FairFolkShapingCombat

Shaping combat

Ok, so people both here on the wiki and on the various other exalted forums want an explanatory example of shaping combat. I’ve got to say, I’d like one as well. Now, I’ve got a reasonable idea of shaping combat now…..well, I’ve got an inkling, so what I thought I’d do is write a series of examples and have my wiki peers point out my horrible mistakes. Then we can use the wonderful editing features of the wiki to turn out something useful.

Vortigan, He Who Rides before the Storm vs Balathon, Lord of the Fallen Tower

Deep in the northern middle marches, the fae lord Balathon is busy exploring the shattered lands on some strange mission of his own devising, effortlessly flitting from one small island to the next with a powerful sweeps of his broad feathered wings. Landing on a particularly broad section of icy rock, he is rather surprised to find himself confronted by the mighty form of the frost giant Vortigan, a long time rival of his. Each is more than a little put-out by the other's arrival in what they thought was an isolated area, and a duel inevitably breaks out between them.

Both Vortigan and Balathon are powerful Cataphract warriors from the north, but there the similarities between them end. Vortigan styles himself as a powerful and savage giant, his form is fashioned from the dreams of glory taken from the greatest warriors of the barbarian tribes. Balathon, on the other hand, assumes the appearance of an angelic paladin knight, his slim body sheathed in armour of glorious silver, with snowy white wings stretching from his shoulders.

(Just a bit of scene setting for the moment more to follow)

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Additonal

(and less poetic, sorry)

If it helps anybody, my favorite way of describing shaping combat to people who haven't used the system before is by using the movie "Labyrinth" as an example. All four methods of shaping combat (Cup, Ring, Staff and Sword) are played out in this movie. In fact, most of the scenes could be shaping combat of one form or another.

The most obvious combats that can be seen are those of the Ring and Sword. The entire labyrinth could be likened to a Ring shaping contest as the Goblin King exerts his will to alter its paths, blocking the heroine's access to the city at its heart. He controls this entire realm so it could also be used as an analogy of a Freehold. The final battle in the heart of the city can be seen as a contest of the Sword. This contains many shaping actions as Sarah's group each try and counteract the Goblin King's forces. One shaping action could be seen as when the King summons his hordes to assault the group, which is then parried with a Sword shaping action from Ludo as he summons the rocks to aid in their defense.

The contests of the Cup and Staff are less obvious, but also seem to be more dangerous. The bubbles containing dreams that are sent to tempt Sarah to imprisonment are Cup shaping attacks, that she parries by shattering them from the inside with a chair. When she is trapped in the oubliette (spell check anyone?), this is a Cup shaping attack using Conviction and Performance to evoke the feeling of being entirely alone in her quest, setting her up for Hoggle to lead her back out of the Labyrinth.

It took me a while to find Staff attacks as they were the least obvious. I personally would say that the creatures who could take themselves apart and expected her to fit in with the group by removing her body parts, was a Staff attack using Manipulation and Occult to create a society of laws which she was incapable of complying to. Also, throughout the film Sarah is constantly saying "It's not fair." until she realises that "It's just the way it is." Her realisation could be a win or a loss for her depending on how that affects the outcome (mechanicaly speaking, how much Staff damage she takes).

Anyway, that's just my opinion on the whole mess, so feel free to argue. Apologies to Suzume if I have overstepped your request for help, and feel free to delete this if you want this page to yourself ^_^ (Don't worry, I have a copy). Also, if anyone found this helpful or interesting, I can go into minute detail about which attributes are used and where damage would be applied. A good example might be to go through the entire final confrontation (the one with the staircases) as a Shaping combat. Thoughts?

-- BasilTM

NP, though I guess I've forgotten I ever said anything about this... ^^; But I do like the analogy to Labyrinth. ^_^ That makes a lot of sense. Also, I think the anime 防核の旋律 (Melody of Oblivion) (pardon if I've misspelled that; I don't want to dig up my files to check... ^^; ) would be an excellent example, as many of the attacks of the Monster Union, and everything involving the actual Monsters, comes off with a Shaping Combat feel. Give it a look-see. I'm sure I could come up with more examples for people, but I'm just too tired to do so. (Reading web-comics for too long T-T... <tired>) -Suzume

I'll have a look for that, but I live in Australia and we're only just getting our act together about anime down here so it may not be available. *sigh* -- BasilTM

S'kay. That particular series hasn't been picked up in the States yet either. If you have access to a bittorrent client, and are willing to deal with the questionable legality of downloading fansubs, you can find all sorts of things online. I recomend Download Anime, AnimeSuki.com (even though I'm a little pissed at them right now...), BoxTorrents, and Tokyo Toshokan. There's a lot of crossover in coverage between the sites, but there's enough difference (part of which is posting time for the actual torrents) that visiting two or more is worth your while. Please note that I am officially disclaming any responsibility for what you or anyone else does with this information; don't send the IP police after me. ^^; -Suzume

Nice example--I'll have to rent the movie and watch it again with this in mind--but I think you're a little off on the pacing. Remember that the normal pace is one shaping action per scene, so the entire scene with the dream bubbles (for instance) represents a split dice action with several Cup attacks in the same scene, and the movie itself is a single shaping combat. --MF

My understanding from the book was that a shaping combat has to be all of the same type. This is why some charms allow you to parry or dodge a different style of shaping with your primary Grace. However, this may be a misunderstanding on my part and now that I think about it I was probably thinking too small in my combat scale. Thanks, I think I can add a lot more to my campaign now ^_^. -- BasilTM

Yeah, basically that would tear away a lot of cool combat strategies from (for instance) a Xia, who could use an honor duel story to stage a series of Sword, Cup and Staff attacks, topping off the sequence with a really awesome Staff strike that manages to spill over the Staff damage track into both Cup and Sword, vexing and ravishing the opponent at once. - willows

Yeah, you can swap attack methods, in the same way that one could swap between melee and unarmed combat in the same battle. There's a little incentive to do so merely for surprise value and to increase your opponent's wound penalties. I don't believe you can split excess Staff into multiple forms, however - but it might make a neat Charm, 'Ruination Cripples Spirit and Wealth Method' or similar. My example shaping combat's over at WW-boards, if anyone wants to see the process drawn out at length (And it was at length, I think the damn thing is a 5-page Word Document) ~ BerserkSeraph

No. Suppose I attack you with the Cup. You have Howling Dream Consumption Prana up, so you do a reflexive Cup-dodge; you couldn't do a Sword-dodge instead unless you had a Charm that specifically allowed it. On your initiative, though, you can attack me with the Cup, the Sword, or whatever you like. There's nothing in the shaping combat rules that would indicate otherwise. --MF

Another possibility I was talking over with a friend was "IT". A creature that is a master of illusion, who uses them to horrify, drive insane, and whatnot. Also, it has a town under it's control. I've not read FF yet due to lack of actual bookage around here, but it sounded like what you wanted. - haren