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The last Exalted game is on Thursday, for which I more or less breathe a sigh of relief. I entered into this game with mixed feelings - I wanted to be a part of the gaming group again, I figured it would be better then last time, I wanted to get a chance to play a Sidereal (my favorite Exalt type), well, for plenty of reasons. But I also knew that there was a good chance things would get fucked and never recover and my ST obliged me with a game that was more a combination of story time and a lecture on morals from someone with a Manichean ethos, possessing a grasp of the subtle along such other luminaries as hand grenades, jack hammers, and Bill O'Riley.
So here we are at the end, with a twist ending that I can already tell you all the hows, whys and where's of. I don't know if you can call it a twist ending at that point any more then you can claim you're surprised to be sick after deciding to tackle all those pitchers of margarita during an ill advised happy hour. We know. We failed, but wait, it was a success all along and those assholes that hang around being better then us at everything and have never, ever been wrong ever were right! Yeah, we saw it coming. You forgot to unplug the big, neon sign on the horizon. But it's ok. At least we're drinking.
I entered the game building a character that I generally had hoped to survive to the end with. Someone with layers of shoddy, tissue-like defenses because that's what you get when you're a Sidereal. After weighing all my options and looking at what I had to work with, I found the most workable Sidereal Charms available that I could by at character creation then started looking for something sturdier. Like Dragon-Blooded. Or at least Celestial Martial arts. But it was all for naught, because the claim that our ST would be pulling no punches was rendered moot by the total lack of any fights that were not cut scenes ever. I killed a mortal once, and was told what a bad person I was, and also a slut, and that was it for 6 months. I like to exaggerate, but there's nowhere to go with this.
What happened instead was that we would occasionally be told we couldn't do something and if we wanted to badly enough we would make him let us roll some dice. If it wasn't combat, we were told it was impossible without any particular need to check notes or information and if it wasn't, we killed it. This worked to our detriment, because near the end of the game, one of us would occasionally kill an aggressor that had been assumed to be unassailable and a way needed to be created to keep us on track. In essence, our Charms are a better way of telling in what way we'd accidently fuck up the plot by doing something.
So, if you know about Exalted, below are some of the highlights on my solidly working Chosen of Serenity now. I'm not going to write it all out because I no longer have any time and me spending an hour or a half hour writing anything at all represents the greater part of my non-work, non-sleep, non-eating time. (I have about 5 hours of free time a night, tops, which turns into something like 3 after all is said and done.)
Perfected Kata Bracers + Water Dragon Form : My entire character concept. Forget my back story, my merits, any other Charms. I add these together with my existing skills and that's really it. I kept a notecard sitting around with what the bracers did, another for what the charm did, and finally one just clearly labelled and numbered telling everyone how many dice I was going to roll. I had to bring it out for every single use of it because it was always a major deal. Also, proof of what an unquestioning asshole I am.
Every Perform Charm but Harmonic Completion : Worse then useless. I was actually derided for trying to use them once because I was wasting our time.
Harmonic Completion + Air Dragon's Site : Totally broken. My Dodge DV never actually protected me from anything, but I once avoided a mental compulsion effect.
Methodology of Secrets : I used this so much that every other player at the table bought it. Joking aside, it was the workhorse of our day to day games.
Every Water Dragon Charm but the Form : I used Flowing Defense once and Theft of Essence Method once in 9 months. I bet they'd be cool if anything ever happened, but they were pretty much a waste of exp otherwise.
Bottomless Depths Defense : The last Charm I bought. Total perfect soak for the cost of one Agg. I told my ST I bought it and he shrugged.
Impeding the Flow : Every time I use it, my ST tries to figure out why it won't work and it usually does anyhow. It's useful.
Duck Fate : I used this one time and everyone else bought it for when we don't feel like being made an example of. Actually, Avoidance Kata worked the same way.
Joy in Adversity : I bought it, but my DV never once protected me.
Secrets of Future Strife : Every time I use it, I have to explain it because it makes me seem good at something. My ST always just shakes his head in disgust. Ok, once I get, but after that, I think you should just expect it.
Every other Charm : Useless. Never used.
Colleges : We used them in the first two games and loved them. Never used again. We don't have time for this kind of bullshit.
Sifu/Mentor/Savant/Face/Salary : These never show up in game.
Resplendent Destiny : No.
Destiny of any other sort : I insisted on making one once and it had no effect despite being a legendary success.
Skills at 5 - perform, dodge, martial arts : My perform was occasionally amusing. Every time someone rolled to hit me, they succeeded by one. Despite being derided for taking skills at 5, it was the best idea I ever had except for the bracers.
Languages : Never used.
I was given some other artifacts to represent epic, in-game changes : These have no effect and are measurably worse then what I'm using. No thank you.
And there you go!
So here we are at the end, with a twist ending that I can already tell you all the hows, whys and where's of. I don't know if you can call it a twist ending at that point any more then you can claim you're surprised to be sick after deciding to tackle all those pitchers of margarita during an ill advised happy hour. We know. We failed, but wait, it was a success all along and those assholes that hang around being better then us at everything and have never, ever been wrong ever were right! Yeah, we saw it coming. You forgot to unplug the big, neon sign on the horizon. But it's ok. At least we're drinking.
I entered the game building a character that I generally had hoped to survive to the end with. Someone with layers of shoddy, tissue-like defenses because that's what you get when you're a Sidereal. After weighing all my options and looking at what I had to work with, I found the most workable Sidereal Charms available that I could by at character creation then started looking for something sturdier. Like Dragon-Blooded. Or at least Celestial Martial arts. But it was all for naught, because the claim that our ST would be pulling no punches was rendered moot by the total lack of any fights that were not cut scenes ever. I killed a mortal once, and was told what a bad person I was, and also a slut, and that was it for 6 months. I like to exaggerate, but there's nowhere to go with this.
What happened instead was that we would occasionally be told we couldn't do something and if we wanted to badly enough we would make him let us roll some dice. If it wasn't combat, we were told it was impossible without any particular need to check notes or information and if it wasn't, we killed it. This worked to our detriment, because near the end of the game, one of us would occasionally kill an aggressor that had been assumed to be unassailable and a way needed to be created to keep us on track. In essence, our Charms are a better way of telling in what way we'd accidently fuck up the plot by doing something.
So, if you know about Exalted, below are some of the highlights on my solidly working Chosen of Serenity now. I'm not going to write it all out because I no longer have any time and me spending an hour or a half hour writing anything at all represents the greater part of my non-work, non-sleep, non-eating time. (I have about 5 hours of free time a night, tops, which turns into something like 3 after all is said and done.)
Perfected Kata Bracers + Water Dragon Form : My entire character concept. Forget my back story, my merits, any other Charms. I add these together with my existing skills and that's really it. I kept a notecard sitting around with what the bracers did, another for what the charm did, and finally one just clearly labelled and numbered telling everyone how many dice I was going to roll. I had to bring it out for every single use of it because it was always a major deal. Also, proof of what an unquestioning asshole I am.
Every Perform Charm but Harmonic Completion : Worse then useless. I was actually derided for trying to use them once because I was wasting our time.
Harmonic Completion + Air Dragon's Site : Totally broken. My Dodge DV never actually protected me from anything, but I once avoided a mental compulsion effect.
Methodology of Secrets : I used this so much that every other player at the table bought it. Joking aside, it was the workhorse of our day to day games.
Every Water Dragon Charm but the Form : I used Flowing Defense once and Theft of Essence Method once in 9 months. I bet they'd be cool if anything ever happened, but they were pretty much a waste of exp otherwise.
Bottomless Depths Defense : The last Charm I bought. Total perfect soak for the cost of one Agg. I told my ST I bought it and he shrugged.
Impeding the Flow : Every time I use it, my ST tries to figure out why it won't work and it usually does anyhow. It's useful.
Duck Fate : I used this one time and everyone else bought it for when we don't feel like being made an example of. Actually, Avoidance Kata worked the same way.
Joy in Adversity : I bought it, but my DV never once protected me.
Secrets of Future Strife : Every time I use it, I have to explain it because it makes me seem good at something. My ST always just shakes his head in disgust. Ok, once I get, but after that, I think you should just expect it.
Every other Charm : Useless. Never used.
Colleges : We used them in the first two games and loved them. Never used again. We don't have time for this kind of bullshit.
Sifu/Mentor/Savant/Face/Salary : These never show up in game.
Resplendent Destiny : No.
Destiny of any other sort : I insisted on making one once and it had no effect despite being a legendary success.
Skills at 5 - perform, dodge, martial arts : My perform was occasionally amusing. Every time someone rolled to hit me, they succeeded by one. Despite being derided for taking skills at 5, it was the best idea I ever had except for the bracers.
Languages : Never used.
I was given some other artifacts to represent epic, in-game changes : These have no effect and are measurably worse then what I'm using. No thank you.
And there you go!
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It's largely a playstyle issue, I guess, when it wasn't an issue on the weird way women are treated in games. But as long as they got their time in the spotlight and were showcased in a light they appreciated, it was mostly good for them. I probably would have settled for that too, but would probably argue that while I had some good scenes, my character was largely not represented the way I felt she should have been. So there's that.
I felt like I'd try to wrap it up in a humorous was, but I don't know how successful I was. This is probably the last I'll talk about it, but my last game is tonight. I drive an hour and a half there direct from work and 40 minutes back, and it'll take my entire night so I hope it's a fitting end.