Exalted General - /exg/

>>54158117

>bears are pansies

But where Gorilla's can be a TPK

>>54159021

Really, how?

>>54159085
Not for Exalts, but people have run the numbers and a sufficiently pissed off gorilla can take out a decent sized battlegroup

>>54159725
A single gorilla? Pretty unlikely. A troop of them probably could at that technology level, though.

Alright, I need ideas for armor for my riding tiger. I got one made with a solar level sorcerous working so it has mastery of essence and its own mote pool. I know I want it to be able to have a saddle come out of the armor for me to ride on as well as recede when not in use. it should probably also work with the tiger's natural stealth capabilities since that seems like a good direction to go in. anyway, I gotta take a power nap so I'll be back to read what you guys hate about exigents .

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>>54162257
>>54162257

>>54159771
Maybe it was a trained gorilla.

>>54164221
>Uplift gorillas
>Teach them society
>Arm them
>Conquer Threshold
>Profit?
Come on, you know you want to do this now, even if you're not a Lunar.

>>54164600

I do not. I seen Planet of the Apes.

>>54164611
Ah, but this time there is no stupid Simian Flu and everything is run by GLORIOUS SOLAR BULLSHIT, so you know it'll be fine.

Seem that this thread is mostly discussing familiars; what do you think makes a good one, and what do you guys want to see more of in the bestiary?

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>>54166134
>what do you think makes a good one

I don't. Never liked familiars because "pet with shit stats thats gonna die because it doesn't have perfect defenses" always seemed like a terrible way to spend your points in previous editions. Haven't bothered to look at them at all in 3E. For a familiar to be viable to me as a character, they'd basically have to BE the character, at which point I might as well be a Lunar.

>and what do you guys want to see more of in the bestiary?

The entire roster of Monster Hunter translated to 3E, as natural animals in Creation so Lunars have some cool shit to turn into without falling back to the old "lol want a cool, fantastical beast true form? NOPE FUCK YOU IT'S NOT NATIVE TO CREATION" shit.

>>54166451
not that anon, but...
>opinions discarded

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>>54166509
>not wanting MH creatures in Exalted

What are you, gay or something?

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>>54166451

PD's aren't nearly as needed in Ex3, and have mostly been nerfed, anyway. You should take a look at the Survival charms in the core, Familiars can be made really powerful.

IIRC, the current bestiary is being made with Lunars in mind.

>>54166577
I might not mind some of them as creatures in Exalted. But most of them are way too cartoony. Also definitely not something natural.

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>>54166577

>>54159725
Battlegroups are several times weaker than even a pair of individuals of the same level as those forming a battlegroup. They are just there to make killing an arbitrary large number of people mechanically feasible without a turn taking 40 minutes and/or the system imploding.

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>>54166948
>But most of them are way too cartoony

Yes, they're way too cartoony for a world with physically 16 year old but actually 400 year old women with volleyball sized tits, guys who can jump across the horizon, kung fu fate lawyer ninja's, and furries who eat 40 cakes. And thats as many as four tens. And thats terrible.

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>>54169848

>furries who eat 40 cakes. And thats as many as four tens. And thats terrible.

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>>54169999
>that' art'

Jesus Christ watch where you point that stuff you could put an eye out with something that ugly.

>>54170035

It was par for the course in the Backer Release.

>>54169999
Thank fuck this ugly shit didn't end up in my Deluxe Edition. I woulda been a bit pissed to have such ugly art in such a nice book.

>>54170252
There's worse pieces in your Deluxe Edition right now.

>>54170296
To be perfectly frank? There's some bad pics but no, none of them are worse than that.

>>54170328

I would agree. There is ugly art in there but it isn't ugly Poser models art. This is just uncanny valley.

>http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/1110938-isn-t-that-a-girl-thing

>>54171386
You know, as an Official Forums lurker who's been paying attention, I can't help but wonder how long it takes Jen to go from "oh hey I should start a thread about X" to actual publication.

I'm not sure I've seen one without the obligatory silly/cute doodle.

>>54166451
I once made a character for 2E. It was a Dawn caste merchant warrior with lot of point in survival. His Yedim was as fast as a formula one car and also could VTOL. Not to mention Int 2 and sapience on a towering but yet common behemoth makes for some cool bullshit.

>>54171386
They actually have some interesting points. The Realm being subtly matriarchal and favoring women for promotion to higher rank based off stereotypes oft hem being better at ruling would make sense.

>>54171812
Hasn't that always been the case though?

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>>54172066

Yeah, thats nothing new. Older books outright stated the Realm gives women the better everything, better jobs, more moolah, etc. Reverse "MUH PATRIARCHY" basically (and yes I'm aware the term is matriarchy, but saying "MUH MATRIARCHY" wouldn't work too well here, would it?).

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Could you guys tell a story, or create some OC, or do anything other than discuss politically slanted topics? I'm here because I like Exalted. Like for instance, we could work together on a movement inspired by the song Comfort Eagle by Cake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dWOKVzOins

The idea would basically be that someone looked at the Guild and Marst's ideas in general and thought, "You aren't going far enough. I can do better." So this guy decides to unite religion, business, and crime in a single organization and creates a way of life that demands total fanaticism. Along the way he realizes that he STILL wasn't going far enough with what he envisioned and rolls art, warfare, and science into the caboodle as well. Is anyone interested? If so, we should work on defining its location, structure, tenets, and leaders.

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>>54173136

Well, here is a story that doesn't have anything to do with politics

>>54171386

that thread gave me cancer.

God forbid if a woman is incompetent and slept her way to the position.
God forbid if you must compromise your character and are discouraged from playing a flaming faggot Because who cares about being bred for war, in a warrior society. That isn't important.
God forbid Melissa Uran drawn a doggy style sex scene. My patriarchal oppression.

>>54173145

Needs to be renamed Exigents.jpg

Because that shit is EXACTLY what is going to happen.

>>54173145
That's just posting stale, rehashed material, which is all these threads are about anymore. I want to breathe some life into this general for once. Please. These threads are pathetic.

>>54172135
Though it hould still be kept in mind that, even in the older books, here were plenty of men in the very highest positions. Well, highest positions after that of the empress, and even there some men are considered possible and credible candidates for the next ruler. The Realm is subtly matriarchal, but the emphasis is on "subtly".

>>54173172

forgot this gem from the moderator
(dude doesn't agree with "we are oppressed")

>HalfTangible, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt but at best you're struggling to articulate yourself without coming across as really hostile, please leave the thread.

>>54173213
Enjoy. As there is nothing to do to stop it. My dick just becomes more turgid.

>>54173213
As long as there's a defined cap on their maximum capabilities, it'll be safe. Otherwise ST's everywhere will need to ban them from the table wholesale.

>>54173172
Did it give you brain cancer that affects your reading comprehension? I mean, there are actually no complaints about female characters who have slept their way to their position in that thread, there are complaints about both of the female admirals in Savage Seas being such charasters. That's desire to also have genuinely competent female characters, not raging at the very thought of sexually manipulative female women. The only mention of the Melissa Uran doggy sex scene is by someone who doesn't actually consider that scene problematic. I'm sorry, anon, but I think you should look for yur dialy dose of that delicious outrage somewhere else.

>>54173814

well your reading comprehension is also lacking. That one person is mentioning that doggy sex scene. He didn't have anything problematic with it. He also mentions other had problems with it.

If you want competent characters, create new characters. Leave incompetent and flawed characters alone. There is no need for tactical genius on every corner.

>>54173814

>NPC demographics usually turn out shitty due to unconscious writerly biases, even if everyone is well-intentioned, because of culturally instilled and deeply internalized patriarchal misogyny. It's one thing to say "Hey, let's write a world with less terrible gender norms" and another thing to pull it off.

Ex3 creative team is working on it, hence Regara Feria's rewrite to not be an incompetent who slept her way to the top. We'd like to bring 3e's actual NPC demographics in line with what Creation's societal descriptions say they ought to be.

- because of culturally instilled and deeply internalized patriarchal misogyny.

Ruler of the biggest empire is a woman. Her rule runs supreme for 800 years. How will we ever recover from this patriarchal oppression anon?

>>54173899
>That one person is mentioning that doggy sex scene. He didn't have anything problematic with it. He also mentions other had problems with it.
Yeaaah anon, you do realize that there is pretty much nothing whatsoever no one has problems with? At any rate, it takes some spectacularly hin skin to be triggered by something like that.

>If you want competent characters, create new characters. Leave incompetent and flawed characters alone. There is no need for tactical genius on every corner.
I have no idea what you're trying to say, considering that no one, neither in this thread nor that one, has expressed a "need for tactical genius on every corner".

>>54173957
I have no idea, anon considering that I have never expressed a sentiment like that? I mean, I'm pretty sure that there is no one at all who would consider the Realm as an egregious example of patriarchy. People who do have problems are talking about relatively little things, details that don't quite fit the intended overall tone and themes of the Realm.

>>54158117
people hate lillith but feel bad for harley quinn why? they both suck. only bringing it on themselves

>>54173962

Let me simplify then. There is no need to rewrite incompetent or flawed character. Those give them character traits. You can use them in your games. You can make entire social structure around those characters and people who they are working with and working for. You can make entire campaign having them as your adversaries where their structure will either collapse because of them, will recover because of them, around them or will send someone to replace them. You have so many possibilities.

But now we can't have a fuckup who came into position through different means. She needs to be a competent woman who came to a high position through her skill. No room for bad representation of women in current age. Can't offend anyone.

If you want a competent woman look no further. Blackrose exists (if a little Mary Sue-ish).

>>54169848
Okay nevermind, I was thinking of Monster Rancher, which is some anime shit.

>>54174121

Not gonna claim MH is realistic in any way, but neither is Exalted, and Exalted is way higher on the "shit is unrealistic" scale than MH.

Also fuck people who think only normal Earth animals should be the only normal shit in Creation. Thats boring. You've got a world made by crazy personifications of bullshit who created slave labor to pump out their whims and manage the place, you really think regular ol' animals were gonna be the only thing around that should count as "normal"? It also gets rid of the extremely over-done "Everything bad comes from the Wyld" shit that's been floating around for the past few editions when it comes to "Here's some crazy creature".

>>54174085
>But now we can't have a fuckup who came into position through different means. She needs to be a competent woman who came to a high position through her skill. No room for bad representation of women in current age. Can't offend anyone.
Anon, I'm not sure how to simplify this any more, but no one has demanded this. Not in the thread we were discussing, at least. That thread had someone specifically stating thta it would be nice if Tepet Lisara was still a character who had slept her way to her position.

>>54174012
That's not what's being said.

>>54174250
It absolutely is.

>>54174263
No, it's not. Nobody is claiming that they're saying the REALM is an example of patriarchy. The accusation in the thread is that the WRITERS are influenced by it, which is a dubious claim when the Realm has had subtle matriarchic overtones since 1e.

>>54174246
first post
>Is this because most of Exalted material are written in 2001, back when things are not as progressive as today, or is Creation suppose to be this.....eh......."realistic" when it comes to gender roles ?

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/1110938-isn-t-that-a-girl-thing?p=1110974#post1110974

>Ex3 creative team is working on it, hence Regara Feria's rewrite to not be an incompetent who slept her way to the top. We'd like to bring 3e's actual NPC demographics in line with what Creation's societal descriptions say they ought to be.

>>54174321
Are you genuinely this dense? The first post is about most of the more sexual stuff in Exalted being associated with women. It's mostly an expression of desire to see some of that stuff spread to men. It sure as fuck isn't an expression of desire to see that stuff removed. Sheppard's statement is, first of all, not a dev statement because Sheppard isn't a dev, but it is also obviously a response to the point about both the female admirals in Savage Seas basically whoring for promotions. It's about perceived overrepresentation of the kinds of characters you're talking about, not them existing at all.

>>54174321
>We'd like to bring 3e's actual NPC demographics in line with what Creation's societal descriptions say they ought to be.

We live in democracy where people the power. But in reality only people on the top make decisions. You don't like the system we live in? Try going without a job, medical insurance and paying your bills. See how long you last.

You can also say that some society is based on meritocracy. That doesn't mean that people aren't able to weasel their way into higher office. If you say it is impossible then you are talking about utopian society. And utopia doesn't exist. And Exalted is anything but utopia.

>>54173172
>God forbid Melissa Uran drawn a doggy style sex scene.
Did that actually happen? And if so, where is it? I need to know for research purposes.

>>54174613

Scroll of Exxxalted. It has multiple risque art pieces by Melissa Uran.

>>54173213
I take it the other direction. Assuming you take that to be true and not some story someone made up for (You)'s then people have been making super special OC exalts already, exigent's can't make that any worse. If you're the ST tell them no for being dumb. If you're a player and someone pulls stuff like that then you're play with bad people and you're going to have a bad time no matter what.

>>54175101

There is a difference.Without the extra content most people will stick with published material and you will have few who will dabble by creating new stuff. When exigent comes out this will be published content and people will start making more special snowflakes when in reality you already a playing a snowflake.

When everyone is special, no one is special.

>>54173299
While I'm not agreeing with the whininess of that thread's OP, or Isator (who's known for being a huge whore for drama), you're not fairly representing what that Greentext was in reply to, which was...

>I am not going to have this debate, least of all here. I gave my thoughts on why I feel women are represented as sluts in Exalted more often than men. If you think I'm wrong about that, say so. Don't give me this "you're oppressing me even if you're not" hogwash. The world is not a liberal arts campus.

And an overall discussion where the poster tried to defend stereotypes.

>>54176108
That statement wasn't all that hostile, and his comments about stereotypes were honestly pretty well-reasoned.

>>54176325
They were hostile to the preferred viewpoint, which is all that's needed for a threadban in places like that.

>>54175797
>people will start making more special snowflakes
What reason do you have to assume this? I mean, exalted has had plenty of hombrew in the past, and most of it was at least okay. I don't see any reason to believe most of it is going to be terrible. And again, if you're playing with the sort of people who make that sort of thing/want it when they see someone else make it, you're game is fucked regardless.

>>54176435
He is just a shitposter.

>>54176435

From my experience when I played d&d and seeing people play other rpgs. when we started we had 3 core books. GM guide, player guide and monster manual. As time progressed there were more and more books coming out. Both official and 3rd party publishing. With that being said; characters started to become more obscure classes and had feats and shit from at least 2-3 different books. You couldn't guess who was more "unique".

You will get the same thing with exigents. Current exalts give you a certain place in the game but to be fair you have a lot of room to create your concept and you aren't limited that much.

>>54176486
I love quality contribution you provided.

>>54176612
I would argue that exalted doesn't draw in the sorts of people who want character options just for the sake of having character options in the first place. I mean hell, in 2e there was basically one combat build and one combat build only, and even if people hated it they still played it.

>>54176940

Well I seen people playing WoD as a full on combat simulator and I seen people using d&d to run complex court intrigue.

>>54176984
Uh....okay?
I'm sorry I'm not sure how that relates to my post.

>>54177003
>I would argue that exalted doesn't draw in the sorts of people who want character options

people would say d&d is generally about dungeon crawling, killing monsters and taking their stuff
people would say that basic premise of vampire game is about City court and clans scheming for dominance and power in the city's infrastructure.

>>54177046
Ohhhh, I get it.
In that case it still holds that the majority of the people play any given system for a particular reason right? So I'm sure there are some people who want to force exalted to have a bunch of weird character options and end up making horrible homebrew for it, but I doubt it will be any significant number.

>>54174318
The first leader of the solars? Female.
The leader of the Realm? Female.
The badass warriors who provided the pool that produced the most Dawn castes in the first and second Ages? Brides of Ahlat. Female.

Most of the "Names to run away from" are women. Patriarchy was not on the minds of the writers, except maybe in terms of inverting it.

So there's this system in place for influence etc, but I'm always wary of forcing actions on a player.

So say an NPC persuades a PC. They accept the persuasion to avoid Decision Point, but don't act on it. The primary thing here is to hit them with Limit rolls for acting against an Intimacy, right? (Or an inspire which acts as an intimacy). Soit's all well and good for a player to lay waste to their intimacies and refuse persuasion, but the character will become progressively more unhinged and unpredictable until their emotions sort themselves out to match how you're actually playing.

>>54177587
The only real complaint I can see is that all of the sex gods wandering around end up being women but even that doesn't really stand up to much because Luna doesn't really count as a girl with the amount of shapeshifting they do and that's the really big one. I mean the only other proper sex gods I can think of are one of the maidens who are all girls and the Street of Golden Lanterns who seems to be some weird sexual hate of the Unconquered Sun by Malfeas in the form of a little girl.

>>54177737
>They accept the persuasion to avoid Decision Point, but don't act on it.

They have to act on it. Its like saying you got hit for lethal damage but you ignore the fact you have lethal damage.

>>54164600
>>54164611
>>54164623
>Blood apes are a thing

Guys, Malfeas is way ahead of you.

>>54177587
>Among the Reclaimation, the most terrifying Yozi, the Yozi written to be literally infinite and the only Yozi who can explicitly blow up universes with her name are female
>Meanwhile Ebby is such a coward he has a Charm dedicated to being one

Really makes you think

>>54175101
>exigent's can't make that any worse

Except as >>54175797 said, and my original point, is that when you publish shit enabling people (keyword: enabling), they always do shit that will strike you dumb with the concentrated stupidity of what they produce.

The floodgates open whenever you give people something they can act on.

>>54174613
She did much exalted porn/erotic art, back in the day. Wayyyy back. Most of it is really difficult to find, though there was a full dump in this thread something like two years ago.

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Greetings, Mongrels. Stat me if you dare. I would be amused to see if your banal concept of reality can encapsulate my greatness

>people in this thread are actually discussing matriarchy vs patriarchy and using terms like internalized mysoginy/internalized patriarchy/'problematic' in their literal meaning and unironically

Jesus mcfucking christ on a hoopstick what the fucking fuck disease do you all have and how do I not get it? GO back to tumblr or the WW forums if you wanna talk about this trash

>>54177737
I think that could provide a solution, ignoring >>54178559 and their incredibly wrong opinion which is wrong about everything. Agency is important, you can't just throw dice and say to a play "you do this" short of actual factual mental domination. Using persuasion to apply an intimacy that gives negative modifiers for acting against that intimacy until they resolve their internal dissonance is a novel concept that promotes ROLEPLAYING. Let players stunt their way out of it if they can provide a reasonable rationale and a really good explaination, or otherwise seek out catharsis through some means to avoid suffering negative consequences for X number of scenes. The actual amounts and limitations need to be hashed out, but the idea has merit.

Hell at the extreme end you could let them defy the intimacy but force a limit break on them for doing so

>>54162257
Are you asking for stats or conceptual ideas or...?

>>54182133
Fuck off, you thin-skinned faggot.

>>54179838
Yes, anon, people always do stupid shit. People also always do cool shit, and Exigents enable this cool shit as well. While dumb shit is easy to come up with, cool shit can be quite a bit harder, so having some tools and guidelines to work with can be a huge help. All in all, the Exigents are probably going to be a beneficial thing for a lot of games.

>>54182165
I was mostly just going by what I'm inferring from the book. If you act against an Intimacy it causes you to roll Limit, in a way that I guess is similar to rolling SAN.

The book seems kinda light on what effect a player being hit by Persuasion has, they just assume the character will act accordingly. But Instill is more easily measurable, you can easily force an Intimacy onto someone, as you can easily hit them with LHLs as the other poster mentioned.

Since persuasion requires an intimacy or something pretending to be an intimacy (Inspire, Seduction) then I'd assume being Persuaded but not following up would count as acting against an Intimacy. It also kind of lets you pull control away occasionally but in a more acceptable manner, since rolling Limit is basically ticking down the "GM is gonna force your character to do something radical" track.

It just seemed kinda confusing after reading the Persuasion rules. Like even if you just forced an action on a player which I am loathe to do, that might work for being persuaded to stop attacking an enemy so they can escape the scene or other simple actions. But what if someone persuaded the Solar to enact a long-term plan to assassinate a Great House Dynast? Hover over them to make sure they're doing their assassination homework?

A sidebar about player agency that wasn't the Red Rule or "It's not Mind Control unless it's Mind Control" would have helped since I haven't run a system where an NPC can convince a player of something within the mechanics.

>>54182133
stop being so triggered fag

>>54183074
>>54183545

There are only two options
1. you prefer diversity and 70+ genders
2. You are still thick-skinned and this still doesn't faze you. This didn't faze that guy couple years ago. Because of that we now have safe spaces on campus, myth of white privilege and idea that communism was a great system.

>>54183786
faggot that shit has been around for decades, you sound like a muslim cleric who bans words because they offend your religion

>>54177737
it has to be of the appropriate level of strength but yea, that sounds like the way it goes, they have the choice to go against what their "charecter" is screaming at them to do but naturally it leads to turmoil, remember that the severity of the roll is less if it or a greater roll happens that scene

>>54183786

It was around for decades but not on this scale. While you are okay with that they aren't okay with you. You may say "they have a right for different opinion" but they don't have the same sentiment.

>>54182089

Dawn Caste Solar, knows Cascade of Cutting Terror.

>>54183103

See, I don't think flooding the game with shit to produce a few gems is worth it. I'd rather Exigent's just not exist, and people just be given guidelines to make Charms for the existing Exalt's. I'd rather people trying to toss out a few poorly designed Solar/DB/Lunar/etc Charms, than try to shit out their own Mary Sue fapfic Exalt's with their own Charm's custom tailored to enable their faggotry to the highest order.

>>54184782
Exigents are just Godblooded+1, that kind of shit happened anyway.

>>54184795

At least Godblooded are more limited in every way. Exigent's are basically Rent-A-Exalt's, mass produced with a fluff "blah blah oh yeah totally rare yeah god had to sacrifice who gives a fuck this will never actually matter within the context of anything other than an excuse for why this wanker exists".

>>54162257
That reminds me, how do we fix Familiars?

>>54173136
>Could you guys tell a story, or create some OC, or do anything other than discuss politically slanted topics?
I wish, but the leftist cancer brigade won't let me.

>>54174084
>people hate lillith but feel bad for harley quinn why?
Lilith's actions are not excused just because she's a traumatized survivor of spousal abuse. That's it.

>>54185077

I agree wit this guy

Half the charms in Exalted are retarded boing dice manipulation charms.

>9-again
>reroll 1s
>bonus dice

Seriously could this not be streamlined so that certain charms just give bonus successes.

>>54186009

>Half the charms in Exalted are retarded boing dice manipulation charms.

>Generalization

Come back when you counted them.

>>54186009
>>54186082
I have counted them. Its well under a quarter that are only dice tricks, of which on 7-8 repeat, at most 4 times.

>>54186009

I still didn't went through 3rd edition but 2nd was known for 20+ successes. And 5 successes should represent grand success. You don't want to go down that road.

I think most charms should give you more options. More dice rolling or extra bonuses shouldn't exist.

So give it to me straight. What are the chances the realm turns into generic evil empire #241

>>54187107

It already is seen by many as generic evil empire #241.

>>54184782
I don't think that either, anon. I do think that a few nuggets of shit aren't enough of a reason to get rid of the flood of, not gold, but decent or at least acceptable content Exigents probably will lead to. Largely because those nuggets of shit will be there anyways, while the decent content possibly won't.

>>54185077
Sorry for holding a gun to your head, bro.

>no Performance (Sex) charm that gives people power ups

>>54187107

It was since day. Just because you save the world with your giant gun doesn't mean you get to be a giant asshole to the world. Plus being a rich, oppressive empire pretty much begs for people to paint it as "the bad guys", especially when what you play the game as are guys being specifically hunted and persecuted by said empire.

>>54189095

problem is Realm is depicted like an asshole when in reality almost everyone in Creation is an asshole as well.

>>54189168
>problem is Realm is depicted like an asshole

It's state religion literally tells the people on the top they're better than everyone else in every way and it's up to them to guide the poor unwashed masses to be as good as them. It's run by what are essentially the VtM clans with a different paint job, headed by a woman who is not only clinically insane, but has actively built an entire society up that crumbles without her because she is such a paranoid shitshow. There is pretty much no way anyone was ever going to take them as anything but the biggest assholes and bad guys of the setting, or at least, incredibly misguided in every way.

>>54190138
>It's state religion literally tells the people on the top they're better than everyone else in every way and it's up to them to guide the poor unwashed masses to be as good as them.
But they're right.

>>54190138
>when in reality almost everyone in Creation is an asshole as well.

>>54190138
>It's state religion literally tells the people on the top they're better than everyone else

Fact

>and it's up to them to guide the poor unwashed masses to be as good as them

A noble goal.

>It's run by what are essentially the VtM clans with a different paint job

OK?

>woman who is not only clinically insane

What?

> but has actively built an entire society up that crumbles without her because she is such a paranoid shitshow

Huh. Sounds like how the First Age ended.

>>54190162
They have superhuman abilities, but that doesn't make them morally incorruptible or anything.

>>54190203
So? They're still better.

>>54190138
>It's state religion literally tells the people on the top they're better than everyone else in every way and it's up to them to guide the poor unwashed masses to be as good as them.
The Realm would be a pretty damn neat place to live if all of the Dragon-Blooded piously followed the Immaculate Faith, though.

>>54190192
>woman who is not only clinically insane
>What?

Empress created entire ruling system and government in a way she is main piece. Everything goes through her. Different factions are made to undermine each other and observe each other.

Now take into consideration that Shogunate burned down with Wyld Invasion.
Then take into consideration that when Contagion ended and Wyld was pushed back 7 Tiger Generals decided to burn rest of the Threshold with idea to divide Creation between themselves and to invade Blessed Island and loot it as well.
Then take into consideration that current system was put in place so Dragon-Blooded would be united instead of trying to usurp each other and Creation was at its weakest at this point
Then take into consideration that only reason why DragonBlooded are still playing "nice" with each other is only because they have strong established hierarchy.

>>54190340
How does that make her insane though?

>>54190406

It doesn't. Problem is when Empress disappeared (metaplot reasons) system is falling apart because Great Houses decided to benefit themselves instead of trying to make the Realm function. Almost every government officer it trying to benefit themselves.

And people are saying it is Empress fault they government isn't running without her.

>>54190520
She deliberately made it so.
That said, she couldn't have predicted her disappearance.

Any criticism of the Realm can be applied to the other groups.
The Solar went nuts and did stuff like killing orphans in the street and genetically engineering slave races and used their screams of pain to make music.
The Lunars don't actually want to rule at all, and support city-states like Nexus, where there's a lot of corruption.
The Abyssals want to kill everything, the Infernals are like the Solars in terms of going nuts, etc.

Of course the Realm is bad, but everyone in Exalted is bad. Otherwise if you wanted to play as Realm DBs you'd have to be evil, and maybe you don't want that.

>>54190162
>But they're right.
>right
>literally the entire religion is based on complete bullshit, up to and including the idea that DB's are the most spiritually advanced thing ever

Do you remember the part where Heaven LITERALLY treats DB's as unkempt mongrels? As in, they're actually considered pets at best?

>>54190888
>Do you remember the part where Heaven LITERALLY treats DB's as unkempt mongrels? As in, they're actually considered pets at best?
Not him, but I certainly remember that. It's one of the basically unanimously loathed parts of 2E, which is memorable in its own way.

>>54190406
>How does that make her insane though?

Shoving her kids through a soul extraction device? Making an entire system of government that a 2 year old can tell you does not work? Plays her own empire against itself ON TOP OF the nonfunctioning system just to try and vainfully hold onto power a bit longer?

Bitch is insane. There were clearly better ways to do everything, but she's so PTSD'd and more that she couldn't see them if they were dangled in front of her face the same way the Ebon Dragon's nut sack is every day from now on. Nevermind all of this should've fallen apart like the house of cards it was long ago.

>>54190931
>It's one of the basically unanimously loathed parts of 2E

Never heard of anyone loathing it before. Maybe laughing at it because it was supposed to be ironic that they act like they own the world and in reality Heaven fucking hates them.

>>54190936
>Shoving her kids through a soul extraction device?
That's exceptionally ruthless, not insane. It's not like she did that for fun. There was a very pragmatic reason for it.

>Making an entire system of government that a 2 year old can tell you does not work?
It worked for 763 years, though.

>Plays her own empire against itself ON TOP OF the nonfunctioning system just to try and vainfully hold onto power a bit longer?
It is kind of silly to call something that works insane.

>>54190888
They're still better than the average guy.

>>54190972
Does that mean you have never seen it come up anywhere before? Because I have never seen it come up without people expressing their dislike for it. That whole part was just stupid as fuck.

>>54190936
>Making an entire system of government that a 2 year old can tell you does not work?

And somehow a lot of players try to create their kingdoms that are powered by care bears, happy thoughts and equality.

>>54190936
>Plays her own empire against itself ON TOP OF the nonfunctioning system just to try and vainfully hold onto power a bit longer?

welcome to feudalism.

>>54187693
>>54189095
The setting already has enough objectively evil asshats running around. The neverborn and the hundred and one things that follow them, the yozi and their servants, the wyld and all its creepy shit.

I just want to realm to fill the niche or villain that isn't evil down to the core. I mean, it find it really hard to believe that the empress ran into the manse and nearly got her self killed trying to save the world because she was thinking of how sick rich she would be. And then I'd like to thin kejack sitting her down and explaining the history of the world and how she's basically the only thing stopping creation from getting eaten that that would get rid of any delusions she has of just conquering creation for the money or power or whatever. I mean, obviously not every single dynast is going to support this, and corruption and greed will absolutely settle in, but I don't like the dev talk about the realm being a greed machine and thats literally it

>>54191151

The way I run my Creation is that Realm is aware of the history of the world. It isn't a granny's fairy tale. Especially when you are fighting Anathema, Fair Folk and you can see how creation is breaking under influence of the Wyld. And when you are only thing standing between Creation and everything hostile in it. Sure there are those who will try to benefit themselves but Realms isn't a leech that is sucking the Creation dry.

Usurpation was a right thing to do. Solars are back. Now they have a chance to atone for past mistakes or they can repeat them. It is up to them.

>>54191151
>I just want to realm to fill the niche or villain that isn't evil down to the core. I mean, it find it really hard to believe that the empress ran into the manse and nearly got her self killed trying to save the world because she was thinking of how sick rich she would be. And then I'd like to thin kejack sitting her down and explaining the history of the world and how she's basically the only thing stopping creation from getting eaten that that would get rid of any delusions she has of just conquering creation for the money or power or whatever. I mean, obviously not every single dynast is going to support this, and corruption and greed will absolutely settle in, but I don't like the dev talk about the realm being a greed machine and thats literally it
Greed and ambition probably are what drives the Realm as a whole. The important thing to undersand is that these aren't necessarily the things that drive individual Dragon-Blooded. Plenty of them are alright people who genuinely believe in the supremacy of the Dragon-Blooded, but also in the duties this supremacy entails. Even the people in charge aren't all evil villains, even if they do their part in running an emprie that kind of is an evil villain. They're just people who want to further the interests of their nation and House and don't have to actually face the full horror of the atrocities this requires. An evil empire isn't necessarily an empire of evil people.

>>54191325
This I all agree with, I'm just afraid it's going away. Some of the realm talk from the devs makes it sound like its going to get boiled down to just another evil expansionist empire that heartlessly enslaves everything because it wants money.

>>54177737
That's one of the nice things about the social influence system. Out side of mind control magic, in order to get convinced to do something, the person has to exploit an intimacy. This means that the PC can only get persuaded to do something that they're character would likely consider doing in the first place

>>54191151
>The setting already has enough objectively evil asshats running around
Everyone in Exalted is the bad guy to someone else, but there's nothing objective to them. Besides, they're very explicitly /not/ running around. The Neverborn are trapped in a perpetual stage of dying that won't end, and the Yozis are trapped in Malfeas' asshole. Their servants and adherents can run around on Creation but they cannot. That's kinda the whole point.

>>54188717

Do you want any?

>>54191764
Yes

>>54188717
>>54191975
Homebrew your own, make Celestial Bliss Trick a prereq. Measure it against Favor-Conferring Prana or something. You'd probably need to reduce duration to less than one day and set the bonus to specific actions, but it could be useful.

>>54191325
>The important thing to undersand is that these aren't necessarily the things that drive individual Dragon-Blooded

This is true.

>Plenty of them are alright people

This is probably less true. Most are going to wholly subscribe to the "rich douchebag" archetype.

>>54191505
Not quite, since you can have Intimacies forced onto you.