Dice [OOC] The Best Laid Plans of Gods and Men

[Random Word]

Destiny, like this game, moves slowly but inexorably forward.

 

[jaydude]

First.

 

[jaydude]

In terms of Combat stuff, I'm currently thinking of not having a Martial Art at anything higher than 3. I'm looking to try something different this game, and this is basically Shi-Vash's early days on the job, seeing as we're all starting out at E1. That, and Rykon /Tien's already claimed the Martial Arts niche.

 

[Esbilon]

A Sidereal claiming Martial Arts as a niche is like a Solar claiming Excellence as a niche.

 

[Esbilon]

Random Word I'm reading through the Charms and Sidereal Performance has a focus on "positive emotions" how broadly do you interpret those? My concept involves stirring poetry to incite the oppressed to bloody revolution which is not generally considered a positive emotion.

 

[Random Word]

From what I can tell, rules as intended positive emotions do not include murderous rage, no matter how righteous its foundations. Courage, though, is considered positive. It takes courage to overthrow your oppressors. Determination and inspiration seem valid.

 

[Esbilon]

So when Epiphany posted the group sheet, the "smart" software automatically embedded it which meant that I for one couldn't easily follow it. I've pulled it out and here's a link that should work. Hopefully. Group sheet

 

[Esbilon]

Does anyone plan to have strong positive feelings about the Realm in general or any of the Great Houses? I plan to have quite the grudge against some entity, and I don't want it to be something someone else in the group loves. Unless you're interested in that dynamic.

 

[jaydude]

Does anyone plan to have strong positive feelings about the Realm in general or any of the Great Houses?

Not me.

 

[Sherwood]

I'm here. Would have posted earlier but my dang job got in the way. Stupid employers, expecting you to actually be at work to earn your paycheck. How rude of them!

I have some ideas on my Lunar that I'm going to type up here soon and discuss with our Illustrious Storyteller Random Word and Epiphany to see how well my thoughts are being received.

 

[Epiphany]

Does anyone plan to have strong positive feelings about the Realm in general or any of the Great Houses? I plan to have quite the grudge against some entity, and I don't want it to be something someone else in the group loves. Unless you're interested in that dynamic.

It's entirely possible that my character has never actually met anyone from the Great Houses. They're all abstract historical entities that they've read about rather than experienced. Feel free to get your hate on.

 

[Epiphany]

The character sheet thread suggests that alterations to Craft will be considered upon request. I'm super interested in Craft. Are there particular alterations that people usually ask for? I've never engaged with this edition's craft system.

 

[Random Word]

Are there particular alterations that people usually ask for?

Craft in 3e is a thing. It's quite polarizing and amongst the most hated of systems, but thankfully for you Solar Craft is by far the worst offender and subsequent Craft charmsets have done a much better job. There are a multitude of complete fan rewrites of the Craft system and Solar Craft charmset, but I think the Sidereal and Lunar Craft charmsets are just fine, and if you've never experienced the base craft system we can try it and if you hate it we can change it as necessary.

One thing I often do is make craft backgrounds into specialties instead of separate abilities with separate dot ratings. This makes Craft much less expensive to get into.

 

[Random Word]

Rykon Battles seems to suffer from the Dawn Problem. It would have been nice to see more weird non-combat effects related to the Battles purview in the combat skill trees. If you'd like to swap out one of your unwanted Caste skills for another Battles-related Caste skill, be my guest. Unless you wanted each of Archery, Brawl, Melee, and War.

 

[Esbilon]

Random Word What's your stance on starting with powerful magical stuff? I'm leaning towards the Starmetal Wrackstaff Gnomon (Arms of the Chosen p. 55) and a powerful manse in Heaven that produces a Seven Leaping Dragons Stone (AotC 137).

 

[Random Word]

You're Sidereals. Heaven's vaults are open to you, and your predecessors bequeathed you priceless treasures and valuable heavenly real estate. Unless your predecessor was destitute for some reason, you have valid justification for basically any Manse in Yu-Shan, and very powerful artifacts.

 

[Rykon]

Rykon Battles seems to suffer from the Dawn Problem. It would have been nice to see more weird non-combat effects related to the Battles purview in the combat skill trees. If you'd like to swap out one of your unwanted Caste skills for another Battles-related Caste skill, be my guest. Unless you wanted each of Archery, Brawl, Melee, and War.

I appreciate the offer given our serial generalist tendencies. I think I should be ok as is, but I'll let you know as I start finishing up with this one. The one good thing about 3E's dice trick era means just having an excellency is more than enough for about 95% of situations outside of combat.

 

[Rykon]

I've started putting points to paper and already I see some design choices I'm a little sad to see, mostly the loss of Bureau and Divisional training minimums. Getting the martial artist merit for free is nice, as well as martial arts as a free caste ability is nice, but now only having the 28 ability dots instead of 35 (with pre-decided dots) makes the MA style based dot split hurt a little more for Sids.

That said, I'm personally deciding to incorporate the 2E minimums for Tien despite only having the 28 dots just as a matter of believability. With us Sids encouraged to take at least 2 dots of Occult I figure why not make it 3. So now I have to ask... How many of us are taking at least a little sorcery? Occult counts for Prophecy (re-branded Astrology) so I wouldn't be surprised if it was all of us.

 

[Esbilon]

I couldn't find the points for Occult. 28 only gets you so far.

 

[Empyreal1]

Hello! Still working on my Serenities. She was the Princess of Gem until the Arcane Fate ruined that. I think she views the Realm as a competitor and a leech to her family's expanding empire.

 

[Empyreal1]

Her name is Cinerea, the Peerless Diamond.

Description: Cinerea is a petite 5'3", but is very voluptous and well-rounded for being that short. She dresses in the finest of clothing, silks and velvet, cut to flatter and emphasize her figure and draw the eye. Her hair is purest black, her eyes a robin's-egg blue sprinkled with starlight. She wears her hair in elaborate coiffures and styles, as befitting one raised as a Princess.

Brief History: Cinerea was born in Gem, the wealthiest city in the South. And she was fortunate, for she was the daughter of Rankar XII, the Despot who ruled Gem. Her name itself comes from the dead volcano that Gem sits within, and she earned her title "The Peerless Diamond" for the way her eyes sparkled. She was truly the apple of her father's eye, able to do no wrong in Rankar's view. She was raised and trained as befit a princess: the heat of the day being concerned with her etiquette lessons, musical training, and resource management classes. At night she attended the fancy galas and dances her father or the nobility hosted, where she was a natural social butterfly. By the time she was approaching 20, she was already being considered for the Gem Diplomatic Corps. That's when everything changed. She experienced a strange week of fever dreams and waking hallucinations that frightened her for the first time in her life. One morning she went to her father's chambers to talk to him about the dreams, and the Despot looked at her with no clue who she was. Panicked, and being chased by her own guards, she fled into the city. It was later that day that the Bureau of Destiny found her and brought her to her new home in Yu-Shan.

 

[Rykon]

I think with Single Point form at E2 I may just go with Tiger Style as it satisfies a baseline desire to play a "fast" character. I won't have the "so fast I get two initiative tracks" feel of Single Point but I think native charm utility or some evocations could help bridge that specific aspect.

 

[Epiphany]

I've started putting points to paper and already I see some design choices I'm a little sad to see, mostly the loss of Bureau and Divisional training minimums. Getting the martial artist merit for free is nice, as well as martial arts as a free caste ability is nice, but now only having the 28 ability dots instead of 35 (with pre-decided dots) makes the MA style based dot split hurt a little more for Sids.

That said, I'm personally deciding to incorporate the 2E minimums for Tien despite only having the 28 dots just as a matter of believability. With us Sids encouraged to take at least 2 dots of Occult I figure why not make it 3. So now I have to ask... How many of us are taking at least a little sorcery? Occult counts for Prophecy (re-branded Astrology) so I wouldn't be surprised if it was all of us.

Relatable. I'm well aware that I'm unusually interested in playing high ability characters no matter the splat but really feeling it here.

No, no Sorcery plans. Not with MA to learn, Prophecy to master, social competencies to lock in and I'm supposed to be great at Ride or Sail, Survival specialist for tracking/wilderness adventures, etc.

 

[Random Word]

but now only having the 28 ability dots instead of 35 (with pre-decided dots) makes the MA style based dot split hurt a little more for Sids.

I'm well aware that I'm unusually interested in playing high ability characters no matter the splat but really feeling it here.

The MA dot split is always rough, but am I missing something here? This isn't Lunars. Sids get the usual 28 dots and Solar-style 1 BP/Ability dot costs. That's up to 15 over-3 ability dots if you want to be a destitute unloved savant. Where are you being stretched thin?

 

[Rykon]

The MA dot split is always rough, but am I missing something here? This isn't Lunars. Sids get the usual 28 dots and Solar-style 1 BP/Ability dot costs. That's up to 15 over-3 ability dots if you want to be a destitute unloved savant. Where are you being stretched thin?

From my perspective, there's a checklist of things to go through for a character's combat/violence literacy
-Awareness - Join Battle, not getting ambushed.
-Offense - Brawl, Melee, Martial Arts, Archery, Thrown, etc. (Probably gonna end up with two abilities here minimum as a martial artist, especially by E3 when Sidereal martial arts are a thing)
-Defense - Brawl, Melee, Dodge, Martial Arts
-Soaks/Health - Resistance
-Movement - Athletics, Dodge, Ride?
-Stealth - not being the weakest link that costs the circle the surprise round
-Artifact Merit(s)?

Then there's a Sidereal's day job trappings and obligations.
-Bureaucracy - It feels like you're doing something wrong if you're a Sidereal post-training with 0 dots in Bureaucracy.
-Lore - Foundational education, history, cultures, etc.
-Occult - Coping with gods
-Linguistics - Paperwork, Prayer Strips, etc.
-Socialize - Not spilling heaven's or faction's confidential information
-Presence - "How to sell it to your cat's paw"
-Performance - Prayer or "How to sell it to the judge"
-Backing merit - Text suggests 2 as the baseline
-Resources merit - Text suggests 3 as the baseline, also where did Salary go?
-Languages merit - Enough to be reasonably functional, for example: currently planning on 3 dots for Old Realm, High Realm, Riverspeak, and Seatongue

Then there's picking up a professional focus (ideally just the one)
-The navigator in chief / tour guide
-The sorcerer and/or necromancer
-The super-ninja
-The detective
-The people person
-The un-people person