Quote from: Brand55;862728Many of the setting changes with EX3 are pretty good (apart from adding 500 quadrillion new Exalted types; that really sucks, IMO). It's simply a matter of bang for your buck.

Quote from: Nexus;862733So far only one new thing has interested me setting wise (Palanquin) and that's mainly because it looks cool. The setting has gotten vastly bigger and the characters power level notched back so, in effect they feel smaller.

Thanks both. I think I'll see if I can get hold of some of the previous editions then and have a rummage around. Appreciate your responses!

Quote from: Christopher Brady;862781Exalted is a mess.  A GM hating, game breaking, barely playable without hand waving mess.

Reviewers have been saying that "Exalted is a... game... playable" in many dynamic, exciting ways!

Quote from: Christopher Brady;862786Oh, I agree completely.  Charms are worse than D&D Spells, which were the original exclusionary rules blocks, that don't interact with the rest of the system.

Agreed, I like a lot of crunchy systems (3.5/PF, Hero System) and I like some of the concepts in Exalted as far as setting, but trying to read through charms was not fun for me at all. I started to try slogging through them and after that, well, let us say I'm not interested in actually trying to run the game, not even sure about playing it for that matter.

Quote from: Nexus;862437Okay, But I didn't say only fans of 4th Ed DnD like the combat system just that it seems very popular among fans of that particular game. One of the developers (Holden, I believe) has mentioned that a similar feel was something they were going for so I guess that succeeded in that for allot of folks.

Well, I'm seriously glad they didn't succeed for me:D!

Quote from: Christopher Brady;862786Oh, I agree completely.  Charms are worse than D&D Spells, which were the original exclusionary rules blocks, that don't interact with the rest of the system.

I wouldn't say worse;).

Also, I've just wrote a playtest review of Exalted 3e that's as balanced as possible.

Quote from: AsenRG;862902I wouldn't say worse;).

I would, but it's a personal thing, in Exalted every single major humanoid creature, from Exalt to Gods and Demons and some out and out inhuman monsters has Charms.  And unlike D&D in which each spell doesn't interact with each other, in fact, you can't combine them in any meaningful way, in Exalted they can be.  And worse, they had some unintended effects as written.

Yeah combos are pretty broken and can destroy the game.

Quote from: Majus;862809Reviewers have been saying that "Exalted is a... game... playable" in many dynamic, exciting ways!

Ellipsis.  The salesman's best friend.  

JG

Quote from: Majus;862809Reviewers have been saying that "Exalted is a... game... playable" in many dynamic, exciting ways!

Do you have links?

I've decided to just kludge together my own version of Exalted using the parts of each edition I like most..

Most of it's going to be based on 1st edition and the Power Combat version of the system introduced in the 1st Ed Players Guide. Limiting the game to the corebook will also avoid the power creep of the supplements and also the confusion of trying to run a multi-exalted game..

I'll probably steal the Sorcery and Item Creation system of 3rd edition as those are actually pretty cool (though I'll cut down the number of Charms needed to make artifacts) and Evocations as well.

As for avoiding the issue of "Paranoia Combat" (i.e. the idea that combat revolves around running your opponent out of Essence and them killing them with one huge attack) I'm going to borrow a concept from an indie RPG called "Shonen Final Burst".

SFB was of course a system dedicated to recreating Shonen fights, it was overly complicated but it introduced this concept of "Health Barriers".

Basically, your character had a number of Health levels, but they were broken up by "Barriers". The Barriers prevented your character from being killed by any one attack...

For example, let's say you have 7 Health levels divided up by three barriers... so 2/3/2

If the opponent hits you for only 1 point of damage, you still have 1 point left in that first "Barrier" if the next hit does 5 points of damage, it only eliminates the next health level and knocks you down to the next Barrier..

In this way, it will take at least 3 successful attacks to kill your character rather than one god strike that just kills someone outright.

Ox-body will just add an additional Health level to each Barrier, and "Boss" Enemies might have more than 3 Barriers to make a fight more epic, and again, prevent them from being killed by 1 single attack.

I'm beginning to think I've drastically misunderstood the Ex3 combat system. Its one area of the game that getting almost universal positive response (at least that I've seen) and I can't stand it. It feels slow, cumbersome and annoyingly meta game and "disassociated" (if I'm using the term correctly).

But allot of people love it, even a couple of people in my own group so I wonder.

Did they play it?  No there is a reason I ask that because it may sound good on paper while in practice it is all kinds of bad.

The first beta on Dark Heresy 2.0 is a good example of it.  I told my friends of the shitty combat mechanics and they were like, "It can't be that bad Snowman."  Well their minds were change after a hour, during the middle of combat, to figure out rate of fire rules.  I had to cheat the system a bit just to end it quickly after that debate.  Safe to say they wanted the tried and true rules after that.

Quote from: Snowman0147;863078Did they play it?  No there is a reason I ask that because it may sound good on paper while in practice it is all kinds of bad.

The first beta on Dark Heresy 2.0 is a good example of it.  I told my friends of the shitty combat mechanics and they were like, "It can't be that bad Snowman."  Well their minds were change after a hour, during the middle of combat, to figure out rate of fire rules.  I had to cheat the system a bit just to end it quickly after that debate.  Safe to say they wanted the tried and true rules after that.

The rave reviews largely appear to come from people that have played it. I'm baffled by them but I guess I am far outside the target audience in that regard .

I've been waiting for someone to mention that it undermine the Solar concept a great deal to have them by the only group that was not only wiped out to a member at the "height" of their power far more easily than the someone could say, toppled the Realm but have also been the targets of a fairly easy game of Whack a mole for millennia to have their "glorious" return met with a resounding "Meh." as Creation has been trundling along just fine without them.

But that really seems to be what a majority or at least a vocal minority.

 So I expect that there that will be the deal if there's ever an Exalted 4th. Each edition seems shaped by whoever griped out the loudest out the last one and there's been a lot of moaning about "Solar Wank" (which seems to be even implying they're important or powerful) this time around. They've already removed any hint of ambiguity about the Usurpation but I guess there will never be enough crap smeared on the Solars for some.

The game's never been about being fair and everyone running , hand in hand, together across the finish line in some kind of power race But now you get people griping because -mortals- fall short.  

Then turn around and take pot shots at games like D and D where "everyone" is on a theoretically and conceptually level playing field.

Quote from: Nexus;863081The rave reviews largely appear to come from people that have played it. I'm baffled by them but I guess I am far outside the target audience in that regard .

It's a very sound and good system for those who have the time to invest in it. I just don't have the time anymore in my day to invest in a combat system which is that involved.

Shadowrun 5th edition combat is my limit now for complicated but cool combat systems...and I'm not going to throw that out of my head to make room for Exalted 3...

It is not in the target audience who were hoping for something more like 1st edition, it's 2nd edition Exalted amped up, 4th edition style Dungeons and Dragons.

4th ed has a great sound combat system too, but it turned a lot of people off...However the people who love it? They fucking love it.

I have a feeling 3rd Exalted is the same way. The people it's designed for absolutely love it. But for folks like me who use Savage Worlds as their go to system for pick up games? It's about the furthest thing in the world I want to spend my time learning and mastering.

If I were 23 again, I'd probably love it as well.

Yeah, the combat system works but I can't find anything else positive to say about it.