Thinking about DMing an Exalted 3e campaign but neither me or my group have ever played it before.
Is it worth it? Any advice/things to look out for?
Thinking about DMing an Exalted 3e campaign but neither me or my group have ever played it before. Is it worth it?
No, it is horrible from DM side especially if you and your group are novices (pic related is basically what you need to do a single attack), plus various other issues, not limited to the nu-lore
I don't even play it and I can clearly see that's a flowchart of all the possible actions in an entire turn not 'one attack.'
What is the purpose of lying so blatantly? You're like the GURPS Shotguns spammer guy.
ironically this flowchart actually seems incredibly helpful
It needs to be, unfortunate, the devs decided that 3e core wouldn't have a a Storyteller chapter, so you need to look for fan supplements. Like Sandact Storyteller advice or a Charm cascade.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.madletter.net/rpg/exalted/cascades/v3/cascade_v3_brawl.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwii5emnorP5AhUTBLkGHco1C3kQFnoECCsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1vDingpv0u5DvhBt8Ym47p
http://www.madletter.net/rpg/exalted/cascades/lunar_v1/cascade_lunar_v2_all.pdf
http://www.madletter.net/rpg/exalted/cascades/db_v1/cascade_db_v1_all.pdf
http://www.madletter.net/rpg/exalted/cascades/v3/cascade_v3_all.pdf
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sG52v0QCij7-vI0Y3Mb2s2gusu8dfkzdUOLkmMshw3Q/edit
It's fun enough, I've run several campaigns in it. Have some advice, anon, as the others are no-games arguing about lore or mad at RPG devs being, shockingly, liberal.
>Really look at the player's intimacies, as they drive the roleplaying in a lot of ways. Make sure they aren't vague or overly complicated; you want clear rulings on your own stuff as a GM and your players do likewise have a clear idea of what it is they're going for with their Ties and Principles.
>For the social system, consider adopting the general practice of making it so that mortal npcs (or other beings weaker than the standard Exalt) never spend WP to resist; this is something the book recommends in a sidebar, but it needs to be stressed. For harder targets, such as other Exalted and stronger spirits, consider the situation when deciding whether or not the target is going to be stubborn. I find that doing that in an urgent situation will drive players absolutely bonkers, but if it's something like a lengthy scene at a regal meet-and-greet, feel free to make things more complicated.
>Don't stress too much about the players being absurdly good at things. Instead, run with it and lay out consequences, both positive and negative, that may ensue from the courses those characters take. If a player kills a noble Dragon-blood, have their family show up later seeking vengeance. If a player is making a trade empire, have rivals appear who are angry about being pushed out of the market. Don't overdo this though, and sometimes consider unexpected positive side effects; maybe killing that Dragon-blood endears that character to people who hated that guy, or maybe a trader offers the players the location of some First Age ruins in order to broker an alliance with the player's trade empire.
>Exalted has never had very simple combat, and while the moron at is overblowing 3e's complexity (2e's equivalent flow chart is just as wacky), take steps to understand it before running a fight.
>To make combat easier on yourself and others, make sure everyone knows exactly what number of dice they will be throwing down for withering and decisive pools, as well as their defense stats.
Also, consider Exalted Essence, which is generally less complex and easier to run, on par with newer games Onyx Path is putting out. It is, however, a first draft manuscript as of now and is therefore janky as sin. Stay out of the Exalted generals here, as they are filled with people who generally do not actually play Exalted, but treat the series as fiction to read and spend all their time arguing about "lore", which is shit for morons and idiots.
Oh hi shill how much are they paying you now
>Stay out of the Exalted generals here
Which general? It is dead.
It pops up a few times but generally, it's not really a space for discussion of Exalted (say what you will about the 5e threads, but they actually talk about the games and mechanics they're interested in) so much as it is a space for people into their own individual interpretations of Exalted's fluff and arguing over which one is superior, which is an exercise in futility. Also it has people who like RWBY in it, which means that those posters are huge morons devoid of taste.
>Also it has people who like RWBY in it, which means that those posters are huge morons devoid of taste.
I like Monty Oum, not RWBY.
An unfortunately accurate summation. In my experience, Exalted is at it's best in small groups who aren't able to cover every eventuality with their specialties. It's good to make people have to scramble on occasion.
Is it worth it? Questionable. It's less striking than 1e or 2e, but also a little less janky. Is Exalted worth it in general? Maybe. If you like what you read of it, then yes. It's very attached to having a strong setting.
Advice.
>Two dice equals one success, on average, on a normal roll.
>Don't be afraid to describe big, flashy effects. When people are going hard, their footsteps can crack the earth and their swords can cleave clouds. This applies as much to antagonists as to PCs. Don't be afraid of using environmental damage to your benefit - when you describe a building crashing down, characters can run through it, or hide in the rubble.
>Expect your players to walk directly into trouble and bulldoze directly through it. If your campaign does not go off the rails I usually consider it mission failed.
>Introduce consequences to actions quickly and often. Consequences are not always negative, but bulldozing your problems should always be making things happen on a larger scale.
>Despite their power, remember that in a Solar or Lunar game, luck is not always on your PCs side. It is entirely reasonable for you to be thinking that Fate is actively working against them. Expect them to overcome the challenges you throw at them, but also remember to throw challenges at them.
>A strong background to set the PCs against is incredibly important. Don't always go directly to the supernatural trouble, and remember to let mortals make themselves relevant. Your PCs should not be the only heroes in the world. Dramatic changes can occur seemingly overnight without their intervention.
>butthurt that people like a good series
>butthurt that you got chased out because you got proven wrong about lunars
Rancid homosexual.
3e is best it's at with official versions, but if you want something simpler there's Quixalted and Exalted Demake
If not, here's a flowchart for social in 3e.
also listen to
It's unironically a bizarre and nonsensical setting. Feels like it was collaboratively written by a hundred different people. It's a hodge podge of dozens of different ideas that contradict each other.
Bizarre bur not nonsensical, it makes sense to a lot of people.
>it makes sense to a lot of people.
Ask 10 people what a Solar Exalt is supposed to be capable of and you'll get 11 different answers.
My longest and greatest campaign was in Exalted 2e, and even with how janky the mechanics can be, I would say that playing Exalted is worth it. I am less enthusiastic about 3e's mechanics, however. Even if they fixed a lot of problems, they created a couple new ones.
Suggestion 1: Play Godbound instead, using the deluxe version's "Themed Godbound" (literally Solars, Lunars, Sidereals, Alchemicals, and Dragon-Blooded). After years of running Exalted, this is what I do now.
Suggestion 2: Try running a different fan system, like Quixalted, or Exalted vs. World of Darkness, instead. The latter was written by a former Exalted dev, too.
Suggestion 3: Go back one edition, and run a single-splat game in Exalted 2e. This edition is about the same level of janky as 3e, just in different ways. If you are running a short game, you should be able to avoid some of the worst pitfalls. You will want single-splat to reduce the headache of having to deal with hundreds of extra Charms.
Suggestion 4: Go to the Exalted thread in the catalog, and ask them for advice about running 3rd edition. They are quite knowledgeable.
That isn't a matter of the setting, that is a matter of game expectations. In-setting, Solars are humans uplifted by the Unconquered Sun, and the criteria involved are something of a mystery, but believed to involve qualities that Sun finds appealing.
>Setting
Your argument is about power level. Lore-wise, Solar are supposed to do... everything they did in Lore. Their power levels being inconsistent is mostly due to bad rules.
>Lore-wise, Solar are supposed to do... everything they did in Lore.
This is precisely what I'm talking about. Their feats are extremely vague and borderline nonexistent in lore.
not OP but when I run a fantasy game, ppl always tell me I should run it as an Exalted game
I was the storyteller for a long campaign years ago, still one of the best things I ever ran
really think you need to decide if players are Solars/Lunars/Whatever since it really changes the tone and themes
Use your favorite superhero RPG and reskin it for Exalted. Save yourself the heartache of trying to understand the Exalted RPG system.
This. FASERIP is a good one as it has good rules for emergent powers for characters.
Look at Tenra Bansho Zero instead. I ran Exalted 2E for years, it was a brutal and thankless task. I got the 3E book, opened it and read the combat section and just put it on the shelf forever.
I liked the setting, but they fricked it all up after 1E from a game perspective. The effect specificity of charms is WAY too granular and GM's have to run 1-5 combantants with the same mote economy as the players every large combat-- with no way to effectively simplify effects, the GM has to know ALL the charms of all the antagonists. It's a nightmare.
Jezus. Recommending TBZ? You want to drive him away from the RPG hobby altogether?
It’s impossible to play with a group. The spread between character abilities is too broad to make into a consistent game experience. That’s why you always see single people talking about their gereat character but you never see my good expels of play that include more than two players in the same scene.
It's a standard WoD affair. You have people hyperspecializing in wildly different things, which ultimately means that only one of them can participate in any given scene at a time, and the others just have to sit around and watch to not get in their way.