>What is Exalted? An epic high-flying role-playing game about reborn god-heroes in a world that turned on them. Start here: theonyxpath.com/category/worlds/exalted/
>That sounds cool, how can I get into it? Read the 3e core book (link below). For the basics of combat, read this tutorial. It'll get you familiar with most of the mechanics. forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?769761-Exalted-3E-Combat-301.
>How do I find a group? Roll20 and the Game Finder General here on Veeky Forums. With the new edition, though, chances are more games will crop up.
>What's with the slow release schedule? Onyx Path is run by raksha who have only a vague concept of human time. Expect Sidereals in 2020.
We haven't had one of these in a while. Today's topic is, in light of the Holidays, Calibration. Tell me about Calibration, any cool things you did with it, any special plotpoints involving it in your games?
All love confessions happen during Calibration in my games. I think that's all I've used it for.
Elijah Morris
Interesting. Are love confessions such a common thing in your games?
Zachary Roberts
Of course they are. You can't have a proper game without dramatic declarations. Nothing sweeter than seeing your Dawn mumble and blush when the local Abyssal does his best to present his honest feelings.
They get lewd very often
Colton Martinez
If the players are new to the setting, I always set games during Calibration, with some shit going down in the process (like demons, deathknights, or some other catastrophe) to give them an excuse to Exalt.
Ryan Cox
So I recently came across a couple questions regarding Instill and Resisting Instill. Maybe someone here can help me.
On page 215 and 216 the uses of Instill are listed.
-Create a new Minor Intimacy -Strengthen a Minor Intimacy or weakening a Major Intimacy (requires a different Minor Intimacy or stronger) -Strengthen a Major Intimacy or weakening a Defining Intimacy
Now there's one thing abscent from this list, I'm assuming on purpose but I want to make sure: There's no option to weaken a Minor Intimacy.
This is in contrast to a line on page 171 that reads: "Intimacies can be degraded by one level or removed entirely (if Minor) by the social influence of other characters (p. 215)"
So I'm wondering which of these is supposed to be correct. Should Instill be able to remove Minor Intimacies? Should there be some other option besides Instill to remove Minor Intimacies or should it be impossible to remove Minor Intimacies?
There's another thing about Instill (or rather resisting it) that I found curious.
Resisting Instill: On page 218 and 219 we find the rules for resisting influence rolls by spending willpower after a characters Resolve is overcome. On page 219 there's a list of what you can achieve by spending a point of Willpower:
-Stop a new Intimacy from being created. -Stop a Major or Defining Intimacy from being weakened. -Reject a successful inspire action.
Here, two questions arise: Can you spend Willpower to stop a new Intimacy from being created even if that Intimacy is being created at Major or Defining strength (through the use of charms or other abilities)?
Is it correct that you can not spend willpower to stop an Intimacy from being strenghened?
Adrian Sullivan
I see no real reason for such asymmetries, so I've ruled that you can spend wp to resist all changes to Intimacies and can use Instill to remove minor Intimacies.
That's how my ST runs it as well, I assume it's the intended way.
Jack Stewart
Yeah, that whad I'd assume as well. Wouldn't be the first instance of sloppy editing / proof-reading by Onyx Path.
John Gonzalez
Instill should remove minor intimacies, and willpower should prevent any new intimacy from being created and/or strengthened.
Gavin Hall
There are only a handful of cases where you can't use willpower to stop an intimacy from being changed, either up or down. Flowing Mind Prana is the only example I can think of.
Be aware, though, that decaying a Major or Defining Intimacy causes you to roll for limit, even if it's an unwanted intimacy that you're decaying on your own.
Luke Gray
>Be aware, though, that decaying a Major or Defining Intimacy causes you to roll for limit, even if it's an unwanted intimacy that you're decaying on your own.
Really? Where does it say that?
Jace Martin
It really only applies if the characters themselves oppose their own intimacies, not if someone else weakens them for you. Here's the full passage.
Once per scene, when a character acts in a way that opposes one of his Major Intimacies, his player rolls a single die, gaining one point of Limit for each success (unless he’s already rolled for acting against a Defining Intimacy; see below). Note that weakening an Intimacy always counts as opposing it, as does spending Willpow- er to resist an influence roll supported by that Intimacy.
Jaxon Butler
pg 134, first bullet point.
As long as you stay in character, decaying intimacies or paying willpower to refuse influence that exploited a big intimacy are the only ways to actually gain limit other than your trigger. Unless you've got conflicting intimacies, of course, and are put into a situation where you have to oppose one or the other. That makes limit a lot harder to acquire than in previous editions, which is a good thing.
Gavin Robinson
Again though, that really only refers to a player deliberately decaying their own intimacies, rather than another character weakening them
Jason Howard
So any general tips for a new GM starting an exalted campaign, I am starting the players out as mortals to introduce them to the system and setting. I have looked at the guide that's been posted here several times but was wondering what advice you might have in addition to that, PCs so far are the ruler of a powerful city state and the guilds lead merchant to the region ( An-Teng).
Austin Miller
If they are rulers in An-Teng, then their relationship with the Dragonblooded is very important. What is their opinion of the Dynasty? What sort of person is the local Satrap, or the commander of the Legion? How stable is the political situation? What are the players' opinions on the Immaculate Order?
Nathaniel Perry
The local satrap is a very devout member of the immaculate order. Currently the political situation is in turmoil, I am basing it off of Italy during the Italian wars, one of the rulers of the various city states called in the aid of one of the Major houses of the realm in order to gain assistance against the threat of a powerful southern principality. This Dragon Blooded house then lay claim to the entire principality and called in the aid of another house to help secure its position. The two houses are now manuverong to gain total control over the southern principality and then the entire region in preparation for the civil war that appears to be approaching in the realm. Meanwhile most of the other city states are making plays for power and are attempting to unite An-Teng but each wants to be the one in charge when the dust settles.
Owen Young
Sounds like you've got a good situation. Just think of how the PCs might get involved and you should be good.
Isaiah Hill
Ignore this
Isaiah Carter
And why should we do that?
Brandon Lewis
Please ignore that.
Elijah Taylor
Is there anything like a modern exalted setting?
Carson Robinson
Yes, my dude. Check out Shards of the Exalted. There's one for Modern Earth and Modern Creation.
Caleb Hill
Is this Roadie's revisions for Ex3 or what
Connor Martin
Is there any reason at all to use shields or heavy weapons? The latter seems okay for low defence, high soak characters, but the former seems to be only good for flavour.
Jace Cooper
Just from skimming it, I already see a bunch of questionable decisions and unnecessary changes.
Brody Edwards
Generally, light weapons are better because what they lose in damage, they make up for in accuracy (which translates to damage, along with a greater ability to hit) and medium weapons, which have better defense.
Heavy weapons do get a +2 bonus to clash attacks and all heavy weapons benefit from more tags than light or medium weapons, with the exception of whips.
Kayden Scott
Artifact shields usually give you a better justification for defensive evocations that most artifact swords and so on couldn't really do.
Useful if you don't want to use artifact armour for some reason.
Evan Rogers
The extra tags are Reaching and Two Handed, the latter is good if you're fighting against a horserider, and the latter is what grants +2 dice in a clash, a concession due to being unable to dual wield.
I guess it'll come down to what's available in Arms of the Chosen. Is there any word on publications yet?
Hudson Fisher
The default mundane shield is a medium weapon so if you aren't running a medium weapon in the other hand, you get the +1 defense bonus of having a medium weapon and still use your one handed weapon for offense. Not a huge bonus, but if you're going a single one-handed weapon anyway, it's a net gain all around.
Secondly, the shield tag ability to Flurry a full defense action with another action is nice. The textbook use is to flurry a full defense action with a rush so you can approach an enemy without sacrificing your defense. Alternately, you can do things like flurry a full defense action with treat wounds misc action to cover yourself while you stop someone from bleeding out. A better move is you can flurry full defense with a defend other action.
Austin Anderson
So feasibly a Melee counterattack based build would be done best using a shield and a light weapon?
Logan Collins
There's also a third tag, which consists of stuff like Smashing, Balanced, Chopping, etc. in contrast to the maybe the couple at most extra tags other weapons get.
But then, Whips and Fighting Chains get /FOUR/ tags so that pretty much goes out the window.
Henry Bailey
As for Arms of the Chosen, they decided to revise the evocation system so it'll be a while longer.
Jeremiah Brown
>they decided to revise the evocation system
Again? Where did they say this? Did they say what revisions it's getting or if they're include an Evocation making guide?
Lincoln Scott
It was in an interview online. They felt there was a better way to handle evocations compared to the corebook or what was in the beta version, and Rich Thomas agreed and okayed it.
Ethan Ramirez
Do you have a link to the interview?
Leo Ward
Yep, it's compulsory in visual novels. Girl confesses, then they fuck like rabbits to make up for lost time.
Aaron Jackson
At the beginning of the month I asked here and several other places what people would like in 3e, and after several weeks and annoying IRL bullshit problems, I present to you the 3e Bestiary Version 1.0, delivered on Christmas Day as I originally promised.
Q: I don't want to use Strong type opponents A: The enemies work just fine without them, but against a few specific enemies (Such as the Bartoll) I HIGHLY recommend using the rules outlined there.
Q: There are no Elementals/Boss tier monsters A: I was dead set on accomplishing this on Christmas day, so sadly some things needed to be cut. The week before my flight to see my father was utter hell with the dog being sick, volunteer work, and all the bullshit that comes with dealing from a car crash. Considering I still really want to do some pokemon elementals, I'll come back to do them later, but after putting out nearly 160+ pages in about 25 days I'll take a small break.
Lincoln Anderson
one holiday i had was the Night of Wings, where night-moth migration patterns would lead to the entire regional island the PCs were at being dimly lit by glow-in-the-dark moths. It was a popular time to celebrate love among the common folk. one of the PCs even used this to get a social edge on confessing a (false) love to a princess. mostly looking to gain political power in marriage.
Wyatt Bailey
Thanks dude
Nicholas Johnson
>Doom demons. >A entire X-Com section. >Yukkuri. This is the most autistic thing I have seen this year.
10/10. Excellent job. I'm impressed.
Logan Allen
>heavy weapons
Clashing
>Shields
None whatsoever
An a 3e version which about stripping out all the dice tricks and stuff IIRC
Cooper Gutierrez
Too beautiful to exist. And on time. You do realize this is EXALTED general, right user?
Michael Butler
Why clashing? heavy weapons getting a +2 to clashes only puts the on par with single wielded medium weapons, which means that they're outdone by every other combination.
Eli Powell
Keep in mind that most clashes produced by Charms (which is most clashes flat out because players rarely delay to set up a "natural" clash) are decisive, meaning the weapon's Accuracy is irrelevant, but the +2 from being Heavy (or dual-wielding) matters.
Ayden Sanchez
Wouldn't that also make them good for counter attack builds?
Christopher Cox
Weapon accuracy and damage only matter for withering, so they're irrelevant for decisive counters and bad for Flashing Edge of Dawn.
Hudson Taylor
Counterattacks are also heavily decisive-leaning, but don't benefit from the +2 regardless, so heavy vs. light doesn't really factor in to that choice specifically.
Caleb Mitchell
I asked for raksha and didn't get one, this is the worst Christmas ever ;_;
But seriously, thanks for this. Should be nice for at least stealing from and reskinning stuff.
Landon Ross
Don't forget about the Zerg too!
Happy to give, tis the season after all.
Caleb Baker
Yea sorry man, time issues.
I had some idea for Raksha near the end, but a week really killed some time for me as I couldn't get much done due to IRL emergencies.
Stuff involving animal raksha, A Yuki Onna based one, and darkness themed ones. Three in total.
...Oh well! Maybe eventually!
Jordan Perry
>Secondly, the shield tag ability to Flurry a full defense action with another action is nice Nah. You still have to psi initiative to full defense, still get -1 defense, and you still get -3 on your flurried actions. That's not very good.
Owen Smith
If I houseruled that shields can be use to flurry Full Defense with any flurryable action, including attacks, don't impose the normal defense penalty when flurried with actions other than attacks, and don't have a lower damage, would they be too good? That doesn't seem too good to me at first glance, since Full Defense still costs Initiative and since flurries would still penalize rolled actions.
Liam Ramirez
Getting it out on Christmas day was one of my highest priorities.
I wanted to put several more things in there, but was basically robbed of a week and didn't have the time.
Aaron James
Well thanks man, your work is appreciated.
Isaac Young
If you were using bulwark stance anyway, which is pretty common in situations where you'd want the +1 defence, it becomes -3 to your action for a +2 non-charm to your parry which is actually pretty strong.
Juan Nguyen
How much personality should summoned elementals have? The description of the Summon Elemental spell makes it pretty clear that they aren't really properly defined individuals to begin with, but might develop individual personalities with time and experience. I would still assume that newly created elementals have some kind of a nature, some quirks related born from their elemental nature, purpose and other factors. So, how'd you guys handle your elementals?
Nicholas Perry
In 3e elementals are newborns that know only their instinctive stuff like "my element good, other elements bad" and "master is God and obedience makes my taint feel tingly"
They are aware, but unless you take the time to teach them Pinnochio-style they are basically toddlers in adult bodies that you can use as cannon fodder without feeling guilty
Camden Rogers
I'm not actually sure if I'd consider using toddlers as canon fodders morally unproblematic, but I take your meaning.
Julian Robinson
It's like the hamburger argument. Yeah you're raising cows just to fatten them up and kill them, but if it weren't for McDonalds then they'd never be alive in the first place.
Brayden Sanders
Has anyone ever played Burn Legend?
Nicholas Johnson
>Burn Legend
You mean Tekken: YUGIOH! EDITION! ?
Cooper Butler
Yes. Yes I do.
Jose Walker
Played a one-shot set in Santiago. It involved Bachelet and Matthei having a confrontation on Torre Entel.
Michael Reyes
>As for Arms of the Chosen, they decided to revise the evocation system so it'll be a while longer.
Are you fucking serious?
You know I'm hoping Paradox just takes the license and gives it to someone else to start 4e.
Easton Barnes
Reminder Morke and Holden are not only liar but also self-righteous hypocritical pricks.
Ayden Gray
It's Jesus birthday! Tell me user, have they finished Anathema yet?
Camden Barnes
Not yet!
Hey man! You can't trust perfection! Let them take their time to perfect their craft!
Connor Watson
>Hey man! You can't trust perfection! Let them take their time to perfect their craft! Sure, in the mean time I will play Scion 2e Please Zeus, Odin and whatever gods don't punish us by delaying it like 3E
Dylan Morris
Yeah, WoD fans fucking love what Swedish Dracula is planning for the line. We all liked Gypsies, right?
How the fuck is delaying release self-righteous?
And why are you, ironically, acting like such a self-righteous prick over it?
Aiden Kelly
Honestly, it'd probably be better if people who have that much of a hateboner over the devs to just wholeheartedly embrace Godbound or Scion instead. It seems healthier for everyone.
Dice tricks do add a meaningful element to the game though.
Jayden James
I mean, the game has been out for like two years now, and it's still in the Top Ten on drivethrurpg.
They must be doing something right.
Jaxon Long
>Dice tricks do add a meaningful element to the game though.
Not to some people. To some people they add meaningless math and want charms that do 'unique' things rather that number tricks.
Anthony Smith
Well, first, the benefits they provide are tangible and meaningful. Excellent Strike is pretty much the best melee charm in the game. And how much math is involved in just rerolling 1s? I've played the system long enough, someone who has trouble with it /already/ has a ton of trouble counting 7-10 and knowing 10s count double.
Isaiah Wood
You're missing the point with these people.
It doesn't matter if Excellent Strike is actually a good charm mathimatically. For them just dealing with only numbers and not doing something interesting is boring as hell.
Liam Thomas
Getting a larger amount of successes from a smaller amount of successes is an exciting thing though. I mean, it's possible that this may not be exciting for these specific people, but we are talking about people who get turned off at the thought of getting to reroll failures for a larger success.
Ethan Harris
Hey Veeky Forums, for the section on Leadership on page 226, what do you guys think about letting players use Bureaucracy prior to the scenes for Failure Conditions to Declare Facts about the scenario?
Caleb Myers
If you want to have an RPG with dice and stats and such, there will be some amount of dealing with numbers.This is part of the fun, even, to a lot of people. Not to all people, but to many people, and not just to crunch-obsessed autists, either. I find it kind of hard to find much sympathy for people who complain about something like that.
Logan Rivera
They're not exactly new. They've been around since 2.Xe. Usually I find these people love Infernals who have fleshed out charms in both mechanics and crunch. When Solar charms are "Describe yourself" they tend to complain
Nathaniel Scott
So about Infernal charm, it's actually better to cut your own arm and grow it back for a cost of 2 motes than healing its missing pieces of flesh. That's weird.
Luke Perry
>for 2m
That's Lunars
Jacob Bennett
No that's GSP, buy WRA with Crippling keyword and grow your limb back for 2m, meanwhile you have to spend 5m to heal a missing piece in your limb.
Jace Allen
You'd still be suffering the health level damage; they're totally separated from Crippling effects.
Cooper Nelson
They want Charms to have interesting effects and feel that things with no fluff beyond "increase this number" are boring and a waste of potential. They're not mindlessly opposed to anything that involves numbers.
Dylan Richardson
"Hit things harder" is an effect Solars should have, and it's mechanical execution pretty much inevitably boils down to bigger numbers. That the Charm is about the Solar's supreme skill allowing him to locate the weak points of his opponent or whatever is something that shouldn't really be spelled out, in my opinion - overly wordy Charm descriptions are a problem as it is, in more than one way. A lot of the Charms could stand to be described concisely and in purely mechanical terms, and for a lot of effects that make sense and add something to the game, these effects will boil down to modifying one number or another. It would be boring if each and every Charm was like that, but I see no problem whatsoever with some Charms, or even a lot of Charms, being like that.
Elijah Brown
Welp, I guess real life works differently
Aaron Russell
It's more that health level damage is very general. If you got hit with something that fucked up your arm specifically, that wouldn't be HL damage, it'd be a Crippling effect.
Jack Anderson
Like what? I thought Crippling is like losing your arm, fingers or elbows while lethal is like having a hole the size of a coin in your palm. So that doesn't make sense when you can grow back a finger with 2m while you have to spend 5m to fill the hole.
Colton Myers
>Like what? I thought Crippling is like losing your arm, fingers or elbows Crippling effects also include getting your joints targeted, or any really 'called shot to the X' effect.
> while lethal is like having a hole the size of a coin in your palm. Lethal damage is anything generalized enough that it affects your entire body. Wound penalties affect EVERYTHING. A hole in your hand isn't going to impact your ability to run away, really.
>So that doesn't make sense when you can grow back a finger with 2m while you have to spend 5m to fill the hole. Charms are not purely in-universe effects and behold themselves to the rules first, shocking footage at 11.
Joseph Morris
>Charms are not purely in-universe effects and behold themselves to the rules first, shocking footage at 11. My impression on GSP is that they act differently from other splats, like they can go on without sleep and suffer no penalty (except when they sleep) or get mote-positive when they work/run constantly. Therefore it should make sense when it costs less to cut an arm and grow it back then to heal ruptured organ.
Sebastian Hall
Sounds fine to me if you want to be absolutely certain to prevent some flaws.
Elijah Sullivan
Holden the liar stole my pie.
In all seriousness I don't care about their frankenexalts. I'm not even bothering with 2e until muh infernals comes out.
See you all in 20XX/whenever talk of 2e drifts here again, I guess.
Which means...right now, apparently.
I mean it makes a certain amount of logic from an angry cosmic being's perspective. You can risk exposing your Charms which are actually capable of Perfect effects beyond defence on your minions, or you can shower them with things that incentivise them to keep working in conditions where other Exalts would be desperately looking for some celestial wine.
Jordan Evans
Greatest "No one wants to run" game ever. The circle consisted of Rocky Balboa, Kamina from Gurren Lagan, Azula from Avatar: tlab, and Death the Kid from Souls Eater. Adrian gets kidnapped and the circle must fight through the minions of SHONUFF! to save her. No social rolls, all things are decided by martial arts ability. I was literally browsing tvtropes to decide what to do next. Would highly recommend for a less serious game.
Ethan Roberts
Fug. Why are the no one wants to run games always the ones I want to play?
Liam Diaz
>I mean it makes a certain amount of logic from an angry cosmic being's perspective. You can risk exposing your Charms which are actually capable of Perfect effects beyond defence on your minions, or you can shower them with things that incentivise them to keep working in conditions where other Exalts would be desperately looking for some celestial wine. I don't think Charms of any Exalt type, maybe with the exception of Sidereals, are something conciously designed by their patrons. Intentions of the Yozis probably aren't the explanation for how the GSP Charms work.
Anthony Taylor
So guy, do you have some tips for a guy who will be mastering Exalted for the first time ? Wich sort of thing should I do for my player ? What's to look out ? Also 3E.
Henry Stewart
Don't approach GMing Exalted like you would a classic DnD adventure. Talk with your players about what they'd like to play as characters, have them build characters together (a Session 0 kind of thing is very welcome, where your players can ask questions about the world, build their characters together backstory and all, and y'all can discuss Exaltation and how it happened for each PC).
You'll approach that Session 0 with a very vague idea of the kind of campaign you want to run. Normally, by the time players have written their Intimacies and picked their Merits, you'll have a good idea of the general feel of the campaign, the players' potential objectives, and what you'll really be running.
From there on, don't plan too far ahead and build wide instead of tall. Player agency is, as you probably understand by the time you read this sentence, much more important in Exalted than one might be used to. As such, long-term narrative planning is a rather tricky venture.
Make up a ton of NPCs, agents, organizations and other acting forcers, have a good idea of who's in charge of each and what their ressources and objectives are, scatter them around your setting. That way when players take things in a wildly different direction you'll have a basis to build upon, and previous playtime will have provided you with tons of hooks and lines to detail them ad hoc.
Traps not to fall into : -Don't rely on your ability to predict how your players will react to a given situation too much. Once they get confortable with the game's mechanics and start to find cool synergies, things will get wild. -Dungeons don't work too well on their own. If you have your players enter anything that could be characterized as such, make sure you've got more than traps and mobs ready. When in doubt, invent something on the spot, tie it to the rest later. -Don't be too paranoïd about campaign continuity. You can fix any inconsistency with enough Sidereals.
Dominic Gonzalez
Thank for the tips ! But what should If two player are bored because they're not doing what their character are specialized for ? Like a Dawn without any Social Charm ?
Jace Brooks
That's pretty much their own problem. Solars in particular are so powerful that you can just do the thing you specialize in. A dawn is probably never forced into a situation where he has to resolve a situation by being social instead of fighting his way out of it. The social option may be better but he can do the thing he specialized in. Since you're not railroading them as a GM what the players do depends mostly on what they want to do.
Now if, during Session 0 / collective character building, you realize that two players want to only play an intrique-heavy social game and two characters only want to go stomping around with armies then you either have to be able to balance those two things somehow or you have to talk to them about playing different characters.