Dice War of Despair (Exalted 3e) - OOC

[Sherwood]

I am pondering moving some points around to get an Ally of a Dragon Blooded second in command for my troops.

EDIT: I went ahead and dropped my Hearthstone and picked up the Ally.

 

[Raparth]

So I could see him being a patron for Sasha as well. He needs all the help he can get and admittedly he'd be interested in freeing up Nexus asap. He needs the Guild trade routes working to keep himself supplied in occult materials or he'll have to go raiding and hunting for them.

Oh, all those trade routes are going to be claimed, don't you worry. Now, the real question is take over the Guild, start something just called the Guild, or start something new and replace the Guild. All of these are potential schemes Hadria is considering.

After all, since Resources represents an income from a particular source, I'm resolved to have Salar end up with several items of it. (The more Resources 5s you have, the better to reclaim mastery of the Order-Conferring Trade Pattern.)

Also, her Followers are a group of people centered around doing all those little jobs it actually takes to keep an organization (especially a mercantile one) going, so we've got at least 100ish people who can run support for the companies when necessary. (After all, traditionally the Roman legions had 2 non-combatants supporting every 8 soldiers.)

EDIT:
Oh, and WlfSamurai , yes, thank you for the clarification on the Merits. I just wanted to make it clear that I'm totally find if they fluctuate due to external factors (something I know is not universal among players).
I am curious as to what the status of the Guild, beyond having abandoned Nexus and/or the Scavenger Lands? Is it more a situation of the head has been lost, and the other Directions are just trying to keep going, or has the Guild's leadership survived and moved elsewhere? If they are elsewhere, are they trying influence the Scavenger Lands or just cut their losses and pull out completely? I'm interested in seeing whether or not Hadria can end up either co-opting the Guild, replacing it, or just taking it over herself. She's the type to leave the big and visible control of nations to others (Ozric certainly seems like he wants to do so), and just be pulling the important strings from behind the scenes herself.

Whether the PC companies or not, she'll likely be investing in some mercenaries in this current climate.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Ok, so here's what I worked out for Lumen:

His village was somewhere north of Great Forks, on the very edge of the Scavenger Lands. This village was one of the first to be destroyed by the undead armies, and it rendered Lumen homeless and destitute. He traveled to Great Forks in order to find a home for the rest of his village population, and found the city well guarded and holding fast against the undead. He was eventually drafted into Great Forks' defense forces, and he's served until this day, occasionally gaining permission to venture out and rescue people.

That works great. Nice.

Do we have rough numbers on the various undead siege forces?

No. It's hard to say. The thing about all this is that the force needed to move across such a massive area has to be insanely gigantic. So, numbers are tough. They do employ lots of different types of siege weapons and creatures. From undead giants to Soulsteel warstriders to siege engines built from massive bones, they have quite a bit on the battlefield.

There is one particular engine on the field that I want you to discover in the game.

I am pondering moving some points around to get an Ally of a Dragon Blooded second in command for my troops.

EDIT: I went ahead and dropped my Hearthstone and picked up the Ally.

Okay. Thanks for the heads-up.

Oh, and WlfSamurai , yes, thank you for the clarification on the Merits. I just wanted to make it clear that I'm totally find if they fluctuate due to external factors (something I know is not universal among players).
I am curious as to what the status of the Guild, beyond having abandoned Nexus and/or the Scavenger Lands? Is it more a situation of the head has been lost, and the other Directions are just trying to keep going, or has the Guild's leadership survived and moved elsewhere? If they are elsewhere, are they trying influence the Scavenger Lands or just cut their losses and pull out completely? I'm interested in seeing whether or not Hadria can end up either co-opting the Guild, replacing it, or just taking it over herself. She's the type to leave the big and visible control of nations to others (Ozric certainly seems like he wants to do so), and just be pulling the important strings from behind the scenes herself.

Whether the PC companies or not, she'll likely be investing in some mercenaries in this current climate.

These are all great questions. Some I'll answer now. Others, I'd rather leave open for us all to discover in play. The one I'll answer now is that the Guild is supposed to have survived and pulled out of Nexus very early in the War. Whether or not that's true and where they are now is unknown to you.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Blackadder , Sherwood , Crocodile , Raparth , Greenstalker , UnassumingBoxCat

Call you all out for two quick mentions.

First, something I failed to mention is that in my games, you're allowed to make small tweaks and changes to your character until the end of Chapter 1. Sometimes you don't know what you need until you get into the game. Just let us know what you're changing when. This is allowed in the middle of play if that's what you want. Just know that once Chapter 1 is closed, changes are closed.

The second thing is that I've been contemplating how to start you guys off. After a lot of thought, I'm going to take a note from free-form games and LARPs and combine it with a note from nation-building. Each Chapter will start with events. These events will be scenes happening in the world that you can jump into and change. I'll have several scenes that open in the first post with a description of the situation and where they're headed. You can choose to place yourself into any of them unless they conflict time-wise. In other words, if we've established that two things are happening at exactly the same time or that one is very far away from another and it would take too much time to get there to be in both, then you will have to choose. An example is an opening scene in the streets of Nexus and one in Lookshy on the same day. Unless you can tell me how or why you can be in both, you can't.

One thing to note is that if a scene is opened and no one is there to change or effect it, it will close and the fate of everything in that scene will move forward in the next chapter. So, if the Dragon-Blooded invade a town and no one is there to stop them, the scene closes and by next chapter the fate of the town will be decided.

As long as there aren't any major objections, this will be how we keep the game moving and dynamic. The invasion will progress through these "Chapter turns".

 

[WlfSamurai]

Also, you guys are allowed to call for scenes. So if you want a scene to go interrogate a Lookshy's General, we can open scene for that. Keep in mind you'll need to tell me before we open the scene what you're trying to do or what you intend for the scene.

And that brings us to special scenes I'm going to call Character Scenes. These can be called during a Chapter or in between by players. Basically, you call for a scene with one or more other player characters and you pose a question for the scene. A Character Scene between X and Y might have the question: "Why doesn't X like Y?" Or "How does Y feel about X?" The scene has to answer the question so play needs to be driven toward it. Once the question has been answered the scene ends and all player characters in the scene receive 3 XP.

 

[WlfSamurai]

I do want to limit Character Scenes to one per player per Chapter to start. We can increase this as we play if we decide.

 

[Blackadder]

Sounds like pretty good stuff.

 

[Greenstalker]

The second thing is that I've been contemplating how to start you guys off. After a lot of thought, I'm going to take a note from free-form games and LARPs and combine it with a note from nation-building. Each Chapter will start with events. These events will be scenes happening in the world that you can jump into and change. I'll have several scenes that open in the first post with a description of the situation and where they're headed. You can choose to place yourself into any of them unless they conflict time-wise. In other words, if we've established that two things are happening at exactly the same time or that one is very far away from another and it would take too much time to get there to be in both, then you will have to choose. An example is an opening scene in the streets of Nexus and one in Lookshy on the same day. Unless you can tell me how or why you can be in both, you can't.

One thing to note is that if a scene is opened and no one is there to change or effect it, it will close and the fate of everything in that scene will move forward in the next chapter. So, if the Dragon-Blooded invade a town and no one is there to stop them, the scene closes and by next chapter the fate of the town will be decided.

As long as there aren't any major objections, this will be how we keep the game moving and dynamic. The invasion will progress through these "Chapter turns".

So we are going a little bit like a board game (legacy of unconquered sun? ) feel, I liked that occasionally get missions from keep to keep tab on invasion rubbers or sidereal ninjas...... oh this is all a sidereal conspiracy right? suddenly only place in creation that is not truly under dynast control gets a zombie apocalypse damn you Chekop

 

[Blackadder]

So we are going a little bit like a board game (legacy of unconquered sun? ) feel, I liked that occasionally get missions from keep to keep tab on invasion rubbers or sidereal ninjas...... oh this is all a sidereal conspiracy right? suddenly only place in creation that is not truly under dynast control gets a zombie apocalypse damn you Chekop

Except that the Realm has gone into civil war, which makes Kejak go "damn you zombies!" And Terrestrials. This is probably where he might just decide he was wrong after all.

 

[WlfSamurai]

I'm working on preparing Chapter 1. Hang tight guys. I appreciate the patience.

 

[Raparth]

Sounds like lots of fun; can't wait to get started. I think Hadria might need to pick up Stormwind Rider so that she can zip around more easily. ;-) That and Corrupted Words is such a good control spell.
Also, right now I'm dropping Fluttering Cry of Warning for Harmonious Presence Mediation (the discount to future social charms is just so nice).

 

[Crocodile]

I'm excited to see this, considering Ozric's antics likely to play out.

 

[Sherwood]

Indeed. This should be a blast.

 

[Blackadder]

Yep. Can't wait.

 

[UnassumingBoxCat]

Yeah, this is looking to be really exciting. I'm looking forward to whatever you guys have planned!

 

[Greenstalker]

To be honest I planed to lend my claws to highest bidder Hey assassins need to eat too and like they say in Nexus Business needs to run........or something like that

 

[WlfSamurai]

Holy crap. Reading so much lore. I might have ask for input on some of this stuff...

 

[Raparth]

WlfSamurai So much lore! It's so great! If I could pick a Supernal, it would certainly be Lore (particularly, as an educator, looking at those academic Charms...). Always ready, willing, and able to have a good Lore discussion. (Some day I'll even get around to playing a Lore Supernal, when it fits into a party/campaign.)

Luckily, Greenstalker , we've got some solid bids from the Circle. House Salar would be happy to retain his services. ;-)

 

[WlfSamurai]

Is there anywhere that they name the General Staff of Lookshy? Like, who is the current Chumyo? I can't find it...

 

[Sherwood]

In the 2e book Compass of Terrestrial Directions: Scavenger Lands, they mention a lot of info on Lookshy. I would check that book out.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Yeah, that's the one I've been scouring. I don't see a lot of names, which is good, I guess.

 

[Sherwood]

Lets you come up with your own characters for the roles.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Yeah. That's good.

 

[Greenstalker]

Return of scarlet empress had some names iirc

 

[Raparth]

And, hey, if you ever need help just filling out background characters, don't hesitate to ask. I'm sure the rest of us would be fine creating a cast of individuals doing stuff elsewhere in the world. Heck, it's something that can even happen with the new Lore system (although Hadria isn't going to have a great roll for that), but it's something I've enjoyed using as a ST in previous games (i.e. when one of my player gives me a name to fill in for this new side NPC, sometimes even leading to a backstory and becoming a minor reoccurring character, like everyone's favorite barkeep or what have you).
Anyway, just being the general "we're here to assist however we can" post.