Exalted

[marsh garden]

and i cannot impress enough, it is immensely important that they're obviously a tryhard that no one takes seriously

because nobody dual-wields scythes for any reason except that they're a twelve-year-old who thinks it makes them the coolest person on the planet

[feral cipher]

Iron Chains Break Minds is our Whispers-maxxing necromancer, and The Grave Calls For Its Due is the party's social bruiser, warlord and moneybags

[marsh garden]

hell yeah

whispermaxxing

[feral cipher]

yeah she's having a time with that

[marsh garden]

i think i mentioned that my Dusk ragebaited the lunar into taking Whispers

[wise ocean]

you did indeed

and the telepathy still sucks

[feral cipher]

hilarious

[marsh garden]

the telepathy is great! it only kinda sucks

[wise ocean]

I'm eyeing the concept of CKF very covetously

[marsh garden]

CKF is gonna be so fucking cool

i cannot wait to see it

[wise ocean]

surely my fifth martial arts style will give me those remaining health levels of damage I'm missing to feel truly fulfilled

[marsh garden]

LOL

[wise ocean]

27 out of 40! we're nearly there!

[feral cipher]

so true

[marsh garden]

what does your Graves have again?

all i remember is white reaper hotswapping bullshit

with a subtick art-swap combo

[feral cipher]

I think if you got Grave's Due into melee combat he would flounder and try to beat you to death with a rock

[wise ocean]

Final Form Graves is vbos/even blade/white reaper/albicant/little hungry ghost dip

[marsh garden]

huh

what's the EB woven in for?

do you do like

[wise ocean]

even blade vbos is for incredible levels of swordmaxxing

[marsh garden]

reflexive sword aim vbos + eb combo into scythe smack?

[feral cipher]

The best I have is some poisoned fingerblades and a (tweaked) Nemesis Cuirass

[marsh garden]

not sure where the disjoint is coming in

[wise ocean]

nah, the sword is for Real Enemies

the scythe is for armies

[marsh garden]

ahhh

[wise ocean]

it's a steel for men silver for monsters sort of deal

[wise ocean]

since he's an evil skeleton are the fingerblades part of the finger bones

[feral cipher]

I wish

He's not cool enough for that

But yeah, I'm Presencemaxxing with War and Bureaucracy as my followups

[marsh garden]

excellent

i think the two abyssals that i most want to play other than Hope are the oadenol's wheel strengthmaxxing party animal and a horrible necromancer asshole that keeps seducing secondary school deebs and teaching them necromancy

and really, really wants one of them to get Shadow Circle

[fierce star]

I have a couple abyssals I want to play, one of which is a complete meme, the other of which is just poison and disease maxxing

[feral cipher]

Sick

We love the plague

[marsh garden]

plaguemaxxer medicine spec does sound fun

i also have half a dozen deebs waiting in the box

[fierce star]

honestly it's mostly martial arts

but there is medicine in there, yeah, and a touch of survival

[marsh garden]

oh i imagine it's white veil cpoc yeah

but medicine has some combat tech that you can combine with em

[fierce star]

white veil, black claw, raw, toad, snake

*rat

[marsh garden]

rrat

[fierce star]

hold on I have the list somewhere

Poison:
Black Claw Poison (Damage 2i/Round, Duration Ess + Manip, Penalty -2)
Snake Style POison (Damage 1a/round, duration 1 round/2 dice of raw damage, penalty -2)
arrow frog poison (Damage 3i/round (L in crash), duration 5 rounds, -2 penalty)
centipede poison (Damage 3i/round, duration (essence or 3) + onslaught, -1 penalty)
white veil poison (Damage 4i/round, duration (essence + manip), -manip penalty)

Disease:
White Veil Disease (virulence manip + 1, morbidity 5, interval 1 day)
Infected Wounds (with +2 virulence and morbidity)
WHite Sun Fever (or other citrine pox supernatural ailment)
Any disease I've cured or been infected by

that's just from charms

[feral cipher]

Sick!

[marsh garden]

hah

[fierce star]

whoever she fights will be very, veyr sick yes

[feral cipher]

hey hey hey

[marsh garden]

please

my rabbit

he's very ill

[wise ocean]

noticing there's no common cold in there, so I'm safe.

[chilly sluice]

Would be extremely funny to inflict all those poisons and then The Dragon Dies Screaming

[fierce star]

ohr ight centipede is in there too

Allie: that is in fact the gameplan lmao

[chilly sluice]

Yeah I know haha

But damn

That's gonna be a lot of damage

[fierce star]

Legitimately I may build this out for the green sunderdome at some point, but i've been Lazy.

[feral cipher]

fun fact, the whole reason I came up with Grave's Due is for this one essence 2 bureau charm

When the Abyssal openly flaunts her wealth as part of an influence roll with any Ability, she adds (her Resources – target’s Resources) non-Charm dice. She can always leverage her evident wealth as part of the action as though it were a Minor Intimacy. She also gains these benefits on threaten rolls that involve threats of financial repercussions.
If the Abyssal makes a significant financial expenditure in relation to a social event, like throwing a lavish masquerade or spending extravagantly on her wardrobe for a gala, this Charm’s duration is extended for the entirety of the event, and she doesn’t subtract her target’s Resources from her own do determine how many dice she adds. The Resources expended should equal the highest Resources rating possessed by any of her guests, minimum Resources 3.

[feral cipher]

yeah

Catacomb-Saint Of Envy

[fierce star]

honeslty the only reason I haven't played diseaseabyssal is that the game she was originally made for was set in the underworld

and guess what one gaping hole in the abyssal charmset is?

if you geussed 'poisoning and diseasing ghosts', you're correct

[feral cipher]

Rip

[marsh garden]

can't be a ghost or blast a ghost

[feral cipher]

Grave's Due's deal is like...
imagine being a middle manager middle son in a DB-based meritocracy who was never quite good/born strong enough to get anywhere and got increasingly intensely bitter and spiteful about it until he died

and then he Got Exalted and that was the ultimate confirmation of 'yes I did work harder than anybody else and this is the reward'

but he's still incredibly petty and angry about everything

[marsh garden]

lol

fucking vile

i love it

[feral cipher]

He wants to tear down the world, gods, the realm and heaven for being unfair (which it explicitly is!)

but he came to that conclusion by being Like That

so he got everything he wanted but can't be happy about it because The Powers That Be still have what they Didn't Work For and Don't Deserve (unlike him)

[feral cipher]

he's genuinely been so fascinating to write for. he sucks in such a beautifully complex way

He gets angry at people telling him stuff like 'enjoy your evening' or 'thanks for your work'

[marsh garden]

lmao what's the logic on those two?

[feral cipher]

well for the first one it was the city's god of hospitality asking him to chill out and enjoy himself, the dead should be happy

he already doesn't like said god much so it got this in response

this is after already establishing he thinks rest is unimportant and he needs to focus on The Work over stupid bullshit like festivals (which unfortunately became his job to organize)

[feral cipher]

then, same night, he met a rebel leader type mortal woman selling dragonblood religion
who he did a whole thing about 'it's mortal hands that have given you everything you have, the gods have given you nothing'

and upon being compared to said gods this Also pissed him off and ranted about how he's been almost singlehandly funding and organizing the rebuilding of Thorn's infrastructure

Anyway she then managed to actually resist me forcing her to swear a vow of silence because somebody (another exalted) superpersuaded her to be on her holy mission

then flashbanged me and ran away

graves stays losing

every social interaction this guy has had all game ends with him being angry about it somehow. any experience with him is an absolute net negative for everybody involved

[clever steeple]

Twin link me up now

[clever steeple]

I need him to die (again)

[bleak hazel]

"They told me to dig two graves but both these Graves sound like profoundly unpleasant people, going to be tough to like 'em"

[velvet raft]

Exalted vibes https://youtu.be/Wcp_3qOZ-mw

[tulip folio]

World-Devouring Warlord Form
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Antagonist-Naming Technique, Sword-Stunting Methodology
The Stylist takes on the imperious, forceful mien of the Sword, the supremacy of force over all other tools. Armies of gossamer illusion form about her, preludes to the inevitable victory of the Sword.

The stylist gains the following benefits:
-She adds an automatic success on attack rolls to Counterattack, Clash or Slaughter and extends these attacks an additional range band.
-Foes treat the area out to Close range of her as moving through a Battle Group (Difficult Terrain and costing 1 initiative to move through).
-The supremacy of the Sword denies Battle Groups any benefit from Might against her.
-When an enemy battle group suffers Dissolution, the stylist may reflexively make an attack to Slaughter. She is treated as a Battle Group of Size (Appearance) for the purpose of her Slaughter, as her phantasmal armies become all too real to the fleeing survivors.

Special activation rules: When the Stylist wins Join battle or the Stylist resists a social influence or psyche effect that would prevent or end a fight, she may reflexively assume World-Devouring Warlord Form.

Tinkering with World-Devouring Warlord Form again as I wasn't 100% sure on it.

[velvet raft]

Looks pretty slick

[tulip folio]

The anti-battlegroup stuff is designed to be 'nice but not the core', with the core being the AOE difficult terrain and the extended range counterattacks.

As one of the limitations counterattacks often have is 'Hey, that guy is good at counterattacks. What if i stepped backwards one zone and threw a chakram at him'

[fierce star]

get kited idort

etc

[tulip folio]

The style has a counter that extends to Short range so if you're in form and using in-style counter, a guy at medium range still eats a counter if he swings at you.

[mighty rover]

||Beloved Adorei has one (1) piece of fanart when she should be the most popular NPC in 3e||

[bleak hazel]

||she has fanart at all?||

[tulip folio]

But yeah, I'll admit, I'm kinda on the fence on if the form is good or if I went a bit too heavy on the 'nice but not core' stuff, being a defensive form with no actual defence bonus etc.

[mighty rover]

https://www.deviantart.com/seatadmiral/art/Beloved-Adorei-920923925

[clever steeple]

Holy fucking shit

REAL

(Im still stuck in the Charm morasses so I dont actually know her but real)

[lament owl]

Sword that is a girl

(As opposed to a girl that is a sword)

And she loves you

[clever steeple]

(Nodding sagely) Yeah no I love 검극천군.

[bleak hazel]

Adorei is also really strong for a 3 dot sword, although that's because all the artifacts in the corebook were balanced by throwing darts at a barn door instead of a target and predate the modern artifact system, so we don't actually know how they work if you aren't a Solar

be nice to sword and she will give you +1 accuracy and +1 autosux on damage whenever you swing her, which is probably the best attunement bonus in the game outside of one totally broken artifact in Arms

[fierce star]

I should make more characters who are in love with their equipment.

leans over ot listen to advisor whispering in his ear

I have been informed that retainers do not counta s equipment

[velvet raft]

H&E Gauntlets?

[bleak hazel]

yep

[bleak hazel]

I did like the "sidereals are behind everything" art from the same person

ha, they have art of the infamous Five Mortals With Sledgehammers

it shows four mortals because the fifth one is behind you ready to make an automatic ambush attack

[mighty rover]

lol

[velvet raft]

Including you, right now

Reading your discord

[fierce star]

Let them read, they will leave in despair as all do

[next niche]

I continue to induct WoD people into the church of Exalted

[bleak escarp]

Righteous work

[next niche]

oh my god i love this

[prisma sun]

Exalted is indeed what a lot of people want out of WoD

tbh

[next niche]

LMFAO
True

im like some shady dope seller in a dark back alley with a trench coat full of angsty bisexual demigods.

"Hey kid you wanna try some of this?"

[chilly sluice]

true

[next niche]

"You wanna be a vampire with a magic sword fighting monsters and eating bad guys? Pspspsps. Here kitty kitty."

or alternatively "Hey so you really like Tzimisce and Garou you say? What if you could be both? And also some weird fae shit?"

Everyone knows that devouring your enemies' hearts and stealing their faces is a perfectly well adjusted and rational response to adversity.

[velvet raft]

I want to be a civil service ninja

[next niche]

TRUE

I adore Sids so much

[velvet raft]

My fic about an abyssal, an infernal, and a Sid walking into Gentian is slowly coming along

And is the most writing I’ve done in ages

[buoyant summit]

I am one evo from being done with this artifact

And it has to be a bridge between 'I give my dudes light cover for a turn' and 'I give them perfect morale and might'

XD

[lament owl]

I see people try to do World Of Darknesss Total Conversion Hacks to make it magical girls

but I feel like Exalted Total Conversion To Magical Girls would go hard

what is your dress getting poofier as you do your supermove other than an Anima Flare

[chilly sluice]

Real and true

[prisma sun]

I feel like the difference there is that you actually don't need to do any mechanics conversions to play a magical girl in Exalted

[spiral cosmos]

dream-souled r there

[velvet raft]

Magical Girl Bureaucracy

[prisma sun]

Like, ANY splat can do magical girl

I reckon

[velvet raft]

Oh def

Some probably have an easier time than others but like

Magical girls are a pretty wide genre

[clever steeple]

The Exalted Mahou Shoujo Total Conversion is called Exalted

Creatures of darkness are literally a game term already

[prisma sun]

Is there any splat that can't do magical girl?

[clever steeple]

uhhhh

Liminals?

[velvet raft]

I swear there’s zombie magical girls

Zombieland Saga Liminals

[clever steeple]

I think they are but I feel like the Liminals ghost huntmaxxing and true frankensteincel status means they at best occupy an adjancent but distinct niche from frilly ass dresses\

[velvet raft]

I’m going to push you in a pond, Morgana

[tulip folio]

Revolutionary Analysis Engine
Cost: —; Mins: Intelligence 3, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Theurgic Override Matrix
A spinning adamant and starmetal node within the Alchemical's head provides her with subconscious guidance from ages past, demonstrating the supremacy over the Great Maker over his kin.

The Alchemical treats Creatures of Darkness and Enemies of Fate as Gremlins for purposes of her Alchemical Charms if this is advantageous for her. Un-exalted creatures of Darkness and Enemies of Fate with Essence 1-3 are additionally treated as Automatons for Alchemical Charms, if this is advantageous for her.

Charm for 'in-creation' alchemicals to let them leverage their specialized charms a bit more broadly.

[buoyant summit]

You know who I just realized are fucking great Alch inspo?

https://youtu.be/iCOxzBu0f48

These two pricks

XD

[velvet raft]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hxBoMppXDYaXQ8UPQaqcEHgC0IgFPipTMGewqSl6DW0/edit?usp=sharing I finished the first chapter of this. I cannot vouch for its quality but it is by far the most writing I have done in a long, long time

[next niche]

... and now i suddenly need to try and get an exigent to a workable state by next saturday
oh boy.

[bleak hazel]

you can always not, I'm just saying

[next niche]

I can always not however I am not a smart woman

[bleak hazel]

this is Celestial-level bringing things on yourself

[next niche]

see im actually an exigent irl, chosen of poor decisions

[wise ocean]

one week for an exalt type seems Somewhat Difficult.

[south spade]

Sorry one week to make a character??

Is not much?????

[merry arch]

exigents are like. create your own exalt from scratch. including the charms. there's some pregen'd exigents but it doesn't sound like vix is using one of those

[fierce star]

^

mind you if it's a fresh character and they don't have as upernal-equivalent, you can just make their essence 1 stuff initially

[prisma sun]

Yeah but still, it's one week to make about 10-15 charms

[limpid badge]

it ends up the "draw the rest of the fucking owl" splat is a bit complex and a weeks not a lotta time...

[prisma sun]

It's less difficult if you got an artifact

I suppose

[coral wraith]

more, we're starting at e2

[prisma sun]

Oh, hellish

[dense verge]

five ox-bodies, sew in martial arts to pad things out if desperate

[spiral cosmos]

👌 perfect pull

[buoyant summit]

YEAAAAHHHHHH

[marsh garden]

who're they of? I'm sure we could at least try to help with it

[next niche]

Oh it's the winter girl lol

[tulip folio]

...I wasn't aware ID's game was starting that soon.

[next niche]

Nah different one

I'm just possibly using her there because ST was opposed to the addition of More Sidereals
But if I can't get her workable by Saturday, I go sidereal anyway

[tulip folio]

Fair enough, was just worrying as I'm still debating over Too Many Character Concepts for that.

[next niche]

Lol you're good

[south spade]

Uhhh

Harpoons

[tulip folio]

2 Sids, an Infernal, one homebrew variant of Alchemicals...

[south spade]

Thats ur character

Bam

Sorry im v tired and that seemed funny lol

[velvet raft]

Next chapter of my fic is going to require a little more forethought, gotta think about how to humiliate a moonshadow during a diplomatic engagement

So far I'm thinking "covered in fish oil and attacked by crows raitons"

[marsh garden]

hm

on Charm diegesis

do y'all think that "the Ox-Body Technique" would be actively acknowledged as a consistent thing in-universe?

i know that other Charms aren't* (which makes me kind of sad, but whatever) but it's one of those things that's so simple, consistent, and universal that i struggle to imagine it not being something considered a "standard" Charm

[velvet raft]

I think it might be something that is actively trained by some, yeah

My personal headcanon is not that charms are never diegetically acknowledged, because they are consistent techniques, used over and over by many people, and more that they're only acknowledged as consistent techniques, used over and over by many people

So like a charm is probably not Metaphysically Constant from person to person

Anymore than throwing an uppercut is truly 100% the same between two people

But it is still kinda the same thing and can probably be taught by one person to another

[clever steeple]

I feel like Ox-Body is actually one of the least likely charms to be acknowledged as a particular specific thing and not something like "Yeah having Essence actively course through you naturally makes you tougher"

[velvet raft]

I could totally see it being acknowledged as something a person can actively train

"You need to work on your ox-body" type of beat

[velvet raft]

Legs entangled with a silver funeral shroud while covered in fish oil and being attacked by raitons, then falling into a coffin floating down the River of Tears ...

[tulip folio]

How's this seem for an artifact bonus?

Special: The five gems that gird the Arc-En-Ciel gather quintessence, the underlying energy of creation. When readied by an attuned wielder and it's gems summoned, the Arc-En-Ciel adds an automatic success on rolls to Summon, Bind or Influence a Primeval Being.

However, it impedes stealth as a glowing anima banner. Its wielder may conceal the gems of it as a miscellaneous action, but doing so denies her the above benefits. Summoning the gems is also a miscellaneous action.

Evocations of the Arc-En-Ciel
Several evocations of the Arc-En-Ciel refer to Primeval beings. Primeval beings are those directly connected to the primal elements crafted by the Primordials that undergird reality. Primordials, Elementals, Dragonblooded and Kami as well as beings that have directly assumed elemental roles (Such as a Field God or a Wyldfire Behemoth) are Primeval.

It's based off the DB banner that adds an auto-success to all Command + Intimidate actions against anything but narrowed in the beings it can affect to broaden the actions it can affect.

[fierce star]

Kami?

[tulip folio]

We've only seen a single one this edition but they're Gaia's souls.

[fierce star]

Ooooh, got renamed away from Daevas, ok

looks good to me I think!

[marsh garden]

i don't think using the name kami is helpful here, since it's mostly a contextless exotic word that doesn't even share a linguistic origin with the primordial it's referencing, and with like

zero to one references in the entire edition

i'd just say souls of gaia

i wasn't even aware souls of gaia had been mentioned

i thought it was just the GEDs and the Caul

[spiral cosmos]

worm-eaten woman in The Realm

[fierce star]

I mean if a thing has a name, it behooves you to use the name the system gives it

like it has been categorized, I wa sjust unaware of it

[velvet raft]

Okay, I think I've figured out how to write the RES chapter

Once upon a time there was a little girl with brilliant red hair, who said barely a word. On her fifth birthday, at dawn’s first light, she woke up and made a decision. She touched her toes ten times. She cleaned her teeth and she washed her face, and offered a silent prayer at the family shrine to her ancestors and to Silver Cerement, the patron god of the Morticians’ Order of Sijan. She filled a porcelain bowl with olives, raspberries, walnuts, uncooked rice, and torn pieces of salted cod. Then she climbed out of her family’s attic window, placed it on the roof for the raitons, and watched from back inside with a blank expression and a smile in her heart as the black-feathered, winged reptiles congregated around the bowl and ate voraciously.

And that little girl was you!

Not long after, the neighborhood raitons began to bring you gifts, silver coins and trinkets that entertained them, and you tucked them away in a sequence of increasingly large pouches underneath your bed, your own little nest. A few people took notice. They began to feed the raitons as well, which led to an exceptionally large flocks of exceptionally large, glossy black animals scattered about every streeth within a quarter mile of your house.

For the next seven years, you did exactly that every morning. When you were twelve, and you started practice at Seventh Legion Martial Arts, a school with dubious connections to the Seventh Legion, you began to add other stretches to touching your toes. When you were seventeen, your stretches took you a full hour, so you woke up an hour before dawn just to keep feeding consistent for the raitons.

@nova yew feeding the birbs

[tulip folio]

I mean, it's not a name that I made.

But I felt like I couldn't not mention 'things connected to Gaia' for a thing that's all about 'Primeval Elemental Stuff'

[spiral cosmos]

this isnt 2e

you rly don't gotta

like do what you feel but there's no imperative here

although frankly I think it's one of the more silly cases of orientalist naming kinda for its own sake that exalted has had

but in Exalted that truly is turtles all the way down

[tulip folio]

I guess I can go with 'spirits of Gaia'.

On a vaguely related topic. God I wish Exalted would either A) Get someone who gets Celtic Mythology on board OR B) Stop using the term Fae. I detest how Celtic Mythology is use as a 'sure, whatever' grab bag. By this point White Wolf has had 3 editions of exalted, two entirely separate changeling games and werewolf and every single one of them is 'Sure, grab a name for anything and don't mind what it's used for'. Even when I like what they do (Fianna as a name for a werewolf group was fucking unintentional brilliance) they really do go very 'everyone knows celtic mythology' and then proceed to demonstrate then do not, in fact, know celtic mythology.

[mighty rover]

have they nabbed Gae Bolg yet

that feels like the one people reach for immediately

[spiral cosmos]

as seen in the documentary fate/stay night....

[mighty rover]

i think it's the trendsetter there! but yeah lol

[tulip folio]

I am going to give Fate the lowest of praise: It cares more about what the celtic myths involve than White Wolf ever has.

[fierce star]

oof

true, but oof

[marsh garden]

wait, she shows up in the realm?

i thought it was just this in deebs

[spiral cosmos]

Isnt that from The Realm?

I thought it was there not dbs

[marsh garden]

nah, that's in wfhw

[tulip folio]

Hot take: I think their depiction of Medb is genuinely good. It gives a lot more greyness to a character that was generally depicted in most versions as a Flat Villain, when her myth is very sympathetic and that adds to some of the tragedy of her and Cu.

[spiral cosmos]

rip

[marsh garden]

it also doesn't say anything about her being a soul of gaia, but if that's 1-2e info or something that got cut, that's good to know

[nova yew]

Woah?

[fierce star]

honestly agreed

[marsh garden]

but yeah as far as i know "kami" is just a 2e term that shows up a blistering zero times in 3e ever, including in reference to the nonexistent mentions of gaian souls

[tulip folio]

makes a note: Fae Medb, who is still angry over her treatment by 1st Age Solar Conchobar and seeks to reclaim to the wyld his former kingdom just to spite his memory

[fierce star]

ooh, neat

[tulip folio]

But yeah, outside of the naming for 'Gaian Spirits', does this otherwise look okay? It's not as broad as the banner but it's still not really narrow in what it affects.

[velvet raft]

Also I'm way too proud of this sentence fragment:

When you were twelve, and you started practice at Seventh Legion Martial Arts, a school with dubious connections to the Seventh Legion,

[spiral cosmos]

very good

[spiral cosmos]

so the way this all started is originally the outline for Exalted: the Fair Folk said "i am going to kill you with hammers if you write eurofae stuff beyond the very broadest of structural inspirations along xyz lines"

and then every writer did exactly that

and at the last second it had to be 'rescued' with a shit ton of eastern philosophy and mysticism terms to be less one note

[tulip folio]

...I'll admit, I think if you name something 'the fair folk' and expect people to not write things that line up with the name you've given it...that feels a bit 'Why did you call it Fair Folk?'. If that makes any sense?

[spiral cosmos]

no

if you're a professional and your outline says at the very top DO THIS THING AND NOT THE OTHER THING and you do the other thing, you suck

that's not the outliner's fault, that's your fault for being an unprofessional lazy chump

i have the outline and have read it, there is no cover for this as funny as it is in retrospect. they were just bums

[tulip folio]

Right...sorry...I should bow out of this.

[spiral cosmos]

i mean you're good, it's just kinda like, staggering once you've read the material in question on the back end

like it was pages of description and references and instruction and underlined repeatedly in red "do not do the thing, please god"

and then every single writer was like ok i'm gonna do the thing :>

[tulip folio]

...do you know why they went with the name 'The Fair Folk' if they wanted to avoid...well, Celtic Mythology?

[spiral cosmos]

from its very inception exalted has always been a fusion of many disparate, and aesthetically divergent, inspirations. anime art for a setting inspired by the flat earth and black company, china-rome imperial power with satraps. they called it the fair folk because they wanted it to be called the fair folk and evoke that shit while being very different under the hood

it's just an extension of the basic approach

the problem was never drawing inspiration from celtic stories and folk belief, it was about to what degree is that stuff wholesale lifted and adhered to thoughtlessly

[fierce star]

So basically waht I'm hearing is an overcorrection after the initial 1e writers didn't listen to prompt?

[velvet raft]

FWIW, the Exalted Fair Folk are very Nobilis Excrucian, and Excrucians frequently draw on the imagery of fairy stories but not the specifics

[lunar magnet]

As ever with White Wolf products, they just sorta did a thing.

[spiral cosmos]

that is because jenna moran is the one who tried to rewrite them all in a pinch

[velvet raft]

Yep

[spiral cosmos]

luv excrucians

[tulip folio]

...I guess my read on the Jadeborn is very wrong then, as I always saw them are very much inspired by the Sidhe/Tuatha De Dannan, as Fae Souled Artificers Who've Left The World and now dwell Below The Hills. XD

[spiral cosmos]

they exist because "hey can we have dwarves"

that's it

[tulip folio]

Oh...

[velvet raft]

I think for your own purposes there's nothing wrong with making those connections

[spiral cosmos]

i mean the specifics are more detailed than that, somebody had to reason how to execute that mandate

but like that's where they come from

[velvet raft]

Kill the author and use his bones as a dinner spread, etc

[spiral cosmos]

i'm sorry 💀 the history of exalted as a production is just kind of cursed like this

if you ever want to ruin your enjoyment of this game completely you can hunt down a pdf of The Making of Exalted

[tulip folio]

...dammit. I've always thought of them as one of the more interesting modern fiction interpretations of the Tuatha De Dannan...

[spiral cosmos]

i mean maybe they are

"we need dwarves" "okay uh. shit. i will maliciously comply and look for other things to put in here"

"tuatha. bam"

i didn't make the fuckers

let no single thing be a single thing and all

[velvet raft]

There's no reason your jadeborn shouldn't be the gods under the mounds

Like, if you want to do Tuatha Jadeborn and cast the Raksha as the Fomorians like

There's plenty to work with there

[tulip folio]

Look, the Raksha are led by Prince Balor. I don't think that was entirely on me 😛

[velvet raft]

Oh I know, I'm just saying there's a ton to pivot off of to emphasize it for your own purposes

[tulip folio]

Yeah. I'll...have to go ponder things. To put cards on the table: I'm a huge Irish Mythology nutter, in case it wasn't obvious (And others are very much aware of that) so I've got...opinions...on White Wolf's handling of various things that range from 'Oh god, so racist' to '...clearly unintentional but the results are fascinating'.

[velvet raft]

Even Jenna's Wyld/Outside/Ninuan genuinely is kinda heavy with fairy imagery even when it's doing something weirder

I think Glitch codifies a lot of the intent that has always been there with Excrucians/Raksha re: civilization creating the wilderness

[spiral cosmos]

with exalted at least i think the intent has always been to play very fast and loose with inspiration rather than being a really serious engagement

i'm fine with that in theory

[velvet raft]

I love the wild mishmash of inspirations a lot of the time

[spiral cosmos]

it's 2026 and we're still no closer to a wyld book for 3e so 🗿 whatever

[velvet raft]

You can take a lot of Glitch's imagery and phrases and backport them straight to Exalted without trouble

[tulip folio]

Poor Wyld, having no associated 'Mainline Exalt' to make them actually have someone to focus the book around. XD

[velvet raft]

"Existence Creation is a crime against the void Wyld"

[spiral cosmos]

raksha as, i think jenna's formulation, 'beautiful dark angels made of lies' has always been fun to me and i basically like it

ah, ok that was grabowski

[velvet raft]

Yeah I was surprised to hear that as Jenna

[spiral cosmos]

technically it was SLS quoting Grabowski

we can get quite a few chains deep into transmission, here

[tulip folio]

I think I might need to go back to the drawing board with my fae-stuff homebrew project. Hmm...

[velvet raft]

I'm not sure you do

Exalted is ... kinda shallow at times? In a way that makes it amenable to having depth slid under it with no one the wiser?

Something I find interesting is that a lot of the modern fairy imagery that raksha draw from are like ... as weird as this kinda is, Evil Victorian Nobility?

[tulip folio]

Yeah, I just worry about the fact that well...a chunk of the stuff I'm doing that a mix of things is more a mix of things due to where modern mythology has gone, rather than 'I am going to mix X and Y together'. Like the more vampiric fae stuff comes more from the fact that Fae like the baobhan-sìth are one of the inspirations For Vampires and I wanted to include some 'plays with vampire themes' that insn't tied to Abyssals/the Underworld.

[velvet raft]

I think that's fair, personally

Hell, that whole Gothic Decadent Nobility thing is a shared motif between vampire and fairy stuff

It's kinda funny, too, since the Wyld and the Underworld seem to be so strongly opposed to each other

But share some of the same imagery

if unweaving method were less frustrating it would do something with that

[tulip folio]

My plan was to go heavier on the Vampire Side but also the various tales from all over the world of 'Beware this mythological being that preys upon those show compassion to a stranger in the mist'.

So like it's as much inspired by Yuki-Onna as the fae that gives it the name.

Baobhan Sith
When mists or sand rises, the Baobhan Sith walks the land. These blood-drinking Fae have long stalked within creation, cloaked from the sun's eye by nature's protection. Disguising themselves as the innocent and the vulnerable, they seek out mortals to drink heartsblood and dreams.

Stories conflict on those the Baobhan Sith targets. Among the north there are tales of innocent maidens and callow youths begging to be let in from the cold, only to turn upon those who offer them kindness. Among slavers however comes other tales, of potential 'product' wounded and alone, easy pickings...who in turn slaughter those who would abuse sacred hospitality to prey upon their guests. Others in turn speak of predators who themselves hunt other predators, bandits and abusers found drained of blood to the joy of their victims. One commonality among these stories however is a rigid fact: The Baobhan Sith like all Raksha cannot break an oath and furthermore cannot enter a dwelling without permission.

Travelers walking far-flung paths who chance upon a stranger are wise to heed these stories, offering mutual oaths of fair treatment and non-violence to any they invite within their camp. Those who do will find these Fae friendly and urbane, a social predator in all ways. Some have even forged friendships with such beings, understanding that there are some whose blood is better spilled upon the ground and helping direct them in more protective paths.

[velvet raft]

I think the fae are a very good locus for that kind of sinister evil force of nature, yeah

Maybe that's just me, but

And that fits with the fomorians, who are sometimes characterized as everything destructive and treacherous about the natural world.

[tulip folio]

Part of my feel with writing Scary Fae is they work a bit on Horror Movie Monster Logic. If you Break The Rule, you are going to suffer for it.

[velvet raft]

Makes sense

Rule magic is good

To some degree even iron mythology is an extension of that

"Carry extra nails and horseshoes with you wherever you go"

Rules you follow to navigate the world safely

[tulip folio]

So this one plays with the ideas of Strangers and Sacred Hospitality. Preying on those who are careless around strangers or abuse the hospitality of others. To deal with it safely you go 'Sure, you can come in as long as you promice not to hurt anyone' and it goes 'Yep, seems legit'.

[velvet raft]

Avoiding the fey is very much an exercise is respecting the danger of the world and anticipating the things that can go wrong

[tulip folio]

It's also sorta my intent to make them not like just Inherantly Evil Things. If you do follow the rules? Yeah, they're fine.

[velvet raft]

Yeah, that tracks

[clever steeple]

A remnant of the first days of creation, terrifying Behemoth, Star-Beast Qot, bishie devourer

[velvet raft]

A tour guide I had in Dublin told me about this as sort of an extension of those sorts of belief carrying into the present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latoon_fairy_bush

[clever steeple]

(the hard counter to Abyssals)

[velvet raft]

The idea of supernatural beings sort of reflecting how humans behave, if in sometimes odd ways, is also a motif in a lot of world folklore, notably Japanese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitama

[tulip folio]

Yeah, it's a common idea all over the world.

On a less 'Iki is a bit heartbroken' end, man I like designing fae more than I like designing demons.

Not having 'Principle of Motion exists' hanging over the head of anything you design is nice.

[velvet raft]

Makes sense!

[tulip folio]

Gives imo more room for Powerful Tricks that are not dependent on 'this can be done on a Double Turn'

The Bonny Swans (5m; Reflexive; One Scene; Psyche; Essence 1) People won’t comment on or otherwise react to the Baobhan Sith openly brandishing arms or armor, dripping with blood, or showing other signs of battle, nor will they assume the Baobhan Sith poses a threat to them. These never penalize its social rolls. Nontrivial characters can spend one Willpower to react normally to the Baobhan Sith for a scene.

This Charm ends if the Baobhan Sith attacks or takes other overtly hostile action. Any enemy that rolls Join Battle in response to the Baobhan Sith's actions subtracts 1s from the roll unless they have spent 1 willpower to react normally.

Death Is Always Waiting For a Fool (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Decisive Only; Essence 2) The Baobhan Sith makes a decisive attack against all characters in Close Range, dividing its Initiative evenly among all hit enemies, rounding up, and ignore Hardness. If this attack is an Unexpected Attack or the target is either a Trivial Foe or a Battle Group, the target suffers the attack’s full damage and aren’t counted when dividing Initiative. Once Per Scene.

Which in the Baobhan Sith's case is her having a very explosive alpha strike if you let the fae that tests your commitment to hospitality and stranger danger up into your face without being prepared and their own version of Wearing Red To A Wedding.

"Hello, I'm trustworthy!" Is absolutely coated in blood of last prey
"...seems legit."

[fierce star]

I'd trust a fae covered in blood who says they're trustworthy

what's the worst they do, enslave me forever to their whims? yeah buddy go ahead I live in late stage capitalism I'm already enslaved to the whims of predators ancient and vicious beyond mortal ken

[prisma sun]

Considering all Sid charms are diagetic techniques, I actually have to assume Ox Body and Crane Stance are just the two main techniques that are taught to essence users in universe

[marsh garden]

that was a big part of my reasoning, yeah

[velvet raft]

Not that different from kung fu having generic conditioning names like Iron Shirt, really

[velvet raft]

Hey, does anyone know what the Black Chase is?

[marsh garden]

no hits in 8 directions or the realm

so can't help ya

oh wait

this is Scavenger Sons, 1e

[velvet raft]

Christ, thanks man

That's esoteric

[marsh garden]

lmao

i just happened to take a peek inside because i specifically asked about it

since it was the only place with decent information on Paragon

[velvet raft]

Does it have info on Sijan?

[marsh garden]

a lot, it looks like

[velvet raft]

The Compass of Terrestrial Directions only deals with it in relation to other cities, so

[south spade]

LMAO

Haha its a normal road sir

[marsh garden]

:)

[south spade]

Also

Very amused by the CRB being like

[velvet raft]

Although it looks like maybe they've reimagined it as a wood that surrounds the city? Rather than one right near it?

[south spade]

So theoretically abyssals live forever

However uh

No one knows if thats bullshit or not

[velvet raft]

Also the whole "working to annihilate reality" thing

[marsh garden]

yeah abyssals have been around for a blazing five years

which is not enough to test the limits of their immortality except in that they're Pretty Hard To Kill

not as hard to kill as liminals or infernals, though

[buoyant summit]

piggybacking off my own post, what castes would Snake and Ocelot be?

[marsh garden]

but considering the Abyssal Exaltation is the only one that can un-murder you, i find myself believing the claim pretty easily

[south spade]

Hey wait

Dragonbloods you fucks theres supposed to be a sixth element

Gimme metal

[velvet raft]

Nope

[south spade]

Please?

[buoyant summit]

XD

[velvet raft]

You may not have metal

[south spade]

Why

[velvet raft]

Metal is for swords

[south spade]

Uwaaaah

YO HEY

THAT GUY RULES

[buoyant summit]

Yeah Exalted is weird and the devs made their elemental system the lovechild of the Greek 4 and the Chinese Wuxing

[marsh garden]

yeah it's odd, because air's associations are all in the wu-xing cycle, split between the other elements

[south spade]

Also

Hate how the basic description of each type is in a

Very difficult to read font

[velvet raft]

shakes fist at core

[south spade]

Also sometimes this book has presented me with something and i just dont get how it would play out in practice

Like

I dont really get how these two types of sidreal would play

[velvet raft]

It's all in the powers

[south spade]

YEAH THE LIMINALS

[velvet raft]

Charm lists and anima powers

[south spade]

REVENANTS

YEAH BABYY

theres a liminal splat right

[velvet raft]

My character in a game just exalted as a journeys

[south spade]

In 3e

[velvet raft]

Not yet

Getimians and Liminals don't have a draft yet

Infernals got a draft a few months ago

[mighty rover]

It's on the roadmap

[south spade]

Fuuuck

Im punching my wall

[velvet raft]

Alchemicals is still in draft but looks like it will be published very soon

[south spade]

Specifically locating all the studs to shatter my hands upon

Anyway i do have to ask

Over under on playing as a catgirl

[velvet raft]

For a given value of very soon

[velvet raft]

There are catgirls in Creation and you can play as one fairly trivially

Pick whatever mutation merits you think fit your catgirl, bam, catgirl

[bleak hazel]

the archetypical Journeys is Gandalf, Serenities is less clear but they can swing from "plays beautiful music to halt all violence" to "master diplomat" to "if you stay in my line of sight for fifteen seconds I am firing off the mindfuckery lasers"

[velvet raft]

Beastfolk are a whole thing

[bleak hazel]

Sids have a lot of different things going on because all their powers are themed around a series of scriptures about the Maidens of Fate

which gives them a bunch of strange associations that only make sense if you know that the scripture for Sidereal Investigation mentions making plants grow, for instance, so they can make little flowers that wilt if major lies are said in their presence

[velvet raft]

Sids are also universally talented at martial arts

But like, here's a fairly archetypal charm from one of the Journeys abilities

[bleak hazel]

meanwhile, Serenities

(there's more but it's over the page and this gets the basic deal across)

[velvet raft]

I would've gone for Craft (wife) myself

[spiral cosmos]

craft is the happy bride ability

[chilly sluice]

Serenities is the gaslight division

[velvet raft]

@south spade This is a sidereal charm

[spiral cosmos]

Venus has the cruelest sense of humor and outlook, imo

[velvet raft]

My headcanon is that the Lover Clad In A Raiment Of Tears sends Venus hate mail, which Venus mostly ignores

[south spade]

That fucking rules

Thats so fun

Arranged marriage ability is funny as hell

[velvet raft]

A lot of us stan sids for getting the weird powers

[south spade]

Goes to the setting section

On hell yeah

Corrupt divine bureaucracy

Love that shit

Lets go beat up god til they start doing their jobs again

NEET GOD

[marsh garden]

oh huh

i was looking at gencon to see when it happens in the hopes of get & liminal announcements

never knew it was in indianapolis

i guess that's the one upside of moving to this city

[south spade]

Squints at Gaia and Luna
Is this lesbiab

[chilly sluice]

ambiguously

Luna is very gender fluid

and everything fluid really

[velvet raft]

But yes

The Earth and Moon are queer for each other

[marsh garden]

it was queer (gay) in 2e where luna was Just A Woman, but now it's queer (the whole all of it)

[velvet raft]

Unrelated: So, near as I can tell, 3e relocates Sijan from just south of the wooded Shadowland known as the Black Chase to being inside of it. Admittedly this is a cooler image.

[south spade]

Also

“Oh yeah because of the oaths of the yozi demons are super easy to enslave” yo what fucking oaths did you take dog

[mighty rover]

It happens

[south spade]

“And i promise my kids will be submissive and enslaveable”
“Man i didnt even ask you for that but okay”

[marsh garden]

the ones where they accepted terms of unconditional, soul-mutilating, infinitely suffering surrender because the alternative was worse

[south spade]

What was the alternative???

[marsh garden]

death that doesn't end

[south spade]

Were the Yozi the creators of the world?

[marsh garden]

the Primordials were

the name distinction here matters because the Yozis are described as fundamentally different

they "became Yozis" in a very literal sense

[south spade]

Oh okay and thats why theyll never forgive gaia?

[marsh garden]

there are a couple unbroken Primordials still alive, and they're the ones that were part of the divine rebellion

yeah

[south spade]

Is because the mercy was Mostly Awful

Hey the gods seem like they suck a lot

[chilly sluice]

the Yozi are the Primordials that survived the war
and were changed, as part of their surrender

[chilly sluice]

oh yeah it was awful

[south spade]

OKAY GUYS I GET IT

[marsh garden]

"mercy" was being soul-raped and tortured forever with absolute prison-and-slavery in the bloody eagled living body of their leader. they accepted this instead of worse torment

[south spade]

YOU HAVE PROPER NOUNS

[marsh garden]

i mean

yeah, that's called places

[south spade]

Is the threshold the material world?

[marsh garden]

replace the Realm with Rome and the Threshold with Europe or something

they're just like

region and power names

those are always proper nouns

[prisma sun]

My main guy is a chosen of Journeys

[south spade]

Thats fair sorry i just dont think was the Threshhold is has been explained particularly

[marsh garden]

it hasn't, but that's why this is a core book with setting information

it's not laid out very well

[south spade]

Also im mostly just poking fun

[marsh garden]

but you have to introduce the important names somewhere

[south spade]

I mean true but without context its less than helpful

To just Say Names At Me

[wise ocean]

replace "realm" with "metropole" and "threshold" with "extracted periphery"

[marsh garden]

well yeah lmao that's why they're saying the names and then giving the context

[wise ocean]

if you squint exalted is theory. but bad

[marsh garden]

they should've just pagelinked the Threshold as well

[south spade]

Again this isnt a serious criticism

[marsh garden]

so you could take a peek at that and gone "oh okay it's another region, cool, back to reading about the first thing"

fair

sorry, very sleepy and natively bad at understanding tone

these two compound each other

[south spade]

Its just really funny to havw a paragraph in brief lore intro that is just

Totally incomprehensible as a newcomer lmao

[prisma sun]

"True communism can only be implemented by the divine right of kings"

[marsh garden]

also that was mostly the Exalted doing this one

[prisma sun]

The gods are just kinda lazy

When they act they usually are quite well intentioned and beneficent

[south spade]

Can exalts be spirits?

[marsh garden]

and yeah, one of the important parts of this plot point is that the Primordials were like, deeply and unquestionably evil tyrants, monstrous people that are so far divorced from any other conception of a person that it's difficult to even understand how much is malice and how much is nature

[bleak hazel]

only in one highly specific edge case for dragonbloods, where they commune with a spooky forest and then shuck their bodies off and become spirit deebs

[marsh garden]

and yet

[bleak hazel]

everyone who is exalted is human

[marsh garden]

nothing deserves endless suffering

[bleak hazel]

can't exalt a ghost/god/fae/etc.

[south spade]

BOOOOO

BOOOOOOOOOO

[marsh garden]

someone certainly could design an Exaltation that a spirit could take, because there were Exaltations for nonhuman people

[prisma sun]

They already have powers

[marsh garden]

but they got genocided by the human Exalts

[prisma sun]

Exaltations are people given powers

[marsh garden]

so there aren't any anymore

[bleak hazel]

the whole point of Exalted, non-diegetically, is to be Cool Humans

[south spade]

Oh i mean yes but several pf the spirit types are described as being basically just exotic humans

[bleak hazel]

they really aren't

except maybe ghosts

[velvet raft]

And ... to some extent it's hard to judge the primordials as anything other than forces of cruel nature, whereas the yozis are defined by trauma so it's like

[south spade]

Oh elementals i mean

It says

[velvet raft]

You took a perfectly good concept and gave it depression

[bleak hazel]

it was not a perfectly good concept, it was the River of All Torments

[velvet raft]

Okay yes BUT

[bleak hazel]

and that one in particular doesn't have depression any longer

[velvet raft]

No she's just in a perpetual trauma-induced fugue state

[south spade]

Yknow

Some

Might call that severe depression

:p

[bleak hazel]

it's really not depression, her major theme is letting go of all her attachments so she can go on happily zooming around eradicating everything she loves and touches

Adorjan is Not OK but not in the same way as the more depressed yozis

Malfeas on the other hand is always angry all the time

[marsh garden]

i can confirm that this is absolutely a type of depression that i have suffered from bouts of at least a couple times

nihilistic detachment is not not depression

[bleak hazel]

she's not nihilistic or detached, she has lots of very intense feelings that she then flenses away and repeats

[velvet raft]

My read is that Adorjan's trauma response is "I don't have any trauma what are you talking about"

[bleak hazel]

hence why she has all the obsessive stuff as well as Freedom Lets Go

[prisma sun]

Adjoran is like a less hungry Sukuna

If you think about it

[velvet raft]

All of the Yozis are different trauma responses

[prisma sun]

Qaf is a rock

[south spade]

ARE THOSE MECHS

[velvet raft]

Yes there are mechs

Warstriders

[south spade]

FUCKIN MECH

GIMME

[bleak hazel]

Metagaos is hungy rather than particularly psychologically agonised

he's real hungy though

[marsh garden]

warstriders are super cool

[south spade]

Okay im gonna just skim a little bit of this lore section tho

This is so much

[marsh garden]

i appreciate that they all get better the more swole you were

[velvet raft]

Yeah Exalted is A Lot

[south spade]

And i do wanna look at A Game

At some point tonight

[marsh garden]

it's not just "here's mecha, your stats don't matter, theirs do"

[south spade]

:p

[lunar magnet]

Exalted has a lot of Lore.

[south spade]

Which i respect!!!

[marsh garden]

it's "HERE'S POWER ARMOR, IT'S FORTY FEET TALL"

still power armor though

pacific rims it up

actually wait

are warstrider rules even in the crb?

[velvet raft]

No

They're in Arms

[marsh garden]

of course

[south spade]

I have been given All The Books

So

I will certainly read it at some point

[velvet raft]

When you were twenty-two, your sifu at Seventh Legion Martial Arts found you work as a groundskeeper for one of the lesser-known cemeteries on the city’s edge. It was perfect, he said: you would barely have to talk to anyone.

I am very pleased with myself

[velvet raft]

Getting into the first Red Evening Sky chapter

[south spade]

Waow i got to character creations thats crazy

(I skipped the gazetteer for now

Oh god i straight up forgot this was storyteller

Are charms merits?

[velvet raft]

No

Charms are the basic mechanical unit of Here Have A Cool Power

[south spade]

Mhm

[velvet raft]

They don't have dot ratings but they do have dot-rating requirements

Most exalts require dots in abilities to take charms, but a few types use attributes instead

[south spade]

And everyone will be happy with the rules in this book

:p

[velvet raft]

FWIW, character creation is pretty similar across exalt types: 28 dots of abilities, 8/6/4 attributes, 10 merit dots (+ 5 for imperialism), 15 charms, 4 specialties, etc. is all standard with particular exalt types diverging in this or that way

[south spade]

It being storyteller does make me like

Grok how its all supposed to come together more

[velvet raft]

Ye

[south spade]

Interesting that unlike WOD the skills arent split into mental physical social for character creation

[marsh garden]

the attributes are, but the abilities are pretty loose, yeah

[spring lynx]

i think they are for lunars?

oh wait no that's their charm trees

[velvet raft]

Lunar charm trees are attribute-based

[marsh garden]

phys/soc/mental attributes does matter though, because you put total capacity into one of those

it's just that abilities aren't color-coded

[south spade]

Yeah yeah they still dont want you like

[marsh garden]

especially bc a lot of abilities have like, various contexts where you'd roll different shit

[south spade]

To be 0 in all of an attribute category

Because that just doesnt work

[spring lynx]

i like it, it lets you decide "fuck it, i'm rolling melee with wits because i am An Fencer and that is Fencery

[marsh garden]

yep

the stereotype for an idiot meathead is like

phys primary social tertiary

dumping all your social points into maxed Appearance

[south spade]

You can be completely socially incompetent by not taking any skil- SORRY

ABILITIES

[marsh garden]

because who needs anything else, i'm beautiful

Invincible Sword Princess with 46 melee charms and nothing else

[spring lynx]

https://tenor.com/view/adorable-im-adorable-bitch-im-adorable-gif-12188459

[south spade]

One of the attributes is appearence???

Thats incredible

[bleak hazel]

being super hot is a very viable social strategy

[velvet raft]

Or super not

Low appearance is being like ... unmemorable

[spring lynx]

looking like a walking corpse is just as viable! actually being a walking corpse is not advised.

[velvet raft]

In terms of looks

[south spade]

Me trying really hard to roll appearance for everything: what if im really really hot at shooting my bow

[bleak hazel]

(technically appearance is to some degree how striking and impressive you are rather than just being hot, but you can also take charms to get to Appearance 9 and be literally hotter than the Sun, so whatever)

[velvet raft]

So in combat attribute uses are pretty well-defined

[spring lynx]

i was going to say "it shouldn't be that hard to be hotter than a guy who literally does not have a face" but then i remembered people are horny for slenderman

[velvet raft]

Lunars get some shenanigans around stunting and dice caps with abnormal attributes

But on balance it's social stuff where you have the most flexibility between the three social attributes

[marsh garden]

attribute uses are pretty firm yeah

social is "each of these three is a distinct approach, but you are using one of the three social stats"

[south spade]

V fair

[marsh garden]

perception is perception

[velvet raft]

Doing stuff with alternate attributes tends to be limited to charms that let you do so

[marsh garden]

intelligence is for sorcery

[south spade]

Jesus you get 15 charms at creation????

Thats so many

[marsh garden]

if you want to use replacers, you can buy (mostly just strength to hit instead of dex, or instant duration effect) charms for that

i thought so too at first

believe me, that shit goes fast

[spring lynx]

yeah 15 charms is actually not a lot, especially once you remember at least a couple levels of ox-body is basically mandatory

[marsh garden]

ehhhhhh

[velvet raft]

Bear in mind that charms are the bulk of any given book

[marsh garden]

one level of ox-body is mostly mandatory

[velvet raft]

There's a lot of charms

[marsh garden]

but not entirely

you just have to make sure you and your ST are on the same page regarding like

the level of lethality you've chosen

[wise ocean]

you can do zero ox body if you kill all of them first

[spring lynx]

i admit my group has a bigger problem with the dice being on the same page as the players and st on that front

[spiral cosmos]

With the power of the Lunar Excellency you can in fact do this, to a degree

[spiral cosmos]

Eehhhhhhhhkinda

[fierce star]

also of note with appearance is that there is a merit that is free to take that says 'I'm actually mind-breakingly hideous'

so you can just elect to be So Ugly The Gods Turn Their Faces From You, The Woods Fall Silent, Animals Deny Your Existance; You Are Alone Upon This Barren Earth

[velvet raft]

Appearance 5 (Hideous)

A friend once gave his character appearance 1 and said the guy was like Tony Hawk

[spiral cosmos]

I have very strong opinions about ghosts and dead shit in Exalted

[velvet raft]

Where nobody recognizes him

[spring lynx]

"i wear no mask"

[marsh garden]

it can also just be terrifying, Hideous is a coreism/misnomer

even there it wasn't like

[velvet raft]

Appearance 5 (Scary)

[marsh garden]

you're ontologically ugly with the merit

[south spade]

YO HEY

[fierce star]

Cracking open a bear with the boys (TM)

[wise ocean]

mmmmm delicious bear

Good Eats

[marsh garden]

just "you're naturally scary, unpleasant, or unsettling to look at, and you can decide what levers to pull here"

you can probably be pretty and Hideous even, you just have to be fucked up and uncanny and incapable of leveraging that towards anything other than the application of mortal terror

[south spade]

God now i wanna make shrek prince charming

Just

Extremely hot and charming

And just completely incompetent at

Pretty much everything else

[fierce star]

solar who took the supernal all the way down

[velvet raft]

Social primary, Charisma 5/Manipulation 1/Appearance 5 babbby

Manipulation 1 is the GK Special

[south spade]

I am vaguely amused by

“You cant have no points in a favored ability cause… then it… wouldnt be favored?? Also why are you trying to do this”

[velvet raft]

The reason you would want to do that is because of XP costs

[spiral cosmos]

appearance is about how much of an impression do you make via your looks and how do you sorta weaponize it

[marsh garden]

you can have no dots in a caste ability, because those are Gifted To You, but yeah your favored shit is what you already favor

[south spade]

“Seven health levels” okay so health works differently than im used to in storyteller

[wise ocean]

exalted do be a crunchgame

[south spade]

Also “nothing to guide them except a few cryptic words from the sun”
Imagine just getting
THROW IT BACK
And thats it

[limpid badge]

it works like older wods 🙂‍↕️

[south spade]

Looks up at the sky

What do you want

Am i supposed to be sexy

[wise ocean]

conqy commands all his sons and daughters to be attractive somehow

it's a Mystique Thing. and also the freak (affectionate) population

[south spade]

Unfortunately i only know New World of Darkness
Wait no thats a different thing uhhh

[limpid badge]

look my solar is like. 12

she’s a kid detective

All my freaks went to Abyssals and Infernals

[south spade]

Thats crazy

[limpid badge]

My serenities caste is the “Girlie Most Valid To Have Sex Charms” but she is otherwise not a freak

[south spade]

Me seeing a child exalted, instantly going to pray to the sun “hey man”

“Whats up with the child soldiers”

[velvet raft]

All of my Abyssals and Infernals are paladins of one type or another >_>

[limpid badge]

She stabbed a raksha in the heart with an arrow of iron and shoved it into the raptor-pens where her people kept their mounts

[south spade]

“I know youre up in your ‘pleasure dome’ but thats generally considered a faux pas these days”

[limpid badge]

She earned that Night Exaltation

[south spade]

43-“

What

Why

Discord

[limpid badge]

She’s an adult by the standards of her people! She can ride and shoot and hunt!!!

[velvet raft]

The Jade Pleasure Dome is where the Incarnae play Magic The Gathering

[limpid badge]

12 is a normal age for a premodern person to start making their way in the world

(This is part of the point of the character, that she considers herself an adult and acts as such)

[south spade]

The Jade Pleasure has to straight up be the funniest name ive seen so far

For anything

[limpid badge]

the freaks on the other hand

Oh they freaks

[south spade]

Specifically the fact that the biggest gods just stay in there all day

And get uh… pleasured, i guess?

[velvet raft]

They play EDH

[south spade]

Oh god

Rename that shit the torment dome

[dense verge]

they got minigolf in the dome

[velvet raft]

More seriously, they've got the ambiguously defined "Games of Divinity"

Which have sometimes been described as addictive

[south spade]

Waow i made it out of the character creation

Oh god

No thats the game from that tng episode

[fierce star]

It is worth remembering that most of creation is bronze age or less

[south spade]

With the glasses

[velvet raft]

Hence gacha and TCG jokes

[south spade]

https://tenor.com/view/star-trek-tng-star-trek-tng-the-next-generation-worf-gif-2319386208635166525

This is what theyre up to in the dome

Lmao the great curse was meant for the gods

The solars getting it was just catching a stray??

Thats hilarious

[velvet raft]

To some degree the Great Curse is just "you are a Classical Hero, with larger-than-life passions and possible occasional fits of insanity"

[limpid badge]

I love my freakass characters

A Bloody Hand Bears Aloft A Black Blade of Sorrow and Arablissa the Drooling Demon Princess….

[south spade]

Can i call that first one Bears

[marsh garden]

i think she's usually bloody hand

[limpid badge]

Yeah she’s usually Bloody Hand or BH

[marsh garden]

this is my most specialest boy, my favorite son, Hope Without Kings. he, of course, goes by Hope, and has taken like

six limit now

from people getting too comfortable with it as A Real Name

he had name-related crashout #2 this session

[limpid badge]

Bloody Hand has been a terrible bitch to her entire circle

[marsh garden]

obligated to say that i love the nosebleed every time

and the catty hand toss

[limpid badge]

It’s charm point

Arby’s intimacies are so cute too

[south spade]

Christ thats a series of inspos

Crona AND Lestat is wild

[fierce star]

... do I have liangxiaos' on here...

[marsh garden]

i think there are literally three of us with Crona Touchstone Abyssals

[fierce star]

behold! Infernals!

[south spade]

Real Person

[limpid badge]

Lots of fucked up corpse body language while also trying to maximize her usage of Fuckable Corpse Technique Deaths Unholy Majesty

[marsh garden]

i also have a lunar, but he's just like. A Guy. i'm having fun playing Tragic Absence, but he's just a fastidious Neurotic Dude sorcerer

[marsh garden]

based

it really is the best charm

[south spade]

Hm

Also looking at limit breaks

First off, funny thing to call them

Second

Compassionate Martyrdom is incredible

[limpid badge]

Arby is going into a circle with two abyssals who both have it and the literal bride of the Ebon Dragon- her feelings about having the Hideous Flaw Are Normal

My beautiful demon princess

[fierce star]

I mean you're allowed ot have real people on these and it felt appropriate

also every infernal is a resident evil isn't they

[south spade]

No i wasnt saying real person disapprovingly

[fierce star]

ah fair

[limpid badge]

Arby is extra a resident evil because im working on her growing a mold dress as her viridian legend exoskeleton

[south spade]

I was saying it because thats a funny phrase to see in the “what book is this from” space

[wise ocean]

I have a character with Sun Yat-Sen on there. my abyssal has Admiral Spruance. you can do a lot of funny things with yeah inspired by This Guy

[fierce star]

lol

that'sf air

[limpid badge]

I put the concept of Princess Maker 2 on that sheet

[south spade]

So how viable/possible is it to mix multiple types of exalt

In one party

[marsh garden]

oh god mold wife

[limpid badge]

Yah sure

[limpid badge]

It goes Yah Sure

[buoyant summit]

As a person STing for a mixed circle

it's like

fine

[limpid badge]

Celestials can play nice with each other, vaguely

[marsh garden]

the game is balanced with the initial expectation of single-splat games, and they're more common than mixed circles, but i'm in two mixed circle games

[buoyant summit]

The system cannot really straddle having a Deeb and a Solar in a circle tho

[marsh garden]

and have not been in a single splat game

[limpid badge]

Terrestrials play nice together

[marsh garden]

and everyone i know is either in sid-only games or mixed circle games

[buoyant summit]

Unless that Deeb is Built Different (Incorrectly, to be extremely good at one thing)

[south spade]

Is it because deebs are just so much worse

[marsh garden]

and rhi who's in i think a pair of Perfect Circle games?

[south spade]

Than solars

[marsh garden]

yes

[buoyant summit]

Yes

[marsh garden]

deebs are the bottom end of the power scale

solars are the top

[buoyant summit]

Solars are literally God's Favorite Children

Like

[south spade]

Although ive heard deebs are way more interesting gameplay wise

[marsh garden]

and poorly balanced

[buoyant summit]

Textually

They are

Solars are Fucking Awful (design-wise)

[limpid badge]

This is because solars have sick bones

[south spade]

Im going into this an open mind

[buoyant summit]

Abyssals and Infernals, while about as powerful, have the benefit of

actual good design

[limpid badge]

The mechanics are boring-to-messy for Solars

[buoyant summit]

So are more able to be in a circle with a deeb

But like

That Deeb is gonna

Feel It™

I have applied to a mixed-splat game where I know a Solar is gonna be, as a Deeb

and part of doing that is being willing to be less powerful than that Solar XD

But also that Solar is going to not... be an asshole? And give me my area of expertise unmolested

To make the actual point; mixed-splat requires a lot of interplayer negotiating so as to not lead to exacerbated power disparity

[limpid badge]

Yeah like BH is in mixed splat game

[buoyant summit]

If all the characters are celestial, this is slightly easier

Lunars still have it a bit

[limpid badge]

And everyone was nice and we said “BH will be our blender”

[buoyant summit]

Rough

[limpid badge]

And everyone else CAN FIGHT

[buoyant summit]

But make up for it with being the most asymmetric-capable splat (fight me Sids)

[limpid badge]

but bloody hand is there to ruin the day of everyone in arms reach

[south spade]

So what im hearing is theres like

Categories of guys who fit into campaigns togethers

[limpid badge]

And get fucked in social combat

[bleak hazel]

My deeb has two IRL fraudsters on the inspiration list

[south spade]

Except for Deebs who should be their own

[marsh garden]

yeah, mixed-splat gameplay is an It Depends

[south spade]

Because they are little babies

[buoyant summit]

SUN-YAT-SEN LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

[south spade]

And whatever threatens a lunar will bend a deeb over backwards

[bleak hazel]

Rival is also a blender but his particular variety of blenderness lends itself well to standing next to the squishy people and going "nobody is allowed to punch them, you have to deal with the girl holding the giant sword"

[limpid badge]

They aren’t babies when they band together is the thing

[marsh garden]

ten thousand dragons kill you with hammers

[buoyant summit]

@wise ocean My app for this game is to play Earth Deeb Sun-Yat-Sen with the sword-shaped Jade Seal of the Emperor

[limpid badge]

Deebs squads can and will kill you. Power rangers don’t fuck around

[buoyant summit]

Deebs do not fuck around at all

One on one, yes, a Lunar will wipe the floor with a Deeb

There are 5 Deebs

[south spade]

OH ITS POWER RANGERS VS KAMEN RIDERS

I GET IT

[bleak hazel]

the thing about in-universe intra-splat balance is that there are ~25000 dragonbloods and they're not so much weaker that a powerful dragonblood stands no chance against a neophyte terrestrial

[buoyant summit]

Yeah a young Lunar vs an Elder Deeb is

Fucked

™

[bleak hazel]

if you, regular-ass Solar, try to fight five deebs at once, you are going to bite the ground so hard your reincarnation will feel it

[limpid badge]

A baby celestial is gonna get fucked

[bleak hazel]

and there are enough deebs that sometimes you do have to deal with a gang of combat-specced dragonbloods with artifact weapons and armour wandering around being The Seven Freaks of Jiangnan

[south spade]

…. Can i make a kamen rider

[buoyant summit]

Sort of, Yes

[marsh garden]

depends on what exactly you want out of that definition

but probably

[limpid badge]

my flower warriors are currently dealing with this. Four Solaroids who are now going “wait fuck we went to hard the Hunt is here”

[buoyant summit]

amazing

[bleak hazel]

and four celestials is a rare concentration of force even in these new and strange days where there are ~900 of them spread out across four dimensions

[buoyant summit]

Oh, @south spade, while most Deebs are not this, there are Deebs for whom it is Their Literal Job to hunt and kill Solaroids, Lunars, and things that go bump in the night

And part of that job is there is literally never only one of them

[south spade]

Gotta hunt down those Soids

Im sorry

[buoyant summit]

Fucking

Soids

Holy shit

I'm sharing that with my groups

[bleak hazel]

(unless your name is Imminent Thunder, immaculate grandmaster who has like, four Anathema solo kills)

(love that guy)

[buoyant summit]

IMMINENT THUNDEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR

[marsh garden]

i'm sorry that one just makes me think chejop chudjak

[south spade]

Gonna make a character who prints Wojacks on paper and distributes them around the realm

[spiral cosmos]

usually the Wyld Hunt is more of a cultural tradition DBs are expected to uphold than it is like, A Job, but the wing of the Immaculate Order called the Breath of Mela specializes in mobilizing for things like the Wyld Hunt

[south spade]

As propaganda

[buoyant summit]

Fair

Any deeb can do a Wyld Hunt

There are some

For whom that is their literal job

[south spade]

Get into a fight with a general and go “im sorry but ive already depicted you as the Virgin Soid, your army has abandoned you”

[limpid badge]

plus all the other freaks who showed up like the Lunar Anathema who refuses to die

[spiral cosmos]

the Wyld Hunt is something you engage in when duty demands it

very scary honor

[buoyant summit]

You're going to love Linguistics then

[bleak hazel]

wyld hunts vary from "shit, there's a Lunar, get all three of the combat-capable deebs in the satrapy and call out to that outcaste who lives across the river, we need to do something" to "Orbital Shock Dragon Troopers ready to fuck your day up"

[buoyant summit]

I have made one of the latter

They are so fun

[bleak hazel]

the few who are professional celestial hunters tend to be extremely weird

[buoyant summit]

Black Ice Unseen Underfoot is definitely very well adjusted, what do you mean?

:D

[south spade]

Waaah

It is really funny

[bleak hazel]

do we think she's living long enough to see someone use the move "Black Shards Fall Like Ice" that leaves crunchy glass fragments everywhere

[buoyant summit]

I love how Deebs just have

[south spade]

That for put of game reasons

[buoyant summit]

a culturally codified way to be Built Incorrectly

[south spade]

No one plays the Designated Main Characters

[bleak hazel]

they're the most played splat, we're just all jaded

[south spade]

Ah okay

[buoyant summit]

They, and why the fuck do you think they have ice-flavored Flying Guillotine >:D

[bleak hazel]

but I would recommend not playing them for a smooth and readable Ex3 experience

[south spade]

We will see how i feel after reading them

[bleak hazel]

I stand corrected

[south spade]

I am going into CRB with an open mind

[bleak hazel]

still, funny that there's an SMA move that's just this deeb's name

[south spade]

Which involves disregarding what ive heard about solars lmao

WOAH HEY THERE MAN

WHATCHA GOT THERE

[buoyant summit]

They're partly Sidereal-trained, there's a nonzero chance their master tries to pull some shit like that

That's an eye, Emily

XD

[limpid badge]

Sorcery, probably Peacock Feather Eyes, the hypno spell

[fierce star]

god I miss the sauce the old iconics have.

[limpid badge]

same

[south spade]

Okay so anima banners are the uh

[fierce star]

the new deeb ones are great but the others...

[south spade]

KSBD corona of power

[limpid badge]

that's why i made Not-Panther an npc for flower war...

[south spade]

Right

[limpid badge]

yeah

[fierce star]

yeah

[south spade]

Hell yeah

Dudes rock

[limpid badge]

Bloody Hand's anima is a set of fossilized shark jaws the size of the horizon with an eye hanging closed in between the jaws

you can do stuff

[bleak hazel]

also when they hit max you get cool themed displays, which is your moment for a K6BD demiurge intro panel

the downside is that they flare whenever you do too much stuff and if you manifest a pillar of transcendent golden light visible out to the horizon the deebs are going to notice

[limpid badge]

arby's anima is cute...

[buoyant summit]

The deeb I mentioned before's iconic anima is a draconic and armored benthic knifetooth (think a cross between an eel and a shark), breaking through ice underfoot (hehe) and coiling around them defensively

[south spade]

Is there a character builder anywhere

[fierce star]

There's a Google sheet

[marsh garden]

also a website

[limpid badge]

Lot-Casting Atemi

[marsh garden]

right that, thanks

[south spade]

Thanks babes

[south spade]

I like how in normal storyteller you generally need like

A special excuse

To have 5 dots in something

Because that represents you being one of a rare few

But… this game already has you being a demigod

So they’re just like “idk maybe think about how you were trained”

[limpid badge]

idk i have to talk to STs about giving bloody hand her stupid huge sword

Artifact 5 asks you to talk with your ST before you do that

i asked bees really nice and they let me have the sword that ends the world for my unwell babytrans

[bleak escarp]

It goes back earlier than that tbh. They're all but explicitly anime battle auras... Although funnily enough they kind of invert the dynamic.

[south spade]

?

Also charisma vs manipulation is a really interesting dichotomy

Rather than deception vs diplomacy

[bleak escarp]

Well, anime battle auras are a sign of strength, right? They're a signal that somebody is powering up.

But flaring your anima in Exalted is a sign of stress and weakness, because it means you're burning through your mana bar and glowing with a great big ethereal bonfire that can be seen for miles around by, you know, people who might call the Wyld Hunt.

[marsh garden]

otoh it also means that you unlock a bunch of powers

so it's really a limit break of its own

[bleak escarp]

Ehh, sometimes.

That's really more of an Exalted Essence thing.

[marsh garden]

everyone either has bonfire powers or free-at-bonfire powers

and they are really good

[bleak escarp]

Ehhh. Some of 'em I guess.

[marsh garden]

no

[bleak hazel]

sometimes it means you've got the Lunar on the ropes, sometimes you're a Crystal Chameleon stylist with Ways of Exaltation and it means you get to absolutely ruin people

[marsh garden]

basically all of them

[bleak escarp]

Like to be clear I don't think this is a problem per se (although there was a homebrew hack that tried to harmonise it by tying mote regeneration to how hard your anima is flaring, so that going up in stages really is a means of powering up. Cool idea, absolute hell to balance), it's just funny to me.

[marsh garden]

like, the Lesser Signs are really good