What if, instead of playing the Exalted, you played the Exaltation?

[CapitanTypo]

What would that game look like?

[AnubisXy]

It would be like playing the World of World of Warcraft.

"My Exaltation tells Infamous Puncher to punch that guy in the face. Let me roll to see if I can get him to do it, and if I do, then you can roll to see if Infamous Puncher hits the guy or not."

[Elkovash]

What would that game look like?

Sounds like a game where the Immaculate doctrine has a bit more credence than usual. You'd be playing a 'possessing force' and that particular drama would be enhanced but I don't know if it would appreciably change the game in general.

Cool idea though. Worth trying.

[BjornTheFellhanded]

Do you mean you'd play the exaltation across multiple hosts? I'm having trouble visualising the difference if that's not the case (which I'm happy to admit may be my lack of imagination).

[nalak42]

There actually was a game like that. I can't remember the name, but I saw the kickstarter. In that one you basically a magic weapon and you passed between wielders and their legends and stuff. It was before the Ex3 kickstarter launched, so I don't remember much about it and I didn't back, so I can't get a name on it.

Edit: Found it. The game was called "Wield."

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnwickpresents/wield-a-little-game-about-ancient-powers

[CapitanTypo]

Do you mean you'd play the exaltation across multiple hosts? I'm having trouble visualising the difference if that's not the case (which I'm happy to admit may be my lack of imagination).

I think, inevitably, you would play the exaltation across multiple hosts. It would allow for a much more lethal game as you'd be effectively immortal but could still die and try again on a regular basis.

[CapitanTypo]

There actually was a game like that. I can't remember the name, but I saw the kickstarter. In that one you basically a magic weapon and you passed between wielders and their legends and stuff. It was before the Ex3 kickstarter launched, so I don't remember much about it and I didn't back, so I can't get a name on it.

Edit: Found it. The game was called "Wield."

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ancient-powers

There's an old (Steve Jackson?) game called The Whispering Vault in which you play an ethereal entity that visits different realities and crafts itself news forms wherever it goes. I was kind of thinking of that, although it wouldn't be exactly the same.

[CapitanTypo]

Sounds like a game where the Immaculate doctrine has a bit more credence than usual. You'd be playing a 'possessing force' and that particular drama would be enhanced but I don't know if it would appreciably change the game in general.

Cool idea though. Worth trying.

That's an interesting challenge to balance - how conscious is the exaltation and how much influence does it have over the host.

[CapitanTypo]

You're playing a solar exaltation during the Primordial War. A battlefield of exalts and their armies are trapped between two of the primordials. One of whom scours the battlefield with a sweeping blow of their flaming sword.

You are reincarnated 5 times before the sword reaches the end of its arc.

[Isator Levi]

What would that game look like?

Probably like Paranoia, sans satire.

[CapitanTypo]

Probably like Paranoia, sans satire.

I suspect that any game in which your mortal form is secondary to your character will ultimately descend into silliness, of not outright satire.

[Flare]

funnily enough I complained about this being a part of the end of 2E, especially towards the end, where players 'played the Exaltation' instead of the character.

Generally what I was complaining about was an overfocus or over detail on past reincarnations and limited or no time spent considering the actual human life before Exaltation. I find 3E seems to at least be much better about making this not something common. I don't really like this style of game, as it does kind of defeat the purpose of playing a character in Creation given incredible power.

This isn't to say Reincarnation Characters suck, one of the players in a game I'm in recently killed his PC specifically so he could play the reincarnation because he thought it would be an interesting chance to do so. It hasn't fully played out but it can certainly be an interesting thing to occur.

[Fata-Ku]

This is pretty much how I already* run Exalted. If/when your character dies, you play their next incarnation. It's really convenient for keeping the group together.
"You get flashbacks of being killed by that one guy and feel an overwhelming urge for revenge, and also a bunch of loot just happens to already belong to you" is a surprisingly effective sort of safety net. Also because I find the whole "but I'm a newbie to the group who doesn't trust you guys yet" narrative really tedious and annoying. It's fine for when the game begins, but once the prologue is over I never want to see it pop up again.

*: Or maybe "used to". No one has died in my 3e game yet, so I'm not sure if this'll continue; as Flare said, it's potentially more because of how 2e treated Exaltation.

[Isator Levi]

I suspect that any game in which your mortal form is secondary to your character will ultimately descend into silliness

Well, if that's what one is going for.

It sounds to me like a setup that is either only relevant if one is assuming a tremendously lethal level of opposition, or really shakes up how their development works. How are they buying Charms? What happens to that when they're reincarnated?

You are reincarnated 5 times before the sword reaches the end of its arc

But... why? Even assuming an attack with a radius of miles, why is the reincarnation so close? If one ascribes actual agency and personality to the Essence, what does it expect to accomplish?

Unless this is an image for what happens the very first time the Exalted go up against a Primordial.

"Okay, we're going up against one of the creators of the universe, whose tread levels mountains and whose breath slays armies. Most of us are probably going to die, and its defences are murderous, so to keep bringing the hammer down on it again and again we're going to need to bring innumerable back up bodies with us to immediately jump into."
{Primordial shoots its Death Star laser}
"{watches innumerable mortals turn to ash before the blast catches up} Huh; I suppose it was silly to think that anything that would kill several of us at once would be something that the mortal backup could survive long enough to actually be indwelt and make a contribution. Well, back to the old drawing boa-"

[TheCountAlucard]

The main problem with playing the Exaltation instead of the Exalted is that the Exaltation is not a character.