Newbie Exalted ST: Any tips/tricks/pitfalls to avoid?

[Hyooz]

I've played in a couple of short games up to this point, so I'm relatively familiar with the system and world themselves, but I've never actually run a game in the world of Exalted, and from my days running a good deal of other games, I know that a working knowledge for players doesn't always equal a working knowledge for game masters.

My group is at least haflway well versed with this genre of d10 system in general, having played Scion fairly extensively and dabbled in the OWoD - but its that same familiarity that makes me want to seek this kind of advice in the first place. Scion is hilariously wrought with mechanical... issues, but with a little foreknowledge and thought, they weren't that hard to deal with (until you hit Legend 3-4 at least... which is admittedly like saying 3.5 is fine before level 5.)

I guess it's hard to say exactly what I'm asking for, but really any kind of experienced advice would be welcome here.

[Gensh]

Sound advice is to get the Scroll of Errata. Because the gameline's errata is longer than several supplements. Defense has primacy over offense. In a lot of cases, it devolves to a character dying immediately if they lack a certain defense or if they do, then the attacker just wasted a bunch of energy.

Some YMMV advice is to lie about everything and never actually stat NPCs. Exalted suffers from the same core issue as Scion. Your players might be able to deal with it, but I put up with a whole year of people complaining that it was a one-man-show since only one of them actually sat down to figure out how everything worked. The issues only grow worse as you include further books, since rather than power creep, Exalted had a power Olympic sprint, and rather than a slow rise to Essence 5, it becomes a flatout race to Essence 6.

Short version is to use the setting but a different system entirely. At least until the new edition comes out whenever it comes out.

Beyond mechanics, you definitely need to have a feel for the players' sensibilities about some things or else keep them from reading too much of the books so that they don't disagree with you over how you run Canon NPC X (particularly Sol or the Yozis).

[Friv]

If you guys survived Scion, Exalted probably won't be too bad, honestly. But here are my three big pieces of advice:

1) Ignore everything past Essence 5. For being that are throwing around Essence 6+ powers, just hand them a few flavorful abilities that don't do that much and call it a day. Essence 6+ powers, as written, are not unlike throwing God powers into a Hero game of Scion and expecting anyone to survive.

2) Don't play through full social combat; the framework works for a few rolls per scene, but gets kind of weird in-depth.

3) I suggest a gentlemen's agreement not to use any persistent die adder that adds more than (Essence) dice per scene. It's not strictly required, but the first guy to get one pretty much dominates his area of expertise.

4) Martial Arts outside of Scroll of Errata are a goddamned minefield of dodgy mechanics that can easily lead to characters being unstoppable or useless. Maybe just generally avoid them?

[Hiro Protagonest]

1) Ignore everything past Essence 5. For being that are throwing around Essence 6+ powers, just hand them a few flavorful abilities that don't do that much and call it a day. Essence 6+ powers, as written, are not unlike throwing God powers into a Hero game of Scion and expecting anyone to survive.

If you are going to homebrew stuff, I recommend just switching to FUDGE. It's free (http://www.fudgerpg.com/goodies/fudge-files/core/).

But yeah, get errata.

[Hyooz]

Admittedly we survived Scion largely by sticking to shorter stories and retiring characters frequently. I have no idea how people even begin to think about running god-level games in that system. It does not seem possible while not ignoring most of what is available to you.

Avoid the high levels of power and largely ignoring social combat seems to make sense. The social combat system really is just... bizarre.

I'll play with the static die adder idea and martial arts caution. The Essence limit makes sense, and shouldn't really be a problem. I'll deal with martial arts if it turns out someone wants to use them.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I just thought of something. Heaven's Reach places a hard limit on Essence 5 for everything other than the Yozis/Stellar Intelligences/Tomb Stars. So maybe play that?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Short version is to use the setting but a different system entirely. At least until the new edition comes out whenever it comes out.
I would agree that the Exalted crunch is a major pitfall, aye. Try using Mutants and Masterminds (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14044941)instead.

[golentan]

All of the exalted hate always comes out on these sorts of threads. I've run several games, both before and after errata, and it's not as hair pulling as people make it sound (and a lot less than scion IMO). In general, I have to say get the errata, it makes fights that don't involve perfect defenses on both sides something other than a curb stomp. Don't social fu your players too much, except when the fact that an enemy can use social fu is a plot point that must be overcome. Expect the PCs to run roughshod over most challenges below them: Dragonbloods can outshine mortals all day, celestial exalts need an experienced brotherhood of dragonbloods before they have to worry. Beware characters with superhuman strength clinching, it can easily break the system in one on one combat. Other than that, have fun, and don't worry too much about balance as long as you're sure that a threat can't instagib them or vice versa: give in to the crazy over the top nature of flinging a mountain at a foe.

[Delta]

As someone who has run several Exalted and Scion games I can tell with conviction that Exalted has much, much less issues than Scion (which at this point I simply don't consider a seriously playable system for anything longer than a couple connected one-shots)

It is true though that beyond Essence 5, things tend to get out of hand a lot, but firstly, that never concerned me a lot because there's a LOT to do before you ever hit Essence 6 (which by recommendation should take more than a human lifetime so there's that, too) and if your campaign ever does, you absolutely need to have some open talks with your players, you have to have some more metagaming agreements between GM and players than usual at this point so everyone knows the direction they want to go in, because single PCs at this point can derail not only the campaign but the whole setting if they put their mind to it.

[Friv]

If you are going to homebrew stuff, I recommend just switching to FUDGE. It's free (http://www.fudgerpg.com/goodies/fudge-files/core/).

But yeah, get errata.

I generally consider "don't use Essence 6+" to be a lot less than a homebrew, because you don't have to replace it with anything. Switching to another system requires actual homebrew, which a lot of people don't have the time for.

Anyway, I've been running 2e since it came out, and it really is totally workable as long as you don't get sucked into an ever-escalating paranoia arms race.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I generally consider "don't use Essence 6+" to be a lot less than a homebrew, because you don't have to replace it with anything. Switching to another system requires actual homebrew, which a lot of people don't have the time for.

Anyway, I've been running 2e since it came out, and it really is totally workable as long as you don't get sucked into an ever-escalating paranoia arms race.

Yeah, converting to FUDGE is more trouble than it's worth unless you plan to play a lot of games with it.

[Asmodai]

I love Exalted to bits. But, honestly I'd suggest you go with First edition rules, at least until the Third edition is out. October/November is the supposed date for the PDF, but i'm still a bit skeptical on that date.

This way you'll have some issues (mainly with speed), but the issues stemming from the wreck that the tick system and charm interactions of second edition coupled with the fact that the errata document is a soliud 240 pages will cause premature hair loss and a sore throat from screaming.