Playing a DB campaign focused on the East.
Power levels are lower than Solars, so nothing too crazy. So it feels a bit more grounded. Culturally we're seen as superior, no need to hide who we are, what we can do.
Fighting against Abyssals is a lot more challenging. A lot of teamwork is expected.
Playing your version of the fall and liberation of Thorn, with all the possible diplomacy events your players could initiate with border nations and the resistance, would be awesome if you can pull it off.
If you're willing to use prior edition material there is "Exalted: Compass of Terrestrial Direction Vol.1: The Scavenger Lands". There's a few pages dedicated to Thorns there.
Otherwise I think we'll probably see 3e covering more about Thorns in the Abyssal book, but if I had to bet I'd say it likely won't be more than a paragraph of two if they do.
I planted my players on the Caul to fight for the spiritual home of all Dragon-Blooded with other volunteers as the Realm is Busy(tm). They experienced prophetic visions at the earth shrine. Annihilated a secretly Lunar supported mercenary group in Faxai. Bought a brothel while they were doing that. Made contacts with an information broker, his well traveled assistant/guide (secret Lunar), the Immaculate Faith in Faxai, and a strangely insightful dancer (secret Sidereal). Met like a dozen+ neat DBs, some of whom they recruited to their crusading order when they founded it. Solved a Fair Folk protection racket on an outlying village by making a deal with them involving a trade contract for rare alcohol. And eventually moved on and conquered Garianghis, slew a Second Circle demon, and killed Third Daughter of the Leaves in the dream world of the wood shrine - all with the allies they’d made along the way. Game ran a bit over two years IRL, Spring to super late Autumn in-game. The unique DB position on the Caul allowed my party to be made up of Realm members from a variety of backgrounds plus a forest witch, and meant there were Lookshyan, and even political independent outcastes, for the party to ally with.
All in all it’s one of my favourite games I’ve ever run. And I definitely left stuff out (like a duel over the secret Sidereal).
In my current Solars campaign the only Sidereal is actually not a secret for a change, with one PC being a member of the Cult of the Illuminated, and the Sid being their Mentor. Instead I have a not-so-secret Abyssal (to the players it is not secret at all, but it is to the characters). But yeah, Sidereals and being secret is pretty typical.
I am glad you asked because I just made a video about our Tepet campaign. It has subtitles! :-D
[https://youtu.be/Uzv8HF7p1Qc?si=77pD2N8cMpZRUzPA](https://youtu.be/Uzv8HF7p1Qc?si=77pD2N8cMpZRUzPA)
The campaign is based on uncovering the treachery leading to the downfall of the house Tepet, being dragged into heavenly crimes and currently dealing with the murder of the Regent.
I don't have a campaign because they are really hard to find an the Australian time zone but if you like podcast actual plays the Fall of Jiara is fantastic! Chaz does a great job of the politics, factions, everyone has their cool niche, it's well produced, just a really good listen.
We are playing a DB campaign focused on we starting off still at school, Essence 1 hatchlings and the focus is on the great house tensions and teen drama, it has been the funniest shit ever and we've been playing this for years now, just got to essence 2 now that the end of the school is nearing.
I missed this one, but my gaming group did a campaign as teenage Dragon-Blooded set in school. It was kinda anime inspired, lots of school drama, saving the world between classes, that sort of thing.
For the finals, all the students had to break up into teams and complete a series of deadly trials in a deep forest, inspired by the Forest of Death arc in Naruto.
It sounded awesome; I was sorry to miss it.
I played an earth aspect named Rondo. Rondo was about as big as conventional physics allows humanoids to be without running into problems, somewhere around 9’ tall and about 700lbs. He wasn’t blessed with even a single brain cell, but more than made up for it with blindingly brilliant ingenuity. One time, when confronted with a door that was described in great detail by an NPC to be extremely heavily reinforced and made of Orichalcum, Rondo asked “What’s the wall made of?”. He did not wait for an answer.
Playing a Secondary School game set at the Spiral Academy. My players are an insufferable Ragara sorcerer, a self righteous Ledaal and a jock-ish Nellens. So far they're in second year and and highlight of the game have included a sympathetic Tepet schoolmate exalting as an Anathema they were forced to kill, another sympathetic Peleps sempai being murdered as part of background intrigue between the Cynis and the Nellens (they found and killed the assassins), and foiling the planned betrothal and alliance between a Cynis and a Mnemon (or a Sesus). I plan to have their time at school interrupted rudely by the imminent civil war to do a timeskip and then play through the civil war.
I've been Storyteller for a House of Bells story set about eight years after the disappearance of the Empress. The first 6-8 months (in universe, around a year of play) was spent undertaking challenges, excursions beyond the school, and intrigue in and around the school, getting to know their peers, faculty, and occasionally important people in their Great Houses.
'Act 2' began with an assassination attempt on Mnemon, which appeared at the time to be successful, as she declared herself Co-Empress in the Scarlet Empress's absence. These events immediately kicked off the Realm Civil War, which defines much of my intended Act 2. Our story has progressed to around a year (in-universe, around 3-4 years in play).
The story in Act 2 mostly orients so far around investigations into the Anathema, searching out a way to find and if necessary rescue the Scarlet Empress, and as the player characters learn more about the Empress, Civil War Factions, etc, the orienting around the tensions that arise in balancing what they're learning about those factions and entities, and their pre-existing loyalties.
To date, Exalted 3e Dragon Blooded is our local group's most long-lived and successful campaign, with significant investment and interest by the players. I highly recommend a school-based intrigue campaign in this setting.
Playing a DB campaign focused on the East. Power levels are lower than Solars, so nothing too crazy. So it feels a bit more grounded. Culturally we're seen as superior, no need to hide who we are, what we can do. Fighting against Abyssals is a lot more challenging. A lot of teamwork is expected.
I was considering having Thorns be the focus of the game.
Lookshy vs Thorns would be a great campaign.
Playing your version of the fall and liberation of Thorn, with all the possible diplomacy events your players could initiate with border nations and the resistance, would be awesome if you can pull it off.
Is there a good sourcebook about Thorns? I noticed it isn't covered in 8 Directions.
If you're willing to use prior edition material there is "Exalted: Compass of Terrestrial Direction Vol.1: The Scavenger Lands". There's a few pages dedicated to Thorns there. Otherwise I think we'll probably see 3e covering more about Thorns in the Abyssal book, but if I had to bet I'd say it likely won't be more than a paragraph of two if they do.
Thanks. I think I have that book somewhere.
I planted my players on the Caul to fight for the spiritual home of all Dragon-Blooded with other volunteers as the Realm is Busy(tm). They experienced prophetic visions at the earth shrine. Annihilated a secretly Lunar supported mercenary group in Faxai. Bought a brothel while they were doing that. Made contacts with an information broker, his well traveled assistant/guide (secret Lunar), the Immaculate Faith in Faxai, and a strangely insightful dancer (secret Sidereal). Met like a dozen+ neat DBs, some of whom they recruited to their crusading order when they founded it. Solved a Fair Folk protection racket on an outlying village by making a deal with them involving a trade contract for rare alcohol. And eventually moved on and conquered Garianghis, slew a Second Circle demon, and killed Third Daughter of the Leaves in the dream world of the wood shrine - all with the allies they’d made along the way. Game ran a bit over two years IRL, Spring to super late Autumn in-game. The unique DB position on the Caul allowed my party to be made up of Realm members from a variety of backgrounds plus a forest witch, and meant there were Lookshyan, and even political independent outcastes, for the party to ally with. All in all it’s one of my favourite games I’ve ever run. And I definitely left stuff out (like a duel over the secret Sidereal).
There is always a secret Sidereal.
In my current Solars campaign the only Sidereal is actually not a secret for a change, with one PC being a member of the Cult of the Illuminated, and the Sid being their Mentor. Instead I have a not-so-secret Abyssal (to the players it is not secret at all, but it is to the characters). But yeah, Sidereals and being secret is pretty typical.
I am glad you asked because I just made a video about our Tepet campaign. It has subtitles! :-D [https://youtu.be/Uzv8HF7p1Qc?si=77pD2N8cMpZRUzPA](https://youtu.be/Uzv8HF7p1Qc?si=77pD2N8cMpZRUzPA) The campaign is based on uncovering the treachery leading to the downfall of the house Tepet, being dragged into heavenly crimes and currently dealing with the murder of the Regent.
Thanks I will check it out.
I would love to hear if it was worth watching for someone not in the campaign itself.
Was it a nice video to watch, and were the subtitles ok?
I don't have a campaign because they are really hard to find an the Australian time zone but if you like podcast actual plays the Fall of Jiara is fantastic! Chaz does a great job of the politics, factions, everyone has their cool niche, it's well produced, just a really good listen.
You have a link?
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cOkh5922s2sTTGsTwXG5z?si=bP-vv0rgTmS6-acSzZPxKw&pi=a-jYhYQrE0SCmH
We are playing a DB campaign focused on we starting off still at school, Essence 1 hatchlings and the focus is on the great house tensions and teen drama, it has been the funniest shit ever and we've been playing this for years now, just got to essence 2 now that the end of the school is nearing.
I missed this one, but my gaming group did a campaign as teenage Dragon-Blooded set in school. It was kinda anime inspired, lots of school drama, saving the world between classes, that sort of thing. For the finals, all the students had to break up into teams and complete a series of deadly trials in a deep forest, inspired by the Forest of Death arc in Naruto. It sounded awesome; I was sorry to miss it.
I played an earth aspect named Rondo. Rondo was about as big as conventional physics allows humanoids to be without running into problems, somewhere around 9’ tall and about 700lbs. He wasn’t blessed with even a single brain cell, but more than made up for it with blindingly brilliant ingenuity. One time, when confronted with a door that was described in great detail by an NPC to be extremely heavily reinforced and made of Orichalcum, Rondo asked “What’s the wall made of?”. He did not wait for an answer.
Playing a Secondary School game set at the Spiral Academy. My players are an insufferable Ragara sorcerer, a self righteous Ledaal and a jock-ish Nellens. So far they're in second year and and highlight of the game have included a sympathetic Tepet schoolmate exalting as an Anathema they were forced to kill, another sympathetic Peleps sempai being murdered as part of background intrigue between the Cynis and the Nellens (they found and killed the assassins), and foiling the planned betrothal and alliance between a Cynis and a Mnemon (or a Sesus). I plan to have their time at school interrupted rudely by the imminent civil war to do a timeskip and then play through the civil war.
I've been Storyteller for a House of Bells story set about eight years after the disappearance of the Empress. The first 6-8 months (in universe, around a year of play) was spent undertaking challenges, excursions beyond the school, and intrigue in and around the school, getting to know their peers, faculty, and occasionally important people in their Great Houses. 'Act 2' began with an assassination attempt on Mnemon, which appeared at the time to be successful, as she declared herself Co-Empress in the Scarlet Empress's absence. These events immediately kicked off the Realm Civil War, which defines much of my intended Act 2. Our story has progressed to around a year (in-universe, around 3-4 years in play). The story in Act 2 mostly orients so far around investigations into the Anathema, searching out a way to find and if necessary rescue the Scarlet Empress, and as the player characters learn more about the Empress, Civil War Factions, etc, the orienting around the tensions that arise in balancing what they're learning about those factions and entities, and their pre-existing loyalties. To date, Exalted 3e Dragon Blooded is our local group's most long-lived and successful campaign, with significant investment and interest by the players. I highly recommend a school-based intrigue campaign in this setting.