Interest Check: Exalted 3rd ed Mu
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@jennkryst said in Interest Check: Exalted 3rd ed Mu:
Also really hope you critique every game over needing to track their characters' caloric intake to make sure they maintain their stats.
Only games where divinely granted power alienating you from humanity is the general point, because making a character who is already alienated from humanity by preexisting factors and not exploring how much more or how much faster Exaltation fucks with your head would feel like a seriously dropped ball.
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@greenflashlight I agree. Exalted is very much character driven imho. People who see it ONLY as getting to be a god-powered destroyer might be missing the point.
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@jennkryst said in Interest Check: Exalted 3rd ed Mu:
This is a valid point. Out of those last five or six versions, only the most recent was 3e. And it closed shortly after Dragonblooded Kickstarter manuscript came out - not even the final copy. So NEW THINGS may mean new player approaches. There's also the folks who WILL play other things for the niche RP aspects. But it still ends up being like 20-30 Solars, 15 Infernals, 10 Abyssals, 15 Lunars, 6 Alchemicals, 4 Sidereals, 2 Dragonblooded, 1-3 Raksha, and maybe some god/fae/ghost blooded, if folks are feeling FANCY. Those aren't the ACTIVE numbers. Those are the TOTAL numbers.
I usually see more DBs then Sidereals but other then that those ratios more or less match up with my experience. Before Infernals were released, Lunars used to be slightly more popular.
Though I think it's worth pointing out that a lot of the unpopularity of Alchemicals, Sidereals and Raksha is that they're weird and play weird with the latter two having somewhat broken rules to boot.
Solars, Lunars and DBs are all pretty straightforward and the popularity of DBs is always going to depend on how much emphasis the game puts on them. They're plenty popular on games where the focus is on a dragonblooded city state where they get to flex their full social benefits. In games set in the middle of nowhere they tend to be unpopular because without an empire behind them they can easily feel like 'the weak' exalt.
What is obvious to you may not be obvious to me and vice versa.
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@groth How lucky our Dragonblooded will be, then, that we're based in The Empire of Prasad! I hope to see a lot of Dragonblooded characters.
I totally understand wanting to play a celestial exalt, but I really do love the terrestrials. They feel really fantastic and are a ton of fun to play.
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@surasanji said in Interest Check: Exalted 3rd ed Mu:
@groth How lucky our Dragonblooded will be, then, that we're based in The Empire of Prasad! I hope to see a lot of Dragonblooded characters.
I totally understand wanting to play a celestial exalt, but I really do love the terrestrials. They feel really fantastic and are a ton of fun to play.
Like I said before, the best way to keep Solars (and other Celestials) from overshadowing the Terrestrial Exalted (and God-Blooded) is to just tell them not to and smack'em upside the head when they do it anyway.
After the first Celestial that oversteps and gets his ass overrun with three dozen Dragon-Blooded NPCs is left a bloody corpse at the entrance to Prasad, the rest will get the message. Just sayin'. >.>
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So, I've been discussing with staff how we can implement the Celestial Exalts.
So far, we're tossing around the idea that the Celestial Exalts have a place within 'The Pure Way' the religion of The Empire of Prasad.
They're not quite so 'Burn the Anathema' as the Realm Proper, and are allowed to handle their own affairs- so why not include them somewhere within the religious structure?
We're still not decided on how exactly to work them in, but I'm hopeful we'll figure out a way that'll be engaging and fun.
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@surasanji I feel you would be better off setting the game itself on the coast of the Dreaming Sea and thus very much on or beyond the edge of Prasad influence? You could have dragon blooded PCs with their 'safe' area in the empire proper. Then a mixed area of vassal states, dependencies and similar with all sorts of adventure shenanigans going on and ability for celestials to operate but probably not set up a fixed public base if they do not want to be smashed by a hundred experience dragon blooded with a serious business army. But plenty of ability to adventure and clash with Prasad influence if they want.
Then extended adventure times areas beyond that where celestials can openly set up kingdoms or lead clans of wolf pirates or whatever. If you have celestials within Prasad itself then they are going to end up 1) A majority of the PCs (this will happen anyway) and 2) Probably running the place.
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So is this still being worked on? I very much hope so because I would love to play on an Exalted game!
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I checked back to make sure I hadn't posted this yet, and didn't see it here, so VOLUND CODE - https://github.com/volundmush/storyteller/tree/master/storyteller
Got both Exalted 2 and Exalted 3 versions. Probably have to manually add new charms, because if memory serves, it's a database of charms, not just a blank section of sheet code of wildcards that you can add anything to (helps prevent typos, I GUESS)
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Also! New Exalted Kickstarter for those so inclined.
ETA: Glancing over the preview manuscript and reading all the thing, this LOOKS like an supplement/alt rule set attempting to make it less crunchy? So could help solve some of Exalted's barrier to entry.
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@jennkryst Very cool, thank you!
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@packrat Yes, it is! We've changed up our theme a bit, and are working on rules and whatnot. I admit, this is something of a longer term project for me because what we have planned will take some work.
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There has been a lot of work done in terms of concept, so far, as an update.
Speaking of which, I'm looking for someone who's really familiar lore and system wise with CoD. I don't want to say TOO much for fear of spoilers, but if you're interested in helping us out with this, please contact me and I'll invite you to our planning discord.
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The kickstarter is really shaping up. It is designed for multi-splat play, even, so... say... DBs aren't insanely underpowered compared to Solars. Sidereals are appropriately zany. And there's going to be a guide for charm conversion/creation at some point.
WE BEGIN WITH ATTRIBUTES, by which I ask you to prioritize how your characters solves problems. Do they attempt to brute force it? Do they try to finesse it? Do they... uh... try to stamina-it? First one is a 4, second is a 3, third is a 2. GONE ARE the DAYS OF 9 ATTRIBUTE SPREAD (this is the thing I have the biggest mixed feelings on, but I get it).
There's only 14 skills now, you get 1x5, 1x4, 3x3, 2x2, 1x1. Which is great, because I hate freebie points, I hate the subconscious need to min-max my skills for the most efficient XP spends in the future (bonus points: no XP. We got MILESTONES NOW. Which... yeah, will take some balancing on a MU, but ought to be easy enough.)
You do not have to have combat skills (close combat or ranged combat, not spread across 5-6 skills) to participate IN combat. Stare down the enemy as you both size each other up and prepare to duel... a cheerleader bard-type can use performance to increase the sword princess' skills... use Athletics to ninja-flip around and gain an advantageous position before unleashing an attack... or even actually use close combat to ATTACK and DISTRACT the enemy. ALL OF THESE use the same mechanic for building combat power, with the exception of the bard... who rolls the dice the same way, just helps an ally build power instead.
That bard can also give a rousing speech to bring companions back from the brink of death, in the most 11th hour anime companion helps save the day way! Or, I guess... they could use medicine to save them, too. The dice roll/difficulty is the exact same, aside from picking which Attr+Ability to roll, same as building power.
All of that? ZERO charm use. That's no majik bullshit.
Social combat is less 'mirror copy of physical combat' as 2e, and includes a mechanic that every social system in the future needs to include forever and ever - Read Intentions: How can I get my target to do what I want them to do. And then in addition to THAT, they go a step further - 'I achieved the win condition but they still refuse, so now I get X bonus that I can use during Y future encounter'.
Perfects are GONE. By which I mean, if you use an unblockable charm to attack, and I respond with a 'automatically block attack' charm... they negate each other and dice are rolled as normal.
To help save on word count, we got UNIVERSAL CHARMS. Which is to say, a whole section that is just 'every exalt may buy this charm.' It might be slightly modified... EVERYONE has access to Glorious Exalted Bolt. For Alchemicals, it is a Samus arm, and their pew-pew adds knockback. Solars can increase damage. Infernals get bonus damage dice if they already hate you. DBs get their elemental stuff. Lunars don't have an upgrade, but they still get the basic stuff for it - an essence laser that counts as an artifact attack that you can increase the range of if you want to let your anima dim just a bit.
Which you don't. Anima effects are all insanely good now. But you CAN drop a level of Anima, if you absolutely NEED to shoot this bolt at medium range.
Gonna stop myself before I go on like this forever. You can get access to the manuscripts at the $5 backer level, or... maybe find it elsewhere, but I haven't seen it. Then again, I haven't gone looking.
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@jennkryst Are you talking about Exalted Essence?
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@greenflashlight I am, and it is hella neat.
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@jennkryst When did you get backer stuff? I haven't got anything in my inbox about it since pledging.
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@greenflashlight Links are on the Project Updates page of the kickstarter.
Edit to add - it's the manuscript version, so still needs an editing pass or three, along with other versioning errors that need fixing. But! There's definitely enough to code +sheets and +roll and all that jazz.
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@jennkryst It is really neat stuff. Not sure I love it, but there's some stuff there worth checking out.
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Final 24h of the Kickstarter, sprint to the finish line, etc etc etc. Go forth! Spend all the money! Force them to keep adding Stretch Goals until Raksha PCs return to the game!
