8chan is a strange place that has deluded themselves into thinking they were successful for more then a month

still i do check it out on occasion

Interesting. They seem to have dropped any pretense of the Usurpation being questionable or having uncharitable motivation even in part.

Alright, here's how the Great Curse works:

The Great Curse and Limit Break
When the Exalted slew the enemies of the gods, those ancient monsters pronounced a terrible death-curse against the traitorous Incarnae. The Unconquered Sun and his compatriots had anticipated this, however, and crafted mighty magic to protect themselves. What they failed to
notice was that the death-curse of the fallen ancients, thwarted by the gods, took root in the hearts of their Chosen. That Great Curse still haunts the Solar Exalted to this day, leaving a seed of darkness in each hero Chosen by the Unconquered Sun. The Curse expresses itself in moments of great stress and hardship, inflating the Solar's passions into gross displays of
unrestrained and destructive excess. The growing strength of the Great Curse is measured by a trait called Limit.

Limit
Limit is a measure of stress, self-doubt, and mental instability. As a Solar accrues Limit, the power of the Great Curse gains a stronger purchase on his soul. While this growing corruption may be invisible to others, the cursed Exalt finds his thoughts wandering in darker directions.  When he reaches 10 Limit, the Curse spills over and can no longer be contained, erupting into
Limit Break.  The Solar Exalted gain Limit in the following ways:

• Once per scene, when a character acts in a way that opposes one of his Major Intimacies, his player rolls a single die, gaining one point of Limit for each success (unless he's already rolled for acting against a Defining Intimacy; see below). Note that weakening an Intimacy always
counts as opposing it, as does spending Willpower to resist an influence roll supported by that Intimacy.

• Once per scene, when a character acts against one of his Defining Intimacies, his player rolls two dice for Limit (or one die if he's already rolled for acting against a Major Intimacy). This otherwise functions as acting against a Major Intimacy, above.

• All Solars have a Limit Trigger selected at character creation, a special condition under which a character can gain Limit. When a character's Limit Trigger is met, his player rolls three dice for Limit, gaining one point per success.

Limit Triggers
Below are a number of potential Limit Triggers. This list is meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive—players should feel free to design their own Limit Trigger (with the Storyteller's approval). A Limit Trigger should be a situation that the character finds stressful, traumatic, or frustrating.

• The Solar is insulted, belittled, or deliberately frustrated by another character.

• The Solar tells a lie, deliberately deceives someone, or breaks a sworn oath.

• The Solar sees innocents suffering, and is either unable or unwilling to help them.

• The Solar is hindered or defeated by the self-indulgent and intemperate behavior of those around him.

• The Solar's allies suffer a setback or defeat because of a mistake he made.

• The Solar is faced with the opportunity to advance his own cause by harming an innocent or ignoring one's suffering.

• The Solar's emotions lead him into a course of action that he regrets.

• The Solar is denied a favorite pleasure or vice, either by circumstance, another character, or his own decisions.

Limit Break and Virtue Flaws
Once a character has accumulated 10 Limit points, he will enter a state called Limit Break—the manifest expression of the Great Curse. Limit Break may or may not manifest immediately; the Great Curse is insidious, and tends to erupt into full bloom only when the Exalt's actions have the potential to create significant turmoil or suffering. An Exalt in the midst of an argument with his Circle is likely to experience the full effects of the Great Curse immediately, while one trekking through the vast desert of the South might continue to travel for several days before the effects of his Limit Break manifest. The timing of such manifestations are ultimately up to the
Storyteller.
The precise manifestation the Great Curse takes is known as a Virtue Flaw. Several potential Virtue Flaws are described below, and the Storyteller may create new ones as suits the needs of his story. A Solar's Virtue Flaw isn't fixed—the Storyteller should choose whichever one is most suited to the character's current situation or seems like the most dramatic choice. All Virtue
Flaws share the following features:

• Each Virtue Flaw forces the character to act out some kind of behavior that is harmful to those around him or to himself. The behavior enforced by Limit Break is treated as a Defining Principle, applying a +4 or -3 to the character's Resolve against relevant influence rolls and allowing the character to treat certain types of influence as unacceptable.

• In addition, if a character could treat an influence roll as unacceptable due to Limit Break, he must—he does not have the option of letting it be resolved as normal.

• Being in Limit Break is an intensely emotional experience, a powerful cathartic reaction to whatever stress has driven a character to it—it feels good, or at least necessary, even as it is traumatic. As a result, when a character ends his Limit Break he resets his Willpower points to
equal his permanent Willpower, regardless of whether this causes him to gain or lose Willpower.

• Each Virtue Flaw specifies a duration of either session or scene. Those that have a session-long duration last for the remainder of the session of play. If the Limit Break occurs towards the end of the session, or there isn't an opportunity for it to have any impact on the game, the Storyteller
may choose to have it spill over into the next session as well. Those that have a scene-long duration last for a single scene of play. In addition, each Limit Break has a condition which can end it prematurely if met.

• Once a Limit Break ends, the character loses all points of accumulated Limit.

And after a few example Virtue Flaws, most of which are adaptations of flaws that appeared in previous editions, there's a blurb that tries to justify the Great Curse by comparing it to Hercules and Elric of Melnibone and advises Storytellers when/where to have Virtue Flaws flare up and which ones to use.  Thankfully, given that the Four Virtues have been replaced by the much more flexible Intimacies, the Great Curse can be removed with no effort or impact on the mechanics of the game.  

I'm skipping charms and martial arts for the time being.  I just don't have the energy or patience to read though them all right now.  I'm looking at artifacts now.  Beyond how the weapons base stats are determined and tags, not much has changed.  Weapons and Armor still require you to sink motes in them to work properly, which annoys me to no end.  Some of the miscellaneous artifacts are pretty neat; there's a ship that can fold into a tiny box on command and a walking stick that can grow into a fruit bearing tree that doubles over as a source of firewood on command.  There's even the magic equivalent of Mass Effect's omnitool.  

Got some new Hearthstones, some of which give you Evocations.  Fun fact about evocations, certain ones carry the Innate keyword, which lets a character make use of an evocation even if they don't have the associated artifact.  Apparently only Solars benefit from the Innate keyword, which is how their mastery of evocations is represented in the system I suppose.  You can even come up with Evocations of your own!  Of course, rules for doing so are not provided in the core, so until Arms of the Chosen comes out, you're going to have to either copy the example evocations in the book or wing it.  Classic White Wolf.

The Liminal Exalted

 Rage, agony, sorrow, madness: these are the parents of the Liminal Exalted, those born from grave's black womb. Empowered by an ancient and forgotten power of the Underworld, yet crafted by living hands, a
 Liminal is not the sum of her parts or her memories; instead, she is a new being, instilled with grim purpose and set adrift into the world. These ragged Chosen pace the boundaries between

 Creation and the Underworld, hunting the dead and exorcising restless spirits. Beyond the sporadic messages of their dark mother, they have no greater organization among themselves. If a Liminal is to find greater purpose than the extermination of the Unquiet, she must find or forge it for herself.
 
The Liminal Aspects
 The nature of the Liminal Exalted is rooted in elements of life and death, dictated by the passions of their creators. As such, each Liminal is governed by one of five Aspects:

 • Aspects of Blood: These Liminals are born from lust, greed, and ambition. They are wellsprings of passion and vessels for forces that bind.
 • Aspects of Breath: These Liminals arise from regret or repentance. Breath Aspects are reflective and reactive, and alive with the power to possess, motivate, and animate.
 • Aspects of Flesh: Flesh Aspects are forged in rage, madness, and vengeance. Aggression and lust move them, and metamorphosis is their hallmark.
 • Aspects of Marrow: Curiosity and obsession creates these Liminals. They are calculating and
 analytical, and see easily to the secret nature of things.
 • Aspects of Soil: Soil Aspects are born in sorrow, blackest despair, and heartfelt yearning. They are introspective creatures of revelation and omens, masters of the cycle of decay and rebirth

 Set Apart

Made in madness and born from death, the Liminals have no place in the world of the living— given time and exposure to their Exalted might, humans come to abhor and fear them. It falls to each Exalt to try to make a place for herself somewhere, or to abandon such notions entirely and live a vagabond existence. However, life's flame may gutter in those who choose to live without hope, breeding new monsters for their fellows to hunt...

 Ragged Men

 The Liminals are assembled from patchwork corpses, and continue to replace body parts throughout their lives. Many can steal the cleverness from a liar's tongue, or the prowess of a swordsman's arm. Others simply restore old body parts to keep themselves eternally refreshed and renewed.

 Marked by Horror
 
Though she normally seems pristine and human, when a Liminal spends too much Essence, the horror of her nature rises to the surface and alienates observers. Aspects of Soil seem ancient, as though they've just risen from the black earth, while Blood Aspects become grave-pale, with blood-red eyes, and brackish water dripping from lips and fingertips. Their anima displays are similarly gruesome, varying by Aspect and including such unsettling displays as swirling clouds of blood, pulsing ropes of phantasmal muscle, or dark streamers of soil churning with white bones and worms.

 Undying

 No other Exalt is as resilient as a Liminal. So long as her brain remains intact, she may even come back from death, the spark of her Essence spontaneously reigniting herself. Water also interferes with Liminal resurrection; drowning will prevent the Children of the Soil from returning from the grave to exact revenge. However, such lore is unknown to most, including the majority of the Liminals themselves.

 The Maker and the Lifeline
 
A strange, indelible link exists between a Liminal and her creator. The maker is branded by his act, tied forever to the life he has brought forth. Though the two may travel hundreds of miles apart, they remain linked by dreams and insights, which may serve as a source of comfort or torment—or both. Inevitably they will be drawn back together, though it may take years.
 
The death of a Liminal's creator casts her Essence into turmoil, setting her on a road to necrosis and monstrosity. If the Exalt doesn't manage to forge a new bond with another living soul, she faces an inexorable slide into ruin and undeath. Though the world may seek to turn away from the Children of the Soil, the Liminals cannot turn away from the world if they wish to retain their
 humanity.

Play one of the Liminal Exalted if you want
 • to be created rather than born.
 • to have a strange, powerful, patchwork body.
 • to explore what it means to be human, and ali
 • to hunt the dead who walk among the living.

Ah Liminals.  Nothing says pulp fantasy and mythic resonance like rip offs of Prometheans/4e revenants with the ability to fuse with body parts.

Quote from: Marvelous_Metal_Man;818499Ah Liminals.  Nothing says pulp fantasy and mythic resonance like rip offs of Prometheans/4e revenants with the ability to fuse with body parts.

It was going around on rpg.net that the main reason they're in the game is that one of the developers (Holden, IIRC) made a bet that he could include Prometheans in Creation and make people think they were cool. I don't recall if was confirmed as a joke or not.

If anything like these guys show up in my games they'll be some of bizarre sorcerous constructs, not Exalted.

Quote from: Nexus;818500It was going around on rpg.net that the main reason they're in the game is that one of the developers (Holden, IIRC) made a bet that he could include Prometheans in Creation and make people think they were cool. I don't recall if was confirmed as a joke or not.

If anything like these guys show up in my games they'll be some of bizarre sorcerous constructs, not Exalted.

The way I heard it, John Morke included them because he really liked Prometheans.  I don't understand how they qualify as a type of Exalt; everything about them is about as far removed from the other Exalted as you can get.

Quote from: Marvelous_Metal_Man;818494Alright, here's how the Great Curse works:

The Great Curse and Limit Break
When the Exalted slew the enemies of the gods, those ancient monsters pronounced a terrible death-curse against the traitorous Incarnae. The Unconquered Sun and his compatriots had anticipated this, however, and crafted mighty magic to protect themselves. What they failed to
notice was that the death-curse of the fallen ancients, thwarted by the gods, took root in the hearts of their Chosen. That Great Curse still haunts the Solar Exalted to this day, leaving a seed of darkness in each hero Chosen by the Unconquered Sun. The Curse expresses itself in moments of great stress and hardship, inflating the Solar's passions into gross displays of
unrestrained and destructive excess. The growing strength of the Great Curse is measured by a trait called Limit.

Limit
Limit is a measure of stress, self-doubt, and mental instability. As a Solar accrues Limit, the power of the Great Curse gains a stronger purchase on his soul. While this growing corruption may be invisible to others, the cursed Exalt finds his thoughts wandering in darker directions.  When he reaches 10 Limit, the Curse spills over and can no longer be contained, erupting into
Limit Break.  The Solar Exalted gain Limit in the following ways:

• Once per scene, when a character acts in a way that opposes one of his Major Intimacies, his player rolls a single die, gaining one point of Limit for each success (unless he's already rolled for acting against a Defining Intimacy; see below). Note that weakening an Intimacy always
counts as opposing it, as does spending Willpower to resist an influence roll supported by that Intimacy.

• Once per scene, when a character acts against one of his Defining Intimacies, his player rolls two dice for Limit (or one die if he's already rolled for acting against a Major Intimacy). This otherwise functions as acting against a Major Intimacy, above.

• All Solars have a Limit Trigger selected at character creation, a special condition under which a character can gain Limit. When a character's Limit Trigger is met, his player rolls three dice for Limit, gaining one point per success.

Limit Triggers
Below are a number of potential Limit Triggers. This list is meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive—players should feel free to design their own Limit Trigger (with the Storyteller's approval). A Limit Trigger should be a situation that the character finds stressful, traumatic, or frustrating.

• The Solar is insulted, belittled, or deliberately frustrated by another character.

• The Solar tells a lie, deliberately deceives someone, or breaks a sworn oath.

• The Solar sees innocents suffering, and is either unable or unwilling to help them.

• The Solar is hindered or defeated by the self-indulgent and intemperate behavior of those around him.

• The Solar's allies suffer a setback or defeat because of a mistake he made.

• The Solar is faced with the opportunity to advance his own cause by harming an innocent or ignoring one's suffering.

• The Solar's emotions lead him into a course of action that he regrets.

• The Solar is denied a favorite pleasure or vice, either by circumstance, another character, or his own decisions.

Limit Break and Virtue Flaws
Once a character has accumulated 10 Limit points, he will enter a state called Limit Break—the manifest expression of the Great Curse. Limit Break may or may not manifest immediately; the Great Curse is insidious, and tends to erupt into full bloom only when the Exalt's actions have the potential to create significant turmoil or suffering. An Exalt in the midst of an argument with his Circle is likely to experience the full effects of the Great Curse immediately, while one trekking through the vast desert of the South might continue to travel for several days before the effects of his Limit Break manifest. The timing of such manifestations are ultimately up to the
Storyteller.
The precise manifestation the Great Curse takes is known as a Virtue Flaw. Several potential Virtue Flaws are described below, and the Storyteller may create new ones as suits the needs of his story. A Solar's Virtue Flaw isn't fixed—the Storyteller should choose whichever one is most suited to the character's current situation or seems like the most dramatic choice. All Virtue
Flaws share the following features:

• Each Virtue Flaw forces the character to act out some kind of behavior that is harmful to those around him or to himself. The behavior enforced by Limit Break is treated as a Defining Principle, applying a +4 or -3 to the character's Resolve against relevant influence rolls and allowing the character to treat certain types of influence as unacceptable.

• In addition, if a character could treat an influence roll as unacceptable due to Limit Break, he must—he does not have the option of letting it be resolved as normal.

• Being in Limit Break is an intensely emotional experience, a powerful cathartic reaction to whatever stress has driven a character to it—it feels good, or at least necessary, even as it is traumatic. As a result, when a character ends his Limit Break he resets his Willpower points to
equal his permanent Willpower, regardless of whether this causes him to gain or lose Willpower.

• Each Virtue Flaw specifies a duration of either session or scene. Those that have a session-long duration last for the remainder of the session of play. If the Limit Break occurs towards the end of the session, or there isn't an opportunity for it to have any impact on the game, the Storyteller
may choose to have it spill over into the next session as well. Those that have a scene-long duration last for a single scene of play. In addition, each Limit Break has a condition which can end it prematurely if met.

• Once a Limit Break ends, the character loses all points of accumulated Limit.

It seems like tweaked version of the 2ed version just altered to take the lack of Virtue into account. I was right about it being more tied to Intimacies at least.

Does it mention of the other Exalted still suffer from the Great Curse?

No kidding.  All the Exalted are just champions of their gods given divine power.  Don't know if the Elemental dragons would count as gods, but they are certainly the most powerful elementals if not.  Point is you need a divine being choosing you and giving you divine power to be a exalted.  These guys could just be done by anyone from the sound of it.

Though I will say this.  They sound better than prometheans cause it looks like they don't invoke disquiet and wastelands.  People just freak out if the essence are low and they can see the real forms of these beings.  Now imagine if they made pyros a rare substance and did that for the game.  I bet you people in world of darkness chats would be playing prometheans far more often.

Quote from: Nexus;818506It seems like tweaked version of the 2ed version just altered to take the lack of Virtue into account. I was right about it being more tied to Intimacies at least.

Does it mention of the other Exalted still suffer from the Great Curse?

Yes but they're not described in the core.  I'm assuming it will be covered with the individual splat books.

Quote from: Snowman0147;818507No kidding.  All the Exalted are just champions of their gods given divine power.  Don't know if the Elemental dragons would count as gods, but they are certainly the most powerful elementals if not.  Point is you need a divine being choosing you and giving you divine power to be a exalted.  These guys could just be done by anyone from the sound of it.

Though I will say this.  They sound better than prometheans cause it looks like they don't invoke disquiet and wastelands.  People just freak out if the essence are low and they can see the real forms of these beings.  Now imagine if they made pyros a rare substance and did that for the game.  I bet you people in world of darkness chats would be playing prometheans far more often.

There's mention of a Dark Mother who uses the bodies of botched resurrection to make Liminals but still no matter how you cut it, liminals just don't fit the mold of Exalted.

Martial Arts

This Ability is important in combat.

Martial Arts covers formal study of martial systems, such as the styles detailed in Chapter Seven. In addition to providing mastery of unarmed techniques, Martial Arts also facilitates the use of certain exotic weapons, such as the staff, the rope dart, sais, and hook swords. Like Brawl, it can be used to calculate a character’s Parry Defense.

Special rules: Martial Arts is a special Ability, which a character must possess the Martial Artist Merit (p. XX) to purchase. Martial Arts cannot be taken as a Caste or Favored Ability by itself. Instead, if Brawl is a Caste or Favored Ability, then so is Martial Arts. If Brawl is a Caste Ability, then Martial Arts can be taken as a character’s Supernal Ability, if desired—but if Brawl is a character’s Supernal Ability, this benefit does not extend to Martial Arts.

Like Craft, when a character first buys this Ability, she must declare a martial arts style which her Martial Arts dots represent mastery of. Chapter Seven contains a number of example martial arts styles characters might choose from, such as Snake Style, Tiger Style, Steel Devil Style, or Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style. Additional styles must be purchased as independent  Abilities— thus, a character might have Martial Arts (Snake style) 5, and Martial Arts (Tiger style) 3.

Merit

Martial Artist (••••)—Purchased
Prerequisite: Brawl •
The character has undergone systematic training in at least one formal combat art. Perhaps she
was raised as an Immaculate monk, or studied in a dojo during her journeys. This Merit allows
the character to purchase the Martial Arts Ability.

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That seems like it will be a bit costly experience wise and a odd for some of the Martial artist in my game who don't use formal "Styles".

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Flaws are back.

But they're free and optional. You can select some if you wish but you don't get any direct award for it. If it significantly harms or hinders your character you can be exp bonus.

The changes they made to Sorcery are interesting.  You don't cast from your motes. You cast from the motes of the universe. You gather these motes each round by succeeding at a roll, and when you have enough motes you can cast your spell.

There is billions of way to be initiated into sorcery, and each of these billions of initiations provides benefit. Say, a demon gave you the power to do sorcery. Or an artifact. Or even a potion (these examples are given in the books). Depending on your initiation, you could draw additional sorcerous motes by killing people, or be invulnerable to poison.

Basically, sorcery is available to any mortal.  If you meet a Raksha who feel playful today: boom, instant sorcery for you. If you meet a god who wants your help: boom, instant sorcery for you. As you don't need personal motes or even "enlightenment" to do sorcery, it actually fills the place of thaumaturgy in the previous edition.  Thaumaturgy is now unteachable by books, without internal logic, and a thaumaturgic ritual can only be passed through direct initiation.  As such, what was actually expected of Thaumaturgy in the previous edition has entirely been transfered to Sorcery.  Exalted sorcerers do get the Thaumaturgy merit for free if they're interested in picking up a few small scale rituals to supplement their magical repertoire but mortals have to buy it.

Quote from: Marvelous_Metal_Man;818527The changes they made to Sorcery are interesting.  You don't cast from your motes. You cast from the motes of the universe. You gather these motes each round by succeeding at a roll, and when you have enough motes you can cast your spell.

There is billions of way to be initiated into sorcery, and each of these billions of initiations provides benefit. Say, a demon gave you the power to do sorcery. Or an artifact. Or even a potion (these examples are given in the books). Depending on your initiation, you could draw additional sorcerous motes by killing people, or be invulnerable to poison.

Basically, sorcery is available to any mortal.  If you meet a Raksha who feel playful today: boom, instant sorcery for you. If you meet a god who wants your help: boom, instant sorcery for you. As you don't need personal motes or even "enlightenment" to do sorcery, it actually fills the place of thaumaturgy in the previous edition.  Thaumaturgy is now unteachable by books, without internal logic, and a thaumaturgic ritual can only be passed through direct initiation.  As such, what was actually expected of Thaumaturgy in the previous edition has entirely been transfered to Sorcery.  Exalted sorcerers do get the Thaumaturgy merit for free if they're interested in picking up a few small scale rituals to supplement their magical repertoire but mortals have to buy it.

Okay, now that is a major change.

Wow, Proteus got thread banned from the Exalted Developer's thread for asking about the latest leak. No warning, just an immediate kick. It was revered on appeal but damn, that was kneejerk.