sol invictus.indd

CHAPTER 3 • STORYTELLINGfrom “how?” to “what?” Once they’ve gatheredthe resources they need and come into godlikepower, all that’s left for the characters is the matterof actually accomplishing their world-spanningdesires. Games at this level are likely to heavilyinvolve a broad variety of Creation’s most powerfulentities — any actions the characters undertake arelikely to drawESSENCE 7-8At this point, there are few things in Creation thatcan stand before an Exalt. Deathlords, powerfulbehemoths, Demons of the Third Circle, the highestfunctionaries of the Celestial Bureaucracy, and themore powerful First Age surivors are the only realcompetition for such a character. The scope of agame featuring characters at this power level willmost likely span all of Creation and well beyond.The characters can solve almost any problem they’refaced with in the mortal world — all that’s left todo is address the greatest metaphysical challenges.Of course, this will bring the characters into directconflict with anyone and everyone with a plan forCreation. Games at this level are going to be playedfor high stakes, between the most powerful beingsin the world — and with everyone else as pawns.The advice in this section focuses on running gamesin the latter two brackets — the first two are wellsupported by the Storytelling advice in the Exaltedcorebook and various hardback supplements.TYPES OF HIGH-POWEREDGAMESA Storyteller can incorporate high Essencecharacters into her game in quite a few ways.Basic advancement within an ongoing game mayeventually produce quite powerful characters, ifthe game continues long enough. Alternately, aStoryteller might advance a game’s timeline forwardto when the characters are more experienced, oreven begin a new game with already powerful PCs.The sections below discuss some of the specificconcerns that different types of high-poweredgames can produce.ADVANCING TO HIGH ESSENCE LEVELSSome players’ Exalted games can last a long time.There are games of Exalted running today that havebeen running since the game’s release. In that time,players’ characters will grow quite powerful. Somegroups may choose to give out small experienceawards in order to keep power levels low, orretire PCs once they become too powerful. Others,however, will want to play the same heroes as theyreach incredible levels of power.For many groups, this will be the least problematicmethod of reaching high Essence play. Becauseplayers began playing these characters at lowerpower levels, they should be quite comfortable withtheir personalities and quirks by the time they reachEssence 5. And since their characters will be slowlyincreasing in power, it’ll be much easier to becomeaccustomed to the characters’ abilities.The disadvantage of this approach lies in how longit takes — games can often collapse due to shiftingcommittments or loss of interest. Some games mightbe better suited by an epic (but lower powered)finale than the long process of moving into highEssence play.BEGINNING WITH HIGH-ESSENCECHARACTERSIn some cases, a Storyteller might begin a gamewith high-powered characters. There are a varietyof reasons to do so — your characters might beLunar elders, or a circle of First Age Solars whosomehow survived the Usurpation and havehidden in temporal stasis until the current day.However, beginning a game with high Essencecharacters presents a number of unique problems.These problems can occur even in an ongoinggame, but slow advancement will generally give175