Awesome RP weekend!

Including:
- Wardragon 40K... awesome beyond words.
- Panoply of Faith, first Exalted session ever run by Eni! Woo Eni \o/ (Plus a lot of ramble about my Panoply chara, Tashna!)
- Yesterday's 1890's game, which ran short but was still fun!

Also some (very) brief mention of ED and Soul Collectors.

Here we go with the RP summaries:

Wardragon 40K

Whooooo, Wardragon was freaking awesome today. o.o;;;

Archana and the others ended up telling off a Solar king, and establishing ourselves as an organization separate from the authority of the Celestials. Meanwhile, the entire of Hollow spiraled down into this chaotic free-for-all with factions killing each other in the streets or rushing to escape.

MADNESS. (SPARTA!) The scene was a huge rush for me to play. Archa got to do a couple of speeches, which makes me damned glad I got those Performance dots and charms. n.n I think "United Forces of Creation" sounds kind of cheesy but hey, Archa had to name it on the fly. And people said UFC sounds kind of cool. I actually kind think it does, too, if you don't think of it as a mix of KFC and UFO. People were making all sorts of silly titles that UFC could also stand for... it was quite amusing. Hee.

But damn. I ... whoa! I'm still speechless at how things turned out. I don't expect it to be an easy road to unite all these disparate units into a coherent whole, though. And I think that if word got out as to what Archana is proclaiming she may very well get some of those mad, crazy Celestials pissed at her, the other PCs and anyone who follows them.

When shit started hitting the fan, though, it seemed the only choice left, to portray the various officers and staff and hangers-on of the Unity as an actual, united body with a purpose -- not just a bunch of people on the same ship. And what purpose do they truly serve? I couldn't just have Archa say, "We're uniting to make one large, last ditch charge at the dead and hope they'll go the hell away!"

Yeah right... there's no way the fledgling UFC could do it if the Deliberative and the Landsraad and the Vaelfair couldn't do it. Of course, they'd LIKE to accomplish that eventually, but I think the first priority is to create a central organization of Creation's defenders who do NOT answer exclusively to the Celestials. And with this organization, they can seek the rest of the pieces of Incarna, put them in their place, and give all of Creation an advantage against the dead.

Hopefully. :O The one big missing piece of the puzzle, of course, is knowing where the next piece IS. Still hoping we'll get one of the Sidereals to tell us sooner or later. ;.; I kinda hope for an appearance by Archana's Master Silence, but... Jianjun would do just as well!

The recent turn of events in Wardragon also made me realize that Archa is going to start needing Bureaucracy charms, if she's going to be the leader of the UFC (STILL boggling me. UFC... god, I just came up with that out of the blue! How embarrassing, and yet kind of fitting!) I never thought, when I made Archa, that she'd need that kind of expertise. Of course, she's going to delegate a lot of the organizing and paperwork once she figures out a framework for it all, but it's better if she knows SOMETHING about the tasks she's delegating, too.

Panoply of Faith

Now, about Panoply of Faith -- this game has an entirely different scope and pace to Wardragon. WD is moving us towards what almost feels like an AU Usurpation, or some sort of Creation vs. Underworld final battle, or both. Somehow. o.O Panoply is meant to be more of a "and here's what the best of the non-exalts can do. Maybe not as epic, but still worthwhile, and fun to play!"

And I really *mean* fun. I had a blast playing Panoply! My games and Grey's games can tend towards wordy and complex, because of the themes they tend to deal with, and our penchant for description. That's one kind of narrative and I enjoy it plenty. But Eni's game was very relaxing and refreshing. It had lots of fast posts and quick descriptions, and even the combat went fast. A whole Exalted combat that resolved in a single scene :O and not even the whole scene, since the combat part was something like a half to 2/3rds of it. And the whole game ran about 4-5 hours. It was like... genius.

I think at least some of it is because we're playing godbloods in combat, and not Exalts with tons and tons of charms. There's a certain hard limit to our power level and I think that makes combat more manageable. I suppose it's similar to why Dragon-blooded games run more smoothly in combat than Celestial games, too.

Tashna, my Panoply char
(also, Ruin Dancer Style)

I got to see my retweaked Ruin Dancer Style in action for the first time, and I actually think it isn't as overpowered as I originally thought. Yeah, sure... I can get 18 pool attacks with Ruin Dancer Form. But the weapons for that form don't do tons of damage, meaning splitting is a good idea. And if I want to split without worrying about defense, I have to put up the dodge persistent, too (Eternal Beat of Blood).

It's not exactly a perfect setup. The combat with the Arbiter lasted 2 turns (with... um, 6 of us in the combat, including the enemy), so I never even used both Eternal Beat of Blood and Ruin Dancer Form. I didn't have time to activate it -- I used the time I had before combat to put up a spirit-armor charm, instead. Besides, I find it awkward to activate the Ruin Dancer persistent Charms too early before a combat, unless I had some reason for Tashna to be dancing before combat starts ^^; (The Ruin Dancer Style implies the MAist is constantly in motion, so I can't just... do it and stand still waiting for combat to happen, you know? Doesn't work visually for me.)

But, it still worked out okay. I was able to split 3 times, pumping my attack with Uncanny Prowess, and got a great starting pool. Had I activated Ruin Dancer Form instead I probably would have not bothered with the Uncanny Prowess, since the form ends up adding +4 to Tashna's accuracy (from MA 5 to Performance 6, Dance +3). I'm not here to be superpowered so Tashna will not be using her full potential Accuracy all the time. She may even use that extra accuracy so she can save a parry, too (in case her lil' reflexive dodges are not enough, can use the parry instead). Also note that I specifically chose NOT to use Principle of Motion, so have to be able to contend with godblood NPCs that do.

So... I like my build, and I like Tashna as a character, too. This makes for double the enjoyment!

She's probably the most cheerful among the PCs, which amuses me because my other chara with this group of players (Archana) is pretty damn stoic and serious. But, I love playing these types, too: high-spirited, speaks her mind frankly, too curious for her own good and rather mischievous, too. In a way, Tashna's attitude might not seem appropriate to a demon-blood of Stanewald. :D But Tashna's cheerfulness hides a serious side, too. Her childhood is rather incomprehensible, all but wiped from her memory, with flashes of abusive treatment (attached to why she has an intense fear of demonic wards). If she's backed against a wall, or under intense stress, it's very likely she might snap and be anything BUT cheerful and spirited. Her nature is "Survivor", after all.

And I think Tashna takes on a different personality when she's performing the Ruin Dances. It's kinda like her demon side emerges, and the part of her that has learned all the social cues and mannerisms to blend into "normal" society retreats. She's daring and she's deadly and she gives her whole heart and body to the dance. That's what I've been trying to portray, anyway! I like RPing emotionally complex chars. ^^

Panoply's Cast of PCs!

The last thing I can say about Panoply that truly made it enjoyable is the fact that the PCs all mesh really well together, somehow:

Grey's character, Rosenkreuz, is just... ooh, he has this Germanic accent, and quirks like being super possessive about his belongings, or impatient about getting things done promptly. I really enjoyed playing with Kreuz, and I'm sure Tashna is going to give him a HUGE headache with her proclivity towards snooping around and being overly curious. XD

Jon's char, Orison, is rather gloomy, almost *gothy* what with the dark clothes and dark hair, and ghost-bloodedness. But beyond that he has many traits that Jon does well: he's very in tune with his senses (high awareness), is a seer with accurate (if often ominous) visions into the future, and has a strong connection to his spirituality.

Daiken (Eni's GMPC) is kinda dour, and lazy, and doesn't like to exert effort on things unless he actually has to, but he's (she masquerading as a he, actually) is quite a loyal and honorable person. For a faeblood. XD He kinda just stood there while we were all smacking that Arbiter around and then wanted to eat at his willpower. But he would've helped had he saw we were losing. :O

And last but not least Aerelle, Tia's char, who's... a 7 foot winged elemental-blooded with a dire spear, and apparently loves to fight! She was ruling the combat with her superior speed, and taking advantage of her powers of flight quite a bit. Um, and she likes high places! (And likes being high, apparently, what with the marijuana addiction.)

Whoooo, I'm rambly (again). But, I mean... two great games in one day! I'm a happy RPer tonight. ^__^ I'm so glad I have another game to look forward to, too. Wonderful job, Eni and players... we really just made it come together so well!

Soul Collectors, Ember Days
(my games =_= so they aren't as good)

I wonder if I should even bother running Soul Collectors any more, though, as my good RP quotient is on the rise again. I suppose I still will, if anyone's still interested. But running games tends to be a lot more stressful for me than playing them. And I don't think I could make my game flow nearly as well as Panoply did.

Going to have to delay starting the Soul Collectors page for another week, though, due to how much RP I've got crammed into the next week. o.o Just trying to get as much ED as I can done before my sis visits... so many minis to do after Department of Silence, and Iesan's intro, too. I doubt I'll get very far with them, but I wish my game didn't have to run slow because of my ineptitude. :/

1890's game

Oh, but I shouldn't neglect mentioning 1890's game. It didn't run very long, so I don't have much to say in comparison to the other games. ;.; The PCs just got to a town -- more like a railroad stopover, really -- and got some rest. The next day, they witnessed the arrival of Caytlin La Drake's prized possession, the Silver Sparrow, an artifact locomotive that runs on pure water steam (I think). I got to change Clarissa's outfit once, and even tried using a Sid Lore charm, though I don't think it registered to anyone as significant. Oh, and Baskerville transformed into totem form XD I has a black dog! So cute! *coughs* anyway!

Well, next time we play 1890's, we're actually getting to a big city so stuff will almost definitely happen there. Though I kinda lost track of whether we're chasing or being chased at this point. I think there's two distinct groups, actually... one that we're chasing and a bigger one after us. Fun stuff, if it doesn't kill us. :o

And that's all for the RP post! Finally. I should try to get some rest, if I don't feel inclined to make my depression post next. Maybe I shouldn't, since I'm in a good mood right now, and good mood means better STing for Emberdays. I hope. =_=