Exalted "Essence"

[Heaven's Thunder Hammer]

So, Onyx Path is making an unofficial Exalted 4e.


This is a stripped down, simplified version of the 3E engine. They're saying it's not a new edition, which is true in the "not rewriting the setting" way... But if walks like duck...

December 5, 2019 — Rich Thomas, founder and Creative Director of Onyx Path Publishing, announced today a new corebook called Exalted Essence is planned for the popular Exalted Third Edition gameline.

“This is a project we’ve been thinking about for quite a while and we’re thrilled it’s moving forward. I’m beyond excited to be overseeing the creative direction of this book, which is being developed by Monica Speca and Neall Raemonn Price,” said Dixie Cochran, the coordinating developer for Exalted. “We handpicked the Essence team, all of whom love and have worked on Exalted, very carefully and can’t wait to see what they do with the outline and alpha write-ups provided!”

Exalted Essence will be developed by Monica Speca and Neall Raemonn Price; Exalted Third Edition developers Eric Minton and Robert Vance will also be involved as consulting developers while they continue to develop other books in the line. The new corebook’s design is geared for new and existing fans who want a fresh and streamlined take on Exalted. Exalted Essence will include:

Ten Exalt player-character types presented in one corebook for the first time
Universal Charms (including Martial Arts) that work across multiple Exalt types, as well as some Charms that are unique to specific Exalt types
A brief overview of Creation so players and Storytellers can dive right into their epic adventures.
Rules for Sorcery
Storyteller Antagonists

“As a long time fan of Exalted, I’m thrilled to be working on a project that will help spread the joy of playing Exalted to all players — from newcomers to dedicated fans,” said Monica Speca, Exalted Third Edition developer and writer.

Writers for Exalted Essence have been contracted, and work will begin in 2020. Once the manuscript is completed, a Kickstarter is planned for the new corebook.

Fans will be thrilled to know Exalted Essence is not a new edition of Exalted. Like its name suggests, the new title distills what makes Exalted Third Edition great into a new corebook and is designed to work with other books in the line.

General fixes of issues that Frank has identified
1. The Exalts are on an substantially evened out power scale - Exalts use many of the same general charms, same essence pool, with only a small % of the charmset distinct to the splat type. Mainly, the differ

2. Difficulty scale - starts at 3 and goes up to 8 (if I recall correctly) along with specific advice for when your character rolls 20 successes to introduce themselves to the King.

3. The whole book will be ~180,000 words. (Any other Exalted nerds can correct me if I'm wrong.)

I listened to the interview with the Devs, and generally came away with a positive feeling, but this being Onyx Path, who the hell knows.

[OgreBattle]

I only played a bit of Exalted 1e I think... I liked the idea of tick based combat, if they can make it flow smoothly that would be cool.

You ever write your own list of "Exalted my awesome fix edition"?

[Mechalich]

The problem with making a simplified version of Exalted's mechanics is that you run into the same problem that you have just running it using FATE or your rules-lite of choice: the fluff is still a fever dream of madness, the world is still too big, and for a world that is intended as some sort of playground for mythic adventuring it is positively cancerous with crapsuck grimderp (yes 3e was better about this than the previous editions, but its more like going from stage 4 back to stage 3).

I mean that very post mentions having 10 different exalt types. Ten! Back when they started with 1e they had five, and that was too many even back then (there was never any reason for Solars and Abyssals to be a different thing, being thralls to evil necrogods doesn't require a special rule set). Ten is ludicrous.

[Dogbert]

“As a long time fan of Exalted, I’m thrilled to be working on a project that will help spread the joy of playing Exalted to all players — from newcomers to dedicated fans,”

All I need is this piece of Mearls-speak to see this is going to be Exalted: Mearls Edition - The Search For Critical Role Money.

[Heaven's Thunder Hammer]

“As a long time fan of Exalted, I’m thrilled to be working on a project that will help spread the joy of playing Exalted to all players — from newcomers to dedicated fans,”

All I need is this piece of Mearls-speak to see this is going to be Exalted: Mearls Edition - The Search For Critical Role Money.

Exalted continues to be on the decline, so I'm not surprised.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... m%2F01t_17

[K]

“As a long time fan of Exalted, I’m thrilled to be working on a project that will help spread the joy of playing Exalted to all players — from newcomers to dedicated fans,”

All I need is this piece of Mearls-speak to see this is going to be Exalted: Mearls Edition - The Search For Critical Role Money.

Exalted continues to be on the decline, so I'm not surprised.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... m%2F01t_17

I mean, the IP is clearly being used to scam Kickstarter funds, It's not like Onyx Path is putting out supplements or has some other kind of sustainable business model.

[Heaven's Thunder Hammer]

I wouldn't go so far as to say "scam", as they do deliver on their kickstarters. But it certainly is their business model now.

[Zaranthan]

If I say "for twenty dollars, I'll give you a set of RPG rules that are better than Munchausen," and you give me twenty dollars, and I give you a copy of Exalted, you got scammed, son.

[Mechalich]

If I say "for twenty dollars, I'll give you a set of RPG rules that are better than Munchausen," and you give me twenty dollars, and I give you a copy of Exalted, you got scammed, son.

Well, people don't necessary purchase RPG books entirely, or in fact at all, for the rules. They do so for fluff and fluff-associated artwork, sample characters, and a whole bevy of other things (heck some people even like the flash fiction in RPG books, amazingly).

In some sense Onyx Path's Exalted products are actually more real than their various repackaged version of the oWoD and nWoD since they actually include original material. I mean, Exalted 3e does offer a new edition with a new mechanical system and a completely revamped version of the setting. Neither of those things are actually good, and the setting as initially presented wasn't actually playable, but that was true of the professionally published material from the previous two editions, so meh.

The real issue with Onyx Path's Exalted kickstarters is that it is quite clear that any backer should have absolutely no expectation of getting their books in any sort of promised timeframe. However long they say something is likely to take, triple that, and only then start adding in time for the inevitable delays.

[FatR]

Meh. 10 years ago this could have been relevant. Maybe if published instead of 3E this would have gotten anywhere. At this point it could only keep splintering the audiance which already is hopelessly splintered, because nearly all the remaining diehard fans probably play in their own versions of the Creation that have only superficial resemblance to anything official. And IP probably has a negative value to anyone trying to reach a wider audience, thanks to all the haters and seething former fans, like myself. But if they get their money from Kickstarter and deliver a product, more power to them.