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View Full Version : Exalted Campaign, Could this work?



VirOath
2009-04-09, 05:24 AM
Now I've been interested in Exalted since I found the thread about it on these boards, and after looking through it and talking with the store owner about it a bit, I picked up a few books and have started building a campaign.

Now the basis for it is that the players will start out as human, go through part of the arc as that, letting the players get a bit of the feel for the stat system and such, making things a bit smooth. As they go, Exalted level items and weapons will trickle into the party, ones that are locked and more power is gained as the party gathers more of them.

Mind you, they will be locked so that a person carrying one can't get another. To prevent the party from loading one person up with them and making them superman before my plan. And they will refuse to be sold.

But the point of this is to keep the party about the same powerlevel while doing this. The end point of the first full arc is that they find an old temple, long abandoned. After working through it, they are faced with a final magic lock. Unlocking it gives the entire party Exalted Status.

Now, I'm wondering if it is a good idea to turn humans to Exalted in game play. Will these freshly Exalted be lacking in skills and points even after handing them the difference including the average that would have been lost in character creation due to more expensive skills? I'm not too worried about th background limitations, as they are all getting the item one for free. For Charms I was planning on giving out the basic number for character creation when they turned Exalted (Granted, they will all be Solars of the Unconquered Sun).

I'm hoping these characters will be a bit stronger than the fresh Exalted, or atleast at par. But will their be anything that would make them weaker, even after they get equal starting rules and creation?

banjo1985
2009-04-09, 05:44 AM
I did exactly this for my one and only Exalted Campaign, and it seemed to work pretty well. It tends to work out that players end up about the same power level as a fresh Exalted, though with the minor artifacts you're planning to give them they'll probably be a little better. This kind of thing worked quite well for me, but the main stumbling blocks with this approach tend to be in the setting and power level of the world more than anything else.

The difference in combat and other things as soon as the players become Exalted will be very marked and obvious. Things that challenged them before will immediately become pushovers, and combat can get bogged down as the players try to work out how these charms and combo's work halfway through a game they thought they knew the rules to. Also, if you've packed your campaign world with stuff that will challenge mortal characters, it can be hard to add new things that will now challenge the Exalted. Where were they when the characters were mortal?

There are a couple of solutions to that. I went for the character's Exaltation not being the only Exaltation that happened at that time. Their Exaltation let Abbyssals into the world, thus giving them something powerful to stand up against. Another option is for the Exaltation to drastically change the character's location when they wake up. Becoming Exalted and ending up on another continent, or even another plane of existence, can give a lot of new options that don't break the world you've created for the mortal start of the campaign.

Tengu_temp
2009-04-09, 06:20 AM
Remember that most artifacts require commiting essence, which means mortals can't use them.

VirOath
2009-04-09, 06:51 AM
Oh, The serious silliness of the power level for the game isn't an issue. 3 of my players love Dragon Ball Z, and the other two see it as funny. Considering we are talking about similar levels of ludicrous I don't see a problems with the players. And this system just seems awesome because of the power level involved.


I already got the power jump planned out, they become exalted at the end of the arc, because they have to be and it's planned beyond them, I'll explain in a moment. But the minor artifacts functioning as super weak charms with their own essence pool until the characters become Exalted and unlock them would prevent that issue with learning the charms after Exaltation. Thanks for the inspiration.

((If this makes any sense, I flipped through the setting, not read every page word for word))
But the concept is that Exalts are already in the world, as per the standard campaign setting, but very few Solar essences have gotten freed. Pretty much another Sorcerer Solar saw the coming of the end of the first age, and even knowing what would happen soon, he was unable to stop it. Since most Exalts see themselves as invincible and wouldn't heed any warning given to them, moreso in the first age than any other. So he tricked his brothers, sealing their souls in keybound locks that only could be broken by unique artifacts, and only when all of them were in the same spot.

So there was less Solar to have their souls stolen to the underworld. But the plan has backfired a bit. More Abyssal Exalted are in the world, less souls escaped to join the mortals with Exaltation.

Now the party is normal humans, completing quests and fighting mundane problems, or very light supernatural baddies. What they come across is a bunch of mercs fighting an Abyssal Exalted that was saccing the village, and getting their asses handed to them. Now, this is the first point of entry for an artifact, it either shows up to help them or to compell them to fight.

Really though, the mercs are well equipped bandits patron to the Lords of Hell, so to speak, or death cultists. They had sacced the village and slayed every living being they could find. That's why the Abyssal attacked them, he's rogue and has his own plans.

When the Abyssal notices the bracer on one of the new group, rather than just outright killing he gives a light whooping and flees casually.

Investigation leads one thing to another, the party gets hired up to find the Devices of Creation that will stop the coming doomsday, as they are told (And find out the hook for the job on a sign, that hits them in the head). They find the rest of the artifacts rather quickly, the first one seeming to guide them, the artifacts themselves getting a bit stronger as they rejoin their counterparts.

Old temple, yada yada yada, Big raised dais with inscriptions over it and engraved artwork. When the party stands at the indicated spots the lock shatters and the souls of the Exalted Solar flow into the party. Ding! Level up.


Now, what I'm not expecting this group to link together is that the Abyssal is Rogue. Abyssals have to destroy, so he has chosen to destroy in the name of good. And finding a challenge, and getting strong enough to rip is old Lord's head off, and a bunch of other reasons, some noble and more than some a bit selfish. Hey, for an Abyssal he's damn cheery! He sought out the first of the keys, found it but wasn't able to use it. He was able to bind it though, get it to follow him. Of course, when it found a willful person of similar inclination, it flared, broke free and ran to him, just as expected.

The old sage that put up the job in the first place is actually the Abyssal, or rather put upto it by him, and an old 'friend' as you might say. This was done because he wanted to destroy the seals binding the rest of his untainted brood from the clever prison they had been held in.

And as far as things go, it's even more messed up. Things that have been kept in check no longer are, certain vassals created for or by certain powers are either broken or 'lost' and in one case Both. Which is very terribad because the shards she held were actually draining her strength and power.

It's not a complete railroad by any means, just that if the characters don't reach Exaltation by the end of the first arc (Say, they refuse to unknowingly release the souls) then they won't survive to long. That Abyssal wants ALL of the seals broken.

But thanks for letting me know that one issue, wouldn't have caught that. Good to know ^_^