Heirs to Creation - Exalted 3e Recruitment and Pre-Game Discussion [CLOSED]

Started by Winter King, October 30, 2015, 09:33:08 AM

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Winter King

Okay, not even going to try to unravel the BBCode that would be required to quote that, so I'm just going to reply the normal way.

Name looks good, then. :P

I see - I didn't mean to come off as abrupt, but I did want to hear an explanation as to why it was in his character to have those two things... Though, that said, there is the fact that reading people comes off Perception, but yeah.

I do see where you'd use the performance, though I suspect you accidentally reversed instill and inspire there... :P I also think that it points out that inspire's kind of hard to predict if you don't have the intimacies known, but then, I suspect that your point nonetheless stands.

Hm, I would say that gem cutting/jewelry making and woodworking are both suitable, so long as you don't expect the latter to also allow you to build, say, houses.
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Quote from: Winter King on November 03, 2015, 01:53:39 PM
Hm, I would say that gem cutting/jewelry making and woodworking are both suitable, so long as you don't expect the latter to also allow you to build, say, houses.
I don't expect that :-). It's meant to represent just something else he learned from his father. I don't actually expect to use it, though I might.

Making the houses pretty from the inside, that I'd expect to be able to do, but only to the extent of his ability.

You can reply here or on PM, but what do you about his Exaltation story? I was wondering whether it sounds off to other people, because I can't locate what's bugging me about it ;).
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Winter King

I just realized I forgot to reply to about half of your post, so, um. Oops.

Firstly, your ally. I am admittedly uncomfortable allowing you to take a Terrestrial Ally for a number of reasons, first of which is the fact that I really don't want to let you spend points on an Ally who may need convincing to actually help you out if what you are truly comes to light. Next, one of the big themes I want to emphasize is how difficult it is to convince people to abandon the beliefs that they have held dearly for ages (we'll see how social influence does with that), and a Terrestrial - any Terrestrial, even an outcaste, has been taught from at least their Second Breath that they are Princes of Earth and that your character is an Anathema. Thus, having your theoretically Terrestrial ally be loyal to you would deeply weaken that thesis... or, your theoretical Terrestrial Ally would never be more than a flash of your caste mark away from betraying you (I'm exaggerating. A lot). So! We can do something on the Terrestrial level of power though, quite easily. I'm not 100% sure how I'd put together a character on that level, but I can certainly try.

A god is probably against his beliefs, isn't it... perhaps an efreet? I imagine there are quite a few of those wandering the deserts of the South, and the more potent among them is probably worthy of three-dots of Ally. Would that work for you?

Also, for your iconic... I wasn't actually sure whether you were being serious or not, 'cause it seems really complex for an iconic anima banner... but if you prefer it that way, I don't really see a reason to say no. I mean, so long as you take the burden of describing it, at least, 'cause I'm still struggling to wrap my head around it fully.

As for your Exaltation story...
It seems alright to me... It's a little... hm, I know what you mean in that I get the feeling something's slightly off about it, but I'm not able to quite put my finger on it. Hm, I guess it could be how quickly he disassociates the thing he's fighting with the person he (presumably) loved. I mean, I understand how much he would dislike the undead as a member of the Delzhan, but it seems rather quick for me.

On that note, were I playing him, I'd put in an intimacy for this traumatic event - that is, something like "Love cannot be trusted" as a principle, or Former Lover (Anger, Loss, Grief, etc.) Of course, I'm not going to force you to do so - it's just a suggestion.
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Quote from: Winter King on November 03, 2015, 01:16:35 PM
Hm, okay. I can accept the Solar Snake Manual as it's been presented here, but just be sure to run stuff about it by me before planning around it (this isn't a criticism for how you've done things so far, only a request for the future). Can you tell me how it came to be in his hands? Did he steal it from someone? I imagine that was implied, but I have a thought as to whom might be looking for this rather valuable book...

Also, how and when was Tarno Chosen? You may want to share these sorts of details with me, because otherwise I might decide on my own or make assumptions that turn out to be contrary to how you envisioned it going :P.

It was indeed stolen, and it was only so easily done because it was a trap. Well, no, a pit. A pit of resources granted to the Sword-Star Way and associated families by one of the two retired leaders that claimed to have attained divinity and so were removing themselves slightly from temporal matters. The exact details weren't available to him (as an aside, those two did retire for personal reasons, a strict reading of the laws of the councils meant that not only were they not required to retire, but if they could prove such nature they'd get to count as an additional councilor each), but the effects were. Whenever the fortunes of Sword-Star were too good, there would be an inspection and a request to improve the security around the manual.

Go ahead several years to when the other Solar left, and through a mix of politicking and shows of actual losses on Sword-Star Way's behalf, and protecting the valuable artifact was given, in joint, to two other Ways; the details were still being hammered out by the time he'd taken off with it, but up to that point instead of occasional drains on their resources, there was an unending stream of bureaucrats to check up on it. Well, that's an exaggeration, but it's how he managed to get in to take it.

Whichever of the two did own it... probably is in the process of sending somebody after his head and the manual.


And as for when he was chosen as one of the Chosen, my assumption is that it was probably some time around when he goes to Aamu Sword-Star Way and her accountants, nominally as an offer to exchange debts (three or four of his smaller but more immediately collectible debts for one of their larger ones), but is actually a show of 'Look who I can call upon.' Possibly a bit before that when he got the idea to gain recognition by gathering such debts deliberately. Either, I think, works.

And would you like me to propose a more concrete outline of the manual's evocations right now, or a bit later on?
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Quote from: Winter King on November 03, 2015, 02:57:55 PM
I just realized I forgot to reply to about half of your post, so, um. Oops.

Firstly, your ally. I am admittedly uncomfortable allowing you to take a Terrestrial Ally for a number of reasons, first of which is the fact that I really don't want to let you spend points on an Ally who may need convincing to actually help you out if what you are truly comes to light. Next, one of the big themes I want to emphasize is how difficult it is to convince people to abandon the beliefs that they have held dearly for ages (we'll see how social influence does with that), and a Terrestrial - any Terrestrial, even an outcaste, has been taught from at least their Second Breath that they are Princes of Earth and that your character is an Anathema. Thus, having your theoretically Terrestrial ally be loyal to you would deeply weaken that thesis... or, your theoretical Terrestrial Ally would never be more than a flash of your caste mark away from betraying you (I'm exaggerating. A lot). So! We can do something on the Terrestrial level of power though, quite easily. I'm not 100% sure how I'd put together a character on that level, but I can certainly try.
Sorcerous workings allow a lot even to mortals in this edition. A wealthy god-blooded sorcerer might give a very hard time to any Terrestrial.

QuoteA god is probably against his beliefs, isn't it... perhaps an efreet? I imagine there are quite a few of those wandering the deserts of the South, and the more potent among them is probably worthy of three-dots of Ally. Would that work for you?
An efreet is fine! They're fire spirits, regal and majestic, and if he's not blackmailing mortals into worship, Crooked Crane Krum is fine with him, in turn. They might have met and crossed swords before deciding to be friends, or any number of things.
Basically, any god/dess would be fine, as long as it's a personal relationship and not trading in reverence for favours.

QuoteAlso, for your iconic... I wasn't actually sure whether you were being serious or not, 'cause it seems really complex for an iconic anima banner... but if you prefer it that way, I don't really see a reason to say no. I mean, so long as you take the burden of describing it, at least, 'cause I'm still struggling to wrap my head around it fully.
Simplicity is hard to achieve.

QuoteAs for your Exaltation story...
It seems alright to me... It's a little... hm, I know what you mean in that I get the feeling something's slightly off about it, but I'm not able to quite put my finger on it. Hm, I guess it could be how quickly he disassociates the thing he's fighting with the person he (presumably) loved. I mean, I understand how much he would dislike the undead as a member of the Delzhan, but it seems rather quick for me.
Well, I mean to explain that it was the rush of power that got to his head. With so much power, what's that "love" thing you're talking about >:)?
Or more seriously, he saw her acting against his Defining Principle, and her action was an attack.
An attack against Crooked Crane.
The results were, as they say, fully predictable.

I think both of these are totally lost in the text as it is now, though. I also think I might add a revised version to his first post.

QuoteOn that note, were I playing him, I'd put in an intimacy for this traumatic event - that is, something like "Love cannot be trusted" as a principle, or Former Lover (Anger, Loss, Grief, etc.) Of course, I'm not going to force you to do so - it's just a suggestion.
No, that's something I was considering. But she wasn't his Defining tie, and she acted against his defining tie.
That said, contradictory intimacies are fine, so I'll add a Grief tie at Major, and use the option of shifting it and rewriting it as soon as it makes sense (which is, luckily, explicitly in the rules now ;D!)
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Winter King

Quote from: RSGAlex on November 03, 2015, 03:08:23 PM
It was indeed stolen, and it was only so easily done because it was a trap. Well, no, a pit. A pit of resources granted to the Sword-Star Way and associated families by one of the two retired leaders that claimed to have attained divinity and so were removing themselves slightly from temporal matters. The exact details weren't available to him (as an aside, those two did retire for personal reasons, a strict reading of the laws of the councils meant that not only were they not required to retire, but if they could prove such nature they'd get to count as an additional councilor each), but the effects were. Whenever the fortunes of Sword-Star were too good, there would be an inspection and a request to improve the security around the manual.

Go ahead several years to when the other Solar left, and through a mix of politicking and shows of actual losses on Sword-Star Way's behalf, and protecting the valuable artifact was given, in joint, to two other Ways; the details were still being hammered out by the time he'd taken off with it, but up to that point instead of occasional drains on their resources, there was an unending stream of bureaucrats to check up on it. Well, that's an exaggeration, but it's how he managed to get in to take it.

Whichever of the two did own it... probably is in the process of sending somebody after his head and the manual.


And as for when he was chosen as one of the Chosen, my assumption is that it was probably some time around when he goes to Aamu Sword-Star Way and her accountants, nominally as an offer to exchange debts (three or four of his smaller but more immediately collectible debts for one of their larger ones), but is actually a show of 'Look who I can call upon.' Possibly a bit before that when he got the idea to gain recognition by gathering such debts deliberately. Either, I think, works.

And would you like me to propose a more concrete outline of the manual's evocations right now, or a bit later on?
Hm, I'm seeing a lot of this from the perspective of Tarno, and I appreciate it for what it is, but I feel like I should know a bit more concretely than Tarno himself does. Are you okay not knowing more about his life than he does, as a player? Because I feel obliged to tie in things that happen in the characters' backstories into the reality of the rest of the game, so I feel obliged to know what happened in those backstories. For instance, I only have a vague guess as to who Aamu Sword-Star Way is, and what her role is relative to Tarno and his debts, so I'm in no position really to judge whether that's a good place for him to have been Chosen. Does what I'm saying make sense?

Quote from: Thufir Hawat on November 03, 2015, 03:33:48 PM
Sorcerous workings allow a lot even to mortals in this edition. A wealthy god-blooded sorcerer might give a very hard time to any Terrestrial.
An efreet is fine! They're fire spirits, regal and majestic, and if he's not blackmailing mortals into worship, Crooked Crane Krum is fine with him, in turn. They might have met and crossed swords before deciding to be friends, or any number of things.
That's fair. It's also a reason for him to not be 100% onboard with the Immaculate Order, who may or may not take issue with his friend wandering around doing good deeds.

Quote from: Thufir Hawat on November 03, 2015, 03:33:48 PMBasically, any god/dess would be fine, as long as it's a personal relationship and not trading in reverence for favors.
That line is very blurry, actually, one would imagine. Much blurrier than he would like to think, most likely.

Quote from: Thufir Hawat on November 03, 2015, 03:33:48 PMSimplicity is hard to achieve.
True enough. xD

Quote from: Thufir Hawat on November 03, 2015, 03:33:48 PMWell, I mean to explain that it was the rush of power that got to his head. With so much power, what's that "love" thing you're talking about >:)?
Or more seriously, he saw her acting against his Defining Principle, and her action was an attack.
An attack against Crooked Crane.
The results were, as they say, fully predictable.

I think both of these are totally lost in the text as it is now, though. I also think I might add a revised version to his first post.
Yeah, that was kind of lost in the text. I... didn't quite get it. xD

Quote from: Thufir Hawat on November 03, 2015, 03:33:48 PMNo, that's something I was considering. But she wasn't his Defining tie, and she acted against his defining tie.
That said, contradictory intimacies are fine, so I'll add a Grief tie at Major, and use the option of shifting it and rewriting it as soon as it makes sense (which is, luckily, explicitly in the rules now ;D!)
Yeah, that's a really nice thing now.
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Quote from: Winter King on November 03, 2015, 03:43:55 PM
That's fair. It's also a reason for him to not be 100% onboard with the Immaculate Order, who may or may not take issue with his friend wandering around doing good deeds.
Well, we don't want him to become "The Immaculate Order's Household Solar", after all ;D.

QuoteThat line is very blurry, actually, one would imagine. Much blurrier than he would like to think, most likely.
Possibly, but that's what he thinks at the start :P.

QuoteYeah, that was kind of lost in the text. I... didn't quite get it. xD
Yeah, it was off then. Hopefully it would be fixed with a rewrite.

QuoteYeah, that's a really nice thing now.
Well, it just makes sense. It's not like I'm only taking the listed minimum of Intimacies, anyway, and Intimacies are fun >:)!
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Winter King

Intimacies are lots of fun. I can't wait to actually put together a character I'll hopefully play, because they are one of my favorite things 3e has done.
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ChaoticSky

Speaking of fun, looking over the new charms (finally) almost makes me wish id resurrected my eclipse 'make love(literally) not war' character.

She once socal-fu'd two battling combat units into a orgy instead.

Aaah, fun times.  ;D

RSGAlex

Quote from: Winter King on November 03, 2015, 03:43:55 PM
Hm, I'm seeing a lot of this from the perspective of Tarno, and I appreciate it for what it is, but I feel like I should know a bit more concretely than Tarno himself does. Are you okay not knowing more about his life than he does, as a player? Because I feel obliged to tie in things that happen in the characters' backstories into the reality of the rest of the game, so I feel obliged to know what happened in those backstories. For instance, I only have a vague guess as to who Aamu Sword-Star Way is, and what her role is relative to Tarno and his debts, so I'm in no position really to judge whether that's a good place for him to have been Chosen. Does what I'm saying make sense?

I'm willing to blather on as long as your ears are willing to be bent. Although I'm not opposed to some surprises.

Aamu Sword-Star Way was the then new head of the Sword-Star Way families, fresh from taking the position from her sister. It was troubling for Tarno because his pitch and selection was done to be about as attractive to Aada as possible. The Sword-Star Way families had been on the short side of the political stick for a while, and he'd hoped that giving her a way to do something at the speed of favors would be enough to pull off the expansion/raid that would get them on the upswing.

But with Aada suddenly out of power, and by the hands of her rather unambitious sister, things had to change. Instead of being an offering of forces, one of the generals got brought in to explain what the others on the list could offer to Aamu's ambitions, a few bean counters were brought in to assure Aamu that there would be supplies available at a good price to replace the ones used to feed the soldiers that would be moved to do what that general was saying she was going to do.

And he managed a presentation of numbers that convinced her to take action. More importantly, it actually succeeded because somebody else had gotten to the place Aamu had her eyes; there wasn't as much in there, but there was enough that it could be counted as a success and so the whole thing wouldn't be made retroactively illegal.

....

Man, I am not satisfied with that. But I have to do some more stuff before it gets too dark, so I'll leave it like this for now.
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Winter King

Quote from: ChaoticSky on November 03, 2015, 05:50:28 PM
Speaking of fun, looking over the new charms (finally) almost makes me wish id resurrected my eclipse 'make love(literally) not war' character.

She once socal-fu'd two battling combat units into a orgy instead.

Aaah, fun times.  ;D

Yeah, that's always a fun angle to work. 'course, then you have to guard against venereal diseases, but that's why Twilights exist, right?
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Thufir Hawat

Quote from: Winter King on November 03, 2015, 08:21:36 PM
Yeah, that's always a fun angle to work. 'course, then you have to guard against venereal diseases, but that's why Twilights exist, right?
Resistance Charms.
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Thufir Hawat

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Winter King

... Yeesh. That went odd places faster than I'd expected. :P
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RSGAlex

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As Vekseid has unfortunately stepped out, I'm opening this back up to others who want to put together characters, because while I am not going to go over 5 players, that's no reason not to give others chances, right?

That's all I wanted to say at the moment. :P
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I dunno, some sort of venereal disease that's spiritual in nature is kind of odd.
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HairyHeretic

Quote from: Winter King on November 04, 2015, 11:15:48 AM
I dunno, some sort of venereal disease that's spiritual in nature is kind of odd.

There was a rather amusing AD&D book of sex came out years ago. I seem to recall an 'orgasmic lycanthropy' in there. That gives a whole new meaning to "You were such an animal last night" :P
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Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
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Fair fame of one who has earned it.

Winter King

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Empyrean

If the game is open again, I'd like to throw my hat in. I'm working on a Night Caste at the moment.

Winter King

Quote from: Empyrean on November 04, 2015, 02:51:39 PM
If the game is open again, I'd like to throw my hat in. I'm working on a Night Caste at the moment.
Please, feel free. I figured out earlier that I really shouldn't reject applications on the basis of having too many applicants - at least at this stage. As such, so long as everyone's willing to accept that they might not get in, you're welcome to design your characters. :D
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Empyrean

The idea I have so far (admittedly work in progress), is someone who was raised by a criminal society to be a honeytrap, and sometimes thief and assassin. I'm still working out how she earned her Exaltation, but I'm thinking it was for trying to use her talents to help people in need. Would having her infilitrate the Daughter's rebel movement as a spy and then coming to actually care for the cause work for you?