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farlaThe currently Dämmerung. Title because I couldn't really think of anything, but did remember that utterly botched pun in that one story I reviewed. Since updated with an actual summary, and not just a note to all the poor pokemon fans who put me on alert only to get a bunch of biblefic and self-insert KH novelization chapters.
I actually wrote this particular bit up ages ago for NaNo.
So Exalted is a very fun setting, and I like the concept. While the system is terrible, the fact half of it has to be houseruled and the character gen system is nigh impenetrable means you can really shove around players. (Or, you really shouldn't have immediately brought up killing half the party if you didn't want me to make sure you couldn't. Terrestrial MA and nonrefundable XP blown on essence mutations it is!)
The real problem with the setting is that it's full of all sorts of interesting things the characters need to figure out, and all these interesting things are in the corebook right before the character creation section. And considering how very many of them are complete reversals of what people think, keeping IC and OOC knowledge separate is impossible. You can get people playing along, but they're not going to be surprised by the reveal.
Luckily everyone involved so far has agreed that learning the system is too hard and were more than happy to let me keep all the long pages of words far away from them. I therefore have a party of people who know only the opening setting information. Roughly:
Solar Exalts are soulless demons who must be killed.
They're Solars. Oops!
Suddenly hitting things makes them explode.
Luckily they have two members of other, better educated splats about to join up with them and explain things in an utterly objective and unbiased manner.
Anyway.
The setting did need...tweaks. The game baseline, or "everything is going to hell all at once" is great, but you start to get things canceling each other out. In this version, it's just under a year since the Empress's disappearance, and the Realm isn't falling in on itself and letting the filthy anathema grow. The Wyld Hunts are out in force, as the Immaculate Order, whose power structure is merely linked to, rather than led by, the Scarlet Empress, is the only authority still in charge. Eventually, the various houses will start to fight for the throne, but in the meantime, religion holds sway. And really, few things make people forget their own power struggles and give everything to the church like DEMONS EVERYWHERE OH MY GOD WHY ARE THERE SO MANY. Really, the return of the Solars should motivate the fuck out of the Dragonblooded.
There's also the issue that for all Exalted tries to be gender neutral, they're really, really not. The Realm is a matriarchy, and there are occasional textual nods to this fact before we go back to hearing about yet another guy in charge, and the various female characters we get are all presented as exceptional.
There are literal gods literally demanding things, yet somehow by coincidence these recreate the superstitions of our world that were based on practical things, so sailors are all men and women aren't allowed on ships. (Also, they keep insisting on being edgy by having the female half of a duality be evil death.) Screw that! If there are literal gods handing out blessings, their demands should create societies structured completely differently.
In my West, the storm goddesses demand male sacrifices and have been known to swamp boats that hold handsome men. Sailors are therefore female. Yes, this does indeed fuck up human society. It also means the loss of a boat is a greater devastation to the community, but that'd be why they're bribing the gods (with human sacrifices!) for good winds and getting actual results instead of relying on luck and chance like those suckers on Earth.
As to the Realm and indeed Creation at large...everything's flipped. It's gender equal, but mostly ruled by queens. When you go to talk to whoever's out and doing something, it's probably a women. And there isn't any hiring bias, there just happen to be more women in high level positions because women are all inherently better at the job in subtle and unverifiable ways. Of course men have just as much opportunity to advance (but everyone knows Ken only got promoted because he's sleeping with the boss, you know. Shameful. Oh, they keep it well hidden, but why else would she put him in charge of the shipment over all the qualified women around?) And yes, everyone you meet will assume one of the women in the group is the one in charge. Not that men can't be leaders, but you can hardly blame them for assuming, I mean...
The average person speaking to a Dragonblooded is likely to get a guy, but that's because the Dragonblooded are even worse about it, and "talk to the average person about what we want" is the task given to the lowest-status Dragonblooded. Dumbass women are still considered mildly valuable and kept closer to the Realm, while dumbass men get sent out on the dangerous missions on the rim of Creation, where they'll get themselves killed doing something useful and, with luck, leave a new Dragonblooded or two for their family to scoop up in a couple decades.
I just find this deeply satisfying.
(Women also wear actual clothing. Strategic piercings connected by chains not only aren't clothing, they count as negative clothing and so have spontaneously stopped existing under the weight of my displeasure.)
I need to answer my email. Also, did you know there's Yumi Nikki fanfiction? My mind is blown.
I actually wrote this particular bit up ages ago for NaNo.
So Exalted is a very fun setting, and I like the concept. While the system is terrible, the fact half of it has to be houseruled and the character gen system is nigh impenetrable means you can really shove around players. (Or, you really shouldn't have immediately brought up killing half the party if you didn't want me to make sure you couldn't. Terrestrial MA and nonrefundable XP blown on essence mutations it is!)
The real problem with the setting is that it's full of all sorts of interesting things the characters need to figure out, and all these interesting things are in the corebook right before the character creation section. And considering how very many of them are complete reversals of what people think, keeping IC and OOC knowledge separate is impossible. You can get people playing along, but they're not going to be surprised by the reveal.
Luckily everyone involved so far has agreed that learning the system is too hard and were more than happy to let me keep all the long pages of words far away from them. I therefore have a party of people who know only the opening setting information. Roughly:
Solar Exalts are soulless demons who must be killed.
They're Solars. Oops!
Suddenly hitting things makes them explode.
Luckily they have two members of other, better educated splats about to join up with them and explain things in an utterly objective and unbiased manner.
Anyway.
The setting did need...tweaks. The game baseline, or "everything is going to hell all at once" is great, but you start to get things canceling each other out. In this version, it's just under a year since the Empress's disappearance, and the Realm isn't falling in on itself and letting the filthy anathema grow. The Wyld Hunts are out in force, as the Immaculate Order, whose power structure is merely linked to, rather than led by, the Scarlet Empress, is the only authority still in charge. Eventually, the various houses will start to fight for the throne, but in the meantime, religion holds sway. And really, few things make people forget their own power struggles and give everything to the church like DEMONS EVERYWHERE OH MY GOD WHY ARE THERE SO MANY. Really, the return of the Solars should motivate the fuck out of the Dragonblooded.
There's also the issue that for all Exalted tries to be gender neutral, they're really, really not. The Realm is a matriarchy, and there are occasional textual nods to this fact before we go back to hearing about yet another guy in charge, and the various female characters we get are all presented as exceptional.
There are literal gods literally demanding things, yet somehow by coincidence these recreate the superstitions of our world that were based on practical things, so sailors are all men and women aren't allowed on ships. (Also, they keep insisting on being edgy by having the female half of a duality be evil death.) Screw that! If there are literal gods handing out blessings, their demands should create societies structured completely differently.
In my West, the storm goddesses demand male sacrifices and have been known to swamp boats that hold handsome men. Sailors are therefore female. Yes, this does indeed fuck up human society. It also means the loss of a boat is a greater devastation to the community, but that'd be why they're bribing the gods (with human sacrifices!) for good winds and getting actual results instead of relying on luck and chance like those suckers on Earth.
As to the Realm and indeed Creation at large...everything's flipped. It's gender equal, but mostly ruled by queens. When you go to talk to whoever's out and doing something, it's probably a women. And there isn't any hiring bias, there just happen to be more women in high level positions because women are all inherently better at the job in subtle and unverifiable ways. Of course men have just as much opportunity to advance (but everyone knows Ken only got promoted because he's sleeping with the boss, you know. Shameful. Oh, they keep it well hidden, but why else would she put him in charge of the shipment over all the qualified women around?) And yes, everyone you meet will assume one of the women in the group is the one in charge. Not that men can't be leaders, but you can hardly blame them for assuming, I mean...
The average person speaking to a Dragonblooded is likely to get a guy, but that's because the Dragonblooded are even worse about it, and "talk to the average person about what we want" is the task given to the lowest-status Dragonblooded. Dumbass women are still considered mildly valuable and kept closer to the Realm, while dumbass men get sent out on the dangerous missions on the rim of Creation, where they'll get themselves killed doing something useful and, with luck, leave a new Dragonblooded or two for their family to scoop up in a couple decades.
I just find this deeply satisfying.
(Women also wear actual clothing. Strategic piercings connected by chains not only aren't clothing, they count as negative clothing and so have spontaneously stopped existing under the weight of my displeasure.)
I need to answer my email. Also, did you know there's Yumi Nikki fanfiction? My mind is blown.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 07:45 pm (UTC)I don't know. I think it's sort of one-upped by Solitaire fanfiction, personally.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 10:23 pm (UTC)I guess it's sort of an uncanny valley effect. Combined with that Yume Nikki is so visual, and a lot of its tone coming from the gameplay itself, and that it's chock-full of bizarre symbols that not only defy interpretation but, given the game is only at .10, probably aren't even compete to the point anyone could work out where the author's going with it yet, and basically any attempt at fanfic is probably going to end in disaster.
I mean, just look at the most recent one there. The author tries to give her a voice - and the whole thing just explodes into suck.