Dice Trial by Fire - Exalted 2e OOC

[Thief of Words]

Your Essence pools are full, so you shouldn't need to worry about that, but sure. The post was quite good, well worth the bonus.

From a dice perspective, I totally do. She's pretty much always going to be operating at a minimum of a -2 penalty from various forms of intoxication. OFS operates on the assumption that the character will typically suffering from a net -2/3 to minus a he'll of a lot in penalties to make the style effective.

The specialties only mitigate that a tiny bit. The form charm reduces the total sum of internal penalties by 1. It requires at least three sources, hence she has to be at at least -3 internal to benefit from it.

So after specialties, she's at a minimum -0 net change to pools, if she's in her Form and spending actions to maintain those penalties.

Except she was literally designed to not have the self control to stay at minimum penalty unless a stunt, an intimacy, a Valor channel, or her motivation is in play.

So I have to push the stunts. Her charms are less efficient (because TMA),, so I pretty much have to push mote-and-willpower recovery, too.

As an aside, am I the only one who thinks the trailer music for the new Mission Impossible movie is kind of perfect for the jailbreak?

Also, wanted to say that I love that so far the characers all follow the same theory of virtue flaws: that it's an outgrowth or magnification of who they already were before Exaltation, just supercharged.

 

[Rykon]

That was a matter of confusion on my part since Aredin walked out after his rant.

Edit: I'll follow up in depth when I'm off work for the day.

 

[Rykon]

Posted with appropriate edit, now that I'm at an actual keyboard.

 

[Thief of Words]

Wish me well. Boarding the plane for my trip now.

 

[MasterDAF]

Wish me well. Boarding the plane for my trip now.

Have a great trip! Remember to take pics along the way. It may seem a little inconvenient to make time for it in the moment, but I always find myself glad down the road if I have pics to look back at later.

 

[Sherwood]

Have a good trip.

 

[Rykon]

Before I forget to ask, Rettie and I have discussed some long-term thoughts and goals, such as nation/world building, but I have no idea what the rest of you would be looking for once we get over the horizon of this mission. Any thoughts, preferences, or concerns on where y'all would want the game to go?

 

[MasterDAF]

1) With Viktor being a crafter, he'll be most effective once we establish a central base from which to work. For now I've got charms that will allow me to craft (to an extent) on the road, but higher level items will require an equipped location. As such, I would like to either discover or build a Factory Cathedral at some point.

2) Viktor's motivation is to eventually rejoin Lookshy through the recreation of an ancient Deheleshen artifact. Since he has little knowledge on actually recreating First-Age wonders as they were, he will have to do lots of traveling and learning from distant places (assumedly) to figure out what to make and how to do it. So finding/learning First Age lore will be important towards achieving his goal of earning Lookshy's trust.

3) He feels a strange sense of betrayal, having been raised to believe Dragon-Bloods were the pinnacle of heroism, but now having faint memories that run counter to these beliefs. As such, though he is no warlord and has no aspirations to lead a nation (at least not yet), he does want to reinstate the order of the Deliberative and relegate the Dragon-Bloods back down to their previous status as trusted troops and support personal. He would be willing to support fellow Solars (such as the party) who choose to carve out a kingdom, but (unless convinced otherwise) it would require Solars at the top of the food chain and Dragon-Bloods beneath them, with all working towards the betterment of humankind as the heroes of legend did in ages past.

* Summarized (in no priority):
1) Finding a Factory Cathedral
2) Both creating unique artifacts and recreating ancient ones from reverse-engineering or blueprints
3) Establishing a better world led by might and glory of Solars

* Really, I tried to give Viktor a solid connection to the area without tying him down so much that he couldn't travel. Whatever the group decides to do, short of throwing in with Abyssals and killing a bunch of innocents, I figure there is a way to provide incentive for Viktor to follow along. He doesn't have a 3 in compassion, but he does try to consider the betterment of others when making decisions, so really any plots involving helping people will most likely convince him to continue along. What kind of ideas are y'all having so far? Like I said, I'm flexible, but I'd love to hear your thoughts so that I can pace mine accordingly.

 

[Rykon]

On paper, Aredin's end goal from a character perspective is the annihilation of the Raksha, so a long play may involve seizing the sword of creation, but I've done that before for different reasons. So, shorter-term, looking at founding a legitimate empire with an Exalted Aristocracy of sorts. Location wise, I'd been thinking of a good fertile area for farmland to feed armies yet since we have Viktor, I'd also like access to some minerals of some kind for crafting. Depending on whether or not you or Lance branch down the Wyld Shaping path, having access to a good wyld nexus could be a great alternative to furnish ourselves with the ideal raw real estate for building. Key commodities we may wanna look at controlling as well could be Firesand (South), Tea Leaves for Maiden Tea (East, West Maybe), Cattle (South), Silver, Gemstones, or a Magical Material mine.

Ideally part of this play, since it would leverage Solar lifespans, would be acquiring Terrestrial Blood for our own makeshift houses in the Exalted Castes of Aristocracy. If we can get a fully kit'd Factory Cathedral, it'd be really nice to have a decently equipped fighting force, better if we can get some Tiger Warrior grade instruction to drill them, but I don't know if any of us want to swing that charm investment. Good possible recruiting campaign, and cultural project, could be a martial arts tournament. Hopefully by then we could get Holst in as a dedicated Sifu for some of our associates to bring things together nicely in terms of story payoff.

Depending on how our characters progress and the obstacles we encounter, might be interesting to try and police some Underworld/Abyssal activity as the further we delve down this path the more powerful and bold they are liable to become. Alternatively, the character can continue the Crocker-esque Faerie inquisition.

Oh, also before I forget. Trying to find and develop medical miracles could be an interesting development too. Especially if we could grant Darian sight.

 

[Psychie]

Oh, also before I forget. Trying to find and develop medical miracles could be an interesting development too. Especially if we could grant Darian sight.

Thanks for thinking of me! How sweet!

For the rest, I wouldn't mind doing the whole 'carve out an empire of our own' thing down in the South. With enough people confronted with my memory altering Charm, we can easily start to formulate a solid core of people that will follow us. A lot of this also depends on what kind of goodies we find at the cache in the desert.

 

[Thief of Words]

Feihan and Are din are definitely gonna keep butting heads. Especially since she's simultaneously his best access to bother a potential splinter-Empire and to a cornerstone for a Terrestrial bloodline.

 

[Rykon]

I think the group at large is in support of being a force to suppress supernatural predators upon the populace. This Empire is mostly a vehicle to resurrect the Solar Deliberative in the long-term and a shield for us to hunt creatures of darkness in the short-term. At the end of the day, I think those factors would be what unites us.

EDIT: Though great pains will probably be taken to maintain the independence and sovereignty of the new nation. Such as barring any physical presence of The Guild within our borders until the complete abolition of slavery and branding Raksha as Kill on Sight (Which I highly doubt they'd do either). It will likely irritate a lot of neighbors in the process of our founding, but if it's a plan we think is worthwhile, I think we'd need to hold ground against potentially hostile influence infiltrating the population.

What are your thoughts here, RettieSetGo ?

 

[RettieSetGo]

For Rashiid, personally, he feels that he lacks a home, so building one is just a natural step for him. If he happens to be integral in founding a nation free of the tyranny of the realm, then all's the better in his book. As long as he can keep slavery for being a thing then he will be happy. Though he does enjoy his work to a certain degree, and being a part of a nation allows him to keep his skills honed, because there are always people in need of removal.

As for me, myself, I LOVE nation-building in games, and would jump at the opportunity to do it in the Exalted setting. Because rushing for the easy win is way less fun when compared to putting the work in to building the empire of one's dreams

 

[Rykon]

Yeah our last long-running game involved the scramble of Return of the Scarlet Empress z.z Went out with the most possible bang though, so that was nice.

 

[Thief of Words]

I both did and didn't like RotSE. On the one habd, neat ideas. On the other hand, the Yozis are not supposed to be ca pale of escaping. AND I say that as the biggest Infernals fangirl you'll ever meet.

As for the plan...go look at Cathak Sijip's writeup in the South book. Meet Feihan's mom.

 

[Rykon]

Overall, I agree. If it wasn't pushed as THE metaplot of the game, it would've been alot better as an optional oh shit campaign finisher.

In our run we used Solar Circle Spells to swipe the hearthstone to the imperial manse, the sword of creation. The Empress had just gotten back to creation too, which really sucked for them when we came to claim the Manse as it was now super sanctuary now. We then ended up in a stalemate duel between our circle merged into one being with Unity of the Closed Fist in a moonsilver colossus warstrider just because we felt like having armor with a charm damage combo that delt 1000 dice of agg per punch to creatures of darkness. Unfortunately the Empress was merged with Sidereal and Solar Akumas which created the extended stalemate for a bit. It was then I decided that since one of the characters in the merged being had the high priest merit. So we burned down the imperial palace as a sacrifice for aid from the UCS. It got us the Spear and Shield to seal the deal. Queue ending credits.

As for reading up on the South... I really need to get in depth in that book before this first adventure's done z.z

 

[Thief of Words]

Overall, I agree.

Apparently it was literally set in stone until Infernals came out. At which point it divided the freelance plot writers.

The original meta-plot was that the Yozis tried or claimed to try to escape. They literally cannot escape, but wither cannot or will not recognize that fact,. Doesn't make them less a threat as they can still utterly ruin the world and doom it to OBLIVION By distraction in trying.

 

[Rykon]

Doesn't surprise me, WW and OPP have had a ton of dis-function with Exalted projects over its lifetime, even lingering a bit now. From an outsider's perspective, their organizational strategy seems to be a recipe for drama.

 

[Rykon]

Sherwood let me know if you want a roll to BS my way past this guy. Hoping the Jade makes him avoid "insulting me" with his questions. ;]

 

[Sherwood]

Yes, please.

 

[Rykon]

Any stunt bonus?

EDIT: Well... that certainly was better than I was hoping for.

 

[Sherwood]

I'll give you a two dice bonus for that. Not that you needed it with that roll! lol

 

[Rykon]

I just need the essence really. I'm going to have to pull some half-baked fabrications out of my backside to get us out of here without seriously hurting someone.

 

[Rykon]

Psychie feel free to suckerpunch at the first whiff of danger. I'd rather not have to KO more guards, but it's better than a game over.

 

[Psychie]

Too bad 10's on damage don't do two successes; I would have really rocked her world!