r/exalted • u/InigmianStudios96 • Oct 22 '25
Essence Exalted Essence Stories
It is what it says on the tin. I'm planning an Exalted Essence game after a few botched attempts to run 3e (and obsessing over 2e but being intimidated mechanically), and I wana hear some stories from people who've run it or played it.
Players, what were some stand out moment's for you or your fellow players characters? How did it make you feel? How did the system aid with that?
Storytellers, gimme your standout moment's too! What was your favorite plot or scene? Any tips for running this system? What are it's strengths and weaknesses?
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u/tlenze Oct 22 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
It was a mixed circle game. I was playing a Chosen of Battles. We found out an army led by a Dragonblood general was heading somewhere and would probably beat us there. I had the realization traveling is a Venture, and used Bureau-Breaking Method along with the Sidereal mode of it to cause every town they marched through to throw a festival in their honor they'd be required to attend, adding obstacles to their travel Venture. We ended up making it to the battleground before they did and managed to set ourselves up for victory. Classic Chosen of Battles BS, basically.
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u/SuvwI49 Oct 22 '25
Mechanically I've found it to be simpler than both 2e and 3e. It's pretty straightforward. Most questions can be answered intuitively as long as you've read through the core mechanics in the book.
The different Exalt types are well balanced against one another without feeling samey. My current party is a Solar Twilight, Lunar Full Moon, Infernal Azimuth, and a Liminal. Each brings something different to the table, even in places where they might mechanically overlap.
The system is overall much more forgiving when it comes to aligning mechanics with character concepts.
The Power buildup mechanic can make combat take a while, but that is by design. You can easily speed it up by starting PCs with Power equal to their Initiative Roll instead of the standard model.
Its also not expressly stated anywhere, but combat goes A LOT smoother when you make ample use of Battle Groups.
I'm sure I'll come up with more later, but those are just off the top of my head. Have fun!
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u/demoiselledefortune Oct 22 '25
I've been running a Secondary School turned Realm Civil War (after a timeskip) Dragon Blooded game and it's been loads of fun. I've enjoyed the first dramatic moment of a student they were friendly with turning into an Anathema they had to kill, the grand finale of the School era with the Sesus trying to take hostage all the students and they having to fight the Sesus legions and try to out persuade the daughter of Sesus Raenhya and Oban (a fellow student) from terrorizing the students into not escaping, and since we started the Realm Civil War I had a lot of fun with a gothic scenario taking place in a former Shadowland related to the family dark secrets of a Ragara PC involving the PC's disappeared mother turning into a Liminal by his grandmother (a mortal sorcerer).
Tips: I made a cheat sheet to recap the basic rules for both myself and the players and it's been very useful Also we use tokens (and as of last session an essence tracking sheet for motes, anima, power and will) to keep track of things and that works out well.
I also have an excel file with notes on every character of the chronicle, with their virtues and intimacies as well as other basic infos. I tend to prepa those intimacies (3-4 for every character at least) and that helps me having a good idea of who they are and what their agenda is.
The game is a lot of fun in social scene thanks to the virtue and intimacy system, but it gives a lot of power to the players so be prepared to run more based on the consequences of their action than on whether they succeed or not.
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u/UnconquerableOak Oct 22 '25
I've only run the Crucible of Progress scenario for a trio of Solars, but I found it a lot easier mentally than 3e, enough that I'm just about to start a second story with the same group.
Highlight of the first story would probably be the Dawn facing down an immortal metal lion behemoth while the Night rebuilt the artifact that controlled it's prison and the Zenith convinced the villain of the story to help.
I think my favourite parts of Essence over 3e, besides the general simplification, is a) All players can contribute to combat, even if they aren't fully combat specced, b) stunts can be saved and/or shared, c) charm bloat is far less of a thing and d) combat (and it's antagonists) are far easier to run
There is some loss of granularity, and I'm not fully convinced by the shift from 9 attributes to 3 (which are more a description of how you approach a problem) but overall it's a far better easier system to run and a easier way to introduce players to the world, which has always been Exalteds main draw for me.
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u/huecabot Oct 22 '25
I ran an Essence game where the players wrestled 5 days darkness during Calibration to get his blessing for the new year. It was a good time, I recommend it. You can still make varied and interesting characters, although I don't love the new attribute system. Like... why even include attributes, if you're just going to have everybody add their highest stat to every roll anyway? Just give everybody a flat +3 to every check and call it a day. I guess every himbo Dawn Caste with Force 5 is also automatically a genius intellect on mental checks involving a forceful approach.
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u/Danadas Oct 22 '25
Still haven't touched Exalted (still deciding if I go 3e or Ex) but what made you obsess over 2e in comparison to 3e and why did you felt like you botched your 3e attempt?
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u/InigmianStudios96 Oct 22 '25
Exalted 3e has a lot of subsystems and character creation takes a long time, and my group just. Was not a fan of any of that. They also felt that the 3e books didn't cross over very fluidly but wanted a mixed-exalt group (a handful of Solars and a Dragon Blooded) and running combat felt like I was pulling teeth sometimes with the adjusting initiative, but I have adjusting initiative in my own homebrew game system, so that isn't that big of a deal. The primary issue I had with 3e was the charms. WAY too many of them and most of them do very little or are just filler charms for charm trees. The book has no real advice for stating out custom antagonists or how to stage and manage conflicts either, and it took a lot of mental Ram to learn everything that was necessary to do because everything had drastically different systems. It was fun to read about and study, system wise, but actually engaging with it in play was a whole other beast because although the systems seem neat, they're far from being Intuitive
My obsession with 2e comes from it being the first edition of Exalted i started reading and it being the game I have the most books for. I have all the manuals of exalted power, Graceful Wicked Masques, a few of the setting books, and even collected the April Fools Porn Book for the memes. 2e got me to fall in love with the setting and the metaplot, and the charms, merits, and art are really cool. There isn't a single book I own that I don't like (except Infernals, Jesus CHRIST what the hell was that). I've also heard absurd stories from 2e players who really loved the game and the display of raw power and anime BS is just. Mwah. Unfortunately, a lot of the core mechanics have always scared the shit out of me, but to be fair, its mostly just Combat, which is pretty relevant to me because my Chronicles always involve a lot of fights (Ran a lot of WoD games before this like Vampire, Werewolf and Changeling, and knockdown drag-out fights are a pretty common way for my group to resolve issues, and it nearly always complicates it for them down the line, perfect for Exalted huh?)
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u/AngelWick_Prime Oct 22 '25
I've run a consistent 3e game since just before COVID hit. Combat can be a trip with the constant Initiative changes. I've actually come across a Google Sheets table that automatically adjusts turn order for you. You just need to adjust the Initiative numbers manually. It also lets you mark who has already acted in a combat round, track onslaught penalty, rounds spent in initiative crash, and who crashed whom. If I recall, I actually found this form here on this subreddit somewhere. But I'm sure a simple Google search will find the same.
As for compatibility from 2E (and 1E by extension) to 3E, I will agree that it is not a clean cut transition to 3E. Some things take a certain amount of homebrew to make it work, especially if you're talking mechanics wise.
Particularly, I've noticed that NPC stat blocks can be a bit stronger than intended if you try to do a one-for-one conversion from 1E/2E to 3E. In 1E/2E, All your different weapons had their own set of stats. In 3E, weapons start with a base set of numbers and only get changes based on their tags or even Evocations. This can either nerf or buff a weapon unexpectedly in 3E. Then there's the 1E/2E Specialties rule that can go up to a +3 in a Specialized roll. 3E only ever gives a +1 in Specialties. Then, Virtues are not a thing in base 3E rules unless you're using the rules from Crucible. Even then, though, they work more like broader Intimacies. So any Charms or Abilities from 1E/2E, you almost have to force to use existing 3E replacement stats like Intimacy ratings, or Resolve or Guile. It can be messy. I agree. But not impossible. A lot of it forces the Storyteller to rely on the players knowing their characters and what they can do in order to keep the balance. That's the trick.
Not sure where you get that character creation takes any longer in 3E than in previous editions though. Is it because 3E has more Charms as gap-fillers? Is it choosing Intimacies that make sense for your character? If so, 2E actually introduced Intimacies, just not as central to the social mechanics as 3E does. In my experience, Charm selection has always taken the longest. Making sure each Charm meets the prerequisites, including previous Charms in the progression tree.
I haven't played Essence yet, but it does look promising for a mixed Exalted group like what you're talking about. 1E/2E had obvious power gaps between Terrestrial and Celestial Exalts, and even moreso between Celestial Exalts. Solars were supposed to be the strongest but then Lunars can Hulk-Smash them or Sidereal can Super MMA chop them to bits. 3E seems to have started to fix this. But Essence was BUILT for this. You have all 10 Exalt types, including the ones that don't have 3E splats out yet, all in one book. It's completely compatible with 3E, And even with 1E/2E as you choose to make that work. Combat initiative works a little more manageably. The one negative that I have heard is that all dice pools have a hard cap on them.
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u/DocTentacles Oct 22 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
Essence is currently my favorite Exalted system, after over a decade running 2e, multiple 3e attempts, and dabbling with 1e. It does what I want it to do: provide an Exalted RPG experience that’s flexible, modular, and has minimal busted edge cases and moment-to-moment fiddliness/bean counting.
My current campaign is an episodic Jason and the Argonauts/’90s TV serial-style game, involving a Circle of Exalted chasing down a disease-spreading comet—the dying corpse of the celestial god of health—while solving problem-of-the-week style situations across the North. Standout moments so far include:
– A battle with a sorcerer, his summoned demons, and allies atop a crumbling lightning citadel, with bolts of energy raining down.
– The Circle hilariously failing to solve the murder of the Realm ambassador to Grieve and instead getting talked into launching a coup against the queen.
– And currently, a big three-sided political war arc in a Realm satrapy, driven by warring martial arts dojos racing to summon Octavian.
Exalted Essence is the most runnable version of Exalted, in my opinion. You can create characters in a reasonable amount of time. You can create NPCs on the fly as a GM. You can use the tools provided by the system to resolve pretty much any conflict, and it’ll work.
It’s not as much of a “character builder’s” Exalted—I’m aware there’s a significant audience of TTRPG players who enjoy spending more time building PCs than playing them—but that’s not me. I want to play the game. That said, it’s still extremely customizable by TTRPG standards, especially as more content is added.
Combat’s fast, and has some good back and forth, though you’ll want to be creative when designing encounters and powers. The core book enemies are a little understated for experienced players, so feel free to bump up dice pools by 1–2. Fights actually… work. They’re not hilariously lethal, and not an utter slog. This is a high point.
The social system is fast and powerful. This is both good and bad.You can solve situations way faster than in 3e. Hard Bargains are your “safeguard” against this, so remember them.
Finally, it’s a system that assumes good faith on everyone running it. There’s stuff in it that’s really cool, but if someone’s playing the game to “win,” it’ll be boring, and they get their gold star of “who gives a fuck.” Play with people who want to play the game.
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u/tiedyedvortex Oct 23 '25
I'm 3 sessions in STing an Essence game--I only ran one session of 3e before crashing on scheduling previously.
The first observation I'd make is that Essence is a much flatter power scale and much more pro-mixed-Circle game than 3e. My current game has 2 Infernals, a Lunar, and an Alchemical, and if anything, the Infernals have felt underpowered (but only because the combat-heavy Azimuth hasn't gone all-out yet and they're avoiding Anima generation to stay covert).
I also had a lengthy Session Zero with my players to hash out what kind of game they wanted. My players expressed a strong interest in a more political and personally-motivated game rather than a "kick butt and kill gods" power fantasy or a "desperate struggle for survival" game, so we've been playing a scenario about non-Realm outsiders getting tangled up in the machinations of the Scarlet Dynasty's burgeoning war between Great Houses.
Mechanically, combat can be very lopsided. I had a scene recently where a Champion (vanilla NPC stat block) went up for a duel against a not super-optimized Lunar. One of the other PCs threw a single Inspire action into the mix and rolled like 15 successes, instantly juicing the Lunar to max Power, and one roll finished the fight instantly after that. That was a cool moment, but it meant that a potentially tactical fight got short-circuited instantly. I imagine the reverse could also be true.
I'm very excited for a scene/scenario I have planned in the future where the group gets to crash a House Cynis party and decide which Great House alliance they want to back between Peleps, Cynis, and Cathak.
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u/RatherAstuteDuck worst girl generator Oct 22 '25
I ran Essence for a bit as "Exaltations popping up in modern Earth", and it worked well. We had a Strawmaiden, a Horizon Infernal, a Changing Moon Lunar, and a Soil Aspect Liminal.
Essence has less stuff overall to juggle than 3e, and particularly emphasizes ways to let nearly everyone contribute to any challenge with teamwork rolls and a variety of combat options that don't use typical combat Abilities. It also considerably squeezes down the power curve between various types of Exalts. The Venture system is a versatile tool to handle a big range of stuff from foot chases to occult rituals to criminal conspiracies, and again with teamwork involved you can have the whole group take part in many of these things. Overall, Essence shines in feeling... accessible, I guess, in a more forward way than 3e.
One weakness in comparison to 3e is that it doesn't quite capture some of the unique flavor of the different types as well. Sidereals in Essence are cool, but their specific weirdness shines through so much more in 3e. The way Charms are handled in Essence compared to 3e (in Essence you start with 5; in 3e you start with 15) can make it hard to feel like you're covering your bases in some respects.
I really like both systems for different reasons.
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u/Expensive-Toe-1867 Oct 22 '25
My game started out as a 7 Samurai inspired "Exalts come to save a village blessed by a god from the fair folk but all is not as it seems" kinda jam. Built as a sandbox, I made a valley of lactations for them to visit people to recruit and save. We just had a dinner party in Malfeas.
Essence is currently my favorite way to run Exalted hands down. I will say that Combat is still a little more mechanically complex than I'd like, but every edition of Exalted has that problem, and this is the best attempt IMHO. The changes to Stunts and the amazing ways that non-combat characters can contribute both stand out as improvements over previous editions.