Playtest - Princes of the Earth

cyl

cyl

Creepy smile
Helloooo everyone.


I am reforging 2 important parts of the exalted system at the moment, Mass Combat (I think I found the perfect system) and Mandate of Heaven, and as exalts usually inherit the mandate of heaven by their exaltation, I thought it was time to try a game seeing the big picture and allowing exalts to build and develop cultures and societies as they did in the First Age... because obviously that's what they're born to do... take care of Creation in place of the gods.


Obviously my mods are still to be refined and need playtesting to see if they work ok.


So I'm looking for voluntaries/guinea pigs interested not only in personal adventure and development but also by the social political and military aspects of this game.


This game would see a young circle who "inherited" (conquest, lucky birthright, political manipulations) a small dominion evolve from and with their dominion, mixing personal adventures of the circle with the development of the dominion (prosperity, war, crisis etc etc) over the season.


No limit on concepts, all types of exalts save infernals and loyal deathknights are a go... even rakshas if they're under an eclipse pact, probably a few starting xp (no more than 50).


Needless to say, a perfect circle of solars would be ideal ^^.


If anyone's interested, make your claws click ! :mrgreen:


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I've got one White Ranger (that is, Earth Aspect Terrestrial) who I would want to try out in this game.
 
You don't need a raksha under eclipse, merely have them declare such and such oath. They suffer their own penalties for breaking said oaths.
 
Haku said:
You don't need a raksha under eclipse, merely have them declare such and such oath. They suffer their own penalties for breaking said oaths.
Click to expand...
I do think the circle and people of the dominion would feel much safer with an eclipse oath, it's a great insurance policy :mrgreen:
 
Yo !


Fan of political manipulations and plotting. Check. (thank you Yes Minister and Revolver Ocelot for this education)


Good tactician and strategist who actually has a clue how war works. Check.


A chance to run your own nation and make it work. Check. (thank you Sid Meier).


As for circle, I'm relativly flexible. I'll happily either go for Dawn, Twilight or Eclipse.
 
cyl said:
Haku said:
You don't need a raksha under eclipse, merely have them declare such and such oath. They suffer their own penalties for breaking said oaths.
Click to expand...
I do think the circle and people of the dominion would feel much safer with an eclipse oath, it's a great insurance policy :mrgreen:
Click to expand...
The more fool you then. Oaths are oaths, it takes skill to keep the word, but not the spirit of said oath. Eclipse or fey oaths work along the same lines.
 
I forgot to mention it but... there will be a certain amount of standard combat, as in all good exalted game, but it's really no biggie if you don't get a DV of 124 and are not able to inflict 365L Piercing without charms at chargen...


It's a playtest for style of play and rules, so I'll be fair... at first :twisted:


Another thing I failed to mention is that there are two options for you:


- direct control of the dominion: your circle took control of the dominion, one or several of you will be the Lord(s) (the term we'll use to represent the political leader(s) of the dominion)...


- pro active participation to the dominion: your circle lives in the town, and actively helps its Lord who's one of your closest allies.


Considering your choice and devotion to the dominion, you'll have free access / upgrades to some Background like: allies, backing, cult, followers, mentor, ressources etc etc.
 
oooooooooooh, i'd love to play a changing moon for this playtest. Would be fun building a society.


you do know that another option for the game is that each player controls one dominion, and runs it, so they are in competition.
 
That can also be done in the near future (conquering/taking control of another dominion and betraying your fellas).


What could also be done would be to play different forces (but this would inevitably reduce the personal story): like all players involved play at the same time in:


1- a solar dominion


2- a lunar dominion


3- a terrestrial/abyssal dominion


All parties developping neutral/aggressive/collaborative interactions with each other.


That could be an excellent second phase for playtesting... but I think that focusing on a single dominion will allow us to see what works and what doesn't, what's to improve etc etc and keep things fresh with character development.
 
sounds like fun. will start working on my changing moon lunar. Now just need to find something exotic for spirit shape... (am considering a peacock for now..)
 
Of course comments are welcome on the Mass Combat Mod and Mandate of Heaven Mod found in the Temple Courtyard.


I'm starting with the MC since I have a better grip on it thanks to my experience with L5R, but MoH is also in development.
 
I'd also you to coordinate on some roles before doing chargen.


Group is now: Devlin + Khantalas + Midboss + SRC... I dunno if teh red one wanted to play or just to get her ass pinched.


1 more would not hurt.
 
Other than my Lunar, the Earth Aspect, and the Solar, what the fourth character? Midboss?


Also, we might want to talk about how come such a wierd bunch is working together
 
Well we got a Changing Moon (you) a potential solar (Midboss) an Earth Aspect (khantalas) and Devlin.


And yes, giving some sort of coherence to the whole circle could be nice.


Once again I repeat, this is a playtest, don't sweat too much on your backgrounds and chargen at first, keep things simple. Personal stories between seasons and battles will mostly be short, and resolved (hopefully) quickly to get a grip on the development of the rules over the long run and various types of situations.


If things turn out ok, then we will raise the game to a new level and continue the game with the foundations we've built.


The starting location will be a city on the east border of the Grey a bit south from Varsi and Puyo... good place for developping a stable and prosperous dominion, having interactions with rivals and allies, and suffering a little barbarian invasion on top of the usual armed conflicts of the zone, a deathknight infiltration, some natural catastrophies caused by stupid gods every now and then. :mrgreen:
 
Well, if we want to build a circle, we might want to quickly discuss the general cause/philosophy/morality... of the circle before building on the characters. Otherwise, we might end up with the classic DND group with Belkar and Miko in the same team.
 
Andrensath: definitely. :)


For this game, you should all have a personal history and an intimacy with the dominion.


You obviously know each other and are working together for the greater good / realizations of your common projects.


We can use the options offered by the corebook on many aspects (p.269 and beyond):


The circle's origins:


Ennemy of my ennemy: so you all needed to run away from the Mask's reach... and you think you're safe now... that's so cute :twisted:


The gods will it: bossman tells you go there and do your thing


Supernatural conspiracy: well... get free of your chains and kick some ass


Many birds with one stone: who the hell thought a gathering of young exalts would be a better target than scattered exalts ?! bring me his head !!!


Beyond the second breath: childhood hearties


Friends beyond death: hey waitaminute... you look familiar, we've already met right ?


Depending on how you want to do things, we could


- spend a few years having some episodic adventures while there is still a Lord at the head of the dominion and after a few years (time for us to playtest some cool events), poof, the Lord... off (events will tell us what happened), and you gotta step in.


- launch a fully controlled dominion right from the start.


Do note that this is going to be a collaborative work with heavy political and social implications... so your virtues & philosophy will be more than important.


For those who haven't checked the draft for MoH yet here's the basic:


Dominions have traits and virtues, interacting with each other.


Magnitude: size/influence


Health & Food (depend on Compassion)


Technology & Industry (depend on Conviction)


Diplomacy and Culture (Temperance)


Military & Government (Valor)


There are a number of abilities for dominions, and 2 condition monitors : Stability and Prosperity.


So... there's plenty of things to do and concerted actions will most likely show awesome results.
 
These are the roles I believe we need, to cover all bases:


- Lord - someone to set the goals, and rule the land.


- Merchant - taking care of commerce and prosperity


- Diplomat - easing tensions and striking alliances with neighbors


- General - leader of troops


- Priest - appeaser of gods, and dealing with spirits


- Bureaucrat - someone to make sure all systems work well


- Spy - someone to keep an eye on neighbors, and other possible threats


- Builder - someone to create industries, working with the Merchant


The way I see my character she can be the Diplomat, and I can rework her to take one of the Priest, Spy, or Merchant roles as well.
 
Going by that list, my character is obviously going to be the Builder, and can easily be the Bureaucrat, General, and/or Merchant as well.
 
I think Andrensath's character and Glorious Jade Morning Crescent (Jade Morning for short) will probably be redundant together.


Except Jade Morning is focused on being a General and a Priest.
 
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