Exalted: Essence questions

[satoshi]

So after reading Essence I have a few questions:
1: Initiative. It just give a roll and says that the Side that wins goes first. How is winning defined? Do you add the number of successes together or just care about who got the highest roll?
2: Can you use Gather Power maneuver outside of combat? Specifically it seems like the only way to gain enough Anima to make some things work outside of combat. For example the Iconic Eclipse ability seems pretty clearly geared towards non-combat scenes, but if you need to spend 1 mote to gain 1 anima then outside of combat (where you can theoretically get there due to faster regen) you would need to spend 10 motes on charms. Not even counting how difficult that is with the excellency not costing motes it is literally impossible to do before Essence 3. That can't be working as intended. The only other way I saw to up your anima is to use Gather power past 10 power, hence me wanting to try to use it outside of combat.
3: How different a world are the Getimians from? Is it Creation but with a few differences? An entirely different setting? Most of the caste descriptions imply drastic changes in how the world works "A world of perfect order" sounds VERY different from Creation as-is. Also, were Getimians Exalts in their own setting? The cast descriptions once again make them sound pivotal to the world they are from, which is hard to be as a mortal in Exalted, so were they basically the sidereals of their own world?

[Stupid Loserman]

1. Should be the side with whoever got the highest roll, I think. Having more guys on your side doesn't make you faster.
3. A Getimian didn't necessarily change the entire world. The world a Getimian remembers living in was changed by the Getimian's birth and the things they did in their life. The Getimian themself is the difference between their lost history and the Creation we know. The Getimian was not Exalted in the history they remember.

[adambeyoncelowe]

1. Person with the most successes wins. Their side goes first.
2. There is a home brew suggestion that you can gain +1 anima for 2 stunt dice. That would be a slow way to do it, but it is better than nothing. If I were feeling generous, I might allow a player to increase their anima by one step if they take a turn to do so.
3. I would say 'as different as your concept allows', and that they may have been Exalted in other worlds but were more likely just possible Exalts.

[squidheadjax]

I was working up a Getimian character in Essence who was a gunzosha combat medic in the Gunstar Autochtonia timeline and got sucked into standard-flavored Autocthonia. She was pretty awesome in her home timeline, which was very different but obviously not entirely nor really significantly due to her actions. I feel like this is within the intended spirit for Getimeans.

Not going to get to actually use her because my friend died, but... yeah.

[Greyman]

Iconic Anima Effects with non-combat usage are not well thought out.

I mean, I suppose Venerated Witness can be used to enforce surrender oaths, and has a few niche in combat uses (say, you establish agreements ahead of time with people you know won't keep their word...), but... doesn't seem the best return for being under an "anathema here" spotlight until the next scene.

[Firanai]

3. I don't remember exactly where, but one of the developers said that gentimians weren't exalted in their timeline. Officially, they were heroic mortals who accomplished great deeds that had important repercussions in their world, but not to the point of changing creation in a radical way. Even though they were exceptional people, they're not exalted and that limits how much of an impact they could make.

For example, they did things like winning or loosing a war between two small nations, make a city state the center of commerce in their region, discovering a new irrigation method that drastically reduces the need for water for farms, a treaty about government and philosophy which helps improve the bureaucracy, etc..., but none of them were responsible for things like overthrowing the realm, restoring the Solar exalted reputation or discovering what happened to the empress.

That said, nothing stops you from saying that they were exalted in their original timeline, in many ways it could be even more tragic, especially if their original timeline was significantly better than the regular one.

[Blaque]

1: Initiative. It just give a roll and says that the Side that wins goes first. How is winning defined? Do you add the number of successes together or just care about who got the highest roll?

Who rolls highest determines who gets to go first. It basically passes from there.

2: Can you use Gather Power maneuver outside of combat? Specifically it seems like the only way to gain enough Anima to make some things work outside of combat. For example the Iconic Eclipse ability seems pretty clearly geared towards non-combat scenes, but if you need to spend 1 mote to gain 1 anima then outside of combat (where you can theoretically get there due to faster regen) you would need to spend 10 motes on charms. Not even counting how difficult that is with the excellency not costing motes it is literally impossible to do before Essence 3. That can't be working as intended. The only other way I saw to up your anima is to use Gather power past 10 power, hence me wanting to try to use it outside of combat.

A lot of Solar stuff has extra Anima effects with this on purpose. ANd social Charms can affect Anima. But last I gather this is soemthing that they got feedback on and are are looking inot.

3: How different a world are the Getimians from? Is it Creation but with a few differences? ...

The default is Creation as if you were never born. That is overall the general difference that the Getimian's Origin has to Creation as it is. The devs have referred to the movie It's a Wonderful Life a few times as a good media example of that. Basically imagine the timeline where James Stewart's character never was born, but that turns out to be the real timeline and the one where he was a huge positive impact on his town was never real.

... An entirely different setting? Most of the caste descriptions imply drastic changes in how the world works "A world of perfect order" sounds VERY different from Creation as-is. ...

I think folks see the stuff on the world and assume that the Getimians had like, global effect. They were notable figures who did impact on a chunk of the world towards those ends. Basically their actions in their Origin are what qualified them to Exalt, much like how Solars impact on the world around them often is what leads to their Exalting.

Again, the setting assumes a Creation you were never born. The devs have noted you could have more diverse almost Exalted shards, other settings, even isekai if you want, but the rwiritng assumes you're from Creation-wtihout-you.

... Also, were Getimians Exalts in their own setting? The cast descriptions once again make them sound pivotal to the world they are from, which is hard to be as a mortal in Exalted, so were they basically the sidereals of their own world?

They were mortal in their Origin. Getimians don't violate the "No double Exalts" setting constraint. Again, the big thing to remember is that while Getimians were impactful, they don't change literally the whole world. They are important people to a part of it though. Our world for exaple is pretty different if there's no say, Hannibal Barkar in it. But he didn't need to be magical to be that even in his time. And folks in the Olmec culutres in Mexico or Qin Shi Huang Di in China didn't even know who he was, but he still had an impact on the world.

[Blackwell]

The default is Creation as if you were never born. That is overall the general difference that the Getimian's Origin has to Creation as it is. The devs have referred to the movie It's a Wonderful Life a few times as a good media example of that. Basically imagine the timeline where James Stewart's character never was born, but that turns out to be the real timeline and the one where he was a huge positive impact on his town was never real.

See, I thought they were going to be more shards-y from the initial discussion of them, but I'm glad they went this direction instead because I think it's more interesting.

Having not read it yet, is there any sense of the Gentimian's Origin in relation to time? Does Jimmy Stewart remember what his Origin was like from some point in his lifetime? What if his big impact was only realized after his death? Would Gentimian Gutenberg "remember" how printing led to the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, mass literacy?

[Blackwell]

Accidental duplicate.

[Blackwell]

Accidental duplicate.

[Blackwell]

Accidental duplicate.

[JohnDoe244]

Accidental duplicate.

I would say they wouldn't remember that, no. But they’d remember their life and their invention.

[joshopotamus]

is essence currently available to backers or can those of us who were late to the party get a copy somewhere?

[AutoDefenestrate]

You may be able to get a manuscript from BackerKit

[JohnDoe244]

You can certainly get the manuscript from Backerkit.