Exalted is Moving into its Third Edition

[Grahf]

After a very long and I think mostly well received second edition, Exalted is moving on. The new edition, starting with the core, obviously, will be out in December if there are no huge problems or delays.

A lot of information about what's being said is here.

Things of note so far, based on some of the things the dev team has said:

• Completely new version of Storyteller system
• Sorcery will be better
• No more multiattack charms, or at least none that rely on resolving tens of dice rolls at a time
• The death of the "motes as hit points" gameplay that was one of the sore spots of combat in 2e
• Charms are being toned down a bit, still powerful, but not stupidly so
• Less disparity between the existing Celestial exalt types. Solars are still on top, but not to the same extent they were before

I'm looking forward to this release. Hopefully I can actually get a chance to play, or even run a game.

[Anastasia]

I never got into Exalted, in a large part because 2nd edition was a mess. I might try it if 3rd edition fixes things up, so I'm half watching this. Here's hoping.

[Grahf]

I'm an admitted fan of Exalted, but even with all the fun I had in 2nd I have to admit that combat was a real problem. The power curve kind of got out of hand really fast. I'm hoping that they can truly make the changes to have the combat adequately epic while still being something that has a decent resolution speed. It'd also be nice if they balanced some of the high tier enemies with what they were in first. The Mask of Winters is probably the most talked about example: he went from an essence 5 wizard with some nasty tricks in 1st, to an essence 10 monstrosity with a charm and skill set longer than my arm in 2nd. There really needs to be a redressing of that sort of thing.

[Anastasia]

I'm an admitted fan of Exalted, but even with all the fun I had in 2nd I have to admit that combat was a real problem. The power curve kind of got out of hand really fast. I'm hoping that they can truly make the changes to have the combat adequately epic while still being something that has a decent resolution speed. It'd also be nice if they balanced some of the high tier enemies with what they were in first. The Mask of Winters is probably the most talked about example: he went from an essence 5 wizard with some nasty tricks in 1st, to an essence 10 monstrosity with a charm and skill set longer than my arm in 2nd. There really needs to be a redressing of that sort of thing.

Indeed. I hope they pull it off - do you think they will?

[Grahf]

I think that if any group can do it, it's the one they've got assembled. The Ink Monkeys have put a lot of work into Exalted, made a lot of fixes including 2.5, which was a soft update that was released in hopes of toning down the ridiculous lethality of combat along with the over-dependence on perfect defenses that it caused which lead to the whole "Motes as hit points" problem.

There's very little information, but what's being said has a lot of promise if nothing else. Things like getting rid of or heavily revising multi-attack charms which could grind combat to a halt, making combat a little less cumbersome while still keeping the epic feeling. These things make me very hopeful. Only time will tell of course, but I believe that it couldn't be in better hands right now.

[Dracos]

Mmm.  I remember GMs having tons of trouble getting a good exalted game to go anywhere.  People could throw together a tutorial battle, but past that the games just seemed to evaporate easily.  Hope they get some flesh on ways to get going for folks.

It also always had the Whitewolf 'Piss in the Pool' problem.  "So you're an awesome cool guy, who on tuesdays cries as he murders everyone in the soup kitchen from your limit break."   "You're a superhero, who given time will become corrupted by darkness and die, unless you turn evil anyway."  "You're a vampire, and...I don't even remember."

Anyhow, here's hoping they drop that angle.  The majority of folks will run any game by the book, and having the by the book setup being "Solars are insane at random times" rather than that being an optional gritty thing is sign inducing.

[thepanda]

"You're a vampire, and...I don't even remember."

No, that's Changling (or maybe Mage). Vampire was different. ^_^

[Brian]

No, that's Changling (or maybe Mage). Vampire was different. ^_^

WoD:

Vampire: You are fighting a losing battle to preserve your humanity, and if you retain it, you're actually more vulnerable and limited in a lot of ways.
Mage: (Tradition) You are fighting a losing battle to make everyone realize that magic is a real thing against the Technocracy.  (Technocracy) You are fighting a winning battle to make magic not work for anyone anymore, even if you don't realize it.
Werewolf: You are fighting a losing battle to protect the earth from the corruption of the Wyrm.
Changeling: Your fight has already been lost.  You are fighting to survive until the last of you dies.  That is all.
Wraith: Your fight has already been lost.  You are dead.  You are used as currency.  Your battle is to resist being eaten or turned into something else's furniture.
Hunter: You're a mortal who thinks anything else supernatural has to be killed on sight.  That's going to work really well for you in the long run, considering everyone else above.
Victim the SlaughterMortal: What, seriously?  Like a hunter without any perks at all?  Better hope you get turned into a vamp, or awaken as a mage.
Demon: Holy crap, this is the most optimistic game in the line.  I wish I were kidding, oh, dear sweet baby Jesus with an orange glaze and a side of mashed potato do I wish I were kidding.


Or White Wolf's Exalted line:

Solars: You are fighting a battle for the good of all, but are subjected to horrible character-reversing 'limit-breaks' that turn you into some sort of monster or useless woobie when triggered.  Also, everyone everywhere who has any power hates you, or is trying to use you.
Dragon Blooded: You are fighting a losing battle to preserve your empire against the Solars, or have betrayed your own kind by allying with them (and continue to support them when they periodically go crazy and either sob like broken wrecks for a month or slaughter everyone in their path mindlessly.  Either or).
Lunars: You are the weakest of all exalts beyond the Dragon Blooded, and since they're mostly just glorified canon fodder, that's not saying a whole lot.  If you're lucky, the GM finds you amusing enough to let you play a comic relief character in the Solar campaign.
Sidereals: You are a slave to destiny, or a hunted rebel for daring to try and thwart it.
Abyssals: You are either a horrible engine of destruction, bloodshed, and hate, or a horrible engine of destruction, bloodshed, and hate that likes puppies and wishes to be slightly less emo.  If you accomplish your goal and redeem yourself, you will probably die in the process.  You're far more likely to die before pulling it off anyway.
Infernal: No.  Just ... no.  Seriously.  No one wants to play a rape elemental (I hope).
Alchemical: No one's written books for you, because they haven't figured out exactly how to screw you over, so you're presented as vague antagonists at worse, and pointless curiosities at best in official books (unless this changed in 2nd ed, I dunno).


Or their superhero game, what was that called....  Ah, right:

Abberent: You're a superhero!  But you're subject to 'taint', a mechanic that's recycled verbatim in Demon: The Fallen.  Except, Demons can buy off their taint with enough permanent EXP.  Superheroes in the Abberant world will eventually just build up enough that they go crazy and try to murder everyone.


I tend to refer to classic WoD games as 'World of Futility', since it takes major storyteller cludging to make a WW game not feel like some angsty teen reveling in his love of fatalism isn't running things.  If it were limited to just WoD, it wouldn't be so bad.  But they inject that 'screw your escapism; have a steaming helping of harsh inevitable failure with your game!' into freaking everything.

I actually liked that New Mage, for all of its unfortunate blandness, moved away from that.

Here's to hoping that New Exalted can, too.