Tag: text post

Ami mentioned Genderbends and now all I wanna do is babble about my OCs

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Start from beginning.

Genderbent Tabor let her hair grow out super long while trying to fix her curse. She’s a huge awkward dork who’s hair gets in her eyes and she prolly went through that really derpy braces phase. And her only friends are this zombie chick who she’s pretty sure is a stoner, and a boy like, half her age who think’s he’s super tough bus is also a durr social outcast.

SHERWOOD THE SUPER LESBIAN!
No but really, I figured she’d still have dad issues (because reasons) so she’d hate men and be this super faminazi chick who hits on all the ladies ever. Her hair would be long (because she likes it that way) but she keeps it up and practices archery and is super chaotic good power lady. But she’d be really obnoxious because ‘men are scummy’.

And she and Tabor would have doofy adventures and be best lesbians

Okay but Marian tho. Suave and sophisticated male Marian who keeps his curly hair down to his chin and smiles like a super model. A man who doesn’t wear a shirt if he doesn’t have to and who is incredibly good at business (and looks damn good in a suit. But, a man easily distracted by love and romance who takes ladies (and gentlemen) on fancy elaborate dates and buys them chocolate and flowers and spins beautiful poetry. He’s so anime he sparkles, I can feel it.

And he prolly tries to convince fem!Sherwood there are good guys out there and she calls him a manwhore and then goes off to sleep with 3 other ladies because she’s a huge hypocrite.

Also little rough and tumble ‘all boy’ Dulcie who sets things on fire and bakes cookies with his older siblings and shares them with all the kids at school. And he bothers fem!Tabor who secretly tries to keep him out of trouble. He’d keep his hair short, but tossle-able and it is the brightest orange you ever did see. With big blue eyes and this super freckled face and just. Ugh cuties.

The Difficult Life of Cynis Mayumi

Okay, so my current Exalted character is a Solar by the name of Cynis Mayumi (also known as Marian Cypress or the Masked Marvel). She’s having a real tough time right now so I’m going to just spew about it under the cut.

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Marian was ‘born’ a dynast and never exalted into a proper dragonblood. Her younger sister, however, not only exalted but did so at an incredibly young age. Her parents decided to marry Marian off to the best political advantage they could get. Marian runs away and exalts into a solar in the process.

Marian passes out from the sheer overwhelming rush of past life memories and relies completely on her only companion to escort her to the escape ship. She has dreams where she experiences all of the loss and heartache and pain that her previous exaltation went through. She also dreams of someone very loved, who was always there to save her. A man who only wanted her to be herself.

When Marian awakes she tells her companion of her new-found curse as an anathema and the two continue their voyage away from the Blessed Isle. She heads North to territory protected from the Realm by a great and powerful dragon-like creature; as she knows she will be safe there. After all, it was where her previous Exaltation had lived.

While there she tries to reconnect with the daughter of her previous Exaltation, getting her thrown out of the territory. She heads to the central hub of the campaign: Diamond City.

Along the way she falls in love with one of the major antagonists of the campaign in order to learn Fainting Maiden Style (with the exception of the final charm, which he refuses to teach her). She is still in love with her dream man. She also has feelings for her companion, but she doesn’t ever touch on those. She also technically knows all of the current party members, but none of them are aware of this.

To protect herself from judgmental minds, Marian claims she is only a mortal seeking to do business and avoids mentioning she’s a dynast (hence the name change). She meets the man of her dreams, only to be ignored and cast aside; he is still grieving the person he lost. Only one previous party member is really nice and accepting (and that’s because that’s how she acts with everyone).

Stuff happens and the party ends up at a wedding for the major antagonist. They’re there to keep him from being murdered (he’s a bad guy but some of us still like him? It’s complicated). During the course of the wedding: dream guy shows up as an assistant to the most powerful antagonist in the entire game (one who nearly killed one party member twice and who has had a major hand in screwing everything over)((See: The Ebon Dragon)); the previous exaltation’s mother shows up and accepts Marian as her own daughter (sweet, but odd for the girl concerning her background); and the friendly antagonist (and current love interest) seduces a woman before tearing her heart from her chest and crushing it.

Things only get more difficult upon the return from the wedding, as word comes in that Dragonblood soldiers are marching near the city. Knott, the party defacto-leader says it’s not a problem and they will be delt with. Marian, not wanting dragonbloods to be needlessly murdered (umm…family? Friends? not cool) speaks against such rash action. An argument breaks out and Marian goes to punch Knott, only for an adorably small child to get in the way. Realizing there is nothing she can do to convince the party otherwise, she leaves the situation.

She’s upset. The man of her dreams is in league with the Ebon dragon. The other love interest ripped out some chicks heart (if that doesn’t unsettle you there is an issue somewhere). The mother of her past life is offering to treat her as a real daughter, while her previous parents gave no care. People she still feels loyalty toward may be in danger, and there is nothing she can do about it. She cannot reveal herself as an Anathema without becoming a pariah to her people. She cannot reveal herself as a Dynast for fear of being villainized by people her past life considered friends. She punched an innocent child.

She is lost and confused and angry and scared….and has no idea what to do.

My poor sweet Marian….

Let’s Talk About Exalted: THE MASTERPOST

All caps because why not?

This is a masterpost of all of my LTAE topics for easy navigation. I will update it as I go.

Why and Setting Introduction

Exalted Basics – Sentient species of the world and Choosing your Champion

Attributes and Abilities – Strengths and Skills for shaping your character

Backgrounds and More! – How a character is impacted by their backstory (mechanically) and how their decisions are impacted by their personality (also we talk about essence, so this one’s important)

Infernals: Part 1 – A look at Infernal Exalts. An Introduction by GreenSunPrincess

Solars: Part 1 – A look at Solar Exalts. An Introduction to the typical starting exalt

Merits, Flaws, and More! – How merits and flaws can make more interesting characters; as well as a glimpse into mutations (also covers a character’s motivation!)

Past Lives and Throwback – A specific look at the Past Lives Merit and Throwback flaw; helpful for more dynamic characters!

Travel Times – My method for figuring out how long it takes to get from point A to Point B in Creation

Martial Arts and Philosophy – Exalted’s Martial Arts System, its versatility, and how learning styles can change characters views of the world around them

Other nice Exalted things:

Ed’s Exalted Toolkits – A great resource for making Exalted characters. Does all the tough math and other things for you. Has everything you need to get started with making your character right!

Roll 20 – An awesome web application for running campaigns online. If you decide to play some Exalted, hit me up, maybe I could join you =D

Let’s Talk About Exalted: Backgrounds and More!

Today we’re going to try and finish up character basics, beginning with Backgrounds (Story things). From there I’ll touch on specialties, willpower, and virtues before ending with Essence. Then we can start really looking into the types of Exalts and perhaps try making a character!

Get ready to read, under the cut!

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Backgrounds are not a topic typically covered under other RPGs I’ve played. There is no good DnD counterpart for this, so let me explain.

Backgrounds reflect parts of a character’s backstory that they can either call upon or that have influenced them. Artifacts, which include magical weapons and armor, are the most physical example. You cannot have an artifact at the start without enough dots in the background.
Less physical artifacts are things like Contacts, or Reputation. Things that you can call on without them necessarily being there.

Here is a comprehensive list of backgrounds (which I believe are non exclusive).

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Allies – close friends and trusted companions who are better than extras. This includes other Exalts, small gods, fair folk, or other magical beings as well as powerful mortals. They make good roleplay tools (but they might ask for favors)

Arsenal – Large quantities of powerful (artifact or thurmaturgical) weapons, armor, etc. ((My Storyteller doesn’t allow this background)) Warstriders (giant robots) are sometimes included here.

Artifact – Magical weapons, armor, or accessories. Remnants of the first age that are crazy powerful and must bond to their owner (via committing motes). Most Exalts (in my experience) start with something in this background

Backing – dots here represent standing in an important organization. This can give a character prestige, give reasoning for having lots of money, or provide the storyteller with a reason to make you do things (it’s your responsibility/job). Likewise, you can use your organization to your advantage (like getting a fellow guild member’s information for an investigation)

Contacts – You’ve got friends in low places. You know a guy. you can get info about things from people you’ve connected to….for a favor, of course.

Cult – There are people out there who actually worship you. Exalts with this background regain motes and willpower faster. Solars should be careful, however, as Dragonbloods go out of their way to kill Solar cults.

Face – This background denotes fame in the Martial Arts world. You are an impressive fighter and have gained attention because of it. Unless an Exalt was already an impressive martial artist as a mortal, they most likely will not start with this background. Two martial artists (on ‘equal’ footing (mortal vs mortal, exalt vs Exalt) facing each other can compare their Face value. The person with the higher Face may add their dots here in bonus dice against their opponent (provided their opponent is aware of their fame). ((Feel free to ask more questions on this one and I will see if I can explain it better.

Familiar – Everyone loves animal friends. The more dots here the more exotic or intelligent your fuzzy (or scaly) friend is. A familiar draws essence from their master, and won’t die of age until their master does.

Followers – Personal assistants, butlers, devoted acolytes, etc. These people are devoted (maybe even worship you). Unlike Allies, these guys are typically extras and are never Exalted. Each dot gives you x amount of followers, but be careful You’ll need other background dots to really support them.

Influence – An Exalt’s political power. People pay attention to you for one reason or another. They listen, maybe do favors for you, or just support you…politically. More dots increase range of influence.

Inheritance – People born of Exalts are called half-castes, and are often more powerful than the average mortal. This background adds a little umph to that idea, putting real power from one’s parents on the sheet. There’s lots to this one, so ask if you need more information.

Intelligent Warstrider Ally – This background requires 3 dots minimum. If you find a storyteller who lets you take this, let me know, I’ll bother telling you about it then.

Manse – Most storytellers don’t let an Exalt start with this background, but it’s one that one could easily (well…not easily) pick up later on. A manse, in simple terms, is a big palace built in a special manner where the magic of creation is most concentrated. An exalt who claims this place as their own recovers motes super fast, and gets a hearthstone (a nifty magic rock that does something specific and helpful). It’s crazy useful.

Mentor – Someone who guided your exalt after they exalted. Most solars tend to not get this advantage, but it seems like a good choice for Lunars. A mentor can likely be called upon in times of trouble, provided you can find them.

Panoply – I am going to admit I have never seen this one used. According to my resources, it represents access to magical objects? This one is tricky…

Resources – How much money, in creation does your character have? Enough to own a nice house and feed a family of four meat, five days a week? Are they forced to live alone in a tiny shack? The advancement for this gets out of hand really quickly. A Resources 5 character can buy most anything they want, out of pocket. ((Including a legion of soldiers)) This also means your character has a job, allowing him or her to keep making this money.
Oftentimes, quest rewards will consist of ‘Temporary Resources’ which are not added to the background, and once spent are gone.

Savant – How much knowledge one has regarding the first age. Savant dots can be added to lore checks regarding the first age, and craft checks regarding fixing or building first age artifacts. Nine times out of Ten, only a Sidereal will have this knowledge. If you are not a Sidereal, and have this knowledge, then think long and hard about how your character got it.

Workshop – Items made from magical materials (as well as magical materials themselves) must be honed in impressively impossible places. Forges where the fire is made of lava, super heated with specific mirror arrangements guiding down the light of the sun, as one example. More than likely, you will not start with this background. Many of these places are gone since the first age, and making one is no cake walk.

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Now, some Exalt types have Backgrounds that others can/do not have. Dragonbloods, for example, have a background called Breeding which indicates an intrinsic power level based upon their parents Breeding levels and directly influencing any children that Dragonblood may have. I’m not going to cover this presently, ((but if anyone wants an in depth guide to Dragonblood breeding please drop a note)).
Any Exalt specific Backgrounds will be covered in the covering of that Exalt. For now, these are the important ones.

Specialties

This is quick and easy. Specialties are extra dice you get to role under specific circumstances (Things you specialize in).

Example: Marian, my current Night Caste Solar, has a 3 dot specialty to Integrity (mental defense) against people she has slept with. As well as a 2 dot specialty in Thrown as long as she is attacking from cover.

For starting characters, you get 4 dots to play with with a maximum of 3 dots in any one specialty. Be careful, your storyteller might be picky about what is and is not too broad to be considered.

Willpower, Virtues, and Essence

Essence, with a big ‘E’, refers to the overall power level of your Exalt. It should be kept in mind, that this follows the same 1-5 scale we mentioned previously, sort of.

Mortals are Essence 1, with minimal exception. Exalts start at Essence 2 (or 3 if you decide to spend bonus points here).

Increasing your Essence is expensive, but well worth the investment. Certain charms (magical things) can only be purchased at higher Essence levels. Essence (big E) also influences your usable essence (little e) or mote pools (which are needed to use most charms). Some charms even do damage or have abilities that depend on your essence. So, two exalts could have a charm that adds Essence damage, but the 5 Essence exalt will do more damage than the 3 Essence exalt.

Willpower also influences your essence. Willpower begins the game scaled from 1 to 10. Permanent dots represent a person’s mental stability and the base willpower is a combination of the two highest virtues (typically putting it at a five to a six). Additional points of willpower can be bought with bonus points or experience, but Willpower is likely the most expensive thing to but in the whole game.
If an attack affects your willpower, the dots are only lost temporarily and can be regained after a few nights of rest. However, should you lose all of your willpower you can no longer say no to demands of others. You have to do what people tell you. ((My group calls this ‘sammich mode’ because theoretically the bad guy could tell you to go make him a sandwich and you would have to do it.))

The other big thing to remember about willpower is that is incredibly useful for social defense. You can use it to suppress supernatural influence (bad guys using magic to get you to do things you don’t want to do), though the cost can be rather high. It’s also necessary for using multiple charms on a single attack or to use some charms at all. Take away message: Spend all of your bonus points on Willpower or you will hate yourself.

Did I mention Willpower without mentioning Virtues? Silly me.

Virtues are who you are as a person. They influence not only your overall willpower, but:

  • How you react in a dangerous situation (Valor)
  • How well you resist temptation (Temperance)
  • How much you care for others (Compassion)
  • How driven you are in pursuit of your goals (Conviction)

These, once more, fall on our scale from 1 to 5 but always start at 1. Compassion influences how many intimacies ((people or concepts that are important to you in either a positive or negative light)) you are allowed to have. Sometimes, attacks or in game actions will require a virtue to be rolled. Recovering willpower, for example, requires a successful conviction roll; while killing another individual requires a failed compassion roll ((unless you’re an abyssal, then you have to roll a successful Temperance to not kill them)).

I hope we’ve had a lot more to think about with this post. I’ll call it for now, but stay tuned for our next post on Merits and Flaws (with Wyld Mutations) as well as a final touch on Motivation. Then, we should be done with everything outside of charms (which will be covered briefly in their own post and then more in depth in regard to each Exalt type).

There’s a post on my dash about purple Hawke and how insensitive s/he can be at times. While I don’t disagree, my interpretation had always been (when I chose a purple decision at a moment where humor was not invited) that that was simply my Hawke’s way of dealing with things. Try to spin a joke to lift the mood. Try to fight the dark feelings in the room with a light statement.

She joked because she was scared; not because she didn’t care. She cared a lot about everyone. She never wanted to pick sides, or to deal in all the fighting. She wanted her new home to be safe and happy….and everything always seemed to fall apart. So she made jokes, to keep from falling into a sad and sorry person.

Yeah, it wasn’t always the best decision, but that’s how she needed to cope.

Done now

Dear…

diegolovesyouhope:

I will write about the following, leave one in my ask box.

Dear person I hate,

Dear person I like,

Dear ex boyfriend,

Dear ex girlfriend,

Dear ex bestfriend,

Dear bestfriend,

Dear Santa,

Dear mom,

Dear dad,

Dear future me,

Dear past me,

Dear person I’m jealous of,

Dear person I had a crush on,

Dear significant other, 

Please send me some!

Let’s Talk About Exalted: Infernals (Part 1)

Today my lovely fiance finally found the words to begin your journey to the world of Malfeas and its (usually) faithful servants. Strap in, readers, you’re in for quite the ride!

greensunprincess:

Lets talk about Infernals: The Rightful Kings

Open your fleshy ears and listen,for these words are truths laid into the very foundations of Creation, writ into the shadows and the sands and the stars.

Read More