Getting the Circle Together

P

Persell

Ten Thousand Club
I don't know if this is problem for anyone else, but getting the Circle together at the beginning of a story is absolutely the hardest thing for me. Once everyone is together in game and involved I have no trouble, but coming up with a reasonable scenario for 4 or 5 Celestial Exalts to be in the same area is tough for me, especially if we're talking Solars. Lunars, Abyssals and especially Sidereals aren't a big issue as all three types are typically part of some larger organization and therefore have superiors giving them orders, but Solars by their very nature, and the way the setting is set up, have no superiors or larger organization.


I'm about to start a game that will have at least 2 Solars, so any suggestions or prior experience from other STs would be greatly appreciated.
 
I started almost all my players as Heroic Mortals (I let the Dragon-Blood start Exalted to milk the most out of a Lookshy background) who all were in the same town for various reasons of their own and let them take things from there. I've ended up with two to three groups each doing their own thing so far, but they are gradually coming together as a Cirle, one small step at a time.
 
Giving people some form of connection pre-game can often help. One group, they worked together and created a crew for a First Age vessel, with all the members serving some purpose and having certain connections in game. The Twilight had rebuilt the vessel, the Dawn had been assigned to keep an eye on him as a potentially useful asset...or dangerous threat by his superiors in Lookshy while a Enlightened Mortal Martial Artists...and then Exalted during that time. The Lunar was the Dawn's Lunar Mate, and had stowed away on their ship in disguise at one point while running away from her mentor, who didn't think she was ready to be released, and found a reason to stay in the Dawn caste...though his warrior nature and her own pacifism made for an interesting dichotomy. Other groups, have had their own reasons. Take DG's Crearth game. It's brought people together through rumors and stories about what some of the characters were doing. Also, look at people's backgrounds and anything they have given in their history for ways to connect them. Do two people have Mentors? Perhaps they know each other. Is someone in the Guild, and filthy rich? Perhaps they've hired some of the others to protect their interests. Does someone have Influence? Perhaps this has helped draw some of the others to their location, to see just what this person is really about.


Myself, I generally don't have a hard time getting characters together. I have a harder time suspending disbelief and explaining a group that's entirely made of one Exalt type. Fortunately...rarely do more than two players at my table want to play the same type of Exalt, and they all bring something to the table.


Another method is, of course, the Heroic Mortal to Exaltation method. It works out many times, though if everyone Exalts at once, you'll need something truly epic going down to draw the attention of that many Exaltations all at once. And why were so many Exaltations in Lytek's cabinet right then, anyhow? Were they connected somehow already, the previous incarnations all dying recently?
 
One method that's always worked with my group was 'Like calls to like.'


If you're a fairly new Solar, avoiding enemies and looking for allies is usually a fairly high priority--both help you live longer. Rumors of other Solars could possibly draw the character; at the very least, curiosity and the potential for discussion of shared experiences could be a driving force.
 
Myself' date=' I generally don't have a hard time getting characters together. I have a harder time suspending disbelief and explaining a group that's entirely made of one Exalt type. Fortunately...rarely do more than two players at my table want to play the same type of Exalt, and they all bring something to the table.[/quote'] I guess this is really more of my problem. Just knowing the players preferences, I imagine I'm gonna have 3 Solars and a Lunar. Finding a believable reason for that group to end up in one area is a problem. Fortunately, even if the starting scenario is a touch weak my players are (usually) mature enough to just go with it in order to get the game off the ground.
Another method is' date=' of course, the Heroic Mortal to Exaltation method. [/quote']I respect that you and others enjoy this, but for the life of me I can not understand why. Mortals lose.....period. I like how big and sweeping Exalted's stories and characters are, which would I feel would be lost to a large degree by starting as mortals. I may do a one on one Exaltation scene for each player though. Gets them into their character's heads, and gives me an idea what kind of character/player they are.
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I use two techniques:


1- the characters already know each other before the game starts: they have met in the close past as exalts and decided that they should team up and so the game starts with a circle already formed.


2- pcs don't know each other yet but felt drawn (yeah that happens often... Filial Wisdom followed his dream and visions and he went all the way to Rathess) to a certain place (usually an important location for their past incarnations) and something dramatic happens there and they reveal themselves as exalts and start working together against a coming threat to their lives / the place / the people.
 
Steal a "character novel" technique of character generation from Spirit of the Century. Start with the notion that the characters may have some history prior to the game. The idea is that your players get together, either before, after or during they're building their stats, and each tells a short synopsis about a novel. (That is, if the story the character was in was a novel, what would the back jacket of the book say?)


Then, each player passes their story to the person on the right, and that person tells how they were a guest star in that story. Then you do the same thing again, passing the story to the person on the left instead. (Or, whatever way you want to mix up the stories, so long as no one is in the same book twice.)


The authors of Spirit of the Century suggested that if you tried the idea with exalted, the phases of this process would be slightly different:

  1. Memories of the First Age - each has to involve another player's character, and while the PC had that memory, the other PC didn't, at least not initially
  2. Memories of the First Age - each has to involve another player's character, and while the PC had that memory, the other PC didn't, at least not initially
  3. Youth
  4. Exaltation - possibly a required aspect here related to caste.
  5. Since Exaltation


I'd actually change this up slightly, so that one of the "guest star" sections would occur in one of the First Age stories, but the other could be in any of the others.
 
There's plenty of room for the characters to be manipulated into coming together, given the number of powerful invisible hands that are at work in Creation (Sidereals, Deathlords, gods, etc).
 
I generally go the "lazy" route but it often gives surprisingly good results:


I basically tell all the players "This is where you are now, you all know each-other. How did you get here?" and let them work out the details. I generally get a LOT more interesting results then when I force a method on them.
 
For my Dragon Blooded game coming up, I'm actually doing the character generation session as a bunch of Sidereals, who pick out some young DBs who suit their interests, manipulate them into coming together, and stick some destinies on them before the game starts. Should be interesting.
 
Another method is' date=' of course, the Heroic Mortal to Exaltation method. It works out many times, though if everyone Exalts at once, you'll need something truly epic going down to draw the attention of that many Exaltations all at once. And why were so many Exaltations in Lytek's cabinet right then, anyhow? Were they connected somehow already, the previous incarnations all dying recently?[/quote']
I solved the logical problems with that one by letting people choose when to Exalt. I've still got one player who hasn't cashed in her Exaltation and yet is the most proactive of all the characters.
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Kyeudo said:
I solved the logical problems with that one by letting people choose when to Exalt. I've still got one player who hasn't cashed in her Exaltation and yet is the most proactive of all the characters.
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That is fascinating!

Finding a believable reason for that group to end up in one area is a problem.
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Why must the reason be believable? We're talking about demigods that can destroy the creators of creation. There's nothing believable about them!


I've found that the greatest of cheesy answers often gives the most genre-satisfying answer. Fate dragging you all there, some huge event, or the surprise exaltation of multiple people all at once... it's only ever happened once in this setting, and it's RIGHT NOW!


Another technique has been to have the circle design a circle-theme. Like, they are all bent on opposing the underworld in some fashion. Then, fitting them together works rather easily, and you have a really easy way to drive the story forward and keep everybody closely engaged.
 
Problem with this is that Fate isn't an abstract / epic / heroic notion in the setting.


It's a very real and very manipulated "force"... it may be applicable for pre exaltation mortals, but once they're exalted, their wave their own destinies... you can only hope that they will follow their visions.
 
I like to believe that while the Loom of Fate manages destiny, one of the Primordials came up with the idea of "destiny" and wrote it into existance, so that the concept of Fate exist at a level beyond the Loom. The Fate that the Loom manages is ensuring that causality continues to happen and how it happens. The larger Fate is what caused the Gods to plot rebellion, what caused the Sidereals to plot treason, and what drives the Solar Exalted back to power in the Age of Sorrows.


Of course, this isn't canon at all, so use it only if you want to.
 
The Ebon Dragon invented Fate, and wove it into the stars, so that He may bind all beings that were not as grand as He with invisible chains that bind them to futures where they never rise to match Him.


Autochthon built the Loom as a tool for viewing the chains that the Ebon Dragon had rested upon all Humanity.
 
Thanqol said:
The Ebon Dragon invented Fate, and wove it into the stars, so that He may bind all beings that were not as grand as He with invisible chains that bind them to futures where they never rise to match Him.
Autochthon built the Loom as a tool for viewing the chains that the Ebon Dragon had rested upon all Humanity.
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Odd. I wouldn't have pegged the Ebon Dragon for that one, what with creating the idea of free will and all that. Sounds more like something She Who Lives In Her Name would have done.
 
Kyeudo said:
I wouldn't have pegged the Ebon Dragon for that one, what with creating the idea of free will and all that.
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How else to do you create the idea of betrayal if not with the idea of free will?
 
How else to do you create the idea of betrayal if not with the idea of free will?
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Exactly. Free Will is the anti-thesis of predestination, so any over-destiny written into Creation was not done by the Ebon Dragon, but by someone else, likely SWLIHN or Cecelyne.
 
It is? DAMN IT, PEOPLE NEED TO STOP MAKING ME BUY BOOKS.


Still, you gents have a point regarding the ED. It's an idea I heard on the Internet, and liked to the point of adopting.


I will consider my position.
 
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