*Flop*
Not really enough sleep last night, but I suppose there's nothing much to be done about it.
Roleplaying can be frustrating sometimes, whether by character proxy or from a player's perspective. And I think I got hit from both angles in last night's Exalted game. Ugh.
First chunk of the session started with the PCs gathering aftering having split up around Yu Shan for various reasons, but seemed to quickly fall into discussion just between Alexandra and Naga. Kujath usually settles for looking cute in animal form and staying uninvolved. Selina's player was absent. Symphony, Tamara, and Kashim all suffer a little from quasi-NPC syndrome, where they say little unless their perspective is needed or they're directly addressed. Auric (who seems to have a fixation on people not keeping secrets - oh, unless it's him, then he wants his privacy) took Nightlily aside and I assume there was conversation there too, but I didn't see it. So it felt like I spent a majority of the session talking one-on-one with the GM. I'd really rather see others involved.
And what conversation I did have, was horribly disheartening IC. The "new" news of Gem being under assault and the Bronze Faction wanting to off the PCs in Yu Shan wasn't really new (though we were told elsewhere Gem was threatened by the "locust men" rather than undead, and the Bronze Faction wasn't specifically named when the myriad dangers of hanging around openly in Yu Shan were pointed out), but only served to emphasize stuff we already knew. The one time Alexi takes a step back and says "okay, that objective was obtained really fast, let's take a little time to rest" and suddenly everyone in the circle seems chomping at the bit to go do things. Naga seemed to interpret her annoyance at this as a desire to rest herself, but that's not the case. Instead his offer to let her rest while he handled some things came across more like salt in a wound.
Alexandra would run herself into the ground if it meant saving lives. She'll only "sit idle" if she sees advantage in doing so or has no other choice. Rather the situation didn't agree with her because she made a leadership decision (for the group to take some down time) in hopes that the circle might benefit both from the rest, and from a chance to interact more internally without scampering across Creation left and right. That people come up to her saying they want to get moving less than 24 hours later tells her she made the wrong decision, and that's a blow to someone who is not just a ridiculously-high-essence Solar, but also a teenage girl trying to prove herself with everything she does. I'm finding that she's always very critical of herself, worrying about what she could be doing better for her circle and Creation as a whole. Taking down a death knight and gaining a needed artifact in one fell swoop was a high point, but she barely got any time to enjoy that before being reminded of her own failings. So yeah, that put her in a bad mood, and Naga was (however unwittingly) the one driving those points of frustration home.
Even super heroes/demi-gods usually have feelings and insecurities. In Alexandra's case, most of those seem to revolve around her doubts about her own leadership ability and her compassion for others. Of course, she'll recover. First step? Get some rest, reassemble her fascade of confidence, and get back to questing.
On a note barely-tangentially related to Exalted, I was prompted by a Best Buy commercial last night to poke around online for a trailer of Hancock. I wasn't sure what to make of it before, but it seems interesting to me now. Something I may have to see this summer.
Roleplaying can be frustrating sometimes, whether by character proxy or from a player's perspective. And I think I got hit from both angles in last night's Exalted game. Ugh.
First chunk of the session started with the PCs gathering aftering having split up around Yu Shan for various reasons, but seemed to quickly fall into discussion just between Alexandra and Naga. Kujath usually settles for looking cute in animal form and staying uninvolved. Selina's player was absent. Symphony, Tamara, and Kashim all suffer a little from quasi-NPC syndrome, where they say little unless their perspective is needed or they're directly addressed. Auric (who seems to have a fixation on people not keeping secrets - oh, unless it's him, then he wants his privacy) took Nightlily aside and I assume there was conversation there too, but I didn't see it. So it felt like I spent a majority of the session talking one-on-one with the GM. I'd really rather see others involved.
And what conversation I did have, was horribly disheartening IC. The "new" news of Gem being under assault and the Bronze Faction wanting to off the PCs in Yu Shan wasn't really new (though we were told elsewhere Gem was threatened by the "locust men" rather than undead, and the Bronze Faction wasn't specifically named when the myriad dangers of hanging around openly in Yu Shan were pointed out), but only served to emphasize stuff we already knew. The one time Alexi takes a step back and says "okay, that objective was obtained really fast, let's take a little time to rest" and suddenly everyone in the circle seems chomping at the bit to go do things. Naga seemed to interpret her annoyance at this as a desire to rest herself, but that's not the case. Instead his offer to let her rest while he handled some things came across more like salt in a wound.
Alexandra would run herself into the ground if it meant saving lives. She'll only "sit idle" if she sees advantage in doing so or has no other choice. Rather the situation didn't agree with her because she made a leadership decision (for the group to take some down time) in hopes that the circle might benefit both from the rest, and from a chance to interact more internally without scampering across Creation left and right. That people come up to her saying they want to get moving less than 24 hours later tells her she made the wrong decision, and that's a blow to someone who is not just a ridiculously-high-essence Solar, but also a teenage girl trying to prove herself with everything she does. I'm finding that she's always very critical of herself, worrying about what she could be doing better for her circle and Creation as a whole. Taking down a death knight and gaining a needed artifact in one fell swoop was a high point, but she barely got any time to enjoy that before being reminded of her own failings. So yeah, that put her in a bad mood, and Naga was (however unwittingly) the one driving those points of frustration home.
Even super heroes/demi-gods usually have feelings and insecurities. In Alexandra's case, most of those seem to revolve around her doubts about her own leadership ability and her compassion for others. Of course, she'll recover. First step? Get some rest, reassemble her fascade of confidence, and get back to questing.
On a note barely-tangentially related to Exalted, I was prompted by a Best Buy commercial last night to poke around online for a trailer of Hancock. I wasn't sure what to make of it before, but it seems interesting to me now. Something I may have to see this summer.
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