Random Thoughts on 2E in Retrospective: What did it do well?

[Tytalus]

As the title said, what were the good parts of 2E that you really liked? (Setting, a particular mechanic, concept, particular exalt type/subtype, whatever else comes to mind.)

Also - not trying to start a flame war, lets play nice okay?

[The Hug Ninja]

For all their flaws 2nd edition Lunars were a major step forwards and a significant part of why so many people are invested in 3rd edition Lunars.

[Nightwinder]

The 10-step resolution. Provided a concrete^{Exceptions May Apply} order of operations. The complaints about "But there's so many stages!" ignore the fact that it didn't actually add any additional steps to resolution from other games, merely solidifed the order of events.

[Heavy Arms]

I think, in general, 2e highlighted a lot of the flaws in 1e across the board. 2e frequently failed to address them well, but most of the things that 3e does so well, are things 2e pointed to and said, "this needs work."

As noted, Lunars is a good example of this. 1e Lunars lacked a lot of world building that wasn't, "lets do WtA in Exalted." 2e laid a lot of groundwork for that, even if it didn't nail it.

On the mechanical side, the Infernal Charms hit a lot of notes on better internal synergy in the trees and using upgrades to avoid speedbumps.

[WarDragon]

Like a couple others said, I thought Lunars had a lot of potential. Still had a long ways to go, but you could see something really cool in there.

Infernals felt a lot like another step forward with that potential. They had one of the best charmsets in 2e, by any metric. A lot of their story needed work, admittedly.

I loved everything about Alchemicals. Fluff, crunch, the world-building of Authochthonia around them, it all came together incredibly well.

[Matt the Bruins fan]

Despite the obviously problematic aspects of the backstory chapters, I was really impressed with Infernals. That was the book that first drew my attention to Exalted. The Charms were evocative and had interesting synergy, and I thought the artifacts were far more interesting than the norm for fantasy-based RPGs.

[Saur Ops Specialist]

For all their flaws 2nd edition Lunars were a major step forwards and a significant part of why so many people are invested in 3rd edition Lunars.

They were a minor step forward at best. They were a major step to the side, however, in that they lost any and all focus and it became an optimal situation to halfway descend into madness to get those sweat Chimera knacks that they really shouldn't have had in the first place, since they're not supposed to be Wyld-dependent Shoggoths.

[Tytalus]

They were a minor step forward at best. They were a major step to the side, however, in that they lost any and all focus and it became an optimal situation to halfway descend into madness to get those sweat Chimera knacks that they really shouldn't have had in the first place, since they're not supposed to be Wyld-dependent Shoggoths.

K, can we *not* get bogged down in this please? 2E had two dozen supplements and sold really well, and at one point was over 50% of the posts on the WW forums. People were passionate about Exalted and 2E. It did something right, and I'd like to focus on that. If you can't say something nice, please leave.

[nalak42]

While things went overboard with explanations and not leaving enough mystery on points I did appreciate how much information some of the areas got.

[Heavy Arms]

John Morke said something pretty well on the setting that gets towards what I was getting at. 1e's setting felt... empty for the size of Creation. Huge portions of the map were empty so we could fill in, but with not enough information on what to fill in. 2e decided to really build Creation out. What Morke said about that comes down to the difference between "fluff" and "lore" when it comes to the fiction of the game. To avoid things being fluff, lore needs to be useful to play, not just to reading. 2e's setting material was generally very good, but largely written to be cool, without an eye towards how to use most of it in play, or how throwing in every last cool idea might weight things down.

[Ekorren]

I wasn't a fan of Lunars in 2E. Their Charms felt flat and boring. The Infernal and Alchemical Charm sets were my favorites, and the homebrewers had a lot of fun with Devil-Tigers and custom Yozis. I loved 2E Dragon-Blooded too.

[glamourweaver]

Alchemical and CoCD: Autochthonia are pretty near perfect for the underlying mechanical engine’s faults.

[Croakamancer]

'What did 2E do well'?

Everything?

I'm being facile but there's a point there. For a lot of people, myself included, 2E was Exalted. It was our introduction to the setting, and it presents Exalted as a whole really well. The negativity can make you forget that fact, but as an overall whole, 'presentation of the setting' is something I've got to give 2E marks for. To this day, I consult my 2E books over my 1E PDFs because I'm more familiar with them. (and the overdone praise of 1E has left me bitter but that's not those books' fault.)

More specifically, the 2E Silver Pact was cool. I prefer it as a brotherhood of loosely associated individuals with few overarching objectives rather than the more unified 'tear down the Realm' take that 3E seems to be going for. I really like the general take on the Underworld, feel that with a bit of punching up, it could've wowed people, and it's still got me interested in trying to play an ancestor priest in 3E..And while I accept the issus with them, given the low number of Sidereals, writing off the Silver and Iron factions seems to me to be a mistake. Even with 100 people, you're going to end up with more than two major philosophies.

[The Wizard of Oz]

The 10-step resolution. Provided a concrete^{Exceptions May Apply} order of operations. The complaints about "But there's so many stages!" ignore the fact that it didn't actually add any additional steps to resolution from other games, merely solidifed the order of events.

This. It worked quite well. And generally speaking, the charms were mechanically clear.

Also, the art. I looked back at the 2nd ed book recently, and it is a really nice-looking book.

[The Hug Ninja]

They were a minor step forward at best.

I tried to play a First Edition Lunar, I’m unlikely to forget the crap overpriced charms arranged in enormous trees that regularly shifted from one attribute prerequisite to another.