Getting started with Exalted

[Jeivar]

I’ve owned the Exalted main book for a couple of years now, but I’ve never been able to gather my friends around it. Now we are considering giving it a try as soon as we wrap up my VtM campaign, and I’m reacquainting myself with a system I only ever half-learned in the first place.

I’m both wondering just how to start with something managable but also exciting and semi-epic, and what to do with the limited resources of the main book. There is a lot it really only hints at, and I don’t want to buy any of the supplemental material until it looks like we’ll play this regularly.

I guess my main concerns regard:

*First Age technology, such as the war machines. What would be the basics of powering and operating, say, an airship?
*The powers of the other Exalted. I’m mostly thinking of Dragonblooded and Abyssals.
*The Solars are supposed to police renegade gods. Just how do they do this? Aren’t gods unkillable except by very specific charms that not everyone is going to possess?

[Andreaz]

Hi! :D
Unfortunately I don't know much to help but here goes:

*First Age technology, such as the war machines. What would be the basics of powering and operating, say, an airship?
As in for the players? Vehicles have a maneuverability that tells you what ability is needed to use it (ride or sail), as well as a bonus or penalty to the roll. Some vehicles also need crew to operate

*The powers of the other Exalted. I’m mostly thinking of Dragonblooded and Abyssals.
Abyssals work almost like solars do. Most differences are thematic. Where a solar trains someone into hypercompetence, the abyssal trains an emotionless soldier, drawing competence from that.
Dragon-bloods have very different powers. They tend to draw power from the elements and from cooperation. The typical dragon-blooded charm will do much less than a possible solar analog, and it can step up in power considerably through cooperation.
For example: a solar with Lore can punch mutations out of people.
A fire-aspect with lore can throw a fireball at your face. If the fire-aspect teams up with another dragonblooded buddy, they fire, together, a single fireball that is much nastier than their own separate fireballs.



*The Solars are supposed to police renegade gods. Just how do they do this? Aren’t gods unkillable except by very specific charms that not everyone is going to possess?
"Killing" is just one way of enforcing rules. You can convince them (solars are very good at that). You can beat them into submission(that he has to "die" in the process a dozen times isn't a big deal). You can strike deals. You can replace them (sidereals are the best at handling the divine bureaucracy).


Also, "supposed" doesn't mean they HAVE to do it. Exalts, in general, can go around and do whatever they want. There's no divine force enforcing their behavior. If someone tells mr Dragonblood to shut up and beat the rogue god, then the weight of the decision lies entirely on that someone.

[Mikal]

I’ve owned the Exalted main book for a couple of years now, but I’ve never been able to gather my friends around it. Now we are considering giving it a try as soon as we wrap up my VtM campaign, and I’m reacquainting myself with a system I only ever half-learned in the first place.

I’m both wondering just how to start with something managable but also exciting and semi-epic, and what to do with the limited resources of the main book. There is a lot it really only hints at, and I don’t want to buy any of the supplemental material until it looks like we’ll play this regularly.

I guess my main concerns regard:

[quote]
*First Age technology, such as the war machines. What would be the basics of powering and operating, say, an airship?

The Books of Sorcery Vol. 1: Wonders of the Lost Age



*The powers of the other Exalted. I’m mostly thinking of Dragonblooded and Abyssals.

Manual of Exalted Power: Whatever type of Exalt you want to know about.



*The Solars are supposed to police renegade gods. Just how do they do this? Aren’t gods unkillable except by very specific charms that not everyone is going to possess?

No. The Solars are supposed to rule Creation.
Nothing there about policing renegade gods. Except you know, killing them if needed. Which a Solar with any age behind him can easily do.

[Mr.Bookworm]

I’m both wondering just how to start with something managable but also exciting and semi-epic, and what to do with the limited resources of the main book. There is a lot it really only hints at, and I don’t want to buy any of the supplemental material until it looks like we’ll play this regularly.

Not sure how well it works, as I've never run it, but you might want to check out Return to the Tomb of Five Corners (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=1&products_id=3643&it=1), which is a free starting adventure with premade characters. There's also another more recent one called Under the Rose that's a little higher-powered.

Speaking of free stuff, I will offer up the requisite links to the Scroll of Errata (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=84593) and the Ink Monkeys stuff (http://forums.white-wolf.com/cs/forums/t/25828.aspx). The first is exactly what it sounds like, the second is free (official) stuff that they were putting out on the blog a couple years back.


*First Age technology, such as the war machines. What would be the basics of powering and operating, say, an airship?

Depends entirely on the machine in question, although pretty much all magitech needs repair every now and then.

On opposite ends of the scale, small concussive cannon (magic lasers, fwoosh) just needs attunement and a few motes every time you fire it, and a Directional Titan ("that's no moon!") sucks power out of the land for dozens of miles. A lot of devices can be powered via hearthstone, and many of the larger devices like warstriders (mecha) require them to function.

For airships, the ones you're most likely to see in the Age of Sorrows aren't actually artifacts. Haslanti airboats are just made out of feathersteel (a very light metal) with the usual zeppelin rig.

First Age airships don't generally look like zeppelins, but most of them need hearthstones and periodic maintenance. You generally use Sail to pilot them, and some of them require certain ratings in Sail and/or another ability to pilot. Smaller stuff, like a Windblade (flying surfboard), use Ride.


*The powers of the other Exalted. I’m mostly thinking of Dragonblooded and Abyssals.

Dragon-Bloods? Think Master Chief by way of Aang. Supersoldiers with elemental powers. They're strongly encouraged to work together, as they have a lot of stuff that works better the more of them there are. Terrestrials aren't as individually powerful as any of the other Exalted (they're far from weak, though), but there are a crapton of them.

Abyssals are inverted Solars. Murder, death, corruption, and so on, sort of layered on top of the basic Solar superhuman competence. They're very, very good at killing people. Not strictly bad guys, but you probably don't want your daughter sleeping with one.

Lunars are Conan plus werewolves with a dash of Cthulhu. Sidereals are the lovechild of Mister Miyagi, James Bond, a ninja, and your tax returns. Infernals are transhumanistic demon rock stars. Alchemicals are Communist robots living inside of the failing body of a Primordial.

This is only the base, mind you. There's plenty of variance within each splat.


*The Solars are supposed to police renegade gods. Just how do they do this? Aren’t gods unkillable except by very specific charms that not everyone is going to possess?

The Solars aren't really supposed to police gods. That tends to be more the Sidereal's job (literally a job, that is). The Dragon-Bloods also do it out of necessity.

Ghost-Eating Technique isn't incredibly hard to get (tier 3, Occult 4, Essence 3), though. It's one of the defining pieces of Solar might, since you need it to kill a Primordial.

If you do conflict with a god, though, murdering them forever is a bit of a harsh step. There are better ways to deal with spirits.

[TheCountAlucard]

I’ve owned the Exalted main book for a couple of years now, but I’ve never been able to gather my friends around it. Now we are considering giving it a try as soon as we wrap up my VtM campaign, and I’m reacquainting myself with a system I only ever half-learned in the first place.All right. Which edition? I'm going to assume second, but it doesn't hurt to be safe.


I’m both wondering just how to start with something managable but also exciting and semi-epic, and what to do with the limited resources of the main book.If you want, you can add me on Skype, and I'd be willing to chat about it. There really is quite a lot of stuff.


There is a lot it really only hints at, and I don’t want to buy any of the supplemental material until it looks like we’ll play this regularly.Good idea.


*First Age technology, such as the war machines. What would be the basics of powering and operating, say, an airship?To operate it, you'll probably need a good Lore score, with the exception of the extremely simplistic stuff, like Warstriders (which are giant mechsuits that move based on the pilot's movements). To power it, you'll need a hearthstone of a certain rating.


*The powers of the other Exalted. I’m mostly thinking of Dragonblooded and Abyssals.I'll be happy to discuss this on Skype.


*The Solars are supposed to police renegade gods.Well, actually, the Immaculate Faith is the one that currently polices renegade gods.


Just how do they do this? Aren’t gods unkillable except by very specific charms that not everyone is going to possess?Not by half. There's plenty of ways to permanently kill gods. Destroying them in their sanctum, destroying them when they don't have a sanctum at all, annihilating their domain, certain martial arts styles...

[Tavar]

To speak more against gods, remember that they draw their power from their position. As in, the god of a river's strenght is tied to the river he's in charge of to a large degree. If you dry out the river, he wouldn't be killed, but he'd find that his resources diminish quickly, and some of his more powerful abilities would cease to work altogether.

Additionally, god's draw power from their cults. Solars have very, very potent social effects, and can destroy cults easily. Holding that threat over a god's head works, as well as the fact that even if a Solar can't kill a god because it lacks the charms, he can beat it up, which while not permanently harmful to a deity, is something that they don't like.

These are, of course, simply the most straight forward ways a Solar can deal with a deity: force and blackmail. They aren't nearly the only ways. Social magic can work just as well on gods as mortals. Finally, there is something any exalt can do relatively easily: make friends with a bigger deity. Is a god of some river causing problems? Try and find that god's boss, and work a deal with them.

[Jeivar]

eAbyssals work almost like solars do. Most differences are thematic. Where a solar trains someone into hypercompetence, the abyssal trains an emotionless soldier, drawing competence from that.

So I can get away with having the abyssals use combat charms with the same effect as solar ones, just nastier manifestations?


Dragon-bloods have very different powers. They tend to draw power from the elements and from cooperation. The typical dragon-blooded charm will do much less than a possible solar analog, and it can step up in power considerably through cooperation.
For example: a solar with Lore can punch mutations out of people.
A fire-aspect with lore can throw a fireball at your face. If the fire-aspect teams up with another dragonblooded buddy, they fire, together, a single fireball that is much nastier than their own separate fireballs.


I feel I'll have to include the Dragonblooded to at least some degree, given that the Realm hunts the Solars. Can someone give me some other examples of what a Dragonblooded would pull in a fight, and how effective it would be?


"Killing" is just one way of enforcing rules. You can convince them (solars are very good at that). You can beat them into submission(that he has to "die" in the process a dozen times isn't a big deal). You can strike deals. You can replace them (sidereals are the best at handling the divine bureaucracy).

Alright.


Also, "supposed" doesn't mean they HAVE to do it. Exalts, in general, can go around and do whatever they want. There's no divine force enforcing their behavior.

I know. It's just a solar "thing" and I want to allow my players to do it, and therefore know how to handle it.





*Links*



Thanks. I'll check those out when I have some time.





For airships, the ones you're most likely to see in the Age of Sorrows aren't actually artifacts. Haslanti airboats are just made out of feathersteel (a very light metal) with the usual zeppelin rig.

First Age airships don't generally look like zeppelins, but most of them need hearthstones and periodic maintenance. You generally use Sail to pilot them, and some of them require certain ratings in Sail and/or another ability to pilot. Smaller stuff, like a Windblade (flying surfboard), use Ride.


Alright, I'll just make up something simple, powered by a hearthstone-furnace or something.


The Solars aren't really supposed to police gods. That tends to be more the Sidereal's job (literally a job, that is). The Dragon-Bloods also do it out of necessity.


Okay, I may be misremembering a bit, but I remember reading that gods had gone rogue in the solars' absence and it seems like one thing that justice-minded solars would tackle.



To speak more against gods, remember that they draw their power from their position. As in, the god of a river's strenght is tied to the river he's in charge of to a large degree. If you dry out the river, he wouldn't be killed, but he'd find that his resources diminish quickly, and some of his more powerful abilities would cease to work altogether.

Additionally, god's draw power from their cults. Solars have very, very potent social effects, and can destroy cults easily. Holding that threat over a god's head works, as well as the fact that even if a Solar can't kill a god because it lacks the charms, he can beat it up, which while not permanently harmful to a deity, is something that they don't like.

These are, of course, simply the most straight forward ways a Solar can deal with a deity: force and blackmail. They aren't nearly the only ways. Social magic can work just as well on gods as mortals. Finally, there is something any exalt can do relatively easily: make friends with a bigger deity. Is a god of some river causing problems? Try and find that god's boss, and work a deal with them.

I'll keep all this in mind. Thanks.

[Tavar]

If you're going to ST, I'd suggest getting the Storyteller's Companion at least. It'll give you quite a bit of information on how to use other exalt types, though really you're going to want to get the other books if you go long enough.

I mean, in DnD terms, you want to know how to run a Wizard enemy with only access to Complete Warrior, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Rules Compendium.

[Gensh]

So I can get away with having the abyssals use combat charms with the same effect as solar ones, just nastier manifestations?

Something along the lines of half of the Abyssal Charms are Mirrors, which means they tell you how it looks when an Abyssal does it and then lists a Solar Charm for how it actually functions.


Okay, I may be misremembering a bit, but I remember reading that gods had gone rogue in the solars' absence and it seems like one thing that justice-minded solars would tackle.

It's not that Solars were ever in charge of policing gods so much as they were the backbone of the First Age. There was effectively nothing untouched by the ruling Solars, and if a god started messing around, they would be hit by the consequences, hard. Usually this meant Sidereal censure, which still happens in the Age of Sorrows, but lacks much of the authority it used to. Without Solars holding up the world, the Sidereals have become overworked, and since their Charms aren't focused on being completely overkill, rogue gods aren't afraid of them so much as they were the Solars. Not to mention that the King of the gods, Sol Invictus, has been on a bender for something like a millennium, and if the god of Virtue, justice, and perfection has turned away from his duties, it doesn't exactly provide a great example for all the others to follow.

Generally speaking, your justice-minded Solars will probably be dealing with corrupt dragonblooded much more frequently than corrupt gods, simply because gods tend to be more behind the scenes outside of places like Great Forks, though there are certain celebrities.


If you're going to ST, I'd suggest getting the Storyteller's Companion at least. It'll give you quite a bit of information on how to use other exalt types, though really you're going to want to get the other books if you go long enough.

This is also an excellent idea.

[Andreaz]

So I can get away with having the abyssals use combat charms with the same effect as solar ones, just nastier manifestations?
On the short term, yes. Their excellencies are identical (abyssals get to drain essence with one of their meta-excellencies), as are the most basic effects, like One Weapon, Two Blows and Peony Blossom Attack. As said, read at least the Companion book, as it'll REALLY help.

I feel I'll have to include the Dragonblooded to at least some degree, given that the Realm hunts the Solars. Can someone give me some other examples of what a Dragonblooded would pull in a fight, and how effective it would be?
Realm and Lookshy dragon-blooded have an immense infrastructure to support them. If they are out to get a celestial exalt, they'll have an army with them, resources, training, contacts. They gang up, set traps and put the entire populace against you. Literally, sometimes.

Don't be fooled by the fact they are the weakest Exalts. They are Exalts, and that puts them on an incredibly potent, effective and scary level. Just don't make them fight one on one with celestials. Their culture, methods and nature congregates them.

[Uec]

Okay, I may be misremembering a bit, but I remember reading that gods had gone rogue in the solars' absence and it seems like one thing that justice-minded solars would tackle.

One thing to keep in mind - solars are not justice minded by nature, they are humans writ large. With all the flaws, and all the horror that follows from that. Anyone claiming OOC that the immaculate order* is entirely wrong is silly, they might be factually wrong on some details, but they have some very good points. The solars in the first age was, toward the end, paranoid, brutal rulers that had no qualms (by and large) with sticking their fingers into your brain and rewriting your entire personality! Sometimes for a reason, often just because they wanted to test something.

A couple of things that cannonically happened in the first age:

- A solar used craft: genesis on a bunch of mortals so that their screams of pain became beautiful sounds, and made a bunch of automatons to systematically torture them for hours on end in order to play the most beautiful symphony ever!
- During a live-fire exercise 30-40 million mortals perished to test a new doomsday weapon. Why? Because someone didn't bother fill out the paperwork to evacuate them!
- When told by the fate-ninja's that their huge essence expenditures were damaging creation, a bunch of twillights got together with the comment "hmmm, exactly how much essence we can unload at once?"
- The following dialog comes quite close to how it went
"I have an idea!"
"yeah?"
"Why don't we recreate creation?!
"Capital idea!! But how?!"
"Tear creation apart into it's component motes and rebuild it from scratch!!!"
"Of course!!!! What could possible go wrong???!!!!"

Of course, they also saved creation countless times, built an amazing society far more advanced that what we have on earth, and created a benevolent AI spanning the entirety of creation.

The Solars are not nice perfect shining paragons of virtue. They merely happens to shine. As exalts, they are whatever the **** they want, but most importantly - they are human, with all the problems that gives when they are handed nigh-infinite power.

Exalted is most interesting when it explores morality, ethics and human nature. Don't make the immaculate order objectively wrong, but neither should it be objectively right.

The gods went rogue, but that's mostly because that in the absence of the solars, they got to indulge in their base desires (meaning, not doing their jobs and sniffing divine coke constantly) - the reason that they didn't do that in the first age? The solars would have murdered them, all descendants they have and everyone they have ever loved to give an example.

Of course, they might also be murdered for no other reason than because the solar hadn't had their morning coffee yet and were grumpy.


*The main religion in modern creation, holds that Mortals should stay in their place, gods should do their job and not extort prayers from mortals and solars & lunars are Anathema, demons possessing poor mortals and makes them into horrible monsters.

[Jeivar]

One thing to keep in mind - solars are not justice minded by nature, they are humans writ large. With all the flaws, and all the horror that follows from that.


I know. I just meant that if the players want to be sun-themed paladins and right wrongs, I'll have to be ready for it.

[Andreaz]

I know. I just meant that if the players want to be sun-themed paladins and right wrongs, I'll have to be ready for it.

Also be ready for when the fighter in the group realizes Adamant Skin Technique can be used to land from orbit at terminal velocity.
I know I do that every now and then to make a dynamic entry.

[Gensh]

Also be ready for when the fighter in the group realizes Adamant Skin Technique can be used to land from orbit at terminal velocity.
I know I do that every now and then to make a dynamic entry.

Yeah. As a side effect of the Exalted being so awesome, if your players don't want to sit through a social encounter or figure out a puzzle, they won't. In my last game, at one point, the Dusk broke off from the group, so I ran a solo session with him. He was supposed to be investigating the ghost image of a burned-down mansion in the Underworld and needed to be careful not to bring too much attention to himself. The first thing he did was knock down the front door because he didn't want to figure out how to get in. Once the players really got a feeling for their power, even the player with the social character felt it was easier to solve all his problems with violence. Granted, not all groups are going to be this immature.

[Reluctance]

I know. I just meant that if the players want to be sun-themed paladins and right wrongs, I'll have to be ready for it.

There's a theme to not just Exalted, but all WW games. You're free to try solving your problems by punching them in the face. You'll definitely have an impact of some sort or another. There are also guaranteed to be repercussions of one sort or another.

Don't get me wrong here. There are creatures that can and should be banished from creation at the business end of a daiklaive. Demons and Yozi cults are pretty much made for this. But Holy Solar Warriors will be converting allies at least as often as they put their boots up unholy asses.

(That, and Exalted combat doesn't quite live up to expectations. Attack powers are so awesome and devastating, that everybody ends up saving their charm activation and motes to have their perfect defenses up against all credible attacks. It's whittling down hit points by another name.)

[Gensh]

Don't get me wrong here. There are creatures that can and should be banished from creation at the business end of a daiklaive. Demons and Yozi cults are pretty much made for this. But Holy Solar Warriors will be converting allies at least as often as they put their boots up unholy asses.

It's also important to note that Exalted is a game of gray and grey (and the Ebon Dragon). Make sure you know what sort of ethics each character and their player has. Try to make sure that they're not contradictory with each other and your own. For example, many certainly run with the traditional idea that demons and their Yozi masters are the generic, capital E Evil, and Acts of Villainy, while hilarious, don't exactly discourage this viewpoint. Despite all that, all the players from my last game thought the Yozis were the most sympathetic characters in the campaign (though ironically, they absolutely hated the Neverborn). One Dawn wanted to break Isidoros out of hell and destroy heaven; the other wanted to take Sol Invictus' place. Despite appearances, those goals don't actually contradict each other because the second character could take a more direct method of ruling the gods rather than simply sitting easy in the pleasure capital of the world.

[Andreaz]

(That, and Exalted combat doesn't quite live up to expectations. Attack powers are so awesome and devastating, that everybody ends up saving their charm activation and motes to have their perfect defenses up against all credible attacks. It's whittling down hit points by another name.)

There's that. Perfect Defenses are a necessity that can be grating at times. Killing things by accident is a common occurrence: I've seen one alchemical with a ****ton of health levels more than the rules allow, plus really high DVs and a very high natural soak and superheavy plate get offed in 4 ticks by 3 DBs with mundane flurries in a coordinated attack.

So, among other things, don't go all-out on your players until they get used to just how hard a punch can be.
People already linked you to the ink monkeys stuff. Overdrive is pure sex (it's a way to get around the charm activation restrictions so you actually do something when you want your PD available and can't spare a combo usage).

If you want to look around you'll find plenty of the so-called "Lethality fixes". There's a huge piece of errata scheduled for the next month or so that is said to solve that too.

[Mr.Bookworm]

So I can get away with having the abyssals use combat charms with the same effect as solar ones, just nastier manifestations?

Mmm. I believe the corebook actually says this, but yeah, you can portray an Abyssal relatively decently by just doing him as a Solar and painting the Charms black.

Speaking of which, if you want a chronicle you can pull with only the corebook, versus Abyssals is probably the best option. Maybe throw them up against the forces of the Mask of Winter (just don't use his stats in the corebook).


I feel I'll have to include the Dragonblooded to at least some degree, given that the Realm hunts the Solars. Can someone give me some other examples of what a Dragonblooded would pull in a fight, and how effective it would be?

Well, first, the Wyld Hunt is surprisingly unlikely to find you. They're pretty short-staffed at the time the game starts. If you go nova in the middle of Nexus, yeah, it's likely that word will reach the Hunt, but it's by no means guaranteed. Creation is big. Lookshy does not automatically go "raaargh Solar smash", as they simply don't have the resources for it. The Realm has limited force projection capabilities outside of their own territory, and most likely they'll just call in the Wyld Hunt if they notice you. Non-suicidal outcastes are probably just going to look the other way, or get out of Dodge.

If the Wyld Hunt does show up, it'll most likely going to be composed of, I dunno, one Immaculate master leading it, a few more Immaculate monks, maybe a couple of other Dragon-Bloods, and some (skilled) mortal backup.


Alright, I'll just make up something simple, powered by a hearthstone-furnace or something.

For expansion on the hearthstone thing: For almost all of the artifacts, you just socket it in somewhere on the craft, no real drama required. This lets it work, but you can't get any other benefits from the stone.

Also, if you want some visuals, I found the picture of aircraft from WotLA.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs15/f/2007/008/0/8/Exalted_2nd_Ed___Airships_by_chriss2d.jpg


Okay, I may be misremembering a bit, but I remember reading that gods had gone rogue in the solars' absence and it seems like one thing that justice-minded solars would tackle.

Sure. But murdering gods isn't necessarily the best solution to dealing with corruption. It's far, far more likely to bring about more violence.

And once you start playing judge, jury, and execution for gods you deem corrupt, are you any better?


Also be ready for when the fighter in the group realizes Adamant Skin Technique can be used to land from orbit at terminal velocity.

Creation doesn't have an orbit. :smalltongue:

[Andreaz]

Creation doesn't have an orbit. :smalltongue:

The sky is far enough above that it doesn't matter for the guys who just saw a twinkle in the sky become a meteor of destruction right up their faces :D

[Lord Raziere]

I’ve owned the Exalted main book for a couple of years now, but I’ve never been able to gather my friends around it. Now we are considering giving it a try as soon as we wrap up my VtM campaign, and I’m reacquainting myself with a system I only ever half-learned in the first place.

I’m both wondering just how to start with something managable but also exciting and semi-epic, and what to do with the limited resources of the main book. There is a lot it really only hints at, and I don’t want to buy any of the supplemental material until it looks like we’ll play this regularly.

I guess my main concerns regard:

*First Age technology, such as the war machines. What would be the basics of powering and operating, say, an airship?
*The powers of the other Exalted. I’m mostly thinking of Dragonblooded and Abyssals.
*The Solars are supposed to police renegade gods. Just how do they do this? Aren’t gods unkillable except by very specific charms that not everyone is going to possess?

1. Welcome to eternal torment! you have now entered a world of messy mechanics, long discussions about fluff, lots of homebrew and stupid questions. turn in your sanity at the door.

2. yea, your going to have to get a lot of books for this Exalted….before long you'll be getting Sidereals, Infernals and Alchemicals soon after Wonders of the Lost Age, Oadenols Codex and Books of Sorcery, Abyssals and Dragon-Blooded. and thats just the beginning. have fun with Crackxalted.

3. Ghost-Eating Technique. have fun eating gods. but there are other ways to policing them…but thats a Sidereal thing.

4. the games high lethality basically makes you able to kill almost everything in one hit. give PD's, surprise negation and other stuff to the players for free so that they are free to choose the charms they really want.

[Jeivar]

4. the games high lethality basically makes you able to kill almost everything in one hit. give PD's, surprise negation and other stuff to the players for free so that they are free to choose the charms they really want.

I have actually been considering giving the players a bit more than ten charms to start with. Maybe this is the way to do it, given that Perfect Defense is apparently pretty much mandatory.

[Sidmen]

First off, welcome to Exalted, I hope you don't develop the Love/Hate relationship I have with it. (Love the world, Hate the mechanics)

*First Age technology, such as the war machines. What would be the basics of powering and operating, say, an airship?
The simple basics go a bit like this: First age stuff is a bit like machines used today, except fueled by magic. They skipped guns and went straight for lasers and plasma guns.

Like a modern machine, everything needs to be repaired periodically, this will cost some cash for the tools/oils/belts/sacrifices to the gods to do regular maintenance. Most things need power, which comes from hearthstones - think of them as magical batteries that never need to be replaced.

For an airship - its best to imagine them a lot more like space ships and a lot less like zepplins. Essence turbines channel the magic from their hearthstones to negate gravity and propel the vessel.


*The powers of the other Exalted. I’m mostly thinking of Dragonblooded and Abyssals. As mentioned, Abyssals are just solars painted like goths. But my recommendation is to pick up the Storyteller's Companion, its got some very boiled down charms and info on how to use the various exalt types.


*The Solars are supposed to police renegade gods. Just how do they do this? Aren’t gods unkillable except by very specific charms that not everyone is going to possess? Solars don't have to police the gods, they used to leave that job up to their Dragon-Blooded soldiers. Today, you have a number of options to deal with gods as obstacles. You can beat them up, which - even though they're immortal - hurts a LOT when they loose their last health level. I think its something like "loose a permanent point of Essence (or willpower, not sure which) and take (Essence) months to reform." Which, after doing once, will change a god's tune quick.

Then, you can always negotiate with them. The gods perform a service for the Mortals of creation - they ensure good harvests, make floods survivable and a thousand other things. For this, they expect payment in the form of prayer and sacrifices. Solars could negotiate the gods into accepting more "reasonable" sacrifices and prayer routines.

[meschlum]

I’ve owned the Exalted main book for a couple of years now, but I’ve never been able to gather my friends around it. Now we are considering giving it a try as soon as we wrap up my VtM campaign, and I’m reacquainting myself with a system I only ever half-learned in the first place.

I’m both wondering just how to start with something managable but also exciting and semi-epic, and what to do with the limited resources of the main book. There is a lot it really only hints at, and I don’t want to buy any of the supplemental material until it looks like we’ll play this regularly.

I guess my main concerns regard:

*First Age technology, such as the war machines. What would be the basics of powering and operating, say, an airship?
*The powers of the other Exalted. I’m mostly thinking of Dragonblooded and Abyssals.
*The Solars are supposed to police renegade gods. Just how do they do this? Aren’t gods unkillable except by very specific charms that not everyone is going to possess?

Welcome to the game! Fair warning: I babble about Fair Folk and, in my free time, babble about them more.

Therefore!

Don't get Graceful Wicked Masques. It's the Fair Folk book, and it is... complicated. Sort of like your explosive of choice: extremely interesting to watch from a distance and imagine tampering with, but worth a second thought before you get too close.

Or maybe he analogy is flawed. Any Exalt (and Raksha) can chug nitroglycerine by the gallon with no side effects whatsoever, so... Getting yourself blown to pieces is a benefit for the Fair Folk, really.

Ahem. Herein follows a demonstration of the powers of the Fair Folk, answering your second question. And others.

How to get an Airship

Find a marginally competent Worker, and beat it into submission. Or order it to work for you, or else. Or find a somewhat more capable Raksha and hire the services of the Worker for a season. Pick up some gossamer on the way (or get your Raksha friend to make some for you).

This, plus Unreal Shipwright's Method and a difficulty 5 roll, gets you "the equivalent of one of the titanic ships of the First Age". Difficulty 4 is just a "medium sized First Age vessel".

Note that following the Errata, such ships are painfully slow - peak speed (barring shenanigans) being in the 30-50 mph range. Yes, this is nonsensical. It still does not require any power source or particular crew, though.

So instead you resort to the universal solution that is Grace Magic, and get:

Alerat, the Raider of Heaven

Born from dreams of skyborne battle Alerat is a force of the Wyld barely constrained by gossamer chains, sweet music, and the promise of treasure. In Creation, it manifests as a massive airship, its walls molten ice and sweet metal while three great sails rise above it. Alerat's prow is the head of a great scaled beast, spitting lightning at its foes and speaking to those who'd deal with it.

For the ship is aware, and hungers for glory and battle almost as much as it desires to pour the treasures of Yu Shan and Creation into its bottomless maw. Alerat is fair, and were it to become aware of other realms - the Underworld, Malfeas, or what lies beyond the Seal of Eight Divinities - it would be ready to seek to consume them as well.

Despite its minor character flaws, Alerat is desired by many an ambitious pirate or chartered corsair, for its speed is nearly unparalleled and its potential in warfare is terrifying. Such hopeful captains must approach Alerat's Navigator, an ancient being who has lived within the ship so long she seems to have almost melded within it and become part of the great wheel that sets Alerat's direction.

Though she is fixed place, the Navigator's spirit remains energetic, and she has often been moved to aid a hopeful sailor with promises of fame and heroics as much as tangible treasure. Once Alerat has a captain, the Navigator's contented humming and occasional snatches of song can be heard throughout the airship, and Alerat itself grows more vital.

Still, for all its might and wonder, it remains an ancient and complex device, and some repairs and maintenance are necessary for Alerat to operate at its best. Under the guidance of the Navigator, certain eldritch runes and unusual sacrifices must be made every season. And, every few days, offerings to the ship itself are called for. Thus far, no captain has failed to satisfy the ship - perhaps because no captain has lived a day past failing to maintain it properly.

Alerat: 4-dot Behemoth
Assumption of Dreams and Passion - The figureheadAlerat turns towards the world radiates pride, and the airship is supremely capable when its pride is threatened.
Assumption of the Land's Heart - Alerat is large enough to house a good score people or more, and the great Wheel at its core is its literal life.
Gossamer Wing Flight - Alerat ignores the constraints of gravity.
Racing Dragon Speed (x5) - There is almost nothing in Creation or beyond it that can outpace Alerat at a sprint, and its endurance is second to none.
Luminous Exhalation - The supply of lightning bolts that Alerat can cast is simply beyond measure.
Glorious Hero Form - The airship is just a bit quicker and more accurate than anyone would expect.
Surpassing Excellence - Its lightning strikes with remarkable precision.

Alerat has a base soak of 20 / 20, and is not damaged by anything that fails to strike the figurehead, Wheel, or cannot harm immaterial beings. Its lightning is comparable to a potent attuned orihalcum powerbow, with an extra +2 accuracy and perhaps other powers as well. Its base move is 33 yards / tick (dash 39), it can fly, and when properly maintained it is massively faster.

Maintaining Alerat: 2-dot Oneiromancy
Assumption of the Land's Heart - the maintenance extends to all of Alerat
Dragon Transformation - when pressed and in good shape, Alerat can extend its frame to grow wings of molten ice, increasing its speed drastically. Other changes may occur as well, making it even faster as its limbs become optimized for haste and maneuverability.
Manacles of Virtue - so long as Alerat is content, the Navigator is supremely talented in the arts of the Sword, enabling the ship to take full advantage of its draconic speed.
Unwanted Obsession Provocation Technique - those who dare to claim they are greater than Alerat find its pride hammering at their wills, freezing them in place that its bolts might strike true.

When Alerat transforms with the aid of the Navigator, its speed increases to 74 yards / tick (Dash 86). anyone trying to dodge Alerat's lightning, when it is well maintained, gets an external penalty of -5 to dodge.

Alerat's Hunger - 1 dot Chancel

Alerat's mouth is the entrance to a Chancel, leading into its stomach. this space is infested with dangerous Wyld energies, and at least thirty miles across. Thus, while the airship's hunger is truly monstrous, it is not as infinite as it might claim.

The Navigator

Creation level Artisan Raksha
Essence 3
Dex 7
Artifact 4
Assumption of the Person's Heart - melded to the Wheel
All Consuming God Monster Stance (Luminous Exhalation, Lumbering Feet of God)
6 free charms
6 free bp
5 1-dot bits of Grace Magic

When the Navigator decides that it is time to hurry, Alerat's speed is tripled. This leads to a Move of 222 yards / tick (Dash 258), and can be maintained for at least two days.


Form of Godly Guidance

Since the Creation-born are constrained to follow the dictates of the Laws writ by the Gods, the Raksha seek to deliver them from this vile durance. In the course of this quest, a noble once learned of the existence of Yu Shan, and that the bane of the Gods resided there. Following many strange adventures, the enterprising Fair Folk infiltrated the Heavens and discovered the terrible Thing that would bring about the end of the Gods, in time.

Reeling from the terrifying experience and incapable of understanding the Thing, lest it be destroyed as well, the Raksha returned to the Wyld and spent long years dreaming within its comforting embrace. At last, it saw how to undo the Thing and still bring down the Gods, and so created the Form.

Appearing as a simple sheet of paper, the Form is imbued with a strange power. Most beings, upon reading it, find themselves compelled to write upon it, inscribing countless tedious and barely recalled details. At any point during this tortuous experience, the victims may cast aside the Form and dedicate themselves to the service of its owner, or find themselves driven to fill it again, in more detail and taking care to respect the footnotes.

So far, none has managed to complete the Form even once. Still, the Gods have strong ties to Creation, and it is only the most powerful of the Fair Folk who can successfully woo them away from their old duties and free them from the bonds of red tape that tie them to Yu Shan.

1 dot Oneiromancy
Assumption of Dreams and Passion - the Form is mind numbing tedium incarnate.
Emotion Weaving Style - anyone who begins to fill in the Form finds their Motivation is now "Complete the Form perfectly".
Emotion Weaving Style - anyone who musters the willpower to stop filling in the Form, or appeals to its owner for relief, gains the Motivation "Serve the owner of the Form out of gratitude." Inclinations towards destroying paperwork are purely serendipitous and not at all enforced.
Heart Stealing Kiss - merely touching the Form will drain your very will to live (or do anything else).

Sadly, the Form never works on Exalts, and does not work on Gods unless the owner has Essence 7+. Thus it only serves its purpose when in the hands of a truly dedicated creation level Heroic Worker - noble Raksha are too vulnerable to its effects for its true power to be brought to bear.

[TheCountAlucard]

Then, you can always negotiate with them.You certainly can. :smallamused:

Our group's been dealing with a king of the wood lately. We've persuaded him into arranging a Cselenite pact for his court, meaning that in exchange for occasional valuable tributes, we would get services from his elementals without having to bind them. To bind said pact, the king and our sorcerer PC each traded one eye to the other. :smalleek:

Fun stuff. Ever summon a bunch of elementals to perform construction work? :smallamused:

[Cirrylius]

the king and our sorcerer PC each traded one eye to the other.
That is gross and awesome. Very Mythic feel.

[horngeek]

I have actually been considering giving the players a bit more than ten charms to start with. Maybe this is the way to do it, given that Perfect Defense is apparently pretty much mandatory.

A standard houserule on these forums is to give five free Excellencies to Solars (with an equal amount to Abyssals, and less for other Exalt types). This gives you enough leeway to have at least one PD without taking up half all your charms.