Just Another Day
I really need to....do something about my failure to update, or something like that.
So Saturday evening was interesting. teki ran a game of Paranoia. While I find the concept immensely cool, I find the reality really hard. I don't like backstabbing party members and I don't like having to be constantly fully on guard against every other member of the party. At least I wasn't the only one that felt that way.
After Paranoia, calhin ran some Call of Cthulhu, which ran until about 3:15, at which point I was 97% asleep because we were playing in a dark candlelit room and I was like "zzzz...." My character is a Russian named Sasha Belova, who is being played not unlike "Bitchy" (oh, Alyxandria de Chanson bani Diedne bani Quaesitor, Adepta Maiora of the Order of Hermes, how I miss you). Fun. Also creepy. Yay.
Sunday was calhin's birthday, so we went to Benihana for dinner, which was AWESOME. A couple quotes from the evening:
sabrielrose: If I were rich, I'd totally have one of these grills in my house and someone to cook for me and I'd just sit there clapping like an idiot.
herod_the_nut: Some people have pool boys, some people have cabana boys....Sam wants a hibachi boy.
Also an amusing exchange at the end of the meal regarding the single piece of meat remaining on my plate:
Melzer: There is meat still on your plate.
Me: Have it if you want.
Melzer: Are you sure?
Me: Take it.
Melzer: Are you sure? *chopsticks hovering*
calhin: Melzer, when she tells you to eat her meat, don't argue, just DO it!
We came back and hung out for a while. The guys played Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters (except Melzer who was playing Fable.) Then people went to sleep and stuff.
Monday. Ah, Monday, the day of Exalted (which I have some Exalted reading ramblings to do later but for now...)
Game started out with me making an Intelligence + Occult roll. 8 dice. I rolled: 10, 10, 10, 9, 9, 8, 7, 1. Ten successes. 8 dice. Good Lord. Anyway.
So when last we left the lovely (but not always bright) Joscelaine, she was in the process of getting abused by Cynis Isymias. Game starts with me having taken 3 lethal and 6 bashing. The Weaver steps up and says "Enough." Isymias tells him to screw off. The Weaver just stands there and says "Enough." Isymias summons two guards and tells them to arrest me.
The Weaver unties one of my hands so, with blood and bruises everywhere, I start untying my other hand, looking up at the guards very sadly and saying "Please help me?" They, naturally, are very confused by the presence of a really hot woman looking fragile and helpless vs. Isymias paying them. It's right about this time that Rishad Kanne (or however Melzer spelled her crazy name) shows up with guards to arrest me. The Weaver says "Last chance to back off" and goes Deadly Beastman.
Kanne is like "Lunar, my quarrel isn't with you. You have until sunrise to leave the city." The Weaver kills her guards and is getting ready to face off with her. As she drops into a stance, I yell "She's a Sidereal!"
Both the Weaver and Kanne gawp at me going "What?!" because neither of them knew that I knew. Also the Weaver didn't know at all. Ahem. The fight goes. I attempt to take a dive out the window and get knocked to Incap with bashing. (*gasp*) Kanne takes me back to the Satrap's palace.
The Weaver goes to get Kohn and Jeremy to rescue me, while Sam prepares to defend herself in a trial for heresy. Talking about a "secret meeting" of the Dragon-Blooded (which was being spied on by myself, Kanne, Kohn, AND some random other guy):
"The security is about as tight as Joscelaine."--herod_the_nut
Also, Our Lady of the Agonizing Rapture is marching on Greyfalls. With a ginormous army. Such that Greyfalls is now making alliance with the Cult of the Illuminated, the Lunars under Sunflash the Mace, AND the Seventh Legion of Lookshy, since the Isle is tangled up in civil war. Oops.
Ahem. Anyway. So Kohn and Jeremy and the Weaver make their way into the dungeons and free me. At this point I'm all but healed (medicine charms OWN). We try to sneak out but get caught. The result:
"Extra versus goremaul!"--herod_the_nut
Yeah. Goremaul won. Big time.
So we go back to our safehouse. I heal people, we rest up and prepare to invade Ledaal Emonn's manse and steal back the scrolls he stole from herod_the_nut's First Age tomb. The Weaver gets us into the manse by means of a spidersilk ladder thrown over from the building across the street. Jeremy carried me across in Graceful Crane Stance, because my Athletics is nonexistent. The balcony we're using to get in contains a demon summoning circle. Excellent. We make our way through the manse, find the scrolls (and some warstriders) and load up all of the scrolls. When we are done, we have a room full of Emonn's notes and translations, but we have all the original scrolls. At this point, Emonn's bound anuhles (Demon of the First Circle, spider thingy) shows up and decides to have a snack. When it realizes we're Exalts, it runs away. Kohn and the Weaver chase after it. Meanwhile, I tell Jeremy to get behind me, and then unleash Death of Obsidian Butterflies on the small room full of scrolls, and destroy them all. (mmmm death.)
At this point I had already figured that if we got caught/seen, the best thing I could possibly do was activate my anima to iconic so they'd blame it on the Deathlords. The anuhles had already seen the Weaver in DBT, but anuhles aren't terribly bright. So as we're fleeing, the guards are right behind us. I turned around and unleashed Obsidian Butterflies again, flaring my anima to iconic (and bleeding all over the place, but blood is fun.)
So we got out with the scrolls. Ledaal Emonn is furious. My little ploy worked insofar as they are now blaming the whole incident on the dead. I rock.
Mmm. Exalted.
Yesterday was an okay day, I guess. And today is just....mreh.
So. I finished reading Fair Folk on Friday. I find the concept of raksha to be really awesome, but shaping combat breaks my brain, as do the weird rules of gossamer creation and mutation points and so forth. Since there's only going to be like, one raksha in my chron, I feel perfectly fine using the Shadowed Grace rules for a Diplomat/Entertainer and ignoring everything else in favour of making up my own rules. Also, the Mountain Folk are neat, but I did notice something. The statistics for Vodak are reprinted in AT LEAST three places: Fair Folk, Bastions of the North, and Creatures of the Wyld. Given White Wolf's usual paralyzing fear of redundancy, I find this odd.
Anyway. Having finished Fair Folk, I started on Autochthonians. I really don't find them intriguing. I have no desire to ever run anything in Autochthonia. I also skimmed through the three scenarios. I find it absolutely retarded that by far the coolest part of the scenarios is what the Deathlords are doing. However, Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers and An Absurdly Long Name betraying First and Forsaken Lion with the Eye of Autochthon was pretty sweet.
One other gripe with Autochthonians: WHY THE HELL are there stats for First and Forsaken Lion?! Name of God! They take up TWO FULL PAGES and that's WITHOUT any actual listed charms!! 15A soak? 26L? 42B?!
I don't think Deathlords should have stats. Ever. (I cite oberndorf: "If it has stats, your players will kill it." See also the fact that Mask of Winters got slain in one of his games.) Melzer's character sheet for Our Lady of the Agonizing Rapture is best, I think. Black construction paper with the words "YOU ARE DEAD" painted on it in red.
Alternately, go with what it says in Abyssals: "Assume a Deathlord has every charm in this book, every charm in Exalted, endless artifacts, plenty of sorcery and necromancy, and anything else you think he might need."
Rarg. Stats for Deathlords? Please.
OK. Back to work.
So Saturday evening was interesting. teki ran a game of Paranoia. While I find the concept immensely cool, I find the reality really hard. I don't like backstabbing party members and I don't like having to be constantly fully on guard against every other member of the party. At least I wasn't the only one that felt that way.
After Paranoia, calhin ran some Call of Cthulhu, which ran until about 3:15, at which point I was 97% asleep because we were playing in a dark candlelit room and I was like "zzzz...." My character is a Russian named Sasha Belova, who is being played not unlike "Bitchy" (oh, Alyxandria de Chanson bani Diedne bani Quaesitor, Adepta Maiora of the Order of Hermes, how I miss you). Fun. Also creepy. Yay.
Sunday was calhin's birthday, so we went to Benihana for dinner, which was AWESOME. A couple quotes from the evening:
sabrielrose: If I were rich, I'd totally have one of these grills in my house and someone to cook for me and I'd just sit there clapping like an idiot.
herod_the_nut: Some people have pool boys, some people have cabana boys....Sam wants a hibachi boy.
Also an amusing exchange at the end of the meal regarding the single piece of meat remaining on my plate:
Melzer: There is meat still on your plate.
Me: Have it if you want.
Melzer: Are you sure?
Me: Take it.
Melzer: Are you sure? *chopsticks hovering*
calhin: Melzer, when she tells you to eat her meat, don't argue, just DO it!
We came back and hung out for a while. The guys played Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters (except Melzer who was playing Fable.) Then people went to sleep and stuff.
Monday. Ah, Monday, the day of Exalted (which I have some Exalted reading ramblings to do later but for now...)
Game started out with me making an Intelligence + Occult roll. 8 dice. I rolled: 10, 10, 10, 9, 9, 8, 7, 1. Ten successes. 8 dice. Good Lord. Anyway.
So when last we left the lovely (but not always bright) Joscelaine, she was in the process of getting abused by Cynis Isymias. Game starts with me having taken 3 lethal and 6 bashing. The Weaver steps up and says "Enough." Isymias tells him to screw off. The Weaver just stands there and says "Enough." Isymias summons two guards and tells them to arrest me.
The Weaver unties one of my hands so, with blood and bruises everywhere, I start untying my other hand, looking up at the guards very sadly and saying "Please help me?" They, naturally, are very confused by the presence of a really hot woman looking fragile and helpless vs. Isymias paying them. It's right about this time that Rishad Kanne (or however Melzer spelled her crazy name) shows up with guards to arrest me. The Weaver says "Last chance to back off" and goes Deadly Beastman.
Kanne is like "Lunar, my quarrel isn't with you. You have until sunrise to leave the city." The Weaver kills her guards and is getting ready to face off with her. As she drops into a stance, I yell "She's a Sidereal!"
Both the Weaver and Kanne gawp at me going "What?!" because neither of them knew that I knew. Also the Weaver didn't know at all. Ahem. The fight goes. I attempt to take a dive out the window and get knocked to Incap with bashing. (*gasp*) Kanne takes me back to the Satrap's palace.
The Weaver goes to get Kohn and Jeremy to rescue me, while Sam prepares to defend herself in a trial for heresy. Talking about a "secret meeting" of the Dragon-Blooded (which was being spied on by myself, Kanne, Kohn, AND some random other guy):
"The security is about as tight as Joscelaine."--herod_the_nut
Also, Our Lady of the Agonizing Rapture is marching on Greyfalls. With a ginormous army. Such that Greyfalls is now making alliance with the Cult of the Illuminated, the Lunars under Sunflash the Mace, AND the Seventh Legion of Lookshy, since the Isle is tangled up in civil war. Oops.
Ahem. Anyway. So Kohn and Jeremy and the Weaver make their way into the dungeons and free me. At this point I'm all but healed (medicine charms OWN). We try to sneak out but get caught. The result:
"Extra versus goremaul!"--herod_the_nut
Yeah. Goremaul won. Big time.
So we go back to our safehouse. I heal people, we rest up and prepare to invade Ledaal Emonn's manse and steal back the scrolls he stole from herod_the_nut's First Age tomb. The Weaver gets us into the manse by means of a spidersilk ladder thrown over from the building across the street. Jeremy carried me across in Graceful Crane Stance, because my Athletics is nonexistent. The balcony we're using to get in contains a demon summoning circle. Excellent. We make our way through the manse, find the scrolls (and some warstriders) and load up all of the scrolls. When we are done, we have a room full of Emonn's notes and translations, but we have all the original scrolls. At this point, Emonn's bound anuhles (Demon of the First Circle, spider thingy) shows up and decides to have a snack. When it realizes we're Exalts, it runs away. Kohn and the Weaver chase after it. Meanwhile, I tell Jeremy to get behind me, and then unleash Death of Obsidian Butterflies on the small room full of scrolls, and destroy them all. (mmmm death.)
At this point I had already figured that if we got caught/seen, the best thing I could possibly do was activate my anima to iconic so they'd blame it on the Deathlords. The anuhles had already seen the Weaver in DBT, but anuhles aren't terribly bright. So as we're fleeing, the guards are right behind us. I turned around and unleashed Obsidian Butterflies again, flaring my anima to iconic (and bleeding all over the place, but blood is fun.)
So we got out with the scrolls. Ledaal Emonn is furious. My little ploy worked insofar as they are now blaming the whole incident on the dead. I rock.
Mmm. Exalted.
Yesterday was an okay day, I guess. And today is just....mreh.
So. I finished reading Fair Folk on Friday. I find the concept of raksha to be really awesome, but shaping combat breaks my brain, as do the weird rules of gossamer creation and mutation points and so forth. Since there's only going to be like, one raksha in my chron, I feel perfectly fine using the Shadowed Grace rules for a Diplomat/Entertainer and ignoring everything else in favour of making up my own rules. Also, the Mountain Folk are neat, but I did notice something. The statistics for Vodak are reprinted in AT LEAST three places: Fair Folk, Bastions of the North, and Creatures of the Wyld. Given White Wolf's usual paralyzing fear of redundancy, I find this odd.
Anyway. Having finished Fair Folk, I started on Autochthonians. I really don't find them intriguing. I have no desire to ever run anything in Autochthonia. I also skimmed through the three scenarios. I find it absolutely retarded that by far the coolest part of the scenarios is what the Deathlords are doing. However, Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers and An Absurdly Long Name betraying First and Forsaken Lion with the Eye of Autochthon was pretty sweet.
One other gripe with Autochthonians: WHY THE HELL are there stats for First and Forsaken Lion?! Name of God! They take up TWO FULL PAGES and that's WITHOUT any actual listed charms!! 15A soak? 26L? 42B?!
I don't think Deathlords should have stats. Ever. (I cite oberndorf: "If it has stats, your players will kill it." See also the fact that Mask of Winters got slain in one of his games.) Melzer's character sheet for Our Lady of the Agonizing Rapture is best, I think. Black construction paper with the words "YOU ARE DEAD" painted on it in red.
Alternately, go with what it says in Abyssals: "Assume a Deathlord has every charm in this book, every charm in Exalted, endless artifacts, plenty of sorcery and necromancy, and anything else you think he might need."
Rarg. Stats for Deathlords? Please.
OK. Back to work.