Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Yes. Let's taunt and torture the Primordial killing machine. Brilliant idea. That isn't certain to backfire horribly.
...
Of course the Ebon Dragon has done it. At least once.
(Renegade Infernals are cool.)
General Exalted Thread
Yes. Let's taunt and torture the Primordial killing machine. Brilliant idea. That isn't certain to backfire horribly.
...
Of course the Ebon Dragon has done it. At least once.
(Renegade Infernals are cool.)
Eh, they're low-essence and probably prepped beforehand.
"Alright, Killfuck Soulshitter, I need you to put on this collar."
"Of course, Unquestionable Ligier." *click* "This seems to be restraining my essence."
"That's the idea. Now, focus really hard on that vote you cast in the Deliberative two millenia ago."
"... Where am I? Ligier?! Foul demon, begone! Wait, how am I in this collar? What is this!"
"Oh, I will enjoy this."
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And then it turns out that they knew Sorcery and so does the Infernal they're possessing, and they go and use Unconquerable Self and kill themselves.
Whoops.
Yeah, there was a reason that Keris was going fucking frantic over keeping not-Sasi distracted and answering her questions and doing anything, anything at all to keep her talking and invested and not deciding to kill herself.
Because it is incredibly fucking difficult to stop a sufficiently motivated Exalt from killing themselves, if they really want to.
Whoops.
Yeah, there was a reason that Keris was going fucking frantic over keeping not-Sasi distracted and answering her questions and doing anything, anything at all to keep her talking and invested and not deciding to kill herself.
Because it is incredibly fucking difficult to stop a sufficiently motivated Exalt from killing themselves, if they really want to.
- Location
- The end of all things
HGD can block anything, if the Solar is able to effectively employ it. Explicit examples given include sorcerous curses and exploding supervolcanoes, neither of which are decisive attacks.
AST explicitly protects against falls from a great height. Are Solars now cats, who will die if they don't fall far enough?
- Location
- London, England
See, I know that's all very important and provided an excellent bit of character development for all involved, but I just can't get past the bit where Salina needed a fake name to introduce herself by and picked 'Anilasa'.
She used her own name, spelt backwards. Which I would deride as a plebeian trick that would never work, were it not for the fact that she then added an extra 'a' to the end and thereby demonstrated herself to be a fucking genius.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... actually, that was basically just to make it a viable Old Realm name, since Old Realm characters are all either of the form "vowel" or "consonant-vowel", and so you can't get an "s" at the end of a word without a vowel after it.
And in fairness, Keris did fall for it.
Admittedly, Keris is not the sharpest knife on the First Age yacht.
NonSequtur
a body
I'm curious about the linguistic rules of Exalted languages and names.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
I want you to take a regular dice pool for a character with Sail, with and without an excellency, and then with either physical dice or a dice bot, roll the pool then re-roll all the sixes as this Charm instructs. I want you to time how long it takes you to do that per roll. Do it a bunch of times to get a representative sample.
Then, I want you to understand and account for all the other potential dice manipulation mechanics that may or may not exist in Sail.
Fear-Resistance: Okay- does it apply to every possible instance of fear ever, or just while she's on a boat?
Balance Check: They copied Graceful Crane Stance into Sail and added a flourish that prevents you from falling overboard- as a Permanent Charm. I can understand the logic here- because as fun as GCS is, nobody likes spending their charm use activating it.
Navigation: They took apart a chunk of the previous editions Perfect Reckoning Technique (the navigation bit) and included it here, without explaining how navigation works mechanically, offering a page number to 'This is how you travel in 3e!' or anything of that sort.
Why are these poorly written phrases and mechanics? Because they're relying on natural language and ST arbitration to work. The reason why 2e Graceful Crane Stance works is that it says balance checks are automatically successful. Instead of "You cannot fall while on board a ship, or fall overboard."
The same applies to the Navigation bulletpoint- knowing the route and distance to such places is great, but without any mechanical phrasing or hooks, you demand the Storyteller share their mental space to arbitrate it on the fly.
Biigoh
Tanuki
- Location
- Tanukia
I have finished sending out the messages containing links for the Exalted 3rd Edition Wallpaper files and/or the PDF for EX3 itself!
Please check the message threads from Kickstarter, and your spam folders before messaging me about not getting the links, but if you do have problems, we'll figure it out.
Likewise, if you get the messages with the link(s) but for some reason the download isn't working, please contact DTRPG customer service before contacting me as I have no ability to engage on that aspect of getting you your reward(s). Either way, we will figure out any problems so you get your files. No worries!
As I mentioned in the message with the links for the EX3 PDF, we encourage all backers to use the "Contact Me" button next to my picture to send notes on any technical mistakes you might find, or any errors including missing names in the Backers Credits section. Please be sure to read through carefully to make sure your name is missing and not just in a different section.
For those of you who are not interested in seeing or participating in this method to tune up and finalize EX3, and I understand completely that the visibility of this part of the process may not be to some folks' tastes, you can download the PDF now and wait for the changes to be made and the file in your DTRPG Library will be automatically updated and you can re-download the tweaked version. I will let folks know when the errata changes to the backer PDFs are done, and we are using the finished files for the PoD and Deluxe printers' files, so if you prefer you can choose to download the PDF then.
Several Kickstarters ago, we began to use the inherent "fixability" of PDFs as a step to get another pass at the project before committing to the printed versions, as well as to allowing backers to be those additional hundreds or thousands of eyes on the almost finished project. It has really been both fun for those backers who enjoy such things, and great for the physical books themselves. I've never been on or seen a project with no mistakes in it at all, but with this method we really narrow them down.
For those of you who have already submitted errata: Thank You! We really appreciate you taking the time to get back to us on both the big and the small errors in the book. With that in mind, here are some of the bigger issues we are already aware of and dealing with that have been brought to our attention already:
1- There's an extra page at the end of Chapter 5. Yes there is, and it throws off the two page spreads for the rest of the book. That popped in on this proof after the chapters were gathered into a book in InDesign. We only can figure that it was a slip of the designer's finger during the book creation process and she added one extra pg. Easy to delete as it did not affect the page numbering.
2- Also programmatic as far as we can tell are the odd ways letters are dropping out of words. There is a disconnect between font and program and those drop outs were not there in the previous proofs, so we're trying to see if it is a compression fighting with font thing as well. (I also wonder if some spaces and letters that disappeared are also tied to this, but I'm not absolutely sure about that). You've identified a lot of them, so please keep going as we may need to fix them by hand.
3- There are two sections of the text covered by illustrations: Under the two page spread of The South, and under Fog Shark. Maria is already reviewing how that happened and fixing those.
4- One more thing that occurred during the part of the process where the separate chapters are combined and the usable PDF is made was that the art first on pg 12 of the PDF featuring a whole lot of Solars went from a pretty full range of skin colors to a much flatter range that doesn't accurately depict characters that we've known since first edition. That was not the range in the art I saw originally, so something happened with the layout- we'll fix that. It is very important to us that our characters represent the panoply of races in Exalted.
5- We are missing the "Exalted" header for the Backer Credits, which is certainly a big one. That section of names starts on Pg643 starting with "A. Nonynous". Obviously, we'll get that in there but with this note you should be able to tell better if your name is in there.
6- A far more problematic situation has been brought up by our eagle-eyed posters, in that the full page piece of Chejop contains imagery derived from other people's art. The artist is redoing that piece as well as others where he did not spend enough time on moving past his reference material, like the "cakes" sequel piece, and we will replace them and be done with that particular artist. (If I sound like I am downplaying what a breach of trust and professionalism this is, that's just my "let's solve the problem" voice. I'm absolutely livid with rage about this and both Maria and the artist have had earfulls making that point.)
That particular piece does highlight the value of the errata compilation part of our projects as it was clear that at least one set of the 8,000 potential eyes looking at this Backer PDF immediately recognized the sections of art from other games whereas neither I nor Maria had ever seen that art before. This situation would have been a hundred times worse if we had gone to press for the Deluxe Edition with that piece of art as is.
So, to all of the backers who wanted to dive in and get rolling on their games and/or help with the final errata stages, thanks again!
The response to this new edition has been overwhelmingly awesome and thanks again for your support!
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Double actually, it was... um. A nerdy bilingual joke.
Sa-Li-Na is actually a notably different word from A-Ni-La-Sa. In fact, it only has one character in common when written in Old Realm. The fact that it's pretty obvious to someone using the Roman alphabet that it's the same name reversed doesn't actually bear any relevant fact to in-universe matters.
Why should one of the biggest threats to Creation and the best justifications for the Usurpation be some cackling madwoman, rather than a compassionate, kind woman who just happens to be sure that the world as it exists is flawed by its very foundations and which has to be rebuilt?
(If the new world also contains more ice cream, she won't complain.)
They don't know who has who. And, indeed, they don't really know about this phenomenon in detail.
And if they did, their recourse would be to try to work out a way to forbid them from dabbling with those memories without making it sound alluring and tempting. Because they don't know the text of the Past Life background, and for all they know, they could lose a GSP to permanent possession by an elder Solar.
Well no, because she keeps her weapons in her Domain instead of fusing them into her body.
It's also unfortunate that sharp knives are not particularly useful tools when you're trying to have a conversation with someone and keep them calm so they don't do something reckless.
Fortuna
Court Astrologonomomancer
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I generally do my best to not think about it at all - when I do, I generally think of it as resolving an indeterminate theorem into agreement with reality by, as aforementioned, punching the shinma into submission - essentially, adding an extra axiom. But mostly I try not to.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... you know, the most annoying thing is, I nearly had Keris's character development worked out. And then @EarthScorpion went and did this, throwing all my plans off track. Now even she's not sure what she's thinking. I'm sure as hell not. Hmm. Actually, in some ways, Salina shot herself in the foot with that last parting remark about what warped her sunlight green. Keris would certainly be a lot less confused if she hadn't made it. As is, that comment more than any other - even the "what about how they treat First Circles?" - threw a wrench in things for all parties involved, because it's one of the biggest things that Keris instinctively rebelled against. She was seriously swayed by "judge someone by how they treat their lessers", she agrees wholeheartedly with a lot of the idealism, and she can at least understand why Salina thinks of the Yozis and their souls as monsters even if Keris personally thinks she's judging citizens like Berengiere or Jacinct a bit harshly, because... well, Keris knows all too well about how grudges can blind you to the better qualities in things you hate.
But Salina's axiomatic implication of "it would be better if you 'fixed' your Exaltation and were a Solar", that she doesn't agree with. At all. She loves her powers as they are. She loves her souls, and her Domain, and Dulmea, and her wind and sea and marsh. So that leaves her with... who's right? The Unquestionable treat serfs horribly, and Keris... has to admit that it does seem wrong for them to do so. Sasi has been following them, but she must be... must be mistaken or something, because she's not bad, but she's complicit in it and so she's either wrong or she hasn't thought about it. Only... Salina is wrong about something, too; she's not a perfect arbiter of wisdom from experience, she thinks it would be better for Keris to be a Solar than to just be herself but act nicer. Nobody has all the answers, and since everyone's wrong about something, anyone might be wrong about anything. Which means she can't necessarily trust answers that other people give her.
Unfortunately, "answers that other people have given her" make up about 90% of Keris's moral code and worldview right now. And worse yet, that 13-success "are you really in the right?" social attack rocked her right to the core by dragging up all the times she's hurt or abused her inferiors and making her feel ashamed of them. Salina convinced her that what she's got is wrong somehow, but then managed to disqualify herself from being slotted into the position of infallible authority that would let her dictate what is right in its place. So Keris is currently reeling and uncertain and scared and trying to deal with the fact that she might need to find her own answers, and that while she's got a lot of possible ones already, she doesn't have any idea which ones are right and which ones are wrong or indeed what "right" and "wrong" really are, when you get right down to it.
If Salina or Sasi - let along anyone else in the Reclamation - knew what kind of turmoil has just been sparked inside Keris's head by that innocuous little comment, they would be very, very worried. And they'd be right to be. I... genuinely don't know where Keris is going to go from here.
But Salina's axiomatic implication of "it would be better if you 'fixed' your Exaltation and were a Solar", that she doesn't agree with. At all. She loves her powers as they are. She loves her souls, and her Domain, and Dulmea, and her wind and sea and marsh. So that leaves her with... who's right? The Unquestionable treat serfs horribly, and Keris... has to admit that it does seem wrong for them to do so. Sasi has been following them, but she must be... must be mistaken or something, because she's not bad, but she's complicit in it and so she's either wrong or she hasn't thought about it. Only... Salina is wrong about something, too; she's not a perfect arbiter of wisdom from experience, she thinks it would be better for Keris to be a Solar than to just be herself but act nicer. Nobody has all the answers, and since everyone's wrong about something, anyone might be wrong about anything. Which means she can't necessarily trust answers that other people give her.
Unfortunately, "answers that other people have given her" make up about 90% of Keris's moral code and worldview right now. And worse yet, that 13-success "are you really in the right?" social attack rocked her right to the core by dragging up all the times she's hurt or abused her inferiors and making her feel ashamed of them. Salina convinced her that what she's got is wrong somehow, but then managed to disqualify herself from being slotted into the position of infallible authority that would let her dictate what is right in its place. So Keris is currently reeling and uncertain and scared and trying to deal with the fact that she might need to find her own answers, and that while she's got a lot of possible ones already, she doesn't have any idea which ones are right and which ones are wrong or indeed what "right" and "wrong" really are, when you get right down to it.
If Salina or Sasi - let along anyone else in the Reclamation - knew what kind of turmoil has just been sparked inside Keris's head by that innocuous little comment, they would be very, very worried. And they'd be right to be. I... genuinely don't know where Keris is going to go from here.
- Location
- London, England
Yeah, I've seen some comments about the really odd and very uniform skin colors in a lot of the images. Not something I noticed, but then I'm often quite blind to that sort of stuff, so it's good that this got caught. I have no idea how a layout issue could cause this, but I'm not involved in that field, so my opinion has little weight there.
And hey, if it means that we actually have a decent range of character ethnicities I'm all for it.
That's very interesting, and I'm glad to see that the incredibly bad 3D Art in the 'cakes' image is being redone. I'm guessing the artist in question, since it seems like it was the same one who also did the plagerised work for Chejop's visions, is probably not going to be getting any more work from Onyx Path, which is a rather good thing. Being black-listed for poor art I might have troubles with, but stealing from other artists and trying to pass their work off as your own is a massive no-no.
Though I do now have a mental image of Rich Thomas seated in some gigantic obsidian throne going all dangerously-polite as he speaks to the underlings who have failed him...
Carrnage
Human
- Location
- New Zealand
It would also be interesting to see how this inner turmoil affects her domain.
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notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
If it had done this, it wouldn't just affect the skin tones of a few characters; you'd see artifacting and/or color changes all over the piece.
Also, Holden's first response when people brought the skin tone issue up was talking about artists not following art notes, not "Uhh it was a layout problem." So between the two I'm pretty sure we're being fed some bullshit here.
He got a lot of work in the meantime, though; like, counting Kejak I saw 12 pieces I'm totally sure are Poser-painted-over-to-varying-degrees. So unless OPP hired two shitty Poser artists...
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Actually you'd be surprised how often this works. In text we have the capacity to take time to read that, but many names when said backwards sound entirely different. I've had many, many game sessions where I have done that for everything from introducing a foreign woman name Ilak to an old man named Semloh and the group has never caught on.
She's a multi-millennia old Solar Exalt and one of the most skilled manipulators in history who has a specific hatred towards absolute authority.
What makes you think that parting comment was a mistake?
NonSequtur
a body
I don't think she doubts her own moral rectitude much. Just a hunch.
Do you know where this is stated?
There's a little statement, but I may be confusing fanon with canon.
CoCD: Malfeas said:
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The fact that it was wrong based on a data point she didn't have. She's thinking of Keris as a corrupted Solar, and is missing certain key elements in her mental model of how Keris will react to things (simply from lack of exposure to them). If she'd had full knowledge of the fact that Keris is something more like a baby Primordial - if she'd known about Keris's pantheon souls, and especially the way that Haneyl and Dulmea in particular don't really stem from a specific Yozi - she'd probably have pushed Keris to take a more Gaia-like role, possibly even encouraged her to go find Gaia. She's also working without most of the magic that made her such a skilled manipulator, and is about as off-balance as it's possible to get her.
I mean, she'd be all for Keris choosing her own path in the long run. But if she were going to do that intentionally, she would introduce it as a concept slowly and gradually after she was pretty sure she'd choose right in the end (perhaps not Salina's right, but a right). Instead of pushing her in at the deep end with no guide while she's still eminently swayable by the Yozis.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
She set up her 'country' where she didn't actually have any special authority except on paper. Of course, she was still a Elder Solar Exalt with all the social charms you need to be a subtle wheeler and dealer, but it was a genuine effort on her part. She isn't a hypocrite, she's genuine in her ideals. She would totally sabotage herself if it forced others to THINK, to defy putting her in a position of authority she doesn't believe in. Her ideals aren't fragile convenient things.
If those ideals don't gel with you...
Well, that just makes her a lot scarier.
Not saying that's what ES did, because ES can't read Aleph's mind, and so can't perfectly control how Aleph reacts to something, but if this was a novel rather then a roleplaying game, being told Salina did that intentionally would totally work for me.
Roadie
A plate full of blins and a cat nearby.
When it comes to Attribute/Ability ratings in Exalted, I increasingly like the thought of consolidating them to something like +0 (untrained mortal), +2 (trained mortal, untrained Exalt or spirit), or +5 (trained Exalt or spirit).
This would also replace nonproficiency penalties for mortals - if a mortal is completely untrained (Attribute/Ability both) in something they just get 0 dice, and at the discretion of the GM can get a 1-die stunt or whatever to try anyway.
Under this system, I think maybe Excellencies would have some kind of average fixed cost - 2m/4m or 3m/6m - and let you double either your Attribute or Ability bonus on a roll (or both if you pay the higher cost).
Any thoughts?
This would also replace nonproficiency penalties for mortals - if a mortal is completely untrained (Attribute/Ability both) in something they just get 0 dice, and at the discretion of the GM can get a 1-die stunt or whatever to try anyway.
Under this system, I think maybe Excellencies would have some kind of average fixed cost - 2m/4m or 3m/6m - and let you double either your Attribute or Ability bonus on a roll (or both if you pay the higher cost).
Any thoughts?
Some aren't so bad. War, for example, looks rather nice! ...by virtue of only having 17 Charms, but who's counting?