Journey to the Invisible Fortress (Learn to Play Exalted 3E)
Rumors of a fantastic treasure buried in the far Northeast call to you . . . if you can survive a journey halfway across the world of Exalted!
TYPE
SYSTEM
LANGUAGE
EXPERIENCE
AGE
$25.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Wednesday - 12:30 AM UTC
Dec 17 / Session 127
Session Duration / 4–6 hours
4 / 6 Seats Filled
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Schedule
Meet your party members
4/6
About the adventure
A Classic Exalted Adventure returns . . . Across all of Creation, in marketplaces, bazaars and caravansaries throughout the Threshold, rumors fly of a great treasure hoard uncovered in the uttermost Northeast . . . Three treasures from the First Age appear within a season, all from the same area, and each of them bought for a sizable fortune by members of the Scarlet Dynasty. Dreams of easy wealth, of a life free of toil and struggle, have sent every Scavenger Lord from Nexus to the Lap and back again down the Road to the End of the World, to seek the source of these treasures. You have joined one such caravan, but you are not like the other treasure hunters . . . You are Exalted, one of the Chosen of the Gods. Born a mortal like every other human in Creation, you proved you were something more than mortal when in a moment of crisis, you made a courageous choice that took your destiny into your own hands. In that moment, the Unconquered Sun shined down upon you, anointing you with a shard of His divine power, and you took the Second Breath, transforming into one of the Solar Exalted, inheritor of an ancient power, lost for over a Millenium, reborn into an Age of Sorrows . . . As one of the Solar Exalted, you have quickly learned that Creation has greatly changed in your absence. Flickers of memories of past incarnations trouble your dreams, and you know the world has become much less than the glorious past you vaguely remember. Creation is now smaller, darker, and more dangerous than ever before, and the Solar Exalted have many enemies. You must recover the power lost to your kind, and a cache of treasures such as this might contain more than just relics of the lost age, but answers to what disaster befell your kind and Creation as a whole . . . And so, you journey North, seeking what was lost to your kind in the First Age. The future of Creation depends on your success . . . A new legend begins . . . This a classic adventure scenario from the First Edition of Exalted, which I am adapting to run in Third Edition. This is the campaign version, which I think is by far the best way to experience this story, as it is an Epic Journey traversing thousands of miles from the heart of the Scavenger Lands to the uttermost Northeast, as the lost treasures in the Invisible Fortress are on the very edge of where Creation meets the Wyld . . . Experience with Exalted is not required, this scenario is designed to introduce players to the lore of Exalted as they seek the mysteries of the forgotten past, and we will learn and practice the new Edition’s rules together. We will create a new Circle of Exalted Heroes together, and set off on an Epic Journey together. All you need to bring is your courage to face the elements and the unknown, your desire to discover the truths of your world, lost for generations, and all the D10s you can muster. The Storyteller will provide the rest.
Game style
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
4.8
(24)
4 years on StartPlaying
487 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Teacher, Storytelling
Average response time: 3 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
Hail and Well Met! I am Overlord Jim (It's an old internet handle I happen to like, just go with it) and I have been running and playing TTRPGs for over 20 years now. I have always wanted to try my hand at Professional Game Mastery, and the age of Covid-19 is as good a time as any to get into it. My nerd credentials start with climbing every castle tower within driving distance of our home in Great Britain when I lived there as a child. My love of that era has lead me to become a serious medievalist scholar with a particular emphasis on the Early Medieval Era (better known as the Viking Age), and I have more than a passing familiarity with the Crusading Era and the Hundred Years War as well. My bookshelves are packed with all the classics of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Genres, and most of them are well loved with many creases in the spines. I got into theater as a teenager and minored in it in college, but my B.A. is in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations, and I have most of a Master's in International Studies that I just couldn't afford to complete. Someday I will go back for a M.A. in Medieval History, but for now, I content myself with reading it constantly to write better roleplaying books in historical settings. I am a Veteran of the Sub/Dub Wars (Dub Forever!), I believe one can like both Star Wars and Star Trek (though the latter is clearly superior), and my definition of a good night out always involves character sheets, dice, and stacks of roleplaying books. I have been a Storyteller as long as I can remember in my real life, I've been an aspiring novelist since my teens, and when I discovered these games, I was instantly hooked. I'm forever enamored of the freedom this medium offers. You have complete freedom of direction - you could go anywhere you can imagine and do anything the system can support (and often, quite a bit it was never meant to do but the GM makes it work!), which is something no other medium of entertainment can deliver, and you join in this endeavor with your friends as collaborators, and the story you tell together is always bigger than the sum of its parts. Every table and every troupe offers a unique experience, and I want nothing more than to come craft an epic story together with you. And I do mean EPIC. I love putting my PCs in the middle of the most exciting chapters in the history of their world, and handing them the power to change events for the better - or worse, if they so choose - just to see what they do with it. My favorite system - Exalted - is perfectly suited to this style of play, where I cast players in the roles of reborn Demigods out to save the world - or destroy it. What legends will they tell of your deeds? Come join my table and find out. A few entries from my Roleplaying Resume: - 20+ Years Experience behind the Screen - Specialized in Non-D&D Options [Exalted, Scion, Classic World of Darkness, Star Wars RPG (FFG Version), and more!] - Always willing to try a new system or setting - 10+ Years Experience as a Presenter on the Art of Game Mastery (https://www.facebook.com/ArtofGameMastery) - Coming to a Convention near you! (When conventions come back, that is . . .) - 5+ Years experience running Convention Games - Published Freelance Writer (High Level Games' Snowhaven Setting, Storyteller's Vault, Storypath Nexus) I have decided that all future scenarios I write will be with an eye towards their eventual publication, so you won't just be participating in an awesome online experience - you'll be playtesting new gaming materials too! About my Pricing Structure: I am a Plotter GM, not a Pantser GM, to borrow an analogy from writing - while every GM gets good at Improvisational GMing by necessity, it isn't my first choice and I prefer to come to the table with most of the prep work done long in advance. Therefore, my pricing reflects not only the time at the table, but also the time building the scenario, statting out the NPCs, planning the combat encounters - if you have ever run a TTRPG, you know it is at the very least a demanding Part Time Job if not a Full Time Occupation in and of itself! So while I do understand everyone in our hobby is perpetually broke (Roleplaying Books are an expensive addiction and Kickstarter is a hell of a drug), I also need to price in my prep time too. Besides, I plan to use any revenue I make from my endeavors here to pay for the art to decorate the books I'm writing - so you aren't just paying for an incredible STing experience - you're also helping to develop new RPG material and funding its development costs. You are contributing to the future of your hobby, which now more than ever is driven by the independent creatives like me who are invested in expanding it. So know that my time factors into the cost of the seat, and that your ticket to the game is going to support the hobby we both love. I look forward to seeing you at my next event!
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
For the Campaign Version of this game, I expect we will spend at least one and possibly more sessions creating the Champions we will portray during the course of the campaign. Exalted Character Creation is quite a bit more involved than throwing numbers on a character sheet, and I tend to run very Character-Focused games, so I really want to drill down on who these people are as people before they became Exalts, and how their prior mortal lives continue to impact their destiny now. I run Character Creation as a group, and I encourage collaboration, suggestions from the other players, and feedback to your ideas, but you always have the final say on what suggestions you do and do not incorporate into your character's final design. I find building a Circle of Exalts collaboratively like this helps to develop common backstory ties that bind the group together better, and a strong group dynamic is essential to success in any roleplaying game. For this run, we will be limited to Solar Exalts only, and we will be assuming you took the Second Breath within the last five years or less. The Unconquered Sun tends to choose His Champions at the prime of their lives, which means most PCs will be between 15 and 30 years of age, and will statistically be starting characters.
This game has become a walking tour of Creation's North East, and all along the way the players find new trouble that only they can resolve. It is very episodic but there is an overall thread that one day, they will reach the end of the Road to the End of the World and discover what is actually out there. This game has been ongoing for almost two years now, but we do onboard new players with some frequency as other players have had to leave, mostly for scheduling reasons beyond our control. Do not be intimidated by the session count, we bring everyone in on an even footing. You will quickly catch up to the rest of the group.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
I generally run games via Discord, so a mic is required. I prefer video chat as well as I love seeing my players' smiling faces. I prefer Discord and have some experience with Roll20 as well, and I have nearly two decades of experience with theater of mind. I have a webcam and mic, and I would prefer everyone else be similarly equipped, but if you only have a mic, that's fine. If you have access to a copy of Exalted Third Edition, I would recommend reading the chapters on Character Creation, Systems, and Charms. I don't expect you to have the entire tome memorized - all 600 pages of it - so I would focus on those sections, in that order. If you have a change to read the setting chapters, that would be my next choice, particularly to do with the Scavenger Lands, as that is the point of origin for this Journey. If you do not have access to a copy of Exalted Third Edition, then do not worry about it overly much. We will go over what we need to know during the game. Players will need to bring their own dice or use a dice-roller app or system. The system uses d10s exclusively, I would recommend having as many as possible to hand, at least 10, but 20 is better and as you get more experienced with the system, you may find ways to create even larger dice pools still - no, I'm not kidding, we really do roll dice pools that big! I will let you use dice rollers or physical dice as you prefer - I trust my players, and I will not deny you the pleasure of rolling your own dice. This is a system known for the joy of rolling fistfuls of dice! If you have not experienced that for yourself yet (having stuck to single die pass/fail systems like . . . I don't know, the one with Dragons in your Dungeons), then I look forward to introducing you. There's nothing quite like rolling fistfuls of dice to make you feel powerful! I also recommend a good notebook and pen and paper to take notes as well. OPTIONAL: If you have jewel counters (For instance, if you previously played Magic: The Gathering or something else that uses them), they can be useful for tracking motes of Essence used by your characters. You can also use poker chips, scraps of paper, or just making notes and doing math in columns on the side of your notepad will work just as well, but I like the jewel counters because they are visible and tactile. Best to have them in two colors if you can, for tracking the two types of Essence used by your characters.
What Overlord Jim brings to the table
I am not an artist and cannot illustrate your characters with anything other than my words, but I will be cropping and reusing the maps from the classic scenario and revealing them at the appropriate times. I will attempt to use the Maps in 3E as well, to illustrate your route from the heart of the Scavenger Lands to the very edge of the Frozen Northeast. But where you are going, there are no maps to guide you . . .
Equipment needed to play
Computer
Internet
Microphone
Webcam
Physical Dice
Platforms used
Safety
How Overlord Jim creates a safe table
Before play begins, there a Session 0 where we will discuss all the Safety Tools I intend to employ. The ST will communicate with each player in advance as much as possible to learn their limits, and we will discuss them as a table so that everyone is clear on what the expectations are and where the game's story will and will not be going, and what the ST and the other Players are and are not comfortable with experiencing in play. As for the Gameplay, it is expected that this is a new system to the players, and we will be proceeding as a learning experience for all involved. We will try to adhere to Rules As Written for Exalted 3E, but with the understanding that story always trumps rules in every system, and the Golden Rule and the Rule of Cool are in full effect.
Content warnings
Safety tools used