A well rounded Circle

Goldiceleo

New Member
Just out of curiosity what kind of Castes or Exalts do people mix together and run in their games. Do people just have solars with solars, lunars with lunars, one dawn per circle, or do you mix it up?
 
Generally I run games with mixed circles when dealing with Celestial Exalts. Sometimes even invluding a few non-Exalt characters in the group as well, if the players are okay with that, and want to do so. There aren't really that many Celestial Exalts considering the size of Creation. Having a perfect five set of the right type shouldn't be an automatic. When dealing with DBs, usually it's all DBs, at least at first, particularlly if it's a Realm game. Mortal games usually start with all mortals, though if the group is getting a little Experience or Knowledge, someone with a good tale might be able to instead get Inheritance and be a godblood of one type or another. My most recent character is a mortal Martial Artist in a mortal group, has her Essence Awakened and a few Terrestrial martial arts charms. Should people in the group exalt, she's both the most and least likely to do so...being the least likely to need the boost, and the most likely to do something heroically stupid.
 
Not too much. Usually it's best that people not all be the same certainly, but a matched set isn't necessary. For one, not all groups require someone to fill each of five preset roles... for another, not all exalt types even have something for each of those roles. A group of three dawns isn't going to be too interesting... but it's more important that people have a character they want to play than that people completely avoid stepping on eachother's shoes. A group can do just fine with more than one thug...more than one face can be a little harder, but not too much...especially if they work together and play off eachoether...or potentially even better if they're IC rivals. Kill counting doesn't have to be for Legolas and Gimli...or even just for thugs. ;) The two social gods could compete to see how many ladies (or men, or whatever) they've killed in the Shakespearean sense too. ;) Or whatever they wish. What's most important is a group that can work together and has a party dynamic. Two Fire Aspects, an Air and a Wood can work just as well as an even split...same with other groups. A Lunar Changing Moon, a Twilight and a Day caste worked pretty well in one of my games, while another had a Dawn caste, a Ghostblooded necromancer, a No Moon Lunar, and a ronin Chosen of Secrets. While the last group may look lacking in overall combat ability, and over supplied in the Occult department, they worked well together and got things done. Sure there was a high chance of a problem being solved with anything from Thaumaturgy to Astrology, to blasting the hell out of it...but the group got along well, and the three Occult types could understand eachother quite well. In some ways the Dawn was the most difficult one to work into things.
 
When it comes down to it, I prefer mixed groups of Exalts over worrying about castes, myself. Granted people shouldn't try to step on each others toes too much, but having multiple 'types' can work quite well. Two Twilights? One might be the uber sorceror of doom, the other Sherlock Holmes with Investigation and lore up the arse. Or a healer...or even a craftsman. The castes aren't niches so much as a borad variety of similar ideas...so long as everyone doesn't play 'thog smash!' or 'sorceror of doom,' the castes are less limiting than people give them credit for. Eclipses can be canny mercantiles, mercenary negotiators, diplomats, heck, even your stereotypical wandering bard fop! Have fun...and don't worry about having the same caste around as you...make sure your character is unique, and you'll both do fine. :P
 
I tent to let my players decide for themself, and not together if i can avoid it, what type and caste they want to play. Letting them make their character and then find a type / caste that fits it have worked pretty well a few times too.


But i make sure to tell my players that there is only one or maybe 2 chances to make the right character. Like have been said, there ain't enough Exalted around Creation to make it likely that they run into a new player every session.


(I have only played none DB games)
 
I've got a good group, and they tend to pick out well balanced groups. They don't really consult one another too much, but they always seem to bring interesting concepts and a good balance of skills and abilities, no matter what the game.  Full Circles. Well rounded Cabals. It doesn't matter, they always seem to pick characters to complement one another.


I blame it on playing together for a while. It's just how we roll. I tend to round out the mix with an NPC or two, just to make sure that they have everything they need.
 
Must be nice Jakk...  Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing.  Our group generally doesn't work well together.  We have a couple of disruptive members, and generally speaking, complimenting each other's ability isn't something that's often taken into consideration...  Hell, several members don't even attempt to validate their themes...  "I'm a tank, but I don't wear armor and I don't have Ox Body!"  Or another favorite of mine "I'm studious and knowledgeable about the world...  My Lore's 2, my Linguistics is 1, and my Occult is 4..."   :roll:


I myself, tend to be very bitter about a majority of the players in my group...  maybe it's because I get irritated easily by stupid themes, lack of character/theme, or twinking one's character for the most combat dice possible...
 
Sounds like you need a better group.


To be honest, we're all old farts for the most part though. Everyone is either in the late 20s to middling 30s--and it's taken years to get folks together.
 
Eh, sounds about like us.  Mid 20's to 30's.  I myself am cresting the half-way mark of my 2nd decade...
 
The group I'm PCing in is a "complete circle", kinda. Our leader is the Eclipse, the Zenith has Dawn envy, the Dawn is in an EMO relation subplot half the time, our Twilight never shows up (and complains about how he has no xp, thus weaker than us) and for our Night, well we've had a long progression of Players join us play a few weeks and then drop out.. But this is more due to our ST's tastes If my character ever dies I want to play either a DB Rollerblader, or a Lunar, anything to change the line up.


Y I
 
I'm hoping to notice with 2nd ed a lot less Zeniths with Dawn envy than in 1st Ed...if you wanted to lead armies in 1st ed, Zenith was probably a better way to go...now Dawns can actually lead their men. As of yet, no one has played a Zenith since we switched...so, hard to say.
 
I once played a Zenith who was to pun, "a bit sun touched". I played him as bat shit crazy, but every thing that he did, while completely of the rockers was also a solution. We got caught up in this city war between two rival families. In the end I had the group burn down the entire city, herd the families into a field and proceeded to give this long very distracted speech, during which he did a few beheadings, raised a beggar to the job of Lord Mayor, and so thoroughly screwed over and terrified everyone that the families gave up their feud, and rebuilt the city. It was a long term game but the city was very peaceful afterwards (mainly I believe, because they didn't want me to have a reason to return) That said our current Zenith was a super Dawn envy, to the point that not a single one of our party really cried when the character died like a bitch, after refusing to run from the Army of 8000 Wyld Huntsmen 15 Dragon Blooded and a Sidereal of queerness. Now He's reExalted in a pole dancer, and after 3 months of him watch my generalist character own at Social combat, decided to twink at Social Combat... however he had to take the Common Sense Merit, simply so he could retcon the fact that every time he (the player) opens his mouth, he says something that gloriously FAILS. "I'm on personal business of the Emissary, so you should do as I say mister Guildsman."


Y I
 
I GMed a perfect circle for a few games, it was interesting, to say the least...


We started with a Zenith philosopher/scholar with...unusual backgrounds. First off, he took the Familiar background AND the Spirit-Tied Pet Charm, despite my mentioning they were redundant. Still, his pet tiger that he rode was pretty cool. He wanted to be a martial artist, but he took a few social and utility charms (namely a few Presence and Survival charms) that he wasn't really an effective combatant with just the first few Charms into the Snake Style tree, so he switched to melee. (I allow players to tweak their characters between the first and second sessions). This was probably my favorite of the bunch, as far as personality goes, but his philisophical point of view tended to dominate the Circle's MO. Still, it was rather cool to see him rally a bunch of peasants into a passive resistance against a barbarian horde...and succeed. Although in retrospect I should have required more compassion rolls than I did.


We followed up with a Twilight merchant/sorcerer/martial artist who managed to be good at all those things and not much else, who decided after the first session that he'd rather play an Eclipse, since he tended to talk his way through things more than cast or...erm, study his way through them. He was probably one of the most dangerous, combat-wise...


Next we introduced a Dawn barbarian combat monster. He liked to fight his way through things, but without armor. Carried a big-ass spear.


Following up was a Twilight Caste self-styled inquisitor. Heavy in Investigation and Melee. No sorcery. Yes, apparently Twilights who aren't sorcerers exist, regardless of what their Caste Book looks like. She was the only member of the Circle who chose to wear armor at that point, which lead to her being the only one standing in the climactic fight of one session. Luckily they were just fighting "to incapacitation," meaning I wasn't going to let the poor bastards die.


Rounding out the Perfect Circle was the Night Caste. Now, this player came in a session later than everyone else, and was the least familiar with the game. To make it easy for her, I statted a few sample characters for her, two of which were a Night Caste "treasure hunter" and a Zenith shaman. She decided to combine the two concepts, being a...Night Caste shaman. With sorcery. It was a great character, in part because she was still a "sneaky" type but not in the typical thief/assassin/ninja way.
 
My friends just started a game where the Storyteller allowed us to pick any kind of character except for Fae and Sidereal.  We got one Lunar and four Solars out of it.  I went with a Night caste martial artist/assassin, there is two spellcasters that are doing their best to hide their castes, and a Dawn caste pro-wrestler wannabe.  He's pretty tough with his Brawl charms and lots of Ox Body, but I'd still kick his ass  :wink: .  If my Solar dies, I'm going to go for the Valley Girl Abyssal that was talked about in the 'Abyssal Lunar' thread.   :D  I'll write her up as tough as I possibly can with the largest, most ass-kicking weapon I can find.


As much as I like my blind martial arts master, I almost want to replace him just to do this.
 
Y'know....that suddenly reminded me of why I tend to want to play Lunars for the most part. The rest of the group wants to be Solars. O.o


I did like my ronin greensid, tho. Who doesn't love the Ninja Librarian? :P All in all, our groups tend to be well rounded, no matter who plays what. Generally it helps that usually one of us doesn't have an idea to start with, so listens to the other ideas to see what's missing and fill in the hole.
 
My group of 6 is a perfect circle plus one, we have an extra Dawn. We're all, with the exception of the Night Caste, well rounded in our own right, so the group almost always has 2 members capable of handling a given situation. Makes for great flexiblitly too.


We currently have a Dawn Tiger Style Martial Artist, who was a former Immaculate Monk so lots of Integrity, if not very persuasive. The other Dawn is a renegade and drifter of sorts. Heavy on Archery, but lots of Survival and Resistance as well. The Zenith is a former Barbarian Shaman, so lots of Resistance and Survival, plus a fair bit of Investigation and some Occult. Our Twilight is a Dynast born scholar/teacher. She's heavy in Lore, Investigation, and Occult, but is a nasty Snake Style martial artist too. The Night Caste of the group is an Archer....and thats about it. Nearly all the Archery charms already (we've not been playing that long) and a bit of Athletics, but no serious focus on his caste abilities. The Eclipse is me, a pirate captain from the West. Heavy on Socialize, Sail, Bureaucracy and the various Social Combat Abilities. Not too shabby on Melee either.


I like perfect circles, because it automatically covers all the bases a group needs, plus well rounded characters give plenty of redundentcy.
 
I tried to GM a Soulsteel caste, a no-moon, an earth aspect and a dawn caste... We never made it to the first game-session... Sad story, really... :(


Now I have two dawns (an archer and a swordsman), an eclipse and a twilight for the "Invisible fortress" quest. All's going well for now!


In the end, you have to take the players in consideration.. not just the characters... I had this game where all three players were daybreaks. We had plenty of fun because every player and character had their own story and personality...


I think castes are an issue only if you want them to be..


-Torak
 
The PCs in my campaign (which is currently doing the Invisible Fortress) are a full circle. There's also an NPC fire aspect DB, but he doesn't hold a candle to any of the others power-wise (he's 12). So far they've handled everything I've thrown at them, only having troubles when there's a huge climactic battle going on.
 
My current game in the west has so far three player characters:


The first one is an eclipse spirit negotiator, named cho aysu, who travels the west in a ship made of living corals (a present from a reef god) and tries to connect spirit courts and human society for the good of both sides.


Number two is the zenith, named windfinder. Your usual poverty sworn priest type who wants to inspire the masses to worship the unconquered sun and battle the undead.


The last is a djala pirate (night caste), called o'kais, with a first age midday brilliance light warship and a habit of freeing slaves.


The characters right now try to stop a spreading cult of ancestor and death worship in a small kingdom in the west. The cause of this cult is an abyssal of the midnight caste (the name would loose a lot in the translation sadly "Stimme des Gesalbten") who has a great hatred for cho and her habit of connecting humans and spirits, because this actually doesn't make spreading ancestor worship any easier. The characters are not the combative types, well they are fairly competent, but their focus lies elsewhere. They usually operate with allies and followers when it comes to direct confrontation. Spirit summoning and bribing them into doing something is fairly common. Last session they battled a raksha who had forged the godblooded child of a minor elemental dragon into a spear and they wanted that spear because said elemental dragon helped them earlier assaulting one of the abyssal's strongholds.


Additional player characters will probably follow in the future as my games tend to attract people, but the circle is right now perfect, thanks to non player characters, so other players would be playing lunars.


The second game I will start once my vampire game is over is going to be an all dragon blooded game and will be set in the imperial city around the disapperance of the empress. The characters will witness the disappearance ( I tweaked the setting, it will happen during a ceremony to honour the best students of the various academies and the characters will be some of these students) and afterwards save a young reformer senator from an assassination plot and then somehow end up in her service. Hopefully it will run that way and the characters can experience the degredation of the empire first hand and do something against it.


So far I only got one character concept for this (well, the start is still six weeks away, I don't think I will have all concepts until 2 weeks before start) and she is going to be an air aspect musician who was schooled in a cloister on the imperial mountain. Her parents sent her away, because she was one of mnemons breeding projects and it failed utterly. Both parents were excellent breeding earth aspects and she dared to exalt as airaspect... I like the concept a lot already.


One other player hinted at designing a double agent sort of character which sounded fairly intriguing. So I look forward to it.
 
My DM (he's my fiance, so I know about the games I'm not actually involved in) has these combinations currently on the go:


-Two Dawns (male archer, female sword-wielder), one Twilight (former Peleps bureaucrat), one Night (15-year old Djala boy) (Southern, by Gem)


-One Eclipse (martial artist), one Dawn (Lookshyan kazei). The Eclipse is fleeing to the above campaign, and we've retconned him into our First Age circle. The Dawn is being shut out for bad behavior. (Eastern, Lookshy)


-One Fire-Aspect Dragon-Blood- that's my Zyden! (Western, Middle of Ocean currently)


-One Eclipse (assistant to Queen Arkasi of Linowen), one Night (chain-fighting Ebon Shadow-using bodyguard) (Eastern, Sijan)


-One No Moon (mechanic/archaeologist), one Zenith (explorer/artifact hunter) (currently Eastern, towards Pole of Wood)


So, mostly copious amounts of Dawns, and almost entirely Solar.


He has lately expressed interest in a Raksha campaign, however... dun dun dun...


Edit: Saw how specific Flyck was, below, and decided to elaborate.
 
Current game I'm running has had 1 person switch characters, and one leave.


Current setup:


1 Changing Moon warrior-thief.


1 Zenith Djala Martial Artist (who as of yet doesn't have any MA styles...  possibilities... possibilities...   :twisted: )


1 Twilight Sorceror / ex-scavenger lord from Gem.  


1 Abyssal Day Caste built mostly on Archery and Thrown.  


1 Abyssal Daybreak who's got the heaviest armor (Soulsteel Super-Heavy).


The Djala WAS the Dawn caste originally, and we've had a Full Moon off and on when he feels like showing up.  Otherwise, originally this group wasn't cemented together well, but I just unleashed the 'common enemy' card.  I had them 'stumble' upon 2 Infernals, Octavian, and a pack of Blood Apes while in the empty city.  Knowing one of them at least glazes over this site...  I'll refrain from revealing my evil plans...   :twisted:
 
I'll get right on that.  His main motivation however, is similar to most all djala characters...  free all other djala slaves.  I'm not complaining really, I'd poke fun at a djala who let his own people remain in slavery...   :twisted:
 

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