Exalted: The Hard Sell

[CockroachTeaParty]

I mostly play D&D. Or rather, I did, until I flung myself into self-imposed exile. However, I'm not beyond expanding my horizons into new gaming systems. For instance, I've played Shadowrun a few times, and used to play Warhammer 40K until I wound up living in a cardboard box.

I often see mention of the game Exalted on these forums, whether here or in the Recruiting Games threads. I've seen Exalted (whatever the current version is; the one you'd see waltzing into Borders or Barnes & Noble) before, and perused the massive main book, but I'm yet to sit down and devour the thing. I'd rather do so after purchasing the book, but I must know more before such a decision can be made.

So, what's up with Exalted? Is it fun? Give me the hard sell!

I know that you basically play as demigods, but that's about it. What's the main mechanic? What's the best part about it? What are some folks' experiences playing this game?

My mind thirsts for answers to these questions, as well as questions I'm yet to even think of. Being a crotchety old 3.5 D&D loon, is it a system best avoided by my curmudgeonly, simulationist ways? Or should I open my heart to a new era of over-the-top epic action? What say you? WHAT SAY YOU?

[Lochar]

I'm going to do this the easy way.

God-Kings of Lotus

IC-2 of God-Kings

Come back when you're finished reading and tell me whether or not you're sold.

[unre9istered]

Over the top epic action, a la anime style kung fu. You can also pull off social/politcal/large scale war kung fu as well, thought he war stuff is rarely used.
The game uses d10s only. You roll a number of dice equal to your attribute (strength, dexterity, stamina, charisma, manipulation, appearance, wits, intelligence, perception) plus ability (melee, stealth, occult etc). A 7 or higher on a die is a success. You also have "charms" which are your powers and can do anything from simply doubling the dice pool you have to making it so you can jump 100's of yards or use a melee on a guy 50' away or cause a crowd of people to riot (or stop a riot). You spend essence points to do this, you have a pool of 30-100 or so depending on your stats.

[CockroachTeaParty]

I'm going to do this the lazy way.

Fixed that for you.

Come now, people! This is a forum! I desire discussion! Begin the babbling!

[The Demented One]

• Main mechanic: it's the Storyteller system. If you've played World of Darkness, you know the basics. Couple things different, but it's very easily adapted to.

• The premise: You're an epic hero in an equally epic world, a world that's beset on all sides by apocalyptic doom. You're either its greatest champion and defender in the face of the apocalypse...or else you are the apocalypse.

• Fun bits: Phenomenal cosmic power. In contrast to Dungeons and Dragons, where the beginning character is a fresh adventurer, the beginning character in Exalted is a reborn demigod, and is one of the most important people in the setting by sheer dint of the power he wields. You aren't at the top of the totem pole, but you're in the upper echelons. Things like founding kingdoms, waging war, fighting rogue gods and powerful demons, and forging epic artifacts is all within the purview of beginning play. As you become more and more advanced, you begin building empires, bringing back the magic and technology of bygone ages, and battling cosmic horrors toe-to-toe. The action is amazingly fun, as you are actually rewarded for being awesome.

• Less fun bits: the system is not an easy one to get started on. There are lots of crunchy bits to get mastered. Some books have very poorly done mechanics, although a new wave of errata has just begun to be released that fixes a lot of bad things. The internet community can be very, very vitriolic.

[Tavar]

Useful Exalted Quotes

Funny Exalted Quotes

The former give alot of info on how the game actually works. The latter references broken things in the same order as the commoner Rail Gun, but also gives a more humorous look at the game. Both are good reads.

Also, best quote of the bunch:

I've said before, and I'll say again, the fact that I like the Dragonblooded means I find them interesting, which does not imply morally correct or that I feel they have to "win" (whatever that means). Some people do, but I've never said so.

But here's the thing - I don't think they're bad either. I think they'll FAIL, sure, because that's the canonical end of the Age of Sorrows, but so will everyone else.

But they aren't going to fail because they're not heroic enough. Nor are the Solars. Nor are the Lunars. Nor are the Sidereals. They'll fail because the odds are too high and the time too short and the divisions between the Exalts too deep.

(I'm excluding the Abyssals from this as they're a special case - they're not their own Exalt type, they're corrupted Solars, who one and all chose to be corrupted, albeit under duress. Also they've only just come into existence.)

But I don't see any of them as fools and villains. And I'll explain why.

Now, it's easy to see why Solars are heroes, and I hardly have to convince Nagisawa Takumi of that anyway, but hey, here goes: they're Exalted due to excellence. They were Exalted because they surpassed their fellow man even before they had a hint of divine power. They are left in the world, alone, to forge their own destiny. Some find others like them, but there's so few of them in such a huge world that most work alone. They have no backup, no support, and no cause beyond that which they choose for themselves (although sometimes Zeniths get instruction, they're very vague). They have to forge their own place in a world that, if it perhaps doesn't all fear and hate them, is mostly willing to take advantage of them at the friendliest. And they DO it. Their reappearence: scattered, without support, in a time of tumult, has nonetheless already redefined the world. Every Solar can change the world, singly or jointly. They can descend into the darkest sin or be a paragon of virtue(s). They were instrumental in building the First Age, and could build the Third. The Solars are undeniably heroes.

But they are not the only heroes.

Let me tell you what it means to be Dragonblooded. To be Dragonblooded is to have a responsibility. To be Dragonblooded is to take up the sword to defend Creation. Every Dynast can ride, and shoot, and fight both bare handed and with a weapon, and lead troops into battle. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. The most fat, jaded, lazy bureaucrat of the Thousand Scales can take up a sword and fight a strong man to a standstill without use of a single Charm, and lead troops into battle with competence. The requirements for Lookshy Dragonblooded are even more strict. If you cannot learn to fight for Creation, Dragonblooded society has no use for you. They believe themselves to be the only force standing between Creation and that which would destroy it, and they act accordingly. That does not just include personal competence. To be Dragonblooded is not a title, or an adornment, but membership in a single nation. Only Dragonblooded, of all the Exalted, have a Charm that allows them to take their most hated Dragonblooded foe and instantly trust and love them like a brother to join together to fight a greater threat. That is their duty: that is their call. You say they have failed Creation in their stewardship. But they have saved it. Saved it once, and twice, and many times over. When they overthrew the Solars, they were dying in scores, in droves, in their hundreds and thousands, but they would not surrender. They would not break. They fought until every last one was gone, because the brotherhood does not retreat. When the Great Contagion broke the armies of the Shogunate and the survivors faced oncoming endless hordes of horrors from beyond reality, they did not lay down and die, or flee screaming and broken. Oh, a few may have, but the records are clear on the whole: they fought. They fought to the end, they forced the Fair Folk to scratch and claw and die for everything they wanted to grasp, and in some places they even won, the broken remnants of reality against an impossibly larger foe! And ever since, whenever anything has threatened Creation, any horror has run loose upon it, the Dragonblooded have marched. They have fought the Fair Folk. They have fought rogue gods. They have fought the armies of the dead. Some have failed, some have died, a few have even turned traitor, but the brotherhood of the Dragons still stands in the defence of Creation. Even now, at the beginning of the setting, the Dragonblooded are the two mightiest forces in Creation. They have a religion that venerates them, yes, but also one that orders them to treat mortals well, which is more than one can say for any other known religion in Creation. And they police themselves. Sometimes it is effective and sometimes not, but even now the realms of the Dragonblooded are the safest and most stable in Creation. Even now, in both the Realm and Lookshy, you can find mortals in position of power. Even now, the peasants eat, the spirits are kept doing their proper jobs, and the foes of Creation dare not yet enter, because that is the peace that the Dragonblooded fought and bled and died for. Everything in Creation, everything that lives, owes its life to the Dragonblooded, because it is they who have been the army that defended Creation since the Solars were overthrown and the Lunars left. Every Solar owes his life to the Dragonblooded, even if he owes his death to them as well. Creation might need a more powerful protector, but it could never ask for a more loyal and dedicated one. The Dragonblooded are heroes.

But they are not the only heroes.

Let me tell you what it means to be Lunar. To be Lunar is to be tougher than any other Exalt ever had to be. Lunars don't Exalt for trying to do something audacious and remarkable, like Solars. They Exalt because they did something audacious and remarkable. A Solar might Exalt for taking up a sword to defend his village against the Fair Folk, but a Lunar only Exalts if he survived doing that. A Lunar has to win, to overcome a trial that seems impossible, before they get any reward. That is the life of a Lunar in a nutshell. They do not have the overwhelming power of the Solars, nor the brotherhood of the Dragonblooded, nor the support of Heavens and certain knowedge of the Sidereals. And yet they survive nonetheless. There is no challenge the Lunars cannot survive. The fury of the Primordials could not destroy them. The Dragonblooded and Sidereals could not stop them from escaping. The Wyld twisted them, broke them at their very core, crippled that which made them Exalted, and the Lunars yet survived. They not only survived, they remade themselves. Without their patron, without the Solars, without anyone else, the Lunars forged themselves new Exaltation and survived still. If they could not inhabit Creation, they inhabited the Wyld, a place absolutely antithetical to life, and survived still. And they did not just simply survive, either, cowering like dogs at the edge of a campfire's light. They grew stronger. They seized places of power. They forged nations. And they forged each other. They found new Lunars and tattooed them as the Lunars now needed to survive. And they did this without Sidereal astrology or any other means of instantly finding out when and where one Exalted. They did this through constant vigilence and looking out for those who needed it most. Nobody, not even the Solars, have faced what the Lunars have. The Solars merely died. But the Lunars were broken down to their very soul. Every Lunar, everywhere, is broken. But they have not died. They have not surrendered and become the lapdogs of the Dragonblooded and received the considerable benefits of their strength. They have not turned their backs on Creation, either. They have not walked out into the Wyld and left everything behind. Despite everything, despite terror and betrayal and death, despite being wounded more than any other Exalt could even imagine, they remain steadfast and true to themselves above all. The Lunars are heroes.

But they are not the only heroes.

Let me tell you what it means to be Sidereal. There is no life harder than that of a Sidereal. To be Sidereal is to be chosen, from birth, although you neither knew nor asked for it. To be Sidereal is to Exalt and be told that now you must train to be the finest-edged weapon in Creation, that you will spend the rest of your incredibly long life protecting Creation, and that there is no time for weakness, for doubt, or for failure. You will do what is required of you, or you will die and another will be chosen who is of a finer mettle than you. And most every Sidereal you will ever meet was given that choice, nodded their head, and devoted their existence to keeping Creation from the abyss. You may sneer that Sidereals control the world. That is true, but it is nothing to be rejoiced about. Controlling the world is a literal thing for Sidereals, not figurative. They must espy every aspect of it. They must figure out when anything is going wrong. And then they must stop it. Ninety-nine Sidereals, to our knowledge, do this. Ninety-nine men and women work day in and day out for Creation, and their only reward is another assignment and knowing that Creation has gone on another day. They have given up friends. They can love, but will never be loved for themselves. They erased their very existences from Creation to better serve it; if their judgement on how to best serve Creation was wrong, it does not erase the sacrifices they have made in pursuit of the noblest goal there is. They do have vacations, because there is no time and nobody to take their place. They can amass staggering wealth and power but will never be able to enjoy it. Some guide the Solars, some guide the Dragonblooded: in either case, they see young heroes who have their whole lives ahead of them and can do whatever they want with it, who have the ability, the sheer luxury of saying on any given day "screw this, I'm going to go do something else". That's the freedom the Sidereal will never have, can never have, but they will do their job nonetheless and try their damndest to help the Solars or Dragonblooded to save Creation. That is their reward - that Creation lives another day. Not adulation. Not even a thank you. Just a satisfactory result. And they die. Oh yes, they die. Sidereals are the longest-lived of all the Exalted. And yet barely any survive from before the Usurpation. Why? Because they are out, every day, doing what they think must be done to save the world. And many times they die doing it. And death might be a relief, except it's an abject failure which has taken out a key piece of the network that keeps Creation safe. You may not agree with the decisions they make, but only an ingrate or someone suffused with hatred could fail to be in awe at the sacrifices the Sidereals make for what they believe they have to do. Their lives are only the first step. Only a Sidereal could, and does, wield a weapon which is immensely more effective against someone they love. Not pretend to love. Not have convinced that he loves. Not said he loves. Loves. Truly. Deeply. That weapon was built because it would be used. Because to be a Sidereal is to put nothing above your task of defending Creation. Not yourself. Not the one your love. Not your desires. Not anything. You don't matter. You chose not to matter. You chose figuratively (and quite literally in the oldest cases) not to even exist, all in the desire, the drive, the duty to make sure that Creation does exist. The Sidereals are heroes.

But they, too, are not the only heroes.

All of them are heroes. Not individually, of course - there's always individual except. But collectively? Yes. Oh yes. Collectively, they have given more of themselves then anybody should ever be asked to do, and they have done it gamely and with excellence. They have all accomplished feats that border on and in many cases should have been impossible.

They are EXALTED. The name of the game is EXALTED. And the Exalted, all of them, are heroes.

The tragedy of the setting is that being heroic is not enough. Giving of yourself is not enough. Straining yourself to the utmost is not enough. It's too late, too hard, the enemies are at the gates and they cannot be denied. Not by the Solars, or the Dragonblooded, or the Lunars, or the Sidereals or anyone else.

That's where the PCs come in.

[TheCountAlucard]

So, what's up with Exalted?

It is fun.

Is it fun?

Yes, yes it is.

Give me the hard sell!

Gonna try to, anyway.

I know that you basically play as demigods, but that's about it.

Specifically, you typically play as an ordinary mortal whose actions caught the attention of magic essence created by (the god of the sun, awesomeness, and perfection/the moon goddess/the goddesses who work destiny/the elemental dragons/the slain titans who created the world/the banished titans who created the world/Autobot), which binds itself to you and makes you more powerful. Or I guess you could just be descended from something cool, or even be a mortal (though a mortal is gonna get BRUTALIZED in any combat against an Exalt).

What's the main mechanic?

You have Attributes (which kinda work like ability scores in D&D) and Abilities (which kinda work like skills in D&D), which you'll roll together (a martial artist attacking something would roll "Dexterity" and "Martial Arts," plus or minus a few modifiers) and a suite of Charms (personal earth-shattering, miracle-working POWER!) that do a variety of things depending on what you pick out. Do you want to be able to dodge a thrown boulder? There's a Charm for that. Do you want to be able to block a thrown boulder? There's a Charm for that. Do you want to throw a boulder? You'll probably have to have a really high Strength+Thrown, but once you do...

What's the best part about it?

There's a rather epic feel to it; plus, the characters typically get a chance to really make an impact on the world around them. A Shadowrunner's probably not going to make a vast amount of difference (short of blowing up some buildings or the like) until he's rich enough to retire, but an Exalt starts out on par with Hercules, and goes up from there.

What are some folks' experiences playing this game?

I've got a campaign log, if you're interested.

Being a crotchety old 3.5 D&D loon, is it a system best avoided by my curmudgeonly, simulationist ways?

Once you learn how to go beyond the impossible and kick logic to the curb (i.e., "stunting"), you should be fine.

EDIT: SO many ninjas!!! (curls up, whimpering) They just... came out of the TREES, man!

[CockroachTeaParty]

Never mind the ninjas, TheCountAlucard, you've been most helpful.

It would seem delving into the stinking pit of the internet will net me more information than I could possibly desire...

[The Demented One]

Never mind the ninjas, TheCountAlucard, you've been most helpful.

It would seem delving into the stinking pit of the internet will net me more information than I could possibly desire...

Speaking of the stinking pit of the internet...

While 1d4chan's description of Exalted is...well, what you would expect in terms of profanity...it is probably the single best introduction to the setting you could hope to get.

[herrhauptmann]

The training of a young exalt (Abyssal caste) in the ways of Kung Fu.

However, that's page 271 of the comic. So I recommend reading from page 1. That comic is what has actually made me want to play Exalted when I'm already fed up with general game mechanic due to a Werewolf/Vampires/Mages LARP group here at school.

[TheCountAlucard]

While 1d4chan's description of Exalted is...well, what you would expect in terms of profanity...it is probably the single best introduction to the setting you could hope to get.

“This place isn't going to maintain itself,” said the Primordials. “Let's make a bunch of servants to run the place for us! We'll give them intelligence, free will, and hopes and dreams, and then keep them as slaves for eternity! It'll be great!”

One of my favorite parts. How could something like that go wrong?!?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Fixed that for you.

Come now, people! This is a forum! I desire discussion! Begin the babbling!

Discussion aside! I am going to have to insist upon Lochar's idea.

Edit: There's also the feeling I've gotten that I've become better at writing epic tales.

[The_Snark]

Other people have covered the basics, so I'll just mention why I like it:

-The setting. There's a fairly detailed history, a large world, and an interesting cosmology. The latter two each have a series of books devoted to fleshing them out. You don't need them—the core book has a paragraph or two detailing the basic features of each nation and a bit more on other realms of existence, and you can always riff off that—but they're there if you have the money. For the most part, I've found them to be pretty interesting—I feel like the writers for each chapter sat down and said "Okay, what makes this nation interesting enough to write about? Why would you want to set a game there?" And if they came up with an answer they wrote a chapter about it, and if not they left it out, or gave it a couple pages in the chapter marked Misc at most. The fact that Creation has... six such books, plus four for other realms of existence (the celestial city of Yu-Shan, the demon realm of Malfeas, the Underworld, and the Wyld), should tell you that they've put a lot of effort into it. The world actually feels large.

The (default) present time in the setting is supposed to be a very eventful time, and it shows: there are a lot of NPC plans described, and a lot of NPCs with ambitions and nondescript plans. It really does feel sorta like looking at an actual setting that happens to have been frozen in time—even if your PCs never arrived, the world would have gone someplace.

Not necessarily the same place, mind you. But it's very far from a static setting.

-You play epic heroes. I know other people have hammered this home, but I'm not talking about the ability to kill a hundred soldiers with your bare hands, wrestle giants, and talk a king into giving you his crown, although the scope of possible deeds is certainly part of it. Both the fluff and the mechanics encourage you to play someone larger-than-life. Gilgamesh, Hercules, Cu Chulainn... there are a lot more archetypes that work well in Exalted, but it's harder to think of specific examples. Mighty warriors who occasionally flip out and kill people they shouldn't, hubris-laden rogues who steal secrets from the gods, a pious old man who attains enlightenment on a mountaintop and goes down to the valleys to spread his wisdom... those are the sort of character that Exalted does really well. This is not a game for playing an everyman; the more mythic, the better.

(This is the case with Solars, at least, who are the ones you'll be playing in the basic book. The other types of Exalted have slightly different themes, and slightly different mechanics to go along with it.)

-The mechanics are just plain fun. Sure, the system is clunky sometimes, and there's some broken stuff lying around, and minmaxing is very possible... but despite all that, it's fun to make a character who can pull the strings on nations, or command a ship so well that it holds together even when it has more holes in it than hulls remaining, or steal other people's names, or deliver a punch to their sense of self and watch them forget who they are.

[Jerthanis]

I'll go into a little bit of detail on the mechanics to start with, since I didn't see if you mentioned playing Vampire or another Storyteller game.

You have Attributes, which will be somewhat familiar, Strength, Dexterity, Stamina and so on. These are rated between one and five (generally). You also have Abilities, which are a lot like skills, but share system space with combat abilities. These ratings are between zero and five. In each action you take, you combine one of the Attributes with one of the Abilities and roll that many d10s. You then count how many dice rolled 7, 8, or 9; these count as one "success". Each 10 counts as two "successes". Something easy, like guiding a horse through muddy terrain might require one success while something extremely difficult, such as guiding a galloping horse through a churning swamp in the middle of a hurricane might need five or more successes.

In general, you're playing a character for whom 5 successes is trivial (in their area of expertise).

In terms of the stories it tells, it tells extremely diverse, morally complex tales about power and its application, hard choices to save the world, the value and meaning of life, and other heavy issues. It explores these issues within the context of a kung fu steampunkish western fantasy (meaning both cowboys AND sword & sorcery) setting.

In an Exalted game I ran a while back, a character grew up in a brutal, paranoia-inducing big-brother state and cast what he saw as chains off, going to build his own nation on an oasis in the desert, calling all peoples who wished to live safe and free. People flocked to him and his incredible speeches of hope and freedom. Unfortunately, he was better at leading than organizing, and poor planning and bad luck led to a drought causing almost a third of his city-state's population to starve. When he entered a violent conflict with his neighboring nation, he brought them to their knees easily... but then he had to decide what to do with the survivors. He hated slavery, but the alternatives; such as putting them all to the sword or allowing them to foster continued guerrilla warfare against his nation; seemed worse!

When he compromised on the issue, and allowed his nation to take them as slaves as an "enforced religious experience" for them, he lost his temper and tore down his nation's halls of legislature with his bare hands.

The powerscale really isn't quite so phenomenal-cosmic as all that though. I'd say a starting Exalt character is about D&D level 11-12ish, and in a game of reasonable length you might hit a level 16 equivalent.

[Lochar]

D&D 11-12th level? Wizard, possibly. You're just learning how to tell the rules of reality that "No, things work like I want them to, not like you say they have since time began."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Guh... the ghastly d10. So non-Platonic.

That aside, the base mechanic seems simple enough, but I hear many people talk of a clunkiness to the system, and a fairly steep learning curve. I can't imagine it's any more complex than 3.5 D&D, but what are the obstacles a newcomer should expect?

[Jerthanis]

D&D 11-12th level? Wizard, possibly. You're just learning how to tell the rules of reality that "No, things work like I want them to, not like you say they have since time began."

Yeah, D&D is epic for the cool kids and not for the others. There are things you can do at 7th level in D&D with magic that you will never be able to do in Exalted no matter how hard you try.

But even for Fighters, level 11 means you can fall off a cliff and brush yourself off before running a marathon. It means you'd suffer more from the lack of sleep caused by staying up all night than from your wounds if you were attacked by an average army as you were preparing for bed. It means you can hack a lovecraftian entity apart from the inside and wonder what the big deal with it was supposed to be.

I'm just saying that you're not overestimating Exalted... you're underestimating D&D.

Guh... the ghastly d10. So non-Platonic.

That aside, the base mechanic seems simple enough, but I hear many people talk of a clunkiness to the system, and a fairly steep learning curve. I can't imagine it's any more complex than 3.5 D&D, but what are the obstacles a newcomer should expect?

Exalted combat follows an extremely simple 10 step resolution process. Charms, artifacts and abilities can modify and complicate almost any one of these steps.

I'm reasonably experienced with the system and the game flows like molasses whenever someone throws a bunch of attacks at once.

Edit: And to clarify, when I say it's extremely simple, I'm not being facetious. The ten steps boil down to "Declare attack type, declare defense type, roll attack, compare to static defense trait, calculate damage, roll damage, apply damage result", the complicated part is that there are aspects of the system that can potentially interact with almost any one of these 10 steps and turn something straightforward into something you're flipping pages and scratching your head about.

[TheCountAlucard]

Yeah, D&D is epic for the cool kids and not for the others. There are things you can do at 7th level in D&D with magic that you will never be able to do in Exalted no matter how hard you try.

Be that as it may, most of the miracles in various religious and/or mythic texts (with the exception of raising someone from the dead) can be duplicated with Exalted's equivalent of "first-level spells." Feeding a nation with flakes that fall from the sky? Done. Parting the seas just so you can walk across? Easy. Evading damage by turning into a flock of birds? That's certainly doable. Heck, not mythic or anything, but remember Nimbus, from Dragonball? First-level spell. The higher-level stuff is set aside for setting rivers afire, making a place into Brigadoon, making mirror copies of someone, shooting someone a mile into the air only to drop a hill on them, causing your army to win a battle just by keeping your arms raised, and... Gattai!

Sure, spellcasting in Exalted doesn't go near the stupidity of epic spellcasting in D&D, but I still know which one I like more.

[Fortuna]

How well would it work (purely out of curiosity) to run a game that took you from 1st level in D&D up to about 11th level and then switched to Exalted, using the Exalted setting the whole time?

[sonofzeal]

How well would it work (purely out of curiosity) to run a game that took you from 1st level in D&D up to about 11th level and then switched to Exalted, using the Exalted setting the whole time?

I dread for the life expectancy of a lvl1 D&D character in the Exalted setting.

Might be better to play D&D up to lvl 20, in whatever setting you want, then switch to Exalted rules for epic play.

[The_Snark]

How well would it work (purely out of curiosity) to run a game that took you from 1st level in D&D up to about 11th level and then switched to Exalted, using the Exalted setting the whole time?

Pretty poorly, I suspect. Magic in D&D and magic in Exalted don't map very well at all, so you're going to have to toss all D&D spellcasting—for that matter, almost all magic or supernatural stuff that would normally be available to D&D characters—and improvise. someone felt like playing a martial artist they might be able to carefully select martial maneuvers to fit a Terrestrial martial arts style. Unfortunately, they'd then be locked into some (slightly sub-par) Charm choices upon Exalting. There's no good D&D analogue to thaumaturgy or sorcery, and almost all magic items would have to go.

If everybody agreed to play mundane characters—fighters, rogues, scouts, whatever—and the DM is okay with homebrewing stats to fit any supernatural enemies they cross (which wouldn't be often, because most creatures with supernatural abilities are quite dangerous to mortals) then it'd be simpler. The tone is going to be different, though, and maybe a little jarring. Exalted's combat rules are fairly dangerous for mortals; this is a marked contrast to D&D, where you can laugh off swords and arrows after getting a few levels under your belt. To me, at least, it'd feel jarring to be able to do that. Mortals in Exalted are generally not superpowered individuals; as Jerthanis points out, D&D characters start edging into being just that as they reach mid-levels.

Exalted does have rules for playing heroic mortals and converting them once they Exalt. They're not especially interesting rules, and I don't think I'd want to run through eleven levels' worth of play with them, but they're serviceable if you want to have a prelude running up to the characters' Exaltations.

[Kobold-Bard]

Speaking of the stinking pit of the internet...

While 1d4chan's description of Exalted is...well, what you would expect in terms of profanity...it is probably the single best introduction to the setting you could hope to get.

It may be the sleep deprivation, but I'm laughing so much at this I'm having difficulty typing this. I definitely have to convince someone to run this now.

How much experience with it would you need before you ran a game?

[Lochar]

Not as much as you think, but I'd go into it knowing that everyone's first characters are going to have some funny issues, because it is everyone's first characters.

I think for new characters, there's a couple of things that make things a bit easier. You get 10 Charms by default. Pick up 3-4 combat Charms, 3 or so social Charms, and scatter the rest among what looks interesting for your character. That way, you're not stuck doing nothing when your circle(group) are doing something out of the build of your character.

Nothing sucks more than building an Essence 2 Dawn Caste (The mighty warriors), with nothing but melee and archery charms, then coming to realize. Oh ****, I get about 3 dice to try to talk to people. And I have nothing to make it better.

[grautry]

Funny Exalted Quotes

About that, what's with all the jokes about Gem?

[The Demented One]

About that, what's with all the jokes about Gem?

The city of Gem, in canon, is about to be destroyed by like a half-dozen different things.

[Indon]

The training of a young exalt (Abyssal caste) in the ways of Kung Fu.

However, that's page 271 of the comic. So I recommend reading from page 1. That comic is what has actually made me want to play Exalted when I'm already fed up with general game mechanic due to a Werewolf/Vampires/Mages LARP group here at school.

I'd like to second Keychain of Creation.

It showcases Exalted in the same sense that OOTS showcases D&D.

Edit: And to clarify, when I say it's extremely simple, I'm not being facetious. The ten steps boil down to "Declare attack type, declare defense type, roll attack, compare to static defense trait, calculate damage, roll damage, apply damage result", the complicated part is that there are aspects of the system that can potentially interact with almost any one of these 10 steps and turn something straightforward into something you're flipping pages and scratching your head about.

And this, in turn, is because a major mechanical facet of being an Exalt is changing how things work, because Essence kinda works by overriding the universe in the user's favor.

And Exalts have a ton of diverse, flavorful... and occasionally even confusing... ways to do so.

[WalkingTarget]

A few examples of how super-awesome your Charms are:

Athletics - a normal person with 1 point in this is described as being able to keep their balance on an icy street. A Charm, Graceful Crane Stance, with a 1 point prerequisite means that, for a scene, you automatically succeed on any balance test as long as your supported by a surface at least as strong and wide as a human hair.

Awareness - 5 point prereq, so not really easy, but this is one of my favorites: Surprise Anticipation Method. If you have any essence left (think magic points) and aren't completely incapacitated and something is putting you in mortal danger and it's possible to notice it (being asleep doesn't prevent it), you do so. You are allowed to put this in combos, which means that you can use it along with...

Melee - Heavenly Guardian Defense needs 4 points of the skill, as long as you're armed and aware of an incoming attack (which, if you combo it with the above charm, makes it unlikely that you'll be caught by surprise), you block it. Completely. Perfectly Even if it's something that shouldn't be blockable, like a thrown mountain.

[Kobold-Bard]

...Awareness - 5 point prereq, so not really easy, but this is one of my favorites: Surprise Anticipation Method. If you have any essence left (think magic points) and aren't completely incapacitated and something is putting you in mortal danger and it's possible to notice it (being asleep doesn't prevent it), you do so. You are allowed to put this in combos, which means that you can use it along with...

Melee - Heavenly Guardian Defense needs 4 points of the skill, as long as you're armed and aware of an incoming attack (which, if you combo it with the above charm, makes it unlikely that you'll be caught by surprise), you block it. Completely. Perfectly Even if it's something that shouldn't be blockable, like a thrown mountain.

So if everyone uses both of those then the game grinds to a halt because they are all immortal? Or am I missing something?

[The Rose Dragon]

So if everyone uses both of those then the game grinds to a halt because they are all immortal? Or am I missing something?

This combo requires 1) motes, 2) willpower and 3) that you not use any of your awesome world-shattering powers other than these (unless they are combo'd with those two, which makes the combo more expensive).

Also, it requires Awareness 5, which not everyone is willing to have.

Also, someone might still send a Total Annihilation your way (think a sorcerous nuclear warhead powered by the sun of Hell), which cannot be parried. Ever. No, not even with Heavenly Guardian Defense. Even though the latter can block a mundane nuclear warhead and explosion.

[Indon]

So if everyone uses both of those then the game grinds to a halt because they are all immortal? Or am I missing something?

They cost resources - specifically, it costs motes of essence, which is basically your character's mana.

Exalts can do crazy awesome things - and in fact, awesomeness can even directly generate a bit of essence for you, so the more awesome you are the longer you can go - but eventually an Exalt can will could will probably run out of resources.

This isn't including the First Age Solar charm "Zeal", which explicitly overrides abilities like Heavenly Guardian Defense.