(Exalted Essence) Pillars of Creation

So . . . it's kind of weird that we've got two editions of Exalted running in parallel, right? I mean, Pillars of Creation is just a crowdfunding stretch goal addition to the Exalted: Essence book, so I probably shouldn't count it as "support for the line," but I'm reading it in the context of a recent crowdfunding campaign for the Exalted: Essence Player's Guide, and by my count that will make a total of six different books for this not-quite-an-edition-alternative-to-the-3e-rules. I feel like all Exalted: Essence needs is a tiny little push to take on a life of its own.

Pillars of Creation is not quite that push, but it is a noticeable step forward. All of the Exalt types feel more playable after this book, and there's a little bit more of the world of Creation, so you're a little less dependent on the main line for lore. It's not quite enough, but two or three more of these (or perhaps these two books, plus the upcoming Player's Guide plus Across the Eight Directions) and you might feel like it's enough. 

I can't decide whether or not I approve. I think it's because I'm so immersed in the lore that I could run an Exalted: Essence game with just the two books and the facts in my head. Like, yeah, I can explain to you what a Lunar exalted is and why they're so angry all the time. All you have to do is select a caste and pick out some charms. Being in that position makes Exalted: Essence feel functional. 

But then I think about what I might have to do if the PCs picked Getimians or Liminals and I realize that I would feel massively unprepared. I'm inclined to use that feeling as a guide to what it might be like to truly use Exalted: Essence as an entry-point to the series.

I guess I feel like this partial lore is spoiling me on books that may or may not one day exist. If I were to one day read a Getimians' hardcover, that explained their whole deal in exacting detail, I would do so with certain preconceptions and expectations that I would not otherwise have. Will that have a negative impact on the experience? It's hard to say, but internet etiquette certainly implies that it will. That's why we're supposed to use spoiler tags for sensitive information.

On a personal level, I never put a lot of stock in spoiler prophylaxis, at least not at the most extreme levels. It's only in a minority of specialized cases (such as works where the gradual unfolding of a mystery is the entire point of the story) that spoilers make much of a difference to me. So it's unlikely that anything I learned in Exalted: Essence or Pillars of Creation is going to ruin future books (oh, no, I wanted to be surprised that Rakan Thulio is a master of Quicksilver Hand of Dreams Style), but I do find it at least a little bit annoying. I've got these playable rules for exalts I know almost nothing about, and to the extent that I'm intrigued and want to learn more . . . I can't, because their books aren't even on the upcoming projects list.

Although, one factor to consider is that between the core book and this one, the ten exalted types have 180 pages of charms. Which means we're averaging 3/5 of a mainline fatsplat's charm chapter per book. With ten exalted types, that means we'd need 50/3 (approx 17) Exalted: Essence books to get the exact same amount of material. And thinking about it that way - what if the Sidereals book was broken up and spread out among 17 volumes - I'm not sure this approach is actually any better. Exalted: Essence works fine as a one-and-done (or even, due to the economics of crowdfunding, a two-and-done with Pillars of Creation as a companion), but eventually there's going to be a point where adding more books to the line just means you're doing the same thing as mainline Exalted, but worse. Call it a hunch, but I suspect that the companion volume to the Exalted: Essence Player's Guide will probably come right up to the edge of the breaking point.

I guess, in the meantime, Pillars of Creation is an acceptable expansion to the game's crunch. The new charms fill some conspicuous gaps in the Exalted: Essence core's curation (The Sidereals get Neighborhood Relocation Scheme back, we can now take a watered-down version of Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style, which the Getimians are unusually skilled with, for no-doubt fascinating lore reasons), we're getting rules for Dragon Kings and god-blooded, and the selection of antagonists is an absolutely vital supplement to the core book's generic stat-blocks.

My only real complaint is that almost all of the martial arts have exalt-specific modes (Black Claw style works better for Infernals, Fist Pulse for Architect Exigents, etc), which kind of misses the mark when it comes to the martial arts' traditional role in the game. This is especially the case with Sidereal Martial Arts, which inherit from mainline 3e the problem that they are high essence charms in an edition that compresses the 1-10 essence scale to a range of 1-5. Sidereal Martial Arts are already the best essence 4-5 combat charms in the game, so giving the sidereals an extra benefit while using them kind of makes them feel like the best combatants in the game. There's a difference between "Essence Shattering Typhoon is one of the few Essence 7 charms in the game" and "Essence Shattering Typhoon beats Protection of Celestial Bliss" (actually, I'm not entirely sure whether that's true, though for Sidereals, it might inexplicably be a better defensive charm).

And in mainline 3e, this isn't that big a deal, because charm interactions are complex and you could argue the minutiae of mote costs and combinations and the varying mote pools of the different exalted (very significant in 1e, a minor but real consideration in 3e). But in Essence where the differences between exalt types are conspicuously flattened, that extra little tag starts to feel like a big deal.

Overall, I'd say I'm still cautiously optimistic about Exalted: Essence and Pillars of Creation is more or less the exact right amount of extra content for the game. Which is ordinarily something you'd interpret as unqualified praise . . . but here it also means that I'm more inclined to put future Essence releases under the microscope. Only time will tell this marks a new beginning or the beginning of the end.

Ukss Contribution: The antagonist section has a rather extensive entry for the semi-canonical Heart-eaters, the corrupt exalted of a slain god who act as a social contagion, turning their victims into mindless thralls and surviving their own destruction by hopping from body to body. They were a standout in Exigents: Out of the Ashes and they are a standout here. It kind of makes me wish they could get a standalone adventure path, but that sort of book is so far not something 3e has attempted, so I think I'll just have to settle for adding a version of them to Ukss.