Exalted: Shards of Hope - General Discussion

[SalmonMax]

Mew!

Sorry.

[Travis Kincaid]

LOL no worries here, just that when I saw "Elspeth" the first time I thought I had it wrong. Figured a little gentle correction wasn't a bad thing

[Travis Kincaid]

Lily, Callum will tell his tale but I wanted to let Mei-Ying react before he starts to tell his story.

[Ledaal Sovanya]

Okay, I think I may be missing something here about how to buy higher quality equipment to start.

Because I do not udnerstand how does Rysha (for example) have a exceptional armour and 2 perfect weapons with Resources 3 to start if..

"Items of exceptional equipment cost their normal value plus one more dot of Resources."

"Items of perfect equipment cost their normal value plus

two extra dots of Resources."

Wouldn't that would mean she would need Resources 5 just just cover the extra costs (1 additional dot for the exceptional and 2 dots each for the 2 Perfects), much less base cost?

I am confused and/or missing something here.

[Ledaal Akryruh]

This avatar is just a place holder as I've not completely finished with appearance - need to talk to Sovanya about it partially.

[Dave ST]

Resources ●●● covers the costs.

Hammer is Resources ●

Perfect Equipment is +●●

She can afford any item that is Resources ●●● or below, and as a starting character does not lose rating in the background when she buys them.

Now after playing a bit if Rysha were to purchase a perfect hammer (Resources ●●●), since the cost of the hammer is equal to her current rating in the background she would lose a ● (Giving her a Resources ●● until she found a way to make some cash), since she has just stressed her pocket book a bit farther than she could afford.

[SalmonMax]

Yar...unlike Artifact dots, Resource dots aren't "used up" during character creation. You just can't buy anything that has an individual value over your dots.

[Travis Kincaid]

I coulda had a pack mule full of cheap trinkets - D'oh!!

Perfect Equipment appears to be a 2nd ed thing (or a 1st ed source book) what does perfect stuff do?

[Ledaal Sovanya]

SUPERIOR EQUIPMENT

The items detailed in these charts are serviceable but not extraordinary. Characters with money to burn may seek to buy or have made for them truly exceptional weapons or equipment. Such items will be available only in those areas that have talented, full-time artisans—typically large cities and military foundries. Even there, such equipment is usually custom ordered and rarely found in quantity. There simply aren’t enough first-rate artisans to make superior gear in bulk. A character cannot begin the game with more than one item of superior equipment per dot of Resources, even if she might be able to afford more. (See p. 134 of the Drama chapter for details on making exceptional weapons.)

Fine Equipment

Fine weapons add one to one of the following characteristics:

Accuracy, Damage, Defense, Range (bows add 50 yards, while thrown weapons add 10) or requirements (reduces one trait minimum by one). Fine armor adds 1L/1B soak. Fine tools add one die to a single Ability roll when used in the context of a single defined specialty (e.g., fi ne brushes could add +1 to Linguistics rolls using the Calligraphy specialty).

Exceptional Equipment

Exceptional weapons gain three +1s to divide among any of the characteristics that fi ne weapons can improve. They can also raise Rate, but the same characteristic cannot be raised more than once. Exceptional armor gains two +1 bonuses to divide among: soak (adds 1L/1B), mobility (reduces mobility penalty by one) or fatigue (reduces fatigue value by one). Exceptional tools and gear add one die to dice pools when used. Items of exceptional equipment cost their normal value plus one more dot of Resources.

Perfect Equipment

Perfect weapons provide two +1 bonuses and one +2 bonus to spend on the characteristics available for exceptional weapons but cannot improve Rate by +2. Perfect armor has a mobility penalty and fatigue value each -1 normal, as well as receiving two +1 bonuses to split among the characteristics available for exceptional armor. Perfect gear and tools add two dice when used. Items of perfect equipment cost their normal value plus two extra dots of Resources.

[Dave ST]

What she said.

[Travis Kincaid]

Re: Serendipity

I'm good there unless you wanted to add something more Lily. I'm fine to think that nothing or great consequence occurs between our meeting and the start of our wandering. We can always write another story between then and meeting Rysha.

Re: Rysha

Do you want to start a fiction on how Callum, Mei-Ying and Rysha got together 8 months back? I think it would help to flesh out our relationships better but clearly we three all need to be on board for it to work.

[Lou Anne Burgess]

Don't forget you've got to weave Sovanya in there somewhere prior to the 6 month point which is probably when I joined.

I realize she's been quiet, so she's easy to forget about but depending on her exaltation details etc, it may have to make a few changes to the timeline.

[Travis Kincaid]

I was under the impression that we three met you two 6 months back at pretty much the same point that sent us all fleeing from Marita. If that's not the case I'm sure we can figure something out.

[Lou Anne Burgess]

And that impression may be correct, but I was under the impression that I met the 4 of you (who were already together) 6 months ago. Things took off faster than I realized they would. I was still working on getting Akryruh finished when the game started on Monday [technically I still have a few things to finish on, but I'm waiting on being able to talk to Sovanya]. I believe Stellar is trying to get last details finished with Sovanya still though she may be done by now.

Once we get Sovanya's back story we should be able to know how everything fits together.

[Travis Kincaid]

Well the timeline is still certainly open. In fact the only thing we know for sure is that Callum and Mei have know each other for just about a year, that they met Rysha 8 months ago, and this:

Originally Posted By: Dave

The Circle will have been laying low there for about 6 months or so, familiarizing themselves with each other and trying to keep a low profile after a rather botched attempt at keeping a low profile in the city of Marita (north bank of The Yellow River) where The Wyld Hunt, while searching for two Solars ended up with five of them.

So, the Dawn, Night and Twilight have known one another for about eight months. The Eclipse and the Zenith are rather new and have only been in the circle for about six months.

From that is sounds like we met up with you both at about the same time. That said I'm sure that things are open to interpretation ...

[Dave ST]

Most of what I say in regards to you PCs is open for inrtpretation. My intent is mostly to help out by planting a seed to give player a place to start or an idea to follow through on.

Because backgrounds have not come up yet in the main story (and they will eventually) you guys have plenty of time to hash out the whys and wheres.

Usually nothing I say is etched in stone. I'm a storyteller, but it's your story.

[Rysha]

Mei-Ying and Callum: Yeah, I'll get a fiction thread going for that.

The Ledaal siblings: My running concept so far has been that Mei-Ying and Callum met first, then picked up Rysha, then picked you two up about the same time. But we can stagger that a bit more if you two would like, and do it Me-Ying and Callum, Rysha, Sovanya and then Akryruh instead. You two can sort that out between you and let the rest of us know?

[Travis Kincaid]

Sounds good to me.

Rysha FYI, Callum and Mei started out near the headwaters of the Meander River but we had about 4 months of wadering prior to meeting you. Plenty of geography can be covered there to get us to you.

[Ledaal Sovanya]

I was under the impress that the 3 were together then met Sovanya and Akryruh (who had either been on the run at that point or Akryruh had recently Exalted). I am flexible though, so whatever works.

And I have been waiting to get some details from Akryruh to I finish my backstory and post my character.

[Ledaal Akryruh]

Sovanya, When you reply to the PM I sent you, include questions you have.

Unless of course what I was asking what part of what you wanted to ask me as well.

[Ledaal Sovanya]

I did. heh

[SalmonMax]

Note also that Mei has that whirlwind travel spell.

In four months we could cross Creation and back. So don't worry too much about where you are.

As for Serendipity, that seems appropriate. Since you started it, you should end it...that makes it nicely circular.

Yay! Story done!

[Dave ST]

Assume that anything Elsbeth says that sounds like goes beyond caring and into the realm romantic concern is directed at our buff, super hot, Elcipse Caste, Ledaal Akryruh.

Someone's got a fangurl...

Someone's got a fangurl...

Someone's got a fangurl...

Neener neener neener... someone's got a fangurl...

[SalmonMax]

...a DOOMED fangirl!

>

[Ledaal Akryruh]

Yeah... thanks... Buff and/or super hot he's not.

Doomed, it's amazing how many forms of doomed I've run into over the years. Not looking forward to this flavor, at least it can't include a Stormbull Rune Lord this time.

[Travis Kincaid]

Hey, considering that Callum is appearance ZERO disfigured fugly, you are the superhot male of the group. Work it my man work it!

Re: Serendipity

Cool by me we'll have plenty of time for action and conversation coming up I am sure!

[Dave ST]

Appearance ●●● coupled with the noble upbrining of the Scarlet Dynasty... Aky be da man bro!

Work it pimp.

And uhh... where can I get info on a Stormbull Rune Lord?

[Ledaal Akryruh]

Yeah and being social heavy just makes the 3 app all the worse.

[Ledaal Sovanya]

Don't forget about his beautiful sister (Appearance ●●●●), the social monster. Hehe.

[SalmonMax]

Whoa. That makes three girls in this Circle, two of which have **** Appearances.

It's like Dawson's Creek over here. With daiklaives.

...which would really kind of rule.

[Rysha]

*polishes her pedestrian Appearance *** and looks virtuous*

[Travis Kincaid]

More like the Phantom of the Opera

Akryuh, if you hadn't poined out my typo I would have kept on beliving I wrote that she was going east, clearly I am having issues ... Luckily with Dex 4 Stamina 4 Callum can catch up and still scout ahead for the rest of you all.

[Ledaal Akryruh]

Sorry or you're welcome, I hadn't realized it was a typo.

Nah, no more issues than any of the rest of us are.

[Dave ST]

After everyone begins their trek to the forest I'll end chapter one. As you may have guessed chapter two will pretty much be an intro into how we plan on doing combat, which in this medium may prove difficult.

Instead of waiting until we’re in the fire let’s talk now. This was my idea:

1. Much like the 'Insight' rolls, I'll determine the battle order and just inform you. That way we don't have to wait for everyone to do a single post just for joining battle, then you guys will post in that order. This means that we may have to wait for our fellow players to get home from real life. Sorry, that's just how it is.

2. The attacker will post their attack with any relevant info and some flavor text obviously. Example:

Rysha screams "The Scarlet Harlot can kiss my butt!!" and proceeds to wade into the battle flailing Rubber Chicken of the Radiant Dawn of Resplendent Mornings.

Quote:

Two Attacks

1st - 11 Succ

2nd - 15 Succ

Defense - Rysha will use Dipping Swallow Defense against as many attackers as possible to keep her DV at maximum.

3. Defenders (i.e those who were just the target of an attack) will have two chores. 1st half of thier post will be in response to the attack they received. The 2nd half will be thier own action. Example (this example assumes Rysha already had the attack information I would have provided from a previous post):

As the onslaught continues Rysha desperately parries each and every blow, yadda, yadda...

Quote:

Dipping Swallow Defense

1st Attacker - 8 Succ, PDV 8, Blocked

2nd Attacker - 6 Succ, PDV 7, Blocked

3rd Attacker - 7 Succ, PDV 8, Blocked (2 motes, DSD)

4th Attacker - 11 Succ, PDV 8, 3 Succ +8L = 11L. (2 motes, DSD)

Soak = 11L (dmg) - 5L (soak) = 6L (Rysha took two HLs)

Health Levels: –0 X, -1 X O O O, -2 O O, -4 O, Inc

<Rysha's attack half would go here, perhaps some flavor to consider her injuries...>

Quote:

<Her info would go here>

It may seem like a lot, but when you can copy and paste pretty much the whole thing it should go smoothly (I hope).

So, where will you get the info for the combat? I'll post it with the critter or NPC in question. Normally I wouldn't do this but this isn't a table where I can quickly calculate the math and just tell you whether or not your attack succeeded.

Do we have to post our rolls The Maidens and I discussed this. She voted yes, I voted no, so here's the deal: for starters we'll go with 'no'. Even with all the essence in the world even the Exalted fail at a task sometimes, Lord knows mine did, quite often. I've seen 30d pools grant only 4 Succ and I've seen 20d damage pools grant 18 succ.

The point? As long as we can stay honest with each other and ourselves I see no reason to have to micro manage every roll. From time to time however I may request that rolls are posted.

I welcome opinions.

[Rysha]

Are we just going to cycle turns, or are we actually going to use the tick system in the book? I don't mind either way (I started in 1st ed, when you always cycled turns), but it will make a difference in how we use things like Spd and whether the posting order stays constant no matter what we're doing.

[Dave ST]

I was considering the tick system, but I have no idea how to impliment it in this enviroment. The Tick system certainly favors those with faster weapons (like Sovanya) so I'm open to suggestions.

[Travis Kincaid]

I'll re-review the combat system, I don't recall it was too different from the Aeon system but it has been a while.

Can I request that we not use acronyms? I have a hard time deciphering what is being said and done when all I get is a string of letters and numbers - I didn't take an extra dot of languages for "netspeak"

Shouldn't the Maidens get like 5 votes BTW?

further questions & comments to come post re-read of the rules.

[SalmonMax]

Having played some Exalted 2nd Ed in a real time online setting (OpenRPG), I can say that the combat system is fairly detailed, and takes awhile to complete. The beauty of play by post is that it caters to this style...high detail, long time.

I'm thinking an overall process something like this:

1st post - The Setup.

GM posts flavor text/description of the encounter beginning. This is followed by the Tactical Setting. The Tactical Setting includes:

1) Number of foes with brief tactical description (weapons/armor that are visible, possibly things like unusual size, and so on).

2) Nature and effect of any situational modifiers present. (ie - you're fighting on a swinging bridge, include an Athletics check each turn before your action. If it fails, there's a 2 dice penalty to all attacks that turn)

3) Any terrain features that are of tactical significance. (There's a clump of rocks 30 feet to your left. There's a tall tree in the center of the battlefield. There's a lake of acid directly behind you. Etc)

4) Any overall combat information the GM chooses to share. (Join battle rolls, monster DV's, etc etc)

Subsequently the players post their intended actions, along with dice results and so on, just as in Dave's post. GM works out the results of these and does opposition actions. Once the first set of actions are done, the GM posts a summary.

2nd GM post: Summary of actions. This would generally be the 'first tick,' since everyone acts on that, I believe. The GM can arrange the various player posts into order of events, cutting and pasting the flavor text while inserting the monster reactions, to make a long, big post that is a compendium of all actions of significance. This would also include any changes to the setting that might result either because of participant activity (traps being sprung, sorcery, etc) or because of timed events (the volcano erupts on Tick 3). It culminates in a summary of who got what damage. This sounds like a lot of work, but hopefully because a lot of it's just pasting in already written text, it won't be TOO bad.

Then the players post their next actions.

The next GM post is just like the last, except that it also takes into account the Tick. This means it breaks down the player, opponent, and setting changes into which tick they take place on, not just order of Join Battle. Ticks that are 'empty' are noted, but not expounded on (ie - "Ticks 2-4 - nothing happens").

And so on until the encounter ends.

Having played a lot of PBP's, this is the way I've seen it done that seems to work the best. The players don't have to go trawling for relevant effects through post after post after post that don't always agree and/or wait for clarifications from players and GM's. All they do is look at the big summary posts, which are easy to find and a lot of fun to read. That takes a LOT of the "oh god, I don't want to post today" feeling out of the game, and helps move things along. It also puts those contradictions and misunderstandings between player posts right where they need to be...in the hands of the GM, who has the authority to resolve them as he/she sees fit. Hence, a lot less player squabbling.

If it's not clear how it'd work, I can try to find some examples from some of my other games and post them.

[Dave ST]

So for every tick, the character that goes on that tick states thier action then I reply with the results?

[Travis Kincaid]

Based on Lily's explaination that seems pretty good to me. The other 3 Play By Post games I have been in have been more or less diceless, or the storyteller did all dicing. In my own PBP I run it close to diceless but it also has been very low on combat and/or the legitimate parts of the combat have been over quickly.

Obviously in the end how we do this will be dictated by Storyteller preference.