Exalted 2.5-Infernals

[Empyrean]

Hello everyone.

So I've been re-reading the MoEP: Infernals and I have an itch to play as one of the Green Sun Princes. I actually have two ideas percolating in my mind for a character. I'm hoping to find fellow players and a GM to run for us. :)

[Rajah]

Well, in as a fellow, definitely.

[Empyrean]

Awesome! Any idea of what you want to play?

Personally, my two ideas were as follows.

1.) A reincarnation of Amyana of Luthe as a Green Sun Princess. Malefactor with an Ophidian or Kimberian Urge.

2.) A young exalt who is the reincarnation of the sorcerer Five Moons. A Defiler with probably a Cecelyian Urge.

[Rajah]

I'd love to run a Slayer favoring Revlid's Metagaos! A sort of dark-eyed mashup of Conan the Barbarian and Thulsa Doom, with aesthetic influences from the British Raj.

Alternatively: Scourge favoring She Who Lives in Her Name. Love, zen, murder, and mad science.

[Empyrean]

Where is this Metagaos writeup?

And if we can find a GM what power level do you think we should start at? Fresh out of the box or more experienced Infernals?

[RSGAlex]

Gimme two or three days (to hopefully finish getting over whatever I've caught) and a link to the Metagaos stuff and I'll throw my hat in for GM. Or player if somebody else wants to do GM duties.

[Rajah]

Metagaos, the All-Hunger Blossom

I'm personally in the camp that the game runs best Essence 3-5 and falls apart pretty much immediately once you have stuff on your sheet that says "prerequisite: Essence 6." So I'd vote for slightly experienced but not very experienced, if our prospective ST is amenable to voting.

I know every Infernal player wants to play with the Devil Tiger stuff some day; a solution that worked okay in my home tabletop game was to hardcap Essence at 5 (cannot exceed by any means, Charms, age, Endowment, whatever) and just drop the entire tree by a point, which didn't break anything, since most of it's just aesthetics. But even without the DT stuff, I'd recommend staying below E6.

[ExisD]

Heya, I'd also be potentially interested as a player. While I do enjoy GMing Exalted, I don't enjoy doing it via pbp.

I have a couple of ideas dependent on what power scale is decided on. The biggest two are a Defiler of Kimbery with a heavy focus on craft(genesis) and minions or a Malefactor of Malfeas/Isidoros(if revlid's charmset is allowed) who really does want companions, but might not have the best ideas of how to go about getting them.

[Empyrean]

I like the idea of E 3-5 if our ST is cool with voting, and I like Rajah's solution of bringing the DT stuff down a dot.

[Zaer Darkwail]

I voice interest also and I agree dropping devil-tiger stuff by one dot, helping qualify for them without taking charm which allows buy 6th dot essence before first century. So far my own idea is a fiend deeply into Golden Years Tarnished Black, along with custom shintai charm in said tree.

[RSGAlex]

I gave Metagaos a quick look over and want to say it looks okay at first blush. Right now I'll be looking over the pompadour pig and digesting what's in that set. If people want to mess around with DT stuff, I don't' mind dropping it some.

As for where to start, if you guys want to pitch some Ess/Exp total ideas at me, pitch away. I'll give 'em a listen if nothing else.

EDIT: As I look over the Isidoros charms, I misread the line about 'peasants onto thrones' as 'peanuts.' I wondered if I missed an in-joke before re-reading.

[Re Z L]

I gave Metagaos a quick look over and want to say it looks okay at first blush. Right now I'll be looking over the pompadour pig and digesting what's in that set. If people want to mess around with DT stuff, I don't' mind dropping it some.

As for where to start, if you guys want to pitch some Ess/Exp total ideas at me, pitch away. I'll give 'em a listen if nothing else.

(Also, I'm always interested in Exalted)

I've also noticed that people tend to really like Infernals primarily for the DT stuff...  Why not just cut to the chase?  If we're already lowering the requirements, why not just start off as Essence 3 Devil-Tigers with our own charm sets?  Just a thought.

[ExisD]

I gave Metagaos a quick look over and want to say it looks okay at first blush. Right now I'll be looking over the pompadour pig and digesting what's in that set. If people want to mess around with DT stuff, I don't' mind dropping it some.

As for where to start, if you guys want to pitch some Ess/Exp total ideas at me, pitch away. I'll give 'em a listen if nothing else.

EDIT: As I look over the Isidoros charms, I misread the line about 'peasants onto thrones' as 'peanuts.' I wondered if I missed an in-joke before re-reading.

I'm actually much less interested in DT since coming up with entire charm sets tends to delay a lot of things and can be a problem for the GM.... Though this is coming from someone who decided to re-write the solar and abyssal charmsets at one point and I wouldn't object if everyone is up for it.

[RSGAlex]

No, it's a kind of tea. It's even in the name.

More seriously, I mentioned DT stuff because, one it was mentioned in the thread and two, because it's almost fully half of the signature Infernal high essence stuff. If the game does go far enough to make Ess 6 a consideration, I'll try to come up with something more impressive than just raw dice. (Although if anyone wants to tell me now that they want to make their character into Isidoros or Metagaos, say it now. I need to plan around these kinds of things. :P)

[Empyrean]

Essence 3 or 4 sounds good. Experienced enough to have maybe made names for ourselves.

Re ZL: Starting as Devil-Tigers. That's an interesting thought, but wouldn't that also mean starting with the Yozis already infuriated with us and gunning for us? Maybe the DT stuff can be something some of us work towards from creation if we're interested, without having achieved it yet?

[Re Z L]

Essence 3 or 4 sounds good. Experienced enough to have maybe made names for ourselves.

Re ZL: Starting as Devil-Tigers. That's an interesting thought, but wouldn't that also mean starting with the Yozis already infuriated with us and gunning for us? Maybe the DT stuff can be something some of us work towards from creation if we're interested, without having achieved it yet?

No, it's a kind of tea. It's even in the name.

More seriously, I mentioned DT stuff because, one it was mentioned in the thread and two, because it's almost fully half of the signature Infernal high essence stuff. If the game does go far enough to make Ess 6 a consideration, I'll try to come up with something more impressive than just raw dice. (Although if anyone wants to tell me now that they want to make their character into Isidoros or Metagaos, say it now. I need to plan around these kinds of things. :P)

The real difficulty behind DTs is building your charms, as ExisD pointed out, starting out as DTs at a lower essence (I couldn't see doing it at 2, but 3 is reasonable I think) means that you can build the charms a little more organically so to speak.  You'd only need to build up to Ess 3 charms at the beginning and could then create more as the game progresses and you gain essence.  It also means challenges are a bit easier to manage--things can get pretty silly at Ess 6+, where you're not usually fighting or adventuring so much as reshaping whole swathes of creation/underworld/malfeas to fit your vision of things.

The Yozis could be angry with them, though it's possible they don't fully understand what they're becoming either and think they still have a hold over them to some degree.  You could end up being the superstars of the Infernals (not necessarily a good thing), or you could be on the run from Hell AND the Realm AND the Sidereals AND...  you get the idea.

I'm not trying to advocate it or anything, and I've never done anything this way before so I don't really have any experience with how it might work out, just pointing out some options.

[Zaer Darkwail]

Usually if game starts with 'everyone is devil-tiger' it looses some charm in becoming one as I really want to play entering the chrysalis and the transformation but after I had done stuff as regular infernal.

So my own suggestion is that we start at hard cap 3-4, get bunch freebie charms/backgrounds (or plain XP if wanted) to make chars which can survive in exalted setting. Also some ST's had ruled you get automatic purchase of ox-body (or equivalent) from every essence increase past 1 (so essence 4 infernals in such rule has 3 purchases of devil-body). As means make chars survivable and not be 'that scared' of mortal hitting them with a mace to the face.

However point being I do like DT stuff come down the line but I also work way up to it (discover it, have secret talks with other PC's about discovery and means how we figure out alternative path to power and also get reason to become DT's in first place; why we would risk such gambit unless we wanted to be free from yozis influence).

[ExisD]

I'd second the suggestions of starting at 3-4 with some extra charms/backgrounds. I also think DT fits better when you're a bit higher power. The characters should be chaffing at their restrictions, both thematically and politically, then so rebellions fits much better. It also gives me at least more of an idea about where the character is going.

And one of the house rules I used to give some survive-ability is giving characters Stamina -0's, it also makes stamina worth buying.

[RSGAlex]

I'm always in favor of (Ess) Ox-Bodies. (Well, Hardened Devil-Bodies.) So that one's definitely in. As is 'Can buy extras HDBs to the normal limits for the charm.'


(And I would have to post juuust after Rajah left.)

[Empyrean]

I like the idea of building towards DT. I can certainly see my character (especially the Malefactor), chafing at the limits and wanting to be more. Starting off as regular Infernals and then building towards DThood seems like it would be an awesome story arc. :)

Also: What category should the game be in?

[Rajah]

Voting for Essence 3 and Essence rising by Storyteller fiat rather than experience. I'm against starting as Devil Tigers and for lowering 'em a dot, mostly for the same logistics reason that's been covered.

I got no intentions of playing the I'm-the-other-Malfeas game and am less excited by the Devil Tiger stuff than average; the Heretical keyword usually covers most of my homebrew needs, which aren't themselves immediate either.

I'd vote for (Essence) Ox-Bodies and free Caste or Favored First and Second Excellencies.

Also: What category should the game be in?

I'd vote Bondage Exotic Small Groups. Covers everything except NC.

[ExisD]

Also: What category should the game be in?

Given the events that happen, and things that exist, in canon in Exalted I'd say we'd probably want NC:Exotic unless people have major objections to potential content that would occur there. We aren't playing Lunars who would definitely call for that, but Infernals are the second worst, or best depending on how you look at it, in that regard.

If someone does have objections, I'd agree with Bondage being the right level.

[Empyrean]

NC: Exotic sounds like it would be good. Or Bondage.

[Rajah]

If I'm being honest, the reason I'm on Elliquiy is because it's one more site that offers roleplay, widening the net, rather than for its relatively unique culture and content offerings. No personal interest in NC content, but no objections either.

[Zaer Darkwail]

NC:Exotic I think is good also for exalted adult games (consider exalted canon). It may be not Rajah's cup of tea but other players may want do some stuff in exotic format (ofc in smut threats or own personal solo threads than in main story ones unless it's part of the plot).

So overall fine with essence 3 start along with that your favored/patron yozis first excellency and second excellency are bought as freebies if you got charm purchased from both (overall it can apply all exalts in the game; if you buy charm from a favored/caste ability you get first and second excellencies for free while third ones need purchased). Along with rule essence x ox-bodies purchased freely and can also buy extra top of that (up to usual limit which is stamina).

Besides extra XP or freebies (more BP to buy stuff or simply dictate '+10 charms from standard' or such).