I was reading a manwha called "Solo Leveling" and I saw a whole bunch of fun parallels you could make with Exalted. In Solo Leveling, magical gateways began to open up all over the world in random places, containing extra-dimensional dungeons full of monsters, and at the same time about 1 in a thousand people, called hunters, got various magical abilities, allowing them to combat the monsters. It's got a very dynamic style, with a lot of cool action sequences that remind me of the best stunts I've encountered in Exalted, and the combat is mostly physical, with cool swords and armor. The protagonist becomes a dead-ringer for an Abyssal.
A minor thing is that in "Solo Leveling" most of the intrigue is between the various hunter organizations outside the dungeons, while the dungeons present almost purely physical threats, which is a dynamic that is fairly alien to most Exalted games I've been in. A meeting with a Fair Folk Noble to discuss a trade deal could always erupt into a fight if someone makes a faux pas or the circle's bluff gets called. This bifurcation isn't an automatic problem, but it does present a very different mode of thought.
The major thing is the concept of the dungeon, both as a challenge to the Exalted and as a thing into which the Exalted would want to go. In "Solo Leveling", most hunters treat dungeon raiding as a day job - it pays the bills better than anything else they can do and it's a job that needs to be done, but then most hunters aren't demi-gods with nation-shaping agendas, just people a bit tougher and stronger than natural or able to cast minor spells. With the abstracted nature of wealth in Exalted, very few player characters are motivated by greed and comfortable living and defeating a monster in a dungeon doesn't often help advance a character's agenda to rule a country or get revenge on your father's murderer.
The challenge component is a bit more complex. Combat opponents can be buffed to be a challenge or at least a tactically interesting fight, but part of the classic idea of a dungeon is traps and puzzles and those have always been a bit wonky when applied to the Exalted. If it's once-and-done traps, large defense totals and high Resistance pools make them nearly useless and then there's Charms on top of those, while resetting traps almost need to be incorporated into a combat encounter to avoid being bypassed. Puzzles always have that problem of testing the player's intelligence more than the character's intelligence. It all feels like it becomes a mess.
Anyone else with thoughts?
A minor thing is that in "Solo Leveling" most of the intrigue is between the various hunter organizations outside the dungeons, while the dungeons present almost purely physical threats, which is a dynamic that is fairly alien to most Exalted games I've been in. A meeting with a Fair Folk Noble to discuss a trade deal could always erupt into a fight if someone makes a faux pas or the circle's bluff gets called. This bifurcation isn't an automatic problem, but it does present a very different mode of thought.
The major thing is the concept of the dungeon, both as a challenge to the Exalted and as a thing into which the Exalted would want to go. In "Solo Leveling", most hunters treat dungeon raiding as a day job - it pays the bills better than anything else they can do and it's a job that needs to be done, but then most hunters aren't demi-gods with nation-shaping agendas, just people a bit tougher and stronger than natural or able to cast minor spells. With the abstracted nature of wealth in Exalted, very few player characters are motivated by greed and comfortable living and defeating a monster in a dungeon doesn't often help advance a character's agenda to rule a country or get revenge on your father's murderer.
The challenge component is a bit more complex. Combat opponents can be buffed to be a challenge or at least a tactically interesting fight, but part of the classic idea of a dungeon is traps and puzzles and those have always been a bit wonky when applied to the Exalted. If it's once-and-done traps, large defense totals and high Resistance pools make them nearly useless and then there's Charms on top of those, while resetting traps almost need to be incorporated into a combat encounter to avoid being bypassed. Puzzles always have that problem of testing the player's intelligence more than the character's intelligence. It all feels like it becomes a mess.
Anyone else with thoughts?
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