The first session!



We began by watching a video that showed my vision of the world of Exalted. It started with a high-octane, over-the-top sword fight from the anime Jubei-Chan, a great example of combat in Exalted.

The next clip had a fan-made intro sequence from Xena, Warrior Princess, which is one of my greatest inspirations for Exalted.

The third clip was from Hero, in which two swordsmen fought over a placid lake. I used this clip because it showed how beautiful combat can be, as well as the fact that combat can end without someone dying.

The fourth clip was from 300, in which the Spartans slaughter the attacking Persians. Because, sometimes, you just need to feel like a badass.

The fifth clip was from the YouTube channel Extra Credits. This clip explained the role of Classical Heroes in gaming, that failure is sometimes the most powerful moment of character development, and that we shouldn’t be afraid to have our player’s characters fail.

The final clip was a fanmade Exalted trailer, which I thought set the tone of the game quite well.

Our next step was to establish some parameters for our game. I asked the group a question based on each of the Maidens of Destiny:

Journeys: Where do we want the game to go? We decided that we’d like to be able to explore, since our previous games of Exalted resulted in being tied down to a central location. That being said, there is also interest in establishing a kingdom. Taking down a Deathlord is in the works, too.

Serenity: How do we feel about love and romance? Of course, this would mean flirting with me. This isn’t a huge problem or priority for anyone. It’ll come up if it comes up.

Battles: How much of a focus do we want on fighting? We love a good fight!

Secrets: How much control do I, as the Storyteller, have over characters? The two more experienced players of the group expressed that they are fine with nudging the game in a certain direction, if there’s a story to move along and there’s actual character motivation behind the action. They both said that I didn’t really exercise that power during our Burn Legend campaign.

Endings: What are “no-go” situations for us? Two were brought up: No sexual assault and no child abuse.

We then chose the area of play, which was the Northwest. Apparently, everyone at the table wants to be a Viking. Plus, it’s one of the locations that our mutual groups have not played much in.

We then played one long round of Microscope. The purpose of the game was to establish the history of our location, as well as in socio-political dynamics between cities. I’m glad we did, because a lot of cool ideas came out of it, and the first adventure basically wrote itself. You can find the history here.

The next session will focus on character creation, and, after that, our first “real” session!