General Exalted Discussion Thread XI: Great Job, You Broke the Scale.

[golentan]

Well, for the manse what did you want it to do? For the hearthstone, do you want it to boost a strength, or shore up a weakness? What strengths and weaknesses should we consider? Hearthstones have a wide variety of effects, and tend to be the piece of your manse you can most rely on because it can go with you.

For the manse creation rules, think of any magical palace, building, or place you've ever read or dreamed about. What sort of powers do you want it to have? Do you want it to be an ancient ruin with a portal to another world? A floating palace in the sky? A foundry of ancient wonder and technology? Do you want it near a city, or hidden in the depths of the wilderness? Do you care what aspect it should be (also affects hearthstone).

[meschlum]

Arden, the Tree of Wisdom, is a legitimate mentor type because (besides fluff and mechanical feasiblity), it could be any sort of elder mentor. Disguises are good - if people are unhappy with a Raksha, say it's a Lunar / Solar / Sidereal / God / whatever else under cover, and done. As written, it's a respectable and adpatable mentor, whose flaw and strength is being an original third party: doesn't bring more major factions into the game, but needs some justification anyway.

That said, time for more fun stuff!

Thorns of Sweet Delight

When Inavra the Raksha first wandered into Creation, she experimented at length with the alien and limited senses offered to mortals. Sight, sound, smell, touch... were tiresome, restrictive, and ultimately dull. However, taste caught her attention while she travelled the South, hunting the beasts of the dry plains and discovering the marvels of spices and sugar.

What began as a diversion soon became an addiction, and Inavra sought ever more delicious and intricate confections before finally discovering what, to her, was the ideal recipe. And so the Thorns were created, from the lure of the hunt, from the ecstasy of sweets, from the skies at sunset...

Found mainly in the South, the Thorns are planted at dusk near an oasis, and then grow until they fill the vicinity. These plants cause no harm to mortals or most animals, reserving their sharp points for the paws of the lords of the savannah. A lion afflicted by one of the Thorns is rapidly changed into a form more pleasing to Inavra.

The altered beast's fur takes on a cerulean hue, while its flesh and bones are transmuted into crystalized and highly tasty sugar. To further facilitate the ensuing repast, the lion becomes fragile, easily losing limbs or teeth to misadventure or hungry passers-by. Yet Inavra is generous, and all parts thus lost grow back quickly, more tasty than ever before.

Once planted, the Thorns remain for a full season, then wither away and can be moved and set elsewhere - after all, dining on a single pride becomes tiresome after a while. Often, the transmuted lions recover when the Thorns are gone, but this is by no means certain.

2-dot Oneiromancy
Assumption of the Land's Heart - the Thorns spread out to cover the full area around the affected oasis.
Subversion and Transformation Artifice - conveys the Skin (Fur) color pox (deep purple), Surrendering Flesh (sugar - it's easy to break off pieces), Regeneration / Multiple Limbs (they grow back) and a custom 'Delicious' Debility (or Deformity) ensuring that they taste really good. This only affects lions, once they have a Thorn stuck in their paw.
Shiftless Untamed Beauty - the transformed lions are so delicious, those eating them will accept no substitutes!
Emotion Weaving Style - any purple sugar lion gains the Motivation: "Stay near the Thorns and be delicious".

Is perfectly harmless and low powered, unless there's a god of lions you really want to annoy.


Crown of Rulership

Who bears the crown rules the land - this well known motto first coined within Creation has spread into the Wyld, and the Crown was born to incarnate the concept. A rather ostentatious piece of headgear, the Crown has a hundred small rubies imbedded within it, each flickering with its own inner light.

Should the owner of the Crown successfully sit upon the throne, or equivalent, of a kingdom, and then take up the Crown following the prescribed rites, he will immediately become the true lord and source of nobility for the entire nation.

As is only right, commoners will seek to serve their new king in any and all ways. While the nobility raised by the new ruler may prove somewhat independent, all are granted the mystical power to shape and use their Essence and, since a truly proper king must have a suitable consort, they are blessed with supernatural beauty.

Of course, the Crown also ensures that any being who dares speak ill of the king is revealed to all as an untrustworthy knave, though few would care, or dare, to oppose his just and proper rule.

Every year of the king's rule, one of the rubies on the Crown dissolves, turning into dream stuff. When no rubies remain, the Crown loses its power - some tales say that certain bargains with the forces of the Wyld may restore them, and with the resources of an entire kingdom at hand, this should pose no difficulty.

4-dot Oneiromancy
Assumption of the Living Kingdom - the Crown will affect a small nation.
Emotion Weaving Style - any mortal who owes allegiance to the king now has the Motivation "Serve the King with utter devotion and obedience".
Behemoth Forging Meditation - grants Awakened Essence and a few aesthetically pleasing poxes to nobles named by the king. Note that this means they are no longer mortals.
Prince and Pauper Approach - anyone saying bad things about the king immediately becomes untrustworthy, which will significantly interfere with any efforts at overthrowing the king.

Actually not that powerful, but will create howls of rage. Compare to Backing, Cult, or Influence at 4 dots, and it's pretty close. The plus sides are that it's (semi) mobile, can awaken the essence of your servants, and is mildly resistant to infiltration. The minus sides are the cost in committed motes (12), vulnerability to counter-magic, and limited area of effect and targets. Also, it's less fun than the Thorns.

[Rockphed]

Purple. Sugar. Lions.

Thank you, oh great and powerful being of madness and dreams. That made my day.

[Terazul]

So, gonna be in a Heaven's Reach game soon. Two things kinda bug me both of them pertaining to firearms:

One, with Six-Heart Stormspitters and various other slug-throwers, it goes on about how they're just perfect if you're using special ammunition, however, there's no examples given (other than Armor Piercing), and the only thing I could find in other books was the Green-Fire Arrows in MoEP:Infernals. PoH said he would have done a thaum sidebar on cool bullets or something, but I'm not really homebrew capable for Exalted just yet.

Two, Rocket Launchers! They're effectively just crappier versions of Rifles. I've actually seen this complaint elsewhere, and sure enough, the only real thing a Dragon Roar Cannon has on a Godcannon is the P tag... which you can get with AP Rounds anyway

So my question is, does anyone have any suggestions for appropriate "neat, but not ridiculous" special ammo, or appropriate modifications to the existing launchers to make them more... not lackluster?

[Exthalion]

So, gonna be in a Heaven's Reach game soon. Two things kinda bug me both of them pertaining to firearms:

One, with Six-Heart Stormspitters and various other slug-throwers, it goes on about how they're just perfect if you're using special ammunition, however, there's no examples given (other than Armor Piercing), and the only thing I could find in other books was the Green-Fire Arrows in MoEP:Infernals. PoH said he would have done a thaum sidebar on cool bullets or something, but I'm not really homebrew capable for Exalted just yet.

Two, Rocket Launchers! They're effectively just crappier versions of Rifles. I've actually seen this complaint elsewhere, and sure enough, the only real thing a Dragon Roar Cannon has on a Godcannon is the P tag... which you can get with AP Rounds anyway

So my question is, does anyone have any suggestions for appropriate "neat, but not ridiculous" special ammo, or appropriate modifications to the existing launchers to make them more... not lackluster?

Taser rounds that require a stamina role or set the target to inactive.

Incidiary rounds that set things on fire.

Reliquary rounds that are holy.

Rounds with godblooded spinal fluid in them that can hit the dematerialized.

Plasma rounds that do unsoakable damage to structures.

Arcing rounds that do damage to a random nearby target.

Shockwave rounds that do bashing damage but cause knockdown.

The old standby of AP explosive rounds that have the P tag and do a second unsoakable hardness ignoring damage roll if they do any damage. (Something like for each level of damage inflicted roll another dice.)

Frag rounds that work like broadhead arrows.

Gobber rounds that work like fowling arrows.

etc.

[Tavar]

Rockets are important if your game uses threat levels. Essentially, certain attacks just don't do damage to things, because they are too small. Or, if they do damage, it's limited in some fashion. Rockets should count as one threat level up under that paradigm.

[Xefas]

Re: Special Ammunition

Empathy Spiting Quiver (Artifact ●, Sapience ●)

Hellforged Wonders born of the wicked children of The Sea Who Marched Against The Flame, Empathy Spiting Quivers appear as small wide-mouthed conch shells, the exterior drifting through colors of disingenuously sweet pinks to poisonous turquoise hues, opening just large enough to fit a hand inside.

Exclusively produced by a single Second Circle Soul of Kimbery, the Demon has linked the essence of these objects with her undersea genesis laboratory. Within the horrific bowels of the manse, mortals abducted from Creation are bred to create a stock of prisoners, their gestations accelerated by the demon's genesis-crafts.

When the wielder of an Empathy Spiting Quiver places a hand in the conch and spends a mote of essence, they may withdraw a sickly black mass from within, its nature bound to a specific slave within the aforementioned demon's laboratory. (Only Essence 1 Mortal Humans who are born within the laboratory itself may be linked to in such a way.)

Placing the mass against a ranged weapon causes it to morph into a replica of a type of mundane ammunition associated with the weapon (communication between the mass and the weapon's least god prevents the wielder from accidentally, or intentionally, creating the wrong kind of ammunition).

However, when this demonic ammunition is fired, the power of the Quiver is revealed. First, the ammunition makes all of its effects Obvious to the target it is being shot at. Secondly, should the ammunition deal no health levels of damage to its intended target (such as if it is parried, dodged, or soaked), the slave to whom its essence is bound is wracked with agony, taking ten unsoakable levels of aggravated damage over the next few seconds. Should the slave die, its soul does not proceed to Lethe, instead being recollected by its captor, and used for whatever diabolical purposes the demon might have for it.

Finally, as the Empathy Spiting Quiver is a Hellforged Wonder, it instills its owner with the Urge "Harm those who care for the weak and innocent", and grants the Charm "Bane Weapon", allowing the wielder to spend motes to supplement an attack such that it deals aggravated damage against creatures with a Compassion of 3 or more.

[Vknight]

About to try an Exalted game.
I have not run Exalted before I have the following books

Spoiler

Show

Core, Abyssals, Lunars, Infernals, Dragon-blooded, Sidereel, and Alchemical(Guess which won't be seeing the light of day?)

I also have Scroll of Heros and Exalts

I will be running it.
So anything I should ask the players
Restrictions on Exaltation
Ideas to get them used to the world

Any ideas for Exalted foes and a foe who is a weaker Exalted but able to compete(mentally)

Any suggestions for houserules

Basically everything/anything for a guy about to be dunked head first into a Exalted game as its Storyteller
This could also include notes on the rules 1may miss.
Also can a Attribute be raised to 5before bonus points...

[Vknight]

Sorry double post

Also were are all those things like Essence Cannons and any PDF's you guys can think of that I should get

[horngeek]

Hmmm... you're not missing anything vital.

Stuff that'd be nice to have:

Oadenol's Codex.
Wonders of the Lost Age.
Black and White Treatise.
both Rolls of Divinity.

Actually, I'd almost say get the Rolls of Divinity first, because you can mine the hell out of them for antagonists. But the Books of Sorcery are quite cool.

The Compasses are not necessary. It'd be nice to get the Compass for the area you want to play in, but my advice is to make up your own locations anyway.

The Scrolls of Estoric Wisdom are a bit meh. Scroll of Kings is cool for a Nation-Building game. Scroll of the Monk is of variable quality- it gets worse the higher up the Lotus you get. Scroll of Mortals... Crafted Races are generally cool, Flaws less so.

Masters of Jade. Get it. It is awesome, and if your players interact with the economy, they will come up against the Guild. Or work for them. Or both.

Oh, and remember to get the latest errata.

[HerrTenko]

About to try an Exalted game.
I have not run Exalted before I have the following books

Spoiler

Show

Core, Abyssals, Lunars, Infernals, Dragon-blooded, Sidereel, and Alchemical(Guess which won't be seeing the light of day?)

I also have Scroll of Heros and Exalts

Be sure to grab the Scroll of Errata, which is free and pretty much mandatory!

I will be running it.
So anything I should ask the players
Restrictions on Exaltation
Ideas to get them used to the world

Ask your players what kind of game they want to play, and what kind of Exalted. This being your first game as a ST, I recommend picking a single Exalt type with your players : it'll be way simpler to manage this way.

Any suggestions for houserules

I would advise giving your players a number of free Excellencies. Those charms are boring but useful. I generally give them as much free Excellencies as they get to pick Favoured Abilities (so 5 for Solars, 3 for Dragon-blooded...).
Also, and even though it might not be as necessary as before, I generally give my players as many free Ox Body Techniques as they have dots in Stamina. Or was it Resistance? I can't seem to remember.

Basically everything/anything for a guy about to be dunked head first into a Exalted game as its Storyteller
This could also include notes on the rules 1may miss.

Well, I'd say, draw a general plan of whatever you want your campaign to look like, and then watch as your players tear said plans to pieces. Always keep in mind they have the Agency, but you have the responsability to present them with consequences to their actions.

Also can a Attribute be raised to 5before bonus points...

Yep, Attributes start at 1 and can go up to five. Also, Char-gen has been Errata'd, so be sure to take a look at the changes!

[Vknight]

Thanks Horn great as always.

Also I will keep not on that power curve with the Scroll of Monk
I could have a lot of fun with some crafted races

Also have the Masques stuff for myself

[Vknight]

Be sure to grab the Scroll of Errata, which is free and pretty much mandatory!


Ask your players what kind of game they want to play, and what kind of Exalted. This being your first game as a ST, I recommend picking a single Exalt type with your players : it'll be way simpler to manage this way.


I would advise giving your players a number of free Excellencies. Those charms are boring but useful. I generally give them as much free Excellencies as they get to pick Favoured Abilities (so 5 for Solars, 3 for Dragon-blooded...).
Also, and even though it might not be as necessary as before, I generally give my players as many free Ox Body Techniques as they have dots in Stamina. Or was it Resistance? I can't seem to remember.


Well, I'd say, draw a general plan of whatever you want your campaign to look like, and then watch as your players tear said plans to pieces. Always keep in mind they have the Agency, but you have the responsability to present them with consequences to their actions.


Yep, Attributes start at 1 and can go up to five. Also, Char-gen has been Errata'd, so be sure to take a look at the changes!

I'm thinking Solar or limited diversity.

Maybe an OX-body every 2-Stamina
I'll probably not do that free Excellency I see part of it as being a cost so to not exploit them

I'm thinking focused to a sandbox game. Some over-arcing ideas and plot but character driven by actions and desicisions

[Kobold-Bard]

One houserule close to my heart is giving players a free spell when they take a Sorcery/Necromancy initiation charm. They are very, very depressing Charms to take otherwise.

[Vknight]

That that that sounds great actually and I agree they are just so... Depressing is the word I'd use

Hmmm wait my 2 Players that are major Fantasy nuts want to do a Sci-Fi game. Huh that is weird for them to do. Guess they really want to try Eclipse Phase.
Probably won't but that gives me ideas for the next game

[golentan]

I agree with the houserules already suggested.

For group composition, start everyone on the same splat. Solars are easiest for number of books to be crossreferenced, and are kind of what people expect. Dragonblooded are a good way to break people into the system who don't know what to expect I find (their powers work on a more comprehensible scale).

For major antagonists for your game, I can't stress enough the value of a dragonblooded brotherhood (if you're running a celestials game), or a lone celestial (if you're running a terrestrial game). They're powerful enough to be a threat, keep everyone on their toes, and you can have some fun with tropes like "strawman has a point" and "grey and gray morality." Because either way, it's a good excuse to question dogma when confronted with the reality (neither side is wholly right or wholly wrong), and the power balance works out to about the level where every fight is a tossup and both sides can escape intact. Also, I've gotten some use out of Behemoths/hekatonkhires as celestial antagonists. They're customizable to the party, and can be anything from mindless brutes to superhumanly cunning plotters. Best to use a prewritten one until you're comfortable with the rules.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Hmmm wait my 2 Players that are major Fantasy nuts want to do a Sci-Fi game. Huh that is weird for them to do. Guess they really want to try Eclipse Phase.
Probably won't but that gives me ideas for the next game

Sci-Fi, or Science Fantasy?

Looking at the description of Eclipse Phase, it seems like it's similar to Alchemicals... transhuman characters, the technology needed to enhance human minds and bodies (you could say that one or more of the nations has started a project for it), and the chance of going to mysterious worlds.

Alternatively, if you want something more like Battlestar Galactica... get Shards of the Exalted Dream. You'll know which chapter to look at.

And in Shards, there's also Heaven's Reach, a Space Opera setting (although Alchemicals aren't so much protagonist material in that; I also suggest saying that nobody suffers from the Great Curse, other than the few really old Solars who haven't rebooted their exaltations by dying yet), and The Modern Age, where Alchemicals are still your best bet, but other science-types and the fact that their technology rests just a bit above our own can easily provide sci-fi material, with Twilights experimenting in genetic engineering and bionic enhancements in ways not even the top scientists of the United Eastern States can. I might also suggest no Great Curse in Modern either, given that it doesn't mention there being any Neverborn, and the dying curse of Modern's Yozis could easily not affect them since they're not actually Primordials, and that's assuming that some of the Yozis did die. At the least, it shouldn't affect Lunars and Dragon-Blooded, who arrived after the war.


As for houserules, I suggest free number of Ox-body/Hardened Devil Body/whatever equal to either Stamina or Essence. And a number of free excellencies, which is either five ability excellencies (Solars/Dragon-Blooded/Abyssals), three attribute ones (Lunars/Alchemicals), and one themed one (Infernals), or three ability excellencies, two attribute excellencies, and one themed excellency. And the free Alchemical excellencies don't use up Charm slots, they're built into them and the specific attributes they affect is decided upon the spark of life, like gender and personality.

[horngeek]

Yeah, Heaven's Reach. Or GUNSTAR AUTOCTHONIA!

[Vknight]

All great and excellent ideas...
I need sleep I may have been up for 48hours(I can't tell things all blend together)

[Hiro Protagonest]

Given that there are no manses in Autochthonia, do Autochthonian Onslaught Crossbows require an Elemental Core, or do they function on their own?

[horngeek]

Given that there are no manses in Autochthonia, do Autochthonian Onslaught Crossbows require an Elemental Core, or do they function on their own?

Elemental Core or Essence Capacitator.

[golentan]

Elemental Core or Essence Capacitator.

I prefer Essence Capacitors of the two alchemical options. They don't tether you to a single city, and really, how often do you need to fire repeatedly for more than an 8 hour stint?

[Hiro Protagonest]

Oh good, I found Essence Capacitors.

Does the Onslaught Crossbow require a level of Hearthstone higher than 1? I don't have the Scroll of Fallen Races, and all I can glean from the wiki are that it's a three-dot artifact and requires a hearthstone.

Also, was the wording of the Capacitors fixed in the errata? Because in the book it says "they require one hour of charging for every two hours spent respiring Essence". On the other hand, tri-socket adapters imply that they need two hours of charging for every one hour of active use.

Oh, and Golentan, you're missing an hour. 25 hour days.

[golentan]

Oh good, I found Essence Capacitors.

Does the Onslaught Crossbow require a level of Hearthstone higher than 1? I don't have the Scroll of Fallen Races, and all I can glean from the wiki are that it's a three-dot artifact and requires a hearthstone.

Also, was the wording of the Capacitors fixed in the errata? Because in the book it says "they require one hour of charging for every two hours spent respiring Essence". On the other hand, tri-socket adapters imply that they need two hours of charging for every one hour of active use.

Oh, and Golentan, you're missing an hour. 25 hour days.

What am I allegedly missing? I know exalted runs on a 25 hour day. I also know essence capacitors run for a full 25 hours, not 8, which should have been your tip off that what I think you're thinking is wrong. I just think it's idiotic to run a capacitor anywhere close to the wire, especially on something like a weapon system or armor.

[Vknight]

Ok back thanks for all the great help guys.
My players decided to try Eclipse Phase over Exalted but all the help will be useful.

They changed there minds yesterday... The session is tomorrow

[Hiro Protagonest]

I have a question. Is it ever explained why so many Autochthonian mortals are able to use Essence Cannons and Supernatural Martial Arts? The Live Wire practicioner in CoCD: Autochthonia has an Essence pool and Essence 3... but he isn't listed as having the Enlightened Essence mutation.

[golentan]

I have a question. Is it ever explained why so many Autochthonian mortals are able to use Essence Cannons and Supernatural Martial Arts? The Live Wire practicioner in CoCD: Autochthonia has an Essence pool and Essence 3... but he isn't listed as having the Enlightened Essence mutation.

Mutation isn't the only way to get enlightened essence. It's... honestly probably the easiest in Autochthonia (science of bioenhancement: Engineer Machine Graft with an essence reservoir a la the champions), but there are also thaumaturgical rituals, merits (if you're using that system), training effects from exalts and spirits of all descriptions, good old meditation, and a dozen other ways. It's really storyteller discretion. The Mortal on the second page of the Antagonist's chapter in the core book isn't listed as having any mutations, and he's got essence 2.

As for tech... Essence Cannons which are man portable usually have an option that they don't cost essence to fire if you've got a mote respiratory aide plugged into them (like a Capacitor, for example).

[golentan]

Well, looks like a character backstory got approved by my ST. My Defiler Caste is going to be a crazy soulsteel engineer from Skullstone, who got too close to the truth and then got really confused when everyone got upset and tried to kill him for suggesting that reincarnation for non-righteous dead might be less economically efficient than soulforging people.

[Hiro Protagonest]

A bit late to comment on this, but:

Rockets are important if your game uses threat levels. Essentially, certain attacks just don't do damage to things, because they are too small. Or, if they do damage, it's limited in some fashion. Rockets should count as one threat level up under that paradigm.

Yeah, I agree. It doesn't matter how much damage your bullet does to the wall, if you don't have something like Nova Shell Ordnance, it's just gonna disfigure on impact and leave a tiny dent (on that note, Nova Shell Ordnance should also increase threat level). If the bullet is made of a magical material, then it'll blast a teeny tiny hole in the wall at best. A dozen rocket strikes concentrated on a four-foot diameter area, though, could blast a hole big enough for a human to duck through. There's a reason why a single trebuchet was more effective for knocking down castles walls than five hundred longbowmen (and English/European longbowmen weren't sissies either; back when the longbow was used for war, they were pulling about double the weight of a hunting bow, and shooting heavy ash arrows designed to pierce steel armor).

[Lord Raziere]

Dude.

I just had the best idea ever.

A crossover.

Exalted Phase.

Imagine that Exaltations are bound to your body….but that your mind isn't.

So that you go around being a Solar in one body…..then jump to your other body be a Lunar…..then go and be a Sidereal for a little while…..after all, who ever said someone was only one kind of hero?