Exalted General - /exg/

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Thanks user, hope they won't fuck up Shintai

Might as well post the rest.

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Last one.

If you want to play Final Fantasy, you need to give Anima Prime a try. It really emulates the genre really well, more than Exalted IMHO...

Hey guys, what kind of Exalted game are you playing?
I've read the Core book, but I fail to imagine what kind of game I could be running. What kind of power level should I be expecting from freshly created PCs? What kind of challenges should they meet at first?
I love the flavor and color of that game, but I'm somehow terrified by it ^^

As stated in , the powerlevel starts high and gets higher. Mortals are unlikly to be a threat unless there's an army of them, and players are generally expected to succeed at whatever they put their minds to. It's important not to fall into the mindset of "but I need to challenge my players" but instead give them consequences for their actions. If the players defeat a powerful demon, who hears about it? Downtrodden humans who wish to reward the players? Neighbouring gods who now see the players as a threat to their power? Scheming opportunists who wish to manipulate the players to their own ends? Rival beings looking to test their strength against your players?

What if your players slay a king? What happens to the local politics? Will this create a power vacuum? A succession crisis? Will the players usurp the throne? What will neighbouring kings and governors think? You get the idea.

I am about to begin running a game in the Scavenger Lands, the players are beginning as mortals. The focus of the game is mainly around Great Forks but the story is going to be focused specifically on the players and dealing with their struggles and backgrounds, but there'll be some external events taking place.

>what kind of Exalted game are you playing?
None, sadly.

I'm not very experienced with third edition, but from past games, starting Exalted are powerful, but not so much they can effortlessly roll over any threats you throw at them. Personally, I'd start off a campaign by having players face a challenge that mostly involves mortals, maybe with a few supernatural beings as major players or support during significant encounters. For example, a new friend of the PCs is chosen to be a village's yearly sacrifice to a corrupt local spirit, and if they want to save their ally they'll need to deal with resistance from the villagers and the god's wrath when their tradition is being threatened. You could even have all the NPCs be mortals, really; I think a Seven Samurai type of story could work for a first adventure, where the PCs are travelers who have to protect a peasant village from bandits.

Exalted tend to be very good at what they do, so these challenges might not end up being a real threat to them, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Especially if the game is just starting, and more so if you're new to Exalted, it's good to let the players test their powers and see how strong they are compared to an average person. You can always throw greater challenges at them as the game goes on and you get a feel for balancing things, but a big part of Exalted's appeal is in being a mythic hero with the potential to change the world. Challenge makes games tense and exciting, but as said, sometimes the consequences of having and using that power are more interesting than whether it will be enough to succeed.

Being terrified of the game is understandable, though, considering how huge it is. The best advice I can offer is to not worry too much about the details, learn the basics, let your group know you're new to this, and jump right in. It can be a lot easier to play than it looks, and experience is the best way to learn.

I'm currently running one for my campus club and it's going well so far. This is 1e and my party is a Mixed Circle--I have 2 Solars, 2 Lunars, and 1 Dragonblooded.

Because there are so many factions and groups and politics going on in the setting, there's a shit ton of hooks and threats to a party. A friend who I was pitching Exalted to had a hard time narrowing down themes because the setting is just a melting pot of everything fantasy. I'd suggest narrowing these groups to ones that interest the players. In my game, the main antagonist is a Deathlord who is working with a DB Great House. My players all have ties to at least one of these factions/threats.

I haven't even brought in other Houses, Sidereal factions, spirits, other Deathlords, Fey/Wyld, or other nations really. My PCs who are more geared against the Scarlet Empire have brought up the idea of attacking them, but the other PCs gave a mixed response.

If we continue beyond the Deathlord villain I have now, I'll introduce other DL's and I plan on getting the Bull of the North involved as a possible villain/foil to the characters.

>Freshly exalted solar
>Wyld Hunt closing in on one side
>Deathknight missionaries on the other
>One very angry looking owl glaring at me from the treetops

Spend all that Bp into Dex and Athletics

Does anyone know where the rules for making god-blooded, fae-blooded, whatever-blooded characters are? I couldn't find them in scroll of heroes...

Ok, I think I got the idea: I should create a sandbox settings with factions and threats and let them loose and play to see what happens...
Not sure it makes me feel more confident but I can see how that could work, thanks!

Sounds nice, care to share some details?

I see! I shouldn't care that much about challenges and just let them have fun, at least in the beginning. This will make me get a better grasp of what they can do, and craft better encounters afterwards... That's great advice thank you!

Sounds nice too! How did your players justify the existence of that mixed group?

Here is the kind of game I had in mind before reading all your great answers: I wanted to make a game where freshly exalted solars would be hunted by a group of DB and need to be on a contant run. They would eventually learn about what they are with the help of a Sidereal from the Gold faction.
I would then have brought some DeathLord to shake things up and make the DB ask for the Solars help...

But I now realize that it's way too linear and scripted for beings so powerful: I have to look for other ideas to create a sandbox with existing factions and conflicts and see how a group of Solars would change the status quo ...
Sounds like a ton of work!!
Is there material around to help me in that regard?

Thx!

A point to note about power levels, at least in my experience it feels very odd if the party keeps coming across things that can challenge them in their specialty. Solars are one of the most powerful beings in Creation, especially in their Supernal, and having constant threat in their wheelhouse makes the world seem very odd. Things shouldn't level up with the group in a D&D type way.

There will come threats that can match the Solar in might, but they shouldn't just happen to be where they are, there should be some lead up or, in many cases, the Solars should be specifically going after people or things that are threatening.

Unless the Dawn is looking for a challenging fight, most things are probably gonna roll over. If something does come the Dawn's way that is equal, like a Wyld Hunt, that shit doesn't just come out of no where.

Sandbox games can be more work (at least I imagine so; I've never tried to run a proper one), but I don't think Exalted necessarily has to be run like that. It always pays to give players some freedom and prepared for the unexpected, but I think a well planned and structured adventure can work in any system. Most Exalted games I've seen have been that way, actually: the GM lays out the story and gives the players a goal, either short term (save the village, overthrow a corrupt ruler, escape the Wyld Hunt) or long term (defeat a Deathlord, protect a mysterious artifact while searching for clues to its identity, win a war against a powerful nation), and the players work towards that goal by following the leads the GM sets out for them.

Exalted are powerful, but in my experience, the threat of the Scarlet Empire makes it easy to encourage players to lay low. You CAN run a game about gathering support and overthrowing the Dragon-Blooded, of course, but you don't have to. It can be just as much fun to have the players travel the world to stop a world-threatening scheme without attracting too much attention, or hunt dangerous monsters and bargain for support with half-human tribes and Fair Folk courts at the edge of Creation.

Sandbox games can be hard to do well, but you can give your players and guide the game along without them feeling like you're restricting their freedom. Honestly, as nice as it sounds, absolute freedom can be overwhelming for a lot of groups. Plot hooks, goals, and leads towards them are what drive a game, and not all players are good at coming up with their own. Just don't get too attached to your plans; guide the players towards ways they can achieve their objective, but remember that they might surprise you at any time, and let them be creative in how they approach things.

>Sounds nice, care to share some details?
The gods ruling Great Forks are going to be assassinated in an Abyssal, creating a power vacuum that several factions are going to advance on, including the Realm, some neighboring settlements, and the Walker's Domain. Meanwhile the players are dealing with their own problems - one player is a ninja and he studied martial arts at a monastery under a sifu who will be, early in the game, attacked by a Wyld Hunt that broke his arms and legs as an insult in front of his students, so a quest for vengeance may come of that. Another player is a local warlord who is going to be pressured into a political marriage as opposing powers encroach on them, and has to struggle with the decision despite having a love intimacy toward someone with no political power in their clan. Some other stuff is going on too, lots of refugees are flooding the area due to the Mask of Winters attacking Thorns and people wanting to get away from that region, and they've been so problematic for cities like Nexus and Great Forks that they're starting to be barred from entering, ergo they'll be causing a lot of trouble for the players as they flood the region their holdings are in.

I'm also a player in a game that takes place in Sijan, my circle was there for a variety of reasons and we each Exalted separately, and then a series of events led to the ruling body being forced to step down/dying, so we took the city in a sort of coup and now we're ruling it, and we're currently sheltering a non-violent Deathlord named the Coming of the Storm who is apparently not well-liked by the Neverborn or her peers. Her presence has caused an incredible amount of animosity from the other cities in the region (but we owe her a debt so we're not in a hurry to evict her). During a diplomatic summit that our city was convinced to host, we accidentally got sucked into the Underworld so right now we're trying to find our way out.

Thanks for the link on these user.

This is what you get for not keeping your Lunar sexually satisfied for two incarnations.

It's her own fault for not taking what she wants from the newb Solar and making him like it.

Is the author of Blood and Fire here?

Saw this in the forums and thought I'd ask here. What re shields and heavy weapons good for? Heavy weapons don't seem to be of any use outside of fighting soak monsters, and shields don't seem worth getting at all. Is there any point to them?

>Is there any point to them?
Not really.
You're pretty on point with heavy weapons and shields don't really fit into most of the exalted aesthetic. They do provide a small benefit but that's about it.

I'm giving the stupid answer of fun, I dunno something about a grand goremaul just hits a nice cord in me

Considering they do so much damage, would it be worth it to spam decisive with them, such as using a melee counterattack build?

Honestly I dunno. I'm mostly a ST and as such I try to use decisives either too-early as to not one-shot my players or too late / not at all.

>spam decisive
What am I missing?

Make a decisive attack every turn, regardless of your initiative, probably made easier by having some sort of counterattack build. Accuracy doesn't factor in weapon accuracy, which is the worst stat of heavy weapons.

On the OPP forums someone did the solar charmaet cutting out the dice tricks

No link though. May be best to wait for exigents or dbs

Right, but decisive attacks also don't do anyting with weapon damage, so why would spamming decisives with heavy weapons be any different from spamming them with light or medium weapons?

My mistake, I was reading the rules wrong. Look like heavies really are only good against soak monsters. What a shame.

They're in scroll of heroes.

They're really bad though.

Heavy weapons give no bonuses to decisive attacks.

Clash attacks they do. Plus they get a +2 bonus for it which people overlook

A nice consolation, but it only brings them up to par with single medium weapons.

I'm recruiting for a ERP campaign. I just have two slots available. Who's up? Post Discord or Skype here.

Haven´t been here in a while and I´m prepared for disappointment. Are there still no news for new books? I think the dragonblooded one was next.

The list goes, Arms>Realm>DBs in that order. Arms is in the development stage while the other two are in the second draft stage.

Thanks, I quess. That´s at least good to hear.

What time and day would it run? I'd be interested but it can be hard to actually find time for games these days.

Anytime, any day.

meant for you

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...Author here. Didn't post it this time. Huh. But I'm in the thread so I can answer questions, I suppose.

What is a PP?
How would I model my character having the backing of an empire?

PP are the narrative currency of Cortex Plus. In Blood & Fire, they're called "Motes." You can spend them to add extra dice to your pool, keep extra dice for your result, activate your powers, or respond to openings in your opponents' defenses.

What kind of backing? Military? Financial? Depending on the scale involved, I would just represent that by having appropriate Specialties and Distinctions, and using Motes to build resources of the appropriate sort. For larger-scale aid, like getting expendable soldiers to travel with you, performing big military interventions, or things like that, I'd use Unlockables tailored to the character.

All sorts of backing. The character is an empress.

Check page 67, the Unlockable "To Sit Upon a Throne" for an example of how that might work. At the very least, if being an empress is a big part of the character, I'd recommend it being part of her Concept/Caste Distinction.

If my character wants a skyship, what would that count as?

I'd purchase a skyship as an Unlockable as well, probably one that had to be renewed for each story arc. On the other hand, the playtest game I ran of this for almost two years featured a PC with a warstrider because that was just part of his concept. If a thing is integral to a character concept, let them have it; if it's peripheral, make them pay for it with XP.

I'm working on skyship stats in the sourcebook I'm putting together right now, actually.

Mechanically, how would the skyship be? What about that sourcebook? When is it coming out?

Here are my initial notes on a large skyship as an enemy. For a PC-owned one, the character piloting it would use the skyship's Threat and powers, along with his own Distinctions and Specialties, like piloting a warstrider. Most of the SFX listed here would use Motes instead of doom dice.

Command Skyreme
Large Scale Threat 4d10
Distinctions: Airship Command Center; Gigantic and Graceless
Specialties: Ranged Combat d8, Vehicles d8
First Age Airship: Durability d10, Essence Blast d10, Flight d10, Senses d10
•SFX: Command and Control. While Command Skyreme is present in a scene, all other vehicles whose pilots are in communication with Command Skyreme may spend a doom die to reroll a reaction, adding Skyreme’s Senses trait.
•SFX: Direct Orders. Spend a doom die to recover emotional or mental stress for an allied character or team.
•SFX: Essence Shielding. Step up or double Durability in a reaction roll against an attack that would inflict physical stress, or spend a doom die to do both. If the effect die equals or exceeds Durability, shutdown this SFX. Recover by spending a doom die.
•SFX: Focus Fire. Step up or double Essence Blast against a single target. Remove the highest rolling die and keep three dice for the total.
•SFX: Massive Skyship. Spend a doom die to ignore physical stress unless inflicted by a Large Scale Threat.
•Limit: Damaged Systems. Shutdown any Command Skyreme power to add d6 to the doom pool. Recover power by spending a doom die.
•Limit: Limited Targeting. Essence Blast can only be used in a dice pool targeting a Large Scale Threat.

This vast First Age skyship is a command and control vessel for aerial navies. From its decks, an Exalted commander can give orders to his followers, as well as provide artillery support from the ship’s array of essence-powered weaponry. The skyreme has difficulty targeting its weapons against small or fast-moving targets, instead relying on its crew and fighter complement to protect it.

To your second question: no idea. I'm running an Exalted game right now, so I've got motivation to be working on it again.

Where does the book speak of Complications? The formatting is a complete mess my man

Page 17, "Stress and Complications."

How do area attacks work? How do attacking multiple targets work?

So I found the AP podcast Swallows of the South which has me interesting in getting back into Exalted after having some bad times playing 2e. What would you say are the big changes I should be aware of comapred to the previous version? Is it worth it, for one thing?

Almost every detail is different. Biggest change is combat is now Dissidia instead of whatever mess 2e was. Get the core book from the OP and read through it.

This is discussed in the Area Attack SFX. Essentially, you have to use an attack that could narratively hit multiple people. (i.e., "I do a big sword spin that strikes everyone near me.")

If you don't have the SFX, you make your roll with all of your potential targets rolling reactions. For each target past the first, you pay a Mote to keep an extra effect die (e.g., the "keep an extra effect die" function of Motes). Anyone who you beat with your action, you can choose to keep an effect die for at the cost of 1 Mote each.

The SFX lets you pay 1 Mote in advance, but you add an extra d6 to your pool for every target past the first and keep extra effect dice past the first *for free*. That SFX represents an attack that's *intended* to hit a big area (like Iron Whirlwind or a fireball) instead of you just working extra hard to hit a bunch of people at once without any special training.

The NPC version of it just lets them do the "extra d6 per extra target, keep extra effect dice per target" thing without a cost, since it's assumed that NPCs can *only* do that sort of thing if they have an attack that specifically lets them do it.

But is it any good in your opinion? Are the changes improvements? Is it worth it to have another stab at?

Different guy, while I did suffer through playing 2e by knowing most of the potholes, 3e is much more enjoyable to play. There are still problems, every system has them, but in general the system works and is quite fun.

Another different guy, personally I'd consider the social system of 3E particularly nice. Not perfect, but something 3E does better than most RPGs.

Yeah, it's probably the most drastic positive change from 2e to 3e.

I'd say the core book here is an improvement over the core book of 2. But I came into 2e with almost every supplement already out, about a year before 2.5e. I had virtually every book available already. 3e has only the core book, so it feels very small compared to the library of 2e material. For example, there are only a handful of spells, demons, and spirits. All the rest has to be homebrewed.
3e puts a lot of emphasis on homebrew. You're supposed to come up with Evocation Charm trees with your ST for any of your major combat artifacts, and if you're an Exigent then your whole ability scheme is homebrewed.
It wouldn't hurt to try Exalted out again. That said, the devs are very...childish in how they're doing it. There are many basic rules questions that they refuse to answer because they have a fear of issuing out errata, even when it's needed. This means you can expect your players and ST to argue different things work in different ways (like how Hammer on Iron works or what happens when you Clash a magical flurry). I don't think a clear and easily solvable problem that results in your consumers arguing is a good thing, but the devs clearly do.

>like how Hammer on Iron works or what happens when you Clash a magical flurry

I consider myself fairly experienced with 3e at this point, and even so I still have NO idea how this would resolve.

Clashing all attacks maybe, but good lord the dice.

Yeah, having each attack Clash until one side runs out of attacks seems to be the most logical way to me to do it.

But yeah, the dice would be crazy, but seriously, since when has "BUT THINK OF THE DICE" come into the thought process for Exalted? Looking at Craft with all it's ridiculous rerolling, counting successes nonsense.

>captcha SOLARIS

Appropriate.

I'd probably make sure the initiative was split at least evenly as possible between all the clashes for the person doing the clashing at least.

For dual-wielding, of course.
youtube.com/watch?v=oXp8Th41rBs

Depends on the multiattack Charm, certain ones split the Initiative, others let you choose.

Bump

With multiattacks, you clash the first one and defend against the rest.

Pls R8 my Exalted OST, thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=Kss0Wbc6hCA

youtube.com/watch?v=veZakE7iU0Q

youtube.com/watch?v=x1vqWVXnHJs

youtube.com/watch?v=R_t0ZET-hHQ

youtube.com/watch?v=SAPAgRR-ljI

youtube.com/watch?v=CVBpAikvnHk

youtube.com/watch?v=Z6G3rokNkuQ

youtube.com/watch?v=6WVAdT27MdE

youtube.com/watch?v=52ltrU5Xd84

youtube.com/watch?v=iuimwzEKq3g&index=10&list=PLEF555A0E1EB18FB6

Add some Dofus
youtube.com/watch?v=J2yI8Ir1y6A

Did the lore in 3e change it so there is also 1 lunar for every sidereal?

I've got two players who both swear that's the case.

Not so far anyway. The only thing that's certain right now is that the numbers of Solars and Lunars isn't quite set anymore. There are "around 300" Solars and "more than 400" Lunars. Maybe they got it in their heads that the extra Lunars are mates for Sidereals? But there's nothing that implies that as far as I'm aware.

How would you define Sidereal Martial Arts to someone who isn't familiar with them, or with Exalted for that matter?

Part of the decision was to make it more flexible. Another part was that Lunars and Solars are no longer this 1:1 bond thing, and making the numbers different also helps that.

If you're butthurt about it, go back to having 300 of each and you're good, and nothing will change, because despite that 100+ extra Exaltations seeming like a big difference, your choice of arbitrary number will not effect your ability to use the books in any way unless you decide there can only be like 5 lunars.

Martial arts train your body to fight to fight other bodies. Sidereal martial arts train your soul to fight reality.

Dude, did I imply anywhere that I didn't like the change? I actually appreciate the vaguer numbers, since it's more in line with the early 1E stuff and makes it a lot more flexible.

Like this:

Regular Martial Arts lets you punch a wooden board in half and jump a hurdle.

Terrestrial Martial Arts lets you punch a tree in half and jump a house.

Celestial Martial Arts lets you punch a fortress wall in half and jump mountains.

Sidereal Martial Arts lets you punch souls in half and jump dimensions.

you treat a shield like a weapon rather than a point of defense. on some captain america shit. don't see nothin' wrong with that, considering it uses Melee just like your presumably one-handed sword would.

>SMT4A, Bombay Royale, JJBA Part 3, The Good the Bad the Weird, Jago theme, NieR

did you steal my south game soundtrack?

I think you're overreacting to the word butthurt, I was aiming that at the hypothetical whiner in the room, not at you.

Fair enough.

A few of these songs were shared on the thread before, so, I might actually have!

i always assumed the 400-some lunars to 300 solars was to match that so many souls were stolen to make abyssals and infernals too? but basic addition makes me retarded so

>"Oramus, the Dragon Beyond the World, and Isidoros, the Black Boar That Twists the Sky both tried to make their own Exalted, and the Yozis were disquieted by the results"
>Oramus making Exalted
I am horrified and fascinated by what could have come from this, but also confused. I thought Oramus was caught in his own wings and couldn't do anything.

What's the punishment for infidelity in the Realm?

Lilith becomes even angrier at you.

Probably nothing as long as you keep it to slaves and concubines, and you don't make it too public. If you're publicly cheating on your spouse with the spouse of another ranking person, then it's probably much more of a big deal. Like, "your houses go to war over this" big deal.