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Running first game of Exalted, I need help!
Gabriel_Pitt
Stepped in itRegistered User regular
Stepped in itRegistered User regular
So, I'm going to be running an Exalted 1st ed campaign, with a 'circle' of 2 Nights, a Zenith, a Twilight, and a currently undecided. All the characters are starting in relative proximity in the North, although I'll have to work the undecided in when he figures out what he wants to do.
One of the big problems I have with GMing is that I come up with all sorts of big ideas, but I'm not so good with figuring out the small ones to fill the spaces in between.
The setup and current 'plot arcs' are:
The Twilight, with a Wyld Hunt on her heels, fled into a Bordermarch, where she was saved by a Lunar, who agreed to teach her the basics of survival of life as an Exalt. What she doesn't know is that the Lunar was her First Age incarnation's mate, with all sorts of issues regarding her, because during the first age, he became so repulsed by what she had become, he betrayed her to the Dragon-Blooded. He finally abandons her in the Bordermarch when his inner conflict grows too great (although she is not aware of it) This character will pop in and out of the campaign as fitting, until the Twilight has finally uncovered the full story of their history, and it'll depend on her from there.
She and the barbarian Night caste meet up when she is ambushed by the Hunt upon exiting the Bordermarch (everything previous has been backstory), and their uncannily proficent Immaculate diviner. After Exalting, he was on his way to offer his services to the Bull of the North, and investigates when he sees all the Anima banners flaring nearby (it must've been destiny for him to have been nearby). What precisley they do after beating back the Hunt is up to them.
The other two characters get together during the destruction of Gethamane (destroying Gem is soooo overdone). The Night caste was caught as part of a Guild plot to disrupt the fungus gardens, and Exalts as he's being hung (precisley, strangled, and then thrown down a crevice opening to the undertunnels). He escapes, and is chased by another Hunt sent their because the stars predicted a major anethema event, followed by the destruction of Gethamane (just which Realm house has the razor sharp seer connections, and is sending these Hunts is also something I haven't figured out yet).
Most of the Hunt dies in the subsequent chase to the mountain roots, which also awakens Vodak. As the chase goes back upwards, a tunnel collapse seals the Night into the tomb of an ancient Anklok dragonking (a 2 dot ally) who knew the Night during the first age (must be destiny again). They escape back up to the city.
The Zenith Exalts as Gethamane is over run first by monsters fleeing Vodak, and then Vodak itself. He and the Night meet when cut off on all sides by Vodak, they and a small group of citizens retreat to a fortified room and seal themselves in. Their part of the game starts with the face to face meeting, which I'm hoping will have plenty of drama and character building, and not end with them at eachother's throats. If they are unable to figure a way to escape on their own, the Anklok has the ability to easily shift and tunnel through stone, and they are fortunately near the surface (*cough*Destiny *cough*).
The players are willing to cooperate so subsequently getting both parties together won't be too hard. I'm going to nudge them in the direction of Whitewall, taking advantage of the plot hooks offered in Bastions of the North, offering the Zenith the chance to fix the city, and the entire group asked to do something about the nearby shadowland, and the Fair folk will be getting up to some hard core mischief.
And while that should offer quite a bit of juicy gaming, I'm not so sure how to tie it in to what I want to do after, or the 'overall intended arc of the game.'
Essentially, when I read this thread, it made me think of a campaign plot I had for Epic D&D (which guttered quickly because I had lots of big ideas, but no plan on how to work up to them) inspired when I read the entry for Atropals (aborted gods, essentially), where the PCs were led to believe that finding and opening the Tomb of the Golden Emperor would lead to a golden age of the world, instead of releasing an unspeakable horror. Since it never got used, I'm going to reuse the idea, borrowing generously from Numa Numa's idea. Ultimately, unless the PCs pull off something simply fantabulous, it is going to require the Realm defenses to defeat Demiurge Phaethon, and to activate them is going to require rescuing the Scarlett Empress, which is going to mean crashing the Ebon Dragon's wedding, and when they make it back to creation, they're going to have to figure out how to put the shattered wreck of an empress back together again, defending against Malfeas, and Mnemnon et al, should any of her ambitious heirs realize the Empress is back and vulnerable.
If I don't think it's going to overload the game, while this is going on, the Locust Crusade is going to be launched from Autochthon, falter against the Great Contagion, and require the relinking of the Well of Souls to save the life of the Primordial. Which could net them the aid of a primordial against the raging deathchylde of Sol Invictus.
So, basically, my game of connect the dots is messing 99 out of every 100 dots, and tips on how I can fix this would be well apprciated. How do I fill out the big ideas with little ones to flesh out the whole thing (and yes, I'm well famliar with how Exalts are particularly adept at ripping preplanned stories inside out, one reason why I'm having trouble moving beyond broad strokes).
Also, NPC managment. What are the best ways to go about running combats and such? I'm glad that the Hunts have only been in the Background so far, because properly running combat with multiple charm wielders looks very intimidating. I know that I don't have to go through a full character creation for them, but what is the best way to go around generating them? Are any books particularly helpful for templates?
TL- DR:
I'm running Exalted 1st ed. Help!
One of the big problems I have with GMing is that I come up with all sorts of big ideas, but I'm not so good with figuring out the small ones to fill the spaces in between.
The setup and current 'plot arcs' are:
The Twilight, with a Wyld Hunt on her heels, fled into a Bordermarch, where she was saved by a Lunar, who agreed to teach her the basics of survival of life as an Exalt. What she doesn't know is that the Lunar was her First Age incarnation's mate, with all sorts of issues regarding her, because during the first age, he became so repulsed by what she had become, he betrayed her to the Dragon-Blooded. He finally abandons her in the Bordermarch when his inner conflict grows too great (although she is not aware of it) This character will pop in and out of the campaign as fitting, until the Twilight has finally uncovered the full story of their history, and it'll depend on her from there.
She and the barbarian Night caste meet up when she is ambushed by the Hunt upon exiting the Bordermarch (everything previous has been backstory), and their uncannily proficent Immaculate diviner. After Exalting, he was on his way to offer his services to the Bull of the North, and investigates when he sees all the Anima banners flaring nearby (it must've been destiny for him to have been nearby). What precisley they do after beating back the Hunt is up to them.
The other two characters get together during the destruction of Gethamane (destroying Gem is soooo overdone). The Night caste was caught as part of a Guild plot to disrupt the fungus gardens, and Exalts as he's being hung (precisley, strangled, and then thrown down a crevice opening to the undertunnels). He escapes, and is chased by another Hunt sent their because the stars predicted a major anethema event, followed by the destruction of Gethamane (just which Realm house has the razor sharp seer connections, and is sending these Hunts is also something I haven't figured out yet).
Most of the Hunt dies in the subsequent chase to the mountain roots, which also awakens Vodak. As the chase goes back upwards, a tunnel collapse seals the Night into the tomb of an ancient Anklok dragonking (a 2 dot ally) who knew the Night during the first age (must be destiny again). They escape back up to the city.
The Zenith Exalts as Gethamane is over run first by monsters fleeing Vodak, and then Vodak itself. He and the Night meet when cut off on all sides by Vodak, they and a small group of citizens retreat to a fortified room and seal themselves in. Their part of the game starts with the face to face meeting, which I'm hoping will have plenty of drama and character building, and not end with them at eachother's throats. If they are unable to figure a way to escape on their own, the Anklok has the ability to easily shift and tunnel through stone, and they are fortunately near the surface (*cough*Destiny *cough*).
The players are willing to cooperate so subsequently getting both parties together won't be too hard. I'm going to nudge them in the direction of Whitewall, taking advantage of the plot hooks offered in Bastions of the North, offering the Zenith the chance to fix the city, and the entire group asked to do something about the nearby shadowland, and the Fair folk will be getting up to some hard core mischief.
And while that should offer quite a bit of juicy gaming, I'm not so sure how to tie it in to what I want to do after, or the 'overall intended arc of the game.'
Essentially, when I read this thread, it made me think of a campaign plot I had for Epic D&D (which guttered quickly because I had lots of big ideas, but no plan on how to work up to them) inspired when I read the entry for Atropals (aborted gods, essentially), where the PCs were led to believe that finding and opening the Tomb of the Golden Emperor would lead to a golden age of the world, instead of releasing an unspeakable horror. Since it never got used, I'm going to reuse the idea, borrowing generously from Numa Numa's idea. Ultimately, unless the PCs pull off something simply fantabulous, it is going to require the Realm defenses to defeat Demiurge Phaethon, and to activate them is going to require rescuing the Scarlett Empress, which is going to mean crashing the Ebon Dragon's wedding, and when they make it back to creation, they're going to have to figure out how to put the shattered wreck of an empress back together again, defending against Malfeas, and Mnemnon et al, should any of her ambitious heirs realize the Empress is back and vulnerable.
If I don't think it's going to overload the game, while this is going on, the Locust Crusade is going to be launched from Autochthon, falter against the Great Contagion, and require the relinking of the Well of Souls to save the life of the Primordial. Which could net them the aid of a primordial against the raging deathchylde of Sol Invictus.
So, basically, my game of connect the dots is messing 99 out of every 100 dots, and tips on how I can fix this would be well apprciated. How do I fill out the big ideas with little ones to flesh out the whole thing (and yes, I'm well famliar with how Exalts are particularly adept at ripping preplanned stories inside out, one reason why I'm having trouble moving beyond broad strokes).
Also, NPC managment. What are the best ways to go about running combats and such? I'm glad that the Hunts have only been in the Background so far, because properly running combat with multiple charm wielders looks very intimidating. I know that I don't have to go through a full character creation for them, but what is the best way to go around generating them? Are any books particularly helpful for templates?
TL- DR:
I'm running Exalted 1st ed. Help!
Gabriel_Pitt on
0
Posts
You have a lot of really great ideas, and I hope you get to use them all. One thing to remember, especially with Exalted, is that in a great many ways, the ST is just kind of along for the ride. The power scale, especially with Solars, is nothing short of astonishing. It's nearly impossible to railroad gods to make them go where your plot is, and again, due to the power scale, any attempts at railroading are immediately transparent. Sidereals (which I'm guessing you're alluding to with the destiny stuff) are my favorite part of the setting, but so many players out there despise them because they've had STs try to use Sids as railroaders. A gentle hand is the best advice I can give you.
If you have the kind of players who sniff out even the smallest plot points, jump on every clue you give them, and basically do their best to follow where the ST leads of their own accord-- awesome! If you're the kind of person who loves to plan everything out in minute detail for each session, you should plan twice as much as you think you'll need. Again, due to the sheer power level of a solar game, it's pretty easy for even starting characters to chew through your delicate layers of mystery and intrigue in record time.
A good game is like a good TV show-- multiple arcs. Every "episode" should have a beginning, middle, and natural end. Every episode should also further the "season" (in this case, story) arc, and also further the "series" (in this case, campaign) arc-- even if it's just by a little. So ultimately, the best way to fill in those dots is to make a list of things you want to happen eventually, glance at it during session planning to keep in mind what's going on in the rest of Creation, but ultimately, take it one session at a time.
Sorry I couldn't be more help! Exalted is my favorite game, with my favorite mechanics (in 1E, before they decided editing was a luxury). I hope your game goes well.
"WTF? You're annhilating Gem? Dude, that is _so_ weak. Why don't you try something hard, like taking a crap after not eating enough fiber?"
"Ahem, as I was saying, taken totally by surprise, the city of _Gethamane_ -."
What I'm really looking for advice on how to take those broad strokes of plot and refine them into something I can actually present to the players to game with. My comments about destiny were a pre-emptive note that I was fully aware of how the situations might seem possibly contrived. I've been around RPG forums long enough to know that there would be some who might immediately jump on me for being a 'railroading dick' and included it as a pre-emptive stfu.
I work best when I'm supplied with the seeds of cool ideas to adapt and develop on my own, and as it currently stands, I don't have a lot of confidence in my ability to adequately develop stuff that will challange and interest a party of seven solars.