General Exalted Discussion XVII: Edition of Cascading Years

[Sith_Happens]

Not at all. BMM doesn't help you heal aggravated damage faster.

Normally I'd agree but it specifically says it speeds up your natural healing so I'm not so sure...

Couple of quick Martial Arts questions. Assuming I am using a matched pair of slashing swords (or reaper daiklaves, but that gets to be a lot of merit points!) Is their any reason why I can't mix Steel Devil and Single Point?

*checks*

Nope.

What do folk think of that as a match up?

The style that adds +Yes damage to your decisive attacks plus the style that lets you make lots of extra decisive attacks that don't reset you to base? YES PLEASE.

Question 2 can I use MA's while mounted? I can't see anything explicitly banning it but a few friends of mine expressed scepticism. I suppose for the various unarmed styles it would be a bit odd, but this IS exalted after all!

I also do not know of any actual rule against it, therefore it comes entirely down to "Can you make it not sound too stupid to allow?"

[Katana1515]

I also do not know of any actual rule against it, therefore it comes entirely down to "Can you make it not sound too stupid to allow?"

I accept your challenge sir!

Thanks for the swift reply Sith! I figure for the various weapon based styles it shouldnt appear too outlandish.

Any other cool MA combo's you have spotted?

Considering the individual trees aren't massive and you have to make that hefty 4 merit point down payment for access it seems like a waste to only pick up one style!

[Sith_Happens]

Any other cool MA combo's you have spotted?

Well, this one's more of a fluff synergy than a mechanics one, but Crane Style and Black Claw Style are two great flavors that go great together.

[Lanaya]

I'm not so sold on Single Point + Steel Devil. Steel Devil gets an awful lot of power from its stances, but Single Point is 100% reliant on its own so you can't use Steel Devil's. You're missing out on most of what makes Steel Devil good if you combine it with Single Point.

[Tome]

A separate question: I'd be interested to know about other settings that you (as Exalted players) have enjoyed, that share some of the same qualities that attracted you to Exalted. I really like the Exalted setting, but after five years of playing in it, I'm starting to feel that I've told most of the stories I really wanted to tell (although I've never gotten to play a lasting game at Essence 4+, so that would be nice, on the off-chance any prospective STs are reading ) I'm not a 3e enthusiast (although I am giving it a chance), so I'm looking around for other game systems+settings I might like. Recommendations would be very welcome.

I generally prefer fantasy settings to sci-fi ones, and I like the way Exalted draws from a lot of real-world cultures and is Definitely Not Fantasy Medieval Europe; I'm also pretty comprehensively not-interested in settings where sexism is ubiquitous. (There's nothing wrong with such settings existing, but I have no interest in playing in them.)

Hmm... Off the top of my head, maybe Tenra Bansho Zero? Fantasy Medieval Japan instead of Europe, no sexism as I recall (been a while since I played it) and fairly over the top and outlandish action wise with a big emphasis on personal drama.

[Sith_Happens]

I'm not so sold on Single Point + Steel Devil. Steel Devil gets an awful lot of power from its stances, but Single Point is 100% reliant on its own so you can't use Steel Devil's. You're missing out on most of what makes Steel Devil good if you combine it with Single Point.

Eh, Steel Devil Form is a pretty marginal benefit unless you're crashing people over and over again and most of Single Point is still plenty good without the Form active, or at least the bits that go best with Steel Devil are. In case it matters, here's what I'm envisioning:

1. Use Naked Fang Draw to win Join Battle, gaining a point of Charge and activating Single Point Form reflexively.
2. Use your two attacks to build four more Charge on your first turn, putting you already a point short of full.
3. Switch to Dual-Slaying Stance.
4. Enhance all of those sweet, sweet non-Initiative-resetting decisive counterattacks with Single Point Charms.

Alternatively:

3. Stay in Single Point Form and make two Double/Triple Attack Techniques per turn to rack up massive onslaught penalties and easily trigger a huge Steel Devil Strike.
4. Enhance Steel Devil Strike with Single Point Charms.

[tonberrian]

Does a Lunar change back to their normal shape when they die in another form?

[Guancyto]

Pretty sure it's never mentioned one way or the other, so it's up to your story to determine whether it's "stay in false form and be buried that way, remembered only as the person they pretended to be" or "change into true form to onlookers' horror and/or vindication" or "swan song of every form in their entire library, because **** it, maximum drama bosses." (That last one might get awkward if there's not enough space in the room for a blue whale, and may necessitate jumping out a window in slow-mo while the building explodes.)

On a related note, it was always kind of weird to me that Lunars, the consummate tricksters and infiltrators, never had magical support for faking the death of one of their identities. That capability was instead reserved for Abyssals.

[Rockphed]

On a related note, it was always kind of weird to me that Lunars, the consummate tricksters and infiltrators, never had magical support for faking the death of one of their identities. That capability was instead reserved for Abyssals.

Faking death, faking the death of someone else, changing someone else into a donkey, changing someone else into a woman, all things that lunar should be able to do.

[Guancyto]

So, people have asked questions like "when is this thing going to be done." Since "when it's done, dammit!" wasn't satisfactory, I am pleased to report that I have gazed into Samsara, and brought you the true Exalted release schedule!

-October 2017: Exalted Core Rulebook releases to much fanfare, sporting some basic proofreading corrections compared to the backer pdf

-January 2018: Paradox releases a vast Exalted-themed sandbox game with warfare, political alliances, ancient mysteries and superpowers. Lords of Creation brings a host of new players to Exalted, approximately 70% of which are immediately driven away from the tabletop version by repeated arguments between the fandom and developers over whether or not Charms are real. The remaining 30% are eventually driven away because the game's name was used in something else the fandom dislikes, and anyone who likes Exalted because of it is not a REAL fan.

-June 2018: Exalted - Arms of the Chosen released and is banned by God-Emperor Trump for containing magical wigs, considered icons blasphemous to his toupee. Onyx Path makes an enormous amount of money as the Print-on-Demand model intersects the up-and-coming cultural institution of public book burnings.

-July 2018: Another Kickstarter is announced to clone Shearer and Morke and keep their heads preserved in jars so that Exalted may outlive the impending nuclear apocalypse. It is heavily implied but not legally binding that the money will be used on Exalted - Dragon-Blooded: What Fire Has Wrought.

-December 2018: What Fire Has Wrought release date kicked down the road a bit to deal with proofreading issues.

-January 2020: Scroll of Terrestrial Wonders of the Treatise of Heroes - We Said We Wouldn't Do That But We're Not Very Good At This is released, and subverts all expectations when it turns out to actually be pretty good.

-March 2022: Exalted - the Realm, having been entirely forgotten about after a bot was set up to insert into every status update, "Exalted - The Realm: Waiting on Maria for layout," is finally put out of its misery by a time-traveling space cowboy with flame guns. No one notices.

-March 2025: The charred remains of Exalted - the Realm are reconstituted and released, so Onyx Path can keep to the order of its release schedule, anyway. It turns against its masters and goes on a devastating rampage because of course it does.

-December 2030: Exalted - the Dragon-Blooded: What Fire Has Wrought released; the section on Fire Aspects is considered to make good kindling in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

-July 2032: Exalted - the Exigents: Champions of the Gods is actually released on time. Time itself shatters at this impossibility.
-July 2032: Exalted - the Exigents: Champions of the Gods is actually Released on time. Time itself shatters at this impossibility.
-July 2032: Exalted - the Exigents: Champions of the Gods is actually released on time. Time itself shaters at this impossibility.
-July 2032: Exalted - the Exigents: Champions of the Gods is actualy released on time. Time itself shatters at this impossibility.
-July2032: Exalted - the Exigents: Champions of the Gods is actually released on time. Time itself shatters at this impossibility.
-July 2032: Exalted - the Exigents: Champions ofthe Gods is actually released on time. Time itself shatters at this impossibility.
-July 2032:Exalted - the Exigents: Champions of the Gods is actually released on time. Time itself shatters at his impossibility.
-July 2032: Exalted - the Exigents: Champions of the Gods is actually released on time. Time itself shatters at this impossibility
-July 2032: Exalted - the Exigents: Champions of the Gods is erased from the timestream by a rag-tag group of adventurers, bringing an end to the Time of Cascading Eight. For some reason, summer homework was involved.

-December 2032: Exalted - the Paths of Brigid is released by Vance writing alone in a darkened labyrinth filled with canned food and amphetimenes as the zombies close in, and is considered to be the best book in any edition of any game, ever. He is beatified by the now-cured God-Emperor Zombie Richard Nixon. May he live forever in our hearts.

-December 2037: Onyx Path releases another Abyssals preview. Due to updated social sensibilities, 85% of Charms in it qualify as sexual assault if used, and the remaining 15% of Charms are Permanent effects that qualify as sexual assault if even purchased. The only response ever recorded to the PR firestorm over this Abyssal Sail preview is Shearer writing in a single youtube comment, "2edgy4u"

-November 5, 2038: Remember, Remember.

-June 2042: Another fiction anthology, Tales of the Exulted, is released. It is legally required to use this name because the FDTTTAFMDEOWO (Food, Drugs, Tobacco, TableTop, Alcohol, Firearms, and More Drugs Enforcement One World Order) rules it does not even contain enough Exalted in parts-per-million to use the term "Exaltified."

-December 2055: Onyx Path announces another delay as Minton and Shomshak are taken away in the Rapture. Their protests of "but I'm not even-" are unheeded because Jesus needs somebody to write fictional cultures for him for the rest of eternity and heck if a little thing like "not believing in the Rapture" is going to stop him.

-November 2057: Onyx Path announces that, as the entire planet's industry has been retooled to produce crystal meth for aliens, a kickstarter has been started to print a deluxe edition of Exalted - the Errata: I Swear We Didn't Screw It Up This Time on bricks of meth. It is implied but not legally mandated that they will use the money to produce Exalted - the Sidereals: Paper-Pushin' Pals!

-April 1, 2059: Onyx Path announces that they are releasing Exalted - Lunars: Sexxxy Edition complete with chibi Ma-Ha-Suchi figurines and Rutting Pens playset. Enraged fans burn their offices and rescue Elizabeth Gushcow from the basement, who eventually teams up with Jenna Moran to invent faster-than-light travel powered by hope, love, and weirdness.

-May 2065: Exalted - Alchemicals: Fifty Shades of Cybertron is released. It is well-edited, well-put-together, contains a coherent theme, numerous setting hooks and has the best mechanics of the line so far (save Paths of Brigid, of course, which cured the zombie virus and also cancer). It is released the same day as actual artificial superhumans with magical powers. Fans of Exalted take to the Galactic Net to declare to anyone that will listen that the book is better.

-October 2077: The storm of world war has come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet is reduced to cinders, and from the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new splatbook will struggle to arise. A few are able to reach the relative safety of large underground vaults. Imprisoned safely behind a large vault door, under a mountain of stone, a generation lives without knowledge of the outside world. They release Exalted - Lunars: Red in Tooth and Claw. The content it introduces interacts with nothing else in the system or setting and is not even comprehensible as a real language, because the Lunar splat... the Lunar splat never changes.

-January 2100: The two remaining Exalted fans go on an adventure to find the legendary Shearer and Morke from before the Great Burn, find their heads, and find them so insufferable after all this time of having had nothing to do but argue with each other that one fan proposes, "**** it, we'll play Scion instead," and the other kicks him out of the fandom. The last remaining Exalted fan is happy at long last because after all this time, after everything, finally he is RIGHT.

-AD 2101: War was beginning.

[Lord Raziere]

2216 AD: Vault Dwellers come to the surface and against all odds finally make the perfect Exalted game that satisfies everyone. They are then killed by raiders. A random cult then takes the books and mistakes them for actual mythology and religion and tries to emulate it as much as they can.

[tonberrian]

Wait when does Lavos destroy everything? 0/10 no lavos no sell

[Sith_Happens]

January 2298: Maria, having long since discovered the secret of immortality hidden within the raw text of Exalted - the Infernals: Fried Green Tomatoes, finally finishes indexing the universe, thereby gaining Unlimited Cosmic Power.

February 2298: Her Benevolent Solar Presence (formerly known as Maria) ushers in the Eternal Golden Age of Mankind before promising that Exalted - the Liminals: 'Cause This is THRILEEEEER will be ready to send to Paradox for approval any week now.

December 25, 2401: Finally tired of waiting on Paradox for approval, Her Benevolent Solar Presence turns them into ducks before bringing all Exalted sourcebooks that will ever be published back from the future on what would come to be known as the Glorious Solar Christmas.

December 26, 2401: Having too late realized her mistake in releasing so much new Exalted material at once, Her Benevolent Solar Presence is forced to banish the entire fandom to Elsewhere to prevent their bickering from tearing apart spacetime itself.

[Lord Raziere]

Wait when does Lavos destroy everything? 0/10 no lavos no sell

He destroys everything on 1999 remember? Exalted 1st edition was released in 2001, two years later.

Chrono has already saved us from that, so its a non-issue.

[tonberrian]

Hrmm. Where are pyre flame (2e) and ghost flame (1e) described?

[TheCountAlucard]

For 2e, my immediate guesses would be White and Black Treatises, Compass: Underworld, RoGDII, and Manual: Abyssals, in that order. I specifically recall a spell in the necromancy section of WaBT using pyre-flame, the rest just seem like the next-most-likely places.

[Sith_Happens]

Random thought: does the air in Creation get thinner at high altitude like it does in real life?

[TheCountAlucard]

Yes. The Cirrus Skiff spell makes mention of being able to rise to any height, limited by the caster's ability to actually breathe the "rarefied airs" up there.

[Morty]

Could you combine the Single Point Shining into the Void style with the Ebon Shadow style by dual-wielding a slashing sword with a knife? It seems like using attack Charms would be fine, as long as you only make such attacks with the appropriate weapon, but I'm not sure how it applies to Charms that don't enhance attacks.

[Recaiden]

Hrmm. Where are pyre flame (2e) and ghost flame (1e) described?

Scroll of Fallen Races: The Dragon Kings for 2e.

[Lord Raziere]

*is reading through 3e corebook*
*looks at Lore Charms*
*gets to Order-Affirming Blow*
*reads this:*

The Fair Folk’s player may also veto any
changes to their character that makes him virtually unplayable
or helpless.

it implies that playing a Fair Folk is something that is possible. strange. how far in advance are they preparing?

[Recaiden]

They've been playable in both previous editions, have they not? It's also there for the many situations where the ST is the one playing the fair folk.

[Morty]

I'm pretty sure the devs are on record saying Fair Folk will be playable, and that they have some ideas about how their powers will work, even if it's a long way off.

[Rater202]

*is reading through 3e corebook*
*looks at Lore Charms*
*gets to Order-Affirming Blow*
*reads this:*


it implies that playing a Fair Folk is something that is possible. strange. how far in advance are they preparing?

Yeah, Devs are planning to make them playable. If you go onto the What We Know archive, they've even mentioned that they have a plan for how to make them feel alien in play-Their Charms are going to work like powers from a World of Darkness Splat.

They've also mentioned that tere are now more kinds of Fairfolk than just Raksha-they're just the nobles. And that more than one kind will be playable. This is done becuase the current devs feel that if you want an Army of Goblins, you should spend XP on Followers or aquire them via roleplay, instead of spending charms to make some out of yourself.

And Unshaped Raksha are not more powerful than shaped ones-they have some abilities the shaped lack, but the shaped get them back as soon as they step back into chaos.

I don't remeber if they're leaving in the "Glance at the Fourth Wall because Raksha are Role Players" thing, but it's not going to be represented in the charms.

And they are not going to be just generic Cthulhu elves, so even if it's not there's still gonna be something fun about it.

[Grytorm]

Hello, I visited a book store with a few Exalted books available. And I am an eternal collector, but I don't know if I want to get into grabbing Exalted 2e. The books were for 2e I am pretty certain. I do know that 3e is being worked on.

They were Manual of Exalted Power: Abyssals, the MEP: Lunars and Graceful Wicked Masks. Are these any good?

[TheCountAlucard]

You'd be hard-pressed to pick three more problematic books.* GWM was so troublesome that nigh-on every Charm in the book was given an extensive entry in the errata, since GWM chose the… controversial idea to have most of its Charms do next to nothing in Creation, aka the place where the game is set.

MoEP: Lunars had even worse writing than GWM had mechanics.

*But yes, you could find them.

[Grytorm]

Good to know. I think I will hold off on getting any Exalted books even is my obsessive conservatism makes it so I would be drawn to 2e over 3e even though I never finished the core. I know I am terrible but the Charms lists were a little long.

[Guancyto]

2e

the Charms lists were a little long.

Heh heh heh...
Ha ha ha
Hahahaha!

Oh dear.

Well I've got good news and bad news for you about 3e...

[Ifni]

Heh heh heh...
Ha ha ha
Hahahaha!

Oh dear.

Well I've got good news and bad news for you about 3e...

Repeat after me: "There's no such thing as Socialize or Craft, there's no such thing as Socialize or Craft..."

[Lord Raziere]

Repeat after me: "There's no such thing as Socialize or Craft, there's no such thing as Socialize or Craft..."

This is a thing that is true. there is no 50+ Craft charms detailing how the Solar basically ignores parts of the system just to make sure that your craft is only less bad than everyone elses, rather than being incredibly awesome. nor is there a bunch of charms in Socialize to basically give you a form of multiple personality disorder that has the benefit of making you more versatile than everybody else. they don't exist. at all.

what me, bitter about how playing a gadgeteer got shafted? Naaaaaah. the one thing about human excellence I actually care for, the ability to invent and create something new being turned into a cookie clicker system about doing everything but what I actually want to do? Not there at all! actually creating things that are interesting and useful is for Sorcery!

.....and now that I think about it.....that actually opens up the options for the Castes I could play. Why play a Twilight Caste Sorcerer, when I could play a Dawn Caste Sorcerer instead and basically get the same level of Sorcerous Workings and power for creating artifacts and whatnot while getting more awesome combat skills at the same time? instead of having to choose some specialty set of charms that I don't see how will apply most of the time, I can instead just go Dawn, pick all the charms I want for kicking ass to make sure I survive long enough to build anything after the initial wars, conquering and whatnot, then start working on the charms that will be useful for not kicking ass when I'm secure in my power. that and I don't have to wait for awesome things like summoning demons, creating elementals, blasting doors open OR wait to have a bunch of cool combat charms. win-win!