Exalted: Shadow and Steel - Interest Thread

[Arhra]

Alright, I'm not going to be providing any more than cursory feedback on character builds on account of the fact it'd take me a hojillion years when what I need to be doing is finalising the reworked mechanics and reading a thousand books to design NPCs and get further plot ideas. Plus lots of people are doing a good job of that anyway.

As a whole, after looking over the character sheets, I must admit to some concerns about the sparsity of skills which don't involve killing people. I should perhaps also remind people that a Virtue rating of 1 represents being a coward, a hothead, a wimp or a complete jerk and I'm going to hold you to it.

While on the topic of Virtues, don't forget you can make custom Virtue Flaws!

ANYWAY, to summarise the list of people we have so far with their rough concepts:

Aerozord: Moonshadow socialite/doctor hippie.
Sithdarth: Dawn Caste, CAPTAIN AMERICA.
Dante: Zenith Caste, guy with a mysteeeeeeerious mentor.
obscurejones: Full Moon Caste, warrior physician
Red Mage Black: Dawn Caste, headstrong youth
Krylo: Twilight sorceror/crafter and former dynast
PhoenixFlame: Day Caste, champion of the dead
Overcast: Eclipse Caste, ambitious diplomat
Relm: Twilight medic, credit to team

To be honest I probably should cut the numbers down since this is a ridiculously large group.

Let us discuss three things.

Firstly, tell everyone a bit about the important features of your character. the major elements that shape them. Something aso worth thinking about is where did those Backgrounds come from? Daiklaves don't grow on trees, you know! Well, except in the Forest of Cats.

Secondly, the forming of circles. Why is your person going to join up with the others?

Finally, let's talk Motivations. Most of them are quite general, although I know that's partial trying to make a thing that'll go down with a circle well. I'd quite enjoy it if people had something more specific in mind though. It's alright to start small. But what I think is more important is the question of why does your character have that Motivation?

For starting area, I am debating the Hundred Kingdoms (Eastern fringe of the Scavenger Lands). If there's somewhere else you're interested in though, now is the time to mention it! Location's quite flexible for most of my plans.

Unforutnately we don't have as many mystery-seekers as I'd first guessed, so some of the plot hooks I'd thought of to get people into the area aren't going to work. You know, ones like the stories of strange, lumbering creatures appearing out of clouds of smoke and attacking Guild caravans. Or that shadowland that supposedly floated off into the sky.

I suppose there's always the tales of Anathema in the area and that the Wyld Hunt is mobilising for those of you with feeling towards your fellow Exalts.

Another reason why your current goals are important to me is it helps me build the precious plot hooks. In fact, suggestion of reasons why you are here would be very valuable!

On to the various answers I promised:

Originally Posted by Aerozord

so we ARE supposed to be doing fully statted out characters? cause I was under the impression you only wanted general ideas, this is an interest thread after all

Well I was going to have people sit around and hammer out their concepts more first, but everyone seems to be eager to jump into the nuts and bolts, so yeah.

Originally Posted by DanteFalcon

I will be using a charm with the piercing tag (specifically Essence Fangs and Scales p.240 of the Solar Exalted Manual) so lemme know if that's changing.

No plans to change it at present!

Originally Posted by Sithdarth

I definitely think I'm going with a Dawn Caste that carries a shield around. I found an artifact two shied that isn't too bad. Do you mind if I bump it to artifact 3 (or maybe it should be 4 we can discuss that) by adding an edge to the rim of the shield. I'd use the stats for something like a lesser daiklave and of course switching between using it has a shield and using it as a weapon would require an action (what type also to be determined later). Obviously it would be bad if he could get the shield bonus while using it as a weapon. I'm not actually going to make it thrown because that's just really absurd.

Also question, and this might mean I don't have to make the shield into a weapon, would a shield count as an improvised weapon for the sake a martial arts charm?

Something like that should be fine. I'll have to corner you and have a proper chat about it. And a shield would count as an improvised weapon for the purposes of a martial arts charm.

Originally Posted by PhoenixFlame

Under no circumstances should target arrows ever lose piercing, since they were the only weapon with piercing TO BEGIN WITH in 1E, and it shows in the fact that bows deal noticably less damage than every other weapon system ever concieved.

Mh, Arhra, I'd consider ping being [1/2 Essence + 1/2 Strength +1 vs 1/2 Essence + 1/2 Stamina] of the target. It makes strength and stamina more useful in combat but dexterity remains the godstat. Armor also becomes more than deadweight, so that's nice.

Things are looking like I'll be stripping piercing from everything but target arrows and that handful of charms that hand them out.

Weapons list still in the works.

I think we'll give that ping variant a shot.

Originally Posted by Aerozord

ok just to ask, am I going to be disallowed from playing my Hippie abyssal because of PF's character? Cause if so I need to work on a new character concept

No.

Originally Posted by Aerozord

ok two questions, are we using original 2e character gen, or errata character gen? Second, is a perfect defense a must?

I was going to make an intelligent socialite/doctor, so I was planning on being light on the combat charms

A perfect defence isn't absolutely essential to start with, but it's something you should try to pick up reasonably quickly.

I hadn't heard of chargen errata so I looked it up. It's unofficial but I did like some parts of it so I think I will implement a variant thereof which captures part of its intent:

Originally Posted by Variant Chargen Rules

• Virtues cost 1 bonus point to increase. Increasing a Virtue to 4 or 5 costs 2 bonus points.

• Characters start with (Willpower/2 + Compassion) Intimacies.

• Charms cost 4 bonus points, 3 if within a Caste or Favored Ability.

Sorry for making you do maths again!

I'll post what this means for Lunars tomorrow, plus I have one or two houserules for them that need to get mentioned anyway.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Arhra

Aerozord: Moonshadow socialite/doctor hippie.
Sithdarth: Dawn Caste, CAPTAIN AMERICA.
Dante: Zenith Caste, guy with a mysteeeeeeerious mentor.
obscurejones: Full Moon Caste, warrior physician
Red Mage Black: Dawn Caste, headstrong youth
Krylo: Twilight sorceror/crafter and former dynast
PhoenixFlame: Day Caste, champion of the dead
Overcast: Eclipse Caste, ambitious diplomat
Relm: Twilight medic, credit to team

We have alot more doctors then I thought. hmm while I love abyssal medicine, I preform surgery by ripping apart organs are rebuilding them as I see fit, solars can get the job done better. Plus we have a pure solar medic.

Originally Posted by Arhra

For starting area, I am debating the Hundred Kingdoms (Eastern fringe of the Scavenger Lands). If there's somewhere else you're interested in though, now is the time to mention it! Location's quite flexible for most of my plans.

Unforutnately we don't have as many mystery-seekers as I'd first guessed, so some of the plot hooks I'd thought of to get people into the area aren't going to work. You know, ones like the stories of strange, lumbering creatures appearing out of clouds of smoke and attacking Guild caravans. Or that shadowland that supposedly floated off into the sky.

there was something else about my character I didn't mention and might stress more since I'm removing medic. My abyssal does favor investigation, feeling that in negotiations its important to know the truth. One of the first things I'm getting at essence 3 is a charm that lets me question corpses who are unable to lie or hide anything. Needless to say I can see this adding alot of plot hooks down the road. Might even take essence 3 just to start with it.

So I might extend this nature and play my character as the curious sort.

Originally Posted by Arhra

Finally, let's talk Motivations. Most of them are quite general, although I know that's partial trying to make a thing that'll go down with a circle well. I'd quite enjoy it if people had something more specific in mind though. It's alright to start small. But what I think is more important is the question of why does your character have that Motivation?

well I've always found it more fun to have a heroic group. Being a wandering pack of sociopaths that lie, murder, and steal with no higher purpose then serving themselves kind of removes alot of good character points. Its hard to have internal conflict when you dont have any morals to conflict with. Not saying everyone should be paragons of compassion, my own character has no issues with killing, just senseless killing

Why he'd be in the circle in the first place is rather straight-forward. he wants to put an end to wars through negotiation, but knows at times force is needed. Especially against those that refuse peace, and he needs powerful allies to handle them. Might be a peace loving hippie, but he knows first hand there are plenty that need to be destroyed.

Note: he views peace by negotiation as an ideal long term solution. He's accepts fighting as a short-term solution. Easier to talk to someone if they know they can be beaten

[DanteFalcon]

So many nuts and bolts background wise to work out.

Sieg wants to be in the group because he's trying to gather as many Solars as possible to help with his motivation of restoring creation to effectively a new age of Solar Rule. He acquired this goal from a dream he had the night after his exaltation of a Creation that was under Solar Rule once more and was entering a new Golden Age because of it. He believed this to be a message from the Unconquered Sun and as a Zenith he feels it his duty to help be the one to usher in this age.

[Sithdarth]

I'm rejiggering some stuff. Basic concept won't change though I don't think. Might wait for the updated weapon stuff. Basically as previously stated I'm a walking flesh wall whose sole purpose is getting attacked so that other people can do the damage. I was trying to avoid it but I might have to move some stuff around (i.e. drop some stamina to pick up some dexterity) to enhance my survivability a bit. There is also a lot of other stuff to finalize.

[Overcast]

Syren's life up till now.In An-Teng the individual does not matter. What matters is the family. Every one part will work to advance their name. This is something that is ingrained in youth, and something that carries on in adulthood. An unavoidable truth of life. Syren Bamulase had been discouraged from rash moves his whole life, his family was the kind who made slow meticulous marriages and trades that may raise their family name to a new rank of security next generation, and so his entire existence had been boring; shoved into government work as a bureaucrat to serve as a bridge for the family into more important individuals that they could work their way close to and eventually sucker into becoming Bamulase's as well.

And yet somehow he still found time to dream. Every night staring up after school and then later in life work at that shining chain that hung above their hearth, a symbol meant to make him think of the unity of family, but one that instead made him wonder how powerful a man had to be to wield such a magnificent weapon.

In dreams he found escape, wandering the wilderness from time to time practicing forms he saw some of the Immaculate Order using, but not actually understanding them. Picking up a dog whom he wrestled and scuffled with, and even secretly stashing away money to buy little martial arts items like a fighting chain, much lighter than the one at home, but it was a start.

He likely would have carried on like this forever, maybe even trying to plead his way into the Immaculate Order, if only just to learn a form to even his playing field with the Dragon Blooded enemies he may face of some grand martial hero, but then the Scarlet Empress disappeared.

The effect in his little town was odd, some folks looking to work their way into the Dragon Blooded families to get some gambit on the Realm at large(his family) others, after years of having to deal with the crap of Dragon Blooded vacationers, began to plan revolt. Still others had darker plans, in their little cults below their households, but then Syren wasn't aware of those ones yet. What he knew was that he could read in the documents he looked over the plans of a whole town, and knew that if it came down to civil war and revolt that they would likely all perish under the military scrutiny of the Realm. An-Teng, bureaucratically, had the total power to break from the Realm without the organizing influence of the Empress behind them, but that was as a whole, if they started bouncing ragtag rebels in every small town East of Steel Lotus they would systematically be eliminated. It threatened his family, his dreams, and even his life. The Realm, just as discerning in their bureaucrats as he, also saw the threat and began to push their thumb down over the town, but that only exacerbated the land, those who wanted to rise up gaining new evidence with every martial action.

Though he had no idea just what he could do, at first anyway. This needed some kind of hero who could rise up and change the direction of this slowly damning scene, and in his mind the only hero he had was that martial master he had been trying to become. Fighting would do no good, not yet, but he had to do something. Anything was better than standing by.

So he took advantage of his only other marketable skill, social interaction. He would spend the time he usually used training speaking to people, planting ideas and proof of what would happen if they moved by themselves. Breaking loyalties to leaders, or leaders from their flocks and dismantling the resistance group by group. He spoke up, mostly through letters, to the Dragon Blooded with respectful requests of things they may do to help ease the situation. Somehow winning a few good battles when he started seeing less military attention, and even less obnoxious vacationers.

The scene was advancing grandly, but there was one element he could not have seen even through the paperwork. Cultists. Yozi cults were not so unusual in An-Teng, something that likely came with the regular trade with the Lintha or just the odd nature of the Tengenese in general. Either way they had risen up with their robes and weapons looking to confront him on his way home, kill him, and let the town fall into the kind of chaos they could benefit from.

The social enemy was not just strong in their beliefs, they were fanatical. Logical proof might not nearly be enough to get through to them. He needed backgrounds, understandings, individual investigations. He had about ten seconds while their leader monologues. It came to him in a flash, some sort of intuitive understanding of why they were all here, and how he should act to inspire them. Greater than just gleaning information by sight, stronger...almost magical. He spoke loudly past their leader almost immediately, his words breaking at weak points in the individuals of the cult. Scratching open old psychological wounds, and making new ones in suspicion of how they spent their lives. The leader tried to rally them, working to keep them loyal, but the assault of words from Syren was tearing the cult apart at the seams. Until he was all alone.

Staring at Syren the man was a raging mass of fury. His whole organization reduced to one, his gods would not find this pleasing at all. He only had one thing left to offer, so he ran forward and attempted to stab the charismatic bastard who ruined his life. Though where his knife went, there was just air. And where his head was there was suddenly a fist. Then a foot where his gut was. Then an elbow where his back was. Just as systematically as he reduced the man's social group to ruin, Syren did the same to the man himself. Leaving one beaten bastard lying on the ground weeping. No longer a threat much to anyone.

Back home he got undressed, the strain of the day finally starting to catch up with him, and as he removed his working hat he found beneath something a bit odd. A golden symbol, a ring with a disc within. He had Exalted.

The revelation was quite shocking to him, the talking dog didn't help much either, his whole world was spinning as he tried to make a pure understanding of what was happening. Though even before he could do that his family was badgering him with more of their crap, talking about how he had been too rash in the past few weeks, how he was going to settle down this instant and that they had found a girl to marry him to that would be good for the family.

He saw the girl. His family could rot. He stole the heirloom a mass of funds and left the next day. He was meant for greater things than to be locked in that little town to waste away what life he had trying to advance a group of people without the ambition to take risks. He had a plan, with the Scarlet Empress gone there was a vacuum of power. Under the vacuum some families looked to fill the space, others looked to split off entirely. It was the perfect time to prey on such social weaknesses, to unite the aching masses finally broken from their dalliance from that damned woman. Somewhere in him he knew this place had once been united, and it could be so again. He was going to be the one to do it.

So he took off to the City of the Steel Lotus and jumped on the next ship East, looking to see if he could get to the Scavenger Lands.

Motivations
The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.When Syren started his journey he realized he had little in the way of allies to realize his dream of a new empire, let alone unifying all of Creation. Grassroots resistance movements had been put down more than once even with the Scarlet Empress missing, if he wanted to win he needed to push into places much like his old home of An Teng. Places with the subterfuge to keep their thoughts of independence secret until the right moment. And he also needed allies in all the right places. The most successful land for such a thing was the Scavenger Lands.

I love that people keep ending up pushing for that part of the continent because it is often the first place Syren takes off for. It is both about as far away as he can get from An Teng and his reputation as he can muster, and is a good place to start ally building. Around here he would be building himself into the social structure so that he could start feeling around about the concept of revolution.

Here and there he may hear of troubles, and he knows the best way to get an ally is through debt. For example, the lumbering creatures themselves wouldn't interest him, but they are attacking Guild caravans. The Guild are good friends to have and he would most certainly give them some aid so he can remind them he did that in the future. He'll also help out regular jerkoffs for the sake of good PR.

So if there are rumors cooking he'll be there.

Now he has of yet never met another Exalted that wasn't DB so when he does meet one that doesn't want to hang him by his neck from a fucking tree he'll definitely want them on his side.

Backgrounds.
The area or scenery behind the main object of contemplation.Familiar 3, he always had his dog Maduri and when his exaltation came the dog was uplifted with him due to their very close personal bond with each other. The dog had always been his only escape from what he considered a boring life in the complicated bureaucracy of An Teng. All of his martial skill was built on him sparring with his dog off in the wilderness when he had a moment alone, dreaming of being a great hero.

Artifact 1, the Orichalcum Chain. A family heirloom that for the most part just laid above their fireplace looking shiny. He always liked to dream of the day he would be strong enough to lift the massive thing when he was a little kid, these same heroic dreams continued to itch at his brain as an adult which caused him to secretly practice martial arts. While he knew no forms or styles he built himself to a fairly good fighter, but any time he tried to wield the damn thing it still flung uselessly on its own weight. While he has taken a path more suited to his actual strengths he holds onto the chain to remind himself of his beginnings and what a hero truly is. And also because it's awesome and since he became Exalted it seems much lighter.

Resources 2, Back in An Teng he was a capable bureaucrat and that earned him enough money to live comfortably. It also taught him a fair skill in trading, so when he left An Teng he raided his family coffers, took what was his(and maybe a little more for pain and suffering) and took off down the road. With his good social graces and knowledge of trade he takes what money he has and tries to maintain it. He as of recently hasn't had the time to increase his fortune though, in order to do that he would truly have to establish himself somewhere, and that would mean slowing down. Though maybe one day he could make a business of his own so he wouldn't have to work so hard.

Influence 1, No matter where he goes Syren likes to stick in people's minds. Not as a revolutionary or the future, but just as a genuinely interesting person. He figures what small seeds of good public relations he can plant, the more he will reap when he finally has the ability to start his plan to unify Creation.

And I'll be looking over what the stat changes mean. I think it changes nothing since I spent all my bonus points to be diverse in social combat.

[PhoenixFlame]

Unreachable Lily on the Cliff used to be a young daughter of a Guild Merchant Prince. She had pretty much everything she could want, her own slaves as playmates, and a pretty great life. Sure, she got murdered, but hey, that happens to spoiled young kids at times. Her pre-exaltation life was short and mostly unimportant, especially to herself and the nature of her exaltation, so she doesn't talk about, or think about it much.

She's good at killing people because, frankly, that's what she's expected to be good at doing. That said, there's alot more than merely killing people. Lily's very hard to detect, and she can go places, watch things, and track people with ease and efficiency. She can also kill them, but that's a bonus. She is after all, exalted by the #1 killer of mortal beings as in the end, death comes for us all.

Her artifacts, resources and gear come from being in the employ of the Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers whom has a list of resources almost as long as her name, which is pretty long. While Lily doesn't hate Princess Magnificent as much as she hates a lot of the deathlords, (although she can get the tendancy to go on wild and extravagant escapades with seemingly little thought put into them) she is EXCEEDINGLY incompetent, a fact that frustrates Lily. They have a reasonable relationship, but neither goes especially out of the way for the other.

As far as loyalist deathknights go, Lily is /strange/. Her motivation involves overturning and restructuring the underworld to remove it's moustache-twirling evil assholes like Mask of Winters and First and Forsaken Lion (So they can get back to being proper, cold and calculating grim reapers.) and incompetent fools (Like her liege...), and sadists whom treat the dead like toys (Lover Clad, for one).

In short, she really hates her bosses. Yet, one must remember that the deathlords don't run the show. They've got their bosses too, and really it's time we cut out the middle-men and let the living solar/abyssals do the job that ghosts whom should've been consigned to oblivion long ago simply can't do.

Lily fits in with the group because they don't have a night/day caste scout/archer yet, and her motivations coincide with the storyline (Preventing alchemicals from stealing souls from the underworld) and some of the solar motivations (Knock off some deathlords). She's not averse to killing some wyld hunters while she's at it, but that should be avoided, simply for being needless bellicosity. Still, if they come knocking, she'll knock back. As for flying shadowlands, well what in the world could've caused that? Guess we'll need a flying machine first, though.

[Overcast]

Wait, you are Princess Magnificent's incompetent deathknight? Heh heh.

[PhoenixFlame]

I suppose the parenthesis, and the fact that they are the same gender confuses this, but no. If you remove that, you'll see the sentance reads a bit more like "While Lily doesn't hate Princess Magnificent as much as she hates a lot of the deathlords, she is EXCEEDINGLY incompetent, a fact that frustrates Lily."

IE: "I don't hate you, but you suck, so I'm frustrated."

Philosoraptor: Of course, at chargen, everyone in Exalted is incompetent, as celestials are only marginally more capable than heroic mortals, who are literally a dime of dozen. I'm pretty sure a well-built heroic mortal could beat either of our Dawns in a straight fight, for one. At least I'm not a night caste, you might notice solars have a grand total of four stealth charms, all of which can be resisted trivially by mortals with no investiture in awareness.

[Overcast]

I won't say incompetent as much as less competent. But true, I guess I assumed that your character inherited the shame that all of Princess Mag's Deathknights get. Mostly that trickle down disdain she has the good fortune of having to deal with as Faffle's pet.

[PhoenixFlame]

Eh, it's not worse than being anyone else's. When you think about it, every last one of them is an abject failure. Mask of Winters failed to conquer more than one city in creation with the entirety of his forces... Foffles fucked up so badly the Neverborn roused from their eternal slumber long enough to call him down and bolt his armor to his soul such that he can never use the majority of his ghostly abilities ever again. Lover faffs about doing nothing all the time despite being one of the most competent, and pretty much the rest of them do the same thing only worse. Eye and Seven Despairs might be cool until you realise he's spent all his time playing mind games with his own deathknights for reasons that elude even the most erudite among us.

I've yet to see any of them make any real strides towards success, and that's really the crux of my character's motivation.