General Exalted Discussion Thread IX: Errata is Combo-Ok!

[Mr.Bookworm]

Originally Posted by Xefas

So, Asura's Wrath came out today.

I would suggest, if you like Infernals, you go watch at least the first 5-6 episodes on Youtube. The main character is, at one point, the One-Handed Maiden (from everyone's favorite martial art sutra) in every possible way and meaning. And it is awesome.

You do realize that the Scripture of the One-Handed Maiden is from the Sidereal Resistance tree, right?

Nephilpal co-opted it for Infernal Monster because, well, it's awesome.

[Jade Dragon]

Originally Posted by Xefas

Apparently, only minutes ago, while I was in the middle of watching a video, Capcom threw a tantrum and had all recent Asura's Wrath gameplay videos taken down (in at least one case, including an officially Capcom-sanctioned review).

I'm sure they'll be back up somewhere on the internet by tomorrow. But, as a summation to those folks who haven't seen it, the main character, Asura, is fighting a god the size of a small planet, who attempts to squish him with a big golden mountain-range-esque finger. Asura activates Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai (for some bonus limbs) and punches this dude's hand until his own arms crack and shatter into little bits. With his single remaining arm, he Green Sun Nimbus Flares the god into oblivion. This tears Asura's last arm off.

And then he fights another god using only his head, torso, and feet while I shout Monty Python references.

Does he somehow grow his limbs back or does he inexplicably do the climactic duel between him and his teacher BEFORE fighting the fat guy and remembering what the gods did?

[Gensh]

How bad is it that I want to see a SWLIHN and Autochthon "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" commercial?

[Tavar]

The Question is, which is a Mac, and which is a PC?

[DrakeRaids]

Auto is the PC, plagued with demonic and incomprehensible gremlins, while SWLiHN is the Mac, user friendly but its end goal is to eat your soul.

[Gensh]

Originally Posted by DrakeRaids

Auto is the PC, plagued with demonic and incomprehensible gremlins, while SWLiHN is the Mac, user friendly but its end goal is to eat your soul.

This was my reasoning, plus how Windows is full of lag and usually runs on ugly, misshapen, and dull-colored systems as opposed to the shiny, rounded, white Macs. I just finished a computer science assignment where I bogged down efficiency for the sake of making everything look neat, so it was on my mind.

[tonberrian]

This comparison fails to communicate that SWLiHN is a much more streamlined system.

Like Unix.

[Lord Raziere]

but if thats true, whats the Mac then? Fair Folk? they are user friendly but want to eat your soul….

[Tavar]

The Ebon Dragon?

[Gensh]

Originally Posted by tonberrian

This comparison fails to communicate that SWLiHN is a much more streamlined system.

Like Unix.

While explaining the Three Spheres Cataclysm as why Linux doesn't have drivers for anything is hilarious, I'm not sure it's appropriate given the various issues with the OS.

[horngeek]

...Seeing some of the gameplay of Asura's Wrath actually makes me want to play an Infernal Hero Slayer.

But one going into the Heretical Tree. Probably an Excellency revolving around 'does the right thing'.

Of course, this being Exalted, what the right thing is from his view might be very different from everyone else's view.

Any ideas how to word such an Excellency?

[Xefas]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bookworm

You do realize that the Scripture of the One-Handed Maiden is from the Sidereal Resistance tree, right?

I'm not sure why this would prevent it from also being from everyone's favorite martial art as well?

Originally Posted by Jade Dragon

Does he somehow grow his limbs back or does he inexplicably do the climactic duel between him and his teacher BEFORE fighting the fat guy and remembering what the gods did?

I think he grows his limbs back. I'm not 100% sure, as there's some flashback/forward pacing shenanigans, and I wasn't able to watch far enough to be certain of where everything fits together.

[Gensh]

Originally Posted by horngeek

...Seeing some of the gameplay of Asura's Wrath actually makes me want to play an Infernal Hero Slayer.

But one going into the Heretical Tree. Probably an Excellency revolving around 'does the right thing'.

Of course, this being Exalted, what the right thing is from his view might be very different from everyone else's view.

Any ideas how to word such an Excellency?

This is actually relevant to something I'm working on. I might have some goodies for you by the end of the week, depending on how much homework I get saddled with.

[horngeek]

Originally Posted by Gensh

This is actually relevant to something I'm working on. I might have some goodies for you by the end of the week, depending on how much homework I get saddled with.

...the Asura's Wrath bit, or the Devil-Tiger bit?

[Gensh]

Originally Posted by horngeek

...the Asura's Wrath bit, or the Devil-Tiger bit?

Sadly, I haven't finished my heretical Charms, so I don't have the ability to control the internet...yet.

I just need to reword my own Excellency to account for some serious revisions late in the design stage and discuss some setting details with one of my former players before I can get to my "guys, let's stop solving all our problems by killing them" project. It'll be a bit of work to get it to fit into the vanilla setting, but I'm trying to set up an organization (with artifacts and charms to boot) to give would-be "good guys" a bit of infrastructure in case you want to start the game mid-Reclamation or something - or you just don't like how the setting is grey and black without anyone who even looks like a good guy. That'll be the real challenge: making it so that the organization strictly looks good but doesn't override the agency of the PCs to be the only real heroes.

[Drascin]

Originally Posted by Revlid

The first definition is the one Exalted uses.

The second one is very similar, as very few "heroic" characters don't believe they're bettering the world through their actions. That's largely the province of the Ebon Dragon.

The third is a useless definition, as it simply means "good person".

Desus was not a good person. But he was a hero.
And he'd certainly make a better dinner host than Salina.

I would refute this. I'm certain Salina would have made a pretty good host. Her crazy was not the type that came out in personal-scale relations like a dinner visit. Desus's? Was .

He would probably get offended if you said anything other than praises for him in the whole evening. Probably beat you up for it. Mabe even assume that the fact you weren't at his feet obviously meant you were conspiring against him and everything else that is good - it's not like we don't already have an example or two of Desus twisting the facts to be a "hero".

Salina would be pleasant all evening. She'd entertain you, engage in polite conversation, and it'd be all very civilized and nice. And you'd simply go away with a certain je-ne-sais-quoi feeling that this woman is creepily focused.

[vegetalss4]

Originally Posted by horngeek

...Seeing some of the gameplay of Asura's Wrath actually makes me want to play an Infernal Hero Slayer.

But one going into the Heretical Tree. Probably an Excellency revolving around 'does the right thing'.

Of course, this being Exalted, what the right thing is from his view might be very different from everyone else's view.

Any ideas how to word such an Excellency?

Depends, do you want the excellency to be one that encourages any user to do whatever they consider the right thing, probably limited somehow so as to not become an omni-excellency or do you want one that encourages an user to act in the way the Devil-tiger considers the right way?

Because in the later case, write it like any other excellency. most of them think that they are doing the right thing (Ebon Dragon and Cecelyne excluded, Malfeas too now that I think about it).

[Draken]

Originally Posted by Drascin

I would refute this. I'm certain Salina would have made a pretty good host. Her crazy was not the type that came out in personal-scale relations like a dinner visit. Desus's? Was .

He would probably get offended if you said anything other than praises for him in the whole evening. Probably beat you up for it. Mabe even assume that the fact you weren't at his feet obviously meant you were conspiring against him and everything else that is good - it's not like we don't already have an example or two of Desus twisting the facts to be a "hero".

Salina would be pleasant all evening. She'd entertain you, engage in polite conversation, and it'd be all very civilized and nice. And you'd simply go away with a certain je-ne-sais-quoi feeling that this woman is creepily focused.

I am pretty sure Revlid was poking fun at the fact that Salina instituted and presided over the Calibration Feast, which was when the sidereals came and murdered almost everyone.

[Ganurath]

Originally Posted by Draken

I am pretty sure Revlid was poking fun at the fact that Salina instituted and presided over the Calibration Feast, which was when the sidereals came and murdered almost everyone.

Salina didn't arrange for the murders, and nobody got sexually violated before they died. So still better than Desus.

[Andreaz]

Originally Posted by Ganurath

Salina didn't arrange for the murders, and nobody got sexually violated before they died. So still better than Desus.

I disagree. It's basically what Revlid said, but I'll resume it here: Desus made hundreds of millions of lives better without being a lunatic predisposed to rewrite reality on a whim because it would be easier than doing lower work.
Salina? She was a chick who spent half her life fornicating with a dragon and rewrote reality on a whim.

[Tavar]

Salina didn't do it on a whim: she was intensely driven, and doing what she did was part of her plan. She did do it without much thought to the consequences and without oversight.


As for Desus...please note where he sexually violated people or murdered people wantonly. People keep bringing it up, but I'm not seeing the proof of it in DotFA, excepting Lilith, and her case is complicated with several factors.

[Andreaz]

Originally Posted by Tavar

Salina didn't do it on a whim: she was intensely driven, and doing what she did was part of her plan. She did do it without much thought to the consequences and without oversight.

Ah, true. Sorry for the word misuse.

Originally Posted by Tavar

As for Desus...please note where he sexually violated people or murdered people wantonly. People keep bringing it up, but I'm not seeing the proof of it in DotFA, excepting Lilith, and her case is complicated with several factors.

His character sheet says he roughs up people in bed every now and then. Still the solar i'd rather be protected and governed by, even before the mind controls.

[Madwand]

Salina didn't do it on a whim: she was intensely driven, and doing what she did was part of her plan. She did do it without much thought to the consequences and without oversight.

Note: totally not true. She had oversight, and Sidereals liked Salianan. So Revlid interpretation is also false. Salianan Working is Gold faction argument not Bronze faction one.

Originally Posted by MoEP:Sidereals

The Gold Fac-tion likes to emphasize how much of the Old Realm’s achievements rested on Solar might and genius, guided by Sidereal foresight and planning. The faction points to the Salinan Working, which wove sorcerous initiation into the fabric of Creation itself, as an example of such partnership, stressing that the Twilight Caste Salina had Glorious Viziers in her group.

[golentan]

Also, didn't Desus have a hand in operation Wyldhand? I remember him as helping with the propaganda and justification around that particular debacle.

[Tavar]

That's more of the issue that Operation Wyldhand poisoned the game in many ways, and doesn't serve the purpose it should. It's supposed to be an example of how the Solars can get a bit out of hand. Instead, it's an example of how the entire Solar Deliberative are in-human monsters, and the Bronze faction is the only right and sane people in the setting.

I mean, what other response is reasonable given that, in Real World Terms, they basically carpet Nuked New England. As a war exercise, and did it with a unanimous vote.

Wyldhand cannot be in the setting as currently written, because it destroys many factors and ideas that the setting is built on.

[Mr.Bookworm]

On the one hand, I can actually understand Wyldhand. People in the First Age (the people in charge, anyway) pretty clearly saw reincarnations as the same people, on some level. This makes a lot of sense from an Exalted view, where you have a third soul stuck to you that you're getting at least a few fragments of memory from, and where your governing body treats you in some ways as if you were the same person as the last holder of your Exaltation. The Deliberative also set up laws so that anyone killed in the service of a Solar (among other things) would get a good deal in their next incarnation.

So, yeah, it's quite possible that a somewhat alien mindset, combined with a completely callous lack of regard to human life, could lead to the inadvertent murder of millions.

...not that I agree with the exact portrayal of Wyldhand as it stands, but I can certainly see where the basic idea is coming from.

[Andreaz]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bookworm

The Deliberative also set up laws so that anyone killed in the service of a Solar (among other things) would get a good deal in their next incarnation.

This bit always makes me giggle thinking that, when meeting to decide how to act on the Three Solutions given by the Great Prophecy, they were in an intense tie, until another messenger god arrived, driving a small truck pulling three wagons' worth of paperwork for them to fill because of an uppity solar's murderous shenanigans. Then a bunch of Bluesids threw their tables, yelling "SCREW THIS IM OUTTA HERE" at the top of their lungs, cast the "kill solars" vote and left for an orgy.

[Turalisj]

Could someone enlighten me as to what Operation Wyldhand was?

[Volthawk]

Originally Posted by Turalisj

Could someone enlighten me as to what Operation Wyldhand was?

The Deliberative gave the go-ahead for a war game in which they destabilised a region of Creation with Wyld energy, warping the land and spawning armies of behemoths and Fair Folk, simply because they wanted to test their latest weapons and their armies. They didn't see fit to warn the mortals about this, and in the 16 months the Operation took, 40 million mortals died and regions of Creation was lost. At the time Dreams of the Lost Age is set, that happened 23 years ago, and it was predicted that cleanup would take at least another decade, the cleanup being made more complicated due to the wyld-shapers wanting to 'improve' the layout of the land, to use the way the book describes it. Oh, and all this was seen as a 'triumphant success' officially.

[Draken]

Originally Posted by Turalisj

Could someone enlighten me as to what Operation Wyldhand was?

They baited countless raksha into a rather large portion of creation to test superweapons. Nobody cared to evacuate the mortals who lived in the designated area beforehand. All the raksha and all the mortals were killed and reality was severely damaged in the area (creating Deep Wyld, I think).

Or the above, which is more detailed.