#you can write a roleplay like nobody's buisiness

[greensunprincess]

Triumphs as a Storyteller

I wanna talk about exalted a bit here, just because I had a surge of pride in our campaign:

First off, this campaign, which is nameless, mostly due to it being so hard to quantify, we seldom stay in one place long enough to name it after a place, the party is divisive enough to have naming it after a goal to be a little too complicated. . . so it’s just called Exalted. It should be noted there are multiple exalted campaigns being run, which everyone defines by their difference from MY Exalted (i.e. Scrub Exalted, Side Exalted, Bros-night Exalted). When we say “we’re running exalted” they mean my game, which I like.

Secondly, this one story has been running for FIVE YEARS. and I don’t mean that in game time. I mean in real time. In fact, only one of the players present at the beginning of the campaign is still in it (not counting me) and NONE of the starting party of Solars are still alive (One of them became part of Gaia, and so he continues to exist as a spirit but. . . he doesn’t count) The same circle is still together, however, tied together by a city they once saved and their past life memories.

Thirdly: In game time, enough time has passed for the newest Solar addition to be of age with one of the original Solar’s kids (the two of them started dating) The Solar who became part of Gaia has two daughters, who are old enough to be Queens of a different nation in their own right, and have kids of their own. There’s a lot of family based RP in it, and a lot of interesting coming of age stories, both of the characters and eventually their kids, allowing in game parallels which I love.

In terms of more blatant bragging, I’ve managed to tempt three seprate players into accepting an Akuma deal through honeyed tongue alone, even with them knowing that I’m mean and more than likely to compel them/ take control of their characters as Yozi can do. I’ve brought the entire table to tears at least a dozen times, and individual players to extreme emotional responses more than I can count(read: not just rage due to shitty gameplay, but character bleed), which is perhaps what I am most proud of.

In terms of pure events: We’ve had several people nearly sleep with Luna, someone HAS slept with Lilith, we once had our archer Night try and punch a Hekatonchire in the face. That same night then got bucked and thrown twenty miles, and survive. We had an airship crash into a manse the Solar’s had conquered, nearly destroying it. We had a battle against a giant river squid, and then a desperate attempt to detach a city from a underworld copy of itself, before the two merge and plummet into the void together.  The Brave Archer Night caste saves a simple country doctor from an Infernal Trap. (Remember this, it will be important later! Date: early 2012) The Solars survive getting all their intimacies reversed, prompting them to turn on everyone and each other, and then having the city they were in tossed into the deep wyld. Our Twilight got so mad that someone stole his gun that he created a wagon that moved faster than sound to pursue them. Our token Lunar both impregnated someone and got pregnant in the same session. She then traveled across the world to acquire an artifact that controlled reincarnation so that a kind and sad ghost could reincarnate into the baby in her belly. The party accidentally summons Mercury into an Infernal trap, and both the Twilight and the Lunar bonded to him die in her defense. (And everyone was terrified of Shredderkin forevermore) Our dawn surfs on his sword on a wave of Lava, punches a tower out of the sky, and uses the Sun’s own laser to kill an Infernal. The party confronts Juggernaught and the mask of winters at the gates of Fallen Lookshy, and, with the brave and true sacrifice of the oldest remaining Solar (the same twilight who punched the Hekatonchire), manage to break the Mask’s mask, kill him, and team up with Lookshyan rangers, the Elemental Dragon of Air, and an Infernal Princess to destroy the walking fortress just before it turns Lookshy and half the scavenger lands into a Shadowland. During that same fight, our Dawn learns that he accidentally impregnated his shape-shifting dragon-horse mount, and she gives birth to a daughter literally ON Juggernaught’s back, whose mint-new soul is the perfect place for shards from the Mask’s broken soul to nestle. That same girl is kidnapped and tortured to death at age 10, and becomes a hideous Abyssal. Dawn swears by all that is holy that he will cure her. (this is also important date: late 2014 i think) The new Night Caste starts hate-dating the leader of all the Infernals, Hell’s top general, the leader of the Reclaimation. They get way too close, and actively avoid killing each other even though their armies are diametrically opposed. Party joins a war, helps the Brides of Ahlat overthrow their husband, and then they kill him. HIs manor is declared a cursed place after a party member dies horribly there. (And everyone is afraid of Ahlat’s manor forevermore, second only to shredderkin) Party raids a Realm Embassy, barely survives a battle against nearly two dozen dragon blooded, ends up fighting Anys Syn herself, escaping only because the dead Night caste’s mother is equally attached to the new night caste, and she happens to be a millennia old Sideral. Party escapes to Hell, where they adjudicate a domestic dispute between three Yozi. Dawn is given a carbon copy of his Abyssal daughter, but this one became a Solar instead. Everyone suspects the Ebon Dragon. Dawn adopts the spare daughter anyway, dares anyone to tell him she’s not his. Night’s hate date tells party she’s going to steal the US’s spear. Party rallies an entire nation to stop her, starts a war with the bull, fights a hundred battles only to lose horribly against her in the final moment. Turns out she only wanted it for one brief task, which she traded to Adorjan in exchange for curing her daughter of something horrible (Shredderkin is no longer insane! Still very scary) Less than a day later, Party fights a full circle of Abyssals lead by another Deathlord. Somehow wins, thanks to both strength of arms and the friends they made along the way. Turns out the simple country doctor was actually a third circle demon who fell in love with both Night Castes (Date of reveal: early 2017 - a four year con~!) Dawn redeems his daughter at the tail end of this fight. (Motivation achieved, only took three-ish years!)

. . . So yeah. I’m quite proud of this. I love exalted. Things have kind of ground to a halt recently, since we’ve been making the swap to 3rd ed, or rather, my own homebrew of 3rd ed. I’ve put more work and effort into this campaign then I have into the rest of my life combined (my transition not included)