(in response to someone saying demon summoning was never safe or easy in Exalted) Actually yes it was, both from a Doylist and a Watsonian perspective. Demon summoning was supposed to be safe and easy because the game designers wanted to encourage players to have hordes of alien gribblies at their commands so they could …
The Primordials are Bigger Than You, but Not Beyond You
Any alteration to the basics of Primordialhood that makes the tale of Marus impossible is not one I’m going to embrace, because if that’s impossible then… I don’t care to include Primordials at all. Part of the point of the Yozis was that no matter how huge and all-powerful and vastly beyond your reach they appear to …
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Not All Yozis Should Have Charmsets
Honestly? Oramus shouldn’t have a Charmset. Neither should Cytherea or Sachaverell. Sometimes some ideas that make cool setting fluff are not things PCs should have access to, not just because they lack mechanical balance but because the very idea of mechanizing them would lessen them. Oramus is the dragon beyond the world. He is the part of the …
Why Most Lunars Shouldn’t Care About the Realm
On Lunars; the primary reason I don’t want all (or even the vast majority) of the Lunars to be focused on fighting the Realm is because holy shit that means that the Realm has to be a hell of a lot more competent and powerful than it currently is. 300 (or a significant fraction of same) Celestial …
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Giving Exalts Anima Defences
(in response to a post suggesting that all Exalts have a basic “hard to kill” power built into their anima) Hmmm… brainstorming… Okay, basically the idea would be to allow a player to put their anima banner up a level to gain Anima Health. You gain (Essence) Temporary -0 Health Levels. These levels can be …
Why the Invincible Sword Princess Should be Invincible
One of the reason I liked Exalted with a default mode of “PCs bolostomp 99% of the setting” is that it removes the incentive to kill problems a lot of the time. After the fifth or sixth time the PCs butchered their way through a small army, their handful of Dragonblooded or spiritual leaders and …
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Why Having a Canonical Fix for Autochthon is a Bad Idea
This is all great and stuff, but the problem is that by explicitly pointing out that there is a cure and it exists in a certain direction, that means that all this grandiose film noir struggle against entropy stuff is the biggest idiot ball in the entire setting. There is a solution to Autochthon’s illness. It’s …
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Why Exalted Should Have Had Rules for Ruling Realms to Begin With
I’m just always amazed by how people say empire building and trade system-focused games are impossible when Settlers of Catan is one of the most popular board games I know of.
Why Ligier Won’t Just Kill Your PC If You Exalt In Front of Him
Ligier has no incentive to murder an Exalt who Exalts in front of him. I mean, what does that accomplish? The Exaltation literally will Exalt somebody else – most likely somebody out of his reach and influence – basically immediately. The best he gets out of it is a momentary and passing satisfaction, but even …
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On Why Gods Should Matter
Gods, even high level gods, should be capable of affecting their domains. Otherwise what is the point of them? I’m not talking about in-setting, I’m talking about from a game perspective. If Yu-shan and all its inhabitants are nothing more than distant bureaucrats who can do nothing more than move around paper and be corrupt, then …