How to Run:Exalted

This is the post that started the original thread, posted by DivineCoffeeBinge on the Roleplaying Open board.

How To Run Exalted

Part the First: Permissiveness

The word "impossible" must be excised from your mind.

Exalted is a game about myth, first and foremost. Your group's player characters are legends, or at the very least, legends-in-the-making. The easiest mistake for an Exalted Storyteller to make - the one I've made all too often, I admit - is to think in terms of "keeping it under control."

To illustrate, let's compare and contrast with other games. Let's say one of your players has created a character whose explicit and stated goal is "carve out an Empire from the ashes of my conquered foes." Now, in Vampire:the Masquerade, the logical reaction from an ST is something along the lines of "Well, that'll piss off all kinds of uber-powerful NPCs. Isn't HE in for a nasty surprise." In AD&D, it might be "Shyeah right - not at first level, pal! I better send him through some dungeons first and see if he grows out of it." In Marvel Super Heroes, "Dude, that's what the BAD GUYS do."

I would submit that an Exalted ST's proper response should be "Okay. How?"

In many a game, the Game Master or Dungeon Master or Storyteller or what have you is working with a setting in mind, and the widescale altering of that setting is seen as something to be avoided (it's a rare Forgotten Realms DM that will let his players sack Cormyr or kill Elminster, for example). Exalted also has a specific setting - but don't let that stop your players.

Any flavor of Exalt - even the comparatively weak Dragon-Blooded - has immense personal power, even as a starting character. Their deeds can literally shake the world. Let them.

Part the Second: Flexibility

In many games it is perfectly acceptable - even necessary - to begin running with a distinct plotline in mind. In Exalted, one can easily do the same - but rather than keeping that plot set in stone, a successful Exalted GM must be willing and able to adapt his plot to the desires and actions of his players.

Now, this sounds like pretty standard advice for any game, so hear me out while I explain why it's so important for this game in particular.

In a Mage:the Ascension game, a Storyteller may have in mind a plotline involving the eventual discovery and liberation of a Technocratic "education center." The PCs, however, may show more of an inclination to engage in a more personal quest for Ascension, concentrating on awakening the minds of several Sleepers at a time, raising awareness of magick one by one. In such a case, the ST can have some of these acolytes dragged off to the Education Center, gradually bringing the plot to their attention without railroading them.

In Exalted, however... a ST may have a near-identical plot in mind, involving the liberation of a "finishing school" operated by the Realm that routinely brainwashes its students to make them better subjects of the Empire. But what to do when the PCs take one look at it, decide that they'd be better off leaving it be for the time being, and going off to conquer the Hundred Kingdoms? You've tried nudging themn, you've dropped subtle hints - in short, you've used every trick in your ST arsenal to get the PCs to go where you want, and just can't seem to interest them?

Let them go, of course. This doesn't mean that the ST can't bring the finishing school back in a later adventure - or, more elegantly, have the PCs encounter "graduates" of that school at a later time, who have since Exalted and are now implacable foes that the PCs could have had as allies had they shut down the school immediately - but when your PCs are all essentially demigods, the only truly effective way to get them to "follow the plot" is to railroad them - and railroading characters of this power level breaks the suspension of disbelief.

This can be one of the most frustrating aspects of being an Exalted ST, in my opinion - sometimes you have great plot threads that the PCs just refuse to follow, and that story falls fallow. Don't worry about it.

In Exalted - arguably more than many RPGs - the PCs are perfectly capable of manufacturing their own plot. Most players, when they realize the immense potential of their characters, will want to use that potential - so let them. Leading into the next part...

Part the Third: Donning the Striped Shirt

You know those guys who stand around at football games and tell 350-pound linebackers that they can't hit as hard as they want? That's right, the referee. Being an Exalted ST is a good way to train for this job.

If you've been paying attention, you'll notice that a goodly portion of the advice given thus far involves letting the players do what they want. This is the part where I amend that statement - let the players do what they want, within reason.

Let's take the above example of the players who want to conquer the Hundred Kingdoms. Your task is not to tell them "No, you can't." Your task is to give them a good chance of doing it, and keep things interesting while they do.

Make it hard for them, without making it impossible. Throw obstacles in their path. Give them foes to battle, quests to undertake, gods to appease and hearts to win. And when they do something you'll never expect - and they will, because players do that sort of thing - your job is simple.

Step back, blow the whistle, and adjudicate. Don't think "is this good for my story?" That's what you do for other games. Instead, think "is this possible?" If the answer is yes, let it happen.

...

That's MY two cents, anyways. How about yours?