Since I did my first game yesterday, and that some people are probably gonna start their own game soon, I'm creating a new topic so that people can also share their feedback. The idea is to share your experiences from live tests of the game to give people some ideas about how the game is run, and to ourselves about how we run the game and what we could do differently.
The basic premise in my game is my players are from a The 5 Pillars Clan in the 100 Kingdoms, some kind of Dojo/Culture that was crushed long ago in a revolution and since then lost their glory. Their leader is a Getimian that comes from a timeline where The 5 Pillars rule over the 100 Kingdoms and maintain peace, but this destiny apparently never happened. He's helped in his task to restore glory of the Dojo by an Alchemical that he found, and a Realm DB that fled familial conflicts to focus on his Martial Arts interests. I won't probably detail more the setting, but it's interesting to note already that the new Exalted types allow for new kinds of perspectives on classical tropes which are refreshing.
I had some surprises regarding the actual system which is that the Difficulties are way harder than before. I'm prefacing this with 2 things : We don't use Stunt dices (because we always forgot about them in 3e) but in exchange I will be more relaxed regarding failure when the roll is missed by 1 success only (for example I would propose a Hard Bargain for the last success), and the other is that we don't master all the dice tricks of the system yet (Teamwork, circumstancial bonuses, etc ...), so there might be some small differences from other tables, but overall right now going over 5-6 successes way harder (or at least way less consistent), even with Excellencies. Teamwork roll will often give bonuses of only 2-3 dices because that's already a Difficulty 3 roll, if you're going to convince any NPC to do something he has a bit of a reason to not do his Resolve can quickly go up to 5-6, and if the person trying to convince him is not your "Persuasion" expert it's actually quite hard to do in a consistent way.
Following this, I appreciated the Social system. The NPC's are quicker to do by just choosing 2 virtues and completing Intimacies along the way during play with logical story elements. There is always this particular thing where some rolls don't have consequences "naturally" on fail and so you have to improvise a bit to find some interesting answers when a player just outright fails a "read Intentions" roll. I think it would be great to have some guidelines on the flow of Social scenes, because failed rolls don't really forward the story at the moment if you go "by the book". The rest regarding intimacies and using them etc is the same as before, except for the fact that you don't need a specific intimacy to make someone do something, but if you don't the Difficulty can quickly go high and make it ireally hard to do anyway because the Difficulty becomes a bit high
Regarding Combat, it's not easy to grasp it right away coming from 3e because while some things seems to have stayed the same, a lot of details have changed. I'm going to cover a simple idea that I like a lot : The Rush action (Movement + attack) makes for a much more mobile combat than in 3e, which is quite good, because players are incentivize to move when they do something. I don't think my fight yesterday was very representative because a First player rolled 13 successes on his first Build Power action with 13 dices, and distributed power to the 2 others. The second then rolled 17 successes on damage for 12 dices and destroyed the Battlegroup. The power seems to go up by increment of 3-5 when everything is going "okay" (balanced attacker and defender). I have the feeling it's way easier to hit that not, and Heavy weapons have something much more interesting that I didn't notice before : They apply damage to Health and not to more Power, so if you hit a Decisive with a Heavy Weapon it can quickly be much more violent, considering starting characters have 6-8 health.
I'll complete some thoughts tonight probably, but that's overall my thoughts for the day. Ventures are nice, but actually finding a Dramatic Scene that is a middle ground that suits the players for their ventures and the way they envision it and the ST for what he has prepared is harder than I expected
The basic premise in my game is my players are from a The 5 Pillars Clan in the 100 Kingdoms, some kind of Dojo/Culture that was crushed long ago in a revolution and since then lost their glory. Their leader is a Getimian that comes from a timeline where The 5 Pillars rule over the 100 Kingdoms and maintain peace, but this destiny apparently never happened. He's helped in his task to restore glory of the Dojo by an Alchemical that he found, and a Realm DB that fled familial conflicts to focus on his Martial Arts interests. I won't probably detail more the setting, but it's interesting to note already that the new Exalted types allow for new kinds of perspectives on classical tropes which are refreshing.
I had some surprises regarding the actual system which is that the Difficulties are way harder than before. I'm prefacing this with 2 things : We don't use Stunt dices (because we always forgot about them in 3e) but in exchange I will be more relaxed regarding failure when the roll is missed by 1 success only (for example I would propose a Hard Bargain for the last success), and the other is that we don't master all the dice tricks of the system yet (Teamwork, circumstancial bonuses, etc ...), so there might be some small differences from other tables, but overall right now going over 5-6 successes way harder (or at least way less consistent), even with Excellencies. Teamwork roll will often give bonuses of only 2-3 dices because that's already a Difficulty 3 roll, if you're going to convince any NPC to do something he has a bit of a reason to not do his Resolve can quickly go up to 5-6, and if the person trying to convince him is not your "Persuasion" expert it's actually quite hard to do in a consistent way.
Following this, I appreciated the Social system. The NPC's are quicker to do by just choosing 2 virtues and completing Intimacies along the way during play with logical story elements. There is always this particular thing where some rolls don't have consequences "naturally" on fail and so you have to improvise a bit to find some interesting answers when a player just outright fails a "read Intentions" roll. I think it would be great to have some guidelines on the flow of Social scenes, because failed rolls don't really forward the story at the moment if you go "by the book". The rest regarding intimacies and using them etc is the same as before, except for the fact that you don't need a specific intimacy to make someone do something, but if you don't the Difficulty can quickly go high and make it ireally hard to do anyway because the Difficulty becomes a bit high
Regarding Combat, it's not easy to grasp it right away coming from 3e because while some things seems to have stayed the same, a lot of details have changed. I'm going to cover a simple idea that I like a lot : The Rush action (Movement + attack) makes for a much more mobile combat than in 3e, which is quite good, because players are incentivize to move when they do something. I don't think my fight yesterday was very representative because a First player rolled 13 successes on his first Build Power action with 13 dices, and distributed power to the 2 others. The second then rolled 17 successes on damage for 12 dices and destroyed the Battlegroup. The power seems to go up by increment of 3-5 when everything is going "okay" (balanced attacker and defender). I have the feeling it's way easier to hit that not, and Heavy weapons have something much more interesting that I didn't notice before : They apply damage to Health and not to more Power, so if you hit a Decisive with a Heavy Weapon it can quickly be much more violent, considering starting characters have 6-8 health.
I'll complete some thoughts tonight probably, but that's overall my thoughts for the day. Ventures are nice, but actually finding a Dramatic Scene that is a middle ground that suits the players for their ventures and the way they envision it and the ST for what he has prepared is harder than I expected
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