Exaltred Second Edition

[Flagg]

I know... but there's something extrememly lame-sounding to me with the sentence, "Roll to see if you say something appropriate."


-S

 

[Jukashi]

What about LARP? "Roll to see if you can punch the guy next to you."

 

[Flagg]

What about LARP? "Roll to see if you can punch the guy next to you."

Also lame.


-S

 

[memesis]

I know... but there's something extrememly lame-sounding to me with the sentence, "Roll to see if you say something appropriate."
-S

Well, of course, it's good that we live in a world where all the players are at least as eloquent and well-spoken as their DEMIGOD characters.


For those that aren't, rolling dice will be much-appreciated.  The soliloquy will now be a stunt, as it ought to be in such situations.


Other uses for a rolled social system include:


* Sorcerers, mystics or thaumaturges debating arcane principles or points which the players cannot even begin to take time inventing or keeping consistent - allowing your sorcerer PC to demonstrate his erudition before the outraged hedge-mage in the Threshold and winning the king's awed approval.


* The pre-negotiations for trade agreements, political alliances, and other long-term contracts, in which the players may have a broad understanding of what they want from the detail, but little ability to really get into the meat of talking through it.


* Quicker resolution to plot-important, but dramatically uninteresting, scenes of conversation.


I mean, if you think the inclusion of a social-combat system in a book has just barred you and your fellow gamers from TALKING THROUGH SCENES, you sure are shackled to following the rules.  But I for one welcome our new Social Combat overlords, because it gives me another convenient tool in my ST bag.

 

[Solfi]

hear hear

 

[Forn Clakes]

the new Social Fu system is described on the WW-site.

Hmmm, unsure what to think really...I'll have to wait and see.


~FC.

 

[Fruan]

I have no problem with the idea of a strong set of social mechanics; Remember, you can stunt every roll. So, there's your roleplaying the encounter right there.

 

[Jukashi]

* Sorcerers, mystics or thaumaturges debating arcane principles or points which the players cannot even begin to take time inventing or keeping consistent - allowing your sorcerer PC to demonstrate his erudition before the outraged hedge-mage in the Threshold and winning the king's awed approval.

Bigods... technobabble!


...


Magobabble? Thaumobabble? Eh.

 

[Persell]

If a player is too shy to actually roleplay a social encounter in which his character should be excelling I would rather have him roleplay the rudiments of it and describe the rest ("I try to fast-talk him, while seeming innocent") than have him roll the conversation. I like to keep dice rolls to a minimum as they, in my experience, generally bog the roleplaying down.

What about LARP? "Roll to see if you can punch the guy next to you."

I don't know what that is, but it's not LARP... Shouldn't be, at least.

 

[Persell]

the new Social Fu system is described on the WW-site.

Now that I've read it, I have decided that I hate it


This is becoming a WW trend. When they make a new release, they improve greatly on some areas, leave others as they were and then severely worsen at least one thing. NWoD had Morality. Exalted 2nd ed. has Social Combat.

 

[Silence In Daylight]

The problem with role-playing socialising is that players are generally unable to exceed their own limitations... which they should be able to do, since, you know, they're Eclipse Caste Solars, the Demigods of Discussion, the Cuchulainns of Contracts.
I mean if you're a shy guy, normally uninterested in politics, how are you going to roleplay a guy swaying the Deliberative?

 Um, wasn't Cu Cuchulainn known for being a warrior and not much else?

 

[Jukashi]

Cú Chulainn (Hound of Chulainn) was, indeed, a truly mighty warrior and not much else. When I said "Cuchulainn of contracts", that implied the character was of equal skill to Cuchulainn, but in the realm of contracts instead of battle. You see?


If you want an irish hero who was good at everything, though, you want Fionn mac Cumhail.

 

[Flagg]

Cú Chulainn (Hound of Chulainn) was, indeed, a truly mighty warrior and not much else.

Well, he was also a complete psychopath.


-S

 

[Jukashi]

Hey, if you found out that you'd accidentally just killed your only son, you might go a bit round the twist as well.

 

[Solfi]

I'm sorry, the who what where?

 

[Jukashi]

A-hem. A summary of Cuchulainn.


Boy called Setanta in ancient Ireland.


Guy called Chulainn calls a feast.


Setanta is invited, but holds up on the way to beat the essential fluids out of a bunch of other boys at a game of Hurley- an ancient irish game somewhat like hockey but more bloodthirsty.


Chulainn, with all his guest arriving, forgets Setanta is coming and releases his big mad wolfhound to guard his house.


Setanta comes along, the dog attacks him. Oh noes!


Setanta knocks his hurley ball down the dog's throat. It is dead!


Chulainn is sad- who will protect his house now?


Setanta says "I'll do it" and becomes Cuchulainn, "Cú" meaning "hound".


And so Cuchulainn goes around having big huge adventures, becomes the greatest warrior in Ireland after learning from a bunch of warrior-women on their island, and later meets lots of other powerful, beautiful women.


One of these women becomes pregnant with his son, but Cuchulainn's buggered off on more adventures (she doesn't mind, though) and the son gets raised in England... he has his father's ring, though, an heirloom from his mother.


Boy grows up, comes back to Ireland, but is under geas not to reveal who he is. He beats up tons of warriors, and the king sends for Cuchulainn. Cuchulainn fights this foreign warrior.


Cuchulainn wins! But, uh-oh, then he sees the ring. He's killed his only son! Oh dear.


Cuchulainn goes on to have more adventures, and eventually dies surrounded by enemies, having roped himself to a standing stone so that he'll die on his feet. References to "the hero light" fading from around him as he perishes, only after which his enemies dare approach.


Total nutter. Dawn caste through and through.  

 

[Solfi]

Nice. Folklore that's been passed through oral tradition? Or is there a written work of some sort?


Sounds like something that Tolkien would have envied...

 

[memesis]

Nice. Folklore that's been passed through oral tradition? Or is there a written work of some sort?
Sounds like something that Tolkien would have envied...

This was exactly the sort of thing Tolkien researched professionally.

 

[Obsidian Soul]

Second Edition is going to suck so much.  I hate this.  Everytime that WW comes out with a decent product, they butcher it by hiring some hack that probably hasn't done any real roleplaying.  I've played Exalted, every oWoD, GURPS, Rifts, Palladium, D&D (first, second and third), Shadowrun (first, second, third and fourth [fourth is really good]), BESM and a hell of a lot of other smaller games.  It sounds like the team that is designing second edition is trying for a D10 version of D20, and I hate D20 and every other level based system.  Level based systems are okay for video games but are only fit for roleplaying games for preteens.

 

[Solfi]

memesis: No shit. That's why I mentioned it. We have no shortage of folklore epics her in the north (Kalevala in Finland, the Edda from Iceland, the whole Aesir myths etc etc), but poor Tolkien hated the fact that the brits didn't have any indigenous tales.


... the closest they get I suppose is the King Arthur myths, but they're actually a hodge-podge of french tales of old.


Obsidian Soul: So don't buy it. First Edition is still a huge setting with more material than you can shake a twelve-foot pole at (everyone who's tried to explain the entire Exalted setting to someone completely uninitiated know what I'm talking about...).


Personally, I've become more and more excited about the second edition as I've heard about it.

• If combat works the way it's supposed to; it will be a lot smoother.
  
• The Social Fu-system is a welcome addition, as I think it will shake loose some new stunts from players (who tend to have problems stunting in social situations otherwise) It's a bit rigid, but you don't really need to use it *all* the time after all. Just go with the flow.
  
• The tick system seems interesting as well. I'm gonna love trying that out.
  
• The new Charm structure interests me as well, and I welcome the more organized structure that excellencies bring to the table.
  
• The political structure / manipulation system. I can't wait to try this baby out.
  
• My biggest beef is with the Mass Combat System. If they haven't changed that a lot (and it doesn't seem like it from the teaser; I'm gonna use TSJ:s system (with the War Ability instead of course), and modify the rules to accomodate 2nd ed rule changes. TSJ:s system was faster than the official system *by far* and gave a lot of leeway to characters. I liked that. I'm hoping that they bring up Cavalry combat though.... information about that has been dismal.

 

[Jukashi]

Ireland (then Hibernia) was never conquered by the romans like britan was, so we retained far more myths and legends than they did. It wasn't until the normans came that we were in any way restrained, and then we had lots of irish monks who carefully converted all these old oral lessons into writing.


Of course, they then added stuff, like how the children of Lir (transformed into swans and doomed to live on wild waters for 900 years) got baptised in the end, but it's still better than what a lot of countries have.

 

[Solfi]

Jukashi:


recursion [noun]:


see "recursion"

 

[Jukashi]

Ok, ok, I'll stop.

 

[Flagg]

Nice. Folklore that's been passed through oral tradition? Or is there a written work of some sort?

I originally got the skinny on ol' Cuchulain here. It's a good read... but as much as Jukashi downplays it, this guy was a fucking NUTBAG. Read it and you'll understand.


I do agree about the Dawn Caste thing. He had this state, translated in that book as his "warp spasm", where all of his hair would stand on end, one eye would bug out, one would squint tightly, his tongue would loll out, and he'd be sheathed in a radiant aura. Then he'd cut motherfuckers' heads off.


He also did something called the "salmon leap", which was apparently very difficult and impressive


-S

 

[Hanat-Osul]

I do agree about the Dawn Caste thing. He had this state, translated in that book as his "warp spasm", where all of his hair would stand on end, one eye would bug out, one would squint tightly, his tongue would loll out, and he'd be sheathed in a radiant aura. Then he'd cut motherfuckers' heads off.

Lucky bastard.