Who else here plays Exalted?

[beepeearr]

One last thing, I'm proud to say that I've been performing reckless stunts as long as I've been playing, granted I DM more than play now, but you can bet when I do I'm going to do something the DM thinks is stupid until I actually pull it off. The same campaign as above (3.5 Darksun conversion by the way) I escaped from a templar surrounded bar by pretending to pass out dropping the large jug of spirits I had purchased when they first entered into the cooking fire setting the whole bar on fire. In the confusion I managed to escape up the chimney and escape along the roof tops. Once again a daring plan which required lots of skill checks anyone of which could have resulted in ultimate failure. Just because something is hard doesn't mean it can't be done.

I've found it doesn't matter what game or system I play It's going to happen sooner or later. As soon as something looks impossible to accomplish, you can bet I'm going to try something reckless (I blame it on too much A-team and Macgyver during my childhood).

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

It's tough at first--it certainly takes some getting used to. One of my PbP games is a Noblis game (my first every Nobilis game! ) and I think is a good example of the game (if you care to look at David Artel in my sig).

We're also can take in another character now, I think.

I'm afraid that I spend far too much time online already to have the time for a PbP game. Thanks for the offer, though...

 

[Jdvn1]

I'm afraid that I spend far too much time online already to have the time for a PbP game. Thanks for the offer, though...

I can certainly understand that sentiment. Well, the game is there to read if you have the time and I'm sure we'll be open to more players in the future anyway.

 

[beepeearr]

"Well, Legolas's actions were cool because of what he did. I never once thought that he might fail. It never crossed my mind. The only scene that really got me on the level of uncertianty was Sam vs. the giant spider."

The chance of failure is what makes reckless actions so fun. If the chance of success outweighs the chance of failure then it's hardly reckless then is it?

First question: "Is it less cool for a rogue to sneak past a series of guards because he has a higher chance of success than the fighter?"

No, theres still the chance for failure, but I guarantee the reward of success will seem sweeter to the fighter, who problably had serious doubts he would succeed, where as the rogue will problably look upon the success as expected.

Second, have you ever said "You know, that sucked. Roll again."?

As a DM, that's why a reward karma so that the player has that option if he wants to use it. I award karma after the action that deserved the karma not before or during. As a Player sometimes failure is just the price you have to pay. I find that for some reason I tend to roll better when it's all on the line, as opposed to when I play it safe. So that may color my opinions, plus it's more fun to be reckless, If you are going to fail, might as well fail spectacularly

Third, does it ever reach the point where your chances of success are slim enough that trying becomes dumb instead of fun?

Depends really, as long as it is something your character could realistically accomplish (in a cinematic sense of reality anyways) and that the outcome of which really would make a difference if you were successful, then no. But if you mean trying to perform epic stunts at 1st level then the answer would be yeah that would be silly. I'm not knocking other systems I've played my fair share of other sytems, some I like, others not so much.

Fourth, does having rules for cargo trade help a pirate game?

Are you asking if knowing the potential booty available to be pirated would help a pirate game, My instincts would be yes if the players were responsible for determing which ships to go after Ie if the were the captain and such. If they were just crew, I don't think it would matter much though.

My turn now.

Does it ever reach the point where your chances of failure are slim enough that performing daring stunts becomes less daring and more common.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Well, even in Exalted, there is always a chance of failure with stunts. In the end, all you get is bonus die and the assurance that the difficulty won't be higher than if you had done it in a non-flashy way. And since the probability distributions in Exalted follow bell curves rather than than being flat like in D&D, you can never be completely sure that you will fail. But there is always a chance for success, too...

 

[beepeearr]

Oh I know theres a chance for failure, but don't you find it funny though that your chance for success is actually better when you perform trickier actions as opposed to when you play it safe. I played in an exalted game back when it first came out and found that I never failed a single roll. We played for two months, and did losts of exciting things, It seemed the only people failing were the people who weren't doing anything spectacular. It was fun, and the setting was cool, problably my second favorite setting from White Wolf (Changeling, being the first), but It always seemed everything came too easily.

But that was one of my main complaints about White wolf games, that and the gross inability to port from one game to the other (honestly having checked out the newest edition though). As much as I don't care for their games, I absolutely love having their players in my D&D games. One of the funnest groups I ever DMed for was made up of equal parts White Wolf Gamers, D&D Gamers and War Gamers. The white wolf gamers encouraged everyone to role-play more, and the war gamers encouraged everyone to work together more efficiently in combat, and the D&D gamers where there to help them with the mechanics.

 

[sotmh]

The Exalted rules include a built-in bonus for players who describe their actions well, D&D does not. Thus, many D&D games boil down to "I swing at the Orc with my longsword" while Exalted is more likely to include "I lunge foward, my sword races along the ground kicking up a trail of dust as it streaks towards my unprepared opponent."

Can you include elaborate descriptions in D&D? Of course.
Can you exlcude them in Exalted? Of course.

But the Exalted system includes a mechanical benefit for using them, while D&D does not, making most players likely to at least attempt to use them.

In short, Exalted is preferable if you enjoy narrative combat, while D&D is preferable if you enjoy tactical combat.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

In short, Exalted is preferable if you enjoy narrative combat, while D&D is preferable if you enjoy tactical combat.

That about sums it up. I always use maps with grids when I run D&D, but so far I haven't bothered with Exalted beyond a few very rough sketches - I think it is more in the spirit of the genre to let players improvise parts of the environment so that they can use it in their stunts.

 

[evildmguy]

In short, Exalted is preferable if you enjoy narrative combat, while D&D is preferable if you enjoy tactical combat.

Wow. I leave the boards for a half day and this discussion really gets going!

I think that the above statement is good but not inclusive enough. Stunts are possible on ANY die roll. From any combat situation, to any social, to mental ones. If a player takes the time to come up with a ritual for a spell and describes what he does, it is worth extra dice. If they role play the social situation and describe a few things, it is worth some more dice. That means that, in general, the system as a whole encourages more description and, well, story telling.

And for me, that's what made Exalted a great system. The game mechanics helped me tell a story. If I want a bad guy to get away for the story, I can make it happen without forcing anything. The rules help me tell my story. (Again, there is trust from the players that what I am doing will make sense and that the BBEG won't always get away.) Further, the mechanics also give a LOT more control to the players, which I think is a good thing. Rather than it coming down to a single roll to decide the fate of a character, the player has a lot of choices to help their character succeed. It doesn't always work, and sometimes not as they expected, but it does give them more control over their character and the character's actions. I think that's a good thing.

It isn't better or worse than d20. It merely has a different style and one that I like.

Have a good one! Take care!

edg

 

[Tiberius]

I stand in awe before Nobilis, but I am not sure if I can wrap my head around the system enough to actually run it. In this, it is much like Exalted: The Fair Folk which was not coincidentally written by the same author ("I attack my foe with Social Problems?!?").

Heh. Rebecca has a remarkable gift: she can make me say "I recognize and regularly abuse every single word in that paragraph, but even so I have no idea what she's trying to say."

We're run three Exalted games with my group, and all shut down prematurely. The first one ended up with a Charm arms race between the Zenith and my Ex-Eclipse Moonshadow and half a TPK. I was happy to coexist, but he got it into his head that I was inevitably going to gank him, and with the other two members of the Circle dead there was really no excuse for us to continue with that party.

Circle #2 was more harmonious, and I was enjoying my Zenith pharaoh/sorcerer, but the other PCs were having some trouble finding their niche. After three or four sessions, the ST shut it down because he decided he'd rather run Eberron. At the time I was still in my "My hat of d02 knows no limit" mode, so this pleased me little. Now, I'm glad he did, 'cause Eberron rocks!

Circle #3 was my turn at ST. Initially, I had wanted to run a Lunar game, as we had done Solars, but the players preferred what they knew. So I imported my Lunar plotline, and things went pretty well for a while. The Mail & Steel rules proved unpopular, one of the players died a whole lot, and eventually I shut this one down too as I was coming to view it as a chore, mostly due to "coolness" conflicts with one of the players.

I think my group is just unsuited toward Exalted, especially with me at the helm. The other ST and I have our coolometers calibrated pretty closely together, so that's good. One of the other players, however, has an idea of cool pretty diametrically opposed to mine, doing things like importing comic book or anime characters and using them as PCs ("My concept is 'Batman'!"), invoking assorted anime tropes when taking actions as justifications for their success, and so forth. Nothing inherently wrong with these, mind you, they're just not my idea of fun. Player #3 doesn't especially like the power level. More specifically, he doesn't like the whopping amounts of unearned power. He finds it difficult to understand the motivations of someone who was just a guy doing his thing, and then one day having ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER thrust into his being. Player #4 just has a play style which doesn't quite mesh with mine, and so he tends to die a lot. Though that last time was his fault, trying to solo a 3-point enemy like he did. That'll put a damper on anyone's play experience.

I'm getting to play this weekend while I visit a friend in Houston, so I'm happy.