Quote from: Spinachcat;875971How does E&E / Godbound run in actual play?

How does it transcend D&D to capture the Exalted-ness?

I love Exalted 1e, but I only use the Quickstart rules because I can't handle the actual system.

I haven't had a chance to run the GB beta yet as I'm waiting for the final Kickstarter version to hit before I pitch it to my group, but I have some experience with Scarlet Heroes, which is where I first saw some of the major system changes that GB uses. Primarily, that's where I saw the changes to hit points/hit dice, damage, and the fray die introduced. And judging by what I've seen from that in play and what I've read so far in the beta, I'd say it plays extremely well.

As far as combat goes, PCs are extremely capable. In fact, there are some "In Play" examples in the beta that show potentially low-level PCs (possibly even first level) doing things like killing an evil warlord many miles away with a single bow shot while he sleeps in a locked, guarded tower or single-handedly wiping out a necromancer and her undead army. Even characters who don't put any effort into combat Gifts will be more dangerous combatants than the typical fighter and will be able to contribute if a fight does break out (and due to the way damage is handled and the Fray Die, most fights don't last very long unless the GM designs them to last).

Out of combat, the sky's the limit. Literally. PCs just don't have the same concerns as heroes in a normal D&D campaign. They have to worry about building paradises to house the souls of their followers or guide the actions of entire realms, not carefully manage their rations and make sure they've got enough rope for the latest dungeon crawl. One of the many things I really like is that there is an option already to run the PCs as wandering heroes of demigod-like power for those who don't want to go the actual deity route. So for those who'd rather smack down armies and tackle horrific monstrosities while maybe knocking over a kingdom or two -- but not actually be worshiped and deal with all the responsibilities that brings -- that style of play is fully supported, too.

Quote from: Nexus;875976How does it handle non combat skills and social interaction?

The short answer is Charisma and Facts for social dealings. Pretty much all "skills" are handled as attribute rolls, and most everyday social interaction would thus fall under Charisma unless you were trying to do something like using Strength to intimidate. If you have a relevant Fact that can come into play, that would add a +4 bonus. You'd probably suffer a penalty based on just what you were trying to do, of course.

That's for normal interaction. Then you've got the Passion Word for those who really want to have some influence. And speaking of Influence, that can play a part, too, as it can be temporarily invested to solve problems. There is more regarding social interaction and even building courts but alas I have yet to go through those sections yet.

I want this game win.  I want to see Kevin get so much money and rewards that other people follow suit.

This is my play report from the game I'm running for my girlfriend and my roommate.

Girlfriend is playing a Ulstang outcast named "Aesa", whose goal at the moment is to overthrow the Witch Queen who rules her island, and then free all of the Ulstang Skerries.  

Aesa's words are "Might", "Health", and "Command"

(Quick Note: The Ulstang Skerries are a Norse like culture in the provided setting. Each of their 7 great Islands is ruled by an immortal necromantic Witch Queen, and the dead are used for all primary labor)

Roommate is playing a Thief from the Far Realms ((Which means a country not connected to the main continent, some other land within the uncreated night)) named "Sparg".
His words are Night, Deception, and Journeys. His goal at the moment is to simply rob from the rich and give to the worthy.

The starting location for the game was the country of Ancalia, also provided by the book's setting. Ancallis is one of the countries directly south of the Ulstang Islands.... Ancallia was at one time the most prototypical high fantasy country on the continent of Acrem...It had a good and wise Monarch and was served by 7 great knightly orders..

Then 10 years ago for some reason a great number of Night Roads (For Exalted fans, "uncreated night" is like a cross between Oblivion and the Wyld, Night Roads are paths which go through it and lead to other places, Heaven, Hell, other realms...and homes of horrible uncreated monstrosities) opened up across the kingdom spewing out horrible monsters and an undead plague which raises anyone who dies in the land...

The Kingdom's people have abandoned all of their major cities and now live in hidden enclaves around the coasts of the country. The remnants of the knightly orders do what they can to protect the people, and some places are simply ruled by Warlords..

Anyway with all that introduction out of the way, I'll quickly cover what happened in the game.

Aesa had heard from her contacts the Witch Queen Skala (Her nemesis, ruler of her home island) was sending a party of Raiders, and Undead led by one of her Priestess to the area of an Ancalia Enclave which was being plagued by a terrible uncreated creature known simply as "The Beast".

The enclave, named "Juvia" was hidden inside of a nearby cave with a large river running through it. The town itself built along side of the cave walls from any and all scavenged wood and other materials. The ruler of the enclave was a former holy knight by the name of "Paladin Gweyrne". The Paladin had become a despot over time...ruling as a Tyrant but also keeping his people safe...(In Exalted Terms he'd be a God Blooded, but Godbound's setting allows for Mortals to become "Heroic" and gain access to powers through a number of ways, I assumed the Knightly Orders had secret techniques for gaining supernatural ability)

Juvia for the last few years had been plagued by the "Beast" a giant wolf made of inky blackness that seemed to survive any and all attacks against it. Gweryne forbid his own people from going after it after to many of them died in the attempt.

Using a Miracle from the word of Journey's (Words have 3 different abilities... "Lesser Gifts", "Greater Gifts", and "Miracles". Think of Miracles as Mage: The Ascension style uses of a word. Spending a point of "Effort" Sparg could come up with any ability that suits "Journeys" and use it...as long as it's not more powerful than any of his word's gifts) Sparg cast his senses out over the sea to learn the position of the Ulstang raiders and how long it would take them to arrive... This resulted in the two learning there were 3 ships, with about 30 Raiders between them, 30 Drauger, and 3 Heroic Mortals (A father and son Raider captain, and the Necromantic Priestess) and it would be a full day before they arrived..

Once inside of Juvia quite a bit of roleplaying went down I won't cover here. Suffice to say, Aesa's word of "Command" helped a great deal, as 'Lesser NPCs' (Those NPC's who don't have hit dice higher than her level) were passively ready to listen to most of the things she said. She didn't ever use her flat out mind control powers, but the boost and passive abilities of Command made it easier for them to navigate things socially...particularly the "Line of Rule" Gift which let her automatically see who was in charge of each social group they ran across...

After meeting Gweyrene and his Squires, and warning them about the coming Ulstang, they also mentioned they would go after the Beast as well. Most of the people in town thought it was suicidal to do so, but after some talking they got a map of the area and the Beast's most known locations.

The two set off...

After some exploring, a run in with 4 Undead (Who were killed in a single action by Aesa using her "Corona of Wrath" power) they ended up getting attacked by two shadowy wolf like creatures...

A fight ensued. The wolves had 6 hit dice...For Dungeons and Dragons terms it would be as if each one was a Challenge Rating 5 creature...and there were 2 of them....and the PC's were only 1st level..

They smashed and killed the 2 wolves after about 3 rounds of combat while only sustaining 1 or 2 HP a piece...Aesa hit one of the creatures twice for 4 hit dice each time...since the creatures only have 6 hit dice...the other 2 rolled over onto the second Shadow wolf...letting Sparg kill it with a Night blade in a single hit.

After the wolves died, they heard unearthly howls raising up across the great woods...putting 2 and 2 together they realized the great Beast was really several Beasts (And one Mama Beast) which was why it seemed so unkillable to the natives..

Since they had a vague Intelligence to them, Aesa's word of Command allowed her to yell back in a Vague challenging howl of her own (Command lets you understand all languages passively and be understood by all others).

The two waited, hoping the other beasts would come...but nothing happened..

Until a horde of 40 Undead came out of the woods from the noise and attacked them... A 14 hit dice Mob of undead attacked...And once again, the characters were able to take down the mob of undead in about 4 rounds, with a few more points of HP taken off... (Corona of Fury was one of the best investments made for a character) Sparg was able to use his passive Deception power to become a perfect version of one of the Undead and confuse the mob while he attacked them from within..

With the mob dusted, Sparg was able to use his Word of Journeys to lead them to the area where they heard the wolves howling in return... They realized they were being stalked, and decided to set a trap....Calling upon a minor miracle of Journeys (The text suggestions for very minor Miracles is that they shouldn't cost any effort points) Sparg created Tents and a fire and the two pretended they were going to sleep for the night..

(Sparg having the Word of Night, doesn't need to sleep) Because of Sparg having the word of Deception as well, I ruled the ruse as being automatically successful...

5 Shadow wolves slowly crept up on the pair, only to be surprised by the counter attack...This fight was tougher, but the two came out on top...However, they were low on HP and decided now was not the time to go after the Beast...Sparg used a gift from Journeys which allowed them to stay ahead of any pursuer as long as they kept moving....This allowed them to get back to Juvia without any trouble...

In Juvia they told the townsfolk of their battles, and thanks to Aesa's tremendous Charisma and Word of Command, they were actually believed...this secured them free room and board for the night. Sparg may not have needed to sleep, but Aesa still did...

The next morning however, everyone in town had heard about their prowss and Gweyren began to fear they might have come to overthrow him and take over...

Guards and his 2 Squires (Also Heroic Mortals) escorted the two to meet Gweyrene, and thanks to the Deception Word and Command they were able to defuse the situation...

From there they decided it was time to deal with the Ulstang who had shown up...

Sparg took on the apperance of a Drauger and Aesa decided to use a psedonym as they hit the shore and saw the Ulstang and their Drauger setting up camp...

Aesa spoke to the scouts and asked to speak with the Priestess in charge...The Priestess and two raider Captains approached and a conversation began...Aesa tried to persuade them to not go after the Beast, (The Ulstang had been commanded by Skala the Witchqueen to capture the Beast and bring it back for study) but some bad conversational decisions later, the 3 Ulstang were not buying it..

Seeing the writing on the wall, Sparg attacked with a blade of Night and stabbed the Priestess from surprise...Aesa used her word of command to take control of all Lesser foes in the area (This was all of the Vikings who were not Heroic Mortals or Drauger, so about 30 Warriors were now under her command)

(Another quick explanation for the unitiated....There are two types of magic in Godbound, "Low Magic" and Theurgy....Low Magic is slower and less powerful...but there are several traditions of it with quite a bit of flavor provided in the book...My personal favorite are the 'Curse Eaters' who wander around removing curses, fighting monsters and laying curses on others.... Theurgy however is High Powerful magic...Like Exalted Sorcery, it has 3 levels to it....Mortals can learn Theurgy but it's more rare)

The Priestess being a Necromantic Theurgist, teleported back to her Ship...while the Drauger surrounded the group and began to attack along with Father and Son...

The Priestess used a spell to break Aesa's control of her soldiers, only for Aesa to simply re-establish control... The battle was tough, but Aesa ended up popping the greater might gift "Loosening God's Teeth" which allowed her to strike Papa Heroic Mortal for 1d12+4 of straight damage (Most Damage in godbound is not "Straight" it's compared to a chart and the max you can do is 4 hit dice with a strike...straight damage is read normally)

Aesa hits for 11 hit dice of damage....She cleaves Father Captain right in half while taking off the arm of the Son...All this time, Sparg has been throwing blades of Night at the sorceress... The Drauger and Ulstang have been fighting...

But eventually with the help of the two Godbound the Drauger are all destroyed, the 2 Heroic Mortals are killed, and the sorcerous dies mysteriously when down to 1 Hit dice from either suicide or her mistress killing her from afar..

Aesa takes the 20 surviving Ulstang as her personal warriors and the first members of her congreation...

The two took the warriors back to Juvia, and met up with Paladin Gweyrne...Using their Influence points they were able to change his disposition, reminding him of his old codes of Honor, they changed him to being a Benevolent ruler rather than a despotic one..

Now all that remains is to take down the Head Beast..

All of this was done with them only being 1st Level... I let them hit 2nd after this adventure and their power has only grown stronger now..

Great write-up, Orphan81. It sounds like you all had a great time. Just as an aside, I'm glad to see someone picked up Loosening God's Teeth. That has to be hands-down my favorite name out of any of the gifts. If I ever get to play Godbound rather than run it, it'll be the first one I pick up.

Are you using Dominion in your game?

Oh yes...now that they're both level 2 and can start generating Dominion, their first act will be making the changes to Paladin Gweryne permanent so they can reclaim their influence.

I'm not particularly interested in running demigod-level campaigns, but I'm following this anyhow and have backed the kickstarter purely because it's a Sine Nomine product, so I knew I'd find something useful in it regardless.

And thus, when I read the 0.12 beta (haven't gotten around to reading 0.13 yet), it struck me:

Even if you're not going to run a Godbound campaign as such, this looks like it would be a great system for defining and managing the pantheon(s) for a more conventional fantasy campaign or setting.

Has this thought occurred to anyone else?  I'm currently thinking about assigning random Words to each deity and seeing what I end up with, but perhaps someone else might have better ideas for where to start.

(Alternately:  Run a PBEM Godbound campaign alongside a conventional tabletop campaign, ideally with separate sets of players.  The PBEM's slow pace would keep it from dominating the overall situation, instead providing a backdrop of Bigger Events for the tabletop players to rush about in while attending to their mortal affairs.)

Quote from: Brand55;875979The short answer is Charisma and Facts for social dealings. Pretty much all "skills" are handled as attribute rolls, and most everyday social interaction would thus fall under Charisma unless you were trying to do something like using Strength to intimidate. If you have a relevant Fact that can come into play, that would add a +4 bonus. You'd probably suffer a penalty based on just what you were trying to do, of course.

That's for normal interaction. Then you've got the Passion Word for those who really want to have some influence. And speaking of Influence, that can play a part, too, as it can be temporarily invested to solve problems. There is more regarding social interaction and even building courts but alas I have yet to go through those sections yet.

Thanks

Those are some additional drawbacks for me.

Quote from: Nexus;876232Thanks

Those are some additional drawbacks for me.

Godbound is better than Exalted 1e in terms of integrating social influence effects with other powers and mechanics, with a Mandate of Heaven system that is better than Exalted 2e.

There is no social combat system though (thank gods).

Quote from: Skywalker;876233Godbound is better than Exalted 1e in terms of integrating social influence effects with other powers and mechanics, with a Mandate of Heaven system that is better than Exalted 2e.

There is no social combat system though (thank gods).

I meant that I do liker robust skill and social resolution systems.

Quote from: Nexus;876270I meant that I do liker robust skill and social resolution systems.

Godbound takes the same route as Reign in not having a system for resolving face to face social conflict, other than for unnatural mental influence (Passion Word, spells etc). Instead, social characters have the ability to influence things on a larger scale, changing opinions, societies, resources etc, and there is a detailed and decent system for that larger scale influence that Exalted never did manage very well.

I personally prefer this approach as social combat has never really worked for me. I prefer to avoid the ability to change someone's opinions from a discussion using a few dice, and it tends to get messy if allowed (I much preferred Exalted 1e's approach in this regard than Exalted 2e).

As for skills, they are open in terms of description, but the system is robust. The bonus Facts give is not insignificant. I think that by have some leeway to define them and tying them into your PC's background or deeds, it avoids them becoming ignored or redundant as they can in Exalted where the focus quickly shifts to the cooler sounding powers.

Thank you Orphan81!!!

That sounded awesome!

I am sold with sold sauce.

Quote from: Skywalker;876276Godbound takes the same route as Reign in not having a system for resolving face to face social conflict, other than for unnatural mental influence (Passion Word, spells etc). Instead, social characters have the ability to influence things on a larger scale, changing opinions, societies, resources etc, and there is a detailed and decent system for that larger scale influence that Exalted never did manage very well.

I personally prefer this approach as social combat has never really worked for me. I prefer to avoid the ability to change someone's opinions from a discussion using a few dice, and it tends to get messy if allowed (I much preferred Exalted 1e's approach in this regard than Exalted 2e).

I prefer good social resolution mechanics at least as an option. I've found it makes something's easier, less arbitrary and useful for our style of play.

QuoteAs for skills, they are open in terms of description, but the system is robust. The bonus Facts give is not insignificant. I think that by have some leeway to define them and tying them into your PC's background or deeds, it avoids them becoming ignored or redundant as they can in Exalted where the focus quickly shifts to the cooler sounding powers.

What are Facts exactly, kind of a "define your own skills" system?

Quote from: Nexus;876295I prefer good social resolution mechanics at least as an option. I've found it makes something's easier, less arbitrary and useful for our style of play.

Given the D&D basis, you could use the NPC reaction system in AD&D pretty simply. Not sure how well that provides you what you want.

Quote from: Nexus;876295What are Facts exactly, kind of a "define your own skills" system?

Essentially. Coming up with them is a lot like Aspects in FATE, though they grant a +4 bonus only.

You create 3 at PC Creation. One to cover background, one to cover competence, and one to cover association/relationship. You get an additional 1 per level based on Deeds.