting. There's a much stronger sense of atmosphere and...place, imo? If that makes sense? There's a particular eye towards not making regions and locations homogenous blocs, filling them in with a real sense of texture and messy idiosyncrasies, and the Realm as a whole has this great sense of verisimilitude to it. Being the lurching stop-start horrifyingly powerful car crash that it is.

Edit: @MiracleGrow is honestly 100% correct though.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top