Arianna Explains!

[Haku1]

There are a series of threads on RPG.net that I feel no newcomer to EXALTED can ignore. This are done Kasumi of RPG.net


Go there... read and be enlightened by Chibi Arianna.


Arianna Explains:


Specialties


http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=183912


Combos


http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=184357


Not Dying


http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=185588


Stunts


http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=3960791#post3960791


And because certain family trees need pruning, Mnemon gives a helping hand to you hopeless Anathema...


Mnemon Explains:


Solar Combat Tactics - Defense


http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=193974


Solar Combat Tactics - Offense


http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=194599


Solar Combat Tactics - Versus Specific Opponents


http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=198450


EDIT - Added in Solar Combat Tactics III

 

[Andrew02]

I had no idea stunts were so simple. Thank you, Haku. You have totally redeemed yourself and soothed my unrelenting desire to somehow kill you in your sleep.

 

[Valheru]

Sweeeet. Thanks, Haku-san. That was a lot of fun to read. ^.^

 

[Haku1]

I had no idea stunts were so simple. Thank you, Haku. You have totally redeemed yourself and soothed my unrelenting desire to somehow kill you in your sleep.

It is people like you who beg to be kicked in the teeth and come back for seconds after licking my toes... It's true, why even Joseph said so... ^_-


And yes, stunts ARE easy. They're easy to do... they do lots of things...

Sweeeet. Thanks' date=' Haku-san. That was a lot of fun to read. ^.^[/quote']
Yeah, it's incredibly fun to read.

 

[Heaven's Thunder Hammer]

Thanks haku, I printed these out and had the newbies in my group read them. They found them *very* informative.

 

[Haku1]

Thanks haku' date=' I printed these out and had the newbies in my group read them. They found them *very* informative.[/quote']
Mind you, old timers can also find them to be useful when creating characters. As they may not know of their flaws as they're 'experienced', but it helps when you do so.


And yes, Kasumi seriously rocks.

 

[Spook]

[Exalted] Mnemon Explains Solar Combat Tactics 3


Versus Specific Opponents


http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=198450

 

[Flagg]

Can someone explain to me this gist of all of these "X explains Y" links? Is it comedic?


-S

 

[Joseph]

Joseph explains "Stupid Posting Phenomenon"


Some people incorrectly think that they are being witty by pretending their advice is equal to that an Exalted signature character would give on the subject, and thus give their threads names such as these.  These people also generally have the most drab, meaningless, and obvious advice availible, ensuring they're patronizing you in addition to not being funny.

 

[Joseph]

Mind you, old timers can also find them to be useful when creating characters. As they may not know of their flaws as they're 'experienced', but it helps when you do so.

I found everything mentioned to be painfully obvious; if this helped anyone in any way, that individual either has simply not read the books, or has some sort of mental defect.


I mean, just read the shit she writes:

The one that frequently trips up beginning Solars is Safety Amongst Enemies, a dodge charm that allows them to reflexively redirect any attack to an adjacent person with a relatively easy Dodge roll. In general, do NOT engage a Dragon Blooded who you suspect may have this charm (which is quite common) with more than one person, or range-attack an already engaged Dragon Blooded, unless those engaged can happily defend against redirected attacks.

See, I would have said use undodgeable attacks and kill the fucker, with the additional advice that if you don't have undodgeable attacks, use your movement to make sure you can all duck in, attack, and then duck back to ensure you're all out of range of hitting one another.  My ACTUALLY strategic team can have five people attacking him without having to worry about hitting one another.  Saying "Just engage him with one," is the second worst advice you can give, coming in shortly only to completely ignoring the Charm exists.

 

[Persell]

Joseph explains "Stupid Posting Phenomenon"
Some people incorrectly think that they are being witty by pretending their advice is equal to that an Exalted signature character would give on the subject, and thus give their threads names such as these.  These people also generally have the most drab, meaningless, and obvious advice availible, ensuring they're patronizing you in addition to not being funny.

Given that the articles are aimed at new players (and I'll assume most don't have your ability to pick up the subtle nuances and compatibilities of various skills/charms and system exploiting knowledge in one read of a given book) I think the guides are done rather well. Whilst they might seem patronising to you, I assume that the 'Arianna explains' shtick is a light-hearted attempt to engage new players by taking the persona of a signature character, someone they hopefully WILL be familiar with after one read. In addition, given that someone has taken the time to actually write all the articles, done the research, then put it in an (attempted) comical fashion, I don't see anything wrong with that at all. It shows good community spirit and a willingness to share gained knowledge with people that might not yet understand how the game works. It might be of no use whatsoever to those players/STs such as yourself who have played in countless games and know the books inside out, but you're not the only ones out there playing. Rather than slate someone else's attempt to be informative, why not write some articles aimed at the more experienced players instead? I'm sure there are several combos or tactics out there that you might assume everyone knows, but that may not be the case. I for one would be interested in hearing your insights on 'higher level combat' and the like.


Apologies if you've already done some articles or essays, and if so could you point myself and other readers in their direction? Even if its things I already know, I'd be interested in your viewpoint of them.

 

[MOK]

Well said, Ronin Kitty.


I as well would be interested in tactical explorations that would meet Josephs standard.  Heck, I thought the basics from "Arianna Explains" was fairly useful.

 

[Joseph]

Given that the articles are aimed at new players (and I'll assume most don't have your ability to pick up the subtle nuances and compatibilities of various skills/charms and system exploiting knowledge in one read of a given book) I think the guides are done rather well.

They may be aimed at new players, but they would only be useful to stupid players.  All of this is immediately obvious to anyone who skims through the book, no matter how new they are.  Further, some of the advice is just plain BAD, such as the bit I quoted with regards to Dragon Blooded and Safety Among Enemies.  


I understand what you are trying to say, but even as a new player I wouldn't have found this useful, and more likely still would have found it trite and misinformative.  Maybe I am just fantastically brilliant, but I think it is more reasonable to assume most people could have functioned just as well.

Rather than slate someone else's attempt to be informative, why not write some articles aimed at the more experienced players instead? I'm sure there are several combos or tactics out there that you might assume everyone knows, but that may not be the case. I for one would be interested in hearing your insights on 'higher level combat' and the like.

It would be hard for me to do, given how ridiculously simple the Exalted combat system is.  Honestly, I'd say even a basic reading of the book and the Charm sets of the various Exalt types should provide you with sufficient information to literally be as capable as possible in Exalted fighting.  


I'm alwyas happy to answer questions, though, so if people were to submit advanced questions on combat they didn't understand for some reason, I could theoretically MAKE an article out of those, if I felt the answers weren't too obvious to avoid such an article being patronizing.  

Apologies if you've already done some articles or essays, and if so could you point myself and other readers in their direction? Even if its things I already know, I'd be interested in your viewpoint of them.

The only such project I've undertaken in the past is an article on Astrology usage, and I believe it died with the old Compendium, being on a forum thread.

 

[Persell]

Given that the articles are aimed at new players (and I'll assume most don't have your ability to pick up the subtle nuances and compatibilities of various skills/charms and system exploiting knowledge in one read of a given book) I think the guides are done rather well.

They may be aimed at new players, but they would only be useful to stupid players.  All of this is immediately obvious to anyone who skims through the book, no matter how new they are.  Further, some of the advice is just plain BAD, such as the bit I quoted with regards to Dragon Blooded and Safety Among Enemies.  


I understand what you are trying to say, but even as a new player I wouldn't have found this useful, and more likely still would have found it trite and misinformative.  Maybe I am just fantastically brilliant, but I think it is more reasonable to assume most people could have functioned just as well.

Rather than slate someone else's attempt to be informative, why not write some articles aimed at the more experienced players instead? I'm sure there are several combos or tactics out there that you might assume everyone knows, but that may not be the case. I for one would be interested in hearing your insights on 'higher level combat' and the like.

It would be hard for me to do, given how ridiculously simple the Exalted combat system is.  Honestly, I'd say even a basic reading of the book and the Charm sets of the various Exalt types should provide you with sufficient information to literally be as capable as possible in Exalted fighting.  


I'm alwyas happy to answer questions, though, so if people were to submit advanced questions on combat they didn't understand for some reason, I could theoretically MAKE an article out of those, if I felt the answers weren't too obvious to avoid such an article being patronizing.  

Apologies if you've already done some articles or essays, and if so could you point myself and other readers in their direction? Even if its things I already know, I'd be interested in your viewpoint of them.

The only such project I've undertaken in the past is an article on Astrology usage, and I believe it died with the old Compendium, being on a forum thread.

all of this is entirely your opinion


and i can tell you conculsively on one point you are wrong I know people who just don't get game mechanics. They're far more interested in playing the character and rely on the ST to tell them what dice need rolling and generally need advice on what to buy, because no matter how much they read the book they'll never spot the really gross tricks and combo's, heck it's been difficult enough to show them how certain Charms and the like are useful so that they don't end up very dead very quickly.


these people aren't Stupid - far from it (for example one of them is a Senior Administrator at an Insurance company)


heck i consider myself fairly experienced in understanding combat and certainly some of the tricks in the Solar combat tactics stuff i hadn't thought of.

 

[Joseph]

all of this is entirely your opinion

Who else's opinion would it be you stupid prick?  I'm not fond of posting other people's opinions to the exclusion of my own.


That doesn't make it less factual.

and i can tell you conculsively on one point you are wrong I know people who just don't get game mechanics.

They they are intellectual subpar, to be honest.  The game mechanics represent the most basic, simple sort of mathematics.  Not being able to "get" them is like failing 3rd grade math, as an adult.

They're far more interested in playing the character and rely on the ST to tell them what dice need rolling and generally need advice on what to buy, because no matter how much they read the book they'll never spot the really gross tricks and combo's, heck it's been difficult enough to show them how certain Charms and the like are useful so that they don't end up very dead very quickly.

Playing the character in no way requires ignorance of game mechanics.  Thus they aren't picking between character and mechanics, they're playing the character but either being too lazy to read the books at all (probable, in which case they'd never read this article either), or are literally mentally deficient (possible, in which case nothing can help them).


Either way, no average or above intelligence is going to require such a thing, unless they won't read the book, in which case they'd never read an article ABOUT the book.

these people aren't Stupid - far from it (for example one of them is a Senior Administrator at an Insurance company)

Have you SEEN the sort of people who work in the business world?  Stupidity in NO WAY bars you from it, PARTICULARLY in the insurance field.


That said, I still strongly suspect it's not that he doesn't GET the mechanics, just that he's totally unwilling to READ them, which, again, means he won't read an article either.

heck i consider myself fairly experienced in understanding combat and certainly some of the tricks in the Solar combat tactics stuff i hadn't thought of.

You obviously misjudged yourself then.  That's my opinion, but it's also true.