I think you're lowballing both the Realm's current and maximum military strength. Presumably they already have several times more troops than that 200,000 figures you offered earlier - even legions themselves have skirmishers in addition to legionaries, there are auxiliaries drawn from the satrapies, and as I mentioned earlier there are also House troops, militias and the Imperial navy. That's a lot of troops, an there's nothing indicating that the Realm's operating anywhere near the limit of its military capacity. In fact we kind of know it isn't, as the current number of the legions isn't the highest that number's ever been. I don't claim to know how big a percentage of the Realm's population absolutely needs to be toiling in the fields to keep everyone fed, but if we consider, like, the kinds of armies Romans could raise during the Second Punic War with a population fraction of that of the Realm, I'd expect the Realm to be able to get up to at least a couple of millions of people under arms without the loss of agrarian workforce being a concern. I mean, Rome and Roman military and Roman alliance system were all obviously very different from the Realm, but Roman agriculture an its demands probably not so much. I'd expect other logistical concerns to be more significant limiting factors - how to train and equip all those soldiers and so on. Then again, Dragon-Blooded bureaucracy Charms and other Charms should definitely help a lot with dealing with such logistical issues.
General Exalted Thread
Isn't there a comic that depicts them?
Large shadowy shapes with the only clearly defined feature being glowing eyes iirc, more or less humanoid.
I was able to get through Tomb of Dreams with my Dnd group after 3 sessions in person in a game store. Also ordered 3rd edition as a physical copy through the LGS but apparently their inventory system only told them that Exalted Essence was available so they accidentally gave me that instead, but I accepted it because, it's actually very nicely formatted compared to 3e and I think I would probably use it if I want to start a new group on exalted.
Regarding Tomb of Dreams as a tutorial for new players what do people think about it?
It definitely caught my players attention when we had to run to the game store's desk to borrow or buy a dozen d10s for the combat against the first shadow wolf. However due to the way the premade character sheets are formatted and the combat system it was really hard for us to figure out the dice rolls for withering and decisive becuase we got confused between the rules for those kind of attacks. Also when characters picked up the artifact weapons the pre written dice pools instead of regular stats was confusing because the weapons already written down on the premade sheets aren't done in that matter. And it was hard to get players into activating charms for the first fight but in a later fight they could. Social combat/influence wise tomb of dreams was really not good at getting players into that, I found they weren't really getting the intimacies mechanic, they only stuck back to dnd logic and rolled for sense motives but weren't grokking manipulation.
There's only 3 characters, Teo, Suma and the snake aspect of the demon that have dialogue options and without a primer on how these types of creatures work players don't have any idea of how to use social influence on them or to try search for more detailed motives. This also is an issue that the QuickStart can't introduce players to the setting other than what I tell them, becuase it's all siloed in a dream.
Regarding Tomb of Dreams as a tutorial for new players what do people think about it?
It definitely caught my players attention when we had to run to the game store's desk to borrow or buy a dozen d10s for the combat against the first shadow wolf. However due to the way the premade character sheets are formatted and the combat system it was really hard for us to figure out the dice rolls for withering and decisive becuase we got confused between the rules for those kind of attacks. Also when characters picked up the artifact weapons the pre written dice pools instead of regular stats was confusing because the weapons already written down on the premade sheets aren't done in that matter. And it was hard to get players into activating charms for the first fight but in a later fight they could. Social combat/influence wise tomb of dreams was really not good at getting players into that, I found they weren't really getting the intimacies mechanic, they only stuck back to dnd logic and rolled for sense motives but weren't grokking manipulation.
There's only 3 characters, Teo, Suma and the snake aspect of the demon that have dialogue options and without a primer on how these types of creatures work players don't have any idea of how to use social influence on them or to try search for more detailed motives. This also is an issue that the QuickStart can't introduce players to the setting other than what I tell them, becuase it's all siloed in a dream.
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The rules summary for Tomb of Dreams is currently the most concise and well formatted version of the basic 3e combat and social mechanics, and is generally a good purchase even if you don't run the actual quick start. It doesn't cover absolutely everything -- no grapple rules, no battlegroups etc. -- but when you want to quickly reference things like the withering and decisive split, it has you covered right in that book.
Essence is a different system and does sufficiently different things with these mechanics while using overlapping terminology that it's not really going to help you if you're playing that, unfortunately.
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They will learn if you give them a few charms that allow to leverage intimacies in combat. Even something as simple as Fist of Iron technique.
Once your players understand that hating their enemies and/or the power of friendship allows them to punch faces harder they will very quickly fill their sheets with relevant intimacies.
Then maybe later make them fight someone how also hits really hard unless they break their conviction.
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It actually does have one battle group as part of the second battle where the demon wolf has a pack next to it. Although I completely fumbled the battle group rules and didn't realize when it's size would be reduced by running out of magnitude.
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I think that one of the best ways to learn what intimacies mean is to literally just make a character. That gets you thinking about like, okay, these are the things that matter to this character, this is how I make it harder or impossible to be convinced to go against them. But the double edged sword nature of that can help people get into the mindset that social influence is not "combat", that getting a new intimacy instilled or being persuaded to do something doesn't mean you're losing, necessarily, and that it's not something to be avoided at all costs. Intimacies are the mechanical levers you pull to get someone to do what you need them to -- it isn't enough to just hit them with a big roll, you have to align your approach to what matters to your target.
Intimacies doing stuff in combat is neat, and helps people remember the different amounts of dice they provide for that, but it's kind of ancillary to what they actually do.
Intimacies doing stuff in combat is neat, and helps people remember the different amounts of dice they provide for that, but it's kind of ancillary to what they actually do.
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A pregerated character is probably not the best way to get a good feeling for intimacies. To me, they're something that adds so much life to my characters. If it was primarily a checklist of priorities to help me portray a canonical NPC such as Mnemon correctly, I'd be much less enamored with the concept.
Tomorrow the Essence Player's Guide campaign starts, god I can't wait.
My two big hopes for what we get are some greater depth on the Getimian Castes and more Charms that express the themes of the non-Summer Castes, and that one of the two new Exigents is the Puppeteers, so we can see how you might make an Exalt with Essence-based Charms in Exalted Essence.
My two big hopes for what we get are some greater depth on the Getimian Castes and more Charms that express the themes of the non-Summer Castes, and that one of the two new Exigents is the Puppeteers, so we can see how you might make an Exalt with Essence-based Charms in Exalted Essence.
I am a weird anomaly I think. Just. Brain soaked in the discourse and arguments about 2e vs 3e through this time capsule of a thread. And Kerisgame. It's interesting... Sigh probably never getting involved with actual gameplay. And might never read 3e stuff directly, just too many other RPG books to read already. And. Obsessiveness demands I buy the 2e manuals of Exalted power.
Been long time since I stopped reading through this thread. Petered off in 2018.
Been long time since I stopped reading through this thread. Petered off in 2018.
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I would not say that people who primarily engage with Exalted indirectly through derivative works or through arguments about it, and who won't read the current books, are unique or an anomaly in this thread.
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As long as you're having fun with it.
If you're lamenting the chronicle that never was, there's ways to address that.
Gonna need to wait both until after work, and then until after a dentist appointment, before I can back the Essence Player's Guide and start reading the manuscript, but just looking at the descriptions of the chapters, it looks like it's going to be rad. The God Admirals and March Lords sound sick, even if they instantly crush one of my two big hopes that we'd get the Puppeteer in this book.
A b it hesitant to post this, given the recent gun talk, but this is somewhat amusing.
With that said Essence Players and backers are getting a lot of content this month, with Pillars being released to backers and soon to the public alongside the player guide Kickstarter.
With that said Essence Players and backers are getting a lot of content this month, with Pillars being released to backers and soon to the public alongside the player guide Kickstarter.
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Why would you be hesitant? That's a devil caster, an artifact flame piece. It's firing a blast of fire at a ghost. Flame weapons are basically just simple firearms but weirder, and artifact flame weapons often look like revolvers and shit like that.A b it hesitant to post this, given the recent gun talk, but this is somewhat amusing.
With that said Essence Players and backers are getting a lot of content this month, with Pillars being released to backers and soon to the public alongside the player guide Kickstarter.
Well, I did post this elsewhere a while ago, and somehow, it caused a gun debate there Regardless though yeah it's a firewand
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
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I can see how this could cause debate because:
- it does look very much like a Revolver
- it does not shoot a stream of flame, but rather a bullet-shaped flame - which can easily be read as "a physical bullet wreathed in fire and/or anima"
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art notes are dark magic and firewands are not always easy to explain to artists, this is pretty good given the constraints on art direction
Yeah that makes sense.
Funny thing, since I was just reading through Tomb of Dreams, I recall it specifically says no guns in creation as a selling point. Although I recall looking through the dragon blooded book you have a weapon choice that is basically a fire dust weapon from RWBY.A b it hesitant to post this, given the recent gun talk, but this is somewhat amusing.
With that said Essence Players and backers are getting a lot of content this month, with Pillars being released to backers and soon to the public alongside the player guide Kickstarter.
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Flame weapons have been in the game for nearly twenty-four years, and have been featured in every edition of Exalted. They are basically just (typically) single shot guns that shoot a blast of fire instead of a projectile, and have some limitations in addition to sort of fitting into Exalted's very eclectic, kitchen sink vibes. Artifact flame weapons can be more complex than that. What Exalted does not have are conventional firearms.
They're not directly analogous to a dust weapon from RWBY, although that's not terrible inspiration for an artifact flame weapon in terms of vibes and aesthetic.
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Yang's Ember Celica wouldn't look that out of place in Autochthonia, yeah.
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I like all the new Exalt milestones for DBs, really opens up the possibilities for characters. The new Charms…they're a mixed bag imo. Some them are really fucking cool, others had me thinking "this should have just been a Mode, not a full Charm." Either way, the Charms touched on such a variety of things that it has me excited to see what we'll get for the other nine types.