Exalted: Essence

[glamourweaver]

Meh.

(Obligatory ten character limit)

this is one of those specific target audience products, that if you don’t see the point of, you aren’t in said target audience. Narrative, streamlined Exalted will be HUGE for a lot of people.

[NevenkaNieroda]

Neall, Monica, and Dixie have been involved in the discussions about how these Exalt types work for a long, long time, and we've crystallized our visions of them to a point that I can't foresee any vast divergence.


It won't! Exigents is still on track.

I apologize for my lack of faith! It does sound really neat, if only for import purposes, as I am not in the target audience (granularity is my friend).

[Ekorren]

Even if you're not in the target audience, maybe you have friends who just can't get into 3rd edition for some reason. Then you can play this game with them and the original game with others. I have a couple of friends who just don't want to play 3rd with me, but they love the setting and would definitely want to play this.

[Croakamancer]

It's sharp. I'm not over the moon about it, still bitter about Heirs not being here yet, so yet another thing in the queue... even if it's a different team, salt in the wound, you know? But it's a good idea and I'm probably gonna pick it up. Exalted: Gateway Drug edition!

[JohnDoe244]

Me: Fake.
Me reading this thread: Don't toy with me like this.
Me still reading: Seriously. Don't. Not funny Lioness.
Me still reading: Man this is an elaborate prank.
Me: Oh.
ME: MY.
ME: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

[The Wizard of Oz]

So, I like Exalted's rules more than a lot of my players. But it is too complex, honestly. There's a lot of bloat, a lot of rules that aren't bad but just make it more difficult to run, and there are some rules that actually aren't very good (like grappling). At the same time, I don't want a really, really, really simplified system that becomes boring. I like that Exalted has rules for combat, social, craft, naval combat, etc, that most games don't bother with.
I just want... about 33% simpler. Maybe 50%. Not a narrative game like FATE or whatever.

I don't know what they're aiming for here, but if it includes all splats, I imagine it'll be fairly simple. Obviously, after all, they can't do long charmlists for each splat.

I also wonder whether it'll be similar to White Wolf games generally (will you still have Attributes+Ability pools of d10s?), or completely different.


So: Good idea, I'll see what it's like.

I think my STs in the two Essence 5 games I play will be keen. I don't know if I'll use it for my Essence 2 Lunar game. Depends what it's like really.

[Beans]

I tried running EX3 for IRL pals a while back (pre-What Fire Has Wrought; I used Crumple's brew to make the DB NPCs) and they said they didn't really enjoy the system. I'd love if this were a system to have Exalted fun with people who don't jive with the regular ruleset.

[Kyman201]

Well, I'm interested, to say the least. I know that I have several friends for whom "A simpler streamlined Exalted" would be a huge hit.

Plus the ability to kitbash future splats before 2025 when Internals gets started

[Trax]

I'm looking forward to it.

[Dragonmystic]

Finally. This can only be a good thing in my book.

Trying to get any non-Exalted person interested in Exalted right now is all but impossible. It's just way too complex for the current environment. People have literally recoiled from me when I told them the page length of the core book.

[The Wizard of Oz]

This is real, I've known about it for a while now.

Anything you can tell us about it? Or not really? (Either because you don't know or feel you can't tell us.)

[Colin_Fredericks]

Goooood lord yes. "I wish they had streamlined for Ex3" has literally been the biggest complaint I've heard about the current edition from people who dropped the game. This is the only chance Exalted currently has to expand its market.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfein]

Goooood lord yes. "I wish they had streamlined for Ex3" has literally been the biggest complaint I've heard about the current edition from people who dropped the game. This is the only chance Exalted currently has to expand its market.

I am not sure that the above highlighted statement is true... We have expanded the Market for EX3 by adding new players never before exposed here and we use the EX3 Current Big Book...

[The Wizard of Oz]

Some people like it. Others don't. I find more people like the fluff, the world, and the tone of the game (ie yes you can take over a kingdom with starting characters) than like the ruleset.

I'd say one of my players likes the rules (though he also likes to complain about them), some dislike it as they find it too complex, and some don't have any strong opinions on it.

[The Wizard of Oz]

So, Neall Reamon Price, who is one of the writers here, is one of the creatrs of the Storypath system, which I don't know a lot about. Have any of you played it? What's it like?