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General Exalted Thread

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Roadie said:
Random question: how many people here plan to actually use range bands as-is, versus using zone maps a la Fate and counting 1/2/3 zones for ranges?
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I tried to use range bands in a different game system. In fact, it was a test combat I played out together with the person who is now my Ex2½e GM. We couldn't, as we kept wanting to find out who is where and facing what. I realize that in Exalted, facing would be less relevant, but I predict that we still wouldn't use pure zoneless range bands.

Which is a shame, because apparently the playtesters of both Ex3e and the other system with range bands found range bands both playable and fast enough. And I feel slightly inferior for not being able to produce a satisfying playing experience without relying on the more information-dense positioning information of zone and hex systems.
 
Caldera Engine
Artifact 4
Repair 4

Unlike most Magitech of the First Age, Caldera Engines are brutish affairs, with its yard-wide main body crafted of Orichalcum, banded with heavy bars of Red and White Jade. A setting for a dedicated hearthstone sits at the top of the device.

Created as a tool of geomancy and industrial terraforming, Caldera Engines require any four-dot hearthstone to function, or a three-dot Earth or Fire-aspected one. When properly socketed, the engine can be activated with a Simple [Intelligence + Lore] roll. When placed on Creation's surface of earth or stone, the difficulty of this roll is 3. In a place where the earth is distant, like some regions of the Great Ice, the surface of deep oceans like the Inland Sea or most of the west, or even while airborne, the difficulty is 5. Attempting to use a Caldera Engine where there is simply no land below, like the infinitely deep oceans of the far West, is Difficulty 7.

Success on this roll allows the controller to reshape the earth, raising or flattening mountains, or creating an active volcano and sources of magma anywhere the wielder can see within one mile of the device. The reshaping or emergent volcano takes at least one season to mature, but the controller can make the changes happen more slowly, over the course of a year. This control also applies to existing volcanoes, allowing the wielder to calm them mid-eruption.

Once the device has been activated, it must not be moved more than five yards from where it was last used. Doing so immediately stops the action and damages the device. Further, any being with elemental or geomantic sensitivity can the device's working, treating it as Obvious. Such beings know a Caldera Engine is being used nearby, but not necessarily where it is...

Some ambitious warlords deem that a fair trade, having smuggled these devices near enemy stronghold and guarding them with sentry and camouflage, burning their enemies out with the force of molten earth.

In terms of geomantic engineering, the use of one of these devices counts as an automatically successful earth or fire-aspected great work of geomancy, waiving any resource costs. Normally it takes one year for a Great Work to geomantically settle, but the user may use a Caldera Engine to accomplish such great works every season. Doing so however adds a cumulative external penalty to the above roll, so attempting five great works in as many seasons would be a -5 external penalty.

Failure on the control roll damages the artifact, while a botch results in a suitably catastrophic upwelling of magma, elemental Earth and Fire Essence, and whatever consequences of runaway geomantic manipulation apply. Demesnes nearby likely react poorly, Manses within approximately a hundred miles take damage, if not suffer power failure.

For obvious reasons, the work crews of old who used these devices were very well trained.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
Are there any mechanics for triggering an intentional botch? Because "creating an active volcano" sounds like the thing someone would try to modify one of these things into doing. :V
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You can do that already without an intentional botch

Success on this roll allows the controller to reshape the earth, raising or flattening mountains, or creating an active volcano and sources of magma anywhere the wielder can see within one mile of the device
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What the hell does it look like if you activate one of these successfully in the far west? How do you get a volcano when there's no earth or fire? I would have thought that would just render it inapplicable.
 
Aleph said:
What the hell does it look like if you activate one of these successfully in the far west? How do you get a volcano when there's no earth or fire? I would have thought that would just render it inapplicable.
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Shit, I knew I forgot something- I intended to account for that, but the draft in my head basically calls up magma ex nihilo and makes an island- just one that kind of floats but is uh... unstable. Useful, but unstable.
 
Aleph said:
What the hell does it look like if you activate one of these successfully in the far west? How do you get a volcano when there's no earth or fire? I would have thought that would just render it inapplicable.
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Maybe it wakes up/triggers an appropriate nearby elemental to turn up and ruin your day?

Or requires more time to work as it slowly begins to adjust the local dragon lines into something more appropriate for its task (or requires more devices or something)
 
Peanuckle said:
Or you can sacrifice a number of lesser elemental dragons to provide the necessary essence!

HighFirstAgeSolar.jpg
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Lesser elemental dragons are too valuable to waste on tasks that can be done with 'As in the Beginning' ;)


More seriously though, likely easier to just recruit a fire and earth aspect Dragonblooded to help you with the terrorforming (bad pun intended)
 
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Aleph said:
What the hell does it look like if you activate one of these successfully in the far west? How do you get a volcano when there's no earth or fire? I would have thought that would just render it inapplicable.
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...does creation have underwater volcano's? Because they are totally a thing on earth. However the effect they have would be much less than a Volcanic eruption on land (usually the effect is magma solidifying, dead fish, or warmer water which COULD alter the climate minutely). So not exactly dramatic. You might want to change that to something like a Tsunami.
 
Bel said:
...does creation have underwater volcano's? Because they are totally a thing on earth. However the effect they have would be much less than a Volcanic eruption on land (usually the effect is magma solidifying, dead fish, or warmer water which COULD alter the climate minutely). So not exactly dramatic. You might want to change that to something like a Tsunami.
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It's safe to assume that, if it would be a cool place to have a battle on, there is such a place in Creation. Some of the deeper causes would be different, but undersea volcanoes are too cool not to include in Creation.
 
Bel said:
...does creation have underwater volcano's? Because they are totally a thing on earth. However the effect they have would be much less than a Volcanic eruption on land (usually the effect is magma solidifying, dead fish, or warmer water which COULD alter the climate minutely). So not exactly dramatic. You might want to change that to something like a Tsunami.
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... yes, but, see, for an underwater volcano, you still need some ground to be under the water. An underwater volcano is basically a normal volcano with a lot of water on top. But in the far West, the oceans are infinitely deep. There is no magma down there. It's water all the way down.

Hence my bemused question.
 
Aleph said:
... yes, but, see, for an underwater volcano, you still need some ground to be under the water. An underwater volcano is basically a normal volcano with a lot of water on top. But in the far West, the oceans are infinitely deep. There is no magma down there. It's water all the way down.
Hence my bemused question.
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Really?
Isn't there an underwater city somewhere in Exalted?
 
First, that "water all the way down" is in the FAR West. The general direction of "the west" has lots of land under it, closer to the Pole of the Earth. The sunken city of Luthe is IIRC located there.

Second, you can easily have Islands with surrounding island shelf - it's just that they're floating islands, so you could actually dive under them. But parts of them are underwater (like an iceberg) and can actually be very deep underwater (kilometers, if you want to).

And third, you could have just a floating underwater city. No land to stand on required.
 
If you wanted to make Dragon-blooded Formation Charms almost Solar-level, but need specific training to use instead of letting them just toss desperate brainwashed peasants into a testudo, the simplest solution would be to require that the entire battle group (DB included) possess a specialty in the relevant formation. If DB Training Charms only offer specialties, this would dovetail pretty well with that - standardization, standardization, standardization.

Shyft said:
Shit, I knew I forgot something- I intended to account for that, but the draft in my head basically calls up magma ex nihilo and makes an island- just one that kind of floats but is uh... unstable. Useful, but unstable.
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You know, assuming that 3e does what it sets out to do to make Warstriders a truly potent yet balanced force (depending on their niche), makes me quite interested in working out how to narratively balance a game around their capability. I mean the most obvious thing to do, especially if its less of a roaming style game would be to have the circle based out of the 'base' manse, or have the mance near the place of power.

The Warstriders pilot would naturally need to be focused on its maintenance and so could potentially take the place that a crafter would in a normal circle (she who dispenses sidequests for rare parts or materials), or would it better to have them replace the dawn (as the main 'big stick'/source of combat power to threaten people with)
 
The other obvious way is for Dragonblooded Charms to have effects that stack with other users of the same Charm, and have "sideways" effects in the line of command. So if your five (of course) lieutenants are all Dragonblooded and all know the same Charm, both they and their troops are getting five stacks of a DB Charm that might be individually weaker, but together are going to be more impressive than a single Solar's efforts.

And then say that you need (Enlightenment) to apply the (Enlightenment - Enlightenment Minimum)th stack, so that if the Charm is En. 3 to learn you'll need some Elder with Enlightenment 6 to get a crew with three stacks on it. Or something like that.
 
linkhyrule5 said:
The other obvious way is for Dragonblooded Charms to have effects that stack with other users of the same Charm, and have "sideways" effects in the line of command. So if your five (of course) lieutenants are all Dragonblooded and all know the same Charm, both they and their troops are getting five stacks of a DB Charm that might be individually weaker, but together are going to be more impressive than a single Solar's efforts.

And then say that you need (Enlightenment) to apply the (Enlightenment - Enlightenment Minimum)th stack, so that if the Charm is En. 3 to learn you'll need some Elder with Enlightenment 6 to get a crew with three stacks on it. Or something like that.
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Personally, I dislike that idea. It's perfectly fine for NPCs to all have the same charm, but generally players don't all want to be purchasing the same Charms.
 
Shyft said:
Failure on the control roll damages the artifact, while a botch results in a suitably catastrophic upwelling of magma, elemental Earth and Fire Essence, and whatever consequences of runaway geomantic manipulation apply. Demesnes nearby likely react poorly, Manses within approximately a hundred miles take damage, if not suffer power failure.
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:V

Sucal said:
You can do that already without an intentional botch
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Yeah but you might actually have trouble with the difficulty, and the consequences of a botch are even more widespread than "create a volcano".
 
So! Kerisgame 57 and 58 move us into week- and month-long intervals! Whooo! We're starting to edge towards seasonal play here! Sorry for the week-long gap; I basically stalled on uploading 57 through a combination of work, exhaustion, procrastination and not much having happened in it. So, now Keris has met Sasi's adorable little girl Aiko (who is not very adorable and also Sasi talks about her too much and she's stealing attention from Keris and hmmph), moved down the coast a ways, and has spent a couple of months being a very busy girl.

And by "very busy girl" I mean that she now has a fleet.
  • Flagship: The Memory of Baisha.
  • Five-masters: 1x sixty-five-metre junk (Mercy of Hesiesh; currently destroyed and in need of full rebuild).
  • Four-masters: 1x fifty-metre junk.
  • Two-masters: 7x twenty-metre junks.
  • One-masters: 9x fifteen-metre junks.
Sadly, she does not as of yet have anyone to crew her fleet, so for now they're docked in her soul. And her souls have very clear instructions that they are not allowed to use these ones in their wars like they did with the ones she stole along with the Mercy of Hesiesh, which wound up getting set on fire just off the Marshward coast and sinking. She's also picked up mastery of Prince of Hell Style and a couple of dots of Dread Pirate Style. Which, no, does not involve posing as a cabin boy.

Extras, as usual:
Aleph: How many ships does she have total now? She took that first one in the sargasso, possibly a couple more before leaving there, and then X from her month roll at the island and possibly a few from the Fen before that small fleet. So, hmm. The fleet, the first one, plus maybe five others?
EarthScorpion: Yes. However, because she still doesn't have sailing skill, her soul and her souls don't really know how to maintain them. Also, keruby have been getting in the rigging.
Aleph: Yeah, I'm just keeping track of how many she has, since a fleet is the sort of thing that should come under her Holdings later on. So, hmm.
- 1x fifty-metre four-masted junk
- 5x twenty-metre two-masted junk
- 6x fifteen-metre one-masted junk
+ offscreen victories during sargasso, island and fen raids. The numbers are also helpful for my next stunt.))
Aleph: Heh. Shall I just roll something for how many one- and two-masters she got offscreen? Or do you want to arbitrate?
EarthScorpion: Let's say 3 extra one-masters and 2 extra two-masters.
Aleph: mwaa haa
Aleph: also lol she now has a 17-ship fleet
Aleph: that's the size of Columbus's second voyage to the Americas.
Aleph: And that's not counting the Baisha.
...
Aleph: Oh, Keris. She has her Tiger Empire ritual, but overusing it always leaves her headachy and tired and cranky.
Aleph: As it turns out, overusing when she's pregnant... leaves her very headachy and tired and cranky. And hungry and irritable.
EarthScorpion: Keris: "I really need a foot massage and for someone to tell me I'm beautiful."
Keris: *makes a Gale*
Gale: "You're beautiful. Let me massage your feet."​
Aleph: : P
Keris: *stares at Lilunu's painting*
Keris: *has another Gale feed her slices of apple*
Keris: *gets her angyals to play pretty music for her*
Keris: *feels somewhat better*​
Aleph: ... oh dear
Aleph: ... hahahaha. Yesssss.
Aleph: Because Keris has never really had the decadent indulgence of a proper pirate-queen hell-princess. You know, lounging barefoot on a throne being fed peeled grapes while a beautiful dancer performs for her.
Aleph: Clearly she will start pampering herself during her pregnancy, and then just sort of
Aleph: not really stop.
EarthScorpion: Sasi: "Yes, my padawan. You have learned well."
EarthScorpion: Heh. Echo, Haneyl and Rathan can all pamper Keris in different ways, too, whether it's doing Fun Stuff with her, feeding her experimental recipes, or love-bombing her.
Aleph: Hee
EarthScorpion: ... Calesco is not good at pampering Keris.
Aleph: ... no, not really. She will have tea with Dulmea and complain a lot.
Aleph: ... sigh
Aleph: She has, by now, invented the coffee bean.
EarthScorpion: Keris: "We're going to find a way to pamper me with you! Right! Time for a hot honey bath!"
Calesco: "It's scalding hot. You'll die in a dream and then wake up."​
Aleph: Keris: "Look, with an Amulet bathing suit I have 8L soak."
Keris: "I'll be fine."​
EarthScorpion: Calesco: "It'll cook you alive inside your armour."
Aleph: Keris: "... okay, what if we get a river from the Swamp, right, and one of your honey pits, and we sort of make them merge together so that the cold water and the scalding honey balance out into a nice hot bath?"
Keris: "And then we can widen or narrow the channels to change the temperature!"​
EarthScorpion: Calesco: "You get lots of steam and then the snake tries to reclaim the land."
Aleph: Keris: "Your land is not at all suited for being decadent, you know that?"
Aleph: Actually, heh, what happens is in fact:
Calesco: "They don't mix like that. The honey will just sit on top of the water so you'll be cold down below and cooked up on top."​
Aleph: Keris: "So unhelpful."
...
EarthScorpion: I would note that Saati is around 1000 miles from An Teng. Maybe 500ish from Bluehaven, depending in where Bluehaven is at the time.
Aleph: Hmm. Fair point.
EarthScorpion: Once again, Keris is forgetting how much faster she is at the strategic scale than everyone else. : p
Aleph: Hahaha. This is basically an entirely unintentional powerplay.
Aleph: "Look how fast I am. Look how swiftly my ships can strike. I can rule these oceans with ease, and you're struggling to keep up. Doesn't joining me sound attractive?"
Aleph: She's totally going to show him around the hold, and the hilarious swag she's amassed, and then just casually be like "oh, you can have this pile as a gift".
Aleph: (It is a large pile, objectively speaking, but compared to the rest it looks rather small.)
EarthScorpion: And a ship crewed entirely by demons, too
Aleph: ... heh. His best ship is probably something like the 50-metre four-master.
Aleph: And Keris is just like "oh yeah, I have this 100-metre long High First Age light warship, why do you ask?"
Aleph: "I was kind of dissatisfied with the ships most Lintha sail, so I went and got this one."
EarthScorpion: Actually, no. Not even as big as that. He's mostly got very sleek, slender Lintha ships.
Aleph: lol
Aleph: Oh man. And she'll moor underwater. So he'll show up and be like "Ach, it looks like we're waiting".
Aleph: And she'll be all "nah, I've been here for a while" from behind them, and whistles sharply.
Aleph: And the water beside them swells, and pours away as something impossibly vast rises up out of it and LOOOOOOOMS.
Narooj: "How did you get onboa..."
Narooj: "..."
Narooj: "..."
Narooj: "..."
Narooj: *looks up, and up, and up*
Narooj: "..."
Keris: ": v"​
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