So Tell Me, Whats Your Overall Thoughts On Mummy: The Curse, And What Are These Off-canon Ideas You Mentioned?

So tell me, what’s your overall thoughts on Mummy: The Curse, and what are these off-canon ideas you mentioned?

God this has been sitting here a while.

Long story short: Mummy is one of my favorite games. I think that the time travel/alternate continuities aspect of it was absolutely genius, there's so much you can do storywise with it. The powers are satisfying and well-designed, I love how cults are baked into the gameplay, it's just generally a really solid and underrated game.

Also, the Mummies on Mars setting? Literally the coolest fucking thing that has ever been done in Chronicles of Darkness and it has so much competition for that title.

However.

I really don't like they gave a concrete history of Irem. I think that both ruins the mystique of it and having a one true history undermines the uncertainty of Mummy. I think part of the horror comes from not knowing what kind of world you'll wake up into, or if it's even close to what you think you should know. I'd have preferred something like the story seeds that you see in a lot of other games, and I really like the idea that even when you get a bunch of high-Memory mummies together, they're always going to have details of Irem that just don't quite line up together. To me that also helps emphasize how genuinely lost Irem is.

...oh, also I just think if someone is deep into Sybaris, they should perceive the mummy that inflicted it either as having aspects of the Judge they serve, or as the animal representative of their Decree. No reason other than it's cool.

you know I love lancer and all that but my heart belongs to ars magica. possibly the best ttrpg of all time, or at least one of the most ttrpgs of all time. it's a game of weird medieval wizards and requires multiple spreadsheets to play. one of the sourcebooks is a crash course on medieval philosophy and medicine with some mechanics thrown in. you specifically cannot cast spells at the moon.

i’ve got to be real with cullen that everything he says about samson unfortunately makes himself seem worse and samson seem cooler

Hello everyone looking for a new fantasy tabletop game!

You can buy Exalted Essence now.

What's Exalted you ask?

Exalted is an epic fantasy TTRPG where players play the titular Exalted - humans elevated to superhuman/demigod status - in a wild and unique setting that draws inspiration from the ancient world rather than medieval Europe. Creation (the setting) draws key inspirations from the entire world. If you're used to having to make yourself visible on your own in other fantasy, there's probably some representation in Exalted.

It has explicit queer and trans themes about finding your people, creating your own identity, and having the power to punch back at the people who hate you. This isn't incidental. The writing staff is queer as hell. You can hear me break this down more here.

Curious to learn all you can? Well you can get a detailed overview of the entire game on the podcast Systematic Understanding of Everything hosted by myself, @presidentofbirds and @phillycuriosity

If I'm used to D&D 5e why should I pick this up?

Well, I presume if you're reading this post you're already interested in trying something new, so:

The entire game in one book. Exalted: Essence is self contained, character types, equipment, enemies and all!

An exciting style of fantasy that's different than classic D&D but like, textually gay, and very easy to have scenes like ballroom fights, epic galas, and touching homoerotic healing scenes - no house rules required.

But also, tactical depth and combat you can really sink your teeth into if fighting monsters and villains is your bag.

An excuse to use all your d10s at once

Character building and advancement mechanics designed to be familiar to a 5e audience. Characters "level up" based on story beats, and have Advantages, which are functionally similar to class and race features.

A world welcoming to most heroic archetypes, so it's easy to convert your favorite OC.

Extremely kissable dragons, demons, gods, elementals, ghosts, faeries, and unnamed ancient horrors

I'm a fan of a previous edition, what's Essence got for me?

Design focused on alleviating some of the previous versions' missteps

Virtues are back, baby

2e fans will find it an improvement from second edition's mechanical strengths - it's pretty easy to convert all your favorite 2e Charms to XS.

Streamlined versions of familiar rules to make it painless to introduce new friends to the game we love.

The Cliff's notes on Ex3's new Exalt types.

Did I mention it's all of Exalted in one book?

How does it play?

d10 dice pool looking for 7,8,9 as successes. 10s count as two successes, which can lead to explosive, heroic outcomes

Combat system designed to keep all players engaged the entire time - even characters who aren't focused on fighting at all.

Combat also narrows the gap between experienced and new players and players who want to win at RPGs and players who just wanna vibe so GMs aren't tearing their hair out trying to balance encounters.

Social system designed to resolve in a single roll so you can be immersed in role play and not interrupt it with constant rolling - without sacrificing a variety of social approaches

"Ventures" system for characters working on long term projects from traveling across the world to crafting magical wonders to building communities without forcing this to be "downtime" activity

Characters have access to Charms - exception-based special powers that make them extremely good at whatever they focus on.

It's easily my favorite game (and the project I developed that I'm the proudest of), so I'm excited for everyone to try it out.

Got bored and decided I'd do an actual entry for Oghren, even though I hate him for being a bigoted loser.

Seeing as he was once a fairly traditional Dwarven warrior and noble, I think he could be a fit for an Earth Aspect Dragon Blooded. But that's the boring option. I think that the more interesting option is Oghren exalting as a Dawn Caste Solar during his younger years, back when he was a warrior of great talent and renowned throughout Dwarven society, just for him to eventually become an embarrassment and loser because he couldn't handle his Twilight wife Branka showing him up and growing distant from him. Also, I just really like the idea of a Solar no longer being able to live up to their station because of internal turmoil.

I've recently been thinking about what kind of Exalts the Dragon Age Origins companions would be, so I decided to make a post about it. (And yes, this is inspired by the recent Dungeon Meshi/Exalted posts)

Alistair was hard for me to pin down, but he kind of gives me Fire Aspect Dragon Blooded vibes. Obviously a Lost Egg/Outcaste because of his backstory, but also because his ass is absolutely not built for Dynast high society.

Morrigan is absolutely a No Moon Lunar. She's a shapeshifting sorcerer who grew up outside of "civilized" society and is into magic deemed forbidden; very strong Lunar vibes.

Leliana is definitely a Night Caste Solar, girl was/is a spy and is an idealist who is absolutely dedicated to trying to make the world a better place. Classic Night Caste material.

Zevran is a Wood Aspect Dragon Blood. He's an assassin who enjoys the thrill of the kill, sex, and the other pleasures of life. Also an Outcaste like Alistair.

Sten gave me a bit of trouble at first, but then I realized that he's absolutely an Earth Aspect Dragon Blooded. A mostly stoic warrior who clings to the traditions of his people and believes those ways are the best.

Wynne, with all her tales and attempts at guidance, gives me Adamant Caste Alchemical Vibes.

Oghren is gross, and I hate him, so he doesn't get to be an Exalt.

Shale was impossible for me to pin down tbh, so I'm gonna be lazy and say that she would be an Exigent of some sort. Probably chosen by the God of Pigeon Killing.

Loghain is 100% an Azimuth Caste Infernal. He's a victim of war, suffering atrocities at the hands of the Orlesians occupying his homeland, who later helped free Fereldan from Orlais, and then later let his understandable hatred of Orlais blind him and ended up becoming a tyrant himself. (Though he would also make a good Dawn Caste Solar.)

Honestly, Loghain is a pretty good example of how an Infernal can be a hero and later a villain imo.

Hopefully, this post finds anyone else who is both a fan of Exalted and Dragon Age.

me when I wake up at six am for my five hour shift and my boss begs me to stay for nine hours instead