Exalted is about something . . . and that thing is not “Remember this other, cooler thing?” When Geoff was developing Exalted he started every outline with a short description of the game’s themes and where the step into the real world as allegory.
I can't help but remember that Exalted began with "AD&D2 is for old-timers" and "Prequel to WoD"(which was drop very very quickly).
Exalted is not confined to its central themes and allegories. Like I said, I can’t tell you what Exalted was about (unless this policy has changed — I don’t follow Exalted fandom because build-onsession makes me want to vomit).
Neither can I!
Exalted doesn’t just reproduce tropes, it rationalizes them. (Note that I’m using “tropes” in the loose “recurring stuff” sense because that’s apparently what it means now.) Greek mythology! Anime! JRPGs! At first glance, Exalted looks exactly like the kind of elevator pitch mire I despise. Geoff put each of these in their place by teasing function out of each form. Exalts use enormous Buster Swords — because these are effective weapons after they’ve been magically modified. Solars suffer Greek tragedies for reasons that exist in the setting — and NPCs you can talk to.
Buster swords are still retarded. And incredibly concept limiting. If you want to fight, you get a buster sword or GTFO. That sourse of Greek Tragedies is widely hated by the fanbase, and is also so secret in the setting, that only the setting's villains know it (and one highly incompetent god).
Buster swords are not actually a great option. They are good for killing things that you were going to kill no matter what anyway. Any edge case where their strengths are an asset is a case where you would rather have a dire maul anyway.
(There are some exceptions, but those are bullshit artifacts that happen to be sword-shaped).
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
fectin wrote:Buster swords are not actually a great option. They are good for killing things that you were going to kill no matter what anyway. Any edge case where their strengths are an asset is a case where you would rather have a dire maul anyway.
(There are some exceptions, but those are bullshit artifacts that happen to be sword-shaped).
Even the best sword - Reaper Daiklave (bonuses to accuracy, instead of bonuses to damage) is still a buster sword. It's not as wide, but it is as long. All -klaives are buster sword.
Anywhere you'd like to have a reaper diaklave, you'd rather have a pair of short diaklaves for the same cost. But you'd probably more rather have switchklaves or tiger claws.
I wouldn't fault you for taking the Khatar though, and sundering all your opponents' gear, or the chakram to counter flurrying opponents, or the bow to keep actual range. Or any of the crazy options in Wonders of the Lost Age.
Edit: ninja'd
Last edited by fectin on Mon Dec 29, 2014 10:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
Even Short Daiklaves (the cheap ones) and Switchklaves?
Switchklaves are explicitly knives, so they get a pass.
Short Daiklave wrote:The short daiklave, often called a cunning serpent knife or a flickering silver razor, has a blade about three-feet long. Short daiklaves are small enough that mortals and unattuned Exalts can wield them as awkward chopping swords (as mundane chopping sword, but requiring Strength 3). Their best-known users, Fire-aspected Immaculate monks, generally wield short daiklaves as a pair. Each short daiklave requires three motes of Essence to attune. A matched pair incurs no offhand penalty. Short daiklaves do not generally include hearthstone settings, as they are slender and carefully balanced.
Short daiklave is a short buster sword, not an actuall short sword.
Last edited by Longes on Tue Dec 30, 2014 7:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
Buster swords are cool, but in FF7 a few members of SOLDIER were the only folks using them and everyone else has their own specialties.
I have no problem with giant weapons (love Monster Hunter), but it felt rather awkard that Exalted decided that the signature weapon of all protagonists must be large edged weapons.
I see Dogs in the Vineyard, which everyone hates. Why is that exactly? I know nothing about it.
OgreBattle wrote:"And thus the denizens learned that hating Shadzar was the only thing they had in common, and with him gone they turned their venom upon each other"
-Sarpadian Empires, vol. I
The engine doesn't work very well - IIRC, it has a system for resolving when two people take turns giving passionate speeches, which is then resolved as if it were a combat and the loser is, I guess, won over by the sincerity of the winner? It produces results which do not make a lot of sense, and takes a long time to do so.
My chief problem with Dogs in the Vineyard *as a concept* is that it is intolerably highbrow. It's trying too hard to be Culture with a capital C - I just can't imagine how it would be fun to play. The implementation isn't great but that's true of a lot of games.
Chaosium rules are made of unicorn pubic hair and cancer. --AncientH
When you talk, all I can hear is "DunningKruger" over and over again like you were a god damn Pokemon. --Username17
Fuck off with the pony murder shit. --Grek
Dogs in the Vineyard is an easy target because Vincent Baker is a bloviating dingus. You see, his big claim to fame is that he noticed that the rules in a roleplaying game are meaningless without the assent of the group and that there's no conflicts at all if every actor agrees not to object to plot twists introduced by other actors. So, basically, he made a more convoluted and pretentious version of improv theater and some people thought this deserved awards and serious discussion because there is no god or justice in the universe.
After now having seen Mr. Baker, the thought of him running Bear World makes me kinda throw-up in my mouth.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing."
- Robert E. Howard
Obviously I haven't read it because I don't speak japanese, but from the 1d4chan summary it doesn't actually sound as bad as fatal. Fatal is bad because of the constant rape threats, not rape jokes. I think the most offensive thing about fatal is its straight faced total seriousness. From the art and commentary, this could just be in poor taste for most settings outside of Sex-LARPs. (they probably have a name, and I'm not googling it).
Fatal is dead serious and honestly believes its sexist racist bullshit. This just seems to be a gross rape sexytime game for the more far out henti fan who just wants to play in a game of la blue girl and its less famous peers.
Krusk wrote:From the art and commentary, this could just be in poor taste for most settings outside of Sex-LARPs. (they probably have a name, and I'm not googling it).
Krusk wrote:From the art and commentary, this could just be in poor taste for most settings outside of Sex-LARPs. (they probably have a name, and I'm not googling it).
Cosplay orgies?
This is something I never knew existed but I now want to participate in.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
Longes wrote:Did I tell you guys how much I hate Kiasyd bloodline from (VtM)? Because I really, really hate Kiasyd.
Do tell.
Kaelik wrote:Because powerful men get away with terrible shit, and even the public domain ones get ignored, and then, when the floodgates open, it turns out there was a goddam flood behind it.
Longes wrote:Did I tell you guys how much I hate Kiasyd bloodline from (VtM)? Because I really, really hate Kiasyd.
Do tell.
Well, there's not really much to say. They are just as masquerade breaking as Nosferatu are. Hello, I'm the local librarian. How can I help you?
Their schtick is that they are hikikomori librarians related to Fae. Which in oWoD means Changelings. Whom we have discussed on this board before.
Finally, their signature discipline Mytherceria is dumb and weak. You get to know when people lie to you, you get to see changelings, you get to remove auras from objects and you get two no-save mindfucking powers.
