[Exalted]Suggestions for a first campaign

[Drascin]

So, thanks to people here, I have decided to try Exalted. I've been together with two interested people, making their characters and stuff - and it seems we'll probably be headed for a rather combat-focused game of conquerors and stuff, given how one wanted a Dawn caste especializing in Melee and War, and the other a Full Moon Lunar with quite the focus on warform. And now I'm faced with the question - how to start things, to get them properly acquainted with how the setting works and stuff. As I'm completely new to the game, I have a thousand of ideas, but I'm not sure which ones are feasible, or on the same ballpark as the two PCs (I might have a third one join later, but she can't really join until a couple of months from now).

So I would love some adventure suggestions. I mentioned maybe running a premade, but they don't seem too enthused by that, preferring me to create something - which is a touching vow of confidence if they are so sure I'll make up something better than the premades, but also kind of a bit of pressure . So, anyone have any neat ideas for a campaign for a group of total newbies?

[Sanguine]

Step1: Take over Lookshy and rename it to it's First Age name(which I can't recall at the moment)
Step2: Use the mass of artifacts obtained from conquering Lookshy to take over the Realm
Step3: ????????
Step4: Profit.

Note this is just something that popped into my head and may not be the best thing for newbies.

[Yuki Akuma]

Step1: Take over Lookshy and rename it to it's First Age name(which I can't recall at the moment)

Deheleshen, according to my DotFA map.

[Sanguine]

Deheleshen, according to my DotFA map.

That's the one.

[RPGuru1331]

Do they have a Motivation yet?

[Eldan]

If you don't want to dump too much background on them, how about this:

-Let them start some distance away from the realm, so that they have an excuse for not knowing in the politics well.

-Make them recent exalts, so that there's some reason for them not to know their powers and other exalted.

[Drascin]

Do they have a Motivation yet?

The Lunar still doesn't.

The Dawn told me a bit, though it's kind of hard to sum up. So I'll just paraphrase what he told me.

Basically, his idea is a guy from a noble house, one of the younger sons of the Lord. But while most of his brothers Exalted as Terrestrials, he didn't, so his father never cared one whit about him, feeling him a failure for not being chosen by the Dragons. He got sent to lead unimportant regiments here and there, since he was considered expendable. And then, one day (he still hasn't made up anything about his Exaltation) he exalts. Only, as Anathema. But still, the little mortal, unimportant guy suddenly is a powerhouse with an axe to grind.

And so, as the player told me, "the guy has two main motivations in life. One is to become the best swordsman in the history of ever. The other is to carve himself an empire personally, something to dwarf everything his house has done. And then, once he has power, riches and influence, get himself a portrait of himself flipping the bird, and send it to his father together with a chorus of singers to sing the "**** You Dad Hymn" in allegro".

It made me laugh, to be honest .

[kamikasei]

Liberate a city in the East from the economic control of (and virtual slavery to) the Guild.

No one else cares about the place. The only real impact is a) getting to heroically make the locals' lives better and b) making a name for themselves.

Then they can either use it as a power base or go after whatever faction has annoyed them the most to date.

With only two PCs, and a Solar/Lunar pair at that (bonded?), it shouldn't be too hard to get them to follow some kind of quest, either.

[The Demented One]

Liberate a city in the East from the economic control of (and virtual slavery to) the Guild.

No one else cares about the place. The only real impact is a) getting to heroically make the locals' lives better and b) making a name for themselves.

Then they can either use it as a power base or go after whatever faction has annoyed them the most to date.

With only two PCs, and a Solar/Lunar pair at that (bonded?), it shouldn't be too hard to get them to follow some kind of quest, either.

That sounds oddly familiar.

[kamikasei]

That sounds oddly familiar.

The East is a big place! Or more to the point, the easiest place to say you've got a sizeable problem that doesn't require interacting with major factions in a seriously world-changing way right from the start.

Nothing says you have to stick around to rule the place.

[Drascin]

Liberate a city in the East from the economic control of (and virtual slavery to) the Guild.

No one else cares about the place. The only real impact is a) getting to heroically make the locals' lives better and b) making a name for themselves.

Then they can either use it as a power base or go after whatever faction has annoyed them the most to date.

With only two PCs, and a Solar/Lunar pair at that (bonded?), it shouldn't be too hard to get them to follow some kind of quest, either.

Yeah, sounds pretty good. I think I might use that basic paradigm, get them to quest a little, make them earn some XP, kick the guild and rule by themselves in a town or two, for starters.

And no, they're not bonded, because I forgot to mention the bond thing. But I'm pretty sure they'll like the idea.

[RPGuru1331]

The East is a big place! Or more to the point, the easiest place to say you've got a sizeable problem that doesn't require interacting with major factions in a seriously world-changing way right from the start.

Nothing says you have to stick around to rule the place.

Well, given Lookshy, Nexus, and the like, there's plenty that's important in the East.

I'd say start out in the South. Plenty of mortal empires out there that can be beaten senseless with Solar Awesome.

"The Lunar still doesn't."
That's a problem, perhaps. Knocking down someplace in the South sounds good, but you'll want to be sure that the Lunar's motivation doesn't contradict that. Or maybe not.

[TheCountAlucard]

Destroy Gem.

Just kidding.

The Yu-Shan book has a little blurb about how one of Lytek's tools has gone missing, and how he doesn't trust anyone up in Yu-Shan enough to help him. You could do something involving that, either reclaiming the key for him, or perhaps whoever stole it ends up misplacing it, and it finds its way into the hands of the PCs...

[Terraoblivion]

I'd suggest carving out an empire in the Hundred Kingdoms. It is a large region of small petty states constantly competing with each other for slightly more power. It is also far away from every major power, the closest is the Realm outpost at Greyfalls and that is still more than a thousand miles away. In short it is a place where you are quite free to go around your empire building ways.

Starting out with the Guild being jerks and controlling a kingdom completely could be a good start to get them to begin working on their quest i think. The other option would indeed be the South, but the Realm is much stronger there with Gem as the only major, unaffiliated country down there. In any case i would say the Hundred Kingdoms, they are placed there for exactly this sort of thing.

[Arcanoi]

The other option would indeed be the South, but the Realm is much stronger there with Gem as the only major, unaffiliated country down there.

And thus it must be destroyed!



There's a bit of issue when your character doesn't have a motivation. At least theoretically, motivations are the most important part of a character.

Running a game with two people is easy. There's lots of simple plot hooks scattered throughout the material that require little-to-no indepth knowledge of the setting.

[Drascin]

Thanks for all the ideas. I'll read up a bit more about the Hundred Kingdoms - that place sounds ripe for some reaping.

Also, I wanted to ask people here a bit about how Resources work. See, up to now, aforementioned Dawn Caste had the backing of a powerful family, even if the Lord considered him a good-for-nothing, he was still a second generation of the house and so had entirely too much money. So the player bought Resources 4 to signify this.

But since by the time the campaign starts the player is probably forcibly estranged from his family (because, you know, Anathema, and going back to any big imperial city to discuss some funds with dear old dad while being Anathema and knowing that if anyone detected him he'd have the Wylds on his ass in three seconds flat doesn't seem too alluring), he'll be pretty much up the proverbial creek without a paddle. He'd probably just have the bag he had on him (likely to be a lot of money, but still, not quite "Resources", which apparently imply a certain continuity and renovability) and that's that.

So I don't know what rating of Resources he deserves. I basically just let him buy his inventory as if Resources 4, but I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to simply take the points from him or not, or what.