Sample Intimacies

(From Exalted, 3rd Edition.)

Ties describe your character's attachments to people, objects, organizations, and other concrete entities. They have an emotional context which describes your character's feelings towards that entity. Ties are generally written as the subject of the Tie, followed by a parenthetical clarifier to establish context. Examples include Great Forks (Hometown affection), My mysterious benefactor (Wary respect), My wife (Love), Peleps Deled (Hatred), and The Immaculate Order (Admiration).

Principles describe your character's beliefs and ideals. Principles are generally written as a statement of the Principle. Examples include ideals such as "Honesty is my watchword" and "Pragmatism rules my actions," and beliefs such as "The Immaculate Philosophy is the true guide to righteous living" or "I believe everyone looks out for number one."

While no hard mechanical rules require characters have a certain number of Ties or Principles, nor mandate minimum intensities, the Storyteller should keep in mind what these labels mean in terms of character definition. A complete absence of any Ties suggests a current state of total emotional detachment, while the absence of Principles suggests an apathy that precludes any goals, beliefs, or distinctive character traits. Some characters may occasionally experience these states, but they aren't conducive to player characters. Also keep in mind that not everything needs to be an Intimacy—"I need to eat to avoid starvation" is a truism of most living things, not a character trait worthy of being enshrined in an Intimacy, while sexual preference doesn't necessarily need to be represented with an Intimacy to be meaningful. (See also the Red Rule, p. 222)

The Storyteller should be mindful of extremely broad Intimacies such as a Principle of "I bow to no one" or "No compromise with those who oppose me." While these may be legitimate for a few characters, their broad applicability makes them very powerful traits, and thus increases the incentive for players to take them at a higher intensity than is actually applicable to the way they play the character. Also, some Intimacies simply break the system, and should be disallowed entirely, such as Intimacies that are excessively vague or generic in a way that lets the player define their applicability ("Some people just rub me the wrong way," as opposed to "Nothing's weaker than a bully"), use exploitative wording to manipulate the system rather than trying to represent character traits (A Tie of hatred against "People trying to manipulate me in ways I don't like"), or explicitly engage with system terminology (the Principle "I balk at social influence enhanced by Charms"). Similarly, a player might try to avoid letting other characters engage with him socially by not taking any Intimacies at all, treating them as mechanical weaknesses rather than character traits. To curtail such disruptive issues, the Storyteller may reassign the intensity of a valid-but-overplayed Intimacy if she notices that a player is not roleplaying his character in a way that makes sense given the current intensity of the Intimacy, reword or clarify an abusively phrased Intimacy, or assign an Intimacy to a character if it fits the way he's being roleplayed—especially, but not only, if that character has no other Intimacies.