I've been summoning blood apes nonstop ever since the campaign started and now I've got like 50 of them.

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Hey, /exg/, I'm new to Exalted and I'm making a Zenith with Supernal Presence. I've read through the rules and I think I understand how the rules work for the most part, but I'm not sure how to properly utilize my Presence charms.

Am I supposed to be instilling an intimacy of friendship every time I'm talking to someone and then use that intimacy for persuasion? The first intimacy is free, right? And where do I go from there, do I just keep instilling it as high as I can for as long as I can get away with it? I don't really understand.

>>44500515
Question I've been pondering about sorcerous workings:

There's currently a massive Shadowland around Thorns. Say your Solar kicks tMoW out, and wants to use a Solar working to purge that Shadowland. What happens if they drop the committed xp? The Shadowland wasn't there five years ago, so why would removing it require spending XP? Or is the implication that Shadowlands are always deliberate, and somewhere there's a necromancer who spent XP to create it (or something less stupid, because trying to simulate an RPG world by making all the NPCs use the PC rules is stupid). If it's that, would killing tMoW remove the Shadowland?

>>44500642
>Am I supposed to be instilling an intimacy of friendship every time I'm talking to someone and then use that intimacy for persuasion?
That's one way to go about it, but it's making a lot of extra effort for yourself if you're not even trying to leverage the Intimacies they already have.

Especially since you're going to have to constantly escalate proof of how friendly and amicable you are to get that Intimacy very high at all, whereas most every NPC will come pre-packaged with some Major Intimacies at the very least, if not a Defining one or two.

>The first intimacy is free, right?
What?

>And where do I go from there, do I just keep instilling it as high as I can for as long as I can get away with it? I don't really understand.
See #1. You're going to run out of more compelling things to do for that guy eventually.

It's probably more useful to get the Intimacy of friendship to Major; from there it can act as leverage for other more specifically-useful Intimacies rather than just generic friendship. "Hey, we're friends, right?" "Of course!" "And you know I hate mortals, right?" "Mhm." "So you should hate mortals too." "Seems legit to me!" (Okay not in so many words; some actual persuasion is involved, but you get the idea. They'll start doing things autonomously out of their hatred for mortals, rather than you having to keep going "Because we're buddiessss~" for every little task.)

>>44500657
>What happens if they drop the committed xp?
You can't. The XP isn't "committed," it's a cost you pay to perform miracles. The XP refund clause is if the Working gets undone or made irrelevant through contrivances of the story; e.g. if the campaign moves away from that former-shadowland long term, you get the XP back. You can't just say "eh I'm done with my flying castle" and get the XP by having it drop out of the sky.

>The Shadowland wasn't there five years ago, so why would removing it require spending XP?
What? You can get rid of shadowlands without a Working. You're paying XP to perform a miracle (ie bypass some amount of effort and plot in a permanent fashion).

>Or is the implication that Shadowlands are always deliberate, and somewhere there's a necromancer who spent XP to create it (or something less stupid, because trying to simulate an RPG world by making all the NPCs use the PC rules is stupid). If it's that, would killing tMoW remove the Shadowland?
1) Shadowlands being deliberate isn't the same thing as every shadowland being a Working. You can just, y'know, kill a shitload of people in a horrible way. And no, they aren't all deliberate either.
2) Even if that were the case, killing a Sorcerer does not undo their Workings, no.

>>44500676
>What?
Sorry, I meant that the first intimacy you instill doesn't need other intimacies to support it, like how you need another Minor intimacy to bump something else to Major.

>>44500711

Oh, yes, instilling a minor intimacy doesn't require other supporting Intimacies as leverage.

http://nobilis.me/quotes:on-competence-and-raksi
>She uses baby-eating as a front. She does eat babies, and she even enjoys it, but she mostly does it so that people will think of her as "That crazy woman who eats babies." If you go to a Silver Pact meeting set up by her in her city, she'll expect you to partake of the repast and be insulted if you don't, but it's not because she gets off on forcing people to eat babies — it's so you'll be off your game and she'll have the negotiation advantage. I like the idea that if you go to Mahalanka to kill Raksi because you're outraged at her baby-eating, that means she's played you.
...really? That's the explanation they're going with? Raksi tricked you into thinking she's a crazy person who eats babies... by eating babies! Trolled! This is retarded.

>>44500747

Hey man, when you're dealing with demigods who have Integrity Charms, flicking the cards in your hands really fast and playing your lands in front of your creatures just doesn't cut it.

>>44500779
It's ridiculous. "She tricks you into thinking she's crazy because she eats babies just because she likes the taste, but actually she's crazy because she's trying to trick you into THINKING she's that crazy, by eating babies. She still likes the taste, though."

>>44500704
>You can get rid of shadowlands without a Working. You're paying XP to perform a miracle (ie bypass some amount of effort and plot in a permanent fashion).

I'm not sure about that, given that it's the only method for removing one listed in the book.

In any case, compared to the other things a Sorcerer might do with a working, that one seems awfully temporary. Everything else gives you a long-standing effect and refunds its xp if the effect is undone, but shadowlands are implied to be an unnatural element to the environment. It feels like you shouldn't need to spend xp for it.

Similarly, if you wanted to make a volcano erupt via a working, you'd need to invest time and effort into causing the eruption, but once the event has happened the long-term effects are natural. No need for xp.

>>44500804
Seems reasonable to me. Maybe she enjoys flower-arranging, long walks by the beach, and baby-eating. And she knows that baby-eating upsets people, so if she wants to put people on edge she opens the conversation with that rather than a magnificent floral centerpiece. She's not crazy, she's perfectly rational. Also perfectly psychopathic, but those aren't mutually exclusive.

>>44500869
There is, I feel, a thematic difference between "I enjoy eating babies, and I will sometimes leverage this to my advantage in social situations" and "I eat babies to totally shock you and make you think I'm crazy. Also I still like eating babies."

>>44500841
>I'm not sure about that, given that it's the only method for removing one listed in the book.
Because the corebook is obviously the best place to go into the minutiae of necromancy and anti-necromancy.

Chill, dude, you'll get your blurb about using concentric rings of salt and bacchanalian orgies to force shadowlands out, just like always.

>In any case, compared to the other things a Sorcerer might do with a working, that one seems awfully temporary. Everything else gives you a long-standing effect and refunds its xp if the effect is undone, but shadowlands are implied to be an unnatural element to the environment. It feels like you shouldn't need to spend xp for it.
Look at it this way: shadowlands are somewhat unnatural, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't re-open through a temporary patch. Shadowlands are wounds. The Working purifies the shadowland, closing the wound and holding it shut even though it would normally take hundreds of years to close naturally. Dropping the working or having it countered means that wound opens right back up again.

>Similarly, if you wanted to make a volcano erupt via a working, you'd need to invest time and effort into causing the eruption, but once the event has happened the long-term effects are natural. No need for xp.
A volcano erupting wouldn't be a valid working in the first place, unless you wanted it to be erupting constantly, forever. Workings don't really do "on / off."

Tell me about interesting motivations, /tg/. I need some inspiration for my character's one.

>>44500886
I'm not really seeing the difference.

Fundamentally, it's about doing something that makes the person who has come to see her think she's insane for a tactical advantage. There's enough logic to it that it proves she isn't insane.

The only difficult part is imagining why a person would enjoy eating babies without being insane, but maybe they taste good. Who knows.

>>44500937
In the former case, you'd eat babies even if it didn't get you anything.

Like, if you're a dynast who loves his wife, and her family has good political connections, you'll probably call on those political connections from time to time. But if she didn't have those connections, you'd love her anyway. Versus, you married her for the political connections, and yeah you like her well enough but that's not why you married her.

>>44500902
>Workings don't really do "on / off."
I feel like there's room for that, though. Say you needed to feed a village through winter, and then having survived that winter you lead them all in a migration to somewhere warmer. (The Ostrogoths did something similar, and ended up settling in Rome having kicked the Western Roman Empire to death. Seems appropriately Solar.) You might well use a working on their fields and then burn them down as you left; the Working has done its job.

Similarly, if there's no way to make a volcano erupt once but there is a way to make it erupt forever and then stop it from erupting forever, then it's odd to me that there isn't a more direct way to engineer a one-shot Working.

The other stuff you wrote makes sense, though. I like the idea that the shadowland Working is a patch.

>>44500935
>>44500935
Have you already built your character?

>>44500935
Redemption. A trauma that they want to prevent ever happening to anyone else. Massive social reform. The zeal of the convert. Simple, raw, love of life, of alcohol and sex and bloodshed. Paranoia. Self-delusion. Monomania. The desire never to be hurt again.

>>44501022
I have.
I'm playing a Zenith martial artist who was enslaved and thrown into gladiator fighting rings. (Would've gone with 'freeing the slaves' but we have a dude in our group who took that already).
He's acting sorta gentleman-ish towards people, kinda like Dudley from Street Fighter or Kanbei from Samurai 7's anime.
Kinda stuck with both the motivation and how did he become an exalted.

>>44500935
My characters' motivations break down into three categories, Specific, General-Achievable, and General-Continuous. I don't think any of the ones I've come up with are anything but cliched, but when you create a character on your own based on having read the books you get motivations based on the stuff that other characters are basing their motivations on, so that happens.

Specific means doing one thing in the setting. Replace the Scarlet Empress. Liberate Thorns. Destroy the Guild. Best to think big. Also best to consult with your GM. Not much chance of liberating Thorns if your game is in the West.

General-Achievable is probably easier on your GM, since whatever your character's beef with the setting is there'll be an example of it near you. Abolish Slavery is the ur-cliche here; so many characters have had that as their motivation. It's almost as if being a slave sucks and sometimes slaves Exalt or something.

General-Continuous is even easier, but harder to work into plots, because it basically means your character wants to keep doing what they're already doing forever. Be the best sword fighter ever. Hunt down and murder the unrighteous. Be rich as fuck. (Resources 5 doesn't mean "enough". How did you get that rich if "enough" is a concept you understand?) Good for if you run out of ideas, bad for if your GM wants to look at your character for ideas.

Maybe grab one of each?

>>44501084
>(Would've gone with 'freeing the slaves' but we have a dude in our group who took that already).
kek

>Kinda stuck with both the motivation and how did he become an exalted.
For a Zenith former slave? You lead a slave revolt and ran off. Primary motivation is trying to find a good place for all these people who had been slaves fighting in gladiator arenas their whole life. You're probably not a big fan of slavery but you don't necessarily question it as an institution.

Or... hmm. Alternately, go the opposite direction. A gladiator, not necessarily reveling in it, but accepting it. You spent a bunch of time just kinda meditating on the meaning of being trapped in this shitty life and came to terms with it. Your zen composure got the interest of your master/master's child/master's spouse/etc, you talk about it with them, they decide (to try) to get you freed because obviously you're a Wise Man and for you to be a slave fighter is a shame; you Exalt somewhere along the way.

>>44501084
If you're playing a Zenith, what are you going to have moral clarity about? That's sort of their thing. Maybe your character doesn't care as much about slavery as something else that a gladiator might encounter. Chivalry? Courage? Personal self-improvement?

Here's an idea. You could be a counterpoint to "free the slaves" guy and righteously assert that slaves should be strong enough to free themselves. Be the Ayn Rand-adin. It worked for you, and then the greatest of all the gods personally told you that you were doing it right. Your character could be gloriously insufferable.

I wrote this...
>>44501148
but I like this more.
>>44501132
>Or... hmm. Alternately, go the opposite direction. A gladiator, not necessarily reveling in it, but accepting it. You spent a bunch of time just kinda meditating on the meaning of being trapped in this shitty life and came to terms with it. Your zen composure got the interest of your master/master's child/master's spouse/etc, you talk about it with them, they decide (to try) to get you freed because obviously you're a Wise Man and for you to be a slave fighter is a shame; you Exalt somewhere along the way.

In any case, do try to play a proper Zenith, and not a "Dawn was my first choice" Zenith. You need to be holy. Also, helps to bear in mind how the Zenith are encouraged to act by the rules.

Zenith Castes: Inspiring others to uphold one of your
Major or Defining Principles in a significant way, endur-
ing great hardship in the name of a Major or Defining
Intimacy, accomplishing a great deed that furthers a
Major or Defining Principle, or creating, defending, or
advancing the fortunes of some edifice or institution
that expresses or furthers a Major or Defining Principle.

>>44500631
Jesus. Aren't that many Blood Apes more trouble than they're worth? Has anyone noticed that cats vanish everywhere the character stays, or the smell of rotten meat following them?

>>44501084
>(Would've gone with 'freeing the slaves' but we have a dude in our group who took that already)
Exalted!

>>44501316
Well, I keep sending them into the brunt of our fights with the First and Forsaken Lion's forces, so I have to keep replacing them. I can only maintain Size 2.

But yeah, our little village we're staying in hasn't had cats for a month.

>>44501084
With my Zeniths I like to tie my Motivations to what UCS tells them when they Exalt

>>44501724
>Seek heaven by violence

So when people say the Unconquered Sun is Aztec Lucifer what do they mean by that?

>>44501799
They mean he rebelled against Old Testament God (Theion) for control over Heaven, and people had their hearts cut out and sacrificed to him. It is a simplistic explanation intended to show how in the original conception, the Unconquered Sun was not some perfect Sun Jesus figure, but a guy who rebelled because he didn't want to be an eternal slave, and really kind of didn't care that much about what happened to mortals.

>>44501845
>. It is a simplistic explanation intended to show how in the original conception, the Unconquered Sun was not some perfect Sun Jesus figure, but a guy who rebelled because he didn't want to be an eternal slave, and really kind of didn't care that much about what happened to mortals.
Where can I read more about this?

Anyone homebrewing up Sidereals and Lunars yet?

>>44502035

Sids already have a home-brew, it's not quite complete (Missing awareness charms and astrology IIRC) but its better then waiting for 2050 for Onyx Path.

Dunno about Lunars though.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15dK8fZaL-Kn-yGKxW6VRg_z6aF27FqbIf-t8ZEXmMC4/edit

>>44502035
Someone has released a beta version of 3E Sidereals, yeah, and I know Lunars are being worked on.

I'm wondering under what circumstances a Gold Faction Sidereal would entertain the notion of teaching a Solar SMA. Maybe if shit is really about to go down, like a Deathlord invasion or something?

>>44502342

I figure at least something on par with that. Like the Yozi breaking out or a Primordial who had been on a long dream quest or something in the Wyld showing back up to Yu-shan and immediately wondering what the fuck happened.

>>44502035
Irked made a full adaptation of Lunars for 3e in the Exalted forums.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByIZzlQUsA6ORk5vaVJlM1hrT00/view

>>44501845
I'm pretty sure he's still quite a bit like that (particularly, even if perfection and excellence are central facets of his themes.

After all, he is the ultimate judge of virtue because his might makes him so, and he encourages his Zeniths to determine what is righteous through action.

First for all the listed influences are a fucking stupid clusterfuck of things that don't mesh well and devs also have shit taste

>Inuyasha

Really?

I'm surprised they never mention Hibiki, Ongeki-Dou could be great Charm Tree that uses Perform and your combat skill to summon weapons that double as musical instruments (Or musical instruments that can be used as weapons), case in point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofkJLPdB4os

>>44503042
Make it yourself

Main reason they probably didn't is a hard 'no combat in caste abilities for non-Dawns' rule they had while making charms n shit

>>44502908
Welcome to Exalted 3e. Yes, that has no cultural relevance outside of ff.net anymore. No, the authors don't care.

It's the same reason the Essence pools are as though you minmaxed from chargen in 2e, or that there are 25 ski- abilities, or anything else. Thoughtless inclusion of things from ages ago because the authors are too bound up in old editions to truly innovate.

I just realized, Aku would be a perfect 3CD for TED.

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/57642-what-s-the-point-of-elementals/page5
>"ST fiat" is bullshit when it comes to things like "What are the stats for a sword?" and "How do these Charms interact?"

Exalted 3e core, p.325:
>THAT BURNING QUESTION
>Q: What happens if you combine Essence-Laden Missive and Voice-Caging Calligraphy?
>A: You tell me

Hrm.

>>44503435
Please stand by for angrish:
aksl.,sdkl\mvldv\,lksNDklmbfx\pjofls,a;'bpmowEV,[S\,Povd,;ldvmwPOG,sbmvo[RWK,;v,dsp[okvwepg[,bwo]B,L

>>44500937
>The only difficult part is imagining why a person would enjoy eating babies without being insane, but maybe they taste good. Who knows.
I can think of a couple reasons.

For one, the Lunar's big schtick is that they're the apex predator and that they can expand their capabilities by consuming other creatures. Lunars also get some appreciable benefits from eating humans, specifically. This is especially true if they're big into disguising themselves.

Combine the fact that eating people is useful with general exalted hubris and detachment and it's not surprising that many Lunars would find ways of rationalizing or justifying the action. Now, depending on what kind of person was before they exalted, this might never happen. Some won't be willing to ever eat people, and even some that do will always be bothered by it. But Lunars can live a long time, and if they're willing to eat people, they'll become less sensitive to the action the more they do it, and once they get to the point where they're completely callous to it, it won't make a difference if they're eating adults or babies.

Raksi has been around for over a thousand years, and she wasn't a very nice person to begin with.

Actually, after giving it some thought, maybe I should change my mind. Lunars, like Raksi, that eat babies are absolutely insane. Any exalted that lives long enough will eventually become insane.

>>44502217

Did you write this? The SMA are pretty good, anon. I'm suprised that anyone would try their hand at OSoI. I tried to do Blue Slut and Scarlet Patterned Battlefield back in summer, but they didn't garner much attention when I posted them.

>>44502342
Maybe something less righteous.
The Gold Faction Sidereal has some agenda's they want to push, but they don't have the political clout to force it through the lawful way. So, they put on the "wise mentor" act for a gullible Solar, with the intent that after the Solar in question becomes enough of a motherfucker, the Sidereal can use them as muscle to get their way.

You might think that this would backfire heavily. You'd probably be correct.

>>44502908

Anime has always been one of the backbones of Exalted. Why are you surprised?

>>44503734
Honestly, I use the CIA for most of my Sidereal inspiration anyway. This is well in line.

>>44503774
Probably because it's from an anime that hasn't been relevant for the better part of a decade.

>>44502217
Whoops. Completely missed that Awareness hadn't gotten copied over with the rest. Thanks for pointing it out. I'm working on Astrology, but time is a little hard to find just now so it probably won't make it up until some time next week.

>>44503603
Glad you like them. I put them together as my first forays into homebrew for 3e, no-one on the OPP forums seemed too interested in them either when id posted them. So I thought I'd stick them in at the end and see if anyone wanted to comment. I have some notes for other SMAs, but the Sidereal conversion has kind of taken priority over the last couple of weeks.

What did they go with for 3e Elementals? I remember reading stuff about how they were going back over it to produce something interesting, because Elementals were always pretty damn eh, but I can't really figure out what thematic space 3e Elementals have ticked out.

>>44503788

Most anime in the reference sections has not though.

1e: Ninja Scroll, Streetfighter (the anime), Grave of the Fireflies

2e: Inuyasha, Ragnarok, RG Veda, Ninja Scroll

3e: Inuyasha, Claymore, Ninja Scroll, Howl's Moving Castle

None of these are contemporary with the game release date.

>>44503809

Don't get too down with the lack off feed back. I had to post my SMA conversions two or three times before anyone said anything about it, and even then it was just one guy. As an aside, do you've any intention of converting any of the other SMA styles?

>>44503894
Seeing as Inuyasha ended in '08 and 2e was published in '06, you're wrong.

>>44503925

Alright one exception to the rest.

>>44503924
I've notes for most of Scarlet Patterned Battlefield and Charcoal March of Spiders. Plus a couple of charms for Citrine Contagion of Poxes. Will write them up properly to add into the Sids document as soon as I get a chance.

>>44504023

I'd love that.

>>44501007
You gotta understand that Ambition 1 workings also contain "use a (possibly shittier) version of that Circle spell once without having to get that spell" when it comes to their possible effects. The prime example of that being that being the Ambition 1 rituals of summoning an unbound demon of the equivalent circle spell. And seeing how Cleansing Solar Flames has been a thing the past two editions and it allows you to purify Shadowlands I don't really see that spell not making a return in Paths of Brigid. But yeah, other than that or a Working, closing Shadowlands is a really long and arduous process which takes exponentially longer to do than creating Shadowlands.

>>44500515
So far my Twilight hasn't gotten around to do many Workings, the biggest so far was creating a sorcerous road from the capital city to the mountain mining city of a Scavenger Lands kingdom as a coronation gift to the new queen. We used that to also get a bigger stake at the kingdom's mining industry to get some resources and materials rolling out and my Twilight used it to instill shittons of different Intimacies in the citizens. The road was sorcerously made to be super robust, self repairing , self cleared all year long (so no fallen trees or such to slow down travel) and also speeding up all travel on it. Capped it off at the capital with a kick ass statue of the new queen with a dedication text to her, with a subtle social influence to people to be awed of my sorcerous might.

Next up is going to be a project of connecting the Sorcerer's towers I have built in important locales with each other through a teleportation system along with training a mortal/DB sorcerer to control each one while I am gone. Then possibly creating a Solar aspected demesne in our kingdom's capital and possibly making the city fly.

So, the usual, really.

>>44500515

I've solved a lot of problems with demons. Just saying, if you can't, you're probably not trying hard enough.

So what non-weapon or armor artifacts have you guys made or found in your games?

>>44506426
Moonsilver Fingernail

>>44506426

A couple of First Age Submarines, they're research models so they're unarmed, though I imagine ramming a trireme with one will still fuck it up something grand.

Man, I've got the worst character block. I can't make up my mind on what character I wanna play in a 3e game. Anyone got any fun ideas? I'm not particular to any play-style.

>>44503925
Inuyasha was garbage long before it ended.

>>44508034
Well, yes. But at least it was contemporary garbage.

>>44503894
>Grave of the fireflies

Devs have shitiest taste.

Might as well admit they unironically love post Pain Naruto and all of SAO

>>44500631

>I've been summoning Blood Apes all campaign, and boy are my arms tired!

Okay.

People who have played an infernal: Do you get along with the daemon trapped in your head, or were you mean to them?

>>44500515
I haven't gotten around to it yet, but one of my current characters primary goals is to learn Benediction of Arch-Genesis so that she can head back to her homeland of Coral and make it fertile and self-sustaining again.

>>44507725

Eclipse Caste who exalted due to beating a god of music in a contest of some kind.

>>44503603

If you still have your takes on Blue Slut and SPB I'd be interested in taking a look at them. I'm running a solo game for one of my online players in the mornings when we're both about the only ones awake and have nothing better to do. He's got a Eclipse caste Solar, and there's a Gold Faction BerrySid as a prominent NPC. She's going to be helping him in a upcoming fight so at some point I probably need to figure out what kind of MA styles she has.

>>44503603
>Blue Slut
Sapphire Veil of Passion?
>>44509800
>BerrySid
Serenity? Battles?

All this hip new lingo I've never heard before

>>44509800

Scarlet Patterned Battlefield Style:
http://pastebin.com/uWDAnUCX

Sapphire Veil of Passion Style:
http://pastebin.com/J7GgfwXQ

These are rather rough around the edges, to put it lightly. I only made a single attempt to convert them and then got swamped with exams before forgetting about them completely. Regardless, I hope they're of some use to you.

If you're wondering why I changed the Weapons and armour for SPB, it's because I wanted it to build off off and be used in tandem with White Reaper.

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Find me one game, movie or media that's more Exalted than Asura's Wrath.

Also, what was the name of the system some anon said last thread that it was like Exalted? Something with N.

>>44510199
The Odyssey? Troy? Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

Over the top murder-kill-death is not the be all end all of Exalted.

>>44509872
Berrysid is slang for the fact that basically each of the Sidereal types map to the stereotypical fruit flavored candy types. So you've got like BerrySid, BannanaSid, StrawberrySid, etc...

>>44510282
And where does Inuyasha fit into the equation Holden?

>>44510518
All of the exalt types can be mapped to gummy lifesavers regular and the berry ones

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>>44510199
>Something with N.
Someone was mostly interested in the magitech ruin-delving aspect of the series, so I recommended Numenera. And I'll continue to recommend it to anyone who heard "800 page pdf" and thought anything other than "that'll be fun to read!". Which I did, so I guess I'm weird for liking both systems.

What are the best skills to look at for Supernal as a dawn caste?

>>44512554

Melee

>>44512554

A combat one. More seriously: Resistance and MA lag slightly behind as Supernal choices, but you'll still make everything else in the setting pucker its asshole just by existing.

>>44501084

As an interesting note, I've found that the best Infernals are driven by petty, small-minded "I missed my chance, and now I'll take it out on the world." mentality.

Think Eliot Rodgers given superpowers. Yes, I get that they pick people who 'should have been great', but the most queasy Infernals are not the edgelords - they're the people who get to do the kicking for once, and set out to be the worst oppressors possible. All out of sheer, mean, small-minded spite and wilful malice.

>>44512602
Sorry, I'm new at this but why do resistance and martial arts lag behind?

>>44512688
I don't see how that's different from the average exalted campaign

>>44512688
Elliot Rodger is clearly a Dawn Caste who limit broke, though.

>>44512694

Resistance: Because it's a primarily defensive tree, but doesn't have as many offense-on-the-defense tricks as Dodge, so it lacks "oomph." Aegis of Invincible Might makes it all worthwhile, and it has some great bread and butter Charms (essence gathering temper, the anti-poison and anti-sickness effects, etc.), but you won't get that same "whoashit" feeling if it's your Supernal.

MA: Because Martial Arts is typified by being several short trees, rather than a large really deep one, and doesn't combine naturally with your native Charms. It's still scary as all fuck, as anyone who's used Shining Point or Black Claw can attest, but still feels a little like you're working uphill. That said, MA Supernal means your Dawn's going to have a lot of non-combat effects keying off his combat skills, which makes him scary in a more versatile sense. Again: short, weird trees rather than one deep one.

If you've got some small-ish thing riding on you and someone tries to hit it, I'm guessing it could be assumed you can pretty much use a reflexive defend other action on you. How about when the small-ish thing is a telekinetic spirit that can parry with it's mind. Since you're occupying the same space as it could it be allowed to reflexively use defend other on you and you on it? Should you also be able to defend it with dodge?

>>44514184

Uh, no. I'd probably make it untargetable except through a moderately-difficult gambit to strike it specifically (similar to a called shot), and have it bestow a mild Defense bonus to you through its Charms (no resting bonus).

Same way mounts work, just in reverse.

>>44513001

Nothing could be further from the truth, actually. Your average Solar Exalted is already someone who's awesome. He's a high performer, the Exaltation just takes him to the next level of existence.

Of course, this varies quite a bit, especially in 1E, where it just seems to happen. (Like with Demethus, and Kidale.) But the overriding thing seems to be a heroic decision, even if the guy in question is a dick. Like Havesh deciding to fight a Dragon-blooded sorcerer by bum-rushing him.

>>44515678
>Nothing could be further from the truth, actually. Your average Solar Exalted is already someone who's awesome. He's a high performer, the Exaltation just takes him to the next level of existence.
I don't think they were arguing that Solars weren't just that.
I think they're point was, after they've reached that next level of power, Solars (and other exalts) can often become "the worst oppressors possible."

>>44506426
Mask that lets you scry all the land you own, Banner that protects and bolsters your army against creatures of darkness, rings of the 5 elemental directions with appropriate powers in each, key that can open any door and doubles as a portable mansion complete with a butler that brings you your things, etc....

>>44516297
Also, they all have full evocation trees if anyone wants me to post them.

>>44516330
I'm interested. I really like seeing evocations for non-weapon/armor artifacts.

>>44516417
>>44516297

Some of these were written before the backer pdf, so they are a little long, like evocation trees were in the leak.

The Secret Key

http://pastebin.com/QieniwyH

The Five Rings

Water:
http://pastebin.com/JRJAhQ1Q

Fire:
http://pastebin.com/yCdHYN95

Air:
http://pastebin.com/cbntPPCp

Wood:
http://pastebin.com/NwmKU677

Earth:
http://pastebin.com/pn14Tzdz

Sovereign's Eye

http://pastebin.com/gLe2A6xQ

The Last Stand

http://pastebin.com/CwNLzAB1


As a bonus, here are some martial arts styles

Dark Messiah Style (3e Version)

http://pastebin.com/Ri9fL82U

Mirror Blade Style

http://pastebin.com/1KriYm5E

>>44516004

Yeah, but Solars generally don't do things out of spite. Spite is the opposite of the heroic condition. I mean, if you're a demigod, you do stuff because You Know Best. The concerns of pissant mortals are generally beneath you.

>>44516650
Classical heroes were petty as fuck. Solars aren't all knowing benevolent gods. They are human. They don't know always know best. In fact, they normally don't. That isn't to say they blunder about but they don't have omniscience so they can't possibly understand the consequence of every situation.

>>44516874

> They don't know always know best.

They usually know BETTER, though. That's why there was a Deliberative in the First Age. By all accounts, except for the Great Curse, it worked pretty well.

>>44516874
This. Achilles is a demigod of war. Nobody can defeat him when he takes the field, unless they learn about his one secret weakness from somebody who knows his secret (probably a god). Why is he not out slicing and dicing Trojan dicks all day erry day? Because he's in his tent moping about the slave girl he fancied getting given to another soldier as loot.

This guy is a classical hero. He's one of the guys you get when you look up heroes in an encyclopedia. But he's in his tent for a lot of the Iliad doing dick all because sadness. And he's one of the primary inspirations for the limit break mechanic.

>>44517071
Achilles a shit
limit break a shit

>>44517020
>That's why there was a Deliberative in the First Age.
No, there was a Deliberative because the Solars were the most powerful and the Chosen of the king of gods, and therefore they were in charge, and they were also unwilling to bow to another Solar, which is why they eventually shared the power and formed the Deliberative. Whether Solars actually know better or not has absolutely nothing to do with it.

>>44517071
>This guy is a classical hero. He's one of the guys you get when you look up heroes in an encyclopedia. But he's in his tent for a lot of the Iliad doing dick all because sadness.
And he also gets out of his tent for a purely personal reason, not due to realizing the error of his ways or anything like that.

>>44517071
I wish discussions about Exalted were actual discussions about Exalted and not meme throwing contests. There's just so many times I can stomach an explanation in a form of regurgitated meme that only makes sense if you already agree with the idea behind it, you know?

>>44518065
Exalts being flawed, often petty human beings makes sense whether or not you agree with it. The point of talking about classical heroes isn't so much to explain this idea than to point out that flawed, petty fuckers can nevertheless be impressive as hell. This is completely relevant to Exalted and Exalted-related discussions.

>>44513001
>>44512688
Eh, the same person, with the same personality, the same character, on the same day, in the same situation could wind up as a Solar, Abyssal or Infernal -- winding up as one of the latter two because the exaltation that should have been his was denied until after he was mortally wounded or failed at a pivotal moment.

There are presumably Infernals who were eternal fuckups, and not all Solars awesomed their way into exaltation, but yeah.

>>44514184
I don't really understand how the smallish whatever fits into it. If you're asking, "Can I use mutual Defend Other?" the answer is yes.

>>44518138
It's just that if I didn't buy into the idea that all Solars have to have brain-fart moments when their faculties just switch off for the plot's sake, prince Oberyn Martell style, anybody saying "but muh Achilles" isn't going to convince me. Even if you claim that this is the source material it's inspired by, to say that because it's the source material then it has to be exactly the same here is just absurd, a subversion here would be to diverge from the source material with a spin. So maybe the Achilles SHOULD man the fuck up? Just repeating the source material over and over is stale af. Besides, just because this is what teh source material is doesn't mean that the thing itself should be that or even is that and I would argue that given the mechanics of the game it dfinitely isn't (I myself would think this is the problem with the mechanics not the idea behind them, but the point still stands).

So in short- people going "but Achilles" doesn't do anything to make the discussion go forward. It's a dank meme, if you don't already think that this makes sense pointing out to something yI don't think represents Exalted as they are or should be well, it's not gonna do anything.

>>44518404
Oh, sure. Limit Break is dumb as fuck. Great Curse as a concept is completely unnecessary. Sorry, I thought you were more generally opposed to Solars resembling classical heroes by being glorious but flawed people who aren't necessarily very noble or heroic in the modern sense of the words.

>>44518225

> There are presumably Infernals who were eternal fuckups, and not all Solars awesomed their way into exaltation, but yeah.

I really don't think they pick eternal fuckups, but people who squander their potential instead. Like, if you're a basket case, you're a poor choice for a Green Sun Prince. Someone who goes down to REALLY epic defeat, however, and who would do anything to change that, is a great choice.

Think Napoleon after Waterloo. Or Hitler in his bunker, about to blow his brains out and blaming the Germans for failing him. The Yozis want someone who's just full of spiteful malice. This is good, because it puts him in the right mindset to basically destroy the world.

I did like that the Yozis have a very different version of fucking up Creation from the Neverborn. One is nihilistic 'emo guitar solo as as the sun sets for the last time', the other is basically the Garden of Earthly Delights.

You'd think that it would be too subtle for WW to communicate, but props to them for doing it well.

>>44518404
As an attempt to move the discussion forward, the Great Curse exists as a rule and a setting detail because the Exalted are people and people aren't perfect, but playing a perfect RPG character is very easy. You can say "I forgive the guy who murdered my character's family" or "I climb the mountain" and have that be no harder than saying "I tear his head off" or "I spend the entire day on a sofa reading". Wrath or Sloth don't exist for your character unless you add them in there. Combine that with the fact that the Exalted have the ability to easily resist social influence or climb mountains.

So they added a rule that means your character has to occasionally make sub-optimal decisions based on what feels good in the moment rather than always being perfect, and they probably tied it to something supernatural so that it would feel like an irritating imposition from the Neverborn rather than from the game designers. The rule was going to feel arbitrary, so they made it arbitrary in-setting as well.

Does anyone reckon the game would work better if the Curse was stripped out, but the Willpower recovery system was changed to reflect that sometimes people make decisions because they're tired and grumpy? There are a lot of charms that require Willpower to function. If an otherwise heroic Dawn Melee guy needs Willpower to kick the maximum arse, but will run out of Willpower unless he gives in to compassion fatigue (a real thing) and occasionally just kills everyone in his way and ignores people in need, then that seems to me to accomplish the task of making Solars into ordinary people with too much power more effectively than a curse that occasionally forces you to be a dick.

>>44500515

Theoretically speaking, could the returned Solars wipe out the Dragon-blooded? From the looks of it, a substantial portion of it is hostile to them, and I'm fairly certain they're going to bear a grudge.

Assuming you kill off all the Dragon-blooded who aren't willing to accept the returned Solars, you'll like have to kill at least eight out of every ten. I mean, you're literally going to have to re-breed them in order to change the balance of power, otherwise it'll just end in another Usurpation.

>>44518739

Technically speaking, the main problem is that most people generally don't go on a berserk rampage even when they're tired and grumpy. Without the Great Curse to justify the excesses of Solar behavior, there's really no point in rebelling.

Like, if it was as simple as "Okay, everyone calm down, we need to be rational about this." the disasters would be mitigated.

>>44516638

As someone who likes MA's, I'll spend a second before going to bed to comment on a few things:

Mirror Blade: Very, very nice. Some minor issues:

- Watchful Delay adds too many autosux for Solars. Make it so it adds (3 or Ess, higher) dice instead for Solars.

- Does Flashing Mirror Strike count as a combat action or is it a free attack?

- I think however Flashing Stroke Mirror setting your initiative equal to the opponent's is way too strong myself. I know the intent, but to me its like making gaining initiative irrelevant with this charm. Personally I think it should be something like a gambit clash attack where if you win, you count as going on the same turn as that target for the rest of the scene or something like that.

Dark Messiah:

- Foe-Blinding Jab: Crippling charms are a bit more optional in 3e as a reminder, as they wanted to move away from that. If a hero wants to be blinded, then they can decide that. That said, I think -2 is a bit more sane than -3 myself. Personally I'd make it more like the Abyssal charm and give them a choice of eating +3 levels of damage or accepting the penalty, both are harsh choices.

Grievous Agony Attack: Feels like it should have a WP cost, but I'm probably overreacting.

>>44518739
I find the idea that a character played by a 20-something, likely an angsty collage student, is going to make good decisions all the time compeltely fucking hilarious man..

Like, I don't need a ham-fiested and poorly executed mechanic to make players make suboptmal decisions in any other game, they do it on their own just fine, I have a hard time getting why I'd need one here.

>>44508935
>[Studio Ghibli movie]
>Devs have the shitiest taste.

This is the quickest way to abandon any semblance of credibility I have ever seen.

>>44510594

Quoting the book :

>The yokai in this series provide an example of spirits and sorcery in Creation. It’s also good inspiration for Artifact weapons. It can be a good source for more lighthearted takes on Exalted.

Different anon here, I'm not gonna argue Inuyasha's good overall, but yeah, it does present a whole bunch of idea for spirits, weird magic and cool weapons. As for the light-hearted thing, it makes sense compared to some of the more serious sources for Exalted (which are really not light-hearted inspirations at all, like the fucking Bible, or Grave of the Fireflies (AKA Cut Your Wrists Open And Sob Softly : The Movie).

>>44518700
>Or Hitler in his bunker, about to blow his brains out and blaming the Germans for failing him.

Then the Ebon Dragon goes "Hey kid, wanna go to Argentina?"

>>44518929
Absolutely. The Dragon Blooded have all but destroyed themselves, and are probably going to continue to stupid themselves into extinction. There are those who argue that 300 solars couldn't be stopped by 1 million DBs, but now there's only 30k or so and 150 solars.

Fortunately rebreeding DBs isn't hard.

That being said... you said THEORETICALLY. Practically, even though the DBs, through some things that are their fault and some things that aren't, are vastly diminished, way worse than the solars, they're still a ludicrously strong power bloc. 3e will give them both a relative fluff (the Wyld Hunt isn't a joke anymore) and crunch boost.

>>44518967
>>44518739
Limit Break is weird. Really, really weird. I hear shitters say stuff like "your character wouldn't do that, your x virtue is too high, that's bad roleplay" while ignoring that the main way of suffering Limit Break is to act wildly against your strongest virtue for 10 sessions straight.

>>44519120
In my experience players aren't even all that keen on playing characters who make good decisions all the time. Even when we were a bunch of dumb highschoolers, people in my group generally didn't try to make their characters perfect, and they sure as hell have no issues with playing (intentionally) flawed characters now that we're approaching something that might kind of resemble maturity.

>>44512554
Resistance and MA have been covered so here's the rest:

Melee's the middle ground, martial mastery Ability. Supernal it if you want to be the unbeatable warrior. It's equaly efficacious is offense, defense and control. It boasts some interesting options : maims members, maul monsters at middle range, materialize magnificent Muramasas.

Brawl is what you want if your preferential predilection's to pound people into a paste. It's the all-out offensive tree. You'll turn into a terrifying devil-god with iron fists and fire in your heart. Flash across the battlefield to promptly punish puny peasants and Punch potential problems into their tender parts.

Archery's the all-around obvious alternative to avoid aggro and accurately assassinate adversaries at range. Aggrieve your foes with unyielding assaults that very well might live them aflame, aptly absolve of the fastidious chains of aiming actions : Archery's amazing at a distance, and has a Glorious Solar Saber variation!

Awareness is the complement to Perception. Pinpoint precision and prodigious reaction. The importance of Join Battle and Initiative cannot be understanded. A Dawn that purloins the premier spot into a bout will probably put a stop to the qui-pro-quo with a prompt pomeling to the pumpkin, turning the tables on those than planned to cause problems like a predator pouncing on paralized preys.

Dodge is damn good in the defensive department. Mobility galore, diabolical dance moves, it lets you deftly deflect the miriad dafts that would dare to do you harm, and fills you with Determination (and Initiative, dude). The best pick if you expect to have a bad time in the forseable future.

Thrown. The Alpha Strike purveyor. Theft of life thightly packed. Terrifying paired with Stealth. Nuff said.

War, what do you expect? It whoops ass and takes names. Don't get fooled : just because it lacks Essence 5 charms doesn't mean it's disqualified as a Supernal. Real power lies in numbers, and in Ess3.

>>44517020
>They usually know BETTER, though. That's why there was a Deliberative in the First Age.
The Deliberative's primary purpose was keeping the Solars in check, as each of them would watch the others. Since any war between them was so world-shattering, they had to basically agree to rule between themselves.

>>44519762
>Archery's amazing at a distance, and has a Glorious Solar Saber variation!
For bows, arrows, or both?

>>44519919
both

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>>44512688
>As an interesting note, I've found that the best Infernals are driven by petty, small-minded "I missed my chance, and now I'll take it out on the world." mentality.

Of course.

In the core of the Solar exaltation, there is still the thinking that you can be _more_. More heroic. More tyrannous. Better leader. Better lover. While there is still Solars who are petty and small minded, the very essence of their exaltation push them toward greatness, willing or not.

The very essence of the Infernal exaltation is spite, jealousy, rage and envy. The best Infernals are the one who are motivated by petty revenge and small or imaginary slights.

>>44521009
Go away sailor moon

>>44521009
>The best Infernals are the one who are motivated by petty revenge and small or imaginary slights.
Huh. Raven from Consequences of Misunderstandings?

>>44521009
This is nonsense. Solars Exalt because they're about to do something great (for a given definition of the word "great"), and the Exaltation gives them the push necessary to do the impossible.

Infernals Exalt because they were about to do something great, and then the demon who has their Exaltation burning in its chest does not hand it over, instead watching as they fail and fuck up because it turns out doing great things is really hard and people rarely succeed. Then, in the follow-up period of pain and suffering, as they rot in jail or look over the corpses of their fallen comrades or flee the city in disgrace or whatever, a strange being appears, offering them all the power in the world they need to take their revenge and seize what's rightfully theirs.

Infernals are Solars who, in their moment of greatest struggle, tasted defeat rather than receiving divine power. No more, and no less.

>>44521194
Solaroid exaltations are weird yo.
Solars are the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. Out of all the people in Creation, only about 11000(in 3e, since iirc Lunars number 400 now, and we don't know how many Getimians or Exigents there are), will ever be exalts at any one time. All off these people were Heroic Mortals before they exalted, though 10100 of them(Sids and DBs) are pre-determined to exalt when they're born. Out of all those 11k people, only 300 will be a Solaroid. Out of those 300, only 150 will be Solars.
Solars are Heroic Mortals who, in their Heroism, got fucking lucky enough to receive a Solar Exaltation.
Abyssals are Heroic Mortals who, in their Heroism, got themselves killed, and accepted the offer of Abyssal Exaltation at the moment of death.(Or caught a stray Abyssal exaltation, or just impressed a Deathlord enough in life to get the offer before they died.)
Infernals are Heroic Mortals who, in their Heroism, fucked up, but didn't die as a result. In that bitter state of anger, frustration, and spite, they accepted a deal with a demon, and took the Infernal Exaltation. Odds are, the Yozis send their demons out to give an exaltation every so often and wind up having to choose a new hopeful Infernal, because the sod they planned to give it to either exalted as a Solar or died and became an Abyssal.

>>44521194
>and then the demon who has their Exaltation burning in its chest does not hand it over, instead watching as they fail and fuck up because it turns out doing great things is really hard and people rarely succeed
The idea that Infernals only fail because they don't get the Exaltation that 'should' be theirs is terrible and stupid. Their failure should be their own fault, as anything else makes the Infernals more boring and more like Green Solars instead of their own thematically distinct thing. Of course, insisting that Infernals must be fundamentally different people than Solars is also terrible and stupid. People have both high and low points in their lives, and the same person can be capable of both deeds worthy of a Solar Exaltation and failures appropriate for a Green Sun Prince. A great, heroic individual can have the potential to become either a Solar and Infernal: becoming a Solar does not remove his flaws and weaknesses of character, and becoming an Infernal does not make him any less great or heroic. Still, the context of Solar Exaltation and Infernal Exaltation should be different in a way that's more about the choices and actions of the Exalt-ti-be in question than interference of any outside force.

>>44518739
Great curse is dumb as fuck and personally removes any character responsibility for being a dipshit.

It's sorta like that "Affluenza" excuse for that kid that got captured by police in the news. Ethan Couch except prescribed to something entirely metaphysical as opposed to physical (Shitty parenting) that is hidden from sight and knowledge of the people which further absolves their blame cuz they're not being a shitty person on their own it's

Also the big problem with the Greek heroes thing is that it glosses over the connection with Greek tragedies. The plays and yes I am aware Achilles is from an Epic but implying the two aren't connected and influenced each other. So Greek tragedies all had the heroes having Hubris which causes the plot and drama and furthers the character's suffering until the end which typically ends with their and the catharsis which is important cuz the plays were morality plays and the catharsis is supposed to inspire greater virtue in the audience.

Exalted as we know it doesn't have any shit with Catharsis part which makes the Greek hero comparison weak because there was like a point to their fuck ups.

Then you get into how certain plays were exploring themes of determinism with Gods appearing the plays Exalted's setting while having determinism via the loom of fate nonsense explicitly has in its premise that the PCs are able to sort of fuck that up.

Also a game based on Greek tragedy characters would be pretty cool. I'd imagine it would be a reskinned Fiasco as Fiasco already has points that you accumulate that determines your ending which can be bad or good and it has a sliding scale. So a standard Bad End would be you die and then the highest possible Good End would be something like Philoctetes.

>>44521369
>The idea that Infernals only fail because they don't get the Exaltation that 'should' be theirs is terrible and stupid.
Read the actual canon Solar Exaltations. People don't Exalt because they succeed, they Exalt because they're on the verge of something great, and their Exaltations let them succeed.

Anyway, you're looking at it all wrong. Infernal Exaltations are the world proceeding business as usual. If you try to cut down the tyrant king in a sudden strike, probably you will fail and get owned. That's just how the world works. Exalting as a Solar is getting really, insanely, stupidly lucky. There are probably a hundred people every day in Creation who were "worthy" of a Solar Exaltation. You got really fucking lucky. Being heroic bought you a ticket, but you won the lottery. It's not "deserved" or "earned." It's divine grace.

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>>44521369
>The idea that Infernals only fail because they don't get the Exaltation that 'should' be theirs is terrible and stupid.
But that is how it goes, except in cases where people pussy out.
The demons go where the Exaltation takes them, but can kill the to-be if they don't meet expectations or the demon just doesn't like them, at which point they either follow the shard's pull again, head back home, or offer it to someone else.
Usually it's the pull, though.

>>44521434
Anyway not sure how to use the Great curse since it's garbage at every level.

I'd rather have the first age fall be something like that Circlejerk in Hollywood where the actors become all weird and shit and live in a bubble from regular people but even more magnified which makes them distanced common sense and people since they're part of this circlejerk filled with yes men and people like themselves who reinforce the idea that everything they do is good and they can't be wrong or ever fuck up.

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>>44521499
>ITT: probably the only kid who's read MoEP infernals

Also >playing or even caring about infernal ever

>>44519338

Ghibli movies are pretty and shallow shallow. And Grave of the Fireflies is the worst one of them since it's about a kid being retarded and killing off his sister while he starves to death like the spazz he is.

Also on the meta level it's
>Abloo bloo bloo bloo war is so bad u gaiz, even though we were hopelessly outmatched and were given a chance to surrender we didn't and all we got for that was eating two shiny weapons fresh off the factory

>>44521648
Well, war *is* bad, especially if you're a civilian who happens to be in the middle of all of that with no chance of actually changing the way things go.

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Hey /exg/! I've posted before inquiring as to what a Riverland circus might look like, but didn't really get an answer. So I thought I'd try again. My character is a merchant-king who has a band of 50 acting as a circus troupe, all originating from the Riverlands. I'm new to the game, so I don't really know a lot about Riverland culture. What kind of acts and appearance would these people take in a circus of the 'Riverland's Style'? Thanks.

>>44521719
Damn, that ass.
But yeah p. much that and Chinese shit

I'm a new ST and right now I'm having trouble thinking up a plot suitably epic enough for my players.

I don't have the greatest grasp on all the details in the setting, and I'm still kind of playing catch up with some of the more experienced players as far as rules go

I was thinking of kind of adapting Princess Mononke for the next part of the campaign with Mononke as a lunar and lady Iboshi as a dragon blooded warlord in the scavenger lands 100 kingdoms. Would it work?

I'm having trouble thinking of what supernatural threat the Forest God could be as he doesn't line up with the deities of creation as far as I can tell. Maybe some sort of fey lord? But that would beg the question of why the lunar/s? would be working him

>>44521824
Don't even try to think of a plot without considering the characters your players make. See what intimacies PCs have, read their backstories, talk to your players about what they want from the game, and then come back and ask again with that information in mind.

>>44521870
Well actually I factored in a bunch of things as far as the player characters

The zenith caste is a former dynast leading a company of mercenaries who deserted from the legion, so the war between the Lady Iboshi character and other minor lords in the 100 kingdoms gives him a reason to work

The archery dawn is from the far east and really loves forests, so I think he'll have a natural sympathy with the lunar/s (still not sure if there should be more then one) and dislike having to work Irontown

The melee Dawn is a wandering swordswoman looking for a cause so, see zenith

The twilights are wandering monk and a sinjin alchemist/sorc so one is naturally drawn towards conflicts to try to find resolution, while the other is highly interested in new technology like the guns Iron town would be making, and both deal with the calming of spirits

>>44521958
>The archery dawn is from the far east and really loves forests
Is the character genuinely that boring, or is that just you twisting the character to fit your plot?

>>44522001
No, one of his intimacies is a respect for nature and the natural world

>>44522031
>No, one of his intimacies
Is it a defining intimacy? Because that's how you summed him up.

>>44521958
Well, I'd recommend not trying to plan a 'suitably epic' plot right from the beginning. It's okay to start with something relatively local, like your standard war in the Hundred Kingdoms, with the Zenith's mercenary company fighting on one side. See that story arc to the end and think of your next move while as the game progresses and you get a better feel for things. It's not the most brilliantly creative way of going about things, but it's a solid start for a campaign. Oh, and sort of...don't get too focused on the 'point' of the campaign. I mean, even if you do as I suggest and start off with a war-themed story, you should also throw in some court intrigue, some weirdness with local spirits and such, and see what your players find interesting.

>>44522063
Yeah, I just rechecked his sheet, it's a major intimacy

>>44522031
>>44522063
Is it his ONLY Defining Intimacy?

Seriously, take the phrase 'kill your darlings' to heart--even if you like where this Mononoke story could go, don't force your players into it unless you legitimately think they/their characters would want to be involved. It's that kind of STing that leads to your players walking out with a giant middle fingers pointed in your direction.

Look at ALL of their intimacies, and their backstories/backgrounds, and see what you can put together from what they have, instead of designing a story and then trying to justify putting them through it.

>>44522140
>designing
Bit of a strong word for someone copy-pasting an anime.

>>44522140
Eh. As a hook/draw to get the PCs working together, I think it'd be fine. He shouldn't expect it to last for a whole campaign (Exalts are stronk) or go the way Princess Mononoke went, but it suffices for the job of giving the players a hook and direction right off the bat, which is the important thing.

>>44521824
Assuming this is the intro "you all meet in a bar" equivalent... if /I/ was doing it:

An exiled Dragon-Blooded noble from another kingdom has formed a small community of other exiles: vagabonds, criminals, mercenaries, those displaced by war or land seizures, lepers, and similar. She seeks to claim a large land for "her people" and found a new kingdom with herself as its queen. The problem is that the land she seeks to claim is not unoccupied.

The people she seeks to displace are a nomadic tribe, but one with an old relationship with the local gods of the wilderness, who would lose their domains if the settlers cultivated the lands they're responsible for (see Dogs of the Unbroken Earth, for example). Among their number, now, is a Full Moon Lunar who is loathe to see her people, her gods, or their ancestral way of life destroyed by some band of criminals under some exiled princess, and is willing to fight and lead war bands to prevent it.

Other parties, tired of dealing with a violent tribe, are willing to back the would-be queen, and she has a larger military under her command - with so many of her settlers being soldiers of one kind or another - so it's not a simple matter for the tribe to rid themselves of their unwanted intruders.

Of course, as I said, Exalted stronk. However players want to go about resolving this situation, it probably won't take many sessions to do so (even peaceful mediation won't be that hard!). Such is the nature of the Exalted. Hopefully by that time, your players will show directions they want to go from there, and you can plan accordingly.

You know, I've always asked myself how immaculates see lesser elemental dragons. I know how they view gods and elementals overall, but what exactly do they say about the lesser kin of the dragons they worship?

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>>44522608
Ah, onii-sama~

>>44522760
Oh my god aren't you just the cutest thing.

>>44522760
>>44522773
That... doesn't really answer the question but it IS cute.

>>44522140
I have to disagree with these anons. Your plot is fine, run with it. If the players aren't interested in it, they clearly don't want to play your game so fuck 'em.

Thing is, you really don't have to jump through hoops to make an Exalted game. It's nice of you to look at the intimacies the players have put in, they'll think you actually care and play better, good for you, but you really didn't have to. You don't have to bend over backwards to tailor the plot to them, do whatever the story you want to do, if they don't bite, it really is their problem.

If you want to keep them interested create a sense of urgency or huge profit if they actually get to it stat. A looming and immediate threat is nice but Exalts don't respond well to threats. By which I mean: they consider it an invitation. Work it to your adventage. Alternatively threaten something they cannot easilly protect.

Creatinga session for exalted really follows the same pattern as creating a session for any other game and don't let the crazy community that doesn't actually play or run those games tell you otherwise.

>>44522814
Yes it does, a Dragonborn reaction to lesser elemental dragon

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Hey, I lost my arm...is it possible to get some sort of a badass mechanical robo-arm with magics that is superior to my old arm?

>>44523163

Yes.

They come in mundane, magically-animated, and magical robo-animated varieties.

>>44523200
where can I read about that?
I want magical robo-animated most likely

>>44510199
If Asura were in Exalted, then he'd fit in perfectly.

But which Asura are we talking about? Before or after receiving the Mantra Reactor and gaining his Asura The Destructor form?

>>44523227

Clockwork prosthetics aren't in Ex3 yet, but they were in Ex2's Wonders of the Lost Age. They were fairly boring back then, just a bunch of dicestats smeared onto your character.

If I were gonna do a robo-arm up in 3e, that 1) makes it First Age Artifice by default, meaning I can make it retardedly badass out of the gate and 2) I'd definitely stick some Evocations up ins, for all the widgets and special attacks it's got.

>>44523377
I can't find anything about clockwork prosthetics in Ex2's Wonders of the lost age
Could you tell me the page?

What's the most mote-efficient way to build a combat Solar? Including things that let you regain motes in combat like Essence Gathering Temper and Energy Restoration Prana.

>>44523580
War supernal Dawn, issue commands every turn, never lose motes

>>44523540
page 71, Prosthetics of Clockwork Elegance.

>>44522381
thank you for the help, I'll look that up.

>>44522103
>Well, I'd recommend not trying to plan a 'suitably epic' plot right from the beginning. It's okay to start with something relatively local, like your standard war in the Hundred Kingdoms, with the Zenith's mercenary company fighting on one side. See that story arc to the end and think of your next move while as the game progresses and you get a better feel for things. It's not the most brilliantly creative way of going about things, but it's a solid start for a campaign.

This. I feel obligated to quote this for truth, because holy shit is it the best way to launch an Exalted campaign I have ever found.

My current Dragon Blooded campaign has been going for a year and a half. It started off as a simple Investigation game about the All Seeing Eye wanting to know why Mnemon is importing a forged copy of the Broken Winged Crane to the Blessed Isle.

Now it's got the Guild, Houses Mnemon, Cathakk, Vnee'f, Ragara and Ledal, Mnemon herself, actual copies of the Broken Winged Crane, Sidereals of both Factions, an Abyssal Spy of the Mask of Winters, a Full Moon Lunar, that Lunar's Night Caste mate who's infiltrated the party for the a year, the Silver Pact, Chiaroscuro's Tri-Khan, Zoatham, a nascent Infernal empire way out in the South based in the ruins of the ancient city of Tethys built inside the corpse of a giant sand whale, and the Scarlet Empress mascarading as a wandering Elder Lost Egg all involved in it.

The players stand to put themselves in the best graces of whoever sits on the Scarlet Throne in the end (Either Mnemon or the Empress are most likely right now) or accumulate enough power to have a claim for whatever is left if the Realm devolves to civil war before either women manages to take the advantage.

I started the campaign with only a vague idea for the kind of feeling I wanted (I like my DBs to feel kind of overwhelmed at the amount of stuff happening, with tons of ways to engage the setting), and The Broken Winged Crane being important.

>>44516650
>Yeah, but Solars generally don't do things out of spite. Spite is the opposite of the heroic condition.
I don't think that's true at all. Exalted uses "heroism" in the classical Greek sense, not in the modern sense. Heroism is a matter of being powerful, not a matter of moral rightness.

Hercules was just as much a hero when he killed his wife and children as he was when he served on the Argo.

>>44522814
>>44522773
I must now write a House Cynis shotacon scene with a lesser water dragon taking human shape as a child.

What have you done, Anon?

>>44523886
>What have you done, Anon?
>implying
You must do this, especially if there is nose-booping involved.

>>44523886
That's clearly a girl you fucking homo.

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>>44500515
How do you sell Exalted to a potential GM? Seems like there's a worse Player:GM ratio for Exalted than for other games, and I suspect that's because of all the discussions about how incredible the PCs get to be, how player-driven the narrative is, and how GMs having any control over anything tends to get shouted at as an affront to what makes the game good.

I'm not saying that to be critical, but I'm in the same boat as everyone else seems to be; I'd like to play the game, and it does seem like it'd be fun to play, but I run games as well and I've never thought that I'd actually want to run a game of Exalted. How do you sell this to a potential GM?

>>44524197

That is because there are a lot of shitty GMs who try and push their story in general. Since Exalted is anathema to them because they can't rub one out all over the players it leaves mostly good GMs running games. There are just less GMs in general. But some of the shitters still try and we get shit like Cosmic Exalted.

>>44523871
>Powerful
>Is Hera's bitch as he kills his family
Kek

>>44524197
You don't because any good GM would make a derivative that makes goddamned sense and is playable rather than OPP's trash

>>44524280
Strength of Many, please.

>>44524280
>You don't because any good GM would make a derivative that makes goddamned sense and is playable rather than OPP's trash
Ex3 is not only playable but damn good, so that's not true anymore.

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>>44524375
>Damn good

>>44524280
Personally, nothing puts me off a GMs game faster than them wheeling out a big book of houserules, so I guess we're working from a different definition of "good GM".

I'm still hoping someone has an answer. Why run this game? Currently the only reason I can think of is having a decent sized group of friends who want to play it, but that works for everything, and it still doesn't offer anything for the GM to play with.

>>44524375
Ahh, hrm, yes, indeed. Damn good. I assume you're ignoring the Craft system for the purposes of this post.

>>44524414
There is no answer because the game is ultimately so derivative and the elevator pitch is so much more intriguing than actual execution that anyone with a brain can do the same shit but in a system that works and with elements tailored to the group

>>44524452

>I assume you're ignoring the Craft system for the purposes of this post.

Everyone ignores the Craft system for every post.

>>44524465
>implying that's not the only failing in the system

>>44524546

Well there is MA split as well. And the lack of a
bureaucratic system. Anything else?

>>44524568
Both of those are fine, it's just
>opinions
at this point.

>>44524568
MA split in itself is not a problem. If the overpriced Martial Artist Merit didn't exist, I wouldn't really have any complaints about how Martial Arts are handled. As for the lack of a bureaucratic system, it didn't seem to bother the Supernal Bureaucracy Eclipse in the last game I was in, but I guess it might be a problem. Not a major problem, but something that could be improved on.

>>44524568
The entire game.

>>44524599
Ok Holden.

>Implying your game isn't gilded dreck

>>44524626
>The entire game.
Well we can feel free to disregard your opinions now.

>>44524618
>the overpriced Martial Artist Merit
The really cool thing about said Merit, is that 3e was trying to get away from "everybody who knows any martial art is an Exalt," but the Merit is an insane point sink for zero real benefit if you're a mortal.

>>44524626
I really gotta wonder why these people even post of /exg/. I mean, I can understand people not liking Ex3, but it's obviously and objectively mechanically superior to the previous editions, so anyone who dislikes Ex3 that much must've loathed the previous editions beyond all that reason. Why even bother talking about the game?

>>44524641

>my poorly written system is good

Unsure if shill, Holden, or dipshit

>>44524663
>Why even bother talking about the game?
Possibly because the appeal of Exalted is, and always has been, its setting, not its terrible broken systems.

>>44524664
Or a person who's actually tried the game and noticed that it works pretty nicely in practice.

>>44524663

>Better

Yeah in the same same way you go "It's good.. for a(n) X"

LIke "It's good... for a wii game"

Or "It's good...for a cripple"

>>44524774
If you're in a thread for fucking wheelchairs, then 'good for a cripple' seems like a good sale.

>>44524774
No, anon, that was not my point. Ex3 is actually pretty good, like, compared to RPGs in general, not just good for Exalted. The actual point was that someone who dislikes Exalted that much should've given up on the game ages ago.

>>44524452
I'm not. I've actually enjoyed the Craft system so far. It's certainly been polarizing as shit when it comes to online discussions, but my table and I are quite unanimous in that regard.

I'd ask what's your problem with it because I'm curious. There's a bunch of differing reasons why people dislike the system, some of them sprouting from people who don't actually understand or willfully misinterpret it, but a fair number are legitimate. I would, but then it'd mean we're gonna have a Craft shitstorm again, and I think we're all bored of that.

>>44524774
>"It's good... for a wii game"

Muramasa laughs at you from on high, hanging its head back, its face to the sky, its hands on its hips, with chiseled abs of gold and arms the size of tree trunks.

You are ridiculous, sir. Please get out.

>>44524197
It has a really cool setting with a lot of cool hooks. How you sell it is by saying "just do whatever you do with any other game".

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>>44525033

>murasama
>good

>>44524803
No anon you have shit taste. It's subpar compared to other PnP games.

>>44525033
>>44525090
Not that anon, but the PSP VITA version is OK.

>>44525144
Does the vita have games now?

Or is it like early ps3?

>>44525117
Very well then, anon. Give me a couple of examples of what you'd consider an average, decent-but-not-great RPG.

>>44525205
It's slooooow on that. But it is getting them.

>>44524197

So long as the players have fun in a game, its all good. Like that one time /tg/ raged about that guy giving a mortal 13 or so defense, and what was even more funny is that the players enjoyed it.

So long as the group has fun, everyone else is wrong.

>>44524964
Basically, I don't like that to be a craftsman you're supposed to play as Santa Claus. I don't like that it's hard to dabble in, and that high-level Charms effectively obviate the entire stupid feedback loop in the first place, so that even if for some mystifying reason somebody likes the system, investment "rewards" them by making it effectively disappear.

>>44525236

Okami you double nigger.
NMH
All of the Sin and Punishment games

>>44525713
>PnP games
>Okami
>NMH

>>44525669
>players
Actors. They plan out what will happen in advance and their stats are basically meaningless against the GM's 'narrative'.

>>44525669
Are you the 13 parry mortal guy?
Also I feel like guessing polish and big narrativist thinker.
I've gotten your vibe from a lot of random posts in the past several threads, coincidentally talking bullshit I disagree with.

How fast might a race between UCS and the Maiden of Journeys across Yu-Shan be?

>>44525969
It takes UCS about 12h to cross creation.

>>44525969
Too fast

People and structures alike would be in jeopardy

>>44525838
Eh. I wouldn't say that about my players. They like to be a part of the story. I work really hard to create an illusion that they can actually meaningfully influence the events. In the end RPG is for me a way to create a good story, fun is my secondary concern.

Then again, I'm an oddball here so.

>>44525829
My bad senpai I thought I was responding the Wii guy


Any ORE game like REIGN, Monsters and other Childish Things
SW
Traveller
Fantasycraft
Paranoia
All Flesh must be eaten
HoL
Runequest

>>44526353
I don't like any of those except for Reign and Runequest.

And the latter only for the setting!

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>>44526380

>>44519762
>Dodge
Someone on the official forums made a"Osseous Hour of Misfortune" SMA. It'd be nice if Dodge Charms just counter it.

>>44527431
I'm using that as soon as possible, by the way.

>>44526353
Shit taste.

>>44526071
>illusion that they can actually meaningfully influence the events
What the fuck, anon. Roleplaying games are seriously the wrong medium for you.

>>44528202
Ok holden

>>44526071
>fun is my secondary concern.
THEN WHAT ARE YOU CREATING A STORY FOR?

Are you a Raksha?

I was just thinking: why does Regent Fokuf exist? Why not cut him out entirely, and leave the throne empty? Say all the Great Houses, trying to come up with a compromise candidate... couldn't find one. So they just left the throne empty and effectively delegated all power to the Deliberative and now they're at each other's throats.

Fokuf doesn't actually do anything for the story except jerk off, "they couldn't decide on a candidate" is fewer words than have been spilled on that waste of space, and I feel like it's a lot more evocative an image.

>>44531645
desu i completely forgot Regent Fuckoff existed
I generally just assume the Throne is empty and the Houses are still arguing over who deserves to sit on it

>>44531645

I actually kinda like the fan theory that he's secretly a Infernal.

>>44531968
In order to be an Infernal, he would have to not be a Dragon-Blooded, which wouldn't make any sense.

So are there any active Exalted 3E MUSHs nowadays? I know there was one trying to get started when the leak was around, but I haven't seen it mentioned recently.

>>44531542
Story is the goal, not the means. Fun is merely a nice incentive.

>>44532020

The one that was around was this one, but I've no idea if it's still going.

http://exalted-lathe.tumblr.com/

>>44531997
>In order to be an Infernal, he would have to not be a Dragon-Blooded, which wouldn't make any sense.
Only if he were a GSP. He could still be an Akuma.

>>44532109
that one's been dead for a while

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>>44531496
>he insulted my taste in games!!!
>o-ok holden!

lmao

>>44532471
Ok holden, you can stop projecting

How bad am I crippling my martial artist/brawler with an Unarmed specialty? Will not going for an artifact smashfist or whatever hurt me in the long run?

>>44534065
>How bad am I crippling my martial artist/brawler with an Unarmed specialty?
None? Unless you planned on picking up Evocations, an artifact weapon basically isn't worth it, and Brawl especially doesn't give a rat's ass.

>>44528202
different* taste
there is nothing intrinsically good or bad about what media someone consumes

Dear Exalted General,

How the -fuck- do you pronounce Cynis?

Is it a long "I" sound as in Sigh? Or is it a short I sound as in Sin? One sounds like I'm talking about post-nasal drip, but if you drop the association with sinuses the long higher pitched sound actually sounds really... reptilian, slimy, and greasy. Exactly like I imagine House Cynis to be. The second one sounds less silly though.

What are your thoughts, how should this most respected, worshiped, beloved (and slutty) house be referred to? How do you pronounce it?

>>44534434
I've always pronounced it Sigh-niss.

>>44534434
I pronounce it like Cygnus, sans the g.

>>44525669
From what I read in those posts, I don't honestly think the players were enjoying dealing with a hacked mortal.

>>44526071
Holy shit that entire post was cancer.

What are good charms to give Raksha NPCs other than excellencies if I'm new to using raksha?

>>44537518

Don't give them an Excellency, for one. Having a general-purpose dice-adder is kind of a big deal in 3e; it's part of what sets Exalts so much further above everyone else. Even the Raksha Noble in the leak didn't have a general Excellency. Doubly so since Raksha have larger-than-normal dicepools innately, as part of their "freakishly perfect, even our dumbest Fair Folk is smarter than most humans, including Exalts."

Secondly, focus on what the Raksha's story is; its Charms should all play into that, with an overarching theme of drama and myth. These aren't extension of the Raksha's skills, they're weaponized narrative and the Raksha's own soulless biology at play.

Addicting, dramatic, beautiful power.

This is general advice, because you haven't been very specific in what kinds of Raksha you're making.

>>44537621
First, I'm still on 2e, mostly because there's more that I can find for it.

Second, at this point, I just need armed forward scouts. They don't have much of a story other than defending a certain area when the players encounter them, but they are on horseback and fairly well-equipped.

>>44537855
>using 2e Raksha

oh sweet moses

>>44534065

Martial arts are universally better with a weapon than without. Generally - like Tiger Style - you ADD the damage to your weapon.

>>44537871

To be fair, 2e Raksha are better by the simple dint as they have rules, whereas 3e ones don't.

>>44510759
Don't apologize for good taste.

>>44538551

No, there is definitely such a thing as rules that are so actively bad you were better off before you got them in the first place, and 2e Raksha rules definitely qualify.

>>44534065
Not by much, frankly. Some Brawl charms even only work when you're completely Unarmed (a very very very small number).

>>44534140
Well it gives you a shitload of accuracy unless i've misread it.

>>44540340
Unarmed attacks count as light mundane weapons. Don't light Artifact weapons just give +1 Accuracy over that? That's not exactly a shitload.