Exalted General /exg/

Okay so which is the best TMA to mass train enlightened mortals? Even Blade sounds like I can mass produce Vergil-lite but it would break the story too much.

Because of my job I'm probably up and about during the time of day you'd like to play, but if you're not interested, that's fine.

Path of the Arbiter, i guess ?

I am, if you really think you can make it Im off to work but if you are interested sent a request on spyros.kotteas on skype

I added you.

What are Factory Cathedrals and how are they in your game

No, that guy is wrong. Lunars hate Realm because it's usurped the First Age. It's also generally an evil and oppressive empire if you aren't a part of it and don't wish to become one. They don't hate "civilization", at least most of them. They hate the Empress and DBs and everything the Realm stands for. Creating hordes of barbarians and Threshold armies is just one of the methods they use to undermine their enemy.

Who cares what furries do?

Those who buy the books

Solars - returned God kings. Solars exalted into greatness. It remains to be seen whether they bring that greatness into creation or "make creation great again" (tm)
Dragon Blooded - you're pretty much spot on. Swing between the Realm Man's Burden, nobility who are actually noble, and coked out hedonists who want to find new and interesting ways to fuck the people of creation.
Abyssals - we currently do not know much about them in 3e but what we do know seems to counter the "everything has to die" angle. The "Chivalry of Death" from the 3e core seems to imply that the essence of death, whatever that is, spreads more effectively when there are people alive to be scared of it.
Infernals - their 2e interpretation is pretty kill in terms of bringing hell on creation. Seems like they now exist largely to spite creation. The Yozis cannot get out of Hell anymore and so they ride shotgun on Solar exaltations to live vicariously in creation.
Lunars - hate the realm for breaking the first age. Fuck the thieving rats, kill all dragons.
Sidereals - badass fate samurai, they are secret agents trying to hold Creation together and are probably the only ones with a good idea of how bad things actually are.
Alchemicals - don't even live in the setting. Their job is to save Robot World from his Space Cancer.

>Sidereals - badass fate samurai, they are secret agents trying to hold Creation together and are probably the only ones with a good idea of how bad things actually are.
>t. Carjack Ketchum

Was there Alchemical stuff in 1e?
If there was, which has more/better lore?

As in that or 2e.
Since 3e isn't a thing yet.

There was Alchemicals in 1E, but 2E did it better overall

For once, 2e did it better. 1e's Locust War stuff was pretty fucking dumb, on par with the Yozi's Reclamation in 2e, what with the Autochtonians somehow beating the Realm at naval combat despite there being only a single ocean (made of oil) in Autochthon in a very out-of-the-way area and other dumbassery. I'm not opposed to the idea of an Autochthonian Invasion, but as it was portrayed in 1e, it's pretty fucking dumb.

Haven't posted this here in a while...

Posting up Exalted: Blood and Fire for the new thread.

>Blood and Fire? What's that?
A rules hack for running Exalted using Cortex Plus Heroic, the same system as Marvel Heroic Roleplaying and Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying.

>Why should I use it?
Because it's loads simpler than the Storyteller system, with a greater narrative emphasis and a flexible power system that lets you create your own character however you want to.

>Are you trying to compete with Storyteller?
No, I'm just providing an alternative for people that like the setting but don't like the system.

>Is the game complete?
Basically. There are still occasional minor revisions happening, but the game is a complete system. You still need the Exalted setting books to understand the world, though.

>I don't understand thing.
Well, I'm in the general most of the time, so if you have a question, you can reply to this post. I'll probably get to it before the thread collapses.

I don't know Cortex Plus Heroic, Marvel Heroic Roleplay or Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying

I also hate Shadowrun syndrome - d10 edition

Why is this system better? Try selling it to me. You don't need to write a essay but try going for at least 5-10 sentences. What does this system provide?

Cortex Plus Heroic is a dice pool based resolution system where your dice flow from your narrative choices. Blood and Fire uses a particular hack of that system to push those narrative choices toward epic, high-powered fantasy action.

Your die size in a given category determines how good you are at that thing, so having a d6 means you're adequate but nothing special, while a d12 means you're among the best in the world. Most Exalted characters have stuff in the d8 and d10 range, with a few ways to get up to d12s in extreme circumstances or in specific things they're especially good at.

Most of the time, you'll be rolling a dice pool of four to six dice, but you can get up to 10-12 dice if you tilt everything in your favor really hard. You keep two of those and add them together for your "total," which determines success or failure. Then you pick another one, and the size of that determines the degree of your success or how well you ameliorate your failure. If you roll 1s on any of those dice, they're "opportunities," and the GM can give you an Essence point to add dice to his Doom Pool--his collection of dice that allow him to screw with the players--or he can spend Doom Dice to use villain powers that cue off rolling 1s.

Short version: It's a faster game than Storytell(er/ing), it rewards narrative choices, and it gives you a lot more room to customize your powers. If you like heavy tactical play or tons of charms, then it's not for you. If you want to cut through the heavy mechanics and play something quicker, lighter, and more story-driven, Blood and Fire might be your thing.

I know you didn't need an essay, but you kind of got one anyway. Regardless, take a look through the opening chapter of the book. It explains all of this stuff and hopefully sells it better than I can in one post worth of textwall.

I'll check it out. I like some aspects of Exalted but combat is not one of them. It is hard for a combat to be impactful and full of adrenaline when combat resolution is a sloth fest.

I hope you like it! I ran it for 18 months of a three-year campaign (first half was M&M3E, but it was giving us some trouble), and I'm currently in planning for another one.

So, does anybody know how the realm organizes it's army?

I see some terms like a dragon of soldiers but I still am not able to grasp the whole idea.

Legion has 5,000 soldiers.
Each dragon is 500. So legion has 10 dragons.
Each wing has 250 soldiers. Each dragon has 2 wings.
Each Talon has 125 soldiers. Each wing has 2 talons.
Each scale has 25 soldiers. Each talon has 5 scales.

The Imperial Army is divided up into Legions of 5,000 soldiers each, which are a mix of heavy and medium infantry. The battle order of a legion is divided up into 10 dragons of 500 soldiers each, which are further divided into wings of 250 each. A wing is broken up into two talons of 125 soldiers, and each wing is capable of deploying as five scales of 25 soldiers. A scale can be broken down into five-man teams called fangs.

In addition to the infantry, each legion has abbout 2,500 support troops of light infantry, skirmishers, slingers, archers, light and heavy cavalry, camp guards, engineers and sappers, and bodyguards for the legion's sorcerers and thaumaturges.

Over the course of imperial history, there have been as many as 81 legions, but during most of the Scarlet Empress' reign, it was around 35-40.

Solar motivation no.321.: Rehab the Unconquered Sun.

It was detailed more in books from earlier editions (2E had a much more bloated section on Mass Combat), but here's the summary:

A Fang is a single squad of soldiers, roughly 5-10 men. A Scale is roughly 10 fangs. Two Scales is a talon. Two Talons is a wing. Two wings make a Dragon. 5-10 Dragons make up a Legion.

Each legion has about 300 officers: its commanding general, 10 dragonlords, 20 winglords, 40 talon-captains and 200 fang- lieutenants, plus a subaltern for every officer holding the rank of winglord or higher. There are also 1,000 sergeants, each in charge of a fang. The Imperial Army’s high commanders would like for every legion to have all its officers be Dragon-Blooded, but in fact, this is impossible—the legions could commission every Exalt in the Realm and still need more officers. So the army makes do with what it can get. Each legion’s commanding general and her 10 dragonlords are always Dragon-Blooded, and these 11 senior officers become both the foundation and the leadership of the legion. From time to time, a legion may have as many as 50 or 60 Terrestrial Exalts in its ranks, but this is unusual.

Sidereals: Fix the bugs in reality, fight the enemies of Creation via subtle and often underhanded ways, bicker endlessly over what to do about the new Solars, file lots of paperwork in a cramped office in Heaven after a job.

Lunars: Bicker endlessly on whether to make nations equal to the Realm or just get rid of civilization altogether and go full RULES OF NATURE, fight the Realm in any case, protect what is yours, survive.

Alchemicals: Become glorious robot champion of socialist state, work hard and create wealth to share fairly with other workers, fight other states for resources, try and break into Creation to take THEIR resources, fight off Autochthon's sentient robot cancer, be sort of in a weird spot where you're either the least important thing in the base setting or one of the most important depending on whether or not the Seal of Autochthon is breached.

>Alchemicals: Become glorious robot champion of socialist state, work hard and create wealth to share fairly with other workers, fight other states for resources, try and break into Creation to take THEIR resources
Communism ho!

Communist Steampunk Aztecs, no less.

>Mfw I got to use Nine Aeons Thew last session

Is there any charm tree as fun as Athletics' feat of strength tree? All I have to say is "I'm gonna wreck it!" and I usually can.

If someone is suffering from disease while being a badass, and exalt, do they get cured?

"The Exaltation seeks hale hosts" is a general thing from EX2, so an Exaltation might just bypass someone who's on the verge of dying from a terrible illness. On the other hand, if you manage something awesome while suffering from leprosy, the Exaltation might just pick you anyway, which will cure you since most Exalted are immune to most mundane illnesses.

So if aging Pit Fighter is afraid that he is getting past his prime, and decides to attempt some ultimate-super-wrestling-gladiatorial stunt, with dozens of armed enemies, alligators, lions, lion-aligators, and more, does well and Suddenly exalts he can retain his young prowess and (much much) more.?

There are several canonical examples of older people getting Exaltations. While the Exaltation restores a lot of their youthful vigor, they still look old as balls. They might also not have as long a lifespan as a person who Exalted younger, but that's a difference of decades in a life that will last centuries or millennia, so it's barely an issue.

Doubt it. Although, Exalts can not die to mundane disease, and the mere fact that the person is now an Exalt makes it a lot more likely that they'll fight off the disease faster.

Are these like two new cannon characters or something?
They got an interesting backstory?

Those are actually just pictures from an artist named Tazio Bettin, who has done a lot of Exalted fanart and Exalted-like art for other games. I think he posts as Spacefriend-T on DeviantArt now.

Dont be retarded.

Ah... I see.
Well I feel foolish now.

Don't feel foolish! They definitely hit the Exalted style, which is sort of the point. Tazio has sort of fallen out of love with Exalted, apparently, though he's still doing similar designs for his own Mahabarata-inspired setting. I think the girl on the right is called Hanani, and she's apparently got a lot of backstory for his setting stuff. I'd recommend checking out his DevArt for more info.

Way to shitpost, fucker. Don't be an ass and assume everyone knows every piece of art from Exalted ever.

How does taking craft as your supernal work during character creation?

Say I want 3 craft abilities. Does taking one as supernal make them all supernal, or would I need to set the other two to caste/favorite?

You get all crafts as supernal, just like with other abilities like Martial Arts, Lore, etc

Anyone have a favorite location/Direction?
While I will always love the South, Wu Jian and Randan are just awesome.

Is it possible to cast Infallible Messenger to someone outside while hiding within Secure Den Prana? Or receive messages the same way? IOW, should the pocket dimension count as a "realm of existence" in full that messages cannot cross in or out of, or is it just a dimple in the fabric of Creation?

>it rewards narrative choices
>narrating gives you more dice to roll which gives you more 1s
>the GM can use those 1s to fuck with you or keep them to fuck with you in the future

>Using Craft
kek

I'm partial to the North, maybe because I like cold places and they remind me of home. Ascension is one of my favourite places but is too far out of the way for me to come up with a feasible character who is from there. The prison-city Fortitude seems like a good place for plot hooks and the first Ex3 character I came up with was from there, and both Grieve and Pneuma seem like great places for intrigue based campaigns.

Though not in the North, I also like Gem. My own pet theory is that a group of Sidereals up in Yu-Shan, all of the Chosen of Endings, have a betting pool to see who can bring Gem closest to destruction without actually destroying it, which is why it's always doomed.

I've always struggled to see the North as something more than white barbarians.

Anyone have any recommendations for Evocations you can use with Wood Dragon Claws or the Talisman of Ten Thousand Eyes?

A valid viewpoint. The majority of its landmass is inhospitable tundra and its main ethno-cultural inspiration is Celtic/Germanic barbarians. It doesn't help that the most prominent canon Solars is the Bull of the North of the Icewalker tribes.

What's your favourite direction and location?

Nothing concrete, but it'd be in theme to use poison. Start with one of the sample poisons on page 234, then make a charm braching off of that that saps motes instead of health and a third charm as a capstone that saps Willpower.

I'd say that with E3 they've added a lot of Chinese/Mongolian sort of feel to the place.... At least that is the interpretation I got when I read some of the new places like Ascension and Medo.
Fajad is the only truly odd place in the North.

>Seems like they now exist largely to spite creation. The Yozis cannot get out of Hell anymore and so they ride shotgun on Solar exaltations to live vicariously in creation.

I really hope they keep this concept for the final version.

I really hope we get at least 3 decent homebrew ports of original recipe infernals

alchemicals are running out of resources for their home, need to either pillage creation or colonize.

2e is better, 1e has locus war where they just pillage and colonize creation.(and 1e made it sound inevitable that they would show up to do this) it treated them like the aliens from independence day

2e has more options for how to use them

2e also has a lot of deprotagonizing Alchemicals in their own book, though (like the whole "curing Autochthon's illness is beyond the Alchemicals because it's beyond Autochthon, so you need Solar sorcerors for that" bullshit, when "do the things their patron is unable to do" is the whole goddamn point of the Exalted in the first place).

1e also had three separate chapters dedicated to possible stories with the Autochthonians, and the Locust Crusade was only one of the three presented options.

2e spends a lot of time establishing Autochthonia as this cool setting, and then a lot of time talking about how encountering and interacting with Creation will inevitably render Autochthonia unrecognizable from how it's described in the books, and then yet more time explaining how Autochthon is going to die in the next year or two and making said contact with Creation is the only way to save him because even in other splats' books Solars need to be the heroes.

I'm not sure why they spent all that wordcount hyping up Autochthonia, given that.

Hmm... making interacting with Creation necessary seems reasonable, since this IS Exalted after all and having one of the splats be in a totally different universe would be dumb. But having Solars invalidate the whole thing? That's fucking retarded.

When's the stupid Sidereal book coming out? IMO exalted is no fun unless you're serving subpoenas to sentient bears and punching people into ducks.

Whoever wrote those sections seemed convinced that "making crossover possible" necessarily meant "making Solars the REAL protagonists in this book specifically about playing a splat that isn't Solars".

>making interacting with Creation necessary seems reasonable, since this IS Exalted after all and having one of the splats be in a totally different universe would be dumb.
I disagree, but I find Autochthonia way more interesting than Creation in the first place. Enabling bringing Autochthonians into Creation (and vice versa) is fine, but building Autochthonia as a closed off setting and then A) making crossover necessary and especially B) making said crossover completely invalidate all the written material about how Autochthonia and its societies work is completely asinine.

I mean, it's easy enough to ignore the "Autochthon has been slowly dying ever since he went to sleep" or at the very least the "there's no way to stop him dying without reconnecting with Creation" for my own games, but the fact that they wrote it this way in the official canon is dumb.

Especially considering how... passionate I've seen people get about not deviating from the official canon in White Wolf games, Exalted especially.

oh yeah...I just ignore that part I guess, so forgot it was in there

solar cock must be sucked!

Why even write books about getting to play not-Solars if you're going to make Solars into the real heroes IN THOSE BOOKS?

I never really got why the highest tier of Sorcery was Solar-only: it never really seemed in theme(other than the theme of "being mary sue"). I feel like it should go Mortal-Terrestrial-Celestial rather than Terrestrial(and also mortals lol DB's cant beat FUCKING MORTALS at magic)-Celestial-Solar

>I feel like it should go Mortal-Terrestrial-Celestial rather than Terrestrial(and also mortals lol DB's cant beat FUCKING MORTALS at magic)-Celestial-Solar
I agree with you, but then I'm one of those heretics who thinks all Celestials should be basically equivalent in power by virtue of being Celestials, rather than Solars and used-to-be-Solars getting their own top power tier all to themselves.

Solars can have a niche that isn't "THE BEST" or "PERFECTION". It would actively improve them as a splat if a good niche were picked, even.

Isn't Thaumaturgy basically "mortal sorcery"?

Thaumaturgy is a cop out so that you can sprinkle in shamanistic old wise men in possession of plot coupons without raising the question of said minor characters being fully initiated sorcerers. Mortals can still be initiated into 1st circle sorcery proper.

>Aztecs
Wait what

>Mortals can still be initiated into 1st circle sorcery proper.

This reminds me that WW/OP have some of the *worst* namespacing decisions and editors across the board.

In 2e, "mortals" are defined IC as people who can't spend motes. Someone initiated into sorcery ceases to be a mortal.

In 3e, Solars are "mortals". Mortals with great potential and ambition, but repeatedly referred to as mortals nonetheless.

>In 3e, Solars are "mortals". Mortals with great potential and ambition, but repeatedly referred to as mortals nonetheless.
Are "mortals" in 3e defined as "anyone with a naturally finite lifespan"? Or "anyone who was originally a normal human (or close enough) that can't spend motes"?

In 3e there isn't a technical definition like there was in 2e (at least not that I've seen), it just throws the word "mortal" about with reckless abandon. Solars are mortal champions of the gods; also, Solars are much greater than the mortals they "once were".

I thought mortal sorcerers were Heroic Mortals by default? but yeah definitions are a little borked.

It fits in with the backstory; the Solars were the greatest craftsmen and miracle-workers of their time, and now that they're gone, their magics and mechanisms fail without their hands to maintain them. It's not as interesting to hear about a Solar sorcerer if he can't do anything a Sidereal or Lunar could not do.

Also, keep in mind that while a Dragon-blood can only cast the same spells a mortal sorcerer can, the Dragon-blood is far, far better at it than the mortal by virtue of their Excellency alone, not to mention any other Charms, and can get access to it far easier and cheaper via virtue of only having to pay for a single charm instead of a 5 dot merit.

Here, look at the kind of fuckup they got into by skimping on proofreader in favor of just a spellchecker.

>It's not as interesting to hear about a Solar sorcerer if he can't do anything a Sidereal or Lunar could not do.
This doesn't necessitate that he be BETTER than Sidereals or Lunars, just that they each have their own niches that the others can't replicate.

So... uh... Abyssals are gods?

looking at ghost charms, feeding the lamprey's appetite seems pointless. it's a dead end charm that doesn't lead to anything, who's effect is also handled by blood-drinking thirst. only difference is it has one less prerequisite. seems like this is better handled by removing blood drinking thirst, and adding "if the ghost has 'ravening life-force hunger' this charm can also absorb motes drained from living beings"
or by making it a second purchase or something. I don't really get why it's done this way ,seems like sloppy editing or am I missing something?

yep. you don't see it as much in 2e art, but 1e has feathers and snakes and all that. also the language.

So what is the Sidereal version of the Great Curse again? I know Solars do whatever is the worst possible thing they could possibly do at that moment, Lunars do similarly to Solars but can keep themselves in check a bit, and Dragon-bloods only freak out when they run out of Willpower and even then it's over pretty quickly and can be partially controlled.

They already do have niches that the others can't replicate. Lunars can shapeshift and Sidereals are fate masters. If your complaint is that a *given* solar can probably beat a *given* other celestial in an ability they are both equally invested in, then that is a setting conceit and has been since day 1. This isn't DnD and the game doesn't sell you the false promise that every "class" is equal.

Anyway, the complaints about Solars seem to be rooted in 2e where the gap in power between them and the other celestials was too large, and that is changing in 3e. Since, uh, the 2e Lunars books and 2e siddy books were garbage.

Also niche protection seems more important between PLAYERS in a game rather than between splats. This is personal experience but in the 3e game I am in, there have been hurt feelings over one player buying charms in an ability another player feels is "theirs." This has happened multiple times.

>If your complaint is that a *given* solar can probably beat a *given* other celestial in an ability they are both equally invested in, then that is a setting conceit and has been since day 1. This isn't DnD and the game doesn't sell you the false promise that every "class" is equal.
My complaint is that "everyone but Solars is useless" is fucking boring, more than anything else. In this particular case the topic was Solars getting a Sorcery rank all to themselves, while Terrestrials had to share theirs with Mortals. It's clunky.

solar cock must be sucked. they're the bad marysue splat, that's their thing, if they can't be the very bestest at all the things all at once then what's the point? ;)

I've seen too many people make that argument genuinely.

The key difference is mortals have to buy a 5 dot merit to learn sorcery and always have to spend full price on spells if I remember correctly but DBs get sorcery as a charm and get discounts for occult being aspect or favored.

So while they both use the same spells, terrestrial exalts have a much easier time with it.

>My complaint is that "everyone but Solars is useless"

The literal only thing Solars can do that other splats can't is cast Solar Circle Spells.

Everyone else can access every level of Workings, and even DBs can access Solar-2 Workings or lower.

Nevermind that it's, you know, entirely possible (as demonstrated by the antag Charms) that other Exalts might get Charms to boost their Sorcery, which Solars are very visibly lacking.

"Solars get a high tier of Sorcery all to themselves, Lunars get to do shit like cast a spell fucking reflexively" seems reasonable to me.

3e Dragon King solo game or nothing.

Not ERP guy but, what would you want it to focus on? I don't know much about what a dragon kings game would look like.

what are the effects of having a grace forged for you?

Okay but that is not true?

>The literal only thing Solars can do that other splats can't is cast Solar Circle Spells.
Well, that and have intrinsic access to Mastery effects in Martial Arts.

You can take raksha charms that have that grace as a prerequisite as well as raksha charms for the heart grace up to heart 3.
Getting a staff grace is best because you can get the other 3 with it.
If your grace is a feeding grace you can also eat virtues as well.
Oh and you can do things in shaping combat that aren't fold and let it happen.
Furthermore (unless I'm remembering wrong) if you can manage to get a grace spell you can actually attune to it and use it.
Making them yourself is probably way out of your league though.

Drawbacks include being feared by anyone who knows you can do fae stuff, and potentially going a bit nuts from having your virtue hammered into a physical state.

>All I have to say is "I'm gonna wreck it!"
Just being a solar lets you wreck everything in the long term anyway.