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General Exalted Thread

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notthepenguins said:
By this logic, "Magma Kraken" should be "Lava Tentacles," Travel Without Distance should be "Teleport," Cirrus Skiff should be "Cloud Taxi," and so on. I mean you could use that logic, I suppose, but you'd end up with a much less evocative naming schema for the whole thing.
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And "Death Ray" isn't evocative enough?

Also, what kind of stupid name is "Travel Without Distance", anyway?

Shouldn't it actually be "Distance without Travel", instead?
 
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Sergarr said:
And "Death Ray" isn't evocative enough?

Also, what kind of stupid name is "Travel Without Distance", anyway?

Shouldn't it actually be "Distance without Travel", instead?
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What kind of shit name is Summon Elemental, anyways?

But more seriously, I think they just decided to make a joke. Sort of like how Octavion is really just a subtle reference to Bowser Koopa.
 
I really do have to say Death Ray makes me think Etherite, not Exalted. It's not even as thematic as Total Annihilation which, while bland, gets its point across and doesn't bring up Pulp Sci-Fi. Even if you want the thematic statement of 'the peak of magical destruction has no pretext or justification beyond devastating power' or whatever Death Ray doesn't do that.

Hopefully it's a placeholder.

A plain synonym for destruction would work better, if only just for not making me think Raygun Gothic. It's a bit funny, sure, but that doesn't make it a great idea.

So, to spitball:

World-Breaker's Wrath
Sorcerer's Judgement
Dust and Ashes Call
Cataclysmic Sanction
 
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azoicennead said:
... No?
You're traveling, but you don't cross the distance you traveled. The travel is the whole fucking point.
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So, "Travel Without Crossing Distance" would be a more accurate name. It doesn't sound too evocative to me.

How about "Body Transportation Method"?

Teleport = Tele + Port = Body + Transportation (+ Method because it's Exalted)

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NonSequtur said:
World-Breaker's Wrath
Sorcerer's Judgement
Dust and Ashes Call
Cataclysmic Sanction
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1) Sounds like an AOE, not a ray
2) Same
3) Same
4) Same

All these names are completely un-evocative and doesn't bring any relevant imagery to mind.
 
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Mists of Eventide is still my favorite combat spell to have as a control! Breathe in their face and control their sleeping body!

Force the Legions mortals to slice each other apart!

(though using the Emotion Ritual to have enough motes in your pool to blast out two magma krakens is also hilarious)
 
As others have said, it just doesn't feel like it's an exalted thing. It feels like something else. Random names I might give it.

Judgement of Heaven
Eradicate
Annihilate(because even a Dalek might exalt)
Exile from existence

...my naming could use work.
 
Honestly if you want a bettermore evocative name for Death Ray, lemme go ahead and post a couple that come to mind.

Horizon Defining Moment
All-Consuming Wrath
Final Solution
Relentless World-Line Destroyer

Edit: Hah.
 
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The problem is not its level of evocativeness, as it is perfectly evocative. It evokes a mad scientist in his lab on the moon building a death ray to shoot the earth. It does not evoke an eastern sorcerer using one of the most powerful destructive spells in existence to smite her foes.
 
Aw, hell, y'all totally distracted me from why I pulled this window up.
Is creating temporary specialties an appropriate effect for a Solar charm? I've got a couple charms half-written that do so; one makes a Shields +3 specialty for 1m, and the other is a charm that lets you basically build a specialty for whatever purpose currently suits you (at 1 specialty per action, committing 1m to the charm for each, i.e. Spears +1 when you start using a spear).

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Dream Logic said:
...And that is why I couldn't break it up properly for Dalek Speak. I am also deeply ashamed I made that mistake. I'm off to be turned into a Cyberman or something.
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If it makes you feel any better, Daleks exterminate, annihilate, and destroy, though the first is most iconic.
 
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Note to self, if I ever get a sorceror with that spell, have them come up with all kinds of silly names to call it.

Raels really ridiculous laser pointer!
Smoting the Stupid Fools!
Anti Wei Weaponry!
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
 
Oh sweet solar crack and godly addiction the damn name for the thing has been staring me in the face this whole time.

Giga Slayer.
 
Here is the trick to making cool names and things in Exalted.

Start with something cliche, or ridiculous or lame and then disguise it. As my reaction upthread shows, I didn't realize for years that Death of Obsidian Butterflies was literally a spell for glass cannon wizards, because the spell was disguised.

Infallible Messenger was an IM (ie, Instant Message, you know that thing we used to do before twitter and skype and texting).

Invulnerable Skin of Bronze was "Doc Savage, the spell!"

Heck, look at the old standby Birth Of Sanity's Sorrow.

You take an effect that, if you were to explain it in clear terms to the audience they would look at and raise eyebrows or roll eyes or dismiss out of hand and then you obfuscate it, by using flowery words like obfuscate.

This does two things; first it gets the effect and/or setting element past that initial reflexive hipster genre-aware part of your brain that wants to roll your eyes and call it all silly. Second, it allows the player to feel clever when they realize that you flowery name is actually just an elaborate pun or disguise for a fairly common effect. This second bit also allows you to expand the lore in a new way because you say to the players "This is how you do stuff that would seem silly in this game." Like, if I want to have robot armies in my game? Brass Legionaires!

Death Ray does none of that. It's just... a ray... of death. It evokes that part of your brain that thinks of silly Flash Gordon serials and wants to raise your nose at it. It doesn't have anything deeper to it to reward a player who thinks of it any deeper either. It is, literally, exactly what it says it is. It doesn't add anything to the setting.
 
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Salty said:
Look, it was either that or Fool's Last Resort.

...also I thought it evoked evil quite well.
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Evil's not, I think, the kind of statement this is making. As far as I can tell, the idea of having the ultimate destructive spell be upfront about it is to make a statement on the nature of power: it justifies itself, and destroys. Which is also, in my view, touching on the core themes of Exalted.

That's why mine were (probably unsuccessfully) designed to evoke power without restraint (beyond the sorcerer's). World-Breaker, Cataclysmic, Dust and Ashes were supposed to play up 'power as what renders everything else meaningless' while Wrath, Sorcerer's Judgement and Sanction were supposed to evoke 'the Sorcerer only obeys herself'.

I was particularly fond of World-Breaker as a callback to the Primordial War, and Sanction as a dual permission*/condemnation. Maybe World-Breaker's Sanction works better?

*their permission is killing people.
 
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Aaron Peori said:
Here is the trick to making cool names and things in Exalted.

Start with some cliche, or ridiculous or lame and then disguise it. As my reaction upthread shows, I didn't realize for years that Death of Obsidian Butterflies was literally a spell for glass cannon wizards, because the spell was disguised.
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hmm.

Cessation Radiance?
 
NonSequtur said:
Evil's not, I think, the kind of statement this is making. As far as I can tell, the idea of having the ultimate destructive spell be upfront about it is to make a statement on the nature of power: it justifies itself, and destroys. Which is also, in my view, touching on the core themes of Exalted.

That's why mine were (probably unsuccessfully) designed to evoke power without restraint (beyond the sorcerer's). World-Breaker, Cataclysmic, Dust and Ashes were supposed to play up 'power as what renders everything else meaningless' while Wrath, Sorcerer's Judgement and Sanction were supposed to evoke 'the Sorcerer only obeys herself'.

I was particularly fond of World-Breaker as a callback to the Primordial War, and Sanction as a dual permission/condemnation. Maybe World-Breaker's Sanction works better?
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While I think "power" does factor into the equation of the spell's thematics, what really brings me back to this spell is the fact that it's not Total Annihilation. It's pure, relentless force, but it's focused, aimed, an instrument of violence to shape the world at will. Then I ponder and I think once more, and what really calls out to me about the mechanical effects is the part where it's not instant annihilation, it's not really a strategic nuke, it's about this power that embodies the unstoppable object not as truly unstoppable, but as something that you can't resist forever.

And coming back to the idea of obscuring the name, how about Gaia's Breath Eternal?

It invokes power with the name of the free Primoridal, Breath Eternal is a decently thematic way of describing the effect of the sorcerer continuing to extend this devastating beam as long as more successes are pumped into it, and it's even got the amusing reference!
 
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