Exalted and Shadowrun?

[Starsign]

Hello. I'm a D&D 3.5 and M&M 2e player but I wanted to try something different. I took a bit of a look at Shadowrun and Exalted and found interest in the two, but I was wanted to know more about them and what players have experienced from it. Please give info and tell me your stories about them! :smallwink:

[Kyeudo]

I can't say much for Shadowrun, but for Exalted, it's kinda like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWItr_49MHA&feature=related), plus a little of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stcdeabi8WU), and maybe some of that (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLOwwchSrjw). The game has a high power level (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik), so be aware that nothing is really outside the power of a starting character and that railroading your players is impossible.

[BobVosh]

I would say quite a bit is outside the range of a starting character in exalted, even solars. However midlevel nothing is impossible, and high level they systematically do the impossible to say that they did it.

SR and exalted are very different games with respect to play style, fluff, and crunch. The only thing similar is that they both use a success based dice pool system. Both are a lot of fun, I simply have this question for you: Would you prefer high fantasy with a oriental twist or rugged crapsack future where you stick it to the man.

[JaronK]

I've never played Exalted, but I'm currently in a three year long Shadowrun campaign (third edition, though).

Shadowrun is of course a heist based cyberpunk game, and the atmosphere is critical to making it fun. I've found that getting players to watch a few good appropriate movies before starting works wonders. The Italian Job, Ocean's 11, Heat, Ronin, Ghost in the Shell, and Bladerunner will get you there nicely (and they're wonderful movies anyway).

As for the game itself, it's a solid game but it's complex (as you'd expect from any modern game that models the various kinds of gear you can get). You have to be willing to get into the crunch of it, but after that it's a heck of a lot of fun. It's also very flexible... it's easy to make almost any kind of character so long as they fit at all in the world. If you're playing 3rd, you'll need NSRCG to make characters more easily.

JaronK

[Starsign]

So Exalted is basiclly a game where you can do the impossible? Sounds awesome. :smalltongue:

Shadowrun also sounds interesting. What's NSRCG?

[Terraoblivion]

No, of course you can't do the impossible. It's just that only two things are impossible, time travel and resurrection and the yozis cheat even there. :smalltongue:

But yeah, Subaru going berzerk is a pretty accurate depiction of limit break, specifically Red Rage of Compassion. She's also one of the four clearest examples of one of the exalt types i can think of, together with Aigis, Chachamaru and R. Dorothy.

In any case, Exalted is about being an epic hero, though what that means to you differs. For some it means pulling off crazy stunts like in Advent Children and not really much more, for others it means being Achilles sulking in his tent or Qin Shi Huangdi unifying China. It has a much larger breadth than it initially appears.

[JaronK]

Shadowrun also sounds interesting. What's NSRCG?

New Shadowrun Character Generator. It's a program that makes character creation MUCH faster. There's a lot of items and bookkeeping in a crunch heavy game like Shadowrun, so it can be hard to just whip up a character (easy to conceive of, but tedious to create). Even though the basic ideas are quick to pick up (put a 6 in all your important skills and stats, flesh out the rest as you see fit) it just takes time. NSRCG makes this a ton faster, allowing you to make characters in 30 minutes instead of 6 hours.

JaronK

[Arbane]

I've never played Exalted, but I'm currently in a three year long Shadowrun campaign (third edition, though).

Shadowrun is of course a heist based cyberpunk game, and the atmosphere is critical to making it fun. I've found that getting players to watch a few good appropriate movies before starting works wonders. The Italian Job, Ocean's 11, Heat, Ronin, Ghost in the Shell, and Bladerunner will get you there nicely (and they're wonderful movies anyway).

You should've mentioned it's a _fantasy_ cyberpunk game. In 2012, magic started working again, and then Things Got Weird.

[Yuki Akuma]

I would say quite a bit is outside the range of a starting character in exalted, even solars. However midlevel nothing is impossible, and high level they systematically do the impossible to say that they did it.

Nah, you can easily build a starting character to be able to do one thing specific if you gimp him in other areas - a starting Twilight can build a 5 dot Manse if you optimise at all.

Of course, a min/maxed Solar is still able to do most things are least as well as an average human, and most things a whole lot better...


You should've mentioned it's a _fantasy_ cyberpunk game. In 2012, magic started working again, and then Things Got Weird.

A lot of people, for some reason or another, thing "cyberpunk" automatically includes magic.

Mainly because of Shadowrun.

[Starsign]

Ah cool. I think I may pick up Exalted when I find the time and money. Would there be any books that you can recommend?

[Jokasti]

The big ones for me are Core, of course, and one called Oadenols Codex. Huge list of artifacts, hearthstones, and how to build manse as well as some other cool stuff. Lunars if you want to break out of the Solar shell, and possibly Wonders of the Lost Age for even more artifacts.

[The Rose Dragon]

Get Scroll of the Monk.

Then burn the non-fluff parts in a fire. The last chapter is kinda nice, since it gives us typhoon wheels and daikalbars, but still.

Oh! Oh! Get Scroll of Fallen Races and Debris from Fallen Races, so you can have another stock response to where you got your artifacts than "I found them in a Solar tomb".

[Drascin]

I can't say much for Shadowrun, but for Exalted, it's kinda like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWItr_49MHA&feature=related), plus a little of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stcdeabi8WU), and maybe some of that (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLOwwchSrjw). The game has a high power level (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik), so be aware that nothing is really outside the power of a starting character and that railroading your players is impossible.

This is a bit misleading, though. Really, for all the stunts Exalts can pull, I've never felt so fragile as when I've played Exalted. It's a high-power setting, yes, but it's not really as massively over-the top and gung-ho as its base as many quotes would have you believe - those just focus on the more outrageous parts :smalltongue:.

Anyway, as for manuals, I always seem to get much mileage out of Wonders of the First Age and Oadenol's Codex, and they will probably have at least some bits applicable to almost any Exalted game.

[Jokasti]

Get Scroll of the Monk.

Then burn the non-fluff parts in a fire. The last chapter is kinda nice, since it gives us typhoon wheels and daikalbars, but still.

Oh! Oh! Get Scroll of Fallen Races and Debris from Fallen Races, so you can have another stock response to where you got your artifacts than "I found them in a Solar tomb".

He's crazy.

[Kyeudo]

This is a bit misleading, though. Really, for all the stunts Exalts can pull, I've never felt so fragile as when I've played Exalted. It's a high-power setting, yes, but it's not really as massively over-the top and gung-ho as its base as many quotes would have you believe - those just focus on the more outrageous parts :smalltongue:.


I've built a starting Infernal that could take 30+ levels of damage and still keep fighting. Fragile in Exalted is all about which choices you made about how to defend yourself.

[JaronK]

You should've mentioned it's a _fantasy_ cyberpunk game. In 2012, magic started working again, and then Things Got Weird.

Honestly, I think Shadowrun is far more cyberpunk than fantasy. Yes, there's magic... but it's not high magic, and for every magical trick there's a technological trick that also gets the job done. Dragons are super powerful mages who reentered the world... but the ones that tried to take over by force got shot down by orbital lasers. Now the ones who try to take over the world do so via corporate control, which is I think the hallmark of Shadowrun.

Done right, Shadowrun is a world where there's always someone who can take you out. You don't act via direct power, but rather planning. The thugs on the street use direct power, even if they're mages, and they stay on the bottom. The movers and schemers aren't physically or magically strong, they just know how to work the system, and that's cyberpunk to the core.

JaronK

[Noedig]

Go watch the Matrix, and Equilibrium.

Now go play Shadowrun.

You'll notice a similarity.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

The only Shadowrun game I've played was mixed with Lovecraftian horrors from Call of Cthulhu. It worked surprisingly well; all of our characters were slowly going insane (in a fun way) before the GM had time conflicts and the game petered out.

[Ganurath]

I've built a starting Infernal that could take 30+ levels of damage and still keep fighting. Fragile in Exalted is all about which choices you made about how to defend yourself.I've designed a starting Alchemical that can soak 20 aggravated, 41 lethal, and 40 bashing with naught but equipment and Permanent Charms. Oh, and impose a -2 external penalty on damage rolls once the soak reduces it to minimum... And adds six bonus dice to all non-reflexive actions and Virtue rolls.

On a fluff side, I am currently using a character from what is considered the weakest type of Exaltation to block a flooding river with flute music. So, yeah, you're only as fragile as you let yourself be.

[The Rose Dragon]

On a fluff side, I am currently using a character from what is considered the weakest type of Exaltation to block a flooding river with flute music. So, yeah, you're only as fragile as you let yourself be.

Sidereals don't have any river-blocking Charms. :smallconfused:

[Jokasti]

Sidereals don't have any river-blocking Charms. :smallconfused:

You and your Exaltation-ism. :smallbiggrin:

[Kyeudo]

I've designed a starting Alchemical that can soak 20 aggravated, 41 lethal, and 40 bashing with naught but equipment and Permanent Charms. Oh, and impose a -2 external penalty on damage rolls once the soak reduces it to minimum... And adds six bonus dice to all non-reflexive actions and Virtue rolls.


That was 30 levels of post-soak damage. Only took 3 Charms, Essence 3, and a 4 dot Heathstone. He still had plenty left over to plow into armor, perfect defenses, and what have you, but most of those were against his style, seeing as I designed him as a Zaraki Kenpachi expy.

[Yuki Akuma]

Sidereals don't have any river-blocking Charms. :smallconfused:

In-setting. He meant in-setting.