Character Build Index

This is an index of the character build posts I've made for the blog, sorted by game and such. 

In general I've tried to keep these write-ups to the core book, with supplemental material to a minimum for the sake of folks trying to follow along. I've also eschewed optional/house rules, and if I do deviate from the text or take some sort of liberty I'll point it out. 

If anyone has any requests or suggestions for characters, feel free to ask, and as long as it's a game for which I have a core book (my library is considerable, though not infinite), I'll consider it.

(I'm aware this is pretty bare bones, I'll probably spruce it up with some descriptions at some point, I just wanted to have it set up sooner rather than later.)

Exalted

Exalted Essence:

• Babic Branek, Winter Caste Getimian tech guru
• Ferem Jago, Fire Aspect Dragon-Blooded family champion

Trinity Continuum

• TC Core: Martin "MarTay" Taylor, indie game developer turned activist hacker
• TC Æon: Adrian Taylor, Proteus Division telepath
• TC Aberrant: Jerry Taylor, Æon Society nova troubleshooter
• TC Adventure!: William Taylor, Æon Society bodyguard
• TC Assassins: Makayla Merlin, Cop turned vigilante assassin for the Daughters of the Jacobin
• TC Anima: Erin Taylor, Youth counselor at a Project Neptune homeless shelter
• Erin's Terra Surge characters, Noddol the Veer Boundless and Sigil the Sentient Muse

Other Characters

This section will be for games that aren't part of a larger series and are one-off posts. If I ever go back and do more with these, then sure, I'll rearrange all this. But until then...

• Cyberpunk RED: Abasi "Bas" Kasto Hossam, Netrunner learning his craft on the streets

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Captain of the Ashen Umbra (Exalted)

Oh dang. After... well, almost a hundred sessions and nineteen 'episodes,' The Tales of the Moonlight Maiden has hit what I think of as the end of the season. This isn't the end of the story, or these characters, but it's a point to pause and work out where we're going from here and gaze upon new journeys to come.

Also, sorry this took so long, but the fight took a couple of sessions, and then I wanted to write an epilogue as well (which I shared with my players separately but is part of this post).

As I type this we're still hammering out details on what comes next, as my group and I are discussing possibly switching over to using Exalted Essence and playing some different characters for a bit to change it up. Naturally, unless something happens, we will be circling back to these characters (converted over, of course) in time.

Also, quick note, as I've done with big dramatic battles in the past, I may make slight tweaks to the presentation of the order of attacks for the purposes of flow, and leave out little stuff that doesn't directly contribute to the fight like NPCs trying and failing to attack, characters who've been knocked down getting back up, etc. I probably go into way too much detail on these fights as it is, but the draw of the cinematic description is too strong for me. As always, feel free to comment on whether I need to dial it back.

With that, I can't think of anything else to add to this at the moment, so let's get into it...

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Ashen Fleet (Exalted)

Hey, sorry if this seems a little late, but we had a battle that lasted three sessions, and I don't want to break up those post-wise.

That said, before I move on, just a reminder that the Abyssals Indiegogo campaign still has a few days left on it. I do wish the timing had been a little better to use more of that material in this story, but them's the breaks sometimes.

So let's get into it. As this is kind of a huge battle, I may skimp on details (like, for instance, armies clashing in the background very round) and slightly tweak the order of events if it helps things fit cinematically but doesn't affect the outcome of the battle. For instance, if Character A hits Character B, then Character C does something unrelated, then B hits A back, I might describe C's action taking place after A and B's exchange. Also, a while back, my group switched to a 'popcorn initiative' system, and I'm not going to go out of my way to delineate rounds, so if it seems like there isn't a clear order to when characters are acting, that's by design.

And finally, before I go into it, I put this post up explaining some of the systems I used. You shouldn't need it to follow what's going on, but just getting it out there. (There'll be another link at the end of the post.)

Exalted Mini-update with a little something to tide you over

I know it's been quiet here on the Exalted front, but that's because the Battle for Salt-Founded Glory took a few sessions and I wanted to write all that up as a single post. We've finished that battle and I still need to finish the post, but it's getting there.

In the meantime, just wanted to remind everyone that the Indiegogo campaign for Abyssals: Sworn to the Grave is still going, though in the home stretch.

And for the heck of it, I thought I'd share some behind the scenes planning and some mechanical things I came up with. I mean, yes, it's to show off just a little bit but I feel like unless it's stepping on published or yet-to-be-published material, it's always good to share these things (including what worked and what didn't) in the hopes that someone else might get something out of it. Note that this does assume some familiarity with Exalted's system.

BTW, I'm not necessarily going to directly refer back to this post when I put together the actual battle write-up, so feel free to come back and read it afterwards. But if you wanna see and comment on my ideas for running this whole thing, here it is. If you've got any questions about details or anything like that, just ask.

Building a Character: Trinity Continuum: Assassins

Okay, so after spending all of five minutes thinking it over while bored, I've decided to do a Trinity Continuum: Assassins character after all as sort of a mental palate cleanser so I don't spend all of my time thinking about Exalted. I'm going to hold off on TC: Anima until the PDF's been errata'd, which should be soon, and I think that's going to be my standard for doing these in the future barring any special requests or suggestions.

TC: Assassins is sort of (but not quite) an alternate setting for the Trinity Continuum core's 'modern day' setting. It's the same world, with a lot of connections back to the core material, but like the core book it's very broad enough to customize or tweak to your needs. And while you could do a stories like these perfectly well out of the core, TC: Assassins is intended/geared specifically for stuff like John Wick, Hitman, Kill Bill, Assassins Creed, Metal Gear Solid, and so forth. In particular, this game draws on a lot of inspiration from the underworld subculture seen in the John Wick series, with Hotels Asylia as neutral spaces where Assassins can safely take care of business, and the Service which preserves the peace and balance between the Societies by enforcing a strict Code these flux-empowered killers must follow.

And yes, flux is still a factor. While the game doesn't explicitly describe them as such, I think it'd be a reasonable shorthand to describe Assassins as something like an alternate form of Talent, exceptional people who can draw upon flux. But where a Talent might 'simply' be a legendary athlete or the best hacker in the world -- impressive but not shaking anyone's grip on reality -- Assassins' abilities border on the blatantly superhuman but are heavily specialized, and anyone whose worldview might be threatened by seeing them are almost always nudged away by flux for both their own and the Assassins' safeties.

There's some other relevant setting stuff to get into for context on the character I'm going to make, but I think I'll save it for below the jump cut this time, for readability's sake.