Playing & Running Exalted for the First Time - HELP!

[Tael]

So, I've been wanting to try and get an Exalted game up and running for a while now with my group, but the problem is that I know the most about the system, and I know very little past combat basics. Basically, what I need to do/know to run my first game? I have the Core book and the White and Black Treatises, but I could easily obtain more quite cheaply. Any tips and/or useful houserules would be appreciated.

TL;DR: Help me play+run Exalted for the first time.

[The Rose Dragon]

Don't panic! Just lie down and await your inevitable demise.

Useful house rules would be starting with XP. Lots of XP. Standard chargen Solars are as fragile as thin glass and about as effective in doing anything. Sure, they are better than most everyone else in Creation, but looking at Creation, it's not saying much.

[Lix Lorn]

There are a list of mostly standard house rules. Ones I've seen involve
-Free Ox-Bodies equal to Essence
-Free extra -0 health levels equal to stamina
-Initiation charms come with one free spell
-Free Excellencies (5 for solars/abyssals/sidereals if they're allowed, 4 for DBs, godbloods, and miscellania, 3 for Lunars/Alchemicals, and all purchases of the favoured yozi for Infernals)
-And, it's not a houserule, but make sure you have the Dawn Appendix chargen and the Scroll of Errata.

As far as tips go, I'm a newbie, ask someone else.
Although general STing tip that I didn't do, which ended badly: Plan ahead! Don't expect it to work, but at least try. Build NPCs, and don't be afraid to fit them in. If you make the Desert Queen and they go to the great ocean? meet the pirate queen!

[The Rose Dragon]

There are a list of mostly standard house rules. Ones I've seen involve
-Free Ox-Bodies equal to Essence
-Free extra -0 health levels equal to stamina

Alternately, just free extra -0 health levels equal to Essence, so using Charms with health level costs is not an exercise in assisted suicide.

[Tael]

Any general rules tips or GM guidelines? The standard champaign type seems to be extremely player driver, so I'm not sure exactly how much I'm going to be able to plan.

[The Rose Dragon]

Don't plan. Planning will give you migraines. Despite being fragile as all hell, starting Solars can get at least a dozen Charms which will cause all your plans to go astray if they survive, and unless your players are particularly interesting in their mindset, killing players just because they annoyed you (no matter how easy it might be) is considered bad form. Be reactive, not proactive.

Before starting a campaign, have a few lines jotted down about the biggest features of the campaign. Feel sad when your players utterly ignore the plot hooks that will lead them there. And get used to making stuff up on the fly.

[Jokasti]

Play before you ST. Everything else can be improvised.

[Tael]

Play before you ST. Everything else can be improvised.

Kind of impossible for me unfortunately.

[Indon]

Any general rules tips or GM guidelines? The standard champaign type seems to be extremely player driver, so I'm not sure exactly how much I'm going to be able to plan.

Rather than planning around what the players should do, plan around what's there in your campaign world for your players to do... and don't sweat it when your players don't do what you want.

For instance, if you plan for the group to encounter a prominent Exalt in a town, stat out the Exalt. If the players see a butterfly made of orichalcum and get distracted and never go to the town, great, you have an Exalt statted out for the players to meet in the future (though now you have to quickly work out a demense that slowly transmutes everything that passes through it into living... and then unliving... orichalcum).

[tonberrian]

Kind of impossible for me unfortunately.

Is it? If you're not adverse to PbP, there's a number of Exalted games recruiting here now, and most of them should be about as newbie friendly as Exalted gets.

[Jokasti]

Is it? If you're not adverse to PbP, there's a number of Exalted games recruiting here now, and most of them should be about as newbie friendly as Exalted gets.

I was going to suggest this. Practice makes you untouchable.

[DeadManSleeping]

I was going to suggest this. Practice makes you untouchable.

Only if you're practicing the MC Hammer slide.

[The Rose Dragon]

Only if you're practicing the MC Hammer slide.

MC Hammer has a Dodge DV of "Can't Touch This".

He also has a goremaul called "Time".

[Arbane]

Don't plan plots so much as situations. Big ones. As in "The city you're in is being besieged by Wyld Barbarians led by a trio of Fair Folk" big.

Fully statting out PCs is a utter pain. Be prepared to just say "the Dragonbloods all have First Excellency for everything, and each has three distinctive Charms" or similar. Yes, it's cheating, but it'll make your life less miserable unless you really love making characters.

[Tael]

Is it? If you're not adverse to PbP, there's a number of Exalted games recruiting here now, and most of them should be about as newbie friendly as Exalted gets.

Well, I've tried PbP games for three other systems, and they've all either collapsed instantly or dissolved over time. Exalted seems like it would lend itself to good PbP games though, I'll give it a try. Any threads recruiting right now?

[Jokasti]

I just made a list in the General Exalted Discussion thread.

[Kylarra]

Don't plan plots so much as situations. Big ones. As in "The city you're in is being besieged by Wyld Barbarians led by a trio of Fair Folk" big.

Fully statting out PCs is a utter pain. Be prepared to just say "the Dragonbloods all have First Excellency for everything, and each has three distinctive Charms" or similar. Yes, it's cheating, but it'll make your life less miserable unless you really love making characters.

I've taken to using this to cheat-stat my NPCs. It makes building them a lot faster and easier.

[Tael]

Does anybody have any tips about setting? Like, people & places to know about, good areas to start out in, etc?

[Sanguine]

Does anybody have any tips about setting? Like, people & places to know about, good areas to start out in, etc?

The East is Creation's Tavern.

[TheCountAlucard]

The Scavenger Lands is Creation's Tavern.

Fixed that for you.

[Sanguine]

Fixed that for you.

The Scavenger Lands is a part of the East so I was still right.

[TheCountAlucard]

The Scavenger Lands is a part of the East so I was still right.

Yes, that's why they receive their own "Compass of Terrestrial Directions" book to themselves, a whole separate tome from the East book.

But yeah, point made. As the most fertile area, the Scavenger Lands is the most heavily-populated region in all Creation.

[Kyeudo]

I'd like to say that, while everyone here is correct from a RAW-centric view that Solars are very fragile without heavy optimization, the game can still be playable as long as everyone is either new or has a gentleman's agreement not to engage in paranoia combat. As long as a starting Solar takes a perfect defense and knows how to use it, they'll survive just fine until someone figures out how potent unexpected attacks are.

[Kylarra]

The nice thing about the scavenger lands is that the Wyld Hunt isn't as big of a threat there.

[Slade]

Newbie Exalted player and ST? OK, here goes:

For the player: As a starting by the book solar your best bet is dodge. 3 charms, learn how to combo things together, and build your surprise negation, leaping, perfect dodge, and it does three things: enhance survivability, learn charm timing, and combo rules.

Next, hurty skills. Melee is a good, solid choice. Easy to learn, and at starting tier, daiklaves are god tier on the battle field. Solar Melee charms are simple, direct, and powerful. One weapon two blows, Hungry Tiger Technique, and Fire and Stone Strike can make short work of most non-exalted foes in a few turns. Later, Peony Blossom Attack and Iron Whirlwind can smash armies to ribbons, once combos are made with them.

Martial Arts, which seems like a natural choice in a world BASED ON CHINESE MYTH but the charm selection and rule sets can be overwhelming and confusing for a newbie (there around 40 different Martial Arts charm trees to pick from). Best to stick with Melee for now.

Thrown is a good choice for newbies as it resembles melee in a lot of places. The god tier charm for Thrown is Cascade of Cutting Terror, which makes stupid huge damage pools for little essence. Excellencies, Triple Distance Attack, Fiery Solar Chakram can make for horrific damage adders once comboed together. Add in an artifact thrown weapon, and you become a machine gun of death.

Now, for the Survival charms. Ox-body and Body Mending Meditation make an Solar Exalt's life safer. Extra Health Levels and healing 10 times faster are wonderful, but not getting hit is even better (hence the dodge charms above). Occult charms that let you see and hit spirits is also handy here.

A note of Sorcery:

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Sorcery, the art of high magic, on the other hand, is next to useless at start up. Each sorcery spell requires a charm slot, as well as a charm slot for "permission" to cast spells in the form of the charm Terrestrial Circle Sorcery. Seriously, that's all it does. I would only recommend buying Emerald Countermagic just so you can tell terrestrial sorcerers to shove it. If you have a group of starting Solars, one of you can specialize in Sorcery without it hurting the party too much.

If you can do this, the Spells from the core book are very recommended. Emerald Countermagic, Invulnerable Skin of Bronze, Death of Obsidian Butterflies, Demon of the First Circle, Summon Elemental are the best. From The White Treatise, Flying Guillotine is a tempting choice, but next to pointless. That spell was made with killing Exalts in mind, and most of them can perfect dodge or parry out of the way. Any spell that lets you fly around is pretty boss magic. It greatly speeds up travel.

Another tempting route is to pump your essence to 4 (requiring 14 freebies), and buying Celestial Circle Sorcery. While not a bad route, it requires a lot of focus to do this, and is not advised unless your player knows what he is doing. If you want to do this, Sapphire Countermagic should be your first purchase. Incomparable Body Arsenal should be your second. That spell stacks with Invulnerable Skin of Bronze (other than Hardness, which never stacks with itself, unless indicated) and makes you a pretty mean fighter. Demon of the Second Circle though, is not advised since you can't just cast it when you want.

Best of all, with 10 charms, you can do most of this at start up. Use your freebies to build the necessary combos, and you should have an easy time of surviving anything non-exalted the ST throws at you. A word on Exalted on Exalted combat: get used to not inflicting damage on them. Its just par for the course.

That is my advice to a new Solar Exalted character. Next, we will talk to the ST's for this awesome game.

[Slade]

For the ST:

Here is where things can get tricky. You now have on your hands a group of near omnipotent demigods with weapons that can cut through mountains, voices that can cow nations, spells that warp the face of creation, and your supposed to run these hooligans?!

Yup! But its not all bad. First, as a new ST, DO NOT HOUSE-RULE anything. Run it by the book first. Get a feel for the new car, before you add anything to it. See the mechanics at work. Get a feel for it. THEN, down the road, you can make the changes you need. The exalted core book works JUST FINE at start up. Believe me, I've done it.

Next, KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS (and by extension, the players). Storytelling is a two way street, and it requires PC input. Exalts are doers, not reactors. They are powerful enough to set the stage, not only react to it. This is especially true once the XP starts rolling in, and the Players understand that they are IMMORTAL GOD KINGS with UNLIMITED POWER AND POTENTIAL at their disposal. Once that sinks in, watch out. They WILL run roughshod over you.

Now you need to start working on a narrative. This is where things from a D&D mindset break down. New characters in a village under attack by bandits? Pfft, too small. Think bigger and longer term. Sure, as an intro fight that is OK, but don't expect it to end there. Fighty types will crush them, Talky types will bend the bandits to their will, smart types will build stout defenses, and so on.

Instead think like this: are the bandits really a starving, victimized people from the next kingdom over, victims of barbarian Beastmen serving the insane surviving First Age Lunar Overlord who plots world domination from his forgotten ruined First Age city, all the while he himself is suffering from voices in his head and several Wyld mutations? (Ma-Ha-Suchi I am looking at you, sir) Now your thinking like an Exalted ST. That story line is epic, far reaching, and very long term, with potential to expand in several direction at once.

Throw in an old love story between said crazed Lunar and one of the players (past lives and all that) and now you have some kind of emotional connection made.

Also, to save you trouble, only stat out boss fights. Forget about the yard trash, they will mow through them. Solars, are after all, the best warriors creation has ever fielded.

Keep an eye on artifacts (Exalted's version of Magic Items). For newbies, nothing over 3 dots. This limits them to Grand Daiklaves, and medium armors. You might want to allow them access to 5 dot artifact armors from the core book for survival's sake, but this is not needed. It is far better for them to have many low end items instead of one big item. Artifacts are force adders, not multipliers unlike D&D.

As for the House rules the above mentioned so many times, do it later on, but not a first. Drive the car off the lot as it, as it where, THEN add the accessories later. I have been running this thing since 1st ed in 2002, I ran it in 1.5 edition, and in Second. Believe me, run it bare bones at first. You will be better for it.

You can study the world of Exalted if you like, or just make up your own stuff. There are 2.5 times more land space in Exalted as there is in our own world (if my math is right), so plenty of room to shoehorn in your own stuff. Story line, plot, and narrative are FAR AND AWAY more important than a map.

Also be receptive to your players. Find out what they want, and you can plan accordingly. These are demigods after all.

As for starting location, The East/ Scavenger Lands are close to what a D&D mindset would think of as good. Settlements all long the mighty Mississippi River and all that (even though that river is MASSIVE, like 200+ miles wide at one point).

That should be enough advice for a newbie set of Exalted players and their newbie ST. Sit back, enjoy the show, and punch Ma-Ha-Suchi in the face for me once. He needs it.

[Devils_Advocate]

Be aware that there is a whole bunch of "errata" (using the dubious nouveau tabletop RPG usage of "errata" to simply mean "post-publication rules changes"). Specifically, character creation works differently now.

... Honestly, it's better to house-rule that everyone starts off with, say, 500 XP to purchase everything and that's it, without the weird starting character creation subsystem. Because if charging different relative costs for traits at character generation than during training serves any purpose but to unbalance the game, I don't see what it is. It makes more sense to use the numbers from the chargen rules as requirements instead of free stuff. (E.g., a Solar must have at least 28 total dots of Abilities, purchased with some of her allotment of starting XP.)

This means that you'll need to use the "Backgrounds Cost Experience" rule, but only use it for character creation, because penalizing players for in-game accomplishments is hella lame.

There's a rundown of the setting's history and important elements that you might find it helpful or at least entertaining to read.

In case you haven't heard of it already, if you like Order of the Stick, you might also like Keychain of Creation, which might give you some ideas about the sorts of things that can happen in a game of Exalted.

Non-Exalted Players: Ok, this comic probably looks very strange. You see, Misho just cast a spell that created a giant robot out of magic, and now he's inside it and just attacked Nova. This sort of thing happens all the time, trust me.