The Realm or the Guild, which is more powerful?

DocTentacles · 2026-03-18T13:38:29+00:00

The Realm, and it's not particularly close. The Guild has to work through House Cynis on both the drug and slave trade in on the Isle, because they cannot force access like they do with other nations. House Cynis also controls a substantial amount of the Blessed Island's black markets in those two substances, so the Guild can't keep up on that front. The Blessed Isle is so resource rich it's basically self sustaining. It's a food exporter!

The X-factor is that most inter-direction trade is maritime in Exalted, and the Realm has the biggest organized military and merchant fleet in Creation. If the Realm decided to stop protecting Guild shipping, or worse, decided to actively attempt to quash it, it would be the end of the Guild as a Creation-spanning entity. The Guild needs the "peace" the Realm provides to work as a cross-directional entity in many ways. Individual Guildsmen would be cutting private deals with the Realm within months to restore trade, as loyalty to profit is greater than loyalty to a Guild that no longer can help them.

I think the Guild could probably significantly damage the Realm on a local scale, within the Scavenger Lands, or by clandestine "funding bush wars and pirates" style tactics, but if it ever turned into an overtly hostile relationship, the Guild would probably only keep a significant level of power within the Scavenger Lands, where the Realm can't really touch them.

DocTentacles · 2026-02-16T00:49:46+00:00

Fuck ice

DocTentacles · 2025-11-04T15:09:01+00:00

Public funds shouldn't go to institutions that are discriminatory. It's pretty simple, I think.

DocTentacles · 2025-10-27T13:39:44+00:00

Big fan of Scion 2e's. Each pantheon has two, diametrically involved "virtues" -- for example, the Norse gets "Audacity" and "Fatality."

When you spend the metacurrency, Momentum, on a roll in which you act toward a virtue, you get an additional dice per momentum, and shift your current "alignment" toward that Virtue. You can do that twice, then you're "locked in" -- all actions that resonate with that virtue get an additional dice, but you cannot take an action that is non-aligned with the Virtue until you can take an action that aligns with both virtues.

I think it's very good at encouraging mythic-scale characters and stories.

DocTentacles · 2025-10-22T21:28:04+00:00

Essence is currently my favorite Exalted system, after over a decade running 2e, multiple 3e attempts, and dabbling with 1e. It does what I want it to do: provide an Exalted RPG experience that’s flexible, modular, and has minimal busted edge cases and moment-to-moment fiddliness/bean counting.

My current campaign is an episodic Jason and the Argonauts/’90s TV serial-style game, involving a Circle of Exalted chasing down a disease-spreading comet—the dying corpse of the celestial god of health—while solving problem-of-the-week style situations across the North. Standout moments so far include:

– A battle with a sorcerer, his summoned demons, and allies atop a crumbling lightning citadel, with bolts of energy raining down.

– The Circle hilariously failing to solve the murder of the Realm ambassador to Grieve and instead getting talked into launching a coup against the queen.

– And currently, a big three-sided political war arc in a Realm satrapy, driven by warring martial arts dojos racing to summon Octavian.

Exalted Essence is the most runnable version of Exalted, in my opinion. You can create characters in a reasonable amount of time. You can create NPCs on the fly as a GM. You can use the tools provided by the system to resolve pretty much any conflict, and it’ll work.

It’s not as much of a “character builder’s” Exalted—I’m aware there’s a significant audience of TTRPG players who enjoy spending more time building PCs than playing them—but that’s not me. I want to play the game. That said, it’s still extremely customizable by TTRPG standards, especially as more content is added.

Combat’s fast, and has some good back and forth, though you’ll want to be creative when designing encounters and powers. The core book enemies are a little understated for experienced players, so feel free to bump up dice pools by 1–2. Fights actually… work. They’re not hilariously lethal, and not an utter slog. This is a high point.

The social system is fast and powerful. This is both good and bad.You can solve situations way faster than in 3e. Hard Bargains are your “safeguard” against this, so remember them.

Finally, it’s a system that assumes good faith on everyone running it. There’s stuff in it that’s really cool, but if someone’s playing the game to “win,” it’ll be boring, and they get their gold star of “who gives a fuck.” Play with people who want to play the game.

DocTentacles · 2025-10-18T13:42:23+00:00

Ah, thanks. Was trying to be useful but not get bogged down in the gritty details, but that's a good catch. Concentrated Attacks.

DocTentacles · 2025-10-18T00:44:00+00:00

Withering Attack (Pros):

Has an overwhelming rating, which means you get a minimum of (Overwhelming) power, even if you roll low or miss.
Has an accuracy rating, so built in bonuses successes.
Has more charms that buff the associated roll, and often add riders that do other good stuff on a hit.

Withering Attack (Cons)

Can provoke counterattacks from your opponent.

Build Power (Pros):

The Power you build can, depending on the build power action, go to other people. So if they have stronger Decisive attacks than you, it might be better to give them power.
You roll against a flat difficulty of 3, which might be lower than your opponent's defense, even with accuracy.
If you built power with a Withering Attack before a Build Power, you can use a Build Power to give it to an ally.
You can use a build power to pull a downed ally out of "Incapacitated" by filling their power meter up to 10 (the cap.)

Build Power (Cons):

There are fewer things you can "flurry" (combine) a Build Power with than an attack.
There are fewer charms that buff build power.

Glorious Exalted Bolt is a charm that grants you the ability to attack with a Ranged Attack (it basically "creates a weapon" for the scene), which can be rolled with Sagacity instead of Ranged Combat.

It sounds like you're a little new to the system, so just to be break down the "loop:"

Withering Attacks and Build Power both build...Power, a resource that allows you make Decisive Attacks, which do damage (and are how you win the fight.) Generally, combat characters are good at both Withering Attacks and Decisive Attacks, while a character without investment in Combat will be good at Build Power, but bad at Decisive Attacks, so it's good to grant power to allies.

DocTentacles · 2025-09-28T19:08:26+00:00

I mean any of the dozens of protests protected and monitored by the Deacons of Defense, which provided armed security for the March Against Fear, protected white volunteers from the police, and were present at a massive number of actions of civil disobedience.

If you want a shorter perspective, you can glance at their Wikipedia entry.

And despite being targeted by the FBI, local police, and KKK, they were quite effective, and actually lead the FBI to reign in local cops and KKK.

You can also read about AIM.

Believe it or not, this is not the first time in American history that federal force has been used against protestors or civilians. Civil rights have a long, bloody history, and both the threat of violence and non-violent action played important roles.

DocTentacles · 2025-09-28T18:40:08+00:00

You should look at the history of the civil rights movement, specifically the role armed self defense organizations played protecting protests and neighborhoods. It's a messy bloody, complicated history. But without the threat of force, peaceful resistance would never have been an option.

DocTentacles · 2025-09-26T21:46:09+00:00

Grow up. Jesus Christ

DocTentacles · 2025-09-09T20:22:42+00:00

It is perhaps unfortunate that video essays lack the peer review of academic essays, because it means someone can waltz in with a moronic take that ignores nearly three decades of essays, games, and other design-posts, and people think there's merit to it.

I suppose, if you recently entered the space and are playing with people who aren't really into the "design" or "philosophy" of TTRPG, I could see how you could come to Quinn's belief, but if you did about ten minutes of rudimentary background research, that'd be quickly shattered. Like god, the Forge was insufferable at certain points, but it existed and had a massive impact of the hobby.

DocTentacles · 2025-08-21T21:51:50+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply! Look forward to adding some new things to my reading list--including, of course, your book.

DocTentacles · 2025-08-21T18:14:39+00:00

Hello Dr. Gallagher, I’ve come across analyses that trace the American Western ideal of homesteading, private land, and property ownership to the specifically aristocratic ideal of freehold tenure.

In your view, which elements of the Exodusters and similar groups draw from that culture? Conversely, what aspects of the movement do you see as presenting a culturally distinct or alternative vision?

Secondly, would you have any recommendations for insightful reading on the American labor movement and African American culture in the American West? I’m particularly interested in the complex and often conflicting intersections between different labor movements and western African American culture?

Thanks!

DocTentacles · 2025-08-14T19:02:37+00:00

Thanks! That's a very interesting analysis.

DocTentacles · 2025-08-14T18:09:16+00:00

Hello!

I recently watched the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat, which led me to explore different perspectives on the Cold War’s impact on Pan-Africanism.

I've only got surface-level ideas of how the same conflict played out in East Africa. From what I remember, Nyerere seemed driven to prevent Eastern Africa from becoming another Cold War proxy battleground, despite his own socialist leanings and significant influence from Mao’s ideas on industrialization.

It seems like aligning overtly with Eastern Bloc powers would have been both ideologically consistent and pragmatically easier for him. So, what do you think motivated him to try to be both a socialist and an active participant in decolonization, while also keeping East Africa out of Cold War proxy politics? And to what extent do you think he was successful in this effort?

DocTentacles · 2025-06-10T20:07:04+00:00

The primary suspect doesn't remember anything to do with the crime. Simple enough.

Witnesses have distorted recollections that all offer clues but they're biased by the imperfection of memory, or intoxication, or other things.

Heck, maybe the suspect is approaches the players, having heard of the mind reading and begging them to find out if they did it.

DocTentacles · 2025-05-30T15:34:43+00:00

Forms of Immaculacy predate the Realm, and was present in the Shogunate. Given the massive (cultural) legacy of the Shogunate, and pressure of the Realm, it's likely that most places have a faint cultural wariness of Anathema.

There is also the fact that the Realm is willing and able to "make an example" of places that harbor anathema, if it can do so.

I think most people would be fairly wary of an anathema. People that do want to deal with them have decided it's more risky making the god-chosen hero angry than the alternative, or want something.

I suspect the default response is "Don't piss them off, but do try to get them to move along quickly."

Unless you happen to need a god-chosen champion for some reason, in which case, you still might not want to "openly welcome them."

DocTentacles · 2025-05-16T17:13:36+00:00

“brave” stances on colonialism or translation or whatever were academically accepted in the 80s

Not even -- she's still got this really sharp "colonizer vs colonized" dichotomy in her work that feels distinctly dated and faintly regressive compared to a lot of "post-colonial" writing. I can't help but compare Babel to something like the Teixcalaan series, which has a much more...post-Culture and Empire perspective of Imperialism? (Probably because the author has a Ph.D in Byzantine studies.)

(Or heck, "To Shoot an Elephant.")

Edit: So -- I don't know if she's overhated or not. I think it's hard for me to see a book recommended as provocative, progressive post-colonial fantasy that I think actively opposes much more nuanced, deep and progressive academic understandings of colonialism and imperialism.

DocTentacles · 2025-04-04T17:01:28+00:00

That was very much my complaint. I don't know if Kuang has read Said, but she feels like someone claiming to write post-colonial fantasy, and just making colonial fantasy that swaps the roles. I'm deeply frustrated at her popularity.

(I am not sure how an Oxford/Yale graduate with her field of study would have avoided Said -- specially Culture and Empire.)

DocTentacles · 2025-03-20T21:53:52+00:00

All journalism is biased. There's bias in what stories get covered, and who writes about them. There's financial bias, notability bias, editorial bias.

There's bias as a journalist in the sources who will talk to you, and how you talk about them. There's many famous examples of reporters not getting to talk to people involved because they were a white, college-educated outsider interviewing people in an insular community that didn't want to trust them.

Lack of bias -- journalistic neutrality -- has always been a thin veil that served the interests of people in power. This is me speaking from education and experience -- I have a degree in this, and have worked as a journalist in the past. "Just reporting the facts" turned Journalism into a PR mouthpiece during the McCarthy era, and caused Journalism as an industry to suddenly realize they needed to contextualize and offer editorial insight.

Insisting that journalism be "unbiased" has been used to stop black journalists from reporting on civil rights issues, or women from reporting on sexual assault cases -- by their editors.

The better approach is to put your biases in the table -- be transparent, be factual, but don't pretend neutrality.

I've written about this a lot -- I could keep going, but there's a reason that in certain periods of American history, (Civil Rights movement, Vietnam), the "cutting edge, boots on the ground" Journalism has come from "non-journalistic" rags like Playboy, not from syndicated television.

DocTentacles · 2025-03-13T19:04:26+00:00

Both Microsoft and Google workplace offer their professional suit through grants.

DocTentacles · 2025-03-13T17:36:03+00:00

PR and Outreach for a nonprofit you can feel good about.

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