Dice Shadows of the Setting Sun (OOC)

[Rykon]

Perhaps things will lean toward a happy balance in time.

 

[Esbilon]

Don't misunderstand me, I think we're in quite the happy place already. But I think our characters have some room to grow towards each other in time.

 

[WlfSamurai]

I like where all this is going. Almost caught up finally. So glad the site is back up.

Hopefully will have a post today for you guys.

Esbilon , Epiphany , Rykon , Sherwood , D. Rex , Random Word , Teh Frixz , jaydude

 

[WlfSamurai]

Okay, so, should we let The Evervictor respond to Zoya’s explanation of how she has seen the arenas work, Teh Frixz and Esbilon ?

And then we shall move on from this little scene.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Maybe give it to tomorrow, or so? And then we’ll move forward?

 

[Teh Frixz]

I can whip up something tomorrow. Drained tonight. Also do let me know if I’m overdoing it or need to tone Aeliana back a bit. Attempting to write a semi-believable ‘derangement’ is difficult and I don’t want to step on any toes. Especially in a setting I’m still learning.

 

[WlfSamurai]

I can whip up something tomorrow. Drained tonight. Also do let me know if I’m overdoing it or need to tone Aeliana back a bit. Attempting to write a semi-believable ‘derangement’ is difficult and I don’t want to step on any toes. Especially in a setting I’m still learning.

No rush. Looks like we have some Sigrdrífa/Toun action still happening.

 

[Random Word]

We are being silly and should definitely not be permitted to hold up the plot. Likewise, this 'tournament' thing is just flavour and requires no more screen time than, 'everybody's exhausted, a neighbourhood sized section of wilderness has been levelled, and somebody won.'

 

[Esbilon]

Also, sadly, the Lore-based training charms have been nerfed quite a bit in Ex3 in that they a) require an investment of xp from the Solar, and b) they don't cut down on training times. So Sigrdrifa will have to learn the old fashioned way

 

[jaydude]

We are being silly and should definitely not be permitted to hold up the plot. Likewise, this 'tournament' thing is just flavour and requires no more screen time than, 'everybody's exhausted, a neighbourhood sized section of wilderness has been levelled, and somebody won.'

With someone else getting shoved head-first up the crack of a feral mammoth that was unlucky enough to be in the area at the same time.

 

[Random Word]

Ugh, I am so not a fan of 3e's Solar training and mortal augmentation Charms. If you don't want players to do something, just take it out, don't waste words on making it so awkward and unwieldy no one will want to buy it.

 

[Esbilon]

Ugh, I am so not a fan of 3e's Solar training and mortal augmentation Charms. If you don't want players to do something, just take it out, don't waste words on making it so awkward and unwieldy no one will want to buy it.

Yeah. Although, a Sorcerous Working could be a fast track to a lovely singing voice if Sigrdrifa is up for it

 

[Random Word]

Sorcerous Workings are the solution to every problem. Sigrdrífa may disagree, but that's because she hasn't yet seen the light.

 

[Esbilon]

Sorcerous Workings are the solution to every problem. Sigrdrífa may disagree, but that's because she hasn't yet seen the light.

That can fortunately be fixed with a Sorcerous Working!

 

[WlfSamurai]

Ugh, I am so not a fan of 3e's Solar training and mortal augmentation Charms. If you don't want players to do something, just take it out, don't waste words on making it so awkward and unwieldy no one will want to buy it.

This 100%. There is so much wasted in the rules of this game. Even as “streamlined” as some of it is.

 

[WlfSamurai]

I think we’ll cap the scene with this bit between our Evervictor and Zoya.

 

[Rykon]

This 100%. There is so much wasted in the rules of this game. Even as “streamlined” as some of it is.

Oh without a doubt. 95% of that waste is in the charm space. The baseline rules were fairly well streamlined. The initiative dynamic in combat with withering and decisive attacks is still a little weird and creates new complexity/bloat, but roughly equivalent to 2E on the whole.

I've got a conference call coming up here soon. After that, I may have enough focus for a decent post. Yesterday I basically slept from the time I got home until time for work with a couple of brief disruptions. That all said, don't hold things up on my behalf.

 

[Random Word]

I like the withering decisive split. It does not scale well, though. It's quite nice for modelling climactic duels, or maybe fights between 3-4 serious participants. I think they really believed the Twilight and Eclipse were going to have combat pools of like 4 dice, only the Dawn would have anywhere near 10, and everyone would pair off with an enemy from their 'tier'. The Twilight would fight the battle group of hobgoblins, the Zenith with 6 combat dice would fight the Buck Ogre, and the Dawn with 8-10 would fight the Cataphract. Unfortunately they made the completely insane decision to hew to the BP/XP split (because apparently character creation would be too hard for new players otherwise? If you can wade through the Charms chapter to create a character, you can sure as hell handle XP chargen) so it costs basically nothing for anyone to have a 10 combat pool at chargen. I have a hypothesis the entire game would suddenly make a lot more sense if it had XP chargen rules and 5s were genuinely rare instead of the default. You'd have to drop the ability/attribute minimums of Charms, though, since those seem to have been written assuming 5s are the default as well.

Case in point, I've been looking at the Craft rewrite we're using and I think I want to get Sigrdrífa some Craft Charms that really complement super strength, but the first Charm in the tree is Craft 3 and all its children are Craft 5, so you have to be the best crafter in the world to ride this ride.

 

[Rykon]

I like the withering decisive split. It does not scale well, though. It's quite nice for modelling climactic duels, or maybe fights between 3-4 serious participants. I think they really believed the Twilight and Eclipse were going to have combat pools of like 4 dice, only the Dawn would have anywhere near 10, and everyone would pair off with an enemy from their 'tier'. The Twilight would fight the battle group of hobgoblins, the Zenith with 6 combat dice would fight the Buck Ogre, and the Dawn with 8-10 would fight the Cataphract. Unfortunately they made the completely insane decision to hew to the BP/XP split (because apparently Character Creation would be too hard for new players otherwise? If you can wade through the Charms chapter to create a character, you can sure as hell handle XP chargen) so it costs basically nothing for anyone to have a 10 combat pool at chargen.

After having played math-heavy chargen games like Palladium and GURPS I agree, the calculations it would take are manageable by comparison. It'd also make a character management application far easier to code for.

I also agree about duels versus scale. As it stands, if one combatant dispatches their foe with a decisive attack, they leave themselves highly vulnerable to a crash by another combatant. Strategic play just gets weird in larger engagements. Perhaps it assumes fights will get chopped up into separate ones? That seems clumsy outside of play by post... Ah, pardon the rambling. It is an interesting dilemma to examine.

I have a hypothesis the entire game would suddenly make a lot more sense if it had XP chargen rules and 5s were genuinely rare instead of the default. You'd have to drop the ability/attribute minimums of Charms, though, since those seem to have been written assuming 5s are the default as well.

If you have any interest in a more historical setting in the Wuxia genre, I recommend taking a look at Qin: The Warring States. It is now a dead line from what I've been told, but I loved how access to even buy up to the ability 5 level with XP had to be earned through an appropriate legendary feat, which I assume for PCs had to occur over the course of the sessions at the table.

I will also say it handles supernatural abilities, mundane combat techniques, and supernatural martial arts rather elegantly. If a game for it on RPN popped up, I'd definitely give it a shot. A strong four out of five boots to the head, brief as my experience with it was.

Case in point, I've been looking at the Craft rewrite we're using and I think I want to get Sigrdrífa some Craft Charms that really complement super strength, but the first Charm in the tree is Craft 3 and all its children are Craft 5, so you have to be the best crafter in the world to ride this ride.

I like how the rewrite distilled the set into fewer charms, but now that you mention it, the progression scale in it sounds like it needs work. Exalted as a whole has always been bad about that though. I suppose 3E did make that part a little better, at great cost.

 

[Random Word]

As it stands, if one combatant dispatches their foe with a decisive attack, they leave themselves highly vulnerable to a crash by another combatant.

I actually really like this aspect. It's not just vulnerable to crash by another combatant, but by the combatant they decisive'd as well. If combatants are in the same league, the combat system has a few decent mechanics to swing momentum back and forth, stall snowballing, and keep the tension up. It's not perfect, but resetting to base after successful decisive attacks, and thus being vulnerable to crash, is a positive to me.

If you have any interest in a more historical setting in the Wuxia genre, I recommend taking a look at Qin: The Warring States

I haven't heard of this one, but I'll check it out. I really like Legend of the Wulin and Legend of the Five Rings, though L5R isn't really Wuxia.

 

[WlfSamurai]

2 bonus regular XP for everyone for RP in Scene 2

Edit: defined XP as regular and not Solar/Lunar XP.

Esbilon , Epiphany , Rykon , Sherwood , D. Rex , Random Word , Teh Frixz , jaydude

 

[Random Word]

Regular XP, or Solar/Lunar XP?

 

[WlfSamurai]

Regular XP, or Solar/Lunar XP?

Sorry. That wasn’t clear. Regular XP.

 

[WlfSamurai]

With storm clouds gathering on the horizon, that night in her tent, Zoya prepares for what would otherwise be a miserable day of travel on the morrow. Instead, she sets a small fire, draws symbols of fire on the ground, and sings to the elemental spirits of flame and heat that live throughout Creation, even here in the North.

When four hours of this has passed, a small elemental creature has been conjured into being and before lying down to sleep, she asks it to keep her warm and dry even in the worst of storms.

As a scholar, Zoya has always prided her of her ability to see the world for what it really was. Though, that usually takes a more academic form than making out distant shapes on the riverbank, through the glory of the Unconquered Sun, she can manage that too.

Spoiler: ooc

I'm summoning an Essence 1 fire elemental for the purpose of keeping Zoya nice and warm even when the weather sucks. This may seem frivolous, but I say: If you've got it, flaunt it This would put me down 2 wp, but I regain 1 from successfully casting a spell, and 1 from a good night's sleep. On that note, WlfSamurai , you haven't been awarding rank 2+ stunts, which is generally fine, but it's crucial to our wp economy once we start doing more with it.

For the spot roll, I'll assume a rank 1 stunt and also spend 4m from my peripheral pool to enhance my roll, netting me 6+2+4 = 12 dice. 9 successes!

I haven’t seen any 2-die stunts yet. If you guys ever think what you’re posting should be a 2- or 3-die stunt, call it out. All posts, really, are 1-die stunts, as you mentioned and I mentioned a while ago.

Going to start keeping track of some of this stuff in the first post of the thread for ease of access.

Actually, tagging everyone so you all see.
Esbilon , Epiphany , Rykon , Sherwood , D. Rex , Random Word , Teh Frixz , jaydude

 

[WlfSamurai]

Toun attunes his sight to the immaterial realm before making his own mind. His eyes focus upstream, channeling the memory of an eagle's sight to cut through the veil of frigid rain between the Exalted vanguard and the campfires of the unidentified.

[Activating Perceiving the Unseen World in case there's any noteworthy activity that might hint at a necromancer or sorcerer in their midst. No luck this time. 1 success.]

OMG, I can’t find this Charm. What am I missing? Can you tell me where I can find it? Sorry.