Who here plays Exalted?

[Barebarian]

Like the title says! I've been trying to get into the game a bit more and I wanted to ask some questions about it! Firstly, which character was your favorite that you've played and why?

[Lord Raziere]

*blink blink*

since when was Exalted a videogame? its a ttrpg.

*looks it up on google*

oh. someone made some fan game for it on Steam two years ago. weird. no wonder I never heard of it.

but yeah, I'm huge Exalted fan and even I didn't know that some fan made some indie videogame of it set in Nexus. I'd be legit surprised if anyone here knows about it enough to comment.

[Barebarian]

*blink blink*

since when was Exalted a videogame? its a ttrpg.

*looks it up on google*

oh. someone made some fan game for it on Steam two years ago. weird. no wonder I never heard of it.

but yeah, I'm huge Exalted fan and even I didn't know that some fan made some indie videogame of it set in Nexus. I'd be legit surprised if anyone here knows about it enough to comment.

Did I post on the wrong section Oh dear. But what's this steam game I heard? That sounds awesome!

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Wonder: Since Barebarian seems to have referring to the TTRPG, I moved it to Older D&D and Other Systems.

[Barebarian]

The Mod Wonder: Since Barebarian seems to have referring to the TTRPG, I moved it to Older D&D and Other Systems.

Thank you! I'm sorry for the mix up this is my first day on here, I'll try to be more careful in future V_V

[LibraryOgre]

Thank you! I'm sorry for the mix up this is my first day on here, I'll try to be more careful in future V_V

Meh, it happens.

[Lord Raziere]

Did I post on the wrong section Oh dear. But what's this steam game I heard? That sounds awesome!

Its not. I looked it up, its nothing special. its just a bunch of portraits on a background or something from what I briefly seen. I didn't care enough to investigate

But yeah, I got Exalted. Exalted 3e. currently viewing the Lunar previews given out by their kickstarter. real awesome stuff. your talking to the right person cause I buy the preview pdfs for all the latest splatbooks.

there used to be a dedicated Exalted thread here on this forum, but its been dead for probably more than a year now. rgp.net and onyx path forums is where the active Exalted discussion is taking place, at least what I know of.

Favorite characters....I'm not one for really liking the canon characters, but I do like certain Exalt types a lot. I'd my top favorite Exalt types are Alchemicals, Sidereals, Infernals, but Lunars will do for me when they're not available, particularly the ones we're getting now. maybe Getimians will make me like them more than Sidereals, who knows? Sidereals are already awesome and an Exalted type that is basically them but against being ruled by jerkish gods is awesome in my book. Liminals probably what I'll like as well.

there is a lot I'm looking forward to, but Dragon-Blooded and what I'm seeing of Lunars is what I'm liking so far.

[rel]

I played some 2e back in the day. Fun but you had to fight the system a lot. Par for the course with White Wolf I guess.
I usually played Solars, Night and Eclipse Caste and one time a mortal with martial arts and other magic and tricks.

[Alhallor]

I also played the 2e of Exalted and thought it was just awesome, sadly my current group thinks it's a wee bit over the top, so sadly no more...

I just played three Charakters, a Solar Dawn-caste, who had the looks of a Lizardman, but really liked singing and magic more than direct hand-to-hand combat (still kicked ass when asskicking was needed.)

A Solar priest (forgot the caste...) Who I started as a normal human in an all Exalted Group, I wanted him to stay human, but I did a little too awesome and he awakened.

And Little Curse, a little boy who awakened as a water-caste dragonborn. I liked him the most, mostly because I could play as a little child who was the embodiment of "you can't range attack me" and had a little waterbending thrown in the mix.

It's a pretty cool over the top TTRPG that you can play as serious as you want to, I guess I really have to take a look at the 3rd ed.

[Barebarian]

Its not. I looked it up, its nothing special. its just a bunch of portraits on a background or something from what I briefly seen. I didn't care enough to investigate

But yeah, I got Exalted. Exalted 3e. currently viewing the Lunar previews given out by their kickstarter. real awesome stuff. your talking to the right person cause I buy the preview pdfs for all the latest splatbooks.

there used to be a dedicated Exalted thread here on this forum, but its been dead for probably more than a year now. rgp.net and onyx path forums is where the active Exalted discussion is taking place, at least what I know of.

Favorite characters....I'm not one for really liking the canon characters, but I do like certain Exalt types a lot. I'd my top favorite Exalt types are Alchemicals, Sidereals, Infernals, but Lunars will do for me when they're not available, particularly the ones we're getting now. maybe Getimians will make me like them more than Sidereals, who knows? Sidereals are already awesome and an Exalted type that is basically them but against being ruled by jerkish gods is awesome in my book. Liminals probably what I'll like as well.

there is a lot I'm looking forward to, but Dragon-Blooded and what I'm seeing of Lunars is what I'm liking so far.

Aw that's a shame about the game. And even more so about the thread!

Honestly I can never remember anything about the canon characters that well I meant the ones you've played before.
I'm not sure about Getiminians and Liminals, I mean, they really don't SOUND that different to Sidereals and Abyssals from what I've heard.

[Morty]

I'm currently in a Dragon-Blooded campaign that's been going for a while. It's fun, but the ST is having a bit of trouble giving us appropriate combat challenges. Which is a persistent problem in Exalted, generally. There's not a lot that won't disintegrate if a few combat-capable Exalted focus on it, even if they're Dragon-Blooded rather than Solars or Lunars. And our group is pretty combat-oriented - we used to have a sorcerer who didn't have much combat skill, but he had to leave and was replaced by a martial artist.

The campaign was basically us wandering and running into adventures for a while, but eventually my character, a Wood Aspect outcaste, took charge and decided to use a group of slaves we'd liberated to restart his clan of monster-hunters that had been destroyed by Lunars.

I would still like to play in a Solar game, but an opportunity hasn't come up. Now that the Lunar Kickstarter is going strong, someone has actually asked me if I could run a Lunar game someday for her and a new Exalted player. As daunting as it is, it's also tempting.

[lightningcat]

Not got to play 3e but enjoyed 2e a lot. Favorite character was a Dawn-caste swordsman, with Resistance charms. Once took 3 Flying Guilitines on the same tick, and shrugged off all of them. He was the tank of the group, while a Lunar martial artist was the glass cannon.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I was in a 3e campaign for a while; it had some metagame problems and eventually collapsed, but I had a blast with the system. Crunchy as hell, but in fun ways. And the setting is just awesome.

[Vhaidara]

I'm not sure about Getiminians and Liminals, I mean, they really don't SOUND that different to Sidereals and Abyssals from what I've heard.

Getimians are kind of to Sidereals as Abyssals are to Solars, afaict. They are what happen when the Sids mess up.

Liminals are more in line with Frankenstein's monster, while Abyssals are literally Solar exaltations corrupted by death. Definitely some thematic lineups, but Abyssals serve the Deathlords while Liminals are REALLY good at fighting spirits, so they would be on opposite sides of the fight. Not that it stopped me from writing an Abyssal who accidentallied a Liminal while trying to bring his daughter back to life.

As far as my experience, I got started a few years back with 3e. Played a few solars, wasn't a huge fan of their generic awesomeness, found DBs, have been having a blast with elemental stuff. My group is about to start an all DB game in the North and I've got a Wood DB going for mounted archery

[Grod_The_Giant]

Hey, while we're here: I feel like I remember reading somewhere that the sun in Exalted was actually a giant warstrider, or something to that effect, but I haven't been able to find it online. Am I hallucinating?

[Lord Raziere]

Hey, while we're here: I feel like I remember reading somewhere that the sun in Exalted was actually a giant warstrider, or something to that effect, but I haven't been able to find it online. Am I hallucinating?

That was true in 2e Exalted

In 3e? Most definitely not. the devs have taken most things that can be considered magitech and gotten rid of them. furthermore they've rolled back on defining anything cosmological or highly metaphysical like Incarnae or the Sun or whatnot so that you can decide what they for your game.

if they did define the Sun as being anything, they'd probably go with what the sun is in the stories about the Unconquered sun when he was first created: basically the UCS's dog. yes the Daystar is potentially the UC's loyal hound forever circling Creation in loyalty even as Sol himself keeps playing the Games of Divinity. Honestly, even I the magitech gal, like it better that way? highly spiritual stuff doesn't seem fitting to be technological unless its Autochthonian.

[Morty]

Getimians are kind of to Sidereals as Abyssals are to Solars, afaict. They are what happen when the Sids mess up.

Getimians are foils to Sidereals and oppose them, but they're not "what happens when the Sids mess up". We don't know where they come from and how they came to be.

[Lord Raziere]

we do know however that Getimians have yin and yang essence pools rather than personal and peripheral, and have like, something to do with Daoist Alchemy, hate the gods, have pattern spiders living in their spine with a little fate engine in them, are forgotten by the world when they Exalt, are resonant with Starmetal like Sidereals, and are supposed to have this character arc of breaking away from what Thulio wants to do? I'm trying to remember all the stuff I know about them. I don't remember any specific origin for them other than that Thulio somehow found them and he is this weird Sidereal equivalent of a death lord, that he did some thing to defy the Maiden of Endings that probably can't be repeated or whatever.

[meschlum]

I have an inexplicable proclivity for Fair Folk, though I have not had too many opportunities to play one.

Of course, that might be because the Sidereal Fellowship has been secretly replaced with Raksha, and no one has managed to tell the difference.

Or it could be because the rules for running Fair Folk outside Creation are a complete mess.

[Andreaz]

o/
Been playing since early in 2e. 3e's been great.

My favorite character...favorite character...
Man this is hard. I've played a wish-granting infernal whos antics culminated in Orabilis murdering her dearest friend, and a subsequent war on hell.
There was this priest whose campaign all revolved around taking over most Chiaroscuran mafias.
There was this icewalker warrior-witch that tamed one of the world's most dangerous swords, and spent a couple decades restoring the icewalkers' broken spirituality
There was this pirate queen that took the queen part after a decade of conspiracies and political shenanigans at HQ city made her so mad she literally went "**** this **** I rule this place now" and literally punched the governor's head off, tossed the body and sat on the throne.

[Lord Raziere]

Well, the only Exalted character I've managed to actually play is a 17-year old demon blooded Twilight Caste Sorcerer who wields a 5 dot artifact called the Ten Dragon Staff. basically its supposed to be the greatest sorcerous artifact ever and have all the evocations, each dragon of the staff is made from a different magical material, the final one being adamant. hard to balance though, my ST and I had some friction about it. so you could say thats my current favorite character even though shes a Solar Exalt. If I try her again though, Probably going for a sorcerous staff or other artifact that is more balanced from the outset. other characters are just so brief, that I don't even count them.

how Lunars are currently going, I think they'll be my favorite Exalts and my preferred official ones to play for a while. I always did like playing adaptable well-rounders over specialists.

[Barebarian]

So what I'm gathering here is that no one has ever played a boring character in Exalted.

[Lord Raziere]

So what I'm gathering here is that no one has ever played a boring character in Exalted.

I'm pretty sure thats because of how Exalted's world works. say one makes the most bog-standard adventuring hero with a sword who solves all his problems with sword, you get someone who takes care of an immediate problem then soon realizes that all of the problems that really plague the people he wants to protect are far more entrenched and abstract than that- and suddenly they realize they need to be more than just a guy with a sword to solve them, and becomes something MORE- or tragically they don't, and end screwing up everything by being a brutish warlord or something. sometimes the line between hero or villain is as thin as one decision or realization.

my own Solar started out as an arrogant sorcerer- she acted the part of any pulp sorcerer, arrogant in her power, willing to do anything to become the Greatest Sorcerer in Creation, then she met people she started to care about and it became clear that she was this huge socially awkward nerd trying to act powerful and sorcerous when maybe having friends and family wouldn't be so bad yet now she is worried and paranoid, wanting to try and protect them, and her definition of Greatest Sorcerer in Creation expands to someone who protects the people around them. and thus she ended up being this Vegeta-esque character who has her pride and ambitions but people she cares for as well.

Creation is a world that doesn't support the tropes when they fail, thus allowing us to see the collapse of false ideas and the birth of something stronger, more well-rounded and more real from the ashes. at least thats how I make some of my characters- start them off a one or two dimensional trope or archetype in the past that encounters a situation where they logically fail and grow into something better from it.

[Ignimortis]

So what I'm gathering here is that no one has ever played a boring character in Exalted.

That's the whole point, isn't it?

I've been reading the 3e corebook and I like what I see. 2e was too clunky with perfect defenses and perfect attacks, 3e uses a rather intuitive combat system and you just can roll tons of dice at some points. Which is fun! Might try and persuade my ST to actually run it later.

[meschlum]

So what I'm gathering here is that no one has ever played a boring character in Exalted.

Ahem.

Dahal Meris, Exemplar of Earthly Tedium

The Wyld is home and source for infinite potential, a dazzling storm of possibilities and change that delights and consumes. Yet the chosen of Chaos travel to Creation nonetheless, for it contains wonders and marvels beyond even limitless change and granted wishes. Dahal Meris was one such, a Raksha of no small potency who ventured into the barrens of reality seeking something new and different - and found it at last, near the heart of the Realm.

In the Wyld, Dahal was always a moment away from glorious victory, a step away from utter defeat, a breath away from sheer delight. Often, those marvels were granted, only to be whisked away or revealed as mere introductions to greater wonders. Meris's existence was a constant novelty, new and greater discoveries tugging in all directions.

By contrast, in the village of Middle Rock (named a score of generations ago by an elder asked to describe the notable features of the place and failing to find any) nothing ever happened. Dahal remained there for months on end, waiting for any of the peasants to reveal themselves as inheritors of ancient bloodlines, retired grandmasters of the martial arts, cultists of forbidden gods... Even the children dreamed only of becoming more like their dirt grubbing parents.

And so, the Fair Folk discovered something that did not, could not, exist in the Wyld and south to master it, to reign supreme over all others.

Boredom

Dahal practiced assiduously, speaking only of the weather, telling nothing but tales that had been heard and repeated a thousand times before, waiting in endless lines to fill in forms whose sole purpose was to require waiting in other lines... Becoming a gray and worn face in the crowd, impressed by nothing, scoured of enthusiasm, fear, or joy.

Yet some fragment of Meris's nature had to remain, for the dreamless husks left after the Fair Folk fed could not experience tedium. A few carefully maintained marvels, wrapped in disinterest and neglect, that would shape this novel state of being into a weapon capable of piercing any barrier, breaking through the earth itself at need.

Does the Exemplar still exist? Who can tell? Who could find one such when any seeking it would be excited by the quest? Still, it must, for Creation winds down, the barriers between it and the Wyld grow weaker, and no one cares or notices...

Mechanics

Heart Stealing Kiss to draw out any fragment of interest in the rest of the world that might be displayed.

Assumption of the Heart to be a personification of boredom.

Imposition of Law to create paperwork no normal person can read through (or Curse of Definition to enforce it, really).

Oneiromancy and Assumption of the City to ensure nothing is interesting in the area, no matter what shows and displays of essence take place.

Earth and Bestial Transformations to take on the appearance of a gigantic beetle, wielding a drill and therefore bore through obstacles. Could also be a Behemoth, of course.

Easy, really!

[Cluedrew]

I don't play it, but it is on my list of games I would definitely play if I had my chance.

But I would like to ask a question (that hopefully counts as on topic), do you think Exalted could work with a lighter rules set? I was wondering because it is not directly the rules I am interested in, but at the same time it is the crazy options that seem to give the system some of its life and I am not sure how that actually works out.

[Grod_The_Giant]

That's the whole point, isn't it?

I've been reading the 3e corebook and I like what I see. 2e was too clunky with perfect defenses and perfect attacks, 3e uses a rather intuitive combat system and you just can roll tons of dice at some points. Which is fun! Might try and persuade my ST to actually run it later.

I don't know if intuitive is quite the right word-- I played a combat-focused character and had to make a flowchart to keep my defensive charms straight*--

Spoiler: *

Show

I was a Brawl supernal Dawn Caste with an emphasis on counterattacks, so it was partly my fault, but still... "if attacked, Iron Battle Focus does this and Reckless Fury Discord does that, and if it's a withering attack and we wind up Clashing, Fire Eating Fist does this... "

I don't play it, but it is on my list of games I would definitely play if I had my chance.

But I would like to ask a question (that hopefully counts as on topic), do you think Exalted could work with a lighter rules set? I was wondering because it is not directly the rules I am interested in, but at the same time it is the crazy options that seem to give the system some of its life and I am not sure how that actually works out.

Sorta? You can take a whack at it with any high-power system, but Exalted is one of the broadest games I've ever read-- I've not seen many other systems that give you the kind of kingdom-shaping abilities some of the high-Essence Bureaucracy, Lore, and Crafting charms do. I think Godbound is a similar game built off OSR engines, and I'm sure you can find hacks floating around for Fate and Apocalypse World.

Before 3e came out I messed around with using Mutants and Masterminds to run an Exalted game. It worked well for a direct in-your-face campaign, and you can kind of use the HQ rules to do realm-building stuff if you squint, but... M&M's underlying assumption is that the players are preserving the status quo, and so it doesn't pay any attention to whether or not powers can blow up the setting ("Create" and "Transform" in particular). Exalted kinda takes the opposite approach, expecting and encouraging players to change the way the world works.

(If I can toot my own horn, STaRS would be a pretty good rules-light alternative. It's got solid rules for having people of different power levels running around the same setting, mass combat, social combat, and flexible PvE combat rules that can be applied to more wide-scale stuff. I wrote an Exalted hack a while ago, though I never got to test it out. Ditto for the old Realm Building rules.)

[Morty]

"Exalted without the superheavy rules" is a common sentiment, but it's like Grod said - part of the appeal is that it's broader than many fantasy games. As well as giving superpowers to characters who aren't sorcerers, warriors or thieves.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah, and the powers of at least one Exalted have aren't easily summarized by a lighter systems mechanics. I dare people to try and convert Sidereals to anything. (I mean Godbound kind of does it with the Undestined, but its missing out on the true nature of the Sidereal charmset as a bunch of weird esoteric tools you need to figure out how to apply properly to get things done)

I still want a lighter system though. the rest of the Exalted are easy to convert in comparison.

[tyckspoon]

Ahem.

Dahal Meris, Exemplar of Earthly Tedium...

You know, my favorite part of the old defunct general-Exalted thread was these examples of how you can create literally anything with an inventive enough application of faery magic.