Quote from: signoftheserpentExalted as presented soely in 1ed corebook was really good. Everything since has only really diminished it.

I'm enjoying the 2E setting material-- it's definitely more streamlined and coherent than some of latter day 1E excess. The writers seem to have a much clearer idea of the metaphysics of Creation and their expression.

That said, I still yearn for the simplicity of the 1E core. As a mythic bronze age stage upon which high-octane epics could be played out it was a great piece of work. The subsequent festooning of magitech upon every available location was annoying, and I still think the Games were one of the worst setting patches ever commited to paper. Any halfway competent GM could come up with a better idea than cosmic crack-monopoly in minutes.

Quote from: DrewI'm enjoying the 2E setting material-- it's definitely more streamlined and coherent than some of latter day 1E excess. The writers seem to have a much clearer idea of the metaphysics of Creation and their expression.

That said, I still yearn for the simplicity of the 1E core. As a mythic bronze age stage upon which high-octane epics could be played out it was a great piece of work. The subsequent festooning of magitech upon every available location was annoying, and I still think the Games were one of the worst setting patches ever committed to paper. Any halfway competent GM could come up with a better idea than cosmic crack-monopoly in minutes.

I entirely agree with the criticism about the Games of Divinity.  The presentation of Yu-Shan as a bureaucracy where a god's job directly correlated to his power, forcing corruption to occur, somehow stops the gods at the top of the system from usurping power from the Incarna and ruling things themselves.  It's nuts.

As for the Bronze Age stylings, that couldn't stand.  Both the setting's rules of god-mortal relations and the ruleset governing the game's mechanics can't help but to turn Exalted into yet another superhero setting in denial.  At least the current edition is more honest about this from the get-go.

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaOh, and ducks, as well as baboons, pretty much make Glorantha.

I like ducks.

Quote from: droogI like ducks.

Ducks are awesome.

And it's getting close to that time of year . . .

If you mean roasted. They are not bacon.

Quote from: Bradford C. WalkerAs for the Bronze Age stylings, that couldn't stand.  Both the setting's rules of god-mortal relations and the ruleset governing the game's mechanics can't help but to turn Exalted into yet another superhero setting in denial.  At least the current edition is more honest about this from the get-go.

Hmm. It could be argued that superhero stories are merely ancient myths given modern trappings. Regardless of it's validity, the perceived relationship between the two is something that Exalted ran with from get-go. I don't think the in-game fiction morphing from prose to comic book format happened on a whim.

Whatever the case, it's something I can live with. It's far easier motivating my lazy-arse players to read something with pretty pictures and speech balloons, even if the stories are of questionable quality at times.

Quote from: SeanOk, so I loved Skyrealms of Jorune 2nd Edition then in the 3rd edition they had to bring on the 'pods - such a lame idea, followed by a lame adventure about the pods.

"Pods"? What's this about "pods"? (I have 2e only so I don't know what you're talking about.)

incupod - Device bio-engineered to incubate and grow recos.  Looks like a big, hairy melon.

Recos are artificial life forms from the original colony's science of bio-tec.  They are short-lived (anywhere from a few hours to a few years) animals that are genetically designed by an Iscin to fill a specific function.  Recos hatch from incupods and are created by programming a cork and placing it into the incupod. Untended patches of incupods in the wild may produce a variety of recos with a variety of defects.  Wild recos may include floaters, screamers, biters, suckers and head chompers, and/or properly formed recos.

Reco A
   Dog-sized creature with four legs and two forward arms, balanced
   with a long thick tail.  Quite intelligent, capable of ranging
   ahead when walking through woodland or jungle.  

Reco B
   Virtually identical to Reco A, but with less independence for the
   traveller who does not want his reco running off without him.  

reco bridge
   Reco which grows vertically to a height of five yards and then tips
   over.  The bridge created is very solid and can support a thousand
   pounds of weight if both ends are supported.  The reco dies a few
   days after transforming.

reco crystal digger
   Specialized reco digger.

reco digger
   Reco bred to dig for water, minerals, etc.

reco milkshake maker
   Experimental reco which soaks up water and then squirts out a thick
   foamy drink.  The drink is high in vitamins and calories, but tastes
   like Play-Do.  Some are being adapted to provide other liquids.

reco rejuvenator
   Reco which can stabilize a creature in critical condition.  Injects
   a long appendage down the throat of the injured individual.

reco volunteer
   Reco bred to draw enemy fire in combat or possible ambush situations.

reco waterlung
   Reco used to permit underwater exploration for up to three hours.
   It fits itself over mouth and nose of diver and provides fresh
   and recirculated air.

Wish I had the pictures as they look awful - admittedly this was most of the problem for me. I just don't like them - especially the wild ones hopping about screaming.

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaAnother vote for 1st ed and The Dragon Blooded.  Exalted suffered from the same sort of conceptual dilution that the World o' Darkness did.  So it's odd that I have to complete the original statement "...until the original concept was so diluted and lost among trivialities that it was no longer interesting and ceased to really focus on the player characters."

Oh, and ducks, as well as baboons, pretty much make Glorantha.

!i!

i never actually got to play Exalted and the only supplement i read was the first scavenger lands book, which was quite good.

Even then the game was still too anime video game for me in places, but i liked it and it was a much more focused product than the current iteraiton. I have 2e but I will never read it let alone run it; it's far too convoluted and far too complicated.

A real shame actually.

Quote from: signoftheserpenti never actually got to play Exalted and the only supplement i read was the first scavenger lands book, which was quite good.

Even then the game was still too anime video game for me in places, but i liked it and it was a much more focused product than the current iteraiton. I have 2e but I will never read it let alone run it; it's far too convoluted and far too complicated.

A real shame actually.

Pick what you like from the setting and ignore the rest, preferably using a different, less cumbersome ruleset.

It's what I've done, and things are working out just fine.

If i were to take that course i'd design a completely different setting. Anything else seems like a waste of time imho.

honestly, the biggest thing that kills a setting for me is one single question:

"OK, now what the fuck do I do with it?"

THS does this for me.  OK, I've got a laundry list of ridiculously powerful tech, I can download my brain into a computer and live forever in cyberspace as a God, influencing the outside world only the cameras and computer screens.

Whoopty goddamn shit.  There's still fuck all to do, partly BECAUSE everyone's a damn God.  

Exalted gets a similar meh to me.  It's loaded to the gills with "kewl powerz" or whatever the fuck, and largely surreal and bizarre settings details, but as far as I've been able to tell, there's no realy gameplay there other than wandering about wanking on about how kewl your character is.  

Rifts is another.  In half a decade of play I still never figured out what the fuck you were actually supposed to do with any of that shit.  It has to be the most static and uninteresting gameworld ever devised, just a bunch of shit plopped on random points of the map that basically just kind of stands around and does fuck all.

Quote from: signoftheserpentIf i were to take that course i'd design a completely different setting. Anything else seems like a waste of time imho.

Fair enough. I suppose it depends on how much of the setting you find interesting and how much you don't. Personally speaking it would involve far more work for me creating a brand new world than simply excising the bits I didn't like. There's enough cool stuff in Exalted to keep me playing with it for years.

Quote from: J ArcaneExalted gets a similar meh to me.  It's loaded to the gills with "kewl powerz" or whatever the fuck, and largely surreal and bizarre settings details, but as far as I've been able to tell, there's no realy gameplay there other than wandering about wanking on about how kewl your character is.  

You can do pretty much everything you would in a standard fantasy setting, albeit writ on a larger scale.

I find the "kewlness" factor no more onerous than that of superhero games. It can be great fun, providing you're aware of the stylistic conventions you're playing with.

Not a setting, but when I was a kid I saved up to buy the D&D Fiend Folio (or was it the MMII?) only to find pages and pages of walking triangles and squares inside.  Talk about a major letdown.  

Pete