I Got New Rules, I Count 'Em
Random Word
Three Thousand Club
For plotting, scheming, coordinating, and general shenanigans.
Sherwood
Psychie
Rykon
jaydude
D. Rex
Look at me, I figured out how to post threads. For this monumental feat I award myself at least... 12 XP.
Sherwood
Psychie
Rykon
jaydude
D. Rex
Look at me, I figured out how to post threads. For this monumental feat I award myself at least... 12 XP.Stunts will largely be adjudicated collectively. Everyone here is a great writer and roleplayer, so you can adjudicate your own minor stunts. If it adds to the scene, reveals something about your character, or adds to the setting it's an obvious shoe-in for a minor stunt. The point of stunts is to reward play that the whole table enjoys, and the forum affords us an easy mechanism for adjudicating that. Four cookies or greater on your post (For this purpose hearts, brushes, and paintings are greater than cookies. 4 because it's 2/3rds of a possible 6 participants.) gets your stunt elevated to Major, and four hearts or equivalent gets your stunt elevated to Defining. I reserve the right to hand out a Major or Defining stunt regardless of the reactions, mostly for dramatic or daring actions done in furtherance of Defining intimacies.
In combat posts can come more quickly than people can read and react to them, so I may end up adjudicating stunts by fiat more often in combat.
In combat posts can come more quickly than people can read and react to them, so I may end up adjudicating stunts by fiat more often in combat.
How will experience work, you ask? No? You don't ask that at all because you assume I'll be handing it out? Wrong! That great and terrible responsibility falls to you. Experience comes in three flavours:
- Bounties on narrative goals. You can accept example goals I toss out, or propose your own. This is the 'main plot'. (3 Regular XP per obstacle overcome)
- Awards you give each other for helping to satisfy your Flags. These you set. This is your character's personal arc. (2 Special XP per award)
- Accepting Compels proposed by others. (2 Special XP per Compel accepted)
I'm going to borrow Aspects and Compels from Fate because I think Compels are a fun way for anyone to get involved in any scene, and a good driver of tension and drama. Aspects distill your character down into a few short descriptors for other mechanics to hang off of. There are lots of those mechanics in Fate, but of them only Compels are something I think Exalted is missing. Explicitly defining your Aspects make coming up with Compels a bit easier for others - you're outlining where you want the complications and drama in your character's life to come from. In Fate these Aspects are also where you derive your strength, but I'm uncertain how that could apply to Exalted. Possibly something improving the effect of spending WP if you Invoke one of your Aspects, like Virtue Channels in 2e.
Each character has 5 Aspects and you can change them any time your character changes, just like your intimacies. You can discover NPC Aspects in the same way you discover Intimacies.
Asuna might be:
Each character has 5 Aspects and you can change them any time your character changes, just like your intimacies. You can discover NPC Aspects in the same way you discover Intimacies.
Asuna might be:
- Princess of Masks and Lies
- Compulsive Liar
- Lazy Hedonist
- Strategic Prodigy
- Sucker for a Pretty Face
- Peerless Explorer
- Thrillseeker
- Will Not be Chained
- Playful Trickster
- Wracked with Self Doubt
You are the Sidereals now. Fate Points are a reward you can get for accepting Compels or an award others can give you for helping them achieve their Flags, and can be spent for a few different things:
Fate Points can't negate or trivialize obstacles, but they can make your attempts to overcome them much more effective. Examples:
When trying to sow discord in the government of the city of Beit Alaha you could declare there was an ongoing rivalry between the Suzerain Feisal Hetshepsut and General Askari Hetshepsut. Feisal was appointed Suzerain by the Ur-Pharoah, but Askari was the first living soldier across the walls when the city was seized and has always firmly believed the city was his by rights. All they'd need is a little push to be at each other's throats...
When trying to court Sassarin support for a revolution you could declare the Sorcerer-Prince Ezmera al-Kimyai was captured when the city was seized and has been imprisoned in a tower ever since. If you could free her she would likely lend both her own personal might and her many political connections to your cause...
Have fun with them and write the story you want to read.
- Like a free Declare Fact but also covering unlikely coincidences or events that could possibly transpire.
- Compelling an NPC in accordance with one of their Aspects.
- Declaring a flashback scene where you describe how you made preparations that would help you out in overcoming an obstacle.
- Avoiding death. Typically this takes the form of someone or something arriving to intervene and save you in just the nick of time.
Fate Points can't negate or trivialize obstacles, but they can make your attempts to overcome them much more effective. Examples:
When trying to sow discord in the government of the city of Beit Alaha you could declare there was an ongoing rivalry between the Suzerain Feisal Hetshepsut and General Askari Hetshepsut. Feisal was appointed Suzerain by the Ur-Pharoah, but Askari was the first living soldier across the walls when the city was seized and has always firmly believed the city was his by rights. All they'd need is a little push to be at each other's throats...
When trying to court Sassarin support for a revolution you could declare the Sorcerer-Prince Ezmera al-Kimyai was captured when the city was seized and has been imprisoned in a tower ever since. If you could free her she would likely lend both her own personal might and her many political connections to your cause...
Have fun with them and write the story you want to read.
Flags are scenes you want your character to experience and events you want to see come to pass. Think of them as how you define your personal character arc. They can be very specific or very general, but it's always up to you to decide when they're satisfied. They're not guaranteed to happen, but fate will bend over backwards to give you opportunities to fulfill them, and in general I won't bother to set up any scene that doesn't either directly further a narrative goal you've chosen to fulfill, set up one of your Flags, or explore the consequences of your actions. Flags should generally specify situations rather than outcomes - outcomes are less certain than situations, but they'll still get a nudge from fate. Examples of flags:
Again using Asuna and Maja as examples:
- I want to find out exactly how far my character is willing to go to fulfill their goal of abolishing slavery.
- I want an establishing scene that sets up how much of a badass my character is (tavern brawl, bandit raid, extortion attempt, etc).
- I want an establishing scene that sets up my character as a trusted and respected mediator of disputes in the community.
- I want my character's belief that all Anathema are baby-eating monsters to be challenged.
- I want someone to threaten my character's sister so I can drop everything and go berserk on them.
- I want my character to be captured by the enemy, learn something important, and escape or be rescued by allies.
- I want my character to have a chance to show off their incredible dance skills. It doesn't have to be a dance-off with a Deathlord, but I wouldn't say no.
- I want my character to duel their nemesis over a waterfall, and have one of them fall dramatically to their 'death'.
- I want my character to have dinner with their magnificent bastard affably evil nemesis and play you know I know you know I know over fine wine.
- I want my character to meet their Abyssal Mate Husbando, get off on the wrong foot, cut that sexual tension with a Daiklave, and hate-flirt-fight until dramatically interrupted and they have to retreat.
- I want my character to discover an important secret about NPC X.
- etc etc etc
Again using Asuna and Maja as examples:
I want a scene where Asuna plans and executes an important operation without anyone realizing she's behind it.I want a scene where Asuna confronts Manato about the dangers of his plan.I want a scene where Asuna learns more about Satori.- I want Asuna's supreme confidence in her ability to manipulate people to take a serious blow when she gets steamrolled by a social Celestial. Intellectually she knows Anathema are scary but she doesn't viscerally understand it's a lot more than their ability to stab you really well. Inability to read someone else, or worse, being made to care about someone else when she doesn't know if they care about her, will really do a number on her, and possibly inspire some self reflection on her abusive behaviour. Or just make her really angry.
- I want Asuna to demonstrate her value by learning something important about one or more of the Anathema leading the invasion. Through her spy network, by personally joining the refugee stream to spy on the enemy camp, by being captured by the enemy, etc.
- I want someone to try to capture Asuna so she can exploit her carefully cultivated reputation for being personally nonthreatening to try (and quite possibly fail) to turn the tables by surprising them with White Veil and poison to capture them in turn.
- If one or more Hearthmates are killed and the city falls, I want Asuna to become the Batman terrorizing the regime in the night.
- etc
I want Maja to have a scene where she goes berserk and is horrified by the consequences, then someone comforts her or helps her come to terms with it.I want Maja to have a cute romantic scene with Kuiadao.I want a scene where Maja's rage at the Realm from her last incarnation conflicts with her empathy and fear of killing.- I want Maja to have someone help her come to terms with her Exaltation. (Temple of one of Luna's aspects? Shahan-Ya? Something else?)
- I want Maja to have a scene where someone teaches her to act like a proper Dynast.
- I want Maja to have a scene where she tricks a group of people into thinking she's an easy mark, then learns to play - and cheat at - games of chance to take them for everything they have.
- I want Maja to have a scene where she learns to pickpocket by making a game/competition out of it with someone else.
- I want Maja to participate in a con with someone else.
- I want Maja to lead an expedition to find an important lost site and recover something of significant value either to her people or Kuiadao.
- etc
I think Limit is largely a failure as a mechanic for driving drama and tension in Exalted 2e/3e, as the Storyteller often has to push really hard to get players to significantly violate their intimacies, or aggressively push NPC social influence to generate consequential amounts of Limit, and Limit Breaks themselves are often too large, nebulous, and narratively cumbersome instead of being fun and dramatic. I went in search of a mechanic that could supplement it and settled on Compels from Fate Core.
At any time anyone can propose a Compel for another character. Compels add a dramatic twist to a situation that will cause problems either immediately or going forward, but they do not directly stymie or undo the successes of other players. They should directly reference some important aspect of the target character (A strong Intimacy, a Limit Trigger, or an explicitly stated Aspect are all good examples), and it's up to the player of that character to decide first if they believe the Compel fits their character and second if they accept or reject the Compel. If they determine the Compel doesn't fit their character by citing an aspect that's at least as strong as the one used to support the Compel there's no cost to decline - it simply doesn't fit the character they envisioned. If the Compel fits, then accepting yields 2 Special XP and either a Fate Point or a WP and the Compel comes to pass. To decline they must spend a Willpower or a Fate Point, and they gain three dice of Limit. For example:
At any time anyone can propose a Compel for another character. Compels add a dramatic twist to a situation that will cause problems either immediately or going forward, but they do not directly stymie or undo the successes of other players. They should directly reference some important aspect of the target character (A strong Intimacy, a Limit Trigger, or an explicitly stated Aspect are all good examples), and it's up to the player of that character to decide first if they believe the Compel fits their character and second if they accept or reject the Compel. If they determine the Compel doesn't fit their character by citing an aspect that's at least as strong as the one used to support the Compel there's no cost to decline - it simply doesn't fit the character they envisioned. If the Compel fits, then accepting yields 2 Special XP and either a Fate Point or a WP and the Compel comes to pass. To decline they must spend a Willpower or a Fate Point, and they gain three dice of Limit. For example:
- You succeed at winning over the King with your display of hunting prowess and your victory in the impromptu drinking competition you started, but you were 'Raised by Wolves', so unfortunately you do it at the expense of several powerful members of his court who you humiliated and made off-colour jokes about. The King ate it up, but you've made some powerful enemies today.
- You pick the lock and escape, but you 'Love the Finer Things in Life' and you can't resist going back for that jewelled sculpture. Now the guards are hot on your heels, and one of them got a good look at you.
- You've subdued your nemesis and secured the gem with the temple collapsing around you, but you're a 'True Hero' and you believe 'Everyone Deserves a Second Chance' so you can't just leave them there where they might die. You'll have to take them with you.
- You're a 'Lovable Rogue', so it's unfortunate but of course just as you're about to get the city god to buy into your latest con one of your old partners shows up looking to get back at you for that time you had a little bit of difficulty splitting the loot.
Major narrative goals will require a certain set of obstacles be overcome, and overcoming obstacles will give everyone 3 regular XP, regardless of whether they contributed or even which side they're on. I'll post some possible goals with some mix of obvious and to-be-discovered obstacles, but you can also propose a major narrative goal. We can work together on the obstacles for your goal. Each obstacle will require a certain number of points to overcome, and how you score those points is up to you. Any player can propose how they want to make progress towards overcoming an obstacle, and I'll tell you how impactful and risky the proposal is. The more impactful the more points it will accumulate towards overcoming the obstacle. The riskier it is the graver the consequences for failure - or in some cases even for success. You can always call for a scene where you investigate one of the mystery obstacles to try to discover it.
Example Goal: Start a revolution in the city of Beit Alaha against the Ur-Pharoah's appointed Suzerain.
Example Goal: Start a revolution in the city of Beit Alaha against the Ur-Pharoah's appointed Suzerain.
- The Legions in the fields.
- Legitimize the coup.
- The newly established Hetshepsite nobility.
- Control of the courthouse, granaries, Suzerain’s palace, Great Chamber, and garrisons.
- The Ea-Abzu Sand Navy.
- Ea-Abzu military reinforcements from upriver.
- The Suzerain’s War Sphinxes.
- The Pharaohnic cults and their Vessels.
- The local aristocracy.
- ???
- ???
Combat in Exalted 3e is big and heavy. I will never call for Join Battle unless there is something significant at stake, but you as a player can roll Join Battle any time you'd like to use the combat system to resolve something. If there's something significant at stake and you find yourself losing you can always Concede. If you Concede you've lost the conflict, the stakes go the way your opponents dictate, but you can dictate how you exit the conflict, and as it isn't a total loss you may be able to inconvenience or mitigate your opponents victory in some way. If you Concede you gain a Fate Point to help you make your comeback.
If the fight doesn't have anything major at stake and you don't want to go full on Join Battle then I may just call for a few Clash attacks or another competitive roll-off to decide who wins. Obviously if it's your Dawn against a handful of mortal thugs you simply narrate how you crush them.
If the fight doesn't have anything major at stake and you don't want to go full on Join Battle then I may just call for a few Clash attacks or another competitive roll-off to decide who wins. Obviously if it's your Dawn against a handful of mortal thugs you simply narrate how you crush them.
In an effort to reduce deadlock and keep the game flowing, I'll ask that you put either Hold or Pass at the end of any post. Hold indicates you have more you want to accomplish in a scene and don't want events to move forward yet. If you don't have time to write a post or don't have anything your character wants to accomplish or establish in the scene, a post with nothing but Hold (to be filled in later) or Pass is fine. If no one has a Hold on their last post, or everyone has an explicit Pass, I'll assume it's safe to move on to the next major event or scene. If I have a Hold in a post it indicates something narratively significant is still going to happen this scene, so leaving now may cause you to be absent for something important.
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