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Exalted, for a laugh

Started by Ghost Whistler, February 16, 2010, 07:32:47 AM

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Ghost Whistler

Why don't WW write a proper edition of Exalted. By proper I mean with rules that aren't ridiculous and convoluted. There are lots of cool ideas in Exalted (when it's not trying to hard to be a soap opera). Perhaps they are the only cats who think it isn't anything other than math soup. :D
"Ghost Whistler" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Parental death, alien battles and annihilated worlds.

Casey777

Offhand I suspect it's because that mismash of setting, drama, rules and such is what makes Exalted Exalted and sells. Kinda like with oh Palladium Fantasy and earlier D&D. The mess is part of the draw and for some (not me) the fun.

And I've tried helping convert Exalted to BESM. It's doable, but we did lose a lot of the flavor since the rules for x, y and z aren't there anymore. Later on the same GM ran a 2nd game of Exalted but that bogged down same as the 1e one did.

These days if I wanted to run D&D with dramatic hooks and purpose I'd likely use D&D 4E, Tekumel / Empire of the Petal Throne (it's game design goal from day one), or Runequest. Wonder if there'll be a 4E Al-Qadim or Oriental Adventures?

Hrm, is there a FATE 3.0 derived fantasy rpg yet? There's pulp, pulp sci-fi, hard sci-fi and upcoming urban fantasy / modern occult horror.

Ghost Whistler

Quote from: Casey777;360864Offhand I suspect it's because that mismash of setting, drama, rules and such is what makes Exalted Exalted and sells. Kinda like with oh Palladium Fantasy and earlier D&D. The mess is part of the draw and for some (not me) the fun.

And I've tried helping convert Exalted to BESM. It's doable, but we did lose a lot of the flavor since the rules for x, y and z aren't there anymore. Later on the same GM ran a 2nd game of Exalted but that bogged down same as the 1e one did.

These days if I wanted to run D&D with dramatic hooks and purpose I'd likely use D&D 4E, Tekumel / Empire of the Petal Throne (it's game design goal from day one), or Runequest. Wonder if there'll be a 4E Al-Qadim or Oriental Adventures?

Hrm, is there a FATE 3.0 derived fantasy rpg yet? There's pulp, pulp sci-fi, hard sci-fi and upcoming urban fantasy / modern occult horror.
Not until Legends of Anglerre afaik. I did see Barbarians of Lemuria in print t'other day and it looked half decent. Small though, for £15.
"Ghost Whistler" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Parental death, alien battles and annihilated worlds.

Peregrin

Because they chose to use the ST system, managed to push a die-pool system beyond its limits, and only after it was popular and in its 2nd edition did they actually try to start "fixing" things.  Which means if they actually try to release a thorough revision/reimagining, they're going to alienate all of the fans who've already invested shitloads of money into WW's supplement treadmill.

I have a love/hate relationship with Exalted, though.  For every cool thing in the setting, there are a million more "That's fucking retarded" things floating around in the supplements, half of which are just there to be...I don't know...edgy?  Whereas nWoD managed to tone down on a lot of the goth-punk edgy vibe of the oWoD that bothered some people, Exalted 2nd edition did the reverse and just grabbed all of the ridiculous shit about the setting and took off at 200mph.

If you have the time and can build on the quickstart rules using only the very base setting, it's not so bad.  Once you start adding in more broken charmsets and ridiculous canon, it becomes almost as unbearable as the oWoD towards the end of its life.
"In a way, the Lands of Dream are far more brutal than the worlds of most mainstream games. All of the games set there have a bittersweetness that I find much harder to take than the ridiculous adolescent posturing of so-called \'grittily realistic\' games. So maybe one reason I like them as a setting is because they are far more like the real world: colourful, crazy, full of strange creatures and people, eternal and yet changing, deeply beautiful and sometimes profoundly bitter."

thedungeondelver

Quote from: Peregrin;360876I have a love/hate relationship with Exalted, though.  For every cool thing in the setting, there are a million more "That's fucking retarded" things floating around in the supplements, half of which are just there to be...I don't know...edgy?  Whereas nWoD managed to tone down on a lot of the goth-punk edgy vibe of the oWoD that bothered some people, Exalted 2nd edition did the reverse and just grabbed all of the ridiculous shit about the setting and took off at 200mph.

Indeed.  If you set aside the "mature themes" of Exalted?  It always seems like it was written by the creator of Axe Cop!, just with weeaboo trappings.
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Mcbobbo sums it up nicely.

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kryyst

I've always thought it'd be interesting to see an nWod Version of it.  I don't mind nWoD at it's core and for changeling it works really well.  I think if you took it's rulebase and added on the power effects but kept pool sizes down Exalted could be playable.  But at that point you pretty much would have Scion from my understanding of the game.
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crkrueger

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;360785Exalted, for a laugh.

There's another way to play it? :idunno:
Even the the "cutting edge" storygamers for all their talk of narrative, plot, and drama are fucking obsessed with the god damned rules they use. - Estar

Yes, Sean Connery\'s thumb does indeed do megadamage. - Spinachcat

Isuldur is a badass because he stopped Sauron with a broken sword, but Iluvatar is the badass because he stopped Sauron with a hobbit. -Malleus Arianorum

"Tangency Edition" D&D would have no classes or races, but 17 genders to choose from. -TristramEvans

Casey777

Quote from: Peregrin;360876Exalted 2nd edition did the reverse and just grabbed all of the ridiculous shit about the setting and took off at 200mph.

One of the "What I wanted, What the Game Promised, What I Actually Played" type meme graphics would fit here.

I wanted an updated Glorantha on 11, the game promised Bronze Age meets Wuxia, what I got instead was (fill in the blank from a bucketfull of d10s roll of wtf? moments).

Ian Absentia

Quote from: Casey777;360963I wanted an updated Glorantha on 11, the game promised Bronze Age meets Wuxia, what I got instead was (fill in the blank from a bucketfull of d10s roll of wtf? moments).
Har!  It really was like the game world was generated from random tables, interspersed with bizarre slash/fic.
Quote from: kryyst;360907I've always thought it'd be interesting to see an nWod Version of it.
You mean using cleaned-up mechanics and a clearly rationalised game world?  You bet.  I'd start nExalted all off by stating that the Unconquered Sun split into five -- and only five -- shards, which have now re-manifested into five individuals who form one new Circle.  Egads!  A game that's written for a maximum of six players, a GM and up to five player characters?  That's right.  None of this signature character, let's-pretend-it's-not-metaplot, fluff-fic horseshit.  Your campaign is the only official campaign.

That'd kind of rock.

!i!

Peregrin

Our group basically used the corebook and ignored all of the official fluff aside from the basic factions and major locations.  We had fun with an on-off campaign for about 3 years, until the mechanics started getting wonky at high XP levels.

It's a decent game...you've just got to break out some fiat and liberally apply the GM's paintbrush to the setting.
"In a way, the Lands of Dream are far more brutal than the worlds of most mainstream games. All of the games set there have a bittersweetness that I find much harder to take than the ridiculous adolescent posturing of so-called \'grittily realistic\' games. So maybe one reason I like them as a setting is because they are far more like the real world: colourful, crazy, full of strange creatures and people, eternal and yet changing, deeply beautiful and sometimes profoundly bitter."

RPGPundit

Anglerre should be awesome.

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Also, Jrients once suggested using FtA! for Exalted.

RPGPundit
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you\'ve played \'medieval fantasy\' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

Seanchai

I really like Exalted. It's flawed, sure, but what game isn't?

Seanchai
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Peregrin

#13
Quote from: Seanchai;361112I really like Exalted. It's flawed, sure, but what game isn't?

Seanchai

The problem is that the flaws in Exalted cause cascades of issues, because the system from day one was designed to emulate the world on a 1:1 basis, even if each subsystem had to be heavily abstracted.  Everything is interrelated and there are literally no meta concepts (since even 'stunts' tie into essence and WP regen and are taken into account when a PC/NPC decides to build a new charmset).  Since the crunch is so tied to the world, once you try to isolate or change one thing, or accidentally "break" something, it causes a ripple effect that is really hard to get rid of without completely ignoring significant portions of the rules, or ruling the game with an iron fist and limiting what the players can and can't take based on the ability to contain the mechanics (rather than picking and choosing based on flavor), two things which I hate doing as a GM.  

For me, it's like the D&D 3.x of White-Wolf games.  There are a lot of cool things, but mix the wrong things together and it'll blow up in your face, and it's not always immediately apparent which things don't play well together.

The new errata has helped somewhat, but they're also taking cues from Jon Chung, and I'm really not a fan of his work, since it puts paranoia-combos above all else and turns the game into a powergaming wankfest (not that it wasn't borderline there already).
"In a way, the Lands of Dream are far more brutal than the worlds of most mainstream games. All of the games set there have a bittersweetness that I find much harder to take than the ridiculous adolescent posturing of so-called \'grittily realistic\' games. So maybe one reason I like them as a setting is because they are far more like the real world: colourful, crazy, full of strange creatures and people, eternal and yet changing, deeply beautiful and sometimes profoundly bitter."

Seanchai

Quote from: Peregrin;361140The problem is that the flaws in Exalted cause cascades of issues, because the system from day one was designed to emulate the world on a 1:1 basis, even if each subsystem had to be heavily abstracted.  Everything is interrelated and there are literally no meta concepts (since even 'stunts' tie into essence and WP regen and are taken into account when a PC/NPC decides to build a new charmset).  Since the crunch is so tied to the world, once you try to isolate or change one thing, or accidentally "break" something, it causes a ripple effect that is really hard to get rid of without completely ignoring significant portions of the rules, or ruling the game with an iron fist and limiting what the players can and can't take based on the ability to contain the mechanics, two things which I hate doing as a GM.

People say that about a host of games.

Seanchai
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