LostKnightsRPG.org

Per my posts on the 'Cutting back on Role Playing' thread, I figured I'd try to gauge general interest in Exalted.

I know there are varying levels of knowledge of what Exalted is among the people that read these forums. At its core, Exalted is a fantasy role-playing game. The principal difference that separates Exalted from most of your fantasy-fare is that Exalted does not draw inspiration from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, as many others do, but instead from epics (both Eastern and Western) such as The Illiad, Journey to the West, and The Arabian Nights. Its second source of inspiration is pulp comics. Drawing from images like those of Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, Exalted describes epic heroes who are inherently larger-than-life. Further contributing to the over-the-top style of Exalted are anime, manga, video games, and wuxia films. Heroes in Exalted literally burn with the power of their patron in many cases. They're capable of stunts that are normally only possible with wire-fu and highly trained and choreographed fighters by default.

The Exalted, the characters, are divided into different types depending on their patron - the source of their power. The default Exalt type are the Solar Exalted, who are raised up by their patron, the Unconquered Sun, for their boundless skill and potential. They are the most powerful type of Exalt, as their patron is the most powerful of the deities. Despite the descriptions above, not all Exalts are combat-badasses, though many are accidentally. Each type of Exalt is divided into castes based on some set of parameters. For the Solar Exalted, these castes are named for different times of the day and are divided by the role that they play in the greater scheme of things. This gives each type of Exalt a default set of proficiencies and a power that is unique to their caste. Members of other castes are still able to pick up Charms (the special powers of Exalts and most other types of creatures) from the abilities that are categorized into a caste other than their own, often with the same ease that they learn their own caste abilities, though the power inherent to each caste, called the 'anima banner' remains unique.

In the 'current' default setting of Exalted, the Solar Exalted are considered demons by the majority of the population of Creation. Over a thousand years ago their subordinates, the Terrestrial Exalted, more commonly known as the Dragon-blooded, as their power is granted by the five great elemental dragons, rose up and slaughtered the Solars. This was mostly only possible due to the extremely large number of Dragon-blooded compared to the Solars. They eventually formed an empire, ruled by the Scarlet Dynasty, that has ruled Creation since then. The Scarlet Dynasty pushes a state religion called the Immaculate Order that teaches that the Solars are cursed demons that have descended into madness and must be destroyed at all costs.

They are not far from wrong. All of the different types of Exalted were originally created to be divine weapons against the creators of Creation and the gods, the Primordials. Though the Exalted managed to defeat the Primordials during the Primordial war and then lead creation into the glorious years of the First Age, the Primordials cursed the Exalted for defeating them. This curse is insidious, and its bearers are wholly unaware of it, chalking its effects up to corruption, possession, or any of a dozen other causes.

Thus, the default setting of Exalted, thrusts the players into the roles of the Solar Exalted, powerful beyond the kin of mortals, persecuted for the power they posses, but able to sway the hearts of nations, destroy entire cities, or pretty much do anything else imaginable. What these Exalts do with their power is up to them. The Unconquered Sun is notoriously closed-mouthed and provides no direction. Will they try to uncover the secrets of the lost First Age? Will they create an Army with which to battle the Scarlet Empire? Will they attempt to forge order from chaos, and expand Creation by forcing shape into the Wyld chaos that surrounds Creation? Any of these things and many, many more are possible for the characters.

----

That introduction out of the way, here's what I've got to add. I like Exalted a lot: it's awesome by its very nature. There are several types of Exalted, all of which are detailed as potential player characters. Generally the Dragon-blooded and the Solars are the two that are most 'practical' to play in most cases, as there is generally more for each of them to do. My personal preference is for the Solars, as they get all of the neat toys, and most of their job is to reclaim what they've lost rather than to maintain what they have. Other types of Exalted (there are five in total, each divided into five castes) all have their own goals, both as a community and individually. I've already gone on at length here, so I won't describe any of them in this post. If prompted I can describe them in a future post, or in person. I can, believe me, talk about Exalted for hours.

Ultimately, I'm just trying to gauge interest in Exalted, to see if people are interested in playing and, if so, get some sort of idea what they'd like to see out of a game. For all that I've talked about the combat aspects of Exalted, there are entire castes of Exalts that are devoted to non-combat tasks. An Exalt can easily be just as effective as a socially or mentally based character. In some cases, they'll actually be more effective, as not everything in Exalted can be resolved with violence.

Well you can sign me up. I mean, you talk about all the time so I got to see what is so great about it.

I remember there being talk that Exalted could be seen a essentially the World of Darkness before the bloodlines thinned out, reality started to fight back, and supernatural creatures' mythologies evolved. Is that the case or was it before and it is now? The whole of the campaign seemed interesting but I was looking at it from the filter of WoD rather than as a completely new and original thing..

Well as I have said before I would like to play this system

and now that you have 2 of the solar characters I made with the basic book I am ready to play when you are...

Amseriah wrote:I remember there being talk that Exalted could be seen a essentially the World of Darkness before the bloodlines thinned out, reality started to fight back, and supernatural creatures' mythologies evolved. Is that the case or was it before and it is now? The whole of the campaign seemed interesting but I was looking at it from the filter of WoD rather than as a completely new and original thing..

There are certainly a lot of parallels between the World of Darkness and some of the parts of Creation. The creators of the game assert that the only connections that exist are the ones that the GM wants to be there. I've actually been playing in an online game where the characters have been Exalted into the modern World of Darkness and the GM is making a lot of the vague parallels into concrete connections. It's been really neat, but for the purposes of this game, that probably isn't the route I'll be taking.

what other exalted types are there?

i want to play anything i don't run.

unless i don't like it, in which case i'll go play online, which is really just the standard recourse nowadays when you don't like a game it seems.

There are five main types of exalts. The defaults are the Solar Exalts, which I've talked about a little above.

There are three other types of 'Celestial' Exalts.

The Lunar Exalted have shapeshifting abilities. They're nearly as powerful as the Solars are. While they have some superficial similarities to the Garou and other shapeshifting races, they're really pretty different. Like the Solars, they've got a set of abiltiies, though they're based on Attributes rather than Abilities, and are thus more broad in application. Following the slaughter of the Solars, they fled to the edges of the world where most live as barbarians. They are the most numerous of the Exalted, behind the Dragon-blooded, numbering a total of 300. Each Lunar has a spirit shape that they learn immediately upon Exaltation. Along with all of their Charms and their normal shape-shifting abilties they've got a set of powers that allow them to augment their shapeshifting abilities, including the ability to shift into a War Form, which is superficially similar to the Garou Crinos form. All Lunar Exalts are bonded at a spiritual level with a single Solar. This bond shows up in a lot of ways, anything from being best friends to lovers, or sometimes simply as comrades in arms.

The Sidereal Exalts are agents of Heaven. They work directly for the Bureau of Destiny. Their jobs are generally to ensure that the grand plan of Fate is played out like it has been planned. Exalts and others with supernatural abilities are most able to work against their fates, and thus most Sidereal receive missions to correct problems that are caused by them. Someone on a forum I was reading once wrote that Sidereal mission building could generally be done like this: Take a story you already know. Mess up some major plot point. Charge the characters with correcting it at any cost. An example: "Autumn Breeze, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to retrieve a ring that was forged in the flames of the Elemental Pole of Fire. Two midgets were supposed to take it back there to destroy it, but it seems that it was captured by a Deathknight somewhere along the way. Get the ring back to them and make sure they make it south to the pole." Sidereal powers are very weird, they rely upon manipulation of the Loom of Fate to achieve effects that are, at the very least, 'outside of the box'. They are also able to weave specialized destinies and fates that allow them to grant large-scale bonuses to people or weave alternate identities for themselves.

The Abyssal Exalted, whose 2nd edition supplement comes out next month, are twisted reflections of the Solars. Their abilities are similar to the Solars in a lot of ways, but often subtract dice from the enemy, or add difficulty, rather than lower their own difficulties or add dice to their own pools. They are empowered by Deathlords, the vengeful ghosts of Solars from the First Age, who are in turn empowered by the Neverborn, the undying husks of slain Primordials. Abyssals have access to Necromancy in addtion to their distinctly entropic charms. Most Abyssal Exalts work directly for a Deathlord, though some small number are renegades attempting to redeem themselves.

Finally, the Dragon-blooded, the Terrestrial Exalted, are currently the most established and politically powerful Exalts in Creation. The majority of them live on the Blessed Isle, in the center of Creation, as members of the Scarlet Dynasty. Their state religion is the Immaculate Order, which says that the Dragon-blooded are inherently superior on a spiritual level and that people should generally be obeying them in order to reincarnate as one of their number in their next life. They take their role as the protectors of Creation very seriously, and organize 'Wyld Hunts' to chase the enemies of Creation out or outright destroy them. They have a very elemental theme to them, though they are largely considered much weaker than the four Celestial exalt types. The trade off is that there are much, much more of them (as many as 10K). They also have the ability to buff up allies and perform cooperative charms.

bumping to bring it back to the fore... run this game dammit!!!

I can't see that picture. It's a little red X.

Anyway, so far interest has been expressed by 2.5 people (Cheyne only counts as half-interested). I forget, Haley may have said something too. Anyway, an important question to ask when preparing for any sort of Exalted game is "What would you like to see in this game/get out of this game?" This is mostly to help set the tone, and give at least some direction. Exalted can incorporate almost any genre from horror to swashbuckling fantasy to comdey to gritty action to courtly intrigue and back around again (sometimes all of the above, at once). Having some idea of the sort of game you're looking to play would help at least somewhat to prepare for it.

Together with Cheyne, we are one. I also would like to play online.

I'd rather run it in person, simply because many of the mechanics of Exalted make it less exciting when it is done online. It works, but it isn't as fun.

strategy, logistics, rp, the leading of armies, conquest, low-combat w/implied power, rp, politics, sim-kingdom, problems that can't be solved w/godlike power.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by low-combat.

Crouching down. On our knees.

I want to explore other elements. combat is fun occassionaly and to accent important things, but there are more interesting concepts regarding beings of godlike power to explore. and other forms of combat for that matter, such as battlefield strategy.