Newbie doubts...

[sttop]

I' just started storytelling an exalted game to my friends, and during the play, we had some doubts... So here they go :


1) Can u divide your dice pool in a melle attack, so that you can attack with a sword 3 times without using charms? Can u do it using other combat skills?


2) Isn't the artifact background overpower? I mean, the characters can start with armors that have a very high soak value, and weapons that do a LOT of damage... And when he gets the artifact, the character can choose its material?


3) I couldn't find the shields cost and the speed value of bows in the core rulebook... Can anyone help?


4) How exactly works the anima effect of Night Caste?


5) In warned the players that having a strange (or big) familiar or a weapon like a daiklave could make some citizens know that they're exalted. Is this correct?

 

[Flagg]

1) Can u divide your dice pool in a melle attack, so that you can attack with a sword 3 times without using charms? Can u do it using other combat skills?

Yes. Check the multiple action rules. It's the same for any Ability.

2) Isn't the artifact background overpower? I mean, the characters can start with armors that have a very high soak value, and weapons that do a LOT of damage... And when he gets the artifact, the character can choose its material?

If you feel that this is overpowered, Exalted might not be the game for you. Try D&D.

3) I couldn't find the shields cost and the speed value of bows in the core rulebook... Can anyone help?

What do yuo mean by "cost"? The speed of bows is +0.

4) How exactly works the anima effect of Night Caste?

You can spend twice the amount of essence you would normally spend to prevent your anima from flaring up.

5) In warned the players that having a strange (or big) familiar or a weapon like a daiklave could make some citizens know that they're exalted. Is this correct?

More or less. Wether or not this is a bad thing depends entirely on where they are and who notices.


-S

 

[sttop]

thanks for the help!


hey man, thanks a lot


i played a lot of D&D, i guess that's why i think artifact is overpower... gotta get used to it


when i said 'cost' i meaned how many points in resources are necessary to have each type.


other doubt that showed up:


is there any advantages (or disadvantages) using a bow when you're close to the target? i mean, the foe shouldn't be able to dodge, unless he makes a good stunt

 

[Flagg]

Re: thanks for the help!

when i said 'cost' i meaned how many points in resources are necessary to have each type.

I don't think it's listed anywhere. I can't imagine any mundane shield would be mor ethan 1 or 2.

is there any advantages (or disadvantages) using a bow when you're close to the target? i mean, the foe shouldn't be able to dodge, unless he makes a good stunt

There's no mechanical difference, no.


-S

 

[Solfi]

when i said 'cost' i meaned how many points in resources are necessary to have each type.

From Manacle & Coin:

• Buckler, Resources 1
  
• Target Shield, Resources 2
  
• Tower Shield, Resources 3

 

[Flagg]

• Tower Shield, Resources 3

That seems somewhat eggregious to me.


-S

 

[Forn Clakes]

2) Isn't the artifact background overpower? I mean, the characters can start with armors that have a very high soak value, and weapons that do a LOT of damage... And when he gets the artifact, the character can choose its material?

Yes, when compared to D&D, the Artifact rules of Exalted do seem over the top, but it your game, so if you don't like it, change it.  But before you do, think if its really necessary.  As ST you have to ask your players why they want to have what it is they want.  I generally try to avoid my players in starting with artifacts simply bacause I have shown thet players that my stories are character focuses, not the size of their swords.  I have taken artifacts from characters, justifiably, so that it pushes the story along in the right manner.  But at the end of the day, artifacts in Exalted, like the world they are set in, are over the top, awe-inspiring and terrible at the same time, capable of changing a single character in the blink of an eye.


Oh, and welcome to the Redux, hope you settle in  


~FC.

 

[Solfi]

That seems somewhat eggregious to me.

hey, I'm not disagreeing. I just read what it said. I'm not too fond of the Resource system at all actually. It's oversimplified, and way too unbalanced.


Then again, the monetary system in Manacle & Coin is too complex (albeit impressive).

 

[Persell]

hey, I'm not disagreeing. I just read what it said. I'm not too fond of the Resource system at all actually. It's oversimplified, and way too unbalanced.

Hear hear! As is the Linguistics system.

 

[Flagg]

Hear hear! As is the Linguistics system.

Oddly enough, I just had a conversation about this with my players on Saturday. I was about to do a write up on it to submit.


From now on, I'll be handling Linguistics in way similar to how I handle Crafts:


The main problem that I see with Linguistics is the one-language-per-dot thing. For one, it means that the Ability does not actually measure how proficient you are in a language, only how many you know. Furthermore, there are more than 5 languages in Creation, which means the 5-dot cap is somewhaat limiting. It's stupid to think you'd have to live longer than a mortal lifetime to learn 7 languages.


Here's my fix:


The character's rating in Linguistics reflects his skill as a Linguist (strange idea, I know). Someone with one dot has only mastered the rudiments of syntax, grammar, and pronunciation, while someone with 5 dots could read/write a highly technical document, or engage in complex wordplay.


By default, a character can speak his native tongue at an effective  rating of his Intelligence or his Linguistics, whichever is higher.


Characters wishing to learn additional languages may do so for the cost of 3XP (2 if favored). Their rating in Linguistics represents their ability to speak and comprehend these languages, not how many they have learned.


I think this makes the Ability much more flexible and mechanically useable.


Thanks to Murdrak for helping me brainstorm this system.


-S

 

[sttop]

nice system stillborn


i really liked your linguistics system, think i'm gonna use it in my campaign...


don't you guys have any ideas of a better resources system??


i think it's very simplified and can cause some problems, like one (stupid) player whose character has resources 5 buy everything to his circlemates...

 

[Flagg]

Re: nice system stillborn

i really liked your linguistics system, think i'm gonna use it in my campaign...

Let me know how it works out.

don't you guys have any ideas of a better resources system??
i think it's very simplified and can cause some problems, like one (stupid) player whose character has resources 5 buy everything to his circlemates...

I find that in a game where a single character can take on an entire mortal army singlehandedly, live for thousands of years, and rip the world apart with his mighty kung fu, being able to buy stuff isn't all that important, really.


-S

 

[Silence In Daylight]

Re: nice system stillborn

i think it's very simplified and can cause some problems, like one (stupid) player whose character has resources 5 buy everything to his circlemates...

 That's where the ST steps in and applys her version of common sense and game balance. A bit of applied enlightened self-interest on the part of the players--e.g. why should everyone else live off the Resource dots I blew on my character? Get your own--may do wonders.


 Look, D&D is designed to minimize abuse by players, so that the GM doesn't have to spend as much time policing the players. The WW systems almost invite exploitation, and require the ST to be more on top of things.


 Have a talk with your players, and emphasize that the point of Storytelling mechanics isn't to find ways to break and abuse the system, but to make a Chronicle interesting. Is it interesting exactly how many pieces of silver (or jade scrip) a character has all times? Or how many daggers another has?

 

[wordman]

Re: thanks for the help!

i played a lot of D&D, i guess that's why i think artifact is overpower... gotta get used to it

Yes. My first Exalted Storyteller never got to this point. He thought of Exalted as D&D with shinier feats. Wrong.


The important thing to remember is that your characters are demigods. They're supposed to take over whole cities and lay waste to thousands of zombies at once.


The largest difference (from a GM standpoint) is that a lot of D&D is tracking and acquiring resources (gold, magic items, spells) and DMs are concerned with managing that. This concern, particularly with material wealth, isn't nearly as important in Exalted. While there is no need to run rampant with artifacts, realize that your average exalt is in many ways supposed to be twinked out. As an example, one of my players has a bow that can create its own arrows, largely because I just didn't care about tracking how many arrows people were carrying.


Oh, also realize that certainly the artifact armor and probably the artifact weapons in the main Exalted book are vastly overpriced compared to other artifacts in the game. Orichalcum superheavy plate should probably be around a three dot artifact. And, really, a vanilla suit of such armor shouldn't exist. Anyone who spent the time to make an oricalcum suit of superheavy plate would probably have put enough extra powers into it to actually make it a four or five dot artifact.


Also, it takes much longer for GMs to figure out how to scale and play opposition in Exalted than it does in most other games. There will come a time when you get frustrated that your players are crushing the opponents you throw their way. Unlike other games, where you can just ramp up the power level, in Exalted, the answer is often to just play your opponents smarter, particularly in their mix of available charms. There are a couple of posts in the wiki that I found very helpful with this:

• A number of posts about combat strategies
  
• A sample combat where a deathlord slaughters five 500xp solars in three turns.
  
• Another solars vs. deathlord combat using a different mix of charms, where the deathlord is killed in two turns.
  
• I also think this post on Exalted charm theory should be required reading for any GM.
  
• And, to toot my own horn, I think I wrote a fairly decent introduction to Exalted cosmology.

Last bit of advice: what makes stunting cool is not that it helps the story or gives dice and essence, but that it lets players break the rules.

 

[Samiel]

Breaking the system is part of the fun in exalted. See my sig.


Obsidian Sheath: Raise strength to 8. Soak 10/10, mobility 0, fatigue 1


Powerbow: Accuracy +1, Damage +3


Arrow Storm Technique: With a good archery pool, you are virtually garaunteed to hit every time, and with this charm, every time you hit, you can shoot someone else.


With the stacked bonuses provided, you end up with a character who has great armour, and can do more damage in a shot than is necessary to kill, without a roll, even armoured extras. Hence: Slaying an entire army. And you don't even need to buy essence three.

 

[Vanman]

Characters wishing to learn additional languages may do so for the cost of 3XP (2 if favored). Their rating in Linguistics represents their ability to speak and comprehend these languages, not how many they have learned.
I think this makes the Ability much more flexible and mechanically useable.

I like this too, Still. But how would you handle selecting languages at the beginning of the game? Do players have to blow bonus points on languages? Or, when they start, they can pick the number of languages that they have in dots of Linguistics? Neither option seems quite right....

 

[memesis]

Resources is simplified, and deliberately so.  For the Exalted, if you are wealthy beyond reason, that's part of who you are, and you can buy a ton of stuff.  But - if you aren't, what are you really missing out on?


Equipment?  Trivial to get.  "I walk the roads until bandits jump me, then destroy them and take their stuff".


Creature comforts?  Possible to finagle with Larceny, if you insist.


Food and drink?  "You pay for the meal with the coins in your pocket" is good enough for me, and I move on.


Healing potions?  Ohwait, this isn't D&D.


Artifacts?  Nobody sells them for money in my games.  If they do in yours, either you don't understand artifacts or you understand what you've done well enough to know how to price them.

 

[Quchu]

Breaking the system is part of the fun in exalted. See my sig.
Obsidian Sheath: Raise strength to 8. Soak 10/10, mobility 0, fatigue 1


Powerbow: Accuracy +1, Damage +3


Arrow Storm Technique: With a good archery pool, you are virtually garaunteed to hit every time, and with this charm, every time you hit, you can shoot someone else.


With the stacked bonuses provided, you end up with a character who has great armour, and can do more damage in a shot than is necessary to kill, without a roll, even armoured extras. Hence: Slaying an entire army. And you don't even need to buy essence three.

When I read this, I thought, lozl what the fsck is this guy takling about every ea charms hav limits, and went to read AST, looking forward to publically right your post and compensate for errors I made a few days ago. (One is fine and two may be okay, but two in a row in one thread? Bleh.) But oh boy, AST's only limit is ammunition. With a good Power Bow with infinite ammunition, you are right.


Damn Solars.

 

[Flagg]

I like this too, Still. But how would you handle selecting languages at the beginning of the game? Do players have to blow bonus points on languages? Or, when they start, they can pick the number of languages that they have in dots of Linguistics? Neither option seems quite right....

I think a Languages Background would probably be in order. One language per dot.


-S

 

[Persell]

Oddly enough, I just had a conversation about this with my players on Saturday. I was about to do a write up on it to submit.


From now on, I'll be handling Linguistics in way similar to how I handle Crafts:


[...]


I think this makes the Ability much more flexible and mechanically useable.

Interesting view. I have stolen a bit from the new WoD (kind of blasphemous, I know) and made languages a one to three-dot merit/specialty/background/whatever. They have Lore as a prereq and for some maybe also Intelligence or occult. Basically I now have a realistic number of languages in Creation and they all take practice to learn. Tribal tounges are probably harder to grasp than the more common ones.


I do like your system, though, Stillborn. I have dropped Linguistics entirely and replaced it with Persuasion, which none of my players use and me neither. So I am considering bringing Linguistics back in.


As to Ressources I don't care much for the system, but I like it better than having to track every penny carefully. The only thing I lack is having an ingame idea about how much things are worth. How much silver pieces would an ox or a sword cost? This, of course, depends on the economy in a specific culture or nation, but I still have problems grasping it. Economics have never been my strong side.

 

[Flagg]

I'll do an offical writeup of it tonight and put it in Lore5.


-S

 

[Vanman]

I'll do an offical writeup of it tonight and put it in Lore5.
-S

Is your Craft treatment up there as well? If not, can you include that in the writeup? Or point me where it is posted?


Cheers.

 

[Flagg]

Crafts house rules are up. Linuguistics to follow.


-S

 

[Flagg]

Linuguistics to follow.

Voila ici.


-S

 

[Jakk Bey]

Your Craft Ability is close to what I usually run.


With Craft you have general handyman ability.  You know how to use tools and do general work--nothing too involved.  For each dot, you get a singular craft that you've got experience in--woodworking, blacksmith, carpentry, armory, ect.  With a 3XP drop, you can add an additional craft that you are good with.  


But the idea of dropping a whole Ability for each new Craft seems insane for a system that is supposed to streamline things.