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 What is Exalted? Exalted is a game that emulates Epic Fantasy through the Wuxia lense on a world called Creation that floats on a sea of chaos. Long ago great heroes were uplifted by the Gods to strike down the Primordials, Titans who created the world, and against all odds succeeded. After the war concluded one issue arose, there was no way to take back the power that had been given. The Exalted, all wielding immense power and with the Will to reshape the world as they see fit for a time try to rule and build a better world, but in the following centuries these heroes fell into greed, corruption and madness until the worst had to put down for the good of Creation and society has limped along ever since. The game takes place as Creation is pushed to the brink, surrounded by enemies and split by internal conflict, just as everything looks it's darkest Exalted heroes return in mass, which may be more of a curse than a blessing. Larger than life Heroes clash, trying to determine the future of the world.  Doesn't this game have horrible mechanics? Well it's a White Wolf book, so yes. In the past it worked slightly better than the mess that was Second Edition, but right now Third Edition is on its way and has some promise of being a vast improvement. Thrid Edition? Why should I think that this will be any better than the last? The current writing staff has proven much more adept at implementing interesting and balanced combat design than previous writers, who its suspect if they even played the game. So who are the Exalted? The Exalted a mortal heroes up lifted by the God as meantioned above. By the end of Second Edition there was seven distinct flavors of Exalt, Third Edition has announce a total of ten.  Solars Chosen of the Unconquered Sun the Solars represent Human Excellence, but are also the notorious Mad God Kings who nearly destroyed the world. They've returned after a two thousand year absence for the last days of the Second Age of Man, to save it or destroy it. Dragon-Blooded Elemental Super Soldiers, Chosen of the Elemental Dragons, they are formerly the Lieutenants of the Solars vast armies, they rose up and struck their mad lords down, now they rule the Center of Creation. Sidereals The Chosen of Fate, the Sidereals were once advised the Solars as their vizers, when they decided their lords were too mad and corrupt to rule, they helped the Dragon-Blooded rise up. Today they try to run Creation from the Shadows, the puppetmasters behind the throne. Lunars Shapeshifting Champions of Luna, Lunars have a long and complicated history, mostly developmentally. We don't know how they've changed in Third Edition, but we do know they have a much bigger presence, fighting to take the Center of Creation. Abyssals Chosen of the Neverborn, the stolen power of the Solar Exalt turned towards Death, strange champions either trying to destroy the world or find some place for themselves in it. Infernals Again the stolen power of the Solar Exalted, this time corrupted by the demonic Yozi to carry their vengeance back to a world they can no longer touch. Alchemicals Heroic souls implanted into robot like golem bodies, Champions of the Machine God, for five thousand years have lived in Exile within their God's body, now they've returned, desperate to save the people who depend on them, their God and maybe even Creation. Exigents The first of the new Exalts in Third Edition, a power in Creation allows lesser Gods to Exalt mortal Champions, but this power can be lost, stolen and misused. Exigents are advertised a tool box Exalts, each a unique entity. Liminals Another addition to Exalted Third Edition, the Liminals are new, Exalted, life breathed into a dead body. They are not the dead brought back to life, but something new. Exalted by a new force in the Underworld called the Dark Mother they wander Creation fighting the restless souls of the dead trying to figure out what they are. Getimians The last new Exalt, not much is known about them yet, only that they're engaged in a shadow war with Heaven and the Sidereals. So what else has been announced? There's been a lot of previews and spoilers, most of them have been collected here. Okay, I'm interested, how can I get a book? As of right now there's a Kickstarter running to get the book printed, a PDF will run you 30 bucks, a dead tree version costs 110. You can find more details here. So what's this I've been hearing about a Controversy Recently the Developers put up preview of Abyssal with, to put it mildly, some very disturbing and upsetting Charms. The issue has swell well past that at this point, with the Developers seeming to simultaneously apologize and double down on the Charms. At this point a lot of people feel betrayed by a Development team that swore they'd rise above previous Editions and seem to be making some of the same missteps. While this thread was made to give this topic as clean a break as possible, as until the Developers get their message straight there's not much more to say, I see no reason not to talk about it, but I'd recommend to only comment on new developments.
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May 31, 2013 02:48
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Mexcillent posted:Initially I liked the Thousand Streams River, but over the years I don't think that it helped 2e's huge self-awareness/motonic physics problem. Solar Mate was a desperate attempt to try and fit Lunars into the setting and make it feel like they belonged there when they very obviously didn't. It says a lot that they initially considered removing Lunars all together from Third Edition.
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May 31, 2013 04:15
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Mexcillent posted:How do Lunars not fit into Exalted? I mean...Enkidu. I don't mean there's no thematic place for them, but they weren't originally planned to be an Exalt until someone cynically decided to try and marry the Werewolf and Exalted fan base.
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May 31, 2013 04:21
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Mexcillent posted:Werewolf owns, Exalted (kind of) owns. I don't see the problem. I mean, are you upset about the Vampire -> Abyssal connection, or the Imbued -> Solar or Mages -> Sidereals thing? The whole thing was a "cynical" ploy and really hasn't gone much beyond it. Calm down, you're missing my point. Lunar were a very late addition to the game, they were originally meant to be Fair Folk servants, in no way Exalted. But they changed that plan to try and bring Werewolf fans in. The problem is that by that point the setting was pretty much built and there wasn't room for a bunch of Super Shapeshifters in Creation without them doing absolutely nothing for two thousand years. The end result was Lunars ended up being written as a bunch of chumps who live in mortal fear of a Sidereal taking their head off instead of dynamic shapeshifting Heroes. That's my issue with them. I hope in Third Edition they find a way to properly work them into the setting where they feel like they matter instead of being a cheap marketing ploy.
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May 31, 2013 04:27
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GreenMetalSun posted:I'm actually curious to see how the Realm/Immaculate Order will view the Exigents and the gods who create them. Depends on how the rewrite the Immaculate Faith, as is though Exigents fit nicely into the definition of an Anthema, power stolen from a God, subverting the "proper" order of reincarnation. Exigents would, without any changes, be put to death just to keep the Immaculate Faith's message very clear.
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May 31, 2013 05:14
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Looking at the Language Merit preview I guess the, "take a specialization in the language to be able to speak it fluently" has been removed, which is probably for the best, I can't think of a time a single ST I played with remembered that little detail or cared about.
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Jun 2, 2013 14:23
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Dodge Charms posted:Jumping back to Liminals real quick: what's the in-world justification for people (and such) to keep trying resurrection, even though that has never worked even once in 10k+ years? Why do people in the real world keep attempting Cold Fusion even though everything they use as evidence has repeatedly been shown to be false or misinterpreted data? It happens all the time, otherwise very smart people who should really know better think they're special, they're different, that only their genius can crack the code.
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Jun 2, 2013 15:24
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Kenlon posted:
Really? I never used Anathema and was just coming here to ask if it was actually any good.
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Jun 5, 2013 01:35
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I am on this like white on rice. Anathema made running 2E immeasurably easier.
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Adding to the chorus of people hoping they remove Breeding, having run a few Dragon-Blooded the usual dynamic was max out your breeding as much as possible, or try to be stylish and cool and groan about it in the middle of a session. I haven't run a game for quite a bit, but had always considered the solution to be everyone has the mote pool benefits of Breeding five, whether your bloodline is thin or crazy strong is your aesthetic choice. Along with this I hope Purity charms are gone and replaced with these bloodline charms, Purity charms were cool and interesting until you realize several players at your table can't have a cool tool because of a decision they made five months back.
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Jun 5, 2013 23:34
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GreenMetalSun posted:Not to mention the whole, 'Guess what, you have Charms that don't even work unless you're in the presence of your august Celestial masters!' (I remember Holden bragging about the Defense-Against-Anathema Charm being changed to do that, but not if he actually did it.) Defense Against Anathema Method was a charm that really should have never existed, but it was written anyway and when making Errata they were stuck with it, so the eventual fix that it was suppose to be "Dragon-Blooded are better when working with Celestials" always struck me as a clever way to fix it. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was a move towards helping Dragon-Blooded be relevant in Mixed Caste games/
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Jun 7, 2013 09:18
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Ferrinus posted:I'm dubious of changes in initiative actually causing people's turns to shuffle back and forth mid-fight, but you're a goddamn maniac if you'd rather have 2E ticks. My main concern is how am I going to keep track of everyone playing Initiative Musical Chairs. My second concern is how easy it might be to just lock somebody out of a fight by Initiative Crashing them if you gang up on them. Still, looking forward to finally testing this poo poo out and seeing what happens.
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Feb 5, 2015 05:19
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Ferrinus posted:Have you ever used them? Right, I should have been clearer, you lose access to some of your poo poo if you get dropped to 0 or negative initiative. Obviously haven't seen it in action, but my first thought is that it sounds hellish to come back from.
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Feb 5, 2015 05:25
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