Exalted Storyteller's Companion

Rating:
Summary: ESC
Review: -Exalted Storyteller's Companion- has been my only, and slight, disappointment with the -Exalted- line. In general, the line awesomely evokes heroes and ages of myth, without the Eurocentrism that mars DnD, SnS, etc., and without the convoluted and enforced dependence on metaplot of the original World of Darkness setting (which I hear has been supplanted). Nevertheless, -E.S.C.- fails to give anything but the most cursory information on setting and precious little else.

What it did have:

The first section, "The Scarlet Empire," disappointingly elides the entirety of the setting's largest antagonist organization (for the Solar Exalted at least) into a description of the youth and career, and death of a typical Realm Terrestrial Exalted with the dull opening paragraph, "The Dragon-Blooded see no difference between their realm and themselves. So, then, let us follow the Dragon-Blooded through their lives in search of the empire's soul." I don't believe I am hasty to admit that I would rather know about the empire's body, heart and mind than its soul, as an ST. What about the millions who actually comprise the Realm and make it work? What of the All-Seeing Eye and the Thousand Scales? What about the dreaded imperial legions? Knowing about the birth and career of Dragon-Blooded provides exactly zero dramatic tension and exactly one opportunity for an NPC to engage in, frankly, painfully boring exposition. Will there be a Realm supplement? Will we learn about the Scarlet Empire - enough to ST it - from -Dragon-Blooded-? Shouldn't the setting blurbs on antagonists contain - well - setting?

I found the second chapter on other Celestial Exalted much more useful. It gave about the same amount of information as did the first chapter, but much more economically. For each type of Celestial Exalted there are about eight pages of history, setting (which I would have appreciated in the Realm segment), character ideas, and sample mechanic.

The third chapter contains information on the spirits and their courts. Following ten pages of mechanic on spiritual Charms, there is some history and setting as well as a number of example characters (elementals and demons are included). I appreciated this section but I do wonder to what extent White Wolf intends for spirits to be part of stories - see my add'l comments below).

The fourth chapter details six artifacts; the chapter seemed almost an afterthought. It does have the history and story of the Eye of Autochthon - an item of immense power referred to in many other supplements, and essential to the setting of several locations.

What it didn't have:

This book failed entirely to have any discussion of storytelling this game. How should I pace the chronicle? How do stories come together in this setting? I am still wondering. In terms of the particular difficulties of storytelling this setting, I am still left only with the meager scraps in the main rule book. While I'm an experienced ST, I myself would have appreciated some help with adapting to the game, and I'm sure a beginning ST would have appreciated that as well.

I'm also left wondering to what extent the spirits and other supernaturals ought to be included in a game. We constantly read in other supplements about gods and their machinations - what exactly is going on with these beings in terms of their prevalence in the story? I appreciate White Wolf's circumspection with respect to cutting down on the intrusive metaplot in this setting, but I feel as if this is setting information that I have no idea how to adapt.

Overall:

Really? Except for the Eye of Autochthon, I suspect that most of the information in this book is redundant and explained in greater detail in the more specialized supplements. I haven't gotten -Dragon-Blooded- or -The Abyssals- but I really think those two books will have more and essential information.

There are -many- better books on how to ST or run a campaign/chronicle, and I suggest one of the Revised Edition original World of Darkness ST guides together with the Dungeon Master's guide for DnD if you really are looking for ideas and practical advice on how to put together a day of gaming or a month of days of gaming.

The one thing I really like pretty unequivocally is the ST screen that comes with the game. Personally, I like to have a game-specific DM/ST screen when I have the job - and the screen is great. But it's for that reason that if I had the chance to buy this all over again knowing what I do from having read it, I'd probably try to find the ST screen without the book, and save the money for one of the hardbound antagonist setting books.

Rating:
Summary: At Long Last
Review:
Well, I was glad to pick this book up. I feel that it's a good idea for a Storyteller(ST) to have a better grounding in the bad guys for the game. This book does an excellent job of giving yuo backgrounds for the Lunar Exalted and the Dragon-Blooded. I am thoroughly pleased that all the antagonists have an excellent back story that can provide motivations for pretty much anything.


The only qualm that I had was a lack of charms for any of the bad guys. Granted, in doing so the ST has much more leeway to create pretty much any effect that he desires. I would have prefered that there be a few more examples for the lower level charms and then the ST could take things from there.

The art was great, much like most of the other White Wolf books. I especially liked the bestial depections of the Lunar Exalted in Chapter 2. Any WW gamer starts to think of Werewolf at the look of these beasts.

Hmm.. perchance Exalted did evolve into the World of Darkness creatures. I like the subtle suggestions in the book. As well as the humerous one on page 6, the introduction. "Q: Is Exalted the ancient past of the World of Darkness? A: As much as yuo want it to be, yes." WW always give the freedom to the ST. Well written adn enjoyable to read. 4 stars. I can wait for more supplements.

Rating:
Summary: It's a good start.
Review:
Well, I was glad to pick this book up. I feel that it's a good idea for a Storyteller(ST) to have a better grounding in the bad guys for the game. This book does an excellent job of giving yuo backgrounds for the Lunar Exalted and the Dragon-Blooded. I am thoroughly pleased that all the antagonists have an excellent back story that can provide motivations for pretty much anything.


The only qualm that I had was a lack of charms for any of the bad guys. Granted, in doing so the ST has much more leeway to create pretty much any effect that he desires. I would have prefered that there be a few more examples for the lower level charms and then the ST could take things from there.

The art was great, much like most of the other White Wolf books. I especially liked the bestial depections of the Lunar Exalted in Chapter 2. Any WW gamer starts to think of Werewolf at the look of these beasts.

Hmm.. perchance Exalted did evolve into the World of Darkness creatures. I like the subtle suggestions in the book. As well as the humerous one on page 6, the introduction. "Q: Is Exalted the ancient past of the World of Darkness? A: As much as yuo want it to be, yes." WW always give the freedom to the ST. Well written adn enjoyable to read. 4 stars. I can wait for more supplements.

Rating:
Summary: A good companion.
Review: As a storyteller wishes to improve himself, he finds that, most often than not, companions are pretty useful. This particular companion, however, instead of optional rules or player characteristics, it gives a more complete background, absolutely necessary when running a chronicle for a game as Exalted. This sort of history and backgrounds is what will separate your chronicle from a common AD&D RPG and a more complete, more human world.
This book avoids the storyteller from inventing everything on the city and gives hundreds of guidelines for possible chronicles, besides, exalted is extremely hard to run precisely because of historical background, so, this book is quite useful.

Rating:
Summary: At Long Last
Review: I was highly skeptical of Exalted when I first heard about it, but I jumped on the bandwagon and bought it for kicks. The roleplaying community has been needing this game for a long time. An exciting, intruiging fantasy world, cool, chic powers, and a tried-and-true White Wolf emphasis on ROLEplaying, not dice. Instead of the cliched "Dungeons and Dragons"/"Lord of the Rings" fantasy RPG style, this game draws a lot of themes, moods, and powers from anime and Greek epics. If you're a fan of White Wolf's games, this is definitely for you. If you like fantasy RPGs, this is definitely for you. If you are looking for something fun and different, this is for you. Peace.

Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Entry To An Otherwise Excellent System
Review: I've been a big fan of White Wolf since the early 90s and the advent of their "World of Darkness" RPGs. The artwork of their games is invariably top-notch, and there's little doubt that their staff puts a great deal of time, attention, and love into what they release. That said, I feel the Exalted "Storyteller's Companion" is anomolous in that there seems to be little of the careful planning and fresh ideas characteristic of White Wolf. I had the feeling as I read through the disappointingly sparse supplement that perhaps someone hadn't realized the deadline for their project was approaching, and jotted off the bulk of the material like a last-minute term paper. While there is some value to be found here, it is hardly enough to merit its own supplement, particularly with a $15-20 pricetag. This is one companion who doesn't seem to contribute much to the journey.

Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Entry To An Otherwise Excellent System
Review: I've been a big fan of White Wolf since the early 90s and the advent of their "World of Darkness" RPGs. The artwork of their games is invariably top-notch, and there's little doubt that their staff puts a great deal of time, attention, and love into what they release. That said, I feel the Exalted "Storyteller's Companion" is anomolous in that there seems to be little of the careful planning and fresh ideas characteristic of White Wolf. I had the feeling as I read through the disappointingly sparse supplement that perhaps someone hadn't realized the deadline for their project was approaching, and jotted off the bulk of the material like a last-minute term paper. While there is some value to be found here, it is hardly enough to merit its own supplement, particularly with a $15-20 pricetag. This is one companion who doesn't seem to contribute much to the journey.

Rating:
Summary: Some Non-Essential Goodies for Exalted Storytellers
Review: This book details more information on the factions in the Exalted game. Solars, Lunars, Dragon-Blooded, and Abyssals, there is probably a little bit of everything for everyone. There are several paragraphs covering each of the factions and a small section of additional charms to try out. But would you even want to bother with the snippets here merely to whet your appetite until the full supplements for the factions are released?

Also, since this is supposed to be a Storytellers Companion, I was pretty surprised not to find a hefty section on running games and campaigns. Dock 1 star there. The nifty storyteller's screen packaged with the book is useful and seems to work well for the few game sessions I ran. In the introduction, the book also mentions a full-color map that was supposed to be included in the book, but don't bother looking for it.

In summary: Nice but not essential, and left out a lot of the cooler stuff for the supplements. I would recommend buying the full supplement for your favourite faction(s) instead.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely not worth buying now
Review: This book wasn't great even when it came out, but back then we had no idea what Lunars, Dragon-Blooded, Sidereals, spirits, etc, could do, so we bought it anyway. Now, the vast majority of the information in this book has been retconned, and what hasn't been retconned has been published elsewhere, except for the spirit Charms, which were supposed to be published in "Games of Divinity" but were left out due to typical White Wolf publishing confusion. However, even those are available free to download on the White Wolf website (under "Games of Divinity Appendix"), so you have absolutely no reason to spend money on this book. Don't.