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General Exalted Thread

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RCa said:
Might be more interesting for a player but doesn't actually represent how they appear in Worm, which seems to be what others are aiming for.

Also, the idea of "give them a ton of HLs ... so it doesn't feel like a slog through a bag of mobile hit-points" is hilarious.
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The trick is that the storyteller sees them as blocks of HLs, but the player sees it as "We're making progress, look! he's getting cut down smaller/changes forms/does something in response to damage!"

As far as a written story goes, the way this matters, is that you can use the same basic narrative pacing.
 
How about this:

You give the Endbringers a big pile of health, and start them off with high, but not unreasonable soak and hardness.

Their soak and hardness increase as they lose health, to represent the inner layers getting tougher and tougher. This tops off at say, half their health levels, representing the core being exposed to attack.

At this point the Endbringers get to start using Perfect or almost Perfect tier defences to negate damage to their core, representing their ability to go "nuh-uh, your powers don't work on me," like they did to Chevalier.

Now you just need to put a Flaw in this defence that lets Sting and Sting-like effects damage them.
 
Shyft said:
The trick is that the storyteller sees them as blocks of HLs, but the player sees it as "We're making progress, look! he's getting cut down smaller/changes forms/does something in response to damage!"
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*making progress on Endbringers*

The whole point of those things, from a narrative sense in the story of Worm, is that nothing the characters do actually does make progress. They attack. There's superficial damage at best, and they've been following that pattern for close on 20 years. Only a very specific set of powers, IIRC, actually does stuff to the Endbringers beyond cosmetic damage that the Endbringers may be faking. On the other hand, the Sting, which can outright ignore their skin and strike straight at the core, kills them relatively easily if it hits (again, IIRC).
 
Eh, they had two years of knowing that Sting could cut through an Endbringer like a hot knife through butter ... and they didn't kill any. Unless there's a WoG out there about that I wouldn't count on Sting working on the core.
 
Basically, I don't think it's unfair to say that an Endbringer should be almost impossible to do damage to, but not especially tough if you can deal that damage.

It also introduces the idea, given what we're discussing, that throwing an Exalted into an Endbringer fight may dramatically change the equation.
 
horngeek said:
Basically, I don't think it's unfair to say that an Endbringer should be almost impossible to do damage to, but not especially tough if you can deal that damage.
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They'd have a bunch of -0 health levels, though. I mean, Behemoth was hit with "enough energy to wipe India off the map" and he was damaged. It was just that the damage was entirely cosmetic, not affecting his performance, and he would have shortly regenned it had Scion not turned up.
 
Wouldn't End Bringers simply be a type of Behemoth in exalted terms? Admittedly I haven't actually read worm (tried, got bored) but they do sound like the type of stuff that Exalted were literally born to kill.
 
RCa said:
Eh, they had two years of knowing that Sting could cut through an Endbringer like a hot knife through butter ... and they didn't kill any. Unless there's a WoG out there about that I wouldn't count on Sting working on the core.
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I am pretty sure there is WOG. Also, even if Sti g can go through a core, that doesn't help unless the projectile will hit a core, which would seem pretty difficult, especually by the time that they know it is possible.
 
horngeek said:
*making progress on Endbringers*

The whole point of those things, from a narrative sense in the story of Worm, is that nothing the characters do actually does make progress. They attack. There's superficial damage at best, and they've been following that pattern for close on 20 years.
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Yes, but:
a) the characters ranged against the Endbringers are a mishmash of local parahumans that include such luminaries as "man who can punch slightly harder than normal" and "girl who can telekinetically throw things at subsonic speed", so I'm not hugely overwhelmed by their inability to wound them.

b) This is Exalted, where something like an Endbringer is a Behemoth or combat-specialized Second Circle Demon. The story of the Simurgh in Worm is "lol bad plot happens", while the story of the Simurgh in Exalted is "a Sidereal notices something screwing with Fate, finds out it's a released 2CD/alien behemoth, and gets the PCs to kung-fu kick its teeth in". In Worm, Behemoth is one of the (inadequate, but we'll roll with it) props for the setting being the way it is. In Exalted, he's a boss fight. And not even a particularly unique one.

I mean, you can talk about Endbringers having infinite health levels and infinite soak, but at the end of the day the ones we see killed die because the fake Unconquered Sun punched them harder than the (generally really low-end, why was Regent even there) assorted capes could manage.

If you genuinely want to model how Endbringers work, and make them into a plausible Really Big Threat Holy Shit, make them into some kind of... fake or corrupted Exaltation. A raksha lord jailbroke an Autochthonic prototype, or a Deathlord forged something new and weird out of the Neverborn's nightmares of the Celestial Exalts or something. Their "core" is an "Exaltation", which goes out into the Wyld and grows a big nasty shell around itself, rampages, is killed, and does it again. So the story is less about using Ghost-Eating Technique on Behemoth, and more about finding out where these things came from and how to "cleanse" or "redeem" or "turn off" their pseudodivine cores (oh hey there's a fake unconquered sun too can we play with that).

Which, mechanically, means they're not game-breakingly tough in themselves, they just "reincarnate" in the manner of an Exalt. Maybe permakilling powers cleanse their "memories" so they don't remember old tricks or adapt, or maybe it extends the time between incarnations, or maybe it does nothing. The problem isn't that they're unstoppable - because that's not true, and it certainly isn't true when the Exalted and their armies are involved as opposed to a gaggle of street-level superheroes - the problem is that they always come back.

...though honestly, the broken-trigger parahumans we get a look at in the epilogue are much more interesting, as threats. The Endbringers are boring, and I'd rather they'd just been the biggest, oldest and baddest examples. The Abyssal Ones of the Youma, to use a Claymore analogy wherein the parahumans are Claymores.
 
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Revlid said:
...though honestly, the broken-trigger parahumans we get a look at in the epilogue are much more interesting, as threats. The Endbringers are boring, and I'd rather they'd just been the biggest, oldest and baddest examples. The Abyssal Ones of the Youma, to use a Claymore analogy wherein the parahumans are Claymores.
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Oh god, Claymore.

I've gotta finish reading that sometime.

Trying to expand/fit this into Creation off the top of my head.

Parahuman powers are something from the Wyld. Maybe something other than Raksha or Hanya? In any event they come into Creation and run into the whole "Stability is a harsh mistress" thing. They try to survive and end up latching onto whatever humans are nearby. The human host ends up getting access to some power or another.

However, not all of these mergers end up working out well. The "Broken triggers" who end up mutated, powerful, and probably insane. Even if you kill the broken host, the Wyld Thing will just jump to another host(unless you hit it with a Spirit Killer or something).

But if they survive, they start growing stronger and stronger(possibly sucking up Wyld stuff like you mentioned earlier) until they eventually hit Endbringer/Abyssal One levels.

And if you want to play up the Claymore thing, there's a possibility that the parahumans that didn't mutate still have the risk of ending up "Broken" if they push their powers too hard. Awakened Beings, basically.
 
Give them Raksha with a few Charms and Assumption of the Heart, and another Assumption like Assumption of the Animal, Element or something similar for mutated people.
 
You know, Worm-Shards really DO work exceptionally well as Raksha who use Assumption of the Persons Heart.
The affected creation-born can benefit from Assumptions and more importantly mutations. Powers that go beyond that are simply used by the Raksha as appropriate. That should be able to emulate most powers.
The mental effects of Shards are obviously really easy to represent - and Raksha would obviously choose people with broken willpower (=traumatic events) to possess, especially since they'll probably get their nourishment from them.


Ironically, the game I'm running has a Raksha with Assumption of the Persons Heart as the main antagonist. They possessed the daughter of a local satrap while she was away on a traditional hunt, and the father died from "natural causes" shortly after the return. Now she's pushing for independence.
And is doing exceptionally well due to a whole lot of powers, and should put up an interesting fight.

I just never made the connection to worm-shards before
 
As for "how to fit Worm in Creation"... well, mostly you don't, because Creation isn't set up for traditional superhero-ing even to the extent that Worm does it, and your best bet for Worm-style "fuck the establishment I'll run everything as a warlord (while relying on the infrastructure and education provided by the establishment)" would have been sometime in the Shogunate, when everyone was grabbing their own territory and carving out chunks of the crumbling First Age, sometimes literally.

Taken in Exalted's "modern day", that's just... being a regular warlord, but with less debt to the establishment so it feels less teenage overall.

As for "how to fit Exalted in Worm", that's much easier:

Ramethus never returned to Creation. Instead, he fled beyond the walls of possibility, to search of some way to defeat the hated usurpers. Eventually, in a move ironically adopted from He Who Forged Death, the Primordial set to modifying his own spiritual structure. Over the course of a timeless age, he adapted his souls into a legion of mindless, false Exaltations. While his jouten slumbered in the Place Between Places, these shards sought out suitable mortal hosts across manvantara, guided by his fetich, Xion the Warrior.

They granted their hosts potent Essence-based abilities, and in turn learned from their experiences and leeched off their exertions, building an ever-greater wealth of combat data and occasionally budding off fresh new shards. This symbiosis does not last - when a given world begins to offer little profit, Ramethus slaughters it as only a Primordial can, allowing him to retrieve his remaining shards before moving on, bloated with the stolen experience of a thousand battles between his false Chosen and the behemoths he sets to fight them.

So successful has this strategy been throughout the years that he even managed to spawn a secondary Fetich, Yden the Strategist. Guided to worlds devoid of threat by his left hand and guarded against those few that learn of him by his right, Ramethus - the Crusader Worm, the Garden of War, the Legion Without Frontier - is little more than a wandering idiot god, supping on the ambrosia of endless wars in endless realities, barely able to recall the vengeance he once sought.
 
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In 2e, no. But keep in mind that Solars are limited to Labyrinth Circle Necromancy, and Abyssals to Celestial Circle Sorcery.
 
For people who are interested

/r/Exalted Fanthology Summer Project - Official Thread

What is the /r/Exalted Fanthology?

The /r/Exalted Fanthology is an anthology compiling the Exalted-related fiction and art of players and fans.

Over the spring and summer, we will be collecting submissions from /r/Exalted 's subscriber base to include in the final copy, which will be released, free of charge, in PDF and eBook form.

Neither /r/Exalted nor the Fanthology are affiliated with Onyx Path, which owns the rights to Exalted. This is an unofficial fan project.

Who Can Submit Entries?

Any fan of Exalted may submit entries, although we would prefer that entrants be a subscriber of /r/Exalted. This is a community project, and information and updates will primarily be distributed through this subreddit. Feel free to invite friends, but the best way to stay in touch with the project is to join us on Reddit!

What Kind of Things Can I Submit?

We are primarily seeking original, Exalted-related fiction. However, we will also be seeking artists for illustrations, cover art, and layout assets.

The Fanthology will cover a variety of themes and splats. Additionally, you are also free to write about such things as the Fair Folk, Lintha, Jadeborn, etc. Everything in the world of Exalted is fair game!

We also appreciate people willing to work as editors. If you are interested in working as a proofreader/editor, please contact us via mod mail[6] .

Is There A Theme?

We would prefer that each submission have a theme associated with it. As we are rolling up to Third Edition, the meta-theme of this Fanthology is:

Changes

This can include any sort of change within the Exalted world, either personal or on a grand scale.

Additionally, we would like entries to showcase some aspect of the world of Exalted. Some ideas are:

  • Exaltation
  • Dynastic Life
  • Societies, Cults, and Religion
  • Life in one of Creation's major cities
  • The interaction of the people of Creation with things such as the Fair Folk, spirits, etc
  • And so on
If you would like help with ideas, please feel free to post in this thread. /r/Exalted[7] has no shortage of people willing to help brainstorm with you, clarify lore, or just help get the gears turning.

Submission Guidelines

Fiction Guidelines

  • All fiction must be Exalted-related, with wordcount roughly between 1,000-2,000 words.
  • While you may use major canon characters such as the Bull of the North, the Scarlet Empress, the Mask of Winters, and so on, please refrain from using canon signature Circle characters such as Volfer, Perfect Soul, Islesi Shen, Novia Claro, and Prince Diamond, etc. Onyx Path and its dev team frequently uses these characters to highlight aspects of the Exalted world, and we would like to avoid any misrepresentation of them.
  • Any material that you have previously submitted to Onyx Path/White Wolf can not be submitted to the Fanthology, as any content submitted to them becomes their property. Likewise, please be aware that worked published in the Fanthology may be disqualified from future publication by OP/WW.
  • Though we will be pulling together an editing team, please make every effort to proofread your work before it is sent to us. Have a friend look it over, or consider posting it on a writing subreddit.
Entries should not be posted on /r/Exalted[8] in their entirety.

  • You are allowed a maximum of three submissions to the project.
Art Guidelines

  • All art must be Exalted-related. It is up to you to decide if you want to draw an original picture, or team up with someone submitting fiction to develop an illustration of their work.
  • Please submit high-resolution digital images (JPEG, TIFF, or PSD | 300 dpi | CMYK format). If your image is too small or low-quality, we will not be able to include it in the Fanthlogy.
How Do I Submit?

All submissions are to be emailed to rExaltedAnthology@gmail.com

Is There a Deadline?

We will be accepting entries between now and August 31, 2015.

Editing will be performed alongside the submission process throughout the spring and summer. Final selection will take place after the deadline is reached, then we will go into the process of laying it all out and converting the submissions to their final format. Because layout begins immediately afterwards, the deadline is a strict drop-dead date for submissions, and none will be accepted past that point.

I'm In! Now What?

Post in this subreddit with what you're contributing to the project (Fiction/Art/Editing).

If you're submitting fiction, include a title (if possible) and a brief synopsis of what you're planning to write. This helps to prevent several people from writing generally the same thing. Exaltation stories are all well and good, but there should be other content in the Fanthology as well!

If you're submitting art, describe the piece you're planning.

If you'd like to help edit, you're all set.

Is That All?

For now, yes. Have fun, stay tuned for future updates, and get to work!
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I found the Exalted setting about a month ago, and feel in love with it. I'm working on getting a group together for a game, but I still haven't managed to get the source books. I know the fluff for most of it, but not mechanics. Is there a thread for that stuff?

Also I had a couple of ideas for a story I want advice and help for. I'm only going to do one of them because the underlying concept is fairly similar, but I do need some help with understanding mechanics before I start writing. One dot in a skill, say nagintajutsu, what would that be equivalent to? I have two ideas, that both consist of dropping someone in Creation, but I need to figure out a basic stat sheet for them. Kinoshita Hideyoshi, and False Assassin.
 
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