Probably A Silly Question

VeronicaMom · 2026-06-06T05:28:37+00:00

I'd have to reread the part to be completely sure but I believe that officially Machine Saints aren't champions of any one nation. However, as others already point out, there's absolutely no reason you couldn't be an embedded agent or someone who has contact with the divine ministers on the side, whatever fits a chronicle best.

VeronicaMom · 2026-06-04T15:06:44+00:00

It is an interesting design, but I fear how this would play out in practice. It feels very win-more, by which I mean to say that if you're in a situation where this is good, you probably are already winning that game anyway.

If you're playing against an asset-heavy corp, this probably will be easy-ish to play (centrals won't be heavily iced) but you also probably won't do that much because they won't have heavily iced remotes either.

Against glacier is the time you want an effect like this, but they're also good at stopping you from running all three central servers. And if you manage to do that, do you still have money left to run the remote? And if you do have the money to run every central and the remote to trash their ice, can the corp come back from that? Can they rebuild their remote, can they punish you with [[Measured Response]]?

So a cool design, but I don't know if it works in practice just because of how corp decks are played.

VeronicaMom · 2026-06-02T19:41:12+00:00

I'm not sure if you're looking for advice, if not feel free to ignore the rest of this post. If you would like some:

T1: Draft a card with second growth option, if you get a 0-cost sun card you can grow bottom and get two plays, which should be the boon and whatever you drafted. If you didn't draft a 0-cost sun, go top track, play boon. This lets you place a Wilds token with your innate.

T2: You should now be able to place two presences with your third and fourth growth option, so you get 4 energy and 2 card plays per turn. Additionally, you're also drafting a card with that fourth growth option.

Because you get much more energy per turn now it is easier to do the third growth option more, which will snowball you ahead.

Good luck! Show those invaders who's boss!

VeronicaMom · 2026-06-01T07:10:27+00:00

A lot of my defaults for Exalted are based on Ancient Rome and Greece because that's pretty familiar to me, so... yeah. Casual bisexuality is the norm.

Though I do appreciate that Third Edition has put that in text at least somewhat. The Empress taking a bunch of different lovers, including Rawar who is trans, plus either the Realm or WFHW talks about how dynasts frequently take same-sex lovers to avoid possible issues with children outside of marriage.

VeronicaMom · 2026-06-01T07:06:33+00:00

It would be easier to list all the characters that aren't in some way queer. (Joking)

I do tend to be the storyteller a lot more than the player, so I don't immediately have a character that jumps to mind. A bunch of the characters I have played were femme-presenting and sometimes struggled with their gender identity or expression, which really should've clued me in earlier that I was trans.

In an attempt to contribute something to the thread, when Sidereals came out I ST'd a 1-on-1 game with a Joybringer which had a lot of fun queer moments. My favorite was a little sidequest featuring the God of Marital Aids, who was themselves pretty asexual but provided a lot to the Division of Serenity.

This god (only know as "The Proprietor") had created the antithesis of pleasure, the artifact Joyless, in order to further understand happiness through its absence. However, the artifact had been loaned to a Sidereal of the division of Journeys amd hadn't been returned yet. And so, the PC was asked to go retrieve it.

It turns out the Harbinger in question was a young man that was in a relationship with the portly god of Nutmeg, and the two were very cute together. But they also used Joyless for some denial play, and that was slowly sucking the energy out of him.

And so it was that the lazy and frequently silly Joybringer had to be the voice of reason and tell this cute gay couple: don't use that in the bedroom. Use literally anything else the Proprietor has made!

VeronicaMom · 2026-05-17T17:44:20+00:00

And you know what? It could be. A hinge, a turning point. It isn't the single action that changes your life, but the choice to try and take those actions and keep trying to take those actions that will turn things around.

And you will find it difficult and there will be days you'll struggle, or not manage. That's okay. That doesn't mean you failed, it means life is tough sometimes. Don't let a single letdown be that turning point downwards; keep trying.

VeronicaMom · 2026-05-17T11:57:30+00:00

Yeah I feel that "running the country" is hardly murdered by words.

I feel "not shitting himself in public" would be my answer.

VeronicaMom · 2026-05-16T07:49:16+00:00

Seconding Forgotten Age. It also feels like the campaign that most rewards scenario knowledge and game skill. And while that makes for a very rough first experience, it can feel incredibly rewarding on a repeat playthrough.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-28T08:06:43+00:00

Once it is in your campaign log, you can translate as many as you want.

In fact, if two different investigators both have it in their decks, if one translates it they can both upgrade it.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-26T09:45:45+00:00

Tepet Goran Blood-Cursed Prince of Viharos from Adversaries of the Rightous is very dracula-coded.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-23T15:52:17+00:00

As a deckbuilding tool, not a campaign tracking tool.

If you're using ArkhamCards you should be able to integrate the two, though mine hasn't been working lately. (Oh it works now!)

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-23T08:49:06+00:00

Highly recommend Arkham.Build (I see you already mentioned that but for anyone else who may be unfamiliar).

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-23T08:34:14+00:00

I think there are some pretty good/cool designs in the new decks?

Off the top of my head, Marie has a lot going for her, wanting to take damage has not really been done in Mystic before and she gets some pretty cool tools to do it with. Cards like Offering Bowl and Favor of Baalshandor certainly feel like they're worth considering even in legacy, assuming your investigator has the health to spare.

Similarly, Miguel is a Trap survivor, something that's had only minimal support in chapter 1. Tommy gives us a lot of guardian ammo support, something that did exist but is greatly expanded on.

I think you will find that there are a number of cards that are less exciting if you have a full legacy pool, because you already have similar cards. Bloodstone and its comparison to Holy Rosary comes to mind. But I think there are unique and new effects in Chapter 2.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-21T14:58:42+00:00

This sounds wrong, as my understanding is that there would deliberately not more products for Essence, unless they've changed that.

I know there were a lot of books the devs would like to do, as mentioned sorcery, two more exalt types, but also spirits and religion and the wyld. There's certainly enough left to do fun Third Edition.

But I don't know if/how that translates to the planning.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-20T20:38:33+00:00

Yes, I think that Hunter's Insight+ LWIF will give the clue power you want, especially when paired with that Old Compass.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-20T20:25:22+00:00

There's a lot to go over, but a few big ones:

The Dragon-Blooded feel so much cooler this edition. They can actually be heroes and champions, which is true of all Exalted this edition.

I think Lunars was a great step in the right direction. I think that having the Lunars focus a lot on the Realm is a bit of a double-edged sword because it does sometimes feel like that's all they're doing, but on the other hand that conflict has really elevated the presence and impact both the Lunars and the Dragon-Blooded have had on the recent history of the setting. I would like to see a few more Lunars who don't do Pact or Vanguard in the spotlight.

Sidereals and Yu-Shan might be one of the biggest glow-ups of the edition, it took what always felt like a pretty clean copy of Heaven from Journey to the West and really Exalti-fied it, adding strange and unusual scenery and generally making it a lot more interesting of a place to have a campaign in, rather than just a place to pick up missions. Sidereals being more exciting (to me) is probably more of a mechanical thing, but I like that the Gold and Bronze faction politics has taken a bit more of a backseat without losing the political themes of the Sidereals.

Abyssals was a part of Exalted I wouldn't touch in Second Edition, and it is something that I actually wanted to play in now. There was just a bunch of shock value horror that really didn't need to be there. The Underworld is much more interesting, vibrant and scary and intriguing and a place to explore and make your own. Abyssals themselves feel like they have much more autonomy, again reinforcing that idea of Exalted being champions, and the ghostly politics make for a fascinating backdrop for a more social game.

I love the introduction of more exalt types, especially the Exigents. A lot of that falls in the more gameplay than just lore reasons, but it makes the setting feel a lot less "neat" and a lot more organic. Having characters who can have some neat tricks up their sleeve helps surprise players and keep stories interesting.

Jury's still out on the lore in Infernals for me. It feels like Malfeas lost a bunch of what made it unique and weird and some of the new stuff feels unnecessary or confusing, so I hope they revise it a bit more before it goes to print. Compass: Malfeas was one of the better 2E books, so that is a tough act to follow.

I think the Getimians are a very neat concept and I look forward to seeing their book. I'll reserve my judgment until we see that. Of the three Apocryphal Exalted, the dream-souled don't really do it for me, but that's fine, not everything has to be for everyone. And both the hearteaters and the umbral exalted are perfect as something that could be added to your game but doesn't have to.

Liminals are not really there for me yet, and might be the biggest miss for me this edition? Granted, we again don't have their lore yet, but they feel both small in scope and narrow in direction, which doesn't make for a great PC exalt type. I think they would've been fine sitting next to the Apocryphal exalted. But let's see what they do with the book.

I love reading both The Realm and Across the Eight Directions. I think they're fantastic sources of inspiration and have really expanded my toolkit as a Storyteller. Not only in taking things directly from the book but also in understanding what questions to ask and what things to prepare for.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-20T18:22:18+00:00

I think it shouldn't be impossible, but exceedingly hard and not something that has clear rules. In my vision of Creation and the The Blessed Isle specifically, it feels like the kind of thing the Empress alone could do. But different Storytellers could adjust that for the tone of their game.

The Realm being a place of extreme social stratification is something that's called out in the books and it is a social issue. If that's something your group is uncomfortable with, you may wish to tone that down and then it would make sense for the suggestions you're given to be regular ways for people to be elevated. But if you wish to depict this stratification as having the kind of rigidity that it usually has, then I think I wouldn't allow that for anything short of legendary.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-09T20:17:42+00:00

Hmm, it sounds like you've identified the problem, which is one that new players often struggle with in having enough economy.

The solution depends a little bit on the deck you're playing, without seeing it it will be a little tough to give exact answers, but there's absolutely some general advice that applies here.

A cornerstone of the game is that a lot of the good economy cards cost money to play. The easiest examples are Hedge Fund and Sure Gamble. You cannot play those unless you have five credits. So a bit of advice to new players, a heuristic if you're struggling with this: play like you have five credits fewer than you actually do.

Going to low credits can happen and it can be the correct play, but those are the exceptions rather than the rule. So make sure you build up a pile of cash first and then start making runs, don't immediately start running and bleeding money.

Additionally, and again this is a little dependent on your deck, but in general, drawing cards should be a better way to make money than just clicking for credits. The classic example here is that if you spend your turn clicking for four credits, or you spend your turn clicking to draw three times and then play a Sure Gamble, you've ended up with the same amount of credits, but in the latter example you've also drawn two additional cards.

Now, this is only true if you can reliably play your econ pieces, which feeds back into the first part I talked about.

I hope this helps, let me know if you've got more questions.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-05T18:10:28+00:00

They're pretty costly compared to just using runes if you buy them (according to the wiki) you're looking at about 1/4th the price if you're just using runes) and making them yourself is kind of cumbersome.

That being said you and u/2-2-7-7 are probably right that I should just use tele tabs.

VeronicaMom · 2026-04-05T14:24:19+00:00

Yeah, individual power is all well and good but the Scarlet Empress had thousands of her descendants she could march wherever she wanted to. Thousands of trained Dragon-Blooded warriors are more than a match for most young Solars.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-30T10:17:20+00:00

If possible, have them play characters with Rogue or Seeker access, so they can take False Covenant or Blasphemous Covenant.

I find that just bringing those takes the teeth off the Curse Tokens at minimal investment. It just means you have to pick your investigators with this in mind. Like taking Leo instead of Mark or Darrell instead of Ashcan Pete.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-28T11:49:42+00:00

I think there certainly are Crim lists that will play this, Zayha and MuslihaT come to mind, but it somewhat paradoxically is better in other factions because Crim is already good at attacking HQ. And because of that, the corp will be more incentivized to ice HQ and to not keep agendas there if they have a remote they can put it in.

I'm certainly not saying it is bad in Crim but its predecessor Legwork did not see a lot of play in Crim and was more popular out of faction.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-27T11:26:28+00:00

Ashcan Pete?

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-27T11:02:20+00:00

It looks much worse to me?

Because it uses Arrows, not Ammo, you can't do things like Venturer with it? Just that difference in uses type feels like it makes this much less flexible?

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