Dragon-Blooded Political Game Interest Check

WlfSamurai

WlfSamurai

Maelstrom Engineer
I haven't fleshed this one out yet, it's still percolating in my brain. But that's why I'm posting it here. Often, when I run/play Exalted, I think big. Over-the-top action and cinema-style epic stories are why I come to Exalted.


But what if, instead, an Exalted game were run that was focussed inward? What I mean by that is, what if an Exalted game were run with a focus on a set number characters in a finite political landscape? The Realm came to mind immediately. Inside the Dragon Isle, the political games played for domination over the Realm come very close to what I mean.


What if it wasn't about fighting Primordials or Deathlords? What if it was about vying for political power among peers? Dragon-Blood against Dragon-Blood. Mortal again Mortal. Who has what assets? Who has which legions? What contacts do you have within the Deliberative and how can you sway them? Who do you trust? Which Houses are sure to move politically against you? Which have the military to destroy your own?


Again, not fully formed, but what if we took a DB game and focussed inward. Instead of "everything is coming at the same time, how do you stop them all?", can the question instead be, "How do you survive in the political climate of the Realm?"


I imagine emergent play being a large part of the success of the game. In addition, I'm having a hard time not pairing down Exalted's rules for book-keeping and ease of play. With that said, I think this could be fun.


I'd like to hear what people think and if they're interested in playing such a game.
 
Sounds interesting. The party could start as young Dynasts fresh out of secondary school. As budding aristocrats they are expected to go out and start careers for themselves, gain prestige and influence to make their Houses proud/fullfill character goals. I suggest starting it before the Empress disappears so it can be a slow game of intrigue. With her gone too many things are trying to destroy the Realm for this game to have that kind of pace.
 
This sounds quite intriguing, and an interesting alternative to the main themes found in most Exalted games, count me interested.
 
I am interested. But my biggest question is whether it would be every player for themselves, or would you expect them to be a united force - if disparate in some fashion - against the main houses. I personally don't like the free-for-all types, since it involves too much backstabbing.


Or, if you wanted to make it a little PvP, you could put them all in one house, dueling with each other for leadership, but with the threat of the other houses waiting for weakness, so it doesn't get too diabolical.
 
I agree on the pre-Empress-disapearing part. I was already thinking the after would be too chaotic, as already pointed out. I also agree it would be a blast to start early, just after graduation for the characters.


As to PvP or not, I'm not sure. I could see it working both ways, but might be more enjoyable if the players work together, even if they're from different Houses. If they're from the same house, easy-peasy. But it could be that they are form different houses, creating a small group underground to seize power.


The trouble with all of this is, if the Empress still sits the throne, we know she puts down any sort of rise to power. The question then becomes not if but when she'll move against any sort of political or military movement. Is that even sustainable or interesting?


Personally, I'd be interested in seeing an "alternate history" campaign where the players unseat the Empress in a long-term and arduous power-struggle.
 
The Empress humiliates and disposes of threats to her power. There are still influential and powerful members of the Dynasty such as Mnemon and Cathak Cainan, that arent on her list of people to take down. Potential starting positions for players could be members of a lesser House trying to elevate themselves into a Great House, or as members of a canon house and the group desires leadership over that House, thats if you want everyone to be in the same family. If players are from different Houses they couldve banded together in their youth for some big goal like "We should all become ministers", "Defeat lookshy", "create a favor bank that is larger than House Ragara's" or some other goal that wouldnt immediately draw the Empress' ire.
 
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Yes. All good thoughts. I'm leaning toward same family, lesser house. That could be really interesting to see all the relationships involved...
 
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So, weird question, but, could I play a changeling?


In a DB political game some time ago, I played the "un-exalted younger sister" of one of the other PC's. Quiet type, had a few useful skills, a bit quirky. The reveal was that she was a faerie (a chargen fae who puts all their points into Not Being Detected can reliably fool DB charms, at the cost of basically just being a higher-statted mortal), who came to creation to tell the story of Realm politics. Sadly, the game ended before I really got to develop her character, so I'm eager to reprise the role.
 
Sounds really interesting - I like political intrigue and manoeuvring (in RP, not in real life ;) ), and DBs seem tailor-made for a game of that sort.
 
Sounds interesting. A lesser House looks like it could be very enjoyable. There is a lot of stuff that is hard to do when 50+ elders are above you on the pecking order.
 
I've actually been ruminating on this exact type of game.


I've been watching and reading A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and I've been looking to create an alternate timeline isolationist Blessed Isle to be my Westeros.


My small change to make the Realm less expansive was to have Yu Shan hit by The Great Contagion as well: they closed the gates too late, locking themselves in with the plague. Stranger still, which I haven't figured out why yet, the gates never reopened. So only a handful of sidereals survive, and the rest are scattered across creation, which means they aren't there to help the burgeoning Realm.


I was also thinking of ramping upthe death toll from the contagion, and the damage from the fair folk invasion.


Finally, I was thinking of placing the current year to be at least one succession after the Empress.


I feel that all of that would help a DB campaign match the tone of ASoIaF, which is only tangentially related to this topic, I've just been sitting on that for awhile.
 
That's a really interesting concept. You're right, that would set the game up to support this style of play long-term for sure.
 
That's a really interesting concept. You're right, that would set the game up to support this style of play long-term for sure.
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I think it would actually work against long-term viability, for the same reason as starting during the Empty Throne Crisis: It turns the Realm into a political pressure cooker where you either win very big, very fast, or get a rather nasty case of being dead. Whereas if you have the Empress still on the throne and relative stability, the stakes are much lower: You win or lose favor, you score a betrothal between your youngest child and Mnemon's latest grandchild, your cousin gets murdered by an uprising in the Satrapies. It's not the end of the world for you - you can retreat and lick your wounds and recover.


And even things that used to be minor annoyances suddenly become deadly when the social structure starts to fray: If the Realm is stable and the Empress is on the throne, then losing a legion or a fleet is a setback. Fleets can be rebuilt, mortal legionnaires can be trained, and almost all Shogunate successor states will ransom you back your DBs and Hearthstones. It will cost you time, and money, and favors. But if you play your cards right, you can recover from almost any setback short of personally angering the Empress. In an unstable Realm, losing a legion or fleet is "game over, insert new Dynast to continue."


It's true that the Realm has a glass ceiling just below "become Empress." But that doesn't mean that the game ends when you accumulate more personal power than Mnemon. It just means that the game becomes about ensuring that your heirs (you have heirs, right?) get to keep it even after you're no longer around to look over their shoulders. And of course making sure that Mnemon doesn't do unto you in retaliation for displacing her.


Maybe even set it a few centuries before the canonical timeline, to avoid having the players thinking in terms of having to prepare for the Empty Throne Crisis.


Edited to add: The issue with permitting changelings and (other) Anathema is that it excludes a number of viable and interesting character concepts (i.e. any character concept that involves active piety to either the Immaculate Philosophy or the Hundred Gods Heresy).


(Also, interested.)
 
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You might be right. And Michael with this game would definitely be to keep it far more pedestrian than normal Exalted. I want to concern of the players to be their house and family. Perhaps the fact that the characters can't achieve the throne will actually be a good thing. Since it's "off the table", at least for the short-term, rising your house ranks among the others would become your main concern. I want that type of "low-level" concern to be the core of the game for the duration. I thin with the Empress around, keeping the Solars in check, and the Sudereals playing mostly hands-off, it will go a long way to achieving that.
 
Siddies don't need to be "hands-off." They only have 20 warm bodies per Direction, on average. The Capital Direction may have 30 or so, but at least three of them are tied up providing a 25/7 security and advisory detail for Her Redness, and another five or so are tied up running major Realm institutions like the Heptagram and the upper echelons of the Immaculate Order. Plus a handful for the Wyld Hunt, plus whatever detachments are made to the other Directional offices, plus their day jobs in Yu-Shan. Plus a couple to keep an eye on Meru, Stygia and other Interesting Places that the Siddies would rather that no intrepid explorers disturbed.


Even granting that the siddies are competent in your version of Creation (as opposed to the canonical Siddies), each siddie can only be in [Essence] places at once.
 
Yeah, I agree with Scandanavian regarding setting stuff. The Time of Tumult makes things much, MUCH more dire, and since we are playing a minor House, one without the clout or resources of the major houses, the smallest "for want of a nail" kind of thing, the tiniest botched roll, could completely destroy our house and end the game.


As for siddies, well, yeah. They're super-overworked, and if they collude too much, they start to go a little loopy, which definitely screws with their competence. Canonically, most institutions in the Realm are either run by Sidereals, or have Sidereals as load-bearing upper management.
 
Regarding the inclusion of a Fae (or any other type of Exalt) into this type of game, I think it misses the whole point of the game, which is to live through the pressures Dragon Blooded society imposes on you, the glory or downfall of your house, the need to birth an heir, the forming of alliances between other houses, the need to earn and maintain reputation at court, all of these have little to no value to any other type of character not a Dragon Blood, and this is without bringing issues of mechanical balance between the different splats.
 
Yeah, I hadn't said anything about that because I not sure yet. But that's the way I'm looking at it. I think at most, one character of different type to shake things up might be somewhat doable. I'm just not sure if desirable, yet.
 
Splatbloods would fit in with little fuss or bother, particularly in a game where you don't need to be able to one-shot a Chimera in single combat. Even ascended godbloods could work, but the Spirit mechanics are a major time sink (basically, spirit charms as published are less "charms" than "charm blueprints" that you have to adapt to your particular spirit). Jadeborn could work.
 
Yes, but I think having more than one different type, or even one, might dilute the "feel" of the game. So, I'm not sure.
 
WlfSamurai said:
Yes, but I think having more than one different type, or even one, might dilute the "feel" of the game. So, I'm not sure.
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I quite agree with the sentiment that it has to be about the pressures of being in the Realm, but I think the pressures that the Realm society imposes upon those with the "wrong" bloodline is a part of that. I could see an argument for not allowing any non-DB exalt splats, but I'd be fine with playing a secret faeblood instead of a true faerie. It gets much the same feel (the fear of being discovered), while being a bit more genuinely mortal and a part of realm society.
 
Don't wanna sound harsh, but it kinda goes back to my previous sentiment, the feel of the game is political intrigue, backstabbing and social maneuvering as part of the Dragon Blooded society, the goals you have as a member of a Noble house and a Dragon Blood are not the same as an 'outcaste' of sorts hiding or passing by as a dragon blood, the pressure of marrying the right noble and start bearing children means nothing to a character lacking a dragon bloodline, nor you can ever expect or hope to gain a position of power or influence if you're not of noble birth. Not saying the fae-character concept isn't fun, it just doesn't go with the themes WlfSamurai explained in his opening post, at least that's my perception of it.
 
That depends on how much weight you give to the Great Houses in DB political life vs. how much weight you give to Immaculates, the Guild and the Thousand Scales. A DB society in which the Great Houses have a tight lockdown on everything important is a very different society for a non-DB (or Found Egg or Outcaste) to operate in than a Realm where the head of the Dilligent Imperial Assessors can tell Mnemon "no" and make it stick.


The fundamental logic of a political game is the logic of power. A Realm in which noble birth is both necessary and sufficient for power is a very different Realm from one where noble birth is necessary but not sufficient, which is a very different Realm from one where noble birth is sufficient but not necessary.


Edited to add: And deciding which of these Realms the game will play out in is an important setting decision quite independent of the inclusion or not of non-DB splats.
 
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