[Exalted] Protectors of the River Province OOC

[Hawkwings]

I know nothing about this setting or this game. But I'm a quick study and I'm interested! If I were to get involved, what sort of resources would I need to acquire?

[The Nomad]

Technically, only the Exalted Corebook is required to play Solars (be sure to get the Second Edition manual), plus the Scroll of Errata (free pdf that can be downloaded from DriveThruRPG), but there is an enormous number of supplements to flesh out the setting and characters (over 30). Not all are required, or even most, of course, unless you want to play a specific type of character (either a type of Exalt other than Solars (in this game, it would be Lunars, or perhaps Dragon-Blooded, if you want to play the underdog), or a specific career path (mainly sorcerers or artificers (various Books of Sorcery), martial artists (Scroll of the Monk) or generals (Scroll of Kings))

Regarding the setting, I'd highly recommend the webcomics named Keychain of Creation, which started as a stick-figure comics much like Order of the Stick, but is evolving on its own now.

But to put it bluntly, the game revolves around demigod 'races' vying for supremacy as they save their world (Creation) from many perils. The universe is a kitchen sink of most fantasy tropes, but distances itself from Tolkien and mixes mythologies from around the world (from the Titanomachy to the Chinese Celestial Bureaucracy) with anime/manga and, supposedly, a sword & sorcery feel (though only the first two are really present in the game).

Mechanics-wise, the game is somewhat perfectible, and a 2.5 edition is currently being envisioned (given the substantial volume of errata needed to make the game fully functional and consistent, an undated reprint is at least in order), but don't let this discourage you, the setting and atmosphere are IMHO largely worth it.



BTW Lys, are you still interested (or did I stifle your creativity )?

Note to the old-timers: the opportunity to use the boosted chargen rules from the errata to tinker with your characters a bit still stands... because they're the ones the new players will be using.

[frigidmagi]

Question: How badly behind would I be if I was thinking of playing a Dragonblood? I'm aware that the Solars and Lunars will be outgunning me but how bad is it? As in I am a permanent sidekick with no chance bad or Hawkeye in the Avengers bad?

[The Nomad]

In my first tabletop game, I had two players play as Dragon Blooded, and a Solar/Lunar pair. After ten or so sessions, the DB players agreed to have their characters killed off cinematically to restart with two Solars. They enjoyed the characters a great deal, but they felt simply too far behind (there might have been a part of being new to the system and making a couple bad choices that take long to compensate with XP, but I think it was truly the power gap which magnified it).

Now, there has been the Thousand Correct Actions pdf, and the errata on DB charms (which nerfed a couple of their powers, but generally massively overhauled their entire charmset into something enjoyable and useful on its own), but I have no experience with the current state of affairs with regards to the power gap.

Dragon Blooded characters can certainly be useful : an obvious DB character will let others think the superhumans that accompany him are DB too and not vile Anathema, and any Dawn general worth their salt will want DB lieutenants because they are very useful on the battlefield - Charms that can boost troops on the Magnitude scale (ie tens, hundreds or thousands of troops depending on the DB's prowess), plethora of utility Charms (communication, cryptography, etc. of course it will depend on the DB's peculiar talent, can't be a jack of all trades and a master of none unless you're a bored millenia-old Solar who is a master of all trades, period).

But I think that playing a DB in a Celestial game requires a bit of knowledge of the various powers, in order to emphasize the DB's atavistic strengths and not try to ape Solars and Lunars, which can only end badly.

I think that an additional 100 starting XP (or more) might level the field a bit, but unless I unfairly inflate the DB chars' XP curve, you will end up behind one day or another.

[frigidmagi]

That's a problem then since I've never played Exalted before. Let me go off and chew for a bit and see if another character presents itself to me. As it stands the current one only works as a DB.

[The Nomad]

Note: there are a Zenith and an Eclipse ready to be taken over by other players, considering the previous ones are not interested in continuing the game.

[frigidmagi]

I hate running other people's characters, no offense meant.

[Lys]

BTW Lys, are you still interested (or did I stifle your creativity )?

I'm still interested. I have a background written out in my head, but I still have to write it down. That's always the hardest part of the creative process, turning thoughts into written word. I'm sorry I let it hanging for several days; I let myself get distracted. It's my fault not yours.

Note: there are a Zenith and an Eclipse ready to be taken over by other players, considering the previous ones are not interested in continuing the game.

Do remember that fridgidmagi and Hawkins aren't very familiar with Exalted. It might be more informative to say we have a Priest-caste (Zenith) and Diplomat-caste (Eclipse) available. Eclipses have a lot of potential for anyone who wants to be a Guile Hero or a Magnificent Bastard. There's a character, Desus, who was an Eclipse and is known by some fans as the King of Bastards Himself. Which is saying something considering how inhuman and monstrous First Age Solars could be. Unfortunately I don't know much about what the Zeniths are or aren't good at, except that they're the only caste that Sol Invictus is still on speaking terms with.


EDIT - If both fridgidmagi and Hawkins choose run Terrestrial Exalts it could work if they synergise their powers. That's sort of their specialty. Though to pull it off well they'd need more familiarity with the rules.

[rhoenix]

That's a problem then since I've never played Exalted before. Let me go off and chew for a bit and see if another character presents itself to me. As it stands the current one only works as a DB.

There are a few tangents you can take here that would fulfill what you want, while still not playing games with relative power levels.

Your character could have been an ordinary human in a DB army, and Exalted as Solar or Lunar under extraordinary circumstances - like all the rest of your Talon being killed by Abyssals or something. For added drama, you could have it be by Solar or Lunar-allied forces.

Your character would then have most of the mentality and perspective of a DB soldier, but with the inner conflict of knowing that the presence Exalting you is an Anathema. That can lend itself to great character development.

[Lys]

Not all Dragon Blooded need be followers of the Realm approved Immaculate Philosophy. Lookshy's variant of the Philosophy is not overly concerned with Anathema, and Lookshy has a sizeable number of Terrestrial Exalts. Roughly 1/1000 people vs 1/10 000 for the Scarlet Empire.

As a side note, is it just me, or is it weird that "Dragon Blooded" and "Terrestrial Exalt" are interchangeable? I mean, there is no term for those born with the potential to become a Terrestrial Exalt, but who have not done so. There should one, to distinguish those from everyone else, since even if they don't Exalt their children might. I think it should be that "Dragon Blooded" refers to such people, whereas "Terrestrial Exalt" refers to those who got cool powers during puberty. So all TEs are DBs, but not all DBs are TEs. Maybe it was supposed to be like that all along, but sloppy writing blurred the line. Exalted is a neat setting, but the writing can be all over the place.

[The Nomad]

"Dragon-Blooded" is to Terrestrials what "Lawgiver, Steward, Vizier, deathknight, warlock, Champion" are to Solars, Lunars, Sidereals, Abyssals, Infernals and Alchemicals.

Just a synonym to prevent heavy repetition in prose.

People who carry the Terrestrial bloodline have no specific denomination (it's a Merit in Scroll of Heroes). Right now, a sizeable fraction of the mortal population have it to some degree or another, thanks to First Age Dragon Blooded being horny bunny Essence-powered fuck machines.

frigid, you might want to discuss concepts with me here or in PM, I can provide advice.

EDIT: also, it dawned on me belatedly that with 4 potential additional players, the game would be a little bigger than what I am comfortable with.
However, I am absolutely loath to turn down people who are new to Exalted and wish to discover the universe.
So, I am thinking of pursuing The Protectors of the River Province with the 4 original players, and start a new game with Lys, frigidmagi, General Havoc and Hawkins. That way, they can create concepts without having to take the background and other characters of TPotRP into consideration, and the games would be a little more fluid with 4 players each.

Since I am starting a new game on RPoL, I can duplicate the storylines (as long as none of you are also players in my game there ;) ) so it's not really that much more work to prepare the game (for those with some knowledge of Exalted, it would start in the Hundred Kingdoms. More details will follow in another thread).

What say you?

[frigidmagi]

If you feel you can run two side by side campaigns I'm cool with it. I'll PM you my thoughts on origins.

[The Nomad]

Well it looks like there will be two games - that is, if the prospective new players manifest their interest soon enough :)

@ Lys, Hawkins, General Havoc:

frigidmagi submitted an interesting concept that might change how I was envisioning the new campaign. Basically, it's about revenge against a Solar who wronged his character when he was still mortal. I was thinking of having your Circle and that of his nemesis face each, either because his rather assholish nemesis wronged you as well, or another of his Circle of jerks (It could be anything from an annoying rival to a bitchy former love interest).

Does it appeal to you?

[frigidmagi]

Forgive me, I'm gonna go a bit dramatic on this and doing it in 1st person:

My name is Amoneth Rei. I come from the east, it would be a strange place to you, the trees are great and mighty and a man can walk for over a moon without touching the ground. I was like all the men in my village, a hunter. I was not a bad one, being more then able to feed my family. But that was not my great talent. My great talent was and is my voice. I could sing and tell stories that left entire crowds spellbound and motionless for hours.

My village was was poor by your standards but we had plenty to eat and we had protection, for we were watched over by a god. He was a benevolent and generous god protecting and hiding us and taught us many things.

I would know, I married one of his daughters. Her name was Amate Rasu, her red was red as a sunset her eyes green as spring leaves. She was unlike anyone in the village and when I first saw her I couldn't sleep for 3 days. I took my courage in my hands and made my suit, singing beneath her dwelling at night and she came out and smiled at me. The day she agreed to marry me was the greatest of my life. The fact that our god smiled on this union amazed me. I honestly assume it was because my story telling amused him. He may have remembered me as a child when I sung him to sleep.

I was happy. My wife loved me, my village prized me, life was good. I've learned that everything good or ill changes. An army led by a being beyond my experience came to my village. They were strange men, led by a man, who was beyond even the god. He seemed to be the sun come to earth. Tall, blonde and blued eye, he was more agile then a cat and stronger then an ape. A match for any 10 of us. They conquered us. For some reason their leader had a grudge against my divine father in law, he slew the god and his daughters. Including Amate. I didn't take it well, trying to stop him, he threw me from the trees. Hitting the lower branches instead of the ground I lived.

This was the most powerful creature I had ever seen, he was as beyond our god as our god was beyond us. He had at his command an army greater then my entire village, he was grounding the region to his control. Declaring that he would make himself a king by his own hand. I resolved to make him a corpse by my own hand no matter the cost. Blasphemy often begets blasphemy.

I regained my strength and knew I could not achieve my goal by main force. So I resolved to use stealth. My weapons would be a stone knife and my voice. We use what we have after all.

I posed as a traveling entertainer and sang and danced my way into the armed camp. During the night as everyone slept I crept my way into the commander's tent. He was awake and waiting for me. He had recognized me but for some reason decided to slay me by my own hand. Pride does go before the fall.

I struck at him! Leaping at him with the scream of a hunting cat. I was frail, I was mortal, I was using a stone knife against metal armor and weapons. I was doomed. But something intervened. I stuck and blooded a Prince of Heaven. My simple stone knife slipped through a crack and stabbed into his body. At that moment I became like my enemy I became something... Greater. In shock, he fled. I turned on his army and they being mortal men, mostly asleep, drunk and naked fled into the wilderness to. I let the beasts have them.

It was to late to mean much though. My wife was dead. My people had scattered. Our way of life was dead. Who I was dead and my way of my life gone. My enemy yet lived however. He fled west and I have followed. Tell me, have you seen a tall, blonde, blue eyed man, a man who moves like a panther and has a scar on his left side?

Reserved for Character Sheet:

[SirNitram]

Small nitpick: The west doesn't have that kind of forestry. That being said, places where you can go without touching the soil is common; the East Direction of Creation is Wood-aspected, the forests only getting thicker the further east you go(Until the stability of Creation ebbs and there is ONLY trees and plants, and you enter the Wyld). The West is a huge ocean, the North is icy mountains, the South, a scorching desert. The center is the Blessed Isle of the Scarlet Empire, the center being the greatest mountain in the world.

Oh yes, the East has a very noticable mountain, but that's because it flies, not it's size.

[frigidmagi]

Ah, crap Nomad even told me to change it and I forgot, I'll edit it now.

[Hawkwings]

Ack! Yes, still here, will read up on everything over the next few days and see if I can get a character built up.

[The Nomad]

Since it appears that I have 4 new players, I will open a new thread about the game. Three of them are new to Exalted, it will give them more room to fiddle around (and the more experienced player can assist me in shepherding them :) )

From now on, this thread belongs once more to LadyTevar, SirNitram, Marcao and rhoenix (which means I will be getting to the part where I restart the engine withouth worrying about meshing in new characters).

I have decided to let you do your own rolls from now on. Use http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/ , put your charname and the campaign name. Link in your post, separated in the OOC section. We don't have spoiler tag here to mask OOC, do we?

[LadyTevar]

Stupid Question: Are we going to all be playing together? Newbies and Older Players?

[The Nomad]

No, and I don't think there will be a crossover in the immediate future. It is still a possibility, mind you (so you can coordinate with Lys to have some common plot hook).

The games can also eventually reunite if players from both threads leave the game, and we fusion them together. But I'd rather not think about it...

[LadyTevar]

Pity... I thought since we lost two of the Circle, we'd be having a 'soft restart' of the older characters with the newer ones.

[Lys]

Pity... I thought since we lost two of the Circle, we'd be having a 'soft restart' of the older characters with the newer ones.

Well if the Nomad doesn't like my burst of inspiration regarding the other game, and I wouldn't blame him if he doesn't given the magnitude of what I'm asking, then I am going to feel somewhat conflicted. You guys seem like a neat bunch, and I did like the idea of a Lunar Sorcerer, like Raksi without the insanity.

[The Nomad]

Well, I feel a game with 8 players has too much inertia/is too cumbersome. The maximum I'm comfortable with is 5, 6 if I push a bit. I'd rather juggle with two smaller games.

We're going to restart the game softly - I think Ake is going to volunteer to fix the current small game political mess you were in, and you're going to go to your initial objective with a clean slate. Lyana will leave you later.[/b]

[rhoenix]

So.

Any ideas on when Yvela will get his airship?

[The Nomad]

Now that I intend to distance you from Lookshy, it should come... one day :)

Mainly, the problem I want to discuss is with SirNitram. Would he be ok to convert some of the backgrounds he has so as to sever ties with Lookshy (he can keep the gunzosha armor if he likes )