(in response to a complaint about Alchemicals being limited in charm selection to what their city can afford to build) It’s not a worse design decision than “Sorry, your state literally cannot afford to build the Artifact you want to buy.” Like, that’s kind of the point of Alchemicals. Ultimately, you serve the state and …
Why Heaven Doesn’t Have Printing Presses
One of the things that’s been raised around printing presses in the past is the Aesthetic of Cool – “it’s cooler to have your characters fight while dancing through a hall full of industriously working scribes bent over their desks, using them as footing without disturbing a single one of them, than it is to …
On Laws in Creation
Given the similarities, the two ancient cultures you want to look at to determine how Creation views Law are ancient Greece and ancient China; because the majority of laws in Creation are going to be the result of two massive influences: The Realm and the Guild. Now the Realm has a vested interest in encouraging …
On What Charms Actually Are
The way I have always viewed Charms is that it’s not like learning a regular skill. Or, maybe that it is, but it’s applied to your soul, not your body or mind. The Essence of the Exalted is not something that they command or regulate or control. It is something that literally reacts to their desires, …
On What Are The Essential Features of Exalted
Exalted is an epic tragedy writ large. The very first words in the very first book (that wasn’t fiction) basically said “The world is doomed, but until then awesome happened.” Exalted is a setting about the dynamics of power and change. It is a allegory for the human condition. It is about the futility of …
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On What A Celestial Exalt Showing Up Means
(in response to a post pointing out Celestial Exalts don’t fit into his usual maxim of “let the players succeed at what they invested in”) Well, yes. But I want a Celestial Exalt to be a End of Season Boss Fight. Like, each and every Celestial Exalt should be an Event, a Living Legend, the …
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On Challenging An Exalt at Their Specialty
(in response to someone saying that taking Charms in a an area means the player wants to be challenged in that niche) No. What it says is “I want to succeed at this niche”. Like, If I was playing in Exalted and dropped all my Charms and points into combat stuff? I would want 99.9% …
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On Why Solar Animas Shouldn’t Inflict Damage
(in response to a post suggesting Solar animas should do damage like Dragonblooded ones do) I think animas should leave marks on the environment, but I don’t like the idea of every Solar literally being a DBZ character causing any mortals nearby to explode if they get too close. One of the things I liked …
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On The Link Between Thematics and Mechanics in Exalted
The big link in pre-3e Exalted between the mechanics and the themes is that Exalted is an exception-based game system and the characters are exceptional. Exalted spends a great deal of time explaining how the nitty-gritty details of the game world interact with the rules. It has detailed rules for combat that include stuff like how …
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Why Devil-Tigers Were A Bad Idea
Well, it also has the problem in that it completely destroys the entire setting and the entire past of the setting in one stupid idea. The problem with all the neat ideas about Infernals is that Infernals can not be more powerful than Solars. This is a truism of the setting. Solars are the most powerful …