A gritty Creation

[cyl]

So, lately I've been in a "gritty mood" (thanks to the Game of Thrones serie and the Witcher games) and thought that Creation is in fact a very very dark and gritty place.


As I'm thinking about building a new game with a special gritty feel I'm looking for inspiration and themes to paint a darker picture while trying to preserve the anime feel (more Berserk than Naruto if you know what I mean).


So which factions / themes would you focus on if you were to build such a game ?!


I kinda like the Guild & its activities (great gray area)... preserving the world and hurting it bad at the same time.

 

[Cryoseraph]

I'm intrigued by your thoughts, though curious on your view of the Guild, as I can only pull out views of antagonism on the Guild by PCs I've known over time. Not one has supported them or even wanted to work with them once they knew it wasn't just some random merchant.


Also, what is your main source of pushing down the supreme idealism of the Exalted PC? Many players prefer to 'punch a hole in heaven' rather than get roughed up, so I'd like to know your feelings on keeping them 'low enough' to stay gritty. Or is this a mortal game only?

 

[cyl]

It's not about being roughed up, it's about "living" in a dark world full of suffering and hardship for 99% of the population.


It's not as much about the heroes, but about the world around him and the atmosphere you can create and the themes you put into your games.


If everyone's hurt, then the heroes can either do nothing, try to do something (either better or worse), or try to make a profit out of it.


Their choices can ease the pain, create more, or not matter at all...


My views on the Guild is quite simple: it is the second most useful human organization in Creation, and at the same time the second most dangerous.


It provides essential services worldwide (commerce, goods, mail, transportation, security through the mercenary troops), but at the same time it deals with highly lucrative and hurtful businesses (slaves, drugs, and mercs, and dealings with the deathlords).


The problem is not the Guild itself, it's the rules it follows, or rather the absence of rules.


It can provide stability as well as instability very easily and can shift from one to the other considering the profits involved.


One could argue that the slaves and drug trades finance the other activities, but considering the Prince Merchants lifestyle, it's pretty safe to assume it's largely false.

 

[QuasiMortuus]

It's not about being roughed up, it's about "living" in a dark world full of suffering and hardship for 99% of the population.
It's not as much about the heroes, but about the world around him and the atmosphere you can create and the themes you put into your games.


If everyone's hurt, then the heroes can either do nothing, try to do something (either better or worse), or try to make a profit out of it.


Their choices can ease the pain, create more, or not matter at all...

Isn't the world already a rather terrible place for 99% of the population?


But it a matter of focus - if you want to up the suffering and hardships for the common man and force the PCs to act on it, I think that the existing fluff would support it with very little alteration.

 

[cyl]

Yes it is a crappy place to live in unless you're rich and living in a big city, which is why I'm asking "which themes would you favor ?!"

 

[Greenstalker]

Yes it is a crappy place to live in unless you're rich and living in a big city, which is why I'm asking "which themes would you favor ?!"

Nexus thief guilds. Obviously there are more darkness flowing out of them than naything on the face of creation. They deal with council, guild, mercenary milita of Nexus and probably many more than just your usual picpocket/burglar guilds.

 

[Persell]

I ran a gritter game focusing on players as archon's for a realm magistrate. Forced them all to play heroic mortals or godblooded (had to house rule some stuff to power balance during character creation, mostly by taking stuff out of the players book for 1st edition). Not having access to insta-heal charms and having to worry about infections and bleeding makes the game gritty pretty fast. And a magistrate on the run gave me a chance to take them all over the south.

 

[magnificentmomo]

Well, what makes other classically gritty settings and stories entertaining for you? Apply to Exalted. PROFIT!!


For me it is usually fucked up people doing fucked up shit, terrible consequences, and Bad Ends. There is no white, only black and grey.


Also, establish the level of grit with the players, because you might be playing Hard Ball, and the players are playing petanque. There is Batman Returns gritty Batman, and then there is Dark Knight gritty Batman.


edit: if anyone ever utters the phrase, "shit just got real" then you hit the sweet spot.

 

[QuasiMortuus]

Yes it is a crappy place to live in unless you're rich and living in a big city, which is why I'm asking "which themes would you favor ?!"

Oops, i missed the original post. ^^

 

[cyl]

Yes it is a crappy place to live in unless you're rich and living in a big city, which is why I'm asking "which themes would you favor ?!"

Nexus thief guilds. Obviously there are more darkness flowing out of them than naything on the face of creation. They deal with council, guild, mercenary milita of Nexus and probably many more than just your usual picpocket/burglar guilds.

Yeah I thought about that... because Nexus is indeed the place were injustice crime and hardship are concentrated in a big city.


But the Council and the Emissary are big obstacles for any long term development there.

I ran a gritter game focusing on players as archon's for a realm magistrate. Forced them all to play heroic mortals or godblooded (had to house rule some stuff to power balance during character creation, mostly by taking stuff out of the players book for 1st edition). Not having access to insta-heal charms and having to worry about infections and bleeding makes the game gritty pretty fast. And a magistrate on the run gave me a chance to take them all over the south.

As I said it's not about making the pcs lives harder (that I can do, even with a solar...), it's about making the world around them a darker and more dangerous place.
A place where people prey on each other not only because they're evil and wicked, but also sometimes because they have to if they want to survive another day.


A place where there are even darker things out there, worst than bandits, angry mobs, slavers and decadent terrestrials... a place where everything is wrong almost everywhere and you can't be there everywhere ever time to fix things.

 

[DasDom]

Check out the Slavecoast in the North book. In the Deshan Satrapies, EVERYONE is a slave in possession of the realm, and its impoverished, starved Slaves are kept docile by making them addicted to a wide variety of drugs. Freed Slaves most likely fall prey to the things lurking in a nearby shadowland, or form dark cults. Even in Death, they are denied freedom through specialised Cemetries designed to hold any rising ghosts captice.


Gritty enough?

 

[QuasiMortuus]

Check out the Slavecoast in the North book. In the Deshan Satrapies, EVERYONE is a slave in possession of the realm, and its impoverished, starved Slaves are kept docile by making them addicted to a wide variety of drugs. Freed Slaves most likely fall prey to the things lurking in a nearby shadowland, or form dark cults. Even in Death, they are denied freedom through specialised Cemetries designed to hold any rising ghosts captice.
Gritty enough?

Ah, Exalted... it might be a high fantasy game where you can jump over buildings, but it is still a dark place to be.


I just might have to throw my players in that direction, since they might be going North soon.

 

[Greenstalker]

Yes it is a crappy place to live in unless you're rich and living in a big city, which is why I'm asking "which themes would you favor ?!"

Nexus thief guilds. Obviously there are more darkness flowing out of them than naything on the face of creation. They deal with council, guild, mercenary milita of Nexus and probably many more than just your usual picpocket/burglar guilds.

Yeah I thought about that... because Nexus is indeed the place were injustice crime and hardship are concentrated in a big city.


But the Council and the Emissary are big obstacles for any long term development there.

There are a few things you can do about council like bribery or blackmailing. For Emissary unless you break one of six big rules or attack to council directly emissary won't show up (usually anyway). Alternatively you can make your game in the timeline where emissary withdraw to his hidden manse (Return of Scarlet Empress page 56.) Frankly speaking RoSE has many good suggestions for a gritty Nexus which is stripped from emissaries protection and infernals making problems.

 

[cyl]

Hmm hadn't thought about that... it's a nice idea...


Also good call about the Slavecoast... that place is terrible.