|
Stephenls posted:Book's contents will ultimately tell. Oh, don't get me wrong. I'll probably get the book eventually just for the neat setting ideas, but I have very little faith in the mechanics anymore. Most of our canon setting from my last campaign, which was pretty much a highlight reel of "solars are loving awesome. Crazy as balls, but awesome" A shortlist of things done by my insane players: The creation of The Glorious Wang, a night caste Homme Fatale  who had a sterotypical lo pan wizened asian man accent, and was a master of disguise, as well as seducing his way into (and out of) troubleCreating a god from a tiny tree (named Bosai) by pumping hundreds of motes into him over the space of the campaign, eventually cumulating in making Bosai the Elder Celestial Chair of the Eastern Forests. Infiltrating the blessed Isle as a group of travelling merchants in a panini cart, named WangWay ("Everyone wants WANG!") Cutting a deal with Ligier after surviving a duel with him, which resulted in the Dawn Caste 'splitting the mote' and annihilating half of the Imperial Capital. Having the Sidreals create a committe for EACH MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE Their sidreal had custom charms called "Legendary Crane Filing Prana" and "Roundfile Retrieval method" that were used for keeping the circle from being lionbait in Yu-SHan The dawn caste winning a duel against the unconquered sun. Aforementioned Duel was a rap battle (which happened at the table) Reprogramming several primordials who were fundamentally broken And, what I consider one of my personal favorites: A Full Moon caste accidentally killing the maiden of journeys, and then taking her place, becoming the Gentleman of Journeys. He had a chariot pulled by his pet miniature yeddim, and played merry hell with relativity. Sorry bout the storytime dump, but It's about exalted, right? 
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 16:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 02:59 |
|
|
Roll a DMonkey, Consult Table Cheese. ...not that there's anything wrong with that. theironjef fucked around with this message at 17:31 on May 25, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 17:26
|
|
|
Stephenls posted:There are people for whom this will be the case. Go play your FATE hack and enjoy. I think you'll probably really like 3e's setting, though. Mind if I ask you to elaborate on that? Other than the few new Exalt types, which I have a feeling will have most of their setting stuff in their own books, what exactly is "new" about 3e's setting that wasn't there (or wasn't detailed) in 2e?
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 18:15
|
|
|
Krysmphoenix posted:Mind if I ask you to elaborate on that? Other than the few new Exalt types, which I have a feeling will have most of their setting stuff in their own books, what exactly is "new" about 3e's setting that wasn't there (or wasn't detailed) in 2e? You know how way back in 1e, the corebook and Scavenger Sons released a bunch of really cool locations like Chiaroscuro, the Lap, Harborhead, Gethamane (before it was just All Vodak, All The Time), Whitewall, Bluehaven, Great Forks, Lookshy (before it started getting written as the "good guy underdog" of the setting), Sijan, etc.? And then in like ten years of supplements we got... An-Teng. And the rest of the setting kept getting written like the stuff in the core and ScavSons was the only stuff there was? I think the 3e corebook doubles or more than doubles the setting's "cool places to go" count. New places like Grieve, Tusk, Ixcoatli, the Amirate of Jiara, Faxai-on-the-Caul, and Medo, whose names we've dropped publicly, are just the start. I mean, just the area south of the Dreaming Sea is like a whole 'nother Direction in terms of scope. Also we have consciously changed the way we write about the setting -- rather than do the thing 1e and 2e did where existing locations were written huge land-gulping meganations who were concerned with how they got along with each other, they're written as smaller and more localized, and a lot of them have a section on relationships with nearby nations and principalities where other new places, mentioned nowhere else, get thumbnail sketches.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 19:01
|
|
|
My first game was a 2.5e game where I dove straight into the mechanics to make my character as fast as I could. Didn't spend a whole lot of time reading the book since the rest of the players filled me in on what I was missing. (And justifies me rolling Occult and Lore at drat near everything I see, making me feel productive if nothing else.) Sounds like for 3e I should devote some time and just sit down and read.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 19:11
|
|
|
Stephenls posted:Lookshy (before it started getting written as the "good guy underdog" of the setting) The fact that you also complain about this fills me with joy. Spartans (aka Proto-Fascists, because we like to lionize Spartans but that's what they were) who used WMDs but are totally the good guy underdogs. I always wanted them to be written up so that Mask of Winters's Dead Zone had a roughly equal claim of being a "morally good nation."
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 19:19
|
|
|
MiltonSlavemasta posted:The fact that you also complain about this fills me with joy. Spartans (aka Proto-Fascists, because we like to lionize Spartans but that's what they were) who used WMDs but are totally the good guy underdogs. I always wanted them to be written up so that Mask of Winters's Dead Zone had a roughly equal claim of being a "morally good nation." Yeah, that line about "...and then Lookshy decided imperialism was awful and vowed never to engage in it again!" always stuck in my craw.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 19:33
|
|
|
The introduction of the Dreaming Sea alone gives me some hope. How did we have Exalted for twelve years and no one thought to add a Mediterranean + Black Sea? That and some of the additions to the North and West look good.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 19:59
|
|
|
Ithle01 posted:The introduction of the Dreaming Sea alone gives me some hope. How did we have Exalted for twelve years and no one thought to add a Mediterranean + Black Sea? That and some of the additions to the North and West look good. As for the Lookshy fellatio I thought they were interesting, and also had a sort of valuable narrative purpose in that they indicated that you could have a Terrestrial-led civilization that WASN'T a giant empire - which both implied that you could, say, put one somewhere else you wanted to fill in, and meant that you had a sort of in-setting demonstration that you don't have to exterminate the DBs, root and branch, to reintroduce your Solar Utopia. However, while they are interesting, I wouldn't really call them "good," except possibly under the theory that life under the general staff is preferable to death and torment under the Mask of Winters. Which I think was really one of the places where the Deathlord crap got hung up, because Mask of Winters, let's be real, is possibly the most boring Deathlord that got a writeup. If he's more like the Silver Prince/Boddhisattva that would be tight - though it would be pretty funny if the peasants begged him to strike a blow against the Scarlet Empire and he was like "If you're sure -" and then accelerated Operation: Juggernaut a couple of years. 
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 20:15
|
|
|
I think the books get kind of contradictory regarding life in the Thorns area under Mask of Winters. Sometimes, it seems like DEATH TORMENT ZONE. Other times, it seems more like a big atrocity was committed there, but it's normally quite a calm and functional mingling of ghosts and mortals ruled by a paranoid, reclusive, and fairly hands-off autocrat; This should, in fact, scare people more because they must be wondering when and why Mask of Winters is going to mobilize the entire area for the next big doom crusade. Of course, that leads to really interesting diplomacy opportunities. I do agree that Lookshy should exist and has a lot of interesting things going on; I just don't think it should be cast so as to inherently lend itself more towards "moral" PCs in loyal service of the establishment than, say, the Realm, where that is entirely possible but will involve difficult decisions with no right answers. Nessus posted:you had a sort of in-setting demonstration that you don't have to exterminate the DBs, root and branch, to reintroduce your Solar Utopia. I can't see any good reason someone would need that as an explicit example unless they're hopelessly dense or have an extremely skewed perception of the setting. Lookshy serves plenty of great purposes, but if the Realm isn't ambiguous enough and full of a wide enough variety of DBs that this point isn't already abundantly clear, there are bigger problems going on. MiltonSlavemasta fucked around with this message at 21:12 on May 25, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 20:39
|
|
|
Lookshy gave up the imperialism game long ago... but now it's got to come out of retirement to do one... last... job.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 21:08
|
|
|
Ferrinus posted:Lookshy gave up the imperialism game long ago... but now it's got to come out of retirement to do one... last... job. A game where the premise is "A small group of Elder Sidereals, each with 24 hours left in their 5000 year lifespan, decide to come together, throw protocol to the wind, and use all their accumulated knowledge and power to make sure their legacy is the best it can possibly be." That would own.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 21:16
|
|
|
MiltonSlavemasta posted:A game where the premise is "A small group of Elder Sidereals, each with 24 hours left in their 5000 year lifespan, decide to come together, throw protocol to the wind, and use all their accumulated knowledge and power to make sure their legacy is the best it can possibly be." Do we allow SMA. because at that point they could wipe out the deathlords, go into malfeas and wipe out every demon, and then go to heaven and find a way to blow up the Games of Divinity, all within 24 hours probably. Elder exalts are so stupid. If the game wants to make them so powerful so PCs can aim for them and be like 'I Can eventually do WHAT?', the setting should probably default to not having any in it.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 21:24
|
|
|
Stephenls posted:You know how way back in 1e, the corebook and Scavenger Sons released a bunch of really cool locations like Chiaroscuro, the Lap, Harborhead, Gethamane (before it was just All Vodak, All The Time), Whitewall, Bluehaven, Great Forks, Lookshy (before it started getting written as the "good guy underdog" of the setting), Sijan, etc.? This is the single most positive preview about 3e you could have given me. Woo!
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 21:30
|
|
|
MiltonSlavemasta posted:I think the books get kind of contradictory regarding life in the Thorns area under Mask of Winters. Sometimes, it seems like DEATH TORMENT ZONE. Other times, it seems more like a big atrocity was committed there, but it's normally quite a calm and functional mingling of ghosts and mortals ruled by a paranoid, reclusive, and fairly hands-off autocrat; This should, in fact, scare people more because they must be wondering when and why Mask of Winters is going to mobilize the entire area for the next big doom crusade. Of course, that leads to really interesting diplomacy opportunities. I think it would be more interesting if Mask of Winters was not just rampaging. quote:I can't see any good reason someone would need that as an explicit example unless they're hopelessly dense or have an extremely skewed perception of the setting. Lookshy serves plenty of great purposes, but if the Realm isn't ambiguous enough and full of a wide enough variety of DBs that this point isn't already abundantly clear, there are bigger problems going on. I have run into a few variations on "I want to wipe out the Terrestrials and replace them with (vaguely magical thing that came out in a recent splatbook, which included Alchemicals several times)." I suppose I could've left it at "a DB-ruled state that isn't Literally The Realm, Possibly Slightly Smaller".
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 21:31
|
|
|
Nessus posted:Well I may know more psychotic gamers than you! Every group I ran with that intended to make a 'moral society' and conquer and stuff wanted to wipe out the dragonblooded, because they were clearly cursed beyond saving and bad for the world, and never did anything that was worth having them around that Jadeborn/Alchemicals/X-Blooded/Beastmen couldn't do too. Often it was Jadeborn. Everyone in my group loved them and we had, over the course of four games, five characters with motvations to release their Geas and restore them.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 21:59
|
|
|
Ithle01 posted:The introduction of the Dreaming Sea alone gives me some hope. How did we have Exalted for twelve years and no one thought to add a Mediterranean + Black Sea? That and some of the additions to the North and West look good. The Dreaming Sea is quite cool, but doesn't really look like that. The area south of the Dreaming Sea and west of the Summer Mountains is less like Mediterranean + Black Sea and more like Subcontinental India + Old Testament Biblical Mythic Weirdness + Some Other Things. It's sort of an exercise in how weird and heterogeneous the setting can get in an area where the Realm got a foothold but not a stranglehold. For Mediterranean + Black Sea stuff you probably want to look at the new cluster of smaller seas in southeast coast of the Inland Sea.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 22:14
|
|
|
KittyEmpress posted:Do we allow SMA. Yes, but after someone rewrites SMA to not be their ridiculous 2E incarnations (1E was probably ridiculous as well.) Otherwise, well, I've previously detailed the potential abuses involved. I also hope Elder power levels can come down in general, and the design team has said good things along those lines. An individual Elder should be a serious force, but a motivated group of younger Exalts shouldn't be something they can trivially swat aside, even if none of them have access to a "paranoia combo." I do think Elders should be dramatically more powerful than individual PCs at character creation, and I don't think they should be non-existent. They should probably be primarily heading large organizations and/or being reclusive instead of in the PC's faces messing with them at every opportunity. That way, you can have a big initial campaign arc where the group builds up to take down one Elder who is being a dick. This could also be a non-Exalt like a major Raksha Noble or a Hecatoncheires or a Dark Path Dragon King Elder or Wong Bongerok, but I think Elders provide some of the most exciting and useful long-term opposition for sure. You can use The Labors of Hercules or your favorite shonen anime as an example, but it's good storytelling for heroes to have their big opposition be something that is in fact bigger and more invincible than them until they discover its weakness and take it down. The fact that so many gamers have apparently decided WE WILL CREATE UTOPIA THROUGH TERRESTRIAL GENOCIDE unironically is a serious bit of black humor and an example of why the best parts of Exalted are more relevant than ever. I would probably let the players take out the Imperial City or other big DB stronghold, bombard them with images and vignettes of the aftermath, and then end the campaign right there with their characters thinking about what they did. It would lead to a Bad End where Congratulations, You Are Literally The Failure Of The First Age.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 23:01
|
|
|
Yeah, the new setting and new signature characters/widening of Creation is really the only reason I care about the game. If they manage to make an interesting combat system then that's cool too, whatever but as long as a part of it is cutting down on the really lovely reflexive setting self congratulation of 2 I'm happy. It does really look like a lot of the charms are going to be, if not necessarily perfect, organized on an interesting basis.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2014 23:09
|
|
|
KittyEmpress posted:Every group I ran with that intended to make a 'moral society' and conquer and stuff wanted to wipe out the dragonblooded, because they were clearly cursed beyond saving and bad for the world, and never did anything that was worth having them around that Jadeborn/Alchemicals/X-Blooded/Beastmen couldn't do too. To say nothing of the scale of the project which would be necessary to permanently get rid of them, but I suppose the generations-long/permanent surveillance state and eugenics program are just part and parcel of Celestial dominance. #malfeasdidnothingwrong e: dysgenics really, if you think about it Nessus fucked around with this message at 00:05 on May 26, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 00:01
|
|
|
MiltonSlavemasta posted:The fact that so many gamers have apparently decided WE WILL CREATE UTOPIA THROUGH TERRESTRIAL GENOCIDE unironically is a serious bit of black humor and an example of why the best parts of Exalted are more relevant than ever. I would probably let the players take out the Imperial City or other big DB stronghold, bombard them with images and vignettes of the aftermath, and then end the campaign right there with their characters thinking about what they did. It would lead to a Bad End where Congratulations, You Are Literally The Failure Of The First Age. Spinning the wheel of usurpation will surely turn out better than last time! I'm cool with players acting that out, actually, so long as they are self-aware about what kind of story that is going to be (i.e, one that doesn't end in utopia). Hell they can even have a great moment of catharsis after all the mass murder and atrocity like this summary of a game. It's when they're earnest that I get worried, especially when those elements of the fandom start clamoring about curing the Great Curse and crap like that.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 03:24
|
|
|
Oh, hey, I was just going over my edits of the locations chapter again for reasons. (Okay, it's because it's by Minton and it's great.) The first place you've already seen that gets a writeup is Whitewall, and before that is five entirely new locales, every one of which is as cool as the Whitewall writeup. This isn't entirely representative -- I don't think we have a 5:1 ratio of new locales to familiar places -- but it's sort of an idea of what you're in for.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 05:29
|
|
|
Calde posted:Spinning the wheel of usurpation will surely turn out better than last time!
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 09:00
|
|
|
Nessus posted:In a sense it was one of the things that was a bit negative about the Abyssals; if you got right with Jesus you were literally beyond (the supernatural compulsion of) hubris. poo poo don't end well. (I think it would be reasonable to quantify some Golconda-esque easing of things.) If there is a Golconda end-state for Abyssals, I'd prefer it not be some form of Solar.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 11:22
|
|
|
MiltonSlavemasta posted:If there is a Golconda end-state for Abyssals, I'd prefer it not be some form of Solar. What do you think it is? It's interesting when you consider it in terms of Exalts' becoming their patrons in miniature. I think that's why the current edition's turned towards the Deathlords rather than the Neverborn as patrons of the Abyssals - the Neverborn, while cool, are sort of featureless. The only thematic space the Abyssals had to grow into was straight death, but with the Deathlords as patrons they can grow into weird, dead monsters. I think their over-reliance on Mirror Charms in 1E & 2E was a function of the fact that the Neverborn were a weak thematic hook.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 11:44
|
|
|
MiltonSlavemasta posted:If there is a Golconda end-state for Abyssals, I'd prefer it not be some form of Solar. I'd honestly like to see their end-state be something like the Geists from Sin-Eaters; not just murder assassins from beyond the grave, but archetypal, spiritual manifestations of the themes, consequences and responses mortals (and ghosts) have to death. And on that subject, I'd also really like to see the Abyssal Charmset cut back on the murder and necrotech shenanigans and ramp up on stuff that lets them function as mediums and psychopomps. That poo poo's way the gently caress more interesting than "Here are ten pages on ghost rape and trandimensional murderstabbing and zombie robots, woo".
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 12:01
|
|
|
From what the writers have said elsewhere, they don't seem to have an Abyssal end-state in mind, in the sense of there being a goal to achieve like 2e's Infernals had "becoming a Primordial". Going Solar is an option, but not for every heroic Abyssal, and it's not intended to have any greater meaning than staying a heroic Abyssal. (If that's the case, then going Solar likely won't mean being free of the Great Curse.)
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 14:50
|
|
|
Yeah, I'm not sure Abyssals should even have any sort of Golconda; I don't think they're similar enough to Vampire Vampires to warrant it. The concept just does not have as much Frenzy/Hunger/Debilitating Weakness stuff going on, which is why it makes sense for Vampires to seek Golconda. I wouldn't mind a variant of Immortal Malevolence Enslavement that is significantly more interesting and allows the Abyssal to ascend to Deathlord status, and I would probably like to see individual support for that moreso than I would like to see support for becoming a Solar. If you don't want to be a Deathlord, you can already be a heroic (or antiheroic) Abyssal. Both of these things, of course, are less important than making Abyssal-specific mechanics generally fun and playable in the main E1-E4 zone. Dark Fate over Resonance, agreeing the Mirror Keyword was a bad idea, and more varied Deathlords are all good steps in that direction.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 15:00
|
|
|
Nessus posted:In a sense it was one of the things that was a bit negative about the Abyssals; if you got right with Jesus you were literally beyond (the supernatural compulsion of) hubris. poo poo don't end well. (I think it would be reasonable to quantify some Golconda-esque easing of things.) I have never liked the dark-xalts being stolen sunmen. It diminishes all parties involved.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 16:21
|
|
|
MiltonSlavemasta posted:Yeah, I'm not sure Abyssals should even have any sort of Golconda; I don't think they're similar enough to Vampire Vampires to warrant it. The concept just does not have as much Frenzy/Hunger/Debilitating Weakness stuff going on, which is why it makes sense for Vampires to seek Golconda. Punting posted:I'd honestly like to see their end-state be something like the Geists from Sin-Eaters; not just murder assassins from beyond the grave, but archetypal, spiritual manifestations of the themes, consequences and responses mortals (and ghosts) have to death.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 18:17
|
|
|
I know this is a 3e thread and most people are looking forward to that and not looking at 2e at all, but I was wondering if there's any possible way to run two form-type charms as an Infernal. Specifically, Demon Emperor Shintai and Infernal Monster Form, to make the biggest wrecker of all people. I can't find any and I doubt there is, and that kind of sucks, but I figured maybe someone knows some obscure rule or artifact or whatever.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 18:25
|
|
|
KittyEmpress posted:I know this is a 3e thread and most people are looking forward to that and not looking at 2e at all, but I was wondering if there's any possible way to run two form-type charms as an Infernal. Specifically, Demon Emperor Shintai and Infernal Monster Form, to make the biggest wrecker of all people. I would recommend a custom charm at MA 5, Essence 5 in Infernal Monster Style that allows you to activate one Shintai alongside your Form Charm or something similar.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 18:36
|
|
|
Just up and do it. Who even remains in the qlippothic ruin that is Exalted 2e to stop you, and what force in heaven or hell could convincingly apply a metric determining what is or isn't overpowered?
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 18:44
|
|
|
KittyEmpress posted:I know this is a 3e thread and most people are looking forward to that and not looking at 2e at all, but I was wondering if there's any possible way to run two form-type charms as an Infernal. Specifically, Demon Emperor Shintai and Infernal Monster Form, to make the biggest wrecker of all people. You could be a Sidereal, Solar, or Lunar Akuma of Malfeas who has mastered of Prismatic Arrangement of Creation if you really want to do it RAW. A_Raving_Loon posted:I have never liked the dark-xalts being stolen sunmen. It diminishes all parties involved. I don't like it either. I think it could make sense for Infernals if they are going to represent the excesses of the First Age in the new edition, but I'd probably prefer them to be a collaborative creation of the Yozi where they decided to try and develop something superior to the Celestial Exalted, which is of course in their own image because they are THE BEST. For Abyssals, I think it makes even less sense and would rather it be something where the Deathlords studied their own Exaltations before and after Death for millenia, and then combined bits of themselves, the Neverborn, and other things into their own form of Exaltation so they could select Champions of the Void.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 19:31
|
|
|
Abyssals should totally be corrupted/fallen Solars, as well as absurd anime vampires that explode all nearby holy symbols. The "natural" exalts of death are Liminals, I'm pretty sure.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 19:46
|
|
|
Ferrinus posted:Abyssals should totally be corrupted/fallen Solars, as well as absurd anime vampires that explode all nearby holy symbols. The "natural" exalts of death are Liminals, I'm pretty sure. Which is stupid. Abyssals should have been given their own niche, instead of the devs making a new Exalt type and relegating Abyssals to just Dark Solars.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 19:51
|
|
|
Ferrinus posted:Abyssals should totally be corrupted/fallen Solars, as well as absurd anime vampires that explode all nearby holy symbols. The "natural" exalts of death are Liminals, I'm pretty sure. I think this does a huge disservice to everything they've tried to subvert and build up developing Solar themes, because a fallen/corrupted Solar should be a Solar being an immoral monster. But I'm okay with Absurd Anime Vampires as a significant component of their inspiration.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 19:55
|
|
|
Ferrinus posted:Abyssals should totally be corrupted/fallen Solars. Solars are corrupt. That's why they got usurped.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 20:03
|
|
|
AdjectiveNoun posted:Which is stupid. Abyssals should have been given their own niche, instead of the devs making a new Exalt type and relegating Abyssals to just Dark Solars. What I would do is say that through all the rigamarole with the monstrances and all that poo poo, all that they really accomplished was A. inverting the polarity so the Abyssals look towards Underworld/death Essence rather than Creation/life Essence B. I guess keep them from flying back up to Heaven for reassignment; maybe an arcane link to the relevant Abyssal? And other than permutations from A, Abyssals are just as potentially heroic, etc. as Solars, because these guys just don't completely Get It. Even the Deathlords' understanding was imperfect (if obviously great enough to pull off A.).
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 20:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 02:59 |
|
|
How about we just get rid of the concept of 'end states' for Exalts completely. Or limit it to a side bar with about five or six suggestions for individual groups to farm for ideas.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 20:30
|
|