Exalted: Essence

[DrLoveMonkey]

There’s also other things that make it newbie friendly like nearly completely flattening the power curve and giving all exalted the same treatment and content right out of the gate.

[Hand-of-Omega]

Still a little unclear on what this will look like in action, tho...So it comes out, someone picks it up and likes it and wants to play more...But the only option for that are the supplements for the crazy complicated game they were intimidated by in the first place? Maybe I'm just too used to the business model of encouraging buyers to expand their collections, so I guess I'm just not seeing how it can be so completely self contained...It has all the same setting info as the Core?

Say that one IS satisfied with 3E as is, is there any incentive to pick this up (beyond being a completist)?

[DrLoveMonkey]

Still a little unclear on what this will look like in action, tho...So it comes out, someone picks it up and likes it and wants to play more...But the only option for that are the supplements for the crazy complicated game they were intimidated by in the first place? Maybe I'm just too used to the business model of encouraging buyers to expand their collections, so I guess I'm just not seeing how it can be so completely self contained...It has all the same setting info as the Core?

Say that one IS satisfied with 3E as is, is there any incentive to pick this up (beyond being a completist)?

Essence is probably being designed to not need supplements. It has ten playable exalt types right form the start, so no splatbooks. Beyond that having a dozen supplements kind of kills the idea. “Here’s Exalted Essence, an easy, self contained rules-lite system, and here’s the seven supplement books that you have to buy if you want to expand it with a huge intricate list of artifacts, marital arts, manse designing, new splats, expansions on old splats, and million new sorcery spells!” If you’re looking for a deeper and more complex experience just get ex3.

If you like the main line picking it up will give you a preview of unreleased splats and maybe some ideas on houserule for the main game, but if you’re a fan of Essence you probably won’t pick up any mainline books for the crunch.

[Blaque]

Still a little unclear on what this will look like in action, tho...So it comes out, someone picks it up and likes it and wants to play more...But the only option for that are the supplements for the crazy complicated game they were intimidated by in the first place? Maybe I'm just too used to the business model of encouraging buyers to expand their collections, so I guess I'm just not seeing how it can be so completely self contained...It has all the same setting info as the Core?

Say that one IS satisfied with 3E as is, is there any incentive to pick this up (beyond being a completist)?

DrLoveMonkey I think hit smost of the things there. A big thing to note is that the book itself will probablyb e pretty upfront on its relationship with the rest of the line. It is being designed to be well, minimal. If it does its job right, it won't need more systems since you'll be able to convert from the main game into it pretty easily. They even plan to provide an appendix to do that in tehre. And the same book will also point to the Exalted books which are needed to expand on. The nature of a rules-light system as they are trying to do it means that you just don't have like, a lot more to do mechancially if you get your bases covered well.

Like, in talking about all ten canonical Exalted at once, it by its nature can't cover a shitload of setting important things that the big splas do. ANd as much as there is a lot of crunch in say, Lunars, I would fathom to ay that a lot of the book is still material relevant to Essence. The Introduction, first two chapters, the information on Lunar Exalted mechanics relevant to things like their Great Curse and Essence fever, the style of Charms hlep give ideas for things that might just not make it into ExEss for wordcount, the artifacts are all full of stuff to loot for such games, and the QCs are useful for anything also.

And this is beyond books that well, aren't going to be as mechanical like Crucible of Legends or Across the Eight Directions, which are going to likely be pretty mechanics agnostic.

[Eric Minton]

Essence shares the same setting of Third Edition, but it only has room for the same depth of setting information that's in the 3e core book — that is to say, it's pretty thoroughly abridged. If you want more setting information for Essence, you'll want to use the same 3e supplements that you'd use in concert with the 3e core.

[Heavy Arms]

As someone that's fine with the mechanical complexity of 3e (at least the level of it, not always the specific implementations of it), I have the following reasons for picking up Essence:

1) Just because I like high crunch doesn't mean I always want to play high crunch and having a lower crunch game in a familiar setting gives me more options to play based on my moods.

2) I play with different people with different tastes. Some people I play with have wanted Essence for 20 years. Some think that regular 3e is just fine. Having Essence and core 3e lets me play with both sets with mechanics the individual group enjoys.

3) Essence looks like it might have some solutions to issues I have with 3e's implementations that I might want to mine for house rule even if I don't keep Essence's relative simplicity. Also in general I like to tinker and appreciate good ideas for rules that I might apply elsewhere.

[Kyman201]

Still a little unclear on what this will look like in action, tho...

Boy howdy are you in luck!

Yes I realize this is like nine hours to comb through, and that's a lot to assign. I've watched those, and there's a few things that make me like what I see. Short versions:

Things I Like The Look Of:

• It definitely looks simpler, but not so simplified that it doesn't look like it lacks some heft
• There's a few changes that seem to address some shortcomings in Ex3
  • Different Craft system, with Craft being folded into a Projects system (previewed in the third link) alongside most complex actions such as traveling, Bureaucratic Projects, and Sorcerous Workings
  • Instead of exchanging Initiative and having that determine who goes next, you build Power to launch Decisive Attacks, and this doesn't work by draining power from others, thus sidestepping the problem of "We've fired off enough Decisive attacks that nobody has any more Initiative" which I have seen.
• Stunts seem to be getting a revamp. Instead of ranking your Stunts, something is either a Stunt or it isn't. You get rewarded dice for Stunts, and you can spend them on one of your rolls or you can actually contribute them to a friend's die pool as an assist if they fail.
• The Exalt Advantages, which are little powers that different Exalt types share, look neat without being overwhelming. Each Exalt Type gets two Advantages the splat shares, and each Caste/Aspect gets three Advantages tied to your Anima. One that's available at all times, one that kicks in when your anima flares, and one that kicks in when your Anima goes Iconic.
  • Example: Solars have two shared Advantages (Free Excellency, Win Ties), and Dawns, for instance, have a passive ability to just take out one Extra antagonist every round in combat (I hear that Dusks and Azimuths get similar abilities)

Things I Don't Like the Look of/Am Unsure of:

• Hype as I am for this system... I admit there's some things I'm kind of resigned to rolling with. If you like the feeling of finding those Four Key Charms and firing them off all at once in a super Wombo Combo of cascading successes, Essence may not scratch that itch.
• I saw some people musing that with lower Mote costs, and what we've heard mentioned of the Anima Progression, it may be take some time for your Anima to get to Iconic. This chafes a little because as mentioned above, some of your abilities are tied to your Anima level. This may change in testing.

[Hand-of-Omega]

Thanks for all the info, guess I'll just wait and see as it gets closer to release. Have we been given any idea of the page count or price? And the chance to get a sneak peek at new Exalt types is a deal maker for me, esp as we probably can't expect to see them all for a few years yet...

Incidentally, I see Crucible of Legends on the schedule, but no mention of what that's about? And am I the only one who's so nerdy that he's most stoked about the Essay collection??

[DrLoveMonkey]

Incidentally, I see Crucible of Legends on the schedule, but no mention of what that's about? And am I the only one who's so nerdy that he's most stoked about the Essay collection??

It's the Storyteller Guide, including a guide on how Exalted is supposed to be run, official alternate rules and systems, and some other goodies. Every time I think about it I get Jeff Goldblum grabby hands.

Gimme.

Gimme now.

[Hand-of-Omega]

It's the Storyteller Guide, including a guide on how Exalted is supposed to be run, official alternate rules and systems, and some other goodies. Every time I think about it I get Jeff Goldblum grabby hands.

Gimme.

Gimme now.

All that, and rules hacks, too?!

[marin]

All that, and rules hacks, too?!

Also, ST info for every Exalted type, which'll give a bit more info on Getimians, Infernals and Alchemicals particularly.

[The Wizard of Oz]

Any new spoilers for Essence?

[Kyman201]

Any new spoilers for Essence?

Oh yeah turns out they released the entire manuscript for open playtesting. Meant to mention it here but it totally slipped my mind.

More seriously, I haven't seen any new play feeds or anything so I haven't gotten any new tidbits

[Darkfoxdev]

Uh, let's see here, stuff I saw on discord.

• Spells will have modes the same as charms, for sorcery and necromancy, with some spells being exclusive to one or the other.
• Eclipse oath sealing will no longer be limited to Iconic anima.
• There was a private playtest at metatopia that was apparently quite good.
• Death is one of several fates that can befall your character upon defeat, you the player may also choose from other fates, such as being abducted or temporarily losing access to one of your merits (such as your daiklave being destroyed and needing to be reforged Anduril style).
• Enemies will be designed in the vein of storypath with base stats of 3 dice pools (Great, Good, Everything Else), Qualities (passive abilities) and Flairs (activated abilities with cooldown), then have templates that buff them accordingly. Examples were buffing a Fighting Dude with templates such as Battlegroup and Exalt to make the Wyld Hunt. Another Example was Demon with second and third circle templates. I heard in the BonusXp podcast that one statblock is "Militant God".
• Shaping Rituals are still around and will have different mechanics from each other.
• Righteous Devil will be an included Martial Art
• One or more Abilities (names or number) of the preview game have been changed

Looking further back so this might have been mentioned before...

• Approaches/abilities will be assigned points with an array, however, a sidebar will remind you to just add the points together and redistribute them if you'd prefer not to use it.
• You'll start with either one free excellency or one free level of Ox-body in addition to normal charms
• Attribute Exalts (like Liminals and Lunars) will have an Excellency Mode that lets them double their approach instead of their ability
• Artifacts will have 1 base power + 1-3 evocations
• Establishing Facts and Dramatic Editing is still present, Sidereals interact with Dramatic Editing in some way or have charms that make you good at it.

And as Essence is still in development stage it's worth noting that all of this is subject to change, and some older info (Such as eclipse Oath-Sealing) has already been overhauled.

[The Wizard of Oz]

Essence is in Manuscript Approval now.