Murderhobos were the best Players I ever had. Motivating and entertaining them with my scenarios was simple.
Lets agree to disagree, we simply have very different view on what's flawed with Exalted, as a game system.
If you enjoy running a game for murderhobos,
do not complain about the murder.
Exalted is based of WoD. Where combat is made to be semi-realistic deadly. With a bit of tactical thinking you can defeat most foes. Rest, you brute-force.
No, it isn't. Both systems run on storyteller, but they use different adaptations of it.
Really? It is what it boils down towards for you? How many X takes to kill Y?
Apparently that matters to you, given that it's what you were talking about.
Because for me it's a problem not of numbers but of "This dude could be kingdom's best swordsman on his best day ... but it doesn't matter. Average Exalt ignores him because he's just mortal and will die without dice-adders."
Assuming the average Exalt has a moderate combat investment, the kingdom's best swordsman losing to one of the world's best sword/ax/spear/hammer wielders, or martial artists, or archers, or assassins...
Not really all that implausible. Give the second person Magic? Obviously the Exalt has the edge. They move faster, with more grace and precision. They hit harder, they can crack stone with their footsteps. They can shatter the finest steel, react to attacks they cannot see.
Superhuman power on top of the pinnacle of human skill is better than almost pinnacle human skill. 5 in a combat skill, something most player Exalts have, is the utter limit of human mastery.
I don't see it. After reading about canon Exalts, when I remove Exaltation from the equation I see random person. Not Exceptional person.
Unless you mean that tiny, and apparently not heeded to, bit of flavor text about "how" Exaltation picks a host? Truthfully speaking it is just a Lottery. Nothing more.
If you ignore the details about the setting, of course you'll be wrong about how it works. Tell me, which of the signature Solars is a normal person, again? The Lunars? The Sidereals?
Except Dragon-Blooded, but hey majority of them are average. Exceptions do follow and make their representatives special. Like Her Redness.
Again, your standard of average is very, very off. Each and every Terrestrial of the Realm is held to a standard: A standard that most people cannot match.
I distinctively remember saying good and evil. Without capital letters. Unless you claim that platonic ideals are subjective.
If you wish to criticize my habit of unneeded capitalization, I would request that you make absolutely certain that your own spelling and punctuation is of a higher standard.
*claps hands repeatedly*
Thank you for reverting to name-calling when you can't rebuke someone properly.
If you choose to diminish the setting in your mind, the problem is in you. Not the setting.
I say that I don't believe things till I check myself. Can slavery be wrong? Obviously. I am uncomfortable with putting my livehood in other person's hands.
Can I imagine that there could be someone who would be comfortable and content being sort of property? With effort, but there are all sorts of people.
Historically, slavery has always been accompanied by abuse on a massive scale. If I wish to pick an institutionalised evil for the sake of making a point, there are few better choices.
I hoped you understood what I meant by my words there, but my hope is dashed when you revert to mantra-ing "Slavery is wrong!".
Is it not?
Why? Because mindless repeating of even common sense turns it into dogma. Wich often leads to looking down on people who don't share your dogmas.
Wich, in your domgatic mind, lessens them ... and that makes thought-leap of doing things to not-people that would be wrong doing to people is ok if it's not-people.
This is rather hard to decipher.
From what I can gather, "Having a moral code is bad, because it might lead to you thinking that people who do things you think are bad deserve less than people who do things you think are good, and that might lead to depersonalization"?
Are you telling me that it's wrong to look down on slavers and rapists?
My point is ... I don't see heroic side of the Exalts, like at all. All I see is random people going bat-shit-insane with power.
Me or you would be same deal were one of us suddenly win Exaltation Lottery.
So, Panther, a legendary martial artist and veteran pit fighter who turned his back on a life of decadence and was Exalted for it, a man who travels the world aspiring to bring righteousness with him, a man who fights gods and frees slaves...
He's just some random Joe to you.
Harmonious Jade, an assassin raised from birth to kill for a demon cult, is a normal person.
Black Ice Shadow, a child born in a shadowland and raised by gods, trained to bring balance to the world but shunned by his peers, he is normal.
The Maiden of the Mirthless Smile, a girl who heard the whispers of the dead creators of the world all her life, a woman who sought out a dread necromancer on a whim, she is normal.
Where the hell do you live, if this is your standard? Australia?
Remove the powers. See what's left. If what's left is an exceptional person, we are in agreement.
If someone random? You will see my point of annoyance with Exalts.
In most cases, you take the Exaltation and what's left is a person with at least one virtue at 3 or higher and most likely one or more 5 dot ability(s). That is exceptional. That is a person who has a true mastery of a field, and some strong emotional drive.
If you don't think that's anything special, then you're also arguing that Olympic athletes and rocket scientists are just random people.
E
isn't going to kill you you enormous drama llama. Try a metaphor that actually demonstrates your point next time.
Alright. I see no problem with turning up my nose when presented with rancid dogshit on a plate. I do not need to try a bite to know that I want something better.
Which is irrelevant because none of that experience is with E
. Your massive throbbing hateboner is not a valid replacement for live-fire testing, of which you've done none.
Not going to dispute the Hypocrite thing, huh?
You can keep howling your baseless argument to the heavens, but E
is nothing special. It's a roleplaying game, like any other roleplaying game, and I can see the flaws in the system clear as day.
Your argument also says that an experienced mountain climber cannot identify a bad handhold by sight, only by testing it with their weight. It is the argument that a chef cannot identify bad ingredients before making them into a meal.
I am not testing a recipe, I am looking at a mechanical system, numbers and rules. If I can see a flaw here, it
exists. If anything, play will show
more flaws, not less.
That's true with every printed RPG. I suppose you also refuse to play D&D because you need to stop and look up what spells do every time the wizard takes his turn?
No. D&D has a good index, and spells are alphabetised. I do advise new players not to play Wizard-type casters, though.
I make certain to memorize the most common spells, too. And the damage for the most common weapons.
If I'm running a quick game, I'll disallow primary casters.
No, because I don't see these charms being used by every player on every turn. Even if they were, you need to test them out to see how the new combat system flows now that it's been cut down from the ten steps it used to be, I'd wager even with rerolls it'll still be faster and more streamlined than the old system.
Excellent Strike is three motes. With mote regeneration, that's something that can be thrown out almost every attack. It is a basic, easy to access charm, and something that most players will want if they use melee.
Orichalcum Fists of Battle is scene-long.
Four Glories Meditation is
Permanent.
As for attack steps, let's take a look at what they
actually are.
Ex2: 1) Declare attack and charms used, stunt. 2) Declare Defence and charms used, Stunt. 3) Attacker rolls. 4) Attacker rerolls, if using one of the few charms that provide a reroll
. 5) Penalties are applied to the attacker's roll, with DV applying last. 6) Exists specificly for charms that activate in step 6, as DV is not rolled. 7) Raw damage is calculated. 8) Hardness and Soak are applied. 9) Counterattack Charms activate. 10) Damage is rolled and applied.
E
:
1) Attack is declared. Withering/Decisive is decided. Stunt. Some charms declared.
Withering attack steps:
2) Defence is declared. Stunt. Some charms declared.
3)Attacker rolls.
4) Attacker's partial reroll charms lead to second, third, and possibly fourth rolls. If the defender is using a high priority charm that uses the attacker's 1's for something, that is used here.
5) Attacker decides whether or not to use a total reroll charm. If they do, steps 3-5 are repeated.
6) Defence and penalties are applied.
7) Raw damage is calculated.
8)Soak is applied.
9) Damage is rolled.
10) Attacker's partial damage reroll charms are used.
11) Initiative changes are calculated and applied.
Decisive attack steps:
2) Defence is declared. Stunt. Some charms declared.
3)Attacker rolls.
4) Attacker's partial reroll charms lead to second, third, and possibly fourth rolls. If the defender is using a high priority charm that uses the attacker's 1's for something, that is used here.
5) Attacker decides whether or not to use a total reroll charm. If they do, steps 3-5 are repeated.
6) Defence and penalties are applied.
7)Hardness is applied.
8) Damage is rolled.
9) Damage rerolls.
10) Damage is applied. Attacker's initiative resets.
Add one step to both of those, by the way. Counterattacks still exist, but they don't seem to have a set place in attack resolution anymore.
So, which has fewer steps, again?
Then that's a problem with your group, not with my solution. If they can't be assed to put a little effort into their game instead of making you do all the work then you have my sympathies for having lazy players.
Flashcards are not "a little" effort, and that is the only issue that my players could resolve.
