So, in playing these last few sessions, and seeing the way the game works, i have come to a few conclusions about what I want to see, and what i think would make for a good game. Please comment/discuss these:
1. Combat
a. Exalted combat is interesting, but the dice system shares the flaws of its owod predecessor in that it takes forever and multiple attacks bog it down.
b. Combat is an integral part of the system, and the characters are engines of death, so fighting should occur.
c. Combat, in stories and in games, is there to highlight story, increase drama, and illustrate important ideas.
Conclusion: Combat should only be detailed when it shows something dramatic, exceptionally cool, or forwards the storyline. Showing the characters killing an army is cool, at least the first time, or at least until it becomes monotonous. Killing another solar, or fighting a wyld hunt is equally cool. Grinding however is not cool, nor is playing out a fight that the numbers are self-evident for. This just drags out the fighting, and takes away from the important part, which is telling the story. epics only show the cool fights, the highlights, not the grind.
Proposal: Combat, unless it is highly important, should not take up more than a third of any game, preferably a quarter, and dramatic glossing should be used to deal with petty combat (already doing this in part btw, which makes me happy).
2. Table talk
a. Table talk is an inherent part of gaming, especially with this group. it enhances the pleasure of playing games, allows for social bonding, creates greater understanding of the system, and passes the time for those not involved in the current plot.
b. Table talk can become distracting and derail the entire game, especially when the GM is drawn into it.
c. We have limited play time, with at most 5 hours normally.
Conclussion: People should talk during game, but should catch themselves when it gets out of hand, and people should try to stay in the game for the central hours, leaving the majority of table talk for the beginning and ending of the game, rather than the middle.
Proposals: 1)an XP point for staying in the game. perhaps for everyone, or for the best, as the group prefers, 2)no more than 1/5 of time after the game has actually started should be spent on bs conversation, 3)limit especially the talk of mechanics not related to the current needs of the game, and of "uber-l33t-cool" powers, as it pulls people out of the story and into mechanics land (i'm bad about this too btw, not pointing fingers).
3. Story Progression
a. The storyteller system is designed to tell a story, not to adjudicate fights, or to get phat loots, or to be an xp whore (me). These things can be done, but if you read the books, the primary goal is to tell cool stories with lots of movement and drama.
b. Stories are bogged down by monotonous action and characters without significant motivation.
c. The GM has stated that he has no story in particular to tell.
Conclusion: The onus of responsibility regarding story progression falls on everyone, especially in this game, as steven is going to be using the referee style of GMing (perfectly fine btw). We have to start looking at the bigger picture (our motivations) for our characters, setting small goals, and discussing them with the party. We also have to catch ourselves when we begin to become bogged down by some action or goal if it is making the game boring for everyone else (i should have given up on the rock long ago...) and the GM is likewise responsible for reducing things to die rolls and not making people go into infinite detail on how they are doing something in order to streamline the storytelling.
Proposals: 1) XP award for moving the plot along and making the game fun for everyone else, 2) Characters need to write down their motivation, and a small list of goals and hand them to the GM, who then needs to create plot to make such things occur, and 3) the players need to work together to make cool story happen, whether it is epic or just a night in the city.
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For my part, several of my character goals are as follows:
End Suffering (by ending the world)
Destroy the realm, and the dragonblooded rulers that killed my village
free myself of servitude
OC- bring my character toward a more balanced perspective on entropy and the world
Help my friends
have pleasant experiences
OC- explore the shadow lands
OC- build a kingdom
Alot of what i want is kind of large scale. i want to take over territory, and then make it cool while fighting other kingdoms. i want to destroy the leaders of kingdoms and fight other abyssals. i want to destroy my deathlord, and eventually destroy the neverborn i'm attached to. I want to have epic plots orchestrated by the sidereal mentor that is working behind the scenes. i want to form a party bond, and create shared goals and ideas. I want personality from the characters, and to respond to that personality (and thus need a setting that brings that personality out in people).
thats all i gots for now.
Exalted Game: Style and Flow of Play
Threading the Gerbil since 1982
I agree that the system can bog down quite fast since it uses such large dice pools* and multiple attacks (not counting multiple characters with multiple attacks by the same player) do bog things down.1. Combat
words words words
And as you noted Steven was quick to gloss over the pre-destined destruction of the automatons and even the fire traps damage, once they were known to be moot so hopefully it will not really be an issue.
[*maybe we can go to electronic dice so we can just type a number... I like rolling lots of dice too but at start we are already taxing my number of dice available and re-rolling some to hit the target number to roll]
Ahhh the age old issue with gaming groups... granted usually we do not have such a small window for playing as we do during the week and what is not a big deal on weekends can be detrimental to such during the week. We can only police ourselves as best we can... we are all at fault to various degrees and therefore it is our collective responsiblity to correct it... your proposals might work but remember Steven digressed a few times as well (listing tombs for example) so it may just be something we have to work on and leave it at that...2. Table Talk
words words words
I do not have much hope of us deciding on a single path unless somone just says "I am going" and walks off and everyone else goes or doesn't (it has worked once already though)... we are too disparate and independent to quickly decide what to do when there is no obvious goal except what we choose to make a goal... After we present our motivations and milestones (ie lesser goals) to steven he can pick out what he can make happen or would like to see happen and have the mentor guide us that way... if it falls apart or people decide as a group to go another direction we can but if we have a path to start on we can at least start walking and making progress (and steven will have heads up on objectives, locations etc to flesh out for interaction)...3. Story Progression
words words words
Motivations
that's fine but waaaaaay down the road and I don't think we are likely to help you knowingly1 End Suffering (by ending the world)
Something conceptually within grasp, obstacles are easily defined, really good milestone to accomplish and allow character development since it wont be all combat (at least not realistically, maybe for the final showdown)2 Destroy the realm, and the dragonblooded rulers that killed my village
again something that can be defined and accomplished, although a bit hazier than #2... but unlike #1 we would likely be willing to assist... maybe3 free myself of servitude
well you are going to have to do that on your own... we might provide insight or examples but thats about all...4 bring my character toward a more balanced perspective on entropy and the world
may not enjoy that character-wise but it can be done and is likely a required part of some of the previous ones5 explore the shadow lands
will likely occur in the process of #2's process... so yeah... I am sure several of us have this one to one degree or another...6 build a kingdom
That which is not dead can eternal lie and with strange eons even death may die
My Color is Blue
I value Knowledge, logic, and deceit. I love to pursue wisdom but also to manipulate and deceive. At my best, I am brilliant and progressive. At my worst, I am treacherous and cold. My symbol is a water droplet. My enemies are green and red.
My Color is Blue
I value Knowledge, logic, and deceit. I love to pursue wisdom but also to manipulate and deceive. At my best, I am brilliant and progressive. At my worst, I am treacherous and cold. My symbol is a water droplet. My enemies are green and red.
My character came from Greyfall, the Realms last stronghold in Hundred Kingdoms. One of my goals is to free the area from the overbearing military that has taken hold within the area over the last few years. It would be a good place to take the fight to the Realm and gain a kingdom of our own.
They don't have a lot of military there, about a legion and 4 warstriders. It would be neat to see Paul's character go up against a warstrider, he can finally fight something almost as tall as he can get.
The people there have lived under the Realms control for hundreds of years and are fairly content being ruled by them. That means that we would have some politicking to do before we just march in and take over.
But past this my character doesn't have any real motivation past this at this time.
They don't have a lot of military there, about a legion and 4 warstriders. It would be neat to see Paul's character go up against a warstrider, he can finally fight something almost as tall as he can get.
The people there have lived under the Realms control for hundreds of years and are fairly content being ruled by them. That means that we would have some politicking to do before we just march in and take over.
But past this my character doesn't have any real motivation past this at this time.
My character's goals are to protect reality from the Wyld. It was being held back by the Scarlet Empress through her control of the Imperial Manse, but now she is gone. The Jade Obelisks that at one point held back the Wyld are all inactive. So there is really nothing holding the Fair Folk back from over running the place. There are a couple ways that this can be accomplished:
Take the fight into the Wyld itself and attempt to find and reactivate one or all of the Jade Obelisks. This would be fun but very very dangerous as currently I am the only one that is immune to the mutating effects of the place. This offers opportunities for most of the characters. Adam, Jason, Thael's archer and I get to kick lots of Fair Folk and mutant ass. Thael's mage gets to learn about First Age tech and has to try to figure out how to make it work again. Haley and Cheyne get to skulk around and be our scouts to find the damned things.
Take over a kingdom to use as a base of operations that we can fortify to be a last bastion of defense should Creation begin to fall.
From our kingdom march onto the Blessed Isle, or sneak on or whatever is neccessary to overthrow the Empire. We can do this by simple brute force, politicking (hell we have two dragon-blooded with us we can be their backers for their attempts for the throne), assassinating the Regent and taking the throne that way, or finding a way into the Imperial Manse and attuning to it.
Aside from those things I am kinda open to whatever, the one thing that I haven't really role-played out yet is that my character is kinda obsessed with this whole Wyld/Fair Folk thing, both the mortal and the Exalt have had very very bad experiences out their and they have seen how Creation has been shrinking little by little.
Take the fight into the Wyld itself and attempt to find and reactivate one or all of the Jade Obelisks. This would be fun but very very dangerous as currently I am the only one that is immune to the mutating effects of the place. This offers opportunities for most of the characters. Adam, Jason, Thael's archer and I get to kick lots of Fair Folk and mutant ass. Thael's mage gets to learn about First Age tech and has to try to figure out how to make it work again. Haley and Cheyne get to skulk around and be our scouts to find the damned things.
Take over a kingdom to use as a base of operations that we can fortify to be a last bastion of defense should Creation begin to fall.
From our kingdom march onto the Blessed Isle, or sneak on or whatever is neccessary to overthrow the Empire. We can do this by simple brute force, politicking (hell we have two dragon-blooded with us we can be their backers for their attempts for the throne), assassinating the Regent and taking the throne that way, or finding a way into the Imperial Manse and attuning to it.
Aside from those things I am kinda open to whatever, the one thing that I haven't really role-played out yet is that my character is kinda obsessed with this whole Wyld/Fair Folk thing, both the mortal and the Exalt have had very very bad experiences out their and they have seen how Creation has been shrinking little by little.
Ocean Consuming Void
The fall of House Iselsi
Civil War in the Scarlet Empire followed by a coup
the Rise of a new Dragon Blooded Regime based on more personal freedom
Jade Sage of the Oaken Bow
Gain 1st age knowlege sufficient to heal Ocean's injuries
Expand further with 1st age to build other devices
Help in coup of Empire
Found enlightened order of sorcerer-engineers of all types to better society through better technology
The fall of House Iselsi
Civil War in the Scarlet Empire followed by a coup
the Rise of a new Dragon Blooded Regime based on more personal freedom
Jade Sage of the Oaken Bow
Gain 1st age knowlege sufficient to heal Ocean's injuries
Expand further with 1st age to build other devices
Help in coup of Empire
Found enlightened order of sorcerer-engineers of all types to better society through better technology
That which is not dead can eternal lie and with strange eons even death may die
My Color is Blue
I value Knowledge, logic, and deceit. I love to pursue wisdom but also to manipulate and deceive. At my best, I am brilliant and progressive. At my worst, I am treacherous and cold. My symbol is a water droplet. My enemies are green and red.
My Color is Blue
I value Knowledge, logic, and deceit. I love to pursue wisdom but also to manipulate and deceive. At my best, I am brilliant and progressive. At my worst, I am treacherous and cold. My symbol is a water droplet. My enemies are green and red.