Can someone else take over?

[BobChuck]

Alright, this has been coming for a while now. I don't think I can run Exalted properly.

Work is too heavy and I'm not familiar with the system or the setting.

Most importantly, I don't have any idea where I'm going. If I actually had a story to tell, I don;t think the other points would matter, but as it is I'm making things up as I go. I don't have the time to sit down and try to come up with an inspiration, and I;m not getting one spontaneously, so I think I should really just stop trying for the moment, take a break, and let someone else try.

I want to play Exalted - I love the system and the setting, and I know I would enjoy it. I'm just not ready to run a campaign in the setting.

[Measure Zero]

 I'm not sure that everyone would be up to the level of weirdness I would want to inject if I ran this.  Perhaps Randy could?

Probably a better thing to do would be to get the group to agree on what kind of story we want to play out, then outline it and establish a chronicle goal.  There will probably be deviations, but at least you could be sure that everyone is on board.  And remember: we are all learning Exalted at the same time as you.

Alright, this has been coming for a while now. I don't think I can run Exalted properly.

Work is too heavy and I'm not familiar with the system or the setting.

Most importantly, I don't have any idea where I'm going. If I actually had a story to tell, I don;t think the other points would matter, but as it is I'm making things up as I go. I don't have the time to sit down and try to come up with an inspiration, and I;m not getting one spontaneously, so I think I should really just stop trying for the moment, take a break, and let someone else try.

I want to play Exalted - I love the system and the setting, and I know I would enjoy it. I'm just not ready to run a campaign in the setting.

[Atreys]

Agreed; story is a pretty key determiner in interestingness.


Nearly sidenotedly, I ran across this a spell ago:
http://www.mythic.wordpr.com/page1/page2/page2.html
"Did Boltar's sword hit the goblin?"
Well? did it?

Anyone else ever come across this different way to GM?  Oh, and does anyone have an Exalted GM screen?  It would give a strong bonus to GM skills in interpreting the elements of the game.

[kenada]

Most importantly, I don't have any idea where I'm going. If I actually had a story to tell, I don;t think the other points would matter, but as it is I'm making things up as I go.

Personally, I like improvisational games. When I ran D&D, I did it with very little planning (e.g. I almost never planned out encounters and just had people hit things for a while before they died).

I'm not sure that everyone would be up to the level of weirdness I would want to inject if I ran this.  Perhaps Randy could?

I might do it, but I'll guarantee now that story won't be significant driving force. If I ran, my goal would be "do things that people will remember", and while I suppose there's also an informal goal of making the characters as powerful as possible, I'd rather have story arcs than a set goal where the game ends when you "win".

[BobChuck]

Well, yeah, that's fine - but there needs to be some structure. With the Exalted game, this week was gonna be: "You're on a ship. some giant sea monster attacks. Later, the Dragon-Bloods catch up to you. Then you get back to Nexus." That's like 3 hours of stuff, which leaves another three hours of nothing.

I'm all for free-form storytelling, but there's got to be something in front of the characters or there's no momentum.

[hecateluna]

I suppose there's also an informal goal of making the characters as powerful as possible

This is one of the reasons I don't really like exalted.  We could probably decide we didn't want that to be a goal, but the mechanics and setting seem to support it so much that it's hard to avoid.  (Of course, maybe others like it that way.  Which is why they like exalted more than me.)

Beyond that, I really hope Randy is running something. 

[Measure Zero]

I suppose there's also an informal goal of making the characters as powerful as possible

This is one of the reasons I don't really like exalted.  We could probably decide we didn't want that to be a goal, but the mechanics and setting seem to support it so much that it's hard to avoid.  (Of course, maybe others like it that way.  Which is why they like exalted more than me.)

Beyond that, I really hope Randy is running something. 

Your character is already the most powerful of the bunch though!  She has Essence 4 and she can make horses fly!

[BobChuck]

Flying Horses are pretty cool...

[hecateluna]

My goal wasn't to be powerful, though.  The goal was to do crazy horse stuff.  Like make them fly, because it's cool.  That in itself has nothing to do with power.  The game is set up so that I have to make power a goal in order to be able to do that. 

I'm not sure whether you're right that my character is the most powerful.  But either way, I would rather not be required to care.  That's the point.

Anyway, I don't mind exalted, exactly, it's just not my favorite style of game, and Randy happened to mention something that was one of the main reasons why.

[Thomas Kerwin]

I think Exalted is cool because you can make your characters Awesome.  That's not exactly the same as being powerful.  My character isn't that powerful (in terms of how combat ready you can be) either, but he's pretty Awesome.  If you stick with Awesome instead of powerful, I think it can be a pretty good system.

[kenada]

It doesn't have to be D&D-style power building, but the characters' motivations (in Exalted) should be achievable if they are given enough time to grow. I guess I'm a bit envious of those games where people play the same characters for years and have these elaborate histories built up from all the things they've done. Oh, and awesome++.

Anyway, as I mentioned in the general forum thread, I have a bunch of reading to do. I wouldn't mind hearing what people would like to do.

[Measure Zero]

I'd like to play a swordsman character who has to do all sorts of bizarre tests for his master in order to be deemed worthy of learning new techniques.  Things like counting the number of flies in a jar, and then having to clip the wings of all 57 of those flies with his sword, without killing any of them, in the amount of time it takes for a single wine glass to fall from the master's hand to the floor.  Or maybe he would have to paint an accurate portrait of a woman who is walking down the street without stopping her, using only black ink, and while holding a 5-foot long brush at the end opposite from the brush end.

[hecateluna]

I didn't only mean combat ability when I said power.  I mean something like what Randy just said--sort of.  What I mean is something like... a goal of becoming more powerful is a goal of gaining the ability to effect bigger and more serious changes on the world and/or other characters (PCs or NPCs), which is probably related to but not exactly the same as what you mean by "Awesome". 

This kind of goal is supported (and to some extent required in order to be "successful") by any game that uses a traditional XP system, I think, but it seems like it's supported extra by Exalted (also by D&D, probably).

Anyway, those are the kinds of games most people like to play, so I don't mind it (and if I did, it would mostly just suck to be me)... it's just not my favorite.