How's it doing in the tits department?

Quote from: KoltarWoo-Hoo!!

 ..King James Bible!!

..

I didn't know this man had a Bible.

I play Exalted (albeit with a different system nowadays) and love the powergaming aspects. I want to be a demigod kicking arse in the same way I want to be boatman in WFRP. Different games, different expectations, and I see no reason why the former should exclude the latter.

Conflating Exalted fandom with the RPGnet subculture based around the game is silly. We all know TBP isn't representative of gamers as a whole, right?

@Pierce: I was wondering when it would be, that someone else would see this one and only real flaw in Pundit-logic.
Oh there´s another one, actually:

His take on Supers. He could sit down right with Ron and have a ultra-thematic campaign they totally enjoy, and both of them wouldn´t even notice.

Quote from: HinterWeltWell, if I knew it was gonna be THAT kind of party, I would of stuck my dick in the mashed potatoes!

I can't stand it!  I know you planned it!  I got set it straight, this Watergate!

Quote from: PierceYou just. Don't. Get it.

1) D&D is the mainstream. D&D 3.x, Pundy. Not any other kind of D&D, and not d20 either.

2) Exalted is like 3.x. It's powergaming heaven. The only significant diff is the anime stuff. The "with power comes responsibility" BS is just an atmospheric buff-up.

Character build and Lidda.

Character build and big-titted anime girls.

That's your mainstream right there.

Noithing worth fighting for, Pundy. Ditch the populism, have fun playing Qin, and be glad you're not the mainstream.

To get back on target, I'd argue that there's at least one big difference between core 3.5 and 1st edition Exalted (I've not read 2nd).  D&D doesn't try to get you to swallow a horsepill-sized dose of setting before you reach the chapter on chargen.  I hate that.

Well there must be at least on difference between Exalted and D&D, otherwise it´d be no heartbreaker.

Quote from: SettembriniWell there must be at least on difference between Exalted and D&D, otherwise it´d be no heartbreaker.

There's two differences:

- The Storyteller system. I believe technically a Fantasy Heartbreaker should have a system which is very obviously someone's heavily-houseruled take on D&D, with the occasional innovative bit.

- Vaguely kung fu/wuxia influenced aesthetics and setting, which simply taps into a different market from the Tolkein/Vance/Moorcock fantasy D&D draws on.

The crazy ass dice pools I'll grant you, but D&D has had kung fu monks since Supplement II Blackmoor.  That came out in what, '76 or '77?  At least 2 different ninja classes (or is it 3, I have notes on this at home) were published in Dragon well before anyone talked about an Oriental Adventures book.  The relatively new Tome of Battle: Book of 9 Swords is chock full of wuxia type action.

...I´d add mention of the Immortals box as well as deities & demigods.

Sure, Exalted has some things original to it. But that isn´t seperating it enough from D&D.

But: The GM advice is totally different!

There's tons of differences between stock D&D and stock Exalted.

• D&D starts you as a peasant just out of ass kicking school, Exalted starts you out as better than 85% of Creation.
• The rules system is obviously vastly different.
• There are a lot more planes of reality in D&D
• Exalted has rules to encourage fights to not be sing/hit/swing/miss cycles (not that they're necessary, but they can be helpful)

To me the biggest difference is that Exalted handles epic level D&D type stuff better than Epic Level D&D. The ELH was an addon to a system not designed to support it. Exalted was designed for Epic at the ground up. Those two facts are pretty obvious when you play the systems.

If you define mainstream to involve some variant of game style, Exalted is as mainstream as any of the D&Ds, despite what a few goobs on the net might try to tell you about how emo it is. If you define it as sales figures, pretty much only D&D 3.x is mainstream, which means that Amber, all prior D&D editions, and eventually Forward To Adventure are or will not be main stream games.

Personally, I prefer the definition that lets cool shit be cool. YMMV.

Quote from: jrientsTo get back on target, I'd argue that there's at least one big difference between core 3.5 and 1st edition Exalted (I've not read 2nd).  D&D doesn't try to get you to swallow a horsepill-sized dose of setting before you reach the chapter on chargen.  I hate that.

IMO, yes and no. I mean, just the barest reading will tell you that Creation is huge; it's significantly bigger then Earth. Plus, the map has square after square of blank land ideal for kingdoms, villages, dungeons, and all the rest. Out-of-box, the Solars are the only group without significant individual ties to the meta-plot. The vanilla-ness of the Solars that, say, RPG.net complains (and lauds, in turns) stops you from needing to know all that much about the world.

OTOH, White Wolf has always had a huge love-on for telling you every last thing about their world, and if you want to play Dragon Bloods or Sidereals, there's all this accompanying baggage. Sure you can ditch it, but there's always some mastabatory canon-head going to tell you that Gem doesn't have a democratically elected head of state like the DM wants it to, but a dictator for life beholden to the Relm. Or something. You know what I'm talking about.

Plus, you have to read a little to get an interpretation on that map. I dunno.

Exalted isn't a D&D heartbreaker, too much is different. The premise is different. Magic is significantly different. The power level is pretty different. The cosmology is way different. The mechanics are very different indeed. There's way too much bleed between niches to argue for significant niche protection. (You've got castes, but they feel like more of a holdover then anything else.) No levels, either.

I mean, not everything fantasy is D&D. Now, you can't really make a fantasy role-playing game and be unaware of the behemoth that is D&D but... well, look at it this way; if it's a heartbreaker, you really ought to be able to port it over fairly easily. You can't port Exalted easily at all. You'd have to rejigger the system in a rediculous way.

Exalted is utter crap written by pretentious shitheads who have an anti-human stance because they're so utterly unable to aspire to qualify as worthwhile human beings.

Its garbage, like everything else White Wolf has ever done or ever will do.

RPGPundit

As much as I just want to reply "troll" to that, instead I'll assure you that you are free to hold whatever opinions you want. There are many that disagree with you, but that won't change the fact that Exalted is not the game for you.

Quote from: Thanatos02OTOH, White Wolf has always had a huge love-on for telling you every last thing about their world, and if you want to play Dragon Bloods or Sidereals, there's all this accompanying baggage. Sure you can ditch it, but there's always some mastabatory canon-head going to tell you that Gem doesn't have a democratically elected head of state like the DM wants it to, but a dictator for life beholden to the Relm. Or something. You know what I'm talking about.

I was JUST talking about this very issue regarding metaplots in a thread at another forum, and I mentioned that this is ESPECIALLY annoying because everyone at the table has to ditch the SAME accompanying baggage, or else there will be problems.

Is it perhaps that Exalted, with all its signature characters and metaplot, does not GIVE the power to create a story to the players, but keeps it in the hands of the designers/writers?

Quote from: RPGPunditIts garbage, like everything else White Wolf has ever done or ever will do.

Well, I liked the Street Fighter game

And they had some nice Lankhmar collections.