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Leliel
2010-05-26, 11:09 AM
Let me get this out of the way: I, love, absolutely love the NWoD, to the point where I'm thinking of running a crossover with it.

As one might expect from that, I like horror. Not inherently horrific games mind you-I always thought of the NWoD being a modern heroic fantasy game with very scary undertones-but ones where tension is high and a well of Nightmare Fuel.

Of course, this is Exalted. The game where the basic character splat is a demigod.

Which isn't to say it can't be done, just a little hard.

Personally, I think a good horror inspiration is Alan Wake-sure, it sacrifices scare value for tension, but that was a pretty good decision on the developer's part. So is that horror manga Gyo-sure, you might be able to cream the soulsteel cyborg fish, but the real problem isn't the undead amphibious army, it's the disease they carry with them-they don't have to get near you at all for you to fall to the miasma, and even if you survive, your friends probably won't.

And no, "horror" does not mean "survival horror". F.E.A.R, for example, is a very scary game, but you are a badass, and Alma doesn't really pose that much danger to you.

So, how would you, the forum-goers, make Exalted into a system and setting for running horror games?

Mr.Bookworm
2010-05-26, 11:30 AM
Play mortals.

Mortals are pretty much ****ed in every way in Exalted if they run up against anything not mortal, and if you played up the aspect of being incredibly outclassed against everything that wants to kill them, you could do some good horror. Fighting a Dragon-Blooded becomes a horrific encounter with a eldritch abomination with strange powers instead of a cakewalk.

It also forces them to utilize unusual tactics.

Ranos
2010-05-26, 11:31 AM
Play a mortal. Done.

Goddamit

imperialspectre
2010-05-26, 12:57 PM
You don't have to be a mortal to experience horror in Exalted. A standard-point Exalt character is outclassed by basically everything that isn't a mortal, including your standard dragonblood hit squad.

GryffonDurime
2010-05-26, 01:16 PM
You don't have to be a mortal to experience horror in Exalted. A standard-point Exalt character is outclassed by basically everything that isn't a mortal, including your standard dragonblood hit squad.

Uhm, I respectfully disagree. A Solar Exalt at character generation can pretty effectively handle a circle of Terrestrials, barring a truly terrible gap in Experience. A Perfect Circle does even better.

Horror...at least, body horror...isn't what Exalted is meant for. Trying to play that with the Exalted themselves is like trying to run an optimistic dungeon-delve in Call of Cthulhu. It's not that it can't be done, but it strains against the very mechanical and flavorful precepts of the game.

Psychological horror, on the other hand, is very effective. The Exalted can and do make choices that are absolutely horrifying, and a good storyteller--with the agreement of his players--will pick up on those decisions and help to unravel their implications. Solar magic can rewrite the hearts and minds of friends and foes alike, shape them into inhuman forms and tempt them with impossible riches. Demon Summoning itself represents a trap to the Exalted. Considering an Exalt above Mortals is itself a trap. That's where effective horror lies for the Exalted. The First Age is only as terrible as it was because the Exalted gave into these traps, the sort of hubris that allowed for things like Operation Wyldhand.