Exalted! PnP RPG recruitment thread.

[Euri]

I am going to be running a game of Exalted in IRC on Tuesdays, 5:30pm PST. This will be a weekly, friendly game. I would like to invite one or two people from this forum to play with us.

I am open to people newbies, but some experience with PnP, and white-wolf in particular would be very helpful. Anyone interested?

[Old Man Gravy]

How long will each session last?

And do you have much experience with this? How does running a PnP session on IRC work?

[Ryan A]

depending on how long each session is planned to last I may be interested... I really enjoyed my time in WoW with Euri

[Lunch of Kong]

How much grinding do we have to do to get to exhalted? Oh, wait. He said PnP, not PvP. nm.

[Hawkeye Fierce]

I'd like to get in on this, but I think Tuesdays at 8:30 local time probably wouldn't really work for me. Oh well.

[Charles]

I wouldn't mind starting this again, Euri. Would it be on the mandog irc servers?

[Euri]

We'd use the krapwerks servers.
Each session tends to run 3-4 hours or so usually, though this is working on past experience so it's usually up to what everyone playing feels like. My time at that point is unlimited, but people needing to go to sleep puts the upper limit.
I have more experience playing than GMing, but I have GMed a few games in Exalted and a couple others. We will be using 2.0 rules so some things will be new to all of us, IE, our first combat session may take some time as we adjust to the new structure.

[Ryan A]

Sounds a bit rich for my blood, especially since I'd be a noob. :(

Have fun, though.

[Euri]

Also Charles is forbidden from making snarky mortals because I am totally turning pvp on.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

I can make it starting the week of the 23rd. I've played a shitload of White Wolf games, including an Exalted 2.0 game I'm currently running.

In my experience, 3 hours is a good session length for most RPGs.

If I can play something other than a Solar, I'm totally in. If I have to play a Solar, I'm probably still in. (Though I'm already in a game where I'm putting up with being a Solar.) If something besides a Solar is going to hang out with Solars, it'll probably be a Lunar, and coincidentally* I like Lunars.

* Not really a coincidence. I like everything about Exalted but Solars.

[Angie Gallant]

.... I used to think you were cool, man.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

Being a Solar adds nothing to a character, except for lots and lots of powers.

[Angie Gallant]

And that is why it is rad. I subscribe to the belief that Exalted should be less like the World of Darkness and more like, say, that God Hand trailer, though.

[Euri]

Solars excel at being perfect, therefore all the character you imbue within them is your own. You make whatever you want, that's the draw. I am not a RPG seasoned veteran, but I have played now about 8 different games in different settings and styles, and I always come back to Exalted. The reason being, that I am playing the world, not adhering to it. My concept is internal, and I only have to be faithful to my own designs. It is an open ended system with lot of fanciful lore around it. The other types are, to me, cheap knockoffs of the real thing, Solars.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

I prefer to be able to take some direction from a game rather than being lost in the wilderness. I dunno, maybe it's my innate Communism that makes me happier with structure than absolute freedom.

[Not One Of Us]

I subscribe to the belief that Exalted should be less like the World of Darkness and more like, say, that God Hand trailer, though.
Everything should be more like that God Hand trailer.

[Jasper]

You're not the only one Unicorn. IMHO Solar, while decent, is easily the worst of the Exalted campaigns I've seen (haven't really looked at Sidereal, Abyssal, or Alchemical). Being a "chosen" demigod with angst because everyone's out to get you gets old. Dragon Blooded, Lunar, and even Fair Folk campaigns are all more interesting.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

Jasper, here's my extremely quick and more or less useless (and definitely shallow) take on the ones you haven't looked at (and the ones you have):

Sidereals: They have a lot of potential but present their own unique challenges to the storyteller. They cause selective amnesia at the drop of a hat. They're geared toward heavy interaction with large numbers of NPCs. Supposedly some of this will change in the new edition -- I think that's kind of a copout.

Abyssals: A great choice for a more traditional game where the players are a task force that takes direction from an NPC (or NPCs). I swear their book goes out of its way to make them seem lame, though. "Sip from my chalice, for it is the chalice of oblivion!" lol lay off the cloves gothfag.

Alchemicals: VERY promising and VERY versatile, although not suited for campaigns where they are not protagonists or principal antagonists. For the most part, they can probably do their best stuff in Autochthonia. A Romance of the Three Kingdoms-style game set in Autochthonia -- or an invasion from Creation -- could both rock. And of course, for any function of Autochthonian government or municipal works, Alchemicals might well be employed.

Dragon-blooded: Perhaps the richest in setting. They lend themselves naturally to campaigns tied to a bigger picture -- byzantine political maneuvering, a complex family tree, the survival and stability of the entire Empire...

Lunars: Lunars have powers that generally tie into one central concept, and I really like that. ("That's not his shape?" "No! He shifted it!") Their not-entirely-specific drive to prove themselves clever and strong is a hell of an all-purpose plot hook, as are their ties to barbarian peoples.

Fair Folk: My favorite, actually, for one simple reason: shaping combat. Ironically, the Fair Folk game I'm running takes place in Creation for the most part and there's barely any shaping combat. I'll take the players into the Wyld again as soon as I reasonably can, though, because shaping combat is the best.

[Angie Gallant]

We don't play with angst. Our Solars are big personalities with big powers doing whatever-they-please, if they can.

[Johan O]

We pretty recently started a Solar Exalted campaign. No angst for us either, it has all been about kicking down doors, striking poses and looking spectacular.

[Ryan A]

For the record, which ruleset is being used? I just ordered the second edition.

[JM]

I would enjoy seeing the IRC logs of this.

[Euri]

We're using 2.0 rules.

[Johan O]

"I would enjoy seeing the IRC logs of this."

Yeah me too. I never played a PnP RPG via IRC and am curious how it plays out, and how well it works.

[Angie Gallant]

The only real problems I have encountered running Exalted over IRC, which I did for the better part of a year, is that the already slow combat takes forever if everyone wants to stunt every round.

And they do.

I always pre-typed my stunts and had a handful of "This would be cool if I found a situation that applied" things in a word file.

[Johan O]

I imagine thinking up stunts in advance would be as much fun as actually playing the game.

[Ryan A]

If Angie's playing I am SO going to create a BRAAAAAWK macro!

[Jasper]

We don't play with angst. Our Solars are big personalities with big powers doing whatever-they-please, if they can.
A super hero sort of setting, fair enough. I haven't actually played Solar (just Dragon Blooded a bit), so perhaps I'm reading a bit too much into it, but in my experience the power gaming aspects of it in my experience often end up tied to angst, esp. considering the nature of Solar's original descent from power/ethics, the reincarnated hero's with long lost loves aspect, etc.

[Euri]

Solars are what you make them, Jasper. So if you are playing with a bunch of whiny teenagers, your Solars will be whiny teenagers because there isn't a lot of structure to prevent it. I have now played Exalted with 20 different people, and none of them were angsty at all, as they were all too busy kicking ass to be so. Why lapse into existentialism when you can slice a person in half?

[Jasper]

*shrug* I don't find the ass-kicking power gaming schtick any more entertaining than the angsty clique, although they can both be reasonably entertaining if done well.

As I said, I didn't think Solars were bad, just the less interesting than the other Exalted variants I'd seen.

[Euri]

That is the problem, Jasper, and that is the point I attempted to make. Solars are what you make them. Their only schtick is that they are really good at whatever they watn to be good at. I don't like so much playing in a setting or being a thing that rigorously controls what I can and can't do. That is what being like anything other than a Lunar or a Solar is in this setting. You take this whole big wide world full of magic and wonder, and you cut away 3/4 of it, and call it good. That's what being a Dragon Blood is like.

By all means, if you like that rigorous control and inability to really do much outside of what the GM plans for you in the game setting, a Dragon Blood or Sidereal is a wonderful thing to be. Only Solars and their compatriots get freedom to be whatever they want to be. That's why Exalted appeals to me above all other games, as you get to BE part of the setting, rather than just going along with whatever direction it is taking you.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

Take away 3/4 of one thing, get 3/4 of something else. The Dragon-Blooded in particular have a great deal to offer.

[Euri]

If and only if you like that kind of rigidity. There is little in a DB game that can't be replicated in a Solar game. The reverse is not true. Only Sidereals get their own exclusive schtick.

[Euri]

Game started with 5, went up to 7, and is back down to 5. I have a slot left for somebody on Qt3 if they wish to fill it. We're three sessions in and I am liking the direction so far.

[Lunch of Kong]

Are you sure this thread isn't about WoW?

[Ryan A]

Euri is a darned good Storyteller, in case that entices anybody to join us.