Need ?

[Jen]

I like Solar, which mean that if a Solar appears in my game then I will try to make her as nuance as possible (why do people think I harp on so much about Lyta and Havesh). And the problem is, I don't really the other splat, so it's kinda affect on the NPC's fate when they appears in my Creation (as evidence by the thread title), like, I think that a random househusband has better endings in my Creation than non-Solar Exalted.

So can people give some reasons or examples on what so good about non-Solar Exalted, I mean, it kinda hard for me to treat DB's NPC with any kind of nuance when their book tells me to fuck off because the Realm don't like weak and sissy homo, I'm actually more comfortable playing a gay character who is a Solar. The RoseBlackEmpress's wanking and a legion of imperialism apologist are just too bleh. Plus reading "China-inspired" and "Elemental Samurai" in the same sentence fills me with.........all kind of funny feelings. Basically there is nothing that I like about them at the moment. Wait ! that's actually not true, they do have a good thing going for them i.e Mnemon, the greatest NPC that has ever been written, vote Mnemon for Empress in 2016 !

Lunaaar.....never understand what the hot about Luna, hate animal and the aesthetic of Conan (I bet that their Ex3 book will be filled with nothing but those), love love love moon's symbolism.

Sidereal, Night Master, is it food ? The Black Company, is it bacon ? Traveler in Black, new diet soda ? Jame Bonds, oh him I know, haaaate this type of men. Ketchup Carjack and the Gold Faction Bruce Lee guy is so so very repugnant. And I just feel bad when I don't know what to use Shun the Smiling Lady for and people tells me "Sidereal need a special type of player to be fun". Saving grace, having Venuuuuuus as their patron.

Abyssal has the most pretentious naming scheme ever, I tried creating a Circle and thinking up a name for each of them was just too laugh inducing. I would be super scared of them if I was playing a mortal, but I was actually playing a bunch of Solar so.......And then there are Deathlord and the Neverborn, how can I like a splat who take their fashion advice from the Lover !

Infernal, the splat that ruins the Yozi, plus Excellency that remind of of animu character that I really dislike. And I swear that Infernal character are ridiculously over-design, this combine with animu aspect just make me think of them as a bunch of people who got infect with Middle School Syndrome, it's not a promise sign when you are as edgy as Abyssal. Not to mention their mascot is Ligier who looks so disgustingly hideous, I will rather die than letting his saggy wiener anywhere near me. Good thing about them ? Their Sigs, and Hentai Cocoon of course !

Huh, you can't edit Title once it's pass 5 minute ? :'o

So anyway, it's actually a secret, but my weak points my cute guy, burly man and people in pretty cloth, my Like meter for a splat gonna sky rocket if they have any NPCs like that ~

[TheCountAlucard]

I'm having trouble breaking down your post, Jen - it's akin to digesting a dozen random lengths of wire.

[wonderandawe]

Are you asking why Creation keeps the other exalts around when you got Solars? Why would a player would play a non solar character?

[Zelbinnean]

Hmm, Jen, I was somewhat with you til the mentions of Lillun and GSP sigs (the femininity-shaming in a matriarchal culture like the Realm is particularly infuriating).

Though I never really know when you're being serious versus ironic or hyperbolic. Your post seems to have aspects of all of these!

[Magnum Opus]

I think Jen is asking if the other Exalts are important to the setting.... which is weird because he's usually posting about how much he loves Sids.

I'd say that you can tell a story about Solars saving the world from demons and Elementals without ever having another Exalt, but it won't be the same setting if you remove them on a conceptual level.

[kawaiiwolf]

Odd, I seem to have the opposite problem to you, finding solar to be the most shallow and uninspired characters in the setting. But a lot of the things you don't like or get I see as flavor that makes them good. However ... This is your world, run them however you want =)

There is NOTHING that says a lunar "HAS" to be a cultural barbarian. They can be in every way urbane and cultured as any tea house patron, including in the arts. They especially work well to flaunt the status quo. If the realm is "supposed to be" no frills (a quality you can easily adjust) then their act to reject that can be in every way as compelling as a frilly solar you had in mind. With lunars the key really is adaptability. They should be able to adapt in some way to work with any challenge, even if they don't excel at any one particular thing. Instead of going the animal route too, keep body morphisim in their toolkit. Bendy tricks a body shouldn't normally be able to pull off or the ability to show off a burly chest as hard as steel yet supple as silk. They change to meet the challenge instead of overpowering the situation with their specialties.

A sidereal can be literally anything. Make them as shallow or deep as you wish, as lowly or high brow or anything between. A good one shouldn't ever let you know what they really are. The key to having one is to give them an ulterior motive and the secret to their charms is to make things look as if happy coincidences or dumb luck. Think of how Mr Magoo survives the challenges life puts forward and now make the consequences more dire and the magoo more bishe.

For the realm ... umm .... that one's tougher. Actually it's not, it just has some other implications. If you don't like the testosterone fueled image they try to put on then change the ideology to say that an effeminate personality isn't discouraged, as long as htey get the results. Because lets be honest, if the coffers are full, their enemies slain and their subjects behaving, who really CARES how they go about getting there. Should the realm feel "shame" over a prancing dynast when they bring in just as many talents of jade from exploiting developing threshold nations ?

For your abbysals, tone down the superevil, it's only going to make them laughable. Make them real characters first and then just give them a TASTE of death. They don't have to be the compassion 1 psychopaths presented in the books and the game is better for it if you give them some real depth. Approach them by their goals which can be to make the underworld a better place, rather than kill all the things. Their deathlord masters may have a tight leash but in the end ... they don't REALLY want to put life to an end, because that would spell their doom as well. They want to pursue their own goals while preaching doom and gloom as lipservice to the insane landlords in the basement.

Infernals .... embrace the crazy. Or just not include them. There's no rule written that says there must be an affirmative action infernal but if you must have one, leave the high school drama at the door. They can literally say, "you know what, screw the reclimation, I'm going to have fun in creation" and there's .... not much anyone can do. That's pretty much why the reclimation was doomed to fail, it was all built up hype and when they eventually realize they don't have to stay for the time share demonstration, they can up and just do whatever they want.


------------------

Long story short, it's your world =) Make characters that are fun and meaningful for you. Embrace the other splats by just making "little" changes to what you know and love rather than shifting gears completely to archetypes you have no interest in.

[Jen]

Are you asking why Creation keeps the other exalts around when you got Solars? Why would a player would play a non solar character?

This is more of a "Sell me" thread, since I need to like non-Solar splat or else all they do in my Creation is getting punched in the face X'D

Hmm, Jen, I was somewhat with you til the mentions of Lillun and GSP sigs (the femininity-shaming in a matriarchal culture like the Realm is particularly infuriating).

Though I never really know when you're being serious versus ironic or hyperbolic. Your post seems to have aspects of all of these!

Oh, the hentai cocoon is....eh...grosteque chrysa something, sorry, I can never remember how to write those. And the Infernal sig is actually quite good me think, just need to fix some aspects of them and they are good to go.

Odd, I seem to have the opposite problem to you, finding solar to be the most shallow and uninspired characters in the setting. But a lot of the things you don't like or get I see as flavor that makes them good. However ... This is your world, run them however you want =)

Well, canon Solar NPCs are boring and shallow, but Solar allow for a wide range of character, I can be as gay and as effiminate as I want. Other splat kinda shackle character in various type of constraint which I found little interested in, like working for Heaven for example, why would I want to serve a bunch of selfish gods and Elder.

- the usage of the word "nuance" (it's not an adverb, so please don't treat it as such)

Mostly mean that I try to make a NPC act like a real being with goal and emotions. I only bother doing that to Solar for some reasons.

- some gramatical liberties ("what the hot", "love love love")

Yeaaah, I probably should stop typing like I'm on a shipping blog :'P

- Dubious, or at least unexplained associations (sidereals and food???)

Oh, those title before the food are books that have the most Sidereal feel or something like that, except I don't know any of them, hence my question whether they are food or not.

- the global structure of the message. Questions immediatlely answered in the sentence that follows and oppinions stated without details for people to respond. What are we expected to answer to "love moon's symbolism" and "jame bonds, hate that type of guy"?

Those ? It's just stating what I like and dislike about the splat.

[Jack In The Box]

I don't mean to be negative but when most people reading a message ponder what whas the question asked, the writer needs to buy some dots of linguistics.
To be more precise, I don't understand :
- the usage of the word "nuance" (it's not an adverb, so please don't treat it as such)
- some gramatical liberties ("what the hot", "love love love")
- Dubious, or at least unexplained associations (sidereals and food???)
- the global structure of the message. Questions immediatlely answered in the sentence that follows and oppinions stated without details for people to respond. What are we expected to answer to "love moon's symbolism" and "jame bonds, hate that type of guy"?

I'm sorry if I missed something. I feel I haven't taken enough drugs to understand what's expected from me

[Saur Ops Specialist]

This is more of a "Sell me" thread, since I need to like non-Solar splat or else all they do in my Creation is getting punched in the face X'D



Oh, the hentai cocoon is....eh...grosteque chrysa something, sorry, I can never remember how to write those. And the Infernal sig is actually quite good me think, just need to fix some aspects of them and they are good to go.

The thing about the Chrysalis Grotesque is that it, in spite of the chapter in which it appears, it isn't particularly related to sex, unless perhaps the Infernal-to-be happens to be merging with a neomah, noresore, or some other demon that is explicitly about sex, and even then, it's not guaranteed to involve it, either.

Incidentally when you mentioned the moon's symbolism, do you mean associations from real world cultures, material from Glories: Luna, both, or something else?

[Jen]

The thing about the Chrysalis Grotesque is that it, in spite of the chapter in which it appears, it isn't particularly related to sex, unless perhaps the Infernal-to-be happens to be merging with a neomah, noresore, or some other demon that is explicitly about sex, and even then, it's not guaranteed to involve it, either.

It's not ? The way the book describe how the demon jump on the candidate make me think of a face-hugger scene.

Incidentally when you mentioned the moon's symbolism, do you mean associations from real world cultures, material from Glories: Luna, both, or something else?

The first one, I want elegant and love as keywords for the moon, but Luna is the moon god of Exalted so I got hunting and animal instead (well, Lunar do have the Solar Bond for "love", but eeehh, I really don't like it for being so creepy).

[wonderandawe]

This is more of a "Sell me" thread, since I need to like non-Solar splat or else all they do in my Creation is getting punched in the face X'D

That makes sense. Here is what I like about non-Solar Splats from my personal point of view. It's less about mechanics and more about drama.

Dragonblooded - There are two ways to look at Dragonblooded. Either they are the cool kid bully that you were powerless to stop as a kid and now you, as a Solar, have the power to put them in their place. Or Dragonblooded are the "Family" exalt. Any sort of family/dynast drama works for them. Realm PCs are part of a once great family and are looking to bring back honor to their name. They may want to get out form under the tyrannical reign of their still living ancestors and live their own life. What ever approach you use depends on the game you want to run.

Sidereals - Sidereals are the exact opposite of Dragonblooded. They are defined by their lack of personal connections. Arcane Fate means that they are ghosts in Creation. With Resplendent Destinies, they can get around Arcane Fate, but eventually the false identity ends and the Sidereal is forgotten. They may fall in love, but would their lover ever know their name? Would their child ever even miss their Sidereal parent?

Abyssals - Abyssals are about Regret and Loss. My favorite Abyssal PCs are ones that make the bargain with the Neverborn in moments of desperation and then have to live with their choice. With their dying breath, they may pledge themselves to the Neverborn to gain the power to save their village. And afterwards, their village gets hit by a plague because the Neverborn don't "Save" things. If the Abyssal is lucky, the village continues on in the Underworld. I don't care about Abyssals reforming into Solars or destroying the world. I want to be a traveling Ronin who made a bad call and now is trying to live with those choices.

Lunars - I want to be a bird and fly far away from here. I read Animorphs as a kid, so Lunars were the first splat I was drawn to when I was introduced to Exalted. When I realized that Lunars weren't Animorphs, I was kind of disappointed in the splat. I hope Ex3 has some cool stuff that will re-peak my interest in Lunars (and no, I'm not expecting Animorphs in Ex3)

[Isator Levi]

I've grown to find that I can really do without "sell me on X" threads. It's just... you've either got a person expounding at length on why they dislike something and asking for it to be reframed in terms that other people assume will appeal to them (which they almost always argue with anyway), or they known absolutely nothing about the subject and want other people to articulate some vaguely defined sets of things that they like in terms that they have to guess the questioner will find appealing... aaarrrgghhh it's too broad! There's nothing to work with here!

Jesus, why don't people read reviews? Or at the very least, maybe start a thread laying out what they want and asking if there's something that fits that, or setting out their conception and asking whether or not it's accurate?

You can't take the Abyssal naming scheme seriously? Then I guess you just don't like them and won't be using them, eh? Why does a big song and dance need to be made about asking other people to change that for you?

If it's just a question of "I don't find much appeal in other Exalted, how can I use them", then the answer is that you don't need to; being able to play the whole game from just the corebook means you can happily get by playing Solars and only ever really getting into action setpieces with gods, demons, mobs of ninjas, marauding Fair Folk and the occasional set of Dragon Blooded quick characters, with maybe the occasional other Exalted also put up as a quick character. If the only thing you can get out of the Dragon Blooded is as villains, or the general other Exalted is somebody to beat up this week, then that's fine, just roll with that. Between this and that question about how "epic" Exalted needs to be... there's no reason that you can't run the game as an episodic series of high-energy, low stakes adventures between characters who, whatever their personality, are fairly straightforward. Hell, you could probably have an easier time of it than some other game types.

(Yes, I know Jen said that he likes pretty boys in elegant clothes, as if none of us had figured that out already, which is... yeah, there's not really any value judgement in that not being in very much of the game, and it doesn't really need to be because dear God man, you've got that down pat)

[Zelbinnean]

I think the assumption of "Lunars = cultural barbarians" hasn't really been true since 1e and there were exceptions even then. I'm pretty sure there are even more exceptions now. The "ideological barbarism" is right out as its nonsensical as fuck.

I don't mean to be negative but when most people reading a message ponder what whas the question asked, the writer needs to buy some dots of linguistics.
To be more precise, I don't understand :
- the usage of the word "nuance" (it's not an adverb, so please don't treat it as such)
- some gramatical liberties ("what the hot", "love love love")

These things (for me anyway) weren't the confusing parts of the post. It's pretty clear that Jen meant "nuanced" one of the times he said "nuance" and that's hardly a difficult inference to make. We have people posting here from all over the world, some of whom are ESL, and the English language is hardly as consistent in grammar as some other languages. Seemingly dismissing someone's opinion because they're not the best at English grammar is a pretty weak debate stance (not to mention it comes off as rude or elitist).

[Zelbinnean]

It's not ? The way the book describe how the demon jump on the candidate make me think of a face-hugger scene

All Exaltation is kind of like Steven Universe's Gem Fusion on some level, but 2e GSP Exaltation is super explicitly Gem Fusion between a person, a demon, and the GSP Exaltation carried by the demon.

[wonderandawe]

I've grown to find that I can really do without "sell me on X" threads. It's just... you've either got a person expounding at length on why they dislike something and asking for it to be reframed in terms that other people assume will appeal to them (which they almost always argue with anyway), or they known absolutely nothing about the subject and want other people to articulate some vaguely defined sets of things that they like in terms that they have to guess the questioner will find appealing... aaarrrgghhh it's too broad! There's nothing to work with here!

I like these threads because it's always good to get another person's point of view on a subject. I'm not the biggest Infernal fan, but I understand why people like to play them because of threads like these.