Exalted!

Withering/Decisive sure is cinematic. Everything ELSE they changed isn't - it's boasting of making things faster when they aren't.

So I'm running 2E's Contagion of Law module, for the second time, only this time it's with a team of Dragon Blooded, instead of a Mixed Circle, so I'm working on scaling down the enemies a bit, but also filling in gaps in the story. One thing I want to do is to include a Celestial Exalted/Anathema, probably a Lunar or Solar, to act as a ally/aid when tackling down the bigger threat which is the Bishop- I don't want to brew one from scratch though so any recommendations from Scroll of Exalts?

Alchemical for maximum "wtf is that" factor

Sadly, these are Exalted virgins. I'm trying very hard to ease them into it, and avoid anything to scare them off :P

(Also I can not play an Alchemical to save my life.)

Fine then. For maximum ease, Anja Silverclaws. Everybody loves catgirls.

edited 16th Jun '16 4:09:06 AM by Adannor

She's certainly more workable than Ma-Ha-Suchi, although he is probably better in a fight.

Only because lolelder. Those statblocks are all pretty terrible as far as "in a fight" goes, so it's not really a differentiating factor for starting PC level ones.

Heh. Anja is cool, might be a bit hard to work in to the far north of city of Gethamane, but she's workable. Certainly more then Ma Ha Suchi

Edit: I'm evil, because part of me wants to do Jiunan and Typhon, but that's just because I ship them like crazy.

edited 16th Jun '16 4:18:12 AM by LMage

Does anyone still have their Abyssal and Infernal Backer pdfs? I don't know if the 4 pages I've managed to find of the Infernal one is the whole thing, and I can't find the Abyssal one anywhere. Please help!

So has there been any info on cross-Exalted romances or friendships like between Abyssals and Infernal or Solar and Sidereal or Luna and Terrestial?

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

As in, has there been any canonical examples (or examples in general) of different types of Exalted having close relationships i.e. lovers, intimate friends, etc.?

I'm pretty sure Strength-of-Many is implied to get into a relationship with Sulumor at some point.

And those two are...?

Any people who're just friends but not due to incompatible sexualities?

The 2e tiein novels have romance between Jade (iconic night caste) and a (more moral than usual) Abyssal, also carrying a romance on from first age.

And yea there's one sidebar picture of Strength of Many (bull totem anti-slavery lunar) and Sulumor (bondagenun infernal) smooching.

edited 11th Sep '16 12:41:01 PM by Adannor

Just to be extra-clear, Strength of Many◊, Sulumor◊. They're both on the covers of their respective 2e Manual of Exalted Power books.

Solars and Lunars sharing strong - and not necessarily romantic - bonds that cross reincarnations and the corruption of Solar into Abyssal or Infernal are a known Thing in-setting. There aren't a whole lot of specific examples of it coming up, because even if you meet a member of the right Exalt type there's only a one in three hundred chance that they're the One. Sulumor/Strength-of-Many is one such example, and the only other one I can think of is Lilith's rather complicated feelings for the reincarnation of her abusive, mind-whammying First Age husband.

Dace, the signature Dawn military commander, has a Dragonblooded lieutenant.

Karal Linwei's a Dragonblood whose daughter Fire Orchard Exalted as a Solar. Unusually, she's not ready to write her off as Satan in a Fire Orchard suit until she sees her firsthand.

Moray Darktide is a Solar privateer who works for a Deathlord, so he naturally hangs out with Abyssals all the time. Dunno how much he actually likes any of them, or vice versa.

There's a chapter comic of Jade's Abyssal loverboy the Disciple of the Seven Forbidden Wisdoms helping Black Ice Shadow, an Abyssal-passing Sidereal whose name's resemblance to Black Eyeshadow is entirely coincidental, infiltrate the Underworld. Their relationship is bantery, if nothing else.

Falling Tears Poet, the signature Moonshadow, and Mirror Flag, Solar super-thespian, are implied in their writeups to have been lovers. Given that their relationship ended with the Poet Exalting as an Abyssal on his sickbed while Mirror Flag traipsed off to find something else to do, they're probably not gonna meet up on good terms.

Oh, and Chejop Kejak has a longstanding working relationship with the Scarlet Empress.

I think Mnemon knows siderials exist, but she doesn't actually know any personally.

Ex 3 isn't a white room test sort of game. It just doesn't work with that sort of min-maxing anymore. (At least in the same way.) It's not trying to be simulationist like Ex 2 was, at all and I can wholly appreciate that change. I've very much enjoyed S Ting for Ex 3 a lot more, the looser but more plentiful rules have been a joy to adjudicate.

I've introduced a whole group of newbies that-while it blew up due to personality friction, folks who took part found it very fun, loved the lore and found it easy after a few sessions of grasping the rules. One person who's done World of Darkness and Warhammer 40k has told me it's now his favorite game. It's kinda funny as he started out as someone who trolled me...

On the otherhand, Ex 3 is a little harder to grasp at first and on paper it does look awkward. I wasn't sure myself of what the end result was gonna be.

Having played it a good while, now-I think it's a way better foundation than 2e was. In play, it's quite slick once everyone's gotten down the quirks and battles no longer last six fucking hours. While some things irk me as an ST, I find my players feel empowered and awesome while playing-which is exactly what they're supposed to be feeling.

Related: I am working on a group MUSH-type thing on Discord. https://discord.gg/cNujf75

Shit, let's be Solars on the Denzik Merchantile Fleet city. First stop: Wu-Jian.

I wrote this here thread:

An Idea: Re-Writing The Usurpation And Return For Both Solars And Lunars

Over on The Role Of The Lunar, I suggested this below and no one responded and that's just intolerable, so here I am making a thread about it.

Why do I think this is a great idea:

• 2e: I think Solars are better equipped, narratively, to deal with elders bugging them like bossy grandparents, partly because, in their case, it goes from somewhere around a "likely certainty" to "in all possibility". As well as Solar elder better equipped to, ya know, have these resourced parked somewhere in the boonies, generally being crazy assholes.
  • This doesn't apply to 3e so much or at all.
• This applies to 3e: Solars have something that is both a strength and a weakness to their story, a possible focus in the form of the Realm, an in-built enemy. This weakness could very well be the Lunar's strength. In this scenario, I imagine the Lunar don't have anywhere to focus their attention but, also, they don't have anywhere to focus their attention. No one is hunting them, they are beholden to no one, nothing is pushing them in any given direction. They just are.

~

I'd argue that, except for the Sids, no one had a job beyond "just sorta be". Solars and Lunars both have to share the "hunted by the Realm" narrative. I was thinking that it'd be more appropriate to decouple Lunars from that narrative than Solars, so they no longer have to share that. Otherwise, Lunars are in about the same boat as Solars, saving sheer raw power and tendency towards infrastructure. Now Lunars are singularly powerful entities, as the Solar are, with far more freedom to operate however and with whomever they please. In this way, the Solars' enemies are not also the Lunars' enemies. The Wyld Hunt and the Bronze Faction are plot hooks and hindrances both.

~

I think that while Solars are the X-Men, Lunars get to go off and be DC Superheroes.

My understanding of 3E lore is that you've sort of got that backwards, vis-a-vis Solars and Lunars. The Solars were overthrown and sealed away, so they've been entirely absent from the world for an age. Meanwhile, the Lunars had the metaphorical rug yanked out from under them when the Solars vanished, leaving them effectively purposeless. So they decided "fuck the Realm, those guys are dicks" (which isn't exactly wrong) and have been waging a proxy war with the Realm ever since. The Lunars are also probably the only people left in Creation who know that the Usurpation was orchestrated by the Sidereals, which is a pretty important details, narratively speaking.

Unless something weird is going on, a Dragonblooded is going to be acting in the defense of the Realm (or another chunk of territory, like Lookshy), a Lunar is going to be opposing Realm influence wherever possible (not least of which because the Realm mostly-correctly identifies them as the biggest threat to their power and would really like to rid Creation of them), a Sidereal is trying to keep Creation stable and intact, an Abyssal is going to be doing the bidding of their Deathlord master, and the Liminals and Exigents are tied to their creators (a mortal for the former, a god for the later), who presumably had an agenda in creating them.

Solars are the ones who are open to do whatever the hell they want. They have no (recent) history, no organization or patron directing them, no built-in motivation or goal.

edited 29th Nov '16 1:00:21 PM by NativeJovian

I would argue that, they sort of do, albeit from outside forces (So, ignoring my idea of Solar Elders which someone rightly pointed out would be terrible). The Solar have the goal of "Don't get ganked by the Immaculate." I mean, so do the other Solaroids and the Lunars, but the former have their patrons and their whole schtick to back them up and give them a new angle, which... sort of works for them*, however you wanna look at it. I propose to cut Lunars from that, thereby taking something they have to share with Solaroids and giving them something else, that being a carte blanche to move and act wherever they want in Creation without being called out as Anathema.

*And the Lunars have some of that too, but it's seems more largely (or loudly) proclaimed that there's does not work

edited 29th Nov '16 2:42:26 PM by God_of_Awesome

I'm pretty sure that Lunars would get called out as Anathema even if no one actually knew what the hell they were. "Anathema" is a generic term for "non-mortal that the Realm doesn't approve of". Exalts other than Dragonblooded, gods that aren't behaving how the Realm wants, Wyld creatures, the unquiet dead, etc etc etc. If random shapeshifting essence-using badasses showed up out of nowhere, they'd get the Anathema label slapped on them pretty quick, I think.

I guess the question is, what's the narrative goal, here? To come up with a group that's relatively free and clear to do whatever they want without much in the way of narrative baggage? I think Solars already fit that. The Solar's schtick is "Creation belongs to you; do as you see fit (but it's sort of a shithole right now, so good luck making your vision stick, whatever it is)".

edited 29th Nov '16 4:59:20 PM by NativeJovian

Weird silver shapeshifters would still be targeted if they fucked with the Realm and anyone had the resources to spare from the political clusterfuck, but there wouldn't be as much of a religious obligation to kill 'em as there is if someone starts glowing gold.