Exalted Essence: The Young Exalts and the Sea (CLOSED)

[jaydude]

Hey all. Thought I'd have another try at running Essence.

The plot of this game will likely be relatively simple, with an element of "play to find out what happens". The PC's - either a formed Circle, strangers to each other or a combination of both - are in a city of the West that suddenly finds itself getting attacked by the Feathered Whale, a millenia-old behemoth that was supposedly destroyed when the Scarlet Empress took control of the Imperial Manse. The PC's must survive the initial attack, avoiding both volleys of energy blasts and monsters created by the Feathered Whale, and then set sail in search of a way to destroy it before it can cause any more harm.

In terms of character creation rules, PC's will start out at Essence 1. All Exalt types featured in the Corebook are available for use - though bear in mind that I have no access to official 3E lore for Exalt types besides Solars, Lunars, Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals - but I do ask that we have a Circle of characters that are at least willing to work together for a common goal. A Navigation Ability of at least 1 is recommended to indicate basic sailing ability, but it's not mandatory.

Languages known will be dependent on character background, with a bit of influence from the Embassy/Sagacity Abilities. A Westerner with no points in Embassy for example will be fluent in Seatongue, and might know a little High Realm if they were a servant or slave to a Dynast, but they wouldn't know enough of the latter language to have an extended conversation in it. A character with a Sagacity Ability of at least 1 has the capacity to translate written Old Realm, but they might struggle with pronunciation when talking.

 

[Rykon]

Hey man, I'll throw my name in for this one.

 

[jaydude]

Hey man, I'll throw my name in for this one.

Cool. Welcome aboard.

 

[Rykon]

Always a good time when I can manage to make time and outside of this, been down to one game for a while.

I'm up for most anything party composition wise though personal preference for my own character are Dragon-Blooded, Solar, or Lunar and I'm avoiding Liminal, Alchemical, and Getimian for now.

 

[Sherwood]

I might be able to find some time to play in this. I have my PDF of the book but have not gone through it in detail yet.

 

[jaydude]

I might be able to find some time to play in this. I have my PDF of the book but have not gone through it in detail yet.

Would definitely enjoy having you around, but no worries either way.

 

[Sherwood]

I find myself toying with the idea of being an alchemical spy, assuming that there is still a Charm to look completely human. I'll have to look at my computer once I get home from work.

 

[jaydude]

I find myself toying with the idea of being an alchemical spy, assuming that there is still a Charm to look completely human. I'll have to look at my computer once I get home from work.

Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise is a universal Charm here, with the Alchemical (and Liminal) mode of it explicitly concealing any non-human traits when in use.

 

[Sherwood]

Well there ya go. I guess I'm set then!

 

[Sherwood]

Would Ranged Combat use Force or Finesse for its attribute?

 

[Random Word]

Hi! I apologize about abandoning my game and your Avatar game without saying anything. I was caught up in the great tech layoff, amongst other distractions, but that's no excuse for not taking 30 seconds to pop on to tell people why I'm suddenly dead. I keep falling into the trap of thinking I'll find time to get back to it any minute now until it becomes absurd, and taking the time to post that things are on hiatus feels like admitting defeat. Still, the only way to learn to do better is to try again. This time I'll try marking down a bit of time on my calendar three times a week to either reply or update on why I can't and how long I'll be gone.

I'm very curious about Essence, so if you'll have me I'd be very interested in playing! I adored Essence Getimians from the pre-release copy, and I assume they're still as absurd, but Sidereals are also generally fantastic and most everything in the list except Infernals looked fun to try (and perhaps the final draft of Infernals ended up being more interesting).

For Sidereals I could do Chosen of Battles. Say some Tepet killed the thing with a legendary spear way back in the early days of the reign of the Empress (maybe the Sword weakened it, wounded it, or penned it in for the final battle). Spear is buried in his tomb way out in the West somewhere and lost to time. A Tepet scion, mad with grief over Futile Blood, hears rumours this thing is back and decides to recover the spear and slay it or, more likely, die gloriously to join the rest of their family. The Feathered Whale itself attacks the ship they've chartered for the search, and instead of drawing their Second Breath as a DB they're chosen by Mars. Heaven intervenes to save them, but everyone else aboard the ship dies. Now they're heaven-bent on vengeance and restoring the lost glory of their House, in that order.

If Rykon is doing DB and wants to be Tepet, they could be cousins, with the Sideral now set on helping Rykon's character get the spear and get credit for the kill to restore some glory to the House and a legendary weapon for the coming civil war. Rykon's character would probably believe their cousin was dead. House could be anything, of course, but last of a proud warrior race fits suicidal whale hunting well.

Works just as well for a Lunar surviving the attack and shipwreck and swimming to shore.

I've got nothing for how to tie in with an Alchemical shot of being an Alchemical - a character who Exalted waking one up after finding it in an old tomb, maybe? That would work for a whole bunch of things. Solar, Lunar, DB. The why they wanted to wake you up would be the important part. Trying to tie it back to the campaign theme, perhaps searching for secrets or weapons to save a city from an impending attack by the Feathered Whale.

Getimian... well they never tie in with anyone by definition, but maybe in their world they formed a resurgent Shogunate in this part of the West, suffered many terrible attacks from the Feathered Whale, and died fighting it in a climactic battle at the head of their armada. If the Shogunate was founded on the recovery of lost wonders, perhaps at some point in their timeline their subjects discovered and reactivated Sherwood's Alchemical, and so in this timeline they know exactly how to do it. Now they have a lifetime of scores to settle with the Feathered Whale and are hellbent on a rematch, this time with superpowers.

 

[Random Word]

Would Ranged Combat use Force or Finesse for its attribute?

In Essence, any Attribute can be used for any roll if you can justify it to the ST. Force for drawing a heavy bow or hurling a spear at great speed. Finesse for carefully lining up your shot. Fortitude for careful observation of the foe to predict exactly where they'll be when your arrow arrives. Pick your favourite!

 

[EbonChevalier]

Throwing my hat into the ring too

 

[EbonChevalier]

Thinking of playing either a Dragonblooded outcaste with a few mutations from either the Wyld or godblood. Or a solar or endings sid

 

[jaydude]

So it seems I've got four people ( EbonChevalier , Random Word , Rykon , Sherwood ) willing to take part in this. That's great! I'll get topics set up after work.

 

[jaydude]

Hi! I apologize about abandoning my game and your Avatar game without saying anything. I was caught up in the great tech layoff, amongst other distractions, but that's no excuse for not taking 30 seconds to pop on to tell people why I'm suddenly dead. I keep falling into the trap of thinking I'll find time to get back to it any minute now until it becomes absurd, and taking the time to post that things are on hiatus feels like admitting defeat. Still, the only way to learn to do better is to try again. This time I'll try marking down a bit of time on my calendar three times a week to either reply or update on why I can't and how long I'll be gone.

No worries about the disappearance. These things happen.

For Sidereals I could do Chosen of Battles. Say some Tepet killed the thing with a legendary spear way back in the early days of the reign of the Empress (maybe the Sword weakened it, wounded it, or penned it in for the final battle). Spear is buried in his tomb way out in the West somewhere and lost to time. A Tepet scion, mad with grief over Futile Blood, hears rumours this thing is back and decides to recover the spear and slay it or, more likely, die gloriously to join the rest of their family. The Feathered Whale itself attacks the ship they've chartered for the search, and instead of drawing their Second Breath as a DB they're chosen by Mars. Heaven intervenes to save them, but everyone else aboard the ship dies. Now they're heaven-bent on vengeance and restoring the lost glory of their House, in that order.

If Rykon is doing DB and wants to be Tepet, they could be cousins, with the Sideral now set on helping Rykon's character get the spear and get credit for the kill to restore some glory to the House and a legendary weapon for the coming civil war. Rykon's character would probably believe their cousin was dead. House could be anything, of course, but last of a proud warrior race fits suicidal whale hunting well.

Works just as well for a Lunar surviving the attack and shipwreck and swimming to shore.

I've got nothing for how to tie in with an Alchemical shot of being an Alchemical - a character who Exalted waking one up after finding it in an old tomb, maybe? That would work for a whole bunch of things. Solar, Lunar, DB. The why they wanted to wake you up would be the important part. Trying to tie it back to the campaign theme, perhaps searching for secrets or weapons to save a city from an impending attack by the Feathered Whale.

Getimian... well they never tie in with anyone by definition, but maybe in their world they formed a resurgent Shogunate in this part of the West, suffered many terrible attacks from the Feathered Whale, and died fighting it in a climactic battle at the head of their armada. If the Shogunate was founded on the recovery of lost wonders, perhaps at some point in their timeline their subjects discovered and reactivated Sherwood's Alchemical, and so in this timeline they know exactly how to do it. Now they have a lifetime of scores to settle with the Feathered Whale and are hellbent on a rematch, this time with superpowers.

These ideas all work for me. Bear in mind though that I am planning to have the game start in the doomed city as it's being attacked.

 

[EbonChevalier]

So are we doing a mixed bag of exalted? Or something more uniform?

 

[jaydude]

So are we doing a mixed bag of exalted? Or something more uniform?

Either option's fine with me. I do like the idea of a mixed bag myself - largely because Essence actually has rules for playing all Exalt Types - but you lot are absolutely free to have whatever Circle composition you want.

 

[Rykon]

Not just having rules for all the big splats out the gate, I mostly prefer Essence for having both a relatively level playing field and a more satisfying charm space. The attributes still feel a bit weird, but other than that everything else has been pretty good so far.

I'll narrow things down to Dragon-Blooded for now. Currently debating on Air vs Water, and leaning toward Air.

 

[EbonChevalier]

Not just having rules for all the big splats out the gate, I mostly prefer Essence for having both a relatively level playing field and a more satisfying charm space. The attributes still feel a bit weird, but other than that everything else has been pretty good so far.

I'll narrow things down to Dragon-Blooded for now. Currently debating on Air vs Water, and leaning toward Air.

I’m making a water outcaste myself

 

[EbonChevalier]

A dynamic between a dynast and an outcaste would be interesting

 

[Rykon]

Could be fun, I was thinking of writing up itinerant Shikari as the concept, if I add the house Tepet label on there, perhaps he's been badgering the Outcaste about joining up with the house for the sake of helping rebuild their numbers and giving our Sidereal a clean connection also.

 

[EbonChevalier]

Not sure how many of you use Excel but here's a sheet for essence. Just make a copy of it.

 

[Psychie]

Would there be room in this for another player? If not that's ok. I've not had a chance to play Exalted Essence yet and I'm quite curious about it.

 

[jaydude]

Would there be room in this for another player? If not that's ok. I've not had a chance to play Exalted Essence yet and I'm quite curious about it.

Sure thing. I doubt anyone else would object.