Interested in Exalted, but...

[Drascin]

...I can't make heads or tails of the mechanics.

To explain a bit further: my current M&M campaign seems to be finally approaching its end. It shouldn't be more than a month now until the huge finale. And so, I have to start thinking about what we'll be doing next.

Now, I know a fair bit about Exalted fluff, since I have read big bits of some of its books, and have a fairly decent grasp of the setting in broad strokes. It seemed like something my group could quite enjoy. But when I grab he basic rulebook and start to streamline in my head the whole character creation process and everything involved in it, it always ends with me going "bwuh?" and setting it down.

It may be because I'm used to more straightforward games like D&D, M&M, or Tri-stat, or because everything mechanic is so distributed all around the fluff bits it's hard for me to get an unified feel, or simply because I'm plain stupid and that's that (an option which is seeming more likely by the minute), but after some time reading it, all that I've managed to extract from it is that you have abilities, get dice pools relative to how many dots you have in those abilities, and you roll as many dice as your pool then count the successes. And bits and pieces about Essence and motes and how many a character has and how they're used for Charms. The Combo system actually punched me through the pages, I think.

So I wondered if someone here had or knew where to link to a summed-up, straight to the point writeup of Exalted mechanics?

[Overshee]

It's pretty easy... Roll Attribute+Ability d10, everything over 7 is a success (10 counts as 2 successes)

Here's a better example: Exalted Combat 201 http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/i...Edition_Combat

And here's some more "essays" on the game: http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/i...ategory:Essays



Play Exalted. It's EPIC.

[kamikasei]

I suspect the mechanics are too complex for a written summary to be much use - it'll still be confusing. Maybe you'd be better off asking questions here and getting answers, building up understanding step by step.

[TheCountAlucard]

I suspect the mechanics are too complex for a written summary to be much use - it'll still be confusing. Maybe you'd be better off asking questions here and getting answers, building up understanding step by step.

+1

A few parts of the crunch were easy for me to get, but other parts required a couple of read-throughs. If you've got any questions, we'll be happy to answer for you.

[WalkingTarget]

I've managed to extract from it is that you have abilities, get dice pools relative to how many dots you have in those abilities, and you roll as many dice as your pool then count the successes.

That's more or less the basic mechanic. As was already said, 7-10 are successes (with 10s counting double) which means that you can expect an average of 1 success for every 2 dice rolled.

And bits and pieces about Essence and motes and how many a character has and how they're used for Charms. The Combo system actually punched me through the pages, I think.

The number of motes you get are based on a few of your other stats. If you're looking at the 2nd edition book, the formulas are on page 77. The only difference between personal and peripheral pools is that spending personal motes doesn't cause your anima to activate. Don't worry too much about combos until you get familiar with the Charm system in general. It's easier to grok once you get used to the standard usage.

[Overshee]

I suggest you grab a copy of Return to the Tomb of Five Corners from WW's site. It's a free introductory adventure to Exalted 2nd Edition that comes with pre-gen characters and quickstart rules. It's about a session long, contains a lot of flavor, and is a fairly interesting adventure.

If your group doesn't want to run it, at least read the quickstart rules. There may be a little simplification but overall it's a good introduction to the ruleset.

[AmberVael]

I'm not near knowledgeable enough in Exalted to try and give a good summary myself, but I do want to address your difficulty in learning it.

It's nothing new or anything to be ashamed of at all.

I've learned a decent number of systems by now, and while I've been able to pick up most any other system in a relatively straightforward manner, Exalted is one of the ones I've put the most effort into learning and I'm still nowhere near competent with it.

The mechanics of Exalted- the way they're presented, explained, and even their base nature, is really, really confusing and intricate. Don't feel bad for having a difficult time with them. It is a fun system, but horrendously difficult to pick up, in my opinion.

[Kylarra]

I suggest you grab a copy of Return to the Tomb of Five Corners from WW's site. It's a free introductory adventure to Exalted 2nd Edition that comes with pre-gen characters and quickstart rules. It's about a session long, contains a lot of flavor, and is a fairly interesting adventure.

If your group doesn't want to run it, at least read the quickstart rules. There may be a little simplification but overall it's a good introduction to the ruleset.

Yeah, I'll second this. The quickstart rules get you used to the system without overwhelming you with all the numbers.

The mechanics of Exalted- the way they're presented, explained, and even their base nature, is really, really confusing and intricate. Don't feel bad for having a difficult time with them. It is a fun system, but horrendously difficult to pick up, in my opinion.

I didn't find them too bad myself, but then I already knew the storyteller system, so it was simply a matter of moving a few things around.

[Overshee]

Yeah, I'll second this. The quickstart rules get you used to the system without overwhelming you with all the numbers.


I didn't find them too bad myself, but then I already knew the storyteller system, so it was simply a matter of moving a few things around.

Exalted 1E was the first RPG I ever read (I saw it in the bookstore and was hooked, and I didn't even really know what it was at the time), so I've pretty much internalized the system. It's different from many other popular systems, so you have to look at it with a fresh slate.

At its most basic, it's about rolling dice (the number is based upon attribute+ability) against a target difficulty (usually 7) against a target number (depending on how hard the task is).

90% of all rolls are based upon this theory. Charms are the crazy superpowers which help, hinder, or otherwise affect these rolls.



Can you give us some specifics on what you're confused about?

[Terraoblivion]

The mechanics are generally confusingly written in the corebook. Blame White Wolf and their hatred of editors since that is mostly it. However, most rules relating specifically to character creation are summed up in the summary at the end of the character creation chapter. It tells you have to do the math and how much of each type of dots you have and so on.

For descriptions of what each of those things are you need to go hunting through the book and the table of contents and index suck. Most stats are fairly self-explanatory, but not all, which forces you to do some hunting. In general there really isn't much to do other than familiarizing yourself with the poor editing, asking someone who knows the system and maybe get a good pdf with bookmarks for easier navigation to supplement your printed version.

And if you have any questions just ask. Exalted is the system i am most familiar with so i should be able to answer most specific questions. Still my first piece of advice is looking at the character creation summary, it is quite helpful and i still need to look at it on character creation to remind me of things like the amount of motes you have or bonus point costs.

[AmberVael]

I didn't find them too bad myself, but then I already knew the storyteller system, so it was simply a matter of moving a few things around.

Well, the basic concepts are pretty simple. I can create a character and run around in games and combat and actually play and seem to know what I'm doing.

But I'm still learning all kinds of things- how the crafting rules work, just precisely how to put together and utilize a combo, the different rules for all the different types of characters. There are a bajillion and one little things to pick up, and not just because there are tons of charms and charm options.

The basics? Yeah, you can get them down pretty quick. But there is so much more than just them.

[Kylarra]

Well, the basic concepts are pretty simple. I can create a character and run around in games and combat and actually play and seem to know what I'm doing.

But I'm still learning all kinds of things- how the crafting rules work, just precisely how to put together and utilize a combo, the different rules for all the different types of characters. There are a bajillion and one little things to pick up, and not just because there are tons of charms and charm options.

The basics? Yeah, you can get them down pretty quick. But there is so much more than just them.

Isn't that a sign of a good system?

[AmberVael]

Isn't that a sign of a good system?

Well, whether it is a good system or not isn't what's being discussed here.

I love Exalted, and I have fun playing with the fluff and the rules it presents, but there's no way I'm going to tell someone that it is easy to learn. It isn't easy to learn. The basic concepts are, to an extent, but not really the way they're presented in the book, and you certainly need to know more than the basic concepts to start playing in a game. Or at the very least, someone else has to know more than the basic concepts to help you out.

Or you could run around making mistakes while trying to figure it all out, which is kind of fun too.

[Drascin]

Wow, I go for a few hours to solve a few matters, and I come back to so much help. Thanks! I can't quite answer everyone at length here, but I'll try.

Here's a better example: Exalted Combat 201 http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/i...Edition_Combat

And here's some more "essays" on the game: http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/i...ategory:Essays

Those are going to be oh so useful. Serious thanks.

I suspect the mechanics are too complex for a written summary to be much use - it'll still be confusing. Maybe you'd be better off asking questions here and getting answers, building up understanding step by step.

Yeah, probably. I'll get to making some more precise questions as I give the manual another read, then. I was going to ask how this whole "soak" thing worked, because the damage style in this game is one of the things that make me go "huh" the most, but I presume Overshee's link will show it, given it's a combat example.

I suggest you grab a copy of Return to the Tomb of Five Corners from WW's site. It's a free introductory adventure to Exalted 2nd Edition that comes with pre-gen characters and quickstart rules. It's about a session long, contains a lot of flavor, and is a fairly interesting adventure.

If your group doesn't want to run it, at least read the quickstart rules. There may be a little simplification but overall it's a good introduction to the ruleset.

Will head to the White Wolf site to get it as soon as I finish this post. Quickstart rules and example pregen characters sound exactly like what I need to get all these random rules to start making sense together in my head.

The mechanics are generally confusingly written in the corebook. Blame White Wolf and their hatred of editors since that is mostly it. However, most rules relating specifically to character creation are summed up in the summary at the end of the character creation chapter. It tells you have to do the math and how much of each type of dots you have and so on.

For descriptions of what each of those things are you need to go hunting through the book and the table of contents and index suck. Most stats are fairly self-explanatory, but not all, which forces you to do some hunting. In general there really isn't much to do other than familiarizing yourself with the poor editing, asking someone who knows the system and maybe get a good pdf with bookmarks for easier navigation to supplement your printed version.

All too true, yeah. It's a big part of why I'm so lost. I can understand an individual rule, maybe, and then it'll jump to something completely unrelated, and when that first rule is referenced again a chapter later I can't find where it was, and all in all I end up setting the book down and with the general feeling that I just tried to draw a map of the Wyld.

And if you have any questions just ask. Exalted is the system i am most familiar with so i should be able to answer most specific questions. Still my first piece of advice is looking at the character creation summary, it is quite helpful and i still need to look at it on character creation to remind me of things like the amount of motes you have or bonus point costs.

...you know, I didn't actually notice that summary the first time I looked over the book. The pages were a bit sticked together there. That is incredibly useful. For one, it explains what you have to do a lot better than the whole previous chapter .

I'm not near knowledgeable enough in Exalted to try and give a good summary myself, but I do want to address your difficulty in learning it.

It's nothing new or anything to be ashamed of at all.

I've learned a decent number of systems by now, and while I've been able to pick up most any other system in a relatively straightforward manner, Exalted is one of the ones I've put the most effort into learning and I'm still nowhere near competent with it.

The mechanics of Exalted- the way they're presented, explained, and even their base nature, is really, really confusing and intricate. Don't feel bad for having a difficult time with them. It is a fun system, but horrendously difficult to pick up, in my opinion.

Thanks, it's nice to know I'm not the only one who finds this system so incredibly weirdly written. The fact I never played a game with the Storyteller system (the only one whose thematic called my attention was Mage, and I never got a manual nor found someone who had it) probably doesn't help.

Isn't that a sign of a good system?

Mostly it's the mark of bad composition . D&D is also rather hard to master in places, but it's easier because everything is much better explained and easier to reference.

All in all, many thanks, everyone. The links, and Terra's ponting of the Creation Summary, are going to be oh so very useful, and I'll make sure to ask whenever there's something I don't understand.

[Terraoblivion]

Sure thing, Drascin. Glad to be of help. Exalted is generally a bit more confusing than other Storyteller games, except maybe Scion, because it has much more complex, involved rules than either version of the World of Darkness, making rules take up more space. Aggravates White Wolf's hostility to editing, organizing and writing indexes and tables of content a fair bit. That it gets relatively less attention and money from the developers than WoD hurts too.

Still between having seen the summary, having people to ask for help and the links to those really helpful examples of play you should be able to learn it and create as scarily optimized characters in this as you can in M&M. I know that those examples were the place where the rules fell in place for me. At least the ones relating to ordinary combat, mass combat and social combat are still somewhat sketchy for me, while everything else is mostly just standard Storyteller style stuff that i understood before.

Oh and i predict that the charm section will trigger some questions too, not all charms are equally well-written, making them frequently rather confusing.

[Overshee]

Wow, I go for a few hours to solve a few matters, and I come back to so much help. Thanks! I can't quite answer everyone at length here, but I'll try.



Those are going to be oh so useful. Serious thanks.



Yeah, probably. I'll get to making some more precise questions as I give the manual another read, then. I was going to ask how this whole "soak" thing worked, because the damage style in this game is one of the things that make me go "huh" the most, but I presume Overshee's link will show it, given it's a combat example.



Will head to the White Wolf site to get it as soon as I finish this post. Quickstart rules and example pregen characters sound exactly like what I need to get all these random rules to start making sense together in my head.



All too true, yeah. It's a big part of why I'm so lost. I can understand an individual rule, maybe, and then it'll jump to something completely unrelated, and when that first rule is referenced again a chapter later I can't find where it was, and all in all I end up setting the book down and with the general feeling that I just tried to draw a map of the Wyld.



...you know, I didn't actually notice that summary the first time I looked over the book. The pages were a bit sticked together there. That is incredibly useful. For one, it explains what you have to do a lot better than the whole previous chapter .



Thanks, it's nice to know I'm not the only one who finds this system so incredibly weirdly written. The fact I never played a game with the Storyteller system (the only one whose thematic called my attention was Mage, and I never got a manual nor found someone who had it) probably doesn't help.



Mostly it's the mark of bad composition . D&D is also rather hard to master in places, but it's easier because everything is much better explained and easier to reference.

All in all, many thanks, everyone. The links, and Terra's ponting of the Creation Summary, are going to be oh so very useful, and I'll make sure to ask whenever there's something I don't understand.

Glad I could help! Tell us what you think if your run premade!

[Kylarra]

Mostly it's the mark of bad composition . D&D is also rather hard to master in places, but it's easier because everything is much better explained and easier to reference.

Yeah, I'm not gonna argue that the core book doesn't have a horrific layout, cause I know it does...